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        Title: Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 18: 1872
   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
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                 The Glorious Master and the Swooning Disciple

   A Sermon

   (No. 1028)

   Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, January 7th, 1872, by

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   'And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right
   hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I
   am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore,
   Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.'Revelation 1:17-18.

   LOW THOUGHTS OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST are exceedingly mischievous to
   believers. If you sink your estimate of him you shift everything else
   in the same proportion. He who thinks lightly of the Savior thinks so
   much the less of the evil of sin; and, consequently, he becomes callous
   as to the past, careless as to the present, and venturesome as to the
   future. He thinks little of the punishment due to sin, because he has
   small notions of the atonement made for sin. Christian activity for
   right is also abated; as well as holy horror of wrong. He who thinks
   lightly of the Lord Jesus renders to him but small service; he does not
   estimate the Redeemer's love at a rate high enough to stir his soul to
   ardor; if he does not count the blood wherewith he was redeemed an
   unholy thing, yet he thinks it a small matter, not at all sufficient to
   claim from him life-long service. Gratitude is weak when favors are
   undervalued. He serves little who loves little, and he loves little who
   has no sense of having been greatly beloved. The man who thinks lightly
   of Christ also has but poor comfort as to his own security. With a
   little Savior I am still in danger, but if he be the mighty God, able
   to save unto the uttermost, then am I safe in his protecting hand, and
   my consolations are rich and abounding. In these, and a thousand other
   ways, an unworthy estimate of our Lord will prove most solemnly
   injurious. The Lord deliver us from this evil.

   If our conceptions of the Lord Jesus are very enlarged, they will only
   be his due. We cannot exaggerate here. He deserves higher praise than
   we can ever render to him. As high as the heavens are above the earth,
   so high is be above our loftiest conceptions. Even when the angels
   strike their loudest notes, and chant his praises most exultingly on
   their highest festal days, the music falls far short of his excellence.
   He is higher than a seraph's most soaring thought! Rise then, my
   brethren, as on eagle's wings, and let your adoring souls magnify and
   extol the Lord your Savior.

   When our thoughts of Jesus are expanded and elevated, we obtain right
   ideas upon other matters. In the light of his love and atoning
   sacrifice, we see the depth of the degradation from which such a
   Redeemer has uplifted us, and we hate, with all our hearts, the sins
   which pierced such an altogether lovely one, and made it needful for
   the Lord of life to die. Forming some adequate estimate of what Jesus
   has done for us, our gratitude grows, and with our gratitude our
   love'while love compels us to consecration, and consecration suggests
   heroic self-denying actions. Then are we bold to speak for him, and
   ready, if needs be, to suffer for him while we feel we could give up
   all we have to increase his glory, without so much as dreaming that we
   had made a sacrifice.

   Let your thoughts of Christ be high, and your delight in him will be
   high too; your sense of security will be strong, and with that sense of
   security will come the sacred joy and peace which always keep the heart
   which confidently reposes in the mediator's hands. If thou wouldst
   thyself be raised, let thy thoughts of Christ be raised. If thou
   wouldst rise above these earthly toys, thou must have higher and more
   elevated thoughts of him who is high above all things. Earth sinks as
   Jesus rises. Honor the Son even as thou wouldst honor the Father, and,
   in so doing, thy soul shall be sanctified and brought into closer
   fellowship with the great Father of Spirits, whose delight it is to
   glorify his Son.

   My object, this morning, is to suggest some few truths to your
   recollection which may help to set the Lord Jesus on a glorious high
   throne within your hearts. My motto, this morning, will be'

   'Bring forth the royal diadem

   And crown him Lord of all.'

   My anxiety is that he may be crowned with many crowns in all these many
   hearts, and that you may now perform those exercises of faith, those
   delightful acts of adoring love, which shall bring to him great glory.

   I. Coming to the text, the first thing we notice in it is THE DISCIPLE
   OVERPOWERED. We will meditate a little while upon that. John writes,
   'And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead.'

   The beloved disciple was favored with an unusual vision of his
   glorified Lord. In the blaze of that revelation even his eagle eye was
   dimmed and his holy soul was overwhelmed. He was overpowered, but not
   with ecstacy. At first sight it would have seemed certain that excess
   of delight would have been John's most prominent feeling; it would
   appear certain that to see his long lost Master, whom he had so dearly
   loved, would have caused a rush of joy to John's soul, and that if
   overpowered at all, it would have been with ecstatic bliss. That it was
   not so is clear from the fact that our Lord said to him, 'Fear not.'
   Fear was far more in the ascendant than holy joy. I will not say that
   John was unhappy, but, certainly, it was not delight which prostrated
   him at the Savior's feet; and I gather from this that if we, in our
   present embodied state, were favored with an unveiled vision of Christ,
   it would not make a heaven for us; we may think it would, but we know
   not what spirit we are of. Such new wine, if put into these old
   bottles, would cause them to burst. Not heaven but deadly faintness
   would be the result of the beatific vision, if granted to these earthly
   eyes. We should not say, if we could behold the King in his beauty as
   we now are, 'I gazed upon him, and my heart leaped for joy,' but like
   John we should have to confess, 'When I saw him I fell at his feet as
   dead.' There is a time for everything, and this period of our sojourn
   in flesh and blood is not the season for seeing the Redeemer face to
   face: that vision will be ours when we are fully prepared for it. We
   are as yet too feeble to bear the far more exceeding and eternal weight
   of glory. I do not say but what we are so prepared by his grace that,
   if now he took us away from this body, are should be able to bear the
   splendor of his face; but, I do say, that flesh and blood cannot
   inherit the kingdom of God, and that when, as an exception to the rule,
   a mortal man is permitted to behold his Lord, his flesh and blood are
   made to feel the sentence of death within themselves, and to fall as if
   slain by the revelation of the Lord. We ought, therefore, to thank God
   that 'he holdeth back the face of his throne, and spreadeth his cloud
   upon it.' That face which shines as the sun in its strength, manifests
   its love by wearing as yet a concealing veil. Be grateful, that while
   you are to be here to serve him, and to do his will in suffering for
   him, he does not deprive you of your power to serve or suffer, by
   overwhelming you with excessive revelations. It is an instance of the
   glory of God's grace that he conceals his majesty from his people, and
   wraps clouds and darkness round about him; this he does not to deny his
   saints a bliss which they might covet, but to preserve them from an
   unseasonable joy, which, as yet, they are not capable of bearing. We
   shall see him as he is, when he shall be like him, but not till then.
   That for a while we may be able to perform the duties of this mortal
   life, and not lie perpetually stretched like dead men at his feet, he
   doth not manifest himself to us in the clear light which shone upon the
   seer of Patmos.

   I beg you to notice with care this beloved disciple in his fainting
   fit, and note first, the occasion of it. He says, 'I saw him.' This it
   was that made him faint with fear. 'I saw HIM.' He had seen him on
   earth, but not in his full glory as the first begotten from the dead,
   and the prince of the kings of the earth. When our Savior dwelt among
   men, in order to their redemption, he made himself of no reputation,
   and took upon himself the form of a servant; for this reason he
   restrained the flashings of his Deity, and the godhead shone through
   the manhood with occasional and softened rays. But now, Jesus was
   resplendent as the ancient of days, girt with a golden girdle, with a
   countenance outshining the sun in its strength, and this even the best
   beloved apostle could not endure. He could gaze with dauntless eye upon
   the throne of jasper and the rainbow of emerald, he could view with
   rapture the sea of glass like unto crystal, and the seven lamps of fire
   burning before the throne, but the vision of the Lord himself was too
   much for him. He who quailed not when the doors of both heaven and hell
   were opened to him in vision, yet fell lifeless when he saw the Lord.
   None either in earth or heaven can compare with Jesus in glory. Oh for
   the day when we shall gaze upon his glory and partake in it. Such is
   his sacred will concerning us. 'Father, I will that they also whom thou
   hast given me may be with me where I am, that they may behold my
   glory.' To bear that sight we shall need to be purified and
   strengthened. God himself must enlarge and strengthen our faculties,
   for as yet, like the disciples upon labor, we should be bewildered by
   the brightness.

