Twenty-Five Village Sermons | Page 5

these things! Oh, that
I could make you see God in every thing, and every thing in God! Oh,
that I could make you look on this earth, not as a mere dull, dreary
prison, and workhouse for your mortal bodies, but as a living book, to
speak to you at every time of the living God, Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost! Sure I am that that would be a heavenly life for you,--sure I am
that it would keep you from many a sin, and stir you up to many a holy
thought and deed, if you could learn to find in every thing around you,
however small or mean, the work of God's hand, the likeness of God's
countenance, the shadow of God's glory.

SERMON II. RELIGION NOT GODLINESS

PSALM civ. 13-15.
"He watereth the hills from his chambers: the earth is satisfied with the
fruit of thy works. He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb
for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth;
and wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to
shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart."
Did you ever remark, my friends, that the Bible says hardly any thing
about religion--that it never praises religious people? This is very
curious. Would to God we would all remember it! The Bible speaks of
a religious man only once, and of religion only twice, except where it
speaks of the Jews' religion to condemn it, and shews what an empty,
blind, useless thing it was.
What does this Bible talk of, then? It talks of God; not of religion, but
of God. It tells us not to be religious, but to be godly. You may think
there is no difference, or that it is but a difference of words. I tell you
that a difference in words is a very awful, important difference. A
difference in words is a difference in things. Words are very awful and

wonderful things, for they come from the most awful and wonderful of
all beings, Jesus Christ, the Word. He puts words into men's minds--He
made all things, and He makes all words to express those things with.
And woe to those who use the wrong words about things!--For if a man
calls any thing by its wrong name, it is a sure sign that he understands
that thing wrongly, or feels about it wrongly; and therefore a man's
words are oftener honester than he thinks; for as a man's words are, so
is a man's heart; out of the abundance of our hearts our mouths speak;
and, therefore, by right words, by the right names which we call things,
we shall be justified, and by our words, by the wrong names we call
things, we shall be condemned.
Therefore a difference in words is a difference in the things which
those words mean, and there is a difference between religion and
godliness; and we shew it by our words. Now these are religious times,
but they are very ungodly times; and we shew that also by our words.
Because we think that people ought to be religious, we talk a great deal
about religion; because we hardly think at all that a man ought to be
godly, we talk very little about God, and that good old Bible word
"godliness" does not pass our lips once a-month. For a man may be
very religious, my friends, and yet very ungodly. The heathens were
very religious at the very time that, as St. Paul tells us, they would not
keep God in their knowledge. The Jews were the most religious people
on the earth, they hardly talked or thought about anything but religion,
at the very time that they knew so little of God that they crucified Him
when He came down among them. St. Paul says that he was living after
the strictest sect of the Jews' religion, at the very time that he was
fighting against God, persecuting God's people and God's Son, and
dead in trespasses and sins. These are ugly facts, my friends, but they
are true, and well worth our laying to heart in these religious, ungodly
days. I am afraid if Jesus Christ came down into England this day as a
carpenter's son, He would get--a better hearing, perhaps, than the Jews
gave him, but still a very bad hearing--one dare hardly think of it.
And yet I believe we ought to think of it, and, by God's help, I will one
day preach you a sermon, asking you all round this fair question:--If
Jesus Christ came to you in the shape of a poor man, whom nobody

knew, should YOU know him? should you admire