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        Title: Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 16: 1870
   Creator(s): Spurgeon, Charles Haddon (1834-1892)
CCEL Subjects: All; Sermons;
   LC Call no: BV42
  LC Subjects:

               Practical theology

               Worship (Public and Private) Including the church year, Christian
               symbols, liturgy, prayer, hymnology

               Times and Seasons. The church year
     __________________________________________________________________

Assured Security In Christ

   (No. 908)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JANUARY 2, 1870,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "I know Whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep
   that which Ihave committed unto Him against that day." 2 Timothy 1:12.

   IN the style of these Apostolic words there is a positiveness most
   refreshing in this age of doubt. In certain circles of society it is
   rare nowadays to meet with anybody who believes anything. It is the
   philosophical, the right, the fashionable thing, nowadays, to doubt
   everything which is generally received. Indeed, those who have any
   creed whatever are by the liberal school set down as old-fashioned
   dogmatists, persons of shallow minds, deficient in intellect, and far
   behind their age. The great men, the men of thought, the men of high
   culture and refined taste consider it wisdom to cast suspicion upon
   Revelation, and sneer at all definiteness of belief.

   "Ifs" and "buts," and "perhaps" are the supreme delight of this period.
   What wonder if men find everything uncertain--when they refuse to bow
   their intellects to the declarations of the God of Truth? Note then,
   with admiration, the refreshing and even startling positiveness of the
   Apostle--"I know," says he. And that is not enough--"I am persuaded."
   He speaks like one who cannot tolerate a doubt. There is no question
   about whether he has believed or not. "I know Whom I have believed."
   There is no question as to whether he was right in so believing. "I am
   persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him."
   There is no suspicion as to the future. He is as positive for years to
   come as he is for this present moment. "He is able to keep that which I
   have committed to Him against that day."

   Now there is a positiveness which is very disgusting--when it is
   nothing but the fruit of ignorance and is unattended with anything like
   thoughtfulness. But in the Apostle's case, his confidence is founded
   not on ignorance, but on knowledge. "I know," says he. There are
   certain things which he has clearly ascertained, which he knows to be
   fact. And his confidence is grounded on these ascertained Truths of
   God. His confidence, moreover, was not the fruit of thoughtlessness,
   for he adds, "I am persuaded." As though he had reasoned the matter out
   and had been persuaded into it--had meditated long upon it, and turned
   it over--and the force of Truth had quite convinced him, so that he
   stood persuaded.

   Where positiveness is the result of knowledge and of meditation, it
   becomes sublime, as it was in the Apostle's case. And being sublime it
   becomes influential. In this case it certainly must have been
   influential over the heart of Timothy, and over the minds of the tens
   of thousands who have, during these nineteen centuries, perused this
   Epistle. It encourages the timid when they see others preserved. It
   confirms the wavering when they see others steadfast. The great
   Apostle's words, ringing out with trumpet tone this morning, "I know,
   and I am persuaded," cannot but help to cheer many of us in our
   difficulties and anxieties. May the Holy Spirit cause us not only to
   admire the faith of Paul, but to imitate it, and to attain to the same
   confidence!

   Some speak confidently because they are not confident. How often have
   we observed that brag and bluster are only the outward manifestations
   of inward trembling? They are but concealments adopted to cover
   cowardice! As the schoolboy, passing through the Churchyard, whistles
   to keep his courage up, so some people talk very positively because
   they are not positive. They make a pompous parade of faith because they
   desire to sustain the presumption which, as being their only comfort,
   is exceedingly dear to them.

   Now in the Apostle's case, every syllable he speaks has beneath it a
   most real weight of confidence which the strongest expressions could
   not exaggerate. Sitting there in the dungeon, a prisoner for Christ,
   abhorred by his countrymen, despised by the learned, and ridiculed by
   the rude, Paul confronted the whole world with a holy boldness which
   knew no quailing. A boldness resulting from the deep conviction of his
   spirit. You may take these words and put what emphasis you can upon
   each one of them, for they are the truthful utterance of a thoroughly
   earnest and brave spirit. May we enjoy

   such a confidence ourselves, and then we need not hesitate to declare
   it--for our testimony will glorify God and bring consolation to others.

   This morning for our instruction, as the Holy Spirit may help us, we
   shall first consider the matter in question, that which Paul had
   committed to Christ. Secondly, the fact beyond all question, namely,
   that Christ was able to keep him. Thirdly, the assurance of that fact,
   or how the Apostle was able to say, "I know and am persuaded." And
   fourthly, the influence of that assurance when it rules in the heart.

   I. First, then, dear Friends, let us speak for a few minutes upon THE
   MATTER IN QUESTION.

   1. That matter was, first of all, the Apostle's deposit of all his
   interests and concerns into the hands of God in Christ. Some have said
   that what Paul here speaks of was his ministry. But there are many
   reasons for concluding that this is a mistake. A great array of
   expositors, at the head of whom we would mention Calvin, think that the
   sole treasure which Paul deposited in the hands of God was his eternal
   salvation. We do not doubt that this was the grandest portion of the
   priceless deposit--but we also think that as the connection does not
   limit the sense, it cannot be restricted or confined to any one thing.
   It seems to us that all the Apostle's temporal and eternal interests
   were, by an act of faith, committed into the hands of God in Christ
   Jesus.

   To the Lord's gracious keeping the Apostle committed his body. He had
   suffered much in that frail tabernacle-- shipwrecks, perils, hunger,
   cold, nakedness, imprisonments, beatings with rods and stoning had all
   spent their fury upon him. He expected before long that his mortal
   frame would become the prey of Nero's cruelty. None could tell what
   would then happen to him--whether he should be burned alive to light up
   Nero's gardens, be torn to pieces by wild beasts to make a Roman
   holiday--or become the victim of the headsman's sword. But in whatever
   way he might be called to offer up himself a sacrifice to God, he
   committed his body to the keeping of Him who is the Resurrection and
   the Life.

   He was persuaded that in the day of the Lord's appearing he would rise
   again, his body having suffered no loss through torture or
   dismemberment. He looked for a joyful resurrection and asked no better
   embalming for his corpse than the power of Christ would ensure it.

   He gave over to Christ at that hour his character and reputation. A
   Christian minister must expect to lose his reputation among men. He
   must be willing to suffer every reproach for Christ's sake. But he may
   rest assured that he will never lose his real honor if it is risked for
   the Truth's sake and placed in the Redeemer's hands. The day shall
   declare the excellence of the upright, for it will reveal all that was
   hidden and bring to light that which was concealed. There will be a
   resurrection of characters as well as persons. Every reputation that
   has been obscured by clouds of reproach for Christ's sake shall be
   rendered glorious when the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in
   the kingdom of their Father. Let the wicked say what they will of me,
   said the Apostle, I commit my character to the Judge of the quick and
   the dead.

   So also his whole lifework he delivered into the hands of God. Men
   said, no doubt, that Paul had made a great mistake. In the eyes of the
   worldly wise he must have seemed altogether mad. What eminence awaited
   him had he become a rabbi! He might have lived respected and honored
   among his countrymen as a Pharisee. Or if he had preferred to follow
   the Grecian philosophies, a man with such strength of mind might have
   rivaled Socrates or Plato! But instead, he chose to unite himself with
   a band of men commonly reputed to be ignorant fanatics who turned the
   world upside down. Ah, well, says Paul, I leave the reward and fruit of
   my life entirely with my Lord, for He will at last justify my choice of
   service beneath the banner of His Son. And then the assembled universe
   shall know that I was no mistaken zealot for a senseless cause.

   So did the Apostle resign to the hands of God in Christ his soul,
   whatever its jeopardy from surrounding temptations. However great the
   corruptions that were within it, and the dangers that were without, he
   felt safe in the great Surety's hands. He made over to the Divine
   Trustee all his mental powers, faculties, passions, instincts, desires
   and ambitions. He gave his whole nature up to the Christ of God to
   preserve it in holiness through the whole of life. And right well did
   his life-course justify his faith.

   He gave that soul up to be kept in the hour of death, then to be
   strengthened, sustained, consoled, upheld, and guided through the
   tracks unknown--up through the mysterious and unseen--to the Throne of
   God, even the Father. He resigned his spirit to Christ, that it might
   be presented without spot or wrinkle or any such thing in the Last
   Great Day. He did, in fact, make a full deposit of all that he was, and
   all that he had, and all that concerned him, into the keep-

   ing of God in Christ, to find in his God a faithful Guardian, a sure
   Defender and a safe Keeper. This was the matter, then, about which the
   Apostle was concerned.

   2. But next to this, the matter in question concerned the Lord's
   ability to make good this guardianship. The Apostle did not doubt that
   Christ had accepted the office of Keeper of that which he had committed
   to Him. The question was never about Christ's faithfulness to that
   trust. The Apostle does not even say that he was confident that Jesus
   would be faithful. He felt that assertion to be superfluous. There was
   no question about Christ's willingness to keep the soul committed to
   Him--such a statement Paul felt it unnecessary to make. But the
   question with many was concerning the power of the once crucified
   Redeemer to keep that which was committed to Him.

   Oh, said the Apostle, I know and am persuaded that He is able to do
   that. Mark, my dear Friends, that the question is not about the
   Apostle's power to keep himself. That question he does not raise. Many
   of you have been troubled as to whether you are able to endure
   temptation. You need not debate the subject. It is clear that apart
   from Christ you are quite unable to persevere to the end. Answer that
   question with a decided negative at once, and never raise it again. The
   enquiry was not whether the Apostle would be found meritorious in his
   own righteousness in the Day of Judgment, for he had long ago cast that
   righteousness aside.

   He does not raise that point. The grand question is this, "Is Jesus
   able to keep me?" Stand to that, my Brethren, and your doubts and fears
   will soon come to an end. Concerning your own power or merit, write,
   "despair," straightway upon its forehead. Let the creature be regarded
   as utterly dead and corrupt, and then lean on that arm, the sinews of
   which shall never shrink. And cast your full weight upon that
   Omnipotence which bears up the pillars of the universe. There is the
   point--keep to it, and you will not lose your joy. You have committed
   yourself to Christ. The great question now is not about what you can
   do, but about what Jesus is able to do. And rest assured that He is
   able to keep that which you have committed to Him.

   3. The Apostle further carries our thoughts on to a certain set
   period--the keeping of the soul unto what he calls "that day." I
   suppose he calls it, "that day," because it was the day most ardently
   expected and commonly spoken of by Christians. It was so usual a topic
   of conversation to speak of Christ's coming and of the results of it,
   that the Apostle does not say, "the advent," he simply says, "that
   day." That day with which Believers are more familiar than with any
   other day beside. That day, the day of death if you will, when the soul
   appears before its God. The Day of Judgment, if you please--that day
   when the books shall be opened and the record shall be read.

   That day, the winding up of all, the sealing of destiny, the
   manifestation of the eternal fate of each one of us. That day for which
   all other days were made. Christ Jesus is able to keep us against that
   day. That is to say, He is able to place us, then, at the right hand of
   God, to set our feet upon the Rock when others sink into the pit that
   is bottomless. To crown us when others shall be accursed. To bring us
   to eternal joy when sinners shall be cast into Hell.

   Here was the matter of consideration--can the Great Shepherd of souls
   preserve His flock? Ah, Brethren, if you have never searched into that
   question, I should not wonder but what you will! When you are very low
   and weak, and heart and flesh are failing. When sickness brings you to
   the borders of the grave and you gaze into eternity, the enquiry will
   come to any thoughtful man--Is this confidence of mine in the Christ of
   God warranted? Will He be able in this last article, when my spirit
   shivers in its unclothing, will He be able to help me now?

   And in the more dreadful hour, when the trumpet peal shall awake the
   dead, shall I, indeed, find the Great Sin Bearer able to stand for me?
   Having no merit of my own, will His merit suffice? From ten thousand
   sins will His blood, alone, cleanse me? Nothing can ever equal this
   matter in importance. It is one of most pressing urgency of
   consideration.

   II. It is a happy circumstance that we can turn from it to our second
   point, to dwell for a while upon THE FACT BEYOND ALL QUESTION, namely,
   that God in Christ is able to keep that which we have committed to Him.

   The Apostle's confidence was that Christ was an able Guardian. So he
   meant, first, that Jesus is able to keep the soul from falling into
   damning sin. I suppose this is one of the greatest fears that has ever
   troubled the true Believer. Have you ever prayed that you might rather
   die than turn aside from Christ? I know I have, and I have sung
   bitterly in my soul that verse--

   "Ah, Lord! With such a heart as mine,

   Unless You hold me fast, I feel I must, I shall decline, And turn from
   You at last."

   Now, troubled Christian, remember that your Lord is able to keep you
   under every possible form of temptation. "Ah," you say, "the Apostle
   Paul had not the trials I have. I think he had. But if he had not,
   Jesus had. And Christ has ability to keep you under them. Do I hear one
   say, "I am the only one of my household that has been called by Grace,
   and they all oppose me. I am a lonely one in my father's house"? Now,
   Paul was precisely in your condition. He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews,
   and he was regarded by his people with the most extreme hate because he
   had come out from among them to follow the Crucified One.

   Yet Paul felt that God was able to keep him, and you may depend upon
   it--though father and mother forsake, and brothers and sisters
   scoff--He whom you trust will keep you also firm in the faith. "Ah,"
   says another, "but you do not know what it is to strive with the
   prejudices of an education hostile to the faith of Jesus. When I seek
   to grow in Grace, the things I learned in my childhood force themselves
   upon me and hinder me." And was not the Apostle in this case? As
   touching the Law he had been a Pharisee, educated in the strictest
   sect, brought up in traditions that were opposed to the faith of
   Christ. And yet the Lord kept him faithful even to the end.

   None of his old prejudices were able so much as to make him obscure the
   simplicity of the Gospel of Christ. God is able to keep you, also,
   despite your previous prejudices. "Ah," says one, "but I am the subject
   of many skeptical thoughts. I often suffer from doubts of the most
   subtle order." Do you think that the Apostle never knew this trial? He
   was no stranger to the Greek philosophy, which consisted of a bundle of
   questions and skepticisms. He must have experienced those temptations
   which are common to thoughtful minds. And yet he said, "I know that He
   is able to keep me." Believe me, then, the Lord Jesus is equally able
   to keep you.

   "Yes," says another, "but I have so many temptations in the world. If I
   were not a Christian, I should prosper much better. I have openings now
   before me by which I might soon obtain a competence, and perhaps
   wealth, if I were not checked by conscience." Do you forget that the
   Apostle was in like case? What might he not have had? A man of his
   condition in life--his birth and parentage being altogether
   advantageous--a man of his powers of mind and of his great energy! He
   might have seized upon any attractive position. But those things which
   were gain for him, he counted loss for Christ's sake. And he was
   willing to be less than nothing, because the power of Divine Grace kept
   him true to his profession.

   But you tell me you are very poor, and that poverty is a severe trial.
   Brothers and Sisters, you are not so poor as Paul. I suppose a few
   needles for his tent-making, an old cloak, and a few parchments made up
   all his wealth. A man without a home, a man without a single foot of
   land to call his own, was this Apostle. But poverty and want could not
   subdue him--Christ was able to keep him even then. "Ah," you say, "but
   he had not my strong passions and corruptions." Most surely he had them
   all, for we hear him cry, "I find, then, a Law, that when I would do
   good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the Law of God after
   the inward man: but I see another Law in my members, warring against
   the Law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the Law of sin
   which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me
   from the body of this death?"

   He was tempted as you are, yet he knew that Christ was able to keep
   him. O trembling Christian, never doubt this soul-cheering fact--that
   your loving Savior is able to keep you. But the Apostle did not merely
   trust Christ thus to keep him from sin--he relied upon the same arm to
   preserve him from despair. He was always battling with the world. There
   were times when he had no helper. The Brethren often proved false, and
   those that were true were frequently timid. He was left in the world
   like a solitary sheep surrounded with wolves. But Paul was not
   faint-hearted. He had his fears, for he was mortal--he rose superior to
   them, for he was Divinely sustained. What a front he always maintains!
   Nero may rise before him--a horrible monster for a man even to dream
   of--but Paul's courage does not give way.

   A Jewish mob may surround him, they may drag him out of the city--but
   Paul's mind is calm and composed. He may be laid in the stocks after
   having been scourged, but his heart finds congenial utterance in a song
   rather than a groan. He is always brave, always unconquerable,
   confident of victory. He believed that God would keep him, and he was
   kept. And you, my Brothers and Sisters, though your life may be a very
   severe conflict and you sometimes think you will give it up in
   despair--you never shall relinquish the sacred conflict. He that has
   borne you onward to this day will bear you through, and will make you
   more than conqueror, for He is able to keep you from fainting and
   despair.

   Doubtless, the Apostle meant, too, that Christ was able to keep him
   from the power of death. Beloved, this is great comfort to us who so
   soon shall die. To the Apostle, death was a very present thing. "I die
   daily," said he. Yet was he well

   assured that death would be gain rather than loss to him, for he was
   certain that Christ would so order all things that death should be but
   like an angel to admit him into everlasting life. Be certain of this,
   too, for He who is the Resurrection and the Life will not desert you.
   Do not, my Brothers and Sisters, fall under bondage through fear of
   death, for the living Savior is able to keep you, and He will.

   Do not, I pray, look too much at the pains, groans, and dying strife.
   Look rather to that kind Friend, who, having endured the agonies of
   death before you, can sympathize with your sufferings, and who, as He
   ever lives, can render you available assistance. Cast this care on Him,
   and fear no more to die than you fear to go to your bed when night
   comes.

   The Apostle is also certain that Christ is able to preserve his soul in
   another world. Little is revealed in Scripture by way of detailed
   description of that other world. Imagination may be indulged, but
   little can be proved. The spirit returns to God who gave it, this we
   know. And in the instant after death the righteous soul is in Paradise
   with Christ. This, too, is clear. Yet whether we know the details or
   not, we are assured that the soul is safe with Christ. Whatever danger
   from evil spirits may await us on our journey from this planet up to
   the dwelling place of God. Whatever there may be of conflict in the
   last moment, Jesus is able to keep that which we have committed to Him.

   If I had to keep myself, I might, indeed, tremble with alarm at the
   prospect of the unknown region. But He that is the Lord of death and of
   Hell, and has the keys of Heaven, can surely keep my soul on that dread
   voyage across a trackless sea. It is all well. It must be well with the
   righteous--even in the land of death--for our Lord's dominion reaches
   even there--and being in His dominions we are safe. Paul believed,
   lastly, that Christ was able to preserve his body. Remember my
   statement that Paul committed all that he had, and was, to God in
   Christ?

   We must not despise this body. It is the germ of the body in which we
   are to dwell forever. It shall be raised from corruption into
   incorruption, but it is the same body. Developed from weakness into
   power, from dishonor into glory, it never loses its identity. The
   marvel of the resurrection will not fail of accomplishment. It may seem
   an impossibility that the body which has rotted in the tomb, and,
   perhaps been scattered in dust over the face of the soil--which has
   been absorbed by vegetables, which has been digested by animals, which
   has passed through countless circles of change--should be raised again.
   Yet impossible as it seems, the Lord Jesus Christ will perform it.

   It must be as easy to construct a second time as to create out of
   nothing at the first. Look at creation and see that nothing is
   impossible with God. Think of the Word, without whom was not anything
   made that was made, and straightway you will talk no longer of
   difficulties. With man it may be impossible, but with God all things
   are possible. In your entirety, my Brethren, in the integrity of your
   manhood, spirit, soul, and body--all that is essential to your nature,
   to its happiness, to its perfection. Every part of you and every power
   of you--you having placed all in the hands of Christ--shall be kept
   until that day, when in His image you shall stand, and prove in your
   own persons the power which in your faith you do, this day, devoutly
   trust.

   III. We shall, in the third place, pass on to notice THE ASSURANCE OF
   THAT FACT, or how the Apostle Paul attained to it.

   "I cannot talk like that," says one. "I cannot say, 'I know, and I am
   persuaded,' I am very thankful that I can say, I hope, I trust, I
   think." Dear Friends, in order to help you to advance, we will notice
   how the Apostle Paul attained to such assurance. One main help to him
   was the habit, as seen in this text, of always making faith the most
   prominent point of consideration. Faith is twice mentioned in the few
   lines before us. "I know Whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He
   is able to keep that which I have committed to Him." Paul knew what
   faith was, namely, a committal of his precious things into the custody
   of Christ.

   He does not say, "I have served Christ." No. He does not say, "I am
   growing like Christ, therefore I am persuaded I shall be kept." No. He
   makes most prominent in his thought the fact that he believed, and so
   had committed himself to Christ. I would to God, dear Friends, that you
   who are subject to doubts and fears, instead of raking about in your
   hearts to find evidences and marks of growth in Grace and likeness to
   Christ, and so on, would first make an investigation concerning a point
   which is far more vital--namely this--have you believed?

   Dear anxious Heart, begin your search on this point. Do you commit
   yourself to Christ? If you do, what though marks should be few and
   evidences for awhile should be obscure, he that believes on Him has
   everlasting life. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved. The
   evidences will come, the marks will be cleared in due time. But all the
   marks and

   evidences between here and Heaven are not worth a single farthing to a
   soul when it comes to actual conflict with death

   and Hell.

   Then it must be simple faith that wins the day. Those other things are
   good enough in brighter times. But if it is a question whether you are
   safe or not, you must come to this, "I have rested with all my heart on
   Him that came into the world to save sinners, and though I am the very
   chief of sinners, I believe He is able to save me." You will get to
   assurance if you keep clear about your faith.

   The next help to assurance, as I gather from the text, is this. The
   Apostle maintained most clearly his view of a personal Christ. Observe
   how three times he mentioned his Lord. "I know Whom I have believed,
   and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed to
   Him." He does not say, "I know the doctrines I believe." Surely he did,
   but this was not the main point. He does not say, "I am certain about
   the form of sound Words which I hold." He was certain enough about
   that, but it was not his foundation. No mere doctrines can ever be the
   stay of the soul. What can a dogma do? What can a creed do?

   Brethren, these are like medicines--you need a hand to give them to
   you. You want the physician to administer them to you--otherwise you
   may die with all these precious medicines close at hand. We want a
   person to trust. There is no Christianity to my mind so vital, so
   influential, so true, so real, as the Christianity which deals with the
   Person of the living Redeemer. I know Him, I know He is God, I know
   that He is mine. I trust not merely in His teaching, but in Him. Not on
   His laws, rules, or teachings am I depending so much as on Himself, as
   a Person. Dear Brothers and Sisters, is that what you are doing now?

   Have you put your soul into the keeping of that blessed Man who is also
   God? He who sits at the right hand of the Father? Can you come in faith
   to His feet and kiss the prints of the nails? Can you look up into His
   dear face and say, "Ah, Son of God, I rely upon the power of Your arms,
   on the preciousness of Your blood, on the love of Your heart, on the
   prevalence of Your plea, on the certainty of Your promises, on the
   immutability of Your Character. I rest on You, and on You alone"? You
   will get assurance readily enough, now. But if you begin to fritter
   away your realization of the Person of Christ and live merely on dogmas
   and doctrines, you will be far removed from real assurance.

   Brothers and Sisters, the Apostle attained this full assurance through
   growing knowledge. He did not say, "I am persuaded that Christ will
   save me, apart from anything I know about Him." But he begins by
   saying, "I know." Let no Christian among us neglect the means provided
   for obtaining a fuller knowledge of the Gospel of Christ. I would that
   this age produced more thoughtful and studious Christians. I am afraid
   that apart from what many of you gather from the sermon, or from the
   reading of the Scriptures in public, you do not learn much from the
   Word of God, or from those innumerable instructive books which godly
   men have bequeathed to us.

   Men are studious in various schools and colleges in order to obtain
   knowledge of the classics and mathematics. But should we not be even
   more diligent that we may know Christ? That we may study Him, and all
   about Him--and no longer be children, but in knowledge may be men? Many
   of the fears of Christians would be driven away if they knew more.
   Ignorance is not bliss in Christianity, but misery. Knowledge
   sanctified and attended by the Presence of the Holy Spirit is as wings
   by which we may rise out of the mists and darkness into the light of
   fall assurance. The knowledge of Christ is the most excellent of
   sciences. Seek to be masters of it, and you are on the road to full
   assurance.

   Once, again, the Apostle, it appears from the text, gained his
   assurance from close consideration as well as from knowledge. "I know
   and am persuaded." As I have already said, persuasion is the result of
   argument. The Apostle had turned this matter over in his mind. He had
   meditated on the pros and cons. He had carefully weighed each
   difficulty, and he felt the preponderating force of Truth swept every
   difficulty out of the way. O Christian, if you made your mind more
   familiar with Divine Truth, you would, under the guidance of the Holy
   Spirit, have much more assurance! I believe it is the doctrine which we
   have least studied in the Word which gives us the most trouble in our
   minds. Search it out and look.

   The divisions among Christians, nowadays, are not so much the result of
   real differences of opinion as of want of accurate thought. I believe
   we are getting closer and closer in our theology, and that on the
   whole, at least among the Nonconforming Churches of England, very much
   the same theology is preached by all evangelical ministers. But some
   are not careful of their terms and words, and use them incorrectly. And
   so they seem to preach wrong doctrines when in their

   hearts they mean rightly enough. May we come to be more thoughtful,
   each of us, for a thousand benefits would flow from there.

   Thinking of the Deity of Christ, considering of the veracity of the
   Divine promises, meditating upon the foundations of the Everlasting
   Covenant, revolving in our minds what Christ has done for us--we should
   come at last, by the Spirit's teaching--to be fully persuaded of the
   power of Christ to keep the sacred charge which we have given to Him.
   Doubts and fears would vanish like clouds before the wind. How many
   Christians are like the miser who never feels sure about the safety of
   his money, even though he has locked up the iron safe and secured the
   room in which he keeps it--and locked up the house--and bolted and
   barred every door?

   In the dead of night he thinks he hears a footstep, and tremblingly he
   goes down to inspect his strong-room. Having searched the room and
   tested all the iron bars in the windows, and discovered no thief, he
   fears that the robber may have come and gone, and stolen his precious
   charge. So he opens the door of his iron safe. He looks and pries, he
   finds his bag of gold all safe, and those deeds, those bonds--they are
   safe, too. He puts them away, shuts the door, locks it, bolts and bars
   the room in which is the safe and all its contents. But even as he goes
   to bed he fancies that a thief has just now broken in! So he scarcely
   ever enjoys sound, refreshing sleep.

   The safety of the Christian's treasure is of quite another sort. His
   soul is not under bolt and bar, or under lock and key of his own
   securing. He has transferred his all to the King eternal, immortal,
   invisible--the only wise God, our Savior--and such is his security that
   he enjoys the sleep of the Beloved, calmly resting, for all is well. If
   Jesus could fail us, we might wear sackcloth forever! But while He is
   Immutable in His love and Omnipotent in his power, we may put on the
   garments of praise. Believing as we do that eternal love neither can,
   nor will desert a soul that reposes in its might, we triumph in heart
   and find glory begun below.

   IV. Now to close. What is THE INFLUENCE OF THIS ASSURANCE when it
   penetrates the mind? As time fails me, I shall but say that, as in the
   Apostle's case, it enables us to bear all the disgrace which we may
   incur in serving the Lord. They said Paul was a fool. "Well," replied
   the Apostle, "I am not ashamed, for I know Whom I have believed. I am
   willing to be thought a fool." The ungodly may laugh at us now, but
   their laughs will soon be over, and he will laugh that wins forever.

   Feel perfectly confident that all is safe and you can let the world
   grin at you till its face aches. What does it matter what mortals
   think? What difference does it make what the whole universe thinks if
   our souls are beloved of God? You will, my dear Friends, as you live in
   full assurance of God's love, grow quite indifferent to the opinions of
   the carnal. You will go about your heavenly service with an eye only to
   your Master's will--and the judgment of such as cavil and carp will
   seem to you to be too inconsiderable to be worth a thought.

   If you doubt and fear, you will be hard put to it. But if you are
   serenely confident that He is able to keep you, you will dare the
   thickest of the fray--fearless because your armor is of God. Assurance
   will give you a serenity within which will qualify you for doing much
   service. A man who is always worrying about his own soul's salvation
   can have little energy with which to serve his Lord. But when the soul
   knows the meaning of Christ's words, "It is finished," it turns all its
   strength into the channels of service out of love to such a blessed
   Savior.

   O you that doubt, and therefore fret and care, and ask the question,
   "Do I love the Lord or not? Am I His or am I not?"--how I wish this
   suspense were over with you! O you who fear daily, lest, after all, you
   will be castaways--you lose your strength for serving your God! When
   you are sure that He is able to keep what you have committed to Him,
   then your whole manhood, excited by gratitude, spends itself and is
   spent in your Master's cause. God make you men to the fullness of vigor
   by giving you a fullness of assurance.

   Those who are unsaved in this place may well envy those who are. That
   which attracted me to Christ--I have not heard of others brought in
   this way, but this brought me to Christ mainly--was the doctrine of the
   safety of the saints. I fell in love with the Gospel through that
   Truth. What, I thought, are those who trust in Jesus safe? Shall they
   never perish and shall none pluck them out of Christ's hands? Everybody
   esteems safety. One would not insure his life where he thought there
   was a doubt as to the safety of the insurance. Feeling that there was
   perfect safety if I gave myself up to the Redeemer, I did so. And I
   entertain no regrets to this day that I committed my soul to Him.

   Young people, you cannot do better than early in life entrust your
   future with the Lord Jesus. Many children at home appear to be very
   excellent. Many lads, before they leave their father's house, are
   amiable and commendable in

   character. But this is a rough world--and it soon spoils the Graces
   that have been nurtured in the conservatory of the home. Good boys very
   often turn out very bad men. And girls who were so lovely and pure at
   home have been known to become very wicked women.

   O children, your characters will be safe if you trust them with Jesus!
   I do not say you will be rich if you trust Christ, nor that you will
   prosper after the manner of men. But I do say that you shall be happy
   in the best sense of that word, and that your holiness shall be
   preserved through trusting yourself with Jesus. I pray that you may be
   led to desire this, especially any of you who are leaving your father's
   house, or are setting up in business on your own account. Commit
   yourselves to God!

   This first Sunday of a new year. What time more suitable for beginning
   aright? O may the Holy Spirit softly whisper in your ears reasons that
   shall persuade you to give yourselves to Christ! I say again, my
   testimony is that you cannot do a wiser or a better thing. Oh, the
   happiness my soul has known in resting on my Lord! I wish you knew it.
   I would not cease to be a Christian if I might be made a king or an
   angel. No character can be to me so suitable or so happy as that of a
   humble dependant upon the faithful love of my redeeming Lord.

   O come and trust Him, dear young Friends! You older ones--do you need
   that I should speak to you, when you are getting so near your grave?
   You are now out of Christ--how soon may you be in Hell? You younger
   ones, I say, embrace this flying hour and let this be the day of which
   you shall sing in after years --

   "It is done! The great transaction's done!

   Iam my Lord's, and He is mine--

   He drew me, and by His Grace I followed on,

   Charmed to confess the voice Divine.

   High Heaven, thatheard the solemn vow,

   That vow renewed shall daily hear--

   Till in life's latest hour I bow,

   And bless in death a bond so dear."
     __________________________________________________________________

Voices from the Excellent Glory

   (No. 909)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JANUARY 9, 1870,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water:
   and, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God
   descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him: and lo a voice from
   Heaven, saying, This is My Beloved Son, in Whom I am well-pleased."
   Matthew 3:16,17.

   "While he yet spoke, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and
   behold a Voice out of the cloud, which said, This is My Beloved Son, in
   Whom I am well-pleased; hear Him."

   Matthew 17:5.

   "Father, glorify Your name. Then came there a Voice from Heaven,
   saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." John
   12:28.

   THAT our Lord was the true Messiah of God was proved by His answering
   to all those prophecies which described the promised Messenger of the
   Covenant. His miracles also proved that God was with Him, and from
   their character they marked Him out as the ordained Deliverer. To open
   blind eyes and unstop deaf ears were works foretold as denoting the
   Messiah. His teachings were equally clear proofs of His mission--there
   is about them an authority found nowhere else. The words which He spoke
   are Spirit and Life. They are self-evidencing in their elevation,
   purity, perfection. "Never man spoke like this Man."

   His Testimony is unique and bears a majesty of Deity about it which
   bespeaks itself. His resurrection also was a clear proof that he was
   sent of God. He was "declared to be the Son of God with power, by the
   resurrection from the dead." But in addition to all this and a great
   deal more, the Divine Father was pleased, also, to speak out of Heaven
   with an audible voice to declare that Jesus of Nazareth was no other
   than the Son of God and the promised Christ for whom the faithful were
   watching. Thrice did the majesty of Heaven break its sublime silence
   and bear witness to the Incarnate God. The three occasions, as
   mentioned in our texts, are most instructive, and shall command our
   attention this morning. May the Holy Spirit instruct us.

   Without any further preface, let us consider the three Testimonies
   given to our Lord by the voice of the Most High. If time permits we
   will then notice one or two instructive circumstances connected with
   them. And we will close by drawing a great practical lesson from them.

   I. In endeavoring to bring before your attentive minds THE THREE
   OCCASIONS ON WHICH THE FATHER, BY A VOICE FROM HEAVEN, BORE WITNESS TO
   HIS SON, I would invite you to observe, first, when these voices were
   heard.

   Angels had proclaimed His birth, and wise men had seen His star, but
   the Divine Voice was not heard during the first thirty years of His
   sojourn. The three celestial utterances were reserved for the brief
   period of His public life. The first came at the commencement of His
   public ministry--at His Baptism. The second some little time after the
   central point of His ministry. And the last, just before He closed His
   work, by being offered up. It is a fit thing to pray that all our works
   may be begun, continued, and ended under the Divine blessing.

   Certainly our Lord Jesus Christ, as to His public work, both began it,
   continued it, and ended it with the publicly declared witness of the
   Most High. How cheering a thing it is at the beginning of a great
   enterprise to have from God clear Testimony that He has sent you upon
   it! Such was the Testimony given to the Master in the waters of Jordan,
   when He was first announced as "the Lamb of God that takes away the sin
   of the world."

   How sweetly encouraging it is to the soul when the labor is heavy, the
   opposition vehement, and the spirit faint, to receive another affirming
   word from the excellent Glory! Such was that which came to Jesus on the
   Holy Mount, when retiring from the multitude He sought the refreshment
   of prayer and fellowship with God. Then, as He prayed, the fashion of
   His countenance was altered and His raiment was white and glistering,
   and a Voice came out of the cloud, "This is My Beloved Son, in Whom I
   am well-pleased, hear Him."

   And best of all, when our work is almost done, and the shadows of
   evening are lengthening--when we are about to depart into the land of
   spirits--what a consolation it is to receive another refreshment from
   the Divine mouth! Such our Savior had a little while before He was
   lifted up from the earth. In answer to His fervent cry, "Father,
   glorify Your name," there came a Voice from Heaven saying, "I have both
   glorified it, and will glorify it again."

   In our departing hours we are most anxious about that which was our
   life's dearest object. The lifework of Christ was to glorify His
   Father's name. Concerning that He prayed, and concerning that the Voice
   gave full assurance. The result of the Lord's lifework was declared to
   be ensured, and therefore, wrapping Himself about with that heavenly
   Testimony, the great Redeemer went bravely to His death. It is to be
   noted, then, that at the beginning, the middle, and end of our Master's
   work, the Divine Voice was heard.

   The first celestial witness was uttered after He had lived for thirty
   years in comparative obscurity. It seemed meet that when He first
   appeared, there should be some token that He was what He professed to
   be. That heavenly declaration, be it also remembered, came just before
   His memorable temptation. He was to be forty days in the wilderness
   tempted of the devil, and among the horrible suggestions hissed forth
   from the serpent's mouth would be the doubt, "if you are the Son of
   God." What better forearming of our great Champion than the witness,
   "This is My Beloved Son"?

   How in the recollection of that paternal Testimony would the Son be
   made strong to overcome all the temptations of the Fiend, or to endure
   the hunger which followed the forty days of lonely fast! Thus ever, my
   Brethren, it is not with the Master, only, but with the servants.
   Before temptation there comes spiritual sustenance which makes the
   heart strong in endurance. Like Elijah of old, the Believer falls
   asleep. Being awakened, he eats bread of Heaven's own providing and in
   the strength of that meat he journeys forty days through the wilderness
   without weariness. Expect that when the Lord tries you He will also
   send you strength to sustain you under it.

   The second occasion of the heavenly utterance was when our Lord was
   about (according to Luke) to send out other seventy disciples to preach
   the Word. The twelve had healed the sick, cast out devils and done many
   mighty works. But now the laborers were to be increased and the harvest
   more rapidly ingathered. The seventy Evangelists were to carry the
   Divine Crusade through all the Holy Land.

   Brethren, it is instructive that Heaven gave to our Savior, before
   extending His agencies of mercy, a fresh token for good. And we also,
   when the Lord calls us to wider service, may go up to the mountain to
   pray. And while we are there we, too, may expect to enjoy the
   comforting and strengthening witness of the Spirit within. The heavenly
   Voice shall whisper, "You are Mine," and we shall descend with radiant
   countenance to fight anew the battles of the Lord.

   The third heavenly Testimony came to our Lord just before His
   sufferings and death. I need not say to you how well-timed was that
   witness. With such a death before Him, with such circumstances
   surrounding Him--all tending to make His agony sharper, and His death
   more terrible than any which had fallen to the lot of man before. With
   Gethsemane, with Gabbatha, with Golgotha all before Him. With such
   words as these yet to be uttered, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful,
   even unto death." And these, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken
   Me?"--it was meet that the oppressed Sufferer, who must tread the
   winepress alone--should receive at the outset a Word from the Throne of
   the Highest, meeting exactly the point about which His soul was most
   concerned, namely, the glory of the Father's name.

   While still enlarging upon the times when the Divine Voice was heard,
   we may also note that the first came to our Lord when He was in the
   attitude of obedience. Why needed He to be baptized? It is a sinner's
   ordinance--Jesus is no sinner and needs no washing, no death, no
   burial! But He takes the sinner's place, and therefore comes to be
   buried in Jordan, for, "Thus," says He, "it becomes us to fulfill all
   righteousness." It was to Christ an act of obedience. He took upon
   Himself the form of a servant, and being found in fashion as a Man, He
   became obedient to every ordinance of God, and hence He yielded Himself
   to Baptism. Then came the Voice, "This is My Beloved Son."

   Brothers and Sisters, learn that when you are in the path of filial
   obedience you may expect the Spirit to bear witness with your spirit
   that you are born of God! But if you live in neglect of any known
   duty--if you are willfully unobservant

   of any command of Christ--you may expect that there shall be withheld
   from you the sweet assuring tokens of Divine love. But if you are
   scrupulously obedient on desiring to know what is the Lord's will, and
   then promptly do it--not asking the reason why, nor using your own
   tastes, or indulging your own whims--then in the path of obedience,
   especially if it costs you much, you may expect to have the witness in
   yourself that you are a child of God.

   The second attestation came to our Master in His devout retirement. He
   had gone up to the mountain to pray. His desire was to be alone. He had
   taken with Him His accustomed bodyguard of three--Peter, James, and
   John--that they might be with Him while His soul communed with God. I
   doubt not that, as in the garden, they were bid to remain a stone's
   cast distance off, for surely Jesus poured out His soul before God
   alone. And then it was that suddenly the Glory of God shone upon Him.
   Then, in His retirement, Moses and Elijah appeared, coming forth from
   the spirit-world to commune with Him. Then did the Father utter a
   second time the Testimony, "This is My Beloved Son, in Whom I am
   well-pleased."

   Brothers and Sisters, you too, like your Master, may expect to receive
   Divine Testimonies when you are on the mount of communion alone, when
   your fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. The
   neglect of retirement will probably rob you of such assurances. If your
   prayer should be, "Show me a token for good," the answer will be, "Get
   you to the top of Tabor, get you away to your retirement. There will I
   give you the token which your heart desires." But to live evermore
   spending our strength in public, wasting ourselves in the turmoil of
   this world, and to neglect the soul-refreshing ordinance of private
   devotion is to deprive the inner man of the richest of spiritual
   delights.

   The third Testimony came to our Lord in His ministry. He was preaching
   in the temple when the Father responded to His prayer. Now while I have
   spoken a good word for obedience, and also have sought to magnify
   retirement, let it never be forgotten that public service is equally
   acceptable to God. Our Lord had been conversing with certain enquiring
   Greeks and declaring the living power of His death to all who chose to
   hear Him. In that same hour the Father gave an audible answer to His
   prayer. If you, my Brethren, are called to any form of service, I
   beseech you, under no pretext neglect it. The neglect of anything for
   which you have the talent, and to which you have the call, may deprive
   you of the inward witness.

   Bear much fruit--so shall you be His disciples consciously so. Keep His
   Commandments--so shall you abide in His love and know it. Forget not to
   be obedient, forget not to be prayerful in retirement, but forget not,
   also, that you are meant to shine as a light in this world. Forget not
   that you must work while it is called today. Forget not that you are
   not sent into this life merely to enjoy spiritual recreation or even
   celestial refreshment--but to do a work which no other can do--and for
   which you must give a personal account.

   We must now dismiss the question of the times, and briefly consider to
   whom the attestations were given. The first at Baptism, came to John
   and to our Lord, and most probably to them, only. We do not think the
   Voice from the opened Heaven was necessarily heard by anyone but John
   and our Lord. The token of the descending dove was given to John as the
   sign by which he should discern the Christ. "And I knew Him not. But He
   that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom
   you shall see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, the same is
   He which baptizes with the Holy Spirit."

   John probably gathered from all that he had heard of Jesus that He was
   the great Bridegroom to whom he stood as a friend. But he was not to
   follow his own judgment--he was to receive a token from God
   Himself--and till that token came he could not act as one fully and
   indisputably convinced. When he had immersed our Lord he saw the
   heavens opened, saw the Spirit descending upon Him, and heard the
   confirming Voice. And then he knew beyond all doubt that Jesus was the
   Christ. To the Baptist, alone, that Voice was audible. And then through
   him it was published to all Judea.

   The second Testimony had a somewhat wider range--it came not to one,
   but to three. Peter, James, and John were present. What if I say to
   five? For there were with them Moses and Elijah. They represented the
   Law and the Prophets. The three Apostles were the representatives of
   the Christian Church--as if to show that Law and Gospel meet in Jesus--
   and the things in Heaven and the things on earth are gathered together
   in one in Him. The Testimony enlarges, you see. At first one opened ear
   hears it, next five are assured.

   The third time the Voice was heard by many. How many I cannot say, but
   the crowd in the temple heard it. Many heard it who did not understand
   it, for they said it thundered--perhaps perversely determining not to
   believe in the Presence of God--but to ascribe that articulate Voice
   rather to a rumbling thunder than to the Divine mouth. Others

   who confessed that they heard words, averred that an angel spoke--men
   will have anything but God! Thunder, or cherubim, or even devils they
   will welcome--but Divine interpositions are irksome to them.

   Many, we say, heard the third Voice. It was a Testimony to
   hundreds--may we not learn from this that God's Testimony to Christ is
   evermore a growing one? If at first He was revealed to one, then to
   more, then to a numerous band, expect, my Brethren, the fulfillment of
   that promise, "the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh
   shall see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken it." If the
   glory of Jesus is today seen by thousands, it shall yet be unveiled to
   tens of thousands, and in the latter days the Voice which spoke once
   and again to our fathers, shall so speak as to shake not only earth,
   but also Heaven. And in that day, if not before, every knee shall bow,
   and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God
   the Father!

   The heavenly Testimony grows and spreads. Jesus is proclaimed as Lord
   in many hearts. Look not on the present littleness of His visible
   kingdom, despise not the day of small things. The witness of Jesus is
   but a spark of fire. But the conflagration thereof shall yet belt the
   world with holy flames. The three Testimonies were given in this wise.
   The first, to the greatest of men--for "among those that are born of
   women there was not a greater Prophet than John the Baptist." Yet the
   voice revealed a greater than he, whose shoelaces he was not worthy to
   untie.

   The second was heard by the best of men--the great Lawgiver, the chief
   of the Prophets, and the noble of the Apostles--yet the Voice bore
   witness to a better than they. The third time the Voice echoed in the
   holiest place in the tem-ple--and there it testified to a holier than
   the holiest shrine. Jesus is everywhere magnified beyond all others as
   the only Beloved Son of the Father. I need not however enlarge. There
   is far more of teaching than either time or ability allow me to open up
   to you.

   We come, in the next place, to notice to what God bore Testimony. God
   never sets His seal to a blank. What was it, then, which He attested?
   First, at the Jordan, witness was borne to Christ's miraculous origin.
   "This is My Beloved Son." He comes not here as the Pharisees, and
   soldiers, and others have done, a mere son of man. Son of man He is,
   but He is also Son of the infinite, eternal God. And now on His
   introduction to His work He receives a spiritual anointing and a
   recognition from the Father. The seal was set that day to His Godhead
   and His relation to the Father was acknowledged.

   By the second audible declaration it seems to me that the Father sealed
   the Son's appointment as the great Prophet, and the anointed Servant of
   God. For in the second Testimony these memorable words were added,
   "hear Him." Here God commands us to accept Him as the great Teacher, to
   acknowledge Him as the Head of the dispensation, to yield to Him our
   loyal attention and obedience. When the Lord appears, it is necessary
   that men should know who He is. When He is actually engaged in His work
   it may be needful to confirm His authority.

   This was done on the Holy Mount, for so Peter understood it, as he
   writes in his second Epistle, "For we have not followed cunningly
   devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our
   Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He
   received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a
   Voice to Him from the excellent Glory, This is my Beloved Son, in Whom
   I am well-pleased. And this voice which came from Heaven we heard, when
   we were with Him in the Holy Mount."

   The third Testimony bore witness to the success of His work. "I have
   both glorified My name," says the Father, "and will glorify it again."
   "What," you say, "what if Jesus should not succeed? He has come into
   the world to vindicate the justice of God, and reveal His love, and so
   to glorify God--what if He should miss the mark? What, if after all His
   life of labor and His death of agony, He should be unsuccessful?"

   The Father's Word declares that the results anticipated shall certainly
   be produced. "I have glorified it," says the Father--"all Your past
   life has glorified My name. Your coming down from Heaven, Your life of
   thirty years' obedience, all the works which You have done in Your
   three years of toil. All these have brought renown to the infinite
   Majesty.

   And "I will glorify it again," in the most supreme sense. Amidst the
   glooms of the garden, amidst the terrors of Pilate's hall, and amidst
   the sorrows of the Cross, I will glorify My name yet again. Yes, and in
   Your resurrection, in Your ascension, in Your majesty at My right hand,
   in Your judgment of the quick and the dead I will glorify My name
   again." The three Voices may be viewed as attesting the Son's Person,
   work, and success.

   Some have thought that the three Voices attested our Lord in His
   threefold offices. John came proclaiming the kingdom--Jesus was in His
   Baptism proclaimed as the Chief of the new kingdom. On the second
   occasion, the Voice which

   said, "Hear Him," ordained Him as the Prophet of His people. And on the
   third occasion Jesus was owned as a Priest. Standing in the midst of
   priests--in the Temple where sacrifice was offered--Himself about to
   offer the true sacrifice. And praying that His sacrifice might glorify
   God, He receives the witness that God has been glorified in Him, and
   will be yet again.

   My Brethren, in this threefold witness receive into your hearts the
   Testimony of God who cannot lie. Behold your Savior, well-pleasing to
   His Father. Let Him be well-pleasing to you. Hear Him proclaimed as
   God's Beloved. O let Him be the Beloved of your hearts! Hear the
   Testimony born to Him that He has glorified God, and remember that His
   further glorifying God in some measure depends on you--for it is by
   your godly conversation, by your holy patience, by your zealous
   exertions for your Master's praise that God in Christ Jesus is to be
   glorified until He comes. Let these three Testimonies, as they make up
   a complete and conclusive code of evidence, have force upon your hearts
   and minds, and win you to a solemn confidence in your Lord and Master.

   I shall now ask your attention to the question, How were the
   Testimonies given? Observe that when our Lord was baptized, the heavens
   were opened and the Spirit descended. What if this proclaims to us that
   by His obedience our Lord procured the opening of Heaven for us--that
   our prayers might ascend to God, and all blessings might descend to us,
   and especially that the Holy Spirit might come down and rest forever
   upon the Church of God?

   The Master's Baptism was the type of His death. Buried beneath the
   waters of Jordan, He pictured there His being buried in the deeps of
   agony and in the darkness of the tomb. Rising from the Jordan, He
   typified His resurrection. Ascending its banks He represented His
   Ascension into Heaven. God sees in figure all righteousness fulfilled,
   and answers the type by the relative type of Heaven opened and the dove
   descending.

   Heaven was not beheld as opened when a second time the Voice was heard.
   In Luke 9 we read that the Voice came out of the cloud. The
   overshadowing cloud is a beautiful representation of the Mediatorship
   of Christ. He, like a glorious cloud, veils the excessive brightness of
   the Godhead. He shields us, so that when God speaks, He may not speak
   as from the top of Sinai--with a voice of trumpet and sound of
   thunder--but may speak through an interposing Medium, with that still,
   small voice of love which we can hear with delight.

   Out of the cloud, my Brethren, God speaks to His people. That is to
   say, He speaks to us in Christ Jesus. That was a strong utterance of
   Luther, but it was strictly true, "I will have nothing to do with an
   absolute God," meaning I will have nothing to do with God out of
   Christ. If, indeed, we had to do with God out of Christ, what misery
   were it for us, my Brethren! We should stand in the same terror as
   Israel did when bounds were set about the Mount. Even Moses said, "I do
   exceedingly fear and quake." It is a great mercy that the heavenly
   Voice, as it reaches us, comes out of the cloud.

   In reading the narrative of the third Divine Testimony, our mind rests
   neither upon the opening of Heaven nor the cloud, but upon the Voice
   alone. It is as if the glory of God in the work of Christ put every
   other thought aside. The opening of Heaven, or the interposition of a
   Mediator are but means to the great end of glorifying God. O that this
   one great object may absorb all our souls! But, alas, the Voice, plain
   as it was, was misunderstood, and the clearest Revelation that God ever
   gave to mortals has been misunderstood by many. There will always be
   those who think of thunder and the so-called grandeur of nature--and
   others who see only angels or second causes.

   Once more, consider what was it that was spoken on those three
   occasions. There was a difference in each case, though in the first two
   but slight. The first time the heavenly Voice preached the Gospel,
   "This is My Beloved Son, in Whom I am well-pleased." The old fathers
   were likely to say, "Go to Jordan if you would see the Trinity," and we
   may add, go to Jordan if you would hear the Gospel. "This is My Beloved
   Son, in Whom I am well-pleased." Observe the Gospel in this sentence!
   The Gospel is tidings concerning a blessed Person sent of God. Such
   tidings the Lord here utters.

   This Man rising dripping from the water. This Man is pointed out as the
   Hope of the world! The Gospel is never preached except where the Person
   of Jesus Christ is exhibited to men. "I, if I am lifted up"--not truths
   about Me--but "I Myself, if I am lifted up, will draw all men unto Me."
   The attraction lies in the Person of Christ, because the real power to
   save lies there. We have here the Gospel revealing the acceptableness
   of the chosen Person with God--"My Beloved Son."

   What men needed was a Savior who could stand for them before God. One
   dear to the heart of God. It is good news to us that the Anointed One
   is well-beloved of the Father. Why, my Hearers, though I have not yet
   opened up the fullness of that utterance, does not Gospel light break
   in upon you already? Here is a Person sent of God to save--a Man of
   your

   own race, but yet right well-beloved of God. He is so near to God as to
   be called His Beloved Son! But note, yet more earnestly, the Gospel of
   the next words, "In Whom I am well-pleased." Not, "with Whom," as hasty
   readers suppose, but, "In Whom I am well-pleased."

   This is the very Gospel--that God, as He looks upon men is well-pleased
   with all who are in Christ. God in Christ is not anger, but good
   pleasure. If I, a poor sinner, enter by faith into Christ, then I may
   be assured that God is well-pleased with me--that, if I, as His child,
   come to Him, and by a living faith link my destiny with the life and
   person of Christ--I need not fear the wrath of Heaven. Sinner, God is
   not well-pleased with you as you are. Child of God, God is not
   well-pleased with you as you are--there is enough about either saint or
   sinner to provoke the Lord to jealousy. But, Sinner, if you are in
   Christ by faith, God is well-pleased with you. And, O Heir of Heaven,
   with all your infirmities and imperfections, since you are one with
   Christ by an eternal and now vital union, God is well-pleased with you!
   Said I not well that the Gospel sounded from Jordan's waves?

   The second sound of the Voice uttered not only the Gospel itself, but
   the Gospel command, "Hear Him." Matthew Henry has some very delightful
   remarks upon this expression, "Hear Him." He remarks, in effect, that
   salvation does not come by seeing, as the Roman church would have it,
   for the disciples were not directed to behold Christ in His Glory,
   though the sight deserved all their attention. No, but they were bid to
   hear rather than see. To hear the Gospel is a most important duty, for
   faith comes by hearing. Salvation comes not by hearing the doctrines of
   men but by hearing Jesus Christ.

   There stood Moses. And those three Jewish worthies, Peter, James, and
   John, might have longed for Moses to open his Mouth--and had he spoken
   to them they would have been very attentive to Him. But the Word was
   not, "Hear Moses," but "Hear Him." There was Elijah, too. O for a
   burning word from that master among the Prophets, whose life was flame.
   But it was not said, "Hear Elijah," but "Hear Him." "They have Moses
   and the Prophets, let them hear them," is the word sent to careless
   sinners, but to sincere seekers the direction is, "Hear Him."

   Dear Brothers and Sisters, the great salvation of God comes to us
   through the Testimony of Jesus Christ--not through the moral essays or
   philosophical treatises or doctrinal discussions of men. "Hear Him,"
   the Gospel so commands you. Let not your ears be deaf when God
   communicates tidings of eternal life.

   On the third occasion the Testimony given was not the Gospel nor the
   Gospel precept, but the Gospel's result--"I have glorified it, and will
   glorify it again." I call your attention to this that you may be
   earnest in preaching the Gospel. It is through the Gospel that God is
   glorified. By the poorest Gospel sermon that was ever preached, God,
   through His Holy Spirit, gets to Himself a glory which the most pompous
   ritual cannot yield Him. You never speak well of Jesus but what you
   glorify God. No Gospel Word falls to the ground and is lost. It must
   accomplish that for which God has sent it.

   He has glorified His name by the Gospel, and He will again. Let this
   encourage those of you who are afraid that the times are very bad and
   that we are all going to the pope. Do not be at all afraid. God will
   glorify His name by the Gospel again as He did before. Martin Luther
   was not, in himself, a character so lovely that one might be
   overwhelmed with admiration of him. Where, then, lay his power? His
   power lay in this--that he grasped the true Gospel--and he was a man
   who, when he grasped a thing, gave it a "grip so firm that the devil
   himself could not wrench it away from him.

   With the Gospel in his hands he could say, "Heaps upon heaps with the
   weapon of the Gospel I have slain my thousands. Heaps upon heaps the
   foes of God are overturned." He was mighty because he declared the
   Gospel of Jesus Christ--and with this he shook the world and brought
   about the Reformation. You need not, therefore, despair.

   If the ministers of Christ will only come back to preaching the Gospel
   of Jesus Christ, plainly, simply, and with the Holy Spirit sent down
   from Heaven, we shall drive the Ritualists, those cubs of the old Roman
   monster, back to their dens, as our fathers did their mother of old.
   Never lose your faith in the Gospel. Always believe that our power is
   gone when we get away from the Cross--but know also without a
   doubt--when we come back to the Truth as it is in Jesus, God glorifies
   His name.

   II. LET US NOW OBSERVE ONE OR TWO INSTRUCTIVE CIRCUMSTANCES connected
   with these three Divine Testimonies. On each occasion Jesus was in
   prayer.

   My dear, dear young people, look at the proofs of that in your Bibles.
   You will find in one or other of the Evangelists that it is distinctly
   stated on each occasion that our Lord was in prayer. Learn, then, that
   if any child of God would

   have God speak comfortably to him, he must speak to God in prayer. If
   you would have the witness of the Holy Spirit in your soul, you must be
   much in supplication. Neglect not the Mercy Seat.

   Notice next that each time the sufferings of Christ were prominently
   before Him. John, at the waters of Jordan had said, "Behold the Lamb of
   God," plainly speaking of sacrifice. Baptism itself, the fulfilling of
   all righteousness, we have seen to be the type of His death, and of His
   immersion in suffering. On Tabor, on the second occasion, Matthew tells
   us that, "Behold, there talked with Him two men, which were Moses and
   Elijah: who appeared in glory, and spoke of His decease which He should
   accomplish at Jerusalem."

   The subject that the best of men talked about when they met was the
   death of Jesus. No better topic, then, for us when we meet. If we were
   the most talented and the wisest men that ever lived, if we met
   together and wanted the most select topic for an eclectic discussion,
   we ought to choose the Cross. For Jesus, Moses, and Elijah--three great
   representative men--talked of the Atoning death of the great
   Substitute. The third time our Lord had just spoken about the hour
   being come in which He was to be glorified, as you well remember. Learn
   then, my Brethren, that if you desire to see the glory of Christ, as
   attested of the Father, you must dwell much on His death.

   Do not talk to me about the life of Christ in all its parity, I know it
   and rejoice in it. But I tell you that the death of Christ, in all His
   misery, is the grandest point of view. The example of Jesus should be
   exalted by all means--but His Atonement is far grander. And you, Sirs,
   who take the Man Christ and offer your pretty, complimentary phrases
   about Him--but then turn round and deny His expiating Sacrifice--I tell
   you your tawdry offerings are unacceptable to Him. To be complimented
   by your lips is almost to be censured, for if you do not believe on Him
   as an Atoning Sacrifice, you do not understand His life. Thus each
   attestation came in connection with the Lord's sufferings, as if the
   glory of Christ dwelt mainly there.

   Once more--each time that Jesus received this Word from the Father He
   was honoring the Father. In Baptism He was honoring Him by obedience.
   On the mountain He was honoring Him in devotion. In the Temple the very
   words He was using were, "Father, glorify Your name." Oh, if you would
   see God's glory, and hear God's Voice in your own heart, honor Him!
   Spend and be spent for Him! Keep not back your sacrifices, withhold not
   your offerings! Lay yourselves upon His altar, and when you say with
   Isaiah, "Here am I, send me," for any service--whatever it may be--then
   shall you also feel that the Lord is with you, owning both you and your
   works, and glorifying Himself in it.

   III. Lastly, THE PRACTICAL LESSON may be found in the words, "Hear
   Him."

   Earnestly let me speak to everyone here. God has three times with
   audible Voice spoken out of Heaven to bear witness to Jesus. These are
   historical facts. I beseech you, then, receive with assured conviction
   the Truth to which God bears witness. The Man of Nazareth is the Son of
   the Highest. The Son of Mary is the Savior appointed to bear human sin.
   He is the way of salvation, and the only way. Doubt not this Truth of
   God. Accept the Savior, for God declares that He is well-pleased in
   Him. Hear Him, then, with profound reverence--accept the teaching and
   invitations of Jesus as not the mere utterances of fallible men--but as
   the instructions and the loving expostulations of God.

   I pray you have respect to every Word and command of Christ. Listen to
   Him as spirits listen to the voice of the Most High when they bow
   before the Truth of God. And if He says to you, as He does this
   morning, "Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I
   will give you rest," hear Him and lovingly obey the command. Hear Him,
   I pray you, with unconditional obedience. God attests Him as being sent
   from Heaven. Whatever He says to you, do it. And since He bids you
   believe Him, be not unbelieving. He has told us to say in His name, "He
   that believes and is baptized, shall be saved." Despise not that double
   command. Attend, O Sinner, attend, for it is the Son of God who speaks
   to you! Trust and be baptized, and you shall be saved. There stands the
   Gospel stamped with the authority of Deity! Obey it now. May the Holy
   Spirit lead you to do so.

   Hear Him, lastly, with joyful confidence. If God has sent Jesus, trust
   Him. If He bears the Glory of God's Seal upon Him, joyfully receive
   Him. You who have trusted Him, trust Him better from this day forth.
   Leave your souls right confidently in the hands of Him of whom Jehovah,
   thrice speaking out of Heaven, declares that He is the only Savior.
   Receive Him, Sinner, you that would be saved! May the Lord confirm the
   Testimony which He spoke out of Heaven, by speaking in your hearts by
   His Holy Spirit, that you may rejoice in His Beloved Son, and glorify
   God in Him.
     __________________________________________________________________

Overwhelming Obligations

   (No. 910)

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me?"
   Psalm 116:12.

   DEEP emotion prompts this question. But where are the depths of love
   and gratitude that can meet its exuberant demands? You will perhaps
   remember an incident in the life of a famous soldier, who also became a
   famous Christian, Colonel James Gardiner. One night he was little
   thinking of Divine things, but on the contrary had made an appointment
   of the most vicious kind. He was waiting for the appointed hour when he
   saw, or thought he saw before him in the room where he sat alone, a
   visible representation of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the Cross.

   He was impressed, as if a voice, or something equivalent to a voice,
   had come to him to this effect--"O sinner, I did all this for you. What
   have you done for me?" Some such representation as that I would put
   before the eyes of every person in this assembly. I earnestly pray that
   the vision of the Christ of God, the mercy of God, the love of God, may
   appear to all your eyes. And may a Voice say in your conscience, both
   to saint and sinner, "I did all this for you. What have you done for
   Me?" It will be a humiliating night probably for us all, if such should
   be the case--but humiliation may prove salutary--yes, the very
   healthiest frame of mind in which we can be found.

   I. I shall first of all this evening, invite you to CAST UP A SUM IN
   ARITHMETIC. The text suggests this. "What shall I render unto the Lord
   for all His benefits toward me?" Come, let us reckon up! Though I know
   that the number will surpass all human numeration, let us try to reckon
   up His benefits toward any one of us. I wish each one of you,
   distinctly and severally, would now endeavor to think of the mercy of
   God towards yourself.

   First, let us call over the roll of our temporal mercies. They are but
   secondary, but they are very valuable. There is a special Providence in
   the endowment of life to each individual creature. David did not
   disdain to trace back the hand of God to the hour of his nativity. And
   Paul adored the Grace of God that separated him from the time that his
   mother gave him birth. Our gratitude may, in like manner, revert to the
   days when we hung upon the breast. Or in the case of some, you may
   thank the goodness that supplied the lack of a mother's tender love.

   Childhood's early days might then make our thoughts busy, and our
   tongues vocal with praise. But here we are now. We have been preserved,
   some of us, these thirty or forty years. We might have been cut down
   and punished in our sin. We might have been swept away to the place
   where despair makes eternal night. But we have been kept alive in the
   midst of many accidents. By some marvelous godsend, death has been
   turned aside just as it seemed, with a straight course, to be posting
   toward us. When fierce diseases have been waiting round to hurry us to
   our last home, we have yet escaped.

   Nor have we merely existed. God has been pleased to give us food,
   raiment, and a place where to lay our weary heads. To many here present
   He has given all the comforts of this life, till they can say, "My cup
   runs over, I have more than any heart can wish." To all here He has
   given enough, and though you may have passed through many straits, your
   bread has been given you, and your water has been sure. Is not this
   cause for thankfulness?

   You cannot think of a shivering beggar tonight in the streets, you
   cannot think of the hundreds of thousands in this unhappy
   country--unhappy for that reason--who have no shelter but such as the
   poorhouse can afford them. And no bread but such as is doled out to
   them as a pauper's meager pittance, without being grateful that you
   have been, up to now, supplied with things convenient for your
   sustenance, and defended from that bitter, biting penury which palls
   self-respect, cows industry, damps the ardor of resolution, chafes the
   heart, corrodes the mind, prostrates every vestige of manliness, and
   leaves manhood itself to be the prey of misery and the victim of
   despair.

   More than that, we have reason tonight to be very grateful for the
   measure of health which we enjoy. "It is indeed a strange and awful
   sensation to be suddenly reduced by the unnerving hand of sickness to
   the feebleness of infancy. For giant strength to lie prostrate, and
   busy activity to be chained to the weary bed." Oh, when the bones begin
   to ache, and sinews and tissues seem to be but roads for pain to travel
   on, then we thank God for even a moment's rest. Do you not

   know what it is to toss to and fro in the night and wish for the day,
   and when the daylight has come, to pine for the night?

   If there has been an interval of relief, just a little lull in the
   torture and the pain, how grateful you have been for it! Shall we not
   be thankful for health, then, and specially so for a long continuance
   of it? You strong men that hardly know what sickness means, if you
   could be made to walk the wards of the hospital and see where there
   have been broken bones, where there are disorders that depress the
   system, maladies incurable, pangs that rack and convulse the frame, and
   pains all but unbearable, you would think, I hope, that you had cause
   enough for gratitude.

   Not far off this spot there stands a dome--I thank God for the
   existence of the place of which it forms a part--but I can never look
   at it. I hope I never shall, without lifting up my heart in thanks to
   God that my reason is spared. It is no small unhappiness to be bereft
   of our faculties, to have the mind swept to and fro in hurricanes of
   desperate, raging madness, or to be victims of hallucinations that shut
   you out from all usefulness, and even companionship with your fellow
   men. That you are not in St. Luke's or Bedlam tonight should be a cause
   for thankfulness to Almighty God.

   But why do I enlarge here? Consider to what pains the human body may be
   subjected. Imagine what ills may come upon humanity. Conceive what
   distress, what woe, what anguish, we are all capable of bearing--and
   then in proportion as you have been secured from all these, and in
   proportion on the other hand as you have been blessed with comforts and
   enjoyments--"let each generous impulse of your nature warm into
   ecstasy." And then ask yourselves the question, "What shall we render
   unto the Lord for all His benefits toward us?" Cast up the sum, and
   then draw a line and ask what is due to God for even these common gifts
   of Providence.

   But, my Brothers and Sisters in Christ, you who have something better
   than this life to rest upon, I touch a higher and a sweeter string--a
   chord which ought to tremble with a nobler melody, when I say to
   you--think of the spiritual blessings which you have received! It is
   not very long ago that you were in the gall of bitterness and in the
   bonds of iniquity. We look back but for a little while, some of us, and
   we were under the bondage of the Law. We had been awakened, and we felt
   the load and the guilt of sin--a grievous burden from which we feared
   we never could escape--a flagrant defilement from which we knew no
   means of cleansing.

   Do not I remember well my fruitless prayers, my tears that were my meat
   both day and night, my grief of heart! They cut me to the quick, and I
   found no kind of deliverance! How I sought the Lord then! How I cried
   for mercy, but I found none! I was shut up and could not come forth. I
   was delivered up to fear, and doubt, and despair. Bless the Lord, it is
   over now! Blessed be the name of God, my soul has escaped like a bird
   out of the net! And this night, instead of talking of sin as a thing
   unpardonable, I can stand here and say for you, as well as myself, that
   He has put away all our iniquity, and cast our transgressions into the
   depths of the sea!

   If He had never done anything for us but that, it seems to me that we
   should be bound forever and forever to extol His name with as much
   exultation as Miriam and Moses felt, when Miriam took the timbrel, and
   Moses wrote the song, "Sing unto the Lord, for He has triumphed
   gloriously. The horse and his rider has He cast into the sea. The Lord
   is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation."

   Not indeed, Beloved, that forgiven sin was the total. It was but an
   item, the beginning of His tender mercies towards us. For after that He
   comforted us like as a mother comforts her children. He bound up every
   wound. He removed every blot. He covered us with a robe of
   righteousness and decked us with the jewels of the Spirit's Graces. He
   adopted us into His family, even we who were aliens by nature, foes by
   long habit, rebels and traitors by our revolt against His government.
   He made us heirs of God, joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. All the
   privileges of sonship, which never would have been ours by nature, have
   been secured to us by regeneration, and by adoption. All His benefits!

   If these were all, oh, what should we render unto Him who is the Author
   and Giver of such inestimable blessings? All His benefits! How could we
   estimate their value, even if we had to stop here? Mark you, they are
   benefits, indeed, not merely the kind intent of benevolence, or good
   wishes, which may or may not be of real service to us. But verily the
   saving effect of beneficence, or good deeds accomplished for us--the
   full advantage of which we have richly to enjoy.

   There is a vexatious uncertainty about all human philanthropy. How weak
   it often is, expending strength for nothing, and failing to mature its
   best projects! Though the physician should exhaust the resources of
   medical science while he spares no pains in watching his patient, that
   patient may die. Though the advocate pleads for his client with intense
   fer-

   vor, cogent reasoning, and a torrent of eloquence, that client may yet
   lose his cause. Though the general of an army command the troops ever
   so skillfully, and fight against the enemy ever so bravely, the battle
   may yet be lost.

   The heroic volunteer who assays to rescue a drowning man may fail in
   the endeavor and lose his own life in the attempt. The valiant crew
   that man the lifeboat may not succeed in bringing the shipwrecked to
   shore. The best aims may miscarry. Kindness, like ore of gold in the
   breast of the creature, may never be minted into the coin of benefit,
   or pass current for its real worth. Not all donations expended in
   charity are effectual to relieve distress. But the benefits of God are
   all fully beneficial. They answer the ends they are designed to serve.

   Forgetfulness on the part of God's children is without excuse, for here
   we are, monuments of mercy, pillars of Grace, living Epistles--yes, the
   living, the living to praise You, O God, as I do this day. And thus
   beholden to the Lord for all His benefits, I feel that my thoughts and
   actions of adoring gratitude should break forth, restrained by no
   shore, but be continually overflowing every embankment that custom has
   thrown up, and send out in tears of love and sweat of labor,
   fertilizing streams on the right hand and on the left.

   All His benefits! Ring that note again. His benefits are so many, so
   various, so minute, that they often escape our observation while they
   exactly meet our wants. True it is, the Lord has done great things for
   us which may well challenge the admiration of angels. But true it also
   is that He has done little things for us, and bestowed attention upon
   all our tiny needs and our childish cares and anxieties. As we turn
   over the leaves of our diary, we are lost in wonder at the keenness of
   that vision and the extent of that knowledge whereby even the hairs of
   our head are all numbered .

   O God, what infinite tenderness, what boundless compassion You have
   shown to us! You have continued to forgive our offenses--You have
   perpetually upheld us in the hour of temptation. What comforts have
   delighted our soul in the times of trouble! What gentle admonitions
   have brought us back in the times of our going astray! We have had
   preserving mercies, sustaining mercies, enriching mercies, sanctifying
   mercies. Who shall count the small dust of the favors and bounties of
   the Lord?

   My dear Brethren, it is no small benefit that God has conferred upon
   some of us that we are members of a happy Church on earth--that we are
   united together in the bonds of love. I know some of you used to be
   members of other Churches where there were periodic conflicts, and you
   are glad enough that you have come with a loving and happy people where
   you can serve the Lord to your heart's content. By His Grace you meet
   with warm-hearted fellow Christians who bid you Godspeed. My heart
   exults in the thought of all the prosperity we have enjoyed in this
   place. The Lord's name be praised! Even as a Church, over and above the
   mercies which have come to us as private Christians, I would say--and I
   would invite you to join me in saying--"What shall we render to the
   Lord for all His benefits toward us?"

   But, Beloved, we have only begun the list of those mercies that we
   strive in vain to enumerate. We shall not try to finish it, for blessed
   be God, it never will be finished. He has given us Himself to be our
   portion. He has given us His Providence to be our guardian. He has
   given us His promises to be the vouchers of our inheritance. We shall
   not die, though we must sleep, unless the Lord first comes. Yet we
   shall sleep in Jesus! Our bones and ashes shall be watched over and
   preserved until the Resurrection trumpet shall summon them by its
   voice, and our bodies shall be reanimated by Divine power.

   For our souls, we have the sure and certain hope that we shall be with
   Christ where He is, that we may behold His glory. We are looking
   forward to the blessed day when He shall say to us, "Come up higher,"
   and from the lower room of the feast we shall ascend into the upper
   chamber, nearer to the King, to sit at His right hand and feast
   forever. Oh, the depths of His mercy! Oh, the heights of His loving
   kindness! Faithfulness has followed us. Not a promise has been broken.
   Not one good thing has failed us!

   Now, my dear Brothers and Sisters, what have I just given you but a
   sort of general outline of the mercies the Lord has bestowed on us, and
   the benefits we have received at His hand? If each one would try to
   fill that outline up, by the rehearsal of his own case, and the life
   story of his own experience, how much glory God might get from this
   assembly tonight! Your case is different from mine in the incidents
   that compose it. I believe mine is different from any of yours-- but
   this I know--there is not a man in this place that owes more to God
   than I do. There is not one here that ought to be more grateful.

   There cannot be one that is more indebted to the goodness of the Lord
   than I am for every step of the pilgrimage that I have trod, from the
   first day even until now. I can, no, I must speak well of His name.
   Truly God is good, and I have

   found Him so. "The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, to the
   soul that seeks Him." I have proved Him so. Well, I know all your
   tongues are itching to say the same. You feel that though He has led
   you through deep waters, and through fiery trials, and sometimes
   chastened you very severely, He has not given you over to death. He has
   dealt with you as a father with His son whom He loves, and been to you
   as a Friend that never forsakes.

   You would not breathe half a word against His blessed name. Rather you
   would say, to borrow an expression which Rutherford constantly used,
   that you are, "drowned debtors to God's mercy." He meant that he was
   over head and ears in debt to God--he could not tell how deep his
   obligations were, so he just called himself, "a drowned debtor" to the
   loving kindness and the mercy of his God. Well, there is a sum for you.
   If you want to use your arithmetical faculties, sit down when you can
   get an hour's quiet, and try to identify all the precious thoughts of
   God towards you--all His benefits.

   II. Our second point shall be A CALCULATION OF THE GRATITUDE WHICH IS
   DUE TO GOD FOR ALL

   THIS. I should like to make each man his own assessor tonight, to
   assess the income of mercy which he has received, and put down what
   should be the tribute of gratitude which he should return to the
   revenue of the great King. "What shall I render unto the Lord for all
   His benefits?"

   Calculate, for a minute, what we owe to God the Father, and what we
   ought to render Him for the debt. As many as have believed in Christ
   were chosen of God the Father from before all worlds. He might have
   left them unchosen. It was His own absolute good pleasure which wrote
   them in the roll of the elect. He has chosen you, my Brothers and
   Sisters, that you should be holy, that you should be His children, that
   you should be made like your elder Brother, Christ Jesus. And because
   He chose you to this, to this you shall come--though all the powers of
   earth and Hell should withstand-- for the Divine decree abides
   immutably steadfast and shall surely be fulfilled.

   You are God's favorite one, His child, ordained to dwell forever in
   eternal bliss. What shall we render for this? O let the thought just
   stir the depths of your soul a minute, if indeed it is so, that the
   seal of the Everlasting Covenant has been set upon you! Before the sun
   began to shine, or the moon to march in her courses, God did choose me,
   in whom there was nothing to engross His love--nothing to attract His
   favor. O my God, if it is so, that I, of all the sons of Adam, should
   be made a distinguishing object of Your Grace, and the subject of Your
   discriminating favor, take me. Take my body, take my soul, take my
   spirit, take my goods, my talents, my faculties--take all I have, and
   all I am, and all I ever hope to be--for I am Yours. You have loosed my
   bonds, but Your mercy has bound me to Your service forever.

   Now think for a minute of what you owe to God the Son, to Jesus Christ.
   I mean as many of you as have believed on Him. Think for a moment on
   the habitation of the highest Glory, and consider how Jesus left His
   Father's Throne, deserted the courts of angels, and came down below to
   robe Himself in an infant's clay. There contemplate Him living in our
   nature. See Him after He has grown up, leading a life of toil and pain,
   bearing our sicknesses, and carrying our sorrows. Let your eyes look
   straight into the face of the Man who was acquainted with grief.

   I shall not ask you to trace all His footsteps, but I would bid you
   come to that famous garden, where in the dead of the night He knelt and
   prayed, until in agony, He sweat drops of blood. It was for you, for
   you, Believer, that there the bloody sweat fell to the ground! You see
   Him rise up. He is betrayed by His friend. For you the betrayal was
   endured. He is taken. He is led off to Pilate. They falsely accuse Him.
   They spit in His face. They crown Him with thorns. They put a mock
   scepter of reed into His hands--for you all that ignominy was endured!
   For you, especially and particularly, the Lord of Glory passed through
   these cruel mockings.

   See Him as He bears His Cross--His shoulders are bleeding from the
   recent lashes. See Him, as along the Via Dolo-rosa He sustains the
   cruel load. He bears that Cross for you. Your sins are laid on His
   shoulders and make that Cross more heavy than had it been made of iron.
   See Him on the Cross, lifted up between Heaven and earth, a spectacle
   of grievous woe. Hear Him cry, "I thirst!" And hear His cry more
   bitter, still, while Heaven and earth are startled by it, "Why have You
   forsaken Me, My God, My God?"

   He is enduring all those griefs for you. For you the thirst and the
   fainting, the nakedness and the agony. For you the bowing of the head,
   the yielding up the ghost, the slumber in the cold and silent tomb. For
   you His resurrection when He rises in the glory of His might, and for
   you afterwards the ascension into Heaven, when they sing, "Lift up your
   heads, O you gates, and be you lift up, you everlasting doors." For you
   His constant pleading at the right hand of the Father. Yes, all for
   YOU, and what should be done for Him?

   What tribute shall we lay at the pierced feet? What present shall we
   put into that nailed hand? Where are kisses that shall be sweet enough
   for His dear wounds? Where is adoration that shall be reverent enough
   for His blessed and exalted Person? Daughters of music, bring your
   sweetest songs! You men of wealth, bring Him your treasures. You men of
   fame and learning, come lay your laurels at His feet. Let us all bring
   all that we have, for such a Christ as this deserves more than all.
   What shall we render, Christ of God, to You for all Your benefits
   towards us?

   Let me ask you to think for a moment on the third Person of the blessed
   Godhead, namely, the Holy Spirit. Let us never forget that when we were
   like filthy rags His hand touched us. When we were like corrupt and
   rotten carcasses in the graves of sin, His breath quickened us. It was
   His hand that led us to the Cross. It was His fingers that took the
   film from our eyes. It was His eye salve that illuminated us that we
   should look to Jesus and live. Since that hour the blessed Spirit has
   lived in our hearts. Oh, what a dreadful place, I was about to say, for
   God to dwell in! But the Holy Spirit has never utterly left us. We have
   grieved Him. We have oftentimes vexed Him--but still He is here, still
   resident within the soul, never departing--being Himself the very life
   of the living incorruptible seed that abides forever.

   My dear Friends, how often the Holy Spirit has comforted you! How very
   frequently in your calm moments has He revealed Christ to you! How
   often has the blessed Truth been laid home to you with a Divine savor
   which it never could have had, if it had not been for Him! He is God,
   and the angels worship Him, and yet He has come into the closest
   possible contact with you. Christ was Incarnate, and the flesh in which
   He was Incarnate was pure and perfect. The Holy Spirit was not
   incarnate, but still He comes to dwell in the bodies of His
   saints--bodies still impure, still unholy.

   Oh, what Grace and condescension is this! You blessed Dove, You dear
   Comforter, You kind Lover of the fallen sons of men--Your condescension
   is matchless! We love You even as we love Christ Himself, and this
   night if we ask the question, "What shall we render unto the Lord, the
   Holy Spirit, for all His benefits towards us?" we know not how to
   answer, but can only say, "Take us, take us, Holy Spirit. Use us. Fill
   us with Yourself. Sanctify us to Your holiest purposes. Use us right
   up--make us living sacrifices, holy and acceptable unto God--for it is
   our reasonable service."

   Now perhaps, by God's Spirit, the text may come a little more vividly
   before your minds. You have had another opportunity of adding up all
   the benefits of God--another opportunity, dear Brothers and Sisters, of
   calculating what you ought to do. Give heed, then, for I intend to
   come, in closing, to be very personal and practical. I wish to speak
   very pointedly to you as individuals--but there are so many of you that
   some are sure to slip away in the crowd. I half wish I were in the
   position of the preacher who had but one hearer, and addressed him as,
   "Dearly Beloved Roger."

   I want to put the question of my text as though only one person were
   here, and that one person, yourself. "What shall I render to the Lord?"
   Never mind your neighbor, your brother, your sister, your husband, your
   wife, or anybody else just now. If you are a saved soul, the question
   for you is, "What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits
   toward me?" "What shall I render?" Suppose, dear Friend, you had been
   the woman bowed with an infirmity for so many years, and Christ had
   loosed you, and you had stood upright tonight? What would you render?

   Well, you HAVE been loosed from your infirmity--a much worse
   decrepitude than the physical ailment she was released from! Suppose
   you had been poor blind Bartimeus sitting by the wayside begging, born
   blind, and you had your sight given you tonight? What would you render?
   But you HAVE had such a gift bestowed on you. You were in spiritual
   blindness--worse than that which is only natural--and Christ has opened
   your eyes! What will you render? Suppose you had been Lazarus, and had
   been in the grave so long that you began to be corrupt, and Christ had
   raised you to life? What would you render? Well, you HAVE been
   quickened when you were dead in sin. You were corrupt. You were buried
   in darkness and in sin. But you can say with the Psalmist, "O Lord, You
   have brought up my soul from the grave."

   Now what will you render to Him? Suppose He stood on this platform
   tonight, and instead of this poor voice, and these unclean lips, the
   voice of the Well-Beloved should speak in music to you? And the lips
   that are like lilies dropping sweet smelling myrrh could talk to each
   of you? What would you render to Him, then? Well, do the same as though
   He were here, for He sees you! Yes, and His Spirit, hovering over this
   assembly, will accept the tribute you give as though He were here in
   the flesh--or otherwise He will grieve over you and resent the neglect
   of your heart. Think of Him as being here, and render unto Him as
   though He were visibly and audibly in our midst.

   What will you render? Let me ask you, dearly Beloved, whether you have
   ever thought of what men and women can render. You may have read the
   lives, I hope you have, of Mr. and Mrs. Judson in Burma, ready to
   sacrifice all for Christ. Or the lives of our martyrs, in Foxe's
   Martyrology, who rejoiced if they might burn for Christ. We still have
   some men

   and women among us--I wish there were more whose lives of consecration
   tell you what men can be and do. Are you anything like they are? If
   not, while they are not what they ought to be, and they fall short of
   the Master's image, how far short must you be? Oh, I pray you are
   grieved that it is so, and press the question upon yourselves the more,
   What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me?

   A side question may help you. What have you rendered? You are getting
   old now, or at least you are getting to the prime of life. What have
   you done for Christ up to this time? Come, look. Look back now, I must
   urge you to do it. Converted late perhaps, or if converted young, it
   matters not, still the question must come--What have you done up to
   now? Oh, I dare not answer the question myself--yet I am not in that
   respect the worst here--I dare not look back upon my past life of
   service for God with anything like satisfaction. After having done all
   that we could do, we are but unprofitable servants. We have not done
   what was our duty. There is no man here, I fear, who can answer the
   question, "What have I rendered?" with any self-contentment. We must
   all drop a tear, feel abashed, and say, "Good Lord, let not the future
   be as barren as the past, but by Your mercy help us to a better and a
   nobler sort of living!"

   May I ask you, as it may assist in answering the question, how old you
   are? Some of you tell me that you are far advanced in age. Then what
   must you render in the few years you can have to live? Live hard,
   Beloved, live hard--live fast in a spiritual sense, for you have little
   time to use, none to waste. Get as much done as can be done for your
   dear Lord, before He calls you to His face. You are young, others of
   you tell me. Oh, then with such a long opportunity as God may give you,
   you ought to be diligent every moment! If you are not diligent now in
   your early days, there is no likelihood that you will be afterwards.
   Since you have the special and peculiar advantage of early piety, O
   render to the Lord the more, because He has opened before you a wider
   field, and given you more time to cultivate it than full many of His
   people have known.

   Let me ask you, again, What are your capacities? That, perhaps, will
   help you to answer the question. "Oh," says one, "I cannot do much."
   Well then, my dear Friend, do the little you can. Do it all--do it up
   to the very point--do not leave an inch untouched. If you can only do a
   little, do all of that, and do it heartily. And keep at it till you
   die. Says another, "Perhaps God has entrusted some talents to me." Then
   He expects a great deal from the employment of them. O do not let your
   talents lie idle! Your talents are not meant for your gain, nor merely
   to serve the world. They are meant to serve your God, who has redeemed
   you with the precious blood of Jesus. Take care, whether you have much
   or little, to give Him all.

   I will put another question to you that may stir your mettle. How did
   you serve Satan before you were converted? What rare boys some of you
   were--not sparing body or soul to enjoy the pleasures of sin. Oh, with
   what zest, with what fervor and force and vehemence did many of you
   dance to the tune of the devil's music! I wish you would serve God half
   as well as some of the devil's servants serve him. What? Now you have a
   new Friend, a new Lover, a new Husband--shall He ever look you in the
   face and say, "You do not love Me so well as the old. You do not serve
   Me so zealously"? Shall Jesus Christ say to any man or woman among us,
   "You do not love Me so well as you did love the world. You were never
   weary of serving the world, but you do soon get weary of serving Me"? O
   my poor Heart, wake up! Wake up! What are you doing, to have served sin
   at such a rate, and then to serve Christ so little?

   Another question may be to the point. How do you serve yourselves? You
   are in business, some of you, and I like to see a man of business with
   his hands full and his wits about him. Your drones, those indolent
   fellows who go about the shop half asleep, and seem as if they never
   did wake up, what is the use of them? Men who seem to cumber the earth,
   men who never did see a snail unless they happened to meet one, for
   they could not have overtaken it, they travel so slowly-- such men are
   or little use to God or man. I know that the most of you are diligent
   in business. You never hear the ring of a guinea without being on the
   alert to earn it if possible.

   Your coats are off, and very likely your shirtsleeves are turned up
   when there is a chance of driving trade. That I commend. But oh, do let
   us have something like it in the service of Jesus Christ! Do not let us
   be drudging in the world, and drawling in the Church--lively in the
   service of mammon, and then laggard in the service of Christ! Heart and
   soul, manliness, vigor, vehemence--let the utmost strain of all our
   powers be put forth in the service of Him who was never prone to be
   slow in the service of our souls when they had to be redeemed.

   I shall not keep you much longer, but still pressing the same question,
   let me ask you, dear Friends, how do you think such service as you have
   rendered will look when you come to see it by the light of eternity?
   Oh, nothing of life will

   be worth having lived, when we come to die, except that part of it
   which was devoted and consecrated to Christ. Live, then, with your
   deathbeds in immediate prospect. Live in the light of the next world so
   your pulse will be quickened, and your heart excited in the Master's
   service.

   I now put the question, What shall we render? What shall I render unto
   the Lord? Let the question go all round the pews, and let everybody
   answer, What shall I render? Is there any new thing I can do for Christ
   that I never did before? Cannot I speak a word for Christ to somebody
   tonight? Tonight, because you cannot overtake the loss of a single
   opportunity. Tomorrow's mercies will bring tomorrow's obligations.
   Today's obligations must be discharged today. What shall I render
   tonight? Is there anybody I can speak to of Jesus before I retire to my
   chamber? It is a little thing, but let me do it! What shall I render?
   Let me give my God praise tonight somehow.

   There is the communion table around which we are about to gather. That
   may help me to render Him some homage. I will there take the cup of
   salvation, and call upon His name. Tomorrow I shall be in the world
   going forth to my labors. What shall I render? I will consecrate part
   of my substance to God, but I will try to consecrate all tomorrow and
   next day to Him. While I am at my work, if I use a saw, or use a
   hammer, or if I stand at a counter, or in the fields, or in the streets
   I will ask that my thoughts may be on God--that I may be kept from sin,
   and that by my example I may render some tribute of honor to His name
   in the sight of my fellow men. And I will try to seize every
   opportunity that comes in my way of telling--

   "To sinner round,

   What a dear Savior I have found."

   And yet, dear Friends, it is not for me to answer the question that is
   propounded for you. With these few brief hints I do put the question in
   all its touching pathos, in all its deep solemnity, in all its
   momentous gravity, before every Christian man and woman here--and I
   cite you to answer it before the Searcher of all hearts--"What shall I
   render?" Thrice happy you who respond in lip and life to the urgent
   call! "For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of
   love, which you have showed toward His name, in that you have
   ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that every one
   of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the
   end that you are not slothful, but followers of them who through faith
   and patience inherit the promises."

   As for those of you, my Hearers, who are not yet converted--you who are
   not saved--this is not the question for you. Your question is, "What
   must I do to be saved?" and the answer is, "Believe on the Lord Jesus
   Christ, and you shall be saved." O believe on Him tonight! Trust
   Him--that is the point--trust Jesus Christ. You may come to Him and be
   saved at once. Then, not till then, you will begin to serve Him. May
   God bless you, my dear Friends, every one of you, for Christ's sake.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Putting Away Of Sin

   (No. 911)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JANUARY 16, 1870,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Now once in the end of the world has He appeared to put a way sin by
   the sacrifice of Himself." Hebrews 9:26.

   WHEN the old dispensation was becoming worn out, and like a vesture
   ready to be laid aside. When the end of the typical twilight had come,
   then Jesus Christ came forth from the Father and brought the dawning
   with Him. When the often appearing of the Aaronic priests had not
   availed for the putting away of sin, He came whose once appearing
   perfected the work. As it was said to the master of the feast, "You
   have kept the best wine until now," so might it be said of the great
   God of Grace, whose crowning gift to man came late, but not too late,
   to enrich the banquet of His love. There was a fullness of time before
   which the Messiah could not be cut off, but when that hour was come He
   was not slow with His sacrifice--He appeared in the appointed place to
   make Atonement for human guilt.

   We have, this morning, to proclaim in the hearing of this congregation
   an old Truth of God to which you have listened many and many a time.
   But it is a Truth which should be and will be exceedingly delightful to
   all those whose consciences are troubled with sin. If there are any
   here who are conscious of the burden of their past guilt, are quickened
   so as to be sensitive of the curse, can hear the rolling thunder of the
   impending wrath of God--to them it will be a great joy to hear of One
   who can put away sin! It is for such as you are that the great Redeemer
   in the end of the world came among men.

   He could not come to put away sin from those who had none, or from
   those who by their own efforts could put that sin away from themselves.
   It is, then, for such as you are who are hopelessly sinful. Hopelessly
   so, I say, if viewed from any aspect short of the work of Jesus Christ.
   It is for such as you that He has come. If your house were on fire you
   would rejoice to hear the fire engines coming down the street, for you
   would feel an absolute certainty that they were coming to you--because
   your house was in a blaze--if no one's else might be.

   If there were appointed, today, a commissioner for the relief of such
   traders as might be in difficulties, whose capital was little, and
   whose liabilities were great--if you were in that condition you would
   feel at once that a hope was held out to you--because the
   commissioner's office supposes a condition of circumstances in which
   you are found. The news of Christ's coming into the world to put away
   sin sounds like the joy blasts of the silver trumpets of Jubilee to
   those who know themselves to be full of sin, who desire to have it put
   away, who are conscious that they cannot remove it themselves, and are
   alarmed at the fate which awaits them if the sin is not by some means
   blotted out.

   Listen, you anxious ones, and if there are no charms of eloquence about
   the speaker, and if he seeks out no gaudy words that might draw
   attention to himself, yet let the theme, so suitable to you, so
   necessary to you, chain your ear and win your heart! And may God the
   Holy Spirit make the preaching of Christ to you to be the opening of
   the prisons to them that are bound.

   There is one thing in the text which should be sure to hold, as though
   spell-bound, the attention of every trembling sinner. It is this--the
   Christ of God, who in the end of the world has appeared, did not come
   to deny the fact of human sin--to propagate a philosophy which might
   make sin appear harmless, or define it as a mere mistake, perhaps a
   calamity, but by no means a Hell-deserving crime. I am sure that every
   sensitive conscience would loathe such teaching. It could yield no
   comfort whatever to a soul which had felt sin to be exceedingly sinful.

   Jesus Christ did not come into the world to help you to forget your
   sin. He has not come to furnish you with a cloak with which to cover
   it. He has not appeared that He may so strengthen your minds, (as men
   would have it), that you may learn to laugh at your iniquities and defy
   the consequences of them. For no such reason came the Son of Man. He
   has

   come not to lull you into a false peace, not to whisper consolation
   which would turn out to be delusive in the end, but to give you a real
   deliverance from sin by putting it away and so to bring you a true
   peace in which you may safely indulge.

   If sin is put away, then peace is lawful. Then rest of spirit becomes
   not only a blessing which we may enjoy, but which we must enjoy, and
   which, the more we shall enjoy the better shall we please our God. O
   Sinner, the tidings that I bring you this morning are not the mere
   glitter of a hope that shall delude, not a present relief for the woe
   you feel, but a real cure for all your ills, a sure and certain
   deliverance from all the danger that now hangs over you!

   I. We will proceed at once, then, to deal with our glorious text, and
   at the outset let us remember that IT IS A VERY HARD THING TO PUT AWAY
   SIN. Meditate awhile upon this Truth of God, for it will help you to
   magnify the power, the wisdom, and the Grace of Christ who has put it
   away. It is a very hard thing to put away sin, all the Jewish
   sacrifices could not do it. They were very costly--sometimes thousands
   of bullocks were slaughtered. They were ordained of God Himself.

   In the tabernacle everything was done according to the pattern seen in
   the Holy Mount by Moses. In the Temple no sacrifice was presented but
   according to Divine command. The whole Aaronic ritual was very
   impressive. The priests in their holy robes, pure white linen garments,
   the golden altar, candlesticks, and table, the fire, the smoke, the
   incense. The whole thing was calculated very much to impress the mind.
   The first Covenant provided a very magnificent service, such as never
   will be excelled, but for all that--costly, Divinely arranged,
   impressive--it could not put away sin. And the evidence of this is
   found in the fact that after one Day of Atonement they needed another
   atonement next year.

   Now, if sin had been put away, there would have been an end of
   sin-offering. There is an end of paying when the debt is discharged--an
   end of punishment when penalty is fulfilled. There is an end of
   propitiation when God is satisfied. Why need the fuller cleanse the
   garment if it is already immaculately white? Why need the refiner cast
   on fresh fuel if the gold is already rid of all alloy? What need, then,
   of a further sacrifice for sin if sin is effectually removed?

   My Brethren, sin was still there. After all the sin-offerings it was
   not washed away, and such men as David felt this when they cried, "You
   desire not sacrifice; else would I give it: you delight not in burnt
   offering." Here were thousands of years, then, of the shedding of the
   blood of bulls and goats according to Divine command, and yet sin still
   remained, for its removal was a harder thing to achieve than the blood
   of bulls and goats could compass. Nor could sin be put away by
   ceremonies. There were those in our Lord's days who, not content with
   doing what God had commanded, invented rites and ceremonies of their
   own, or carried out those commanded in a manner never intended by God.

   These men practiced washings of all kinds. They fasted and genuflected.
   They broadened the borders of their garments. They wore phylacteries,
   they paid tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and so on--and hoped, by
   carrying out these minutiae and by adding to the traditions of the
   fathers obediently observed--they might succeed in getting up a
   righteousness which should cover their sin. But our Lord expressly
   tells us that this was a complete failure, for though they succeeded in
   making clean the outside of the cup and the platter, their inward parts
   were very wickedness. And while they were as outwardly clean as
   sepulchers that had been newly white-washed, yet their inward parts
   were full of rottenness. There had been no cleansing of themselves by
   all that they had done.

   And it is so now, my dear Hearers--no outward forms can make you clean.
   The leprosy of sin lies deep within. Not even rites that God has
   given--I repeat it--not even rites that God has given, can avail,
   however reverently observed, to remove so much as one single sin. More
   than this, repentance itself cannot purge a man from sin. If anything
   could do it, surely this might. Let me not be mistaken--wherever God
   gives real repentance of sin, there sin is forgiven--for repentance and
   remission go together. But no man is pardoned because of any merit in
   his repentance. Repentance is a gift given to us graciously at the same
   time as remission of sins, but it is not the cause of remission. It
   comes with it, and is one of the outward evidences of it, but it is by
   no means the cause of it.

   Now observe the proof of this in the case of David. David was as
   penitent as a man could well be. His Penitential Psalms remain forever
   the most wonderful expressions of a broken heart, yet David nowhere
   claims forgiveness because of his contrition. Take the fifty-first
   Psalm as a specimen. David nowhere concludes that he is forgiven
   because he repents, or that his tears can wash him white. His petition
   is, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean"--alluding to the
   sacrificial blood which was sprinkled by a piece of hyssop. "Wash me,
   and I shall be whiter than snow."

   Nothing about, "/ have washed my couch with tears, and therefore I am
   whiter than snow. I have made my bed to swim with my heart-sorrow for
   my transgression, and therefore I am pure." His remorse was very acute,
   but he never

   rests on that. He looks to the hyssop. He turns himself to the sacred
   Fountain of the atoning blood, and there he hopes for cleansing. Ah,
   dear Hearer, and so must you!--

   "Could your tears forever flow, Could your grief no respite know, All
   for sin could not atone-- Christ must save, and Christ alone."

   Be it also known that no form of suffering in this world can put away
   sin. There is a notion, especially among the poorer classes of London,
   based very much upon a mistaken interpretation of the parable of the
   rich man and Lazarus, that in the next world those who have been very
   poor, and have suffered a great deal, will as a sort of recompense be
   taken up to Heaven--while the rich, simply because they were rich, will
   be sent down to Hell. Such was by no means the teaching of Christ! It
   is as wide as the poles asunder from His meaning.

   No, my dear Hearer, you might be as poor as Lazarus, you might even lie
   as he did on the dunghill with the hounds to lick your wounds--but this
   would not win you a place in Heaven. Your sufferings here by no means
   make an atonement for sin. You remember that man who suffered more in
   body and in estate than any other man that we have ever read of? I mean
   Job. You remember how all his children were taken away at a stroke? How
   his property was all destroyed? How he then found himself covered from
   head to foot with a horrible disease?

   It was a disease so dreadful that he could not sit in the house, and he
   betook himself to a dunghill, and laid hold upon a piece of a pot to
   scrape himself with. Now after he had passed through all that misery
   and a great deal more, what was his condition? God appeared to him in a
   whirlwind, and spoke to him--do you find that Job, because of his
   sufferings stood up before the Lord, and said, "I have suffered all
   this, and am now clear of all sin"? No, no! He cried in great humility,
   "I abhor myself in dust and ashes." His sufferings had not made him
   meritorious. He did not claim anything of the kind, but in the Presence
   of the Most High he abhorred himself, he humbled himself into the very
   dust.

   His confidence was not placed in himself, but in the Savior, for you
   hear him say, "I know that my Redeemer lives." His hope looked to the
   Redeemer, and not to the sufferings which he had himself endured.
   Believe me then, my Friend, you may carry many grievous diseases about
   you, and endure great poverty and all kinds of afflictions--you might
   even torture yourself as Romanists and idolaters do--but all that will
   be of no service to you in the matter of Divine forgiveness. Sin is not
   to be put away by anything of this sort.

   Nor, my dear Friends, can any form of self-denial, however terrible it
   might be, put away sin. Some have fancied that when they have repented
   of sin after a sort, and forsaken it, that then by denying their
   bodies, by enduring much physical suffering, they might make atonement.
   But it is not so. You remember how the Prophet asks what man shall give
   that he may be accepted with God. "Wherewith shall I come before the
   Lord, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before Him with
   burnt-offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased
   with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I
   give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the
   sin of my soul?"

   That last question reaches far into the realm of self-sacrifice. "Shall
   I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the
   sin of my soul?" Yet even this would be of no avail. We read of fathers
   and mothers in heathen countries who give their children up to idols.
   Our hearts are shocked by the story of Moloch--believed to have been a
   huge image of hollow brass in which a great fire was lighted until it
   became red hot--and then parents brought their first-born babes and
   placed them in the red hot arms of this God--that they might there be
   consumed to ashes. I say when you hear of this, you think what cruel
   monsters they must have been!

   Ah, it was not so! Many of those fathers were as loving to their
   children as you are, and the mothers as affectionate as mothers now
   present. But they felt an awful sense of sin and believed that this
   would please God and put away sin. Therefore doing violence to all that
   was affectionate and tender within their nature, they gave the fruit of
   their body for the sins of their soul. And what a thought it is that
   when they had performed this hideous self-denial and made themselves
   wretched for life, desolating their family hearth by giving up their
   dearest ones to die--still no sin had been put away even then, not one!
   The spot remained indelible though washed with the blood of their own
   child. No, my Hearer, sin is not easily put away.

   It may impress our minds if we remember further that holy living does
   not put away past sin. If from this day forth we should live after the
   commandments of the Law blamelessly, and walk before the Lord with all
   devotion, and before men with all uprightness, yet it would not put
   away past sin. And the proof of this is to be found in the fact that
   those

   men who have lived after the best fashion, undoubtedly the best men in
   the world, have declared that their consciences were not satisfied with
   themselves, and that until they looked away from themselves they did
   not experience anything like satisfaction.

   More memorable, still is the fact that death does not put away sin.
   Death puts away a great deal. A man dies, and if he has no estate his
   debts die with him. And many a hard thought that we had of our fellow
   man we bury in his tomb. But death never kills a single sin. Sin is
   immortal until the immortal Christ comes to deal with it. Sin stands
   like the everlasting hills and will not move from its place till He
   that made Heaven and earth casts the mountain into the sea of His
   Atonement. No, the rich man died and was buried, but no sin of his was
   buried, for in Hell he lifted up his eyes, and his sins were there to
   torture and to condemn him.

   Another thought is equally solemn--namely, that Hell itself cannot put
   away sin. There are the devil and his angels for whom Hell was made,
   for whom the fire was first kindled, and its pit first dug. But they
   are as great sinners after these six thousand years as they were when
   first they were cast down from Heaven. And so those lost ones whose
   spirits have been in Hell since the time of Noah's flood--they are
   still sinners--and after all the ages of suffering they have endured
   not a sin less is upon them now than there was at first. Ah, dreadful
   thought! If you and I are ever cast into Hell, though ages on ages may
   lapse and the wrath of God is poured out upon us to the uttermost,
   there will never be the destruction of a single sin or particle of a
   sin by it all.

   Sin cannot be put away until the penalty is borne to the end, and that
   can never be by finite man. What a work was here, then, for the only
   begotten Son of God to do! Speak of the labors of Hercules! They were
   nothing compared with the labors of Emmanuel. Speak of miracles! To
   tread the sea, to hush the billows, to heal the sick, to raise the
   dead-- these are all bright stars--but their light is hid when compared
   with this miracle of miracles--when the Sun of Christ's righteousness
   arises with healing beneath His wings, and thick clouds of sin are put
   away by Him. Think of the difficulty, then, and adore the Christ who
   accomplished the task.

   Before I leave this point I beseech each one here to consider the
   difficulty of putting away sin in his own case. In any case difficult
   enough, in mine, in yours, my Brethren, how peculiarly so! Our sins
   trail their horrid length from side to side for many years. Our sins
   are aggravated, they are piled-up sins. Ours are sins against light and
   knowledge, against conscience, against vows and resolution. Our sins
   are sins repeated after we had tasted of their bitterness--foul sins,
   sins it may be of the sort which bring the blush to the cheek--sins
   that made us toss on our beds as we remembered them with dread, and yet
   sins that we returned to as the dog returns to its vomit. Oh, our
   monster sins! Our horrible sins! Our damnable sins! There was a
   difficulty, indeed, in putting these away. May you feel this deeply in
   your hearts, and you will be the more heartily ready to appreciate our
   next doctrine.

   II. The second great Truth is one that is full of joy, namely, that
   Christ HAS PUT AWAY THE SIN OF ALL HIS PEOPLE. You notice that the word
   "sin" is in the singular, and for that reason, standing as it does,
   alone, without a qualifying word, it is the more comprehensive. Sin is
   regarded as one great evil, and Christ has put it away. When the Lord
   Jesus Christ appeared at the end of the world, all the sins of His
   people were made to meet in one tremendous mass. Jesus Christ suffered
   all this to be imputed to Him. "The Lord has laid on Him the
   iniquity"--as if it were but one-- "the iniquity of us all."

