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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 83

Monsignor Sayon

Monsignor Sayon.

"Et dixit qui sedebat in throno—Ecce nova facio omnia"—"He who sat upon the throne said, Behold I make all things new."

Christians, my theme is suggested by Bossuet upon the same. In this superb cathedra], with the light transmuted in rainbow colours on a vast and fashionable assemblage of the court of Louis Quatorze, youth, beauty, valour, age, in all the resplendency of wealth, he gave his text—"Ecce, nova facio omnia."

He excited his imagination to depict every possible change, but how far short he fell of Robespierre and Napoleon!

The things which cannot be shaken remain. Look at our Cathedral of Cologne. For four centuries men mock at the crane on the tower. But it is finished. Gloria.

We are troubled with the names of Strauss, Colenso, Darwin, Renan, and the like. Surely the edifice of religion shall be overthrown. But no; the unshakeable remains. In time we may even incorporate that of which we were in terror. The ocean nibbles up the continent, but new continents arise.

John views the new Heaven and the new earth—the city of the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven, as a bride adorned for her husband. Lovely vision—of a reality.

May I be permitted to introduce here some thoughts on a perusal of M. Darwin? In the correlation of growth, part answering to part, in the immutable laws of Nature, may we not strengthen morality by science? If the Almighty comes to earth and dwells with man, he is all knowledge, all science, as well as all justice, all purity, all mercy. Yea, the Heavenly Jerusalem is built upon Truth, of which no scrap can be dispensed with. The plan must be rounded with every particle of knowledge. Every stain shall be rubbed off the mirror of the speculum, and untiring will be the labour while we see through a glass darkly.

If the scientist tells us that the whole framework is perfectly jointed, then it follows that sin and punishment grow on the same stalk. We, as preachers and teachers are immensely strengthened thereby, insisting on the reign of law. How shall we escape?

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All things new—everything about us is in change and flux. Our dearest affections are but as the tents of a night. This scene must be shifted. "This, too, shall pass away," is written upon all joy, and all sorrow, too. Benedicite.

My exemplar, Bossuet, spoke, as I do now, before a funeral bier. Beneath the catafalque reposed the statue, in flesh, of a lovely woman. She was alive, and she is alive—yea, like our dear young sister who lies before us now. There is the unquenchable Life which is but transplanted. No change in the divine! "I make all things new," is not written of the celestial but merely of the phenomenal. She lives. Gloria.