II. Against Worldly Sin Nativity

This one I'm leaving the footnotes in their original archaic form.    The previous sermons I did have the modern form – sermons I, III, V, VI

Anything you want changed let me know and I'll resend it.

At home I can click on "Command" + "F" and it permits me to customize each occurrence of a word, example:  "change CHRIST to Christ" and it changes all of them.  I assume you have this feature once you transfer it to your text editor, but if not, just send it back to me with instructions on what to change.

 -jh

Italics in blue

changes I've made to the original in red

- the sentence makes more sense with "that" or "which" added

- Go to now, I erased the "to" – in the Bible it is just "Go now"

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St. Philaret of Moscow

Elibron Classics

Sermon II

Against Worldly Sin

Nativity (Preached on the second day of Nativity, at the Court-chapel, in the presence of Empress Maria Feodorowna and the Grand Dukes.)

"The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream saying, Arise, and take the young Child and His mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him." – S. Matth. ii. 13.

How wonderful and fearful!  Angels whose nature the SON of GOD did not adopt, celebrate His earthly birth.  Angels strive to save the life of Him Who came to save man; while man, for the sake of whom the SON of GOD became the SON of Man, seeks to destroy his SAVIOR.  The heavenly host proclaim peace on earth: but in its stead arises an unheard of strife.  On one side: King Herod and the whole of Jerusalem; on the other: the Child JESUS and His bodyguards, all the infants of Bethlehem.

True it is, the king did not overcome the Child; the host of infants did not deliver its leader into the hands of His enemies, but with its own blood ransomed the life of the Redeemer of all; while an invisible retribution visits Herod and his accomplices; for they died which sought the young child's life (S. Matth. ii. 20.).  But this victory did not bring peace, nor did it bring security to the victor.  Joseph dares not even bring Him into His native city, he was afraid to go thither (S. Matth. ii. 22.).

After this it is no longer a matter of wonder, that the growth of the Child JESUS should have brought upon Him new struggles, new dangers.  No sooner shall He appear in the world than all that is of note in the world shall aspire to dim His glory.  Pharisees, scribes, priests, princes, judges, and rulers, will turn against Him, each with his own weapon.  And when victory shall raise Him into Heaven, all the powers of earth, nations and rulers, wise men and Cæsars, will rise to sweep His kingdom of peace from the face of the earth.  The bloodshed, begun at Bethlehem, will imbue kingdoms and centuries.

Turning from the remembrance of these sorrowful events, with what comfort does the spirit rest at the sight of the great and powerful of the earth, humbling themselves before the Child of Bethlehem, deeming it their brightest glory to serve Him, seeking their joy in His Gospel.

But what was it, Christians, so long excited, and may be still, in a certain measure, that excites men against JESUS CHRIST, against Him Who, on the very day of His might, was meek and gentle as a child, and commanded all His followers "to become as little children" (S. Matth. xviii. 3.)?  Friendship of the world! is the answer offered to us by the example of Herod, which the Gospel now presents to us, and thereby gives us an opportunity to bear witness against that love, as vain, as it is hurtful and ungodly.

Let us not speak of that love of the world, which, the world itself, together with the Gospel, acknowledges to be enmity with GOD.  Denounced by its own self, it has no need of further accusations.  There is another love of the world, which seemingly may be reconciled with the love of GOD: a love which consents to make offerings unto GOD provided it be not hindered from accepting offerings from the world; ready to works of charity, provided its deeds be seen and applauded by the world; fond even of going into the temple of divine worship, provided the world follow after.  It is from that false and pretended love that we must tear the mask adorning it, and cast it under the severe judgment pronounced in the Gospel against every worldly love without exception: the friendship of the world is enmity with God (S. James iv. 4.).

Those, who wish with all their desire to belong to GOD, yet are unable to tear themselves from the world, are bound to it more particularly by a triple knot: the seduction of its good things, the force of its examples, and the hope of making the love of the world compatible with the service of GOD.  The word of the Gospel, like a spiritual sword, cuts asunder this meshwork of deceit and reveals to the impartial eye the vanity of the good things of the world, the danger of its examples, and the secret seed of enmity with GOD, contained in the most innocent, as it is called, love of the world.