   Here was the occasion of his faintness. But what was the reason why a
   sight of Christ so overcame Him? I take it we have the reason in the
   text, it was partly fear. But, why fear? Was not John beloved of the
   Lord Jesus? Did he not also know the Savior's love to him? Yes, but for
   all that, he was afraid, or else the Master would not have said to him,
   'Fear not.' That fear originated partly in a sense of his own weakness
   and insignificance in the presence of the divine strength and
   greatness. How shall an insect live in the furnace of the sun? How can
   mortal eye behold unquenched the light of Deity, or mortal ear hear
   that voice which is as many waters? We are such infirmity, folly and
   nothingness, that, if we have but a glimpse of omnipotence, awe and
   reverence prostrate us to the earth. Daniel tells us that when he saw
   the great vision by the river Hiddekel, there remained no strength in
   him, for his comeliness was turned in on him into corruption, and he
   fell into a deep sleep upon his face. John, also, at that time,
   perhaps, perceived more impressively than ever the purity and
   immaculate boldness of Christ: and, being conscious of his own
   imperfection, he felt like Isaiah when he cried 'Woe is me, I am
   undone; for I am a man of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the
   Lord of Hosts.' Even his faith, though fixed upon the Lord, our
   righteousness, was not able to bear him up under the first surprising
   view of uncreated holiness. Methinks his feelings severe like those of
   the patriarch of Uz, when he says, 'I have heard of thee by the hearing
   of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore I abhor myself, and
   repent in dust and ashes.' The most spiritual and sanctified minds,
   when they fully perceive the majesty and holiness of God, are so
   greatly conscious of the great disproportion between themselves and the
   Lord, that they are humbled and filled with holy awe, and even with
   dread and alarm. The reverence which is commendable is pushed by the
   infirmity of our nature into a fear which is excessive, and that which
   is good in itself is made deadly unto us; so prone are we to err on the
   one side or the other.

   There is no doubt, too, that a part of the fear which caused John to
   swoon arose from a partial ignorance or forgetfulness of his Lord.
   Shall we charge this upon one who wrote one of the gospels, and three
   choice epistles? Yes, it was doubtless so, because the Master went on
   to instruct and teach him in order to remove his fear. He needed fresh
   knowledge or old truths brought home with renewed power, in order to
   cure his dread. As soon as he knew his Lord he recovered his strength.
   The wonderful person who then stood before him bade him know that he
   was the first and the last, the ever living and Almighty Lord. The
   knowledge of Jesus is the best remedy for fears: when we are better
   acquainted with our Lord we part company with half our doubts'these
   bats and owls cannot bear the sun. Jesus in his person, work, offices,
   and relations, is a mine of consolation; every truth which is connected
   with him is an argument against fear: when our heart shall be filled
   with perfect love to him fear will be cast out, as Satan was cast down
   from heaven. Study then your Lord. Make it your life's object to know
   him. Seek the Holy Spirit's illumination, and the choice privilege of
   fellowship, and your despondency and distress will vanish as night
   birds fly to hide themselves when the day breaketh. It is folly to walk
   in sorrow when we might constantly rejoice. We do not read that John
   was any more afraid after the Lord had discoursed lovingly upon his own
   glorious person and character. That divine enlightenment which was
   given to his mind, purged from it any secret mistake and misjudgment
   which had created excessive fear.

   But, while we thus notice the occasion and the reasons, we must not
   forget the extent to which John was overpowered. He says, 'I fell at
   his feet as dead;' He does not say in a partial swoon, or overcome with
   amazement: he uses a very strong description, 'I fell at his feet as
   dead.' He was not dead, but he was 'as dead;' that is to say, he could
   see no more, the blaze of Jesus' face had blinded him; he could hear no
   more, the voice like the sound of many waters had stunned his ear; no
   bodily faculty retained its power. His soul, too, had lost
   consciousness under the pressure put upon it; he was unable to think
   much less to act. He was stripped not only of self-glory and strength,
   but almost of life itself. This is by no means a desirable natural
   condition, but it is much to be coveted spiritually. It is an infinite
   blessing to us to be utterly emptied, stripped, spoiled, and slain
   before the Lord. Our strength is our weakness, our life is our death,
   and when both are entirely gone, we begin to be strong and in very deed
   to live. To lie at Jesus' feet is a right experience; to lie there as
   sick and wounded is better, but to lie there as dead is best of all; a
   man is taught in the mysteries of the kingdom, who comes to that. Moses
   with dim legal light needs to be told to put off his shoe from off his
   foot in the presence of the Lord of Hosts, but John is manifestly far
   in advance of him, because he lies lower, and is like a dead man before
   the Infinite Majesty. How blessed a death is death in Christ! How
   divine a thing is life in him. If I might see Christ at this moment
   upon the terms of instant death, I would joyfully accept the offer, the
   bliss would far exceed the penalty. But as for the death of all within
   us, that is of the flesh and of fallen nature, it is beyond measure
   desirable, and if for nothing else; my soul would pant more and more to
   see Jesus. May that two-edged sword which cometh out of his mouth smite
   all my besetting sins; may the brightness of his countenance scorch and
   burn up in me the very roots of evil: may he mount his white horse and
   ride through my soul conquering, and to conquer, casting out of me all
   that is of the old dragon and his inventions, and bringing every
   thought into subjection to himself. There would I lie at his dear
   conquering feet, slain by his mighty grace.

   Only one other reflection while we look at this fainting apostle,
   observe well the place where he was overpowered. Oh, lovely thought. 'I
   fell as dead;' but where? 'I fell at his feet as dead.' It matters not
   what aileth us if we lie at Jesus' feet. Better be dead there than
   alive anywhere else. He is ever gentle and tender, never breaking the
   bruised reed or quenching the smoking flax. In proportion as he
   perceives that our weakness is manifest to us, in that degree will he
   display his tenderness. He carrieth the lambs in his bosom, and doth
   gently lead those that are with young; feebleness wins on him. When he
   sees a dear disciple prostrate at his feet, he is ready at once to
   touch him with the hand of his familiar love, and to revive him by his
   own strength. 'He restoreth my soul.' 'He giveth power unto the faint.'
   He saith unto our pitiful weakness, 'Fear not, I am the first and the
   last.' To be as dead were not desirable, but to be as dead at Jesus'
   feet is safe and profitable. Well doth our poet say, when expressing
   his desire to escape from all worldly bonds.

   'But oh, for this, no strength have I,

   My strength is at his feet to lie.'

   II. And now, having seen the disciple overpowered, I shall ask your
   consideration of THAT SAME DISCIPLE RESTORED. He was not long in the
   condition of death, for the Master laid his right hand upon him, and
   said to him, 'Fear not.' Here then, we shall notice, that when the
   children of God become exceeding faint and feeble, and their own sense
   of impurity and nothingness becomes painful, and even killing to them,
   the Lord has ways of restoring and reviving their spirits.

   And first, he does it by a condescending approach. 'He laid his hand
   upon me.' It is noticeable, that in the great cures which our Savior
   wrought, he almost always touched the patient. He could with a word
   have healed, but to prove his fellowship with the sick, he put his hand
   upon the leper, and upon the blind eye, and touched the deaf ear; thus
   manifesting his condescending contact with the infirmities of our
   nature. The Master could have spoken a word to John, and have revived
   him; but he did not stand at a distance, or guard himself with a 'Touch
   me not' but, instead of that, he commenced his care with a touch. No
   other hand could have revived the apostle, but the hand which was
   pierced for him had matchless power. There is mighty healing in the
   royal hand of our Immanuel. When the Holy Spirit inspires us with a
   sense of the relationship which Christ bears to us, of the sympathy
   which Christ feels with us, of the kinship and fellowfeeling which
   reign in Jesus' breast, then are we comforted. To know that he is not
   ashamed to call us brethren is a wellspring of comfort to a tried child
   of God; to feel his presence, to perceive the touch of his hand, and to
   hear him say: 'I am with thee, be not dismayed, for I am thy God,' this
   is new life to our waning spirits. Oh what bliss is this. 'In all their
   afflictions he was afflicted.' He is a brother born for adversity, a
   sympathetic and tender friend touched with a feeling of our
   infirmities. 'He laid his hand upon me.' 'O child of God, pray for a
   manifestation of the kinsman Christ to thy soul; ask that he would
   instruct thee as to the fact that he enters into thy grief, having
   himself endured the like. Thou art one with him, and he is one with
   thee; and as surely as the head feels the pain of the members, so does
   Jesus share in all the sorrows of his people. Let this be a comfort to
   thee, thou who art now lying as dead before the risen Lord. He comes
   near to thee, not to kill thee, but to revive thee by most intimate
   intercourse, talking with thee as a man speaketh with his friend. O
   man, greatly beloved, be not so overwhelmed with the greatness of thy
   Lord as to forget his love, his great love, his familiar love, which at
   this moment lays its hand upon thee.

