Yes.  Let us bear in mind this—­that whatever we cannot be, we can at least be honest men.  Let us go to our graves, if possible, with the feeling that there is not a man on earth, a penny the worse for us.  And if we have ever fouled our hands with the unrighteous Mammon, let us cleanse them by the only possible plan, by making restitution to those whom we have wronged; and so make friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness, who shall forgive us, and receive us as friends in heaven, instead of making enemies, and going out of the world with the fearful thought, that we shall meet at God’s judgment-seat people whom we have made miserable, who will rise up to accuse us, and demand payment of us when it is too late for ever.

Let us bear in mind, even though we cannot copy, the dying words of Muhammed the Arab, who, when he found his end draw near, went forth into the market-place, and asked before all the people, ’Was there any man whom he had wronged?  If so, his own back should bear the stripes.  Was there any man to whom he owed money? and he should be paid.’  ‘Yes,’ cried some one, ’those coins which you borrowed from me on such a day.’  ‘Pay him,’ said Muhammed:  ’better to be shamed now on earth, than shamed in the day of judgment.’  He was a heathen.  And shall we Christians be worse than he?  Then let us pray for the Holy Spirit of God, the Spirit of truth, which will make us faithful and true; so that no man may be the worse for us in this life; no man may have to say of us, when he hears that we lie dying, ’He wronged me, he cheated me, he lied to me; God forgive him:’  but that our friends, as they carry us to the grave, may feel that they have lost one whom they could respect and trust; and say, as the earth rattles in upon the coffin lid, ’There lies an honest man.’

SERMON XXV.  THE SIGHS OF CHRIST

(Twelfth Sunday after Trinity.)

Mark vii. 34, 35.  And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.  And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.

Why did the Lord Jesus look up to heaven?  And why, too, did he sigh?

He looked up to heaven, we may believe, because he looked to God the Father; to God, of whom the glorious collect tells us, that he is more ready to hear than we to pray, and is wont to give more than either we desire or deserve.  He looked up to the Father, who is the fountain of life, of order, of health, of usefulness; who hates all death, disease, infirmity; who wills that none should perish, body or soul.

My friends, think of these cheering words; and try to look up to God the Father, as Christ looked up.  Look up to him I say, if but once, as a Father.  Not merely as your Father, but as the Father of the spirits of all flesh; the good God who creates, and delights to create; who orders all worlds and heavens with perfect wisdom, perfect power, perfect justice, perfect love; and peoples them with immortal souls and spirits, that they may be useful, happy, blessed, in keeping his laws, and doing the work which he has ordained for them.  Oh think, if but once, of God the perfect and all-loving Father; and then you will know why Jesus looked up to him.