In his introductory note to this sermon, which was published in the booklet “Cent cinquante ans après” (“150 years later”) in 1943, Julien Monod explains that the sermon, which was offered on June 26, 1814, was a public speech given at the request of the Minster for Home Affairs and Religious Affairs. According to this introductory note, “at that time, everybody was still astonished and moved by the rapid succession of events which led to the end of the Empire and the return of the Bourbons”.
(Pre)text
Luke 2.14 – Peace on earth!
Summary
Jean Monod takes the distressing spectacle of peoples at war as a starting point. He wonders how even Christians can abandon themselves to such fury although the religion of Jesus Christ is all about peace. Alas, the wish for peace of the angels of Bethlehem has only rarely been fulfilled. The joy is all the greater to see peace come back after all the violence and misery.
The preacher recalls the terrible days of war and contrasts them with the newly found peace, but he does not want to limit himself to a superficial comparison. He draws his listeners’ attention to divine providence as it appears through the recent events. He believes that France is guilty of great crimes against its citizens and against its king, which explains why it has been struck by God’s justice. But now the time has come for God’s mercy, and for contemplating the errors of the past. Monod expresses his profound esteem for Louis XVI, whom he considers to be a “model of purity, modesty and a meek and sincere piety, who, on the throne, was the best of men, and on the scaffold, the greatest”, as well as for his wife Marie-Antoinette, who like her husband fell victim to the Revolution. The preacher considers the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty to the French throne to be another expression of divine providence. In his eyes, the cause of the royal family is the cause “of justice, of order and of moral.”
In the second part of the sermon, Monod considers the future. He considers the present peace to be a great opportunity for establishing a lasting peace. In order to reach this goal, everybody has to contribute. As a matter of fact, social phenomena have their root in the behaviour of the individuals that make up the society. Monod thinks that there may be a just war, but he believes that a virtuous society, i.e. a “nation in which equity, righteousness and temperance would reign over all souls because they formed the public mind, and govern the councils of the ruler as well as the affairs of the individual …”, would be much less exposed to war. By living virtuous lives the citizens contribute to universal harmony. The preacher expresses the opinion that only religion can form a solid basis for morals. Therefore, the leaders of the nations ought to reflect on the teachings of Jesus if they want to well conduct the world: “let them come into the churches in order to worship the God of goodness – will they then be capable of cold-bloodedly sending his children to death?” Monod reminds his audience of the attitude of Louis XVIII, who was a godly ruler, but also of the good influence of religion on the foreign soldiers. He believes that religion should establish the link between the peoples, between men and between heaven and earth. The dreadful lessons of the past ought to stimulate both religiosity and virtue.
God has acted – now man has to follow in his footsteps. Monod concludes the sermon with a series of exhortations. First, he asks Louis XVI to watch over France from heaven above. He invites Louis XVIII to follow the instructions of his ancestor and prays God to bless him and the princes around him. He invites the soldiers to support the state and the king. The pastors are asked to fight ruthlessly against vice and impiety. The Protestants must be exemplary citizens and should set aside all animosity towards other religious groups. Monod asks the parents to offer their children a Christian education that will transform them into good citizens. The preacher believes that the foremost reason for the misfortune of France is that “the moral standards have loosened, religion has been forgotten, luxury and vanity have progressed and the passion for pleasure and riches has ever increased”. Prosperity will only return if virtue flourishes anew. The work of providence will only be achieved if all collaborate; the regeneration of the state begins in the hearts.
Structure
The sermon has a rather clear-cut structure:
Introduction: peace after the horrors of war
The past – shaped by God’s providence
The future – to be shaped by man’s virtue
Conclusion: invitation to a life of virtue
Characteristic features
Jean Monod is a man of the Enlightenment. As such, he is very optimistic about the benefits of civilisation and man’s resourcefulness, in particular regarding his reason and virtue. For him, religion is “the surest guarantor of public and private virtue” and contributes “to the great goal of all: the progress of virtue”. The heart of his religion is not the redemptive work of Golgotha but an aspiration towards virtue and a determined fight against vice in all its forms. One can imagine the deep chasm between Jean Monod and those of his sons who were part of the Reveil. Philippe Vassaux is doubtlessly right when he points out that Jean Monod “may be considered to be an example of the pre-liberal tendency which heavily insists on the need of Christian morals”.
Rhetorical elements
Jean Monod appears not to make great use of rhetorical techniques. That being said, even though his expressions may from time to time appear pompous to the reader, they are quite efficient to the listener. One may also note a quite incisive conclusion in which Monod aligns invitations directed at quite different groups, ranging from the king to the simple citizen, including men of power, soldiers, pastors and believers.
Why this sermon is worth reading
Beyond the fact that this is the only sermon of Jean Monod which we possess (to our best knowledge, the sermons in possession of the Library of Geneva have never been published), it is a noteworthy example of a politically committed sermon supporting the powers in place. Monod is a legitimist and he expresses this very clearly. One does not often see a clergyman rally a political cause in so clear a manner. The sermon is also useful for understanding the breaking point between the preaching of the Enlightenment and the preaching of the Réveil, and why the young Adolphe Monod was so deeply troubled by his discovery of the difference between vice and what the Bible calls sin.
Weaknesses
In my opinion, Monod goes too far in his veneration of Louis XVI: his portrait of the monarch is that of a saint. Even considering the requirements of eulogies (de mortuis nihil nisi bene), this seems excessive. The climax is reached when he asks the king to watch over France from heaven above. Such idealisation goes over the top. One may ask oneself whether Monod does not betray the mission of a preacher when he expresses his personal political convictions.
However, one ought not to forget that this is a sermon which the government had requested; Jean Monod should not be judged on a piece of work that is doubtlessly quite untypical with respect to the rest of his homiletic work.
Reception
We do not know how Monod’s contemporaries received the sermon, but modern readers are somewhat embarrassed.
Julien Monod noted in 1943 that the sermon was “not only a [government-]ordered homily and a mandatory Te-Deum” and pursued: “As a convinced legitimist, for political, moral and religious reasons, it is with sincere satisfaction that [Jean Monod] celebrated the end of the wars of the Empire, the return of peace in France and Europe and the re-establishment of the Bourbons. His discourse of 1814 appears as the sequel and conclusion of several anti-revolutionary sermons which he had given in Geneva and Copenhague between 1792 and 1800.”
In an article on Jean Monod, which was published on the website of the Paris Temple de l’Oratoire, Philippe Vassaux writes: “Certain protestant circles celebrate the accession to the throne of Louis XVIII, because he brings peace. Fifteen years later, [Jean Monod] welcomes the new order which Louis-Philippe has initiated. Today we are somewhat surprised by the excessive sincerity of the Parisian pastors at the beginning of the 19th century!”