   The same action implies the communication of divine strength. 'He laid
   his right hand upon me.' It is the hand of favor, it is also the hand
   of power. God gives strength to those who have none. He puts power into
   the faint. When the child of God is brought very low, it is not a mere
   subject for consideration or theme for reflection that can lift him up:
   sick men want more than instruction, they require cordials and
   supports. There must be actual strength and energy imparted to a
   swooning soul, and, glory be to God, by his own Holy Spirit, Jesus can
   and does communicate energy to his people in the time of weakness. He
   is come that we may have life, and that we may have it more abundantly.
   The omnipotence of God is made to rest upon us, so that we even glory
   in infirmities. 'My grace is sufficient for thee, my strength is made
   perfect in weakness,' is a blessed promise, which has been fulfilled to
   the letter to many of us. Our own strength has departed, and then the
   power of God has flowed in to fill up the vacuum. I cannot explain the
   process: these are secrets and mysteries to be experienced rather than
   expounded; but as the coming of the Spirit of God into us first of all
   makes us live in regeneration, so the renewed coming of the power of
   God into our soul raises us up from our weakness and our faintness into
   fresh energy. Be thou encouraged, then, thou fainting spirit today.
   They that trust upon the Lord shall renew their strength. All power
   belongeth unto the Lord, and be will give it plenteously to those who
   have none of their own. Be of good courage and wait upon him for none
   shall be ashamed who make him their confidence.

   Then there followed a word from the Master's own mouth. He spoke and
   said, 'Fear not.' Here he applied the remedy to the disease. Christ
   himself is our medicine, as well as our physician. His voice which
   stilled the sea, also casts out all our fears. The word of God, as we
   find it in this book, is very consoling; the word of God, as we hear it
   from Christ's ministers, has great power in it; but the real and true
   power of the word lies in Jesus THE WORD. When the truth falls fresh
   from his own lips, then is it power. Right truly did the Master say,
   'the words which I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.'
   With what power did those syllables fall on the fluttered heart of
   John''Fear not.' Oh that we might hear the same voice by the Spirit in
   our inmost souls.

   'Oh might I hear thine heavenly tongue,

   But whisper 'Thou art mine.'

   Those gentle words should raise my song

   To notes almost divine.'

   Truly there are many voices and each has its significance, but the
   voice of Jesus has a heaven of bliss in its every accent. Let but my
   beloved speak to me, and I will forego the angelic symphonies. Though
   he should only say, 'Fear not,' and not a word beyond, it were worth
   worlds to see him open his mouth unto us. But you say, can we still
   hear Jesus speak to us? Ay, by his Spirit. His Spirit still hath
   fellowship with the hearts of men, and he can bring the word of
   Scripture right home into the soul, until it becometh no more the
   letter but the living, quickening word of Christ. Do you know what I
   mean by this? If you do not, it is not possible to tell you; and if you
   do, you will need no explanation. Jesus speaks to the heart, the truth
   comes not in word only, but in demonstration of the Spirit and with
   power. O thou troubled believer, thou who art abashed by the very glory
   thou hast been made to see, be assured that Jesus will draw near unto
   thy soul, and touch thee, and speak with thee, so that thou shalt be
   strengthened with might by his Spirit in thine inner man. Had John not
   fallen as dead, he might never have heard the voice and felt the touch
   of his Lord. Sweet is the fall which leads to such a rise again.

   In order to complete the cure of his servant our Lord went on to give
   him fuller instruction in that very matter which had overpowered him.
   Sometimes like cures like. If in a certain sense it is true of divine
   revelations, that 'shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,' it is
   assuredly true that 'drinking largely sobers us again.' If a glimpse of
   Christ makes holy men to faint, a clearer sight of him will set them on
   their feet again. Our Lord went on to instruct John in the glory of his
   person and power, that his fears might be removed. And truly, brethren,
   John was in a right state for such celestial instruction; he who is
   lowly is ready to learn mysteries. He was like wax ready for the seal;
   or as paper cleansed of all other writing. Because we think we know, we
   know not; but the death of the pride of knowledge is the birth of true
   understanding. The Lord loves best for pupils those who lie lowest
   before him. 'The meek will he guide in judgment, the meek will he teach
   his way.' 'With the lowly is wisdom.' Where Jesus is the teacher, and
   instructs the heart in the things concerning, himself, the soul is made
   to inherit substance, and its treasures are filled. Blessed are the men
   who are taught by him who is the wisdom of God, even though while they
   watch at the posts of his doors they lie as dead men; they are blessed,
   for they shall find life, and obtain favor of the Lord.

   III. We will now advance to the third point of our discourse which
   contains the pith of it. We have observed the beloved disciple
   overpowered and we have seen him afterwards revived; now we shall
   consider for awhile THE SAME DISCIPLE STILL FURTHER INSTRUCTED. Let me
   have your attention, dear friends, to the glorious truth which is now
   opening up before us in the text. John was first of all instructed as
   to the Lord's person. 'Fear not, I am the first and the last; I am he
   that liveth and was dead.' As to the Lord's person, Jesus revealed to
   his disciple that he was most truly divine. 'I am the first and the
   last.' This language can be used of none but God himself; none but he
   is first; none but he is last; none but God can be first and last. Now,
   our Lord Jesus Christ was evidently first. He existed before he was
   born into the world. We read, 'a body hast thou prepared me.' Then
   Christ was a previously existing one for whom that body was prepared;
   and he it is who said, 'Lo, I come, to do thy will O God.' He came into
   the world, but he had from old eternity dwelt in the bosom of the
   Father. John the Baptist was born into the world before the Savior, of
   whom he was the forerunner, but what does he say? His testimony is 'he,
   coming after me, is preferred before me, for he was before me.' He is
   first in order of honor because first in order of existence. John was
   the elder as man, but as God the Lord Jesus is from everlasting. Go
   back in history as far as you will; with one leap ascend to the days of
   Moses, and there is Christ before you, for we read: 'Let us not tempt
   Christ as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.'
   There was Christ, then, in the wilderness vexed by the people. He it
   was whose voice then shook the earth, but who will yet shake not the
   earth only but also heaven. Go further back to Abraham, and we find the
   angel of the covenant there. Our Lord expressly says, 'Before Abraham
   was I am.' Mark you, not 'I was,' but 'I am;''he speaks in a God-like
   manner. Ascend even to the age of Noah, the second parent of our race,
   and there we discover Jesus Christ preaching to those spirits who are
   now in prison, who sometime were disobedient, when the long-suffering
   of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing.' It was
   Christ in Noah, who by the Spirit preached to the antediluvian sinners.
   We go further back to the creation of the world, and are find 'In the
   beginning was the word, and the word was God;' and if we fly back to
   old eternity, before the creating hand commenced its work, we find in
   Proverbs, the eighth chapter, the witness of the incarnate wisdom
   himself. 'I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever
   the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when
   there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were
   settled. Before the hills was I brought forth: While as yet he had not
   made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the
   world.' Our Lord is thus the first: and so assuredly will he be the
   last; for all things consist and subsist through the perpetual
   emanations of his infinite power; and when the kings of the earth shall
   sleep in the dust, and the popovers thereof shall have passed away,
   when the treasures of time shall have melted, and its most enduring
   memorials shall have gone like the mists of the morning, he shall be
   the same, and of his years there shall be no end. Christ is the true
   Melchisedec, without beginning of days or end of years, 'made a priest
   not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an
   endless life.' This was revealed to John for his comfort, and it stands
   true to us today, and is equally fraught with consolation.