   There it was, and He was accounted as if He had committed it all. In
   Gethsemane, and on the Cross He endured the penalty due for all the sin
   of His people, or rather the death which God had stipulated should
   stand as an equivalent for the sufferings of all the guilty ones for
   whom He stood. He suffered all that--and by that suffering He put away
   the sin, the whole mass, the whole mountainous mass of the sin of all
   those for whom He stood as a Substitute--and for whom He suffered the
   penalty. Sin was completely put away, everlastingly put away, when
   Jesus gave up the ghost, rose from the dead, and entered into His
   Glory.

   I beg you to notice the expression used by our translators. The
   expression in the Greek is more forcible, and I will deal with that
   directly. He has "put away" sin. This phrase in the English version is
   used in reference to an unfaithful wife when she was "put away." Her
   husband gave her a bill of divorcement, and she was no longer his.
   Until that deed of divorcement was made she was his lawful wife, bone
   of his bone, flesh of his flesh, and under the Law they were regarded
   as one--their property and estate one. But as soon as ever a lawful
   divorce was given, she had no relation to him any

   more than any other woman. She was utterly disowned, she had no further
   claim on him whatever. The separation was complete.

   Now, sin before Christ comes, is, as it were, married to us. The foul
   thing pollutes us. For its filthiness we are responsible, we have
   committed it. It is linked with us so as to be, as it were, bone of our
   bone and flesh of our flesh. But, oh, the blessedness of the fact!
   Christ has proclaimed an everlasting divorce between our souls and our
   sins! He has put our sins away so that we are no longer knit to them,
   and their dread responsibility lies no longer upon us. He stands to
   bear the responsibility of our sin on our behalf, and our personal
   liabilities cease.

   Be they what they may, they are not charged on us. "Blessed is the man
   unto whom the Lord imputes not iniquity." He had iniquity, but it is no
   longer imputed to him. His sins are now no longer his, any more than a
   man's wife when lawfully divorced is any longer his. There is a total
   separation between the Believer and all his old sins, a legal
   separation too, fully justified and complete.

   "Putting away" is used in another sense. Jacob commanded his sons to
   put away the false gods that were among them. We find Josiah putting
   away Baal and all the false gods of Israel. Now you know how they acted
   when they put away false gods. There was a search throughout all the
   house to find out every teraphim, and every image, and every symbol
   that had been an object of reverence. I think I see Jacob if he had
   found a teraphim, throwing it out of the tent door with indignation.
   And if he saw it lying at a distance, for fear lest any of his sons or
   his servants should take it up and reverence it again, the Patriarch
   would go and spurn it with his foot.

   Or perhaps he would take it up, and finding his hammer, dash it in
   pieces, and throw the very dust of it away, as Moses ground the golden
   calf to pieces and threw the fragments in the water. Or as the young
   Josias did, who, not content with breaking down the altars, broke the
   images, themselves--utterly destroyed them. Now in this way has Christ
   put away His people's sins. He has utterly demolished them, made a
   clean sweep of them all, thrown them right away, broken them, destroyed
   them, and so put them away.

   "Putting away" may be illustrated in yet another manner. The Israelites
   were commanded on the feast of the Passover to put away all leaven out
   of their houses, and to this day they are very scrupulous about the
   fulfillment of that command at the time of that great festival. The
   house is very carefully swept lest a crumb of common leavened bread
   should remain. The cupboards are ransacked, drawers emptied carefully
   and swept with a little brush. And then the master of the house will go
   through every department of the house to see that no trace of leaven
   should remain. All leaven must be put away that they may keep the feast
   with unleavened bread.

   Now Jesus Christ, in this same way, has put away sin. There might have
   been a sin left in some secret region of my heart, or soul, or
   conscience, or memory--hidden in a dark department of my nature--and
   that little sin would have ruined me. But Jesus put it all away--every
   crumb and particle of the horrible leaven Christ has swept right out.
   He altogether and utterly put away sin by His once appearing. If you
   are a Believer in Christ, my dear Friend, the putting away of sin for
   you does not consist in the forgiveness of here and there a great
   sin--in the plunging into the Red Sea of His blood of here and there a
   monster iniquity. But all your sins--every size, shape, form, hue,
   degree, or fashion--are altogether gone.

   Crimson sins, black sins, crying sins, every sort of iniquity from your
   childhood until now, and right on till you enter into the rest of the
   Beloved--they were all taken and laid upon Christ. He made an end of
   them all when He offered up His great expiatory Sacrifice. He has put
   away sin as a whole for His chosen. This is a glorious Truth! If we
   know that it belongs to us and that our sin was put away--it is enough
   to make us anticipate the joy of Heaven, and sing the new song--"Unto
   Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and
   has made us kings and priests unto God and His Father. To Him be glory
   and dominion forever and ever."

   The Greek word, however, is more expressive than the English. I believe
   it is only used in one other place in the New Testament. And as far as
   Greek works extant are concerned, it is never used in any other volume.
   It is a word coined by the Apostle, a perfectly regular word, but still
   made by himself to suit his theme. Though the Greek was a copious
   language, yet when the Holy Spirit was in the Apostle there were not
   sufficient words extant to express all His meaning. This word is used
   in another place, in Hebrews 7:18, and is there translated
   "disannulling," to signify an abrogation, a total abolition, an
   annihilation. That word will do. Christ was revealed in the end of the
   world to abrogate, to annihilate, utterly to abolish sin.

   Now we all know what it is to have a thing abrogated. Certain laws have
   held good up to the first of January of this year with regard to the
   hiring of public carriages. But now we are under a new law. Suppose a
   driver complies with the new Law, gets his license, puts up his flag,
   gives the passenger his card of prices, and afterwards the passenger
   summons him before the magistrate for asking a fare not authorized by
   the old law? The magistrate would say, "You are out of court, there is
   no such law. You cannot bring the man here, he has not broken the old
   law, for he is not under it. He has complied with the requisition of
   the new law, by which he declares himself no longer under the old
   rules, and I have no power over him."

   So he that believes in Christ Jesus may be summoned by conscience when
   misinformed before the bar of God, but the answer of peace to his
   conscience is, "You are not under the Law, but under Grace." "Christ is
   the end of the Law for righteousness to everyone that believes." "All
   that believe are justified from all things, from which you could not be
   justified by the Law of Moses." In this way Christ has abrogated the
   sin of his people. By what image shall I set forth the abolishing of
   sin? I do not know what metaphor to use about it, but one suggests
   itself which is far from complete, but may help somewhat.

   When Pompey was killed, Julius Caesar obtained possession of a large
   casket which contained a vast amount of correspondence which had been
   carried on with Pompey. There is no doubt whatever, that in that casket
   were many letters from certain of Caesar's followers making overtures
   to Pompey, and had Caesar read those letters it is probable that he
   would have been so angry with many of his friends that he would have
   put them to death for playing him false. Fearing this, he magnanimously
   took the casket and destroyed it without reading a single line.

   What a splendid way of putting away and annihilating all their offenses
   against him! Why, he did not even know them! He could not be angry, for
   he did not know that they had offended. He consumed all their offenses
   and destroyed their iniquities, so that he could treat them all as if
   they were innocent and faithful. The Lord Jesus Christ has made just
   such an end of your sins and mine. Does not the Lord know our sins,
   then? Yes, in a certain sense, and yet the Lord declares, "their sins
   and their iniquities will I remember no more." In a certain sense, God
   cannot forget, but in another sense, He Himself declares that He
   remembers not the sins of His people, but has cast them behind His
   back.

   "The iniquities of Israel," says He, "shall be sought for, and there
   shall be none. And the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found." An
   accusing spirit might have said to Caesar, "Do you not know that Caius
   and Florius were deeply involved with your enemy, Pompey?" "No," he
   replies, "I know nothing against them." "But in that casket there is
   evidence." "Ah," rejoins the hero, "there remains no casket, I have
   utterly destroyed it!" The metaphor fails because it does not set forth
   the perfectly legal way in which Jesus has made an end of sin by
   suffering its penalty. Justice has been satisfied, punishment has been
   meted out for every sin of mine and yours if we are Believers. And the
   whole matter has been accomplished, not by an evasion of Law, but by a
   fulfillment of it, meeting justice face to face and satisfying
   vengeance and putting away sin.

   Take another illustration, common enough, but quite to the point. A
   debt is annihilated when it is paid, so the debts that we owed to
   justice were abrogated, annihilated and ceased to be because Jesus
   Christ, to the utmost farthing, paid whatever His people owed. Now,
   child of God, I want you to turn this Truth over and over in your mind.
   Jesus Christ has put away your sin, all of it, all of it, in all
   respects. Before God you are accepted as if you were innocent. You are
   even regarded as if you were something more than innocent, namely,
   actively righteous. Your sin is so put away that now you are deprived
   of nothing that sin deprived you of. You have the access which sin once
   prohibited. You enjoy the favor of God, and nearness to God, and
   relationship to God, even as if you had never fallen.

   When sin was put away, all the effects of sin, in detriment and loss to
   us before God, were virtually put away from the pardoned one. Think of
   that and rejoice. Moreover, your sin is put away forever. Do not fall
   into the idea it ever can return. "The gifts and calling of God are
   without repentance," that is to say, on His part. The eternal God never
   says and unsays, never plays fast and loose with a soul. If you are
   pardoned, then you are so pardoned that none ever can condemn you in
   time or in eternity. "As far as the east is from the west, so far has
   He removed our transgressions from us." Oh, what bliss is this! Do not
   so much listen to me as let your heart suck out the sweetness of this
   Truth.

   If it is indeed so, what peace you ought to have! Are you tried and
   afflicted? Remember how Luther said, "Lord, strike, for I am forgiven,"
   as if he thought it mattered little what he suffered now that his sin
   was gone. Nothing ought to make you suspend your song of praise, O
   pardoned Sinner! You can never go down into the pit. God can never be
   so

   wrath with you as to forsake you utterly. You are saved! You have an
   entailed estate beyond the river--there is a crown in the King's palace
   which no head but yours can ever wear. And a harp that your fingers
   must strike with seraphic joy. O you banished ones, in the midst of
   your exile still sing the songs of Zion in anticipation of the time
   when you shall sing them without groans to mar their melody!

   III. We shall open up to you, dear Friends, with very much brevity, HOW
   SIN WAS PUT AWAY. The text tells us that our Lord put it away by a
   Sacrifice. It is that cardinal doctrine of the Christian religion that
   sin is pardoned through a Sacrifice. Substitution is the very essence
   and marrow of the Revelation of God. The Lord Jesus Christ stood in the
   place of the sinner and was made a bloody Sacrifice for sin. Even as
   the sacrificed lamb poured out its life-blood, so did He give up His
   life to redeem our lives.

   Now, dear Friends, you who are seeking peace today, remember that the
   place where you will find light for your darkness is where Christ made
   Himself a Sacrifice for sin. Your comfort will not arise from studying
   His most pure and admirable life, but by considering His painful
   substitutionary death. He was made sin for you, though He knew no sin,
   that you might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He was made to
   die a death of pain, ignominy, and anguish, and to pour out His blood
   that you might not feel the sword of vengeance on account of your sins.
   Notice that the text tells us what His sacrifice was--it was Himself.
   Sin was not put away by the offering of His living works, nor by the
   incense of His prayer, nor by the oblation of His tears--nor even by
   the presentation of His pains and groans before God-- but by the
   sacrifice of HIMSELF.

   The Lord Christ gave up for you His human Body and Soul and Spirit--all
   that constituted "Himself" was given up freely to the death--that the
   punishment due to our sin might be borne. Dwell on this thought--the
   sacrifice of Himself. This leads you to remember who He was. He was God
   over all, blessed forever. The Maker of all worlds, but He gave
   Himself. See the majesty of His sacrifice! He gave Himself And then
   behold the infinite merit that there must be in that Sacrifice. Had He
   been a mere man--the death of one innocent man for another may be
   supposed to have been an atonement for one man. But because He was
   infinite in His nature, there was infinite merit in His sufferings.

   Doubts, however black they may be, ought to subside when we perceive
   that the Atonement made must have been infinitely meritorious, because
   it was not an Atonement of mere tears and blood and works, but an
   Atonement made by the Lord's giving up Himself, His very Self, that He
   might put away sin. Ah, my Brethren, I can trust an infinite Savior to
   put away my sin. If I were told that there was this and that to be done
   by some human priest to put away my sin, I should be afraid that
   perhaps their efforts would not answer the designed end. But if my sin
   is put away because God Himself dwelt among men, and suffered in human
   flesh in my place, I can believe, and will believe, and rest in peace--

   "My soul can on this doctrine live, Can on this doctrine die."

   Here is solid ground work for the most guilty, heavy-laden sinner to
   build a cheerful hope for eternity!

   Note well that there is not a word here or anywhere else in Scripture
   about any renewed and repeated sacrifice. The Roman Catholic church
   tells us that they continue to present the sacrifice of Christ in the
   unbloody sacrifice of the "mass." But this is a mere invention of their
   priests! Our Lord once appeared to put away sin, and thereby perfected
   forever them that are sanctified. What are you doing, you pretenders to
   His name? Would you add to what is perfect? Do you put sin away again
   after the great High Priest has put it away once and for all? Away, you
   sons of Antichrist!

   Observe, also, that nothing is said about sins ever coming back again.
   He has put sin away, there is no hint given that it will ever want
   putting away a second time. He has appeared and put it away finally,
   totally, eternally. Where, then, is the sin of His people? It is so put
   away that it is not possible to find it, even if it is searched for,
   nor can it ever return. Moreover, not a syllable is uttered concerning
   anyone helping the Lord Jesus to put away sin. He came to put away sin,
   but it is not added that others joined in the work--neither is it said
   that it is done if the sinner's tears should flow, or if he should feel
   deeply, or if he should act worthily, or if he should be obedient. Not
   at all! It is nakedly and boldly declared that He has put it away.

   Now, on the Cross, my dear Hearer, Christ either put all your sins
   away, or He did not. If He did not, you will live and die in
   unbelief--if He did--nothing of yours is needed to make the Atonement
   perfect. All you have to do is to ascertain your part and lot in the
   great Atonement. "And," says one, "How can I ascertain my portion in
   it?" You may know by this one thing--Do you believe in Jesus? Do you
   trust Him? This is the evidence that your sin has ceased to be,

   and that before you were born, Christ put it away forever. If so, you
   need not this day be bowed down about it, or go mourning and troubled
   as though it even now condemned you.

   If you believe, rest assured that God loved you from before the
   foundations of the world. You are viewed in Christ Jesus as clear
   before the Law. In the Person of the Only Begotten you are accepted in
   the Beloved. The love of God looked on you in Christ ages ago, before
   you could look on it or understand it, and in the fullness of time your
   sins were foreseen, and their penalty endured by your Redeemer.
   Methinks I hear, then, this enquiry put, How may I share in this
   blessed result of the putting away of sin? The answer is, Brethren, the
   way for us to enjoy a share in it must evidently be one in which we do
   not, even by implication, seem to claim a part in the putting away of
   sin.

   If you think you can get a part in this gracious result by your own
   feelings or doings, you dishonor the perfect work of Christ, and so you
   make a gulf between you and Christ. The only test as to whether Christ
   put your sin away is this-- Have you done with all idea of putting the
   sin away yourself? Are you willing that He should have the whole, sole,
   and entire glory of putting it away? Will you now trust Him with your
   whole heart to put your sin away? Well, Soul, there never was a man yet
   who gave up confidence in everything but Christ, and relied completely
   and heartily upon Christ, but who had, in that fact an assurance that
   Jesus loved him, and gave Himself for him!

   "Oh," says one," I have done that, then, years ago." Rejoice, then! Be
   glad, and out of love to Jesus go and perform works of holiness to
   honor Him by Whom you are saved. Rejoice all your days, and praise the
   name of Him that has washed you. Do not, O you pardoned ones, kneel
   down every Sunday morning and night, and wail out the cry that you are
   "miserable sinners"! You ought not to be miserable sinners, now that
   you are forgiven, justified, adopted, and made one with Christ! You are
   sinners, but why miserable? To those Believers who call themselves
   "miserable sinners," the Lord might well reply, "You do not, then,
   believe Me. Have I not pardoned you, and declared that there is no
   condemnation for you? Is this your only gratitude? Is there no joyful
   thankfulness? Nothing but sullen misery?"

   Blessed be God, such a form of service is little suitable for Believers
   in Jesus, though very fitting for those who trust their baptismal
   regeneration! Our gladsome lips have learned--

   "Oh, how sweet to view the flowing Of ourSa vior'sprecious blood, With
   Divine assurance knowing He has made our peace with God." Sin is gone,
   gone forever! Go, Believer, and rejoice! But do I hear another say, "O
   that I could know assuredly that my sin was put away. I gladly would
   trust the Savior, but the question is, may I trust Him?" That, my
   Friend, need not be a question. He commands you to trust Him. "Believe
   in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." "He that believes
   and is baptized shall be saved. But he that believes not shall be
   damned."

   You are threatened if you do not believe, therefore take courage, Man,
   and trust Christ now. "What? And having lived a sinful life up till
   now, if I, indeed trust Him, will that sinful life be blotted out? Must
   I not at least go home and begin to read my Bible and spend a month in
   preparation?" Delay not! Today, if you will hear His voice, harden not
   your heart. Trust Him now! Saul of Tarsus was struck down at once, in
   the midst of sin, and saved. The dying thief had not to be taken down
   from the Cross and laid up in hospital till he passed through a
   probation. He prayed the prayer, "Lord, remember me!" And he received
   the answer, "Today shall you be with Me in Paradise." The pardon of sin
   is instantaneous. It is not a matter of even minutes or seconds.

   "There is life in a look at the Crucified One."

   One glance of your soul's eye at a crucified Savior and the simple
   reliance of your spirit upon Him, and you are saved beyond all risk.
   The Lord grant you, by His Holy Spirit's aid, to do this today, and I
   know you will go away to be among the dearest lovers of my Master, and
   among the most careful of His servants, for you will love Him too well
   to disobey Him. And it will be your joy from this time forth, even
   forever, to honor Him.

   Methinks I hear you say, "I who was the chief of sinners was met with
   when I least expected it by my gracious Savior, while listening to the
   Gospel. And I was forgiven in a moment through a simple act of faith.
   And now here I am, my Lord's servant, to live and to die for Him if He
   will but give me Grace to do so." The Lord grant it, for His name's
   sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Glorious Hereafter and Ourselves

   (No. 912)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JANUARY 23, 1870,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Now He that has worked us for the same thingis God, who also has given
   unto us the earnest of the Spirit." 2 Corinthians 5:5.

   IT is a very comforting thing to be able to see the work of God in our
   own hearts. We can clearly enough perceive the effects of the Fall--the
   workings of our inward corruption are always sufficiently perceptible.
   We have not to search long for the foul handiwork of Satan within us,
   for his temptations vex us day by day, and too often wound us to our
   dismay. The evil influences of the world are also exceedingly apparent
   to the eyes of self-examination. It is, therefore, consoling to the
   highest degree when, amidst all this disfiguring of the vessel by the
   hands of evil, we can see growing traces of the Great Artist's hand
   still fashioning the clay upon the wheel and undoing the mischief of
   His enemies.

   It is a sweet thing to be able to say with the Apostle that God has
   worked us to the most grand of all designs. When the Creator of the
   world puts His all-wise hands to the work of our new creation, we are
   favored in the highest degree, and ought to be filled with gratitude.

   It appears from the text that the Apostle found the indications of the
   Divine work in a groan. Observe, "We that are in this tabernacle do
   groan, being burdened." In that groan of his burdened soul he saw the
   working of the eternal God, and he exclaimed, "He that has worked us
   for the same thing is God." Believers may trace the finger of God in
   their holy joys when the soul, like the lark, mounts up towards Heaven
   and carols her song of gratitude. But, just as surely is the Holy
   Spirit present in their sorrows for sin, their inward conflicts, their
   hungering and thirsting after righteousness, their deep-fetched sighs,
   and their groans which cannot be uttered.

   My Brethren, so long as it is the work of God it is comparatively a
   small matter to us whether our hearts' utterance is song or sigh. Let
   us be assured that it is worked by the Spirit, and either the one or
   the other is a token for good. If it is but proven that "the Lord is
   there," we hear a voice which says, "It is I, be not afraid."

   Our text brings before us a great work of God with a distinct
   object--our being "clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven."
   And looking at the words minutely, we see that the one design is
   accomplished by three great processes. The Lord has worked in us
   desires after the heavenly Glory. "He that has worked us for the same
   thing is God." The Apostle had twice over spoken of groaning after the
   heavenly House, and we understand him here to affirm that this groaning
   was worked in him by God.

   Secondly, the Lord has worked in us a fullness for the eternal world,
   for so the text may be understood. "He that has fitted us for" the
   heavenly inheritance of which the Spirit is the earnest. Then thirdly,
   God has given to Believers, in addition to desires after and fitness
   for an earnest of the Glory to be revealed, which earnest is the Holy
   Spirit. Let us speak of these three things as the Holy Spirit may
   instruct us.

   God's work is seen in our souls in causing us exciting, vehement
   DESIRES AFTER being "clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven."

   This earnest desire, of which the Apostle has been speaking in the
   preceding verses, is made up of two things--a painful groaning and
   sense of being burdened while we are in this present life, and a
   supreme longing after our promised portion in the world to come.
   Dissatisfaction with the very idea of finding a continuing city here,
   amounting even to groaning, is the condition of the Christian's mind.
   "We look not at the things which are seen," they are not worth a
   glance. They are temporal and therefore quite unfit to be the joy of an
   immortal spirit.

   The Christian is the most contented man in the world, but he is the
   least contented with the world. He is like a traveler in an inn,
   perfectly satisfied with the inn and its accommodation, considering it
   as an inn, but putting quite out of all consideration the idea of
   making it his home. He waits by the way, and is thankful, but his
   desires lead him ever on-

   ward towards that better country where the many mansions are prepared.
   The Believer is like a man in a sailing vessel, well content with the
   good ship for what it is, and hopeful that it may bear him safely
   across the sea, willing to put up with all its inconveniences without
   complaint.

   But if you ask him whether he would choose to live on board in that
   narrow cabin, he will tell you that he longs for the time when the
   harbor shall be in view, and the green fields, and the happy homesteads
   of his native land. We, my Brethren, thank God for all the appointments
   of Providence--whether our portion is large or scant we are content
   because God has appointed it--yet our portion is not here, nor would we
   have it here if we might!--

   "We've no abiding city here,

   Sad truth were this to be our home." No thought would be more dreadful
   to us than the idea of having our portion in this life, in this dark
   world which refused the love of Jesus, and cast Him out of its
   vineyard. We have desires which the whole world could not fulfill. We
   have insatiable yearnings which a thousand empires could not satisfy.
   The Creator has made us to pant and long after Himself, and all the
   creatures put together could not delight our souls without His
   Presence--

   "Hopeless of joy in anything below,

   We only long to soar,

   The fullness of His love to feel,

   And lose His smile no more."

   In addition to this dissatisfaction, there reigns within the regenerate
   heart a supreme longing after the heavenly state. When Believers are in
   their right minds, their aspirations after Heaven are so forcible that
   they despise death itself. When faith is weak, then the pains and the
   groans of dying make a black cloud of forebodings which darken the
   spirit, and we shrink from the thought of departing.

   But when we know that our Redeemer lives, and look forward to the
   Resurrection and to the Glory to be revealed, we cry--

   "Oh, if my Lord would come and meet,

   My soul should stretch her wings in haste,

   Fly fearless through death's iron gate, Nor fear the terrors as she
   passed." Whatever the separation of the soul from the body may involve
   of pain or mystery, the Believer feels that he could dare it all to
   enter at once into the unfading joys of Heaven. Sometimes the heir of
   Heaven grows impatient of his bondage. Like a captive looking out of
   the narrow window of his prison beholds the green fields of the
   unfettered earth, and marks the flashing waves of the ocean, ever
   free--and hears the songs of the free tenants of the air--he weeps as
   he views his narrow cell and hears the clanking of his chains.

   There are times when the most patient of the Lord's banished ones feel
   the home sickness strong upon them. Like those beasts which we have
   sometimes seen in our menageries, which pace to and fro in their dens,
   and chafe themselves against the bars--uneasy, unhappy, bursting out
   every now and then into fierce roars--as though they yearned for the
   forest or the jungle. Even so we also chafe and fret in this, our
   prison, longing to be free. As by the waters of Babylon the sons of
   Zion sat down and wept, even so do we. Dwelling in Kedar's tents and
   sojourning with Mesech, we long for the wings of a dove that we might
   fly away and be at rest--

   "O my sweet home, Jerusalem,

   Would God I were in you!

   Would God my woes were at an end,

   Your joys that I might see."

   Having thus seen that the groaning worked in us by God is made up of
   dissatisfaction with this world and anxious desire for the world to
   come, we may profitably consider it yet a little further. What is it
   that makes the Christian long for Heaven? What is that within him which
   makes him restless till he reaches the better land? It is, first, a
   desire for the unseen. The carnal mind is satisfied with what the eyes
   can see, the hands can handle, and the taste enjoy. But the Christian
   has a spirit within him which has passions and appetites which the
   senses cannot gratify.

   This spirit has been created, developed, enlightened, and instructed by
   the Holy Spirit, and it lives in a world of unseen realities of which
   unregenerate men have no knowledge. While in this sinful world and
   earthly body, the spirit feels

   like a citizen exiled from his native land. It stands upon the outmost
   borders of its own region and longs to penetrate into the center of
   spiritual things. Hampered with this body of clay, the spirit, which is
   akin to angels, cries after liberty. It longs to see the Great Father
   of Spirits, to commune with the bands of the pure spirits forever
   surrounding the Throne of God, both angels and glorified men.

   It longs, in fact, to dwell in its true element. A spiritual creature,
   begotten from above can never rest till it is present with the Lord.
   Oh, to see the things which we have heard of in metaphor and simile, to
   enjoy them really with our spirits! The harps, the crowns, the
   palms--what must it be to possess such joys? The streets of transparent
   gold, the river of the water of life, the glassy sea, the Throne of the
   Great King--what must all these be? Until these joys and glories be all
   our own, our souls will always cry and sigh.

   Moreover, the Christian spirit pants after holiness. He who is born
   again of incorruptible seed finds his worst trouble to be sin. While he
   was in his natural state he loved sin, and sought pleasure in it. But
   now, being born of God and made liken to God, he hates sin. The mention
   of it vexes his ears. The sight of it in others causes him deep
   sorrow--the presence of it in his own heart is his daily plague and
   burden. If he could be rid of sin, this mortal body might not be to him
   a load. But because the tendencies of the animal passions are always
   towards evil, he longs to be rid of this vile body so that he may be
   clothed with his House which is in Heaven--from which all these
   passions will be expelled.

   Oh, to be without the tendency to sin, without the possibility to sin!
   What bliss the prospect affords! My Brethren, if we could be placed in
   the meanest and most destitute condition, and yet could be perfect, we
   would prefer it to being sinful, even though we should reign in the
   palaces of kings. Our spirit, therefore, cries after the immortal
   state, because sin will be forever banished from it.

   In the Christian's spirit there is also a sighing after rest. "There
   remains a rest for the people of God," as though God had put in us the
   longing for what He has prepared. We labor daily to enter into that
   rest. Brethren, we long for rest, but we cannot find it here. "This is
   not our rest." We cannot find rest even within ourselves. Wars and
   fights are continuous within the regenerate spirit. The flesh lusts
   against the spirit, and the spirit wars against the flesh. As long as
   we are here it must be so. We are in the camp of war, not in the
   chamber of ease. The trumpet must sound, and the clash of arms must be
   heard. We must go to our watchtower and continue there both night and
   day, for we are militant as yet, and not triumphant.

   Our soul pines to be at rest. When shall the rowers of our spirit
   indulge themselves to the full without the fear of falling into sin?
   When shall my memory remember nothing but what will glorify God? When
   shall my judgment always rightly balance all events? When shall my
   desires be after nothing but my Lord? When shall my affections cling to
   nothing but Him? O when shall I possess the rest of the sinless, the
   rest of the satiated, the rest of the secure, the rest of the
   victorious? This longing for rest helps to inflame the Christian's
   desires for the House not made with hands.

   This Divinely-worked desire is made up of another element, namely, a
   thirst for communion with God. Here, at the nearest, our state is
   described as being "absent from the Lord." We do enjoy fellowship with
   God, for, "Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son
   Jesus Christ," but it is remote and dark. "We see through a glass
   darkly," and not as yet face to face. We have the smell of His garments
   from afar, and they are perfumed with myrrh, and aloes, and cassia--but
   as yet the King is in His ivory palaces--and the gate of pearl is
   between us and Him.

   O that we could come to Him! O that He would even now embrace us, and
   kiss us with the kisses of His mouth! The more the heart loves Christ,
   the more it longs for the greatest possible nearness to Him. Separation
   is very painful to a bride whose heart is burning for the bridegroom's
   presence. And such are we--longing to hear the most sweet voice of our
   Spouse and to see the countenance which is as Lebanon, excellent as the
   cedars. For a saved soul to long to be where its Savior is, is no
   unnatural desire! To be with Him is far better than earth's best, and
   it would be strange if we did not long for it.

   God, then, has worked in us this in all its forms. He has made us to
   dread the thought of having our portion in this life. He has created in
   us a supreme longing for our heavenly Home, has taught us to value
   unseen and eternal things, to pant after holiness, to sigh after
   sinless rest, and to yearn after closer fellowship with God in Christ
   Jesus. My Brethren, if you have felt a desire such as I have described,
   give the glory of it to God! Bless and love the Holy Spirit who has
   worked this same thing in you, and ask Him to make the desires yet more
   vehement, for they are to His glory.

   Bear with a word in praise of this God-worked groaning. This desire
   after the world to come is above ordinary nature. All flesh is grass,
   and the grass loves to strike its root deep into the earth. It has no
   tendrils with which to clasp the stars. Man by nature would be content
   to abide on earth forever. If you long for a holy and spiritual state,
   your desire is not of nature's creation. God has worked it in you. Yes,
   I will venture to say that the desire for Heaven is contrary to nature.
   For as there is an inertia in matter which makes it indisposed to move,
   so is there in human nature an indisposition to leave the present for
   the future.

   Like the snail, we stick to the rock on which we crawl. We cling to
   earth like the ivy to the wall. We are afraid to set sail upon that
   unknown sea of eternity, and therefore shiver on the shore. We dread to
   leave "the warm precincts of this house of clay," and hovel as this
   body is, we count it dear. It is the Lord who forbids our lying among
   the pots and gives us the wings of a dove to mount aloft. As soon would
   a clod seek the sun as a soul seek its God, if a miracle of Grace were
   not worked upon it.

   While they are contrary to the old nature, such aspirations prove the
   existence of the new nature. You may be quite sure that you have the
   nature of God in you if you are pining after God. And if your longings
   are of a spiritual kind, depend upon it--you are a spiritual man. It is
   not in the animal to sigh after mental enjoyments, neither is it in the
   mere carnal man to sigh after heavenly things. What your desires are,
   that your soul is. If you are really insatiably hungering after
   holiness and after God, there is within you that which is liken to God,
   that which is essentially holy. There is, indeed, a work of the Holy
   Spirit within your hearts.

   I shall detain you awhile to notice the means by which the Holy Spirit
   quickens these desires within our spirits. This desire after a portion
   in the unseen world is first infused in us by regeneration.
   Regeneration begets in us a spiritual nature, and the spiritual nature
   brings with it its own longings and desires. These longings and desires
   are after perfection and God. Imagine an angel imprisoned in a
   stable--it is perfectly certain that it would be discontent with the
   place where the horned oxen lay. If it felt that the Divine will
   commanded it to tarry there for awhile, I doubt not that the bright
   visitant would contentedly put up with the confinement.

   But if it had liberty to leave the society of beasts, how gladly would
   the bright spirit ascend to its native place! Yes, Heaven is the place
   for angels, the true abode of holy spirits and we, too, since our
   spiritual nature is born from above, long to be there--nor shall we be
   content until we are. These desires are further assisted by
   instruction. The more the Holy Spirit teaches us of the world to come
   the more we long for it. If a child had lived in a mine it might be
   content with the glimmer of candle light. But if it should hear of the
   sun, the green fields and the stars, you may depend upon it--the child
   would not be happy until it could ascend the shaft and behold for
   itself the brightness of which it had heard. And as the Holy Spirit
   reveals to us the world to come we feel longings within us, mysterious
   but mighty, and we sigh and cry to be where Jesus is.

   These desires are further increased by sanctified afflictions. Thorns
   in our nest make us take to our wings. The embittering of this cup
   makes us earnestly desire to drink of the new wine of the kingdom. We
   are very much like our poor who would stay at home in England and put
   up with their lot, hard though it is. But when at last there comes a
   worse distress than usual, then straightway they talk of emigrating to
   those fair and boundless fields across the Atlantic where a kindred
   nation will welcome them with joy.

   So here we are in our poverty, and we make the best of it we can. But a
   sharp distress wounds our spirit and then we say we will run away to
   Canaan, to the land that flows with milk and honey. For there, we
   think, we shall suffer no distress, neither shall our spirits hunger
   any more. Heavenly desires are still farther inflamed by communion with
   Christ. The sweets as well as the bitters may be made to increase our
   longings after the world to come. When a man has once known what
   fellowship with Jesus is, he then pines to enjoy it forever. Like the
   Gauls on this side the Alps, who, when they had once drank the Italian
   wines, said one to another, "It must be a fair land where they grow
   such wine as this. Come, Brethren, let us draw our swords and cross the
   Alps and take the vineyards for ourselves." Thus does the love of Jesus
   set us longing to be with Him--

   "Since I have tasted of the grapes, I oftentimes long to go Where my
   dear Lord the vineyard keeps, And all the clusters grow."

   Communion with Christ sharpens the edge of our desire for Heaven. And
   so, to close this vein of thought, does elevation of soul. The more we
   are sanctified and lifted above the grossness of earthliness into
   conformity with Jesus, the more we long for the world to come.

   A peasant at the plow is quite content to mix with his fellow
   laborers--but suppose he forms a passion for the study of the stars,
   feels a poet's frenzy, develops mathematical powers, learns the science
   of flowers--or in any way discovers the treasure hidden in the field of
   learning? He will be sure to be uneasy in ignorance, and will pine for
   books and education. He dreams of schools, and colleges, and libraries.
   His fellow plowmen laugh at him and count him but a fool. If they have
   enough to eat and drink and clothe themselves, they are content--but he
   has wants for which the village has neither sympathy nor supply.

   His elevation of mind has brought with it groans--desires to which, had
   he no more ambition than his fellows--he would have been a stranger. So
   is it with the regenerated man--in proportion as he is elevated by the
   Holy Spirit by growth in Divine Grace, the higher he rises--the more he
   longs to rise. To him that has, it is given, and he desires to have in
   abundance. With a sacred covetousness he pants after yet higher degrees
   of Grace, and after Glory itself. Thus have I opened up to you the
   desire which the Holy Spirit works in us. "He that has worked us for
   the same thing is God."

   II. Our second subject of discourse is THE FITNESS FOR HEAVEN which is
   worked in us. Calvin's interpretation of the text is, "He that has
   fitted us for the same thing is God." Ah, how true this is! There is no
   fitness whatever in man by nature for communion with his God. It must
   be a Divine work within him. The Father works in us fitness for Heaven
   by separating us in the everlasting decree to be His own. Heaven is the
   place of God's own abode--we must be God's own people to be fit to be
   there. He fits us by adopting us into His family, by justifying us
   through the righteousness of Jesus Christ, by preserving us by His
   power.

   The Son of God has an equal share in the working of this fitness. He
   fits us by blotting out our iniquities and by transferring to us His
   righteousness--by taking us into marriage union with Himself. The Holy
   Spirit, forever to be blessed, has His share in this work. It is He who
   first infuses the new nature. He who gives us spiritual food for the
   new nature, giving us to feed upon the flesh and blood of Christ. It is
   He who instructs and develops that new nature, and through the blood of
   Jesus makes the man meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the
   saints in light. Glory be unto the Father, and to the Son, and to the
   Holy Spirit, who thus in blessed union "has worked us for the same
   thing."

   Now, let me describe with great brevity the work of the Holy Spirit in
   preparing us for Glory. As we have already hinted--and we must
   necessarily traverse much the same ground--fitness for Heaven, as
   worked in us by the Spirit, consists, first, in the possession of a
   spiritual nature. Heaven is pre-eminently a spiritual region and those
   who have no nature begotten from above would not by any possibility be
   able to enjoy the bliss of Heaven. They would be quite out of their
   element. It could not be a Heaven to them. A garden bee in the midst of
   the flowers is at home and gathers honey from all their cups and bells.

   But open the gate and admit a swine, and it sees no beauty in lilies,
   roses, or other flowers. Therefore it proceeds to root, and tear, and
   spoil in all directions. Such would an unregenerate man be in Heaven.
   While holy saints shall find bliss in everything in the Paradise of
   God, an ungodly sinner would be at war with everything in that holy
   region. Fitness for Heaven lies much in a holy nature--a love of Heaven
   is as contrary to fallen humanity as light to darkness. Do you not feel
   it so? Left to yourselves, O saints of God, do you not know that you
   would go back to Egypt? Do you not feel that the old nature lusts after
   evil?

   Well, then, as you cannot possibly inherit Heaven unless you delight in
   holiness, you owe this fitness for the perfect state to the Holy
   Spirit. Fitness for Heaven lies in a capacity to delight in God. I have
   always loved that first question and answer in the Assembly's
   Catechism, "What is the chief end of man? The chief end of man is to
   glorify God and to enjoy Him forever." Not to enjoy yourself forever,
   not even to enjoy the harps of gold, the angelic society and the feasts
   of the beatified--but to enjoy God forever. If a man has as yet no
   delight in God and takes no solace in thoughts of Him, he has no
   fitness for Heaven, and cannot get there. But if you delight in God, it
   is God that has "worked you to the same

   thing."

   Fitness for Heaven will lie very much in love to the saints. Those who
   do not love the people of God on earth would find their company very
   irksome forever. Here the unrighteous can manage to endure the company
   of the godly because it can be diluted with an admixture of graceless
   men. But up there the people shall be all righteous and their
   conversation

   shall be all of Christ and of things Divine--such society and such
   conversation would be weariness, itself, to godless hearts. My Hearer,
   if you delight in the company of the Believers--and if the more
   spiritual their conversation the more you enjoy it--then you have been
   worked to this same thing by the work of the Holy Spirit in your soul,
   and you may bless the Lord for it.

   Joy in service is another sweet preparation for Heaven. Heaven is
   sinless service. They serve God day and night in His Temple--service
   without weariness, service without imperfection, service without
   cessation. Now do you delight to serve God? If so, you evidently have a
   fitness for Heaven. But as you once abhorred that service, and were the
   bondslave of the Prince of Darkness--if you now long and wish to
   glorify your God--you have been worked thereto by the Holy Spirit's
   power.

   Conformity to Christ Jesus, again, is another preparation for Heaven.
   Much of Heaven consists in being like Christ. It is the very object of
   Divine Grace that we should be conformed to His image, that He should
   be the first-born among many Brethren. Now, if you are growing, by His
   Grace, somewhat like Christ--if you desire to be like He is, imitating
   His tender, loving, brave, prayerful, obedient, self-sacrificing
   spirit--you have some fitness for the skies. But that fitness was not
   there by nature. You were once as unlike Christ as possible. God has
   worked all this in you.

   I am afraid that I go from one point to another rather too rapidly, but
   the gist of it all is this--Heaven is the world of spirits, the land of
   holiness, the House of God-- and if we have any capacity for the
   enjoyment of Heaven, it has been worked in us by God. The unfitness of
   unrenewed souls for Heaven may be illustrated by the incapacity of
   certain uneducated and coarse-minded persons for elevated thoughts and
   intellectual pursuits.

   When a little child, I lived some years in my grandfather's house. In
   his garden there was a fine old hedge of yew of considerable length
   which was clipped and trimmed till it made quite a wall of verdure.
   Behind it was a wide grass walk which looked upon the fields. The grass
   was kept mown, so as to make pleasant walking. Here, ever since the old
   Puritan Chapel was built, godly divines had walked and prayed and
   meditated. My grandfather was likely to use it as his study. Up and
   down it he would walk when preparing his sermons, and always on Sundays
   when it was fair, he had half an hour there before preaching.

   To me it seemed to be a perfect Paradise, and being forbidden to stay
   there when Grandfather was meditating, I viewed it with no small degree
   of awe. I love to think of the green and quiet walk at this moment. But
   I was once shocked, and even horrified, by hearing a farming man remark
   concerning this sanctum sanctorum, "It' ud grow a many 'taturs if it
   wor ploughed up." What cared he for holy memories? What were meditation
   and contemplation to him? Is it the chief end of man to grow potatoes
   and eat them? Such, on a larger scale, would be an unconverted man's
   estimate of joys so elevated and refined as those of Heaven.

   Alphonse Karr tells a story of a man servant who asked his master to be
   allowed to leave his cottage and sleep over the stable. What was the
   matter with his cottage? "Why, Sir, the nightingales all around the
   cottage make such a 'jug, jug, jug' at night, that I cannot bear them."
   A man with a musical ear would be charmed with the nightingales' song--
   but here was a man without a musical soul who found the sweetest notes
   a nuisance. This is a feeble image of the incapacity of unregenerate
   man for the enjoyments of the world to come--as he is incapable of
   enjoying them, so is he incapable of longing for them.

   But if you and I have grown out of all taste for the things of sin and
   time. If we are sighing for holy, godly joys, we have therein an
   evidence that God has worked in us, by His Grace, and will continue to
   do so till we are made perfect and immortal.

   III. The text informs us that in addition to working in us desires and
   fitness for Glory, the Lord has graciously given to us an EARNEST OF
   GLORY. An earnest, as you all know, is unlike a pledge, in some
   respects. A pledge has to be returned when the matter which it ensures
   is obtained--but an earnest is a part of the thing itself. A man has so
   much wage to take on Saturday night, he receives a part of it in the
   middle of the week, it is an earnest of the full payment--a part of the
   payment itself.

   So the Holy Spirit is a part of Heaven itself. The work of the Holy
   Spirit in the soul is the bud of Heaven. Divine Grace is not a thing
   which will be taken away from us when we enter Heaven, but which will
   develop into Glory. Grace will not be withdrawn as though it had
   answered its purpose, but will be matured into Glory. What is meant by
   the Holy

   Spirit being given to us as an earnest? I believe it signifies, first,
   that the very dwelling of the Holy Spirit within our soul is the
   earnest of Heaven.

   My Brothers and Sisters, if God Himself condescends to make these
   bodies His temples, is not this akin to Heaven's honors? Only put away
   sin, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit would make even this earthly
   state to be heavenly to us. O my Brethren, you little know what a
   weight of Glory is contained in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit! If
   you did but know it and believe in it always, the sorrows of this life
   would become trivial, and as for the frowns of men you would deride
   them. God dwells in you. You walk among the sons of men unknown and
   despised, yet as angels see you, you are the objects of their wonder!
   Rejoice that in this, then, you have an earnest of Heaven.

   But everything the Holy Spirit works in us is an earnest of Heaven.
   When the Holy Spirit brings to us the joys of hope, this is an earnest.
   While singing some glowing hymn touching the New Jerusalem, our spirit
   shakes off all her doubts and fears and anticipates her everlasting
   heritage. When we enjoy the full assurance of faith and read our title
   clear to mansions in the skies--when faith, looking simply to the
   finished work of Christ, knows whom she has believed, and is persuaded
   that he is able to keep that which she has committed to Him--this is an
   earnest of Heaven. Is not Heaven security, confidence, peace?

   The security, confidence, peace which spring from faith in Jesus Christ
   are part and parcel of the Heaven of the blessed. Heaven is the place
   of victory, and, my dear Friends, when we are victorious over sin, when
   the Holy Spirit enables us to overcome some propensity, to put down our
   anger, to crush our pride, to mortify the flesh with its affections and
   lusts--then in that conscious victory over sin we enjoy an earnest of
   the triumph of Heaven. And once more, when the Holy Spirit gives us to
   enjoy fellowship with Jesus Christ, and with one another--when in the
   breaking of bread we feel the union which exists between Christ and His
   members--we have a foretaste of the fellowship of Heaven.

   Do not say, then, that you know nothing of what Heaven is. "Eye has not
   seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the
   things which God has prepared for them that love Him." But, "He has
   revealed them unto us by His Spirit." Spiritual natures do know what
   Heaven is--in the sense of knowing from the drop what the river must be
   like--of understanding from the beam what the sun must be. Its fullness
   you cannot measure, its depth you cannot fathom, its unutterable bliss
   you cannot tell.

   But still you know of what character the Glory will be--you know that
   pure are the joys of the blessed, and all their dwellings peace. You
   know that fellowship with Christ and with holy spirits makes up much of
   Heaven, and you know this because the earnest of the Spirit is a part
   and parcel of the thing itself.

   I conclude with a practical remark or two. If these things are so, what
   emotions are most fitting for us? Answer-- first, O Believers in Jesus,
   be thankful! Overflow with thankfulness. Remember these things are not
   your own productions. They are not flowers of your own garden--they
   have been planted in your soul by another Hand--and watered by a
   superior Power. Give all the glory to His holy name, for to Him all the
   glory belongs. Not a good desire in you was self-originated, no part of
   your fitness for Paradise was self-formed. Grace has done it, Divine
   Grace has done it all!

   Adore and bless the Holy Spirit who has worked all your works in you,
   for you are "His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
   which God has before ordained that we should walk in them." Be
   thankful! As the birds created sing to pour out their song. As the
   flowers, the handiwork of God, load the air with their perfume--so
   sing-- and let your lives be all-fragrant with gratitude to Him who has
   worked you to the same thing.

   Another emotion we ought all to feel who have this worked in us is that
   of reverence. When a scholar knows that all he has learned has been
   taught him by his master, he looks up from his master's feet into his
   master's face with respectful reverence and esteem. O reverence the
   Holy Spirit! Let us, in our public ministry, and in our private
   meditations always stand in awe of Him. I am afraid we too much forget
   Him--let us, instead, reverence Him especially by obedience to His
   faintest monitions. As the leaves of the aspen tremble to the faintest
   breath of the wind, so may we tremble to the faintest breath of God's
   Holy Spirit.

   Let us prize the Word of God because He wrote it. Let us love the
   ordinances because He puts life and power into them. Let us love His
   indwelling, and never grieve Him lest He hide His face from us. "He
   that has worked us for the same thing is God." Vex not His Spirit, but
   anxiously ask that He would continue His work, and complete it in
   righteousness.

   Lastly, our heart ought to feel great confidence this morning. If the
   good thing had been worked by ourselves, we might be sure that it would
   fail before long. Nothing of mortal man was ever perfect. But if He
   that has begun the good

   work is God, there is no fear that He will forsake or leave His work
   undone. They shall never say of Him, " He began to build and was not
   able to finish." No war of His was ever undertaken and then given up
   because He had not counted the cost. God has begun, God will complete.
   His promise is "Yes and amen," and never was forfeited yet. Therefore
   let us be well assured, and let our hearts be glad.

   Dear Hearers, the unhappy thing about this is that there are so many
   who have no desires for the blessed hereafter, no fitness for it, no
   earnest of it. Ah, then, the prophecies that are within you--what do
   they foretell? No yearning for Heaven--does not that foretell that
   there is no Heaven for you? No fitness for the Presence of God. What
   does that say? Why, that in the Presence of God you shall not rest.
   Earnest of the Spirit? Why, you almost laugh at the idea. Ah, then, no
   earnest is a proof that there is no reward for you.

   But what then? Will you be annihilated? Will you pass out of this
   existence and cease to be? Dark as were that prospect--yes, dark as
   midnight--yet were it brighter than the fate which the Word of God
   allots you. There will be darkness, but you shall live in it. There
   will be death, but in it you must ceaselessly exist. For if the
   righteous are promised "life eternal," it is also written, "these shall
   go away into everlasting punishment." God save you from such woe by
   leading you to trust the Savior. Then you will confess with us, "He
   that has worked us for the same thing is God," and unto God be the
   glory. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Method and Music, Or the Art of Holy and Happy Living

   (No. 913)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JANUARY 30, 1870,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord
   Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father by Him." Colossians 3:17.

   IT is always an advantage to have the laws of a kingdom as concise as
   possible. No one will ever be able to tell how much of litigation and
   consequent calamity has been caused in this country by the confused
   condition of our laws. When Napoleon issued his celebrated "Code
   Napoleon," which is an admirable summary of French Law, he conferred
   upon the empire one of the greatest gifts and proved himself a wise
   ruler.

   We want law to be put into such a form that it can be understood, and
   that its application to many cases can be discovered at once. In the
   great moral government of God we have no room to complain in this
   matter--the precepts of holiness are few and comprehensive. First of
   all, the whole of morality was summed up in the Ten Commandments, and
   written upon two tablets. Then, as if this were not concise enough, we
   have the whole Law summarized in two commands, "You shall love the Lord
   your God with all your heart, and your neighbor as yourself."

   And even this is brought into shorter compass still, for that one word,
   "love," is the essence of all Divine Law. We, as Christians, find in
   the text an instance of the terseness, brevity, and clearness of Divine
   precepts. We have here a Law applicable to every Believer--to every
   action, word and thought--in every place, under all circumstances. And
   yet this comprehensive command is expressed in very few words. It is a
   great advantage to the mechanic to be able to carry with him in a small
   compass his square or rule by which he can adjust his materials,
   discover his errors, design correctly, and estimate his work when
   finished. Without such a rule he would be quite at a loss--with it he
   is ready for work.

   We have before us a compendious rule of life, a standard of morals, a
   guide to holiness which we may carry in our memories without the
   slightest difficulty. And which, if we have but the will to use it,
   will be found never to fail us on any occasion. As the mariner's
   compass or the polestar, so may the text be to us. Here is an
   infallible directory as to the way of holiness--a judge whose decisions
   in the matter of righteousness and Truth none need distrust. Read the
   text over, and then I shall ask you to observe the points in it.
   "Whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord
   Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father by Him."

   Observe, first, holy walking described. In the second part of the verse
   note holy music prescribed. And to enforce the whole text bear with me
   patiently till we close with the third head, which will be holy motive
   inscribed--inscribed, I trust, upon all our hearts.

   I. HOLY WALKING DESCRIBED. "Whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all
   in the name of the Lord Jesus." This rule is not applicable to every
   person here present. It can only be practiced by the regenerate. You
   must be in Christ before you can do anything in Christ's name. Until
   your nature is renewed, until you have submitted yourselves unto the
   righteousness of Christ, until Christ is formed in you the hope of
   Glory, you are not capable of walking after this high and hallowed
   fashion. "You must be born again."

   The precept demanding your immediate attention is not the precept of
   this text but another. The words of Peter, in the Acts of the Apostles,
   are for you, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of
   Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift
   of the Holy Spirit." Or this, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and
   you shall be saved." You must begin at the beginning. It will but
   mislead you if I exhort you to walk as Believers before you have
   received the inner life. The root must be changed before the fruit can
   be bettered. You need a radical change, my unconverted Hearer, and you
   must have it or perish forever.

   Do not imagine that any imitation of Christian manners will save
   you--do not conceive that hanging upon your lifeless branches the
   semblance of fruits will transform you into a tree of righteousness,
   the planting of the Lord. Oh, no, the sap within you must be changed.
   The life of God must be infused into your soul. You must be made one
   with Christ, or you cannot serve Him. This precept, belongs, therefore,
   to none of you who have not believed in Christ Jesus! But it belongs to
   all of you, without exception, who are named by the name of Jesus
   Christ in Truth and sincerity. To all of you who have submitted
   yourselves to His government and are trusting in Him for salvation. You
   will listen, I trust, and give earnest heed to this message from your
   Beloved.

   What, then, does this mean, that we are to do everything both in word
   and deed in the name of the Lord Jesus? Answer--there are six points in
   which this precept requires reverent care. First, do all through the
   office and name of Christ as Mediator. You as a Christian are bound to
   offer daily praise. You should often lift up your heart in grateful
   songs and Psalms to God--but see to it that you do all this work of
   praise in the name of the Lord Jesus. No praise of yours can be sweet
   with God except it is presented through your great High Priest. Bring,
   therefore, your gifts of thankfulness to this altar which sanctifies
   the giver and the gift, and ever bless God through Jesus Christ.

   You are also to abound in prayer. It is your vital breath. You cannot
   flourish as a Christian unless you constantly draw near to God in
   supplication. But your supplications must always be presented through
   the name of Jesus Christ. His name gives prevalence to prayer. It is
   not so much your earnestness or sincerity as His precious blood that
   speaks in the ears of God and intercedes for you. Pray always, then,
   with your eyes upon the finished Propitiation and the living
   Intercessor. Always plead the merits of Immanuel, and Heaven's gate
   shall open to you.

   In addition to your prayers and praises, you are bound to serve Him
   according to the abilities entrusted to you in teaching the ignorant
   the way of salvation, in bringing in the unconverted, and in edifying
   the saints. But remember that your service to God in these respects can
   only be acceptable as you present it through the name of Jesus Christ.
   The hand of the Crucified One must offer for you the sweet cane which
   you have bought with money, and the fat of all your sacrifices. If you
   could give to God all the wealth that you possess, all the time of your
   mortal existence, all the talents with which you have been endowed--if
   you could do this from now on without a failure--if you did not present
   the offering through Jesus Christ it would be as though you had done
   nothing.

   Your burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings would have no acceptance
   with Jehovah, for your sinful nature pollutes them all. How necessary
   it is, then, that we should often pause in our holy work, and say, "I
   am doing this for God, but am I presenting it in the appointed way? If
   I see anything of merit in what I am doing, I am acting contrary to the
   Gospel rule and I shall be rejected. I must bring all my work to the
   High Priest of my profession and offer it through

   Him."--

   "The iniquity of all our holy things Is cleansed by His blood, which
   covers all, And adds a rich perfume divinely sweet, Winning acceptance
   at the Throne of God For broken prayers, and faulty songs, and even For
   service marred with sad infirmities." Take heed, dear Hearer, that you
   see the blood sprinkled on your service for God. Almost all things
   under the Law were sanctified by blood, and all things under the
   Gospel, without exception, must be thus made sweet to God. The atoning
   sacrifice, the prevalent intercession of the one appointed Mediator,
   Christ Jesus, must be constantly before our minds in all that we
   attempt to do for our Lord God. Let us never forget this lest we
   utterly fail.

   A second meaning of this precept is, "Do all under the authority of the
   Lord Jesus as your King." Say of such-and-such a doubtful or evil
   action, "This I cannot do. I could not feel that I was authorized to do
   it by any precept or example of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This I
   cannot do, for I should be stepping aside from the allegiance which I
   owe to Him. Therefore this I will not do, be the consequences what they
   may of loss or of suffering. I am not authorized by Christ to follow
   this course, neither will I, come fair, come foul."

   On the other hand, when the act is allowed in Scripture, and only
   forbidden by the traditions of men, you may safely say, "This I feel
   that I may do. I see my Master has laid down no restrictions, therefore
   I will submit to no human traditions or regulations. The commands which
   will-worship would inflict upon me I cast to the wind, for
   superfluities of pretended holiness are but superfluities of
   naughtiness." When positive duty is concerned, your language will be,
   "This ac-

   tion I find that I must do, for I see an express command for
   it--therefore, by His Grace, it shall be done. Be it difficult, it
   shall be achieved. Be it impossible, I will wait on Him who enables
   faith to remove mountains."

   O that every Christian were altogether and evermore obedient to
   heavenly rule! As the planet revolves undeviatingly in its orbit,
   because with the law imposed upon it there has come forth a
   constraining and impelling force--so may we also pursue our course of
   duty, because we have not only heard the Divine precept--but feel the
   sacred energy of the Holy Spirit leading us in the prescribed path.
   Brethren, how safe we feel, and how happy in our consciences, if we are
   certain that we have the authority of the Great King for all our
   actions! The business of a Christian upon earth is not an independent
   one. He is not acting on his own account, but he is a steward for
   Christ.

   What if I compare him to a commission agent who is sent abroad by his
   firm with full powers from his employer to transact business for the
   house which he represents? He is not to trade for himself, but he
   agrees to do all in the name of the firm which commissions him. He
   receives his instructions and all he has to do is to carry them out.
   His whole time and talent being by express agreement at the absolute
   disposal of his employers. Now, if this man shall lend himself to an
   opposition firm, or trade on his own account, he is not true to his
   engagements and he has to bear the responsibility of his acts. But so
   long as he acts for his firm, and does his best, his course is an easy
   and safe one.

   If he follows the instructions of his principals he is eased of all
   responsibility. Should his trade be profitable or otherwise, he need
   not be vexed with anxieties, provided he has diligently followed the
   commands received from home. His acts are authorized from headquarters,
   and they are, therefore, safe for him. He falls back on his principals
   who gave him the commands, and in whose name he acted.

   Now if we serve ourselves or the world, we must take the consequences
   of our unfaithfulness. But if we honestly serve the Lord, all is clear.
   When a Christian can say concerning any course of conduct, "I am bid to
   do this by Christ Jesus my Lord--I can find chapter and verse to
   authorize my acts." When he can feel that he is working for Christ and
   not for himself--with a single eye to the glory of God, and not with
   sinister aims and selfish motives--then he treads as on a rock, and
   defies the censures of his enemies. Let us, then, take good heed to our
   Lord's words, and walk carefully in His commands, for then His
   authority protects us, and every tongue that rises against us in
   judgment we shall condemn.

   This rule of acting under the authority of Christ is applicable in an
   emphatic sense to those who are called to special service in the
   kingdom of Christ. Every man is called to do all the good he can, but
   some men are set apart to labor in peculiar departments of Christian
   work--and these should be doubly careful to do all in their Master's
   name. If a man were sinking through the rotten ice, any one of us would
   be authorized to do all we could to save him. But the iceman, who is
   appointed on purpose that he may save lives, has a peculiar authority
   for anything that he takes upon himself to do in the way of rescuing
   the drowning. He has the name of the Royal Humane Society at his back.

   If a stranded ship were breaking up and the crew were ready to perish,
   we are all of us authorized to do all we can to save the shipwrecked.
   But the men who belong to the lifeboat's appointed crew have a right to
   come to the fore and take the oars and put out to sea. They are
   authorized to lead the way in daring and danger. So, my Brethren, those
   of you who have felt the Divine call within you, the sacred impulse
   which compels you to devote yourself to the salvation of your fellow
   men, you may do it boldly and without apology.

   Your authority is from Christ, for the Holy Spirit has set you apart
   for the work. Let no man hinder or dispirit you. Press forward to the
   front rank in self-denying labor. Call it not impertinence, O you
   carping critics! It is but holy courage which brings earliest hearts to
   the fore. Push to the very front, you men of God, filled with daring
   and self-sacrifice--for if others should impute your zeal to evil
   motives, the Lord who reads the heart understands you--and having given
   you a commission He will not fail to vindicate His faithful servants.

   A third sense of the text is important. We should do all under the
   sanction of the Lord Jesus as our Exemplar. It is an admirable course
   for us all to pursue, if when we find ourselves in circumstances of
   perplexity we ask ourselves the question, "What would Jesus Christ have
   done if He were in my circumstances?" The answer to that question is
   the solution of your difficulty. Whatever He would have done it will be
   safe enough for you to do. It is certain that He would not have been
   unbelieving. Equally certain that He would not have done a wrong thing
   to deliver Himself. We are also sure that He would not have been
   impatient, rebellious, or despairing--nor would He have grown wrathful
   or morose.

   Well then, I know what I must not be and it may be possible to learn my
   positive, as well as my negative behavior from the same Guide. I shall
   be able to discover by turning over the pages of the Evangelists some
   portion of the Savior's

   life very like my own. What He was in that situation I must pray for
   Divine Grace that I may be, and I shall certainly be led in the path of
   wisdom. The royal rule for a Christian is not what is fashionable, for
   we are not to be conformed to this world. It is not what is gainful,
   for the pursuit of gain would lead us to run greedily in the way of
   Balaam for reward.

   It is not that which is generally prescribed in society, for full often
   the prescriptions of society are antagonistic to the teachings of
   Christ. Not even the conduct of professors, for too many even among
   them walk as Paul tells us even weeping, as the enemies of the Cross of
   Christ. Alas, my Brethren, the current holiness of the Church falls far
   below the Scriptural standard! Neither are the common rules of action
   among professors such as we could safely follow. A safe example is to
   be found nowhere but in the life of Jesus Christ Himself. Even the
   holiest of men are only to be followed so far as they follow Christ,
   but no further.

   My Brethren, how calm will your hearts be, how serenely will you face
   your afflictions if you can feel, "I have done nothing but what my
   Master did before me. I have sought to tread in the footprints of His
   pilgrimage!" Why, you must be safe, you must be accepted if you do as
   Jesus did--for never can Christ's example lead a simple soul astray--

   "It is always safe for souls to follow on Where Christ their holy
   Shepherd leads the way." Furthermore, as we are to do all through the
   office of Christ as Mediator, within the authority of Christ as King,
   under the sanction of Christ as Exemplar, so we should do everything to
   the glory of the Lord Jesus as our Lord and God.

   When the Spanish mariners were traversing the seas upon voyages of
   discovery they never touched upon new land, whether an insignificant
   island or a part of the main continent, without at once setting up the
   standard of Ferdinand and Isabella, and taking possession of the soil
   in the name of their Catholic Majesties of Spain. Wherever the
   Christian goes, his first thought should be to take possession of all
   hearts in the name of the Lord Jesus, consecrating all opportunities
   and influences to the Redeemer's service. Such common things as eating
   and drinking become, by the giving of devout thanks, consecrated to
   Christ's name. There is no action which is lawful, however commonplace
   it may be, but may be sanctified by the Word of God and prayer.

   If the intense desire of our spirit shall be that we may glorify God as
   long as we are in this body, we shall find ways and means of
   accomplishing our object--and the Holy Spirit will help our
   infirmities. My dear Brethren, our soul's desires should be always true
   to Christ--most chastely faithful so as not to tolerate any carnal
   motive or self-seeking. How easily do we give place to
   self-glorification! How almost insensibly do we expect to receive honor
   of men! It is very hard to keep ourselves clear of self-seeking under
   some form or other--for even self-denial may be used with an object
   which is the reverse of self-denial.

   The old philosopher, seeing a fool in fine apparel, pointed at him, and
   said, "that's pride," but he was equally right when seeing certain
   Spartans who affected to dress meanly, he said, "and that's pride."
   Pride often stands in the doorway, but it can as readily hide in the
   corner. There is a pride of self-sacrifice and a pride of apparent
   humility, which is everyway as haughty as vainglory itself.

   Dear Friends, we must live for Christ, cost us what it may of
   watchfulness. We must not fail here. We dare not live for a party, or a
   sect, or even altogether for any one Church, however dear to us. We may
   live for the Truth, but only because God is glorified thereby. First
   and last, in the middle and everywhere, the constraining thought of
   Christian life should be, "all for Jesus."--

   "All for the Master, all without reserve, All to the utmost of our
   manhood's might Each pulse, each throb of heart and thrill of nerve,
   Each hour of busy day and silent night."

   Beloved, it is delightful to know that Christ is all mine, and I am all
   Christ's. It is a holy aspiration to desire to enjoy as much of Christ
   as our nature can receive, and then to exhibit as much of Christ as
   Divine Grace can enable us to reveal. "Everything for Jesus." "Christ
   all and in all Christ." Let these be the mottoes of every Believer.
   "Whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord
   Jesus." Aim in all you do to do if for His Glory.

   The fifth point is, do all in the strength of the Lord Jesus as your
   Helper. With Him is the residue of the Spirit. And the Spirit of God is
   the Believer's power. "Without Me you can do nothing," says our Lord.
   We know the truth of that saying by unwise attempts which have ended in
   mournful failures. But let us in the future remember this Truth of God
   practically. Never let us commence a work without seeking strength from
   on High. We go about Christian service very

   often as though we felt ourselves quite up to the mark for it. We pray
   without asking the preparation of the heart from

   God.

   We sing--ah, my Brethren, how universally is it so--without at all
   entreating the Holy Spirit to quicken our praises. And I fear some of
   us must confess sorrowfully that we preach at times as though the
   preaching were to be our work and not the work of the Holy Spirit
   through us. Do not you, as hearers, too often listen to the Word as if
   the mere hearing of it would do you good, or as if the speech of
   such-and-such a man would be certainly blessed to you? Shouldn't you,
   instead, wait upon God beforehand that your going up to the assembly
   might be profitable to your souls? Do all in the Master's strength, and
   how differently everything will be done!

   Acknowledge all the time you are at your work that your strength comes
   from the Lord alone. Never let the thought cross your mind that you, as
   an experienced Christian, have a fitness for the work peculiarly your
   own--so that you can dispense with prayers for Divine aid, so necessary
   to the young! Never imagine that because through long years you have
   performed a service with acceptance that you can therefore now do it
   without renewed help. This is the way by which we sink into routine,
   degenerate into religious automata, and become like formalists and
   hypocrites. This is the way in which the power of God and the vitality
   of godliness are rendered so rare in the Churches.

   If we do not feel conscious day by day of abiding weakness and
   consequent need of fresh strength from the Most High, we shall soon
   cease to be full of Divine Grace. Write this upon the tablets of your
   heart, "All my fresh springs are in You," and from this day forward in
   word and deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus--and you will derive
   all your spiritual energy from Him, the Source.

   Sixthly, we should do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, for He should
   be the element in which we live. It is said of the modern Greeks that
   whatever may be their faults mentally, they are faultless physically,
   for you never saw a Greek peasant in an ungraceful attitude, however
   much he might be off his guard and unconscious of your gaze.
   Gracefulness is a part of the Greek nature. So let the Lord Jesus
   Christ be so woven and intertwisted into your very self that you cannot
   be otherwise than Christ-like under any circumstances. Lord, grant us
   this. It would be a glorious thing to be saturated through and through
   with the spirit of Christ, so as to live Christ evermore.

   That eminent ornithologist, M. Audubon, who produced accurate drawings
   and descriptions of all the birds of the American Continent, made the
   perfection of that work the one object of his life. In order to achieve
   this he had to earn his own living by painting portraits, and other
   labors. He had to traverse frozen seas, forests, canebrakes, jungles,
   prairies, mountains, swollen rivers, and pestilential bogs. He exposed
   himself to perils of every sort and underwent hardships of every kind.
   Now, whatever Audubon was doing, he was fighting his way toward his one
   object--the production of his history of American birds. Whether he was
   painting a lady's portrait, paddling a canoe, shooting a raccoon, or
   felling a tree--his one goal was his bird book.

   He had said to himself, "I mean to carve my name among the naturalists
   as having produced a complete ornithological work of America." This
   resolution ate him up and subdued his whole life. He accomplished his
   work because he gave himself wholly to it. This is the way in which the
   Christian man should make Christ his element. All that he does should
   be subservient to this one thing--"That I may finish my course with
   joy, that I may deliver my testimony for Christ, that I may glorify God
   whether I live or die."

   We have thus seen what it is to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.
   Let us stop a moment to remind you that this text administers a severe
   rebuke to many professed Christians. Too many Church members do nothing
   in Christ's name. Since the day when they were baptized into the name
   of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, they have done
   nothing else in that name. Ah, hypocrites! Ah, hypocrites! God have
   mercy upon you! Alas, how many others do but very little in Christ's
   name! I noted in a letter, by a certain pastor--not, I think, given to
   speaking severely, this remark--that he did not think in his own Church
   one in three of the members were doing anything for Christ.

   I could not speak so sorrowfully as that concerning you, but I much
   fear that a large proportion of the strength of this Church is not used
   for the Lord. I believe that there is more used here than in almost any
   other Church, but still there is a great deal of wasted steam, a great
   deal of buried talent, and thereby Jesus is defrauded. I noticed in an
   American paper an observation made concerning the Baptist Churches of
   North Carolina. A man acquainted with them said, "There are a hundred
   thousand members reported in the various associations. There are a
   hundred thousand baptized persons, and seventy-five thousand of them
   are only 'baptized dead heads.' "

   It is an American term, but I am afraid we shall have to import it, for
   it is frightfully true that numbers of professors are just so many
   "baptized dead heads." They are of no use. They are not working. They
   are perhaps grumbling--the only sign of life they have--but they are
   neither giving of their substance nor laying out any other talents in
   the cause of Christ. If there are any such present, I pray that this
   text may be a thorn in your side and act as a spur to you. And may you
   from this day on do all that lies in your power in the name of the Lord
   Jesus.

   The text also rebukes those Christians who do much in the name of some
   eminent Christian man. I shall not censure any particular denomination,
   but if the Truth censures them, let them hear it. When George Whitfield
   refused to form a new sect, and said, "Let my name perish, and let
   Christ's name last forever," he acted as his Lord would have him. Paul
   was not crucified for you, neither did Apollos die for you! Therefore
   take none of these names--but let the name of Christ be named among
   you--and under that name be known!

   Though there is a Lutheran Church, it was a good saying of Luther,
   though couched in rugged words, "I desire above all things that my name
   should be concealed. That none be called by the name of Lutheran, but
   of Christian. What is Luther? My doctrine is not mine, but Christ's. I
   was not crucified for any. How comes it to pass, that I, who am but a
   filthy, stinking bag of worms, that any of the sons of God should be
   denominated from my name? Away with these schismatic names. Let us be
   denominated from Christ, from Whom alone we have our doctrine." It
   shall be well for all Churches when they are ruled by the like spirit.
   Names which indicate their difference of doctrine will probably survive
   till Christ comes, but the names of men they will do well to discard.

   Once more--what a rebuke is our text to those professors who dishonor
   the name under which they profess to live! The Spaniards in America
   acted so cruelly, and with such a dreadful lust for gold, that when
   they sent their missionaries to convert the Indians, the Indians wished
   only to know whether the religion that was taught them was the religion
   of the Spaniards--for if it were they should like to believe something
   the very opposite. And if there was no Heaven but where the Spaniards
   went, they would sooner go to Hell than be with them.

   Truly some professors' lives give much the same savor to the Christian
   religion. Men say, "Are these Christians, these mean, covetous,
   quarrelsome, domineering, boastful people? Then we will sooner be
   infidels than Christians." Out upon you, you caricatures of godliness!
   If there is one such here, may his conscience prick him. You have
   crucified the Lord afresh, and put Him to an open shame. How dreadful
   will be your punishment if you die in your present state! Repent of
   your sin and ask of God Grace to make your profession sincere.

   And if you will not do this, at least be honest enough to give up your
   false profession--for you do but degrade it and yourself. There is no
   necessity, surely, to add to your innumerable sins, this sin of
   hypocrisy. What do you gain by it? No, Sir, if you must serve mammon
   and the devil, serve them. But why with supererogation of iniquity must
   you pretend to serve Christ?

   II. We leave this first point, and find in the second part of the text,
   HOLY MUSIC PRESCRIBED. "Giving thanks

   unto God the Father by Him." Soldiers march best to battle when the
   trumpet and drum excite them with enlivening strains. The mariner
   brightens his toil by a cheery cry at every pull of the rope. And it is
   an excellent thing when Christian men know how to sing as well as to
   work, and mingle holy music with holy service. The best music of a
   Christian consists in thankfulness to God.

   Thanks should be rendered by the Believer with all the acts common to
   men. Our eating, our drinking, our social meetings, our quiet
   conversations with one with another--in all we should give thanks unto
   God the Father. This we should do in the labors peculiar to our
   vocation. Whatever your trade and calling may be, if you cannot sing
   aloud, you can sing in your hearts while your hands are busy. You can
   ring out the praises of God as well to the sound of the hammer on the
   anvil as to the peal of the organ. Your feet at the sewing machine may
   beat time to a sacred tune.

   You can as well praise God while you crack your whip as when you sing a
   Psalm. Why not? If the heart is right you can mount up to the heavens
   from any place or labor. Whatever your calling may be you shall find
   some peculiarity in it which shall help you to magnify God, if you will
   but use a spiritual eye to discover it.

   We ought especially to praise God in the exercise of our religion.
   Whenever the assemblies of God's people meet, there should be much of
   holy joy. Some people are so afraid of joy that one might suppose them
   to labor under the delusion that all who are devout must also be
   unhappy. If we worshipped Baal, to lance ourselves with knives were
   most fitting. If we were worshippers of Juggernaut or Kalee,
   self-inflicted tortures might be acceptable. If we adored the pope, it

   might be proper for us to wear a hair shirt and practice flagellation.
   But we worship the ever-blessed God, whose delight is to make His
   creatures happy!

   Holy happiness is a part of worship, and joy in the Lord one of the
   accepted Graces of the Holy Spirit. Brethren, let us be happy when we
   praise God. I have noticed with pain the way in which people will get
   rid, if they can, of happy words out of their hymns. The hundredth
   Psalm for instance, runs thus--

   "All people that on earth do dwell,

   Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice,

   Him serve with_"

   What? Well, they modernize it into--

   "Him serve with fear." But, as I believe, the older form is--

   "Him serve with mirth, His praise forth tell,

   Come you before Him and rejoice." I am amazed some other scribe did not
   cut out the word "cheerful," and put in--

   "Sing to the Lord with doleful voice." In this way the Psalm might have
   been "improved" until there would not have been a grain of worship left
   in it. I mean to sing it, "Him serve with mirth." And with a glad and
   merry heart will I praise my God. If you are His child, rejoice in your
   Father's Presence. If you are pardoned, rejoice in the mercy that
   washed away your sins. Even if you are tried and troubled, rejoice that
   your afflictions are working together for your good! "Rejoice in the
   Lord always. And again I say, Rejoice."

   The text tells us under what aspect we should regard God when we are
   thus thanking Him, "Giving thanks unto God the Father," blessing Him
   that He stands in that relation to us as well as to the Lord Jesus. The
   belief in the Divine fatherhood will surely make the sons of God happy.
   It is instructive to observe that thanks are directed to be offered
   especially to the Father. I suppose because we are most apt to forget
   to praise the Father. We love Jesus Christ for dying for us. We forget
   not the Holy Spirit because He dwells in us. But the common idea of the
   Father is dishonoring to Him.

   Is He not regarded as all Justice, and seldom as the Fountain of Love?
   Now, it is the Father who stands at the back of all in the eternal
   purpose. It is the Father who gave the Son to die. It is the Father who
   justifies us through the righteousness of Christ, and adopts us into
   His family. The Father is equally to be loved and worshipped with the
   Spirit and the Son. And through Jesus Christ we should come to God, the
   terrible God as He was to us in our ungodliness, and worship Him as the
   Father now with thankful joy, because of the mercies we have received.

   The gist of this second precept is that you stir up your hearts, my
   dear Friends, to the cultivation of a cheerful spirit. That you excite
   that cheerful spirit to the use of thankful words, telling your friends
   and neighbors of the goodness of God to you. These words should be
   oftentimes elevated into songs. These songs should, as on wings of
   flame, ascend up to where perfect spirits praise God both day and
   night. O, we that love the Savior, do not neglect this, "Whoso offers
   praise glorifies God." Glorify Him, then.

   This praise, this cheerful spirit wins others. They, marking how you
   give thanks, will be attracted to your Savior and your God--while you
   will strengthen yourselves, also--for "the joy of the Lord is your
   strength." Despondency and murmuring will hamper you in all your
   efforts to glorify Christ, but to maintain an inward spring of
   thanksgiving is one of the best ways to keep yourselves in spiritual
   health. God help you, then, to carry out both these precepts--

   "Work and praise! Hearts upraise!

   Drink your fill of joy!

   Happy they who all the day

   Spend in Christ's employ.

   For their song makes them strong,

   Ready for their toil;

   And their mirth, not of earth,

   Sorrow cannot spoil."

   III. A few words upon the third point, namely, HOLY MOTIVE TO BE
   INSCRIBED upon our hearts to secure obedience. These motives are four.
   A word on each.

   Beloved in Christ, you have received all you have from God the Father
   through Christ. That you are not in Hell is due to His longsuffering.
   That you have been spiritually quickened is due to His gracious
   operation. That you are pardoned is due to His precious blood. Owing
   all to Him, what arises in your mind but gratitude? And what is the
   dictate of gratitude? Does it not teach you that it is your reasonable
   service to surrender yourselves to Him who bought you at such a price?
   For, ah, what a return it will be--how poor compared with what He has
   done for you! If you give your body to be burned for Him, yet He
   deserves infinitely more than all the sacrifices of the most painful
   death to recompense His stoop from the highest Throne in Glory to the
   Cross of the deepest woe. Let your gratitude compel you to do
   everything for Jesus.

   Reflect, too, that the Well-Beloved for whom I plead today is worthy.
   "Him has God the Father exalted." Do you object to that exaltation?
   Should you not rather rejoice in it? Is not that song most true --

   "Worthy is He that once was slain, The Prince of Peace that groaned and
   died; Worthy to rise, and live, and reign, AtHis Almighty Father's
   side"? Will you deny, then, to Christ that which He is worthy to
   receive? He deserves the crowns of angels, and the songs of all the
   perfected! Will you not give Him the best you have, even your hearts? I
   appeal to the justice which I trust governs your judgment--should not
   Jesus Christ be the one object of your life?

   Further, many of us here present have professed to be His disciples. We
   remember well the day when we were buried with Him in Baptism unto
   death. We voluntarily came forward and we took upon ourselves to be
   immersed in His name, copying His example and obeying His command. If
   that act meant anything, it meant this--that we professed ourselves to
   be dead henceforth to the world and risen with Christ. Now, by the
   profession then made, by the communion then enjoyed, I pray you, my
   dear Brothers and Sisters, whatever you do in word or deed, do all in
   the Master's name. Let not this appeal to your honor be forgotten.

   Lastly, I need not thus plead with some of you, for your hearts are
   pleading with you. I know you love Him whose name is as ointment poured
   forth. I know how the tendrils of your heart have entwined themselves
   about His Cross. His Person fixes all your love. You are only happy
   when you are walking in communion with Him. He is the sun of your soul,
   without whom you cannot live. Well, then, do what love dictates--bring
   forth the alabaster box of ointment, break it, pour the sacred nard
   upon His head, and if any ask, "Why is this waste?" say that He is
   worthy of it--and that you love much because you have had much
   forgiven.

   This day bring forth the best that is within your store, the spiced
   wine of your pomegranate, and set it before your Lord, while Jesus sups
   with you and you with Him. Again I say arouse yourselves to live at a
   more vigorous rate, and let the whole of the force and energy that
   dwells within you, and all that you can borrow from the seventh Heaven,
   be given up to Him who loved you and gave Himself for you. May my
   Master's blessing be with these words, to all who hear or read them,
   for Jesus' sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Work in Us and Work by Us

   (No. 914)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 6, 1870,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Whereunto I also labor, striving according to His working, which works
   in me mightily." Colossians 1:29.

   THE Apostle Paul could very truthfully assert that he labored and
   agonized. When the Holy Spirit had anointed the Apostles they all
   became ardent enthusiasts for the spread of the Redeemer's kingdom.
   Having the whole world committed to them that they might enlighten it,
   they labored most ardently--each one in his sphere to spread abroad the
   Truth of the Gospel--but the Apostle of the Gentiles labored more
   abundantly than they all. Into how many countries did he carry the
   testimony of Christ? How often did he cross the sea, traverse
   mountains, and ford rivers?

   One sees in his career something more than an ordinary Christian life.
   He was so indefatigable in service that surely, nothing beyond could
   have been possible to humanity, even under the help of God. His public
   labors were not only abundant, but they were the cause of continual
   inward conflict. He never preached a sermon, wrote an Epistle, or
   attempted a work without earnest prayer and soul-consuming zeal. Night
   and day with tears he said of a certain Church that he had labored for
   its good. He was a man so whole-hearted and intense in all that he did,
   that we ought to remember not merely the amount of his labors, but the
   way in which he wore himself out by the intensity of his zeal in them.

   Probably no other man led a more intensely ardent life than he.
   Moreover, added to all this, he carried a weight of care enough to
   crush him. For there came upon him the care of all the Churches--to
   plant them, to defend them against rising errors, to prevent schisms
   from dividing the flock. To lead the converts from Grace to Grace, to
   instruct them, and to present everyone perfect before God. The burden
   resting upon the Apostle was greater than the cares of an empire.

   And then, as if to complete the whole, he was called to suffer
   persecutions of which he has given us a list. A list of which, as we
   read it, makes us shudder that one man should have endured so much--and
   makes us also glory in humanity that it should be possible that so much
   should be borne and done for God by a single individual.

   Yet, note it well, the Apostle takes no honor to himself. He humbly
   ascribes whatever he had done, or suffered, entirely to his Lord. He
   declares that he labored and agonized, but he confesses that it was
   through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who mightily by the Holy
   Spirit worked in him. In another place, when he had mentioned his
   abundant labors, he added, "Yet not I, but the Grace of God which was
   with me." He remembered where to put the crown. He took care not to
   steal an atom of the glory for himself. He ascribed all to the power of
   Him who loved him and gave Himself for him.

   Let us imitate the Apostle in these two things. My Brethren, let us
   live, while we live, a life of energy. But let us at the same time
   confess, when we have done all, that we are unprofitable servants. And
   if there is any glory, any praise resulting from the work which we
   achieve, let us be careful to lay it all at the Redeemer's feet.

   The doctrine of the text upon which I intend to preach this morning, as
   I may be enabled, is this--it is clear from what Paul has here said
   that the work of Christ in us and for us does not exempt as from work
   and service, nor does the Holy Spirit's work supersede human effort,
   but rather excites it. Paul speaks of an inner work, a mighty work
   worked in him, but he also declares, "whereunto I also labor,
   striving." So that the doctrine of the work of the Holy Spirit is not
   intended in any degree to lull our minds into sloth, but wherever the
   Holy Spirit works He makes men work.

   He works in us to will and to do of His own good pleasure, that we also
   may work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. I shall try to
   illustrate this Truth in two respects. First, in reference to a man's
   own salvation. And secondly, in the matter of the Christian man's
   ministry for the salvation of others. The work of the Holy Spirit does
   not supersede Christian effort in either case.

   I. First, then, IN THE BELIEVER'S SALVATION. We believe, each one of
   us, and we have Scriptural warrant for it, that if any man is saved,
   the work within his soul is entirely worked by the Holy Spirit. Man is
   dead in sin, and the dead cannot raise themselves from the grave.
   Quickening and spiritual resurrection must be accomplished by Divine
   power. Man must be born again, and this birth must be effected by
   Divine power, for unless a man is born from Above, he cannot see the
   kingdom of God.

   As the commencement of salvation is dependent upon the Holy Spirit, so
   is the carrying of it on. "Without Me you can do nothing," is Christ's
   testimony. We shall never persevere except as Grace shall keep us from
   falling, nor may we hope to be presented faultless before the august
   Presence except as the Holy Spirit shall sanctify us from day to day,
   and make us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in
   light. I trust, my Brethren, I need not do more than assert this
   doctrine in your hearing, since you know how continually we insist upon
   it, and our trumpet never gives an uncertain sound as to the great
   Truth that God works all our works in us, and that salvation is of the
   Lord from first to last.

   But at this present time we intend to insist upon this further Truth of
   God--that the working of the Holy Spirit in us does not exempt the
   Believer from the most energetic labor, but rather necessitates his
   doing all that lies in him. To enforce this we remark, first, that the
   Christian life is always described as a thing of energy. Sometimes we
   read of it as a pilgrimage. That master allegorist, John Bunyan, has
   not pictured Christian as carried to Heaven while asleep in an easy
   chair. He makes Christian lose his burden at the foot of the Cross.

   He ascribes the deliverance of the man from the burden of his sin
   entirely to the Lord Jesus, but he represents him as climbing the Hill
   Difficulty. Yes, and on his hands and knees, too, Christian has to
   descend into the Valley of Humiliation, and to tread that dangerous
   pathway through the gloomy horrors of the Shadow of Death. He has to be
   urgently watchful to keep himself from sleeping in the Enchanted
   Ground. Nowhere is he delivered from the necessities incident to the
   way, for even at the last he fords the black river and struggles with
   its terrible billows.

   Effort is used all the way through, and you that are pilgrims to the
   skies will find it to be no allegory, but a real matter of fact. Your
   soul must gird up her loins. You need your pilgrim's staff and armor,
   and you must foot it all the way to Heaven, contending with giants,
   fighting with lions, and combating Apollyon himself.

   Our life is in Scripture represented as a race which is even sterner
   work than pilgrimage. In such footraces as were witnessed among the
   Greeks, in every case the man spent all the strength there was in him,
   and underwent a training beforehand that he might be fit for the
   contest. It sometimes happened, and indeed not seldom, that men fell
   dead at the winning-post, through their extreme exertions. Running to
   Heaven is such running as that--we are to strain every nerve. We shall
   require all the power we have, and more, in order to win that
   incorruptible crown which now glitters before the eyes of our faith. If
   we are so to run that we may obtain, we shall have no energy to spare,
   but shall spend it all in our heavenly course.

   Not infrequently the Apostle compares our spiritual life to a boxing
   match, and the terms in the original Greek, if they were translated
   into pure vernacular English, would remind us very much of a boxing
   ring and of the place where wrestlers strive for mastery. To wit, in
   that notable passage, "I keep under my body," we are told by scholars
   that the Greek word alludes to the getting of the antagonist's head
   under the arm and dealing it heavy blows. So the flesh must be
   mortified. Now the wrestlers in the Greek and Roman games strained
   every muscle and sinew, too--there was no part of the body that was not
   brought into action to overthrow their adversary.

   For this they agonized till often blood would spurt from the nostrils,
   and veins would burst. Such, in a spiritual sense, must be the agony of
   a Christian if he is to overcome temptation and subdue the power of
   sin. Ah Brethren, it is no child's play to win Heaven! Saved, as I
   repeat it, through the power of Christ's blood and with the energy of
   His Holy Spirit within us, yet we have no time to loiter, no space in
   which to trifle. We must labor, striving according to His working who
   works in us mightily. All the figures which represent the Christian
   life imply the most energetic exertion.

   Secondly, be it remarked that there is no illustration used in
   Scripture to set forth the heavenly life which allows the supposition
   that in any case Heaven is won by sloth. I do not remember ever finding
   in Scripture the life of the Christian described as a slumber. To the
   sluggard I find a warning always--thorns and thistles in his
   garden--and rags and disease in his person. "The hand of the diligent
   makes rich." There may be occasional opportunities by which even idle
   men may become wealthy, but such spiritual wealth I have never heard
   of. I find that wherever the Spirit of God comes upon

   men, it never leaves a saved man effortless or fruitless, but as soon
   as it descends upon him, according to his capacity he begins to work
   out his own salvation.

   Remember the question of the inspired writer, "Likewise also was not
   Rahab, the harlot, justified by works, when she had received the
   messengers, and had sent them out another way?" Her faith saved her.
   And though it was very weak and very ignorant faith, it made her
   work--and therefore she hid the spies to save their lives. Look at the
   dying thief, with his hands and feet fastened to the wood, and ready to
   expire, yet he rebuked the reviling malefactor. Thus doing all he
   possibly could for his Lord, in Whom he trusted for salvation, what
   more could he have done? It May be said of him, "He has done what he
   could." It shall be well if as much can be said for us.

   No, Brethren, you cannot be carried to Heaven on "flowery beds of
   ease." You must fight if you would reign. You must stem the flood, you
   must breast the waves if you mean to reach the further shore. Divine
   Grace will help you, else were the work an impossibility. But even with
   the aid of Divine Grace you are not permitted to slumber into Glory,
   nor sleep your way to the celestial throne. You must be up and doing,
   watching diligently, lest any man fail of the Grace of God. The trumpet
   sounds, and not the dulcimer--the call is to conflict--not to feasting.

   I would next bid you note, dear Friends, that it is natural it should
   be so. It is unavoidable in the nature of things that when the Holy
   Spirit comes He should not beget a spirit of slumber, but awaken us to
   diligent action. It is natural, I say, because one of the first results
   of the Holy Spirit's entrance into a man's heart is to let him see his
   sin and his danger. If I feel myself guilty and perceive that God is
   angry with me and that I shall be cast by-and-by into the Lake of Fire,
   what is the inevitable result? Shall I not hear a voice crying, "Escape
   for your life! Look not behind you! Stay not in all the plain"?

   Wherever the Holy Spirit works a sense of sin, the sinner is
   constrained to cry, "What must I do to be saved?" Never does the Spirit
   effectually show a man his sin and then leave him to fold his arms and
   ask for "a little more sleep and a little more slumber." No, the
   awakened soul exclaims, "I am guilty, I am accursed of God. How can I
   escape? Lord help me, help me now to find rest if rest is to be found!"
   Then the Holy Spirit farther reveals to us the excellence of the
   salvation of Christ, the happiness of those who rest in Jesus, the
   future reward of such as serve God on earth.

   And what is the result? The enlightened soul cries, "I desire to find
   this pearl of great price! I desire to be enriched by an interest in
   Christ! I too, would, with the blessed, take my everlasting heritage."
   Don't you see, then, that the Holy Spirit cannot make a man appreciate
   salvation without at the same time creating a desire to gain it? And
   out of which desire arises prayer for the promised blessing. After a
   man has found Christ to the pardon of his sin, the Holy Spirit is
   pleased to endear Christ more and more to him. It is the office of the
   spirit to take of the things of Christ and show them to us.

   Now, my Brethren, you know very well that whenever you have a sight of
   the preciousness of Christ, you are moved at once to glorify Him. Do
   you not cry --

   "Oh, for this love let rocks and hills Their lasting silence break, And
   all harmonious human tongues The Sa vior's praises speak"?

   I know it is so! It is because we think so little of Christ that we do
   so little for Him. But when Christ is brought with vivid power home to
   the mind, then at once we cry, "Lord, what would You have me to do?"
   And we, by His Grace, bestir ourselves to honor Him.

   Brethren, the fact that the Holy Spirit is working in a man never can
   be a reason for his not working. On the contrary, the moment a man
   perceives that the Spirit is helping him, he is encouraged diligently
   to labor. "Why," says he, "my work may fail, but if it is the Spirit's
   work it cannot fail." I bow my knee in prayer, and if I believe that
   all acceptable prayer is worked in me by the Holy Spirit, I am fully
   assured that God will not refuse to grant what He Himself, by His
   Spirit suggests to me to ask. If the Holy One of Israel Himself breaks
   my heart and leads me to long after a Savior, surely He does not intend
   to tantalize me.

   He will continue His work till He has saved me. Thus encouraged, a man
   is certain to give diligence to make his calling and election sure.
   Moreover every intelligent man feels that if he does not work when the
   Spirit of God is working in him, he is dishonoring that Divine Person,
   and is running the solemn peril of committing the sin against the Holy
   Spirit which shall never be forgiven him. He feels that if he should be
   slothful that text would condemn him, "How shall we

   escape if we neglect so great salvation?" Neglect--mere neglect--nobody
   ever gets to Heaven by it. But ah, how many perish by that alone!

   To conclude this point, it is most certain that all saving acts must be
   performed by the man himself. Faith is the gift of God, but the Holy
   Spirit never believed for anybody. It is not His office to believe. The
   sinner must believe. Repentance is the work of the Holy Spirit, but the
   Holy Spirit never repented. What had He to repent of? He has done no
   ill. It cannot be possible for Him to repent for us. No, we ourselves
   must repent. My Brethren, this is self-evident to every candid mind.
   There must be in every man a personal faith and a personal repentance.
   And though these are worked in him by the Holy Spirit, yet they are his
   own acts. They cannot be the acts of anybody else, or else the man has
   not believed, and has not repented, and there is no life in him.

   Right on to the end of the Christian life all those acts which bring us
   into communion with God are our own. For instance, the Holy Spirit
   helps men to pray. He helps their infirmities. But they pray. They
   themselves pray. Prove to me that the man does not, himself, pray, and
   I will be bold to tell you that he is not saved. The intercession of
   Christ is prevalent, but it will not save those who live and die
   without praying for themselves. True desires after God must be your own
   desires. The desire is worked in you, but still it is yours. And the
   expression of that desire is helped by the teaching of the Spirit, but
   still it is your own expression, or else what are you but a dead soul?
   There must be a voluntary putting forth on your part of the life which
   is quickened in you by the Spirit. This is so plain as to be
   self-evident.

   Note again, if we were not made active, but are simply acted on by the
   Holy Spirit, there is a reduction of manhood to materialism. If the man
   does not believe nor pray, and if spiritual acts are not a man's own
   acts, but the acts of another in him, then what is the man? There is no
   moral good or moral evil in a work which is not my own--I mean no moral
   good or evil to me. A work which I do not myself perform may be
   creditable or discreditable to somebody else, it is neither to me.

   Take an illustration. In the Square of St. Mark, at Venice, at certain
   hours the bell of the clock is struck by two bronze figures as large as
   life, wielding hammers. Now, nobody ever thought of presenting thanks
   to those bronze men for the diligence with which they have struck the
   hours. Of course not, they cannot help it--they are worked upon by
   machinery--and they strike the hours from necessity. Some years ago a
   stranger was upon the top of the tower, and incautiously went too near
   one of these bronze men. It was time to strike the hour and he knocked
   the stranger from the battlement of the tower and killed him.

   Nobody said the bronze man ought to be hanged--nobody ever laid it to
   his charge at all. There was no moral good or moral evil, because there
   was no will in the concern. It was not a moral act, because no mind and
   heart gave consent to it. Am I to believe that Grace reduces men to
   this? I tell you, Sirs, if you think to glorify the Grace of God by
   such a theory, you know not what you do. To carve blocks, and move logs
   is small glory--but this is the glory of God's Grace-- that without
   violating the human will, He yet achieves His own purposes, and
   treating men as men, He conquers their hearts with love, and wins their
   affections by His Divine Grace.

   I warn any here present who imagine that man is a merely passive being
   in salvation against putting their theory in practice. I am alarmed for
   you if you say, "God will save me if He so decrees, and therefore I
   will sit still and wait." My Hearer, I am afraid for you! You are
   neglecting the great salvation, and I again remind you of the
   warning--"How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?" I
   confess, I have no hope for you. But on the contrary, if you cry,
   "Lord, save, or I perish," I have good hope for you, you shall not
   perish--the Spirit of God is working in you these desires and this
   longing and seeking.

   Whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. I pray you
   check not your aspirations. Quench not the Spirit. Led and guided by
   His mighty working, come to the foot of Christ's Cross. Trust alone to
   Him, and a voice shall sound in your heart, "Your sins which are many,
   are all forgiven you." God grant it may be so.

   II. We shall now turn to the second part of our subject in reference to
   THE MINISTRY OF THE SAINTS FOR THE CONVERSION OF OTHERS. The Holy
   Spirit alone can convert a soul. All the ministries in the world put
   together, be they what they may, are utterly powerless for the
   salvation of a single soul apart from the Holy Spirit. "Not by might
   nor by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord." But wherever the Holy
   Spirit works, as a general rule (so general that I scarcely know an
   exception), it is in connection with the earnest efforts of Christian
   men.

   This is clear, first, from the example of the text. The Apostle Paul
   certifies that the salvation of souls is the sole work of Christ, but
   he declares that he labored, and the next word he adds "striving," or
   as in the Greek, "agonizing." Though the Spirit did the work, it was in
   connection with the Apostle's labor and agony for souls. Now, my
   Brethren, laboring implies abundant work. No man can be said to labor
   who only does half an hour's work in a day. A man who is a thorough
   laborer makes long hours, and is ever at it. The Apostle Paul was this.

   The winning of souls was not a piece of by-play with him. It was his
   one object to which he consecrated everything. He was "in labors more
   abundant." In the morning he sowed his seed, and in the evening he
   withheld not his hand. If we are to have souls saved we must do the
   same. No tradesman expects his shop to prosper who has it open only one
   hour a day--and you must not expect to be soul-winners if you only now
   and then seek to be such. There must be, as far as time and capacity
   allow, the consecration of yourselves to this work, even to an
   abundance of effort.

   Labor, again, means hard work. It is not trifling. He is no laborer who
   takes the spade to play with it as a little child upon the sand. He
   that labors works till the sweat streams from his face. And he that
   would win souls will find that, though it is all of the Holy Spirit,
   yet it involves on his part the sternest form of spiritual work. Baxter
   used to say if any minister found his ministry easy, he would find it
   hard to answer for it at the Day of Judgment. And I add, if any one of
   you teaching in your classes, or officiating in any form of Christian
   work, find it easy, you will find it hard to give an account of your
   stewardship at the Lord's coming.

   The labor must be personal labor, for no man is a laborer who does it
   through his servants. He may be an employer, and in a certain sense he
   may be said to do the work, but he cannot say, "I labor." The Apostle
   performed personal work. Ah, Brethren, the power of the Church very
   much lies under God in the personal influence of her members. On this
   platform I feel that I am a long way off from you. I wish I could
   devise some mode of speech by which I could thrust my hand into your
   hearts and get my soul to pulsate close by yours to make you feel what
   I feel.

   Between the pulpit and the pew there is too often a great gulf fixed.
   But you who get your friends into the parlor and talk concerning
   eternal things--you have a fine opportunity. Your personal influence
   then bears with mighty force upon the person with whom you are
   speaking, and you may hope that a blessing will be the result. Learn
   from your adversaries. What is the strength of the fools of Rome? What
   but their conversing with men and women by themselves at the
   confessional? Who could not prevail, with such an instrument? We, with
   nobler ends and aims, must use personal, private conversation in all
   honest earnestness to bring men to repentance, to faith, and to the
   foot of the Cross.

   My Brethren, I do not believe that even this will suffice. Abundant
   Christian work, and hard Christian work, and personal Christian work
   must have combined with it inward soul conflict. If your soul never
   breaks for another, you will not be the means of breaking that other's
   heart. But when it comes to this, "I must have that soul saved, I
   cannot bear the thought that it should be cast away"--you are near
   winning that soul. Suppose it is your child, your unconverted husband,
   or your brother--and you are enabled to say in yourself, "I have
   continual heaviness for my kinsmen according to the flesh"--so that you
   could almost sacrifice your own soul if they might but be saved?

   When it comes to tears, the Lord will not deny you. My Brothers, when
   your heart breaks with love to souls, they shall be yours. But there
   must be conflicts. I pity that minister whose life is one of
   uninterrupted spiritual ease. What? Can we see you backslide and not
   weep till you come back to the Cross? Can I know that among these
   thousands who are listening to my voice, perhaps half are dead in
   trespasses and sins--and can I be insensible as a marble statue? Then
   God have mercy upon me as well as upon you! Unhappy souls to be
   entrusted to the care of one so utterly unfit for such a service!

   No, the heart must be stirred, there must be an anguishing and yearning
   for souls. They tell us that in the sea certain waves rise from the
   bottom, and these cause the ground swells and the breakers. There must
   be great ground swells of desire within us that souls may, by some
   means, be delivered from the wrath to come. And where these deep
   searching of the heart are found, there will be conversions. Where
   these four things of which we have spoken are the result of the Holy
   Spirit working in any of you, it is as certain that souls will be saved
   as that spring will follow when the sun returns from his southern
   tropic.

   We must further note that this is plain from the work itself. For,
   Brethren, souls are not converted as a rule without previous prayer for
   them on the part of someone or another. Well, then, we must be stirred
   up to prayer, and the praying which God hears is not that of people
   half asleep. The petitions which pierce the ears of God are not those
   that fall from

   careless lips. They must come from your heart or they will never go to
   His heart. The importunate pleader prevails with Heaven. Souls are
   saved instrumentally through teaching, but the teaching which saves
   souls is never cold, dead teaching. God may occasionally bless such
   words, for He does great wonders, but as a rule the teaching that
   convinces and enlightens is earnest and enthusiastic.

   We have heard of a traveler who, journeying onward, met with one who
   said, "Sir, the night is dark, and I should not advise you to go on to
   the river, for the bridge is broken in the middle. You will be in the
   stream before you know it." This was said in so careless a tone that
   the traveler went on. He was met sometime afterwards, fortunately for
   him, by another who again warned him--"The bridge is broken! Don't go
   on, you will be sure to lose your life if you attempt it. You cannot
   ford the stream and the bridge is broken." The traveler replied, "Why,
   I have been told that tale before, but the man who told me it spoke in
   such a tone that I could see through him, I knew it was all a hoax."

   "Oh, but Sir," said the other, "it is true! I have but now escaped
   myself. I am sure it is true!" "But," said the traveler, "I am not so
   easily scared." "Well, then," said the other, "I beseech you once
   again, do not go on, for you will perish," and rushing up to him he
   said, "I will not let you go." He grasped him and held him fast. "Now,"
   said the other, "I believe you have spoken the truth, and I will turn
   with you." So there are some who warn souls of their danger in such a
   careless tone that they create an unbelief which many an earnest tongue
   will not be able to dispel.

   But if you get hold of the soul and say to it, "I will not let you
   perish." If you say to your friends as Whitfield would say to his
   congregation, "If you perish it shall not be for want of praying for
   you. It shall not be for want of weeping over you. If you are damned it
   shall not be because my heart was cold towards you," you will win
   them--they will be led to believe, by His Grace, from your earnestness.
   Who knows how many earnest spirits you may bring to Jesus? Praying and
   teaching, if effectual, must be earnest. And therefore when the Spirit
   comes to save the sons of men He always gives us earnest praying men
   and earnest teachers.

   But, Brethren, teaching is not all. We must come to persuasion with
   men, and that persuasion must be very persevering. Certain men we must
   dog day after day with our entreaties. Some souls will not come with
   one invitation, they must therefore be plied with many. I remember a
   minister who went to see a dying laborer, and the man growled from his
   bed, "Tell him to be gone--I want none of the likes of him to disturb
   me." He called again, and received the same rude answer. He called
   again, and went halfway up the stairs. He heard an oath, and would not
   intrude. He continued to call till he had numbered twenty times, and
   the twenty-first time the man said, "Well, as you are so set on it, you
   may come in," and he did go in, and that soul was won for God!

   Humanly speaking, where had that man been but for persevering zeal?
   When the Lord means to save men by you, He will give you perseverance
   in seeking them. He will work in you mightily by His Spirit. You will
   feel a determination, that twist and turn as they may with
   indefatigable earnestness of self-destruction, you will still pursue
   them if by any means you may prevent their everlasting misery. Earnest
   zeal is a natural result of the Holy Spirit's working upon the souls of
   men. Whenever the Spirit of God comes, He sanctifies in men the natural
   instinct which leads them to wish others to be like themselves. Whether
   a man is bad or good, he seeks to make others like himself. The Holy
   Spirit lays hold of this and constrains Christians to desire to bring
   others to their state of mind.

   This done, He arouses in the Christian mind the commendable principle
   of love to our fellow men. Having experienced the blessedness of
   salvation for ourselves, we desire to see others enjoying like
   happiness. The patriot's bosom glows with the same passion as before,
   but now it is refined and purified, and he prays for his nation that
   not only it may be free, but that the Spirit of God may make it free,
   indeed. The Holy Spirit bestirs in us the impulse of gratitude, "Has
   Christ saved me?" Then the man exclaims, "I will live for Him!" The
   Spirit gives impetus to that suggestion, and we resolve that since
   Jesus has loved us so, we will give to Him all that we are, and all
   that we have.

   In addition to this, the Holy Spirit sanctifies many other natural
   emotions. Such, for instance, that which we sometimes call the esprit
   de corps, by which men are moved to desire the prosperity of the
   community to which they belong. The Holy Spirit makes us feel one with
   Christ's Church and we ardently desire her success. A holy emulation as
   to which shall serve the Master most runs through our ranks--not that
   we may get honor--but that we may honor Him. We cannot endure it that
   our Brethren should go to the war and we sit still. We begin to be
   afraid lest the denunciation should go forth against us, "Curse you
   Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse you bitterly the inhabitants
   thereof, because they

   came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the
   mighty." Inspired by such feelings we rush to the fight that we may
   rescue souls for Christ.

