the works john angell james sermons

452 Pages·2016·2.42 MB·English

Volume 3 Bembo v1_JAJ Volume 01 04/05/2016 19:38 Page 1
THE WORKS
OF
JOHN ANGELL JAMES
Onewhile minister of the church assembling in
Carrs Lane Birmingham
EDITED BY HIS SON
VOLUME3
SERMONS
LONDON: HAMILTON, ADAMS & CO.
Birmingham: Hudson & Son.
MDCCCLX
Volume 3 Bembo v1_JAJ Volume 01 04/05/2016 19:38 Page 2
2 john angell james works volume 3
2
Volume 3 Bembo v1_JAJ Volume 01 04/05/2016 19:38 Page 3
proof-reading draft 2 3
3
SERMONS
BY
JOHN ANGELL JAMES,
ONEWHILE MINISTER OF THE CHURCH IN
CARRS LANE BIRMINGHAM.
EDITED BY HIS SON.
VOLUME 3
LONDON: HAMILTON, ADAMS, & CO,
BIRMINGHAM: HUDSON & SON.
XDCCCLX.
Volume 3 Bembo v1_JAJ Volume 01 04/05/2016 19:38 Page 4
4 john angell james works volume 3
4
BIRMINGHAM:
HUDSON AND SON, PRINTERS.
Volume 3 Bembo v1_JAJ Volume 01 04/05/2016 19:38 Page 5
proof-reading draft 2 5
5
CONTENTS.
PAGE
The Christian Citizen: Funeral Sermon for James James,
Esq., 1852 7
The Dying Minister’s Reflections and Anticipations: Funeral
Sermon for the Rev. Richard Keynes, 1853 57
The Consolation and Duty of Churches under the loss of
Eminent Ministers: Funeral Sermon for the Rev.
William Jay, 1854 97
The Charge to the Rev. RW Dale, MA, at his Ordination
to the Co-pastorate with the Author, 1854 150
Sermon on the Jubilee of the Author, as Minister of Carr’s
Lane Chapel, 1855 187
The Antidote of Death: Funeral Sermon for Mrs Redford,
1855 219
Ministerial Fidelity applauded and rewarded: Funeral Sermon
for the Rev. Thomas Swan, 1857 257
Christian Philanthropy: Funeral Sermon for Joseph Sturge,
Esq., 1859 297
Address at the Funeral of the Rev. Dr McAll, 1838 339
Address at the Funeral of the Rev. John Jerard, 1852 357
Pastoral Address, including Funeral Sermon for Mrs TS
James, 1847 367
The Rivulet Controversy: a Tract for the Times, on speaking
the truth in love. Sermon prepared for delivery at the
meeting of the Congregational Union which would in
course have been held at Cheltenham in the autumn of
1856, but was not convened 403
Volume 3 Bembo v1_JAJ Volume 01 04/05/2016 19:38 Page 6
6 john angell james works volume 3
6
Volume 3 Bembo v1_JAJ Volume 01 04/05/2016 19:38 Page 7
proof-reading draft 2 7
7
THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN IN LIFE
AND IN DEATH.
A FUNERAL DISCOURSE
ON THE
DEATH OF JAMES JAMES, ESQ.,
DELIVERED MARCH, 1852.
Volume 3 Bembo v1_JAJ Volume 01 04/05/2016 19:38 Page 8
8 john angell james works volume 3
8
It is no disparagement to the Author to say that he owed
much of his success and comfort in his church and congregation
to the counsel and assistance of his younger brother, whose
memory he has embalmed in the following discourse. For Mr
James James’s ability and aptitude in business were such as,
with due training, would have fitted him to serve the public in
posts far higher than those which fell to his lot. And it was
most delightful to see the mutual affection of the brothers, and
their reciprocal pride in each other.
During the thirty-seven years they were spared to each
other in Birmingham, Mr James James, notwithstanding several
changes of residence, always lived in his brother’s immediate
neighbourhood, except for one twelvemonth, which was in con-
sequence a time of discomfort to both. The Author attended
his brother through his last illness with the devotion and tender-
ness of a woman, and never regained his own spirits after laying
him in the grave.
The Author prefixed to the sermon the following preface:
‘In discharging the mournful, unusual, and delicate task of
preaching a funeral discourse on the death of a beloved brother,
I was anxious to say neither all that affection might prompt, nor
less than justice demanded.
‘It will perhaps be thought that the earlier parts of the
sermon partake too little of the solemn and the pathetic to suit
the occasion. In the selection of a subject, I was guided by
three considerations; a wish to avoid whatever might prove too
severe a trial of my own feelings; a desire to adapt the discourse
to the character and public career of my lamented brother; and
an anxiety to hold up a great public principle to guide the
conduct of the living.’
Volume 3 Bembo v1_JAJ Volume 01 04/05/2016 19:38 Page 9
proof-reading draft 2 9
9
ACTSOFTHEAPOSTLES13:36.
For David, after he had served his own generation by
the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his
fathers, and saw corruption.
C
HRISTIANITY is the hope, comfort, and glory of our
world: the foundation of Christianity is the Messiahship
of Christ: the evidence of the Messiahship of Christ
consists, among other proofs, of the miracles which he
wrought, his resurrection from the grave, and the accom-
plishment, in his person and work, of the predictions
of the Jewish prophets. ‘The testimony of Jesus is
the spirit of prophecy.’ It is to prove this great fact,
that the apostle Paul, according to his custom when
reasoning with his countrymen, appeals, in the case
before us, to their own Scriptures in support of the
claims of Jesus of Nazareth. The sixteenth Psalm has
ever, by Christian expositors, been considered an un-
doubted and very striking prediction of our Divine
Lord. The apostle shows in this chapter that it could
not apply to David, as some of the Jews supposed,
inasmuch as it declares that the subject of it, to whom-
soever it referred, was not to suffer the usual conse-
quences of death in the corruption of the body. This
was true of Christ, but not of David. Though our
Volume 3 Bembo v1_JAJ Volume 01 04/05/2016 19:38 Page 10
10 john angell james works volume 3
10
Lord was killed, taken down from the cross, and laid in
the sepulchre, yet God raised him from the dead, before
any process of decomposition had commenced. Whereas,
‘David, after he had served his own generation by the
will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers,
and saw corruption.’
Having thus briefly explained the connection and
design of the text, I go on to consider the apostles’
testimony to the character and conduct of David. The
history of this illustrious man is at once the glory and
the shame of our common nature. His virtues and his
vices stand in awful contrast. The one however were
permanent, the other, occasional: the one, the sound
and healthful body, the other, hideous and diseased
excrescences, which, when exscinded by the mercy of
God and the deepest repentance and reformation, left
the frame, though bearing the scars, alive and robust.
Let us follow his piety, which is recorded as a model
for imitation; and avoid his sins, which with a fidelity
never to be sufficiently admired, are left like beacons
for our warning. Let David’s bitter tears and pungent
remorse lie considered not only a proof of his penitence,
but a solemn caution to us against pride, sensuality and
indolence. Infidels and men of profane minds, to fortify
their scepticism or to justify their impiety, have pointed
in derision to this melancholy proof of human frailty.
There would be some reason (though but little virtue),
in their conduct, if David had continued his career
of iniquity instead of abandoning it; or if he had aban-
doned it without penitence and remorse; or even if it
had been recorded without any mark of reprobation on
the part of the historian. But when the reverse of all
this is true, and a prophet was sent to bring him to a