   Moreover, by the words 'the first and the last' are signified, in most
   languages, the sum and substance of all things. We say sometimes the
   top and the bottom of it is so and so; we mean that it is the whole of
   it. And the Greeks were wont to say, 'This is the prow and stern of the
   business,' meaning that it is the whole. And so Jesus Christ, in being
   first and last, is all in all. And, truly, it is so in the working of
   redemption and salvation; he begins, carries on, completes; he asks no
   creature help and will have none. To us he is the author and the
   finisher of our faith, the alpha of our first comfort, and the omega of
   our final bliss. We worship Christ as the sum and substance of all
   good. Herein is wealth of comfort, and, therefore, did the Lord
   instruct his servant, John, therein, he did as much as say, 'John, thou
   needest no ear, for I am no enemy, no stranger, no avenging spirit, but
   God himself, in whom thou has learned to put thy trust. Thou believest
   in God, believe also in me.' To every trembling believer we would say,
   Why dost thou fear? Jesus is all. Art thou afraid of him, thy brother,
   thy Savior, thy friend. Then, what dost thou fear? Anything old? He is
   the first. Anything to come? He is the last. Anything in all the world?
   He is all in all, from the first to the last. What dost thou want? If
   thou hast him thou hast all. Dost thou need more than all? Hast thou
   discovered a need within thy spirit, a grievous lack which troubles
   thee? How can that be when thy Lord Jesus fills all things, and all
   things are yours in him. If thou hast, indeed, placed thy confidence in
   him, and made him all thy salvation, to what end and for what cause
   shouldst thou be troubled with any sort of fear? Having a divine person
   to be thy protector and thy Savior, Why shouldst thou be afraid?

   In addition, however, to rendering to John the comfort derived from his
   person, our blessed Master went on to comfort him with the truth of his
   self existence. 'I am he that liveth,' saith he, 'or I am the living
   one.' Creatures are not living in themselves, they borrow leave to be;
   to God alone it belongs to exist necessarily. He is the I AM, and such
   is Christ. Why then dost thou fear? If the existence of thy Lord, thy
   Savior, were precarious and dependent upon some extraneous
   circumstances, thou wouldst have cause for fear, for thou wouldst be in
   constant jeopardy. If he had to borrow permission to be, derived
   strength from creatures, and needed to look hither and thither for
   strength to sustain his own existence, thou wouldst be ever in danger,
   and consequently in distress; but, since Jesus cannot possibly cease to
   be, or be other than he is, or less than he is, what occasion canst
   thou have for alarm? A self-existent Savior, and yet a troubled
   Christian! Oh, let it not be so. 'Fear not, I am he that liveth.'

   And, if these two sources of consolation should not suffice, the Lord
   in the glory of his tenderness mentions a third'viz, his atoning death.
   He says, 'I was dead,' the original more correctly rendered is 'was
   made dead.' Here we come upon the human nature of our Redeemer. As God
   and as man he had two natures, but he was not two persons. As one
   person he ever lives, and yet he was made to die. He came into this
   world in human form that he might be capable of death; the pure spirit
   of God could not die, it was not possible that he, the I AM, could be
   subject to death; but he allied himself with humanity, and in that
   human form Jesus could die, and did die. In very deed, and truth, and
   not in semblance; Jesus bowed his head, and gave up the ghost, and they
   laid his corpse in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. Here to the child
   of God is a fruitful source of consolation. He died, then the atonement
   is complete; without the shedding of blood there is no remission, but
   the death of the Son of God brings plenteous pardon. There must be in
   the death of such a one of sufficient merit to remove guilt and cleanse
   transgression. Is it not written, 'He hath washed us from our sins in
   his own blood?' Dost thou not hear that song in heaven? Will not its
   music make thee glad? His own blood hath washed thee; if thou believest
   in him thou art clean. Look to Calvary, and as thou lookest there and
   perceivest that he was dead, 'fear not.'

   And then the master declared his endless life, 'I am alive for
   evermore.' He who offered up the atonement lives again to claim the
   effect of his sacrifice. He has presented the meritorious sacrifice,
   and now he has gone to heaven to plead the sacrifice before the throne
   of God, and to lay claim to the place which he has prepared for them
   that love him. Thou hast no dead Savior to trust to: thou reliest in
   him who once died'this is comfort to thee, but he lives, the great
   Redeemer lives. He has risen from the tomb; he has climbed the hills of
   heaven; he sits at the right hand of the Father, prepared to defend his
   people. If thou hadst a Christ in the sepulcher that were sorrow upon
   sorrow; but thou hast a Christ in heaven, who can die no more. Be thou
   of good cheer.

   And then, to close the whole, the Master said 'Amen, and hath the keys
   of hell and of death.' The mediatorial office which Christ now occupies
   is one of great power. He is 'God over all, blessed for ever.' His
   dominion is over land and seas and over heaven and the regions of the
   dead. There is nothing hid from the energy of his power. He is Lord of
   all. 'He hath the keys of hell and of death.' By the word 'hell' may be
   meant here the entire invisible land, the whole realm of spirits:
   Christ is Lord there, adored in heaven and feared in hell. But, if we
   restrict the sense to the common meaning of the word in our language,
   he is Lord of hell. The devil despite his malignity can do nothing but
   what Christ permits him. He is a chained enemy; he may rave and rage,
   but he cannot injure the child of God. Christ hath him ever in check,
   and when he permits him to wander abroad, he makes the wrath of man and
   the wrath of devils to praise him, and the remainder he doth restrain.
   Why dost thou fear therefore? Thou sayest, 'I am a sinner'Satan will
   prevail against me.' But Christ saith 'I am master of Satan, I am Lord
   of hell, he cannot prevail against thee.' He cannot leave hell unless
   Christ permits him, for Christ can turn the key and lock him in. He
   could not take thee there, for Christ has locked thee out and keeps the
   key. Thou art eternally and perpetually safe from all the machinations
   of the powers of darkness. And dost thou tremble at death? Is it that
   which alarms thee? Have the pains and groans and dying strifes sounded
   in thine ear till thou art timid and afraid? Then remember Christ hath
   the keys of death. Thou canst not die until he permits. If men of blood
   should seek thy life, they could not smite thee till thy Lord should
   allow it; and if plagues and death should fly about thee, and thousands
   die at thy right hand, and ten thousands at thy left, thou canst not
   die till the Lord wills it. Thou art immortal till he saith 'return.'
   The iron gate of death opens not of its own accord to thee, a thousand
   angels could not drag thee to the tomb; thou comest there only at his
   call. Fear not, therefore, but remember that death is no longer death
   to the saints of God, they fall asleep in Jesus. Since thy Lord will be
   with thee, it will not be death to die; thou shalt find death to thee
   an enemy muzzled and chained: the wasp shall have lost its sting, it
   shall be a bee that shall bring thee honey; out of the lion, as Samson
   did, shalt thou get sweetness to thyself. Death is overborne, and when
   it arrives, Jesus will come with it, and make thy dying bed most soft
   to thee.

   Remember one thought more. He that hath the key of death will
   annihilate death; for thy body shall not become the prey of the worm
   for ever. At the trump of the archangel thy body shall rise again.
   There shall not a bone or a piece of a bone of one of his people
   perish, their very dust is precious in his sight. They sleep awhile,
   and rest from their labors; but, from beds of dust and silent clay, the
   Lord of life shall call them all. O death, where is thy sting! O grave,
   wherein thy victory! Since Jesus who died and ever lives has the keys
   of death and hell at his girdle, we will not fear to die, let the time
   appointed be when it may. So that you see there was abundance of
   comfort for the sinking spirit of the apostle John.

   Let me close by saying, in the glory and exaltation of Christ is the
   saint's cordial. Some of us have tried it when our mouths were full of
   bitterness, and we have rejoiced and been exceeding glad at the
   thought. A reigning Savior makes a joyful people. Run there for
   comfort, ye sons of sorrow: rejoice ye in your king all ye his saints.

   But this same glorious Savior will be the sinner's terror. They shall
   hide their faces at the last from the brightness of his glory; they
   shall ask the hills and mountains to conceal them from his face who
   sits upon the throne. A glorious monarch is the rebel's horror. By so
   much as he whom you have rejected is great and glorious, by so much
   shall the punishment from his right hand be intolerable. Oh that you
   were wise enough to cease from fighting with the Almighty Lord.

   But, lastly, he is also the penitent's hope; for now, to-day, if you
   would be forgiven, the exalted Savior presents himself to you most
   freely. He is exalted on high, but what for? It is to give 'repentance
   and remission of sins.' The greater he is the better for those who need
   great mercy; the more royal and kingly he is the better for humble,
   broken, bleeding hearts. 'Oh, kiss the son, lest he be angry and ye
   perish from the way while his wrath is kindled but a little.' From the
   highest heaven he stretches down the silver scepter; touch it by a
   simple faith. May he enable you to do it, and though as yet you fall at
   his feet as dead, you shall hear him say this morning, 'Fear not, I am
   he that liveth, and was dead, and am alive for evermore, and am,
   therefore, able to save unto the uttermost them that come unto God by
   me, seeing I ever live to make intercession for thee.' God bless you,
   dear friends, by his Spirit. Amen.

   PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON'Proverbs 8:17-36; Revelation 1.
     __________________________________________________________________

                             A Call to Holy Living

   A Sermon

   (No. 1029)

   Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, January 14th, 1872, by

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   'What do ye more than others?''Matthew 5:47.

   IT IS A VERY GREAT FAULT in any ministry if the doctrine of
   justification by faith alone be not most clearly taught. I will go
   further, and add, that it is not only a great fault, but a fatal one;
   for souls will never find their way to heaven by a ministry that is
   indistinct upon the most fundamental of gospel truths. We are justified
   by faith, and not by the works of the law. The merit by which a soul
   enters heaven is not its own; it is the merit of our Lord and Savior
   Jesus Christ. I am quite sure that you will all hold me guiltless of
   ever having spoken about this great doctrine in any other than
   unmistakable language; if I have erred, it is not in that direction. At
   the same time, it is a dangerous state of things if doctrine is made to
   drive out precept, and faith is held up as making holiness a
   superfluity. Sanctification must not be forgotten or overlaid by
   justification. We must teach plainly that the faith which saves the
   soul is not a dead faith, but a faith which operates with purifying
   effect upon our entire nature, and produces in us fruits of
   righteousness to the praise and glory of God. It is not by personal
   holiness that a man shall enter heaven, but yet without holiness shall
   no man see the Lord. It is not by good works that we are justified, but
   if a man shall continue to live an ungodly life, his faith will not
   justify him; for it is not the faith of God's elect; since that faith
   is wrought by the Holy Spirit, and conforms men to the image of Christ.
   We must learn to place the precepts in their right position. They are
   not the base of the column, but they are the capital of it. Precepts
   are not given to us as a way to obtain life, but as the way in which to
   exhibit life. The commands of Christ are not upon the legal tenor of
   'this do and live,' but upon the gospel system of 'live and do this.'
   We are not to be attentive to the precepts in order to be saved, but
   because we are saved. Our master motive is to be gratitude to him who
   has saved us with a great salvation. I am sure that every renewed heart
   here will feel no opposition to the most holy precepts of our Lord.
   However severely pure that law may seem to be which we have read just
   now from this fifth chapter of Matthew, our hearts agree with it, and
   we ask that we may be so renewed that our lives may be conformed to it.
   The regenerate never rebel against any precept, saying, 'This, is too
   pure;' on the contrary, our new-born nature is enamoured of its
   holiness, and we cry, 'Thy word is very pure, therefore thy servant
   loveth it. O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes.' Even
   though we find that when we would do good evil is present with us, yet
   our inmost soul longs after holiness, and pines to be delivered from
   every evil way. At any rate, Dear friends, if it be not so with you,
   you may well question whether you are indeed the children of God. My
   desire, this morning, is to insist upon the precepts which tend to
   holiness, and I pray the Holy Spirit to excite desires after a high
   degree of purity in all believing, hearts.

   Too many persons judge themselves by others; and if upon the whole they
   discover that they are no worse than the mass of mankind, they give
   themselves a mark of special commendation; they strike a sort of
   average amongst their neighbors, and if they cannot pretend to be the
   very best, yet, if they are not the very worst, they are pretty
   comfortable. There are certain scribes and Pharisees among their
   acquaintance, who fast thrice in the week, and pay tithes of all they
   possess, and they look upon those as very superior persons whom they
   would not attempt to compete with them; but they thank God that they
   are far above those horrible publicans, and those dreadful sinners, who
   are put outside the pale of society, and, therefore, they feel quite
   easy in their minds, and they go to their place of worship as if they
   were saints, and bear the name of Christian as if it belonged to them;
   they share in Christian privileges, and sit with God's people, as if
   they were truly of the family, their marks and evidences being just
   these, that they do about as much upon the whole as other people, and
   if they are not first they are not altogether last. The nests of such
   people ought to be grievously disturbed when they read the chapter
   before us, for there the Master insists upon a higher standard than the
   world's highest, and tells us that except our righteousness exceeds
   that of the scribes and Pharisees, we cannot enter into the kingdom of
   heaven. In our text, the great Master asks of those who are professors
   of his faith, that they should not only do as much as others to prove
   their title, but that they should do more than others; and he makes
   this a test question concerning their being really his followers: 'What
   do ye more than others?'

   I shall try, this morning, first, to show that there are grounds for
   expecting more from Christians than from others; secondly, I shall try
   to indicate the matters in which we naturally expect more from them
   than from others; and, thirdly, I shall give some reasons why it should
   be the aim of every saved soul to do more than others.

   I. We will consider THE GROUNDS FOR EXPECTING MORE FROM CHRISTIANS THAN
   FROM OTHERS. There are legitimate reasons why the world, the church,
   and our Lord Jesus Christ himself, may expect more from Christians than
   from the rest of mankind. And, the first is, because they profess more.
   Professions should always be supported by facts, or else they are
   deceits, impostures, and hypocrisies. A Christian professes himself to
   be a renewed man; he has learned the evil of sin, repented of it, and
   fled from it to Christ Jesus; he professes to have been pardoned, and
   to have received a new heart and a right spirit; he professes, also, to
   be a child of God, and an heir of heaven. Other men do not profess
   this. Some, who make no profession, wish that they could hope that
   these things belonged to them; others of them, altogether, despise
   these things; but, in neither case, do they profess to be what the
   Christian is. Now, Christian, if you profess this, your life must prove
   it, or else, if your life gives the lie to your religious pretensions,
   you stand convicted of a flagrant falsehood, a fraud on men and a
   felony against God. It is a high crime and misdemeanor for a man to
   assume the name of a son of God, when he is utterly devoid of the
   divine nature, and lives in unholiness. In proportion as the privilege
   and the honor of a child of God is great, the sin of false pretensions
   to grace is increased. If you say you are regenerated, renewed, and
   sanctified, then be all that this means, or else cease your boasting.
   Vainly do they boast of scholarship who cannot read a letter, and idle
   is that vaunting of valor which leaves a man afraid of his shadow. You
   remember the ancient story of the traveler who, upon his return to his
   native city, boasted of the extraordinary feats which he had performed,
   and how, in particular, he had astonished all by his amazing leaps. I
   forget how many paces he had cleared, but something very wonderful
   indeed. Those who stood round opened their mouths in amazement, as they
   heard the marvel, but one sage was less believing, and, therefore,
   marked out the exact length on the ground, and said, 'If you leaped as
   far as that abroad, perhaps you will do the same here, and then we will
   believe you.' The world, in these times, will be sure to ask for
   proofs; the age for mere assertion is over. Men will say to you, you
   claim to have experienced this, and to be that; now, just act
   accordingly and we will believe you; and, if you do not give them a
   fair and honest reply, they will not mutter it in secret places, but
   they will make it plain to your face that they believe you to be a mere
   pretender; and, what is worse, they will blame the Christian religion
   of which you are so unworthy a professor. Alas! we may well blush for
   many of you professors. How might you blush for yourselves if you were
   capable of it; but it is to be feared that many are past shame and have
   brazen foreheads. How has Christ been dishonored, crucified afresh, and
   put to all open shame by ungodly men who have dared to take his name
   upon themselves. When one of the great painters was engaged upon the
   portraits of Peter and Paul, a cardinal who stood by observed that he
   thought the painter put too much red into their faces. 'No,' said the
   artist, 'it is to show how much the apostles blush for the conduct of
   those who call themselves their successors.' Ye professors are the
   successors of the early saints, but do you not dishonor their names? In
   how many cases may your pastors blush for you, and weep over you,
   because you cause the holy name to be blasphemed. Now have all much
   cause for heart-searching here, but the misery is that the very men who
   have most cause to be anxious will refuse to search themselves. Instead
   of doing more than others, it is to be feared that many are not doing
   as much as others. Even worldly men are more honest than some
   professors, and I might add more generous and more sober. There are
   thousands who do not profess to be converted, who, nevertheless, are
   scrupulous in their dealings and exact in their mercantile
   transactions, while some base-born professors have fleeced the public,
   have issued lying prospectuses of bubble companies, and have ended in
   gigantic bankruptcies: if we have much of this, religion will be a
   scoff and a byword throughout the land. God save us from making a
   profession if we have not grace to live up to it.