   Then the Spirit in some men--I pray it may be in your case, my dear
   Friends--sheds abroad the love of Christ at such a rate that the soul
   is all on fire to exalt Christ. No, in some He has made this sacred
   passion to eat them up till they have been consumed with holy zeal.
   Like men inspired, like ancient Apostles, certain choice spirits have
   lived the life of Christ on earth with an awful vehemence of
   enthusiasm. Wherever such men are raised up, God is about to save
   souls! Whenever you listen to a man who is carried away by an
   all-consuming desire for the glory of God, you may conclude that he is
   the instrument of God to thousands. His lips shall feed many, he shall
   be the spiritual progenitor of tribes of Believers. Thus where the
   Spirit of God comes, energy is evinced and souls are saved. And we do
   not find it otherwise.

   I would have you notice, once more, that the whole history of the
   Church confirms what I have stated. When the Holy Spirit descended,
   there were two signs of His Presence. The one was a rushing mighty
   wind, the other was the tongue of fire. Now if the Holy Spirit intended
   to do all the work Himself--without using us as earnest instruments--
   the first emblem would have been stagnant air. And the next might have
   been a mass of ice, or what you will, but certainly not a tongue of
   fire. The first emblem was not only wind, but it was a mighty wind, and
   not only that, but a rushing mighty wind, as if to show us that He
   intended to set every spiritual sail in the most rapid motion.

   And as birds are drifted before the gale, so would He impel His people
   forward with His mighty influences. The other emblem was fire, a
   consuming, devouring, imperial element. May we be baptized in the Holy
   Spirit, and in fire--and so we shall know what is meant by the symbol.
   Our Lord's commencement of the Gospel ministry was signalized by
   vehemence. Here is His own experience, "From the days of John the
   Baptist until now the kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the
   violent take it by force." Christ's ministry and life were notably
   earnest, He was clad with zeal as with a cloak.

   His Apostles, also, were men so vehement that in their earliest
   deliverances they were thought to be drunken with wine. Every era of
   the Church's prosperity has been marked by this same holy violence.
   Hear Chrysostom speak, he is no player upon a goodly instrument, he
   gives forth no dulcet tones for gentle ears. Listen to his denunciation
   of the Empress Eudoxia! Hear how he denounces the sins of the times!
   How vehemently he calls upon men to escape for their lives because of
   coming judgment!

   Listen to Augustine, his vehement tones you will not soon forget. Turn
   to the notable era of the Reformation. The men who worked the
   Reformation were no dullards, no men of polite speech, of elegant and
   dainty sentences. Luther was a type of them all, vehement to the
   extreme of vehemence. I say not that their natural violence was the
   power which worked the Reformation, but that the Holy Spirit made their
   hearts vehement, and so they worked marvels. And we, dear Brethren--if
   we are to see in these days a genuine revival of religion, worthy of
   the name--must return to the old enthusiasm which once made the Church
   fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with
   banners. O that we may live to see it, and the Lord's name shall be
   glorified!

   The conclusion of the whole matter is just this--let us combine the two
   things of which we have spoken. Dear Brethren, let us rely upon the
   Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit only. Let us not conduct a warfare at
   our own charges. Let us believe that without the Lord, nothing good can
   be done. But let us rest assured that Jesus is never absent where He
   gives the spirit of prayer, as He has given to this Church. And that He
   never deserts those to whom He vouchsafes holy zeal for His kingdom,
   such as He has bestowed on many here present. Let us be encouraged by
   His Presence. Gideon, when he obtained the token of the fleece wet with
   dew, and when by night he heard the story of the barley cake that
   overturned the tents of Midian--because God was with him--did not
   straightway go to his home and renounce the enterprise.

   No, but on the contrary, thus encouraged, he gathered together his
   three hundred valiant men in the darkness of the night. They broke the
   pitchers, bade the torches shine, and shouted the watchword, "The sword
   of the Lord and of Gideon! The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!" Even
   so let it be, by God's Grace, with us at this hour. Knowing that God
   the Holy Spirit is with us, let us lift the cry amid the midnight of
   our age, "The sword of the Lord and of His Son Jesus!" and we shall see
   what God will do, for He will surely put to flight the armies of the
   aliens, and get to Himself renown.

   But, Brethren, let us combine with this confidence in the Holy Spirit,
   the most earnest effort on the part of everyone to do all he can. I
   have a scene before my mind's eye at this moment. I see in this Church
   and neighborhood the counterpart of the mountainside when the multitude
   were fainting for lack of bread. They must be fed, Christ willed it.
   The dis-

   ciples must bring their barley loaves and fishes--what were they among
   so many? Christ must break and multiply. The disciples must receive
   from His hands. They must then go among the many, the fifties and the
   hundreds, and break the bread that Christ had blessed--for the hungry
   must be fed. Not only men, but women and children must be satisfied.

   Behold, my Brethren, this great city hungry and faint, and ready to
   die. Bring here, all you disciples of Christ, your loaves and fishes--I
   mean not to me but to the Master. What you have of ability, however
   slender, bring it out. Christ will not begin to multiply till you have
   brought forth all you have. Miracles are not to be expected till nature
   is brought to a nonplus. Bring out, then, whatever of talent or Divine
   Grace you have--consecrate it all to Jesus--and then as He begins to
   multiply, stand ready as your master's servants to wait upon the crowd.
   And if they push and clamor, yet weary not--break the bread till every
   soul shall have been supplied.

   Go on, go on, and do not say the toil is hard! It is so blessed to do
   good to others--it is thrice blessed--no, sevenfold blessed, to turn a
   sinner from the error of his ways, and save a soul from death! No,
   weary not, though you have been so long at it that your spirit is
   faint. My Brother, your physical frame is weary, but be of good cheer.
   Do you not hear them? Hearken, I pray you! Up yonder, there are angels
   bending from their thrones, and I think I hear them say, "How blessed a
   work to feed the hungry, and those men, how honored to be permitted to
   hand round the Master's precious gifts! Do they not whisper, "We would
   gladly be with them"?

   One bright spirit thinks he would exchange his crown with the meanest
   of the disciples, if he might share the service of Gospel teaching!
   Might they not envy you--those blessed harpers upon the sea of
   glass--because you can do what they cannot? You can tell of Jesus, you
   can fetch in the prodigals, you can find the lost jewels for the
   Master's crown!

   I charge you, my Brethren, by the living God--unless your religion is
   hypocrisy--help me this month, help my Brethren, the Elders and
   Deacons, help us everyone of you. By the blood that bought you, if you
   are, indeed, redeemed-- by the Holy Spirit that is in you, except you
   be reprobates--by everything that God in loving kindness has done for
   you--I charge you come to the help of the Master in this, the hopeful
   hour.

   So may the Lord do unto you as you shall deal with us this day. If you
   shall, indeed, consecrate yourselves to Him, and serve Him, may He
   enrich you with the increase of God, and may the peace of God that
   passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds. But if you refuse
   your service, the Lord shall judge you. He that knows his Master's will
   and does it not, shall be beaten with many stripes.
     __________________________________________________________________

                      Sinners Bound with the Cords of Sin

   A Sermon

   (No. 915)

   Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, February 13th, 1870, by

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   "His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be
   holden with the cords of his sins."--Proverbs 5:22.

   THE first sentence has reference to a net, in which birds or beasts are
   taken. The ungodly man first of all finds sin to be a bait, and,
   charmed by its apparent pleasantness he indulges in it, and then he
   becomes entangled in its meshes so that he cannot escape. That which
   first attracted the sinner, afterwards detains him. Evil habits are
   soon formed, the soul readily becomes accustomed to evil, and then,
   even if the man should have lingering thoughts of better things, and
   form frail resolutions to amend, his iniquities hold him captive like a
   bird in the fowler's snare. You have seen the foolish fly descend into
   the sweet which is spread to destroy him, he sips, and sips again, and
   by-and-by he plunges boldly in to feast himself greedily: when
   satisfied, he attempts to fly, but the sweet holds him by the feet and
   clogs his wings; he is a victim, and the more he struggles the more
   surely is he held. Even so is it with the sins of ungodly men, they are
   at first a tempting bait, and afterwards a snare. Having sinned, they
   become so bewitched with sin, that the scriptural statement is no
   exaggeration: "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his
   spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil."

   The first sentence of the text also may have reference to an arrest by
   an officer of law. The transgressor's own sins shall take him, shall
   seize him; they bear a warrant for arresting him, they shall judge him,
   they shall even execute him. Sin, which at the first bringeth to man a
   specious pleasure, ere long turneth into bitterness, remorse, and fear.
   Sin is a dragon, with eyes like stars, but it carrieth a deadly sting
   in its tail. The cup of sin, with rainbow bubbles on its brim, is black
   with deep damnation in its dregs. O that men would consider this, and
   turn from their delusions. To bring torment to the guilty, there is
   little need that God should, literally in the world to come, pile up
   Tophet with its wood and much smoke, nor even that the pit should be
   digged for the ungodly in order to make them miserable; sin shall of
   itself bring forth death. Leave a man to his own sins, and hell itself
   surrounds him; only suffer a sinner to do what he wills, and to give
   his lusts unbridled headway, and you have secured him boundless misery;
   only allow the seething caldron of his corruptions to boil at its own
   pleasure, and the man must inevitably become a vessel filled with
   sorrow. Be assured that sin is the root of bitterness. Gild the pill as
   you may, iniquity is death. Sweet is an unholy morsel in the mouth, but
   it will be wormwood in the bowels. Let but man heartily believe this,
   and surely he will not so readily be led astray. "Surely in vain is the
   net spread in the sight of any bird," and shall man be more foolish
   than the fowls of the air? will he wilfully pursue his own destruction?
   will he wrong his own soul? Sin, then, becomes first a net to hold the
   sinner by the force of custom and habit, and afterwards, a sheriffs
   officer to arrest him, and to scourge him with its inevitable results.

   The second sentence of our text speaks of the sinner being holden with
   cords, and a parable may be readily fashioned out of the expression.
   The lifelong occupation of the ungodly man is to twist ropes of sin.
   All his sins are as so much twine and cord out of which ropes may be
   made. His thoughts and his imaginations are so much raw material, and
   while he thinks of evil, while he contrives transgression, while he
   lusts after filthiness, while he follows after evil devices, while with
   head, and hand, and heart he pursues eagerly after mischief, he is
   still twisting evermore the cords of sin which are afterwards to bind
   him. The binding meant is that of a culprit pinioned for execution.
   Iniquity pinions a man, disables him from delivering himself from its
   power, enchains his soul, and inflicts a bondage on the spirit far
   worse than chaining of the body. Sin cripples all desires after
   holiness, damps every aspiration after goodness, and thus, fettering
   the man hand and foot, delivers him over to the executioner, which
   executioner shall be the wrath of God, but also sin itself, in the
   natural consequences which in every case must flow from it. Samson
   could burst asunder green withes and new ropes, but when at last his
   darling sin had bound him to his Delilah, that bond he could not snap,
   though it cost him his eyes. Make a man's will a prisoner, and he is a
   captive indeed. Determined independence of spirit walks at freedom in a
   tyrant's Bastille, and defies a despot's hosts; but a mind enslaved by
   sin builds its own dungeon, forges its own fetters, and rivets on its
   chains. It is slavery indeed when the iron enters into the soul. Who
   would not scorn to make himself a slave to his baser passions? and yet
   the mass of men are such--the cords of their sins bind them.

   Thus, having introduced to you the truth which this verse teaches,
   namely, the captivating, enslaving power of sin, I shall advance to our
   first point of consideration. This is a solution to a great mystery;
   but then, secondly, it is itself a greater mystery; and when we have
   considered these two matters it will be time for us to note what is the
   practical conclusion from this line of thought.

   I. First, then, the doctrine of the text, that iniquity entraps the
   wicked as in a net, and binds them as with cords is A SOLUTION OF A
   GREAT MYSTERY.

   When you and I first began to do good by telling out the gospel, we
   labored under the delusion that as soon as our neighbors heard of the
   blessed way of salvation they would joyfully receive it, and be saved
   in crowds. We have long ago seen that pleasant delusion dispelled; we
   find that our position is that of the serpent-charmer with the deaf
   adder, charm we ever so wisely, men will not hear so as to receive the
   truth. Like the ardent reformer, we have found out that old Adam is too
   strong for young Melancthon. We now perceive that for a sinner to
   receive the gospel involves a work of grace that shall change his heart
   and renew his nature. Yet none the less is it a great mystery that it
   should be so. It is one of the prodigies of the god of this world that
   he makes men love sin, and abide in indifference as if they were fully
   content to be lost. It is a marvel of marvels that man should be so
   base as to reject Christ, and abide in wilful and wicked unbelief. I
   will try and set forth this mystery, in the way in which, I dare say,
   it has struck many an honest hearted worker for Jesus Christ.

   Is it not a mysterious thing that men should be content to abide in a
   state of imminent peril? Every unconverted man is already condemned.
   Our Lord has said it: "He that believeth not is condemned already,
   because he hath not believed on the Son of God." Every unregenerate man
   is not only liable to the wrath of God in the future, but the wrath of
   God abideth on him. It is on him now, it always will remain upon him;
   as long as he is what he is, it abideth on him. And yet in this state
   men do not start, they are not amazed or alarmed, they are not even
   anxious. Sabbath after Sabbath they are reminded of their unhappy
   position: it makes us unhappy to think they should be in such a state,
   but they are strangely at ease. The sword of vengeance hangs over them
   by a single hair, yet sit they at their banquets, and they laugh and
   sport as though there were no God, no wrath to come, no certainty of
   appearing before the judgment-seat of Christ. See a number of persons
   in a train that has broken down. The guard has only to intimate that
   another train is approaching, and that it may perhaps dash into the
   carriages and mangle the passengers; he has only to give half a hint,
   and see how the carriage doors fly open, how the travelers rush up the
   embankment, each one so eager for his own preservation as to forget his
   fellow's. Yet here are men and women by hundreds and thousands, with
   the fast-rushing train of divine vengeance close behind them; they may
   almost hear the sound of its thundering wheels, and, lo, they sit in
   all quietness, exposed to present peril and in danger of a speedy and
   overwhelming destruction. "Tis strange. tis passing strange, tis
   wonderful." Here is a mystery indeed, that can only be understood in
   the light of the fact that these foolish beings are taken by their
   sing, and bound by the cords of their iniquities.

   Be it ever remembered that before very long these unconverted men and
   women, many of whom are present this morning, will be in a stale whose
   wretchedness it is not possible for language fully to express. Within
   four-and-twenty hours their spirits may be summoned before the bar of
   God; and, according to this book, which partially uplifts the veil of
   the future, the very least punishment that can fall upon an unconverted
   soul will cause it "weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth." All
   they had endured, of whom it is written, that they wept and gnashed
   their teeth, was to be shut out into outer darkness, nothing more; no
   stripes had then fallen, they had not yet been shut up in the
   prison-house of hell, only the gate of heaven was shut, only the light
   of glory was hid; and straightway there was weeping, and wailing, and
   gnashing of teeth. What, then, will be the woe of the lost when
   positive punishment is inflicted? As for what they will endure who have
   beard the gospel, but have wilfully rejected it, we have some faint
   notion from the Master's words: "It shall be more tolerable for Sodom
   and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for them." We know that it is
   a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, for "our God
   is a consuming fire." From this platform there rings full often that
   question, "How shall ye escape if ye neglect so great salvation?" And
   yet for all this, men are willing to pass on through time into eternity
   regardless of the escape which God provides, turning aside from the
   only salvation which can rescue them from enduring "the blackness of
   darkness for ever." O reason, art thou utterly fled? Is every sinner
   altogether brutish? If we should meet with a man condemned to die, and
   tell him that pardon was to be had, would he hear us with indifference?
   Would he abide in the condemned cell and use no means for obtaining the
   boon of life and liberty? Yes, there awaits the sinner a more awful
   doom, and a more terrible sentence, and we are sent to publish a sure
   pardon from the God of heaven; and yet thousands upon thousands give us
   no deep heartfelt attention, but turn aside and perish in their sins. O
   that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I
   might weep for the folly of the race to which I belong, and mourn over
   the destruction of my fellow men!

   It often strikes us with wonder that men do not receive the gospel of
   Jesus Christ, when we recollect that the gospel is so plain. If it were
   a great mystery one might excuse the illiterate from attending to it.
   If the plan of salvation could only be discovered by the attentive
   perusal of a long series of volumes, and if it required a classical
   training and a thorough education, why then the multitude of the poor
   and needy, whose time is taken up with earning their bread, might have
   same excuse; but there is under heaven no truth more plain than this,
   "He that believeth on the Lord Jesus hath everlasting life;" "He that
   believeth and is baptised, shall be saved." To believe--that is, simply
   to trust Christ. How plain! There is no road, though it ran straight as
   an arrow, that can be more plain than this. Legible only by the light
   they give, but all so legible that be who runs may read, stand these
   soul-quickening words, "Believe and live." Trust Christ and your sins
   are forgiven; you are saved. This is so plain a precept, that I may
   call it a very A B C for infants, yet men receive it not. Are they not
   indeed holden by the cords of their sins when they refuse to obey?

   Moreover, brethren, there is a wonderful attractiveness in the gospel.
   If the gospel could possibly be a revelation of horrors piled on
   horrors, if there were something in it utterly inconsistent with
   reason, or something that shocked all the sensitive affections of our
   better part, we might excuse mankind, but the gospel is just this: man
   is lost, but God becomes man to save him, "The Son of Man is come to
   seek and to save that which was lost." Out of infinite love to his
   enemies the Son of God took upon himself human flesh, that he might
   suffer in the room and stead of men what they ought to have suffered.
   The doctrine of substitution, while it wondrously magnifies the grace
   of God and satisfies the justice of God, methinks ought to strike you
   all with love because of the disinterested affection which it reveals
   on Jesus Christ's part. O King of Glory, dost thou bleed for me? O
   Prince of Life, canst thou lie shrouded in the grave for me? Doth God
   stoop from his glory to be spat upon by sinful lips? Doth he stoop from
   the splendor of heaven to be "despised and rejected of men," that men
   may be saved? Why, it ought to win every human ear, it ought to
   entrance every human heart. Was ever love like this? Go ye to your
   poets, and see if they have ever imagined anything nobler than the love
   of Christ the Son of God for the dying sons of men! Go to your
   philosophers, and see if in all their maxims they have ever taught a
   diviner philosophy than that of Christ's life, or ever have imagined in
   their pictures of what men ought to be, an heroic love like that which
   Christ in very deed displayed! We lift before you no gory banner that
   might sicken your hearts; we bring before you no rattling chains of a
   tyrant's domination; but we lift up Jesus crucified, and "Love" is
   written on the banner that is waved in the forefront of our hosts; we
   bid you yield to the gentle sway of love, and not to the tyranny of
   terror. Alas! men must be bound, indeed, and fettered fast by an
   accursed love to sin, or else the divine attractions of a crucified
   Redeemer would win their hearts.

   Consider, my friends, you who love the souls of your fellow men, how
   marvellous it is that men should not receive the gospel when the
   commandment of the gospel is not burdensome! Methinks if it had been
   written that no man should enter heaven except by the way of martyrdom,
   it had been wisdom for every one of us to give our bodies to be burned,
   or to be stretched upon the rack; yea, if there had been no path to
   escape from the wrath of God, but to be flayed alive with Bartholomew,
   enduring present but exquisite torture, it would have been but a cheap
   price for an escape from wrath, and an entrance into heaven. But I find
   in God's word prescribed as the way of salvation, no such physical
   agonies. No austerities are commanded; not even the milder law which
   governed the Pharisee when he "fasted thrice in the week." Only this is
   written--"Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved;"
   and the precept of the Christian's life is, "Love thy God with all thy
   heart, and thy neighbor as thyself." Most pleasant duties these of
   love! What more sweet? What more delightful than to permit the soul to
   flow out in streams of affection? The ways of true religion are not
   irksome, her ways are pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. What,
   heaven given for believing? What, heaven's gate opened only for
   knocking, and boons all priceless bestowed for nothing but the asking?
   Yet they will not ask, they will not knock. Alas, my God, what
   creatures are men! Alas, O sin, what monsters hast thou made mankind,
   that they will forget their own interests, and wrong their own souls!

   Further, it is clear that men must be fast held by the bondage of their
   sins when we recollect that, according to the confession of the most of
   them, the pleasures of sin are by no means great. I have heard them say
   themselves that they have been satiated after a short season of
   indulgence We know how true the word is, "Who hath woe? who hath
   redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek
   mixed wine." No form of sin has ever been discovered yet that has
   yielded satisfaction. You shall look at those who have had all that
   heart could wish, and have without restraint indulged their passions,
   and you shall find them to be in their latter end amongst the most
   wretched rather than the most satisfied of mankind. Yet for these
   pleasures--I think I degrade the word when I call them pleasures--for
   these pleasures they are willing to pawn their souls and risk
   everlasting woe; and all this while, be it remembered, to add to the
   wonder, there are pleasures to be found in godliness; they do not deny
   this, they cannot without belying their own observation. We who are at
   least as honest as they are, bear our testimony that we never knew what
   true happiness was till we gave our hearts to Christ; but since then
   our peace has been like a river. We have had our afflictions, we have
   suffered grievous bodily pain, we have endured mental depression, we
   have been heavily burdened, we have borne many trials; but we can say--

   "We would not change our blest estate

   For all the world calls good or great."

   "Happy are the people whose God is the Lord!" We can set our seal to
   this experimentally. See ye then, my brethren, these poor souls will
   prefer the pleasures that mock them to the pleasures that alone can
   satisfy. If we had to die like dogs, it would be worth while to be a
   Christian. If there were no hereafter, and our only consideration were
   who should enjoy this life the best, it would be the wisest thing to be
   a servant of God and a soldier of the cross. I say not it would ensure
   our being rich, I say not it would ensure our being respected, I say
   not it would ensure our walking smoothly and free from outward trouble;
   but I do say that because of "the secret something which sweetens all,"
   because of the profound serenity which true religion brings, the
   Christian life out-masters every other, and there is none to be
   compared therewith. But think ye for awhile what the ungodly man's life
   is! I can only compare it to that famous diabolical invention of the
   Inquisition of ancient times. They had as a fatal punishment for
   heretics, what they called the "Virgin's Kiss." There stood in a long
   corridor the image of the Virgin. She outstretched her arms to receive
   her heretic child; she looked fair, and her dress was adorned with gold
   and tinsel, but as soon as the poor victim came into her arms the
   machinery within began to work, and the arms closed and pressed the
   wretch closer and closer to her bosom, which was set with knives, and
   daggers, and lancets, and razors, and everything that could cut and
   tear him, till he was ground to pieces in the horrible embrace; and
   such is the ungodly man's life. It standeth like a fair virgin, and
   with witching smile it seems to say, "Come to my bosom, no place so
   warm and blissful as this;" and then anon it begins to fold its arms of
   habit about the sinner, and he sins again and again, brings misery into
   his body, perhaps, if he fall into some form of sin, stings his soul,
   makes his thoughts a case of knives to torture him, and grinds him to
   powder beneath the force of his own iniquities. Men perceive this, and
   dare not deny it; and yet into this virgin's bosom they still thrust
   themselves, and reap the deep damnation that iniquity must everywhere
   involve. Alas, alas, my God!

   And now, once more, this terrible mystery, which is only solved by
   men's being held by their sins, has this added to it, that all the
   while in the case of most of you now present, all that I have said is
   believed, and a great deal of it is felt. I mean this: if I were
   talking with persons who did not believe they had a soul, or believe in
   the judgment to come, or believe in the penalty of sin, or believe in
   the reward of righteousness, I should see some reason why they rejected
   the great salvation; but the most of you who attend this house of
   prayer--I think I might say all--have scarcely ever had a doubt about
   these things. You would be very much horrified if any one would
   insinuate that you did not believe the Bible to be the word of God. You
   have a little Pharisaism in your soul, that you think you are not as
   scoffers are, nor infidels. I own you are not, but I grieve to say I
   think you are more inconsistent than they. If these things be a
   fiction, well, sirs, your course is rational; but if these things be
   realities, what shall I say for you when I plead with God on your
   behalf? What excuse can I make for you? If you profess to believe these
   things, act as though you believe them; if you do not, practically act
   so. Why do you profess to own them as the truth? The case is worse, for
   you not only believe these thing's to be true, but some of you have
   felt their power. You have gone home from this place, and you could not
   help it, you have sought your chamber and bowed your knee in prayer;
   such prayer as it was, for, alas! your goodness has been like the
   morning cloud and the early dew. I know some of you who have had to
   break off some of your sins, for your conscience would not let you rest
   in them. Yet you are unbelievers still, still you are undecided, still
   you are unsaved, and at this moment, if your soul were required of you,
   nothing would be in prospect but a fearful looking for of judgment and
   of fiery indignation. O my hearer, you whose conscience has been at
   times awakened, in whom the arrows of the great King have found a
   lodging place, in whom they are rankling still, yield, I pray thee,
   yield to the divine thrusts, and give up thy contrite spirit to thy
   Redeemer's hands. But if thou do not, what shall I say to thee? The
   kingdom of God has been thrust from you by yourselves. Be sure of this,
   it has come near you, and in coming near it has involved solemn
   responsibilities which I pray you may not have to feel the weight of in
   the world to come.

   Here, then, stands the riddle, that man is so set against God and his
   Christ that he never will accept eternal salvation until the Holy
   Spirit, by a supernatural work, overcomes his will and turns the
   current of his affections; and why is this? The answer lies in the
   text, because his own iniquities have taken him, and he is holden with
   the cords of his sin. For this reason he will not come unto Christ that
   he may have life; for this reason he cannot come, except the Father
   which hath sent Christ draw him.

   II. But now, secondly, I pass on to observe that though this is the
   solution of one mystery, IT IS IN ITSELF A GREATER MYSTERY.

   It is a terrible mystery that man should be so great a fool, so mad a
   creature as to be held by cords apparently so feeble as the cords of
   his own sins. To be bound by reason is honorable; to be hold by
   compulsion, if you cannot resist it, is at least not discreditable; but
   to be held simply by sin, by sin and nothing else, is a bondage which
   is disgraceful to the human name. It lowers man to the last degree, to
   think that be should want no fetter to hold him but the fetter of his
   own evil lusts and desires. Let us just think of one or two cords, and
   you will see this.

   One reason why men receive not Christ and are not saved, is because
   they are hampered by the sin of forgetting God. Think of that for a
   minute. Men forget God altogether. The commission of many a sin has
   been prevented by the presence of a child. In the presence of a fellow
   creature, ordinarily a man will feel himself under some degree of
   restraint. Yet that eye which never sleeps, the eye of the eternal God,
   exercises no restraint on the most of men. If there were a child in
   that chamber thou wouldst respect it-but God being there thou canst sin
   with impunity. If thy mother or thy father were there thou wouldst not
   dare offend, but God who made thee and whose will can crush thee, thy
   lawful sovereign, thou takest no more account of him than though he
   were a dog, yea, not so much as that. Oh, strange thing that men should
   thus act! And yet with many it is not because of the difficulty of
   thinking of God. Men of study, for instance, if they are considering
   the works of God, must be led up to thoughts of God. Galen was
   converted from being an atheist while in the process of dissecting the
   human body; he could not but see the finger of God in the nerves and
   sinews, and all the rest of the wonderful embroidery of the human
   frame. There is not an emmet or an infusorial animalcule beneath the
   microscope but what as plainly as tongue can speak, saith, "Mortal,
   think of God who made thee and me." Some men travel daily over scenes
   that naturally suggest the Creator; they go down to the sea in ships,
   and do business on great waters, where they must see the works of the
   Lord, and yet they even manage to become the most boisterous
   blasphemers against the sacred majesty of the Most High, in his very
   temple where everything speaks of his glory. But you will tell me
   perhaps, some of you, that you are not engaged in such pursuits. I
   reply, I know it. Many of you have to labor with your hands for your
   daily bread, in occupations requiring but little mental exercise. So
   much the more guilty then are you that when your mind is not
   necessarily taken up with other things, you still divert it from all
   thoughts of God. The working man often find is it very possible to
   spend his leisure hours in politics, and to amuse his working hours by
   meditating upon schemes more or less rational concerning the government
   of his country, and will he dare to tell me therefore that he could not
   during that time think of God? There is an aversion to God in your
   heart, my brother, or else it would not be that from Monday morning to
   Saturday night you forget him altogether. Even when sitting here you
   find it by no means a pleasant thing to be reminded of your God, and
   yet if I brought up the recollection of your mother, perhaps in heaven,
   the topic would not be displeasing to you. What owe you to your mother
   compared with what you owe to your God? If I spoke to you of some dear
   friend who has assisted you in times of distress, you would be pleased
   that I had touched upon such a chord; and may I not talk with you
   concerning your God, and ask you why do you forget him? Have you good
   thoughts for all but the best? Have you kind thoughts of gratitude for
   every friend but the best friend that man can have? My God! my God! why
   do men treat thee thus? Brightest, fairest, best, kindest, and most
   tender, and yet forgotten by the objects of thy care!

   If men were far away from God, and it were a topic abstruse and
   altogether beyond reach, something might be said. But imagine a fish
   that despised the ocean and yet lived in it, a man who should be
   unconscious of the air he breathes! "In him we live and move and have
   our being; we are also his offspring." He sends the frost, and he will
   send the spring; he sends the seed-time and the harvest, and every
   shower that drops with plenty comes from him, and every wind that blows
   with health speeds forth from his mouth. Wherefore then is he to be
   forgotten when everything reminds you of him? This is a sin, a cruel
   sin, a cursed sin, a sin indeed that binds men hard and fast, that they
   will not come to Christ that they may have life; but it is strange, it
   is beyond all miracles a miracle, that such a folly as this should hold
   men from coming to Christ.

   Another sin binds all unregenerate hearts; it is the sin of not loving
   the Christ of God. I am not about to charge any person here with such
   sins as adultery, or theft, or blasphemy, but I will venture to say
   that this is a sin masterly and gigantic, which towers as high as any
   other--the sin of not loving the Christ of God. Think a minute. Here is
   one who came into the world out of pure love, for no motive but mercy,
   with nothing to gain, but though he was rich, yet for our sakes he
   became poor; why then is he not loved? The other day there rode through
   these streets a true hero, a brave bold man who set his country free,
   and I do remember how I heard your shouts in yonder street, and you
   thronged to look into the lion-like face of Italy's liberator. I blame
   you not, I longed to do the same myself, he well deserved your shouts
   and your loudest praises. But what had he done compared with what the
   Christ of God has done in actually laying down his life to redeem men
   from bondage, yielding up himself to the accursed death of the cross
   that man might be saved through him? Where are your acclamations, sirs,
   for this greater Hero? Where are the laurels that you cast at his feet?
   Is it nothing to you, is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by, is it
   nothing to you that Jesus should die? Such a character, so
   inexpressibly lovely, and yet despised! Such a salvation, so
   inexpressibly precious, and yet rejected! Oh, mystery of iniquity!
   indeed, the depths of sin are almost as fathomless as the depths of
   God, and the transgressions of the wicked all but as infinite in infamy
   as God is infinite in love.

   I might also speak of sins against the Holy Ghost that men commit, in
   that they live and even die without reverential thoughts of him or care
   about him; but I shall speak of one sin, and that is the mystery that
   men should be held by the sin of neglecting their souls. You meet with
   a person who neglects his body, you call him fool, if, knowing that
   there is a disease, he will not seek a remedy. If, suffering, from some
   fatal malady, he never attempts to find a cure, you think the man is
   fit only for a lunatic asylum. But a person who neglects his soul, be
   is but one of so numerous a class, that we overlook the madness. Your
   body will soon die, it is but as it were the garment of yourself and
   will be worn out; but you yourself are better than your body as a man
   is better than the dress he wears. Why spend you then all thoughts
   about this present life and give none to the life to come?

   It has long been a mystery who was the man in the iron mask. We believe
   that the mystery was solved some years ago, by the conjecture that he
   was the twin brother of Louis XIV., King of France, who, fearful lest
   he might have his throne disturbed by his twin brother, whose features
   were extremely like his own, encased his face in a mask of iron and
   shut him up in the Bastille for life. Your body and your soul are twin
   brothers. Your body, as though it were jealous of your soul, encases it
   as in an iron mask of spiritual ignorance, lest its true lineaments,
   its immortal lineage should be discovered, and shuts it up within the
   Bastille of sin, lest getting liberty and discovering its royalty, it
   should win the mastery over the baser nature. But what a wretch was
   that Louis XIV., to do such a thing to his own brother! How brutal, how
   worse than the beasts that perish! But, sir, what art thou if thou
   doest thus to thine own soul, merely that thy body may be satisfied,
   and thy earthly nature may have a present gratification? O sirs, be not
   so unkind, so cruel to yourselves. But yet this sin of living for the
   mouth and living for the eye, this sin of living for what ye shall eat
   and what ye shall drink, and wherewithal ye shall be clothed, this sin
   of living by the clock within the narrow limits of the time that ticks
   by the pendulum, this sin of living as if this earth were all and there
   were nought beyond--this is the sin that holds this City of London, and
   holds the world, and binds it like a martyr to the stake to perish,
   unless it be set free.

   Generally, however, there also lies some distinct form of actual sin at
   the bottom of most men's impenitence. I will not attempt to make a
   guess, my dear hearer, as to what it may be that keeps thee from
   Christ, but without difficulty I could, I think, state what these sins
   generally are. Some men would fain be saved, but they would not like to
   tale up the cross and be despised as Christians. Some would fain follow
   Christ, but they will not give up their self-righteous pride; they want
   to have a part of the glory of salvation. Some men have a temper, which
   they do not intend to try to restrain. Others have a secret sin, too
   sweet for them to give it up; it is like a right arm, and they cannot
   come to the cutting of it off. Some enjoy company which is attractive,
   but destructive, and from that company they cannot fly. Men one way or
   another are held fast like birds with birdlime, till the fowler comes
   and takes them to their destruction. O that they were wise, for then
   they might be awakened out of this folly! But this still remaineth the
   mystery of mysteries, that those sins absurd and deadly, bind men as
   with cords, and hold them fast like a bull in a net.

   THE CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER IS THIS, a message sinner to thee,
   and saint, to thee.

   Sinner, to thee. Thou art held fast by thy sins, and I fear me much
   thou wilt be held so till thou perish, perish everlastingly. Man, does
   not this concern you? I lay last night by the hour together on my bed
   awake, tossing with a burden on my heart, and I tell thee that only
   burden that I had was thy soul. I cannot endure it, man, that thou
   shouldst be cast into the "lake that burneth with fire and brimstone."
   I believe that book as thou dost; believing it, I am alarmed at the
   prospect which awaits the unconverted. The more I look into the subject
   of the world to come, the more I am impressed that all those who would
   lessen our ideas of the judgment that God will bring upon the wicked,
   are waging war against God and against virtue and the best interests of
   men. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
   Do not try it, my friend, I pray thee do not try it. Run not this risk,
   this certainty of endless misery, I beseech thee, dare it not! What
   sayest thou, "What then should I do?" I venture to reply in the words
   of one of old, "Break off thy sins by righteousness, for it is time to
   seek the Lord." But thou repliest, "How can I break them off? they are
   like cords and bonds." Ah, soul, here is another part of thy misery,
   that thou hast destroyed thyself, but thou canst not save thyself; thou
   hast woven the net, thou hast made it fast and firm, but thou canst not
   tear it in pieces. Bat there is One who can, there is One upon whom the
   Spirit of the Lord descended that he might loose the prisoner. There is
   a heart that feels for thee in heaven, and there is One mighty to save,
   who can rescue thee. Breathe that prayer, "O set me free, thou
   Liberator of captive souls;" breathe the prayer now, and believe that
   he can deliver thee, and thou shalt yet, captive as thou art, go free,
   and this shall be thy ransom price, his precious blood; and this shall
   be the privilege of thy ransomed life, to love and praise him who hath
   redeemed thee from going down into the pit.

   But I said the conclusion of the whole matter had something to do with
   the child of God. It has this to do with him. Dear brother and sister
   in Christ, by the love you bear to your fellow sinners, never help to
   make the bonds of their sins stronger than they are--you will do so if
   you are inconsistent. They will say, "Why, such a one professes to be a
   saved man, and yet see how he lives!" Will you make excuses for
   sinners? It was said of Judah, by the prophet, that she had become a
   comfort to Sodom and Gomorrah. O never do this; never let the ungodly
   have to say, "There is nothing in it; it is all a lie; it is all a mere
   pretense; we may as well continue in sin, for see how these Christians
   act!" No, brethren, they have bonds enough without your tightening them
   or adding to them.

   In the next place, never cease to warn sinners. Do not stand by and see
   them die without lifting up a warning note. A house on fire, and you
   see it as you go to your morning's labor, and yet never lift up the cry
   of "Fire!" a man perishing, and yet no tears for him! Can it be so? At
   the foot of Mr. Richard Knill's likeness I notice these words,
   "Brethren, the heathen are perishing, will you let them perish?" I
   would like to have each of you apply to your own conscience the
   question, "Sinners are perishing, will you let them perish without
   giving them at least, a warning of what the result of sin must be?" My
   brethren, I earnestly entreat you who know the gospel to tell it out to
   others. It is God's way of cutting the bonds which confine men's souls;
   be instant, in season and out of season, in publishing the good news of
   liberty to the captives through the redeeming Christ.

   And lastly, as you and I cannot set these captives free, let us look to
   him who can. O let our prayers go up and let our tears drop down for
   sinners. Let it come to an agony, for I am persuaded we shall never get
   much from God by way of conversion till we feel we must have it, until
   our soul breaketh for the longing that it hath for the salvation of
   souls: when your cry is like that of Rachel, "Give me children or I die
   I" you shall not long be spiritually barren. When you must have
   converts, or your heart will break, God will hear you and send you an
   answer. The Lord bless you! May none of you be held by the cords of
   your sins, but may ye be bound with cords to the horns of God's altar
   as a happy and willing sacrifice to him that loved you. The Lord bless
   you for Jesus' sake.

   PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON--Proverbs 3.
     __________________________________________________________________

A Generous Proposal

   (No. 916)

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Come you with us, and we will do you good." Numbers 10:29.

   THESE ancient words, so simple, yet so sweet, fascinate us with a
   potent hallowed charm. They ring out their melody like a familiar air.
   The language of a heart full of kindness, inspired with faith, and
   inspirited with the enthusiasm of a hope so much Divine that the lapse
   of ages impairs not their force, or diminishes anything from their
   natural spontaneous freshness. This story of Hobab one can hardly read
   without remembering the Apostolic declaration that the Law was a
   "shadow of good things to come." A truly instructive shadow it was. In
   this instance the shadow is so like the image, the type so like the
   antitype, that we can almost see the Christian Church, and the convert
   as he is invited to unite with it. And we may behold in metaphor the
   blessings of which he may expect to be a partaker in so doing.

   "Come you with us, and we will do you good," seems to be quite as
   suitable an address from the lips of a Christian pastor as from those
   of the Prophet of Horeb, who was king in Jeshurun. We do not feel in
   the least degree hesitant as if we were wrenching the words from their
   natural association, or even exercising the slightest ingenuity in
   accommodating them to our own circumstances, so suitable do they seem
   for our use. The people of Israel in the wilderness were a type of the
   Church of Christ. The invitation here given was such as may be given to
   those who are proper subjects for communion with the Christian Church.

   We shall proceed accordingly, this evening, to talk to you upon four
   things. First, the nature of a true Church as it is depicted by Israel
   in the wilderness. Secondly, the obligation of such a Church to invite
   suitable persons to join it. Thirdly, the argument that the Church may
   use, and the inducements it will always have to offer in setting forth
   the benefits to be conferred on those who heartily respond. And
   fourthly, the scrupulous fidelity it behooves us, as members of the
   Church, to observe in keeping our pledge ever afterwards to seek the
   welfare of such as unite with our fellowship.

   I. First, then, WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A TRUE CHURCH AS IT IS
   PICTURED BY ISRAEL IN THE WILDERNESS? We might prolong the answer to
   this question with many minute features, but it will be unnecessary, at
   present, to do more than give you a simple broad outline. The people in
   the wilderness were a redeemed people. They had been redeemed by blood
   and redeemed by power. The sprinkling of the blood of the paschal lamb
   over their lintels and their doorposts had secured their safety when
   the first-born of Egypt was slain.

   Thus they were redeemed by blood, while wonderful miracles were worked
   throughout the whole land. And at the last, when threatened and pursued
   by their oppressors, the whole of the pride and pomp of Egypt was
   destroyed in the Red Sea. They were, indeed, redeemed by power. So, all
   the true members of God's Church understand what the blood of
   sprinkling means. They have enjoyed a Passover through it. God has
   passed over them--passed over them in mercy. Justice has executed its
   warrant upon the Person of the Lamb, and they have escaped--they have
   been redeemed by blood.

   And the Holy Spirit has entered into their hearts and made them hate
   their former sins. He has delivered them from the dominant power of
   their inward corruptions, has set them free and brought them out of the
   bondage of sin. Thus they have also been redeemed by power, and no one
   has any right to think himself a member of Christ's Church unless by
   faith he has seen himself redeemed by blood--and in his experience has
   also been redeemed by the power of the Holy Spirit.

   But, according to our text and the context, the Israelites were a
   people who were passing through a land where they found no rest,
   neither did they desire any, for they were journeying to another
   country, the promised land, the Canaan. Now, here is another
   description of the true Church of God. They are not of the world, even
   as Christ is not of the world. This is not their rest. Here they have
   no continuing city. Objects which may suit men who have no outlook
   beyond death would not be suitable to them. That which rejoices the
   heart of the mere worldling gives them but very slender solace.

   Their hope and their consolation lie beyond the river. They look for a
   city that has foundations whose Builder and Maker is God.

   Judge then, my dear Hearer, whether you are a member of God's Church,
   of the Church of Jesus Christ. If you are, you are a stranger and a
   foreigner this night here below, however pleasant the tent of your
   pilgrimage may be. Your Father's house on High is your destination. You
   are an exile from your home, albeit to your faith's foreseeing eye its
   golden gates may never so clearly appear. You have not yet come to your
   rest, but there remains to you a rest, a rest to which you shall come
   in due time, though you have not yet reached it. May I entreat you to
   put these questions to your own hearts as they arise, and judge
   yourselves.

   Israel in the wilderness, according to the text, again, was a people
   walking by faith as to the future. Remember, the words are, "They were
   going to the place of which the Lord said, I will give it to you." They
   had never seen it--no one had come from it to tell them of it. True, in
   after days some spies had returned--but they brought up an ill report
   of the land, so that the people required even more faith, then, than
   they did before. If anyone had said to them, "But, if there is a land
   that flows with milk and honey, how will you gain it? The inhabitants
   thereof are strong and mighty--how are you sure that you will ever
   obtain this goodly land?" the only reply would have been, "The Lord has
   spoken to us concerning it."

   Every true Israelite had been instructed as to the Covenant God had
   made with Abraham when He said, "To you and to your seed will I give
   this land to possess it," and every true Israelite was expecting that
   His people should find a lodgment and a portion in that land evermore
   because of the Covenant which God had made with his fathers. They were
   walking, then, in that respect, by faith--looking for a country which
   they had not seen--traversing a desert in search of a land which as yet
   they had not known. And with only God's Word for their title deed and
   nothing more.

   And such are God's people now. As for joys to come, they have not
   tasted them--but they are looking for them because God has promised
   them. "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the
   heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him.
   But God has revealed them unto us by His Spirit," and the Spirit
   reveals them only to our faith. If you ask me, "How do you know that
   there is a Heaven?" I must answer you, I believe it on God's testimony.
   I have no other warrant for it. No man has returned from that fair land
   to testify that he has heard the everlasting song, or seen the blessed
   citizens as they stand in their bright array before the Everlasting
   Throne.

   Nor want I that any such should return. God's Word is enough. Let that
   stand instead of the testimony of ten thousand angels, or of myriads of
   the white-robed host of spirits who might have returned to tell the
   tale. We walk by faith as Israel did of old. Are you walking by such a
   faith? Do you believe in the unseen future, and does the hope of an
   unseen reward make you despise the present rewards of sin? Are you
   willing to bear the reproach of Christ because you count it greater
   treasure than all the riches of Egypt? Are you willing, now, to take up
   with Christ's Cross because you believe in Christ's crown? Though you
   have not seen it, do you believe in it, and rejoice with joy
   unspeakable and full of glory?

   These people, also, as to their present circumstances were walking by
   faith. It was not merely faith which sang to them of Canaan, but it was
   faith that told them of the manna which fell day by day, and the water
   which flowed from the rock--which stream followed them in their
   journey. Why, they could not live in any other way in the wilderness
   but by faith in God, for from that arid strand there sprang nothing for
   their nourishment! Here and there a palm tree--now and then a cooling
   well. But for the most part, had it not been for the goodness of God,
   their way had been over a desert, cheerless, waste, and terrible. But
   He gladdened it for them, and made the place of His feet, and of their
   feet, too, right glorious, for His mercy and His loving kindness endure
   forever!

   Now, in this world the Christian man has to live by faith upon God as
   to present things. As to temporal necessities he must cast all his care
   on Him who cares for us, but especially as to all spiritual supplies
   the Christian has no stock of Grace. He has no inner spring within
   himself in his old nature. He has to look for everything that can
   sustain his new life from God, even the Father, who has promised not to
   forsake him. Now surely, my dear Hearer, you know whether you are
   living by present faith or not. If all your comfort is derived from
   that which you can handle, and hear, and see. And if your joys of life
   are only the outward things of the present--then you are no member of
   the Church of God.

   Whether you may have been baptized, or confirmed--whatever profession
   you may have made, or whatever sign you may have received--you do not
   belong to Christ's people--nor can you belong to them. But if you live
   by faith, I care not of what Church you are a member. If you are
   exhibiting day by day a living faith upon a living but unseen God. If

   your trust is in His Providence. If you daily resort to Christ for help
   and succor. If you have that faith which is the mark of God's elect,
   you may depend upon it that you are one of His.

   One other mark let us give among many more which might be mentioned.
   These people found, wherever they went, that they were surrounded by
   foes. In the wilderness the Amalekites were against them. When they
   crossed into the promised land all the inhabitants of Canaan were up in
   arms against them. So I think you will find it if you are a child of
   God. All places are full of snares. Events, prosperous or adverse,
   expose you to temptations. All things that happen to you, though God
   makes them work for good, in themselves would work for evil. Here on
   this earth the world is no friend to Divine Grace to help you on to
   God.

   The bias of the current is not towards Heaven. Alas, it is the other
   way! "Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves." "The
   whole world lies in the Wicked One, and you are of God, little
   children." Darkness prevails. It cannot minister to your safety or to
   your happiness. Neither can the sinful world minister light to the
   understanding, peace to the conscience, joy to the heart, or holiness
   to the life of the Believer. You will have to fight continually. The
   last step you take will be a conflict, and you will never be able to
   sheathe your sword until you are in the bosom of Christ. Thus must you
   maintain the godly warfare--

   "'Till with yonder blood-bought crowd You shall sing on Canaan's shore
   Songs oft triumph, sweet and loud War with Amalek no more."

   Here, then, are some of the marks of the Church of Christ. I hope that
   a part of that Church worships in this House of Prayer. A part of that
   Church will be found to worship in every House of Prayer where the
   disciples of our common Lord assemble, and the mystery of God and of
   the Father and of Christ is acknowledged.

   II. Let us pass on to the second word, which is this, that IT IS THE
   DUTY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH TO INVITE SUITABLE PERSONS TO JOIN WITH
   IT. As you read--"Come you with us, and we will do you good"--are not
   these the terms in which any Church should invite a suitable pastor to
   unite with it? I have always felt that they have a better application
   to a pastor than they have to the people. For it is said of Hobab, "You
   know how we are to encamp in the wilderness, and you shall be unto us
   instead of eyes."

   It was inviting a really efficient helper, who would be of great
   service to the Israelites, to come and cast in his lot with them. So
   should a Church expect to find in its pastor one who may guide them,
   because he knows how they are to encamp in the wilderness. One who may
   be to them, in some respects, instead of eyes. Their invitation should
   come in this way, not only, "Come you with us, that we may get good out
   of you"--that is one design--but it should also be, "Come you with us,
   that we may do you good. That we may hold up your hands, that we may
   sustain you by our prayers, that we may back you up by our efforts.
   That being led onward by you from one work of Christian activity to
   another, we may never fail you, never betray you, but may stand with
   you even to the last."

   I believe you will seldom get much good unless you are willing also to
   confer good. Those who are the nearest to the heart of the preacher, in
   all Christian service, will in all probability be most spiritually
   enriched under his ministry. I speak not of myself nor for myself, but
   I specially address myself now to those of you, my Hearers, who are
   members of other Churches. Do, I exhort you, love your ministers! Stand
   up for their character in all companies! Rally at their side in all
   their efforts--never let them have to regret your absence at the
   weeknight service, or at any other time, if you can help it.

   Let them see that you appreciate the men whom you have chosen to be
   over you in the Lord, and that you have said in inviting them to come
   among you, "Come you with us, and we will do you good." Not to linger
   on that view, however pertinent and seasonable, let us take the words
   as significant of the manner in which Churches should invite suitable
   persons to come among them as private members. Are there not those who
   go in and out merely as visitors worshipping with you, who have never
   joined hands with you in Covenant?

   They meet with you as mere hearers, under the same ministry, but they
   have not identified themselves with the brotherhood to sit down and
   feast with you at the Table of the Lord. To such as these the proposal
   may be made, and the welcome proffered. The conditions, of course, need
   to be thoroughly understood on our part as well as on theirs. We dare
   not invite anyone to join the visible Church who has not first joined
   the invisible Church. We do not believe that a man has any right to be
   baptized in water unless he has first been baptized in the Holy Spirit.
   Nor that anyone has a right to

   eat of the Lord's Supper, the outward signs of bread and wine, until he
   has eaten of the flesh and drank of the blood of the Son of Man, in a
   spiritual sense.

   He must have the essence of the symbol before we dare give the symbol.
   So a man must be vitally united to the living Church of Christ before
   he has any right to be professionally united there. Therefore it would
   be a sin on the part of any child of God to say to anyone whom he knew
   to be an unconverted person, "Come and unite yourself with the Church."
   No, that cannot be. First, dear Hearer, you must be one with Christ,
   reconciled to God, a Believer in the precious blood--and then
   afterwards you may come to the Church of God. But until then you have
   no part nor lot in this matter, for you are still in the gall of
   bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity.

   Moses did not thus invite any strangers or neighbors indiscriminately,
   saying, "Come you with us," but he invited Hobab as one whom he well
   knew, and of whose fitness he could no doubt feel. Was not Raguel his
   father, the priest of Midian, a servant of the Most High God? And was
   not Hobab also a worshipper of Jehovah, the God of Israel? "Come you
   with us," says he, "you are our kith and kin. Birds of a feather flock
   together. Come you with us and we will do you good. You are one of our
   Brethren, come and welcome, nothing shall stand in the way. Come you
   with us, and we will do you good."

   Now, I have heard persons speak on this wise, "I believe that my child
   has been converted, but you must not think that I have pressed him, for
   I never spoke to my child about religion." I am heartily ashamed of a
   father who can say that! And I hope that he will be equally ashamed of
   himself. I quite agree, however, that no parent and no friend should
   press another to make a public profession of faith until he is as
   assured as he possibly can be that the fruits of the Spirit are put
   forth in that child, or that friend. But, once assured of that, there
   can be no credit in holding your tongue about a Christian duty. It is
   the duty of every child of God to be associated with the Christian
   Church, and surely it is part of our duty to instruct others to do what
   the Lord would approve of! Do not, therefore, hesitate to say to such
   as serve and fear the Lord, "How is it that you remain outside the pale
   of the visible Church? Come you with us, and we will do you good." So
   Moses did to Hobab.

   As it is a very kind and tender word, "Come you with us," let it be
   spoken persuasively. Use such reasoning as you can to prove that it is
   at once their duty and their privilege. Observe, Moses does not
   command, but he persuades. Nor does he merely make a suggestion or give
   a formal invitation, but he uses an argument. He puts it attractively,
   "And we will do you good." So, look the matter up--study it--get your
   arguments ready. Seek out inducements from your own experience. Draw a
   reason, and there and then try to persuade your Christian friends.

   Do it heartily. Observe how Moses puts it as from a very warm heart.
   "Come you with us. Give me your hand, my Brother. Come you with us, and
   we will do you good." There are no "ifs," "ands," or "buts." It is not,
   "Well, you may perhaps be welcome," but "Come you with us." Give a
   hearty, loving, warm invitation to those whom you believe to be your
   Brothers and Sisters in Christ.

   Do it repeatedly if once will not suffice. Observe in this case, Hobab
   said he thought he would depart to his own land and his kindred. But
   Moses returned to the charge, and says, "Leave us not, I pray you." How
   earnestly he puts it! He will have no put off. If at first it was a
   request, now it is a beseeching almost to entreaty--"Leave us not, I
   pray you." And how he repeats the old argument, but puts it in a better
   light--"If you go with us, yes, it shall be, that what goodness the
   Lord shall do unto us, the same will we do unto you."

   I would, therefore, earnestly say to Christian Brothers and Sisters
   here, look for some among our congregation, such as you believe to be
   godly people, and put to them this matter. I am sure they are losing
   much benefit, and quite certain that they are standing in an irregular
   position. If it is right for any one Christian not to be a member of a
   Church it is right for all Christians not to be members of
   Churches--consequently it would be right for there to be no visible
   Church, and ordinances might be dispensed with--for all these things
   must either exist through the maintenance of sacred order or else
   collapse with the breach of godly discipline.

   What is not the duty of one is not the duty of any--and what is the
   duty of one is the duty of all--for we all stand alike before God. If I
   may be innocent in abstaining from union with the people of God, so may
   all of you. Or if you may, so may I. There is no more obligation upon
   me to preach the Gospel than there is upon any one of you to make a
   profession of his faith. If you are a Christian, the same rule of love
   that prompts me to speak for my Lord should prompt you in

   your way to speak for your Lord. And if I should not be excusable if I
   remained silent, and refused to bear my testimony, neither will you be
   excusable, being a Christian, if you refuse to unite yourself with the
   people of God.

   Remember our Master's word, "Whoever therefore, shall confess Me before
   men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in Heaven. But
   whoever shall deny Me before men," (which has the force there of not
   confessing), "him will I also deny before My Father which is in
   Heaven."

   Before I leave this point let me call your attention to a certain sense
   in which Christian men may address this invitation to all that they
   meet with. "Come you with us, and we will do you good." Not, "come and
   join our Church," not, "come and be members," not, "come and put on a
   profession of faith." You cannot say that to any but to those in whom
   you see the fruits of the Spirit. But you may say, and you ought to
   say, to ALL persons of all classes on all sides, "Come away from the
   seed of evildoers. Cast in your lot with the people of God. Leave the
   world, come on pilgrimage to the better country. Forsake the pursuit of
   vanities--lay hold on eternal life. Waste not all your thoughts upon
   the bootless cares of time--think about the momentous matters of
   eternity.

   "Why will you be companions of those who are upon the wrong side, and
   whose cause is the cause of evil? Why will you remain an enemy to God?
   Why will you be in an unreconciled state? We, by God's Grace, have cast
   in our lot with Christ and with His cause. We desire to live to His
   glory. Our ambition is to serve Him. If we could, we would live without
   sin, for we hate it and loathe it. If we could, we would be as the
   angels are, without a single fault. Come and cast in your lot with
   us--that is, believe. That is, trust a Savior slain. That is, put your
   soul into the custody of Christ the Intercessor. That is, press forward
   through a life of holiness on earth to a home of happiness in Heaven."
   "Come you with us, and we will do you good."

   So, then, the exhortation of our text which, strictly speaking, seems
   most applicable to the minister, becomes next suitable to the child of
   God who has not up to now cast in his lot with the company of our
   Lord's disciples. And after that, in a certain sense, it may be
   appropriately addressed to all who come under the sound of the Gospel.
   "Come you with us, and we will do you good."

   III. But now, our third observation is that THE MAIN ARGUMENT--THE MOST
   POWERFUL INCENTIVE WE CAN EVER USE IS THAT ASSOCIATION WITH THE CHURCH
   OF CHRIST WILL DO THOSE WHO ENTER

   INTO IT GOOD.

   I am sure it will, for I speak from experience. And if I were to call
   upon many scores, and even hundreds, in this House of Prayer, they
   would all bear the same testimony--that union with the people of God
   has done them good. The Church of God may say this, first, because she
   can offer to those who join with her good company. In the Church of God
   are those who are called "the excellent of the earth," in Whom David
   said was all his delight. In the Church of God are the humble, meek,
   and lowly.

   And, though in that Church there will come a traitorous Judas, yet
   there are not wanting the warm-spirited and loving John, the bold and
   daring Peter, the practical James, the well-instructed Paul in labors
   more abundant, and many of the precious sons of Zion and daughters of
   Jerusalem in like manner. Of whom, I might affirm, as the Apostle did
   of Priscilla and Aquila, they are my helpers in Christ Jesus, unto whom
   I not only give thanks, but also all the Churches of the Gentiles.
   Truly we can sing with heart-felt sincerity, Dr. Watts' paraphrase of
   David's Psalm --

   "Here my best friends, my kindred dwell, Here God my Savior reigns."

   Good company is ever a good thing, and the children of God may say to
   their Brethren who have not yet joined with them, "Come you with us,
   and we will do you good," for we will introduce you to the goodly
   fellowship of the saints. Come join a section of the general assembly
   and Church of the First-Born whose names are written in Heaven, and
   whose work of faith, patience of hope, and labors of love are spread
   abroad throughout the world.

   "Come with us," the Church of God may say, "and you shall have good
   instruction," for it is in the true Church of God that the doctrines of
   Grace are preached, that the Covenant of Grace is unfolded, that the
   Person of Christ is extolled, that the work of the Spirit is magnified.
   All the precious things, indeed, which make up the spiritual meat of
   God's servants are brought forth and put upon the table every Sunday.
   There the good stewards bring forth things both new and old. In the
   midst of the Church the Good Shepherd makes us to lie down in the green
   pastures, and leads us be-

   side the still waters. Come you with us, and the teaching of the Church
   shall do you good--you shall hear those glorious doctrines which shall
   build you up in your most holy faith.

   "Come you with us, and we will do you good," in the best sense, for you
   shall feel in our midst the good Presence of God. Where two or three
   are gathered together in Christ's name, there is He in the midst of
   them. And in the greater assemblies of His people, when the solemn hymn
   swells up to Heaven and the fervent prayer rises like a cloud of sweet
   perfume, and the ministry of the Gospel is diffused like a sweet
   smelling savor of Christ unto God--there is God. There the Father is,
   receiving returning prodigals, accepting His dear children who feel the
   spirit of adoption.

   There the Son is, manifesting Himself unto them as He does not unto the
   world. There the Spirit is, working in them to will and to do of His
   own good pleasure, and helping their infirmities as a Comforter and an
   Advocate. Have you not often felt the Presence of God, my dear Brothers
   and Sisters, in your assemblies as the people of God? Can you not,
   therefore, say with the recollections in your glowing hearts of the
   consolations you have received in association with each other, "Come
   you with us, and we will do you good"?

   "Come with us again, for you shall participate in all the good offices
   of the Church." That is to say, my Christian Brothers and Sisters, if
   you will cast in your lot with us, if there is prayer, you shall have
   your share in it. We will pray for you in your trouble, and trial, and
   anguish. If a Brother's voice can intercede for you when your tongue is
   dumb with grief, you shall certainly have such help as they that can
   minister to you. Come you with us, for in the true Church of God there
   is sympathy. Genuine Believers are taught to "weep with those that
   weep," and to "rejoice with those that rejoice." They feel that they
   are members, one of another, and partakers of the same life with Jesus
   Christ.

   If there is anything to be found in ordinances you shall have a share
   of that good thing. If the Lord reveals Himself in the breaking of
   bread, you shall not be shut out from the Table. Come you with us, and
   when we behold Him you shall see Him, too. Come you with us, and if our
   fellowship is with Christ, you shall have a share in it. And if our
   conversation of the things of God is sweet and pleasant, you, too,
   shall have your say and your good word, and we will rejoice to hear
   you. We invite you to a pure brotherly fellowship, not to one of name
   only, but in deed and in heart. "Come you with us, and we will do you
   good."

   But the good that Hobab was to get was not only on the road. He must
   have got a deal of good on the road, for he saw in the sacrifice what
   he had never seen before. While he walked among those tents of Judah he
   must have felt that God was remarkably present there as he had never
   felt it among the tents of Midian. He saw there every morning the
   pillar of cloud, and every night the pillar of fire. He heard the sound
   of the silver trumpets. He saw the uplifting of the sacred banners, and
   the marching of the chosen host of God, and he must have felt, "This is
   a place more marvelous than any I have ever trod before in that falling
   manna, in that miraculous stream. I see everywhere the marks of
   Omnipotence, love, and wisdom as I never have seen them in all my
   solitary musings or my long wanderings aforetime."

   So, in the Church of God there are the footprints of Deity, there are
   marks of the sublime Presence of the Christ of God who abides in the
   furnace with His afflicted people. Signs of God's Presence such as all
   the world besides cannot exhibit. You shall get good on the road. But
   still, the main good that Hobab got was this--he went into the promised
   land with God's people. We read of his people, the Kenites dwelling in
   the land in aftertime. He seems to have become a partaker of the same
   Covenant with Israel, to have become part and parcel with them. So, the
   main blessing that you get from being united with the invisible Church
   of Christ through being part and parcel of the Body of Christ is
   reserved for the hereafter--

   "When God makes up His last account

   Of natives in the Holy Mount;

   'Twill be an honor to appear

   As one new born and nourished there." Woe unto those who shall have no
   part with Israel in the day when the lots shall be divided and the
   portions shall be given! Woe unto such as shall be found among the
   Amalekites or Canaanites--strangers to the chosen seed! But happy shall
   all they be who have God to be their God, for their portion shall be
   bliss forever. Come you, therefore, with us, for whatever good the Lord
   shall do unto us you shall be a partaker in it.

   IV. And now, lastly. All this being seriously pondered and clearly
   understood, the last point is a matter of very serious importance. Lest
   we should be found mere pretenders, LET ALL OF US WHO BELONG TO
   CHRIST'S CHURCH

   TAKE CARE TO MAKE THIS ARGUMENT TRUE.

   I speak to many Brothers and Sisters here who have long been joined to
   the visible Church of God, and I put these questions to them--How have
   you carried out this silent compact which has been made with the
   friends of Christ? You have promised to do them good--have you
   fulfilled your pledges? I am afraid few of us have done good to our
   fellow Christians up to the measure that we might have done, or that we
   ought to have done. Some professors, I fear, have forgotten the compact
   altogether. They joined the Church, but the idea of doing good to the
   rest of the community has scarcely entered into their mind.

   "Come you with us, and we will do you good." You say this, then, to the
   poor members of the Church. Has God prospered you? Do them good. Say
   not to them, "Be you warmed and be you filled," but as far as ever your
   ability can reach, minister to them that Christ may not have to say to
   you, "I was an hungered and you gave me no meat. I was thirsty and you
   gave me no drink." Let your charity be wide as the world, for God makes
   it to rain on the just and the unjust--but remember--He has a peculiar
   people, and He would have us to be a peculiar people unto Himself. Let
   us do good unto all men, but specially to those who are of the
   household of faith. If you know a Brother in Christ whose need is
   pressing, own him as a Brother--open your hands wide unto him--do him
   good in this respect.

   You that are old members of the Church, well established and
   instructed, you have virtually promised to do good to the young
   members--will you not try to do so? Some of them, perhaps, are not all
   you would like them to be. Mind you, you are not to condemn, but to
   reform them. Can you not gently prune the luxuriance of their branches
   that are a little too wild? Would it not be possible for you, in a
   loving and an affectionate manner, to assist them in the points in
   which they are weak? To lead them in the matters in which they err? Do
   them good--do not clamor against them with reproach, censure, sneer,
   and jibe. Nor wish to bind them down to conformity with your rules,
   judging them by the som-berness of your own disposition.

   What if they are lively and cheerful--try to make them merry and wise.
   Let them be happy and rejoice--seek that their happiness may be in
   Christ, and their rejoicing in the Lord. Do them good. There are some
   of your fellow Christians who are faint-hearted--not pleasant people to
   talk to. They will never cheer you much. They always look on the black
   side. They have always some trouble. They are terribly dull company--do
   not shun them, do them good. Strengthen the weak hands, and confirm the
   feeble knees. Say to them that are of feeble heart, "Be strong. Fear
   not." Do not forsake them, but you that are spiritual bear their
   burdens, and help to make them rejoice.

   Some among your number will be backsliders--alas, that it should be so.
   Let not your coldness ever accelerate the pace at which they step
   aside--rather let your persevering care watch over them, that their
   first wandering may be soon checked. Little, alas, can be done to
   remedy backsliding when it goes far, but much may be done by nipping it
   in the bud. In the Church of God, prevention is infinitely better than
   cure. Watch over them, then. "If any man be overtaken in a fault, you
   that are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness,
   remembering yourself lest you also be tempted."

   Some in the Church may be ignorant. There always were such. No standard
   of height is set up in the Word of God for all the recruits to be up to
   that level. No bylaw prescribes that none be received unless they are
   of a certain stature. If, therefore, some you meet with are very
   ignorant, do them good. Do not set about a report of any absurd remark
   that they may make, or any misapprehension they may have upon a point
   of Divinity. You were not always so wise as you are now--probably you
   are not so wise now as you think you are. But anyhow, I shall argue
   from the wisdom you possess your duty to impart. You have said, "Come
   you with us, and we will do you good." It is not doing any man good to
   smile at him, to find fault with him for not knowing. But it is doing
   him good to hide his shortcomings and help his progress.

   Once again--there may be some in your midst who are in a good deal of
   trouble. Have they no friends to sympathize and console them? Alas,
   friends in this world are often too much like swallows that are gone as
   soon as the first frost appears. Let it not be so with you--if you
   never owned him your friend before--be his friend now. Come to his aid
   if you possibly can. Let him have your countenance. Do not pass him
   because his black coat has a rusty hue. Do not get out of his way
   because you are afraid that he is short of cash. As far as ever you
   can, let him see, now he is in his trouble, that you did not value him
   for what he had, but for himself, for his character, for his attachment
   to Christ.

   If anybody has spoken ill of him, do not be ready to jot down as true
   the slander that every fool or villain may please to hold forth against
   a Christian man. Search for yourselves, and if you are obliged to
   believe it, yet say little about it. Carry it before God, as though it
   were your own sin, and sorrow over it. Talk to your Brother, if it is
   your lot to know

   him well, and get him to leave the evil into which he has fallen, and
   lead him back again. But do not forsake him. Or if he is the victim of
   slander and scandal, be you among the first to defend him. I do hope
   that there will always be among us a spirit of true Christian
   brotherhood so that those who love Christ and have thrown in their lot
   with us may find that we really desire to do them good.

   I have thus spoken more particularly because I know that the number of
   Christians among us who are not making a profession is unusually large
   just now. I had far rather it should be so than that it should be the
   reverse--than that many should be making a profession without knowing
   or feeling the private virtue and public faith it demands. Better that
   you were outside the visible Church all your lives, and be in Christ,
   than make a profession and yet have no part nor lot with Him. All these
   outward things are nothing compared with the inward. "You must be born
   again." There must be a living faith in Christ, a real change of
   heart--an indwelling of the Spirit of God to attest the verity of your
   godliness. Where these are, the rest ought not to be neglected.

   These things ought you to have done, and not to have left the other
   undone, but still, even if they are left undone, it shall not amount to
   a total shipwreck. But if there is no faith, you may build the vessel
   as you will, and you may think that you have loaded her with precious
   treasures--but sink she must--because that alone which would have kept
   her afloat has been neglected.

   God grant us to be one with Christ, and to be one with His people in
   time and in eternity. There now--there now-- there is Christ's Church.
   And if I saw that she were in the stocks, and all were hooting her--if
   she stood in the pillory, and all were pelting her--yet it would be my
   desire to throw in my lot with her! Whatever she endured I would
   endure, because the day comes when those who were not on the side of
   Christ and His Church would give their eyes if they had been!

   Yes, would wish themselves that they had never been born to think that
   they did not take up with the reproached people, and did not side with
   the reproached Savior. O be with Christ in His sorrows, that you may be
   with Him in His joy! Be with Him in His reproach, that you may be with
   Him in His glory! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Precious, Honorable, Beloved

   (No. 917)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 20, 1870,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON

   AT THE METROTROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Since you were precious in My sight you have been honorable, and I
   have loved you." Isaiah 43:4.

   THE first reference of this text is evidently to Israel. That nation
   was precious in God's sight. He had been pleased sovereignly to make an
   election of the seed of Abraham, that they should be His portion, and
   He should be their portion evermore. They were precious in His sight
   because of the Covenant which He had made with their great forefather,
   saying, "In blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will
   multiply your seed, and in your seed shall all the nations of the earth
   be blessed."

   This word of promise elevated them to an eminent position before the
   Lord. They were precious in the Lord's sight because His honor was
   concerned in their history. If the Covenant promise could be broken,
   there would be an impeachment of the fidelity of the Most High--if by
   any means the chosen people could be crushed by their enemies, then the
   Omnipotence of their Patron and Defender would also be in question. It
   was an important point that they should be preserved, because in the
   fulfillment of His Covenant with them the name of God would be
   glorified, as the God of faithfulness and Truth.

   They were therefore precious in His sight. Many of the vast purposes of
   the Divine Being were intertwisted with the being and well-being of the
   chosen people. To them He had committed the sacred oracles--among them
   lived His holy Prophets, to them He revealed the Law--of them as
   concerning the flesh, Christ came, and out of them the first preachers
   of the Gospel were chosen. Scarcely any great event that glorifies the
   Grace of God can be dissociated from the Jewish people. Let me even
   remind you that the calling of the Gentiles is the consequence of the
   putting away of Israel for awhile because of unbelief, and that the
   future glory, whenever it shall come, will certainly be intimately
   connected with the restoration of the chosen people.

   Very precious is Israel, because like a silver thread we see her story
   running through the whole line of God's Grace as manifested to the sons
   of men. The Israelites of old were precious to God because He had done
   so much for them. He had brought them out of Egypt "with a high hand
   and an outstretched arm." He had cast out the tribes of Canaan before
   them. He had oftentimes rebuked kings for their sakes, yes, and slain
   mighty kings that they might be delivered. The results of all this the
   Lord would not lose, and they, therefore for this cause also were
   precious in His sight.

   Doubtless, one main reason of Israel's preciousness lay in the fact
   that out of Judah should arise the Royal Man, the Son of God, in Whom
   the Father is well-pleased. For the sake of that Divine Seed, which I
   may call the vital kernel of Israel's race, the Lord took pleasure in
   the descendants of Abraham, and they were precious in His sight.

   Many other reasons might be given why God, having once elected the
   little nation of Israel by an act of distinguishing Grace, should look
   upon the people as peculiarly precious. But we pass on to observe that
   He next declares them to be honorable--honorable because, or from the
   time when they had been precious in His sight. Whoever God may elect
   for Himself, he is by that very fact rendered honorable, and the Jewish
   people in being set apart as the Lord's own people, were by that very
   separation honored above all other nations on the face of the earth.

   They, moreover, received the Light while the whole world was in
   darkness. Although some stray gleams fell here and there among the
   nations, yet the brightest illumination which enlightened the early
   ages from the Throne of God came to the Israelite people. While others
   worshipped gods that were not gods, Israel adored Him whose Throne is
   in the heavens and whose kingdom rules over all. Theirs were the
   commands written with the Divine finger--theirs a sacredly instructive
   ritual--theirs a line of priests ordained to stand between man and God.
   All this made them honorable.

   Conjointly with this special privilege they were honored by being
   chosen to special service. They were to conserve the knowledge of the
   true God amid surrounding idolatry, and they were to maintain a
   testimony for holiness in the center

   of abounding wickedness. They were ordained to be a holy nation, a
   peculiar people, sanctified unto the Lord to show forth the praise of
   Jehovah. They were honored by His constant Presence with them. No other
   nation saw God go before them in pillars of cloud and fire--nowhere
   else did the Shekinah blaze forth except between the wings of the
   cherubim overshadowing the Mercy Seat.

   He had not so dealt with any other nation--only to His chosen people
   had He been pleased to reveal Himself. They were favored with special
   protections in Providence, with special guidance in all their
   difficulties, special supplies in time of famine. And if they sometimes
   had special chastisements, yet even these were but tokens of His
   peculiar regard. Israel was precious in the sight of God, and
   therefore, though small and inconsiderable, it was honorable among the
   nations, so that David could truthfully say, "What one nation in the
   earth is like Your people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem
   for a people to Himself?"

   I need not dwell upon God's special love to Israel. We believe it
   continues to this hour, and though the scattered nation is despised,
   and the precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, are esteemed as
   earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter--yet the day
   shall come when "There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall
   turn away ungodliness from Jacob." Then Judea's mountains, (Your land,
   O Immanuel), shall drop down with new wine, and the hills shall flow
   with milk. Then the glorious diadem of her former glory shall return to
   Zion's brow, and God, even her own God, shall bless her. The Covenant
   of salt shall be remembered, and it shall be soon that the Lord has not
   cast away His people whom He did foreknow.

   We must not leave this point without noticing how true it was that
   because the Israelite people were so favored of God, He gave men for
   them, and people for their life. Egypt had to see the death of all its
   first-born for Israel's sake. The Canaanites were utterly exterminated
   to make room for the tribes. And when mighty kings came against the
   chosen people, they, too, were smitten with terrible destructions.
   Sennacherib's host withered like autumn leaves when "the angel of death
   spread his wings on the blast," for Israel must be saved.

   If the people were carried captive for their sins, yet in captivity
   they became like the firebrand amidst the dry stubble, for Babylon was
   destroyed for their sakes--the hammer of the nations was broken in
   pieces that the exiles might be set free to worship the Lord at
   Jerusalem. Egypt, Ethiopia, and Seba were all thrown into the scale
   together, and made nothing of in comparison with the elect nation. He
   gave men for them, or as the Hebrew reads it, he gave man for them, as
   though the whole race of man, with all its interests, were made to
   yield to the interests of the one chosen people. Thus dear was the seed
   of faithful Abraham to Jehovah's heart. I dare not take such a text as
   this is without first of all giving you its original and natural
   signification, and I doubt not that it is as I have now declared it.

   This passage may, however, without the slightest wrenching of it from
   its connection, as I believe, and certainly without any distortion of
   its meaning, be applied to the spiritual Israel, namely, to Christ's
   chosen Church, which He has redeemed with His blood. Now this Church of
   God is, and always has been, precious in God's sight. Not that there
   was anything of natural excellency in His elect why they should be
   chosen. Not that in the whole of them put together there was any value
   above the rest of the sons of men. But because the Lord, having been
   pleased to choose them, put by that very act a preciousness upon them
   which otherwise had not been there.

   They are now precious to God, because, having loved them from of old,
   that ancient love sets a stamp of preciousness upon them in the dear
   memories of the past eternity. His goings forth in love to His people
   were of old--yes, He has loved them with an everlasting love, and
   therefore they are dear to Him. The Church is precious because His
   purposes of Grace mainly relate to it, and His other purposes are made
   subservient to the glory of His Grace in them. The bounds of the
   nations has He set according to the number of His chosen. The
   arrangements of Providence have all been disposed with an eye to them.
   All things work together for their good, and for the achievement of
   their ultimate perfection.

   God is pleased to reckon them as His crown jewels--His peculiar
   treasure--because He sees in them the purchase of His Son's agonies.
   They have been bought with a price far above gold and silver. And by
   the memories of Gethsemane and Calvary, they are made most precious in
   the esteem of the Most High. They are precious, because in them, above
   all others, His Glory is to be revealed. He has displayed it in Nature.
   He manifests it in Providence. But peculiarly He intends to illustrate
   all His attributes in His Church, when she shall be conformed to the
   image of Christ Jesus her Lord.

   Exceedingly precious is the Church to God, and for this cause she is in
   the highest sense honorable. Even in her lowest estate, when despised
   and persecuted, the Church has still been honorable. In dark days and
   times of deep depression,

   when her candle was ready to go out, still was she honorable in the
   sight of the Most High. She was honorable because of her character, for
   she is holiness unto the Lord. Honorable because of her nearness to His
   Son, for is she not the "bride, the Lamb's wife"? Honorable because of
   the service entrusted to her to bear witness for the Truth of the one
   God and the glory of the one Mediator. She is honorable because of the
   destiny which awaits her, when she shall be taken up to dwell with her
   Lord forever, and reign with Him world without end.

   Brethren, the men of this world do not see as yet the excellency of the
   Church, but then they saw not the glory of Christ. They thought Him a
   "root out of a dry ground," and therefore it is not al all remarkable
   if they defame the Church as a despicable nest of fanaticism. But as He
   shall appear, and in the latter days His Glory shall strike all eyes,
   so shall His true Church be revealed also, and the nations that once
   despised her shall be glad to bow down and lick the dust of her feet.
   Let us hold in high esteem the Church of God, the secret and mystical
   Church first, and the outward and visible Church next, as her
   representative.

   I grieve when I hear some speaking as though the organized Church of
   God were a thing to be ignored or snuffed at. There have been many
   efforts made extra in the Church of God, and I would not for a moment
   have prevented one of them. But I have observed, and I think all must
   have done so, that the results of work disconnected with the Church of
   Christ have been but meager. God will bless the world, after all,
   through His Church. And your irregular efforts, though He shall own
   them, and they may be ordained by Him for a purpose, yet can never
   supersede the regular action of His people associated together in
   Church fellowship.

   Neither do I believe that operations which ignore a true and visible
   Church of Christ ever will be permanent, at least never so permanent as
   that work which springs out of a Church ordered according to the
   Apostolic rule, working under the Divine sanction, prayerfully sowing
   in the name of Christ, and carefully ingathering to the name of Jesus
   the fruits of its labors. Honor the Church, for God has honored it.
   Unite yourself with it if up to now you have stood aloof, that you may
   participate in the favor which Christ accords to His people as a body.

   "Since you were precious in My sight, you have been honorable, and I
   have loved you." This last word means, "I have taken a complacency in
   you." The Lord takes a delight in His Church. When God made the world
   he said it was good, but I do not find that He ever broke forth into
   any song of congratulation over His work. But when He views His Church,
   the new creation, we hear by the mouth of the Prophet, "He shall rest
   in His love, He shall rejoice over you with singing." There is that in
   the Church of God which makes even the august silence of God to be
   broken for awhile--the Triune Deity lifts up the voice of song over His
   chosen.

   Jesus loves His Church, His delights are with the sons of men. Of all
   that He has ever made or done, there is nothing in which God takes such
   satisfaction as in the "Church of the First-Born whose names are
   written in Heaven." Now rest assured, Brethren--that as for the Jewish
   Church, God gave up nations, threw them away as though they were but
   the common pebble stones, and His Israel the only diamond among
   them--so will it be and so has it been in reference to His own Church
   bought with the blood of Christ.

   It was remarked by the Reformers that at the time when the Catholic
   kings agreed to persecute them, they might have been crushed, but
   jealousy sprung up among the various monarchs. They were so engaged
   with wars among themselves that the Reformers were able to escape. As
   though the blood of thousands upon thousands might be shed that God
   would take care that His Gospel in the world should not be harmed. And
   now today what are empires and kingdoms but so many potters' vessels
   that shall be dashed to shivers sooner than the kingdom of Christ shall
   be moved?

   What are you, you kings, and you great ones of the earth, though you
   think yourselves to be the rulers of the times and the masters of
   events--yet of yourselves what are you? You are crushed before the moth
   if you oppose the advance of the Master's empire and the spread of His
   Truth. Do not gloomily foretell that missionary operations will be all
   in vain--it is not so, it cannot be so! Our prospects are bright,
   bright as the promises of God. Has He not said, "I will be exalted
   among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth"? God would sooner
   make the whole earth to quiver with earthquakes, like the leaf of the
   aspen in the gale, than allow one idol temple to stand fast forever.

   He would sooner unbind all the civil compacts of mankind until the
   human race became disintegrated into separate atoms, than suffer
   thrones and dominions to prevent the triumph of His Church, and the
   victory of her Lord. This line of remark seemed so naturally to spring
   out of the text that I could not but dwell upon it.

   I now beg to conduct you to the consideration which most forcibly
   strikes my own mind, namely, the application of this verse to each
   individual Believer in Christ. To every Christian I think the Master
   speaks, "Since you were precious in My sight, you have been honorable
   and I have loved you." Three things are in this text, "precious,"
   "honorable," "Beloved." O Believer, if you have Grace to suck the honey
   out of these, it shall be a happy day for you!

   I. Believer, the first wonderful adjective of the text is applicable to
   you--you are "PRECIOUS." Notice how that preciousness is enhanced
   beyond the superlative degree by the next words, "precious in My
   sight." There are mock jewels now made which are so exactly like
   rubies, emeralds, and diamonds that even those who are connoisseurs of
   precious stones are deceived--and yet these imitations are not
   precious. They are not precious in the sight of the lapidary, who is
   able to put them to severer tests--with him these mimicries are soon
   proved to be of little value.

   The degree of preciousness depends much upon the person who forms the
   judgment. And what estimate can be so accurate as that of God the
   Infallible? What judgment can be so severely exacting as that of God
   the infinitely Holy? How precious must a Believer be if he is precious
   in God's sight? For the things that are precious in man's sight, what
   are they to Him? What cares the Most High for all the diamonds of
   Golconda, or all the gold and silver that could be heaped together,
   though they should compose ranges of mountains like the Himalayas, all
   of precious ore? The golden mass would be nothing more than sordid dust
   in the sight of the Most High. He esteems not these things, but His
   poor and afflicted people are precious in His sight. It sometimes
   appears to unbelief as if it would be a comfortable thing to escape
   from-- God's sight--so that our unworthiness might be hidden.

   "Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, and whose sin is
   covered." We imagine in dark moments that it would be a great mercy to
   be ourselves covered and kindly forgotten by the Most High. But,
   Brethren, instead of that we are always in God's sight--placed as fully
   there as we shall be in the Day of Judgment. And, though His thoughts
   are not mistaken about us, and His judgment is not premature, for He
   knows precisely what we are, have been, shall be--yet He calls us
   precious!

   Ah, you humble Believers who are far from being precious in your own
   sight, and perhaps esteemed as worthless in the sight of those that
   know not the Grace of God--sit down and contentedly roll this under
   your tongue as a sweet morsel--you are precious in the sight of the
   Lord! If you are, indeed, the Lord's by faith in Christ Jesus, worked
   in you by the Holy Spirit, you are precious in the Father's sight.

   This preciousness, my Brothers and Sisters, cannot arise from anything
   essentially and intrinsically precious in us by nature, for we confess
   freely that we are even as others in our natural estate. The quarry out
   of which we were hewn was no quarry of precious things, and the pit out
   of which we have been dug was no pit in which rare stones were
   glittering. We were taken from common clay and out of the ordinary ruin
   of mankind. Yet God says we are precious, and the fact of our former
   degradation and fallen estate cannot dispute the Divine declaration.
   Fallen, depraved, and ruined, as we once were--yet for all that--we are
   precious in God's sight! How is this?

   Why, methinks it springs out of four considerations. We are precious in
   the sight of God because of the memories which cluster round each one
   of us. Jacob said of a certain portion that he would give it to
   Joseph--"I have given to you one portion above your Brethren, which I
   took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow."
   Evidently the Patriarch set great store by that portion because it bad
   been won amid the hazards of actual warfare. It might not have been so
   valuable in itself as others of his possessions, but he thought much of
   it because he remembered the risks he ran in winning it to himself.

   And you, Child of God, you are the portion which Jesus took out of the
   hand of the Amorite with His sword and with His bow. For you He
   undertook the strife of battle and trod the winepress alone, that He
   might redeem you from the tyrant who held you in bondage and make you
   to be His peculiar heritage forever. You have at home today some trifle
   which, notwithstanding its little value, you would not sell for a
   thousand times its weight in gold because it belonged to a son or to a
   daughter since departed this life. That little memento is connected
   with some deed of daring, or act of generous self-denial on the part of
   your beloved child--and though in itself it is nothing--you count it
   very precious.

   Now, to the Father, you, Beloved Brothers and Sisters, are memorials of
   the Savior's condescension in taking upon Himself the form of a
   servant, and being made in the likeness of human flesh. You are a
   memorial of His being found in fashion as a Man, and becoming subject
   to death, even the death of the Cross. As God looks at each of you He
   sees what

   His Son has done, beholds in you the griefs of Calvary, bears anew the
   sighs of Olivet and the groans of Golgotha. You are to God, therefore,
   most precious, as the token and memorial of the death of Jesus Christ.

   Things become precious, sometimes, on account of the workmanship
   exercised upon them. Many an article has been in itself intrinsically
   of small account, but so much art has been exercised upon it, so much
   real work thrown into it, that the value has been increased
   indefinitely. I think I have heard of the raw material being worth
   scarcely a single penny, and yet so much skill has been used that
   occasionally even a thousand pounds in value has been attained.

   Now, the Christian is precious to God on account of the workmanship
   that has been spent upon him. Taken as we were from among the utterly
   destroyed, the Holy Spirit worked in us life from the dead, subdued our
   stubborn wills, and enlightened our darkened understandings. He has up
   till this day continued to exercise upon us all His exquisite and
   heavenly art by which we have been molded and fashioned, and made
   vessels fit for the Master's use. Look back, my dear Friends, you who
   are precious in God's sight, to what the Holy Spirit has already done
   for you.

   Remember the lines of the engraver's tool which He has made upon you in
   days of joy when he prompted you to thankfulness, to consecration, to
   communion? You are more likely, however, to remember those deeper
   strokes of the engraver's hand, made in the days of your pain and
   affliction. I do remember well when the Holy Spirit brought me to
   humiliation, to repentance, to self-purgation, to a holy vengeance
   against my sins and a sweet ardor for my Lord. In many ways the Great
   Worker has worked mightily in us and continued perseveringly to pursue
   His purpose.

   You never took such pains with a child as the Holy Spirit has taken
   with you. None of you ever took so much pains to instruct your little
   one as He has in teaching you. Your child has never grieved you, nor
   vexed you to the extent that you have grieved the Holy Spirit and
   provoked Him. Yet still He has not ceased His work, and seeing, as He
   does, so much already worked in you, you are precious in His sight--for
   He will not cast away what He has already expended.

   The Holy Spirit sees in you His own work as it will be, for being
   resolved to accomplish it, He beholds you not as you are just now, but
   as you shall be by-and-by, when "without spot or wrinkle, or any such
   thing," you shall be presented before the Eternal Throne--every
   tendency to iniquity being eradicated, and every desire that is good
   and holy, and commendable, being accomplished! Therefore, for the sake
   of what He will make you, the Holy Spirit counts you precious.

   Certain articles are precious because of their peculiar fashion. This
   was the case with the Portland vase, which to any common observer
   seemed to be of very small value, but because of the extreme beauty of
   the design, the greatest potter of the age was ready to pay his
   thousands to possess it. We are precious in God's sight, too, because
   of our fashion and form. For what, my Brethren, is to be the form of
   every Believer? We are to be made like unto Christ! There is no beauty
   like the form of Christ--nothing in Heaven or in earth can match the
   perfection of Jesus' Character.

   We are to be made like He, and God, therefore, counts us very precious
   because He sees His Son's image in every one of us. I know you prize
   and hang about your neck that dear memorial of a Beloved one now in
   Heaven. The likeness so accurately photographed recalls to your mind
   the very image of the departed one. And God views every one of His
   people as especially precious because they are, and are to be yet more
   perfectly, in the likenesses of Jesus Christ.

   Once more. Things are precious often because of their relationship. The
   most precious thing a mother has is her dear babe. We all love those
   who are near to us by the ties of nature. Precious, therefore, in the
   sight of the Lord are His saints because they are born in His
   household. By regeneration they are made to be His sons and daughters.
   Think not that God our Father has a less affection towards His sons
   than we have towards ours. Ah, no! No mother's heart ever yearned over
   her child, and no father's bosom ever rejoiced over his offspring as
   the heart of God yearns over His erring children-- and as His soul
   rejoices when they come back to Him.

   Do you call your child precious, and would you give your very life that
   you might preserve it? Even thus precious, O Believer, are you to your
   heavenly Father at this hour. I cannot preach on such a word as
   this--the theme is too sweet for language. But I wish that in your
   quietude you would silently sit down and turn this over--"I, poor,
   feeble, sinful worm as I am, yet, since I am chosen by distinguishing
   Grace and made to lay hold on eternal life in Christ Jesus, I am
   precious to God! My precious things I put under lock and key to
   preserve them. I view them with satisfaction and set great store by
   them. Even so will the great God hide me in His secret places. He
   delights to commune with me, and rejoices in me as He views me in
   Christ Jesus. I am more precious to Him than my own child is to my
   heart."

   Why, here is comfort for you, even if you are very poor, or bitterly
   persecuted. Perhaps you have, like Hannah, to suffer day by day
   sneering and bitter words from your adversary, who vexes you sorely to
   make you fret. Why, then, let this Truth of God console you--you are
   precious in the sight of the Lord, and therefore you may sing, "My soul
   does magnify the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior, for
   He has regarded the low estate of His handmaiden." How it should make
   your spirit exult! How precious ought your thoughts of God to be to
   yourself, since you are precious in the sight of the Most High!

   II. But we must pass on briefly to the second choice word. Every child
   of God is, in the second place, "HONORABLE." If things go on as they do
   now, I do not know whether this word "honorable" will not be so
   degraded that a man will be ashamed to wear it. We who see lords
   dishonoring themselves will have to thank God that we are not lords,
   but men. Speak of the scum of society, it seems pretty clear that as
   the scum of every pot is on the top, so is it with the nation.

   We are reaching a pretty state of things, certainly, when the highest
   sin is to be found in the highest places. God grant that our great ones
   may mend their manners, for it is a crying shame and a detestable
   scandal when those who are accounted honorable and noble by birth
   cannot be even decently moral. God grant our nation better lights and
   ornaments than these. But, my Friends, this grand old word was written
   when it was untarnished, and in its virgin purity. If it has now come
   to be ordinarily meaningless or a mockery, let us now restore it to its
   pristine luster and see it glow on the page of Scripture as gold seven
   times purified with fire. Every Christian is in God's sight right
   honorable and excel-lent--because the Lord in His discriminating Grace
   has made him precious.

   First, every Christian is honorably born. Never mind how lowly your
   earthly parentage--you have been born unto God by the Holy Spirit--and
   therefore descended from the King of kings. It matters not though no
   blue blood may run in your veins, and you cannot trace your pedigree to
   any of the Norman invaders. If you can trace your pedigree up to the
   Lord of hosts, Himself, through being "begotten again unto a lively
   hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead," you belong to
   the blood imperial, and to the seed royal--and you may therein rejoice!
   God has made you honorable, no matter who despises you.

   The Christian is moreover honorable in rank. God has been pleased to
   take us from the dunghill to set us among princes. Rank in the order of
   Providence exists in all societies. Not only among men, but among pure
   spirits we have reason to believe there are various degrees and orders.
   But the nobility of holy men is everywhere paramount in God's sight.
   Man, redeemed by the blood of Christ, stands second to none in the
   whole range of created intelligences. Nearest to God stands a Man. "You
   have put all things in subjection under His feet, You have set Him over
   all the works of Your

   hands."

   In the Person of Jesus Christ man stands next to Deity, I mean man
   twice born--man renewed by the Holy Spirit. What lofty dignity is this,
   that even angels should be only "ministering spirits sent forth to
   minister" to us, our commissioned bodyguards commanded to pitch their
   tents around us! They are our servitors to bear us up in their hands
   lest at any time we dash our feet against a stone! Speak of lords
   spiritual--these are they--the spiritual seed of Abraham! Speak of
   kings and princes and peers of the blood royal--these are they--in whom
   Jesus Christ's Spirit dwells--who are Brethren to the august
   First-Born.

   Honorable, then, in birth, and honorable in rank, and right honorable
   in their service, are Believers. For what blessed employment is that
   which God has sent us on? He has sent us into the world to bear witness
   of the Truth. He has bid us proclaim the name of Jesus to the utmost
   bounds of the earth. He has sent us to seek after the lost sheep of the
   house of Israel. I know of no service that can be more distinguished
   than the doing of good, the scattering of blessings among the sons of
   men. Methinks the very angels before the Throne might envy us poor men
   who are permitted to talk of Christ even though it is but to little
   children. I reckon the most humble Ragged school teacher to be more
   honored than even Gabriel himself, in being commissioned to tell out
   the story of the Cross, and to win youthful hearts to the Savior's
   service!

   You are not employed as scullions in your Master's kitchen, though you
   might be content with such a service. You are not made as His hired
   servants, to toil in meanest drudgery. You are not sent to be hewers of
   wood and drawers of water, but you are His friends, the friends of
   Jesus, to do such work as He did. And even greater works than He did
   are

   you enabled to do, because He has gone to His Father. "This honor have
   all the saints," the honor of being gentlemen-at-arms under Jesus, the
   Captain of their salvation.

   Christians are honorable also in privilege. It was accounted an eminent
   honor when a nobleman had the right to go in to his king whenever he
   willed to proffer a request. Approach to the royal throne was always,
   among Orientals, considered to be the highest token of regard. O child
   of God! You have access into this Grace in which we stand--you are
   permitted to come boldly to the Throne of the heavenly Grace to obtain
   Grace in your time of need! You are especially honored, O you saints,
   for we are "a people near unto Him." Every middle wall of partition is
   broken down, and you are brought near by the blood of Christ. Oh, what
   privileges are these! You are this day priests to offer acceptable
   sacrifices, kings to rule over your corruptions. Never were men so
   privileged as you upon whom the Lord's love has descended to make you
   precious in His sight!

   And every child of God who is what he should be, becomes, through
   Grace, honorable by his achievements--and this is, in some respects,
   the highest form of honor--to be honored for what you have been enabled
   to do. To wear a coat of arms which you have fairly won in battle, and
   honors that are not merely attributed to you by the heraldic pencil,
   but which are due to you because of your victorious feats of arms!
   Every child of God shall have this honor if he is led earnestly to
   strive after it. To conquer sin is no small achievement. To keep down
   through a long life the corruptions of the flesh, to contend against
   the world and the devil--these are no deeds of carpet knights.

   And what an achievement it will be when Satan shall be bruised beneath
   our feet, as he shall be shortly, when the hosts of Hell, with all
   their craft and malice, shall find themselves utterly overthrown by the
   men and women whom they despised--those in whom God's Grace so dwelt
   that they were victorious and carried the banner of Truth and goodness
   onward to complete victory! God grant you, Brethren, as you have
   already the honor of birth and rank this day, and as you have proffered
   to you the honor of service, that you may be honorable through your
   achievements, being precious in God's sight.

   III. We come now to the last of these notable words, which is
   "BELOVED"--"I have loved you." I must decline to preach on this word.
   It is not a word for talk, but thought. I always feel that the love of
   God to His people is more fit for contemplation than public discourse.
   "I have loved you." Come, heir of Heaven, listen a moment. God has
   loved you eternally. Before the stars began to shine and before the sun
   knew his place and poured forth his oceans of light, God loved you in
   particular.

   He has loved you actively and effectually, given His Only-Begotten for
   you--an unspeakable gift--giving you everything in Him--a boundless
   dowry of love. He has loved you pre-eminently, better than the angels,
   for unto which of them has He ever said, "You were honorable, and I
   have loved you"? He has loved you unchangeably, never less, and never
   more. In all your sin the same. In all your sorrow, still the same. He
   has loved you immeasurably. You can never know the heights and depths
   of your God's love to you. O Man, plunge yourself into this river! If
   you have up to now gone wading into it up to the ankles, now get breast
   high and heart high into it--yes, commit yourself to the fathomless
   stream, and swim in it as in a sea of bliss. "I have loved you." Let
   that dwell richly in your heart, and ring out celestial music for your
   comfort and delight!

   These three things being put together, I want you, practically, this
   morning, as they are your own by faith, to make use of them in other
   senses. "Since you were precious in My sight, you have been honorable,
   and I have loved you." My Savior, do You say that? Why, those words You
   put into my mouth to give back to You! You also are precious in my
   sight. Is He not so--precious beyond comparison? Therefore is He
   honorable in our esteem. Will you not honor Him? Shall it not be the
   continual strife of your soul to get Him renown? Will you not talk of
   His fame to others? Will you not spread abroad the glory of His mighty
   acts?

   My Savior, once I knew You not, but now I prize You, and by Your Divine
   Grace my heart sees how precious You are. Now, therefore, You are
   honorable in my soul. Reign, reign over every heart, as well as over
   mine. Gladly would I seat You on a glorious high throne, and be content
   to be trampled in the mire, if I could lift You but one inch higher, or
   get to Your name but one grain more of love among the sons of men. "You
   have been honorable, and I have loved You."

   I am afraid, if you make this confession you will have to blush as you
   make it. You have loved Him, but, oh, how little have you loved Him!
   Look not back, then, except with penitence, but from now on say, "Lord,
   You have been honorable, I will love You. Forgive the past, kindle in
   my soul a fresh flame of Grace, help me to say--

   'Yes, I love You and adore,

   O for Grace to love You more!'" When you have so used those words, turn
   them in another direction. Apply them next to every child of God. Since
   you, my Brother, since you, my Sister, were precious in my sight, and
   you have been so ever since I knew how precious a child of God was, you
   have been honorable, and I have loved you.

   Let us never think of the children of God in any other way than as
   honoring them. Some of them are very poor. Many of them illiterate.
   Some of them not altogether in temper, action, or creed what we might
   desire them to be. But if they are bought with the blood of Christ,
   they are honorable. The Lord declares them so, and let us not treat
   them dishonorably. It is a very sad thing when poor saints are despised
   by those who happen to be better off. If some great noble were to come
   into this House of Prayer, how many of you would be glad to give him
   the best seat, and yet he might be one of the worst of men?

   But if a child of God should happen to be so poor that he must wear
   garments that are all but rags, and must live in a miserable cottage,
   there are many who will scarcely own him as a Brother. We who
   understand what spiritual worth is should never fall into this error.
   We should say, "You, poor as you are, have become precious in our sight
   for Jesus' sake. We see you are an heir of Heaven, and therefore we
   prize you above all kings and princes, and we love you for the Master's
   sake. Can we help your poverty? Can we cheer your sickness? Can we bear
   a part of your burden? We love you and count you honorable for the sake
   of Jesus, our Lord and yours."

   Once again. You might use these words in reference to unconverted men
   and women. There is a certain sense in which they are applicable to all
   born of woman, for they possess immortal souls. Years ago you and I
   knew nothing of the value of our own souls, and were not likely to care
   for those of others. But now the souls of men are precious in our
   sight. We believe them to be immortal. We know that they are to live
   forever in misery or forever in bliss. And therefore, let others say
   what they will, we can never think of the human soul but as a very
   precious and priceless thing.

   And now, if that is the case, how honorable all men become as objects
   of our zeal! "Honor all men," says the Apostle--a text I do not hear
   quoted half so often as that other, "Honor the king." Do not forget the
   last, but take equal care of the first. There is, because of its
   spiritual and immortal nature, a dignity about the soul of the meanest
   man--which no degree of poverty or degradation can altogether take
   away. The harlot in the streets--how few will care for her! But, O you
   tender hearts, as you look on the poor fallen one, say, "Since your
   soul was precious in my sight as an immortal spirit, you have been no
   longer despised and trampled on, but I have loved you as my Savior
   loved you, and for His sake I esteem your soul as an honorable,
   priceless thing."

   Do not think of the thousands in prison today as though they were just
   so much filth to be gotten rid of. Do not think, above all, of the
   great mass of the needy and destitute classes of society as though they
   were a mere encumbrance of the common man, the mere rubbish to be swept
   away and laid in heaps in the workhouse or on foreign shores. No, they
   are precious. As precious is their soul as yours. Think of them in that
   respect--and honor the immortal spark that is in them--the manhood that
   God has been pleased to create. Honor that, and as you honor it, love
   it--and prove your love by praying that God will save it, by using
   every instrument within your power to recover it from its ruin--and to
   bring it back to the great God to whom it belongs.

   If the woman in the Gospels who lost her piece of money had said, "It
   is only a penny, I have more, I shall not trouble about it," she had
   never lighted the candle and swept the floor, and searched diligently
   until she found it. And if the shepherd with his ninety-and-nine sheep
   had said of the hundredth which went astray, "That sheep was always
   scabbed and worthless. Its loss is no great thing, the ninety-nine are
   far more precious," he would never have left the flock to go after that
   which was lost. The less value you set upon your fellow men, the less
   earnest you will be in seeking their good.

   But if you feel that they are precious to you for Christ's sake, and
   honorable because they are men--capable, by God's Divine Grace, of
   Heaven and holiness, you will set to work in God's strength to reclaim
   them. And God will second and bless your efforts, and you will see them
   saved. Gladly would I have you give yourselves for them, and the Church
   give people for their life. May God grant to every one in this House of
   Prayer, first, to be precious in the sight of God Himself. And next, to
   seek after others whom God has loved and whom He means to save through
   them.

   May God lead you to give all you have--though it were Egypt, and
   Ethiopia, and Seba--that precious souls may be reclaimed. Send us such
   zeal, O Holy Spirit, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Two Builders And Their Houses

   (No. 918)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 27, 1870,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Therefore whosoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will
   liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: and the
   rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon
   that house. And it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And
   everyone that hears these sayings of Mine, and does them not, shall be
   likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and
   the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat
   upon that house. And it fell: and great was the fall of it." Matthew
   7:24-27.

   THESE were the closing words of our Savior's most famous sermon upon
   the mount. Some preachers concentrate all their powers upon an effort
   to conclude with a fine thing called a peroration, which, being
   interpreted, means a blaze of rhetorical fireworks in the glory of
   which the speaker subsides. They certainly have not the example of
   Christ in this discourse to warrant them in the practice. Here is the
   Savior's peroration, and yet it is as simple as any other part of the
   address. Here is an evident absence of all artificial oratory.

   The whole of His hill sermon was intensely earnest, and that
   earnestness was sustained to the end so that the closing words are as
   glowing coals, or as sharp arrows of the bow. Our Lord closes not by
   displaying His own powers of elocution, but by simply and
   affectionately addressing a warning to those, who, having heard His
   Words, should remain satisfied with hearing, and should not go forth
   and put them into practice. As according to usual experience, a
   preacher warms to his subject as he advances and becomes more intense
   as he nears his final sentences--so we are bound to give the more
   earnest heed to the words which are now before us--words with which the
   Lord of all preachers concluded His memorable discourse.

   Jesus had been saying many things, but these are two words to which I
   think He especially alluded when He said, "Whoever hears these sayings
   of Mine, and does them, I will liken him unto a wise man." The first of
   these words was, "Enter you in" (Matt. 7:13). And the second was,
   "Beware" (Matt. 7:15). Our Lord had spoken of the "strait gate" of the
   "narrow way," and of the few who travel it, and His urgent admonition
   was, "Enter you in." not, "Learn you all concerning it, and then be
   satisfied." Not, "Find fault with the travelers and the road." Not,
   "Seek to enlarge the gate and widen the way," but, "Enter You in."

   Be obedient to the Gospel--believe its testimony concerning
   Jesus--enter into fellowship with its mysteries, receive its blessings.
   Be travelers along its roads. "Enter you in." He who hears of the way
   to Heaven, but enters not into it is a foolish man. He, who hearing of
   the strait gate, presses to enter in, is a wise man.

   Afterwards our Lord added the other admonition, "Beware." "Beware,"
   says He, "of false Prophets." And after having dwelt for awhile on
   that, He added in other words, "Beware of false professions." Of false
   Prophets beware, for they may delude you. They may bring before you a
   salvation which will not save, a mere mirage that looks like the pure,
   cooling, refreshing stream--but which only mocks your thirst. Beware of
   all teaching which would lead you away from the one Savior of the souls
   of men.

   And then He adds, "Beware of false professions," however loudly they
   make you cry, "Lord, Lord." You may have in company with these
   professions the loftiest gifts, Such as casting out devils, and the
   greatest abilities, such as only Prophets possess. But they shall not
   avail you anything. In that day when the Master shall only accept into
   His marriage feast the companions of His warfare on earth, He will say
   to those who have not done the Father's will, "I never knew you. Depart
   from Me, you workers of iniquity." These are two of the sayings of
   Christ, and they are comprehensive of almost all He ever said--"Enter
   you in," and, "Beware." Take heed that you do them as well as hear
   them.