There, where the world assumes all possible greatness and splendor, in order to attract gazes of those whom it cannot but value, where the spirit of imitation, which is an attribute of the world, clothes it in the semblance of those perfections which it admires, and incites it to follow high examples in order to be able to impose its own with greater power, where the proximity of the great throws a certain shadow of greatness even upon the smallest objects; there it might so happen that this splendour would be likely either to dazzle the penetration, or to shake the firmness, or to destroy the confidence of the servant of the Word, bound in the face of the world itself, to bear witness to its insignificance.  But the Spirit of GOD, Who is come "to reprove the world" (S. John xvi. 8.), has anticipated this difficulty by raising up to Himself a witness who can be charged neither with boldness or partiality, nor with ignorance or inexperience.  He has invested the wisest and happiest of kings with the title of Ecclesiastes, that is, the preacher, and has inspired him with the word of judgment on all the good things, all the happiness and all the glory of the world.  What then does this royal Preacher say?  "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanity, all is vanity.  I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.  Lo, I am come to great estate, and having gotten more wisdom than all that have been before me in Jerusalem; I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.  I said in mine heart, Go now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity.  Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity.  Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun" (Eccles. i. 2, 14, 16, 17; ii. 11, 18.).

S. Chrysostom found the preaching of Solomon on vanity of such great importance, that he wished it "to be written on the walls, on the garments, in the public places, on the houses, on the roads, on the gates, on the inner doors, and above all, in the hearts of every one."  One may say that vanity is indeed inscribed everywhere, but not always on the front and face of things, and we generally happen to read this edifying inscription, only after having already for sometime handled those very objects on which it is inscribed.  Verily, what does it mean, that the ornament of yesterday ceases to please today; that repeated melody begins to weary the ear, that the acquired honours of treasure but excites in our hearts new desires, than an enlarged sphere of knowledge serves only the more to reveal to us the boundless region of the unknown, and to discover in ourselves the unquenchable thirst after knowledge?  Does this not mean that our spirit involuntarily finds the striking inscription of vanity upon everything which interest us in the world; on our pleasures, on our wealth, on our dignities, and on our very wisdom?  The Creator of all things hath scattered upon them this superscription, as a careful father writes on the toys of his children the letters which they  must learn.

Woe to the thoughtless children who will not receive instruction in their play.  The playthings will be constantly taken way from them, while the hateful teaching remains and will attack them with the weapons of threats and punishments.  Thus, if we also, whilst using the good things of this world, will not hasten to perceive in them the vanity of vanities, and to see that all is vanity: then, while these perishable goods will be hourly fading away in our hands, vanity will abide in our hearts as thorns after flowers, and by its inflicting upon us various stingings will beget at last vexation of spirit.  Then the very satiety of the senses will become a source of eternal hunger; the sweetness of gain and possession will be poisoned by the cares of preservation and the fear of loss: the happiness and glory of others will seem to be our misfortune and shame: the light of knowledge, as a phantom of the night, will be at one time flickering unsteadily in the smoke of pride, at another, sinking despairingly into the mire of an impure life.  But above all, the thought of death, like a stern mentor, suddenly appearing, will confound and terrify the lightsome children of pleasure.  In this way an abundant harvest throws the servant of pleasure into the same embarrassment which the poor man experiences from want of daily food; "What shall I do?" (S. Luke xii. 17.).  The grace of miracles, manifested in the carpenter's Son, torments the ambitious leaders of the people more than the plagues of Egypt: "What do we? for this man doeth many miracles" (S. John xi. 47.).  The vague rumour of the birth of an unknown infant, brought into the capital by strangers, shakes the king on his throne, on the stability of which he relied the less, the more he prized its splendour: "When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled" (S. Matth. ii. 3.).

"Ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame?  how long will ye love vanity" (Ps. iv. 2.) instead of being taught by it?  Why "do ye seek after leasing" by which the world seduces you, and do not perceive the truth which the world is unable to conceal?  "The fashion of this world passeth away" (1 Cor. vii. 31.): not the fashion of a few things only, but the fashion of the whole world; and what will become of the love of the world when the world itself shall pass away irrevocably?  "The earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up" (2 S. Peter iii. 10.).  Where then shall our immortal desires repair, accustomed as they are to feed on things of the earth?  What will become of the deepest philosophies which were also dug out of the earth?  "There will be new heavens and a new earth" (Isaiah lxv. 17.); shall we be suffered to carry thither together with our heart, the relics of the old world?

But let us turn to the wisest of kings.  How happily does he perfect his wisdom by vanity, having perceived the worthlessness of those things, which, by their vain splendor, have so often led astray the judgment of the wise and spiritual.  How by vanity also does he heal the torments of vanity, showing the vanity of vanity itself; vanity of vanities!  How through the vanity of this world does he prepare himself for a better and an eternal world, ceasing to love this world of vanities: "Yea, I hated everything that is in the world" (Verse 18 of chap. ii. of the Book of Ecclesiastes begins in the Slavonic Bible by the above written sentence, whereas in the English Bible we read, "Yea, I hated all my labours," &c.).