   But, secondly, we may well expect more from Christians than others,
   because it is a fact in the case of those who are truly Christians that
   they are more than others. It is not mere talk, it is a fact that the
   believer in Christ is born again. He is not only as other men are, made
   by God, but he has been twice made, new born, new created in Christ
   Jesus. It is no fiction but a matter of truthful experience; we have
   passed from death unto life. We have received the Spirit of God into
   our souls, which has implanted in us a new nature higher than the
   nature of other men, as much higher than the common soul of man as the
   soul of man is above the nature of the beast; for the children of God
   are partakers of the divine nature, God dwelleth in them, and the
   Spirit of God inhabits them as a king inhabits his palace. They are
   more than other men. They are so not only because of their
   regeneration, but because of that eternal act of God which set them
   apart in the covenant of grace or ever the earth was. God has a chosen
   people. 'I have chosen you out of the world,' saith Christ. There are
   some upon whom everlasting love fixed its eye of grace or ever the
   mountains pierced the clouds or the rivers sought the sea. These are
   more than others, and are infinitely more indebted to God's love than
   others. He hath loved them with an everlasting love, and because of
   this he has drawn them to himself. These men, because chosen of God,
   have been redeemed as other men were not. There is a sense in which the
   atonement of Christ reaches to all mankind; but, undoubtedly, Scripture
   teaches us that there is a people whom Christ has 'redeemed from among
   men.' 'He laid down his life for his sheep:' 'he loved his church, and
   gave himself for it.' There is a particular redemption, and in this
   every truly regenerated child of God is most certainly a partaker. Upon
   him is the blood mark, and he is Christ's. Of all such, it may be said,
   'Ye are not your own, ye are bought with a price.' They have God's
   nature in them, they have God's election upon them, they have God's
   redemption emancipating them, so that they are more than others. They
   are precious sons of God while others are heirs of wrath; they are in
   the light while the whole world lieth in darkness; they are sheep of
   his pasture while the rest of the world roam upon the wild mountains of
   vanity. Now, if they are more than others they ought to produce more
   than others in their lives. I will not insist upon the reasoning here,
   because I rather appeal to every believer's heart than to his head.
   According as ye have received so will love suggest to you to render.
   Can any holiness be too precise in return for the infinite love which
   has been bestowed upon you from before the foundation of the world? Can
   any service be too hard to repay the suffering which your Savior bore
   for your redemption? Can any self-denial he too severe to prove that
   the Holy in you has subdued your flesh and overcome your corruptions? I
   say the argument appeals to your love: I will not utter it in legal
   tones lest you should think you hear the whip of the law behind me, but
   even the Master himself I think would put it to you thus, 'Inasmuch as
   I have loved you thus, and have redeemed you with such a price, and
   have begotten you unto my self by the power of my Spirit, what manner
   of people ought ye to be in all holy conversation?' What must be
   expected from those so signally distinguished by the sovereign grace of
   God?

   Again, it is certain that true Christians can do more than others.
   'Can,' saith one, 'why, they can do nothing.' True, but through Christ
   that strengtheneth them they can do all things; and Christ does
   strengthen his people. I admit their weakness, I admit, nay, I mourn
   and experimentally lament, in my own person, their feebleness; but, for
   all that, they are strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.
   Jesus Christ lends to them his conquering energy, and, as his blood has
   overcome the enemy, they overcome through the blood of the Lamb. God
   has given them his Son, and in the power of Jesus they can and must
   vanquish sin.

   Moreover, what is the indwelling Spirit within us? Is he not
   Omnipotence itself? The Holy Ghost who has come upon us is no influence
   which might be limited in its efficacy; but he is a divine person, who
   dwelleth with us and shall be in us. Who shall set any limit to the
   power of that man in whom the Holy Ghost himself dwells? All believers,
   are must never dare to say, 'That habit we cannot give up.' We can and
   must overturn all the idols in our hearts. We may never say, 'That
   height of devotion I can never reach.' Brethren, Omnipotence doth gird
   us; God giveth us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. We are
   never to sit down and say, 'I must be a sinner up to such-and-such a
   point; I cannot get beyond that attainment.' What saith the Scripture?
   'Be ye perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect;'
   after this perfection we are to strain, and towards this mark of our
   high calling we are to press. God who dwells in us is working in us
   daily to will and to do according to his own good pleasure, so that we
   can do what the dead sinner cannot do; we can do what sinners, without
   the Spirit, cannot do; and, if we can, we must. Surely, it is required
   of a man according to what he hath, and where much is given much will
   be required. Let us take care that we quench not the Spirit, that by
   our unbelief we restrain not his divine energies; but let us strive,
   God striving in us, after the highest conceivable standard of holiness
   and of separation from the world. O Spirit of God, do thou help us that
   we may be sanctified by thy grace, spirit, soul, and body.

   Yet further, more is to be expected of Christians than others, because
   they have more. 'But they are poor,' saith one. True, but the poorest
   Christian possesses more than the richest unbeliever. You shall set
   before me now the pauper who is a believer, and the emperor who has no
   faith in Christ, and I am persuaded that the poor, aged pauper would
   not exchange her lot though the imperial purple should be offered her.
   She would refuse to leave her Savior though the world were offered her.
   Methinks she would quote Dr. Watts, and say'

   'Go you that boast in all your stores,

   And tell how bright they shine;

   Your heaps of glittering dust are yours,

   But my Redeemer's mine.'

   While the poor believer feels that his God is his portion he dispises
   rather than covets the glories of the world.

   Brethren in Christ, you know right well that you possess the covenant
   of grace, a covenant rich beyond comparison. When Moses looked from the
   top of Nebo and saw the land from Lebanon even to the river of Egypt,
   no such prospect gladdened his gaze as that which rises before the eye
   of your faith when you survey the covenant ordered in all things and
   sure. More than that, you have Christ in the covenant, and Christ is
   all. All the glories of his immaculate manhood and his infinite
   Godhead, and all his merits, and all his conquests, and all his
   glories, all are yours, seeing you are his. And what is most of all,
   God is yours. 'I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a
   people.' And having God to be your God, Providence is yours'all things
   work together for your good. Life's goods are yours and so are its
   ills, this world is yours and worlds beyond the river; time and
   eternity, things present and things to come, life and death, all are
   yours. And yet no good thing was yours by natural inheritance. To good
   was yours by purchase from your own earnings or procurement of your own
   labor; they are all the gifts of the sovereign grace of God. Brethren,
   we all debtors: who shall tell how much we owe? If I said to any of
   you, 'Take thy pen and sit down quickly, and write how much thou owest
   to thy Lord,' if you had to sit there till you completed the wondrous
   tale, you certainly would never leave those seats. Depths of mercy,
   that I, a sinner, should ever have a hope of heaven, but oh, heights of
   mercy! that I should be adopted into the family of God, and made a
   joint heir with Christ Jesus of all the heritage of the Firstborn of
   God; to have all that God is, and all that God has, to be the portion
   of my cup, this is grace indeed! My cup runneth over! Bless the Lord, O
   my soul!

   And now, after all this, ought you not to do more than others? Shall
   the servant who has but his daily pay love the master better than the
   child who has the father's heart? Shall the stranger who comes into the
   house occasionally love the master of the house better than his spouse
   who is beloved of his soul? Oh, by the favors you have received,
   countless and immense; by the precious fountain-head of mercy, from
   which all those favors come; by the many years in which goodness and
   mercy have followed you all your days; if you be not indeed insensible,
   and your hearts changed to adamant, I beseech you, brethren, do more
   than others; serve your Lord with an intensity which others cannot
   reach, and live for him with an ardor of which they cannot conceive. I
   think there is a good argument here. It will be powerful reasoning, if
   you feel it to be so. Do you feel it, brother? And feeling it, will you
   try to live it out?