   I. We shall now proceed to the Master's parable, and will you please
   notice, first of all, THE TWO BUILDERS. The wise and the foolish man
   were both engaged in precisely the same avocations, and to a
   considerable extent achieved the same design. Both of them undertook to
   build houses. Both of them persevered in building. Both of them
   finished their houses. The likeness between them is very considerable.

   They were equally impressed with the need of building a house. They
   perceived the necessity of shelter from the heavy rains. They were
   alike desirous of being shielded from the floods and screened from the
   wind. The advantage of a house to dwell in was evident to both. Even
   thus, at this period, we have a large number in the congregation who
   are impressed with the conviction that they need a Savior. I am
   delighted to find that there is a stir among my hearers, and I trust it
   is a movement of God's Holy Spirit.

   And as a result very many of you feel deeply that you need a refuge
   from the wrath to come. You now admit that you must be forgiven,
   justified, regenerated and sanctified, and your desires are
   fervent--for all which I am deeply grateful, but also deeply anxious.
   You are in crowds desirous of becoming builders, and although some are
   wise and some foolish, up to this present we can see no difference in
   you. For you seem to be equally convinced that you need eternal life
   and a good hope for the world to come. Nor does the likeness end
   here--for the two builders were both alike resolved to obtain what they
   needed--a house. And their determination was not in words only, but in
   deeds--for they both resolutely set to work to build.

   In the same way there are among us at this hour many who are resolved
   that if Christ is to be had, they will have Him. And if there is such a
   thing as salvation, they will find it. They are very earnest, intensely
   earnest, and though some of them will fail, and some of them succeed,
   yet up to this point they are all alike, and none but He who searches
   all hearts can discern the slightest difference. I look with sadness
   upon the two pilgrims, with their faces zealously turned toward Zion,
   and I am sad as I wonder which one will find the Celestial City, and
   which will join with Formalist and Hypocrisy, and perish on the Dark
   Mountains. We are glad to hear of yearning hearts and resolute
   determinations, but, alas, all is not wheat that grows in wheat fields,
   all is not gold that glitters.

   Appearances are very, very hopeful, but appearances are often
   deceptive. There may be a deep sense of need, and there may be a
   determined resolution to get that need supplied. And yet out of two
   seekers, one may find and the other may miss--one may be foolish and
   the other may be wise. These two builders seem to have been equally
   well skilled in architecture. The one could build a house without
   receiving any more instruction than the other. I do not find that there
   was halt or pause on the part of either because he could not turn an
   arch, or fix a truss. Evidently they were both skilled workmen, well
   acquainted with their art.

   So is it with many here. They know as far as the theory goes, what the
   plan of salvation is as well as I do. Yet, where the knowledge is the
   same, the ultimate result may vary. Two men may be equally well
   instructed in the Scriptures, yet one of them may be wise and the other
   foolish. To know what faith is, what repentance is, what a good hope in
   Christ is may all be yours--and yet it may but increase your misery
   forever. If you know these things, happy are you if you do them. It is
   not the hearer, but the doer of the Word, that is blessed. Knowledge
   puffs up--love alone builds up.

   My dear Friends, I am most earnest that those of you who are desiring
   to find everlasting life in Christ Jesus may not be content with
   anything short of a true, deep, and real work of Divine Grace in your
   hearts. For no clearness of head knowledge, no natural earnestness of
   purpose or eagerness of desire can save you. Without an interest in
   Christ Jesus you are lost to all eternity. "You must be born again."
   You must be brought into vital union with the living Savior or your
   hopefulness will end in overwhelming destruction.

   Once more, these two builders both persevered and finished their
   structure. The foolish man did not begin to build and then cease his
   work because he was not able to finish, but, as far as I know, his
   house was finished with as much completeness as the other. And, perhaps
   furnished quite as well. If you had looked at the two structures, they
   would have seemed equally complete from basement to roof, and yet there
   was a great difference between them in a most essential point. Even
   thus, alas, many persevere in seeking salvation until they imagine that
   they have found it! They abide for years in the full belief that they
   are saved.

   They cry, "Peace, peace," and write themselves down among the
   blessed--and yet a fatal error lies at the base of all their religion.
   All their hopes are vain, and their lifework will prove to be a
   terrible failure. The builders are much alike up to this point, but yet
   in reality they are wide as the poles asunder both in work and
   character. The one builder is wise,

   the other foolish. The one superficial, the other substantial. The one
   pretentious, the other sincere. The wise man's work was honest work
   where men's eyes could not judge of it. The other's work was only well
   worked above ground--there was nothing of reality in the hidden parts.
   And therefore in due time the first builder rejoiced as he saw his
   house outlive the storm. The other, with his house, was swept away to
   total destruction.

   II. Thus much upon the two builders, let us now think upon THEIR TWO
   HOUSES. One chief apparent difference between the two edifices probably
   was this--that one of them built his house more quickly than the other.
   The wise man had to spend a deal of time in excavation work. Luke tells
   us that he dug deep and laid his foundation on a rock. Now that
   rock-blasting, that carving and cutting of the hard granite, must have
   consumed days and weeks.

   The foolish builder had not this delay to encounter. The sand was all
   smooth and ready for him. He was able to commence at once to lay his
   courses of brick and raise the walls with all rapidity. But all haste
   is not good speed, and there are some who travel too fast to hold.
   Unsound professors are often very rapid in their supposed spiritual
   growth. They were yesterday unconverted--today they become
   Believers--tomorrow they begin to teach and the next day they are made
   perfect. They appear to be born of full stature, and equipped at all
   points, like Minerva, when, according to the fable, she leaped from the
   brain of Jupiter. They come up in a night, and alas, too often, like
   Jonah's gourd, they perish also in a night!

   Now I raise not a question concerning the genuine character of sudden
   conversions. I believe that sudden conversions are among the best and
   truest forms of conversion. Take, for instance, that of the Apostle
   Paul. But still there are among those who profess to have been suddenly
   converted a sadly numerous company who answer to the description I have
   just given. They build very, very quickly--much too quickly for the
   masonry to be well constructed and lasting. It may be that some mourner
   is lamenting bitterly that he makes very slow progress in Grace.

   "I have been seeking God in prayer," says one, "these months. I have
   been humbled and broken down under a sense of sin for weeks. And I have
   only as yet had now and then a glimpse of hope when I have been able to
   turn my eye to the crucified Savior. I have as yet few consolations,
   and many doubts. I gladly would have the full light of love in my
   heart, but the dawning is slow in breaking." Well, Friend, you are
   building slowly, but if it is surely, you shall have no cause to regret
   that deep digging. Small cause will you have to mourn that it took you
   longer to arrive at peace than it did your hasty friend, if your peace
   shall last you to eternity, while his hope shall be a possession in
   cloudland, driven away by the wind.

   Of the two houses, one was built, I doubt not, with far less trouble
   than the other. Digging foundations in hard rocks, as I have said,
   takes time, and it also involves labor. Oftentimes did that wise
   builder pause to wipe the sweat from his brow. Oftentimes did he retire
   to his bed worn out with his day's work, and yet there was not a stone
   appearing above the soil. His neighbor, opposite, had run up the walls,
   had reached the gable, was almost about to put on the roof, before
   there was scarce a foot above the ground of the wise builder's
   structure.

   "Ah," said he of the sandy foundation, "your toil is needless, and you
   have nothing to show for it. See how quickly my walls have risen, and
   yet I don't slave as you do! I take things easily. I neither bore
   myself nor the rocks, and yet see how my house springs up, and how neat
   it looks? Your old-fashioned ways are absurd! You dig and hammer away
   down below there as if you meant to pierce the center of the earth. Why
   not use your common sense, and go ahead as I do? Away with your sighing
   and groaning, do as I do, and rejoice at once. Anxiety will kill you."

   After this fashion are truly awakened souls like "lamps despised of
   those who are at ease." One man jumps, as it were, into peace, and
   boasts himself secure. Whether he is correct or not in his confidence,
   he does not pause to question--he is too comfortable to have time to
   enquire into that matter. The estate is fair, why worry about the title
   deeds? The feast is rich, why tarry for the wedding garments? If a
   doubt should arise, the carnally secure man ascribes it to Satan, and
   puts it aside--whereas it is not Satan, but his own conscience and the
   warning voice of Heaven which bid him take heed and be not deceived.

   The prayer for the Lord to search and try his heart and his reins, he
   never sincerely offers. Such a man does not like self-examination, and
   cannot endure to be told that there must be fruits meet for repentance.
   He takes things as guesswork, comes to rash conclusions, and shuts his
   eyes to disagreeable facts. He dreams that he is rich and increased in
   goods, whereas he is naked, and poor, and miserable. Alas, what a
   waking will his be! His more serious companion,

   aroused at the same time is, on the other hand, far more diffident and
   self-distrustful. When he prays his heart groans before God, yet he
   fears he does not pray aright, and never rises from his knees content
   with himself.

   He is not quite so soon satisfied about the reality of his faith as the
   other. "Perhaps," he says, "after all, it is not the faith of God's
   elect." He examines himself whether he is in the faith. He trembles
   lest he should have the form of godliness without the power. He is
   afraid of shams and counterfeits, and is for buying gold tried in the
   fire. "My repentance," he says, "am I sure it is a real loathing of sin
   as sin, or did I only shed a tear or two under the excitement of a
   revival service? Am I sure that my nature is renewed by the work of the
   Holy Spirit, or is it mere reformation?"

   You see, this second man has much exercise of soul. He labors to enter
   into rest, lest by any means he should seem to come short of it. He has
   many strivings, many anxieties, many searching of heart because he is
   sincere and fears to be deceived. From him the kingdom of Heaven
   suffers violence--he finds the gate strait and the way narrow--and that
   the righteous scarcely are saved.

   Be thankful, dear Hearer, if you are among this second class--for these
   are the true sons of God and heirs of immortality. Your house costs you
   more to build, but it will be worth the cost. O beware of wearing the
   sheep's clothing without the sheep's nature! Beware of saying, "Lord,
   Lord," while you are the servant of sin! Beware of getting up
   fictitious religion--borrowing your experience from
   biographies--picking up godliness secondhand from your parents,
   friends, and acquaintances! Whatever it may cost you of heartbreak and
   agony, see to it that the sure foundation is reached, and the house so
   built that it will endure the trials which will inevitably test it. I
   would gladly saturate my speech with tears, so weighty and so needful
   do I feel this caution to be--both to myself and you.

   I should think that in the course of time, although the foolish builder
   built with so much less cost, and so much more rapidly, his walls would
   be liable to very ugly settlements. For walls that have no
   foundation--that are but piled up on the sand--would every now and then
   gape wide with hideous cracks. And stones would move here, and timbers
   would slip there, and cement and stopping would need much repair. What
   work for daubers and plasterers to make the ruinous fabric look like
   decent masonry! Very likely when a settlement crack was covered up in
   one place, another would happen in the next wall.

   For with such a foundation it would be hard to keep the structure
   together, and in the long run I should not wonder but what it would
   cost the foolish builder more pains to keep up his wretched edifice
   than it did the wise builder who labored so hard with his foundation at
   the first. Mark you well that mere formal religion and hypocrisy in the
   end become a very difficult affair to maintain. The man has to struggle
   hard to patch up his reputation, propping it up with new lies and
   bolstering it with fresh pretences. At one time an unrenewed will
   rebels fiercely and he has to feign resignation to affliction. Next an
   unconquered lust demands indulgence, and he has to conceal the sin with
   more double-distilled deceit.

   The form of prayer becomes irksome, and he has to screw himself up to
   the horrible farce. And meanwhile his outward life is always on the
   verge of a slip, and he fears detection. One way and another he is
   continually afraid, like a thief at large who fears that the police
   will find him. At every puff of wind his habitation threatens to tumble
   about his ears. He half wishes, after all, that he had taken the
   trouble of digging a foundation on the rock--but with desperate resolve
   he puts from him the voice of caution--and will have none of its
   rebuke.

   O dear Hearer, rest assured that Truth, after all, is the cheapest and
   easiest in the long run. Your gilt, your varnish, your paint, your
   hypocrisy will soon wear off, while the reality is at no expense for
   beautifying. Even as a matter of consideration for this life it will be
   more hard in the long run to keep up the pretentious than to maintain
   the true. And then in the latter case you have God at your back, and He
   abhors everything unreal. I beseech you see to it that you daub not
   your walls with untempered mortar lest they not only come down with a
   crash when most you need to shelter behind them, but even now begin to
   show alarming signs of decay.

   The higher the foolish man built, the harder work he had to keep it
   aright. For, of course, every tier of bricks that he laid made the
   weight the greater and caused the sand to give way. The nearer Heaven
   the builder went the sooner his wall bowed to its fall. A man who only
   makes it his aim to be thought a respectable man by attending a place
   of worship, may manage pretty well to keep up such a low wall even
   without a foundation. Another man who joins a worldly Church--a Church
   that makes no pretense of purity--can also succeed with ease. But if he
   joins a Church of Jesus Christ which carefully seeks to preserve purity
   in its membership, he has hard work to live up to the standard required
   of him.

   Suppose, yet further, that he should become a deacon or an elder and he
   is devoid of Grace? His higher aim will cost him more by far--for there
   are more to look at him, and there is more required of him. Now he
   prays in public. Now he speaks a word of instruction to enquirers--and
   what straits and shifts the poor man is driven to--how constantly out
   of his own mouth is he condemned! "Why," says he in his heart, "I know
   nothing about these things in my soul, and yet I have to speak and act
   as if I were taught of God." If he becomes a preacher, he is in a still
   more pitiful plight. What hard work must it be, then, to keep up the
   character!

   When the tower rises tier upon tier upon so frail a base, it leans like
   the tower of Pisa, and unlike that singular structure it threatens to
   come down with a crash. By-and-by such a trumpery thing falls in utter
   ruin, and its elevation helps to hasten the catastrophe. So, dear
   Hearers, the more spirituality you aim at, and the more usefulness you
   strive for, the worse for you, unless you have a good foundation to
   begin with, in true sincerity and real faith. So bad is the course of
   unsound religion, that the further you go in it the worse it becomes.

   The main difference, however, between the two houses did not lay in
   these cracks and settlements, nor in the cheapness or rapidity of the
   building--it lay out of sight, underground. It was all a matter of the
   foundation. How many there are who suppose that if a thing is out of
   sight it may as well be out of mind! Who do you think is likely to dig
   down and see what the foundations are? "Well," says one, "I see no need
   for being over precise. I do not believe in being so particular. What
   nobody sees cannot mean anything." Many subscribe to the graceless song
   --

   "For faith and Grace let foolish zealots fight; He can't be wrong whose
   life is in the right." "You pay twenty shillings in the pound, attend a
   place of worship, take the sacrament, are charitable and say your
   prayers, and never trouble about anything further"--that is the popular
   notion. "What is the use of fretting about your heart? That is all
   transcendental nonsense! What can it signify?" That is how the foolish
   builder comforted himself. And he doubtless sneered at the wise builder
   as a poor miserable creature who was overmuch righteous and melancholy.
   Outward appearance is everything with men, but nothing with God. The
   essential difference between the true child of God and the mere
   professor is not readily to be discovered, even by spiritual minds. But
   the Lord sees it. It is a secret mysterious something which the Lord
   prizes, "for He knows them that are His." He separates between the
   precious and the vile. He puts away the pretenders as dross, but He
   suffers no sincere heart to be destroyed.

   What, then, is this important matter? I answer it is just this--beloved
   Hearer, if you would be built on a rock, see to it that you have a true
   sense of sin. I do not say that a sense of sin is a preparation for
   Christ, and that we ought to pull men back from the Gospel till they
   feel their sin. But I do believe that wherever there is true faith in
   Jesus there goes with it a deep abhorrence of sin. Faith without
   contrition is a dead and worthless faith.

   When I meet with professors who talk lightly of sin, I am sure that
   they have built without a foundation. If they had ever felt the
   Spirit's wounding and killing sword of conviction, they would flee from
   sin as from a lion or a bear. Truly forgiven sinners dread the
   appearance of evil as burnt children dread fire. Superficial repentance
   always leads to careless living. Faith that was never bedewed with
   repentance never brings forth the flowers of holiness. Pray earnestly
   for a broken heart. Remember it is the contrite spirit which God is
   pleased with. Do not believe that you can have ground for rejoicing if
   you never saw reason for lamenting. The promised comfort is only
   secured to those who have been mourners

   (Matt. 5: 4).

   Next to this seek for real faith. Many things which men call faith are
   not the precious faith of God's elect. Sincere trust in Jesus Christ is
   counterfeited in a thousand ways--and often imitated so accurately that
   only by rigid self-examination can you discover the cheat. You must lie
   flat upon Christ, the Rock! You must depend entirely upon Him! All your
   hope and all your trust must be in Him. If you believe with the heart,
   and not nominally, you are safe, but not otherwise. You must have true
   repentance and real faith--or you are foolish builders.

   Furthermore, seek an inwrought experience of Divine Truth. Ask to have
   it burnt into you. Why is it that people give up the Doctrines of Grace
   if they fall in with eloquent advocates of free will? Why is it they
   renounce the orthodox creed if they meet with a smart reasoner who
   contradicts it? Because they have never received the Word in the power
   of the Holy Spirit so as to have it sealed in their hearts. I tremble
   for our Churches, now that false doctrine is rife, because I fear that
   many are not established in the Truth. I pray the Lord for you, my dear
   Flock, that you may know the Truth by being taught of the Lord, for
   then you will not be led aside. The thieves and robbers will come, but
   as Christ's sheep you

   will not hear them. It is one thing to have a creed. It is quite
   another thing to have the Truth engraved upon the tables of the heart.
   Many fail here because Truth was never experimentally made their own.

   Pray, moreover, that your faith may produce personal holiness. Do not
   believe yourself to be saved from sin while you are living in sin. If
   you can find pleasure in the lusts of the flesh, you are no child of
   God. If you are given to drunk-enness--and, mark you, many professors
   are so, only they drink at home and are not seen in the streets--how
   dwells the Grace of God in you? If you delight in idle songs and
   frequenting of places of vain amusement, you need not be long in
   weighing yourself--you are found wanting already. If you were renewed
   in the spirit of your mind, you would no more love these things than an
   angel would.

   There must be a newborn nature implanted, and where there is not this
   exemplified in holiness of life, you may build ever so high and prate
   ever so loudly about your building--it is a poor miserable shanty after
   all--and will fall in the last hurricane. Want of depth, want of
   sincerity, want of reality in religion--this is the want of our times.
   Want of an eye to God in religion, lack of sincere dealing with one's
   own soul. Neglect of using the lancet with our hearts. Neglect of the
   search warrant which God gives out against sin. Carelessness concerning
   living upon Christ--much reading about Him, much talking about Him--but
   too little feeding upon His flesh, and drinking of His blood--these are
   the causes of tottering professions and baseless hopes.

   Thus have I tried to open up the parable--and I have not designed to
   discourage any sincere soul. My aim has been to say to you, "Make your
   calling and election sure. Build on Christ's love, sincerity, desire,
   the work of the Holy Spirit--and be not deceived."

   III. So now I come, in the third place, to notice THE COMMON TRIAL OF
   THE TWO HOUSES. Whether your religion is true or not, it will be tried.
   Whether it is chaff or wheat, the fan of the Great Winnower will surely
   be brought into operation upon all that lies on the threshing floor. If
   you have dealings with God, you have to do with a "consuming fire."
   Whether you are really or nominally a Christian, if you come near to
   Christ, He will try you as silver is tried. Judgment must begin at the
   House of God, and if you dare to come in to the House of God, judgment
   will begin with you.

   By the way, let us note that if there are such trials for those who
   profess to be Christians, what will become of you who make no
   profession? If the righteous scarcely are saved, where will the ungodly
   and the wicked appear? If judgment begin with the House of God, what
   will the end be of them that believe not? Terrible thought! But to
   return. Trials will come to profession, whether it is true or false. If
   I do not mistake the reference in the text to rain, flood, wind--these
   trials will be of three sorts at least.

   The rain typifies afflictions from Heaven. God will send you
   adversities like showers, tribulations as many as the drops of the dew.
   Between now and Heaven, O Professor, you will feel the pelting storm!
   Like other men, your body will be sick. Or if not, you shall have
   trouble in your house--children and friends will die--or riches will
   take to themselves wings, and fly like an eagle towards Heaven. You
   must have trials from God's hand. And, if you are not relying on
   Christ, you will not be able to bear them. If you are not, by real
   faith, one with Jesus Christ, even God's rain will be too much for you.

   But there will also arise trials from earth--"the floods came." In
   former days the floods of persecution were more terrible than now, but
   persecution is still felt. And if you are a professor, you will have to
   bear a measure of it. Cruel mockings are still used against the people
   of God. The world no more loves the true Church today than it did in
   olden times. Can you bear slander and reproach for Jesus? Not unless
   you are firmly rooted and grounded. In the day of temptation and
   persecution the rootless plants of the stony ground are withered away.
   See you to this.

   Then there will come mysterious trials typified by "the winds." The
   prince of the power of the air will assail you with blasphemous
   suggestions, horrible temptations, or artful insinuations. He knows how
   to cast clouds of despondency over the human spirit. He can attack the
   four corners of the house at once by his mysterious agency. He can
   tempt us in many ways at the same time, and drive us to our wits' end.
   Woe to you, then, unless you have something to hold to better than the
   mere sand of profession!

   Where there is a good foundation trials will do no harm. But where
   there is no foundation they will frequently bring the man's profession
   down in ruin, even in this life. How many lose their religion at the
   very outset! Pliable and Christian both set out for the Celestial City,
   both aspiring to the crown of gold. But they fell into the Slough of
   Despond. And

   then one of them struggled out on the side nearest his own house, and
   went back to the City of Destruction. The other strove manfully to
   reach the further shore--the difference between the wise and foolish
   pilgrim was made manifest.

   After Christians have proceeded further they will be tried in other
   ways. Infidelities often try Christians. I mean doubts about the
   essentials of the faith and all its doctrines. And those that are not
   well cemented to the Rock are easily moved to unbelief. This is the age
   of infidelities, but they who are on the Rock by a truthful experience
   are not moved. A Negro was once told by a friend that some man had said
   the Bible was not true. Now, our poor friend had never thought anybody
   could doubt the Bible, but his quick way of disposing of the novel
   difficulty was, "Dat Book not true? Why, I take it into my house and I
   sit down and read it, and it make my heart laugh. How can it be a lie,
   dat make my heart laugh? I was a drunkard, a thief, and a liar, and dat
   Book talked to me and made me a new man--dat Book no lie." The very
   best proof in the world surely, at least to the man himself, if not to
   others.

   We who have had our hearts made to laugh by God's Word cannot be
   laughed out of our faith. We have lived on the Word and proved its
   truthfulness by experience--and are therefore invulnerable to all
   attacks--while strangers to such experience are staggered. Where the
   heart is really grounded upon the Truth, you will find that heresies as
   well as infidelities have but little effect. The sound Christian is
   like a stone--if he is thrown into the pool of false doctrine, he may
   be wet by it--but he does not receive it into his inner self. Whereas
   the unsound professor is like a sponge, he sucks it all in greedily and
   retains what he absorbs.

   How many there are who are tried by worldliness, and if their religion
   is but a mere profession, worldliness soon eats the heart of it as does
   a canker, and they become even as others! If, however, the Christian
   man's heart is right with God, he comes out and is separate, and the
   pride of life does not entrap him. In cases of backsliding, where there
   is a sound heart towards God, the backslider is soon brought back. But
   where the heart is rotten, the backslider goes from bad to worse. I was
   struck with a story of two men who were accustomed to give exhortations
   at meetings, who had fallen out with each other. One of their Brothers,
   who grieved to think two servants of God should be at differences with
   each other, went to reconcile them.

   He called upon the first, and said, "John, I am very sorry to find you
   and James have quarreled. It seems a great pity, and it brings much
   dishonor on the Church of God." "Ah," said John, "I am very grieved,
   too, and what grieves me most is that I am the sole cause of it. It was
   only because I spoke so bitterly that James took offense." "Ah, ah,"
   said the good man, "we will soon settle this difficulty, then," and
   away he went to James. "James, I am very sorry that you and John cannot
   agree." "Yes," he said, "it is a sad thing we don't, we ought to do so,
   for we are Brothers. But what troubles me most is that it is all my
   fault. If I had not taken notice of a little word John said, there
   would have been an end of it."

   The matter, as you may guess, was soon rectified. You see there was at
   the bottom a true friendship between them, so that the little
   difficulty was soon overcome. And so where there is a true union
   between God and the soul, the backsliding will soon be recovered.

   IV. To close. Haying thus mentioned the common trials and the effects
   produced in this life, let me now remind you of the DIFFERENT RESULTS
   OF THE TRIALS in reference to the life to come. In the one case, the
   rain descended very heavily, and threatened to wash the house away, but
   it was built on a rock, and not only did the house stand, but the man
   inside found great comfort in it. He could hear the pelting torrent
   beating on the roof, and sit and sing. When the gusts came against the
   windows he would only be the more happy to think he had such a shelter.

   Then came the floods. They would, if they could, have sapped and
   undermined the foundations, but they took no effect on the granite
   rock. And though the wind howled round the habitation, every stone was
   well cemented and all bound as with iron bands to the grand old
   Rock--and therefore the man was safe and happy within. And above all,
   he was grateful that he had built on such a Foundation. He could sit
   down and sing--

   "Loud may the troubled ocean roar, In sacred peace my soul abides." The
   Christian rests peacefully upon Christ. Troubles come one after
   another, but they do not sweep him away--they only endear to him the
   hope which is based upon Christ Jesus. And when at last death comes,
   that awful flood which will undermine everything that can be
   removed--it cannot find anything to shake in the wise builder's hope!

   He rests on what Christ has Done--death cannot affect that. He believes
   in a faithful God. And dying cannot affect that. He believes in the
   Covenant signed, and sealed, and ratified, in all things ordered well.
   He lays hold on the "shalls"

   and "wills" of an immutable God, all sealed with the blood of the
   Redeemer! Death cannot affect any of these. And when the last great
   trumpet sounds, and the last fire that shall try every man's work of
   what sort it is comes forth from the Throne of God, the man who in true
   sincerity and with real experience has laid hold on Christ is not
   afraid of the tremendous hour.

   What? Though the trumpet sounds exceedingly loud and long, and the dead
   awake, and the angels gather round the Great White Throne! And the
   pillars of Heaven tremble, and the earth is dissolved, and the elements
   melt with fervent heat--the man of God feels that the Rock on which he
   has built can never fail him, and the hope that Divine Grace has given
   him can never be removed. He smiles serenely amid it all.

   But look at the case of the man whose hope is built on sand! He could
   hardly endure the trials of life. He almost fell under common
   temptation. He turned his coat during the hour of persecution. But
   sorer trials now await him. Some hypocrites have been bolstered up even
   in the last moments, and perhaps have never known that they were lost
   till they felt they were. Like Dives, of whom it is written, "In Hell
   he lifted up his eyes, being in torment." He had never lifted up his
   eyes before. He did not know his condition till he actually realized it
   in all its misery. But the most of men who have come under the sound of
   the Gospel, and made a profession--if they have been deceivers find it
   out at death--and it must be a dreadful thing to make that discovery
   when pain is sharp and parting is bitter.

   Ah, dear Friend, if you are mistaken, may you find it out now, and not
   on your deathbed. May your prayer be, "Lord, show me the worst of my
   case. If my profession has been a mistake, O let me not build up and
   prop up a rotten thing, but help me to build aright upon the Rock of
   Ages." Pray that prayer, I beseech you. Remember, if death should not
   teach you the whole Truth of your case, judgment will. There will be no
   mistake there, and no opportunity for repentance. This fallen house was
   never built again. There was no salvage from the total wreck. Lost,
   lost, lost--there is no word to follow. For once lost, lost forever! O
   dear Hearer, I bid you, if you have a name to live and are dead, arise
   from the dead, and Christ shall give you life!

   I pray you, if you are a seeker, be not put off with empty hopes and
   vain confidences. Buy the Truth and sell it not. Lay hold on eternal
   life. Seek the true Savior and be not content till you have Him, for if
   lost, your ruin will be terrible! Oh, that lake! Have you ever read the
   words, "Shall be cast into the Lake of Fire, which is the second
   death"? The Lake of Fire! And souls cast into it! The imagery is
   dreadful. "Ah," says one, "that is a metaphor." Yes, I know it is, and
   a metaphor is but a shadow of the reality. Then if the shadow is a lake
   of fire, what must the reality be? If we can hardly bear to think of a
   "worm that never dies," and a "fire that never shall be quenched," and
   of a lake whose seething waves of fire that dash over undying and
   hopeless souls--what must Hell be in very deed?

   The descriptions of Scriptures are, after all, but condescensions to
   our ignorance--partial revelations of fathomless mysteries. But if
   these are so dreadful, what must the full reality be? Provoke Him not,
   my Hearers--tempt not your God! Neglect not the great salvation, for if
   you do, you shall not escape. Play not with your souls! Be not heedless
   and careless of the realities of eternity! But now, even now, may God
   hear your prayer as you breathe it from your inmost souls, and give you
   truly to be washed in the precious blood, and effectually saved by Him,
   in Whom there is fullness of Truth and Grace. Amen.

   "My God, I mark with fear How many hopes decay, And like the foolish
   builder's house Fall in the trial day. Perhaps amid this throng

   You do a soul espy

   Whose towering hopes are built on sand,

   I ask, 'Lord, is it I?'

   A thousand doubts arise,

   I bring them all to You.

   Am I unconsciously deceived?

   Lord, search my heart and see.

   O teach me deep to dig

   Down to the solid Rock,

   That when tornadoes round me sweep

   My house may bear the shock.

   Jesus, You only are

   The sure foundation stone,

   Firm as the eternal hills are You,

   I build on You alone.

   Cemented fast to You

   No stone is laid in vain,

   My hope defies the assaults of Hell,

   The flood, the wind, the rain."
     __________________________________________________________________

The King Feasting in his Garden

   (No. 919)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MARCH 6, 1870,

   BY C.H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "I am come into My garden, My Sister, My Spouse: I have gathered My
   myrrh with My spice. I have eaten My honeycomb with My honey. I have
   drunk My wine with My milk: eat, O Friends; drink, yes, drink
   abundantly, O Beloved." Song of Solomon 5:1.

   I BELIEVE this text to be appropriate to the spiritual condition of our
   Church. If I am not very sadly mistaken, the Lord of Hosts is with us
   in a very remarkable manner. Our meetings for prayer have been
   distinguished by an earnest and fervent spirit. Our meetings with
   enquirers have been remarkably powerful. In a quiet manner, without any
   outward outcries, souls have been smitten down with conviction of sin,
   and have been comforted as they have received Christ by faith. By His
   Grace we are not a deserted Church, we are not left with broken hedges,
   with the wild boar of the wood committing devastations.

   The Lord has sent a gracious rain which has quickened the seed. He has
   watered the plants of His garden, and made our souls to rejoice in His
   Presence. Now if the text is appropriate, as I believe it is, the duty
   to which it especially calls us should have our earnest attention. The
   workers for Christ must remember that even if they have to care for the
   garden, their chief business must be to commune with the Lord and
   Master of that garden, since He, Himself, this morning calls them to do
   so. "Eat O friends; drink, yes, drink abundantly, O Beloved."

   In happy and auspicious times, when the Spirit of God is working, it is
   very natural to say, "We must now work more abundantly than ever," and
   God forbid that we should hinder such zeal--but more spiritual
   privilege is not to be put in the second place. Let us commune as well
   as work. For there shall we find strength for service, and our service
   shall be done the better, and become the more acceptable, and ensure
   the larger blessing. If while we serve like Martha we at the same time
   commune like Mary, we shall not, then, become cumbered with much
   serving. We shall serve and not be cumbered, and shall feel no
   fretfulness against others whose only faculty may be that of sitting at
   the Master's feet.

   The text divides itself readily into three parts. First, we have the
   Presence of the heavenly Bridegroom--"I am come into My garden, My
   sister, My spouse." We have, secondly, the satisfaction which He finds
   in His Church--"I have gathered My myrrh with My spice, I have eaten My
   honeycomb with My honey, I have drunk My wine with my milk." And,
   thirdly, we have the invitation which He gives to His loving
   people--"Eat, O friends; drink, yes, drink abundantly, O

   Beloved."

   I. The voice of the Master Himself calls us to consider HIS
   PRESENCE--"I am come." He tells us He is come. What? Could He come
   without our perceiving it? Is it not possible? May we be like those
   whose eyes were held so that they knew Him not? Is it possible for us
   to be like Magdalene, seeking Christ, while He is standing very near
   us? Yes, and we may even be like the disciples, who, when they saw Him
   walking on the water, were afraid.

   They thought it was a spirit, and cried out--and Jesus said, "It is I,
   be not afraid," before they knew who it was! Here is our ignorance, but
   here is His tenderness. He may come and yet we may not recognize
   Him--but here when He comes, He takes care to advertise us of the
   blessed fact, and calls us to observe and to consider, and to delight
   in it. He would, for our own comfort, prevent its being said of us, "He
   came unto His own, and His own received Him not."

   Let us observe, first, this coming was in answer to prayer. Our
   translators, in dividing the Bible into chapters, seem to have utterly
   disregarded the connection or the sense, so that they brought down
   their guillotine between two verses which must not be divided. The
   Church had said, "Awake, O north wind. And come, you south; blow upon
   my garden." She had also said, "Let my Beloved come into His garden,
   and eat His pleasant fruits." In answer to that prayer the Beloved
   replies, "I am come into My garden." Prayer is always heard, and the
   prayer of faithful souls finds an echo in Jesus' heart.

   How quickly the spouse was heard! Scarcely had the words died away,
   "Let my Beloved come," before she heard Him say, "I am come!" "Before
   they call, I will answer. And while they are yet speaking, I will
   hear." He is very near unto His people, and therefore He very speedily
   answers their request. And how fully does He answer them, too! You
   will, perhaps, say, "But she had asked for the Holy Spirit--she had
   said, 'Awake, O north wind. And come, you south.' And yet there is no
   mention of the heavenly wind as blowing through the garden." The answer
   is that the Beloved's coming means

   all that.

   His visit brings both north and south wind. All benign influences are
   sure to follow where He leads the way! Spices always flow out from the
   heart when Christ's sweet love flows in--and where He is, Christians
   have all things in Him. There was a full answer to her prayer, and
   there was more than an answer, for she had but said, "Let Him come and
   eat," but, lo, He gathers myrrh and spice, and He drinks of wine and
   milk. He does exceeding abundantly above what she had asked or even
   thought--after the right royal manner of the Son of God--who does not
   answer us according to the poverty of our expressions and the leanness
   of our desires, but according to His riches in Glory, giving to us
   Grace upon Grace out of His own inexhaustible fullness.

   Brethren, this Church has had a full reward for all her prayers. We
   have waited upon God often, all the day long there has been prayer in
   this house, and during this last month there has scarcely been an hour
   in which supplication has been suspended. And the answer has already
   come. We are so apt to overlook the answer to prayer. Let it not be so.
   Let us praise the Lord that prayer has not been a vain service. It has
   brought down His Presence, the chief of all blessings, and that for
   which we most interceded at His Throne. Let us exalt Him!

   We can hear Him say now, "I am come into your meetings, I am blessing
   you. I am saving souls, I am elevating some of you into nearness of
   fellowship with Myself. I am chastening some of your spirits with
   sadness to think you have lived in so groveling an estate. I am with
   you, I have heard your prayers, I have come to abide with you as a
   people."

   Now, if this is the case, let us next observe what an unspeakable
   blessing this is! If the voice had said, "I have sent My angel," that
   would have been a precious benefit. But it is not so spoken. The word
   is, "I am come." What? Does He, before whom angels adoringly bow their
   heads--does He, before whom perfect spirits cast their crowns--does He
   condescend to come into the Church? Yes, it is even so. There is a
   personal Presence of Christ in the midst of His people. Where two or
   three are met together in His name, there is He in the midst of them.
   His corporeal Presence is in Heaven, but His spiritual Presence, which
   is all we want--all it is expedient for Him as yet to grant--is
   assuredly in our midst. He is with us truly and really when we meet
   together in our solemn assemblies, and with us, too, when we separate
   and go our ways in private to fight the battles of the Lord.

   Brethren, for us to enjoy His Presence as a Church is a privilege whose
   value is only to be measured by the melancholy results of His absence.
   Where Jesus Christ is not in the garden, the plants wither, and like
   untimely figs the fruits fall from the trees. Blossoms come not, or if
   they appear, they do but disappoint when Jesus is not there to knit and
   fructify them. But when He comes, even the driest boughs in the garden
   become like Aaron's rod that budded! Yes, our older Brethren in the
   Church remember times of trouble, times when the ministry was not with
   power, when the gatherings on the Lord's-Day were joyless, when the
   voice of wailing saddened the courts of Zion. But now we rejoice, yes,
   and will rejoice! The contrast between the past and the joyous present
   should increase our gratitude till we praise the Lord on the high
   sounding cymbals with jubilant exaltation!

   Remember, too, that if He had dealt with us according to our sins, and
   rewarded us after our iniquities, we should never have heard the
   footsteps of the Beloved traversing the garden. How many have grieved
   the Holy Spirit by careless living and backsliding? How have most of us
   followed Him afar off instead of keeping step with Him in service and
   fellowship? Alas, my Lord, if You had regarded only the sins of the
   pastor of the Church, You had long ago left this flock. But You have
   not dealt with us severely, but according unto Your love and to Your
   mercy You have blotted out our sins like a cloud. And like a thick
   cloud our transgressions, and still do You condescend to come into Your
   garden.

   If you take each word of this remarkable sentence, you will find a
   meaning. "I am come." There is the personal Presence of Christ. "I am
   come." There is the certainty that it is so. It is no delusion, no
   dream, no supposition. "I am truly come." Blessed be the name of the
   Lord, at this present time it is assuredly so! Many of His saints can
   bear testimony that they have seen His face and have felt the kisses of
   His lips, and have proven, even this day, that His love is better than

   wine. Note the next word, "I am come into My garden." How near is the
   approach of Christ to His Church! He comes not to the garden door, nor
   to look over the wall, nor in at the gate and out again. But into His
   garden.

   He goes down every walk, midst the green alleys. Among the beds of
   spices He walks, watching each flower, pruning the superfluous foliage
   of every fruit-bearing plant, and plucking up by the roots such as His
   heavenly Father has not planted. His delights are with the sons of men.
   His communion with His chosen is most familiar--so that the spouse may
   sing, "My Beloved is gone down into His garden, to the beds of spices,
   to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies." Jesus Christ, the Lord,
   forgets not His Church, but fulfils the promise--"I the Lord do keep
   it, I will water it every moment. Lest any hurt it, I will keep it
   night and day."

   Brethren, this is a solemn as well as a pleasant fact. You who are
   members of this Church, remember that Jesus is come into the Church,
   that He is now going His rounds among you, and marking your feelings
   towards Him. He knows today who is in fellowship with Him, and who is
   not. He discerns between the precious and the vile. He never comes
   without the winnowing fan when He visits His threshing floor. Beware if
   you are as chaff. He has come into His garden. O you that have not
   enjoyed much of His gracious company, pray to Him to cast a look
   towards you, and be like the sunflower which turns its face to the sun
   to refresh itself with His beams. O pant and long for His Presence. If
   your soul is as dark as the dead of night, call out to Him, for He
   hears the faintest sigh of any of His chosen.

   "I am come into My garden," He says. Note here the possession which
   Christ claims in the Church. If it were not His garden, He would not
   come into it. A Church that is not Christ's Church shall have none of
   His Presence, and a soul that is not Christ's has no fellowship with
   Him. If He reveals Himself at all, it is unto His own people, His
   blood-bought people, the people that are His by purchase and by
   power--and by the surrender of themselves to Him. When I think of this
   Church as committed to my care, I am overawed, and well may my fellow
   officers be cast down under the weight of our responsibility. But after
   all, we may say, "Master, this garden is not ours. It is Your garden.
   We have not begotten all this people, neither can we carry them in our
   bosoms. But You, great Shepherd of the sheep, You will guard the fold."

   Since the garden is His own, He will not suffer even the least plant to
   perish. My Brethren who work for Christ--do not be downcast if certain
   portions of the work should not seem to succeed. He will attend to it.
   "The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand." It is more His
   work than ours, and souls are more under His responsibility than ours.
   So let us hope and be confident, for the Master will surely smile upon
   His "vineyard of red wine."

   The next word denotes cultivation. "I am come into My garden." The
   Church is a cultivated spot. It did not spring up by chance, it was
   arranged by Himself. It has been tended by Himself, and the fruits
   belong to Himself. Thankful are we if we can truly know that as a
   Church --

   "We are a garden walled around, Chosen and made peculiar ground."
   Christ, the Great Cultivator, exercises care and skill in training His
   people, and He delights to see His own handiwork in them.

   And then there are the two choice words at the close by which He speaks
   of His Church, herself, rather than of her work. As if He would draw
   the attention of His people to themselves and to Himself, rather than
   to their work. He says, "My Sister, My Spouse." There is one name for
   the garden, but there are two names for herself. The work is His work,
   the garden is His garden, but see, He wants communion not so much with
   the work as with the worker, He speaks to the Church herself. He calls
   her, "My Sister, My Spouse." "Spouse" has something in it of dearness
   that is not in the first word, for what can be dearer to the husband
   than the bride?

   But then there was a time when the spouse was not dear to the
   Bridegroom, there was a period, perhaps when He did not know her, when
   there was no relationship between the two--though they are made of one
   flesh by marriage, yet they were of different families. And for this
   cause He adds the dear name of "Sister," to show an ancient
   relationship to her, a closeness and a nearness by blood, by birth, as
   well as by betrothal and wedlock. The two words put together make up a
   confection of such inexpressible sweetness, that instead of seeking to
   expound them to you, I will leave them to your meditations, and may He
   who calls the Church, "Sister," and, "Spouse," open up their richness
   to your souls.

   Here, then, is the gist of the whole matter. The Master's Presence is
   in this Church in a very remarkable manner. Beloved, I pray that none
   of you may be like Adam, who fled among the trees to hide himself from
   God when He walked in the garden. May your business not act like an
   overshadowing thicket to conceal you from fellowship. He calls you, O

   Backslider, He calls you as once He called Adam--"Where are you?" Come,
   Beloved, come and commune with your Lord. Come away from those carking
   cares and anxieties which, like gloomy groves of cypress, conceal you
   from your Lord, or rather your Lord from you.

   Don't you hear His call? "O My Dove that is in the clefts of the rock,
   in the secret places of the stairs, let Me see your countenance, let Me
   hear your voice. For sweet is your voice, and your countenance is
   comely." Let none of us be like the disciples in another garden when
   their Lord was there and He was in agony, but they were sleeping. Up,
   you Sleepers! Christ has come! If the midnight cry, "Behold, the
   Bridegroom comes," awoke the virgins, shall not, "I am come," awaken
   you? It is His own voice! It is not, "He comes," but "I am come"!

   Stand up, you Slumberers! And now, with heart and soul, seek fellowship
   with Him! It would be a sad thing if while Christ is with us any should
   be slumbering, and then should wake up and say, "Surely God was in this
   place and I knew it not." Rather may you invite Him to come into your
   souls and abide with you until the day breaks and the shadows flee
   away, and you behold Him face to face.

   II. Thus much upon the first point. And now may His Holy Spirit help us
   to view OUR LORD IN HIS CHURCH.

   The beautiful expressions of the text are capable of many holy
   meanings, and it is not possible that any expositions of mine could
   fully unveil their treasures. But let me observe, first, that Christ is
   delighted with the offerings of His people. He says, "I have gathered
   My myrrh with My spice." We may consider myrrh and spice as sweet
   perfumes offered by way of incense to God--as being indicative of the
   offerings which His people bring to Him.

   What if I say that prayer is like sweet smelling myrrh, and that the
   Beloved has been gathering the myrrh of holy prayer, the bitter myrrh
   of repenting sighs and cries in the midst of this Church, lo, these
   many months? You, perhaps, thought that poor wordless prayer of yours
   was never heard, but Jesus gathered it, and called it spice. And when
   some Brother was praying aloud, and in silence your tears fell thick
   and fast for perishing sinners, for you could not bear that they should
   die, nor endure that Christ's name should be blasphemed, the Beloved
   gathered up the precious drops and counted them as costly oil of
   sweetest smell.

   Was it not said in Psalm 72:15, "Prayer also shall be made for Him
   continually"? And you did pray for Him that His name might be as
   ointment poured forth, and that He might gird His sword upon His thigh
   and ride forth prosperously. Jesus observed and delighted in your
   heart's offering. Others knew not that you prayed--perhaps you thought,
   yourself, that you scarcely prayed--but He gathered His myrrh with His
   spice from you. No faithful prayer is lost. The groanings of His people
   are not forgotten. He gathers them as men gather precious products from
   a garden which they have tilled with much labor and expense.

   And then, may not spice represent our praises? For these, as well as
   prayer, come up as incense before His Throne. Last Thursday night when
   my brother spoke to you, if you felt as I did, I am sure your heart
   sent up praise as smoke of incense from the warm coals of a censer, as
   he cast on them handfuls of frankincense in the form of various motives
   for gratitude and reasons for praise. Oh, it was good to sing God's
   praises as we then did by the hour together. It was delightful, too, to
   come to His Table and make that ordinance in very deed a service of
   praise to God. Praise is pleasant and comely, and most of all so
   because Jesus accepts it, and says, "Whoever offers praise glorifies
   Me."

   When the Lord, in another place, speaks of offering sweet cane bought
   with money, does He not refer to other offerings which His people bring
   in addition to their prayers and their praises, when they give to Him
   the first fruits of all their increase, and present thank offerings to
   His name? He has said, "None of you shall appear before Me empty," and
   I hope none of you have been content to do so! The contributions given
   for the spread of His cause, for the feeding of His poor, and clothing
   of His naked ones are given by true hearts directly to Himself. Though
   they may be but as two mites that make a farthing, yet offered in His
   name are they not also included in this word, "I have gathered My myrrh
   with My spice"?

   The Savior's satisfaction is found, in the next place, in His people's
   love--"I have eaten My honeycomb with My honey." Shall I be wrong if I
   believe that this sweetness refers to Christian love? For this is the
   richest of all the graces, and sweetens all the rest. Jesus Christ
   finds delightful solace in His people's love, both in the inward love
   which is like the honey, and in the outward manifestation of it, which
   is like the honeycomb. He rejoices in the love that drips in all its
   preciousness from the heart, and in the honeycomb of organization, in
   which it is for order's sake stored up and put into His hand.

   Or, what if it should mean that Christ overlooks the imperfections of
   His people? The honeycomb is not good eating, but He takes that as well
   as the honey! "I have eaten My honeycomb with My honey." As He looks
   upon His people, and sees what He has done for them, His loving heart
   rejoices in what His Grace has accomplished! As a benevolent man who
   has taken a child from the street and educated it would be pleased to
   see it growing up, prospering, happy, well-informed, talented--so when
   Jesus Christ, remembering what His people were, sees in them displays
   of Divine Grace, desires after holiness, self-denials, communion with
   God, and the like--this is to Him like honey. He takes an intense
   satisfaction in the sweet fruits which He Himself has caused us to
   produce. In spite of all our imperfections, He accepts our love, and
   says, "I have eaten My honeycomb with My honey."

   Turning again to our precious text, we observe that our Lord's
   satisfaction is compared to drinking as well as eating, and that
   drinking is of a twofold character. "I have drunk My wine." Does He
   intend, by this, His joy which is fulfilled in us when our joy is full?
   Does He mean that as men go to feasts to make glad their hearts with
   wine, so He comes to His people to see their joy, and is filled with
   exultation? Isn't that what He means? Surely He does. And the milk, may
   not that mean the Christian's common, ordinary life? As milk contains
   all the constituents of nourishment, may He not mean by this the
   general life of the Christian?

   Our Lord takes delight in the graces of our lives. One has said that
   wine may represent those actions resulting from well-considered
   dedication and deep spiritual thought. For wine must be extracted from
   the grape with labor and preserved with care--there must be skill, and
   work, and forethought spent upon it. But milk is a natural
   production--it flows freely, plentifully, spontaneously. It is a more
   common and ordinary, yet precious thing. So the Lord delights that His
   people should give to Him those elaborate works which they have to tend
   with loving care and watch over with much anxiety before they are
   produced.

   These are the wine. But He would have them give Him the simple
   outgushing of their souls, the ejaculations which flow forth without
   labor, the little deeds of love which need no forethought, the everyday
   outgoings of their inner life-- these are milk, and are equally
   acceptable to Him. Well, if it is so, certain it is that Christ finds
   great pleasure is His people, and in their various forms of piety He
   drinks His wine with His milk.

   Permit me now to call your attention to those many great little words,
   which are yet but one--I refer to the word "My." Observe that eight or
   nine times it is repeated. Here is the reason for the solace which the
   Bridegroom finds in His Church. Does He walk in the Church as men do in
   a garden for pleasure? Then He says, "I am come into My garden." Does
   He talk with His Beloved? It is because He calls her, "My Sister, My
   Spouse." Does He love her prayers and praises? It is because they never
   would be prayed or praised if He had not created these fruits of the
   lips.

   He says not, "I have gathered your myrrh with your spice." Oh, no!
   Viewed as ours, these are poor things, but viewed as His they are most
   acceptable. "I have gathered My myrrh with My spice." So if He finds
   any honey in His people, any true love in them, He first put it there.
   "I have eaten My honeycomb with My honey." Yes, and if there is any joy
   and life in them to make His heart glad, He calls it, "My wine," and,
   "My milk." When I read these words, and thought of our Lord's being fed
   by us, I could almost have cried out, "Lord, when did we see You
   hungry, and feed You? Or thirsty, and give You drink? Do You find any
   satisfaction in us? Surely, our goodness extends not to You. Why should
   we give You anything to eat?"

   Yet He declares it. And we may blushingly believe Him, and praise His
   name--for surely if He found it so--it is because He made it so. If He
   has gotten anything out of us, He must first have put it in us. If He
   sees of the travail of His soul, it is because the travail came first.

   Note well, you lovers of Jesus, that our Lord in this heavenly verse is
   fed first. "I have eaten," He says. And then He turns to us, and says,
   "Eat, O Friends." If any of you seek friendship with the Well-Beloved,
   you must commence by preparing Him a feast. Remember our Lord's own
   parable--"Which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will
   say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come at once and sit
   down to eat'? But will he not rather say to him, 'Prepare something for
   my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk,
   and afterward you will eat and drink'?"

   Even if your poverty compels you, to say, "As the Lord lives, I have
   not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a
   cruse," listen to Him as He answers, "Fear not, make Me thereof a
   little cake first." Be assured that after you have done so, your barrel
   of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail. The way
   for Believers to be fed by

   Christ is to seek to feed Him--look to His being satisfied, and He will
   assuredly look to you. "You shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn,
   nor green ears, until the same day that you have brought an offering
   unto your God." (Lev. 23:14).

   "Bring you all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat
   in My house, and prove Me now herewith, says the Lord of Hosts, if I
   will not open you the windows of Heaven, and pour you out a blessing,
   that there shall not be room enough to receive it." See, my Brothers
   and Sisters--you must find meat for your Lord, and then, but not till
   then--there shall be meat for you!

   In a feast it is remarkable how complete the entertainment is. There is
   the sweetest food and the most nourishing and exhilarating drink. Then
   over and above that there is the rarest perfume, not counted to be
   needed in ordinary entertainments, but crowning all and making up a
   right royal feast. How marvelous that our Beloved should find within
   His Church all that His soul wants! Having given Himself to cover her,
   He delights in her, He rests in His love, and rejoices over her with
   singing. For the Joy that was set before Him, He endured the Cross,
   despising the shame--and this day He continues to be filled with the
   same delight.

   III. I would gladly linger, but time forbids. We must now remember, in
   the third place, that the text contains an INVITATION. The Beloved
   says, "Eat, O Friends; drink, yes, drink abundantly, O Beloved." In the
   invitation we see the character of the invited guests--they are spoken
   of as friends. We were once aliens, we are now more like the Lord from
   whom the love proceeds. O you that stand shivering in the cold shallows
   of the river of life, why tarry there? Descend into the greater depths,
   the warmer waves, and let the mighty stream bathe you breast high.

   Yes, go farther, plunge where you can find no bottom, for it is blessed
   and safe swimming in the stream of Christ's everlasting love and He
   invites you to it now. When you are at a big banquet table, pick not
   here and there a crumb, sip not now and then a drop--He says, "Eat,"
   and He adds, "drink abundantly." The invitation to receive abundantly
   applies to both refreshments. Your eating and your drinking may be
   without stint. You cannot impoverish the Most High God, possessor of
   Heaven and earth. When you are satiated with His love, His table shall
   still be loaded. Your cups may run over, but His flagons will still be
   brimmed. If you are straitened at all, you are not straitened in
   Him--you are straitened in yourselves.

   But now let me speak to my Brethren, and especially to my fellow
   workers in the kingdom of Christ. It is for us, just now, while our
   Lord is walking in His garden--while He is finding satisfaction in His
   work and in His people--to beware of taking any satisfaction in the
   work ourselves. And equally to beware that we do not neglect the
   appropriate duty of the occasion, namely, that of feasting our souls
   with our Lord's gracious provisions. You are caring for others, it is
   well. You are rejoicing over others, it is well. Still watch well
   yourselves, and rejoice in the Lord in your own hearts.

   What did He say to the Twelve when they came back glorying that even
   the devils were subject unto them? Did He not reply, "Nevertheless
   rejoice not in this, but rather rejoice that your names are written in
   Heaven"? It is your personal interest in Christ, your being yourself
   saved, Christ being present with you--that is your main joy. Enjoy the
   feast for yourselves, or you will not be strong to hand out the Living
   Bread to others. See that you are first partakers of the fruit, or you
   will not labor aright as God's farmers. The more of personal enjoyment
   you allow yourself in connection with your Lord, the more strong will
   you be for His service, and the more out of an experimental sense of
   His preciousness will you be able to say with true eloquence, "O taste
   and see that the Lord is good!"

   You will tell others what you have tasted and handled. You will say,
   "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and delivered him from all
   his fears." I put this before you with much earnestness, and I pray
   that none of you may think it safe to work as to forget to commune--or
   wise to seek the good of others so as to miss personal fellowship with
   the Redeemer. I might now conclude, but it strikes me that there may be
   some among us who are, in their own apprehensions, outside the garden
   of Christ's Church. They are, therefore, mourning over this sermon, and
   saying, "Alas, that is not for me! Christ is come into His garden, but
   I am a piece of waste ground. He is fed and satisfied in His Church,
   but He finds nothing in me. Surely I shall perish from the way, when
   His wrath is kindled but a little!"

   I know how apt poor hearts are to write bitter things against
   themselves--even when God has never written a single word against them.
   So let me see if by turning over this text we may not find thoughts of
   consolation for the trembling ones. We were once enemies. We are made
   servants, but we have advanced from the grade of service (though
   servants,

   still) into that of friends. From now on He calls us not servants, but
   friends, for the servant knows not what his Lord does. And all things
   that He has seen of His Father He has made known unto us.

   The friendship between Christ and His people is not in name only, but
   in deed and in truth. Having laid down His life for His friends, having
   brought them to know His friendship in times of trial and of
   difficulty, He at all times proves His friendship by telling His
   secrets to them and exhibiting an intense sympathy with them in all
   their secret suffering. David and Jonathan were not more closely
   friends than Christ and the Believer, when the Believer lives near to
   His Lord. Never seek the friendship of the world, nor allow your love
   to the creature to overshadow your friendship with Christ.

   He next calls His people Beloved as well as friends. He multiplies
   titles, but all His Words do not express the full love of His heart.
   "Beloved." Oh, to have this word addressed to us by Christ! It is
   music! There is no music in the rarest sounds compared with these three
   syllables which drop from the Redeemer's lips like sweet smelling
   myrrh. "Beloved!" If He had addressed that one word to any one of us,
   it would create a Heaven within our souls which neither sickness nor
   death could mar! Let me sound the note again, "BELOVED!" Does Jesus
   love me? Does He own His love? Does He seal the fact by declaring it
   with His own lips?

   Then I will not stipulate for promises, nor make demands of Him. If He
   loves He must act towards me with loving kindness. He will not smite
   His Beloved unless love dictates the blow. He will not forsake His
   chosen, for He never changes. Oh, the inexpressible, the heaped-up
   blessedness which belong to the man who feels in his soul that Christ
   has called him Beloved!

   Here, then, you have the character in the text of those who are invited
   to commune with Christ. He calls His friends and His Beloved. The
   provisions presented to them are of two kinds. They are bid to eat and
   to drink. You, who are spiritual, know what the food is and what the
   drink is--for you eat His flesh and drink His blood. The incarnation of
   the Son of God, and the death of Jesus the Savior--these are the two
   sacred viands whereon faith is sustained. To feed upon the very Christ
   of God is what is needed. Nothing but this can satisfy the hunger of
   the spirit. He who feeds on Him shall know no lack. "Eat," says He,
   "and drink." You ask, "Where are the provisions?" I answer, they are
   contained in the first words of the text, "I am come." If He is come,
   then eat. If He is come, then drink. There is food, there is drink for
   you in Him!

   Note that delightful word, "abundantly." Some dainties satiate, and
   even nauseate when we have too much of them. But no soul ever had too
   much of the dear love of Christ. No heart did ever complain that His
   sweetness was too much. That can never be. Some things, if you have too
   much of them, may injure you. They are good to a certain point, but
   beyond that, evil. But even the smallest child of Grace shall never
   overindulge himself with Jesus' love. No, the more you have, the more
   you shall enjoy, the more blessed shall you be, and who knows? There
   may be a soft breath in the text which may fan the smoking flax, a
   tender hand that may bind up the bruised reed. I will briefly indicate
   two or three comfortable thoughts.

   Seeking Soul, should it not console you to think that Jesus is near?
   The kingdom of God is come near unto you, for He has come into His
   garden. He was in our last meeting for anxious souls, for many found
   Him there. You are not, then, living in a region where Christ is
   absent--maybe when He passes by He will look on you. Can you not put
   out your finger and touch the hem of His garment, for Jesus of Nazareth
   passes by? Even if you have not touched Him, yet it should give you
   some good cheer to know that He is within reach, and within call.
   Though you are like the poor withered lily in the garden, or worse
   still, like a noxious weed--yet if He is in the garden He may observe
   you and have pity on you.

   Notice, too, that although the text speaks of a garden, it never was a
   garden till He made it so. Men do not find gardens in the wilderness.
   In the wilds of Australia or the backwoods of America, men never
   stumble on a garden where human foot has ever been. It is all forest,
   or prairie, or mountain. So, mark, Soul, if the Church is a garden,
   Christ made it so. Why cannot He make you so? Why not, indeed? Has He
   not said, "Instead of the thorns shall come up the fir tree, and
   instead of the briers shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to
   the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut
   off"? This garden-making gives God a name. Jesus gets honor by plowing
   up the wastes, extracting the briers, and planting firs and myrtles
   there. See, then, there is hope for you yet, you barren Heart--He may
   yet come and make your wilderness like Eden--and your desert like the
   garden of the Lord.

   Note, too, that the Bridegroom gathered myrrh, and fed on milk and
   wine, and honey. Yes, and I know you thought, "He will find no honey in
   me. He will find no milk and wine in me." Ah, but then the text did not
   say He found

   them in the Church. It is said, "I have eaten My honeycomb with My
   honey. I have drunk My wine with My milk." And if He put those things
   into His Church, and then took comfort in them, why not put them into
   you, and take comfort in you, too? Be of good cheer! Arise, He calls
   you this very morning.

   Another word, perhaps, may help you. Did you notice, poor hungry Soul,
   how Jesus said, "drink abundantly"? "Ah," you say, "He did not say that
   to me." I know it. He said that to His friends and to His Beloved--and
   you dare not put yourselves among those. But do not you see how
   generous He is to His friends, and how He keeps back nothing? He
   evidently does not mean to lock anything up in the storeroom, for He
   tells them to eat and drink abundantly. Now, surely, where there is
   such a festival, though you dare not come and sit at the table with the
   guests, you might say with the Syrophenician woman, "Yet the dogs under
   the table eat of the children's crumbs."

   It is good knocking at a door where they are keeping open house, and
   where the feast reveals a lavish hospitality. Knock now, and try it. If
   it were a poor man's dinner with a dry crust and a poor herring, or if
   it were a miser's meal spread most begrudgingly, I would not advise you
   to knock. But where there is wine and milk in rivers, and the good Man
   of the house bids His guests eat and drink abundantly, I say knock, for
   God says it shall be opened!

   Another thought. Jesus finds meat and drink in His Church, and you are
   afraid He would find neither in you--I want to tell you a Truth of God
   which, perhaps, you have forgotten. There was a woman that was a
   sinner. She had had five husbands, and he with whom she then lived was
   not her husband. She was an adulteress and a Samaritan. But Christ
   said, after He had conversed with her, that He had found meat to eat
   that His disciples knew not of. Where did He get it, then? If He had
   drank that day, He did not get it from Jacob's well, for He had nothing
   to draw with, and the well was deep.

   He found big refreshment in that poor woman, to whom He said, "Give me
   to drink." The Samaritan harlot refreshed the soul of Jesus--when she
   believed in Him and owned Him as the Christ! Have you ever read that
   Word of His, "My meat and My drink is to do the will of Him that sent
   Me, and to finish His work"? And what is the will of Him that sent Him?
   Well, I will tell you what it is not-- "It is not the will of your
   Father, that is in Heaven, that one of these little ones should
   perish." The will of God and the will of Christ are these--to save
   sinners. For this purpose was Jesus born and sent into the world--He
   came into the world to seek and to save that which was lost. See, then,
   poor lost One, in saving you, Christ will find both meat and drink! I
   trust, therefore, you will look to Him and cry to Him, and cast
   yourself upon Him--and you shall never, as long as you live, have any
   cause for regretting it.

   Finally, the text represents the Lord saying, "I am come into My
   garden." It may imply that He is not always in His garden. Sometimes
   His Church grieves Him and His manifest Presence departs. But hearken,
   O Sinner, there is a precious thought for you--He is not always in His
   garden. But He is always on the Throne of Grace. He does not always
   say, "I am come into My garden," but He always says, "Come unto Me, all
   you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." He never
   leaves the Mercy Seat. He never ceases to intercede for sinners.

   Come, and welcome, then. If you have not seen the Beloved's face, come
   and bow at His feet. Though you have never heard Him say, "Your sins
   are forgiven you," yet come now with a broken and a contrite heart and
   seek absolution at His hands. Come, and welcome! Come, and welcome! May
   the sweet Bridegroom with cords of love draw you, and may this morning
   be a time of love. And as He passes by, if He sees you wallowing in
   your blood, may He say unto you, "Live!" May the Lord grant it, and on
   His head shall be many crowns. Amen! Amen! Amen!
     __________________________________________________________________

Backsliding Healed

   (No. 920)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MARCH 13, 1870,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "I will heal their backsliding." Hosea 14:4.

   WHICH rings with the more sonorous voice, the knell, "their
   backsliding," or the marriage peal, "I will heal"? All through the
   Scripture records there is revealed a vehement contest between man's
   sin and God's Grace--each of them striving to become more abundant than
   the other. Sin, like a dragon, pours forth floods from its mouth, and
   God's mercy, as a shoreless ocean, rolls in greater majesty. Sin
   abounds, so that none can measure its heinousness or power. But where
   sin abounds Grace does much more abound. In the text sin
   abounds--"their backsliding." There is a comprehensiveness in that
   word, a dreadful abyss of iniquity. But Grace abounds yet more, "I will
   heal their backsliding." Here is a height and depth of Grace like the
   God from whom it came--incomprehensible and infinite!

   I shall ask you, this morning, in order that we may get the full
   measure of benefit which this text may bestow upon us, under the
   teaching of God's Spirit, first, to notice the words of the text one by
   one. Secondly, to consider the blessing of the text. And then, thirdly,
   if we are led of the Holy Spirit, let us not leave this House of Prayer
   till we have gained the realization of the text.

   I. First, then, let us take THE WORDS OF THE TEXT, "I will heal their
   backsliding." We shall call your attention first, to a word of
   humiliation, "backsliding." The very sound of it ought to arouse our
   spirits. And the consciousness of having fallen into it should make us
   lay our mouths in their dust, and confess that we are unclean.
   Backsliding is among God's people very common. Not common, perhaps, in
   its highest degree--God forbid it should be--but in its earlier forms.
   From its commencement in backsliding--of thought, and heart--on to
   backsliding in act, I fear the disease is so rife among the people of
   God that there is scarcely one of us who has not at some time or other
   suffered from it.

   And I fear that the most of us might confess, if we judged our own
   hearts rightly, that in some measure we are backsliding even now. The
   proper condition for a child of God is walking in the light as Christ
   is in the light, and so having fellowship with Jesus. Our right
   condition, and our only safe standing is to abide in Him, and to have
   His Words and Himself abiding in us. But too often we follow afar
   off--we are living in very limited and remote fellowship with our
   Redeemer. These things ought not to be. There is no necessity that they
   should be, but alas! Alas! Alas! Search the whole Church through, and
   you shall find them in multitudes, and in some you shall perceive signs
   of the most sorrowful decay through an evil heart of unbelief in
   departing from the living God.

   Think, Beloved, each one of you who are Christ's, how much you may have
   backslidden of late. Have you not become lax in prayer? You maintain
   the habit of it, and you could not give that up, but you have not that
   power in prayer you once had. You still read the Word, but maybe the
   Scripture is not so sweet to you as it was before. You come now to the
   Communion Table--you have not learned to forsake the assembling of
   yourselves together there. But oh, the face of the King, in His beauty!
   Have you seen that as you once did? Perhaps you are still doing a
   little for His cause, but are you doing what you once did or all you
   might do?

   Instead of going on unto perfection, is not your growth stunted? Must
   you not confess that you are not a runner towards Heaven so much as a
   loiterer in the road there? Do these accusations evoke no confessions?
   I fear the most of us, if we came to search, would have to say, "I do
   remember when the love of my espousals was upon me, and my heart was
   warm with love to Christ. But now, alas! How slow are my passions in
   moving towards Him! O that I could feel once again the glow of my first
   love, and that my spirit did rejoice in Him as on the day of my
   conversion."

   I ask you, Brothers and Sisters, if you have to make such
   acknowledgments, whether you would have believed such things of
   yourselves when you first came to Christ? If a Prophet had told me that
   I should be so ungrateful to the dear Lover of my soul, I should have
   said, "Is your servant a dog, that he should do this thing?" Bought
   with His precious

   blood, and delivered from going down to the pit in those younger days
   of our attachment, we thought we should evermore closer and closer
   cleave to our Deliverer. No sacrifice appeared too great, no duty too
   irksome, if Jesus did but command it.

   Yes, we have sorrowfully failed in many respects, and have need to,
   with deepest sorrow of heart, confess our backsliding and bemoan
   ourselves before God. But I will not dwell longer upon that word. Such
   lamentations may end when the heart grows tender. If we see sin
   sufficiently to make us bewail it, we may then look away from it, for
   the next word which we shall consider is a word of consolation--"heal."
   "I will heal their backsliding." There is consolation in the very fact
   that the Lord, here, looks upon the grievous sin of backsliding under
   the image of a disease.

   It is not said, "I will pardon their backsliding," that is included in
   the term, but "I will heal" it--as though He said, "My poor people, I
   do remember that they are but dust. They are liable to a thousand
   temptations through the Fall, and they soon go astray. But I will not
   treat them as though they were rebels, I will look upon them as
   patients--and they shall look upon Me as a physician." Why there is
   consolation in the very fact that God should condescend, for Jesus'
   sake, thus to look upon our loathsome, abominable, ill-deserving,
   Hell-deserving sin as being, not so much a condemning iniquity in His
   sight, but as a disease upon which He looks, pitying us that we should
   endure the power of it.

   And then observe--having looked at backsliding as a disease, He does
   not say, "I will put this diseased one away." Under the legal
   dispensation he who had leprosy, or any contagious disease, must be put
   without the camp, but it is not here said, "I will banish them for
   their backsliding." O my dear Friends, if we had been put out of God's
   Church, if we had never been suffered again to come to His Table, we
   confess we have richly deserved to have it so, but it is not so written
   here. It is not, "I will put them in quarantine. I will expel them out
   of the goodly land, and from among My people." No--"I will heal their
   backsliding."

   Nor does He say, "I will destroy them, because of their backsliding."
   Some will have it that God's people may sin, partially and finally, so
   as never to be the Lord's Beloved again. They say they can sin
   themselves out of the Covenant. But we have not so learned Christ,
   neither have we so understood the Fatherhood of our God--

   "Whom once He loves, He never leaves, But loves them to the end."

   "The gifts and calling of God are without repentance," on His part
   towards His people. "The God of Israel says He hates putting away." No,
   it is not, "I will strike their names out of the Book of Life." It is
   not, "I will disinherit them, seeing they have proved unfaithful to
   Me," but, "I will heal their backsliding." That is to say, whatever
   their sin may have been I will overcome it, I will drive it out, I will
   restore them to their first condition of health. I will do more, I will
   so heal them that one day without spot or wrinkle or any such thing
   they shall see their Father's face." A word of consolation!

   The next is a word of majesty. It is the first word of the text, "I
   will heal their backsliding." "I." It is Jehovah Himself who here
   speaks, the Omnipotent, to whom nothing is difficult. The All-Wise, to
   whom nothing is secret. He has not promised that their backsliding
   shall be healed by unknown means, but that He, Himself, will heal it.
   Suppose He had said, "I will let them alone, and see to what their
   backsliding will turn. It may be, perhaps, after a period it will work
   out all its venom, and the wound will be cured." No, my Brethren, had
   we been left to ourselves, our wounds have become corrupt, and our
   spirit would have utterly perished. We have gone astray like lost
   sheep, and one of the ways in which lost sheep go astray is this--they
   never think of returning. The shepherd must seek them, or else they
   will wander further and further from home.

   Note well that the Lord does not say in the text, "My Word shall heal
   their backsliding," or, "I will send My minister to heal their
   backsliding." He does graciously use His Word--it is His ordained means
   of blessing His people--and He condescendingly employs His ministers,
   unworthy though they are, to do much service for His children. But
   after all, it is neither the Word nor the minister that can do
   anything--only when the Lord puts His hand to the work is it done
   effectually. "I will heal their backsliding."

   Just as Jesus, Himself, going among the sick folk scattered healing
   here and there, and made yonder lame man leap as a hart, and yonder
   dumb tongue to sing, opened blind eyes, drove out fevers and chased
   away devils--even so it is Your touch, Immanuel--it is Your Presence,
   You Savior of sinners, that does heal us of all our sins. He Himself
   took our sicknesses, and therefore He knows how to deliver us from
   them. Is not His name Jehovah-Rophi, the Lord that heals you?

   And has He not said, "The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the
   people that dwell there shall be forgiven their iniquity"?

   It is Jehovah that says it! Then rest assured the work will be done.
   Has He said, and shall He not do it? It is Jehovah that says it!
   However desperate our soul is in sickness, it shall be recovered. For
   is anything too hard for the Lord? "I will heal their backsliding."
   Blessed be His name! When you and I feel our backsliding, if it had
   been said that the backsliding should be healed by any ordinary means,
   we should have replied, "Not mine. No, Lord, mine is a case beyond all
   others, hopeless, helpless, incurable." But when it is said, "I will
   heal," how it takes away all power to be unbelieving, for what cannot
   the Lord do?

   What diseases cannot He chase away? He can speak even to the dead and
   make them live! Therefore let us have hope in Him, for however far we
   may have gone, and however broken our heart may be concerning it, He
   can bind up all our wounds and make each broken bone to sing--and this
   shall be the song--"Lord, who is like unto You, passing by
   transgression, iniquity, and sin, and remembering not the backslidings
   of your people?" Thus we have had three out of the five words of the
   text--one for our humiliation. The second for our consolation. And the
   third for our adoration, since it reveals the majesty of God.

   Another word is in the text, which I shall venture to lift up out of
   the background in which it dwells ordinarily, "I will heal their
   backsliding." Here is a word of certainty. "I will"--"I will heal their
   backsliding." But why will He heal? Why does He say so positively that
   He "will"? Here is no perhaps. No perhaps. The men in Nineveh went to
   God with nothing to encourage them, but, "who can tell?" But the
   children of God come to Him with "shalls" and "wills" to plead. I pray
   you, Backslider, if you desire to return to the Lord this morning,
   observe the certainty of the text, and plead it. God who says "I will,"
   is not a man that He should lie, nor the son of man that He should
   repent.

   If He says, "I will," you can say, "Lord, fulfill this word unto Your
   servant, upon which You have caused me to hope." But why will God heal
   His people? He will because He has assumed the office of physician, and
   for a physician to fail in his attempts reflects upon him no honor.
   Every patient that the physician loses is so much loss to the fame of
   his skill. "I will heal their backsliding," says God. "I have
   undertaken to save them, and I will go through with it. I have made
   with them in Christ a Covenant, ordered in all things and sure, and I
   will not suffer one of these, My little ones, to perish, and I will
   heal their backsliding."

   Are they not His children? Now, if a physician failed to exercise his
   skill on a stranger, yet surely he will not upon his own child! There
   is nothing in the whole compass of pharmacy that the child should not
   have. There is nothing in all the art of surgery which the surgeon
   would not exercise upon his own beloved child if he has need of it. Of
   ALL His children the Divine Father says, "I will heal their
   backsliding."

   Beloved, we have cost our God too dear for Him to suffer us to perish,
   and perish we must without healing-- therefore He will heal us. On
   every child of God the Father sees the marks of the Redeemer's blood.
   Every heir of Heaven carries about with him mementoes that touch the
   Father's soul, for He remembers well the bloody sweat of Gethsemane,
   and the groans and cries of the Well-Beloved. You who believe in Jesus
   cost too much--He cannot let you die. The Lord has loved you too long
   to let you perish, for before the foundation of the world His heart
   went out towards His chosen. From of old His delights were with the
   sons of men.

   Before you were fashioned and curiously worked in the lower parts of
   the earth, you lived in the heart of God, and lay upon the bosom of
   your Redeemer with Whom, even then, you were accounted as one in the
   Covenant of Grace. "I will heal their backsliding." No disease shall
   slay them, no sin shall fester in them so as to destroy them. I,
   Jehovah, who have chosen them, who have redeemed them and called them
   by My Grace, I will heal them." Heaven and earth may pass away, but
   this Word shall not pass away. Oh, the blessed certainty of the Divine
   Word!

   There is yet a fifth word in the text, and that is a word of
   personality. "I will heal their backsliding." That is to say, the
   backsliding, first, of all His Israel. He is speaking of Israel. "I
   will heal their backsliding"--His own peculiar peo-ple--His own elect
   ones. He Himself shall and will heal them. He will not suffer one of
   them to become sick with sin that it shall be fatal to them. That we
   may know whether we share in this promise we may judge from other words
   which precede the text. Those of whom He spoke were willing to come to
   Him and say, "Take away all iniquity, receive us graciously, and love
   us freely."

   If there is any man here who desires to be forgiven for Christ's name's
   sake because of the Free Grace of God. If there is any here bemoaning
   his iniquity and desirous to return unto his God. If there is any soul
   who now sincerely closes in with God's way of salvation, and would
   gladly find deliverance from every sin--such a man may be assured that
   he is one of those of whom God has said, "I will heal their
   backsliding."

   Do you hate your backsliding? Do you, like David, cry, "against You,
   You only have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight, that You
   might be justified when You speak, and be clear when You judge"? Do
   your sins pain you? Have they become a very plague to your heart? Oh,
   then He will heal your backslidings! Are you earnest in prayer? Do you
   cry out that He would have pity upon you? Can you weep the penitential
   tear? Has He looked on you as He looked on Peter, and can you go out
   and weep bitterly, if not with actual drops that distil externally from
   the eyes, yet with inward drops that fall within from the still of the
   heart?

   If so, He that breaks hearts always means to heal them. He never yet
   gave a wounded and a contrite spirit but what He was sure, before long
   to bring to it a better balm than Gilead ever knew, and to let the
   blood of Jesus speak better things than that of Abel, even peace
   eternally within that wounded spirit. "Their backsliding"--take the
   word and turn it to the singular and make it in the first person--say,
   "Lord, heal my backslidings! Heal those I know not of, 'cleanse You me
   from secret faults.' I do know some of them, and I mourn them. Deliver
   Your servant as a bird out of the snare of the fowler, and my tongue
   shall sing aloud of Your righteousness." So you see the text has a
   meaning in every one of its words. I have drawn already five lessons
   from the five words which it contains.

   II. But we pass on to try and bring out more clearly THE BLESSING OF
   THE TEXT. "I will heal their backsliding." That blessing must be
   measured, first, by the evil from which it delivers "backsliding."
   Backsliding is treated as a disease. Let us speak awhile upon that
   fact. Let us say, concerning backsliding, that it is one of the most
   dangerous things into which a child of God can fall. It endangers all
   present joy. It greatly injures usefulness. And it imperils the future.
   No professing Christian falls into the great open sin all at once--much
   backsliding has gone before.

   See the tree blown down by the strong winds. Nine times out of ten, if
   you look carefully at it, you will see that insects have been at work
   at it years before, and rotted it. And, therefore, when at last the
   trial came, it only consummated what had long been going on. When, some
   years ago, many of our greatest commercial houses suddenly collapsed,
   and bankruptcies were so terribly frequent, you do not imagine that
   they lost their money all in a day! In the investigation of their
   accounts it was proved in many cases that ten, or even twenty years
   before, the firms began to go back in the world.

   Little by little, as a rule, backsliding leads on to overt apostasy and
   sin. No, no--so mature a servant of the devil as Judas is not produced
   all at once. It takes time to educate a man for the scorner's seat.
   Take care, therefore, of backsliding because of what it leads to. If
   you begin to slip on the side of a mountain of ice, the first slip may
   not hurt if you can stop and slide no further. But, alas, you cannot so
   regulate sin! When your feet begin to slide, the rate of their descent
   increases, and the difficulty of arresting this motion is incessantly
   becoming greater. It is dangerous to backslide in any degree--for we
   know not to what it may lead.

   It is a defiling thing to backslide, for a man cannot lose the
   intensity of his love to Christ and holiness without becoming thereby
   worldly and impure in heart. You cannot be less in prayer without being
   less like God. Sin is quite certain to seek a dwelling for himself in
   any heart where the Spirit of God is not actually present. Let your God
   withdraw His manifest fellowship, and sin is sure to come in to fill up
   the vacuum. Backsliding mars the whiteness of the righteousness of
   saints and blots their beauty. And as it is defiling, so is it
   contagious. One Believer cannot be living a life of little Grace
   without weakening those Believers who come into contact with him.

   I know some holy men (I wish to be more like they) who are a blessing
   to all with whom they converse. Wherever they are, like an Oriental
   perfume, they spread a fragrance all around. Their lives are like the
   star in the east which led men to Christ. Their graciousness reminds us
   of the blessing of Asher, whose promise was that he should dip his foot
   in oil--for wherever they go they leave the tokens of the unction of
   the Holy One behind them. But the dark side to this picture is the fact
   that if we decline in Grace, our backsliding has a down-dragging
   tendency on others. The whole army is impeded by the lagging of a
   single regiment.

   The old naturalists used to speak of a creature they called a remora,
   which they believed could fasten with its suckers upon a sailing vessel
   and hinder its progress. Backsliding Christians are just such remoras
   to the good ship of the Church, they are barnacles upon her, and impede
   her voyage--

   "One sickly sheep infects the flock, And weakens all the rest."

   When there is a parliamentary train crawling along in front, even the
   limited express mail is hindered. When one professor acts in a worldly,
   careless, indifferent, or covetous spirit, he encourages others to do
   the same--and the example soon multiplies itself.

   I wish I could make you see what a backslider is. I am afraid I cannot,
   but a simple illustration may help you. Do you remember that fine,
   athletic young man who was for years among us, and was almost envied
   for his robust health and remarkable vigor? Exertion was to him a
   pleasure. He rejoiced as a strong man to run a race. Strong as an oak,
   upright as a palm tree, and comely as a cedar--you had but to see him
   to admire him. Alas, we miss him from his usual seat, and his place of
   daily service knows him no more. He cannot mix in our assemblies, and
   never will again. He rises very late in the day, and the slightest
   motion is labor to him. He has a horrible deep-seated cough, and he is
   reduced to a skeleton.

   His cheeks are sunken. There is a peculiar brightness of the eyes, but,
   with the exception of that, there is nothing about him that reminds you
   of what he was. And, if you should take a stranger to see him, you
   would say, "You cannot imagine what that young man used to be." His
   mother weeps to think that this is her son, once the image of manly
   power. It pains her inmost heart to know that this is certainly her
   boy, her once strong and healthy boy. Yet he is not dead--no, but it is
   grievous to see how near death he has come, and with what difficulty he
   breathes. How weak are his lips, how languid is his pulse, how small
   his appetite!

   The strong man is now weaker than a little child. In fact, man as he
   is, his father has to take him in his arms and carry him up and down
   stairs, for he cannot otherwise come out of his chamber. Here is a
   sadly truthful picture of what a Christian may become in spirit. He may
   suffer spiritual consumption, and decline from weakness to weakness
   till life barely retains its hold. He shall not die--for his life is
   bid with Christ in God. But he may gradually backslide until he is weak
   as water, and full of doubts and fears, and a thousand ills. The
   backslider has no strength for service. He renders nothing to the
   Church, but rather requires other Christians to watch, and help, and
   tend him.

   He wants comforts and cordials, but from them all he has little or no
   enjoyment--he lives, blessed be God, he lives--but it is a struggling,
   unhappy, meager life. His religion gives him little rapture and very
   much anxiety. Few are the promises that he feeds upon, and many are the
   threats that haunt him. He will be saved, yet so as by fire. God forbid
   that you or I should run the frightful risks that backsliders run who
   thus walk wide of Jesus Christ and dwell far below the elevated region
   where spiritual health is sustained. May our souls prosper and be in
   health. And may we follow the Lord fully and evermore abide in Him.

   What a mercy it is that, while we have to give such a distressing
   description of what backsliding leads to, we can turn to the text and
   find it written, "I will heal their backsliding"! Consumption, when it
   once comes to be really consumption, is, beyond all doubt, utterly
   incurable by ordinary medicine. And, though many remedies may assist
   the sufferer and prolong life, yet, as a rule, consumption is the
   herald of death. And so backsliding is quite incurable by any human
   means, and would be the forerunner of total apostasy were it not for
   Divine Grace. When a man's heart begins to fall from God--like a stone
   falling from a tower, it descends at an ever-increasing ratio--and none
   can call it back again to the place from which it fell. Or stop it in
   midair, except that Divine Hand which can suspend the laws of gravity,
   arrest the course of sin, and restore the falling one to his place.

   "I will heal their backslidings." I understand, then, the glory of this
   blessing to lie in this--that though backsliding is of all things most
   dangerous, most defiling and injurious, and in itself most deadly--yet
   falling into it, you need not despair. On the contrary, if we have
   fallen into it, listen hopefully to the Voice which says, "Return, O
   backsliding children," backed up as it is by the promise, "I will heal
   their backsliding."

   That we may see this blessing in a still clearer light, let us notice
   the healing itself. What is the healing of backsliding? It may be said
   to lie in two things, namely, forgiveness of its sin, and release from
   its power. That eminent man of God, Bishop Reynolds, who has written
   upon the last two chapters of Hosea, says there is a fourfold healing
   of backsliding, and I think he is correct. First, as we have said,
   backsliding is healed when all the sin of it is forgiven. Dwell on that
   a minute. You have been a backslider. Perhaps you are so now, but God,
   even the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, can purge you with hyssop, and
   you shall be clean!

   Your leprosy shall depart and your flesh shall become fresh as a little
   child. "Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord: Though
   your sins are as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they are
   red like crimson, they shall be as wool." "I will be merciful to their
   unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no
   more." "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus
   Christ the righteous: and He is the Propitiation for our sins." Oh, the
   blessedness of this! If sin returns upon you, child of God, that
   Fountain filled with blood, which washed you once, has by no means lost
   its power. You may wash again, Backslider.

   The Mercy Seat is not removed, nor is the permission to approach it
   revoked. My heart delights to think I may go to Jesus as a sinner, if I
   cannot as a saint. I want a Savior now as much as ever I did. I want
   new pardon for new sin. I thank the Master for having taught us to say
   every day, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." Even those
   who can say, "Our Father which are in Heaven," with a full assurance
   begotten in them by the filial spirit of Divine Grace, yet have need to
   ask that sin may be forgiven. We want daily pardon, and we shall have
   it. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our
   sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

   The next fact of healing is the removal of all the injurious effects
   which sin has caused. A man does not backslide without feeling a
   tendency to go further into sin--contamination is sure to ensue.
   Backsliding deprives a Christian of many of his privileges. It hides
   the face of Christ. It darkens the Sun of Righteousness, or rather
   blinds our eyes to His brightness. It robs us of all present joys. It
   grieves the Holy Spirit and causes Him to withdraw from us in a
   measure. Now when it is said, "I will heal their backsliding," it means
   this--"I will take away from them all the pollution which their sin has
   caused, all the injury which their sin has done to their moral and
   spiritual nature. I will give back to them all that they lost by giving
   way to evil."

   But, "I will heal their backsliding" means thirdly, "I will take away
   those judgments which I have sent upon them in consequence of their
   backsliding." The Ephraimites were subject to invasions by cruel
   tyrants because they had revolted from the Lord, but as soon as they
   repented, God took away the oppressors and so healed their wounds. Now
   you, perhaps, dear Brother and Sister, have been a long while under the
   rod, and you have said, "Lord, when will You comfort me?" Perhaps His
   answer is, "I will comfort you when you have fully confessed your
   wanderings, and forsaken your idols." Hear that rod and Him that has
   appointed it. Many a child of God suffers long series of losses and
   crosses, the cause of which will be found in the fact that he has not
   fully turned to the hand that smote him.

   The Lord will bring His people back. And if one blow does not do it,
   they shall have another. And if that is not enough, they shall be
   smitten with many stripes till at last, with weeping and lamentations,
   they shall return unto the Lord their God. You know not how many
   temporal griefs would vanish away like smoke before the wind if your
   heart were but more humble before the Most High. "I will heal their
   backsliding," that is, "I will take away the temporal chastisement with
   which I have visited them."

   Then, again, the fourth kind of healing is the restoration of lost
   comfort. Instead of the despondency which the Believer feels, when, day
   and night the hand of God is heavy upon him, he shall yet rejoice in
   the Lord. God's children always have to smart for sin. If they were
   ungodly they might sin and enjoy the sweet of their stolen waters. But
   if they are in very deed the Lord's own people, smart must follow sin.
   "You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I
   will punish you for all your iniquities."

   Hear how David cries out, how hoarse his voice is in that fifty-first
   Psalm, and all through those seven Penitential Psalms how he dips every
   verse in the brine of his repentance! He did not find it a profitable
   or a harmless thing to commit unrighteousness. And so, Brethren, you
   and I, if we are God's children, will be sure to find that backsliding
   is a root that bears gall and wormwood. Yet, after his mournful
   confession and deep soul travail, David received the consolation of
   God, and his tongue sang aloud of God's righteousness.

   He said, "Restore unto me the joy of Your salvation." And God did
   restore it, and the bones which had been broken were made to rejoice.
   This is conclusive healing of our backsliding--when we receive beauty
   for ashes, and the oil of joy for mourning. Do not believe, O penitent
   wanderers, that His mercy is gone forever. He is ever mindful of His
   Covenant, and He will restore your souls, and lead you in the paths of
   righteousness for His name's sake. My Brothers and Sisters, if the sin
   is once drowned, your sorrow shall be assuaged. If you remove the
   cause, the effect shall follow. Did you once leap like David before the
   ark, or like Miriam dance to the timbrel of triumph? And have your
   knees grown stiff, and do your hands hang down through sin?

   May the Lord help you to break off your sin by righteousness, and the
   weak hands shall be strengthened, and the feeble knees shall be
   confirmed. Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of
   the dumb sing--for the Lord will again say unto your soul, "I am your
   salvation." Your Sun may seem to have gone down, but unto you that fear
   the Lord He shall arise with healing beneath His wings. Only return
   unto the Lord, and He will restore to you "the years which the locust
   has eaten," for He has said it, and He will make it good in its fullest
   extent--"I will heal their backsliding."

   Now, Brethren, consider the mode in which this backsliding is healed,
   for that is part of the mercy. It very frequently happens that by
   Divine Grace the healing of backsliding is brought about in God's
   Providence by severe afflictions. The previous chapters to this one all
   go to show how God can act as a lion or a leopard, or as a bear robbed
   of her whelps, when His people wander into sin. But I shall not dwell
   on that point, only I would say that the severest trial that ever
   happens to you, if it brings you to your God, is a surpassing blessing.
   I would not, and I dare not, pray that the Lord would keep me from all
   future affliction and pain.

   "It is good for me that I have been afflicted." "Before I was afflicted
   I went astray: but now have I kept Your word." This is true of all
   Believers. The Cross is our best earthly heritage. Whenever we imagine
   that we have won the crown we should remember that it would be an
   unseasonable mercy, for this is not a palace, but a battlefield. But
   when we feel the Cross it is a seasonable blessing, suitable for
   followers of the Crucified. "In the world you shall have tribulation."

   The connection of the text leads me to remark that our heavenly Father
   in Christ Jesus heals our backslidings, as a usual rule, by presenting
   to our minds a fresh sense of His great love. The next sentence seems
   to say that, "I will love them freely." I never find that my heart is
   so moved to return unto her rest as when she feels that the Lord has
   dealt bountifully with her. When I remember that I am still His child,
   my soul cries, "I will seek again my Father's love." If I believed the
   doctrine of the final falling of the saints, I fear I should feel no
   motive urging me to return unto my Lord. I fear I should feel the
   hardening effect of slavish fear, and like Hagar, flee into the
   wilderness.

   If the prodigal son had once suspected that he was disinherited and was
   no more a child, he would have given up all thoughts of return. And
   though he confessed that he was not worthy to be called a son, yet he
   knew he was a son, and so back he came, and his father received him. We
   are willing to confess that to cast us away would be just, as we are
   considered in ourselves. But the fact that He has not cast away His
   people whom He did foreknow draws us with invisible but invincible
   bonds back to our Lord.

   Yes, oftentimes the child of God, when he is cold in heart, has been
   revived and refreshed by some such thoughts as these--"He is still
   faithful to me, though I am faithless to Him. Jesus bought me with His
   blood, and He will not lose me. In His Heaven I shall dwell,
   notwithstanding all this unworthiness of mine. O my Heart, how can you
   be so like an iceberg to Him when He has loved you despite your
   innumerable faults? How can you give your eternal Benefactor so base a

   return?"

   The great furnace of Christ's love sends out sparks which fall into our
   hearts, and then they also begin to glow--

   "Depth of mercy, can there be

   Mercy yet reserved for me?

   Can my God His wrath forbear?

   Me, the chief of sinners spare?" Does He bid me return to Him, and does
   He say, "I am married unto you?" "How shall I give you up, Ephraim? How
   shall I deliver you, Israel? How shall I make you as Admah? How shall I
   set you as Zeboim?" Oh, then, while God's heart of mercy is moved, our
   repentings are kindled, our soul melts while our Beloved speaks! Our
   stony heart is like the rock which gushed with water. The mountains
   flow down at His Presence! As when the melting fire burns, the fire
   causes the waters to boil.

   We feel revenge against sin, and sacred jealousy is aroused. Then we
   return unto our first Husband, and our first love! With weeping and
   with supplications we return, and with desire we desire Him in the
   night--

   "Love, mighty love, our soul subdues; We fly into our Savior's arms;
   Her former vow our heart renews, Ravished afresh with mercy's charms.
   Love is the cord that draws us home, The bond which holds our spirit
   fast;

   Forbids us over again to roam, And captivates us to the last."

   It sometimes happens that the healing of our backsliding is as sudden
   as it is gracious. When we awoke this morning we were all startled to
   find how suddenly the ground had been covered with snow. I should not
   wonder when we leave this place if we shall be almost as much startled
   to find how soon the snow has disappeared under the rapid thaw.

   The Lord who casts forth His ice like morsels can cause His wind to
   blow so that the waters flow. Have you ever found it so in the little
   world within? Your heart has been dull and dead, and by a word Jesus
   has quickened you! "Or ever you were aware, your soul made you like the
   chariots of Amminadib." Blessed be God, His cures can be worked in a
   moment! He can raise His children from their graves of backsliding and
   redeem them from death. Pray that so glorious a work may be worked in
   you, my dear Brother or Sister. Let me pause awhile to give you space
   to breathe the prayer--

   "Come, Lord, on wings of flaming love,

   My spirit to upraise;

   Fly like the lightning from above,

   And fill my soul with praise."

   Even if restoration from backsliding be gradual, Brethren, as sometimes
   it is--and attended with much mourning and much sorrow--yet is the
   blessing still so choice that no words of mine can ever express its
   value. And so I leave it with your hearts to do what my lips cannot.

   III. The third point was to be THE REALIZATION OF THE BLESSING of the
   text, but our time is gone. Therefore let me hope that you have already
   obtained it, or will not rest till you have.

   If you would be savingly and thoroughly revived from backsliding,
   earnestly desire it. "O Israel, return unto the Lord your God." Set
   your face towards God. Resolve upon obtaining renewal by His Grace.
   Then next make a confession of your fault. "You have fallen by your
   iniquity." Acknowledge your grievous fault and be humbled for it. It is
   a mark that God is recovering a soul when it is deeply, penitentially,
   humbled. I have noticed that whenever any who have been excommunicated
   from this Church have been restored, in every case they have walked in
   lowliness, and won all our hearts by their contrition and little esteem
   of themselves.

   Whenever those who have grievously transgressed apply to be received
   again, and at the same time complain of the sentence of the Church, and
   of the conduct of the members, I feel that I dare not advise my
   Brethren to loose them from the sentence. For if they were really
   penitent, they would find no fault with others, but with many tears
   would lament their own shortcomings. It is one mark of Grace when the
   backslider puts his finger on his mouth as to the fault of his
   Brethren, feeling, "It is not for me to say a word against any, I am so
   involved in fault myself, that I dare not throw a stone."

   If you would have your backsliding healed, be much in prayer. "Take
   with you words, and turn to the Lord." Backsliding begins in forsaking
   prayer, and recovery will begin in renewing supplication. If you would
   be recovered, cast away your false confidence. " Ashur shall not save
   us. We will not ride upon horses." Turn Mr. Carnal Security out of
   doors--he is your enemy and God's enemy--be rid of him! Renounce your
   idols--"We will not say any more to the work of our hands, you are our
   gods." You cannot recover from backsliding while you love any child or
   friend inordinately, or while anything stands in your heart before
   Christ. You will never be right while your money holds an undue
   position in your minds, or while your position in society is more
   precious to you than Christ. Away with your idols, or they will cry,
   "Away with Christ." Either give them up, or give up hope.

   Lastly, return again by simple faith to God in Christ, remembering that
   in Him the fatherless find mercy. If you are like an orphan, having
   none to help or to provide for you, and feel your spiritual
   destitution, then, in confidence in the abounding Grace of God, return
   to Him and live. O Brethren, let us all seek to get nearer to Christ!
   Let us all take the eagle's motto, "Higher, higher, higher." Soar yet
   beyond. Let us seek to attain what we have not as yet known. And as for
   the things which remain, let us hold them fast that no man take our
   crown. "What we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule,
   let us mind the same thing."

   Let us not decline from our first love, but rather, "not as though we
   had already attained, either were already perfect," let us forget the
   things which are behind, and press forward to that which is before,
   looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith. The Lord
   bless His Church richly, and send His dew upon Israel. And make us all
   to grow in Divine Grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus
   Christ. For His name's sake we ask and expect it. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Nathanael And The Fig Tree

   (No. 921)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MARCH 20, 1870,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found Him of whom
   Moses in the Law, and also the Prophets, wrote; Jesus of Nazareth, the
   son of Joseph. And Nathanael said to him, 'Can anything good come out
   of Nazareth?'Philip said to him, 'Come and see.' Jesus saw Nathanael
   coming toward Him, and said of him, 'Behold, an Israelite, indeed, in
   whom is no deceit!' Nathanael said to Him, 'How do You know me?' Jesus
   answered and said to him, 'Before Philip calledyou, when you were under
   the fig tree, I saw you.'Nathanael answered and said to Him, 'Rabbi,
   You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!' Jesus answered and
   said to him, 'Because I said to you, 'I saw you under the fig tree,' do
   you believe? You will see greater things than these.' And He said to
   him, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see Heaven
   open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of
   Man." John 1:45-51.

   VERY often we address the Gospel to the chief of sinners. We believe it
   to be our duty to do this with the greatest frequency. For did not our
   Lord, when bidding His disciples to preach the Good News in every
   place, use the words, "beginning at Jerusalem"? Where the chief of
   sinners lived, there was the Gospel first to be preached. But at the
   same time it would show great lack of observation if we regarded all
   mankind as being equally gross, open offenders against God. It would
   not only show a want of wisdom, but it would involve a want of
   truthfulness.

   For though all have sinned, and deserve the wrath of God, yet all
   unconverted men are not precisely in the same condition of mind in
   reference to the Gospel. In the parable of the sower we are taught that
   before the good seed fell upon the field at all, there was a difference
   in the various soils. Some of it was stony ground, another part was
   thorny, a third was trodden hard like a highway, while another plot is
   described by our Lord as "honest and good ground." Although in every
   case the carnal mind is enmity against God, yet are there influences at
   work which in many cases have mitigated, if not subdued, that enmity.

   While many took up stones to kill our Lord, there were others who heard
   Him gladly. While to this day thousands reject the Gospel, there are
   others who receive the Word with joy. These differences we ascribe to
   God's prevenient Grace. We believe, however, that the subject of these
   differences is not aware that Grace is at work upon him--neither is it
   precisely Grace in the same form as saving Grace--for the soul under
   its power has not yet learned its own need of Christ, or the excellency
   of His salvation.

   There is such a thing as a preparatory work of mercy on the soul,
   making it ready for the yet higher work of Grace, even as the plowing
   comes before the sowing. We read in the narrative of the creation that
   before the Divine voice said, "Let there be light," darkness was upon
   the face of the deep, yet it is added, "The Spirit of God moved upon
   the face of the waters." Even so in the darkness of human nature,
   whereas yet no ray of living light has shone, the Spirit of God may be
   moving with secret energy, making the soul ready for the hour when the
   true light shall shine.

   I believe that in our congregations there are many persons who have
   been mercifully restrained from the grosser vices. They exhibit
   everything that is pure and excellent in moral character--they are
   persons who are not maliciously opposed to the Gospel and are ready
   enough to receive it if they did but understand it. They are even
   anxious to be saved by Jesus Christ, and have a reverence for His name,
   though as yet it is an ignorant reverence. They know so little of the
   Redeemer that they are not able to find rest in Him. This slenderness
   of knowledge is the only thing that holds them back from faith in Him.

   They are willing enough to obey if they understood the command. If they
   had but a clear apprehension of our Lord's Person and work, they would
   cheerfully accept Him as their Lord and Savior. I have great hopes that
   the Lord of Love

   may guide the Word which is now to be spoken so that it may find out
   such persons, and may make manifest the Lord's secretly chosen
   ones--those prisoners of hope who pine for liberty--but know not that
   the Son can make them free.

   O captive Soul, abhorring the chains of sin, your day of liberty is
   come! The Lord, the Liberator who looses the prisoners, is come at this
   very hour to snap your bonds!

   I. In dwelling on this narrative, I shall first say a few words
   concerning NATHANAEL HIMSELF. We are told that he was a guileless man,
   "an Israelite, indeed, in whom is no guile." That is to say, like
   Jacob, "he was a plain man," and not like Esau, "a cunning hunter."
   Some minds are naturally serpentine, tortuous, slippery. They cannot
   think except in curves--their motives are involved and intricate, and
   they are of a double heart. These are the men who look one way and row
   the other. They worship the god Janus with two faces, and are of the
   same practice, if not of the same persuasion as the Jesuits. They
   cannot speak a thing plainly or look you in the face while they talk,
   for they are full of mental reservations and prudential cautions. They
   guard their speech. They dare not send abroad their own thoughts till
   they have mailed them up to the throat with double meanings.

   Nathanael was just the very opposite of all this. He was no hypocrite
   and no crafty deceiver. He wore his heart upon his sleeve. If he spoke,
   you might know that he said what he meant and that he meant what he
   said. He was a childlike, simple-hearted man, transparent as glass. He
   was not one of those fools who believe everything. But on the other
   hand, he was not of that other sort of fools so much admired in these
   days who will believe nothing, but who find it necessary to doubt the
   most self-evident Truth in order to maintain their credit for profound
   philosophy. These "thinkers" of this enlightened age are great at
   quibbles, mighty in feigning or feeling mistrust concerning matters
   which common sense has no doubts about.

   They will profess to doubt whether there is a God, though that is as
   plain as the sun at noonday. No, Nathanael was neither credulous nor
   mistrustful. He was honestly ready to yield to the force of Truth. He
   was willing to receive testimony and to be swayed by evidence. He was
   not suspicious, because he was not a man who, himself, would be
   suspected. He was true-hearted and straightforward--a plain dealer and
   plain speaker. Cana had not within her gates a more thoroughly honest
   man. Philip seems to have known this, for he went to him directly, as
   to a man who was likely to be convinced and worth winning to the good
   cause.

   In addition to being thus a simple-hearted man, Nathanael was an
   earnest seeker. Philip went to him because he felt that the good news
   would interest him. "We have found the Messiah," would be no gladsome
   news to anyone who had not looked for the Messiah. Nathanael had been
   expecting the Christ, and perhaps had so well understood Moses and the
   Prophets that he had been led to look for His speedy coming. The time
   when Messiah would suddenly come in His temple had certainly arrived,
   and he was day and night with prayer, like all the faithful of the ten
   tribes, watching and waiting for the appearing of their salvation. He
   had not as yet heard that the Glory of Israel had, indeed, come, but he
   was on the very edge of expectation.

   What a hopeful state of heart is yours, my dear Hearer, if you are now
   honestly desirous to know the Truth, and intensely anxious to be saved
   by it! It is well, indeed, for you if your soul is ready, like the
   photographer's sensitive plate, to receive the impression of the Divine
   Light--if you are anxiously desiring to be informed if there is,
   indeed, a Savior--if there is a Gospel, if there is hope for you, if
   there is such a thing as purity and a way to reach it. It is well, I
   say, if you are anxiously and earnestly desiring to know how and when,
   and where--and determinately resolved, by God's Grace, that no exertion
   shall be spared on your part to run in the way that shall be marked
   out, and to submit yourself unto the will of God. This was the state of
   Nathanael, an honest-hearted lover of plain truth, seeking to find the
   Christ.

   It is also true that he was ignorant up to a certain point. He was not
   ignorant of Moses and the Prophets, these he had well considered. But
   he knew not that Christ as yet had come. There was some little distance
   between Nazareth and Cana, and the news of the Messiah's coming had not
   traveled there. If it had been bad news, it would have flown on eagles'
   wings, but being good news its flight was slower, for few persons are
   so anxious to tell out the good as the evil. He had not, therefore,
   heard of Jesus of Nazareth till Philip came to him. And how many there
   are even in this country who do not know yet what the Gospel means, but
   are anxious to know it, and if they did but know it would receive it?