Unfortunately, many know more of Solomon, moving like others in the turmoil of the world, and lose sight of the Ecclesiastes, abiding in the sun of truth, and preaching the vanity of everything to the earthborn. The woeful blindness of men seduced by the world, is the more aggravated by the fact that the blind choose the blind also for their leaders, or else allow themselves to be carried away by the multitude, upon which they lean on the right and on the left, and deem themselves secure against falling.  For what then, Christians, is the eye of our own intellect given to us, for what then is the lamp of revealed truth lighted for us, if we were able to grope our way with the help of the world's examples alone?

Let us enter Jerusalem, in which the Gospel presents us a miniature image of the world, and let us note whither the examples of the world lead when they are accepted in blind imitation.  The tidings of the birth of CHRIST the King are brought to Jerusalem, which expected in Him its Liberator.  Herod, raised upon the throne of David, not by the sacred right of inheritance, but by his own ambition, and who strengthened his power more by hypocrisy and violence than by a truly beneficent rule, could not quietly hear of the lawful King of the Jews, although He was still in swaddling clothes, and as yet unknown.  "When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled."  But what of Jerusalem?  Doesn't it know the time of its visitation?  Does it raise its head, bent under a foreign yoke?  Does it rejoice?  Does it "bless the Lord GOD of Israel; for He hath visited and redeemed His people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for them in the house of His servant David" (S. Luke i. 68, 69.)?  On the contrary.  The image of the troubled sovereign is reflected, as in a mirror, in the participators of his unrighteous rule; and from them this same image is impressed on their fawning sycophants; it is circulated by curiosity, malice, and impudence, and at length all Jerusalem is filled with foolish restlessness and ungodly anxiety concerning the event so full of blessing to Israel and to the whole world.  "Herod the king was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him."

Let those consider this who suppose they are living as they ought, when they live like the multitude; let them consider whether at the time of the troubling of Jerusalem, Zacharias, or Simon, or the wise men of the east were bound to follow the example of the majority, and to regulate their feelings and actions according to prevailing opinion.  Or was the world gone astray in Jerusalem alone?

Blessed be the age and the land where the example of the great and powerful is as a lamp to the people, and suffers not that obscurity to thicken, which is spread abroad in the world by the princes of darkness.  But until the kingdom of our Heavenly FATHER comes, invoked by us in our prayers, there will ever be found even under the outward reign of piety, secret self-lords, to whom CHRIST the King is unwelcome, for He requires thorough submission, and the renunciation of our favorite passions and desires, and the captives of worldly examples will follow in their footsteps without perceiving that they are really enslaved by them.  What then is the sign of these trouble makers and their victims?  O CHRIST, our King, the world will not believe it, but Thou Thyself assurest us that the sign of those who do not belong to Thee, is their multitude; that many are called to Thy kingdom, but few are chosen (S. Matth. xx. 16.); that those to whom Thy FATHER has vouchsafed to grant the kingdom, are a "little flock" (S. Luke xii. 32.); that "strait is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it" (S. Matth. vii. 14.).  No, the world is not a guide to be followed, but a foe to be overcome by the children of GOD; "whatsoever is born of GOD overcometh the world" (1 S. John v. 4.).  The most approved mode of thinking and feeling is not seldom the one most dangerous; the example against which we are commanded to guard ourselves, is indeed the one most general; the custom accepted at all times and everywhere; the spirit of the time, which we breathe and in which we live; be not conformed to this world (Rom. xii. 2.).

Perhaps, Christians, you would wish to see the image of this world presented by the Gospel more clearly and distinctly, that you may distinguish the more infallibly what in the sons of this world is unworthy of the sons of the world to come; but He, Who did not suffer the wheat and the tares to be separated before their time, lest in uprooting the latter, the former also should be plucked out, but left "both to grow together until the harvest" (S. Matth. xiii. 30.), the same has also left the decaying fashion of this world, and in its very midst, the fashion newly-designed by His hidden hand of the world to come, in undecided, confused, and broken lines, until the predestined time of its accomplishment, when at length upon the whole hosts of the servants and the enemies of GOD, and on every forehead shall appear, here, the shining name of the Heavenly Father, and there, the terrible mark of the beast (Rev. xiv. 1, 11.), that has to declare an open, but to itself a destructive war, against the Lamb, CHRIST.  At present we know but this, that the world is the cave and the lair wherein the beast is born and bred, and the field whereon the wheat ripens together with the tares, that are doomed to the fire.  But is not that knowledge sufficient to guide us in the prudence enjoined upon us?  The deeper "the whole world lieth in wickedness" (1 S. John v. 19.), so that the difference between good and evil becomes therein the less perceptible, the more circumspectly must we handle even those things in it which seem to be good.  If all the world is full of tares, and until now could not be cleared of them, then can it be that a soul full of the world is entirely free from them?  If the enemy of GOD is secretly begotten and lives in the heart of the world, then can the love of GOD dwell in the love of the world?