   Believers ought to do more than others, in the next place, because they
   are looking for more than others. The ungodly man's look-out is dark
   and dreary: when he dares open the window and look, what seeth he? Come
   hither, come hither, ungodly man, I must take thee to the battlements
   of thine house and bid thee look abroad. What seest thou? Ah, he closes
   his eye and refuses to look, for he sees a river, the name of which is
   Death, and he seeth that the waves are black and foaming with the wrath
   of God. Look, sir, look, I pray you, for to close your eyes upon it
   will not dry it up. And see you what is beyond that river? Ah, he dares
   not think for after death to him cometh hell and the wrath of God. O
   man, look, I beseech thee, look, for it will be thy portion except thou
   relent and fly to Christ for mercy. But no, he covers his eyes, and
   gets him back to his gaieties, for he cannot bear to look at what will
   surely be his portion. But come, thou Christian, thou who hast washed
   thy robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; what seest
   thou? Suppose it should be thy lot to die before the Master comes in
   the Second Advent, what seest thou? 'I see,' saith he, 'but a couch
   whereon I recline and close mine eyes on earth to open them in heaven;
   I see angels waiting round that bed, and the Master, the Lord of life,
   ready to receive my spirit.' 'What next do you see?' 'Nay, I cannot
   tell you, for my eyes are dazzled with the glory, and my tongue is not
   able to describe what God revealeth to his children by his Spirit; but
   there is the never-ending glory, for ever with the Lord, the rest that
   knows no fear, the Sabbath without end.' Oh, the glory, the glory that
   lasteth on for aye in the presence of the Master whom we have served,
   and the Father who hath loved us of old! This is your prospect now; and
   brethren, as your prospect is so bright, I beseech you do ye more than
   others.

   II. This is a very large field, but we must leave it because our time
   fails us, and we must call your attention to those MATTERS IN WHICH WE
   MAY NATURALLY LOOK FOR THE CHRISTIAN TO DO MORE THAN OTHERS.

   I thought I would not utter my own ideas this morning, but to fortify
   myself, would go back to the Master's own language; so I must refer you
   again to this fifth chapter of Matthew, and you will see in looking
   from the thirteenth to the sixteenth verses, that our Lord expects his
   people to set a store godly example than others do. Observe, they are
   to be the salt of the earth, they are to be the light of the world,
   they are to be as a city set on a hill, and therefore seen of all. If
   you were not a professor, my friend, you would certainly have some
   influence, and be under responsibilities for it; but as a Christian,
   your place in this world is peculiarly that of influence. You are not
   like a stone, affected by the atmosphere, or overgrown by moss, a
   merely passive thing; no, you are active, and are to affect others, as
   the salt which operates and seasons. You are not a candle unlit, which
   can exist without affecting others; you are a lighted candle, and you
   cannot be so lit without scattering light around. You are made on
   purpose to exert influence, and your Master warns you that if your
   influence be not salutary and good you are a hopelessly useless person
   for when the salt has lost its savor it is good for nothing but to be
   trampled under foot. You are expected, therefore, to influence others
   for good. You are an employer; let your influence be felt by your
   servants. You are a child at home; let influence be felt around the
   social hearth. You are, perhaps, a domestic servant; then take care
   that, like the little maid who waited on Naaman's wife, you seek the
   good of the household. Your influence must act quietly and
   unostentatiously, like the influence of salt, which is not noisy but
   yet potent. You cannot get through this world rightly by saying, 'If I
   do no good, at least, I do no hurt;' that might the plea of a stone or
   a brick, but it cannot be an apology for savourless salt; for if when
   the salt is rubbed into the meat it does not season and preserve it, it
   is bad salt, and has not performed its work, but has caused loss to the
   owner, and left the meat to become putrid. And if you in this world,
   according to your capacity and means, do not affect other people for
   good, you have convicted yourself of being useless, worthless, a
   cumberer of the ground. The Master expects, as he has put the pungent
   influence of his grace into you, that you should be as salt; as he has
   put the burning light of his grace upon you, that you should be as a
   lamp, and scatter light all round. Take good heed of that. It is no
   saying of mine, it is the saying of him whom ye call Master and Lord.
   Think you hear him speaking it from those dear lips, which are like
   lilies dropping sweet smelling myrrh, and instead of seeing my hands
   lifted up in warning, think you see the print of the nails in his hand,
   and let the words come home with force to your soul.

   Next, if I read from the seventeenth to the twentieth verse, I am
   taught that our Lord expects from his people a more exact performance
   of the divine will than even the Pharisees pretend to give. Observe, he
   speaks here about jots and tittles never passing away, and about those
   who break the least of his commandments, and teach men so; and I gather
   that he would have us observe the very least of his words and treasure
   up his commandments. Do you think, dear brethren, there would be so
   many sects among Christians if all believers honestly wanted to know
   the truth and to know Christ's will? I do not think there would be. I
   cannot think our Lord has written a book so doubtful and ambiguous in
   its expressions that men need differ in interpreting it upon plain
   points. I am afraid we bring prejudice to it, the prejudice of our
   constitutional temperament, or of our parents, or of the church with
   which we are associated, and we pay reverence to somebody else's book,
   perhaps a catechism, perhaps the Book of Common Prayer, over and beyond
   the Bible itself. Now, this is all wrong, and we must purge ourselves
   of it and come to the word of God itself: and, when we come to this
   book, it must be candidly and humbly, with this feeling, 'I desire now
   to unlearn the most precious doctrine or practice I have ever learned
   if the Lord will show me that it is inconsistent with his will; and I
   desire to learn that truth which will bring me most into derision, or
   that ordinance which will submit me to the greatest inconvenience, if
   it is his will, for I am his servant, and I desire nothing to support
   my own opinion, or to be my own rule.' I think we shall all get pretty
   near together, if, in the Spirit of God, we begin reading our Bibles in
   this way. Surely the Lord expects this of us. I do not think he expects
   this of some professors, for certainly he will never get it; they are
   quite satisfied to say, 'I attend my parish church, and that is the
   faith of our church;' or, 'My grandmother joined the Dissenters, and,
   therefore, I keep to them; besides, after all you know there are no
   sects in heaven.' That last assertion is one of the most shallow
   pretences ever designed on earth, to excuse men from being scrupulously
   obedient to every word of their Lord and Master. I do not doubt, O
   disciple, but what you will reach heaven, even though you mistake some
   of the Master's teaching, but I do doubt your ever reaching there if
   you wilfully despise his words, or decline to learn what he came to
   teach. Our Lord has said unto us, 'Go ye therefore, and disciple all
   nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
   of the Holy Ghost,' and therefore, if you will not become disciples,
   and learn of Christ, we have not even begun with you, neither can you
   be baptised, or bear the name of the Triune God. Jesus will have you
   obey his will, as well as trust his grace. Mind that, beloved. This
   demand for exact obedience is no word of mine, but of the Master.

   Look again, from the twenty-first to the twenty-sixth verse, and though
   I do not pretend to expound every word, I remark that Christ would have
   his people excel all others in gentleness. Others will retaliate on
   those who vex them, and call them hard names, and will even go the
   length of saying 'fool;' and, perhaps, go still further, and even come
   to cursing and imprecating terrible judgments. A quarrelsome man when
   he is in a quarrel with another rather takes pleasure in it; he does
   not mind how many hate him, or how many he hates; his religion is quite
   consistent with the worst temper; he can say his prayers, or he can
   offer his gifts to his God, and yet be as malicious as he likes; but
   with the Christian it is not so, and must not be so. We are to bear a
   great deal of wrong before we make any reply whatever, and when we do
   give an answer, we must, if we would be like our Master, give a gentle
   one. Heaping coals of fire upon the head of our enemy by returning
   abundant kindness is the right revenge for a Christian, and all other
   revenge is denied to him. He is not to stand upon his rights; he is
   rather to say, 'I know it is my right, but I will yield it sooner than
   I will contend; I know this man does me an injustice, but I will bear
   it sooner than my temper shall be ruffled, or my spirit shall be
   defiled, by a thought of evil.' 'Oh,' saith one, 'this is a hard
   measure.' Do you think it so? Are you a Christian then? for while in my
   soul I feel it is difficult, my heart feels I desire to do it, and I
   love it, and aspire after it; and I think every real Christian, though
   by reason of infirmity he often breaks this blessed rule, yet sees the
   beauty of it, and does not think it hard. Nay, rather the hard point to
   him is that he should fall so short of the gentle, loving nature of his
   dear Lord and Master.

