Sermons and Sermon Notes

By Rev B W Maturin

Father Maturin was one of those men of real genius who never advertised himself, but did his work quietly and thoroughly. His was not among the great historical names of his generation; but his gifts were placed very high indeed by those who followed his career as a preacher and came under his personal influence. The touch of true genius was unmistakable in him: yet I think his friends used to feel during his lifetime that though he was generally known to be one of our best preachers, the world at large had little conception of the quality of his mind which gave him so special a position among his own disciples and friends. And when at his Requiem the huge Westminster Cathedral was filled by some two thousand mourners it came to some of us as a surprise. It was a remarkable case where many individuals owed him a deep debt for his preaching, yet there had not been that open communication between them which leads to universally acknowledged popular fame. Each one who came said, I I owe so much to Father Maturin that I must be among the mourners, though I fear that they will not be so numerous as such a man deserves. Many hundreds in London alone said the same thing, where each man had thought that it would be said only by a few score.The sermon on the mystery of suffering begins: "OF every great question that stirs the minds of men, they naturally and instinctively ask and demand a simple, direct and reasonable solution. The instinct of the mind is not content with an answer which is not direct and simple and stated in a rational form. Yet we know, as a matter of fact, that in all the great questions touching on human life man does not get such an answer as that. The result is that among those who study the deep mysteries of life we find two classes: those, namely, who profess to have an answer for everything, and think that the thing for which they have not an answer is not worth answering; and those deeper and more thoughtful men who accept the mysteries as they find them, and stand before them with question upon question rising up, for which they have not the answer they fain would have, but who have something better and more reasonable, viz. That attitude of mind which is ready to wait till the solution comes. So, if we turn to those who stand as the high priests of science, we find that those who enter most deeply into the secrets of life have learned this :-a proper attitude of expectation before the mysteries which come before them; and this also, that while answers come in many unexpected ways-rising up from the depths below and descending from the heights above-yet that the answer as to the final cause of all, the meaning of the mystery of life, the solution of all the difficulties of science is not yet attained. We find the great high priests of science ministering before Nature, in the attitude not only of inquiry but of something more, of expectation and of faith. From deep study they have learned an attitude of respect and patient expectation and of faith. ... "

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1482622645
• ISBN13: 9781482622645
• Release Date: February 2013
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 334 Pages
• Weight: 1.26 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.8" x 6.0"