   "What?" you say, "where there are so many places of worship and so many
   ministers?" Yes, just that. Yes, and in the very heart of our
   congregations and in the midst of our godly families, ignorance has its
   strongholds. These uninstructed ones may be Bible readers, they may be
   Gospel hearers, but as yet they may not have been able to grasp the
   great Truth

   that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. They may
   never have seen what it is for Christ to stand in the sinner's place,
   and for that sinner, by an act of trust, to obtain the blessings which
   spring out of a substitutionary sacrifice. Yes, and here in this house
   where I have tried and labored to put the Gospel in short Saxon words
   and sentences that cannot be misunderstood, there may be some who are
   still saying, "What is this all about? I hear much of believing, but
   what is it? Who is this Christ, the Son of God, and what is it to be
   saved from sin, to be regenerated, to be sanctified? What are all these
   things?"

   Well, dear Friend, I am sorry you should be in the dark, yet am I glad
   at heart, that though you do not know what I would have you know, yet
   you are simple-hearted, truth-loving, and sincere in your seeking. I am
   persuaded that light will not be denied you, you shall yet know Jesus
   and be known of Him.

   In addition to this, however, Nathanael was prejudiced--we must modify
   that expression--he was somewhat prejudiced. As soon as Philip told him
   that he had found Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph, Nathanael said,
   "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" Here let us remark that his
   prejudice is exceedingly excusable, for it arose out of the faulty
   testimony of Philip. Philip was a young convert. He had only found
   Jesus the day before, and the natural instinct of every truly gracious
   soul is to try and tell out the blessed things of Christ. So away went
   Philip to tell his friend, Nathanael. But what a many blunders he made
   in the telling out of the Gospel! I bless God, blundering as it was, it
   was enough to bring Nathanael to Christ.

   But it was full of mistakes. Dear Souls, if you know only a little
   about Christ, and if you would make a great many mistakes in telling
   out that little, yet do not hold it in--God will overlook the errors
   and bless the Truth. Now observe what Philip said. He said, "We have
   found Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph," which was our Lord's
   popular name, but was in no way correct. He was not Jesus of Nazareth
   at all. He was not a native of Nazareth--our Lord was of Bethlehem. He
   had dwelt at Nazareth, certainly, but He was no more entitled to be
   called of Nazareth than of Jerusalem.

   Then Philip said, "Son of Joseph," but He was only the reputed son of
   Joseph, He was in truth, the Son of the Highest. Philip gave to our
   Lord the common and erroneous titles which the unthinking many passed
   from hand to hand. He did not say, "We have found the Son of God," or
   "the Son of David," but yet he uttered all he knew--and that is all God
   expects of you or me. Oh, what a mercy it is that the imperfections of
   our ministry do not prevent God's saving souls by us! If it were not
   so, how little good would be done in the world!

   Mr. John Wesley preached most earnestly one view of the Gospel, and
   William Huntingdon preached quite another view of it. The two men would
   have had a holy horror of each other and censured each other most
   conscientiously. Yet no rational man dares say that souls were not
   saved under John Wesley, or under William Huntingdon either, for God
   blessed them both. Both ministers were faulty, but both were
   sincere--and both made useful. So is it with all our testimonies. They
   are all imperfect, full of exaggerations of one Truth, and
   misapprehensions of another. But as long as we witness to the true
   Christ foretold by Moses and the Prophets our mistakes shall be
   forgiven, and God will bless our ministry, despite every flaw.

   So He did with Nathanael--but Nathanael's prejudice rose out of
   Philip's blundering way of talking. If Philip had not said, "of
   Nazareth," then Nathanael would not have said, "Can any good thing come
   out of Nazareth?" If Philip had said that Jesus was of Bethlehem, and
   of the tribe of Judah, and that God was His Father, then this prejudice
   would never have beclouded the mind of Nathanael, and it would have
   been easier for him to have acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah. We must,
   therefore, try to avoid mistakes, lest we cause needless prejudice. We
   should so state the Gospel that if men are offended by it, it shall be
   the Gospel which offends them, and not our way of putting it.

   It may be that you, my Friend, are a little prejudiced against Christ's
   holy Gospel because of the imperfect character of a religious
   acquaintance, or the rough manners of a certain minister. But I trust
   you will not allow such things to bias you. I hope that, being candid
   and honest, you will come and see Jesus for yourself. Revise the report
   of the disciple by a personal inspection of the Master. Philip made up
   for his faults when he added, "Come and see." And I would try to
   prevent mine from injuring you by using the same exhortation--

   "Come and see Jesus and His Gospel for yourself."

   One other mark of Nathanael I would mention. He was in all respects a
   godly, sincere man, up to the measure of his light. He was not yet a
   Believer in Jesus, but still he was an Israelite, indeed. He was a man
   of secret prayer, he did not mock God as the Pharisees did by mere
   outward worship. He was a worshipper of God in his heart. His soul had
   private

   dealings with the God of Heaven when no eye saw him. So it is, I trust,
   with you, dear Hearer. You may not yet have found peace, but you do
   pray, you are desirous of being saved. You do not wish to be a
   hypocrite. You dread, above all things, falling into formality. You
   pray that if ever you become a Christian you may be a Christian,
   indeed. Such is the character I am endeavoring to find out, and if it
   is your character, may you get the blessing that Nathanael did.

   II. Now secondly, we have seen Nathanael, let us for a moment consider
   NATHANAEL'S SIGHT OF JESUS. "Philip says unto him, Come and see." And
   so Nathanael came to see the Savior, which implies that although he was
   somewhat prejudiced against this new Messiah, yet he was candid enough
   to investigate His claims. Beloved Friend to whom I have already
   spoken, if you have any prejudice against the true Gospel of Jesus
   Christ, whether it is occasioned by your birth and education, or
   previous profession of some other faith, be honest enough to give the
   Gospel of Jesus Christ a fair hearing. You may hear it in this House of
   Prayer. You may read it in these pages. Do not dismiss it until you
   have thoroughly examined it. All that we would ask of you is
   now--knowing you to be honest, knowing you to be earnest-- seriously
   sit down and weigh the Doctrines of Grace as you shall find them in the
   Scripture. And especially the life of Christ and the blessings which He
   brings to those who believe in Him.

   Look these things over carefully. They will commend themselves to your
   conscience, for God has already prepared your conscience to judge
   righteously. And as you judge you will perceive a peculiar beauty and a
   charm about the Truths of the Gospel which will surely win your heart.
   Latimer had preached a sermon against the doctrines of the Gospel, and
   among his hearers there was a holy man who afterwards became a martyr.
   He thought, as he listened to Latimer, that he perceived something in
   his tone which showed him to be an honest opponent. Therefore he hoped
   that if light were brought to him he would be willing to see by it.

   He sought him out, obtained an interview with him, and his explanations
   entirely won honest Hugh to the Reformed opinions--and you know what a
   valiant and popular minister of the New Covenant Latimer became. So, my
   honest Friend, give to the Gospel of salvation by faith in the precious
   blood of Jesus a fair hearing, and we are not afraid of the result.

   Nathanael came to Christ, again, with great activity of heart. As soon
   as he was told to, "come and see," he did come and see. He did not sit
   still and say, "Well, if there is any light in this new doctrine, it
   will come to me." No, he went to it. Do not believe in any teaching
   which bids men sit down and find peace in the idea that they need not
   strive to enter in at the strait gate of Truth. No, Brethren, if Grace
   has ever come to you, it will arouse you from lethargy and lead you to
   go to Christ. And by His Grace you will be most earnest, with all the
   activity of your spirit, to search for Him as for hidden treasure. It
   is a delightful thing to see a soul on the wing.

   The majority of our population are, as regards religion, down on the
   ground and unwilling to rise. They are indifferent to spiritual Truth.
   You cannot get them to give earnest heed to eternal matters. But once
   get a mind on the wing with a holy earnestness and solemn
   thoughtfulness, and we do believe, with God's Grace, that it will,
   before long, be brought to a saving faith in Christ. "Come and see,"
   said Philip, and come and see Nathanael did. He does not appear to have
   expected to be converted to Christ by what he saw with his natural
   eyes--his judgment was formed from a mental view of Him.

   It is true he saw the Person of the Messiah, but he did not expect to
   see in the human form any lineaments that might guide his judgment. He
   waited until the lips of the Messiah had spoken, and then, when he had
   seen the Omniscience of that mysterious Person, and how He could read
   his thoughts and spy out his secret actions, then he believed. Now I
   fear some of you live in darkness because you are expecting some kind
   of physical manifestation. You hope for a vivid dream, or some strange
   feeling in your flesh, or some very remarkable occurrence in your
   family. Except you see signs and wonders you will not believe.

   But a saving sight of Christ is another matter! Truth must impress your
   mental faculties, enlighten your understanding, and win your
   affections. The Presence of Christ on earth is a spiritual one, and you
   will come to see Him not with these mortal optics just now, but with
   the eyes of your soul. You will perceive the beauty of His Character,
   the majesty of His Person, the all-sufficiency of His Atonement. And as
   you see these things the Holy Spirit will lead you to believe in Him
   and live. I pray God that such a sight as this may be vouchsafed to
   every honest seeker who may hear or read these words.

   III. A far greater matter now demands our attention--CHRIST'S SIGHT OF
   NATHANAEL. As soon as Jesus saw the man, He said, "Behold an Israelite,
   indeed," which shows us that Christ Jesus read Nathanael's heart. I do
   not suppose that our Lord had ever seen Nathanael with His own human
   eyes. But yet He understood Nathanael's character-- not because He was
   a great judge of physiognomy and could perceive at once that He had a
   simple-hearted man before Him. But because He was Nathanael's Creator,
   being the searcher of hearts and the trier of the reins, He could read
   Na-thanael as readily as a man reads a book which is open before his
   eyes.

   He saw at once all that was within the enquirer, and pronounced a
   verdict upon him that he was free from falsehood. And then to prove to
   Nathanael still further how clearly He knew all about him, He mentioned
   a little incident which I cannot explain, nor can you, nor do I suppose
   anybody could have explained it except Nathanael and Jesus--a special
   secret known only to them both. He said to him, "Before Philip called
   you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." What he was doing
   under the fig tree we may guess, but we cannot know to a certainty.
   Perhaps it would be true of all to believe that the fig tree was to
   Nathanael what the Hermonites and the hill Mizar had been to David.

   David says, "I will remember You from the land of Jordan, and of the
   Hermonites, and from the hill Mizar." What were those sacred
   recollections he does not tell us, and although we can form a shrewd
   guess, David and his God, alone, knew the full mystery. So between
   Christ and Nathanael there was a common knowledge connected with that
   fig tree which we cannot hope to discover. And the moment our Lord
   mentioned that hallowed spot, its remembrances were to Nathanael so
   secret and so sacred that he felt that the Omniscient One was before
   him. Here was evidence which he could not doubt for an instant, for one
   of the most private and special secrets of his life, which he had never
   whispered into any human ear, had been brought up as by a talismanic
   sign. A red-letter day in his private diary had been revived by the
   mention of the fig tree, and He who could touch so hidden a spring in
   his soul must be the Son of God.

   But what was Nathanael doing under the fig tree, according to our best
   surmise? Well, as devout Easterns are accustomed to have a special
   place for prayer, this may have been a shadowy fig tree under which
   Nathanael was accustomed to offer his devotions. And perhaps just
   before Philip came to him, he may have been engaged in personal and
   solitary confession of sin. He had looked round the garden and fastened
   the gate that none might come in--and he had poured into the ear of his
   God some very tender confession under the fig tree shade. When Christ
   said to him, "When you were under the fig tree," it brought to his
   recollection how he poured out his broken and his contrite spirit, and
   confessed sins unknown to all but God. That confession, it may be, the
   very look of Christ brought back to his remembrance and the words and
   look together seemed to say, "I know your secret burden, and the peace
   you found in rolling it upon the Lord." He felt, therefore, that Jesus
   must be Israel's God.

   It is very possible that in addition to his confession, he had under
   the fig tree made a deliberate investigation of his own heart. Good men
   generally mingle with their confessions self-examination. There it may
   be that this man who was free from guile had looked into the tendencies
   of his nature and had been enabled with holy surprise to see the
   fountains of the great deep of his natural depravity. He may have been
   taken, like Ezekiel, from chamber to chamber to see the idols in his
   heart, beholding greater abominations than he suspected to be
   there--and there humbled before the Lord. Beneath that fig tree he may
   have cried with Job, "I abhor myself in dust and ashes." This, also,
   Jesus had seen.

   Or under the fig tree he may have been engaged in very earnest prayer.
   Was that fig tree to Nathanael what Peniel was to Jacob, a spot where
   he had wrestled till the break of day, pleading with God to fulfill His
   ancient promise, to send the Promised One who should be a light to
   lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of His people, Israel? Was it so?
   We think it probable. That fig tree had been to him a Bethel, no other
   than the House of God and the very gate of Heaven.

   And what if we should suggest that, perhaps in addition to his prayer,
   Nathanael had vowed some solemn vow under the fig tree--if the Lord
   would but appear and give to him some sign and token for good, then he
   would be the Lord's and spend and be spent for Him? If the Lord would
   but send the Messiah, he would be among His first followers. If he
   would but speak to him by an angel or otherwise, he would obey the
   voice. Jesus now tells him that he shall see angels ascending and
   descending. And reveals Himself as the Messiah to Whom he had solemnly
   pledged himself. It may he so.

   Once more, it may be that under that fig tree he had enjoyed the
   sweetest communion with his God. Beloved Friends, do you not remember
   well, certain hallowed spots? I have one or two in my own life too
   sacred to mention. If my memory should forget all the world besides,
   yet those spots will evermore be green in my memory--the truly holy
   place where Jesus, my Lord, has met with me and showed me His love. One
   time it was "the King has brought me into His chambers."

   Another time I got me to "the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of
   frankincense." Once He said, "Come, My Beloved, let us go forth into
   the field. And let us lodge in the villages," and another time He
   changed the scene and said, "Come with Me from Lebanon, My Spouse. Look
   from the top of Amana, from the top of Hermon, from the lions dens,
   from the mountains of the leopards."

   Have we not sometimes had special festivals when He has broached the
   spiced wine of His pomegranate? When our joy has been almost too much
   for the frail body to endure, for our joyous spirit, like a sharp
   sword, has well-near cut through its scabbard? Ah, it is sweetly true.
   He has baptized us in the fire of His love, and we shall forever
   remember those secret spots, those dear occasions. This, then, was a
   token, a secret token between Christ and Nathanael, by which the
   disciple recognized his Divine Friend and future Master and Lord. He
   had met the Messiah in spirit before, and now he meets Him in very
   flesh and blood. And by this token does he know Him. In spirit the Lord
   set His seal upon Nathan-ael's heart, and now, by the sacred signet,
   the Israelite discerns his King.

   Thus we see the Lord had seen Nathanael in his previous engagements,
   before he became actually a Believer in Jesus. This fact suggests that
   each of you who have been sincerely seeking to be set right, and to
   know the Truth, have been fully perceived in all your seeking and
   desires by the God of Grace. When you let fall a tear because you could
   not understand the Word, Jesus saw that tear. When you groaned because
   you could not get satisfaction of heart, He heard that groan. Never
   true heart seeks Christ without Christ's being well aware of it. Well
   may He know of it, for every motion of a trembling heart towards
   Himself is caused by His own love.

   He is drawing you, though you perceive not the hands of a man which
   encircle you. He is the hidden loadstone by which your heart is moved.
   I know it is night with you, and you grope like a blind man for the
   wall. But if your heart says, "O that I could but embrace Him! O that
   He were mine! If I could but find rest in Him, I would give all that I
   have." Then be assured that Jesus is close to you--your prayers are in
   His ear, your tears fall upon His heart. He knows all about your
   difficulties, all about your doubts and fears, and He sympathizes in
   the whole--and in due time He will break your snares, and you shall
   yet, with joy, draw water out of the wells of salvation.

   This Truth is full of consolation to all who seek with sincerity,
   though as yet in the dark. Before the minister's voice spoke to
   you--when you were under the fig tree, when you were by the bedside,
   when you were in that inner chamber, when you were down in that saw
   pit, when you were in the hayloft, when you were walking behind the
   hedge in the field--Jesus saw you. He knew your desires, He read your
   longings, He saw you through and through. Even from of old He has known
   you.

   IV. So we have seen Nathanael's sight of Christ, and then Christ's
   sight of Nathanael. Now the fourth thing is, NA-THANAEL'S FAITH. I must
   go over much the same ground again under this head. Nathanael's
   faith--note what it was grounded on. He cheerfully accepted Jesus as
   the Messiah, and the ground of his acceptance lay in this--Jesus had
   mentioned to him a peculiar incident in his life which he was persuaded
   no one could have known but the Omniscient God. He concluded,
   therefore, Jesus to be the Omniscient God, and accepted Him at once as
   his King. This was very frequently the way in which persons were
   brought to confidence in Christ.

   The same thing is recorded in this very Gospel a few chapters further
   on. The Lord sat down on the well and talked to the Samaritan woman,
   and there was no kind of impression produced upon her until He said,
   "You have had five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your
   husband." Then it flashed upon her, "This stranger knows my private
   history! Then He is something more than He appears to be. He is the
   Great Prophet." And away she ran with this on her tongue, because it
   was in her heart, "Come, see a man which told me all things that ever I
   did: is not this the Christ?"

   The same was the case with Zaccheus. You may think, however, that this
   mode of conversion was confined to the days of our Lord's flesh, and
   the age of miracles, but it is not so. The fact is that at this very
   day the discovery of the thoughts of men's hearts by the Gospel is
   still a very potent means in the hands of the Holy Spirit of convincing
   them of the Truth of the Gospel. How often have I heard enquirers say,
   "It seemed to me, Sir, as if that sermon was meant for me. There were
   points in it which were so exactly like myself, that I felt sure
   someone had told the preacher about me. And there were words and
   sentences so peculiarly descriptive of my private thoughts, that I was
   sure no one but God knew of them. I perceived that God was in the
   Gospel speaking to my soul."

   Yes, and it always will be so. The is the great revealer of secrets. It
   is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Jesus Christ
   in the Gospel knows all about your sins, all about your seeking, all
   about the difficulties which you

   are meeting with. This ought to convince you that the Gospel is Divine,
   since its teachings lay bare the heart, and its remedies touch every
   spiritual disease. The knowledge of human nature displayed in the
   simplest passage of the Gospel is more profound than the productions of
   Plato or Socrates. The Gospel, like a silken thread, runs through all
   the windings and twisting of human nature in its fallen state. O that
   its voice may come home personally to you! May it, by the Spirit,
   convict you of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment--and bring you to
   lay hold on eternal life!

   Nathanael's faith, it must be mentioned, was peculiar not only in its
   ground, but in its clear and comprehensive character. He accepted Jesus
   at once as the Son of God. He was Divine to him, and he adored Him. He
   also accepted Him as the King of Israel. He was a royal personage to
   him, and he tendered Him his homage. May you and I receive Jesus Christ
   in this way, as a real Man, but yet certainly God--a Man who was
   despised and rejected, but yet the Man anointed above His Brethren--who
   is King of kings and Lord of lords.

   I admire Nathanael's faith, again, because it was so quick, unreserved,
   and decisive. "You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!"
   Christ was glorified by the decision, the quickness of this faith.
   Delay in believing Him dishonors Him. O honest Heart, O sincere Mind,
   pray that you may as quickly come into the light and liberty of true
   belief! May the Holy Spirit work in you a ready satisfaction in the
   atoning sacrifice and Divine Person of the ever blessed Immanuel.

   V. This brings us to the last point of consideration. We have shown you
   Nathanael and his sight of Christ, and Christ's sight of him. And then
   the faith that Nathanael received. Now notice NATHANAEL'S AFTER-SIGHT.
   Some persons want to see all that there is in Christianity before they
   can believe in Jesus, that is to say, before they will go to the
   primary school they must clamor for a degree at the university. Many
   want to know the ninth of Romans before they have read the third of
   John. They are all for understanding great mysteries before they
   understand that primary simplicity, "Believe and live."

   But those who are wiser and, like Nathanael, are content to believe at
   first what they are able to perceive, namely, that Christ is the Son of
   God and the King of Israel, shall go on to learn more. Let us read our
   Lord's words, "You shall see greater things than these. Verily, verily,
   I say unto you, hereafter shall you see Heaven opened, and the angels
   of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man." To full grown
   disciples Jesus promises, "Greater things than these shall you do." To
   young converts He says, "Greater things than these shall you see."

   He gives promises in proportion to our ability to receive them. The
   promise given to Nathanael was a most fitting one. He was all
   Israelite, indeed--then he shall have Israel's vision. What was the
   great sight that Israel or Jacob saw? He saw the ladder whereon angels
   ascended and descended. Precisely this shall Nathanael see. He shall
   see Jesus Christ as the communication between an opened Heaven and a
   blessed earth--and he shall see the angels ascending and descending
   upon the Son of Man!

   If you bear the character of Israel, you shall enjoy the privileges of
   Israel. If you are an Israelite, indeed, you shall have the blessing
   that made Israel glad. Nathanael had owned Jesus as the Son of
   God--here he is told that he shall see Him in His glory as the Son of
   Man. Note that last word of the chapter. It is not so much that Christ
   humbly called Himself the Son of Man--though that is true--but that to
   see the glory of Christ as God is a simple thing. To see and understand
   the glory of Christ as Man, this is a sight for faith, and probably a
   sight which, so far as our senses are concerned, is reserved for the
   day of His coming.

   When He shall appear--the very Man that suffered upon Calvary--when He
   shall appear upon the Great White Throne to judge the quick and the
   dead, if you believe in Jesus as the Son of God, you shall yet see Him
   in His glory as Man swaying the universal scepter, and enthroned as
   King of all the earth. He had called Jesus the King of Israel, if you
   remember. Now he is to see his Lord as the King of the angels--to see
   the angels of God ascending and descending upon Him. Believe, my dear
   Brothers and Sisters in Christ, as far as you know Him, and you shall
   know more of Him. Open your eyes but to the candle light of the Law,
   and you shall soon behold the sunlight of the Gospel. The Lord is very
   gracious to fulfill the Gospel rule, "To him that has, shall be given,
   and he shall have abundance."

   If you acknowledge the King of Israel, you shall see Him as the Lord of
   Hosts before whom archangels veil their faces, and to Whom seraphim are
   servitors. The great sight, I suppose, Nathanael saw as the result of
   his faith was not the transfiguration, nor the ascension as some
   suppose, but a spiritual view of Christ in His mediatorial capacity as
   the great link between earth and Heaven. This is, indeed, a sight
   transcending all others. We are not divided from the invisible. We

   are not separated from the infinite. The mortal has communion with the
   Immortal. The sinner speaks with the Holy One--prayers climb up to
   Heaven, and benedictions descend by way of the Great Substitute.

   Can you see this, O Soul? If so, the sight will make you glad. You are
   not exiled now, you are only at the foot of the stairs which lead to
   the upper chamber of your Father's House. Your God is above and bright
   spirits traverse constantly the open gangway of the Mediator's Person.
   Here is joy for all the saints--for this ladder can never be
   broken--our communion is abiding. No doubt, to Nathanael's view, the
   promise would be fulfilled as he perceived the Providence of God as
   ruled by Christ Jesus who orders all things for the good of the Church.
   Was not this intended in the figure of angels ascending and descending
   upon the Son of Man, that is, all agencies, whether living or material,
   all subject to the Law and the dominion of Christ?

   So that all things work together for good to them that love God! Do not
   go fretting to your homes and say, "Here are new doctrines springing
   up, and new gods that our fathers knew not, and ministers are slipping
   aside from the faith, and bad days have fallen upon the Church, and
   Romanism is coming up, and infidelity with it." All this may be true--
   but it does not matter one fig--for God has a great end in view. He has
   a bit for the mouth of leviathan. He can do as He wills with His most
   powerful enemies. He rides upon the wings of cherubs and rules the
   storm. The clouds are but the dust of His feet. Never believe that
   Providence is out of joint. The wheels of this great engine may revolve
   some this way and some that, but the sure result will be produced, for
   the great Artist sees the final result to be secure.

   God's glory shall arise from it all! Angels descend, but they as much
   do the will of God as those which ascend. Some events seem disastrous,
   and even calamitous. But they shall all, in the end, prove to be for
   the best. For he --

   "From seeming evil still educes good,'" And better still, and better
   still--in infinite progression. Until the crown shall come upon the
   head of Him who was separated from His Brethren, and all the glory
   shall roll in waves of mighty song at the foot of His Throne, may you
   and I continue to see this great sight more and more clearly. Until the
   Lord shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the trump of the
   archangel, and the voice of God, and once and for all we shall see
   Heaven and earth blended, may we continue to see angels ascending and
   descending upon the Son of Man.

   All this matchless glory will come to us through that little window by
   which we first saw the Savior. If we will not see Him as our Lord until
   we can see all the future, we shall perish in darkness. If you will not
   believe, neither shall you be established. But if, with simple and true
   hearts you have been seeking Jesus, and now come and accept Him as the
   Lord, the King of Israel--then greater things than these shall be in
   store for you! Your eyes shall see the King in His beauty and the land
   that is very far off.

   And the day of His pompous appearing, when Heaven and earth shall hang
   out their streamers for overflowing joy because the King has come unto
   His own. And the day the crown is put upon the head of the Son of
   David--then shall you see it and see it all--for you shall be with Him
   where He is, that you may behold His glory, the glory which the Father
   gave Him before the foundation of the world. Come Lord Jesus! Come
   quickly!
     __________________________________________________________________

Sincerity And Duplicity

   (No. 922)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MARCH 6, 1870,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He
   that says, I know Him, and keeps not His commandments, is a liar, and
   the Truth is not in him." 1 John 2:3,4.

   THE Epistles of John possess and combine certain qualities which seem,
   at the first blush, to stand opposite as the poles to one another.
   Their style of expression is simple, chaste, and unadorned. Short words
   are used. For the most part words of one syllable--such little homely
   words as a young child might easily spell. And the sense is so clear
   and obvious, that the captious critic or the astute reasoner must be
   puzzled to distort it. Yet there is no lack of dignity in the language,
   and as for the matter of these Epistles, it is grand and sublime. Where
   would you turn in the pages of the New Testament, save only to the book
   of the Revelation, given by the pen of the same writer, for more
   notable mystery?

   The language charms our ears, while the Truth it expresses holds us in
   awe. There are deep meanings and veiled mysteries here. Albeit the
   hidden wisdom which baffles finite thought is not couched in strange
   terms, but declared in such plain speech as trips lightly off the
   tongue, and yet sinks deeply into the heart. Again, the spirit of John
   is love, all love. Every line he writes is perfumed with charity. And
   yet to what close self-examination, to what a severe testing does he
   put us! How truly may it be said that these Epistles are a touchstone
   by which we may discern between the true gold and the counterfeit!

   Generous but discriminating, glowing with affection but rigid in
   fidelity, the Apostle mingles caution with caress, and qualifies the
   most soothing consolations with such stern warnings, that in well-near
   every sentence he constrains us to deep searching of heart. The text is
   a case in point. With a wise discrimination he draws a contrast between
   him who knows that he knows Christ, and him who says that he knows
   Christ. The one he acknowledges, but the other he brands with that hard
   word, that ignominious title, "a liar," and sends him away as unworthy
   of further consideration.

   Not only in this case, but all through his Epistles, John continues to
   unravel the tangled web of hypocrisy. Ah, that deceit should steal such
   gentle shapes and seem like Truth! To show the diverging point between
   facts and sayings, between realities and professions, between those who
   have, and those who only say that they have, was his constant aim. It
   may interest you just to open your Bibles and turn to one or two of the
   passages that illustrate this. In his first chapter, at the sixth
   verse, he has been speaking of those who walk in the light and have
   fellowship with God, and he adds, "If we say that we have fellowship
   with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth."

   Then in the text he speaks of those who know Christ, and he adds, "He
   that says, I know Him, and keeps not His commandments, is a liar, and
   the Truth is not in him." And further on, in the ninth verse, speaking
   of those who have the light, he says, "He that says he is in the light,
   and hates his brother, is in darkness even until now." Not to multiply
   the instances, there is a notable one in the fourth chapter, at the
   twentieth verse, "If a man says I love God, and hates his brother, he
   is a liar: for he that loves not his brother whom he has seen, how can
   he love God Whom he has not seen?"

   So to have a thing, or to boast that you have it--to be, or to pretend
   to be such-and-such a character--are as opposite as white and black, as
   light and darkness. Indeed, we scarcely need Revelation to tell us
   this, for it is so in things secular, and it must be certainly
   applicable to religion. We meet in common life with persons who say
   that they are rich, but this does not make them so. They apply for
   credit and say that they are wealthy when they are worth nothing.
   Companies will ask for your money with which they may speculate, and
   they say that they are sound, but they are oftentimes found to be
   rotten. Though some of them make a very fair show in the prospectus,
   the result appears very foul in the winding-up of the association.

   Persons have been known to say that they were of distinguished rank,
   but when they have had to prove their title before the House of Lords,
   oftentimes has it been discovered that they have made a mistake.
   Lunatics in Bethlehem Hospi-

   tal, near here, have been found by scores to say that they were kings
   or queens. In the old houses, where madmen were confined, it often
   happened that some poor creature twisted a crown of straw, put it on
   his head, and said that he was a monarch. But that did not make him so.
   No armies arose at his bidding. No fleets crossed the ocean to do his
   will. No tribute was brought to his feet. He remained a poor pauper
   madman still, though he said that he was a king.

   Many a time you have found the difference, in your commercial
   transactions, between blank saying and positive truth. A man has said
   that he would meet that bill, or that he would discharge that debt. He
   has said that the rent should be paid when it was due. He has said a
   thousand things--and you have found out that it was easy enough for him
   to say, but it was not quite so easy for you to obtain the doing of it.
   And when the engagement has been turned to writing, registered, and
   made as fast as black and white can make it, you have not found it
   thoroughly reliable, for to say by subscribing a contract or covenant
   does not always make it certain that a man will fulfill it. To say is
   not necessarily a pledge of good faith, or a warrant against treachery.

   Rest assured, then, that if in these temporal matters to say is not the
   same thing as to be or to do, neither is it so in spiritual things. A
   minister may say that he is sent of God, and yet be a wolf in sheep's
   clothing. A man may say that he unites himself to the Church of God,
   but he may be no better than a hypocrite and an alien who has no part
   in her fellowship. We may say that we pray, and yet never a prayer may
   come from our hearts. We may say to our fellow men that we are
   Christians, and yet we may never have been born again--never have
   obtained the precious faith of God's elect-- never have been washed in
   the blood of Jesus Christ.

   And, Sirs, as you would not be satisfied with merely saying that you
   are rich. As you want the title-deeds of the broad acres. As you want
   to hear the coins chink in your box. As you want the real thing, and
   not the mere saying of it-- so, I pray you, be not put off with the
   mere profession of religion. Be not content with a bare assertion, or
   think that is enough. Seek to have your own profession verified by the
   witness of Heaven, as well as by that of your own conscience. It is not
   written, "He that says he believes shall be saved." But "he that
   believes and is baptized shall be saved." It is not said that he who
   says he has confessed shall be forgiven. But "He that confesses and
   forsakes his sins shall find mercy." Your mere sayers, though they say,
   "Lord, open to us," and aver that Christ did eat in their streets,
   shall have for an answer, "I never knew you! Depart from Me, you
   workers of iniquity."

   Let us not be gulled and deceived. Let us not be duped and taken in by
   any notion that saying so makes it so! Take heed, lest with a
   flattering tongue you do impose on your own soul. Standing in view of
   that Eye which penetrates the inmost heart, may we learn to distinguish
   between the mere profession and the full possession of real Grace and
   vital godliness.

   The matter in hand tonight, in which this distinction is to be made, is
   the knowing of Christ. Let us speak first about what it is to know Him,
   then about knowing that we know Him. And after that, solemnly
   expostulate with those who merely say that they know Him.

   I. The matter to be considered and judged tonight by each man for
   himself is THE KNOWING OF CHRIST. What, then, is it to know Christ? Of
   course we have never seen Him. Many years ago He left this world and
   ascended to His Father. Still we can know Him. It is possible. There
   have been thousands, and even millions, who have had a personal
   acquaintance with Him, Whom, though they have not seen, they loved, and
   in Whom they have rejoiced with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

   To "know" is a word used in Scripture in several senses. Sometimes it
   means to acknowledge. As when we read of a certain Pharaoh, that "he
   knew not Joseph." That is, he did not acknowledge any obligation of the
   state or kingdom to Joseph. He remembered not what had been done by
   that great man. So, too, Christ says that His sheep "know" His voice.
   They acknowledge His voice as being the voice of their Shepherd, and
   cheerfully follow where their Shepherd leads. Now, it is a matter of
   the first necessity to acknowledge Christ--that He is God, that He is
   the Son of the Father, that He is the Savior of His people, and the
   rightful Monarch of the world--to acknowledge more--that you accept Him
   as your Savior, as your King, as your Prophet, as your Priest.

   This is, in a certain sense, to know Christ. That is, to own and
   confess in your heart that He is God, in the glory of God the Father.
   That He is your Redeemer. That His blood has washed you, and His
   righteousness covers you. That He is your salvation, your only hope,
   and your fondest desire.

   The word "know" means, in the next place, to believe. As in that
   passage, "By His knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify
   many"--where it is evidently meant that by the knowledge of Him, that
   is to say, by faith in Christ Jesus, He would justify many. To "know"
   and to "believe" are sometimes used in Scripture as convertible terms.
   Now, in this sense we must know Christ. We must believe Him, we must
   trust Him, we must accept the reports of the Prophets and Apostles
   respecting Him. And we must subscribe to them, practically, with all
   our heart, and soul, and strength, and lean the whole burden of our
   everlasting destiny upon His finished work. To know Him, then, is to
   acknowledge Him, and to believe in Him.

   This is not all. The word to "know" often means experience. It is said
   of our Lord that, "He knew no sin." That is to say, He never
   experienced sin. He never became a sinner. To know Christ, then, we
   must feel and prove His power, His pardoning power, His power of love
   over the heart, His reigning power in subduing our passions, His
   comforting power, His enlightening power, His elevating power, and all
   those other blessed influences which, through the Holy Spirit, proceed
   from Christ. This is to experience Him. And once more, to "know" in
   Scripture often means to commune. Eliphaz says, "Acquaint yourself with
   God, be at peace with Him." That is to say, commune with Him, get into
   friendship and fellowship with Him.

   So it is necessary that every Believer should know Christ by having an
   acquaintance with Him, by speaking with Him in prayer and praise--by
   laying bare one's heart to His heart--receiving from Him the Divine
   secret, and imparting to Him the full confession of all our sins and
   griefs. In a word, dear Brethren, to know Christ is very much the same
   as to know any other person. When you know a man, if he is your
   intimate friend, you trust him, you love him, you esteem him, you are
   on speaking terms with him. You not only bow to him in the street, but
   you go to his house. You sit down with him at his table. At other times
   you hold counsel with him, or you ask his assistance. And he comes to
   your house, and you hold familiar association, the one with the other.
   There is a good understanding between you and the man of whom it may be
   truly said that you know him.

   On such terms must the soul be with Christ. He must not be merely an
   historic personage of whom we read in the pages of Scripture. But He
   must be a real Person with Whom we can speak in spirit, commune in
   heart, and be united in the bonds of love. We must know Him, His very
   Person, so as to love and to trust Him as a real Lord to us. Judge,
   then, each one, yourselves--whether you really and indeed, in this
   sense, "know" Christ.

   Do distinguish, however, between knowing about Christ and knowing
   Christ. We may know very much about many of our great men, though we do
   not know them. Now it will never save a soul to know about Christ. The
   only saving knowledge is to know Him, His very Self, and to trust Him,
   the living Savior, who is now at the right hand of God. To Him it is we
   speak. With Him in very deed we commune.

   Nor does it say that if we are able to speak about Him, therefore we
   are saved. Lest the music of your own tongue beguile you, remember how
   easy some people find it to talk fluently, eloquently, properly, and
   persuasively of persons they never knew. They had read it. They had
   stored it up in their memories, and they told it out again. They may
   vindicate the reputation of some hero or statesman in company where it
   is disgraced though they never knew any more of him than the fame that
   has reached their ears. Ah, but this is not enough here.

   You may be as fluent as Whitefield. Yes, you may be eloquent and mighty
   in the Scriptures as was Apollos. But if you do not know Christ by your
   own individual, personal acquaintance with His Person, with His
   righteousness, and with His blood, you will not be saved by all your
   fine speeches. Rather are you in imminent peril, that out of your own
   mouth you will be condemned. Such knowledge as we now refer to is
   inestimably precious. Get knowledge, classical or mathematical--apply
   yourself to literature, or study the sciences, enjoy the vast hoard of
   knowledge bequeathed to us by antiquity, or endeavor to augment that
   hoard, and transmit it to future ages--but after all, there is no
   knowledge that can ever match that of the Christ once crucified, now
   risen and exalted, and expected soon to return in Glory.

   Such knowledge as this is incomparable. It dives deep into the mine of
   God's eternal purpose. It soars high into the Heaven of God's
   everlasting love. It enlarges the soul by filling it with the
   inexhaustible fullness of Christ--Christ the wisdom of God--Whom THE
   LORD possessed in the beginning of His way before His works of old. O
   Sirs, he that gets such knowledge need not seek for degrees at the
   universities. He who has Christ has the highest imaginable degree. And,
   blessed forever be the name of my God, such knowledge can never be
   lost. If you know Christ, you have that written on

   the tablet of your heart which Satan shall never erase, which time
   shall never dim, which the iron hand of death shall never be able to
   blot out. There shall it stand forever.

   You know Him, and you are known of Him, "and they shall be Mine, says
   the Lord, in the day when I make up My jewels." "The Lord knows them
   that are His." They that know Him He knows, and He will confess them to
   be His own in the day when He comes in the glory of His Father, and all
   His holy angels with Him. I speak but simply, though I feel intensely
   the importance of this subject. A great solemnity surrounds it. Life
   and death, Heaven and Hell, are here clearly legible. For if you know
   Christ, it is well with you, but if you know Him not, you are ignorant
   of the one thing which can save your soul.

   II. Having laid down the matter that is propounded, we shall advance to
   speak OF THE TWO CHARACTERS THAT ARE PORTRAYED IN THE TEXT. With
   respect to the one--those who know that they know Him. We are told how
   they know that they know Him--"We know that we do know Him, if we keep
   His commandments."

   Some Christians who do know Christ are in great doubt as to whether
   they know Him. This ought not to be. It is too solemn a matter to be
   left to chance or conjecture. I believe there are saved ones who do not
   know of a surety that they are saved. They are raising the question
   often that never ought to be a question. No man ought to be content to
   leave that unsettled, for mark you, my Hearer or Reader, if you are not
   a saved man, you are a condemned man. If you are not forgiven, your
   sins lie on you. You are now in danger of Hell if you are not now
   secure of Heaven, for there is no place between these two. You are
   either a child of God, or not. Why do you say, "I hope I am a child of
   God, yet I do not know. I hope, yet I do not know that I am forgiven"?
   In such suspense you ought not to be. You are either one or the
   other--either a saint or a sinner--either saved or lost, either walking
   in the light or walking in the dark.

   Oh, it is very urgent that we should know that we know Him! Though, as
   I have already said, to know Him is the paramount matter--next to that
   there is nothing so important as to know that we know Him. Do you ask
   what service it would render you? It would give you such comfort as
   nothing else could. To know that you know Christ is a perennial joy,
   and an unfailing consolation under the heaviest trial. This is a candle
   that will shine in the dark night, and give you all the light that you
   shall want between here and Heaven. If I know that I know Christ, then
   all things are mine. Things present and things to come are alike in the
   Covenant of Grace. I am rich to all the intents of bliss, and the
   knowledge thereof is comfort indeed!

   You who are living on "perhaps" and "maybe," are living on dust and
   ashes. A piece of bread that is full of grit and dirt will break your
   teeth if you try to eat it. But, oh, if you can but get to know, to be
   persuaded, to be assured, to be confident, then shall you eat bread
   that is better than that which angels eat, and like Jonathan, when he
   touched the honey with his rod, and put it to his lips, you shall find
   your eyes enlightened!

   Nor is it joy alone you would find from this knowledge. It would no
   less certainly bring you confidence. When a man knows that he knows
   Christ, what confidence he has in meeting temptations! "Shall such a
   man as I flee?" What confidence in prayer! He asks believingly, as
   children beloved ask of a generous parent. And what a confident air
   this assurance before God would give us with the sons of men! We should
   not stammer in the presence of their philosophers, or look abashed in
   the presence of their nobles. But knowing that we knew Him, Whom to
   know is life eternal, we should not mind though they called us
   ignorant, or frowned at us as ignoble and presumptuous. We should not
   blush to confess our faith with an elevated self-possession. Our
   courage would no more fail us in the pestilential swamps of the world,
   than our enthusiasm would subside in the fertile garden of the Church,
   knowing that we shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end.

   And this certainty that you know Christ would kindle in you the very
   highest degree of love. Knowing that I am saved, knowing that I am His,
   and He is mine, I cannot but feel the flames of affection towards Him
   glowing like coals of juniper. That love leads me to obedience, and
   that obedience develops in me fervor and zeal. Knowing that you know
   Him, you will be ready to cry out with a holy passion, "What shall I
   render unto the Lord for all His benefits towards me?" You will sing
   with ecstasy of His free Grace that made you know Him, and of His
   sovereign, distinguishing love, that embraced you--

   "Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing My dear Redeemer's praise!"

   You cannot tell, dear Christians, you who are exercised with faint
   misgivings or with tormenting fears, what a great and infinite blessing
   this assurance would be to you--how it would make life seem young and
   like a thing Divine! To you who are converted, it would be like a
   second conversion. You are now bedridden with sick thoughts. Could you
   once know that you know Christ, you would leave that sick bed and pant
   no more to return to it, but enjoy the air, walk abroad, and fulfill
   joyfully your allotted tasks. I pray that the Master may say to many of
   you who are bowed with a spirit of infirmity, "Be made straight." And
   to others who have long lain on this bed of doubts and fears, "Take up
   your bed, and walk."

   Do you desire this sweet balm for an uneasy conscience? Observe the
   prescription, "Hereby we know that we do know Him if we keep His
   commandments." It is in the keeping of His commandments that this sound
   state of the soul's health is enjoyed. Do you ask for further
   explanation? It means to keep His commandments in our minds, and hold
   them fast in our memory with devout reverence. It should be the object
   of every Christian to find out what Christ's command is. And, this
   done, never to ask another question, but receive it with meekness,
   meditate upon its holy sanction, and venerate it as the Law of the
   Lord's House.

   If Christ has said it, I dare not cavil, argue, or question, much less
   rebel. It is mine to keep His commandments in my heart as a sacred
   trust. As precious treasures more to be desired than gold, and with a
   yet increasing relish, as luxuries to the taste, sweeter than honey or
   the honeycomb. But to keep them in our hearts, we must earnestly desire
   to fulfill them. By reason of the Fall we cannot perfectly keep the
   commands of Christ, but the heart keeps them as the standard of purity,
   and it would be perfect if it could. The Christian's only desire is to
   be exactly like Christ. It pains him that he falls short of His image.
   It gives him great joy if be can feel that the Holy Spirit is working
   in him anything like conformity to the Divine will.

   His heart is right towards God, sincerely so. This is not enough unless
   there is a constant, persevering aim to fulfill His commandments in our
   lives. Depend upon it, Brethren, that the want of practical obedience
   to Christ is the root of nine hundred and ninety-nine out of every
   thousand of our doubts and fears. The roots of our fears are in our
   sins. Search there, and you shall find the cause of soul trouble. I
   believe many a child of God walks in darkness because he does not obey
   the Word of the Lord. Take that sentence for your motto which the
   mother of Jesus addressed to the servants at the marriage in Cana of
   Galilee--"Whatever He says unto you, do it."

   Is it so that you often hear the precept with never a thought of
   heeding it? Then beware lest you "suddenly be destroyed, and that
   without remedy." Or does your conscience smart with sore rebuke as
   often as it is mentioned? Then it is with you as with one who gets a
   wound in battle, and the sword that made it plunges through the wound
   again and pricks it deeper. Good cause is there, my Friend, for your
   unrest. If so be, you have an open wound left to fester. Christ
   commands you, for instance, to be baptized, and do you resist His will?
   Seek you some frivolous pretext, saying, "I pray you have me excused"?

   "He that knows his Master's will and does it not, the same shall be
   beaten with many stripes." Many a stripe has fallen upon a professed
   Believer because he has not been obedient to that injunction. The
   command that we should love each other is far too lightly esteemed by
   many. Now, if you do not love your fellow Christians fervently with a
   pure heart, can you wonder that you fall into doubts? It is natural
   that it should be so. Only in proportion as Divine Grace makes you
   obedient will Divine Grace make you an assured Christian. Your holiness
   and your confidence will keep pace together if your confidence is worth
   having.

   Presumption outruns holiness, but confidence never does. It is little
   matter of surprise to me when some men doubt whether they are saved.
   There are grave reasons why they should, since their lives are so
   little saturated with the Spirit of their Master. Well may you and I
   bemoan ourselves before God in the silent watches of the night,
   because, having experienced so much mercy we do so little in His
   service, and having seen so much of His Character we are so little like
   our Lord. Depend upon it, if you want to kill your doubts and fears,
   you must kill your sins, by God's Grace, by exterminating disobedience.
   We shall also exterminate the mass of our despondency, if not the whole
   of it.

   Although, my dear Brethren, I never said, nor thought that you must be
   perfect before you could be assured that you were a Christian, I tell
   you that you will never be altogether beyond doubts and fears till you
   are altogether beyond sin. And that will not be, I think, till you
   reach the other shore. A dear Friend in Christ wanted to debate this
   question with me some time ago--whether perfection was possible in this
   world. I told him I would rather not, but if he and I both

   tried to attain it, it would be the best way to settle the controversy.
   I only trust that my friend may reach it. I am half afraid I never
   shall, but I will leave no stone unturned to try. Who knows how far God
   may enable any single, watchful, prayerful soul to go? At any rate,
   take it as a rule, that as God gives you holiness, so God will give you
   assurance. And in proportion as you mar the fidelity of your obedience,
   in that proportion you will mar your evidences and weaken your
   knowledge that you know Him.

   Let me just give you an illustration of this point before I leave it.
   When our Lord met the disciples at Emmaus, and talked with them, they
   did not know Him while He talked with them. When do you think they did
   know that they knew Him? Why, not until they performed an act of
   obedience by offering hospitality to a stranger. Then He was known to
   them in the breaking of bread. Yes, there is a blessed eye-clearing to
   many and many a child of God when he comes to give of his bread to the
   poor and needy, and when he comes to the Table of the Lord, in
   remembrance of His death. He shall then know that he knows Him.

   We are told that the cherubim have wings, but they also have hands
   under their wings. True children of God have knowledge, but they have
   under their knowledge practice. And you have no good proof that you are
   a child of God because you have the wings of knowledge, unless you have
   also the hands of practice. Would one ascertain how much a sheep had
   eaten? It could be seen in no better way than by showing how much fat,
   and flesh, and wool it had gathered. So with a Christian. If you want
   to know how much he has lived on Christ, see how much of zeal, how much
   of obedience, how much of holiness he has gathered. For "hereby we do
   know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments."

   III. We now come to the last consideration. It hurls a momentous charge
   against dissemblers. There is such a thing as saying that we know
   Christ--but if any man say that he knows Christ, and keeps not His
   commandments, such a man is a liar--plain speech is this--he is a liar,
   and the Truth is not in him.

   I would have you, my dear Friends, give earnest heed to these words,
   because, while it is an easy thing to say that you know Him, there are
   many temptations so to do in a Church like this. When many are
   impressed, and a great number of your friends and acquaintances profess
   that they know Christ, you may easily fall into the current. Indeed, it
   may be hard to resist the tide, and perhaps without really knowing Him
   in your souls, you may be led, for the sake of companionship, to say
   that you know Him. Oh, I beseech you, never do this! If you know that
   you know Him, confess that knowledge at once. But never, never, never
   be induced to say anything beyond what you know.

   To let the tongue outrun the witness of the conscience is to betray
   guile in the heart. And the man whose sin is forgiven is one in whose
   spirit there is no guile. No, no! As you love your souls, keep your
   hands off all profession unless you have true possession. A man may
   tell a story so often, that though it is not true, he may at last come
   to believe it. I can think of one or two notable stories of good old
   friends that one always listens to without raising a question--though
   never without suspecting that they have gradually accumulated
   attritions of exaggeration. We may smile at the fiction whose tangled
   threads were woven thus to please the ear and tickle the fancy. But we
   tremble at the slow, almost imperceptible growth of a dire falsehood
   which beguiles a man's own soul.

   He may first of all say he hopes that he loves Christ. Then he may say,
   "Others think I do, and therefore I feel assured I do." And soon he may
   say this and that, with an air that satisfies his friends and gratifies
   himself, until he makes his poor deluded heart believe a lie. Yes, and
   I know he may go on the dupe of his own credulity to his grave, and
   perhaps even at the Judgment Seat of Christ he may say that he knows
   Christ, only then to awaken from his treacherous dream, when he shall
   hear Christ say--"I never knew you. Depart from Me, you worker of
   iniquity." O God, save us from this! Let us never say we know Him,
   unless in very deed and truth we know Christ and are found in Him.

   Now, John says that to say we know Christ, and not to keep His
   commandments is a lie. It is a verbal lie. The man who utters it speaks
   a lie. He says, "I know Christ." But it is a falsehood. He does not
   know Him. He knows about Him-- but his heart knows nothing of Jesus. It
   is a doctrinal lie, for it would be an awful heresy to say that a man
   who lived in sin knew Christ--that one who was a drunkard, or a thief,
   or unchaste--had acquaintance with the Savior. Does Christ keep such
   company? Does He call these His friends? The men who set the taproom on
   a roar? Your merry-makers, who can sing lascivious songs--are these
   Christ's friends? I know Christ keeps better company than this. He is
   holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. It is a lie
   against the doctrines of the Gospel.

   And it is a practical lie. The man who says, "I know Him," and then
   goes and breaks the commands of Christ--every time he sins tells a lie.
   People can tell lies when they hold their tongues, as I pointed out to
   the little children when ad-

   dressing them last Sunday afternoon. There was a little girl at school
   who always held her hand up when the boys and girls were asked to show
   in this manner that they knew the answer to any question that had been
   put to them. One afternoon she held her hand up when she did not know
   the answer, and a little school fellow said to her, "Jane, you did not
   know that." And she said, "No. But I thought teacher would think better
   of me if she thought I know it." "Ah," said the other, "but that is
   telling a lie with your hand."

   Yes, and you may equally act a lie. A man who professes to be a
   Christian when he is not hangs out false colors on Sunday, and all
   through the week he plays the liar's part. Were his profession true,
   surely his conduct would be consistent with it! It is a corrosive lie,
   a lie that eats into the man's soul, corrupts and cankers it, so that,
   as John says, "The Truth is not in him." The man that begins by lying
   about his relation to God soon becomes hardened to lying in the
   community of his fellow men. Some of the greatest rogueries and
   robberies ever committed have been perpetrated by professing Christian
   men.

   How often, when we have heard of a gigantic fraud, has there been some
   canting hypocrite or other connected with it! This is very natural, it
   is scarcely surprising. For when the man had come to deceive himself,
   to dissemble in things sacred, and to lie to God, he was such a
   practiced hand that the devil could not find a fitter vassal to lie to
   men. O take care of trifling with your convictions! You may flatter
   yourself with the vain conceit that you will never cheat anybody. I am
   not so sure. If a man would rob God, he would rob his mother. If he
   once gives the lie to God by making a false profession, I know not
   where he may stay his hand. Who, who would have sold Christ for thirty
   pieces of silver? Who, but Judas, he that professed to be His follower,
   His disciple, His private secretary, and His treasurer. Though all the
   while his heart was false to his Lord! It is a traitorous profession
   that breeds gigantic sins.

   Once again, it is a damning lie. The man that says, "I know Christ,"
   and does not keep His commandments, is making his own damnation sure.
   He signs, seals, and stamps it every day. By his profession of being a
   follower of Christ he confesses that he knows what he ought to be, yet
   by his actions he proves that he is not what he ought to be. And so he
   is bearing witness against himself, judging himself, condemning his own
   soul, and challenging the dread sentence of everlasting perdition. God
   save us from such a lie as this!

   Before I conclude now, it behooves me to point out some of those
   characters upon which the brand must be fixed-- they are liars. If
   there are any such here, may their consciences be pricked. There have
   been persons who have professed their faith in Christ, but who have
   been in the habit of acting dishonestly. They have been negotiating
   fictitious bills. They have been stealing small articles out of shops.
   They have taken little sums of money out of tills. They have been
   dealing with short weights, and selling wares with wrong marks--and all
   this time they have said that they knew Christ.

   Now, one of His commandments is, "You shall love your neighbor as
   yourself," and another one is, "You shall not steal." And in not
   keeping these they have proved themselves to be liars, though they
   called themselves Christians. Some who have professed faith in Christ
   have been drunkards. Present here tonight--I do not say they are now
   members of the Church, but they have been--are those who have fallen
   into habits of intemperance. I am afraid there are some who, though
   they escape the odium of detection, as they have not to go home at
   night from the public house, manage to drink pretty hard at home.

   Depend upon it, you who secretly indulge this vicious propensity are
   not less guilty, and shall not be more lightly judged by God than those
   who sin openly--who are locked up for being drunk on the Saturday
   night--and have to pay five shillings and costs on the Monday morning.
   You may be respectable in the eyes of your fellow men, but you are
   disreputable and scandalous hypocrites in the sight of Heaven. Some,
   too, there are of good standing in society--young men who have made a
   profession of faith--who can take pleasure in haunts that are something
   more than dubious. It is a shameful thing for a professor of
   Christianity to be found in those music halls, saloons, and places of
   revelry in London where you cannot go without your morals being
   polluted. You can neither open your eyes nor your ears without knowing
   at once that you are in the outskirts of Satan's domain.

   I charge you by the living God, if you cannot keep good company and
   avoid the circle of dissipation, do not profess to be followers of
   Christ! He bids you come out from among them! Be you separate, touch
   not the unclean thing. If you can find pleasure in lewd society and
   lascivious songs, what right have you to mingle with the fellowship of
   saints, or to join in the singing of Psalms? You do not keep the
   commandments, you violate them. The Truth is not in you, you betray it.

   And what shall we say of those who, while making a profession of
   religion, have been addicted to uncleanness? Sins that ought not to be
   spoken of among us lest the cheek of modesty should be made to blush,
   have been committed in secret by such as would be accounted Christian
   men. God have mercy upon unchaste professors, for whoredom is a deep
   ditch, and the abhorred of the Lord do fall into it. If any here have
   so fallen, may they lay aside their profession, for they bear the marks
   of God's abhorrence. Let them not come into His holy place, let them
   not gather to His Table, neither let them from this day on count
   themselves His children. Such they cannot be--their profession is a
   lie.

   The covetous! The greedy! The grasping! Those who see their Brethren
   have needs and shut up the heart of their compassion! To each of you
   the Master's words are very strong--"How dwells the love of God in
   him?" Covetousness is idolatry! If you are eaten up of the world. If
   money is your God, you are as surely condemned as if you had been
   dishonest or unchaste. And are there not others whose tongue is
   perverse and unruly, and their conversation often far from pure? Alas,
   when it comes to this--that men should presume to the Supper of the
   Lord who can hurl out an oath! That men who have been known, when
   excited, to blaspheme and use profane language should yet with the same
   mouth draw near to feed upon the emblems of the Savior's passion! O
   Sirs, if you had a conscience, surely you would not dare to come! If
   your hearts had any feeling left in them, you would tremble to be found
   among the people of God while your speech blasphemes the Most High.

   Is there one virtue of superlative excellence, peculiarly Christian,
   supported by the frequent precept and the unparalleled example of our
   Lord Jesus--surely it is that of forgiving injuries. Yet I have known
   some of His disciples, as they would have us believe, who have been
   unforgiving. Christians they called themselves, yet they could not
   forgive a trespass, were it even of their own children! A resentful,
   malicious Christian--what an anomaly! Did you not lately hear of a man,
   great and high in station--was he not a bishop?--who cut his daughter
   off with a shilling, or rather without a shilling, because she had
   married against his will? Ah, these things are not fit to be whispered
   about, nor is it possible for them to be kept in secret.

   I tell you, if you love not your Brethren, if you love not your own
   child, if you cannot forgive your child--there is nothing more certain
   in the book of God than this--that you will never enter Heaven. An
   unforgiving spirit is an unfor-given spirit. First, go and forgive your
   Brother before you bring your sacrifice, or God will neither accept you
   nor your offering. Are we not taught to pray, "Forgive us our
   trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us"?

   It has been hard work for me thus to mention these inconsistencies. I
   cannot venture farther, though I might have stated more. The labor of
   my lips is a burden to my heart. If any man's conscience smite
   him--well, let it smite him hard, let it smite him till it drives him
   from his sin--let it smite him till he falls at the feet of Jesus, a
   contrite suppliant for pardon. O be thorough, be thorough! If you wish
   to be washed from sin, eschew the sin, the penalties of which you
   dread. If you profess to know Christ, have nothing to do with a sinful
   world. Shake off the viper into the fire, for it will poison you and
   destroy you. God grant that you may renounce sin, if you profess in
   very deed to be the servants of Christ.

   My last word is this. If any man now feels himself troubled on account
   of sin, let me read these words to him, and I have done. Hear them in
   faith. They are the words that come before the text. "And if any man
   sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."
   O come, you guilty ones, you guilty professors, you that have been
   false to your Lord and to His love! Come to Him notwithstanding all
   your bitter provocations. "And He is the Mercy Seat: the Propitiation
   for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole
   world."

   Look you, then, look and live! Whether saints or sinners, whatever your
   past lives may have been, look to the Propitiatory Sacrifice offered on
   Calvary's bloody tree! Look and live! The Lord grant it for His dear
   Son's sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Prepare To Meet Your God

   (No. 923)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MARCH 27, 1870,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Prepare to meet your God, O Israel." Amos 4:12.

   GOD had, in the days of Amos, by different ways rebuked the sin of His
   people Israel. He had wasted them with famine and sword. He had
   withheld the rain. He had sent forth the pestilence after the manner of
   Egypt. He had smitten their fields and gardens with blast and mildew,
   and He had overthrown some of them, as Sodom and Gomorrah. But they
   still persevered in their rebellion, and therefore He declares that He
   will send them no more of His messengers, and shoot no more of His
   far-reaching arrows, but will come Himself, in His own Person, to deal
   with them.

   God's way of dealing with rebellious humanity, is, at first to upbraid
   and persuade with words--soft, gentle, tender words. These He repeats
   many times, accompanying them with tokens of tenderness and Grace.
   By-and-by He exchanges these words of tenderness for words of mingled
   threat--He begins to expostulate with them--why will they drive Him to
   this? Why will they die? Why will they bring ruin upon themselves?
   Then, if words are of no effect upon them, He turns to blows--but His
   strokes fall softly at first. Yet if these avail not, His strokes
   gather strength, till at last He smites them with the blows of a cruel
   one, and wounds them sorely.

   If after this the sinners remain obstinate, the Lord's longsuffering
   turns to wrath, and He says, "Why should you be stricken any more? You
   will revolt more and more. Already your whole head is sick and your
   whole heart faint. What shall I do unto you? What shall I do unto you?"
   Things have come to a dreadful pass when at last the Lord puts aside
   the rod, when He puts aside afflictions which He has sent as
   chastisements, and comes forth Himself to end the strife, crying, "Ah,
   I will ease Me of My adversaries, and avenge Me of My enemies."

   Such was the position of Israel in the text. They had scorned all the
   milder dealings of God, and now He says to them, "Prepare to meet Me,
   even God Himself, in all the terror of justice." The Prophet may be
   understood as in irony challenging the proud rebels to meet in arms the
   God whom they have despised. Let them prepare to fight it out with Him
   whom they have made to be their enemy, and against whose Laws they have
   so continually revolted. "Prepare," says the Prophet, "O you potsherds,
   to strive with your Maker! You worms, to battle with Omnipotence." As
   it stands, the text is an awful challenge of Almighty wrath when at
   last longsuffering vacates the throne, and Justice bares its two-edged
   sword. Woe, woe, woe to boastful scoffers in that great and terrible
   day!

   We shall not, however, dwell upon the particular position of the text,
   nor confine ourselves to the meaning of the words as the Prophet used
   them. We shall, however, hope as fully as possible to illustrate the
   natural sense of the text, in the hope that such earnest and solemn
   words may awaken in some hearts tenderness towards God, and the desire
   to be prepared to meet Him. "Prepare to meet your God." We have before
   us a most important call, and we shall consider first the many tones in
   which it may be uttered. Secondly, the heavy tidings conveyed by it to
   the ungodly. And thirdly, the weighty admonition given there.

   I. First, then, let us think of these words in THEIR DIFFERENT TONES.
   They vary from grave to gay, from dread to delight--"Prepare to meet
   your God." Why, methinks there are no more joyous words under Heaven
   than these under some aspects, certainly none more solemn out of Hell
   under others. "Prepare to meet your God." These words may have sounded
   through the green alleys of Paradise, and have caused no discord there.
   Blending with the sweet song of new-created birds, these notes would
   have but given emphasis to the harmony.

   Often from the mossy couch whereon he reclined in the happy life of his
   innocence and bliss, the great sire of men would be aroused by this
   holy summons. When the sun first scattered the shades of darkness, and
   began to gild the tops of the snow-clad hills with morning light, Adam
   was awakened by the birds amid the groves of Eden, whose earliest song
   his heart interpreted, as meaning, "Awake, O wondrous man, and prepare
   to meet your God." Then climbing some ver-

   dant hill from where he looked down upon the landscape, all aglow with
   glory and with God, Adam would, in holy rapture, meet his God.

   And in lowly reverence would speak with Him as a man speaks with his
   friend. Then, too, at eventide, the dewdrops, as they fell, each one
   would say to that blessed man, "Prepare to meet your God." The
   lengthened shadows would silently give forth the same message, and
   perhaps it is no imagination, angels would alight upon lawns adorned
   with lilies, and pause where Adam stood pruning the growth of some too
   luxuriant vine, and would with courteous speech remind him that the
   day's work was over, for the sun was descending to the western sea, and
   it was time for the favored creature to have audience with his God.

   The faintest intimation would suffice for our first parent, for the
   crown of Paradise to him was the Presence of the Lord God. And Eden's
   rivers, though they flowed over sands of gold, had no river in them
   equal to the stream whereby the spirit of Adam was gladdened when he
   had communion with the Most High. For then he drank from that river of
   the water of life which flows from underneath the throne of the Great
   Supreme. Unfallen man had no greater joy than walking with God. It was
   Heaven on earth to meet in converse tender and sublime with the great
   Father of Spirits. No marriage bells ever rang out a sweeter or more
   joyous melody than these glad words as they were heard amid the myrtle
   bowers and palm groves of Eden by our first parents in the heyday of
   their innocence, "Prepare to meet your God."

   Then, when Jehovah walked in the garden in the cool of the day, He had
   no need to say aloud, "Adam, where are you?" For His happy creature
   whom He has made to have dominion over all the works of His hands was
   waiting for Him as a child waits for his father when the day's work is
   done--watching to hear his father's footsteps, and to see his father's
   face. Oh, yes! Those were words in fullest harmony with Eden's joys,
   "Prepare to meet your God."

   But, Brethren, weep not over those withered glories as those who are
   without hope, for the words have something of a heavenly sound to those
   who have been begotten again unto a lively hope by the Resurrection of
   Jesus Christ from the dead. We, though fallen and sinful, and therefore
   naturally averse to God, have, many of us, been renewed in the spirit
   of our minds, and now oftentimes to us the welcome message comes,
   "Prepare to meet your God," in a sense most delightful and most
   entrancing. It is our summons to devotion. It is morning, and as we put
   on our garments before we go forth to the battle of life, the angel of
   the Lord whispers to us, "Prepare to meet your God."

   And on our knees we seek our Father's face, and pray that we may be
   under His guardian care throughout the day. Think not that the holy
   Voice is silent until nightfall. Oh, no, oftentimes as business gives
   us pauses, and as our avocations may allow us leisure, we hear the
   inner life, or what if I say the indwelling Holy Spirit, softly saying
   to our heart, "Prepare to meet your God." And we, in spirit, put off
   our shoes from our feet, and feel that the place whereon we stand is
   holy ground! We may be in a poor workshop, but our spirit makes it a
   cathedral as it has communion with the Most High. Our study may be
   littered over with our books, and papers, and letters. But it becomes a
   sacred oratory on a sudden, and all things fall into order as the Voice
   is heard and obeyed.

   Perhaps we may be in the cornfield, or on the barley mow, but if the
   Voice says, "Prepare to meet your God," the true heart stands as a
   priest before the altar, and worships in spirit and in Truth. Even the
   streets of busy London may become a silent temple when the heart is
   solemnly absorbed in worship. For preparation to meet our God means no
   change of vestments, nor even the washing of the hands. There is a
   cleansing of the heart, and a putting on of the white linen, which in
   the righteousness of saints is performed in a moment, and the soul
   stands before her God in happy fellowship.

   Then, my dear Brothers and Sisters, there are set times with us when we
   prepare to meet our God, as for instance, on the eve of the Lord's-day.
   It always seems to me to be so pleasant at the family altar to make
   mention of the coming Sunday and to ask the Lord that we may lay aside
   our cares. Ask Him that we may be quit of every earthly impediment, and
   may sit in the heavenly places on the Day of Rest with our Father and
   our God. I know how late some of you have to keep your shops open on
   Saturday nights, and how it almost runs into the Sunday before you can
   be done with your business--but still I hope you do before you come
   here make a point of preparing for this meeting place with God by
   meeting Him first at home.

   I would not have you come here unprepared, as though the mere coming
   into the assembly would be enough. I anxiously desire to see you come
   with prepared hearts, with longing appetites, with holy aspirations.
   Bring your harps with you already tuned. Make ready for the holy
   convocation. Lay by in store your offering, prepare your song, uplift
   your

   heart. Yes, and besides the Sundays, there are certain other times with
   us when we are especially called to meet our God. We keep no holy days
   by the almanac, but we have holy days apportioned us by Providence and
   by the Holy Spirit. I mean that there are seasons hallowed by holy
   memories, or by present circumstances when sorrow and joy, earth and
   Heaven, all without and within, bear to us a call both loud and sweet,
   "Prepare to meet your God."

   Then we set apart a special time. The hour is consecrated to secret
   communion. God has claimed His portion of the day, and we sacredly
   guard it by entering into our closet and shutting the door. Inward
   motions of the Holy Spirit frequently calls us away to loneliness--let
   us not be slow to follow the blessed bidding. The voice of the Beloved
   invites us to His banquet of wine. He allures us to the secret chambers
   where Divine Love is revealed. He bids us stand in the cleft of the
   rock, while the glory of Godhead passes by. On such happy seasons, and
   I hope they are not infrequent with us, the silver trumpets of Jubilee
   ring through our souls the notes, "Prepare to meet your God," and then
   our motto is, "Up, and away, to the beds of spices, to the garden of
   pomegranates, where the Beloved will reveal Himself and give us an
   audience with the King."

   Once again, these words, "Prepare to meet your God," have no gloomy
   significance to some of my dear Brothers and Sisters here present, even
   though we attach to them the sense of the Believer's meeting God in a
   disembodied state. Christians, especially when they grow aged, must
   often hear the angel whisper, "Prepare to meet your God." From the
   inevitable process of decay which takes place in the body--from the
   failure of eyesight, the tottering of the limbs, and the gray
   hairs--there must come subdued and tender voices, all saying, "Prepare
   to meet your God."

   The tent is being taken down, the cord is loosed, the tent pin no
   longer holds to the earth. Soon must the canvas be rolled up and put
   away. But you have a House not made with hands, eternal in the heavens!
   Look up, then, and prepare to dwell there. Prepare your spirit not to
   be unclothed, but to be clothed upon with your House which is from
   Heaven. My aged Brothers and Sisters, I can imagine how it is with you.
   The dear friends who have been the companions of your childhood and
   your manhood depart before you, and as they wing their happy flight to
   the land of the living, they look back and say, "Prepare to follow us."

   Nor are you at all grieved at such an invitation! Rather do you
   sometimes feel impatient for the gladsome time when you may join that
   cloud of doves which flock to those everlasting windows and find their
   resting places with the Well-Beloved. Friends gathering in the upper
   sanctuary beckon to you whose years are threescore and ten, and you
   feel the attractions of their blessed society on happy Sundays when the
   atmosphere of your souls is clear, and the Sun of Righteousness shines
   forth with power! You dwell in the land, Beulah, and behold so vividly
   the New Jerusalem and its royal Lord, that, as though an angel spoke,
   you hear the sound, "Prepare to meet your God."

   Often when the hymn is swelling up to Heaven, you feel as if you could
   mount upon it and pass through the gate of pearl. At the holy Supper
   Table, how loud is the call to come up higher into the excellent glory!
   Young as I am, and earthbound--to me, even to me--the Communion Table
   has made me unloose my cable, spread my sails, and long for that last
   voyage which shall make this world a foreign shore, and the glory land
   the harbor of our spirits. Surely, my aged Brethren, it must be far
   more so with you who have so many friends across the water, so many of
   your best beloved on the other side of Jordan! Your strength of
   experience and your weakness of body must both tend to give frequency
   to the message, "Prepare to meet your God." To you the tidings are
   happy. You are exiles and you long for Home, you are children at school
   and you pine for your Father's House.

   But now I must pass on to notice that those words have not always that
   sweet ring of the silver bells about them. They are words of caution to
   the vast majority of men. "Prepare to meet your God." Alas, How many of
   you to whom I now speak are unprepared! It pains me to think of it. As
   I sat last night about eight o'clock, revolving in my mind a subject
   for this hour's discourse, there came a knock at my door, and I was
   earnestly entreated by a father to hasten to the deathbed of his dear
   girl. I wanted much my time for preparation, but as the dear one was in
   such a case, and had long been a constant hearer of the Word in this
   Tabernacle, I felt it my duty to go whether I could prepare a sermon or
   not.

   Glad I was to hear that sick one's testimony. She told me with what, I
   fear was her dying breath, that she was not fully assured of her
   interest in Christ, but she left me no room to doubt when, between
   paroxysms and convulsions, she said, "I know I do love Jesus, and that
   is all I know." Yes, and I thought it is all I want to know. If any one
   of us always knows that he loves the Savior, what more does he require
   of testimony as to his state? But my mind was sore oppressed then, as
   it is now, with the thought that so many of you are not prepared to die
   at all. I see my sermons in sick rooms,

   often, and I come to think of preaching sermons in a different light
   from what many do. I will try to preach sermons which will suit your
   most solemn hours and most serious circumstances.

   I would gladly deliver sermons which shall haunt your sickbeds, and
   accuse you unless you yield to their persuasions, and believe in Jesus.
   When you lie on the borders of the spirit world, you will count all
   religious trifling to be cruel mockery. So let me say it
   affectionately, but very earnestly, to you, "Prepare to meet your God,"
   for I am afraid many of you are quite unprepared. You have seen others
   die. They preach to you from their graves, and they say, "So to the
   dust must you also come, my Friend. Be you ready, for in such an hour
   as you think not, the Son of Man will call for you."

   You have had sicknesses in your own body. You are not now the strong
   man you once were. You have already passed through many perils. What
   are all these but voices from the God of Mercy saying, "Consider your
   ways"? You are not such a simpleton as to think that you shall never
   die--you know you will. Neither are you so insane as to think that when
   you die, your death will be that of a horse or a dog. You know there is
   a hereafter and a state of being in which men shall be judged according
   to the deeds that they have done in the body, whether they are good or
   whether they are evil. May I therefore press upon your earnest
   recollection, and your intense consideration at this present moment,
   the exhortation of the text, "Prepare to meet your God!"

   Once more, let me say that this sound, as I have now put it, has little
   melody in it. It will by-and-by be heard in ungodly ears as a
   peremptory summons--and then there shall be no music in it, but a
   horrid clang that shall drive away all hope--"Prepare to meet your
   God." That summons will come to each one of you unconverted people, and
   when it comes it will admit of no postponement. Call in the wisest
   surgeon, or the most accomplished physician, and he cannot put off for
   an hour the execution of God's death-warrant. "Prepare to meet your
   God," will mean that at such a time, and such an hour, and at such a
   moment, the spirit must return to God who gave it.

   There will be no evasion of that summons. There will be no possibility,
   then, of a Substitute dying in your place. "Prepare to meet your God"
   will come to you, my Hearer, beyond all doubt. Oh, how I wish that you
   were prepared for it! You must assuredly meet your God whom you have
   forgotten all these years--your Creator, whose rights you have ignored.
   Your Preserver, to Whom you have rendered no kind of recompense. Your
   King, whose name it may be you have blasphemed. You have denied His
   existence, but you will meet Him. You have lived in open revolt against
   His righteous Laws, but you will certainly meet Him. No exemption will
   be possible. Before His judgment seat you must stand.

   Prepared or unprepared at the sound of the resurrection trumpet, you
   must appear at His bar. No words of mine, however terrible they may be,
   can by any possibility equal the horror which the judgment to come and
   the wrath to be measured out will cause to the unregenerate heart. We
   are sometimes accused, my Brethren, of using language too harsh, too
   ghastly, too alarming, with regard to the world to come. But we shall
   not soon change our note, for we solemnly believe that if we could
   speak thunderbolts, and our every look were a lightning flash--and if
   our eyes dropped blood instead of tears--no tones, words, gestures, or
   likenesses of dread could exaggerate the awful condition of a soul
   which has refused the Gospel and is delivered over to Justice.

   "He that despised Moses' Law died without mercy under two or three
   witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, suppose you, shall he be
   thought worthy, who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and has
   counted the blood of the Covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an
   unholy thing, and has done despite unto the Spirit of Grace? For we
   know Him that has said, Vengeance belongs unto Me, I will recompense,
   says the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge His people. It is a
   fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Remember His
   own words, "Consider this, you that forget God, lest I tear you in
   pieces, and there be none to deliver" (Psa. 50:22).

   Certain prophets of smooth things rise up among us, deluding the people
   with thoughts that the judgment to come will not be terrible, but will
   end in eternal sleep. Into their secret my soul comes not. I must speak
   the Master's Truth and the Master's Words. O you ungodly, your
   punishment will not end, for He has said it, "These shall go away into
   everlasting punishment." Your miseries shall have no cessation, for He
   who cannot lie, declares, "The smoke of their torment goes up forever
   and ever." From the lips of Jesus at the Day of Judgment you shall
   receive the sentence of everlasting blessedness or everlasting
   punishment, and no other.

   May God grant that you may not dare to sin under the notion that your
   sin is a mere trifle, for both you and it will soon cease to be. Nature
   itself teaches you that your soul will exist forever. O make it not
   forever a ruin! Bring not upon

   yourself everlasting destruction from the Presence of the Lord and from
   the glory of His power! Thus have you rung the changes on the tones of
   these words, and I leave them with you.

   II. Secondly, and very briefly. There are HEAVY TIDINGS in these words.
   Heavy tidings for the ungodly, for thus they run--"Prepare to meet your
   God." I wish I could take hold of every unbeliever here, of every man
   and woman whose heart is not right with God, and personally speak to
   them, just as of old the Prophet spoke to Jeroboam's wife, and said, "I
   have heavy tidings from the Lord for you." So would I speak to them, "I
   have heavy tidings, unconverted Friends, from the Lord for you." And
   the tidings are these, "You will before long have to meet your God.
   Listen to the words, "meet your God."

   You have by some means passed through this world without meeting Him.
   He is everywhere, but you have managed not to see Him. He has fed you,
   and in Him you have lived and moved, and had your being. But you have
   contrived so to stultify yourself that you have never yet perceived
   Him. You will perceive Him soon. When the flesh shall fall off from
   your spirit, your disembodied soul will see without these eyes far more
   clearly than it now does--for you will begin to see the spiritual world
   which is now hidden from you--and chief and foremost you will meet your
   God.

   Now you say in your heart "no God," because the thought of God is
   objectionable to you. You could not sin as you do if you remembered
   that the all-seeing eye is in the chamber, no, is in your heart itself.
   Remember you will not be able soon to shake off the thought of God, for
   you will meet Him face to face. Not the thought of God only, but the
   actual Being of God will confront you in your dying hour. You will be
   compelled to meet Him. It will be a close meeting, not as though He
   looked upon you from afar, or you surveyed Him from a distance. But you
   will so meet Him that all the Glory of His majesty will operate upon
   you like the fire which devours the stubble--for our God is a consuming
   fire.

   His holiness will become wrath against your sin, not wrath treasured up
   and removed far away, but wrath that shall come near to you to consume
   you. It will be an inevitable meeting, from which you will not be able
   to escape. From your fellow creature, whom you do not wish to see, you
   readily withdraw yourself, but you cannot escape from God. The rays of
   the morning's sun could not carry you so fast as the Lord's right hand
   can move. The uttermost parts of the sea cannot conceal you. The night
   shall be light about you. Neither the heights of Heaven, nor the depths
   of Hell can conceal you from Him.

   You must meet face to face with your God. And it must be a personal
   meeting. God and you will meet as if alone. God alone and you alone.
   What if there are angels? What if there are ten thousand times ten
   thousands of your kindred sinners? To you, virtually, it shall be
   solitude itself. You must meet your God! You, YOU! O my dear Hearer, it
   is a sad thing that this should be heavy tidings to you, for if you
   were what you should be, it would be joy to you to think that you shall
   be near your God, and dwell in His embrace. But, unconverted as you
   are, no tidings can have more of horror in them than these--that you,
   do as you will, and steel your heart as you may--must by-and-by
   confront your God.

   Think awhile upon Who it is that you have to meet! You must meet your
   God--your God! That is, offended Justice you must meet whose laws you
   have broken, whose penalties you have ridiculed. Justice righteously
   indignant with its sword drawn you must confront. You must meet your
   God. That is, you must be examined, by unblind Omniscience. He who has
   seen your heart, and read your thoughts, and jotted down your
   affections, and remembered your idle words-- you must meet Him. And
   infinite discernment you must meet--those eyes that never yet were
   duped. The God who will see through the veils of hypocrisy and all the
   concealments of formality.

   There will be no making yourself out to be better than you are before
   Him. You must meet Him who will read you as a man reads a book open
   before his eyes. You mast meet with unsullied holiness. You have not
   always found yourself happy on earth when you have been with holy
   men--you could not act out your natural impulses in their presence,
   they were a check upon you. But the infinitely holy God, what must it
   be to meet Him? It will be such an interview for a sinner to meet with
   the thrice holy God as for dross to meet with the refiner's fire or
   stubble with the flame.

   You will have, moreover, to meet with insulted Mercy, and perhaps this
   will be the most dreadful meeting of the whole--when your conscience
   will remind you that you were invited to repent, that you were urged to
   lay hold of Christ, that you were honestly bid to be saved--but you
   hardened your neck and would not be persuaded. O Sinner, by so much as
   God is patient with you now, by so much will He be angry with you then.
   They who slight the warnings of His Divine Grace shall feel the terrors
   of His wrath. To none shall it be so hard to meet God in justice as to
   those who would not

   meet Him in Grace--vengeance takes the place of slighted mercy. God
   grant you may never know what it is to meet insulted love, rejected
   mercy, and tenderness turned to wrath!

   O Sinner, if you have to meet your God as you now are, you will find
   Him everlasting Truth, fulfilling every threatening Word of His Law and
   Gospel. Every black Word that is in this Book shall be fulfilled over
   your head, and every dreadful syllable be verified in your loins and in
   your heart. Remember too, that you will meet with Him who has
   Omnipotent power--against whom you can no more contend than the smoke
   against the wind, or the fuel against the furnace. You shall then know
   how God can punish, and you will find Him not a weak and trembling God,
   but an Omnipotent God, putting forth His power to destroy His
   adversaries who have dared to assail against His majesty.

   Thus have I put a few thoughts together, in very feeble language, I
   confess, but they ought, of themselves, apart from mere words, to have
   power with you. I pray God the Holy Spirit that you, dear Hearer, may
   prepare to meet your God. You see who it is you have to meet, and what
   it will be to meet Him. May God make you to be prepared for what must
   occur.

   III. The last point is this. Here is A WEIGHTY PRECEPT--prepare to meet
   God. How can a man be prepared to meet God? In the text there is an
   allusion to preparing for battle, but none of you would wish to contend
   with God in the hereafter. Who is he that thinks that with a thousand
   he can meet one that comes against him with a countless host of ten
   thousand times ten thousand? O Rebel, the warfare is hopeless, ground
   your arms. It were worse than madness to dream of contending with God.
   Submit, for resistance is vain.

   Better far is it to prepare to meet God as sinners. We are today like
   prisoners who are waiting for our court date, and the news has come
   that the judge is ready, and we, the prisoners, are to prepare to meet
   him. Sooner or later it must be the lot of us all to come before the
   Judge. Now, Brethren, what is the right way to prepare to meet a judge?
   If any of you can plead, "Not guilty," your preparation is made. But
   there is not one man among us who dares think of that. We have sinned,
   great God, and we confess the sin. What preparation, then, can we make?
   Suppose we sit down and investigate our case. Can we plead
   extenuations? Can we urge excuses or mitigations, or hope to escape by
   promises of future improvement?

   Let us give up the attempt, my Brethren. We have gone astray willfully
   and wickedly--and we shall do it again--it is of no use for us to set
   up any kind of defense that is grounded upon ourselves. How, then, can
   we be prepared to meet our God? Hearken. There is an Advocate, and it
   is written, "If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus
   Christ the Righteous." Let us send for Him. We poor prisoners, lying
   waiting in the cells, send for Jesus, the Son of God, to be our
   Intercessor and Advocate. Will He undertake our cause? O that He would
   plead the cause of our souls, and be our Daysman to speak with God on
   our behalf!

   Yes! He will accept the office, and be our Advocate, for He has said,
   "Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out." Then let us apply to
   Him, and say, "Jesus, undertake our case." Will you not do this? Oh, I
   pray God you may! Sitting in these pews, you may engage the services of
   the great Advocate. Cry in your hearts, "Son of David, undertake for
   me, undertake my case." Well, now, supposing we have put it all into
   His hands, and He who is called Wonderful is received as our Counselor
   to plead for us. What is next to be done?

   First He bids us prepare to meet our God by at once taking up our true
   position as sinners. Let us plead guilty. Let us make a full and
   penitent confession. We cannot be saved by Christ unless we will do as
   He bids us. Faith is only real as it is obedient. One of the first
   Gospel exhortations which Jesus gives us is this, that we confess our
   sins. O that we may honestly plead guilty, for our iniquity stares us
   in the face, and we ought heartily to make acknowledgment of it--for it
   is an evil and a bitter thing--and has worked us woeful damage. O great
   Counselor, if You bid us plead guilty, we do so with many tears and
   with broken hearts. We do confess that all our hope must lie in Divine
   mercy, for we have no merit. Lost and undone, we cry, "Have mercy upon
   us, miserable sinners!"

   But what next? Why then, the great Counselor will enter a plea for us,
   which will bar all further action against us. Though we have confessed
   that we are guilty, He knows how at the great Judgment Seat to plead a
   legal argument for the removal of all punishment. And what does He
   plead? Here is His argument, "My Father," says He, "I stood of old in
   the place of these who have committed their case to My hands, and who
   plead guilty at Your Judgment Seat. I suffered for their sins. I bore,
   that they might never bear, Your righteous ire. I satisfied Your Law on
   their behalf. I claim, My Father, that they go free."

   The infinite Majesty admits the plea. O Brothers and Sisters, if your
   case is in the hands of Christ, and you confess your guilt, do you not
   see how He sets you free so that you may be prepared to meet your God?
   Because you can plead the blood of Jesus, the Atonement of the great
   Substitute for sinners, and covered with that Substitution, you can
   stand accepted in the Beloved! "Who shall lay anything to the charge of
   God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemns? It is
   Christ that died, yes rather, that is risen again, who is even at the
   right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us."

   But you have not heard the Counselor through yet, for as He goes on to
   speak before the infinite Majesty, He pleads, "My Father, I obeyed the
   Law on their behalf. I kept it in its very jots and tittles. I made it
   honorable, and now the righteousness which I achieved, I have made over
   unto them, for all that I am is theirs. My righteousness is their
   righteousness, and they shall stand accepted in the Beloved." The great
   Judge of all admits the fact, and He receives into His bosom and into
   His Glory poor souls who had sinned and pleaded guilty, but who now
   have imputed to them the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and are
   justified by faith which is in Him. All their iniquities are blotted
   out.

   don't you see, dear Friends, what it is to be prepared to meet God! For
   now we have a good case, now we are not afraid of the last court
   session. Our case is in the hands of a blessed Advocate whose pleading
   must prevail. All that you and I have now to do is to prove by our
   actions that we really have believed in Christ. Let us go on to justify
   our faith if, indeed, our faith has justified us. Let us prove the
   sincerity of our confidence in Christ by the holiness of our lives, by
   the devotedness of those lives to His honor and glory. Let us wake up
   all our powers and passions that we may become His servants to the
   highest extent and manhood's energy--living, laboring, working for
   Christ--because He has undertaken our case, and will save us at the
   last.

   Thus have I set before you what it is to be prepared to meet God, in
   the hope that many here will make ready to meet Him. And now let me
   remind you that the subject on which I have spoken this morning may
   have a much nearer interest to some of you than you imagine. It has a
   very near interest to every one of us. It is but a matter of time, and
   all of us must appear at the Divine tribunal--but there are some to
   whom it may have a peculiarly close bearing. As I just told you, I did
   not select this subject, I had no idea of preaching from it--the
   subject selected me. I was dragged into this present line of thought. I
   am a pressed man in this service.

   That sick young woman's necessities forced me to this subject. Why this
   special arrangement? I believe the reason is because there are some
   here this morning who are now receiving the last warning they will ever
   have. I am solemnly persuaded that I have among my hearers and readers
   some to whom this feeble word of mine is no other than an arrow from
   the bow of the Almighty God. To others it is a final message of mercy,
   and if this does not strike them, wound them, and drive them to Christ,
   nothing ever will.

   From this day forth they shall feel no more stirrings of conscience, or
   strivings of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps before another Sunday's bell
   shall ring, some of you now listening to my voice will be in the land
   of spirits and have passed the solemn test--weighed in the balances and
   found wanting. If it is so, and it were hard for any man here to
   prophesy that it shall not be so, for where several thousands are met
   together, the very chances of mortality, as men call them, go to make
   us fear it. The fact of this subject being thrust upon me makes me feel
   as though a Prophetic impulse were in it. Then, if it is so, you and I,
   whoever you may be, fated for death this week, stand in a peculiar
   relationship to each other.

   1 may be gazing straight into those eyes which shall never look upon me
   again till we meet at the Judgment Bar, and if I am not faithful to
   your soul, you may rise up amidst that throng and say, "I strayed into
   that Tabernacle, and I listened to you, but you played with your theme,
   you were not earnest, and so I was lost." So then I will be earnest! I
   evoke you by the living God, escape from the wrath to come! As the Lord
   lives, there is but a step between you and death! Flee for your life!
   Look not behind you! Turn your whole soul to Jesus! A crucified Savior
   waits for a lost sinner, willing to receive him, willing to receive him
   now!

   Now you can not look me in the face in the next world and say I did not
   speak to you earnestly. O that the glance which we exchange at this
   moment may be succeeded in that tremendous day by a glance of
   recognition in which there shall be the soft emotions of gratitude and
   affection, as you and I shall say to each other there, "Blessed be God
   that we met on that hallowed Sunday, for now we shall meet forever
   before the throne of Him that lives and was dead, and is alive forever
   more, and has the keys of Hell and of death." God bless you, every one
   of you, richly, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

                                   Jesus Only

   A Sermon

   (No. 924)

   Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, April 3rd, 1870, by

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   "And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus
   only."--Matthew 17:8.

   The last words will suffice us for a text, "Jesus only." When Peter saw
   our Lord with Moses and Elias, he exclaimed, "Master, it is good to be
   here," as if he implied that it was better to be with Jesus, and Moses,
   and Elias, than to be with Jesus only. Now it was certainly good that
   for once in his life he should see Christ transfigured with the
   representatives of the law and the prophets; it might be for that
   particular occasion the best sight that he could see, but as an
   ordinary thing an ecstasy so sublime would not have been good for the
   disciples; and Peter himself very soon found this out, for when the
   luminous cloud overshadowed him, and the voice was heard out of heaven,
   we find that he with the rest became sore afraid. The best thing after
   all for Peter, was not the excessive strain of the transfiguration, nor
   the delectable company of the two great spirits who appeared with
   Jesus, but the equally glorious, but less exciting society of "Jesus
   only." Depend on it, brethren, that ravishing and exciting experiences
   and transporting enjoyments, though they may be useful as occasional
   refreshments, would not be so good for every day as that quiet but
   delightful ordinary fellowship with "Jesus only," which ought to be the
   distinguishing mark of all Christian life. As the disciples ascended
   the mountain side with Jesus only, and as they went back again to the
   multitude with Jesus only, they were in as good company as when they
   were on the mountain summit, Moses and Elias being there also; and
   although Jesus Christ in his common habiliments and in his ordinary
   attire might not so dazzle their eyes as when they saw his raiment
   bright as the light, and his face shining as the sun, yet he really was
   quite as glorious, and his company quite as beneficial. When they saw
   him in his everyday attire, his presence was quite as useful to them as
   when he robed himself in splendor. "Jesus only," is after all upon the
   whole a better thing than Jesus, Moses, and Elias. "Jesus only," as the
   common Jesus, the Christ of every day, the man walking among men,
   communing in secret with his disciples, is a better thing for a
   continuance while we are in this body, than the sight even of Jesus
   himself in the excellence of his majesty.

   This morning, in trying to dwell upon the simple sight of "Jesus only,"
   we shall hold it up as beyond measure important and delightful, and
   shall bear our witness that as it was said of Goliath's sword, "there
   is none like it," so may it be said of fellowship with "Jesus only." We
   shall first notice what might have happened to the disciples after the
   transfiguration; we shall then dwell on what did happen; and then,
   thirdly, we shall speak on what we anxiously desire may happen to those
   who hear us this day.

   I. First, then, WHAT MIGHT HAVE HAPPENED to the three disciples after
   they had seen the transfiguration.

   There were four things, either of which might have occurred. As a first
   supposition, they might have seen nobody with them on the holy mount;
   they might have found all gone but themselves. When the cloud had
   overshadowed them, and they were sore afraid, they might have lifted up
   their eyes and found the entire vision melted into thin air; no Moses,
   no Elias, and no Jesus. In such a case they would have been in a sorry
   plight, like those who having begun to taste of a banquet, suddenly
   find all the viands swept away; like thirsty men who have tasted the
   cooling crystal drops, and then seen the fountain dried up before their
   eyes. They would not have gone down the mountain side that day asking
   questions and receiving instruction, for they would have had no teacher
   left them. They would have descended to face a multitude and to contend
   with a demon; not to conquer Satan, but to stand defeated by him before
   the crowd; for they would have had no champion to espouse their cause
   and drive out the evil spirit. They would have gone down among Scribes
   and Pharisees to be baffled with their knotty questions, and to be
   defeated by their sophistries, for they would have had no wise man, who
   spake as never man spake, to untie the knots and disentangle the snarls
   of controversy. They would have been like sheep without a shepherd,
   like orphan children left alone in the world. They would henceforth
   have reckoned it an unhappy day on which they saw the transfiguration;
   because having seen it, having been led to high thoughts by it, and
   excited to great expectations, all had disappeared like the foam upon
   the waters, and left no solid residuum behind. Alas! For those who have
   seen the image of the spirits of just men made perfect, and beheld the
   great Lord of all such spirits, and then have found themselves alone,
   and all the high companionship forever gone.

   My dear brethren and sisters, there are some in this world and we
   ourselves have been among them, to whom something like this has
   actually occurred. You have been under a sermon, or at a gospel
   ordinance, or in reading the word of God, for a while delighted,
   exhilarated, lifted up to the sublimer regions, and then afterwards
   when it has all been over, there has been nothing left of joy or
   benefit, nothing left of all that was preached and for the moment
   enjoyed, nothing, at any rate, that you could take with you into the
   conflicts of every-day life. The whole has been a splendid vision and
   nothing more. There has been neither Moses not Elias, nor Jesus left.
   You did remember what you saw, but only with regret, because nothing
   remained with you. And, indeed, this which happens sometimes to us, is
   a general habit of that portion of this ungodly world which hears the
   gospel and perceives not its reality; it listens with respect to gospel
   histories as to legends of ancient times; it hears with reverence the
   stories of the days of miracles; it venerates the far-off ages and
   their heroic deeds, but it does not believe that anything is left of
   all the vision, any thing for to-day, for common life, and for common
   men. Moses it knows, and Elias it knows, and Christ it knows, as
   shadows that have passed across the scene and have disappeared, but it
   knows nothing of any one of these as abiding in permanent influence
   over the mind and the spirit of the present. All come and all gone, all
   to be reverenced, all to be respected, but nothing more; there is
   nothing left, so far as they are concerned, to influence or bless the
   present hour. Jesus and his gospel have come and gone, and we may very
   properly recollect the fact, but according to certain sages there is
   nothing in the New Testament to affect this advanced age, this
   enlightened nineteenth century; we have got beyond all that. Ah!
   Brethren, let those who can be content to do so, put up with this
   worship of moral relics and spiritual phantoms; to us it would be
   wretchedness itself. We, on the other hand, say, blessing the name of
   the Lord that we can say it, that there abides with us our Lord Jesus.
   At this day he is with us, and will be with us even to the end of the
   world. Christ's existence is not a fact confined to antiquity or to
   remote distance. By his Spirit he is actually in his church; we have
   seen him, though not with eyes; we have heard him, though not with
   ears; we have grasped him, though not with hands; and we feed upon his
   flesh, which is meat indeed, and his blood, which is drink indeed. We
   have with us at this very day Jesus our friend, to whom we make known
   our secrets, and who beareth all our sorrows. We have Jesus our
   interpreting instructor, who still reveals his secrets to us, and leads
   us into the mind and name of God. We have Jesus still with us to supply
   us with strength, and in his power we still are mighty. We confess his
   reigning sovereignty in the church, and we receive his all-sufficient
   succors. The church is not decapitated, her Head abides in vital union
   with her; Jesus is no myth to us, whatever he may be to others; he is
   no departed shade, he is no heroic personification: in very deed there
   is a Christ, and though others see him not, and even we with these eyes
   see him not, yet in him believing we rejoice with joy unspeakable and
   full of glory. Oh, I trust it will never be so with us, that as we go
   about our life work our religion shall melt into fiction and become
   nothing but mere sentiment, nothing but thought, and dream, and vision;
   but may our religion be a matter of fact, a walking with the living and
   abiding Saviour. Though Moses may be gone, and Elias may be gone, yet
   Jesus Christ abideth with us and in us, and we in him, and so shall it
   be evermore.

   Now, there was a second thing that might have happened to the
   disciples. When they lifted up their eyes they might have seen Moses
   only. It would certainly have been a very sad exchange for what they
   did see, to have seen Moses only. The face of Moses would have shone,
   his person would have awed them, and it would have been no mean thing
   for man of humble origin like themselves to walk down the mountain with
   that mighty king in Jeshurun, who had spoken with God face to face, and
   rested with him in solemn conclave by the space of forty days at a
   time. But yet who would exchange the sun for the moon? Who would
   exchange the cold moonbeams of Moses and the law for the sunny rays of
   the Saviour's divine affection? It would have been an unhappy exchange
   for them to have lost their Master whose name is love, and to have
   found a leader in the man whose name is synonymous with law. Moses, the
   man of God, cannot be compared with Jesus, the Son of God. Yet dear
   brethren, there are some who see Moses only. After all the gospel
   preaching that there has been in the world, and the declaration of the
   precious doctrines of grace every Sabbath day; after the clear
   revelations of Scripture, and the work of the Holy Spirit in men's
   hearts; yet we have among us some who persist in seeing nothing but
   Moses only. I mean this, there are some who will see nothing but
   shadows still, mere shadows still. As I read my Bible I see there that
   the age of the symbolical, the typical, the pictorial, has passed away.
   I am glad of the symbols, and types, and pictures, for they remain
   instructive to me; but the age in which they were in the foreground has
   given way to a clearer light, and they are gone forever. There are,
   however, certain persons who profess to read the Bible and to see very
   differently, and they set up a new system of types and shadows--a
   system, let me say, ridiculous to men of sense, and obnoxious to men of
   spiritual taste. There are some who delight in outward ordinances; they
   must have rubric and ritual, vestments and ceremonial, and this
   superabundantly, morning, noon and night. They regard days, and
   seasons, and forms of words and postures. They consider one place holy
   above another. They regard a certain caste of men as being priestly
   above other believers, and their love of symbols is seen in season and
   out of season. One would think, from their teachings, that the one
   thing needful was not "Jesus only," but custom, antiquity, outward
   performance, and correct observance! Alas! for those who talk of Jesus,
   but virtually see Moses, and Moses only. Ah! unhappy change for the
   heart if it could exchange spiritual fellowship with Jesus for outward
   acts and symbolical representations. It would be an unhappy thing for
   the Christian church if she could ever be duped out of the priceless
   boons which faith wins from her living Lord in his fullness of grace
   and truth, to return to the beggarly elements of carnal ordinances.
   Unhappy day, indeed, if Popish counterfeits of legal shadows should
   supplant gospel fact and substance. Blessed be God, we have not so
   learned Christ. We see something better than Moses only.

   There are too many who see Moses only, inasmuch as they see nothing but
   law, nothing but duty and precept in the Bible. I know that some here,
   though we have tried to preach Christ crucified as their only hope, yet
   whenever they read the Bible, or hear the Gospel, feel nothing except a
   sense of their own sinfulness, and, arising out of that sense of
   sinfulness, a desire to work out a righteousness of their own. They are
   continually measuring themselves by the law of God, they feel their
   shortcomings, they mourn over their transgressions, but they go no
   further. I am glad that they see Moses, may the stern voice of the
   lawgiver drive them to the lawfulfiller; but I grieve that they tarry
   so long in legal servitude, which can only bring them sorrow and
   dismay. The sight of Sinai, what is it but despair? God revealed in
   flaming fire, and proclaiming with thunder his fiery law, what is there
   here to save the soul? To see the Lord who will by no means spare the
   guilty, but will surely visit transgression with eternal vengeance, is
   a sight which never should eclipse Calvary, where love makes recompense
   to justice. O that you may get beyond the mount that might be touched,
   and come to Calvary, where God in vengeance is clearly seen, but where
   God in mercy fills the throne. Oh how blessed is it to escape from the
   voice of command and threatening and come to the blood of sprinkling,
   where "Jesus only" speaketh better things!

   Moses only, however, has become a sight very common with some of you
   who write bitter things against yourselves. You never read the
   Scriptures or hear the gospel without feeling condemned. You know your
   duty, and confess how short you have fallen of it, and therefore you
   abide under conscious condemnation, and will not come to him who is the
   propitiation for your sins. Alas, that there should be so many who with
   strange perversity of unbelief twist every promise into a threatening,
   and out of every gracious word that drips with honey manage to extract
   gall and wormwood. They see the dark shadow of Moses only; the broken
   tablets of the law, the smoking mount, and the terrible trumpet are
   ever with them, and over all an angry God. They had a better vision
   once, they have it sometimes now; for now and then under the preaching
   of the gospel they have glimpses of hope and mercy, but they relapse
   into darkness, they fall again into despair, because they have chosen
   to see Moses only. I pray that a change may come over the spirit of
   their dream, and that yet like the apostles they may see "Jesus only."

   But, my brethren, there was a third alternative that might have
   happened to the disciples, they might have seen Elijah only. Instead of
   the gentle Saviour, they might have been standing at the side of the
   rough-clad and the stern-spirited Elias. Instead of the Lamb of God,
   there might have remained to them only the lion who roared like the
   voice of God's own majesty in the midst of sinful Israel. In such a
   case, with such a leader, they would have gone down from the mount, and
   I wot that if John had said, "Command fire from heaven," Elias would
   have consumed his foes; the Pharisees, like the priests of Baal, would
   have found a speedy end; Herod's blood, like Ahab's, would have been
   licked up by dogs; and Herodias, like another Jezebel, would have been
   devoured of the same. But all this power for vengeance would have been
   a poor exchange for the gracious omnipotence of the Friend of sinners.
   Who would prefer the slayer of the priests to the Saviour of men? The
   top of Carmel was glorious when its intercession brought the rain for
   Israel, but how poor it is compared with Gethsemane, whose pleadings
   bring eternal life to millions! In company with Jesus we are at Elim
   beneath the palm tree, but with Elias we are in the wilderness beneath
   the stunted juniper. Who would exchange the excellency of Olivet for
   the terrors of Horeb? Yet I fear there are many who see Elias only.
   Prophecies of future woe fascinate them rather than thoughts of present
   salvation. Elias may be taken representatively as the preparer of
   Christ, for our Lord interpreted the prophecy of the coming of Elias as
   referring to John the Baptist. There are not a few who abide in the
   seeking, repenting, and preparing state, and come not to "Jesus only."
   I am not myself fond of even using the term "preparing for Christ," for
   it seems to me that those are best prepared for Christ who most feel
   themselves unprepared; but there is no doubt a state of heart which
   prepares for faith--a sense of need, a consciousness of sin, a hatred
   of sin, all these are preparations for actual peace and comfort in
   Christ Jesus, and oh! How many there are who continue year after year
   merely in that preliminary condition, choosing the candle and refusing
   the sun. They do not become believers, but are always complaining that
   they do not feel as yet fit to come to Christ. They want Christ, they
   desire Christ, they would fain have Christ, but they stay in desire and
   longing and go no further. They never get so far as to behold "the Lamb
   of God that taketh away the sin of the world." The voice from heaven to
   them they always interpret as crying, "The axe is laid unto the root of
   the trees; bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance." Their
   conscience is thrilled, and thrilled again, by the voice that crieth in
   the wilderness, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord." Their souls are rent
   and torn by Elijah's challenge, "If the Lord be God, follow him: but if
   Baal, then follow him;" but they remain still halting between two
   opinions, trembling before Elias and not rejoicing before the Saviour.
   Unhappy men and women, so near the kingdom, and yet out of it; so near
   the feast, and yet perishing for want of the living bread. The word is
   near you(ah, how near!), and yet you receive it not. Remember, I pray
   you, that merely to prepare for a Saviour is not to be saved; that to
   have a sense of sin is not the same thing as being pardoned. Your
   repentance, unless you also believe in Jesus, is a repentance that
   needs to be repented of. At the girdle of John the Baptist the keys of
   heaven did never hang; Elias is not the door of salvation; preparation
   for Christ is not Christ, despair is not regeneration, doubt is not
   repentance. Only by faith in Jesus can you be saved, but complaining of
   yourselves is not faith. "Jesus only" is the way, the truth, and the
   life. "Jesus only" is the sinner's Saviour. O that your eyes may be
   opened, not to see Elias, not to see Moses, but to see "Jesus only."