And thus it is in vain that some strive to refine their love of the world, instead of rooting it out; and instead of overcoming it by the love of GOD, endeavor to reconcile the one with the other.  Howsoever much a man may strive to clothe his love of the world with the outward cloak of virtue, such as, with temperance, industry, disinterestedness, meekness, beneficence, still, as love is the soul of every virtue, so do all his virtues but betoken in him a son of this world; they breathe and live only for the world, and together with the world will they vanish.  And as two souls cannot animate the same body, thus also two loves – the love of GOD and the love of he world, cannot animate one and the same soul. "If any man love the world, the love of the FATHER is not in him" (1 S. John ii. 15.).  And where there is no love of GOD, there must necessarily be an enmity against Him, although at times hidden and unnoticed, for in the presence of the highest good there is no room for indifference.  In the kingdom of the Omnipotent every separate alliance is a rebellion against the universal Sovereign; the more so then is an alliance with a power evidently infected by a spirit of contumacy and rebellion.  "The friendship of the world is enmity with GOD."

Let us look once more at Herod, in whom the Gospel so fully reveals the deep and excessive evil of the love of the world.  This love in Herod appears to ordinary view to be of such a kind that those who wish to save it from the name of vice, and make it an associate of virtue, might begin with the present example.  The birth of the King of the Jews troubles Herod.  What of it?  Is it not pardonable to feel some trouble at the threatened loss of sovereignty and honour?  And moreover this troubling of spirit was apparently but a short-timed impulse of passion, which was soon subdued by reasoning.  Herod did not forbid the wise men to make prudent inquiries after the King of the Jews, but even aided them therein by means of competent persons.  "When he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them."  He himself confessed the coming of CHRIST by asking, "where CHRIST should be born" (S. Matth. ii. 4.).  He desired to have trustworthy information about His coming: "Go and search diligently for the young child."  Finally, he was himself ready to worship CHRIST; "that I may come and worship Him also" (S. Matth. ii. 8.).  What impartiality and godliness! probably exclaimed the people of Jerusalem.  The world would have remained under the false impression produced by the love of the world, but suddenly heavenly truth appears, "the angel of the LORD appeareth."  He leaves unnoticed the artful words, and the virtues displayed for show, he introduces us into the very heart of their author, and reveals the desire, perhaps unknown yet to Herod himself, rising from the depth of his soul: "Herod will seek."  And what do we now see?  The death of the SAVIOR of the world written in the soul of the lover of the world, "Herod will seek the young child to destroy Him."

O, if we could but confirm ourselves in the blessed assurance that the world does not raise among us against the Lamb of CHRIST, men like unto this fox!  "For they died which sought the young child's life."  But when those who are called to fight under the banner of Him Who "hath overcome the world" (S. John xvi. 33.), are seduced to the cause of rebellion, by the price of corruptible goods; when the sheep of the Shepherd, Whose flock is small, think to find a better pasture among wild beasts and unclean animals, when they are content with merely having "the form of godliness" (2 Tim. iii. 5.), written in the handwriting of the world, and do not surrender themselves to its consuming and regenerating, alike deadening and quickening power; then do they not still seek, though not in Herod's way, do they not seek, however, to destroy the child?  That is, do they not rebel, although unwittingly perhaps, against the true Spirit of CHRIST?

Let us leave to Solomon, whom we have called as the chief witness against the love of the world, to seal this testimony, by giving to the present discourse its befitting conclusion: "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter; Fear GOD, and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man" (Eccl. xii. 13.).  Oppose to the seductions of the world, the fear of God, and according to His commandments accept or reject examples which are offered to thee, and do not make to thyself thine own law from out of the examples approved of in this world.  Keep the commandments of GOD, lest the world under pretense of regulating and adorning thy outward activity should steal them from thy heart.  "For this is the whole duty of man": that is to say, a filial fear of GOD, and the keeping of His commandments, in the centre of which dwells the love of GOD, are everything for every man; therein is his joy, his plenty, his glory, his rest, his bliss, and his temporal as well as his eternal life.  Amen.