Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1874
“Blessed is the man that endures temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love Him.” James 1:12.
THE text is a Beatitude. It begins with BLESSED. We should all like to be blessed. What a more than golden word that “blessed,” is! It begins the Psalms of David—there is sweetest poetry in it. It begins the sermon of the Son of David. It is the end of all holy teaching. “Happiness” is the earthly word. “Blessedness” is the heavenly one. Happiness may prove to be a superficial appearance, but blessedness is deep as the abyss. Happiness ripples like a flowing brook, but blessedness is a springing well. Happiness may be wholly human, but blessedness has the Divine element in it. Happiness is transient; blessedness is eternal! Happiness may lie in our own conception of things; blessedness is God’s verdict, God’s truthful statement of a man’s condition! Happiness may prove but tinsel—blessedness is solid gold. Oh, to be blessed! Blessed of the Lord which made Heaven and earth!
Where are these blessed men? There are such still upon the earth, for the text says, “Blessed is the man.” It speaks not of a phantom, but of a man. It treats not of an ideal man, but of one who is tried and made to endure temptation. I hear in this verse the echo of the music of many a Psalm which was chanted by the saints hundreds of years ago! James took pen in hand concerning blessed men and of the same persons, David, long before, had sung of men well known to him. There are such persons as blessed men, or the eminently practical James would not have written concerning them. It is true the curse has fallen on the world and man is born to endure toil and suffering in tilling a thorn-bearing earth and earning his bread with the sweat of his face, but for all that, there are blessed men—men so blessed that the wilderness and the solitary place are glad for them—and by their presence the desert is made to rejoice and blossom as the rose!
Where are these blessed men? Can we be of their number? Is there any way by which we can enter their ranks and become members of their glorious peerage? Blessed men! From this day on we will not rest until we are initiated into this sacred fellowship!
Great mistakes are made as to the persons who are happy and blessed. Some suppose that the wealthy must be blessed—but if their lives were written, it could be proven, without a doubt, that some of those who have had the largest possessions have had the very least of blessedness, especially when those possessions have brought with them the curses of the oppressed and the wailings of the down-trodden. It must be an awful thing to have tons of cankered gold and silver pressing upon the soul—and burying the true life beneath the accursed load! Yes, and when wealth comes justly, it often brings such care, such burdensomeness with it, that it is well described in the Scriptures as a load of thick clay! In addition, there may be such a lack of power to enjoy it that the man may be rather cursed than blessed by his possessions. Well may we pity the man who has pictures but no sight, music but no ear, meat but no appetite, estates but no health with which to enjoy them.
Are there not thousands of such? Certainly they are not blessed by their fortunes. Moreover, riches are uncertain things. Like the hoarfrost of the morning, they are gone when the sun is up. Do but clap your hands and the birds that cover the fields fly away—and so do riches—they “take to themselves wings and fly away.” How should such fleeting things bring blessedness to the fields on which they light for so short an hour? No, look not in gold mines for blessedness, for it gleams not among the nuggets. Blessedness cannot be gotten for all the treasures of the miser, or the wealth of nations.
But, surely, it is to be found in positions of eminence and power! These are greatly coveted and men will sell their souls to win them. But I suppose from what I have read of history that if I were to select the most unhappy set of men beneath the vault of Heaven, one would only have to select statesmen, emperors and kings! Surely on the day of his installation, the great man may well says, “Farewell peace!” I should certainly not search among the lofty glaciers of yonder Alps to find the flowers of happiness. All is chill and cold and tempestuous in the high places of the earth. And if one had the choice of such a place, he might accept it out of a self-denying wish to do good, but otherwise he were unwise to have it as a gift. Not the high but the holy are blessed—not those who sit with the great, but those who serve with the good are marked out by the Lord as blessed.
Nobler natures feel no greed for gold and pine for no distinction of rank. They count those blessed who know and are stored with wisdom. Surely to pry into the secrets of Nature and read the pages of philosophy must be pleasure of a lofty kind. Therefore ambitious youth burns the midnight oil—and the oil from the marrow of life as well—hoping that in search and study the mystery of blessedness will be discovered. But is it so? Does he that increases knowledge increase joy? Does he not, rather add to his sorrow? If knowledge were bliss, the devil would be in Heaven! Should we possess the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, yet these would profit us nothing in the trade of happiness. Telescopes, microscopes, air pumps and calculating machines are not the instruments of that alchemy which brings happiness out of all conditions! In another school than that of Plato we must learn in whatever state we are to be content. Blessedness is not the bookworm of the library, but a spirit which descends from above!