   You see, then, these three alternatives, but there was also another: a
   fourth thing might have happened when the disciples opened their
   eyes--they might have seen Moses and Elias with Jesus, even as in the
   transfiguration. At first sight it seems as if this would have been
   superior to that which they did enjoy. To walk down the mountain with
   that blessed trio, how great a privilege! How strong might they have
   been for the accomplishment of the divine purposes! Moses could preach
   the law and make men tremble, and then Jesus could follow with his
   gospel of grace and truth. Elias could flash the thunderbolt in their
   faces, and then Christ could have uplifted the humble spirits. Would
   not the contrast have been delightful, and the connection inspiriting?
   Would not the assemblage of such divers kinds of forces have
   contributed to the greatest success? I think not. It is a vastly better
   thing to see "Jesus only," as a matter of perpetuity, than to see Moses
   and Elias with Jesus. It is night, I know it, for I see the moon and
   stars. The morning cometh, I know it cometh, for I see no longer many
   stars, only one remains, and that the morning star. But the full day
   has arrived, I know it has, for I cannot even see the morning star; all
   those guardians and comforters of the night have disappeared; I see the
   sun only. Now, inasmuch as every man prefers the moon to midnight and
   to the twilight of dawn, the disappearance of Moses and Elias,
   indicating the full noontide of light, was the best thing that could
   happen. Why should we wish to see Moses? The ceremonials are all
   fulfilled in Jesus; the law is honored and fulfilled in him. Let Moses
   go, his light is already in "Jesus only." And why should I wish to
   retain Elias? The prophecies are all fulfilled in Jesus, and the
   preparation of which Elias preached Jesus brings with himself. Let,
   then, Elias go, his light also is in "Jesus only." It is better to see
   Moses and Elias in Christ, than to see Moses and Elias with Christ. The
   absence of some things betokens a higher state of things than their
   presence. In all my library I do not know that I have a Lennie's
   English Grammar, or a Mavor's Spelling Book, or a Henry's First Latin
   Exercises, nor do I regret the absence of those valuable works, because
   I have got beyond the need of them. So the Christian wants not the
   symbols of Moses, or the preparations of Elias, for Christ is all, and
   we are complete in him. He who is conversant with the higher walks of
   sacred literature and reads in the golden book of Christ's heart, may
   safely lay the legal school-book by; this was good enough for the
   church's infancy, but we have now put away childish things. "We, when
   we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: but
   when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of
   a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the law,
   that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons,
   God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying,
   Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a
   son, then an heir of God through Christ." My brethren, the principle
   may be carried still further, for even the most precious things we
   treasure here below will disappear when fully realized in heaven.
   Beautiful for situation was the temple on Mount Zion, and though we
   believe not in the sanctity of buildings under the gospel, we love the
   place of solemn meeting where we are accustomed to offer prayer and
   praise; but when we enter into perfection we shall find no temple in
   heaven. We delight in our Sabbaths, and we would not give them up. O
   may England never lose her Sabbaths! but when we reach the Jerusalem
   above, we shall not observe the first day of the week above the rest,
   for we shall enjoy one everlasting Sabbath. No temple, because all
   temple; and no Sabbath day, because all Sabbath in heaven. Thus, you
   see, the losing of some things is gain: it proves that we have got
   beyond their help. Just as we get beyond the nursery and all its
   appurtenances, and never regret it because we have become men, so do
   Moses and Elias pass away, but we do not miss them, for "Jesus only"
   indicates our manhood. It is a sign of a higher growth when we can see
   Jesus only. My brethren, much of this sort of thing takes place with
   all Christians in their spiritual life. Do you remember when you were
   first of all convinced and awakened, what a great deal you thought of
   the preacher, and how much of the very style in which he spoke the
   gospel! But now, though you delight to listen to his voice, and find
   that God blesses you through him, yet you have sunk the thought of the
   preacher in the glory of the Master, you see no man save "Jesus only."
   And as you grow in grace you will find that many doctrines and points
   of church government which once appeared to you to be all important,
   though you will still value them, will seem but of small consequence
   compared with Christ himself. Like the traveller ascending the Alps to
   reach the summit of Mont Blanc; at first he observes that lord of the
   hills as one born among many, and often in the twistings of his upward
   path he sees other peaks which appear more elevated than that monarch
   of mountains; but when at last he is near the summit, he sees all the
   rest of the hills beneath his feet, and like a mighty wedge of
   alabaster Mount Blanc pierces the very clouds. So, as we grow in grace,
   other things sink and Jesus rises. They must decrease, but Christ must
   increase; until he alone fills the full horizon of your soul, and rises
   clear and bright and glorious up into the very heaven of God. O that we
   may thus see "Jesus only!"

   II. Time hastens so rapidly, this morning, that I know not how I shall
   be able to compress the rest of my discourse into the allotted space.
   We must in the most rapid manner speak upon WHAT REALLY HAPPENED.

   "They saw no man, save Jesus only." This was all they wanted to see for
   their comfort. They were sore afraid: Moses was gone, and he could give
   them no comfort; Elias was gone, he could speak no consolatory word;
   yet when Jesus said, "Be not afraid," their fears vanished. All the
   comfort, then, that any troubled heart wants, it can find in Christ. Go
   not to Moses, nor Elias, neither to the old covenant, not to prophecy:
   go straight away to Jesus only. He was all the Saviour they wanted.
   Those three men all needed washing from sin; all needed to be kept and
   held on their way, but neither Moses nor Elias could have washed them
   from sin, nor have kept them from returning to it. But Jesus only could
   cleanse them, and did; Christ could lead them on, and did. Ah!
   brethren, all the Saviour we want, we find in Jesus only. The priests
   of Rome and their Anglican mimics officiously offer us their services.
   How glad they would be if we would bend our necks once again to their
   yoke! But we thank God we have seen "Jesus only," and if Moses has
   gone, and if Elias has gone, we are not likely to let the shavelings of
   Rome come in and fill up the vacancy. "Jesus only," is enough for our
   comfort, without either Anglican, Mosaic, or Roman priestcraft.

   He, again, was to them, as they went afterwards into the world, enough
   for a Master. "No man can serve two masters," and albeit, Moses and
   Elias might sink into the second rank, yet might there have been some
   difficulty in the follower's mind if the leadership were divided. But
   when they had no leader but Jesus, his guidance, his direction and
   command were quite sufficient. He, in the day of battle, was enough for
   their captain; in the day of difficulty, enough for their direction.
   They wanted none but Jesus. At this day, my brethren, we have no Master
   but Christ; we submit ourselves to no vicar of God; we bow down
   ourselves before no great leader of a sect, neither to Calvin, nor to
   Arminius, to Wesley, or Whitfield, "One is our Master," and that one is
   enough, for we have learned to see the wisdom of God and the power of
   God in Jesus only.

   He was enough as their power for future life, as well as their Master.
   They needed not ask Moses to lend them official dignity, nor to ask
   Elias to bring them fire from heaven: Jesus would give them of his Holy
   Spirit, and they should be strong enough for every enterprise. And,
   brethren, all the power you and I want to preach the gospel, and to
   conquer souls to the truth, we can find in Jesus only. You want no
   sacred State prestige, no pretended apostolical succession, no
   prelatical unction; Jesus will anoint you with his Holy Spirit, and you
   shall be plenteously endowed with power from on high, so that you shall
   do great things and prevail. "Jesus only." Why, they wanted no other
   motive to constrain them to use their power aright. It is enough
   incentive to a man to be allowed to live for such a one as Christ. Only
   let the thought of Christ fill the enlightened intellect, and it must
   conquer the sanctified affections. Let but Jesus be well understood as
   the everlasting God who bowed the heavens, and came down and suffered
   shame and ignominy, that he might redeem us from the wrath to come; let
   us get but a sight of the thorn-crowned head, and those dear eyes all
   red with weeping, and those sweet cheeks bruised and battered by the
   scoffer's fists; let us but look into the tender heart that was broken
   with griefs unutterable for our sakes, and the love of Christ must
   constrain us, and we shall thus "judge, that if one died for all, then
   were wll dead: and that he died for all, that they which live should
   not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them
   and rose again." In the point of motive, believers do not need the aid
   of Moses. That you ought to do such a thing because otherwise you will
   be punished, will but little strengthen you, nor will you be much aided
   by the spirit of prophecy which leads you to hope that in the
   millennial period you will be made a ruler over many cities. It will be
   enough to you that you serve the Lord Christ; it suffices you if you
   may be enabled to honor him, to deck his crown, to magnify his name.
   Here is a stimulus sufficient for martyrs and confessors, "Jesus only."
   Brethren, it is all the gospel we have to preach--it is all the gospel
   we want to preach--it is the only ground of confidence which we have
   for ourselves; it is all the hope we have to set before others. I know
   that in this age there is an overweening desire for that which has the
   aspect of being intellectual, deep, and novel; and we are often
   informed that there are to be developments in religion, even as in
   science; and we are despised as being hardly men, certainly not
   thinking men, if we preach today what was preached two hundred years
   ago. Brethren, we preach to-day what was preached eighteen hundred
   years ago, and wherein others make alterations, they create
   deformities, and not improvements. We are not ashamed to avow that the
   old truth of Christ alone is everlasting; all else has gone or shall
   go, but the gospel towers above the wrecks of time: to us "Jesus only"
   remains as the sole topic of our ministry, and we want nothing else.

   For "Jesus only" shall be our reward, to be with him where he is, to
   behold his glory, to be like him when we shall see him as he is, we ask
   no other heaven. No other bliss can our soul conceive of. The Lord
   grant that we may have a fullness of this, and "Jesus only" shall be
   throughout eternity our delight.

   There was here space to have dilated at great length, but we have
   rather given you the heads of thought, than the thoughts themselves.
   Though the apostles saw "Jesus only," they saw quite sufficient, for
   Jesus is enough for time and eternity, enough to live by and enough to
   die by.

   III. I must close, though I fain would linger. Brethren, let us think
   of WHAT WE DESIRE MAY HAPPEN to all now present.

   I do desire for my fellow Christians and for myself, that more and more
   the great object of our thoughts, motives, and acts may be "Jesus
   only." I believe that whenever our religion is most vital, it is most
   full of Christ. Moreover, when it is most practical, downright, and
   common sense, it always gets nearest to Jesus. I can bear witness that
   whenever I am in deeps of sorrow, nothing will do for me but "Jesus
   only." I can rest in some degree in the externals of religion, its
   outward escarpments and bulwarks, when I am in health; but I retreat to
   the innermost citadel of our holy faith, namely, to the very heart of
   Christ, when my spirit is assailed by temptation, or besieged with
   sorrow and anguish. What is more, my witness is that whenever I have
   high spiritual enjoyments, enjoyments right, rare, celestial, they are
   always connected with Jesus only. Other religious things may give some
   kind of joy, and joy that is healthy too, but the sublimest, the most
   inebriating, the most divine of all joys, must be found in Jesus only.
   In fine, I find if I want to labor much, I must live on Jesus only; if
   I desire to suffer patiently, I must feed on Jesus only; if I wish to
   wrestle with God successfully, I must plead Jesus only; if I aspire to
   conquer sin, I must use the blood of Jesus only; if I pant to learn the
   mysteries of heaven, I must seek the teachings of Jesus only. I believe
   that any thing which we add to Christ lowers our position, and that the
   more elevated our soul becomes, the more nearly like what it is to be
   when it shall enter into the religion of the perfect, the more
   completely every thing else will sink, die out, and Jesus, Jesus, Jesus
   only, will be first and last, and midst and without end, the Alpha and
   Omega of every thought of head and pulse of heart. May it be so with
   every Christian.

   There are others here who are not yet believers in Jesus, and our
   desire is that this may happen to them, that they may see "Jesus only."
   "Oh," saith one, "Sir, I want to see my sins. My heart is very hard,
   and very proud; I want to see my sins." Friend, I also desire that you
   should, but I desire that you may see them not on yourself, but on
   Jesus only. No sight of sin ever brings such true humiliation of spirit
   as when the soul sees its sins laid on the Saviour. Sinner, I know you
   have thought of sins as lying on yourself, and you have been trying to
   feel their weight, but there is a happier and better view still. Sin
   was laid on Jesus, and it made him to be covered with a bloody sweat;
   it nailed him to the cross; it made him cry, "Lama Sabachthani;" it
   bowed him into the dust of death. Why, friend, if you see sin on Jesus
   you will hate it, you will bemoan it, you will abhor it. You need not
   look evermore to sin as burdening yourself, see Jesus only, and the
   best kind of repentance will follow. "Ah, but," saith another, "I want
   to feel my need of Christ more." You will see your need all the better
   if you look at Jesus only. Many a time an appetite for a thing is
   created by the sight of it. Why, there are some of us who can hardly be
   trusted in a bookseller's shop, because though we might have done very
   well at home without a certain volume, we no sooner see it than we are
   in urgent need of it. So often is it with some of you about other
   matters, so that it becomes most dangerous to let you see, because you
   want as soon as you see. A sight of Jesus, of what he is to sinners, of
   what he makes sinners, of what he is in himself, will more tend to make
   you feel your need of him than all your poring over your poor miserable
   self. You will get no further there, look to "Jesus only." "Ay," saith
   another, "but I want to read my title clear, I want to know that I have
   an interest in Jesus." you will best read your interest in Christ, by
   looking at him. If I want to know whether a certain estate is mine, do
   I look into my own heart to see if I have a right to it? But I look
   into the archives of the estate, I search testaments and covenants.
   Now, Christ Jesus is God's covenant with the people, a leader and
   commander to the people. To-day, I personally can read my title clear
   to heaven, and shall I tell you how I read it? Not because I feel all I
   wish to feel, nor because I am what I hope I yet shall be, but I read
   in the word that "Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners," I
   am a sinner, even the devil cannot tell me I am not. O precious
   Saviour, then thou hast come to save such as I am. Then I see it
   written again, "He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved." I
   have believed, and have been baptized; I know I trust alone in Jesus,
   and that is believing. As surely then as there is a God in heaven I
   shall be in heaven one day. It must be so, because unless God be a
   liar, he that believeth must be saved. You see it is not by looking
   within, it is by looking to Jesus only that you perceive at last your
   name graven on his hands. I wish to have Christ's name written on my
   heart, but if I want assurance, I have to look at his heart till I see
   my name written there. O turn your eye away from your sin and your
   emptiness to his righteousness and his fullness. See the sweat drops
   bloody as they fall in Gethsemane, see his heart pierced and pouring
   out blood and water for the sins of men upon Calvary! There is life in
   a look at him! O look to him, and though it be Jesus only, though Moses
   should condemn you, and Elias should alarm you, yet "Jesus only" shall
   be enough to comfort and enough to save you. May God grant us grace
   every one of us to take for our motto in life, for our hope in death,
   and for our joy in eternity, "Jesus only." May God bless you for the
   sake of "Jesus only." Amen.

   PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON--Matthew 17.
     __________________________________________________________________

Individual Sin Laid On Jesus

   (No. 925)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, APRIL 10, 1870,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned, every one to his
   own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Isaiah
   53:6.

   I THINK I addressed you from this text four years ago, ("Sin Laid on
   Jesus," No. 694, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit), but I feel quite safe
   in returning to it, for we shall never exhaust it. It is a verse so
   wealthy in meaning that if I had, during the whole four years, dilated
   upon it every Sunday, it would be my fault if the theme were stale. On
   this occasion I desire mainly to draw attention to a part of the text
   upon which little was said on the former occasion. The vine is the
   same, but we shall gather clusters from a bough ungleaned before. The
   jewels are the same, but we will place them in another light and view
   them from another angle. May God grant that some who derived no comfort
   from our former word may be led to find peace and salvation in Christ
   this morning. The Lord in His infinite mercy grant it may be so.

   I shall first give a general exposition of the text. Then in the second
   place I shall dwell upon the special doctrine which I wish to teach.
   And then, thirdly, we shall draw from that special doctrine a special
   lesson.

   I. First, we will GIVE A GENERAL EXPOSITION OF THE TEXT. "All we like
   sheep have gone astray. We have turned, every one to his own way; and
   the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." The text naturally
   breaks itself up into these three heads--a confession general to all
   penitents--"All we like sheep have gone astray." A personal confession
   peculiar to each one, "We have turned, every one to his own way." And
   then, the august doctrine of Substitution, which is the very soul and
   spirit of the entire Gospel, "The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of
   us all."

   Our exposition, then, begins with the confession which is universal to
   all penitents--it is acknowledged here by the persons speaking who call
   themselves "all we"--that they all had, like sheep, broken the hedge of
   God's Law, forsaken their good and ever blessed Shepherd, and wandered
   into paths perilous and pernicious. A comparison is here used, and its
   use shows that the confession was a thoughtful one and not a matter of
   careless form. Man is here compared to a beast--for sin brings out the
   animal part of us. And while holiness allies us to angels--sin degrades
   us to brutes. We are not likened to one of the more noble and
   intelligent animals, but to a silly sheep.

   All sin is folly. All sinners are fools. Sheep are dishonored by the
   comparison here used, for with all their silliness they have never been
   known to rush into the fire after having felt the flame. You will
   observe that the creature selected for comparison is one that cannot
   live without care and attention. There is no such thing as a wild
   sheep. There could not long be sheep unless they were tended and cared
   for by a shepherd. The creature's happiness, its safety and very
   existence, all depend upon its being under a nurture and care far above
   its own. Yet for all that, the sheep strays from the shepherd. Man's
   happiness lies in being under the direction of the Lord, in being
   obedient to God, in being in communion with God. Departure from God is
   death to all his highest interests, destruction to all his best
   prospects. Yet for all that, as the sheep goes astray, even so does
   man.

   The sheep is a creature exceedingly quick-witted upon the one matter of
   going astray. If there is but one gap in the hedge, the sheep will find
   it. If there is but one possibility out of five hundred that by any
   means the flock shall wander, one of the flock will be quite certain to
   discover that possibility--and all its companions will avail themselves
   of it. So is it with man. He is quick of understanding for evil things.
   God made man upright, but he has sought out many inven-tions--the
   inventions being all to destroy his own uprightness and to do despise
   to the Law of God. And that very creature which is so quick-witted to
   wander is the least likely of all animals to return.

   The ox knows its owner, and the ass knows its master's crib. Even the
   swine that will wander by day will return to the trough by night, and
   the dog will scent out his master over many a mile. But not so the
   sheep. Sharp as it is to discover opportunities for going astray, it
   seems to be bereft of all wit or will to come back to the fold. And
   such is man--

   wise to do evil--but foolish towards that which is good. With a hundred
   eyes, like Argus, he searches out opportunities for sinning. But, like
   Bartimeus, he is stone blind as to repentance and a return to God.

   The sheep goes astray, it is said, all the more frequently when it is
   most dangerous for it to do so. Propensities to stray seem to be
   developed in the very proportion in which they ought to be subdued.
   Whereas in our own land a sheep might wander with some safety, it
   wanders less in the Oriental plains, where for it to go astray is to
   run risks from leopards and wolves. Those very men who ought to be most
   careful, and who are placed in positions where it is best for them to
   be scrupulous, are those who are most prone to follow after evil--and
   with heedless carelessness to leave the way of

   Truth.

   The sheep goes astray ungratefully. It owes everything to the shepherd,
   and yet forsakes the hand that feeds it and heals its diseases. The
   sheep goes astray repeatedly. If restored today it may not stray today
   if it cannot, but it will tomorrow if it can. The sheep wanders further
   and further, from bad to worse. It is not content with the distance it
   has reached, it will go yet greater lengths. There is no limit to its
   wandering except its weakness. Do you not see you own selves, my
   Brethren, as in a mirror? From Him that has blessed you, you have gone
   astray. To Him you owe your all, and yet from Him you continually
   depart. Your sins are not occasional--they are constant. Your
   wanderings are not slight, but you wander further and further--and were
   it not for restraining Grace which has prevented your footsteps--you
   would have wandered even now to the utmost extremities of guilt and
   utterly destroyed your souls.

   "All we like sheep have gone astray." What? Is there not one faithful
   soul? Alas, no! "There is none that does good, no, not one." Search the
   ranks of the blessed in Heaven and there is not one saint before the
   Throne who will boast that when on earth he never sinned. Search the
   Church of God below and there is not one, however closely he walks with
   God, but must confess that he has erred and strayed from God's ways
   like a lost sheep. Vain is the man who refuses to confess this--for his
   hypocrisy or his pride, whichever may be the cause of such a base
   lie--proves that he is not one of God's chosen. The chosen of God
   unanimously, mournfully, but heartily take up this cry, "All we like
   sheep have gone astray." A general confession, then, is uttered in our
   text.

   This confession by the mass is backed up by a personal acknowledgment
   from each one, "We have turned, every one to his own way." Sin is
   general but yet special. All are sinners, but each one is a sinner with
   an emphasis. No man has of himself turned to God's way, but in every
   case each one has chosen "his own way." The very gist of sin lies in
   our setting up our own way in opposition to the way and will of God. We
   have all done so, we have all aspired to be our own masters, we have
   all desired to follow our own inclinations and have not submitted
   ourselves to the will of God.

   The text implies that each man has his own peculiarity and special sin.
   All are diseased, but not all precisely with the same form of disease.
   It is well, my Brothers and Sisters, if each of us, in examining
   himself, has found out what is his own peculiar transgression. It is
   well to know what evil weeds flourish most readily in the soil of our
   heart--what wild beast that is most native to the forests of our soul.
   Many have felt that their peculiar sin was so remarkably evil and so
   surpassingly vile that it separated them altogether from the common
   rank of sinners. They felt that their iniquities were unique, and like
   lone peaks, lifted themselves defiantly towards the pure heavens of God
   provoking the fiercest thunderbolts of wrath. Such persons have almost
   been driven to despair under the belief that they were peculiarly great
   sinners--as Paul puts it--the very chief of sinners.

   I should not wonder if this feeling which each one imagines to be
   peculiar to himself may have come over very many of us, and the shadow
   of despair may for awhile have fallen upon very many of us. It is no
   unusual thing for an awakened conscience to feel its own sinfulness to
   be above measure and parallel, the worst that has ever defiled mankind.
   This special sin happens to be the point to which I desire to call to
   your attention. I wish to show that the atoning sacrifice of Christ not
   only applies to sin in general, since "all we like sheep have gone
   astray," but applies to special sin, for "we have turned, every one to
   his own way."

   I pass over it slightly now and introduce you further in the exposition
   of the text, to what I called the august doctrine of the Substitution
   of Christ, "The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." We have
   seen the confession of sin made by the mass. We lightly touched the
   peculiar confession made by each awakened individual--put all these
   together and you see a mass of sin--did I say you see it? It is a mass
   of sin too great to be beheld by the human understanding--an enormous
   load of iniquity against God. What is to be done with the offenders?
   The only thing that can be done with

   them, in the ordinary rule of justice, is to punish them for their
   offenses. And that punishment must be such as was
   threatened--indignation, wrath, destruction, death.

   That God should punish sin is not a matter of impulse with Him. It was
   not with Him an alternative as to whether He might or might not punish
   sin. We speak always with holy awe when we speak of anything concerning
   Him, but with reverence we say it was not possible that God should wink
   at the iniquity of man. It was not possible that He should treat it
   with indifference. His attribute of Justice, which is as undoubtedly a
   part of His Glory as His attribute of Love, required that sin should be
   punished. Moreover, as God had been pleased to make a moral universe to
   be governed by laws, there would be an end of all government if the
   breaking of those laws involved no penalty whatever.

   If, after the great King of all the earth had promulgated a Law, with
   certain penalties annexed to the breach of it, He did not cause those
   penalties to be exacted, there would be an end to the whole system of
   His government. The foundations would be removed. And if the
   foundations are removed, what shall the righteous do? It is infinitely
   benevolent of God, I will venture to say, to cast evil men into Hell.
   If that is thought to be a hard and strange statement, I reply that
   inasmuch as there is sin in the world, it is no benevolence to tolerate
   so great an evil. It is the highest benevolence to do all that can be
   done to restrain the horrible pest.

   It would be far from benevolent for our government to throw wide the
   doors of all the jails, to abolish the office of the judge, to suffer
   every thief and every offender of every kind to go unpunished. Instead
   of mercy it would be cruelty. It might be mercy to the offender, but it
   would be intolerable injustice towards the upright and inoffensive.
   God's very benevolence demands that the detestable rebellion of sin
   against His supreme authority should be put down with a firm hand, that
   men may not flatter themselves that they can do evil and yet go
   unpunished. The necessities of moral government require that sin must
   be punished. The effeminate and sentimental talkers of this boastful
   age represent God as though He had no attribute but that of gentleness,
   no virtue but that of indifference to evil.

   But the God of the Bible is glorious in holiness! He will by no means
   spare the guilty. At His bar every transgression is meted out its just
   recompense or reward. Even in the New Testament, where stands that
   golden sentence, "God is Love," His other attributes are by no means
   cast into the shade. Read the burning words of Peter, or James, or
   Jude, and see how the God of Sabaoth abhors evil! As the God who must
   do right, the Lord cannot shut His eyes to the iniquities of man. He
   must visit transgression with its punishment. He has done it, has done
   it terribly, and He will continue to do it. Even to all eternity He
   will show Himself the God that hates iniquity and sin.

   What, then, is to become of man? "All we like sheep have gone astray."
   Sin must be punished. What, then, can become of us? Infinite Love has
   devised the expedient of representation and substitution. I call it an
   expedient, for we can only use the language of men. You remember,
   Brothers and Sisters, that you and I fell originally from our first
   estate by no act of our own--we, all of us, fell in the first Adam's
   transgression. Now, had we fallen individually and personally, in the
   first place, apart from another, it may be that our fall would have
   been hopeless. As the fall of the apostate angels, who having sinned
   one by one and not representatively, are reserved in chains of darkness
   forever under the condemnation and wrath of God--so might we have been.

   But inasmuch as the first fountain of evil came to us through our
   parent, Adam, there remained for God a loophole through which His
   Divine love might enter without violation of Justice. The principle of
   representation wrecked us-- the same principle of representation
   rescues us. Jesus Christ the Son of God becomes a Man and re-heads the
   race. He becomes the second Adam, obeys the Law of God, bears the
   penalty of sin, and now stands as the Head of all those who are in Him!
   And who are these but such as repent of sin and put their trust in Him?
   These get out of the old headship of the first Adam where they fell,
   and through the atoning sacrifice are cleansed from all personal guilt,
   brought into union with the second Adam, and stand again in Him,
   abiding forever in acceptance and felicity!

   See, then, how it is that God has been pleased to deliver His people.
   It has been through carrying out a principle with which the very system
   of the universe commenced, namely, that of representation. I repeat it,
   had we been always and altogether separate units, there might have been
   no possibility of our salvation. But though every man sins separately,
   and the second clause of our text confesses that fact, yet we all sin
   in connection with others. For instance, who shall deny that each man
   receives propensities to sin from his parents, and that we transmit
   peculiarities of sin to our own children?

   We stand in connection with race, and there are sins of races peculiar
   to races and to nationalities. We are never put on a probation of
   entire separation--we always stand in connection with others, and God
   has availed Himself of this,

   which I called a loophole, to bring in salvation for us by virtue of
   our union with another Man, who is also more than Man--the Son of God
   and yet the son of Mary--the Infinite who once became an Infant. The
   Eternal who lived, and bled, and died as the representative of all who
   put their trust in Him.

   Now you will say, perhaps, that still, albeit this might have been at
   the bottom of the whole system of moral government, you do not quite
   see the justice of it. The reply to that remark is this--if God sees
   the justice of it you ought to be content with it. He was against whom
   every sin was aimed. And if He pleased to gather up the whole bundle of
   the sin of His people and say to His Beloved Son, "I will visit You for
   all these," and if Jesus, our Representative, joyously consented to
   bear our sins as our Representative--who are you and who am I that we
   should enter any caveat against what God the infinitely just One
   consents to accept?

   The text does not say that our sins were laid on Christ Jesus by
   accident, but, "the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." We
   sing sometimes, "I lay my sins on Jesus." That is a very sweet act of
   faith, but at the bottom of it there is another laying, namely, that
   act in which it pleased the Lord to lay our sins on Jesus. Apart from
   the Lord's doing it, our sins could never have been transferred to the
   Redeemer. The Lord is so just that we dare not think of examining His
   verdicts. He is so infinitely pure and holy that what He does we accept
   as being necessarily right. And inasmuch as we derive such blessed
   results from the Divine plan of Substitution, far be it from us to
   raise any question concerning it!

   Jesus was accepted as the natural Substitute and Representative of all
   those who trust Him, and all the sins of these were laid on Him so that
   they were freed from guilt. Jesus was regarded as if all these sins
   were His sins. He was punished as if these were His sins. He was put to
   shame, forsaken of God, and delivered to death as if He had been a
   sinner. And thus, through Divine Grace, those who actually committed
   the sins are permitted to go free. They have satisfied justice through
   the sufferings of their Substitute.

   Beloved Brethren, the most fit Person to be a Substitute for us was
   Christ Jesus. And why? Because He had been pleased to take us, His
   people, into union with Himself. If He were our Head, and He had made
   us to be members of His Body, who more fit to suffer for the body than
   the Head? If He had, and Scripture tells us so, entered into a
   mysterious conjugal union with us, who more fit to suffer for the
   spouse than her Husband? Christ is Man, therefore His fitness and
   adaptation to be a Substitute for man. The creature that sins must be
   the creature that suffers--man breaks God's Law--and man must honor it.
   As by man came death, by Man also must come the resurrection from the
   dead--and Jesus Christ was undoubtedly Man of the substance of His
   mother.

   He was fit to be our Substitute because He was a pure Man. He had no
   offense in Him. Neither Satan, nor the more searching eye of God could
   find any evil in Him. He was under no obligation to the Law except as
   He put Himself under the Law. He owed nothing to the great moral
   Governor until He voluntarily became a subject of His moral government
   on our behalf. Therefore, being without obligation Himself--having no
   debts of His own--He was fit to take upon Himself our liabilities. And
   as He was under no obligations for Himself, He was a fitting One to
   become under obligations for us.

   Moreover, He did all this voluntarily, and His fitness much lies here.
   If a substitute should be dragged to death for us unwillingly, if such
   could be the case, an injustice would be perpetrated in the very act.
   But Jesus Christ, taking up His Cross, and going forth willingly to
   suffer for us, proved His fitness to redeem us. Once more--His being
   God as well as Man, gave the strength to suffer--gave Him the power to
   stoop. If He had not been so lofty as to be Fellow with the eternal
   God, He would not have stooped so low as to redeem us, but --

   "From the highest Throne in Glory To the Cross of deepest woe,"

   was such a descent that there was an infinite merit in it. When He
   stooped, even to the grave itself, there was an infinite merit by which
   Justice was satisfied, the Law was vindicated, and those for whom He
   died were effectually saved.

   I do not want to proceed to the other point until everyone here has got
   the thought, and grasped it, and received it. We have gone astray, but
   the straying of as many of us as believe, were laid on Christ. We have
   each chosen our own way of sin, but those sins are not ours now--they
   are laid on our great Substitute--if we are trusting in Him. He has
   paid to the utmost farthing all the debt of those sins. He has borne
   the fullness of Divine wrath, and there is no wrath against us. Just as
   the bullock was laid on the altar to be burnt, God's wrath came like
   consuming fire and burnt the bullock, and

   there was no fire left. So when the wrath of God fell on Christ, it
   consumed Him, and there was no fire left, no wrath left--it spent
   itself.

   God has no anger against a soul that believes in Jesus. Neither has
   that soul any sin, for its sin has been laid on Christ, and it cannot
   be in two places at once--Christ has carried it and the sin has ceased
   to be. The believing soul, though in itself as black as Hell, is now as
   bright as Christ Himself when He was transfigured, for Christ has
   finished transgression, made an end of sin, and brought in everlasting
   righteousness. Thus we conclude our general exposition of the verse.

   II. I now desire for a short time, but with all the earnestness of my
   soul, to dwell on THE SPECIAL DOCTRINE taught in the central clause of
   the text--"We have turned, every one to his own way; and the Lord has
   laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Each man and each woman, from a
   natural difference of constitution, from the variations in education,
   and from the diversities of circumstances, has sinned somewhat
   differently from every other. Two brothers educated by the same parents
   will yet display diversities of transgression. No man treads exactly in
   the same footsteps as another, and some take roads which, though
   equally wrong, are diametrically opposite. One turns to the right hand,
   and another to the left, both equally renouncing the onward path.

   Now, the glory of the text that I want to bring out is this--that if
   you believe in Jesus Christ, this special sin of yours was laid on Him,
   as well as all those other sins in which you stand on an equality with
   your fellow men. There was a publican--he had been a common, gross
   offender--rough and harsh to his brother Jews in demanding an
   inordinate tax. He was a man of low habits, indulging in drunkenness,
   fornication, and other defilements. Yet when that publican went up to
   the house of God and said, "God be merciful to me a sinner," the
   Atonement just met the publican's iniquity, and exactly took away the
   publican's transgression.

   But, on the other hand, there was a Pharisee--the opposite of the
   publican--proud and self-righteous, not submitting himself to the
   righteousness of God. He considered himself to be in all things better
   than other men. But remember that when he fell off his horse as he was
   riding to Damascus, and heard a voice that said, "Why do you persecute
   Me?" that very same Pharisee said, "God forbid that I should glory save
   in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." There was in Christ precisely
   that which met the Pharisee's sin. In our Lord's day there were
   Sadducees, too--that is, men who said there was neither angel nor
   spirit They were infidels, skeptics, free-thinkers--your Broad Church
   sinners.

   Now these men neither went into coarse transgression with the publican
   nor into superstition with the Pharisee, but they had their direct
   antagonism to the Truth of God. And I doubt not cases occurred to prove
   that in the pardoning blood of Christ the Sadducee's case was met. No
   matter in what peculiar direction any one of the Lord's sheep has gone
   astray, the Lord has laid that particular straying upon the Savior.

   I want to speak, now, so as to fetch forth some individuals here this
   morning. It may be that one here today is saying, "I sinned against an
   early Christian training. No one ever had a better mother or a more
   tender father. I knew the Word of God, like Timothy, from my youth--but
   I did despite to all this teaching and sinned with aggravation of
   infamy. I sinned against the clearest light."

   Brothers and Sisters, your sin is very great, but the Lord has laid on
   Jesus your iniquity. Look to the Cross, and see it laid there. "Yes,"
   says another, "but I have had the strivings of God's Spirit. In
   addition to an early Christian education, I have sat under an earnest
   Gospel ministry. I have often been impressed. I have been driven to my
   chamber to pray, but I have quenched the holy emotions, and have
   continued in sin." O guilty One, the Lord has laid on His dear Son your
   iniquity! Can you look to Jesus now and trust Christ--"The Lamb of God
   which takes away the sin of the world"? Then this offense of yours
   against the Holy Spirit is put away.

   "But," says another, "I am conscious of having had naturally a
   remarkable tenderness of spirit. From my early childhood I knew right
   from wrong, and when I sinned it cost me much trouble to sin. I have
   had to wound my conscience before I could speak an ill word, or commit
   an evil action." Ah, my Brethren, that is a very condemning thing, to
   sin against a tender conscience. It is a great benefit, and in this age
   a very unusual benefit, to have much sensitiveness and delicacy of
   moral constitution. And if you have violated it, it is certainly a
   great transgression. But though, "we have turned, every one to his own
   way, the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Let no
   despairing thought come upon you as though this sin were unpardonable.
   The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin." Look,
   now, by faith to Jesus, and you shall find that your sin is blotted
   out.

   There may be one in this place who says, "Sir, I committed a sin under
   certain remarkable circumstances which I would not, could not, mention.
   But the remembrance of that one sin rankles in my soul at this hour. If
   I had not deliberately, and with malice aforethought, having not the
   fear of God before my eyes, chosen that sin, there might have been
   hope--but that sin, like a millstone, is about my neck and will sink me
   forever and ever." Look, Soul! Can you see Christ on the Cross? Will
   you now confide in Him? If so, though your sins are as scarlet they
   shall be as wool, though they are red like crimson they shall be as
   snow.

   I know not what your sin may have been, but if it were murder itself,
   if you would now trust the Son of God, your sin should vanish quite
   away from you, and you should be clean, clean every whit, before the
   all-seeing Eyes of Eternal Justice. O that you would believe, and this
   should be true to you. "No," cries another, "but mine has been a life
   of peculiarly gross sin. I would not have my character unmasked before
   this congregation on any account." Consider then, my Friend, what it
   will be to have it published before a greater congregation, before the
   entire universe!

   "Ah," you say, "I fear my condemnation is certain, for my
   transgressions have not been those of thought, merely, but of act. The
   members of my body have been the instruments of uncleanness." Listen, I
   pray, "All manner of sin and of iniquity shall be forgiven unto men."
   There is no sin so black, save only one, but it may find forgiveness.
   Yes, and without exception, there is no sin that is possible to man but
   what it shall be forgiven to any man who comes to Christ, and with
   simple trust, does cast himself on Him. Your extreme evil was laid on
   Christ. Though you have turned unto your own way, yet this, too, was
   laid on Him.

   Do I not hear, here and there in the congregation, hearts sighing out,
   "He does not strike my case yet! Mine has not been gross sin, but I
   have hardened my heart. I used to feel at one time I had great drawings
   towards the Lord Jesus, but I gave Him up. I have backslidden. I have
   from time to time rejected Gospel invitations, until now, at last, the
   Lord has sworn in His wrath that I shall not enter into His rest. My
   transgressions have gone over my head like overflowing waters, I sink
   in them as in deep mire where there is no standing."

   Yes, but Soul, I must bring you back to the text. You have turned to
   your own way, but, if you believe, the Lord has laid on Jesus even this
   iniquity, also. If you will trust Him, your hardenings of heart shall
   now be forgiven you. You are not too late--the gate of Mercy still
   stands wide open. If you trust in Jesus, this iniquity shall be blotted
   out. "Alas," says another, "but I have been a hypocrite. I have come to
   the Lord's Table, and yet I have never had an interest in Christ. I
   have been baptized, but yet I never had true faith."

   Well, now, I will say this to end all matters--if you have perpetrated
   all the sins that ever were committed by men or devils. If you have
   defiled yourself with all the blackness that could be raked out of the
   lowermost kennels of Hell. If you have spoken the most damnable
   blasphemies and followed the most outrageous vices--yet Jesus Christ is
   an infinite Savior, and nothing can exceed the merit of His precious
   blood! "The blood of Jesus Christ, God's dear Son, cleanses us from all
   sin." Can you believe this? Can you do Christ the honor to believe
   this, and come and crouch at the feet that once were pierced? Ah, Man,
   you shall find mercy now, and you shall clap your hands and say, "He
   has blotted out my sins like a cloud, and like a thick cloud my
   iniquities."

   I am afraid I do not convey to you the pleasure of my own soul in
   turning over this thought, but it has charmed me beyond measure. Here
   were Lot's sins, scandalous sins. I cannot mention them--they were very
   different from David's sins. Black sins, scarlet sins, were those of
   David, but David's sins are not at all like those of Manasseh. The sins
   of Ma-nasseh were not the same as those of Peter--Peter sinned in quite
   a different track. And the woman that was a sinner, you could not liken
   her to Peter. And if you look to her character you could not set her
   side by side with Lydia. Nor if you think of Lydia, can you see her
   without discovering a great divergence between her and the Philippian
   jailer.

   They are all alike. They have all gone Astray. But they are all
   different, they have turned, every one to his own way. But here is the
   blessed gathering up of them all! The Lord has made to meet on the
   Redeemer, as in a common focus, the iniquity of all these! And up
   yonder Magdalena's song joins sweetly with that of the woman who was a
   sinner. And Lydia, chaste, but yet needing pardon, sings side by side
   with Bathsheba and Rahab--while David takes up the strain with Samson
   and with Gideon! And these with Abraham and with Isaac--all differently
   sinners--but the Atonement meeting every case.

   We always think that man a quack, who advertises a medicine as healing
   every disease. But when you come to the great Gospel medicine--the
   precious blood of Jesus Christ--you have there in very deed what the
   old doctors used to

   call a catholicon, a universal medicine. It meets every case in its
   distinctness It puts away sin in all its separateness of guilt as if it
   were made for that sin, and for that sin, alone.

   III. My time has gone, and therefore I must close with this, A SPECIAL
   DUTY ARISING OUT OF THE SPECIAL DOCTRINE. My dear Brothers and Sisters,
   if in my discourse I have at all described you, or if not having
   described you, I have yet from that very reason indicated you as an
   indescribable, look to Christ and find mercy! And then ever afterwards
   make it a rule with your soul that as you have been a special sinner
   you will have special love and special gratitude, and do your Lord
   special service.

   Oh, if it takes twenty times the Grace to save me than it does another,
   then I will render to my Savior twenty times the love and twenty times
   the service. If I am an out-of-the-way straying sheep, peculiarly and
   specially black, defiled and disgraced--then if He loves me I will go
   upon this rule--that having had much forgiven I will love much.

   Brothers and Sisters, I wish you did feel, I wish I did feel, more and
   more the peculiarity of the weight of our personal sin, for I am sure
   it is the way to drive us into manliness of Christian service. If you
   perform homage to Christ as one of a crowd, you do but little, and that
   little badly. For eminent service you need to get away from the crowd
   and serve the Lord personally by yourself, and as an individual. Get
   alone, I mean in a sense of obligation. Separate yourself, as if you
   were a marked man, and must serve Jesus Christ in a marked way. The
   separation of pride is detestable, but individuality of service is
   admirable. Those who stand steadily in the rank and file do well, but
   those who step forward to lead the forlorn hope do better.

   O for more Davids to come forth and say, "Who is this uncircumcised
   Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?" O that
   the Christian Church had more self-sacrificing men, like old Curtius,
   who, when there is a chasm to fill up, leaps into it and feels it an
   honor to be swallowed up for Christ's sake and the Truth's sake. O for
   many a Christian who, like the Roman hero, will hold his hand in the
   fire if need be, and flinch not, feeling that all suffering were little
   to bear for one who bled for us. We want more consecrated men. May God
   raise them up. And He will if you who feel your special sinnership find
   special mercy--and then render to God special returns.

   It has struck me that we need more and more in the pulpit, and in the
   pew, individuality in our Christian experience and service. You see, we
   are all individuals in sinning, we have turned, every one to his own
   way, and yet many Christian people want to have their experience
   modeled after the example of someone else. They do not like to grow
   like God's trees in the forest, with their gnarled roots and twisted
   boughs. They want to be clipped like Dutch trees into one uniform
   stiffness. Why, you lose the beauty of Christianity when you lose the
   individuality of Christians!

   In preaching and Sunday school teaching, and everything else, the
   tendency is to go too much to ill ruts and grooves. One might fancy
   that men and women were made by machinery, like pens at Birmingham, all
   of a sort. We would have every man in Grace as individual as he was in
   sin. We need the originality of saintly life as well as of sinnership.
   It were well if a Christian man would step out of the beaten track and
   carry out his individuality and be what God especially meant him to be.
   Brethren, there is a part of this world which can never get a blessing
   except through you. Christ has power over all flesh, and He has given
   His servants power over their little portions of that great mass.

   All the ministers that ever lived cannot bring to Christ those souls
   whom God has ordained that I shall be the means of turning to Christ.
   And neither I, nor my Brethren, preach as we may, can bring to Christ
   the man whom God has ordained to save through yonder obscure village
   preacher who is now standing on a log on the village green, or holding
   forth in a wooden shed in the backwoods of America. There is a place
   for every man--and the way for every man to find that out is to be
   himself and nobody else. As he used to be himself when he was a sinner,
   so let him be himself now he has become a saint, and follow out, under
   God's guidance, the movements of his own individualities, the
   singularities of his own nature.

   Do not think about planing off your edges and getting rid of the points
   God has made in you distinct from other men. It will never do. You lose
   of Christianity the very beauty and excellence if you do this. Your
   fine critics would have Rowland Hill preach like Thomas
   Chalmers--Rowland Hill must never utter a witticism in the pulpit, yet
   he could not be Rowland Hill if he did not. He must, therefore, be
   transformed into someone else, for these superfine gentlemen will not
   allow that Rowland Hill as Rowland Hill can honor God. Wisdom will be
   of all her children. Whether you speak with the learning of Apollos, or
   with the eloquence of a Paul, or with the blunt homeliness of a Cephas,
   the Lord will get to Himself honor, if you speak sincerely.

   And it is not for Paul to mimic Cephas, nor for Cephas to copy Apollos.
   As we have turned, every one to his own way, and our peculiar sin has
   been laid on Christ, so let each Believer now, in his own way, under
   the direction of Christ, seek to serve his Lord and Master. My great
   practical lesson from it is this--you are always seeing new inventions
   in the world, men are evermore bringing out some new system or scheme.
   We tunnel the earth, we split the clouds, we speak by lightning, we
   ride on the wings of the wind. But in the Christian Church how few
   inventors we have!

   Robert Raikes invented the Sunday school. John Pounds invented Ragged
   schools--have we come to the end of gracious ingenuity? Oh, if we loved
   Christ better, every man would invent something--he would have a mode
   of action growing out of his own peculiar capacities. He would feel
   that God meant to meet a case by him that would never be met by anybody
   else. Men are all alive about this world, and all asleep about the
   world to come. I would urge you each to have a mission, to espouse a
   work, to obtain a calling. Ask God not to put you into the Sunday
   school as a matter of mere Providence, but as a matter of special
   ordination.

   And if you are ordained to be a Sunday school teacher, ask Him to put
   you into some particular class, not as by an accident, but as a special
   sphere for your special character and taste, and mode of thought, and
   manner of action. Follow, as God the Holy Spirit shall help you, the
   promptings of the Divine life that God has put within you. And as you
   served Satan with all your individuality, even so serve Him upon whom
   the Lord of old did lay your iniquity. The Lord bless you for Christ's
   sake.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Sine Qua Non

   (No. 926)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, APRIL 17, 1870,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Jesus answered him, If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me."
   John 13:8.

   IN matchless condescension our Lord had girt Himself as a servant, and
   was washing the feet of the disciples. Peter, struck with such a
   spectacle, would not allow his Lord to act as a menial, and flatly
   refused to have his feet washed by his Master. But he changed his mind
   at once when he was told that a refusal to receive this act of kindness
   from his Lord would be a virtual rejection of all part in Him, "If I do
   not wash you, you have no part with Me." I do not think our Lord here
   was thinking so much of the literal washing, as of that which the
   outward ablution was meant to represent. This is clear when we remember
   that our Lord replied to Peter concerning this washing, "What I do you
   know not now. But you shall know hereafter."

   Now as to the literal washing, Peter knew all about it, and there was
   nothing to be explained except its inner meaning, and spiritual
   teaching. This it was that Peter did not then know, and was afterwards
   to learn. Our Lord, therefore, evidently referred not so much to the
   actual foot-washing, as to the spiritual washing, which is absolutely
   essential to all His people. Remember, too, that the mere cleansing of
   the feet did not involve union to Christ, for the feet of Judas were
   washed, and our Lord did not at all mean that Judas should imagine that
   he had any part with the Lord whom he was resolved to betray.

   The traitor was numbered among the disciples, and therefore he partook
   of the outward ordinance, but it did not convey to him any spiritual
   interest in Christ Jesus. Therefore we conclude that the foot-washing
   was only secondarily important. Yet we deny not that our Lord did mean
   so much about this mere outward washing, that had Peter obstinately
   refused to yield to it, he would have proved himself to have had no
   true loyalty of heart, and consequently no part in Christ.

   Any act of direct and intentional rebellion against Christ's authority,
   obstinately and knowingly continued in, would be a sure token that the
   person guilty of it was no true partaker with Christ. How shall I be
   His servant if I willfully reject any one of His commands? How can I
   consider myself to be truly a Christian while my will is rebellious,
   and refuses to submit to the express orders of my Lord? Let us consider
   this as professors, and practice instant obedience. Never let us
   obstinately refuse obedience to a command because it seems to us to be
   nonessential or trivial. We are not to be judges but servants. No
   motive can excuse disobedience.

   Let us ask for Divine Grace that as soon as ever we see a sin to be sin
   we may shun it, and as soon as we perceive a duty to be a duty we may
   at once practice it, and never be guilty of any willful rebellion,
   since that might prove us to be without Christ. However, I still
   believe that Christ's main teaching in my text referred not to the
   washing with water, but to the cleansing of our spiritual nature by His
   precious blood and by His Eternal Spirit. In this sense read again the
   words, "If I do not wash you, you have no, part with Me."

   I. First suffer me to occupy your thoughts a few minutes with THE GREAT
   OBJECT OF OUR DESIRE. Our great object is to have a part in Jesus
   Christ. I am addressing myself, for the most part, to those who
   regularly hear the Word, and who have a respect for the name of Jesus,
   and a longing to be saved with His salvation. I hope there is not one
   among us who would consider it a barren honor to have a part with
   Christ, nor one who would think it to be a small calamity to be
   deprived of his part with Jesus the Son of God.

   Brethren, you and I desire to have part in the merit of His
   righteousness. We have no righteousness of our own, but we desire that
   He should be the Lord our Righteousness, that in His righteousness
   arrayed we should not be found naked in the day of the great wedding
   feast, but with the wedding garment on may sit down to the marriage
   supper. We desire to have a part in His death. Jesus died that He might
   make atonement for guilt, and we desire a part in His atoning sacri-

   fice. We are guilty. Our heart yearns to be washed in the blood, to be
   cleansed by that expiation, and to stand before the Lord accepted in
   the Beloved.

   We hope that the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world will
   give us a part in His sin-removing power. We believe in His
   Resurrection, and our prayer is that we may have part in it--because He
   rose we also may rise, and may forever, both in body and in soul, enjoy
   eternal blessedness. Our faith has seen the Crucified One ascending to
   the skies, and we desire a part in His ascension, to share in the
   blessings which He received for rebellions men when He led captivity
   captive. Yes, and before long to tread that same starry way, and enter
   into the rest where He is, and behold the Glory which God has given to
   Him.

   We aspire to share in His intercession. Before the Father's Throne He
   presents His ever-accepted supplication, and we trust that He pleads
   for us that blessings numberless may descend upon us unworthy ones. We
   were wretched, indeed, if we had not a persuasion that we share a part
   in the pleadings of our great High Priest. We trust our name is
   engraved on one of the precious stones of His breastplate, and is so
   borne before God. Moreover, we know that Christ sits at the right hand
   of God as King, all things being delivered into His hands, and we
   desire to have a part with Him in His kingdom, to be partakers of the
   peace which His scepter brings--yes, and to be ourselves made kings to
   reign with Him.

   Moreover, we expect His second advent. In the same manner as He went up
   to Heaven, in that same manner will He descend, with the trump of the
   archangel and the voice of God, in His own proper Person actually and
   really, not in myth and phantom, but in very deed. As He is gone from
   us, so shall He come again, and then will He take to Himself all power,
   and reign from the river even unto the ends of the earth. We hope to
   participate in the glory of His appearing and kingdom.

   Whatever the Millennium may be, whatever the splendor of the latter
   day, our aspiration is that we may have a part with Christ in all these
   things. We would not shun His Cross, for we desire His crown. We would
   not desert Him in His humiliation, for we hope to attend Him in His
   triumph. We would cheerfully go forth without the camp and bear the
   reproach for His sake, for we hope to stand among the camp of the
   faithful ones when the crowns of immortality shall be distributed. Our
   soul's deepest desire is that we may have a part with Christ.

   My dear Brethren, I hope most of us here present know what it is to
   have a part in Christ, for we were elect in Him from before the
   foundation of the world. We have been make partakers of His Spirit, and
   have been brought into union with Him. We have submitted ourselves to
   His government. We are looking to Him for our salvation. We have a part
   with Him as members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones--a part
   with Him as branches in the vine, as stones in the temple. We are
   serving under His banner in the same holy war, and laborers in the same
   sacred service. We have a part with Him as His friends and as His
   chosen whom He has admitted into the most familiar communion with
   Himself.

   We are much deceived if this is not the case. But if it, indeed, is so,
   we feel that the blessed fact is altogether due to Divine Grace, and it
   could never have been so if we had not first been washed. If we have
   not as yet participated in the blessings which come to us through
   Christ, we know, this morning, for the text tells us, that we must be
   washed before we can have a part with Him. Brethren, we desire to be
   sons as He is a Son. We wish to be heirs as He is an Heir. We pant to
   be accepted as He is accepted. We aspire to be, before long, glorified
   as He is glorified. This is a blessing worthy of the utmost intensity
   of desire, and it is a blessing which we must obtain or we shall sink
   miserably down to everlasting de-struction--since to be without Christ
   is to be without hope.

   II. After these few words upon what it is to have a part with Jesus, I
   come to notice, in the second place, THE ESSENTIAL QUALIFICATION FOR
   OBTAINING AND ENJOYING A PART WITH CHRIST. It is essential that He

   should wash us. Observe then, that the qualification is not one of
   merit on our part, it is one of mercy on His part. If He had said,
   "Except you obtain a superior degree of holiness, you have no part in
   Me," we might have become dispirited, desponding, and even despairing.

   But the very chief of sinners may find comfort in such a word as this.
   Here is nothing of merit but all of mercy. Whatever is your sin, O
   Sinner, Christ can wash you! The only qualification for having a part
   in all Covenant blessings is that you as a sinner are washed by Jesus.
   There is no specification of something to be given on our part. It is
   something to be received. It is not demanded that we act as servants to
   Christ and wash His feet, but that He in tender condescension should be
   servant to us and wash our feet. If there were a matter of giving
   mentioned, O you poor and needy, you who are spiritually bankrupt,
   there might be reason for you to mourn! But since the essential, the
   great sine qua non is one of

   mercy alone, you may be comforted. You have but to come in all your
   filth and all your unworthiness and be washed, and this one thing shall
   give you part and lot in Christ.

   But what is meant by this washing, which is the essential qualification
   for a man to have part with Christ? I understand it to mean one thing,
   namely, purification through the Lord Jesus--which one thing, however,
   will be best understood if we describe it as four things.

   First, no man has any part in Christ who does not receive the first
   all-essential washing in the precious blood, by which all sin is once
   and forever put away. The moment a sinner believes in Jesus Christ, his
   iniquities are seen as laid on Christ the Substitute, and the Believer
   himself is free from sin. Though he may have been up to now black as an
   Ethiopian, yet is he washed in the fountain filled from the Redeemer's
   veins, and he stands before God without spot or wrinkle, or any such
   thing. There is such a blessed fact as the instantaneous reception of a
   perfect pardon through faith in Jesus Christ, and this happens the
   moment a sinner truly looks to the great atoning Sacrifice.

   If you rely on the Substitute, and the matchless expiation which He
   made for human guilt, your sins, which are many, are all forgiven you.
   If He does not wash you, you have no part in Him--but if His blood
   atones for you, He is yours. If you do not receive His perfect,
   unrivalled, Godlike blood-washing, you are no Christian. Whatever is
   your profession, whatever your supposed experience, whatever your
   reformation, whatever you may have attempted or accom-plished--if you
   have never come as a guilty one, and seen your sin laid upon the
   bleeding Son of God, you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond
   of iniquity--you have neither part nor lot in this matter. Without
   faith in the Atonement you can have no part in Christ.

   There follows a second cleansing, which is, in some respects, but a
   branch of the first, namely, daily pardon for sin through faith in
   Jesus. As day by day we fall into sin, we are taught to pray each day,
   "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against
   us." And there is provision made in Christ Jesus for this daily pardon,
   since besides being the Paschal Lamb, our Lord is the morning and
   evening Lamb for daily guilt. This is what Christ meant, especially
   when He washed the disciples' feet, for He told them that He did not
   wash their head and their hands, because they had been washed. And,
   therefore, as being clean, they needed not to wash anything but their
   feet.

   We who have once been pardoned have no need to be pardoned again in the
   sense in which we were at first. But we do have need in another sense,
   and in another respect, to seek a daily forgiveness of recurring sin.
   To use a simile which may, perhaps, explain what I mean--the priest of
   God, when first consecrated, was washed from head to foot, and so
   baptized into the service of the sanctuary. But later, each time he
   went to offer sacrifice, he washed his feet and his hands in the brazen
   laver. No need to give the complete immersion on each occasion--that
   had been given at first--and he was ceremonially purged from pollution,
   and made a priest unto God.

   But accidental defilement, incidental to everyday life, had to be
   cleansed away, not to make the man a priest, but to keep him in proper
   condition for the right discharge of his priestly office. Even so,
   every Believer is made a priest unto God, and does not need to be made
   a priest again, but to be daily cleansed from everything that might
   prevent him from the best discharge of his sacred duties. Permit me the
   use of another simile--here is a blackamoor, black from head to foot.
   But he is washed in a miraculous bath, and so made white, white as
   snow. The man will never want another washing to remove his natural
   blackness, that is gone forever.

   But, my Brethren, he may still need frequent washings, for as a white
   man he will constantly need the removal of stains incident to his being
   in this world. A sinner does not need, again, the first washing to be
   repeated, for that has put him into a new position towards God--but he
   needs a washing as a justified man to maintain his conscience in peace,
   and his heart pure for service. The leper, once purged under the Law,
   was clean and might go into the congregation of the Lord's House. Yet
   as a clean man and as admitted into the congregation, he had the
   ordinary need to wash which was incidental to every Israelite.

   Or to put it yet in another form--I, a criminal, am forgiven. All my
   crimes against the great Judge of all the earth are blotted out. I need
   no second acquittal. The acquittal which was given me when I first
   believed in Christ included all my sins, past, present, and to come. As
   before the bar of God I am clean, and need no further washing--but now
   being made a child, I stand not at His bar, but at His table, and
   alas--I commit sins as a child! Sins which will not condemn me, for I
   am not under the Law but under Grace, but sins which require me as a
   child to go to my Father, and say to Him

   each day, "My Father in Heaven, forgive me my daily trespasses, as I
   forgive them that trespass against me." This it is which you must
   receive every day, and if you do not receive it, you have no part in
   Christ.

   If you think you do not sin at all, and have not, therefore, any need
   of washing, you have no part in Christ. If you fancy that you do not
   require this daily washing of the feet, take it for granted that you
   are too proud to understand yourself and that you have not been humbled
   as you ought to be. All those who are in Christ feel that they need
   each day that He should come and wash their feet. Though they are clean
   every whit, yet still they need their feet to be washed by

   Him.

   A third thing included in this feet-washing, I believe, is the
   continual sanctification which faith in Jesus Christ carries on within
   us by the power of the Holy Spirit. If a man professes to be a
   Christian and is not in his walk and conversation holier than other
   men, that man's profession is vain. There are some who seem to think
   that we are to come to Christ as sinners, and then after having
   believed in Him are to live as we did before.

   My Brethren, it is not so. Christ saves His people from their sins.
   When you hear the complaints of God's servants concerning their
   temptations and their indwelling sins, you are not to conclude that sin
   has dominion over them, or that they have not overcome sin, or that
   they are not the men they once were. No, my Brethren, I believe the
   holier a man becomes, the more he mourns over the unholiness which
   remains in him. But he is in very truth a far better man--he is a
   spiritual and holy man. If Jesus washes you not, so that you become
   godly and upright, you may depend upon it, you have no part in Him.

   If He does not wash that tongue, and cleanse away those angry, or idle,
   or filthy words. If He does not wash those hands, and render them
   impossible to perform a dishonest or unchaste act. If He does not wash
   your feet and render it impossible they should be able to carry you to
   the haunts of vice and criminal amusement--you have no part in Him. It
   is all worthless for unconverted persons to be baptized and come to His
   Table, for if He has not sanctified you in some measure He has not
   justified you.

   If you are not a changed man, neither are you a saved man. And if you
   do not aspire after holiness, neither need you hope that you shall have
   a part in the Heaven of the blessed. "If I wash you not, you have no
   part with Me." It includes then, you see, the first pardon, the
   successive pardons of each day, and the sanctifying work by which He
   cleanses us with the washing of water by the Word.

   Once more, I think, in this foot-washing, our Savior meant to get forth
   the daily communion which the true Christian has with Christ. It was a
   very singular thing for a disciple to be sitting there and for the
   Master to be washing his feet. It was an astounding fact, a wonder, a
   miracle, a Divine Grace which Peter could hardly think possible. But
   every Christian's life must be a series of similar wonders. Each day he
   will have to obtain from his Lord some things for which it really seems
   as if he ought not to have dared to ask. They appear too good and too
   great for him to receive.

   I know, and you know what it is to go to the Lord Jesus Christ about
   little things, about household cares, about daily trials, about the
   troubles of our spirit, the distractions of our mind. It is a mark of a
   child to be able to do so. It is, in fact, a continuance of the
   foot-washing which our Lord gave to Peter. Washing feet is not a great
   or essential act. A man may live, though his feet after a journey may
   not be cooled by the refreshing stream from the pitcher. It is a small
   act, a grateful and refreshing act, and just such things Jesus Christ
   must continue to do for you and for me, if we are His people. We shall,
   in times of need, find Jesus in our chamber still clothed with the
   towel and bearing the basin--ready still to wait on us and administer
   loving refreshments.

   And we shall often wonder, "What? Did He really help me in such a thing
   as that, and did I dare to take such a case as that to Him?" Unbelief
   will say, "I dare not do that again. Lord, You shall never wash my
   feet. I cannot, I dare not make a servant of You for such common things
   as these. I will leave the great matters of salvation with You, but I
   will not come to You each day for ordinary things." But, Beloved,
   unless we do so--unless we live this life of reception of great Grace
   for little occasions. Unless we live receiving wonders of loving
   kindness which we feel we have no right to receive--marvels of mercy
   surpassing all expectation. Unless, I say, our life is made up of
   tender mercies of which we are utterly unworthy--Jesus is not washing
   our feet--and we have no part with Him.

   Put these four things together, and I think you have caught the thought
   of our Master. It is very blessed to think that the very first portion
   of the least Believer is to be washed, and this is the most essential
   thing of all. Though we may not as yet wear those brighter Graces which
   are the ornaments of the Christian life, and cannot as yet rejoice that
   we are

   full-grown men in Christ--yet if we are only little babes whose chief
   portion is to be washed, we have sure evidence of a part with Jesus.

   We may be too little to do much service. We may be too weak to achieve
   great victories. But if our Lord has but taken us to Himself, and
   washed us, we have a part with Him. The most essential thing, you see,
   is that which the feeblest and the newest born of all the heavenly
   family possesses. Washing is for every trembling sinner who trusts in
   Christ--and it is as good proof of a part in Christ as the highest
   degree of Grace.

   III. But I must pass on now to notice, in the third place, WHY THIS
   WASHING IS SO ESSENTIAL. And I answer,

   first, unless Christ washes us we have no part in Him because the
   claims of our Lord require it. Suppose a man shall say, "I have no need
   of washing." Brethren, it is clear that he has no part in Christ,
   because Christ came on purpose to cleanse His people from their sins.
   He came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. The whole
   have no need of a physician--only they that are sick.

   If a man does not take Jesus to be his Savior, he may say what he likes
   about Him, but he does not even know the meaning of His name. May not a
   very sincere person admire Christ's Character, and talk well of Him?
   Yes, and we shall be glad that he is able to go so far in the right
   way. But let not such a man deceive himself with the hope that he will
   be a partaker of any of the blessings which Christ brings unless he
   acknowledges that for which Christ is the Christ or the anointed
   One--namely, to bring the Gospel of salvation to the unworthy.

   One of old said, "Aut Caesar aut nullus"--he would be either Caesar or
   nobody. And so Jesus Christ will be either acknowledged the anointed
   Savior, or He will be nothing to you. If you will not take Him to be an
   Expiation for your sins, and the true Refiner of your life, you refuse
   Him altogether. Mere admiration of the physician gives no part in his
   healing power. The loudest praises of light give not vision to blind
   men. Jesus is either the Savior or nothing. For this He lived. For this
   He died. Alas, for those who will not receive Him in this Character! In
   the long run you shall always find that, despite their soft speeches,
   they have not received the true Christ of God.

   He who rejects Jesus as an atoning Sacrifice is sure to doubt His
   Godhead, and so to reject His grander nature. The deniers of the
   Atonement, who are supposed to be admirers of the example of Christ,
   generally turn out to be the greatest enemies to vital Christianity.
   There are no more real enemies of Christ than those who deny the
   doctrine of the Cross. If they do not accept Christ to wash them, they
   soon prove that they have no part in Him. Unless men need cleansing
   from sin, and unless His blood, alone, can cleanse them, Our Lord came
   on a frivolous errand--He descended to this world to perform an
   unnecessary work--and He was foolish enough to shed His blood with the
   most absurd of motives.

   If men need to be washed, then He came in Divine wisdom and
   philanthropy, and He lived and He died with an object worthy of His
   Divine mind--and His life was no mistake. But if men do not need
   cleansing, Christ's death was a mistake, and His whole life, I dare to
   say it, was a piece of base imposture--for He was evermore professing
   Himself to be the Savior of sinners, and the Pardoner of sin. He spoke
   of giving rest to the weary, and of saving the lost--if He could not
   save, or if men did not require saving--the life of Christ was a
   mistake, and His mission an imposition. Jesus Christ is nothing, His
   very name is ridiculous--if there are none to save, and if He is not a
   Savior anointed.

   You have no part in Christ, then, however much you applaud Him, unless
   you are washed by Him. You have rejected that for which He lived, and
   for which He died--you have despised that which He considers to be His
   noble lifework, and for the joy of which He gave Himself up to death,
   if you refuse to be washed by Him. Someone, perhaps, may say, "I
   believe I need washing, but I am confident I can purify myself. I have
   bad habits, and undesirable infirmities, but I can master the habits
   and can conquer the infirmity. I believe a man ought to be holy and
   become like God, and by diligent perseverance I conceive that I can do
   it."

   Do it, then, Sir. I challenge you to do it, but you certainly have no
   part in Christ. Whatever you may think of Christ, you can have no part
   in Him, for He comes on purpose to save His people from their sins. His
   very name is Jesus the Savior--for that same reason was He born--and if
   you can do it yourself, you are a rival to Him--you are an Antichrist.
   You will owe Him nothing, and you shall have no part in Him. Ah, see
   then, and mark it well--unless we are washed, we ignore the claims of
   Christ--we cast a slur upon the great labor of His life, and we rob Him
   of His main Glory.

   Furthermore, the Lord Jesus Christ is Himself so infinitely pure, so
   altogether holy, both as God and Man, that when we come to Him we must
   first be cleansed by Him before He can enter into fellowship with us.
   There is a fellowship with us as sinners which He graciously adopts,
   for He receives sinners and eats with them. But into fellowship with
   His

   deep thoughts, His blessed purposes, and His Divine Nature, He brings
   no man till first He has washed Him in His blood. If you refuse Him,
   then, as the Refiner who shall purify the sons of Levi, and take away
   their dross and sin, and then present them to Himself as much fine
   gold, you have refused all part in Christ.

   Again, the blessings which are in Christ are so spiritual that till we
   are cleansed we cannot enjoy them. Who can see God but those who are
   first made pure in heart? Who can have peace with God but those who are
   justified by faith? The blessings of the Covenant are not like oil and
   wine, which the ungodly man can rejoice in--neither are they like
   silver and gold, which the carnal heart can laugh over. But they are
   blessings, pure and refined, which the natural man knows not--which
   only the man renewed by the Spirit of God can ever prize--for to others
   they are far above and out of sight. You must be born again. You must
   be washed. You must be renewed in the spirit of your minds or else
   Heaven, itself, would not be a Heaven to you--and the things of the
   kingdom of God you could not know--its joys you could not enter into.
   Your lack of washing disqualifies you.

   Moreover, man's nature is such that if he did but know it, it is
   impossible for him to have part with Christ without washing. Peter did
   not see on his feet what Christ could see there. I mean not on the
   flesh of his feet, but on what they represent, namely, his daily life.
   Christ could see in Peter blots and blurs, and spots and defilement
   which made Him indeed say, "Alas, My poor Follower, you can have no
   part with Me unless I wash you. Poor Peter, if you did know yourself,
   you would see how impossible it is for Me to give you a portion with Me
   till first I have cleansed you." So, Brethren, if we had a sight of
   ourselves, a true sight in God's own light--instead of starting back
   from Christ the Purifier, we would cry to Him incessantly, "Wash me, O
   Lord, purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean--wash me, and I shall
   be whiter than snow."

   For all these reasons, then, the washing by our Master becomes a
   necessity. You cannot have a part in Christ unless you are washed by
   Him.

   IV. Just for a moment or two I shall ask you to think of some THINGS
   WHICH HAVE BEEN PUT FORWARD AS

   SUBSTITUTES for being washed by Jesus Christ.

   Peter had such a love for his Master, and such an admiration for Him
   that he very humbly said, "Do You wash my feet?" Now would not Peter's
   humble reverential estimation of Christ stand him in good place? Might
   he not be accepted even though his feet were not washed? Ah, no! "If I
   wash you not, you have no part in Me." If any of you feel your
   un-worthiness, and mourn it, and are kept back from Christ by the
   thought that you are not fit to be saved--will this humility, this
   supposed humility--save you? My Hearer, the answer is NO. Unless you
   have faith in Christ, and He washes you, you have no part in Him.

   No repentance, no remorse, no chastenings of your spirit, no humblings
   of your soul--if they exist apart from a living faith in Him--can give
   you any part in Him. O that you would give up this ruinous humility and
   trust in Jesus to cleanse you! For unless you do, though you humble
   yourself from morning to morning, and water the earth with your tears,
   and make your bed to swim with them--yet shall you have no part in
   Christ. Peter had performed distinguished service for his Master. He
   had gone with the other Apostles and preached the Gospel, and cast out
   devils. And he was one of those who returned and said, "Lord, even the
   devils are subject to us"--would not this do? Would not these
   achievements prove that Peter had part in Christ?

   He preached so boldly, he faced the crowd so nobly--would not that
   suffice? No, my dear Hearers. Though any of us should possess tongues
   of men and of angels, and give our bodies to be burned--yet if Christ
   washes us not, we have no part in Him. We must not hope that the noble
   service can stand in the place of the washing by the expiatory
   Atonement of Christ.

   But Peter had enjoyed very remarkable views of Christ's Glory. He was
   one of the three who went up the Mount of Transfiguration, and there
   saw the Lord in splendor. And at other times with the other two
   favorites of the Master, he had been admitted to sights denied to
   common eyes--would not all this prove his part in Jesus? I sometimes
   hear men and women boasting out of measure of the "coming Glory." And I
   know they give their chief attention to the prophecies of that Glory. I
   would not deny them all that they are likely to get from such studies.

   But I would remind them that it is not as glorified as the fact that
   Jesus puts away sin. He atoned for it as Christ Crucified, and as such
   He is our hope. Though a man bathe day after day in the very light of
   the Millennium, and though he understand all mysteries--yet if Jesus
   washes him not, if he has not justification through the blood, and
   holiness through

   the work of the Spirit--it profits him nothing. Visions of Glory,
   however transporting they may be, give you no part in

   Him.

   But Peter had walked on water once when his Master bade him come to
   Him! Though he did, at last, begin to sink, yet for awhile he trod the
   waves, and found the water marble beneath his feet. Did not that prove
   him to possess a part in Christ? No, my Brethren, not if Christ washed
   him not. If you had faith to remove mountains, yet if you had not this
   blood-washing, this daily washing, you would have no part in Christ.
   But this man Peter had received deep instruction! Did not his Master
   say, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood have not
   revealed it unto you"? Yes, but I add that though you possessed all
   knowledge, and could interpret all mysteries, yet if Jesus washes you
   not, you have no part in Him.

   It is not the power to occupy the pulpit. It is not the power to cast
   out a devil. It is not the power to work a miracle. It is not the
   power, even, to shake Heaven or earth that can prove you to have a part
   in Christ--it is the simply going down humbly to the fountain filled
   with blood and being washed there, which is the indispensable
   qualification--and nothing else can stand in the place of this. Peter,
   no doubt, was full of zealous enthusiasm. He could say, "Though all
   should deny You, yet will not I. I will go with You to prison and to
   death." But the greatest imaginable zeal does not prove a man to have a
   part in Christ if he is not truly washed.

   I do implore you, my dear Hearers, to do what I anxiously wish to do
   myself, namely, to make sure that you have been cleansed in the blood
   of Jesus. It is one thing to know about that blood. It is another thing
   to have it applied to the conscience. It is one thing to know you ought
   daily to be washed. It is quite another thing to get that daily
   washing. It is one thing to believe, "I ought to be holy." It is
   another thing to have the Holy Spirit dwelling in me to make me holy.
   It is one thing to see the faults of others--but quite another thing to
   confess my own and to be cleansed from them by the Savior.

   Search yourselves, I pray you. You may have but little time to do it
   in--therefore be on the alert, and examine yourself! For don't you hear
   the sentence, full of love and full of pity, and yet as stern as the
   thunderclaps which pealed from Sinai's Smoking summit--"If I wash you
   not, you have no part in Me"? If He does not justify you. If He does
   not daily forgive you. If He does not daily sanctify you. If He does
   not daily perform condescending deeds of tenderness and kindness
   towards you, you have no part in Him.

   V. So let us close with LESSONS OF WISDOM upon which I linger but a
   minute or two. The lesson of wisdom which comes first is this--let no
   supposed humility keep any of you from believing in Jesus Christ. The
   way of Grace is miracle from beginning to end. Stagger not, therefore,
   to begin with accepting a miracle of Grace. You say, "I cannot believe
   that Christ could forgive such a Hell-deserving sinner as I am. I have
   not any claims on Him. I have been such a wretch. I cannot think that
   simply on my trusting Him, He, out of His abundant mercy, will forgive
   my sins."

   My dear Friend, if you cannot believe that to begin with--it is but the
   commencement miracle--there are still greater things than these! "But I
   am so unworthy!" I know you are, it is all true--you are much more
   unworthy than you have any idea of. You do not deserve to live. You do
   not deserve to be out of Hell. But since God is gracious, and He bids
   you trust Christ and you shall live, do not be damned because you are
   too proudly humble to be saved! You tell me I speak sarcastically. I
   tell you, rather, I speak the Truth of God. It is Satan who deceives
   you by making you believe that there is any humility in doubting the
   mercy of God in Christ Jesus!

   What if you are the worst sinner out of damnation? If God tells you He
   will save you upon your believing and being baptized, why, Man, believe
   and be baptized and be saved! And may God the Holy Spirit lead you to
   do that now. What have you to do with saying it is too good a thing? If
   God chooses to give it, who are you to say it is too good? You must be
   washed by Christ or else perish! O do not stand back because it seems
   too good for you to receive! You must be washed, I say, or perish! Take
   the good that God provides you and be grateful for it.

   What if God Himself came down from Heaven and put on human flesh and
   suffered and died that you might not suffer and die? I grant you it is
   a miracle that makes the very seraphim astonished and causes the whole
   universe to tremble with amazement. But why do you draw back from it
   and say, "Because it is so great I will not receive it"? Do you refuse
   the air because a bounteous God has made it so abundant? Do you refuse
   to drink of the river because it is so deep and broad? Will you refuse
   God's mercy because that mercy is so illimitable, so vast, so Divine? O
   do not! I say again, damn not yourself under pretense of humility--but
   come as you are, and accept the mercy which is freely presented to you
   in

   Christ Jesus, in the Gospel which He has bid us preach. Remember, "He
   that believes and is baptized, shall be saved. He that believes not,
   shall be damned."

   A further lesson of wisdom is this--as you must not let a supposed
   humility keep you back, so let no other kind of feeling keep you from
   Christ. The feeling may seem to be very right and very proper, but if
   it prevents your being saved, it is a bad feeling. I know your human
   nature may excuse it and say, "Why, this is commendable for a man to
   feel his sin so great! Is it not even praiseworthy?" I answer, nothing
   is commendable which makes a man think that God cannot forgive him.
   Feel your sin to be as great as you will, but do not, therefore,
   slander God as though He were unwilling to forgive you.

   Your feeling may look pretty in the darkness of your ignorance, but in
   the brightness of the eternal light, any feeling that keeps you away
   from the Cross and away from your Father God is a damnable feeling, and
   therefore away with it! Believe at once! I charge you to believe in the
   name of Jesus of Nazareth! I, His servant charge you in His
   name--believe Him! As He spoke to the winds and they were hushed, and
   to the waves and they were stilled, so in His name I speak to you all!
   I say trust Him and you shall find peace for your spirit and joy for
   your soul, both now and forever.

   The last word shall be this--remember, my dear Friends, what you are if
   you remain unwashed. And remember what you will be if you are washed.
   If you remain unwashed you have no part in Him. The past unforgiven,
   the present unchanged, the future unsanctified. There remains for you,
   when the dread summons comes that shall separate your soul from your
   body, nothing that can comfort, nothing that can afford a ray of hope.
   Convicted before the bar of God of ten thousand offenses against His
   righteous Law, convicted of mad, insane rebellion against God in having
   refused the Gospel of His dear Son, you must be driven from His
   Presence. And I warn you that within the cover of His Book there is not
   so much as a single jot or tittle that breathes anything like
   consolation to a spirit that has once been condemned of God after
   death.

   Men have tried to contort this Bible and make it say something that
   might encourage a soul to reject Christ. But there is here nothing but
   a fearful looking for ofjudgment and of fiery indignation which shall
   devour the unbeliever. It is now or never with you! I beseech you--look
   to Jesus Christ and live! To be washed! How simple! Nothing is asked of
   you but to take what Christ has made ready for you. To be washed! How
   necessary! To be washed now! How easy! O cast not away the promise of
   God through unbelief, but accept the washing, lest you cast yourself
   into eternal condemnation!

   If you believe in Jesus now, you shall be cleansed, your life shall
   become new. The preaching of morality helps but little. Men have been
   preached at with morality till they have become drunkards and swearers.
   Vice laughs at the preaching of morality. But the preaching of Christ
   Crucified and the Gospel of Substitution is efficacious--as many here
   are testifying by their renewed lives and changed behavior.

   Trust Christ, then, and as your present life will be changed, your
   future life will be unboundedly blessed. When your turn shall come to
   depart out of the world unto the Father, you shall be with Jesus where
   He is--and you shall behold His Glory. Oh, then, be washed and have
   part in all the splendor that is to be revealed! Be washed now, and His
   shall be the glory. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Martha And Mary

   (No. 927)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, APRIL 24, 1870,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Now it came to pass, as they went, that He entered into a certain
   village: and a certain woman named Martha received Him into her house.
   And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus 'feet, and
   heard His Word. But Martha was cumbered aboutmuch serving, and came to
   Him, and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has leftme to serve
   alone? Bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said
   unto her, 'Martha, Martha, you are careful and troubled about many
   things: but one thing is needful: and Mary has chosen that good part,
   which shall not be taken away from her." Luke 10:38-42.

   IT is not an easy thing to maintain the balance of our spiritual life.
   No man can be spiritually healthy who does not meditate and commune. No
   man, on the other hand, is as he should be unless he is active and
   diligent in holy service. David sweetly sang, "He makes me to lie down
   in green pastures." There was the contemplative. "He leads me beside
   the still waters." There was the active and progressive. The difficulty
   is to maintain the two--and to keep each in its relative proportion to
   the other. We must not be so active as to neglect communion, nor so
   contemplative as to become unpractical.

   In the chapter from which our text is taken we have several lessons on
   this subject. The seventy disciples returned from their preaching tour
   flushed with the joy of success. And our Savior, to refine that joy and
   prevent its degenerating into pride, bids them rather rejoice that
   their names were written in Heaven. He conducted their contemplations
   to the glorious doctrine of election, that grateful thoughts might
   sober them after successful work. He bids them consider themselves as
   debtors to Divine Grace, which reveals unto babes the mysteries of
   God--for He would not allow their new position as workers to make them
   forget that they were the chosen of God--and therefore debtors.

   Our wise Master next returns to the subject of service, and instructs
   them by the memorable parable of the good Samaritan and the wounded
   man. And then as if they might vainly imagine philanthropy, as it is
   the service of Christ, to be the only service of Christ, and to be the
   only thing worth living for, He brings in the two sisters of Bethany.
   The Holy Spirit meant thereby to teach us that while we ought to abound
   in service, and to do good abundantly to our fellow men, yet we must
   not fail in worship, in spiritual reverence, in meek discipleship, and
   quiet contemplation. While we are practical, like the
   seventy--practical like the Samaritan--practical like Martha, we are,
   also, like the Savior, to rejoice in spirit, and say, "Father, I thank
   You," and we are also like Mary, to sit down in quietude and nourish
   our souls with Divine Truth.

   This short narrative, I suppose, might be paraphrased something after
   this fashion. Martha and Mary were two most excellent sisters, both
   converted, both lovers of Jesus, both loved by Jesus, for we are
   expressly told that He loved Mary and Martha and Lazarus. They were
   both women of a choice spirit--our savior's selection of their house as
   a frequent resort proved that they were an unusually gracious family.
   They are persons representative of different forms of excellence, and I
   think it altogether wrong to treat Martha as some have done, as if she
   had no love for good things, and was nothing better than a mere
   worldling. It was not so.

   Martha was a most estimable and earnest woman, a true Believer, and an
   ardent follower of Jesus whose joy it was to entertain Jesus at the
   house of which she was the mistress. When our Lord made His appearance
   on this occasion at Bethany, the first thought of Martha was, "Here is
   our most noble guest, we must prepare for Him a sumptuous
   entertainment." Perhaps she marked our Savior's weariness, or saw some
   traces of that exhaustion which made Him look so much older than He
   was. And she, therefore, set to work with the utmost diligence to
   prepare a feast for Him.

   She was careful about many things, and as she went on with her
   preparations, fresh matters occurred to ruffle her mind, and she became
   worried. And, being somewhat vexed that her sister took matters so
   coolly, she begged the Master

   to upbraid her. Now Mary had looked upon the occasion from another
   point of view. As soon as she saw Jesus come into the house she
   thought, "What a privilege have I now to listen eagerly to such a
   Teacher, and to treasure up His precious words! He is the Son of God, I
   will worship, I will adore, and every word He utters shall be stored in
   my memory."

   She forgot the needs both of the Master and His followers, for her
   faith saw the inner Glory which dwelt within Him. She was so
   overpowered with reverence, and so wrapt in devout wonder, that she
   became oblivious of all outward things. She had no faults to find with
   Martha for being so busy. She did not even think of Martha--she was
   altogether taken up with her Lord and with those gracious words which
   He was speaking. She had no will, either, to censure or to praise or to
   think even of herself. Everything was gone from her but her Lord and
   the word which He was uttering.

   See, then, that Martha was serving Christ, but so was Mary. Martha
   meant to honor Christ, so did Mary. They both agreed in their design,
   but they differed in their way of carrying it out. And while Martha's
   service is not censured (only her being cumbered comes under the
   censure), yet Mary is expressly commended, as having chosen the good
   part. And therefore we do Martha no injustice if we show wherein she
   came short, and wherein Mary exceeded.

   Our first observation will be this--the Martha spirit is very prevalent
   in the Church of God just now. In the second place, the Martha spirit
   very much injures true service. In the third place, the Mary spirit is
   the source of the noble form of consecration.

   I. THE MARTHA SPIRIT IS VERY PREVALENT IN THE CHURCH at this
   period--prevalent in some quarters to a mischievous degree--and among
   us all to a perilous extent. What do we intend by saying that the
   Martha spirit is prevalent just now? We mean, first, that there is a
   considerable tendency among Christian people, in serving Christ, to aim
   at making a fair show in the flesh. Martha wanted to give our Lord
   right worthy entertainment which should be a credit to her house and to
   her family--and herein she is commendable far above those careless ones
   who think anything good enough for Christ.

   So also, among professing Christians, there is at this present time a
   desire to give to the cause of Christ buildings notable for their
   architecture and beauty. We must have no more barns. Our meeting houses
   must exhibit our improving taste. If possible, our chapels must be
   correctly Gothic or sternly classical in all their details, both
   without and within. As to the service, we must cultivate the musical
   and the tasteful. We are exhorted not to be barely decent, but to aim
   at the sublime and beautiful. Our public worship, it is thought, should
   be impressive if not imposing. Care should be taken that the music
   should be chaste, the singing conformed to the best rules of the arts,
   and the preaching eloquent and attractive.

   So everything in connection with Christian labor should be made to
   appear generous and noble. By all means the subscription lists must be
   kept current. Each denomination must excel the other in the amount of
   its annual funds-- surely everything done for Christ ought to be done
   in the best possible style. Now in all this there is much that is good,
   much that is really intended to honor the Lord, so we see no room to
   censure--but yet we will show you a more excellent way. These things
   you may do, but there are higher things which you must do, or suffer
   loss.

   Brethren, there is something better to be studied than the outward, for
   though this may be aimed at with a single eye to God's Glory--and we
   judge no man--yet we fear the tendency is to imagine that mere
   externals are precious in the Master's sight. I know He counts it a
   very small matter whether your House of Prayer is a cathedral or a
   barn. To the Savior it is small concern whether you have organs or
   whether you have none--whether you sing after the choicest rules of
   psalmody or not. He looks at your hearts, and if these ascend to Him.
   He accepts the praise. As for those thousands of pounds annually
   contributed, He estimates them not by the weights of the merchant, but
   after the balances of the sanctuary.

   Your love expressed in your gifts He values, but what are the mere
   silver and gold to Him? Funds, and encouraging accounts, and
   well-arranged machineries are well if they exist as the outgrowth of
   fervent love--but if they are the end-all, and the be-all--you miss the
   mark. Jesus would be better pleased with a grain of love than a heap of
   ostentatious service. The Martha spirit shows itself in the censuring
   of those persons who are careful about Christ's Word, who stand up for
   the doctrines of the Gospel, who desire to maintain the Ordinances as
   they were delivered unto them, and who are scrupulous and thoughtful,
   and careful concerning the Truth as it is in Jesus.

   In newspapers, on platforms, and in common talk, you frequently hear
   earnest disciples of Jesus and consistent Believers in His doctrines
   snubbed and denounced as unpractical. Theological questions are scouted
   as mere impertinences. Go in for Ragged schools, certainly. Reclaim the
   Arabs of the street, by all manner of means. Pass a compulsory educa-

   tion bill, certainly. Soup kitchens, free dinners--all excellent. We
   can all join in these. But never mention creeds and doctrines. Why,
   Man, you cannot be aware of the enlightenment of our times! What
   importance can now be attached to mere biblical dogmas and ordinances?
   Why contend as to whether Baptism shall be performed upon a babe or
   upon a Believer, whether it shall be by sprinkling or by immersion?
   What matters the Law of Christ in such a case?

   These things would do for the schoolmen of the Dark Ages to fight
   about, but what can be the importance of such trifles in this highly
   enlightened nineteenth century? Yes, that is the exaggeration of
   Martha. Mary, treasuring up every word of Christ, Mary counting each
   syllable a pearl, is reckoned to be unpractical, if not altogether
   idle. That spirit, I fear, is growing in these times, and needs to be
   checked. After all, there is Truth and there is error, and charitable
   talk cannot alter the fact. To know and to love the Gospel is no mean
   thing. Obedience to Jesus, and anxiety to learn His will so as to
   please Him in all things are not secondary matters.

   Contemplation, worship, and growth in Grace are not unimportant. I
   trust we shall not give way to the spirit which despises our Lord's
   teaching, for if we do--in prizing the fruit and despising the root--we
   shall lose the fruit and the root, too. In forgetting the great
   well-spring of holy activity, namely, personal piety, we shall miss the
   streams, also. From the sincerity of faith and the fervor of love
   practical Christianity must arise. And if the food that faith and love
   feed upon is withdrawn. If sitting at the feet of Jesus is regarded as
   of secondary consequence, then both strength and will to serve the Lord
   will decline.

   I dread much the spirit which would tamper with the Truth of God for
   the sake of united action, or for any object under Heaven--the
   latitudinarian spirit, which sneers at creeds and dogmas. Truth is no
   trifle. Our fathers did not think so, when, at the stake they gave
   themselves to death, or on the brown heather of Scotland fell beneath
   the swords of Claverhouse's dragoons for truths which nowadays men
   count unimportant, but which, being truths, were to them so vital that
   they would sooner die than suffer them to be dishonored. O for the same
   uncompromising love of the Truth! Would to God we could be both active
   and studious, and both learn with Mary and work with Martha!

   The Martha spirit crops up in our reckoning so many things necessary.
   Martha believed that to entertain Christ there must be many things
   prepared. As to leaving one of those things out--it could not be. Our
   Lord would have been satisfied enough with the simplest fare--a piece
   of fish or of a honeycomb would well have contented Him. But no,
   according to Martha's judgment there must be this, and there must be
   that. So is it with many good people now. They have their ideas of
   excellence, and if these cannot be realized they despair of doing
   anything acceptable for Christ.

   I believe an educated ministry to be desirable, but none the less do I
   deplore the spirit which considers it to be essential. In the presence
   of the fishermen of Galilee we dare not subscribe to the necessity
   which with some is beyond doubt. You must not, according to the talk of
   some, allow these earnest young people to set about preaching, and your
   converted coal miners and fiddlers should be stopped at once. The Holy
   Spirit has in all ages worked by men of His own choosing. But some
   Churches today would not let Him if they could help it. Their pulpits
   are closed against the most holy and useful preachers if they have not
   those many things with which the Church nowadays cumbers her ministers
   and herself.

   Then, my Brethren, to carry on a good work it is thought needful to
   have a Society and large funds. I also approve of the Society and the
   funds. I only regret that they should be so viewed as prime necessaries
   that few will stir without them. The idea of sending out a missionary
   with a few pounds in his hands as in the day's of Carey, is set down in
   many quarters as absurd. How can you save souls without a committee?
   How can London be evangelized till you have raised at least a million
   of money? Can you hope to see men converted without an annual meeting
   in Exeter Hall? You must have a secretary--there is no moving an inch
   till he is elected.

   And know you not that without a committee you can do nothing? All these
   and a thousand things, which time fails me to mention, are now deemed
   to be necessary for the service of Jesus. It is such that a
   true-hearted soul who could do much for his Lord scarcely dares to move
   till he has put on Paul's armor of human patronage. O for Apostolic
   simplicity, going everywhere preaching the Word, and consecrating the
   labor of every Believer to soul-winning. To bring us back to first
   principles, "one thing is needful," and if by sitting at Jesus' feet we
   can find that one thing, it will stand us in better place than all the
   thousand things which custom now demands.

   To catch the Spirit of Christ, to be filled with Himself--this will
   equip us for godly labor as nothing else can. May all Christians yet
   come to put this one thing first and foremost, and count the power of
   deep piety to be the one essential

   qualification for holy work. The censurable quality in the Martha
   spirit appears in the satisfaction which many feel with more activity.
   To have done so much preaching, or so much Sunday school teaching. To
   have distributed so many tracts, to have made so many calls by our
   missionaries--all this seems to be looked at as end rather than means.
   If there is so much effort put forth, so much work is done--is it not
   enough?

   Our reply is, it is not enough. It is nothing without the Divine
   blessing. Brethren, where mere work is prized, and the inner life
   forgotten, prayer comes to be at a discount. The committee is attended,
   but the Prayer Meeting forsaken. The gathering together for
   supplication is counted little compared with the collecting of
   subscriptions. The opening prayer at public meetings is regarded as a
   very proper thing. But there are those who regard it as a mere
   formality, which might be very well laid aside, and, therefore,
   invariably come in after prayer is over. It will be an evil day for us
   when we trust in the willing and the running, and practically attempt
   to do without the Holy Spirit.

   This lofty estimate of mere activity for its own sake throws the
   acceptance of our work into the shade. The Martha spirit says, if the
   work is done, is not that all? The Mary spirit asks whether Jesus is
   well-pleased or not. All must be done in His name and by His Spirit, or
   nothing is done. Restless service, which sits not at His feet, is but
   the clattering of a mill which turns without, grinding corn. It is but
   an elaborate method of doing nothing. I do not want less activity--how
   earnestly do I press you to it almost every Sunday. But I do pray that
   we may feel that all our strength lies in God and that we can only be
   strong as we are accepted of Christ. And we can only be accepted in
   Christ as we wait upon Him in prayer, trust Him, and live upon Him.

   You may compass sea and land to make your proselytes, but if you have
   not the Spirit of Christ you are none of His. You may rise up early and
   sit up late, and eat the bread of sorrows, but unless you trust in the
   Lord your God, you shall not prosper. The joy of the Lord is your
   strength. They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.
   Without Christ you can do nothing. Has He not told you, "He that abides
   in Me, and I in Him, the same brings forth much fruit"? Was it not
   written of old, "I am like a green fir tree: from Me is your fruit
   found"?

   Once more, Martha's spirit is predominant in the Church of God to a
   considerable extent, now, in the evident respect which is paid to the
   manifest--and the small regard which is given to the secret. All
   regenerated persons ought to be workers for God and with God--but let
   the working never swamp the believing--never let the servant be more
   prominent than the Son! Never, because you conduct a class, or are
   chief man at a village station, forget that you are a sinner saved by
   Grace and have need, still, to be looking to the Crucified, and finding
   all your life in Him. You lose your strength as a worker if you forget
   your dependence as a Believer.

   To labor for Christ is a pleasant thing, but beware of doing it
   mechanically. And this you can only prevent by diligently cultivating
   personal communion with Christ. My Brother, it may be you will
   undertake so much service that your time will be occupied and you will
   have no space for prayer and reading the Word. The half-hour in the
   morning for prayer will be cut short, and the time allotted for
   communion with God in the evening will be gradually entrenched upon by
   this engagement and the other occupation--and when this is the case I
   tremble for you. You are killing the steed by spurring it and denying
   it food. You are undermining your house by drawing out the stones from
   the foundation to pile them at the top.

   You are doing your soul serious mischief if you put the whole of your
   strength into that part of your life which is visible to men, and
   forget that portion of your life which is secret between you and your
   God. To gather up all in one, I fear there is a great deal among us of
   religious activity of a very inferior sort. It concerns itself with the
   external of service. It worries itself with merely human efforts and it
   attempts, in its own strength, to achieve Divine results. The real
   working which God will accept is that which goes hand in hand with a
   patient waiting upon Christ--with heart searching, with supplication,
   with communion--with a childlike dependence upon Jesus. With a firm
   adhesion to His Truth, with an intense love to His Person, and an
   abiding in Him at all seasons. May we have more of such things!
   Martha's spirit, though excellent in itself, so far as it goes, must
   not overshadow Mary's quiet, deep-seated piety, or evil will come

   of it.

   II. Secondly, we observe that THE MARTHA SPIRIT INJURES TRUE SERVICE.
   Service may be true, and yet

   somewhat marred upon the wheel. Give your attention not so much to what
   I say, as to the bearing of it upon yourselves. It may be that you will
   find, as we speak, that you have been verily guilty touching these
   things. The Martha spirit brings the least welcome offering to Christ.
   It is welcome, but it is the least welcome.

   Our Lord Jesus, when on earth, was more satisfied by conversing to a
   poor Samaritan woman than He would have been by the best meat and
   drink. In carrying on His spiritual work He had meat to eat that His
   disciples knew not of. Evermore His spiritual Nature was predominant
   over His physical Nature, and those persons who brought Him spiritual
   gifts brought Him the gifts which He preferred. Here, then, was
   Martha's dish of well-cooked meat, but there was Mary's gift of a
   humble obedient heart. Here was Martha decking the table, but there was
   Mary submitting her judgment to the Lord, and looking up with wondering
   eyes as she heard His matchless speech.

   Mary was bringing to Jesus the better offering. With Martha, He would,
   in His condescension, be pleased. But in Mary He found satisfaction.
   Martha's service He accepted benevolently, but Mary's worship He
   accepted with complacency. Now, Brothers and Sisters, all that you can
   give to Christ in any shape or form will not be so dear to Him as the
   offering of your fervent love, the clinging of your humble faith, the
   reverence of your adoring souls. Do not, I pray you, neglect the
   spiritual for the sake of the external, or else you will be throwing
   away gold to gather iron to yourself. You will be pulling down the
   palaces of marble that you may build for yourselves hovels of clay.

   Martha's spirit has this mischief about it, also, that it brings self
   too much to remembrance. We would not severely judge Martha, but we
   conceive that in some measure she aimed at making the service a credit
   to herself as the mistress of the house. At any rate, self came up when
   she began to grow weary, and complained that she was left to serve
   alone. We also want our work to show well as our work. We like those
   who see it to commend it, and if none commend it, we feel that we are
   treated badly, and are left to work alone. Now, to the extent in which
   I think of myself in my service I spoil it. Self must sink, and Christ
   be All in All. John the Baptist's saying must be our motto, "He must
   increase, I must decrease." For Jesus' shoelace we are not worthy to
   unloose. Too much work and too little fellowship will always bring self
   into prominence. Self must be prayed down, and fellowship with Jesus
   must keep it down.

   Martha seemed to fancy that what she was doing was necessary for
   Christ. She was cumbered about much serving because she thought it
   necessary that there should be a noble entertainment for the Lord. We
   are still too apt to think that Jesus wants our work, and that He
   cannot do without us. The preacher enquires what would become of the
   Church if he were removed! The deacon is suspicions that if he were
   taken away there would be a great gap left in the leadership of the
   Church. The teacher of a class feels that those children would never be
   converted, Christ would miss of the travail of His soul but for him.

   Ah, but a fly on St. Paul's Cathedral might as well imagine that all
   the traffic at his feet was regulated by his presence, and would cease,
   should he be removed. I love you to think that Christ will do much work
   by you, and to attach as much weight as you can to your
   responsibilities, but as to Jesus needing us--the thing is
   preposterous! Mary is much wiser when she feels, "He desires me to
   receive His words, and yield Him my love. I would gladly give Him meat,
   but He will see to that. He is the Master of all things, and can do
   without me or Martha. I need Him far more than He can need

   me."

   We spoil our service when we overestimate its importance, for this
   leads us into loftiness and pride. Martha, under the influence of this
   high temper, came to complain of her sister, and to complain of her
   Lord, too, as if He were excusing her idleness. "Do You not care that
   my sister has left me to serve alone?" How it spoils what we do for
   Christ when we go about it with a haughty spirit! When we feel, "I can
   do this, and it is grand to do that"--am I not somewhat better than
   others? "Must not my Master think well of me?" The humble worker wins
   the day. God accepts the man who feels his nothingness, and out of the
   depths cries to Him.

   But the great ones He will put down from their seat, and send the rich
   ones away empty. Activity, if not balanced by devotion, tends to puff
   us up and so to prevent acceptance with God. Martha also fell into an
   unbelieving vexation. Her idea of what was necessary to be done was so
   great that she found she could not attain to it. There must be this
   side dish, and there must be that principal meat. There must be this
   meat and that wine, it must be cooked just so many minutes. This must
   be done to a turn, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on.

   And now time flies and she fears yonder guest has been slighted. That
   servant is not back from the market. Many things go wrong when you are
   most anxious to have them right. You good housewives who may have had
   large parties to prepare for, know what these cares mean, I dare say.
   And something of the sort troubled Martha so that she became fretful
   and unbelieving. She had a work to do beyond her strength, as she
   thought, and her faith failed her, and her unbelief went petulantly to
   complain to her Lord. Have we never erred in the same way? We must have
   that Sunday school excel-

   lently conducted, that morning Prayer Meeting must be improved, that
   Bible class must be revived, our morning sermon must be a telling one,
   and so on!

   The preacher here speaks of himself, for he sometimes feels that there
   is too much responsibility laid upon his shoulders, and he is very apt
   in reviewing his great field of labor to grow desponding in spirit. But
   when the preacher confessed that he spoke of himself, he only did so
   because he represents his fellow workers, and you also grow faint and
   doubtful. Alas, in such a case the enjoyment of service evaporates, the
   fretfulness which pines over details spoils the whole, and the worker
   becomes a mere drudge and scullion instead of an angel who does God's
   commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His Word.

   Instead of glowing and burning like seraphs, our chariot wheels are
   taken off by our anxiety, and we drag heavily. Faith it is that secures
   acceptance, but when unbelief comes in, the work falls flat to the
   ground. At such times when the man or the Church shall become subject
   to the Martha spirit, the voluntary principle falls a little into
   disrepute. I believe the voluntary principle is the worst thing in all
   the world to work where there is no Divine Grace. But where there is
   Grace it is the one principle that God accepts.

   Now, Martha would have Mary made to serve Christ. What right has she to
   be sitting down there? Whether she likes it or not, she must get up and
   wait like her sister. Martha's voluntary desire to do much leads her to
   think that Mary, if she has not quite such a voluntary love for the
   work, must be driven to it--must have a sharp word from Christ about
   it. So it is with us. We are so willing to contribute to the Lord's
   work that we wish we had ten thousand times as much to give. Our heart
   is warm within us, and we feel we would make no reserve--and then are
   so grieved with others because they give so very little that we wish we
   could compel them to give!

   And so we would put their cankered money into the same treasury with
   the bright freewill offerings of the saints, as if the Lord would
   receive such beggarly pittances squeezed out by force in the same
   manner as He accepts the voluntary gifts of His people! It were wiser
   if we left those unwilling contributions to rust in the pockets of
   their owners. For in the long run I believe they do not help the
   cause--only that which is given out of a generous spirit, and out of
   love to Christ--will come up accepted before Him. Too readily do we get
   away from the free spirit when we get away from the right spirit. The
   fact is, the Martha spirit spoils all, because it gets us away from the
   inner soul of service, as I have said before, to the mere husks of
   service.

   We cease to do work as to the Lord, we labor too much for the service's
   sake. The main thing in our minds is the service, and not the Master.
   We are cumbered, and He is forgotten. Thus have I indicated as briefly
   as I could, some of the weaknesses of the Martha spirit.

   III. Now for THE MARY SPIRIT. I have to show you that it is capable of
   producing the noble form of consecration to Christ. Its noble results
   will not come just yet. Martha's fruits ripen very quickly, Mary's take
   time. When Lazarus was dead, you will remember Martha ran to meet
   Christ, but Mary sat still in the house. Martha wanted her own time,
   Mary could take Christ's time. So after awhile, just before our Lord's
   death, we find that Mary did a grand thing--she did what Martha never
   thought of doing--she brought forth a box of precious ointment and
   poured it on the Lord's head, and anointed Him with ointment.

   While she was sitting at Christ's feet, she was forming and filling the
   springs of action. You are not losing time while you are feeding the
   soul. While by contemplation you are getting purpose strengthened and
   motive purified, you are rightly using time. When the man becomes
   intense, when he gets within him principles vital, fervent,
   energetic--then when the season for work comes he will work with a
   power and a result which empty people can never attain--however busy
   they may be. If the stream flows at once, as soon as ever there is a
   shower, it must be little better than a trickling rivulet. But if the
   current stream is dammed up, so that for awhile nothing pours down the
   river bed, you will, in due time, when the waters have gathered
   strength, witness a torrent before which nothing can stand.

   Mary was filling up the fountain head. She was listening and learning,
   feeding, edifying, loving, and growing strong. The engine of her soul
   was getting its steam ready, and when all was right, her action was
   prompt and forcible. Meanwhile, the manner of her action was being
   refined. Martha's actions were good, but, if I may use the word, they
   were commonplace. She must make a great feed for the Lord Jesus, just
   as for any earthly friend. The spiritual nature of Christ she had
   forgotten, she was providing nothing for it. But Mary's estimate of
   Christ was of a truer order. She looked at Him as a Priest. She viewed
   Him as a Prophet. She adored Him as a King.

   She had heard Him speak about dying, and had listened to His testimony
   about suffering, and dimly guessing what it meant, she prepared the
   precious spikenard that before the dying should come she might anoint
   Him. The woman's deed was full of meaning and of instruction. It was,
   indeed, an embodied poem. The odor that filled the house was the
   perfume of love and elevated thought. She became refined in her actions
   by the process of musing and learning. Those who think not, who
   meditate not, who commune not with Christ, will do commonplace things
   very well. But they will never rise to the majesty of a spiritual
   conception, or carry out a heart-suggested work for Christ.

   That sitting of Mary was also creating originality of art. I tried, two
   Sundays ago, to enforce upon you the duty of originality of service as
   the right thing--that as we wandered, everyone in his own way, we
   should each serve God in his own way, according to our peculiar
   adaptation and circumstances. Now this blessed woman did so. Martha is
   in a hurry to be doing something--she does what any other admirer of
   Jesus would do--she prepares meat and a festival. But Mary does what
   but one or two besides herself would think of--she anoints Him--and is
   honored in the deed.

   She struck out a spark of light from herself as her own thought, and
   she cherished that spark till it became a flaming act. I would that in
   the Church of God we had many Sisters at Jesus' feet who at last would
   start up under an inspiration and say, "I have thought of something
   that will bring glory to God which the Church has not heard of before.
   And this will I put in practice, that there may be a fresh gem in my
   Redeemer's crown." This sitting at the Master's feet guaranteed the
   real spirituality of what she did. Did you notice when I read what the
   Master said concerning the pouring of the ointment upon Him, "She has
   kept this for My burial"?

   He praised her for keeping it, as well as for giving it. I suppose that
   for months she had set apart that particular ointment, and held it in
   reserve. Much of the sweetest aroma of a holy work lies in its being
   thought over and brought out with deliberation. There are works to be
   done at once and straightway. But there are some other works to be
   weighed and considered. What shall I do to praise my Savior? There is a
   cherished scheme, there is a plan, the details of which shall be prayed
   out, and every single part of it sculptured in the imagination and
   realized in the heart. And then the soul shall wait, delighting herself
   in prospect of the deed, until the dear purpose may be translated into
   fact.

