The Project Gutenberg eBook, Town and Country Sermons, by Charles Kingsley

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Title: Town and Country Sermons

Author: Charles Kingsley

Release Date: March 10, 2004 [eBook #11536]

Language: English

Character set encoding: US-ASCII

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOWN AND COUNTRY SERMONS***

Transcribed by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk

TOWN AND COUNTRY SERMONS

SERMON I. HOW TO KEEP PASSION WEEK

(Preached before the Queen.)

Philippians ii. 5-11. Let this mind be in you, which was also in
Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery
to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took
upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God
also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above
every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of
things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to
the glory of God the Father.

This the first day of Passion Week; and this text is the key-note of
Passion Week. It tells us of the obedience of Christ; of the
unselfishness of Christ; and, therefore, of the true glory of
Christ.

It tells us of One who was in the form of God; the Co-equal and Co-
eternal Son; the brightness of his Father's glory, the express image
of his Father's person: but who showed forth his Father's glory,
and proved that he was the express likeness of his Father's
character, by the very opposite means to those which man takes, when
he wishes to show forth his own glory.

He was in the form of God. But he did not (so the text seems to
mean) think that the bliss of God was a thing to be seized on
greedily for himself. He did not think fit merely to glorify
himself; to enjoy himself. He was not like the false gods of whom
the heathen dreamed, who sat aloft in heaven and enjoyed themselves,
careless of mankind.

No. He obeyed his Father utterly, and at all costs. He emptied
himself (says St. Paul