   It is well to wait, expectantly saying, "Yes, the set time will come. I
   shall be able to do the deed. I shall not go down to my grave
   altogether without having been serviceable. It is not yet the time, it
   is not yet the appropriate season, and I am not quite ready for it
   myself. But I will add Grace to Grace and virtue to virtue, and I will
   add self-denial to self-denial, till I am fit to accomplish the one
   chosen work." So the Savior praised Mary that she had kept this--kept
   it till the fit moment came before His burial. And then, but not till
   then, she had poured out and revealed her love. Yes, it is not your
   thoughtless service, performed while your souls are half asleep--it is
   that which you do for Christ with eyes that overflow--with hearts that
   swell with emotion. It is this that Jesus accepts.

   May we have more of such service, as we shall have if we have more of
   sitting at His feet. Christ accepted her. He said she had chosen the
   good part which should not be taken from her. And if our work is
   spiritual, intense, fervent, thoughtful. If it springs out of
   fellowship. If it is the outgushing of deep principles, of inward
   beliefs, of solemn gratitude--then our piety shall never be taken from
   us--it will be an enduring thing. It will not be like the mere
   activities of Martha-- things that come and go.

   I have thus worked out my text. I shall utter but two or three words
   upon the general applications of it. I shall apply it to three or four
   things very briefly. Brethren, I believe in our Nonconformity. I
   believe if ever England wanted Nonconformists it is now. But there is a
   tendency to make Nonconformity become a thing of externals, dealing
   with State and Church and politics. The political relations of
   Nonconformists--I believe in their value--I would not have a man less
   earnest upon them. But I am always fearful lest we should forget that
   Nonconformity is nothing if it is not spiritual-- and that the moment
   we, as Dissenters, become merely political or formal--it is all over
   with us.

   Our strength is at the Master's feet, and I am afraid for our
   Nonconformity if it lives elsewhere. I mark so much conformity to the
   world, so much laxity of rule, so much love of novel opinions, that I
   tremble. I wish we could go back to Puritanism. We are getting too lax.
   There is too much worldliness and carnality among us. There is little
   fear of our being censured, even by the world, for being too
   Particular. I am afraid we are too much like the world for the world to
   hate us. As I pray that Nonconformity may always prevail in England, so
   I earnestly pray that she may stand because she abides near to Christ,
   holds His Truth, prizes His Word, and lives upon Himself.

   Now the like is true of missions. Apply the principle there. God bless
   missions. Our prayer goes up for them as warmly as for our soul's
   salvation. But the strength of missions must lie not so much in
   arrangements, in committees, in money, in men--as in waiting upon the
   Christ of God. We shall not do any more with a hundred thousand pounds
   than with a single thousand, unless we get more Divine Grace. We shall
   not have more souls won with fifty missionaries than with five, unless
   we get ten times the amount of power from the right hand of the Most
   High. The waking up in missions needs to begin in our Prayer Meetings,
   and in our Churches. In our personal wrestlings with God for the
   conversion of the heathen must lie the main strength of the workers
   that go out to do the deed. Let us remember this--Mary shall yet pour
   the box of ointment upon the head of the Anointed--Martha cannot do it.

   The same thing is true in revivals. Persons will talk about getting up
   a revival--of all things I do believe one of the most detestable of
   transactions. "If you want a revival of religion," it is said, "you,
   must get Mr. So-and-So to preach"--with him I suppose is the residue of
   the Spirit. Oh, but if you want a revival, you must adopt the methods
   so long in vogue, and so well known as connected with such-and-such a
   revival! I suppose the Spirit of God is no more a free Spirit, then, as
   He used to be in the olden times. And whereas of old He breathed where
   He wished, you fancy your methods and plans can control Him. It is not
   so. It is not so in any degree.

   The way to get the revival is to begin at the Master's feet! You must
   go there with Mary and afterwards you may work with Martha. When every
   Christian's heart is acting right by feeding on Christ's Word and
   drinking in Christ's Spirit, then will the revival come. When we had
   the long drought, some farmers watered their grass, but found it did
   but very little good. An Irish gentleman remarked in my hearing that he
   had always noticed that when it rained there were clouds about, and so
   all the air was in right order for the descent of rain.

   We have noticed the same, and it so happens that the clouds and general
   constitution of the atmosphere have much to do with the value of
   moisture for the herbs. It is no good watering them in the sun, the
   circumstances do not benefit them. So with revivals. Certain things
   done under certain circumstances become abundantly useful, but if you
   have not similar circumstances, you may use the same machinery, but
   mischief instead of good will follow. Begin yourself with the Master,
   and then go outward to His service, but plans of action must be
   secondary.

   So too, lastly, if you want to serve God, as I trust you do, I charge
   you first be careful of your own souls. Do not begin with learning how
   to preach, or how to teach, or how to do this and that. Dear Friend,
   get the strength within your own soul, and then even if you do not know
   how to use it scientifically, yet you will do much. The first thing is
   to get the heart warmed! Stir up your manhood! Brace up all your
   faculties! Get the Christ within you--ask the everlasting God to come
   upon you! Get Him to inspire you--and then if your methods should not
   be according to the methods of others it will not matter. Or if they
   should, neither will it be of consequence,

   Having the Power of the Holy Spirit, you will accomplish the results.
   But if you go about to perform the work before you have the strength
   from on High, you shall utterly fail. Better things we hope of you. God
   send them. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

A New Song For New Hearts

   (No. 928)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 1, 1870,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "And in that day you shall say, O Lord, I will praise You: though You
   were angry with me, Your anger is turned away, and You comfort me."
   Isaiah 12:1.

   THIS prophesy is said by some to relate to the invasion by Sennacherib.
   That calamity threatened to be a very terrible display of Divine anger.
   It seemed inevitable that the Assyrian power would make an utter
   desolation of all Judea. But God promised that He would interpose for
   the deliverance of His people and punish the stout heart of the king of
   Assyria. And in that day His people should say, "We will praise You
   though You were angry with us, and therefore sent the Assyrian monarch
   to chastise us. Your anger is turned away, and You comfort us."

   If this is the meaning of it, it is an instance of sanctified
   affliction--and it is a lesson to us that whenever we smart under the
   rod, we may look forward to the time when the rod shall be withdrawn.
   And it is also an admonition to us that when we escape from trial we
   should take care to celebrate the event with grateful praise. Let us
   set up the pillar of memorial, let us pour the oil of gratitude upon
   it, and garland it with song, blessing the Lord whose anger endures but
   for a moment, but whose mercy is from everlasting to everlasting.

   It is thought by others that this text mainly relates to the latter
   days, and I think it would be impossible to read the eleventh chapter
   without feeling that such a reference is clear. There is to be a time
   when the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, the lion shall eat straw like
   the ox, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the cockatrice den.
   Then the Lord will set His hand again, the second time, to recover the
   remnant of His people. Then He will repeat His wondrous works of Egypt
   and at the Red Sea, so that the song of Moses shall be rehearsed again,
   "The Lord is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation: He is
   my God, and I will prepare Him an habitation; my father's God, and I
   will exalt Him."

   In that day the Jewish people upon whose head the blood of Christ has
   come, who these many centuries have been a people scattered and peeled,
   and sifted as in a sieve throughout all nations--even these shall be
   restored to their own land--and the dispersed of Judah from the four
   corners of the earth. They shall participate in all the glories of the
   millennial reign, and with joy shall they draw water out of the wells
   of salvation. In those days, when all Israel shall be saved, and Judah
   shall dwell safely, the jubilant thanksgiving shall be heard, "O Lord,
   I will praise You. For though You were angry with me, Your anger is
   turned away, and You comfort me."

   The whole people shall sing with such unanimity, with such undivided
   heart that they shall speak as though they were but one man. They shall
   use the singular where their numbers might require the plural, "I will
   praise You," shall be the exclamation of the once divided but then
   united people!

   Although both these interpretations are true, and both instructive, the
   text is many-sided and bears another reading. We shall find out the
   very soul of the passage if we consider it as an illustration of what
   occurs to every one of God's people when he is brought out of darkness
   into God's marvelous light. When he is delivered from the spirit of
   bondage beneath Divine wrath and led by the Spirit of Adoption into the
   liberty wherewith Christ makes him free. In that day I am sure these
   words are fulfilled. The Believer does then say right joyously, "O
   Lord, I will praise You: though You were angry with me, Your anger is
   turned away, and You comfort me."

   In regarding the text from this point of view, we shall first observe
   the prelude of this delightful song. And then, secondly, we shall
   listen to the song itself.

   I. First I shall ask your consideration of THE PRELUDE of this charming
   song. Here are certain preliminaries to the music. They are contained
   in the first line of the text. "In that day you shall say." Here we
   have the tuning of the harps, the notes of the music follow in the
   succeeding sentences. Much of instruction is couched in these seven
   words of prelude. Note then, first, there is a time for that joyous
   song which is here recorded. "In that day." The term, "that day,"

   is sometimes used for a day of terror, and often for a period of
   blessing. The common term to both is this--they were both days of the
   manifestation of Divine power.

   "That day," a day of terrible confusion to God's enemies. "That day," a
   day of great comfort to God's friends. The day being in either case the
   time of the making bare of God's arm and the manifestation of His
   strength. Now, the day in which a man rejoices in Christ is the day in
   which God's power is revealed on his behalf in his heart and
   conscience, and the Holy Spirit subdues him to the reign of Christ. It
   is not always that God works with such effectual power as this in the
   human heart--He has His set times. Oftentimes the word of human
   ministry proves ineffectual--the preacher exhorts, the hearer listens,
   but the exhortation is not obeyed. It sometimes happens that even
   desires may be excited, and yet nothing is accomplished, for these
   better feelings prove to be as those spring blossoms on the trees which
   do not knit and fall fruitless to the ground.

   There is, however, an appointed time for the calling of God's elect, a
   set time in which the Lord visits His chosen with a power of Grace
   which they cannot effectually resist. He makes them willing in the day
   of His power. It is a day in which not only is the Gospel heard, but
   our report is believed, because the arm of the Lord is revealed. To
   everything, according to Solomon, there is a season--a time to break
   down and a time to build up. A time of war, and a time of peace. A time
   to kill, and a time to heal. And even so, there is a time for
   conviction and a time for consolation.

   With some who are in great distress of spirit, it may be God's time to
   wound and to kill. Their self-confidence is yet too vigorous, their
   carnal righteousness is yet too lively. Their confidences must be
   wounded, their righteousness must be killed. For otherwise they will
   not yield to Grace. God does not clothe us till He has stripped us. He
   does not heal till first He has wounded. How should He make alive those
   who are not dead? There is a work of Grace in the heart of digging out
   the foundations before Grace begins to build up our hopes--woe to that
   man who builds without having the foundation dug out--for his house
   will fall. Woe to that man who leaps into a sudden peace without ever
   having felt his need of pardon, without repentance, without brokenness
   of spirit. He shall see his hasty fruit wither before his eyes.

   The time when God effectually blesses is sometimes called "a time of
   love." It is a time of deep distress to us, but it is a time of love
   with God--a time wisely determined in the decree and counsel of the
   Most High--so that healing mercy arrives at the best time to each one
   who is interested in the Covenant of Grace. Someone may enquire, "When
   do you think will be the time when God will enable me to say, 'Your
   anger is turned away'? " My dear Brother, you can easily discern it! I
   believe God's time to give us comfort is usually when we are brought so
   low as to confess the justice of the wrath which He is pouring upon us.

   Humbleness of heart is one sure indication of coming peace. A German
   nobleman some years ago went over the galleys at Toulon. There he saw
   many men condemned by the French government to perpetual toil at the
   galley oar on account of their crimes. Being a prince in much repute,
   he obtained the favor that he should give liberty to one of the
   captives. He went about among them, and talked to them, but found in
   every case that they thought themselves wrongly treated, oppressed, and
   unrighteously punished. At last he met with one who confessed, "In my
   case my sentence is a most just and even a merciful one. If I had not
   been imprisoned in this way I should most likely have long ago been
   executed for some still greater crime. I have been a very great
   offender, and the law is doing nothing more than it ought to do in
   keeping me in confinement for the rest of my life."

   The German nobleman returned to the manager of the galleys and said,
   "This is the only man in all this gang that I would wish to set free,
   and I elect him for liberty." It is so with our great Liberator, the
   Lord Jesus Christ, when He meets with a soul that confesses its
   demerit, owns the justice of Divine wrath, and has not a word to say
   for itself. Then He says, "Your sins which are many are forgiven you."
   The time when His anger is turned away is the time when you confess the
   justice of His anger, and bow down and humbly entreat Him for mercy.
   Above all, the hour of Grace has struck when you look ALONE to Christ.

   While you are looking to any good thing in yourself, and hoping to grow
   better, or to do better, you are making no advances towards comfort.
   But when you give up in despair every hope that can be grounded in
   yourself and look away to those dear wounds of His--to that suffering
   humanity of the Son or God who stooped from Heaven for you--then has
   the day dawned wherein you shall say, "O Lord, I will praise You." I
   pray earnestly that this set time to favor you may be now come--the
   time when the rain is over, and the voice of the turtle is heard in
   your land.

   Looking again at the preliminaries of this song you notice that a word
   indicates the singer. "In that day you shall say." "You." It is a
   singular pronoun, and points out one individual. One by one we receive
   eternal life and peace. "You," the individual, "you," singled out to
   feel in your conscience God's wrath. You are equally selected to enjoy
   Jehovah's love. Ah, Brethren, it is never a day of Grace to us till we
   are taken aside from the multitude and set by ourselves. Our
   individuality must come out in conversion--even if it never appears at
   any other time. You fancy, so many of you, that it is all right with
   you because you live in a Christian nation. I tell you it is woe unto
   you! Having outward privileges they involve you in responsibilities,
   but bring you no saving Grace.

   Perhaps you fancy that your family religion may somewhat help you, and
   the erroneous practices of certain Christian Churches may foster this
   delusion, but it is not so. There is no birthright godliness--"You must
   be born again." The first birth will not help you, for, "That which is
   born of the flesh is flesh. And that which is born of the Spirit is
   spirit." Still, I know you fancy that if you mingle in godly
   congregations, and sing as they sing, and pray as they pray, it shall
   go well with you--but it is not so. The wicket gate of eternal life
   admits but one at a time. Is it not written, "You shall be gathered one
   by one, O you children of Israel"?

   Don't you know that when the fountain is opened in the house of David
   for sin and for uncleanness, it is declared by the Prophet Zechariah,
   "The land shall mourn, every family apart. The family of the house of
   David apart, and their wives apart. The family of the house of Nathan
   apart, and their wives apart. The family of the house of Levi apart,
   and their wives apart. The family of Shimei apart, and their wives
   apart. All the families that remain, every family apart, and their
   wives apart"! You must each one be brought to feel the Divine anger in
   your souls, and to have it removed from you, that you may rejoice in
   God as your salvation.

   Has it been so with you, then, dear Hearer? Are you that favored
   singer? Are you one of that chosen throng who can say, "Your anger is
   turned away, and You comfort me"? Away with generals. Be not satisfied
   except with particulars. Little matters it to you that Christ should
   die for ten thousand men, if you have no part in His death. Little
   blessing is it to you that there should be joy from myriads of hearts
   because they are pardoned if you should die unpardoned! Seek a personal
   interest in Christ, and do not be satisfied unless in your own heart
   you have it satisfactorily revealed that your sin in particular is by
   an act of Grace put away.

   I like to remember that this word, "you," is spoken to those who have
   been by sorrow brought into the last degree of despair. "In that day
   you shall say, though You were angry with me, Your anger is turned
   away." You poor downtrodden Heart, where are you? You Woman of a
   sorrowful spirit, rejoice, for in that day of mercy you shall sing. You
   broken-hearted Sinner, ready to destroy yourself because of the anguish
   of conscience--in the day of God's abounding mercy you shall rejoice,
   even you--and your note shall be all the sweeter because you have had
   the most sin to be forgiven, and felt most the anger of God burning in
   your soul. Dwell on that, Mourners, and God grant it may be realized
   personally by yourselves.

   The next thing to be noted in the preliminaries is the Teacher. "In
   that day you shall say," who says this? It is God alone who can so
   positively declare, "you shall say." Who but the Lord can thus command
   man's heart and speech? It is the Lord alone. He who has made us is
   master of our spirits. By His Omnipotence He rules in the world of mind
   as well as matter, and all things happen as He ordains. He says, "In
   that day," that is, in God's own time, "you shall say." And He who thus
   declares will make good the word. Here is revealed God's will--and what
   the Lord wills shall be accomplished. What He declares shall be spoken,
   shall assuredly be spoken.

   Here is consolation to those feeble folk who fear the Word will not be
   fulfilled. "You shall say," is a Divine Word and cannot fail. The Lord,
   alone, can give a man the right to say, "Your anger is turned away." If
   any man presumes to say, "God has turned His anger away from me,"
   without a warrant from the Most High, that man lies to his own
   confusion. But when it is written, "You shall say," it is as though God
   had said, "I will make it true, so that you shall be fully justified in
   the declaration." Yet more comfort is here, for even when the right to
   such a blessing is bestowed, we are often unable to enjoy it because of
   weakness.

   Unbelief is frequently so great that many things which are true we
   cannot receive. Under a sense of sin we are so desponding that we think
   God's mercy too great for us. And therefore we are not able to
   appropriate the blessing presented to us, though it is inexpressibly
   delightful. Blessed be God, the Holy Spirit knows how to chase away our
   unbelief and give us power to embrace the blessing! He can make us
   accept the Covenant favor and rejoice in it so as to avow the joy.

   There are some of you whom I have tried to induce to believe
   comfortable truths about yourselves, but you have fairly defeated me. I
   have put the Gospel plainly to you, for I have felt sure that its
   promises were meant for you. And I have said within my heart, "Surely
   they will be comforted this morning. Certainly their broken hearts will
   be bound up by that gracious Word." But oh, I cannot make you say,
   "Lord, I will praise You." I am unable to lead you to faith and peace.
   Here, however, is my joy--my Master can do what His servant cannot! He
   can make the tongue of the dumb sing. He delights to look after
   desperate cases. Man's extremity becomes His opportunity.

   Where the most affectionate words of ours fail, the consolations of His
   blessed Spirit are divinely efficacious. He cannot merely bring the oil
   and the wine, but He knows how to pour them into the wounds and heal
   the anguish of the contrite spirit. I pray the Master that He who alone
   can teach us to sing this song may graciously instruct those of you who
   have been seeking rest these many months, and finding none. "I am the
   Lord which teaches you to profit." He can put a song into your mouth,
   for nothing is beyond the range of Divine Grace.

   Once more. "In that day you shall say." Here is another preliminary of
   the song, namely, the tone of it. "You shall say, O Lord, I will praise
   You." The song is to be an open one, avowed, vocally uttered, heard of
   men and published abroad. It is not to be a silent feeling--a kind of
   soft music whose sweetness is spent within the spirit. No. In that day
   you shall say, you shall speak it outright, you shall testify and bear
   witness to what the Lord has done for you! When a man gets his sins
   forgiven he cannot help revealing the secret. "When the Lord turned
   again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our
   mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing."

   Even if the forgiven one could not speak with his tongue, he could say
   it with his eyes--his countenance, his man-ner--his very gait would
   betray him! The gracious secret would ooze out in some fashion.
   Spiritual men, at any rate, would find it out, and with thankfulness
   mark the joyful evidences. I know that before I found the Savior, had
   you known me, you would have observed my solitary habits. And if you
   had tracked me to my chamber, and to my Bible, and my knees, you would
   have heard groans and sighs which betokened a sorrowful spirit. The
   ordinary amusements of youth had in those days few attractions for me,
   and conversation, however cheerful, yielded me no comfort.

   But that very morning that I heard the Gospel message, "Look unto Me,
   and be you saved, all you ends of the earth," I am certain that no
   person who knew me could have helped remarking the difference even in
   my face! A change came over my spirits, which as I remember was even
   indicated in the way in which I walked, for the heavy step of
   melancholy was exchanged for a more cheerful pace. The spiritual
   condition affects the bodily state, and it was evidently so with me. My
   delight at being forgiven was no ordinary sensation, I could have
   fairly leaped for joy!--

   "All through the night I wept full sore,

   But morning brought relief.

   That hand which broke my bones before,

   Then broke my bonds of grief.

   My mourning He to dancing turns,

   For sackcloth joy He gives,

   A moment, Lord, Your anger burns,

   But long Your favor lives."

   If I had not avowed my deliverance the very stones must have cried out!
   It was not in my heart to keep it back, but I am sure I could not have
   done so if I had desired. God's Grace does not come into the heart as a
   beggar into a barn, and lie hidden away as if it stole a night's
   lodging. No, its arrival is known all over the house, and every chamber
   of the soul testifies its presence! Grace is like a bunch of
   lavender--it discovers itself by its sweet smell. Like the nightingale
   it is heard where it is not seen. Like a spark which falls into the
   midst of straw it burns, and blazes, and consumes, and so reveals
   itself by its own energetic operations.

   O Soul, burdened with sin, if Christ does but come to you, and pardon
   you, I will be bound for it that before long all your bones shall say,
   "Lord, who is like unto You?" You will be of the same mind as David,
   "Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, You God of my salvation: and
   my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness." You will gladly say
   with him, "Your vows are upon me, O God: I will render praise unto You,
   for You have delivered my soul from death." Not only will you soberly
   tell what great things Divine Grace has worked for you, but it will be
   very unlikely that your exuberant joy may lead you beyond the bounds of
   solemn decorum.

   The precise and slow going will condemn you, but you need not mind, for
   you can offer the same excuse for it as David made to Michal when he
   danced before the ark. Far be it from me to condemn you, should you
   cry, "Hallelujah," or clap your hands! It is our cold custom to condemn
   every demonstration of feeling, but I am sure Scripture does not
   warrant us in our condemnation. For we find such passages as these, "O
   clap your hands, all you people! Shout unto God with the voice of
   triumph." "Praise Him upon the loud cymbals: praise Him upon the high
   sounding cymbals." What if the overflowing of holy joy should seem to
   be disorderly, what matters it if God accepts it? He who has long been
   in prison, when he gets his liberty may well take a frisk or two, and
   an extra leap for joy, and who shall begrudge him?

   He who has long been hungry and famished, when he sees the table
   spread, may be excused if he falls to with more of eagerness than
   politeness. Oh, yes, they shall say it, they shall say it, "I will
   praise You, O Lord!" In the very disorderli-ness of their demonstration
   they shall the more emphatically say, "I will praise You: though You
   were angry with me, Your anger is turned away." Thus much on the
   prelude of the song. Now let us hear the song itself.

   II. In THE SONG ITSELF I would call to your notice the fact that all of
   it is concerning the Lord. It is all addressed to Him. "O Lord, I will
   praise You: though You were angry, Your anger is turned away." When a
   soul escapes from the bondage of sin and becomes consciously pardoned,
   it resembles the Apostles on the Mount Tabor, of whom we spoke the
   other Sunday morning. It sees no man, save Jesus only. While you are
   seeking Grace you think much of the minister, the service, the outward
   form--but the moment you find peace in God through the precious blood
   of Christ--you will think of your pardoning God only.

   Oh, how small everything becomes in the presence of that dear Cross
   where God the Savior loved and died! When we think of all our iniquity
   being cast into the depth of the sea we can no more boast of anything
   that was once our glory. The instrumentality by which peace came to us
   will be always dear to us. We shall esteem the preacher of the Gospel
   who brings salvation to us to be our spiritual father--but still we
   shall never think of praising him--we shall give all the glory to our
   God. As for ourselves, self will sink like lead amidst the waters when
   we find Christ. God will be All in All when iniquity is pardoned.

   I have often thought that if some of my Brethren who preach a Gospel in
   which there is little of the Grace of God had felt a little more
   conviction of sin in being converted, they would be sure to preach a
   clearer and more gracious Gospel. Many nowadays appear to leap into
   peace without any convictions of sin--they do not seem to have known
   what the guilt of sin means. They scramble into peace before the burden
   of sin has been felt. It is not for me to judge, but I must confess I
   have my fears of those who have never felt the terrors of the Lord. And
   I look upon conviction of sin as a good groundwork for a
   well-instructed Christian.

   I observe, as a rule, that when a man has been put in the prison of the
   Law. When he has been made to wear the heavy chains of conviction, and
   at last obtains his liberty through the precious blood of Christ, he is
   pretty sure to cry up the Grace of God and magnify Divine mercy. He
   feels that in his case salvation must be of Grace from first to last.
   And he naturally favors that system of theology which magnifies most
   the Grace of God. Those who have not felt this--whose conversion has
   been of the more easy kind, produced rather by excitement than by depth
   of thought--seem to me to choose a flimsy divinity in which man is more
   prominent, and God is less regarded.

   I am sure of this one thing--that I personally desire to ascribe
   conversion in my own case entirely to the Grace of God--and to give God
   the glory of it. And I dread that conversion which could in any degree
   deprive God of being in His everlasting decrees the cause of it, by His
   effectual Spirit the direct Agent of it, by His continued working
   through the Holy Spirit the Perfecter of it. Give God the praise, my
   Brethren. You must do so if you have thoroughly experienced what God's
   anger means, and what the turning away of it means.

   The next thing in this song is that it includes repentant memories. "O
   Lord, I will praise You: though You were angry with me." There was a
   time when God was to our consciousness angry with us. When was that?
   And how did we know that God was angry with us? Outsiders think when we
   talk about conversion that we are merely talking of sentimental
   theories. But let me assure you that it is as much matter offact to us
   with regard to our spiritual nature, as your feelings of sickness and
   of recovery are real and actual to you. Time was when some of us read
   the Word of God, as we read it, believing it to be an Inspired Book, we
   perceived that it contained a Law, holy and just--the breach of which
   was threatened with eternal death.

   As we read it we discovered that we had broken that Law, not in some
   points, but in all. And we were obliged, as we read it, to feel that
   all the sentences of that Book against sinners were virtually sentences
   against us. We may perhaps have read these chapters before, but we had
   given them no serious thought until on this occasion we were led to see
   that we stood condemned by the Law of God as contained in Holy
   Scripture. Then we felt that God was angry with us. It was not a mere
   idea of ours--we had this Book in evidence of it. If that Book were
   indeed true, we felt we were condemned. We dared not think the old Book
   to be a cunningly devised fable. We knew it was not, and therefore from
   its testimony we concluded that God was angry with us.

   At the same time we learned this terrible Truth from the Book--our
   conscience suddenly awoke and confirmed the fact, for it said--"What
   the Book declares is correct. The just God must be angry with such a
   sinful being as you are." Conscience brought to our recollection many
   things which we would gladly have forgotten. It revealed to us much of
   the evil of our hearts which we had no wish to know. And thus, as we
   looked at Scripture by the light of conscience, we concluded in
   ourselves that we were in a very dreadful plight, and that God was
   angry with us. Then there entered into us at the same time, over and
   above all the rest, a certain work of the Holy Spirit called conviction
   of sin.

   "When He, the Spirit of Truth is come," He shall convict the world of
   sin. He has come. And He has convicted us of sin in a way in which the
   Scripture would not have done apart from Him--and our conscience would
   not have done apart from Him. But His light shone in upon us and we
   felt as we never felt before. Then sin appeared exceedingly sinful, as
   it was committed against Infinite Love and goodness. Then it appeared
   to us as though Hell must soon swallow us up--and the wrath of God must
   devour us. Oh, the trembling and the fear, the dismay and the alarm
   which then possessed our spirits! And yet, my Brethren, at this very
   time, the remembrance of it is cause for thankfulness.

   In the Hebrew, the wording of our text is slightly different from what
   we get in the English. Our English translators have very wisely put in
   the word "though," a little earlier than it occurs in the Hebrew. The
   Hebrew would run something like this, "O Lord, I will praise You: You
   were angry with me." Now we do this day praise God that He made us feel
   His anger. "What?" you say. "What? Is a sense of anger a cause for
   praise?" No, my Brethren, not if it stood alone, but because it has
   driven us to Christ. If wrath had been laid up for us hereafter, it
   would be a cause of horror, deep and dread. But that it was let loose
   in measure upon us here, and that we were thus condemned in conscience
   that we might not be condemned at last is reason for much thankfulness.

   We should never have felt His love if we had not felt His anger. We
   laid hold on His mercy because of necessity. No soul will accept Christ
   Jesus until it must. It is not driven to faith until it is driven to
   self-despair. God's angry face makes Christ's loving face dear to us.
   We would never look at the Christ of God, unless first of all the God
   of Christ had looked at us through the tempest and made us afraid. "I
   will praise You, that You did let me feel Your anger, in order that I
   might be driven to discover how that anger could be turned away." So
   you see the song in its deep bass note includes plaintive recollections
   of sin pressing heavily on the spirit.

   The song of our text contains in itself blessed certainties. "I will
   praise You: though You were angry with me, Your anger is turned away."
   Can a man know that? Can a man be quite sure that he is forgiven? Yes,
   that he can. He can be as sure of pardon as he is of his existence, as
   infallibly certain as he is of a mathematical proposition. "No," says
   one, "but how is it?" My Brother, albeit that this is a matter for
   spiritual men, yet at the same time it is a matter of certainty as
   clearly as anything can be ascertained by human judgment. The
   confidence of a man's being pardoned, and God's anger being turned away
   from him is not based upon his merely feeling that it is so. Nor his
   merely believing that it is go.

   You are not pardoned because you work yourself up into a comfortable
   frame of mind and think you are pardoned. That may be a delusion. You
   are not necessarily delivered from God's anger because you believe you
   are--you may be believing a lie, and may believe what you like--but
   that does not make it true. There must be a fact going before, and if
   that fact is not there, you may believe what you choose, but it is pure
   imagination, nothing more.

   On what ground does a man know that God's anger is turned away? I
   answer thus, on the ground of this Book. "It is written," is our basis
   of assurance. I turn to this Book, and I discover that Jesus Christ,
   the Son of God, came into this world and became the Substitute for a
   certain body of men. That He took their sins, and was punished in their
   place in order that God, without the violation of His justice, might
   forgive as many as are washed in Christ's blood. My question then is,
   for whom did Christ die? The moment I turn to the Scriptures, I find
   very conspicuously on its page this declaration, that "Jesus Christ
   came into the world to save sinners."

   I am a sinner, that I am clear of. That gives me some hope. But I next
   find that, "He that believes on Him is not condemned." Looking to
   myself I find that I do really believe, that is, I trust Jesus. Very
   well, then, I am sure I am not condemned, for God has declared I am
   not. I read again, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." I
   know that I have believed, that is to say, trusted--I trust my
   salvation with Christ. And I have also, in obedience to His command
   been baptized--then I am saved, and shall be saved, for it says so. Now
   this is a matter of Testimony which I receive. He that believes in
   Christ receives the Testimony of God--and that is the only Testimony he
   wants.

   I know it has been thought that you get some special revelation in your
   own soul--some flash, as it were, of light-- some extraordinary
   intimation. But nothing of the kind is absolutely needed. I know that
   the Spirit bears witness with our spirits that we are born of God. But
   the first essential matter is God's witness in the Word. "He that
   believes not God, has made Him a liar, because he believes not the
   record that God gave of His Son." God's witness concerning His Son is
   this--that if you trust His Son you are saved. His Son suffered for
   you. His Son bore the punishment that was due for your sins--God
   declares it--that you are forgiven for Christ's sake.

   He cannot punish twice for one offense--first His Son and then you. He
   cannot demand retribution from His Law to vindicate His justice, first
   from your Substitute and then from you. Was Christ your Substitute?
   That is the question. He was if you trust Him--your trusting Him is the
   evidence that He was a Substitute for you. Now see, then, the moment I,
   being under His anger, have come to trust my soul forever in the hands
   of Christ, God's anger is turned away from me because it was turned
   upon Christ. And I stand, guilty sinner as I am in myself, absolved
   before God--and feel that none can lay anything to my charge, for my
   sins were laid on Christ, and punished upon Christ--and I am clear.

   And now what shall I say unto the Lord, but, "I will praise You: for
   though You were angry with me, Your anger is turned away, and You
   comfort me." It is a matter of certainty. It is not a matter of "if,"
   "and," or "but." It is a fact. This morning you are either forgiven or
   you are not. You are either clean in God's sight or else the wrath of
   God abides on you. And I beseech you, do not rest till you know which
   it is. If you find out that you are unforgiven, seek the Savior.
   "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." But if you
   believe in Him, you are no longer guilty--you are forgiven. Do not sit
   down and fret as if you were guilty, but enjoy the liberty of the
   children of God. Being justified by faith, have peace with God through
   Jesus Christ your Lord.

   Time fails me, but I must add that our song includes holy
   resolutions--"I will praise You." I will do it with my heart in secret.
   I will get alone and make my expressive silence sing Your praise. I
   will sit and pour out liquid songs in tears of gratitude, welling up
   from my heart. I will praise You in the Church of God, for I will
   search out other Believers, and I will tell them what God has done for
   me. I will cast in my lot with Your people--if they are despised, I
   will bear the shame with them--and count it honor. I will unite myself
   to them, and help them in their service. And if I can magnify Christ by
   my testimony among them, I will do it.

   I will praise You in my life. I will make my business praising You. I
   will make my parlor and my drawing room, I will make my kitchen and my
   fields praise You. I will not be content unless all I am and all I have
   shall praise You. I will make a harp of the whole universe. I will make
   earth and Heaven, space and time to be but strings upon which my joyful
   fingers shall play lofty tunes of thankfulness. I will praise You, O my
   God! My heart is fixed, I will sing and give praise-- and when I shall
   die, or rather pass from this life to another, I who have been forgiven
   so much sin through such a Savior, will, by Your Grace, continue to
   praise You--

   "Oh, how I long to join the choir Who worship at His feet! Lord, grant
   me soon my heart's desire! Soon, soon Your work complete!"

   Note once more that this is a song which is peculiar in its character,
   and appropriate only to the people of God. I may say of it, "no man
   could learn this song but the redeemed." He only who has felt his
   vileness, and has had it washed away in the "fountain filled with
   blood," can know its sweetness. It is not a Pharisee's song--it has no
   likeness to, "God I thank You that I am not as other men." It
   confesses, "You were angry with me," and there owns that the singer was
   even as others. But it glories that through infinite mercy the Divine
   anger is turned away. And herein it leans on the appointed Savior.

   It is not a Sadducean song, no doubt mingles with the strain. It is not
   the philosopher's query, "There may be a God, or there may not be," it
   is the voice of a believing worshipper. It is not, "I may be guilty, or
   I may not be." It is all posi-

   tive, every note of it. "You were angry with me." I know it, I feel it,
   yet, "Your anger is turned away." Of this, too, I am sure. I believe it
   upon the witness of God! I cannot doubt His Word. It is a song of
   strong faith, and yet of humility. Its spirit is a precious incense
   made up of many costly ingredients. We have, here, not one virtue,
   alone, but many rare excellences.

   Humility confesses, "You were angry with me." Gratitude sings, "Your
   anger is turned away." Patience cries, "You comfort me," and holy joy
   springs up, and says, "I will praise You." Faith, hope, and love all
   have their notes here, from the bass of humility up to the highest alto
   of glorious communion, all the different parts are represented. It is a
   full song--the swell of the diapason of the heart!

   I have done when I have said just these words by way of practical
   result from the subject. One is a word of consolation--consolation to
   you who are under God's anger this morning. My heart goes out after
   you. I know what your sorrow is. I knew it by the space of five years
   at a time--when I mourned the guilt and curse of sin. Ah, poor Soul,
   you are in a sad plight, indeed. But be of good cheer! You have in your
   bosom, if you will believe me, a key which will open every lock in
   Doubting Castle wherein you are now confined. If, Man, you have but
   heart to take it out of your bosom, and out of the Word of God--and use
   it--liberty is near.

   I will show you that key--look at it, "Him that comes unto Me I will in
   no wise cast out." "Oh, but that does not happen to fit," you say.
   Well, here's another--"The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses from
   all sin." Does not that meet your case? Then let me try again--"He is
   able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him." "To
   the uttermost"--dwell on that and be comforted! I never knew God to
   shut a soul up in the prison of conviction but He sooner or later
   released the captive. The Lord will surely bring you out of the low
   dungeon of conviction. The worst thing in the world is to go
   unchastened--to be allowed to sin and eat honey with it--this is the
   precursor of damnation.

   But to sin, and have the wormwood of repentance with it--this is the
   prelude of being saved! If the Lord has embittered your sin, He has
   designs of love towards you. His anger shall yet be turned away. "When
   the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue
   fails for thirst, I, the Lord, will hear them. I the God of Israel will
   not forsake

   them."

   The next is a word of admonition. Some of you have been forgiven, but
   are you praising God as you should? I have heard say that in our
   Churches there are no more than five per cent who are doing any real
   work for Christ. That is not true of this Church. I should be very
   sorry if it were, but I fear there are more than five per cent who are
   doing nothing. Where are you who have felt His anger pass away, and yet
   are not praising Him? Come, bestir yourself, bestir yourself! Seek to
   serve Jesus! Do you not know that you are meant to be the winners of
   souls?

   The American bee keeper, when he wants to collect a hive, catches first
   a single bee. He puts it in a box with a piece of honeycomb and shuts
   the door. After awhile, when it is well fed, he lets it out. It comes
   back again after more of the sweet, but it brings companions with it.
   And when they have eaten the honey they always bring yet a more
   numerous band, so by-and-by there is a goodly muster for the hive.
   After this fashion ought you to act. If you have found mercy, you ought
   to praise God and tell others, so that they may believe. And in their
   turn lead others to Jesus. This is the way the kingdom of God grows.

   I am afraid you are guilty here. See to it, dear Brother. See to it,
   dear Sister--and who can tell of what use you may yet be? There was a
   dear servant of Christ who was just on the borders of the grave, very
   old and very ill, and frequently delirious, so that the doctors said no
   one must go into the chamber except the nurse. A little Sunday school
   boy, who was rather curious, peeped in at the door to look at the
   minister, and the poor dying servant of God saw him, and the ruling
   passion was strong in death. He called him. "David," said he, "did you
   ever close in with Christ? I have done so many a time, and I long that
   you may." Fifty years after, that boy was living and bearing testimony
   that the dying words of the good man had brought him to Jesus--for by
   them he was led to close in with Christ.

   You do not know what half a word might do if you would but speak it! O
   keep not back the good news that might bring salvation to your wife, to
   your husband, to your child, to your servant! If you have, indeed, felt
   the Lord's anger pass away this morning, go home to your chamber, and
   on your knees repeat this vow, "My God, I will praise You! I have been
   a sluggard, I have been very silent about You. I am afraid I have not
   given You of my substance as I ought. I am sure I have not given You of
   my heart as I should. But oh, forgive the past, and accept Your poor
   servant yet again. 'Then I will praise You. For though You were angry
   with me, Your anger is turned away, and You comfort me.' "

   God bless you, for Christ's sake.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Model Home Mission and the Model Home Missionary

   (No. 929)

   DELIVERED ON THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL 14, 1870,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON,

   "Who went about doing good." Acts 10:38.

   In aid of the Funds of the Baptist British and Irish Home Missionary
   Society.

   OUR Lord's public ministry on earth was a Home Mission. He Himself said
   to His disciples, "I am not sent save to the lost sheep of the house of
   Israel." He went to the very borders of the Holy Land. But there He
   stayed, and north and south, east and west, in all directions, in towns
   and in villages, He itinerated preaching to His own countrymen.
   Afterwards there sprang out of His home work what may be called the
   foreign Mission, when they that were scattered abroad went everywhere
   preaching the Gospel.

   And thus the blessing of Israel became a blessing to all nations. It
   was always the Lord's intention that the Gospel should be preached to
   every creature under Heaven, but, so far as His own work was concerned,
   He began at home. And herein we see His wisdom, for it will be of
   little avail to attempt much abroad unless there is a solid basis at
   home, in an earnest sanctified Church, affording a fulcrum for our
   lever. We want to see England converted to Christ, and then shall she
   become the great herald of Christ's Gospel to other lands.

   As things now are, our soldiers and sailors are, too often, witnesses
   against the Gospel. And our travelers of all grades in foreign
   countries too frequently give an impression very unfavorable to the
   Cross of Christ. We want to have this nation saturated through and
   through with the Spirit of Jesus Christ. We want all its darkness
   chased away and the true light made to shine--then Missionary
   operations will receive a wonderful impetus. God will make His Truth to
   be known in all nations when He has first caused His face to shine upon
   His chosen.

   We shall now speak about Home Mission work under two heads. First, we
   have before us a Model Home Mission. And secondly a model Home
   Missionary. When we have talked about these two things, we shall press
   a third point, namely, the duty of imitating the works of the great
   Master.

   I. First, then, we have before us A MODEL HOME MISSION. We see sketched
   in the text the great Home Mission which was conducted by the Lord
   Jesus Christ, "who went about doing good." I am sure we shall learn
   much if we consider the way in which He conducted that enterprise.

   In commencing His work He selected as His great instrument the
   preaching of the Gospel. The Lord had anointed Him to preach the
   Gospel. He performed thousands of gracious actions. He officiated in
   many ways for the good of His fellow men, and for the glory of God. But
   His Throne on earth, if I might so speak, was the pulpit. It was when
   He began to declare the Gospel of the kingdom that His true glory was
   seen. "Never man spoke like this Man."

   Brethren, He would have His followers depend upon the same agency. The
   scattering of religious books and the institution of schools and other
   godly efforts are not to be neglected. But first and foremost it
   pleases God by the foolishness ofpreaching to save them that believe.
   The cardinal duty of the Christian Church is thus laid down, "Go you
   into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature."

   Notwithstanding all that may be said about the advance of the times,
   and the non-adaptation of the pulpit to this present age, we shall be
   very foolish if we imagine that we have found a better instrumentality
   than that which Jesus selected and which His Father so highly blessed.
   Let us stand to our preaching like soldiers to their guns. The pulpit
   is the Thermopylae of Christendom where our foes shall receive a check.
   The field of Waterloo on which they shall sustain a defeat. Let us
   preach, and preach evermore. Let us continue sounding, even if it is
   but the rams' horns, for by-and-by the

   walls of Jericho shall fall flat to the ground. Preach, preach, preach!
   The Master's life clearly tells us that if we would save souls and
   glorify God we must constantly proclaim the Gospel of the kingdom.

   In connection with His own personal preaching, we find the Master
   forming a seminary for the training of ministers. Those who have, at
   any time, thought properly conducted collegiate institutions to be
   unscriptural can hardly understand the action of our Lord in retaining
   under His own eyes a band of scholars, who afterwards became teachers.
   After He had called Peter and John, and some few others, He at first
   admitted them, as it were, into His evening classes. For they pursued
   their ordinary business, and came to Him at fitting seasons for
   instruction.

   But after awhile they separated themselves from all the pursuits of
   business, and were continual with their great Teacher. They learned how
   to preach as they marked how He preached. He even taught them to pray,
   as John also taught his disciples. Many dark subjects which He did not
   explain to the people, we are told He opened up to the disciples. He
   took them aside and gave them the mysteries of the kingdom, while to
   the rest of the people the Truth was only spoken in parables.

   Now, this has been too much forgotten in the Church, and needs to be
   brought to our remembrance. Among the Vaudois and the Waldenses, every
   pastor of the Church was always intensely earnest to find out others
   who would become pastors--therefore each one had a young Brother under
   his care. In the journeys of the shepherds of the Vaudois Church, as
   they passed from crag to crag, each one of the venerable men was
   usually accompanied by some strong young mountaineer, who, in return
   for the physical help which he gave to the venerable father, received
   instruction from him in the doctrines of the Gospel, in Church
   government, and in other things which appertained to the ministry.

   In this way the Israel of the Alps was enabled to perpetuate its
   testimony, and the office of the preacher of the Gospel never fell into
   disuse. When in the days of the blessed Reformation, Calvin and Luther
   exerted an influence over Europe, it was not only through their own
   preaching, mighty as that was--nor through their writings--though these
   were scattered broadcast like the leaves of autumn. It was also through
   the innumerable young men who swarmed at Wurtenburg and came together
   at Geneva to listen to the great Reformers' teaching and then
   afterwards went forth themselves into other lands to tell abroad what
   they had learned.

   Our Master sets before us the fact that no fitter instrument for
   spreading the Gospel can be devised than a man raised up by God to
   speak the Gospel who is able to attract to his feet others who shall
   catch his spirit, profit by his example, receive his doctrines, and go
   forth to preach the same Word.

   It would be correct to add that the Master also connected with His
   preaching and His college the invaluable agency of Bible classes.
   Indeed, I believe that the whole machinery of a zealous Christian
   Church can be found in embryo in the doings of Christ. And if His
   blessed life of holy labor were more thoroughly studied, new
   organizations for enlightening the world and for building up the Church
   would soon be thought of, and the best results would follow. Our Lord
   talked to His disciples--occasionally one by one, sometimes when He
   found them in pairs. And at other seasons He addressed the Apostles as
   a whole, " expounding unto them in all the Scriptures the things
   concerning Himself."

   The Apostles were evidently well acquainted with the Scriptures, and
   yet I do not suppose that all the population of Palestine were so well
   trained. They must, therefore, have learned of Jesus. Peter's first
   sermon shows his acquaintance with the Old Testament, and the speech of
   Stephen manifests remarkable familiarity with Scripture history. Such
   knowledge was not, I think, general, but was the result of constant
   communion with a Teacher whose references to the Inspired Volume were
   so constant. His readings of the holy Book, His interpretations, His
   quotations, His illustrations all tended to make His disciples men well
   instructed in the Law and the Prophets.

   And the inmost meaning of the Word was laid bare to them in the Person
   of their Lord Himself. If any Home Mission would see its work
   established, so as to endure the test of years, next to the ordinance
   of preaching, its ministry must be careful to exercise diligence in
   training up the converts in the knowledge of the written Word. The
   Bible must be read intelligently and its meaning clearly set forth. The
   memory must become familiar with its very words, and the heart with its
   inner spirit. We must seek gracious men and women who will labor in
   this needful ministry.

   No minister can afford to neglect the constant Scriptural tuition of
   his people, and if he is negligent of it, do not be surprised if
   grievous wolves enter into the Church and devour the flock. That our
   young men and women may not be carried about with every wind of
   doctrine, but may be steadfast, unmovable--is our bounden duty to
   instruct them in the Divine Word with laborious care and constancy.
   Notice, moreover, that our Lord's Mission work did not overlook the

   children. Our noble system of Sunday school work is not only justified,
   but even enforced by the example and precept of our Lord when he said,
   "Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not, for
   of such is the kingdom of Heaven."

   And also by His saying to Peter, "Feed My lambs." The injunctions which
   bid us look after our adult converts who come under the denomination of
   "sheep," are no more valid than the command which bids us took after
   the young, and the tender, who are intended by the term "lambs." True
   Mission work, therefore, if any of you will undertake it, must
   carefully regard children. Moses would not leave even the little ones
   in Egypt. Even the youthful Israelites ate of the paschal lamb. Our
   work is sadly faulty if it has no bearing upon the young men and
   maidens, the boys and the girls.

   I am afraid that much of our public preaching is blameworthy in this
   respect. I feel, myself, that I do not say as much in my general
   sermons as I ought to do to the children of my congregation. I do
   insert stories and parables here and there, but if I shall ever reach
   my own ideal of preaching, I shall far more frequently let fall
   handfuls on purpose for the young. Sermons should be like a Mosaic, and
   the sparkling pieces which catch the infant eyes should abound. Our
   discourses should be as Isaiah says, "wine and milk"--wine for men and
   milk for babes. Out of our pulpits we must be the friends of the
   children, for then we trust they will grow up to be friends to us and
   to our Master. Our model Mission bends its strength to the cultivation
   of juvenile piety, and makes this department of effort second to none.

   We now proceed a step farther. Of late there has been frequently used
   by earnest Evangelists in the more populous parts of London the plan of
   free teas, free breakfasts, and free dinners--at which the poorest
   persons are brought together and fed, and are then affectionately
   exhorted to seek salvation. It is remarkable that this method has been
   so long disused, because it is, with a small difference, a plan adopted
   by our Lord. On two occasions at least, He spread a free repast for
   thousands of the famishing, disdaining not to provide food for the
   bodies of those whose souls He had blessed with the Word of Life.

   On those two occasions the generous Master of the feast gave His crowd
   of guests a good substantial meal of bread and fish. I have often
   wondered why those two viands were in each case selected, perhaps it
   was that both land and sea should be declared to be the storehouse of
   Providence. He gave not bread alone. His fare was not stingy. He would
   not merely stay their hunger, but He would afford them a relish to
   their bread, and therefore He gave them bread and fish. Agreeable,
   sufficient, healthful and satisfying refreshment the Lord dispensed at
   His table in the wilderness.

   Though many, no doubt, followed Him because they did eat of those
   loaves and fishes, yet I do not doubt that some who were first
   attracted by the earthly food remained to eat of the Bread of Heaven,
   and embraced those precious Truths which at first were foolishness unto
   them. Yes, my Friends, if we want to get at our starving people, if we
   would reach the most degraded and the poorest of the poor, we must use
   such means as these, for Jesus did.

   A Mission would also find great strength in imitating Jesus by
   combining medical aid with religious teaching. Our Lord was a medical
   Missionary--He not only preached the Gospel, but He opened the eyes of
   the blind, cured those who were afflicted with fevers, made the lame to
   leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb to sing. You may say that
   all this was miracle. I grant it, but the mode of performing the cure
   is not the point in hand. I am speaking of the thing itself. True
   enough is it that we cannot work miracles, but we may do what is within
   human reach in the way of healing, and so we may follow our Lord, not
   with equal footsteps, but in the same track.

   I rejoice to see in Edinburgh and in Glasgow, and also in London, the
   establishment of Medical Missions. I believe that in some parts of
   London nothing would be so likely to do good to the people as to make
   the vestry a dispensary, and the godly surgeon a deacon of the Church,
   if not an Evangelist. It may one day be thought possible to have
   deaconesses whose self-denying nursing of the sick poor shall introduce
   the Gospel into the meanest hovels. At any rate, there should be
   associated with the City Missionary, with the Bible-woman, and with
   Home Missions everywhere, to as great a degree as may be possible, the
   earnest aid of beloved physicians and men learned in the healing art,
   who should seek to do good to men's eyes, and ears, and legs, and feet,
   while others of us look to their spiritual infirmities.

   Many a young man who goes forth as a minister of Christ would do much
   more good if he understood a little anatomy and medicine. He might be a
   double blessing to a remote hamlet or to a district crowded with the
   poor. I pray for a closer connection between the surgeon and the
   Savior. I would invoke the aid of truly believing members of the
   faculty. May there be many who, like Luke, are both physicians and
   Evangelists. Perhaps some Christian young man walking the hospitals,
   and fearing God, may find in these hints a guide as to his future
   career.

   In addition to this, let me say that our Lord Jesus Christ also
   associated with His Mission-work the distribution of alms. He was very
   poor. Foxes had holes, and the birds of the air had nests, but He, the
   Son of Man, had not where to lay His head. Out of the gifts of the
   faithful who ministered to His necessities there was but little to
   spare. These gifts were put into a bag and entrusted to Judas, and we
   discover, incidentally, that the Master was likely to distribute from
   this slender store to the poor around Him. Brethren, it is to be feared
   that some Churches fall behind in this matter of almsgiving, a matter
   which at the Judgment Day will occupy a very conspicuous place, "I was
   hungry and you gave Me meat."

   The Romish Church has abounded in the practice of almsgiving, and if
   her mode of distributing were as wise as her manner of contributing is
   generous, she would deserve much commendation in this respect.
   Brethren, because we feel that we are justified by faith and not by
   works, are we to cease from good works and suffer the giving of alms to
   drift into the background? Such is now the rage for centralization, and
   so eager are some for the suppression of all personal charity that it
   may one day become an indictable offense to give away a sixpence to a
   starving woman until you have consulted the police, the Poor Law Board,
   or some association for giving away paper tickets instead of bread.

   Public opinion demands the publication of all our gifts, and ignores
   the old-fashioned command, "Let not your right hand know what your left
   hand does." We are all to be made wheels in the engine of a society to
   give our alms by clock work, and relieve the poor by machinery. For
   one, I shall always recommend Christian people to be a little eccentric
   in their benevolence. Without decrying societies, I shall urge godly
   men to judge for themselves as to the poverty of each case, and to give
   for themselves, apart from those various associations which cut and dry
   benevolence till it becomes a mere skeleton.

   I am a firm believer in the Gospel of the barley loaves and fishes. I
   believe in the Gospel of feeding the hungry and clothing the naked. I
   like the story that I heard the other day of a poor man who was found
   in the street one Sunday morning as he was about to commit suicide. Two
   of our Brethren met him, and led him to this Tabernacle, but they knew
   better than to bring him to hear a sermon while he was hungry. On the
   road they took him to a coffee shop, and gave him a cup of hot coffee
   and some bread and butter. And then they brought him to hear the
   discourse. I had a far more likely hearer in the man whose hunger was
   relieved than I could have had in the poor famishing sinner.

   Then, after the sermon was over, they took care to find him a good
   dinner, and so detained him till they brought him here again in the
   evening and God was pleased to bless the Word to him. Rest assured that
   the Master's opening blind eyes, the Master's feeding the multitude,
   and the Master's relief of the poor were all indications to the
   Christian Church that clothing societies and soup kitchens, and
   benevolent associations, are legitimate aids to the spread of the
   Gospel.

   Our Master's Mission had one point in it which we ought never to
   forget, namely, that it was carried on very largely through open-air
   preaching. I remember well the time when it really seemed an outrageous
   novelty for a man to preach in the streets. I remember proposing,
   twenty years ago, to my good deacons in the country that I should
   preach on the Sunday evening by the riverside, and the remark was made
   by one of them, "Ah, I do not like it, it is imitating the Methodists."
   To him as a sound Calvinist it was a dreadful thing to do anything
   which Methodists were guilty of. To me, however, that was more a
   recommendation than otherwise, and I was happy to run the risk of being
   called Methodist.

   All over England, in our cities, towns, villages, and hamlets, there
   are tens of thousands who never will hear the Gospel while open-air
   preaching is neglected. I believe that God allows us to preach in
   Churches and chapels, but I do not believe that we have any Apostolic
   precedent for it, certainly none for confining our ministry to such
   places. I believe that we are allowed, if it promotes order and
   edification, to set apart buildings for our worship. But there is no
   warrant for calling these places sanctuaries and Houses of God, for all
   places are alike holy where holy men assemble. It is altogether a
   mischievous thing that we should confine our preaching within walls.

   Our Lord, it is true, preached in the synagogues, but He often spoke on
   the mountain's side, or from a boat, or in the court of a house, or in
   the public thoroughfares. To Him an audience was the only necessity. He
   was a fisher of souls of the true sort, and not of the modern order who
   sit in their houses and expect the fish to come to them to be caught.
   Did our Lord intend a minister to go on preaching from his pulpit to
   empty pews, when by standing on a chair or a table outside the meeting
   house he might be heard by hundreds? Of course, if the crowd fills the
   house, and it is as large as the human voice can fill, there is the
   less need for us to go out into the streets. But, alas, there are
   places of worship in London by scores, not one-fourth or even one-tenth
   filled, and yet the preacher goes on contentedly!

   A minister is living in positive sin who constantly preaches to a mere
   handful within walls, while outside there are crowded courts and lanes,
   and alleys, where men are perishing for lack of knowledge. The minister
   who does his duty goes out into the highways and hedges. He goes into
   all the world. He preaches whether men will hear or whether they will
   forbear, and delights to make hills and woods ring with the message of
   peace!

   Our Lord also set an example to Home Missionaries, in the fact that He
   had pity on the villages. Small villages are often thought to be too
   insignificant for the founding of Churches in them. But the villages
   help to make the large towns, and the character of the citizens of this
   great London of ours depends very much upon the character of the
   village homes from which so many of our fellow citizens are drawn. We
   must never neglect the smallest hamlet, but seek as far as we can, to
   reach even the little knots of cottages that stand by twos and threes
   on lone heaths and desolate moors.

   At the same time, the Master also gave much attention to the towns.
   Capernaum and Bethsaida were not forgotten. Jerusalem frequently echoed
   with His voice. Where the crowds assembled at the solemn festivals,
   which were something like the gatherings at our markets and fairs,
   Christ was heard lifting up His voice, and crying, "If any man thirst,
   let him come unto Me and drink." The Home Missionary must avail himself
   of all gatherings of his fellow men for whatever objects they may have
   come together. And in every place he must proclaim the Gospel, seeking
   by any means to save some. This and much more may be gathered from the
   life of Jesus of Nazareth, "a Prophet mighty in deed and word."

   II. I shall now pass on to notice, in the second place, THE MODEL HOME
   MISSIONARY. My Brethren, after all, the success of a work depends very
   little upon the system which is adopted in carrying it out--almost
   everything rests under God--not upon the man. There have been men who,
   with systems unwise and imperfect, have, nevertheless, accomplished
   noble results, while others with admirable organizations have done
   nothing, because they were not the right men. Who, then, is the fittest
   man to be a Missionary for Christ? Who is the woman that can best serve
   her God?

   Behold the Model Missionary in the Person of the Lord Jesus. The man
   who is to serve God as a leading Missionary must be a man of teaching
   power and of personal influence. It is of no use to send out as a
   Missionary a man who cannot speak. And yet there are many places where
   the people are without a minister, if speaking power is an essential
   qualification for that office. Why, you may frequently hear the
   preacher mumble so dreadfully that you can hardly follow his words. Or
   he is a mere reader, or else a prosy reciter of very heavy matter.

   In the Established Church, the very last thing that is looked into when
   a young man enters "holy orders," as they call them, is whether he has
   gifts of utterance, or in other words, whether he is qualified by
   nature and by Divine Grace to be a preacher. That some very admirable
   and excellent persons enter the Church is cheerfully granted, but none
   the less we believe such a system to be essentially bad. If you want a
   man to spread the Gospel among his fellow men, he must be one who can
   preach. He must be apt to teach. He must have a way of making plain
   what he means, and of winning attention, so that men may be willing to
   listen to him.

   Our Lord had this grand capacity in the highest degree. He could bring
   the most sublime truths down to the level of His hearers'
   comprehension. He knew how, with a Divine simplicity, to tell a story
   that would win even a child's attention. And though the Truth He spoke
   was such that archangels might well marvel at it, yet He put it into
   such a form that the little children gathered around Him, and the
   common people heard Him gladly. Aptness to teach--this is what we need.
   Pray, my Brethren, the Lord of the Harvest to send us many who have
   this choice gift. The pulpit, the Sunday school, and every form of
   Christian service need earnest workers who have the power of
   translating their thoughts into the language of those with whom they
   come in contact, so that they may be interested and impressed.

   But there were higher qualifications than these. Our Lord as a
   Missionary was a Man who fraternized with the people. I do not think He
   ever passed a person on the road concerning whom He said to Himself, "I
   am so much above that man that I will not speak to him." I could hardly
   dare to imagine Him saying such words. It would so lower the Savior to
   imagine such a thing. And yet, and yet, and yet--some of His ministers
   have thought so! How many of us, if we had seen a poor harlot coming to
   the well would have remained sitting by it purposely to converse with
   her? If we had seen her coming, knowing her character, we should
   probably have moved off, and have eased our conscience with the notion
   that hers was a case more suitable for someone else to deal with. In
   fact, a matter to be left to an agent of the Rescue Society.

   Our Lord made no affectation of condescending or of patronizing the
   poor Samaritan sinner, but as naturally as possible, with every
   appearance of ease, He at once began to talk with her. If she had been
   a noble lady in the land He could not have fraternized more thoroughly
   with her, and yet He in no way connived at her sin. Our Lord received
   sinners and

   ate with them. They must have seen how different He was from
   themselves, but He affected no distance. He pretended to no caste. He
   drew no lines of social demarcation. He was not a Pharisee, who stood
   apart in his pious eminence--pride and assumed dignity had no
   attractions for Him. He was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate
   from sinners in the highest and best of senses, but in other respects
   He was the friend of publicans and sinners.

   If we are to have London blessed, it will never be by ministers who are
   too great to speak to the poorest of the people. Nor will your
   benevolent societies work much good if your lordships and ladyships
   cannot mingle with the humbler classes. We must be one with those whom
   we would bless. We must not be ashamed to call them Brethren. We must
   without being conscious of stooping, reach out a fraternal hand to the
   fallen and the degraded, that we may lift them up for Christ's sake. O
   for men and women of the true brotherly and sisterly spirit--bone of
   the people's bone and flesh of their

   flesh!

   Our Lord, again, was a man who could toil. He was by no means a
   gentleman at large, amusing His leisure with lecturing. He never
   preached a sermon without weaving His soul into it. He was by no means
   the kind of Evangelist who finds His task a light one. He could not, as
   some do, preach by the year without disturbing the placid current of
   His own emotions. No, my Brethren, never preacher worked more intensely
   than Jesus did--by day preaching, by night praying, oftentimes faint
   through weariness, and yet not finding time so much as to eat bread.
   Whoever did not labor, Christ did. He is the Master Worker of all the
   sons of men.

   If we all must eat bread in the sweat of our faces, much greater was
   His toil when He brought the Bread of Life to us by the bloody sweat of
   Gethsemane, and by the life-sweat of every day of His three years'
   ministry. His life was a scene of unrivalled labor. We can hardly
   conceive how thoroughly our Redeemer laid Himself out for us. Now, if
   the Church would see souls saved, the work will never be achieved by
   agents who are half asleep. Christ's kingdom will never be extended by
   persons who are afraid of labor. God will bless His Church by the power
   of the Holy Spirit, for all the power lies there--but He will have His
   Church travail--or the blessing will not come.

   For a Home Missionary we want a man who can pray as the Master prayed.
   What a proficient in the art of prayer was Jesus! He was as great with
   God in prayer as He was with man in preaching. I heard a Brother speak
   the other day of our Lord's coming from the mountainside with the wild
   flowers on His garments, and the smell of the heather on His vesture,
   for He came fresh from the lone spot where He had spent the night in
   prayer. Ah, my Brethren, here is the center of power! Prayer breaks
   hearts. These granite rocks will never yield to our hammers till we go
   down on our knees to smite. If we prevail with God for men, we shall
   prevail with men for God. The main work of the minister must be done
   alone. Let him do as he pleases when the multitude are listening, he
   shall not bring them to Christ unless he has pleaded for them when none
   heard him but his God. Our Home Mission needs men who can pray.

   And, Brethren, if we are to secure useful men and women we must choose
   those who can weep. That is a fine faculty, that emotional power of the
   heart which makes the passions boil, and rise within like steaming
   vapors, till at last like the waters of dropping wells, they are
   condensed and fall in showers from our eyes! I do not covet that
   moistness of the eyes which some exhibit as the result of optical
   weakness or effeminacy of constitution--but manly weeping is a mighty
   thing. Our Lord Jesus was thoroughly a Man--far too masculine to fall
   into sentimentalism and affectation--but when He beheld the city, and
   knew all the sufferings that would come upon it from the siege as a
   punishment for its sin, He could not restrain the floods. His great
   soul ran over at His eyes.

   If He had not been a man who could weep Himself, He could not, humanly
   speaking, have made others weep. You must feel yourselves if you would
   make other men feel. You cannot reach my heart till first of all your
   heart comes to meet mine. Lord, send into Your field men of strong
   emotional natures whose eyes can be fountains of tears.

   To crown all, our blessed Lord was one who knew how to die! Oh, when
   shall we have men and women sent among us who are prepared to die in
   order to accomplish their lifework? I have shuddered, and all the more
   so because I might do no better myself, when I have heard excuses for
   avoiding risks of life, and reasons for escaping hardships in foreign
   lands. It has been even questioned in some quarters, whether a man
   would be right in exposing himself to danger of life in order to preach
   the Gospel. I could say much, but would be sparing of censure. Only
   this I must say--until Divine Grace shall restore to us the ancient
   Apostolic self-sacrifice, we may not expect to see the Gospel
   conquering to any high degree.

   Zeal for God's House must eat us up. Love of life must yield to love of
   souls. Trials must be counted as nothing for Christ's sake, and death
   must be defied, or we shall never capture the world for Jesus. They who
   wear soft raiment will

   never win Ireland, or Africa, or India for Christ. The man who
   considers himself, and makes provision for the flesh, will do little or
   nothing. Christ revealed the great secret when it was said of Him, "He
   saved others, Himself He cannot save." In proportion as a man saves
   himself he cannot save others. And only in proportion as he is carried
   away with self-sacrifice, willing to renounce luxuries, comforts,
   necessities, and even life, itself--only in that proportion will he
   succeed.

   I trust that no Missionary's life may be lost, but I trust that if the
   Church can only bring the world to Christ by the deaths of her
   ministers, all our lives may be sacrificed--for what are we, my
   Brethren, what is any one of us--compared with the accomplishment of
   our Redeemer's work? Our sires went to the stake with songs upon their
   lips. Our ancestors were confessors who dared the barbarous cruelties
   of Northern hordes, and the refined persecution of Southern
   superstition. They were men who could die but could not refrain from
   witnessing for the Lord. We must quit ourselves like men for Christ.
   And though we may not all be called to make the extreme sacrifice, we
   must be ready for it. And if we shrink from it we are not the men for
   such a time as this.

   We want men who can toil, men who can pray, men who can weep, men who
   can die. In fact, we need for Christ's work men all ablaze with
   consecrated fervor, men under a Divine impulse, like arrows shot from
   the bow of the Almighty flashing straight to the target. Men like
   thunderbolts launched by the Eternal to go crashing through every
   difficulty with irresistible energy of aim. We want a Divine enthusiasm
   to fire us, an Almighty impetus to urge us on. Only men thus filled
   with the Holy Spirit shall accomplish largely the work of God.

   III. My last point was to be, if Christ lived thus, and worked thus,
   LET US HEAR HIS CALL AND IMITATE HIM. I shall say but a few sentences,
   but let them be remembered. Believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is
   your privilege to be a worker together with God. Therefore keep close
   to the footsteps of the great Master worker.

   Remember that before He went to work He was Himself personally obedient
   to that Gospel which He had to preach. He did not bid others believe
   and be baptized, and neglect to be baptized Himself. "Thus it becomes
   us to fulfill all righteousness," said He. And in the waves of Jordan,
   the Baptist immersed Him. How little will you be fitted for service if
   you leave any command of Christ not obeyed! How can you exhort others
   to do your Lord's will if you yourself are disobedient to it? The first
   thing, therefore, before you go to that form of service which now
   invites you, is to see to it that you have obeyed the Master's will,
   for "to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of
   rams."

   This being done, let me say to you, Is there not some department of
   Mission work at home that you could undertake? Most probably you could
   not do all those things which I have mentioned as having been done by
   Christ. But you know that young artists will often be instructed by
   their masters to sketch not the whole of a great statue by Phidias, but
   one single limb, an arm, a hand, or a foot. Have you not often seen in
   the artist's studio the foot of some great masterpiece used as a model?
   Just so it shall be enough to teach you service if, being unable to
   attempt the whole of the great scheme which I have brought before you
   now, you will undertake zealously to labor in one department of it.

   But, whatever you do, do it thoroughly, do it heartily. If it is worth
   doing at all, it is worth doing well. For such a Master there must be
   no second-rate work, and with such a gracious reward before you, there
   must be no offering of that which costs you nothing. You must throw
   yourselves into whatever you undertake for Jesus.

   Will you now take one word which is often used by Mark as a motto for
   yourselves? The idiom of the Gospel of Mark is eutheos, "straightway."
   He is always saying of Christ, that straightway He did this, and
   straightway He did that. Now, if you have work for Christ before your
   eyes, straightway hasten to do it. The most of Christians miss the
   honor they might have in service by waiting till a more convenient
   season. Do something tonight before you go to bed, if it is only the
   giving away of a tract. Do something as each moment flies. If up to now
   you have not been a worker, begin now. Or if you have been a worker up
   till now, do not pause, but end the evening with another good word to
   sister, or child, or friend. Evermore breathe out consecration to
   Christ.

   And let me bid you, dear Friends, if you love my Lord and Master, to
   have comfort in trying to serve Him, because there is an all-sufficient
   power which you may obtain for this service. Our Lord is declared in
   this very verse to be One who was anointed with the Holy Spirit and
   with power. That same Holy Spirit is given to the Church, and that same
   power lingers in the assemblies of the faithful. Ask for this
   anointing, and pray that as in this verse we are told that God was with
   Jesus, so God may be with you. Remember last Sunday evening's text,
   "Fear you not. For I am with you; be not

   dismayed, for I am your God: I will strengthen you; yes, I will help
   you; yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of My righteousness."

   Being now a pardoned sinner, ask to be an anointed saint. As one who is
   reconciled to God, ask that you may be strengthened by God, so that
   from this day forward you may serve your Master mightily. I do not know
   that I ever felt happier in my life than I did last Tuesday night when
   I was listening to my dear Friend, Mr. Orsman, the pastor of the poor
   but gracious Church in Golden Lane, in the City. He is a good Brother,
   who, some years ago, was converted to God under our ministry, and he
   was there and then converted all over. Some of you, when you believe in
   Christ appear to have only a sprinkling conversion, but I love those
   men and women who get an immersion conversion.

   They, go down into the deeps of the love of Christ, and give themselves
   altogether up to their Lord. Why, that dear man, though working all day
   long in the Post Office, yet finds in the evening opportunity to preach
   Christ. And if you were to go to Golden Lane, you would find there all
   the forms of organization which I have described at the commencement of
   this sermon in active exercise. Among the poorest, lowest and most
   degraded of the people, Divine Grace has found out precious jewels.
   Some seven or eight who are now ministers of the Gospel, first began to
   preach to his poor people there. He has now spiritual children
   scattered all over the world by emigration, and the good man, having
   consecrated himself fully to his work, is most happy in it.

   I believe from the bottom of my soul that these single-handed men, who
   give themselves up to a special district and work it well, are the very
   greatest blessings that London can have. And if there is a young man
   here endowed with abilities, and perhaps with a little money and time,
   what better could I propose to him, as a lover of Christ, than to begin
   some such work for his Master? The same applies to Christian women. Oh,
   what good Christian women can do! There are those in this place whose
   names, if I were to mention them, would be had in honor by us all for
   what they have accomplished!

   Without obtruding themselves as preachers into public assemblies, they
   are working away for Christ privately, and bringing many into the
   Church of God. O Christian men and women, time is flying, men are
   dying, Hell is filling, Christ is waiting to see of the travail of His
   soul. I beseech you by the heart of God's mercy, by the heart of
   Christ, by His love for souls--bestir yourselves and proclaim
   salvation. May the Lord's blessing be with you. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Away With Fear

   (No. 930)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, APRIL 10, 1870,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Fear you not. For I am with you; be not dismayed; for I am your God: I
   will strengthen you; yes, I will help you; yes, I will uphold you with
   the right hand of My righteousness." Isaiah 41:10.

   IF there should be nothing in the sermon this evening, Brethren, there
   is enough in the text to satisfy your mouth with good things, so that
   your youth may be renewed like the eagle's. May the Holy Spirit spread
   for you a table in the wilderness. And may He give you appetites to
   feed by faith upon these royal dainties, which, like the food that
   Daniel and his companions fed upon, shall make you well-favored before
   God and man.

   To whom are these words spoken? For we must not steal from God's
   Scripture any more than from man's treasury. We have no more right to
   take a promise to ourselves that does not belong to us than we have to
   take another man's purse from him. These words were evidently spoken in
   God's name by the Prophet to God's "chosen" ones. Read the eighth verse
   "But you, Israel, are My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of
   Abraham My friend."

   And again in the ninth verse--"You are My servant. I have chosen you."
   So, then, if you or I should meet with anything that is gracious and
   comfortable here it will come to us, not upon the footing of merit, but
   upon the ground of Sovereign Grace. It will not be ours because we have
   chosen Christ, but because He has chosen us. Our heavenly Father has
   blessed us with all spiritual blessings according as He has chosen us
   in Christ Jesus from before the foundation of the world. The eternal
   choice is the wellhead from which all the springs of mercy flow. Happy
   are you, my Soul, if Divine Grace has inscribed your name in God's
   eternal book! You may come to this text like a child to his father's
   own table, and you may draw from it all manner of comforts to sustain
   your spirit.

   But since, dear Friends, you and I cannot read the secret roll of God's
   electing love, we are helped to judge whether this text belongs to us
   by another description. For those who are here called "chosen," are, in
   the ninth verse, also described as being "called." "You whom I have
   taken from the ends of the earth, and called you from the chief men
   thereof." God's chosen people of old were set apart for Himself, and
   called out from all the rest of the world, and so they are now. They
   are a people called out by His special Grace--with a gracious call
   which they have not been able to resist--and they have come forth and
   declared themselves on the Lord's side.

   "For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to
   the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many
   Brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called." If
   you are called, depend upon it you are chosen. I do not mean if you are
   called in the common sense with the universal call of the Gospel, for
   in that sense, "many are called, but few are chosen." But I mean if you
   are effectually called, personally called, called of the Holy Spirit,
   called as Mary was when Jesus said to her, "Mary"--and that gracious
   voice thrilled through her soul, and she responded to it, and said to
   Him--"Master!"

   Have you been so called that you have forsaken all for Christ, or are
   willing to do so? Have you left your old pleasures and your old
   companions? And are you now a separated one, set apart for Christ? Oh,
   if it is so, let nothing keep you back from enjoying the riches of my
   text, for every comfortable sentence in it belongs to you!

   Still, farther to help us to find out to whom this text belongs, notice
   that the person here described is spoken of in the eighth verse as a
   "servant." "You, Israel, are My servant," and in the ninth verse, "And
   said unto you, You are My servant." Now, are you God's servant, dear
   Hearer? A servant does not do his own will. He would soon get his
   discharge if he carried out his own whims and wishes. He takes his
   guidance from his master's mouth and his master's eyes. Have you
   submitted your will to God's will? Are you no longer governed by a
   proud and high spirit which cries, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey
   Him?" Do you desire to know what God's will is, and then to do just
   what He bids you? Do you count it your highest honor to be called a
   servant of Christ? Is it for Him that you live? Is His glory your
   highest aim? If

   so, then you who are willing to labor may come and feast upon the text,
   for every honey-dropping word of it belongs to you, since you serve the
   Lord Christ.

   One more word to help you to see whether you have a right to these
   promises. He says in the ninth verse, "I have chosen you, and not cast
   you away." Now you have, some of you, been professors of the Christian
   faith for many years. Some of the younger ones of us have now been
   twenty years maintained in His House, for it is just so long since we
   were baptized in Christ's name. Surely, my Brethren, we feel that,
   judged by the strictness of the Law, we deserved to have been cast
   away! And yet, being under Grace, we have been preserved by the Lord's
   salvation even until now.

   Still though faint, we are pursuing. We are bound to confess, "My feet
   had almost gone. My steps had well-near slipped." But we have been
   upheld even to this hour. Oh, then, we have much to be grateful for,
   and much to rejoice in, for perseverance is a great pledge and earnest
   of final salvation. "To him that overcomes, the crown of life shall
   be." And to us, as having overcome up till now, the promises of the
   text belong. He who has kept you, my Brothers and Sisters, till this
   hour, bids you now come and look into this choice cabinet and take out
   the jewels and wear them. For they are all your own to deck you, that
   you may adorn His doctrine the more. In a word, the text belongs to
   God's chosen. Those who are His by being separated from the world--who
   are distinguished by their practical service of God--and who continue
   in that service. And by God's Grace will continue in it even till the
   end.

   Come we now to the text. I will read it again, "Fear you not. For I am
   with You; be not dismayed; for I am your God: I will strengthen you;
   yes, I will help you; yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of My
   righteousness." There is here, first, a very natural disease--fear.
   There is here, secondly, a command against fear--"Fear you not." And
   there is, thirdly, God's promise to help us to overcome it. And that
   promise is given in three or four ways so that we may chase fear away
   with a whip of many thongs.

   I. First, then, we are reminded OF A VERY COMMON DISEASE OF GOOD
   MEN--FEAR AND DISMAY. This disease of fear came into man's heart with
   sin. Adam never was afraid of his God till he had broken His commands.
   When the Lord God walked in the garden in the cool of day, and Adam
   heard the Almighty's footsteps, he hastened to commune with God as a
   dear child talks with a loving father.

   But the moment he had touched the fruit that was forbidden, he ran away
   and hid himself. And when God said, "Where are you, Adam?" Adam came
   cringing and trembling, for he was afraid of God. It is sin,
   consciousness of sin, that "makes cowards of us all." Though He who
   made us is a consuming fire, and we should always have a holy awe of
   Him, yet the fear that causes bondage would never have come into our
   spirit if we had not first of all transgressed His Law. Sin is the
   mother of the fear which has torment.

   And, Brethren, fear continues in good men because sin continues in
   them. If they had attained to perfect love it would cast out fear, for
   fear has torment. But, since the flesh is still in them and the lusts
   still strive for the mastery, even the holiest of God's people are
   sometimes afflicted with the mockings of the child of the bondwoman. O
   that he were cast out, for he can never be heir with the freeborn
   nature! As Divine Grace grows and increases in power, fear declines.
   And when sin is cut up by the root and branch, then no doubt or fear
   will ever vex us again. Once strip us of these houses of clay. Once
   deliver us from all indwelling sin--and our spirits shall seek God as
   the sparks seek the sun.

   But until then, since by reason of weakness sin sometimes prevails,
   fear also prevails, and we are sadly cast down. Fear, coming in by sin
   and being sustained by sin, readily finds food upon which it may live.
   Let the Believer look within, and, my Brethren, he has only to do that
   for a moment to see abundant reasons for fear. "Ah!" says Fear as it
   looks within at the heart still prone to wander, "I shall never hold on
   my way." "Ah!" says Fear as it looks at the besetting sin, "I shall be
   tripped up yet. I shall never persevere to the end."

   Grace is there, it is true, but Fear is blind to the better nature and
   fixes his glance only on the body of this death. Looking within upon
   the old nature is seldom a very pleasant operation, especially if we
   forget that it is crucified with Christ. I suppose if any man among us
   could see his own heart as it really is, he would be driven mad. But
   Faith looks at all the ruins of the Fall and she believes that the
   blood of Christ will get the victory. She sings her poem of triumph
   even while the fight is raging, rejoicing with the Apostle, that,
   "Where sin abounded, Grace did much more abound: that as sin has
   reigned unto death, even so might Grace reign through righteousness
   unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord."

   But Fear says, "I shall one day fall by the hand of the enemy. Such a
   poor frail boat as mine will never stem the flood and weather the
   tempest, but I shall make shipwreck after all." And then, my Brethren,
   if Fear finds food within, it also

   very readily finds food without. Sometimes it is poverty, sometimes
   sickness, sometimes the recollection of the past, and quite as often
   dread of the future. Even those who have faith in God may occasionally
   be weak enough to fear and be dismayed about common circumstances to
   which they ought to be indifferent, or over which they ought by faith
   to exult.

   Desponding people can find reason for fear where there is no fear. A
   certain class of persons are greatly gifted with the mournful faculty
   of inventing troubles. If the Lord has not sent them any trial, they
   make one for themselves. They have a little trouble-factory in their
   houses, and they sit down and use their imaginations to meditate
   terror. They weave sackcloth and scrape up ashes. They know that they
   shall be bankrupt--there was a little falling off in their trade last
   week. They believe that they shall soon be too old for labor--it is
   true they are older than they were a month ago. They feel sure that
   they shall die in the workhouse--it is clear they will die somewhere.

   They feel certain about this dreadful thing and that, and fret
   accordingly. None of these things have happened to them yet, and in the
   judgment of others they are less likely to happen now than ever they
   were. But yet they convert their suspicions into realities and torture
   themselves with them though they are but fancies. Oh, it is sad that we
   should degrade ourselves to this--

   "Shall the thin cloudlets of this transient life

   Shut out the light of Lo ve Immutable?

   Shall unsubstantial mists of earthborn care

   Conceal from saints the everlasting hills,

   From which their speedy succor shall descend?

   Oh, shame, and sin most base, that heirs of Heaven,

   Enriched with all the fullness of the Lord,

   Should fret, and fume, and wear away their souls

   With childish dreams of ills which never may come;

   Or coming, shall be laden deep with good!" In certain instances the
   habit of fearing has reached a monstrous growth. Indeed, I know some of
   my acquaintances who think it the right thing to be always fearing, and
   are half suspicious of a man who has strong faith. They even call full
   assurance, "presumption," and are amazed that anybody should have
   confidence in God. But if they did but know it, there is more
   presumption in unbelief than there can be in faith. It is gross
   presumption on a child's part to disbelieve its father's word. There is
   no presumption in a child's believing what its father tells it. It,
   then, only does its duty. For me to accept the naked promises of a
   faithful God, and, despite my unworthiness, still to believe them true,
   is humility.

   But for me to take that promise from my Father's lips, and begin to
   cavil at it, and to question it, is nothing better than pride hiding
   its nakedness with the thinnest gauze of pretended modesty. Shun, I
   pray you, the unbelief that apes humility, and seek after that
   unstaggering faith which is the true meekness in the sight of God!

   Yet, I would not blame all those who are much given to fear, for in
   some it is rather their disease than their sin, and more their
   misfortune than their fault. Mr. Feeble-Mind will never make a
   Great-Heart even if you feed him on the finest of the wheat. Mr.
   Ready-to-Halt will never stand so firmly, or run so nimbly, as Mr.
   Valiant-for-Truth--do what you will with him. There are some in God's
   family who are constitutionally weak, and will probably never outgrow
   that weakness till they have entered into rest. I would do anything I
   could to encourage the fearing ones to rise above their weakness. I
   would even give just enough of the tonic of censure to make them feel
   that it is not right to be unbelieving, but I would not like to censure
   their despondency so severely as to make them think that they are not
   the people of God.

   I tell you, Sirs, I would sooner you would go to Heaven creeping on all
   fours, with never a song in your mouths, than go to Hell presuming. It
   is better to be a broken-legged lamb in Christ's bosom than to be the
   strongest ram in Satan's flock. God deliver us from being strong and
   mighty in ourselves. But yet at the same time there are many evils
   connected with fearing, and every child of God should be on his guard
   against giving way to it. In every case much may be accomplished by
   arousing ourselves to cry to the strong One for strength to overcome
   our unbelief. Gloom need not be perpetual with us.

   I know it is said that some of God's plants grow best in the shade. I
   believe they do, but I should like to try them in the sunlight a little
   and see if they would not grow better there than their best has up to
   now been. There are precious flowers of Grace which are constantly
   watered with the tears of sorrow, but methinks the dews of consolation
   would an-

   swer their purpose just as well. May the Lord visit such, and bring
   them up out of the horrible pit and out of the miry clay. May they be
   of good courage, for the Lord says to them--

   "Fear not. Be not dismayed."

   Be it also remarked before we leave this point, that even the strongest
   of God's servants are sometimes the subjects of fear. David was a very
   strong man, and he overthrew Goliath. But we read that on one occasion
   when he was in battle, "David waxed faint." So the Lord's mightiest
   heroes sometimes have their fainting fits. We used to talk of our "Iron
   Duke," and there was one man in Scripture who was an Iron Prophet, and
   that was Elijah the Tishbite, and yet he sat down under the juniper
   tree, and, I had almost said, whined, "It is enough. Now, O Lord, take
   away my life. For I am not better than my fathers."

   The best of men are but men at the best, and the strongest men are weak
   if God's mighty hand is for awhile withdrawn. Some of my dear friends
   will occasionally tell me, "We have suffered from doubts, and fears,
   and troubles, of which you have no conception." They suppose that their
   minister, and others whom they love and respect, know nothing at all
   experimentally about their infirmities. I wish it were so. We have
   something better to talk of than our own follies. We do not feel bound
   to turn the pulpit into a public confessional, and all experiences are
   not to be published abroad. But, for all that, permit me to say that
   there are times with the boldest and the strongest when they would give
   all they have for the very smallest evidence of Divine Grace. They
   would count themselves happy to creep to the foot of the Cross and say,
   "God be merciful to me a sinner!"

   Yet, I do not say this to encourage anybody in fearing, for, let me
   just give you the opposite side. There is no reason why, if we lived
   nearer to God and walked more carefully, we might not, as a rule, live
   above all this fear and dismay. I once met with a dear Brother in
   Christ, who is now in Glory, about whose truthfulness I never could
   have a doubt. He told me that by the space of thirty years he had not
   felt a doubt of his interest in Jesus Christ. At the time I heard him
   say it, I thought it was quite an unusual circumstance, but I bless God
   that I have now met with several, "the excellent of the earth, in whom
   is all My delight."

   Their testimony is the same--that though they may have been shaken,
   they have never been moved from their steadfast hold on Christ. Though
   they may have had a few moments of trembling--yet they have never been
   so dismayed as to question their part in Jesus. They have stood fast,
   and they have sung year after year, "O God, my heart is fixed. my heart
   is fixed. I will sing and give praise." I hold that out as an object of
   ambition to every Believer in Christ. Do try and see if you cannot
   rinse your mouth out of all that bitter stuff which makes you sing so
   often and so dolefully--

   "It is a point Ilong to know__."

   That is a very suitable song for Christian infants, a hymn often sung
   by enquirers. But O that you would get beyond such juvenile ditties,
   and learn to sing fitter music, such as this--

   "NowIhave found the ground, wherein Sure my soul's anchor may remain--
   The wounds of Jesus, for my sin Before the world's foundation slain.
   Whose mercy shall unshaken stay, When Hea ven and earth are fled away.

   Love! You bottomless abyss! My sins are swallowed up in You; Covered is
   my unrighteousness, Nor spot of guilt remains on me

   While Jesus' blood through earth and skies, Mercy, free, boundless
   mercy cries!

   With faith I plunge me in this sea-- Here is my hope, my joy, my rest!
   Hither, when Hell assails, I flee,

   1 look into my Sa vior's breast; Away, sad doubt, and anxious fear!
   Mercy is all that's written there."

   II. We shall now occupy a little while in considering GOD'S COMMAND
   AGAINST FEAR. "Fear you not. Be not dismayed." That precept is absolute
   and unqualified--we are not to fear at all. He does not say, "Fear so
   much, but not beyond that," but He gives an unlimited exhortation,
   "Fear not." He does not say, "Do not fear so often," but, "Fear not."
   It is an exhortation without any time to it, and therefore it applies
   to all times. "Fear not." Fear not at all. "Be not dismayed." He does
   not say, "Be not utterly dismayed." There is no qualifying adverb, but
   it means, "Be not dismayed at all." This command, then, chides fear and
   forbids dismay.

   Why should not the child of God be afraid? There are several reasons
   which justify the Divine command. Let us meditate upon some of them.
   First, my Brethren, we may not fear because it is sinful. It is usually
   sinful to be afraid and dismayed, because such a state of mind almost
   always results from unbelief. Have you ever thought what a great sin
   unbelief is? No, we talk about it, and confess it, but we do not
   sufficiently consider the deep heinousness of it. We will confess
   unbelief of God without a blush, and yet nothing could make us
   acknowledge dishonesty to man. I pray you, my Brethren, tell me which
   of these two is the worst fault? Is not unbelief a robbery of God, a
   treason felony against Him?

   If I were in conversation with any one of you, and you should say to
   me, "Sir, I do not believe you," nothing you could say would sting me
   more. It is a very strong thing to say to any man, "I do not believe
   you." Why, if there were two of the lowest men or women fighting in a
   street quarrel, and one of them said to the other, "I do not believe a
   word you say," the sorriest drab would feel the insult. Every truthful
   man feels that he has a right to be believed. He speaks upon the honor
   of an honest man, and if you say, "I do not believe you," and even
   begin to lament that you have no faith in him, the reflection is not
   upon yourself, but on the person whom you cannot believe.

   And shall it ever come to this, that God's own children shall say that
   they do not believe their God? Oh, sin of sins! It takes away the very
   Godhead from God, for if God is not true, He is not God. And if He is
   not fit to be believed, neither is He fit to be adored--for a God whom
   you cannot trust you cannot worship. Oh, deicidal Traitor, you sin of
   unbelief! Oh, God-killing sin! May we be delivered from it, and not
   think it light or trifling, but shake it off from us as Paul shook off
   the viper into the fire.

   Doubts and fears also breed sin. It was said of Jeroboam that he
   sinned, and made Israel to sin--and so does unbelief. It carries a
   thousand other sins in its loins. The man who believes in God will
   fight with temptation, but the man who does not believe in Him is ready
   to fall into any snare. See yonder tradesman--he is just now in low
   water through the badness of business. He is a Believer in God, and he
   says, "I believe that God will carry me through it if I keep to the
   straight line of integrity. I trust in God, and come what may, I will
   not pawn my reputation." Now, whatever may come of it, that man's
   character will be safe, because his faith is firm.

   But here is another man. He says, "Well, I am in a very awkward
   predicament, and I must look to the main chance. I am not sure that God
   will be with me. I must help myself, for I am very likely to be
   ruined." That man will take up with one of those dodges in business by
   which men raise money. I need not tell you what those dodges are,
   because I dare say a great many of you know them, either by using them
   yourselves, or by having them used upon you. They are part and parcel
   of the art of stealing other people's money--without being locked up as
   a thief.

   Well, he avails himself of one of those schemes--of course he does--he
   who has not faith is sure to have much craft. He who cannot trust God
   soon begins to trust the devil, and he that begins to trust the devil
   soon finds himself in the mire. Faith it is that holds a man as the
   great bower anchor holds a vessel when the winds are out. Believing
   that God will not fail you enables you to defy temptation. Now see how
   the man who has faith beats the devil! There the devil

   stands. He says, "If you will serve me I will give you_." "Well, what
   will you give me?" "I will give you the whole

   world." "But I have that already, for this world is mine, given to me
   in Christ, and as much of it as is good for me I shall always have."

   "Well, but I will make you great." "I do not want to be great, my joy
   is to make Christ great, and my greatness is in Him." "But I will give
   you silver." "Oh, then!" says the Christian, "put it down." No sooner
   is the heap spread out than the Believer covers it all over with ten
   times its weight in gold, and so laughs the fiend to scorn. I mean that
   for every blessing that sin could bring, Divine Grace brings ten times
   as much of a greater blessing--and so faith checkmates Satan--and
   temptation is put away. Unbelief has no such power, but readily falls
   into the lion's jaws. Therefore, fear not, lest you in the hour of
   trial be overcome with temptation and hurried into sin.

   Fear not, again, because it injures yourself. Nothing can weaken you so
   much, nothing can make you so unhappy as to be distrusting. Nor is this
   a small thing, for Christian joy is a fruit of the Spirit, and he who
   causes it to wither robs the Lord of glory. Is it not written, "Rejoice
   evermore"? Fear weakens the Believer's influence, and so causes
   mischief to others. Converts are not brought to Christ through
   unbelieving Christians. It is faith that wins souls. Let me give you an
   example of it. There is a good woman over there who has lost her child,
   her only child. Now when her husband saw that dear child die, he was
   exceedingly mad against God, and said many a hard and bitter thing, but
   his wife did not. She loved the child with as tender a love as the
   father did, but she laid it down on the bed, and she said, "The Lord
   gave and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord."
   Good woman, your husband did not say anything, but he felt the
   difference between himself and you, and who can tell what good results
   will follow?

   Now, if a professed Christian under trial acts just like a worldling,
   the worldly man sums it all up and says, "There is nothing in
   religion." But, if in the time of difficulty, the time of affliction,
   the time of bereavement, the Christian man's faith makes him happy,
   resigned, content with the Lord's will--why, then, even the coarsest of
   ungodly minds see the power of Divine Grace! And it may be that they
   will be led to reflect, and to ask themselves, "If there is such a
   choice Grace as this in the world, why should I not have it?" And
   perhaps they will come to seek and find it. Oh, for your own sake, for
   your neighbor's sake, for the Church's sake, for the world's sake, for
   Christ's sake, for God's sake--fear not-- neither be dismayed!

   III. Time fails me to dwell on this, and so now I must come to the very
   heart and soul of the text--THE PROMISES WHICH GOD GIVES TO PREVENT
   FEAR AND DISMAY. Five times in this verse you get some form of the
   pronoun "you," and five times you get the pronoun "I." Whatever there
   may be of you, there shall be as much of God. Whatever there may be of
   your weakness, there shall be as much of God's strength. Whatever there
   may be of your sin, there shall be as much of God's mercy to meet it
   all. May the Holy Spirit reveal all the fullness of this wonderful
   verse to your hearts!

   "Fear you not. For I am with you." Many a man fears because he is
   afraid of loneliness. More or less we must be alone in the service of
   God. Christian companionship is a great comfort, but if a man becomes a
   leader in Israel, he becomes a lonely spirit to a certain degree. So,
   too, in suffering, there is a bitterness with which no stranger can
   intermeddle. A part of the road to Heaven every man must tread with no
   companion but his God. Now, I know some of you are getting old, and
   your friends have died one by one, and you are saving, "I shall be left
   quite alone."

   Others of you have come up to London from some country village where
   you used to have many Christian friends. And there is no place so
   desolate as this horrid London. When a man dwells in its teeming
   streets, and meets not a friend among its millions of passers to and
   fro, I know well what your state of mind is. Or perhaps you are going
   to the States, or Canada, or Australia, and the thought in your mind
   now is--"I cannot bear being separated from all I love." Now, here is
   this precious word for you, "Fear you not. For I am with you."

   The Lord of Hosts is the best of company. His society is the angels'
   delight, and the bliss of glorified spirits. Be thankful, Believer,
   that you are not alone. The Father is with you, the Son is with you,
   the Holy Spirit is with you, and what does that mean? It means that
   Omnipotence will be with you to be your strength! Omniscience will be
   with you to be your wisdom! Immutability will be with you to be your
   succor--all the attributes of God will be with you to be your treasury.
   "Fear you not. For I am with you."

   Another fear comes over men, and that is that they may lose all they
   have in the world. And they know very well that if they lose their
   property they usually lose their friends. Like the swallows which come
   to us in the springtime--and are gone when the summer has
   departed--such are our worldly friends. When our goods are gone they
   are gone. But here the second promise comes in, "Be not dismayed, for I
   am your God." Jonah's gourd was withered, but Jonah's God was not. Your
   goods may go, but your God will not. Those around you may rob you of
   your loose cash of present comfort, but your invested capital, your
   God, they cannot take from you.

   That was a sweet word of the child when he saw his mother month after
   month in her widow's weeds sitting down and weeping, because her
   husband was dead. "Mother," said he, "is God dead?" Ah, if our God were
   dead we should be poor orphans, indeed! But while it rings out from the
   precious Book, and rings in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, "Be not
   dismayed. For I am your God," we have not come to absolute poverty yet.
   "Look," said the ambassador of France to the Spanish ambassador as he
   took him into the French king's treasury, "Look at my master's gold!
   How rich he is!"

   The Spanish ambassador took his walking stick and began to thrust it
   down into the bags and into the money chest. "What do you do that for?"
   said the Frenchman. "I want to see if there is a bottom to it," said
   he. "Oh," said the French ambassador, "of course there is a bottom."
   "Ah!" said the Spaniard, "but my master's treasury has no bottom, for
   he has all the mines of Mexico and Peru." Now, what the Spaniard said
   boastfully we may say truthfully. The treasury of our God is without a
   bottom, it is fathomless. And while you can hear God say to you, "I am
   your God," you may laugh at penury and distress, at destruction and
   famine. For you shall lack no good thing. You shall be satisfied as
   with marrow and fatness, and your mouth shall praise Him with joyful
   lips.

   Another fear that every good man has at times, unless he is buoyed up
   by faith, arises from a sense of personal weakness. "I have a battle to
   fight, and I am very weak. I have a work to do for God before I die,
   and I have not sufficient power to perform it." Now, here comes the
   next word of the text, "I will strengthen you." The strength which I
   have to do my work with does not lie in me. If it did it would be all
   over with me. How little strength there is in this arm I sorrowfully
   know. But there is no man on earth who can tell me how much strength
   God might put, if He so willed, into that same arm! If He willed it, He
   could enable me, a poor, weak, trembling man, to pull down Gaza's gates
   as Samson did of old!

   He can put physical strength of the most gigantic kind into an infant's
   arm if He wills it. But, my Brethren, transfer the figure to spiritual
   strength. You have God's command to preach. Ah, it would be but poor
   preaching if you were let alone to do the preaching. But no tongue can
   tell how God can make you preach if He pleases to help you. You have to
   take a large class of boys and girls, or of young men and young women,
   and you feel you cannot do it. Of course, without His help you cannot,
   but go and try! For He has said, "I will strengthen you."

   There was a bush in the wilderness, and it was nothing to look at,
   nothing but a bush. But oh, how it glowed with splendor when God came
   into it so that it burned with fire, and yet was not consumed! God can
   come into you, my Brother, and into you, my Sister, and can make you
   blaze with glory like the bush in Horeb. He can make you so strong that
   you can endure anything. Why, He has done it up till now. If somebody
   had told you years ago that you would have passed through your last
   trouble, you would have said, "I shall never be able to bear it." But
   you have borne it. "Ah," your unbelief would have said, "that will be
   the death of me." But it has not been the death of you. You can at this
   very moment tell of the widow's God. You can sing of Him who
   strengthens the weak against the strong, who delivers them that are
   ready to perish, and makes the faint heart to sing for joy!

   Here is a word, then, for timid, trembling workers for God. "I will
   strengthen you." Then comes the next consoling promise, "Yes, I will
   help you." This is intended to meet the fear that friendly succor will
   fail. There are some who say, "I believe that God can strengthen me
   personally, but I need to have those around me who will help me. I
   desire to see raised up in the Church of God other ministers, other
   Christian workers. I want to have some at my side who will, with equal
   earnestness, and with greater talent, contend for the Truth."

   Note, then, this word, "I will help you." I will not only give you
   strength to use yourselves, but I will exert My strength both in other
   men and in My Providence to help you. Well, you know what a grand
   matter is God's help. I told you once before a story I heard from a
   minister, but I must tell it again. He said be was one day bringing his
   books up stairs into another room, for he was going to have his study
   on the first floor instead of downstairs, and his little boy wanted to
   help Father carry some of the books. "Now," said the father, "I knew he
   could not do it, but as he wanted to be doing something, to please him
   and to do him good by encouraging his industry, I told him he might
   take a book and carry it up."

   So away he went, and picked out one of the biggest volumes--Caryl on
   Job or Poli Synopsis I should think--and when he had climbed a step or
   two up the stairs, down he sat and began to cry. He could not manage to
   carry his big book any further. He was disappointed and unhappy. How
   did the matter end? Why, the father had to go to the rescue, and carry
   both the great book, and the little man. So, when the Lord gives us a
   work to do, we are glad to do it. But our strength is not equal to the
   work, and then we sit down and cry--and it comes to this--that our
   blessed Father carries the work--and carries the little man, too! And
   then it is all done, and done gloriously. It is a simple illustration,
   but may it comfort some desponding heart.

   "Yes, I will help you."

   The last word of the text is, "Yes, I will uphold you with the right
   hand of My righteousness." Many a child of God is afflicted with a fear
   that he shall one day bring dishonor upon the Cross of Christ, and in
   an unguarded moment shall slip with his feet. This is a very natural
   fear, and in some respects a very proper fear--

   "Ah, Lord, with such a heart as mine,

   Unless You hold me fast,

   I feel I must, I shall decline,

   And perish at the last."

   It only wants, we think, the temptation to take us in the weak point,
   and then it will be all over with us. But now again I beg you to grasp
   this precious Word, "I will uphold you with the right hand of My
   righteousness." That is the same hand which holds the stars in their
   place. That is the hand which bears up the unpillared arch of Heaven,
   that spans both sea and shore. Can it not bear you up?

   rest upon it, and you shall not be cast down! The right hand of His
   righteousness is the very hand that you and I once had cause to fear,
   lest our offended King should smite us with it, for we righteously
   deserved His wrath. But ever since the hand of Christ was pierced, the
   right hand of God has never smitten a Believer so as to destroy him.
   That same hand which might have crushed, is now placed under us to bear
   us up in all our afflictions.

   1 wish I could have clipped the wings of time for this last half-hour,
   that we might have tarried longer in these rich pastures. But dear
   Friends, I give you the words of the text to take away with you. Here
   you have wafers made with honey, such as Israel fed on in the
   wilderness. Here you have angels' food--no, the very Bread of Life
   itself lies within these choice words. The only fear I have is lest you
   should miss them through unbelief. "O taste and see that the Lord is
   good." Do not merely "see" that He is good as you read the text, but
   "taste" the text. Let it lie on the palate of your soul. Absorb it into
   your very nature.

   Try to know that it is true, and true to you, though you are the very
   least of God's people in your own estimation, and the most unworthy
   sinner this side of Hell. "Fear you not. For I am with you; be not
   dismayed; for I am your God: I will strengthen you; yes, I will help
   you; yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of My righteousness."
   Go home, and take the text with you in the hand of faith. It shall
   prove to you like the widow's barrel of meal and cruse of oil. It shall
   not fail you till the day when the Lord shall bring you out of this
   land of famine to eat bread in His kingdom with His dear Son.

   My heart mourns to think that this text does not belong to some of you,
   because you do not belong to Christ. O my dear Friend, how I desire
   that you may yet have the promises of the Covenant for your own! If you
   believe with all your heart, you may. Trust Jesus Christ, and the
   promises are yours. I tried to preach my Master's sacrifice for sin
   this morning. I have now set before you one of the sweet fruits that
   grow from the bitter tree upon which He hung. O come to the tree of the
   Cross, and look up to His sufferings, and rely upon Him! And then, when
   you have sat under His shadow with great delight, may this text, which
   is one of the fruits of that tree, be sweet unto your taste. The Lord
   bless you, for Christ's sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Three Precious Things

   (No. 931)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 8, 1870,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "He is precious." 1 Peter 2:7.

   "Precious promises." 2Peter 1:4.

   "Precious faith." 2Peter 1:1.

   THESE three precious things, when put together, present to us a
   treasure of priceless things, altogether without parallel. When Moses
   was about to die he pronounced a blessing upon all the tribes, but the
   benediction which he allotted to the tribe of Joseph was remarkable for
   containing in it an extraordinary collection of precious things.

   In the thirteenth verse of the thirty-third chapter of Deuteronomy, we
   read, "And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the Lord be his land, for the
   precious things of Heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that couches
   beneath, and for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for
   the precious things put forth by the moon, and for the chief things of
   the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting
   hills, and for the precious things of the earth and fullness thereof,
   and for the good will of Him that dwelt in the bush."

   That blessing, large as it is, would, were it not for its last term,
   fall far short of the three texts which we are about to consider. The
   blessings here called by Moses "precious," were, after all, but
   temporal mercies. The dews exhale--even the deep that lies under will
   one day be dried up. The precious fruits brought forth by the sun will
   wither. The precious fruit ripened by the moon will rot. There are no
   chief metals in the ancient mountains, whether they are silver or gold,
   that are eternal, or that can make a spiritual being rich. There are no
   precious things of the lasting hills, though they are copper and iron.

   And these things are precious in the arts and sciences and employments
   of men, but will perish in the using. As for the precious things of the
   earth, are they not earthy? And the fullness thereof, is it not vanity?
   Were it not that the blessing of the great Lawgiver closed with "the
   good will of Him that dwelt in the bush," it would not have contained a
   word large enough to satisfy an immortal spirit, or give bliss to the
   heart of man.

   Before you, however, my Brethren, I spread a far choicer store of
   precious things than Moses strung together in the golden chain of his
   benediction. We have here three precious things which will outlast sun
   and moon. Precious things which are all heavenly, spiritual,
   soul-filling, and satisfactory. Precious things which, if a man has
   them, they shall make him rich and bring him no sorrow. Precious things
   that shall adorn and enrich their owners when all the peculiar treasure
   of kings shall be dissolved by the last fire.

   The three precious things of my text bear a certain relation to one
   another, which will aid your memories. "He is precious," that is, Jesus
   Christ is precious--here is the priceless gem. "Exceeding great and
   precious promises"--here is the worthy case which holds the gem. "Like
   precious faith," as Paul calls it, "like precious faith" with the
   Apostles-- here is the blessed hand by which we grasp the case and the
   gem, too. Mark well, I pray you, the precious pearl, the precious case
   to hold it, and the precious title-deed that secures it to us, or as I
   said before, the precious hand which enables us to grasp the unrivalled
   jewel, and to call it all our own.

   I. To begin then with THE PRICELESS GEM, the first, the highest of all
   precious things. Jesus Christ our Lord is in Himself to Believers most
   precious. O that I had power to speak of His preciousness as it ought
   to be spoken of! He is worthy of an angelic speaker to tell out all His
   worth. He is, first of all, essentially precious. He possesses an
   intrinsic worth. We worship Him as God. We believe Him to be "very God
   of very God," and though most assuredly Man, and in

   this respect, bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh, He is our Brother
   born for adversities, yet is He co-equal and co-eternal with the
   Father.

   And therefore we can never too reverentially speak of Him, nor set too
   high a value upon Him. He must be precious who is infinite God. Being,
   however, God and Man, He becomes remarkably precious to us in His
   complex Nature. His Manhood was without taint of sin. He came into this
   world with no corruption. He lived in this world with no transgression.
   His was immaculate Manhood. What a wonder that God should be willing to
   veil Himself in human flesh!

   What a miracle of miracles that the Infinite should deign to take upon
   Himself the form of a servant, and be found in fashion as a Man!
   Viewing our Lord Jesus as God, we should have adored Him at a
   distance--as perfect Man we should have reverenced His Character--but
   when we see Him as God and Man together, we mark that He is the
   connecting link between our groveling condition and the loftiness of
   the Most High. And we prize beyond measure the Incarnate God. When we
   see how by God's coming down to man, man goes up to God, Immanuel, God
   with us becomes our peace, and brings us near to God, though before we
   were afar off.

   Brethren, if we consider our Lord in the Character which is peculiar to
   Himself, and which He prizes most, and to which, indeed, He owes the
   name Jesus Christ, we shall see Him as the anointed Savior. To every
   sinner who feels his sin, Christ is precious. To every child of God who
   is saved, the Savior must forever be fairest among the fair. To every
   heir of Heaven who has experienced the sweetness of His saving Grace,
   Christ must appear to be "the chief among ten thousand, and the
   altogether lovely." A world destroyed I see if it had not been for a
   Savior born. A world forever cast into Hell I see if it had not been
   for a Savior dying on the Cross. As a Savior, O earth, you as yet know
   not His preciousness. As a Savior, O Heaven, you cannot reach the full
   merit of His praise. He is precious, then, if you think of Him as He
   is, as God and Man, and as a Savior, in which office the two Natures
   are combined in one.

   Brethren, Christ is so precious that He cannot be bought. If a man
   should give all the substance of his house to purchase an interest in
   Christ, it would be utterly condemned. Rich men might gather together
   all their goodly things, yes, India might be exhausted of its wealth,
   Peru drained of its silver, and California of its gold--but no part nor
   lot in Christ could be bought--even with sapphires and diamonds. He
   gives Himself away right freely, according to the riches of His Grace!
   But He cannot be purchased, for He is so precious that He cannot even
   be priced.

   A whole world can never weigh against Him any more than a single grain
   of dust would weigh against the universe. There is no measuring line
   with which to form a unit for calculation, with which to measure Him.
   He is infinite, and finite judgments will never be able to comprehend
   His unutterable value. He is God's unspeakable gift. Heaven itself is
   nothing as compared with Him, and if a man had to wade breast-deep
   through a thousand Hells to come to Christ, it were well worth the
   venture, if at the last he might but say, "My Beloved is mine, and I am
   His."

   Jesus is so precious that He cannot be matched. There is none like He
   is. The fairest of the fair are uncomely and deformed when compared
   with Him. As Rutherford would say, "Black sun, black moon, black stars,
   but, O bright, infinitely bright Lord Jesus." "He is the express image
   of His Father's Person, and the brightness of His Father's Glory." You
   shall find none that can be likened unto Him if you ransack time and
   space. Miss Him as your Savior, and you have lost the only salvation
   possible. Gain Him, and you will want no other, for He is made of God
   unto you "wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption," and all
   your souls can want.

   Yes, He Himself is all. If Heaven and earth were sold, you could not
   match Christ in any market if you gave the price of Heaven and earth
   for His like. If you search eternity, and ransack immensity, there
   shall never be found one fit to be second to Him, He is so precious.
   Precious, Brethren, He is to us, because He cannot be lost. All the
   precious things in this world can be lost. Our jewels may be stolen,
   our house may be broken into by a thief, and the safe may be taken
   away. But Christ is such a jewel that even Satan himself can never rob
   the soul of him when once it has Him.

   My heart evermore rejoices in that precious Truth of God. Let Jesus
   Christ be once mine as the gift of God--I am safe, for--"the gifts and
   calling of God are without repentance." The Lord never repents of what
   He has done. He never plays fast and loose, or takes back a benefit
   which He has once bestowed. Is not Jesus a priceless, precious jewel,
   since He cannot be lost?!

   And what is equally as delightful to remember, He cannot be destroyed.
   Even the diamond can be dissolved, bring but sufficient heat to bear
   upon it. Focus upon it the full rays of the sun, and the sparkling
   crystal dissolves into a little gas. But though men have tried to focus
   all the heat of persecution upon the Christian, they have never been
   able to sepa-

   rate him from the love of Christ. And though earth and Hell have
   stirred up their malice, and the furnace has been heated seven times
   hotter. Though the child of God has been tossed into it, and apparently
   deserted to the fury of his enemies-- yet never in a single case has
   the precious gem of Christ Jesus in the heart been destroyed--nor the
   Believer's interest in it.

   Jesus and His servants have lived together, according to the glorious
   promise, "Because I live, you shall live also." See the preciousness,
   then, of Christ, the intrinsic preciousness, the essential preciousness
   of Christ, because He cannot be bought, He cannot be priced, He cannot
   be matched, He cannot be lost, He cannot be destroyed. Happy and rich
   beyond expression are they who can truly say, "Unto us Christ is
   precious."

   This, however, does but touch a very small corner of the field, for our
   Lord is precious from the service which He renders to us. Who shall
   tell all the benefit which Jesus confers on a Believer? As we cannot
   comprehend so wide a subject in a single discourse, I will give you but
   a bare outline. There are four precious things which Jesus is to a
   Believer--life, light, love, liberty. I will defy all mankind to find
   four more precious things than these--but they are all in Christ.

   First, life. "In him was life, and the life was the light of men." "As
   the Father raises up the dead, and quickens them, even so the Son
   quickens whom He will." What a precious thing is life! The poor
   mariner's wife rushes down to the beach in the storm, and see, the
   waves at last have washed up her lost beloved, the father of the babe
   which is hanging at her breast. He is dead. The ungenerous sea has made
   a wife a widow. Oh, what would she not give, if she had it, to restore
   life once more to that well-beloved form!

   But life is a benefit her prayers and tears cannot obtain. Herein is
   Jesus glorified, for He gives life to those who are spiritually dead,
   and if any of you are weeping today over an unconverted husband, a
   child who is dead in trespasses and sins, a sister or a brother
   unsaved, Jesus can come to you and give life to your dear ones in
   answer to your prayers. He is Himself the Resurrection and the Life.
   Moreover, He is the sole nutriment of all spiritual life.

   Yonder shipwrecked man has constructed a raft, and far out on the wild
   expanse of pitiless waters he has floated wearily day after day sighing
   for a friendly sail or for sight of land. What would he not give for a
   little water, for water has become the essential of his life. His
   tongue is like a firebrand, and his mouth is as an oven. He himself all
   dried and parched, sighs and cries to Heaven, hoping that perhaps a
   merciful shower may drop refreshment upon him.

   Now, Jesus Christ is the Water of Life and the Bread of Life to such as
   live unto God. It is absolutely necessary for the continuance of their
   spiritual life that they should live upon Him. And as they do live upon
   Him, their thirst is quenched, their hunger is removed, and their
   spirit rejoices with a "joy unspeakable and full of glory." Life and
   the food that sustains life are among the most precious things man can
   possess, and these are for your souls stored up in Jesus, "For the
   bread of God is He which comes down from Heaven, and gives life unto
   the world."

   Next to life in preciousness is light. What would not they have given
   in Egypt during those three days when the thick darkness was over all
   the land, even darkness that might be felt, if they could but have had
   light back again? It must have been a sad plight for Paul, and for his
   fellows at sea, when, for three days and nights neither sun, nor moon,
   nor stars appeared. They could not tell whether there might not be a
   rock ahead, or a quicksand upon which the vessel would be broken. Oh,
   for light! How glad they must have been, at last when the black tempest
   passed away, and once again they could look round on the horizon and
   know their whereabouts.

   Light! Oh, how precious would it be to you, if you were confined in one
   of those prisons which we have seen at Venice below the water's
   level--deep down, with winding passages, where even a refracted ray of
   light could never reach the prisoner--where he sat alone and felt for
   the wall, but could see nothing. "Truly" as Solomon says, "the light is
   sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun." Now,
   the soul has no light, no true light, no heavenly light but what Jesus
   brings. When a spirit is once made to feel its guilt, it is shut up in
   prison until Christ brings it light in the darkness of its dismay.

   There is no hope to a convicted spirit till Jesus shows His atoning
   blood. There is no clear knowledge of the way of salvation till Christ
   brings the Light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in His own face.
   You who love Him know what brightness He has given to you--what light
   has irradiated your once dark spirit since you have known Him, and how
   your heart has laughed for very joy because He has turned again your
   captivity, and given you to rejoice in the light of His countenance.
   Yes, He is precious because He raises us from the dead and gives us
   light.

   I said that another precious thing which Jesus brings is love. There
   are hard hearts that think nothing of love--but methinks those who are
   as they should be, count love to be the dearest of treasures. I had
   infinitely rather be beloved of my fellow men than own a pyramid of
   treasure! He is a rich man who has a tender wife and dear affectionate
   children-- and is surrounded by a select circle of true and faithful
   friends. Men die full often for want of love. It is wretched work to
   isolate ourselves and float like icebergs all alone, melting amid a
   desolate sea. A man will love a dog, or a bird sooner than be loveless.
   Captives have been known to fall in love with rats, and even spiders on
   the wall have been the objects of their affection--a little flower that
   could not speak, has been the prisoner's well-beloved friend.

   We must have something to love. Oh, and what wealth of love Jesus
   brings into the heart when He enters it! You feel, then, that you have
   One to love whom you can love as much as ever you will, and yet it will
   not be idolatry. You have One to love who never can betray you, One
   whom you may trust, and yet never be unwise for having told to Him the
   secrets of your soul. You have in Jesus Christ One whom you may admire
   as you love, who will still be above you though you seek to rise to
   Him, and yet not proudly above you, for He will stoop down to all your
   lowliness and be as your own brother and your own friend. Oh, the joy
   of having Christ to go to!

   All other friends will sometimes be unfriendly, and the best of them
   must part with you at your decease, or you with them when they depart
   out of this world unto the Father. But your Lord will never, never
   leave you. He will abide with you, and death shall only draw Him
   nearer--for then you shall see His face, and His name shall be in your
   forehead. And you shall be with Him where He is, to behold His Glory
   forever and ever. If you want love, you large-hearted ones, Christ is
   just the gem for such a case as your heart is! If you want a channel
   adown which the mighty streams of your pent-up affections may safely
   rush with vehemence in impetuous torrents, Christ shall be the fittest
   riverbed for your soul, and you shall find it joy and blessedness to
   love Him with all your might!

   But I added that there was a fourth preciousness in Christ--giving
   life, light, love--He gave also liberty. Oh, that magic word liberty!
   It makes men start to their feet. It is the word that made William Tell
   a hero, and the Bruce of Ban-nockburn more than a king. The thought of
   liberty makes men count jeopardy of life a small hazard if their
   country may be rid of a tyrant. May God be praised that great strides
   have been made and grand advances within these last few years, until
   even once priest-burdened Spain bears across her Sierras the trumpet
   notes of liberty, and her sons are free!

   The highest liberty is that which emancipates the soul from sin. The
   grandest liberty is that which sets free the heart from fear, which
   leaves the soul without a dread, and enables the spirit to walk even in
   God's Presence without alarm-- the liberty which delivers us from the
   felon's dread, and bids us demand who shall lay anything to the charge
   of God's elect. It is God that justifies, who is he that condemns,
   since Christ has died and risen again? What room is there for fear for
   the man who has been set free by the precious blood of Jesus? The
   liberty of the children of God--the liberty to pray, the liberty to
   talk with God as a man talks with his friend, the liberty to grasp the
   promises--the liberty to lay hold of God Himself, and say that the
   Divine attributes are all our own. This is what Christ has given us,
   and is He not therefore precious, most precious?

   One word more before we leave our meditation on the precious gem. We
   have said that Christ is precious for His intrinsic work, precious for
   the service He renders. And we must now add, He is assuredly precious,
   actually so, from the place which He holds and ever must hold in
   Believers' hearts. Go and stand at St. Bartholomew's Hospital at
   Smithfield and you will see in the wall the tablet which is erected to
   the memory of heroic men whose ashes there testified years ago that
   they loved Christ better than property, better than children, better
   than life itself, and accounted it their joy to die that they might
   hold unsullied their testimony to the Divinity, to the Sovereignty, to
   the Truthfulness, to the Salvation of Jesus Christ!

   Ah, there were brave days in those black periods! Brave days when great
   hearts proclaimed by dying how dear Christ was to them. When a certain
   martyr was led out to die, they made his wife kneel down by the way.
   With a long line of his own dear children, eleven of them, like a
   descending set of steps, they were compelled, by his enemies, to pray
   their father and husband, by the love he bare to them not to die. He
   looked on them with tears, and said, "I love you as a man, and God
   knows I would do anything to live, and succor you, and enjoy your sweet
   society, my Dear Ones. But I cannot give up Christ," and he turned away
   to die.

   It is so still, my Brethren, for if we are not called to die for
   Christ, yet I hope we could if we were called to do so. For at this
   moment nothing thrills us like Christ's name, nothing makes us so happy
   as to see His cause prosper. I have often

   asked, when I have looked upon you before me by the thousands year
   after year, and know that my speech has nothing in it remarkable, why
   it is that you gather so continually? Many others have asked the secret
   why this house is always thronged. The true answer is that I preach
   Jesus Christ to you, and it is written, "I, if I am lifted up, will
   draw all men unto Me."

   I have no other theme, and I thank God I want no other. It is not worn
   out, and never will be. Though I should stand here by the space of the
   next six thousand years, I believe the house would still be filled if
   the testimony were the same. Despite London's sin, nothing strikes
   London's heart like the name of Jesus Christ. You may preach what you
   will of your learning and your philosophy. And you may talk pretty
   things concerning God out of Christ, but you will never stir the souls
   of men as the preaching of the Son of God has done and will do. "In the
   Cross of Christ I glory, towering over the wrecks of time," and as long
   as we can make it still prominent in our ministry, we are sure that an
   enthusiastic response will be given in regenerate hearts, for unto
   those who believe He is precious still. So I must leave that point.
   There is the gem--happy are they that see it, happier they that have
   it.

   II. The second head is "PRECIOUS PROMISES," or, THE CASE IN WHICH THE
   JEWEL IS CONTAINED. "Exceeding great and precious promises." All that
   the early saints had before Christ's coming was the promise of His
   appearing, and the mere promise of His coming was very precious to
   them. We are favored both with Christ and the promises, which are yes
   and amen in Him. They had the case, but it was locked up and they could
   not plainly perceive the jewel-- we have the opened case and the jewel
   in all its glory.

   The utmost wealth of Heaven now lies at our feet. The fullness of the
   Lord is ours. Why are the promises precious? For the same three reasons
   that Christ was precious. Precious for their intrinsic worth, for they
   are Divine, the sacred utterances of God Himself. These are not the
   Words of man, but of God. I would burn my Bible tomorrow if I thought
   so meanly of it as some do. For they doubt its Inspiration, or fritter
   down its Inspiration till it means little or nothing. To me every Word
   here written is the Infallible deliverance of the Most High God, not to
   be questioned but believed.

   Not because of its reasonableness, but because it has the stamp of
   Divine authority. Every promise of this Sacred Book is God's own
   promise spoken through His Prophets and Apostles, but yet spoken by
   Himself. The signet of Heaven seals every promise. You will never know
   the sweetness of a promise till it is God's promise to you. They are
   precious promises because they are Divine. If they were the poetic
   effusions of elevated genius, where great men of old spoke but their
   own minds in happy hopefulness, they would be to us but as brass and
   iron.

   But inasmuch as these reveal to us the mind of God, they are more
   precious than all the treasures of the mine. No mention shall be made
   of coral, or of pearls, for their price is above rubies. The least
   promise of God is too rich to be valued with the gold of Ophir, the
   precious onyx or the sapphire. Being Divine, the promises are
   innumerable. No promise of God ever changes. "Forever, O Lord, Your
   Word is settled in Heaven," "His Truth endures to all generations." Has
   He said, and shall He not do it? Has He commanded, and shall it not
   stand fast?

   The Lord has not spoken in secret in the dark places of the earth, He
   has not said to the seed of Jacob, Seek you My face in vain. The Lord
   has never called back a promise yet, but He has said, "Heaven and earth
   shall pass away, but My Word shall never pass away." His promises are
   precious because they tell of exceeding great and precious things. We
   have promises in the Bible which time would fail us to repeat, which
   for breadth and length are immeasurable. They deal with every great
   thing which the soul can want--promises of pardoned sin, promises of
   sanctification, of teaching, of guidance, of upholding, of ennobling,
   of progress, of consolation, of perfection.

   In this blessed Book you have promises of the daily bread of earth, and
   of the Bread of Life from Heaven. Promises for time, promises for
   eternity--promises for yourselves, and promises for your children. All
   these are like the leaves of the tree, and Jesus is the goodly cluster.
   Or, if you will, the apple of gold hidden among the foliage of promise.
   You have so many promises that all the conditions and positions of the
   Believer are met. I sometimes liken the promises to the smith's great
   bunch of keys which he brings when you have lost the key of your chest,
   and cannot unlock it. He feels pretty sure that out of all the keys
   upon the ring someone or other will fit, and he tries them with patient
   industry.

   At last--yes--that is it, he has loosed the bolt, and you can get at
   your treasures. There is always a promise in the volume of Inspiration
   suitable to your present case. Make the Lord's Testimonies your delight
   and your counselors, and they will befriend you at every turn. Search
   the Scriptures and you shall meet with a passage which will be so
   applicable to you as to appear even to have been written after your
   trouble had occurred! So exactly will it apply that you will be

   compelled to marvel at the wonderful tenderness and suitableness of it.
   As if the armor maker had measured you from head to foot, so exactly
   shall the armor of the promise befit you!

   The promises are precious in themselves, from their suitability to us,
   from their coming from God, from their being Immutable, from their
   being sure of performance, and from their containing wrapped up within
   themselves all that the children of God can ever need. The promises are
   precious, in the second place, because of their service to us. What
   will not the promises do for us? They will comfort us in distress. Give
   a child of God a Divine promise, let him be able to appropriate it to
   himself, and you cannot make his house dark, or his heart dark!

   A promise believed in is a sun in the soul, and a song in the heart,
   marrow to the bones, and rejoicing to the spirit. He that has the
   promises, has Heaven and earth as his heritage. He shall ride on the
   high places of the earth. He shall suck honey out of the rock, and oil
   out of the flinty rock. The eternal God is his refuge, and underneath
   are the everlasting arms. He shall dwell in safety alone, his fountain
   shall be upon a land of corn and wine--also his heavens shall drop down
   dew.

   The promises of God not only comfort the Believer in adversity, but
   they strengthen him in service. Let the worker who is serving God, but
   desponds under a sense of personal weakness, receive such a cheering
   word as this, "Certainly I will be with you"--why, he flees from no
   labor, the promise makes him daring. "Fear you not, for I am with you;
   be not dismayed; for I am your God: I will strengthen you; yes, I will
   help you; yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of My
   righteousness." Who will be afraid after that? Difficulties vanish,
   impossibilities do not exist when the Lord is enlisted on our side.

   The promises serve us in another admirable respect, for they elevate
   the soul. The man who has none of God's promises to enrich him may
   accumulate gold and silver, but he is earth-bound with his possessions.
   His soul tries to content herself with corn, and wine, and oil. But
   these things are only satisfying to our animal nature. Too often men
   grovel and hoard all the more as they increase in wealth. But he who
   grasps a promise is uplifted--his mind rises to the Hand from which
   every good and perfect gift is poured--and walking by faith in the
   promise of an unseen God, he is elevated in judgment and in taste, and
   becomes a better and a nobler man.

   The promises, let me say, while they elevate the life, greatly cheer
   and gild with glory the deathbed. Ah, how delightful it is to die with
   a promise on the lips, feeling it in the heart! It may be in a very
   lonely cottage, and the stars may come and look through the tiles. And
   the hangings of the bed may be very ragged. And all the surroundings
   may be poverty stricken--but he who can lie there and say, "I know that
   my Redeemer lives, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the
   earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my
   flesh shall I see God"--he that can rejoice in the promise of the
   Resurrection, and of the life to come, dies grandly!

   His bed is changed into a throne! His little room, despite its poverty,
   becomes a palace chamber, and the child of God, who seemed so poor
   before, is perceived to be a peer of Heaven's own blood royal, who is
   soon about to take possession of his heritage, appointed from before
   the foundation of the world. Yes, the promises have been very precious
   to us in their influence upon our minds. And I am sure I can say they
   are precious because of their dearness to our souls at this very day.
   There are passages of Scripture which are carved on our hearts. You all
   possess some little secret treasures of some kind or other at home,
   treasures which bring before your minds heart-moving memories.

   I have seen a mother go to the secret drawer to look at a certain
   little pair of wool shoes--with these in her hands, she would sit down
   and weep for the hours together. Ah, there were little feet that wore
   those shoes once, and they are laid all stiff and motionless in the lap
   of earth. I have seen a certain friend look at a ring--a little plain
   gold ring which he wears on his finger--and as he looked at it he has
   wept. There was a dear hand once upon which that ring was fondly placed
   in happier days.

   Yes, and just in that way some of the promises of God have been so rich
   to us, and so connected with family memories and with personal trials
   and personal mercies, that they are unutterably precious. A poor old
   Christian woman was accustomed to make marginal notes in her Bible, and
   she placed against one text a "T" and a "P." The minister asked her
   what that meant, and she said, "It meant Tried and Proved, for I tried
   that promise on such-and-such an occasion, and found it true." "But, my
   dear Sister," said he, "I see up and down these pages, whenever there
   is a choice verse a great 'P' put against it. What does it mean? "That
   means precious, Sir, for I have found it precious, and have therefore
   set my seal

   to it."

   We, too, have our Bible spiritually, if not literally marked after the
   same fashion, and often does the letter "P" appear against "exceeding
   great and precious promises" of God which have been sweet in our
   experience. We hope to die with a promise on our lips, and enter into
   Heaven to enjoy their full fruition.

   I have now shown you that the jewel is of the first water, without a
   flaw, with none to match it, and that the case is of superior
   workmanship, worthy of the gem it holds. We must now turn to the third
   thing.

   III. Faith IS THE PRECIOUS HAND which grasps the case and holds the
   gem. As time has gone, I shall not enlarge upon this third head, but
   shall briefly observe that faith is a most precious Grace because it
   opens and reveals the treasure hid in the promises. Until a man has
   faith he does not see the value of the promises. "Tush," says he, "the
   Bible is a dry book." Till a man has the faith of God's elect, he
   thinks very little of Christ. He may confess that he is a good example
   and a wise teacher, but, he does not say with Thomas, "My Lord and my
   God."

   Faith is to our souls what our eyes are to our bodies. Without eyes
   light would not be valued--without faith Christ is not dear. Without a
   mouth food would not nourish--faith is our mouth, and without faith
   Christ does not nourish us. A man might have a plank close to him when
   sinking but it would be of no service to him until he could lay hold of
   it-- faith is the hand that lays hold, and thus it becomes precious.
   Faith first reveals to us what there is in Christ and in the Word, and
   then it appropriates the whole. A soldier might be in the midst of a
   city where there was much spoil, but if his hands were cut off, how
   could he take to himself the booty?

   Faith puts out its hands, and says, "This is mine, and that is mine."
   And what is more, faith carries right with it as well as might. Faith
   not only says, "I will take it," but faith says, "I have a right to
   take it," for God has made over to faith by a covenant deed, Christ and
   all the Inspired promises, too. If you have faith, your faith is the
   guarantee that the gem and the case are both rightfully yours. A mere
   piece of parchment, whatever is written on it, cannot be of any very
   great value in itself. And yet there are persons who would give large
   sums of money to recover lost documents, because upon the possession of
   those documents rests their claim to great estates.

   Now, faith in itself is like a title-deed, signed, and sealed, and
   ratified, and on the possession of faith hangs your evidence of right
   to Christ and to the Covenant of Grace. Therefore faith becomes a very
   precious Grace. It sees Christ. It grasps Christ. It claims Christ by
   right, and by faith it holds to what it claims. Faith says of the
   Well-Beloved, "I hold Him, and I will not let Him go." It gets such a
   grip of Christ, that neither life nor death can unhand it.

   Faith is precious, let me say, because it is rare. Notional faith is
   common, but the faith of God's elect is the work of the Holy Spirit,
   and is not vouchsafed to all. They are favored men, indeed, who
   exercise real faith. But, alas, "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the
   way, and few there are that find it." Wherever it is possessed, it is
   most enriching. True faith is like Midas, of whom it was fabled that
   his touch turned everything to gold. But faith has a safer joy than he,
   for his privilege became a punishment--for when he touched his meat it
   turned to gold, and he could not eat. And when he put the cup to his
   lips, the fable says the wine itself turned into gold, and so he must
   needs die.

   But faith has the power to enrich us, and add no sorrow. Faith touches
   trials and they become mercies. Faith touches affliction and she
   glories in them. Faith touches losses and they turn to gains. There is
   nothing that faith deals with but what is transmuted into good. Who
   would not wish to have this precious faith? Best of all, wherever faith
   is, it saves the soul. There never was a soul that believed in Christ
   Jesus--that rested on the merit of His precious blood--that was, or
   could be, cast into Hell. Sooner might the eternal pillars of Divine
   Truth begin to quiver, and the Throne of the Infinite Sovereignty be
   shaken from its place, than that Believers in Jesus be cast away. Has
   he not said it--"I give unto My sheep eternal life, and they shall
   never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of My hand"? Do you
   believe in Christ? Then you are saved.

   I have spoken so far of these three precious things. Just these few
   words by way of closing. Precious as these things are, they are yours,
   Christian. You have the precious faith. Then the precious promises are
   all yours, and our precious Christ is yours. How do you mean to live?
   With these precious things about you, do you intend to live like a
   beggar? I mean will you be sinful, low, groveling, worldly? Oh, rise to
   your rank, and as you are so ennobled, walk as becomes saints! Is Jesus
   Christ precious to you? Then serve Him with your best, give Him your
   precious things, give Him your lives, give Him your substance, give Him
   all that you have--do not give the Redeemer your odds and ends, such as
   you can afford to give without knowing it. Say, "He died to give me
   Himself. I will give Him myself in return--

   'And if I might make some reserve,

   And duty did not call,

   I love my God with zeal so great,

   That I must give Him all.'"

   Go and live like those who are rich to all the intents of bliss, and
   let your cheerful, your godly, your self-denying example be a protest
   to the unbelieving sons of men that you know the preciousness of
   Christ. Alas, for you who are unconverted. What shall I say to you? I
   am afraid I may preach up Christ a long time before you will believe
   me. It needs that the arm of God be revealed, before you will see these
   mysteries. The most of men remind us of the old story in Strabo, of the
   musician who thought himself very wonderfully gifted with power to
   create melody.

   Before his audience he was pouring forth his notes, and as he
   thought--holding them all spell bound. But just then the market bell,
   with its vile tinkle was heard, and all his admirers except one person
   left him--for they could not afford to lose the chance of the market.
   The musician turned to his solitary listener, and complimented him upon
   having a soul above mere merchandise, and an ear which could appreciate
   music, so that he was not drawn away by the tinkling of a market bell.
   "Master," said the man, "I am hard of hearing, did you say the market
   bell had rung?" "Yes." "Then I must be off, or I shall be too late."
   And away went the last man, unrestrained by the bonds of harmony.

   So when we preach up Jesus Christ, there will be some who will listen
   to us, and we perhaps think, "Now we shall surely win them," but ah,
   tomorrow's market bell--I will not say market bell--tomorrow's bell of
   sin, and bell of iniquity! The bell that rings to frivolities, and
   rings to transgressions--they will go after that. Anything that pleases
   the flesh will secure them. It may be there is one who has heard with
   unusual attention, and we begin to say, "This man has a nobler spirit."
   But then, perhaps, he has not yet felt the force of temptation, and
   when he feels it he will go, too.

   What urgent need there is for the Spirit of God to illuminate the dark
   judgments of the sons of men. May He do so. May He begin with you, dear
   Hearer, if up to now you have been blind. May He give you faith, and
   the promises, and Christ Jesus. It is my heart's deepest wish. The Lord
   grant it to you all, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

How God Condemned Sin

   (No. 932)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MAY 8, 1870,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "For what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh,
   God sending His o wn Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin,
   condemned sin in the flesh." Romans 8:3.

   EVER since man has fallen away from God, two things have been highly
   desirable. The one, that he should be forgiven all his offenses. The
   other, equally if not more important, that he should be led to hate the
   sin into which he has fallen and love the purity and holiness from
   which he has become alienated. These two disabilities must be removed,
   or, looking at the matter from a loftier point of view, these two
   purposes of Divine mercy must be accomplished together.

   It were impossible to make a man happy unless both be equally and
   simultaneously realized. If his sins were forgiven, and yet he loved
   sin, his prospects were dark. Over his future the direst portents would
   loom. If he ceased to love sin, and yet were lying under the guilt of
   it, his present condition would be deeply miserable rather than
   happy--his conscience pure and sensitive being tortured with pangs of
   remorse.

   By what process can the two requirements be met, or the double purpose
   be achieved? To use our common words, how can man be both justified and
   sanctified, obtain clearance from his guilt in the sight of God, and
   then be made holy and meet to appear in His Presence? Human reason
   suggests that a law should be given to man which he should keep. This
   has been tried, and the law which was given was the best law that could
   be framed. The Law of God written on the conscience, of which the Law
   given by Moses recorded in the book of Exodus is but a copy, is a
   perfect Law. There is not a command in it that could be omitted. There
   is not one single arbitrary precept.

   The right must be true, the true must be right, and God's Law is never
   otherwise than right and true. "Of Law," said the judicious Hooker,
   "there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of
   God, her voice the harmony of the world. All things do her homage, the
   very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempt from her
   power." If, therefore, that Law which is promulgated from Heaven should
   fail to make men what they should be, the fault will not be in the Law,
   but in the man. As the text says, it was "weak through the flesh."

   Because of our flesh and our tendency to sin, our weakness and our
   defilement of nature, it could not do what, indeed, God never intended
   it should do--but what some have thought Law might do--repair the
   breach and to renovate the depraved. The principle of Law, which is,
   "Do this and you shall be rewarded," or, "Do that and you shall be
   punished," never can by any means achieve either of these two purposes.
   The Law cannot forgive past sin. It evidently has nothing to do with
   that question. The Law says, "The soul that sins, it shall die." It can
   execute the sentence, but it can do no more. It ceases to be Law if it
   lays aside the sword and does not exact its own penalty.

   Yet it has been thought that surely Law might make men love holiness,
   albeit experience and observation prove that it never has that effect.
   Very often men have needed nothing more than the knowledge of sin to
   enamor them to it, and they have loved sin all the better for knowing
   it to be sin. The Apostle Paul tells us that he had not known lust if
   the Law had not said, "You shall not covet." There was a citizen of
   Gaunt who had never been outside the city walls. For some reason or
   other the magistrate passed an order that he should not go outside.
   Strange to tell, up to the moment that the command had passed, the man
   had been perfectly easy and never thought of passing the line. But as
   soon as ever he was forbidden to do it, he pined, and sickened, and
   even died moaning over the restriction.

   If a man sees a thing to be law, he wants to break that law. Our nature
   is so evil, that forbid us to do a thing, and at once we want to do the
   thing that is forbidden, and in many minds the principle of Law,
   instead of leading to purity has even offered opportunities for greater
   impurity. Beside, although you may point out the way of uprightness to
   a man, and tell him what is right and what is wrong with all the wisdom
   and force of counsel and caution, unless you can give him a heart to
   choose the right, and a heart to love the true, you have not done much
   for him.

   This is just the province of Law. It can write out its precepts on the
   brazen tablets, and it can brandish its fiery sword, and say, "Do this
   or else be punished," but man, carnal man, only wraps himself the more
   closely in his self-conceit, and perseveres the more doggedly in his
   obstinate rebellion. He defies God, defers to his own reprobate mind,
   goes on in sin, and waxes worse and worse, knowing the judgment
   threatened, yet committing the transgressions prohibited. And he takes
   pleasure in those that do such things as his benefit companions.
   Because of the malignity, as well as the infirmity of our flesh, the
   mere principle of Law will never do anything to purify or ennoble our
   moral nature. It has been tried by eminent teachers and social
   reformers.

   Dr. Chalmers tells us that in his early ministry he used to preach
   morality, and nothing but morality, till, he said, he had hardly a
   sober or an honest man left in the parish. The preaching of morality
   seemed to lead to immorality. Something more is wanted than merely to
   din into men's ears what they ought to be, and what they ought to do.
   Something is wanted more effectually to renovate the heart and move the
   springs of action. The water is nothing, and if you make it flow it is
   bitter. You want an ingredient to be cast into it that will heal its
   poison springs, and make them sweet and clear.

   Now, in the text, we are told how God interposed to do by His Grace
   what His Law could not do. I will read it to you again--"For what the
   Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending
   His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin
   in the flesh." There are here, then, two things. First, what God did.
   He sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh for sin. And then,
   what was the immediate result of this--He condemned sin in the flesh.
   After expounding these matters, I will try, in the third place, to show
   you how this bears upon the two desirable things I speak of, namely,
   the forgiving of the offender, and the making the offender yearn after
   holiness and purity.

   I. First, and very briefly, let me tell you WHAT, ACCORDING TO THE
   TEXT, GOD DID--He sent His Son. We believe in one God, but though we
   understand not the mystery of the Divine Existence, we accept the
   propositions declared in Scripture, clearly apprehending the obvious
   sense of the terms employed, and heartily assenting to the Truth of the
   facts revealed. Thus we believe that the Father is God, and the Son is
   God, and the Holy Spirit is God--and we worship these Three as the one
   God--the triune God of Israel.

   The second Person of that blessed unity in Trinity was sent by the
   Father to this earth. He is God the Father's Son, "the Only-Begotten of
   the Father." What that means we do not attempt to define--of the matter
   of fact, we feel no doubt of the manner thereof--but we can offer no
   explanation. We suppose that the relationship implied in the words
   "Father" and "Son" is the nearest description that the Divine Mind can
   present to our feeble intelligence of that ineffable fellowship. But we
   do not assume, therefore, that it explains to us anything, or was
   intended to explain anything as the basis of an argument or of a theory
   concerning the profound doctrine itself. It is a great mystery.

   Indeed, were there no mystery in God, He were no God to us. For how,
   then, should we fear Him with the reverence due unto His name? The fact
   of there being mysteries should never stagger us, poor worms of a day,
   when we have to think or speak of the infinitely glorious Jehovah. So,
   it came to pass, that in the fullness of time God sent His Son. He is
   called in the text, "His own Son," to distinguish Him from us who are
   only His sons by creation, or His sons by regeneration and adoption. He
   sent His own Son, and He sent Him in the flesh. Jesus Christ, the Son
   of God, was born into this world. He took upon Himself our manhood.

   The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and the Apostles declare
   that they beheld His Glory, the glory as of the Only-Begotten of the
   Father, full of Grace and Truth. The text uses very important words. It
   says that God sent His Son "in the likeness of sinful flesh," not in
   the likeness of flesh, for that would not be true--but in the same
   likeness as our sinful flesh. He was to all intents and purposes like
   ourselves, tempted in all points like as we are, though without sin. He
   was with all our sinless infirmities, with all our tendencies to
   suffer, with everything human in Him except that which comes to be
   human through human nature having fallen.

   He was perfectly Man. He was like ourselves. And God sent Him in the
   likeness of sinful flesh. Though it is eighteen hundred ears ago and
   more, the Christmas bells seem to ring on. The joy of His coming is
   still in our hearts. He lived here His two or three and thirty years,
   but He was sent, the text tells us, for a reason which caused Him to
   die. He was sent for sin. This may mean that He was sent to do battle
   with sin, or that He was sent because sin was in the world--or, best of
   all--He was sent to be a Sin-Offering. He was sent that He might be the
   Substitute for sinners.

   God's great plan was this--that inasmuch as His justice could not
   overlook sin, and sin must be punished, Jesus Christ should come and
   take the sin of His people upon Himself, and upon the accursed tree,
   the Cross of ignominious note, should suffer what was due on our
   behalf. And that through His sufferings the infinite love of God should
   stream forth without any contravention of His Infinite Justice. This is
   what God did. He sent His Son to Bethlehem. He sent his Son to
   Calvary--He sent his Son down to the grave, and He has now recalled Him
   unto the excellent Glory where He sits at the right hand of God.

   II. Do you ask you now, secondly, WHAT WAS THE IMMEDIATE RESULT OF
   THIS? Why, Brethren, the immediate result was that God condemned sin.
   Let me show you how He did it. God--I must use language which is for
   us, not for Him--must, out of necessity, if He would save men and yet
   not violate His Justice, send his Son to condemn sin. For it said,
   "This sin is such an evil, such a plague, such a curse, that it cannot
   be stamped out of the world unless God Himself comes down among the
   sons of men."

   His usual Presence among men in the power that sustains nature, it
   seemed, was not enough to put out sin. So venomous was the serpent that
   there must be born a Seed of the woman that should bruise that
   serpent's head. This world of ours was such an Augean stable, that
   Omnipotence, itself, must come down and turn the sluices of Divine
   perfection right through the hideous heap, or else washed it never
   could be. Therefore down from the highest Glory came the Savior, that
   He might achieve a task which the Law could not do in that it was weak
   through the flesh--but which He in the likeness of sinful flesh
   undertook to accomplish.

   Moreover, the life of our Lord Jesus Christ on earth condemned sin. You
   can often condemn an evil best by putting side by side with it the
   palpable contrast--the purity to which it is so thoroughly alien, so
   totally opposite. So blameless was the conduct of this most blessed Man
   of Nazareth throughout His entire career, that even those who accept
   not His Deity do homage to His integrity. We have had in our own day,
   and in our midst, we grieve to say, some who have blasphemed our faith
   with bitterest words. But even they have paused as if they stood
   abashed when they came to survey the Character of Him whose Divinity
   and Mission they refused to acknowledge. They have seen about His life
   a something that they saw nowhere else, and if they have not adored
   they have admired.

   There was a condemnation of sin in His very look. The Pharisees felt
   it. They could not meet or encounter Him without discovering and
   exposing what hypocrites they were. All sorts of men felt it. They
   could not fail to see through the purity of His life what crooked,
   ugly, deformed lives their own were in comparison with His. And thus
   the very existence of Christ, and the example of Christ, condemned sin.
   But what shall we, who are His disciples, say to that assemblage of
   Divine Grace found only in Him, each sparkling with peerless luster,
   and all blending with such exquisite gracefulness that we are at once
   moved with awe and touched with love as we contemplate Him?

   Such majesty, yet such meekness in His manner. Such solemnity, yet such
   tenderness in His speech. So impartial in judgment, yet so forgiving in
   temper. So full of zeal, yet so equally full of patience. So keen to
   detect malice, yet so slow to resent it. Such a wise Mentor in the
   inner circle of His followers, yet such a gentle sympathizing friend.
   Say, my Brethren, I think some of us never commit a trespass or betray
   an infirmity, but we say, and say it to ourselves, Would Christ have
   done this? And the remembrance of His holy, harmless life condemns sin
   in our conscience.

   God condemned sin still further by allowing it to condemn itself. The
   scoff has always been on this wise, "Oh, sin, sin! Well, it is a mere
   trifle," and the most of men disdain to allow that their particular
   transgressions are at all heinous. "No, we never killed anybody. We
   never committed adultery. We are not thieves--ours are only sins of a
   common sort. There can be no harm in us." But see now, God seemed to
   say, "I will let sin do what it can. I will let sin ripen in this
   world. I will let it grow to its perfection. And men shall see from now
   on what sin is from that sample."

   "What am I aiming at," do you ask? Why, there came into this world a
   Man perfectly innocent, harmless, gentle, meek, loving, tender. All His
   Words were love. All His actions were kindness. He raised the dead. He
   healed the sick. He spoke nothing but peace and goodwill towards men.
   And what did sin do? Sin said, "Away with such a Fellow from the earth!
   It is not fit that He should live." Sin murdered the perfect Man, as it
   would lay violent hands on all who interfere with its evil maxims and
   base habits. It would utterly destroy all goodness if it could. It
   convicted itself. Ferocious is a wild beast, it is always to be feared
   and hated, for it never can be tamed or trusted.

   That Man came into this world on an errand, and that errand was one of
   disinterested mercy and pure affection. He need not have come. He had
   nothing to gain by it. He never did gain anything while here. They
   would have made Him a

   king, but He would not be a king. His was all disinterested kindness,
   benevolence to His bitterest foes. When they nailed His hands to the
   wood, they could get nothing vindictive from His lips. He said,
   "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." He came to save
   His enemies. Now, surely sin will not touch such a blessed Being as
   this! Surely sin will say, "I hate His holiness, but I reverence His
   philanthropy"!

   Not so, sin shouted, "Crucify Him! crucify Him!" Sin made a jest of His
   prayers, and mocked His tears. As we hold and believe, this Man was no
   other than God, God's Son. You know how the willfulness and atrocity of
   this sin against Christ is represented to us in the parable of a
   certain man that had let out his vineyard unto husbandmen. He sent unto
   them his servant that at the time of the crops they should pay a
   portion of the produce, but they treated him despitefully, and when he
   sent another they beat him, and stoned another.

   At last he said, "I will send my son. They will surely reverence my
   son." But they said, "This is the heir. Let us kill him, and the
   inheritance shall be ours." And so with this very God, they seemed to
   say, "Let us kill Him." And though they could not give a death blow to
   His Deity, they showed that they would if they could. And red-handed
   sin stands out before the world this day as a deicide. It would wreak
   its vengeance on Him that inhabits eternity if it could, and hurl
   destruction at the Lawgiver, to secure a triumph for its own
   lawlessness. The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God," and the
   great aim of human nature is to get rid of God in fact, as well as in
   faith. This it attempts to do, either by discoursing of Him in an
   abstraction, or by setting up blocks of wood and stone in simple
   credulity, as a correct representation of His fashion or His
   attributes.

   To the one true and glorious God men will not pay any allegiance. If
   sin had power equivalent to its purpose. Had it means to accomplish its
   menace, it would cast down the Throne of the Most High, and assail
   Jehovah Himself in the Heaven of His dwelling. Oh, you abominable
   thing, Sin! You stand convicted. God shall smite you, you accursed
   thing! You have condemned yourself by your own act and deed--even where
   your craftiness has been foiled and your desperate prowess has issued
   in defeat.

   Thus, Brethren, I have shown you that Christ's coming condemned sin,
   Christ's life condemned it, and by putting Christ to death, sin
   condemned itself. But here comes the peculiar doctrine of our faith.
   God condemned sin by bruising Christ, by suffering Him to be put to
   death, by deserting Him in the hour of nature's extremity, by
   permitting His soul to undergo an agony beyond all conception. Sirs,
   our sin--your sin, my sin--the sin of as many as do believe or ever
   shall believe in Jesus, was laid on Him, "who His own Self bare our
   sins in His own body on the tree." He was the Father's Best-Beloved. He
   had never offended, and the Father loved Him. Will He not spare Him?
   Will He not spare Him?

   Infinite love loved us, and infinite love loved Christ, but infinite
   love said, "I cannot pass by sin without punishment. What Justice
   demands, must be done." And it was love that made the Father pour forth
   the vials of His wrath upon the head of the Only-Begotten Son, till in
   the garden He sweat, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to
   the ground. Oh, there was an inner sweat, of which those outward drops
   were but the faint types! His soul was exceedingly sorrowful even unto
   death, and then on the Cross He died.

   I have often painted you that scene, but for the present I forbear. His
   inward sufferings, His soul-sufferings, were the soul of His
   sufferings--

   'Twas thus the Lord of Life appeared,

   And sighed, and groaned, and prayed, and feared.

   Bore all Incarnate God could bear,

   With strength enough, and none to spare." Then and there He made
   expiation for man's guilt. What a condemnation that was of sin!
   Methinks it were as though the righteous Judge of all the earth had
   said, "I cannot suffer sin, I cannot pass by sin, even if it lies on
   the Innocent One. I must smite even My own Son if sin is imputed to
   Him. I cannot and will not clear the guilty. The Judge of all the earth
   am I. If My Son should be spared, or My Law should be put on one side,
   the thousands of worlds I govern might well be in high revolt against
   Me."

   Poised was the cause in the impartial scales of Justice, and on His Son
   He visited our transgressions. Into His hands the cup of wrath was
   given. Against Him the sword of vengeance was unsheathed. Of Him the
   uttermost penalty was ex-acted--that we, for whom He stood as
   Surety--might be clear by His dying, justified by His rising from the
   dead, and from then on accepted in the Beloved.

   Now I know it will be said, "But why did not God exercise the sovereign
   prerogative of mercy, and at once forgive sin? Why did He not by His
   own absolute fiat condone the offense and pardon the offenders?" I
   reply, how, then, could God have condemned sin? If sin is only such a
   simple misdemeanor as an arbitrary act of God can forgive, then its
   evil were not infinite in turpitude, the prolific parent of crimes and
   curses numberless. But if there must be an atonement for it, an
   Atonement as wonderful as that which I have essayed to preach to you,
   then sin descried in the light of that altar-fire where it was
   propitiated, appears worse than felonious, worse than any word I can
   use, more hideous than any ghastly form I can depict.

   Its summary condemnation alone could vindicate the unimpeachable
   holiness of the Judge. Someone else may say, "But if the righteous Law
   is really so spiritual, and carnal man so weak, why not alter the Law
   and adapt it to the exigency?" I reply again, because such a procedure
   would not condemn the sin. On the contrary, it would condemn the Law.
   It would be an admission that the Law originally was too severe. It
   would be making an apology for sinners, and encourage them to sin
   greedily with both hands. To relax the prescript and forego the
   punishment, were to trifle with sin and make the Law to be a
   contemptible thing.

   The criminal will ask to have it altered still, and lowered to suit his
   basest passions. But would not a part-punishment have sufficed, and
   then let the rest be excused? I answer, No! That, too, would have
   condemned the Law for having asked a greater punishment than was
   absolutely necessary. Whatever was laid down as being the necessary
   punishment of sin must be enforced, or else God changes, the statute is
   set aside, and the Law breaks down altogether. The only way to condemn
   sin to the full is this--let the sin be punished, and if there is one
   found who, without a breach of justice, may be permitted to suffer in
   the place of another, let him so suffer.

   But let care be taken that it is no sham, but a reality. That sin, from
   the dignity of the sufferer, from the amount of the suffering, from the
   completeness of the atonement, is effectually and thoroughly condemned.
   Thus far have I led you. God has sent His Son into the world, and has
   thus condemned sin by His Son's life and death.

   III. Now, thirdly, I come to the main business of this evening, which
   is TO SHOW YOU HOW THIS DOES WHAT THE LAW COULD NOT DO. There were two
   desirable things, you will remember, that I started with. The first was
   that the offender should be pardoned. You can clearly see how that is
   done. If Jesus suffered in my place, from now on it becomes not only
   Mercy that absolves me, but Justice that seals my acquittal--

   "Since Christ has my discharge procured, And freely in my place,
   endured The whole of wrath Divine; Payment God cannot twice demand,
   First at my bleeding Surety's hand, And then again at mine."

   If Jesus paid the debt, it is paid, and I am clear. There is,
   therefore, now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Your
   only question, dear Hearers, is--have you a part in the sufferings of
   Christ? Was He a Substitute for you? According to this grand old Book,
   on which we fix our trust as an Infallible guide in this matter, Jesus
   died for every soul that trusts Him. So is it written--"He that
   believes, and is baptized, shall be saved." Have you these personal
   evidences? Do you without question trust Him? Then you are forgiven.
   You are this night absolved. You may rejoice in God through our Lord
   Jesus Christ, by whom you have now received the Atonement. Your sins,
   past, present, and to come, are all blotted out--

   "Here's pardon for transgressions past, It matters not how black their
   cast And, O my soul, with wonder view, For sins to come, here's pardon
   too."

   The red mark is drawn across the bill, it is discharged. The load of
   obligation is gone. From its burden you are released. The sin of the
   Believer has ceased to be. Christ has been punished in his place. Is
   not that simple enough for all of you to understand, and Scriptural
   enough for all of you to receive?

   But how comes the second necessity to be supplied? How does this tend
   from now on to make such a man pure in heart, and produce in his very
   soul an aversion and a total abhorrence of sin? This is not difficult
   to apprehend if you will give it a little quiet consideration. When the
   Holy Spirit comes with power into a man's heart, and renews his nature
   (oh,

   matchless miracle!)--a miracle that has been worked many times in this
   house--at that moment the unhallowed and the impure are made chaste.
   The dishonest are made honest, and the ungodly are made to love
   God--"for if any man is in Christ he is a new creature."

   Such motives as the following now begin to influence his mind--The man
   says, "Did God, instead of forgiving my sin without a penalty, make the
   anointed Substitute smart for it? Then I reverence the Lawgiver, the
   mighty Lawgiver who would not, even though He is Love itself, suffer
   His Law to be broken. I reverence that dreadful Judge of all the earth,
   who, though I am His child, yet since I had offended, would not spare
   me for my sin, but executed the penalty that was due to me upon
   Himself.

   Himself! For Christ His Son is One with Him, and dear to His Father's
   soul. Why, more than that, it makes me feel an intense love to Him.
   What? Was He so just, and yet was He so determined to save me, that He
   would not spare His only Son, but freely gave Him up to die? O blessed
   God, I tremble at Your Justice, which yet I come to admire. But oh,
   Your love--what shall I say of it? It wins my love. I must love You, my
   God--the Just and yet the Gracious One. I must love You."

   Then there comes into the heart an enmity against the sin which caused
   the suffering of Christ. "What?" says the heart, "Did sin make my
   Redeemer, who gave Himself for me, suffer? Then, away with it! It must
   be a foul, vile thing, to put such a blessed One as He to death. I will
   not tolerate it." It makes the soul cry, "Revenge" against itself--a
   blessed vengeance it decrees against all sin. "Bring out the gallows,
   and let sin be hanged. The dearest idol I have known, bring out the
   hammer and the axe, and let it be broken in pieces. The choicest
   transgression I have ever nurtured in my bosom--I see what a viper it
   is, and I shake it into the fire! Away with it! If it grieves my
   Christ, and makes Him bleed, my own Beloved Savior--away with it, away
   with it!"

   And let me tell you, there is another matter that comes in and supplies
   the basis for holiness, such a basis as cannot be found anywhere else.
   The man says, "Now I am pardoned through the love of Jesus Christ and
   the shedding of His precious blood. I have God for my Father, and He is
   my Friend. There is no one to part me from Him. My sin was laid on
   Another, it has been expiated, and it is gone--I am saved, I am
   forgiven." The man is happy. The man is cheerful. The man is joyful,
   and what springs up? "Now," says he, "there is that glorious Christ of
   God who has worked this for me, and I see Him with the eye of faith. I
   see Him in Heaven, and I am His man--body, soul, and spirit. I am not
   my own. He has bought me with His blood. I lay myself at His feet. What
   He bids me do I will do. What He asks of me I will give. What He
   forbids me, it shall be my joy never to touch."

   Here breaks forth in the soul an enthusiastic love to the Person of
   Jesus Christ, which, as it burns and glows like a refining fire,
   becomes a great motive--power to the spirit to pursue holiness in the
   power of God. When do the soldiers fight best, Sirs? When you have read
   their rules to them as to how they might keep place, and how they must
   load their guns, and fire in due order? No! Law does not inflame the
   soldier with martial ardor, though it is good in its place. But just
   when the battle lingers--take an instance from our own history--just
   when the battle was about to turn with the Ironsides, and the Cavaliers
   were coming on with one of Rupert's hot charges, ready to break the
   line, and the brave old Ironsides were half inclined to turn, up came
   the general old Noll, riding on his horse, and they passed the word
   along, "It is he, boys! Here he comes!"

   And every man grew into a giant at once. They stood like iron columns,
   like walls of granite, and the Cavaliers as they came on broke like
   waves against rocks, and dashed away, and were heard of no more. It was
   the presence of the man that fired each soldier. And so it is now with
   us. We believe in Jesus Christ. We know that He is with His Church. He
   was dead, but He rose again. He has gone to Heaven, but His spirit is
   with us--King of kings, and Lord of lords is He. If He seems to sleep
   in the midst of our ship, yet He sleeps with His hands on the helm, and
   He will steer the vessel rightly.

   And now the love that we bear His name steers our souls to holiness, to
   self-denial, to seek after God, to make full proof of the faith and the
   fellowship of the Gospel, to seek to become like God, and to be
   absorbed into God that He may be All in All. This is what was wanted--a
   stimulus potent enough, under God's Grace, to break through the
   barriers of sin. What the Law could not do in that it was weak through
   the flesh, God has accomplished by sending His own dear Son in the
   likeness of sinful flesh for sin. And having condemned sin in the
   flesh, He has now removed its guilt, and destroyed its power.

   To the best of my ability I have thus set before you a doctrine in
   which my own heart finds perfect rest. I would that you all had the
   same rest, the same sweet heart's ease in your breasts. Two words of
   counsel I must address to you before I close. One is, I do beseech you
   to receive this doctrine. It is of God. It is true. They who first bore
   witness to it were humble fishermen. Unsophisticated as they were, they
   had no motive for inventing it. Indeed, it is a theory which they had
   not the brains to invent if they had tried. They nearly all of them
   died for it. They never gained honor or emolument by professing or
   publishing it, but they endured contumely and persecution, even to the
   loss of their lives, for testifying to what they saw and heard.

   Ah, since then the Church has had long lines of martyrs. Who could help
   hearing the same witness, fortified with the same assurances, whatever
   it might cost them, however they might be ridiculed as ignorant,
   old-fashioned, and not up to the progress of the age? I pray you accept
   this--especially would I address myself to those of you whom I have
   preached to for so long, who yet are unsaved. I do not know what forms
   of speech to use with some of you, or in what shape to fashion my
   appeal. If I thought that coming round to your pews and kneeling down
   before you, and entreating you to receive Christ would have any effect
   upon you, I would gladly do it.

   I have prayed very anxiously that if perhaps my voice should not be the
   one that God would bless to your conversion, my brother's voice next
   Sunday, or that of someone else on the following Sunday on which I
   shall be absent, may have the effect of leading you to Christ. O that
   you may but be saved! I will make no terms with God if you will but
   accept Christ. I am somewhat of the mind of a dear little girl, who is
   now dying, if she has not already departed. She sent a little note in
   pencil to her minister, and it was delivered at the Prayer Meeting.

   A little Believer in Christ, nine years of age, asks the prayers of the
   people for her father, for he is an unbeliever. She was visited by her
   minister, and she said to him, "O Sir, I have asked Father to come and
   hear you preach. I thought he might get saved, but he mocks at it, and
   will not come. But, Sir, he must hear you preach one day, and that is
   when I shall be buried, for I shall soon be with Jesus. O Sir! When he
   stands at the grave, do be sure to tell him about the love of Christ,
   and say that I asked you to do so, for perhaps when I am dead that
   might help to break his heart."

   Oh, yes! If anything would break your hearts, that were a mercy if it
   happened. If the preacher himself were dead, if his interment in the
   grave could bring you to the Savior, it were a cheap price to pay. Only
   may God save you! May the Holy Spirit renew you! May the Savior wash
   you in His precious blood and I shall be well content.

   The other word is this. You that profess to be Christians, to believe
   what I have told you--take care that you do not give the lie to it. Not
   everyone that says, "I am a Christian" is so. No, no. It is a
   heathenish nation this, that has had the impudence to call itself
   Christian. "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way which leads unto
   life, and few there are that find it," is as true today as when Christ
   uttered it. To be a Christian in name is worth nothing. To be a
   Christian in the power of these truths, having received Christ Jesus
   the Lord, and being rooted and built up in Him, and established in the
   faith as you have been taught--that is to be a Christian in all good
   conscience.

   If your lives should be unholy, if you trades people should be
   dishonest, if you rich people should be proud and selfish, if you poor
   people should be envious, if any of you should be drunken, if you
   should be loose in speech, if you should be unclean in deed or in
   conversation, men may say--"The preacher has only laid down a theory,
   let him show us facts." Well. But I can show facts. I bless God that I
   have it in my own soul to say that I believe the most of you do so live
   as to prove these things. But even so, there are others of you of whom
   I tell you, even weeping, that you are the enemies of the Cross of
   Christ. Enemies! Of all enemies the worst of enemies, too, because
   while professing to be actuated by them, you live in opposition to the
   teachings of Jesus.

   O blessed Savior! Wounded worse by Your treacherous friends than by
   Your open foes. O holy Faith! More damaged by your professors than by
   your antagonists. The Lord grant us to walk and live in holiness, and
   in His fear, till the Master shall come, as come He will a second time
   without a sin-offering unto salvation. Finally, Brothers and Sisters,
   farewell. Let me dismiss you with a blessing.
     __________________________________________________________________

Angelic Studies

   (No. 933)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MAY 1, 1870

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly
   places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God."
   Ephesians 3:10.

   THE "principalities and powers in heavenly places" to whom the Apostle
   here refers, are, no doubt, the angels. These bright and glorious
   spirits, never having fallen into sin, did not need to be redeemed, and
   therefore, in the sense of being cleansed from guilt, they have no
   share in the atoning sacrifice of Christ. Yet it is interesting to
   notice how our Lord did, as it were, pass and pass again their shining
   ranks when He sped His way down to the regions of death, and when He
   came back triumphant to the realms of Glory.

   Thus in one place "we see Jesus made a little lower than the angels for
   the suffering of death," and in another place we learn, "that the
   Father raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in
   the heavenly places, far above all principality and power, and might
   and dominion." It is possible that the mediation of Christ has a
   bearing upon them, and has from now on confirmed them in their
   holiness, so that by no means shall they ever be tempted or led into
   sin in the future. It may be so, but this much seems to be evident,
   that though they had no direct share in redemption, they feel,
   nevertheless, an interest in it, and are to be instructed by its
   results.

   The sublime plan of the Gospel of the Grace of God, which is so
   entirely beyond the compass of our natural faculties that we could
   never, by searching, have found it out, appears to have been equally
   beyond the grasp of angelic intelligence. It was a mystery that excited
   their wistful enquiry--until by the Church (that is to say, by the
   Divine Counsel and conduct in forming and perfecting the Church) there
   is made known unto them the manifold wisdom of God as they have never
   learned it before. They have kept their first estate, and have been
   obedient to God's behests. They delight to be known as the servants of
   God, doing His commandments, and hearkening unto the voice of His Word.

   They are appointed to exercise some sort of power over various parts of
   God's creation, therefore they are called "principalities and powers."
   Certainly they are engaged in singing Jehovah's praise. Much of the
   music that rises up before His Throne comes from the harps of spirits,
   pure and immaculate, who have never known sin. Yet, though they are
   thus pure, thus engaged in worship, of such eminent rank in the
   universe of God, they are never represented as indifferent spectators
   of anything which our mortal race can do or suffer, but their sympathy
   with men is constant.

   Do they not watch over the saints? Is it not written, that they "encamp
   round about them that fear the Lord"? Are they not charged to take care
   of the saints, to bear them up in their hands, lest they dash their
   feet against the stones? Angels, we know, have often been messengers of
   God's will to the sons of men. They have never shown any reluctance--
   on the contrary, great has been their joy to bear God's tidings down
   from Heaven to earth. And their sympathy even with fallen men, with men
   who have grievously sinned and gone astray, is shown by the fact that
   they "rejoice over one sinner that repents, more than over ninety and
   nine just persons that need no repentance."

   They are, as it were, in yonder gilded vessel, untossed of tempest. But
   they have sympathy with us in this poor heavy-laden boat, tossed with
   tempest and not comforted. I see them there on yonder sea of glass
   mingled with fire. I hear their harps, as incessantly their joy goes up
   in music to the Throne of the Most High. But they do not look down with
   scorn on us poor denizens of this dusky planet. On the contrary, they
   delight to think of us as their Brethren, as their fellow servants, as
   it will be the consummation of their happiness when we shall all be
   gathered to the Church of the First-Born, that they shall make up the
   innumerable company of angels that surround the blood-washed throng.

   I. The subject of our meditation, which will be brief, resolves itself
   into a question, HOW EXCLUSIVELY THROUGH THE CHURCH DO ANGELS COME TO
   SEE THE MANIFOLD WISDOM OF GOD? Some other matters in connection with
   this we shall have to speak of afterwards.

   Who can doubt that the angels had seen much of the wisdom of God in
   creation? With faculties keener and more elevated than ours, faculties
   that have never been blunted by sin, they can perceive the various
   contrivances of God's skill both in the animate and the inanimate
   world. Doubtless as each new star has been minted by God, as each
   planet has been struck off like a spark from the everlasting anvil,
   angels, those sons of the morning, have lifted up their songs, and have
   poured forth their paeans of joy and gladness.

   They have seen the wisdom of God in the greatness of creation--in every
   sphere they have been able to perceive it, for their vision is far more
   comprehensive than ours. And they have also, no doubt, seen that wisdom
   in all its minuteness as manifest in the delicate structure of
   organized beings, and the skillful economy of the operations of
   creative power. For there again they are able with the singleness and
   certainty of superior optics to perceive what only after long years we
   have been able to discover--and that by reasoning from the ingenuity of
   the works to the excellence of the design.

   What a scale of survey must a seraph have! How readily can we imagine
   an eye that takes in at once the landscape of the world! He need not
   confine himself to one single spot in God's universe, but with rapid
   wings he can steer far and wide over the infinity of space. May he not
   pause here a moment and there a moment, and with a glance peer into the
   multiform wisdom of God in all the ten thousand thousand worlds that
   stud the realms of space? Yet with all that facility of observation, it
   seems that the angels have some parts of the wisdom of God to learn.
   They have some lessons of heavenly science to study which creation
   cannot unfold to their view--to be ascertained and certified by them
   only through the transcendent work of Redemption which the Lord has
   carried on in His Church.

   Fix your attention for a moment on the word "now" as it is used in the
   text. On that word, it seems to me, much of the meaning hangs. Long
   before our Lord came into the world God had been pleased to reveal
   somewhat of the wisdom of His Grace in the types of the old Law. These
   were full of significance, but at the same time not free from
   perplexity to the minds of most men. They appear not to have been very
   intelligible, even to the angels, for they are pictured as standing
   over the Mercy Seat, with wings outspread, looking down upon its golden
   lid, anxiously enquiring, but not clearly discovering the secret of the
   old Covenant dispensation.

   Peter says, I suppose in allusion to this, "which things the angels
   desire to look into." But Paul here vehemently sets forth the yearnings
   of his heart in the exercise of his ministry, "to make all men see what
   is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world
   has been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: to the
   intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places,
   might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God."

   May we not infer from this that though angels saw Moses and Aaron, and
   the long succession of priests that followed them. Though they
   doubtless mingled invisibly in the solemn gatherings that went up to
   Mount Zion, and heard the chants of the glorious Psalms. Though they
   saw the streams of blood that flowed at the altar of burnt offering,
   and marked the rising clouds of smoke that went up from the altar of
   incense that was in the Holy Place before the Lord, they had not as yet
   discovered the wisdom of God in its fullness and clearness, the
   spotless mirror of His power, the reflex image of His glorious
   perfection?

   But it must have remained for them to learn it from the Church! Since
   Christ has come, angels are to be students of the manifold wisdom of
   God as revealed in His work towards His people, preparing them for that
   grand climax--the espousal of the Church and the marriage of the Lamb.
   To come closer to the matter we must trace it progressively, as though
   it were step by step that the angels pursued their study, and acquired
   an insight into this manifold wisdom. It may be they do so. Certainly
   among the children of men there is much pleasure in the getting of
   knowledge. The merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of
   silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold.

   As we gradually break up fresh ground, decipher that which is obscure,
   sift out analogies, solve difficulties, and follow out the tracks of
   history in one continuous line, our enjoyment of study rises to
   enthusiasm. Do you not think that the angels perceived the manifold
   wisdom of God now that they began to understand what man was and what
   man is? They must have already seen that God had created an order of
   pure spirits who served Him faithfully and never sinned. There was one
   form of wisdom displayed in that. Other spirits, equally pure, went
   astray, and in the wisdom of God-- for there is wisdom in it--these
   were suffered to continue astray, reserved in chains until the
   judgment.

   Soon the angels perceived that God was about to make another
   intelligent creature, not altogether spiritual, but a spiritual
   creature that should be linked with materialism, a creature that should
   abide in a body of clay. And that God intended to make this creature a
   mixture of earth and Heaven--such a one that he should occupy the place
   which fallen

   angels had left vacant. They discerned in this at once the wisdom of
   God. He had formed a pure spirit. He had fashioned material substances.
   Now He was about to make a creature in which the two should be
   combined, a creature that should be spiritual, and yet should be
   material.

   But before this creature should be permitted to take his place forever
   at the right hand of God, he was to be permitted to pass the test of
   temptation. Being tempted, he was to fall into sin. Out of the
   condemnation into which he should sink he was to be elevated by an act
   of Divine Grace. From the guilt of that sin he was to be cleansed by a
   matchless system of substitutionary sacrifice. And then, after having
   been alienated in heart, he should nevertheless become as pure as if he
   had never been conscious of evil! And contaminated with it, he should
   be redeemed from it and stand in allegiance to the Most High, to serve
   Him with as absolute a perfection as if he had never transgressed or
   lost his first estate.

   Herein is manifold wisdom, that the Lord God should make so strange a
   creature, that He should be formed of the dust of the ground, and yet
   created in the image of God. A creature that should know sin, and
   whatever of pleasure there might be in it, and yet be restored to
   purity and holiness. A creature who though awhile estranged in heart,
   and guilty of rebelling with a high hand against his Creator, should
   return to its allegiance through the infinitely wise workings of God's
   Spirit, and from now on should remain forever the liege servant of God!
   And, something more, the child of God would be lifted up and exalted
   into a nearness of connection and intimacy of communion with the Great
   Father of Spirits into which no creature had ever been brought before!
   In that grand design, the angels must have seen much of the sublime
   wisdom of God, and that conspicuously through the Church.

   But, Brethren, may not the admiration of angels at the unfolding of
   this wisdom have been increased by the mystery in which it had long
   been shrouded from their apprehension? Observe that Paul was exulting
   in a revelation "which in other ages was not made known unto the sons
   of men as it is now revealed unto His holy Apostles and Prophets by the
   Spirit." What use will he make of it? First he looks round among the
   saints and sounds the note of welcome. Then he looks out among his
   fellow men and proclaims it to the Gentile world. And at length he
   looks up and descries among the angelic throng, creatures of noble mind
   and exalted rank, who could sympathize the joy and hail the solution of
   so grand a problem.

   Be it remembered that the decree had previously been proclaimed from
   the throne of the Most High, for, "when He brings the First-Begotten
   into the world, He says, "Let all the angels of God worship Him." Yet
   the means by which the counsels of God concerning Christ and the Church
   should be brought to pass had not thus far been shown. With what
   pleasing wonderment, therefore, would the principalities and powers in
   heavenly places regard the plan as it was unsealed! How well might the
   Apostle look forward to those ages to come which have yet to prove the
   reality of all that has been foreshadowed!

   The Truth of all that has been prophesied. And (the work now in
   progress being completed) the actual form and fashion of all that from
   the beginning was predestinated. Even while the mystery was
   unexplained, it was not for pure angelic minds to doubt. Still their
   thoughts must have been full of marvel, and startling questions must
   have occurred to them. Shall the Only-Begotten Son of the Father take
   the nature of man into union with the Godhead? Can it be safe to put
   such a creature as man into so sublime a relationship with the Creator?
   Will pride never inflame his breast and provoke his soul to transgress?
   By what strange process shall he be made meet to partake of the
   inheritance of the saints in

   light?

   While the details are concealed, the destiny seems incomprehensible. It
   is therefore that the Church becomes as a museum which angels may visit
   with ever-expanding interest and ever-increasing delight. Over the
   minutest particulars of the Divine workmanship in the saints they may
   pore with pleasure. For there they have open to their observation by
   the Church the manifold wisdom of God. And all this redounds to the
   glory of the Savior. That creature, man, when thus elevated, can never
   be proud, for he remembers what he was. If ever the feeling of
   exultation crosses his mind, he transfers the honor to Christ, who can
   receive it as his rightful due.

   There is not in Heaven, of all the creatures, a humbler creature,
   though none more elevated--made to have dominion over all the works of
   God's hands, with all things put under his feet. He is made to be akin
   to Deity itself by virtue of union with the Son of God, and yet safe to
   stand there, without cause to fear that he should pervert his high
   prerogative or usurp any adoration or prerogative which does not belong
   to him. The process through which he has passed--his annealing, as it
   were, in the fire of his fall and of his repentance--his deep
   obligations to Sovereign Grace, shall make it

   safe to grant that he shall sit with Christ on His Throne. Even as
   Christ also overcame, and is set down with his Father on His Throne.

   I talk of these things feebly and superficially, but I am persuaded
   that this is a subject which angels can think of with enchantment, and
   as they think it over they see transparent proofs of the manifold
   wisdom of God. But to come down to more familiar topics. Probably you
   will be more impressed with the excellence of this wisdom as you look
   at the first principles of Christianity, than if you would arrest your
   attention in any refinements of reasoning. The wisdom of God is clearly
   seen by angels in this--that though God was dishonored in this world by
   sin--that sin has redounded to His greater honor.

   Satan, when he led men astray and tempted them to rebel, thought he had
   marred the Glory of God, but he never did more palpably outwit God. As
   Augustine ventured to say of the Fall, "Happy thought," so, when we see
   how God's mercy and His love have shone resplendent through that
   dreadful breach, we can only admire the wisdom of God which has thus
   outmatched the subtlety of Hell. The serpent was exceedingly wise, but
   God was far wiser. Satan's craft was dexterous, but God's wisdom was
   infinite in its prescience. Wisdom has outmatched craft. Is it not
   glorious to think that this world where God was dishonored most is the
   world where He shall be most revered?

   There is no such display of the attributes and perfections of Godhead
   in the whole universe beside as there is here. On our blighted soil God
   has stood foot to foot with moral evil. God incarnate, the Son of God,
   has sustained the conflict, and won the victory! While the heel of
   Christ was bruised, the head of the dragon has been most effectually
   broken! A triumph that God would have us commemorate in time and in
   eternity has come through the sin that threatened the destruction of
   the world.

   This wisdom of God is to be seen in the way that our redemption was
   worked. The doctrine of Substitution is a marvel which, if God had
   never revealed, none of us could by any possibility have discovered.
   You remember how it was. We had sinned and were condemned. How could
   God be gracious and yet be just? How could He keep His Law and yet at
   the same time show His mercy towards us? Of old that problem was solved
   by the Suretyship of Christ. He who had determined to be Man put
   Himself from before the foundation of the world into our place, and
   offered Himself to God as the Head of the race in Covenant that He
   might make recompense to the broken Law.

   Angels could not have conjectured this, but when it was made known to
   them, how could they refrain to chant fresh songs to the praise of Him
   who could undertake so loving a responsibility? It became necessary
   when Christ was our Surety, that He should afterwards take upon Himself
   our nature. Oh, how it must have surprised the angels when they heard
   that the Son of God was coming down to earth to be born of a virgin!
   What marvel must there have been when the announcement was made through
   the courts of Paradise that He was going down to Bethlehem!

   One of the angelic number who had been sent to attend Him proclaimed
   His advent, but while he was making the announcement, "Suddenly there
   was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host," who now came in
   to swell the song, "Glory to God in the highest! On earth peace, good
   will toward men." The swell of that music--how grand! The cadence of
   those simple words--how charming! Yes, the angels must have discovered
   something of the wisdom of God when they saw that God thus tabernacled
   among men, that the Word was made flesh in order to be capable of
   carrying out His surety-engagements, and really become a Substitute for
   those who had offended.

   I think His whole life must have struck them with wonder. They must
   often have observed wisdom in His actions and in His prayers, in His
   speech and in His silence. But, when at last He came to die, methinks
   even cherubim and seraphim were wrapt in amazement. That He should
   stoop from Heaven and become a friend to the fallen race might surprise
   them much. But that He should stoop to die must have appeared utterly
   incomprehensible! Something more of the love and wisdom of God should
   yet be revealed to them. I think our hymn must fitly describe how they
   gathered round that Cross--

   "And could their eyes have known a tear, They must have wept it there."
   When they beheld the griefs and torments of the dying Son of God, the
   Lamb of God's Passover--when they heard Him say, "It is
   finished!"--what a door must have been opened to them! They saw, then,
   that He had finished transgression, made an end of sin, and brought in
   an everlasting righteousness. And then, perhaps, they saw more clearly
   than before how Christ, by suffering, put an end to our sufferings. And
   by being made a curse for us had made us the right-

   eousness of God in Him. If they marvelled during the three days of His
   slumber in the tomb, His Resurrection must have opened up another door
   to them. And, when after His forty days' sojourn, they came to meet Him
   with glad acclaim.

   When they joined Him, and with Him rode up to the gates of Heaven,
   singing, "Lift up your heads, O you gates, and be you lift up, you
   everlasting doors, that the King of Glory may come in." When they came
   in triumph with "the Lord mighty in battle, the King of Glory," in that
   procession to His Throne, they must still have been more and more
   amazed, and said one to another, "What thing is this? What mighty
   marvel! He that became Man to suffer, is the very One that now rises to
   reign. He who was born to die now lives forevermore. Behold, He is now
   the Head over all things, and made to have dominion over all the works
   of God's hands, for it has pleased the Father that in Him should all
   fullness dwell!"

   Thus, Brethren, though time and voice fail me, permit me to say the
   whole history of our blessed Lord, who is the Head of the Church, is
   making known to the principalities and powers in heavenly places the
   manifold wisdom of God in such a way as they never could have otherwise
   seen it.

   The wisdom of God is seen through the Church in the Holy Spirit's work
   as well as in the work of Christ. It is "manifold wisdom." You know the
   children's toy, the kaleidoscope. Every time you turn it there is some
   fresh form of beauty. You seldom see the same form twice. So it is with
   nature, each time and season has its special beauty. There is always
   variety in its scenery--diversities of form and color are strewn
   throughout the world. You never saw two hills molded in the same
   pattern, or two rivers that wound after the same fashion from their
   source down to the sea. Nature is full of variety. So is the work of
   the Holy Spirit.

   In calling sinners to Christ, there is singleness of purpose but no
   uniformity of means. Your conversion, my dear Friend, in the main
   outline, is very much like mine--yet your conversion has its
   distinctive incidents. God's wisdom is displayed equally in bringing
   you in that way, and in bringing me in another way. I believe there
   will be found evidence at the last of the wisdom of God in the very
   date, the very place, the very means in and by which every soul is
   brought to believe in Jesus. And angels will, no doubt, be able to
   perceive in every conversion some singular marks of beautiful
   originality proceeding from the inexhaustible Artist of Grace, the Holy
   Spirit.

   That same wisdom will be seen in the biography of every convert--how
   the Lord afflicts, or how He comforts. How He upholds us, how He keeps
   back that which cannot yet be endured. How He gently leads us, how He
   makes us to lie down. We find fault, sometimes, with the way of
   Providence because we do not understand it. When we shall get a clearer
   sight of it we shall see that every mark and line was dictated by His
   love, and ordered by His Infinite Counsel. As each Christian shall be
   conformed to the likeness of Christ, angels will see in the products of
   Grace fresh displays of the manifold wisdom of God.

   I could suppose that the death of a martyr must be such a spectacle as
   those holy watchers regard with extraordinary interest. Would they not
   have gathered around such a woman as Blandina, for instance, who was
   made to sit in a red-hot chair, after having been tossed upon the horns
   of a wild bull? Yet constant to the last, she maintained her faith in
   Christ while passing through the torture! Pure spirits as they were,
   they must have commiserated the physical anguish and admired the
   spiritual triumph of this feeble woman thus devoted in her love to
   their Lord and Master.

   Yes, you ministering spirits, you who live to serve our Eternal King,
   surely you must rejoice at the loyalty of those servants of His who die
   for His Truth. In late years, since this House of Prayer was built,
   when the martyrs of Madagascar were burned at their stakes for
   Christ--as they stood erect in the fire, and began to sing--the angels,
   celestial vocalists as they are, must have been ravished with a music
   that they could not emulate. And when they breathed the prayer, "Into
   your hands we commend our spirits," the angels must almost have envied
   them the ability of serving God in that sphere of suffering, and the
   possibility of bearing in their bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus.

   Yes, and when they have seen your boldness and your constancy, your
   self-denial, and your patience. And when they have heard your
   importunate prayers and groans, as you have pleaded for the souls of
   others, seeking with tears to bring others to Jesus, I do not doubt
   that they have ascribed to the manifold wisdom of God the production of
   such luscious fruits from such inferior creatures! Fruits that bring to
   His name so much of Glory, and so much of renown to His Grace. In all
   the saints, through the history of their vocation and the development
   of their sanctification, angels can discern the manifold wisdom of God.

   The subject is far too large for me. I shall leave you to think it out,
   after thus introducing you to but a few aspects of it. There is much
   room for meditation as to how these bright and happy spirits do and
   shall see the wisdom of God in the salvation of the Church.

   II. But do you now ask, DO ANGELS GAIN ANYTHING BY THE CHURCH OF GOD? I
   think they do. Certainly they acquire increased knowledge. With us
   knowledge is sometimes sorrow. To know is often to mourn. What the eye
   does not see the heart does not rue. "Where ignorance is bliss"--and it
   sometimes is--there are those who think, "it is folly to be wise." But
   ignorance is not bliss in Heaven. Knowledge increases the joy of the
   angels, and I will tell you why--because it makes them take a greater
   delight in God when they see how wise and gracious He is. If it is
   possible for the angels to be happier than natural innocence and
   honorable service can render them, they must be happier through knowing
   and seeing more of God, as His attributes are reflected and His
   perfections mirrored forth in the Church.

   Angels, methinks, will be enriched by the society of the saints in
   Heaven. Commerce always enriches, and commerce between angelic and
   human natures will be enriching to them both. They love in Heaven--they
   show their love by rejoicing over repenting men. They will be glad to
   see us there. I do believe they will make much of us, as we do if we
   have seen some poor child reclaimed, and afterwards grow up to honor.
   We like to think of such an one. It brings the tears into our eyes that
   our Father did so good a deed for the orphan, the pauper, or the
   outcast. And will not the angels rejoice over those in whom the
   Father's mercy has worked such wonderful happiness?

   Again, to my imagining (can it be illusive?) angels are gainers by the
   Church because they get nearer to the Throne of God than they were
   before. Another order of beings, our own to wit, is advanced. Surely
   when one creature gets near to God, all unfallen creatures are
   promoted. God, in vital union with the creature, was not to be
   conceived of until Christ came down to earth, and clothed Himself in
   manhood, thus raising creatureship nearer to God by just that length.
   So angels, by inference, seem to me interested in the honor that
   Jehovah has put on His works--the endowed works of His own formation.

   Do you not think, too, that perhaps they can see God better in Christ
   than even they did before? Is it not possible that even they who first
   did veil their faces with their wings in the presence of the Almighty,
   because the brightness of glory was excessive, may now stand with
   unveiled faces and worship God in Christ? I think it is so. They never
   saw much of God before until they saw God veiled in human flesh. There
   was too dazzling a splendor for them till the interposing medium of the
   manhood of Christ came in between them and the absolute Deity. It may
   be so.

   And may not there be a reflex sense of gratitude in the very heart of
   angels when they see us in Heaven, or while they see us wending our way
   there? They perceive what it would have cost to have restored them had
   they been beguiled by sin, and therefore what debtors they are to God
   that they were never suffered to fall. Does it not make their state and
   standing more and more joyful to them when they see in us how the
   righteous scarcely are saved, and at what an expense men were lifted up
   from the ruins of death and the dread doom of the damned?

   Why, methinks they say not one to another, with Phariseeism--"We thank
   You, great God, that we are not as men are." No, they say, with
   lowliness of mind--"We bless You, O God, that we were permitted to
   stand in our fidelity, and were not left to the natural weakness which
   might have succumbed to temptation, for You charged even Your angels
   with folly, but You have held us, and here we are to bless Your name."
   It may be so. It may be so.

   III. Let me detain you one minute more while we meet the question, WHAT
   IS ALL THIS TO US? Ought it not to make us prize the Gospel? If the
   angels think so much of it, oh, what should we think? If they who have
   only seen it, esteem it so, how ought we to value it who have tasted
   it? If they admire the veins that filled the Fountain, what shall we
   say who have washed in that Fountain? If they wonder at Christ, who
   took not on Him the nature of angels, how shall we admire Him who
   espoused the house of Abraham and the seed of Adam? Let us appreciate
   the Gospel beyond all price, emolument, or honor.

   How, too, should we study it, if it is the research of angelic
   intellects! Is the Church their schoolbook from where they learn
   lessons of the Divine wisdom, because no science is equal to that of
   the wisdom of God in Christ revealed in His Church? O be not, you
   converts, ignorant of the Word of God! Be not oblivious of the
   operations of God in your own souls! The angels desire to look into
   these things. Do you look into them? Blessed shall you be if you abide
   in the study of the Word of God! You shall be like trees planted by the
   rivers of water that bring forth their fruit in their season. O do
   apply every faculty you have to acquire increasing knowledge of that
   which angels love to study.

   And now take courage, you feeble-minded ones, and never fear again the
   sneer of the man who calls the Gospel folly. Account him to be the
   victim of folly who despises this manifold wisdom. Shall I set the
   judgment of a poor puny mortal against the judgment of an angel? I
   suppose that even Newton, and Kepler, and Locke, and those mighty
   master spirits, would be mere infants compared with seraphs. Those
   great men loved to study the Scriptures, and when your modern
   pretenders to a little smack of philosophy come in and sneer at our
   holy Gospel, we can well afford to sneer at them. What are their sneers
   to us?

   In proportion to a man's ignorance is generally his impudence when he
   meddles with the Gospel. I think it was Hume who confessed that he had
   never read the New Testament and said he never would. Yet he was one of
   the most glib in caviling at that of which he knew nothing. Ah, you
   skeptics, pretenders, and scoffers--we can well afford to let you rail.
   But you can ill afford to rail when angels are awed into wonder, and so
   would you be if there were anything angelic about your temper, or
   anything of right wisdom in your attainments.

   Last of all. If this is so, how we ought to love Christ, we who has a
   saving interest in it, and how they ought to tremble who have it not!
   Unsaved Men! Unsaved Women! If it needs manifold wisdom to save men,
   then men's ruin must be very great, and your peril must be very
   imminent. If it amazes angels to see how God saves, it must be a
   terrible destruction from which He saves them. That destruction is
   coming upon you--its dark shadows have already began to gather round
   you. How great your folly to refuse a salvation so wise, to reject a
   Savior so attractive as Jesus!

   Think of His loving gentleness and consider the simple way in which He
   saves--believe and live! The supplies necessary for your salvation are
   all waiting. There is nothing to be done. It is all complete. There is
   nothing to be found. It is all ready. Salvation is finished. What a
   fool must he be that will not have it! O stretch out your withered hand
   and take it! God give you power. If you say "How? "I answer
   thus--Trust, trust, trust! Come and confide in Christ. Rely upon
   Christ, and He will save you. God grant you Grace to do it at once, and
   He shall have the praise. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Bands Of Love

   (No. 934)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JUNE 5, 1870,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them
   as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto
   them." Hosea 11:4.

   GOD, by the mouth of His Prophet, is here expostulating with His people
   for their ungrateful rebellion against Him. He had not treated them in
   a harsh, tyrannical, overbearing manner, else there might have been
   some excuse for their revolt. But His rule had always been gentle,
   tender, and full of pity. Therefore, for them to disobey Him was the
   very height of wanton wickedness. The Lord had never made His people to
   suffer hard bondage in mortar and in brick as Pharaoh did, yet we do
   not find that they raised an insurrection against the Egyptian tyrant.
   They gave their backs to the burdens, and they bore the lash of the
   taskmaster without turning upon the hands which oppressed them.

   But when the Lord was gracious to them and delivered them out of the
   house of bondage, they murmured in the wilderness, and were justly
   called by Moses, "rebels." They had no such burdens to bear under the
   government of God as those which loaded the nations under their kings,
   and yet they willfully determined to have a king for themselves. No
   taxes were squeezed from them, no servile service was demanded at their
   hands. Their thank offerings and sacrifices were not ordained upon a
   scale of oppression. Their liberty was all but boundless--their lives
   were spent in peace and happiness, every man under his own vine and fig
   tree--none making them afraid.

   Yet, since other nations bowed before the rule of despotic kings, these
   foolish people were not content till they had raised up between them
   and the Divine government a ruler who would take their daughters to be
   confectioners in his kitchen, and their sons to be servants in his
   court. God bore with their ill manners, and gave them a king in His
   anger. And then, even under the reign of kings, how graciously the Lord
   their God treated them! If it was necessary for their punishment to
   give them up for awhile to foreign dominion, how He soon took away the
   affliction when they cried unto

   Him!

   Though they were chastised, yet--

   "His strokes were fewer than their crimes, And lighter than their
   guilt."

   The whole dealings of Jehovah with His people Israel were full of
   matchless tenderness. As a nursing mother with her child, so did God
   deal gently with His people. Yet, hear, O heavens, and give ear, O
   earth! The Lord has nourished and brought up children, and they have
   rebelled against Him. Did a nation ever cast away her gods, even though
   they were not gods? Were not the heathen faithful to their idols? But
   Israel was bent on backsliding--her heart was set upon idolatry, and
   the God of her fathers was disregarded.

   Jehovah was despised, and His gentle reign and government she set
   herself to destroy. This was the complaint against Israel of old. As in
   water face answers to face, so the heart of man to man. As men were in
   days of yore, so are they now. God has dealt with us who are His people
   in an unexampled way of loving kindness and tender mercy, and I fear
   that to a great extent the recompense we have rendered to Him has been
   very much like the ungrateful return which He received from the seed of
   Jacob of old.

   This morning I shall ask you to think of the tender dealings of God
   with you, my Brothers and Sisters, that you may not be as Israel was.
   But that feeling the power of the Divine gentleness, you may serve your
   God with a perfect heart, and walk before Him as those should who have
   partaken of such benefits.

   The first thing we shall have to consider is the Lords way of leading
   His people to their duty--"I drew them with cords of a man, with bands
   of love." Secondly, the Lord's Grace in giving His people rest--"I was
   to them as they that

   take off the yoke on their jaws." And, thirdly, the suitable
   nourishment which He gives to His chosen--"I laid meat unto

   them."

   I. First, then, THE LORD'S WAY OF EXCITING HIS PEOPLE TO ACTION. We who
   have believed in Jesus Christ have passed into a new condition with
   regard to God. We were once, at the very best, only His subjects, and
   having sinned we were scarcely fit to be called subjects, but rebels,
   traitors--disgraced with high treason. But now, since Divine Grace has
   renewed us, we are not only his pardoned subjects, but what is far
   better, wondrous Grace has made us his Beloved sons and daughters! we
   are now not so much subjects of His crown as we are children of His
   care.

   We are by Grace brought into an entirely different relationship from
   that of fallen nature, and we are ruled and swayed by motives and
   regulations altogether unknown to the unregenerate sons of men. The way
   in which God brings His people to serve Him is that to which I now ask
   your consideration. It is a way pre-eminently peculiar in its
   tenderness and kindness. The only cords are cords of a man, and the
   bands are bands of love. In the heroic days when Xerxes led his army
   into Greece, there was a remarkable contrast between the way in which
   the Persian soldiers and the Grecian warriors were urged to combat.

   The unwilling hosts of Persia were driven to the conflict by blows and
   stripes from their officers. They were either mercenaries or cowards,
   and they feared close contact with their opponents. They were driven to
   their duty as beasts are, with rods and goads. On the other side, the
   armies of Greece were small, but each man was a patriot and a hero.
   When they marched to the conflict it was with quick and joyous step,
   with a martial song upon their lips--and when they neared the foe they
   rushed upon his ranks with an enthusiasm and a fury which nothing could
   withstand.

   No whips were needed for the Spartan men-at-arms. Like high-spirited
   chargers they would have resented the touch thereof. They were drawn to
   battle by the cords of a man, and by the bands of patriotic love they
   were bound to hold their posts at all hazards. "Spartans," would their
   leaders say, "your fathers disdained to number the Persians with the
   dogs of their flock and will you be their slaves? Say, is it not better
   to die as freemen than to live as slaves? What if your foes are many,
   yet one lion can tear in pieces a far-reaching flock of sheep. Use well
   your weapons this day! Avenge your slaughtered sires, and fill the
   courts of Shushan with confusion and lamentation!"

   Such were the manly arguments which drew the Lacedaemonians and
   Athenians to the fight--not the whips so fit for beasts, nor the cords
   so suitable for cattle. This illustration may set forth the difference
   between the world's service of bondage, and the Christian's religion of
   love--the worldling is flogged to his duty with fear, and terror, and
   dread. But the Christian man is touched by motives which appeal to his
   highest nature--he is affected by motives so dignified as to be worthy
   of the sons of God. He is not driven as a beast--he is moved as a man.

   Let me explain. In the first place, the Christian man never works to
   obtain eternal life. He knows it to be a gift and receives it as such.
   The unconverted man thinks that there are certain things which he ought
   to do and by the doing of which he will be saved. And he selfishly, if
   he is awakened, sets to work to perform these actions with more or less
   of perseverance in the hope of obtaining pardon for sin and salvation
   for his soul. Being a son of the bondwoman, he finds his way to Sinai.

   But the Christian man knows that salvation is not the wage of service,
   but that life is the gift of God, the dowry bestowed on us by Sovereign
   Grace--and therefore he never looks for salvation from the Law. As a
   child of the promise, he wins the New Jerusalem by birthright and by
   the Covenant of Grace. Legal motives cease to affect the instructed
   Believer--while he was out of Christ he did, in his ignorance, seek to
   work out a righteousness of his own--but now he has come to Christ and
   seen everlasting righteousness finished and brought in. He is saved--he
   knows that he is saved, and he knows also that he is saved by the
   merits of Another.

   Now, being saved, he works out his own salvation with fear and
   trembling, not that he may save himself, but because he knows he is
   saved, since God Himself is working in him to will and to do of His own
   good pleasure. If that man is engaged as a minister of Christ he will
   never preach as though his salvation depended on his preaching. Let him
   be occupied in his trade or calling, he will not be honest and sober,
   conscientious and devout, because he thinks to save himself thereby.
   No, verily, he has turned his hope away from his own works to the work
   of Jesus Christ the Redeemer, and therefore that motive of trying to
   win salvation by merit is disgusting to him.

   He is so far from yielding to its power, that he utterly loathes it.
   Let such arguments affect the ungenerous spirits that can live for
   themselves, but over us it has no power. We are saved, and now being
   saved. Out of love to the Father and the Well-Beloved we are impelled
   to service.

   Neither does a Christian seek to serve God with the idea that he is to
   keep himself in spiritual life by such service. I have heard it more or
   less insinuated that although we are saved at present, and have eternal
   life in present possession, yet all depends on our own faithfulness.
   And if we are not what we should be, eternal life will die out and the
   Divine Grace given will be withdrawn. I must confess I find in the
   Bible nothing of the kind, neither do I pray, nor read the Scriptures,
   nor attend Divine worship with the remotest idea of sustaining my own
   spiritual life.

   The spiritual life which the Holy Spirit gives us cannot die. It is
   eternal as the life of God. It is a living and incorruptible seed which
   abides forever. A true Believer in Christ is most safe, for he can
   never perish, neither can any pluck him out of Christ's hands. The
   dread of being driven out of the Divine family is not a motive capable
   of stirring his heavenly nature. He knows that because Jesus lives he
   shall live also. He is not forced to holiness by dread of being
   forsaken of his God. He does not believe such a thing to be possible.
   He leaves a motive so slavish to the poor sons of Hagar who, like their
   bondslave mother, cannot dwell with the child of promise.

   As for the Christian, other and higher considerations rule him. He is
   drawn by the cords of a man and by the bands of love. Further, you will
   see the gentleness of the way in which God calls His people to duty in
   the fact that He is pleased to accept their service even when it is, in
   itself, far from being at all worthy of His smile. O my Brethren, if
   you and I had to be saved or to be preserved in spiritual life by our
   doings, then nothing but perfection in service could answer our turn.
   And every time we felt that what we had done was marred and imperfect
   we should be full of despair.

   But now we know that we are already saved, and are forever safe, since
   nothing remains unfinished in the work which justifies us. We bring to
   the Lord the loving offerings of our hearts, and if they are imperfect
   we water with our tears those imperfections. We know that He reads our
   hearts and takes our works not for what they are in themselves but for
   what they are in Christ. He knows what we would make them if we could.
   He accepts them as if they were what we mean them to be. He takes the
   will for the deed often, and He takes the half deed often for the
   whole.

   And when Justice would condemn the action as sinful, for it is so
   imperfect, the mercy of our Father accepts the action in the Beloved,
   because He knows what we meant it to be. And though our fault has
   marred it, yet He knows how our hearts sought to honor Him. Oh, it is
   such a blessed thing to remember that though the Law cannot accept
   anything but what is perfect, yet God, in the Gospel, as we come to Him
   as saved souls, accepts our imperfect things!

   Why, there is our love! How cold it often is, and yet Jesus Christ
   takes pleasure in our love! Then, again, our faith, I must almost call
   it unbelief, it is often so weak--and yet though it is as a grain of
   mustard seed, Jesus accepts it, and works wonders by it. As for our
   poor prayers, often so broken with so many distracted thoughts in them,
   and so poverty-stricken in importunity and earnestness, yet our dear
   Lord takes them, washes them in His blood, adds His own merit to them,
   and they come up as a sweet savor before the Most High. It is
   delightfully encouraging to know that in our sincere but feeble service
   the Scripture is fulfilled--"a bruised reed shall He not break, and a
   smoking flax will He not quench." Even our green ears of corn may be
   laid on the altar. If we cannot bring a lamb, our turtle doves and two
   young pigeons shall be received.

   Then, further, our gracious Lord gives us promises of help in all holy
   exercises. Under the Law it is, "Make the bricks," but there is no
   promise of straw. Under the Gospel we have help for every time of need.
   You know how it is written, "The Spirit also helps our infirmities: for
   we know not what we should pray for as we ought." Our good works are
   rather God's works than ours, in so far as they are good. He first of
   all gives us good works, and then rewards us for them, as if they were
   all our own. "You have worked all our works in us." "I am like a green
   fir tree, from me is your fruit found."

   Yes, blessed be God, all true fruit of Grace comes from Him. Is not
   this a charmingly powerful motive to service? Though it is so different
   from the reasons which drag on the sons of men, do we not feel it to be
   mightily operative? The Lord will help us in the service, and render
   unto man according to his work. He has said, "Fear you not. For I am
   with you: be not dismayed. For I am your God: I will strengthen you;
   yes, I will help you; yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of My
   righteousness."

   Furthermore, as if more fully to show how we are drawn with the cords
   of love and bands of a man, all the motives which are used to impel us
   to service appeal to that which is most honorable in our regenerated
   manhood. We have frequently heard the objection of those who oppose the
   Doctrines of Grace, "If I believed as you do, that all true Believers
   are saved, and shall never perish, I should live as I like." Our answer
   is, "It is highly probable that you, as an unconverted man, would do
   so. But if you had received a new nature, and all your tastes were
   changed, matters would stand otherwise."

   For a Christian to live as he likes would be to but live an absolutely
   pure and perfectly holy life. The Holy Spirit implants within His
   people at their new birth a dignity and nobility of character to which
   they were utterly strangers before. And they would not, and could not,
   sin as once they did. They cannot sin as before because they are born
   of God. The things which they took pleasure in before, now seem to them
   groveling and despicable. They seek after higher and nobler objects. I
   believe that Gospel motives, if they were addressed to all mankind
   promiscuously, would prove a failure as much as if we tried to excite
   enthusiasm in all men by poetic imagery or profoundly philosophical
   argument.

   But Gospel motives to God's people are as nails fastened in a sure
   place. They are suitable, and therefore effectual. You could not hope
   to govern the nation by the same ruler and methods with which, as a
   father, you order your family. In your family it may be there is not
   even a rod, certainly there is no policeman, no prison, no black cap.
   Children are ruled by a father on a scheme essentially different from
   the rule of magistrates and kings. There are maxims of courts of
   legislature which would never be tolerated in the home of love. Just
   so, within the family of God there are no penal inflictions, no words
   of threat such as must be employed by the great King when He deals with
   the mass of His rebellious subjects.

   You are not under the Law, else there would be judgment and curses for
   you. You are under Grace, and now the motives by which you are to be
   moved are such as might not affect others, but which, since you are
   renewed in the spirit of your mind, most powerfully affect you. It is a
   great thing for a man to feel that God does not now appeal to him as He
   would to an ordinary person, but that having given him a new nature, He
   addresses him on higher grounds. "I beseech you therefore, Brethren, by
   the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice,
   holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not
   conformed to this world: but be you transformed by the renewing of your
   mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect
   will of God."

   We have known of a boy in school whose conduct has been greatly
   improved when the master has had wisdom enough to appeal to his better
   qualities. When the lad has felt that his age, or superiority of
   position have demanded better things of him, he has yielded to the
   motive. In dealing with His people, the Lord appeals to their higher
   characteristics. He does not say to the regenerate man as He did to
   Adam, "Do this and you shall die." He says to him, "He that believes in
   Christ shall never die. I will never leave you nor forsake you. I have
   loved you with an everlasting love: what, then, is your return for all
   this love?"

   The really saved soul, overwhelmed with gratitude, exclaims, "My God,
   my Father, I cannot sin, I must live as You would have me, I must serve
   You. Such love as this touches my heart, it stirs everything that is
   noble that You have implanted in me. Tell me what Your will is, and
   whether I have to bear it or to do it, I will delight in it if You will
   give me all-sufficient Grace." Yes, the Lord always appeals to the
   higher points in the Christian's constitution, and thus He draws us
   with the cords of a man, with bands of love.

   Let us add that love is always the great master force in moving
   Christians. Terror is but little used--threats and wrath are laid
   aside. Gospel arguments are molded in this fashion, "The love of Christ
   constrains us; because we thus judge, that if One died for all, then
   were all dead: and that He died for all, that they which live should
   not from now on live unto themselves." Jesus seems to plead, "I have
   made you, even you, poor defiled one, to be precious in My sight. Do
   you love Me? If you love Me, keep My commandments, and feed My sheep.

   "I have bought you, even with My heart's blood have I redeemed you out
   from among the people, and from the chief men thereof. Does not My love
   constrain you? Will you not give yourself to My service, to promote My
   Glory?" All-conquering Love is master of all our forces. He is the
   Commander-in-Chief of all our powers. When the love of God is
   manifestly shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, our duty
   becomes our highest delight, and the work of God our highest joy.
   Rutherford, speaking of how his Lord encouraged him with sweet
   fellowship while he was serving Him, says in his quaint way, "When my
   Master sends me on His errands, He often gives me a trinket for
   myself."

   By which he means, as sure as ever God sent him on His errands He gave
   him a penny for reward, as we do to boys. How often have our prayers
   for others returned into our own bosom? How often do we find it a
   blessing to bless others? Have you not found it so? You have been
   trying to comfort God's people, and the comfort has been reflected upon
   your own soul. You watered others and thereby were watered yourself.
   You were trying to praise God--you were not thinking of yourself--but
   as you sang you obtained a blessing, your heart mounted higher and
   higher, and you blessed your Lord with an exhilaration of spirit you
   had not known before.

   The praises of God's people are poured forth, even as larks give forth
   their songs. They sing, not because they ought, but because they
   delight to sing. They fulfill their nature, and find in it their
   happiness. Virtue and holiness become to God's people a delight--they
   take pleasure in it--sin is hateful, but holiness is lovely to them. As
   it will be their highest Heaven to be perfect, so now their nearest
   approach to Heaven is when they are by God's Spirit sanctified and led
   into nearness to Christ.

   Thus I have, without dwelling on the mere words, given you the sense of
   the first clause of the text, "I drew them with cords of a man, with
   bands of love." The impelling, urging powers that lead Christians on to
   consecration and holiness are never those which befit slaves or carnal
   minds. They are such as are worthy of the dignity of the sons of God,
   and they are full of tenderness, and kindness, and love. For the
   gentleness of God is great towards His people.

   II. I shall now ask you to turn to the next sentence, and observe HOW
   THE LORD GIVES REST TO HIS PEOPLE--"I was to them as they that take off
   the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them."

   Sometimes a common illustration may be more forcible than a more
   refined comparison, and I shall give you in a moment a very homely one.
   The passage here means that God treated His people as farmers, when
   they are merciful, treat the bullocks with which they have been
   plowing. They lift off the yoke from them, withdraw the muzzle, and
   then give them their food. But our explanation of it shall be a sight
   more common. Out there in yonder street stand still and observe. Yonder
   inn is a common halting place. Watch it a moment. Here comes a huge,
   heavily loaded van.

   Three or four steaming, panting horses have been laboriously dragging
   along this mountain on wheels. They are greatly in need of rest. The
   word is given, and the poor animals gladly stand still. Down comes the
   driver from his box. The reins are dropped and he proceeds to take the
   bits out of the poor creatures' mouths. How pleased they seem to be to
   get rid of the bits which have been so long between their jaws. Nor is
   the rest all the horses get, they shall have a draught of water, or the
   well-filled nose bags shall be fitted upon them and they shall rest and
   feed.

   I thought of this text when I looked at that sight the other day. It is
   the exact explanation of the text, "I was to them as they that take off
   the yoke from their jaws, and I laid meat unto them." As you see
   wearied horses contentedly and happily take their rest and feed, you
   have before you precisely what the Prophet meant. God takes the bits
   out of His servants' mouths, the yoke from their backs, brings them
   their food, and bids them feed and rest and be happy.

   Let us take, then, the first point, "I was to them as they that take
   off the yoke." Now, the Lord has taken off from His people a great many
   yokes, or the same yoke under different aspects. He has taken many bits
   out of their mouths. First, there was the old yoke of
   ceremonialism--what a burden that must have been to Believers under the
   Law! There was this they must not eat, and that they must not drink,
   and the other they must not wear. There was this to be done on one day
   and that to be done on another. It was always touch not, taste not,
   handle not, and so on. They were environed and surrounded with all
   sorts of legislation, and hedged in by laws about their houses, their
   clothes, their beds, their drinking vessels. Legislation about birds
   and beasts and fishes--about everything, in fact.

   But now Christ has taken off that yoke from us, and "touch not, taste
   not, handle not," stands as an abrogated Law. We have given to us a
   liberty, a freedom from every yoke of bondage--and though there are
   some who are for bringing in new ceremonial laws, with holy places, and
   holy days, and holy things, and priests, and rites, and ceremonies--and
   I know not what--these are the children of the bondwoman, we regard
   them not. Under the Law of Liberty which Christ has proclaimed, we are
   free, indeed--

   "Wherever we seek Him He is found, And everyplace is hallowed ground."
   Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused. Now it is the
   heart that is holy or unholy, and not the thing. What our Lord has
   cleansed, we count no longer common or unclean. Carnal ordinances of
   outward things are put

   away as childish things. We worship God in the Spirit, and have no
   confidence in the flesh. "Stand fast therefore in the liberty