   But, I must pass on, for the next point in which the Christian is to
   excel is in purity. Read from the twenty-seventh to the thirty-second
   verse'I do not go into particulars, but purity is earnestly commanded.
   The ungodly man says, 'Well, I do not commit any act of fornication;
   you do not hear me sing a lascivious song,' and saying that he feels
   content: but the Christian's Master expects us to carry the point a
   great deal farther. An unchaste look is a crime to us, and an evil
   thought is a sin. Oh, it shocks me beyond measure when I hear of
   professedly Christian people who fall into the commission of immodest
   actions,'not such as are called criminal in common society, but loose,
   fleshly, and full of lasciviousness. I beseech you all of you in your
   conversation with one other, avoid anything which has the appearance of
   impurity in this respect. Looks and gestures step by step lead on to
   fouler things, and sport which begins in folly ends in lewdness. Be ye
   chaste as the driven snow, let not an immodest glance defile you. We do
   not like to say much about these things, they are so delicate, and we
   tremble lest we should suggest what we would prevent; but, oh, by the
   tears of Jesus, by the wounds of Jesus, by the death of Jesus, hate
   even the garment spotted by the flesh; and avoid everything that
   savours of unchastity. Flee youthful lusts as Joseph did. Run any risk
   sooner than fall into uncleanness, for it is a deep ditch, and the
   abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein. Strong temptation lie in wait
   for the young in a great city like this, but let the young man learn of
   God to cleanse his way, by taking heed there to according to his word.
   May you all be kept from falling, and be presented faultless before the
   presence of God with exceeding great joy. You are not to be commonly
   chaste, you are to be much more than that: the very look and thought of
   impurity are to be hateful to you. Help us, O Spirit of God.

   Next to that, the Christian is to be more than others in truthfulness.
   Read on from the thirty-third to the thirty-seventh verse, and the gist
   of all is, that whereas another man utters the truth because he swears,
   you are to speak the truth because you can do no otherwise. Your
   ordinary word is to be as true as the extraordinary oath of the man who
   stands in the witness box in the court of justice. You are to avoid
   those evasions, alcove modes of concealing truth which are common
   enough in trade, those exaggerations, those lies which are a common
   nuisance. Why, our advertisements swarm with lies; our shop windows are
   daubed with them'such as 'tremendous sacrifices,' when the only
   sacrificed person is the customer. All the world sees through puffery,
   and yet even professors go on puffing and exaggerating. Shun it,
   Christian. If you tell a man you sell him an article under cost price,
   let it be under cost price, or do not say so. There are other modes of
   commending your wares which will be quite as effectual as falsehood.
   Scorn to earn a farthing by uttering that which is not true, and what
   you might allow in your next door neighbor, and say, 'Well, he is under
   a different rule from me;' do not for a moment tolerate in yourself;
   the strict literal truth in all things should be the law of the child
   of God. Let your 'yea, be yea,' and your 'nay, nay.'

   We have already touched upon the point which our Savior mentions from
   the thirty-eighth to the forty-second verse, namely, that the Christian
   should excel in forbearance. He should be ready to suffer wrong again
   and again sooner than be provoked to resistance, much less retaliation.
   That I have already spoken of, but may we excel in it.

   And lastly, from the forty-second to the forty-eighth verse, our Savior
   shows that he expects us to excel in love to all mankind, and in the
   practical fruit of it, in trying to do them good. We ought to be, above
   all others, the most loving people, and the most good-doing people.
   Your man who buttons himself up within himself, and says, 'Well, let
   every man see to himself, that is what I say; every man for himself and
   God for us all;' the man who goes through the world paying his way with
   strict justice, but all the while having no heart to feel for the sick,
   and the poor, and the needy, with no care about anybody else's soul,
   his whole hearts enclosed within his own ribs, all buttoned up in his
   own broadcloth such; a man is very like the devil, but he certainly is
   not like Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ's heart was expansive and
   unselfish. He gave himself for his enemies, and died breathing a prayer
   over them; he lived never for himself. You could not put your finger on
   one point of his life and say, 'here he lived for himself alone.'
   Neither his prayers nor his preachings, his miracles or his sufferings,
   his woes or his glories were with an eye to himself. He saved others,
   but himself he would not save. His followers must in this follow him
   closely. Selfishness is as foreign to Christianity as darkness to
   light. The true Christian lives to do good, he looks abroad to see whom
   be may serve, and with this eye he looks upon the wicked, upon the
   fallen and the offcasts, seeking to reclaim them. Yes, in the same way
   he looks upon his personal enemies, and aims at winning them by
   repeated kindnesses. No nationality must confine his goodwill, no sect
   or clan monopolise his benevolence. No depravity of character or
   poverty of condition must sicken his lovingkindness, for Jesus received
   sinners and ate with them. Our love must embrace those who lie hard by
   the gates of hell, and we must endeavor with words of truth and deeds
   of love to bring them to Christ, who can uplift then to heaven. Oh that
   you may all be gentle, quiet, meek in spirit, but full of an ardent,
   burning affection towards your fellowmen; so shall you be known to be
   Christ's disciples.

   'Oh,' say you, 'these are great things.' Yes, but you have a great
   Spirit to help you, and you owe a great deal to your precious Lord and
   Master. Did I hear one say, 'I will avoid sin by being very retired; I
   will find out a quiet place where I shall not be tempted, and where I
   shall have few calls upon me.' Pretty soldier you who when your Captain
   says, 'Win the victory,' reply, 'I will keep clear of the fight.' No,
   Christian, go about your trade, go into the busy mart, attend to your
   business, attend to your family, attend to those matters which God has
   allotted to you, and glorify God in the battle of life by doing more
   than others. Will God enable you so to do.

   III. Now, into about two minutes we must condense what ought to have
   occupied at least a quarter-of an-hour. The last head was to deal with
   REASONS FOR OUR DOING MORE THAN OTHERS. They were just these. First, by
   our fruits we are to be known. Men will never know us by our faith, for
   that is within us; they know us by our works, which are visible to
   them. Bring forth, therefore, the fruits of grace that the world may
   know you have been with Jesus. Remember also that works are to be
   evidence at the last. It is consistent with the gospel of grace, no
   doubt, for it is a truth clearly revealed, that we shall be judged
   according to the deeds done in the body, whether they be good or
   whether they be evil; and you know that when the Lord gives us the
   description of the judgment, he did not say to his disciples, 'Ye
   believed in me,' or 'Ye loved me''these were secret matters'but he
   said, 'I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye
   gave me drink; I was sick and in prison, and ye visited me.' It is by
   your works ye will be judged. O believers, may grace enable you to
   abound in them.

   It is by such works that the mouths of gainsayers are to be stopped.
   One holy action is a better argument against blasphemers than a
   thousand eloquent discourses. You are our replies to sceptics'you who
   having been rescued from sin maintain a life of holiness. When they see
   the men that are healed, standing with Peter and John, they can say
   nothing against them. Oh, by your works confound gainsayers!

   These works, too, bring glory to God. 'That they, seeing your good
   works may glorify your Father which is in heaven.'

   And these works also ensure peace to your own conscience, and have much
   to do with your close communion with God. 'How can two walk together
   except they be agreed?' If ye walk contrary to him he will walk
   contrary to you. Your sins will separate between you and your God, but
   the Holy Spirit, where he maintains holiness, maintains peace and
   communion in the soul. 'If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you,
   ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.' 'If ye keep
   my commandments,' saith the Savior, 'Ye shall abide in my love''shall
   abide in the conscious fellowship of that love, and in the enjoyment of
   it. May God help you, may God help you, for his name's sake.

   Look ye here, ye who say you believe in Christ and are living in sin:
   what does this make of your boastings? Look you here, ye that say 'I
   have only to believe by-and-by, and I may live as I like, and yet be
   saved.' Is it so? Is it so? 'If the righteous scarcely be saved, where
   will the ungodly and the wicked appear?' As for those whose ungodly
   lives stare them in the face, so far from being saved by their
   pretended faith, they are trees twice dead, plucked up by the roots. If
   they say they continue in sin that grace may abound, their damnation is
   just. The salvation of Christ is not a salvation in sin, but a
   salvation from sin. They who would be saved by him must come and trust
   him just as they are, and he will enable them to forsake their sin; but
   while they continue to say, 'We will take pleasure in sin,' there is no
   salvation possible for them. God bring us to Christ, and nail our sins
   to his cross, and give us life in our Savior's life. Amen.

   PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON'Matthew 5.
     __________________________________________________________________

                             The Pilgrim's Longings

   A Sermon

   (No. 1030)

   Delivered by

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   'And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they
   came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now
   they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is
   not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a
   city.''Hebrews 11:15-16.

   ABRAHAM left his country at God's command, and he never went back
   again. The proof of faith lies in perseverance. There is a sort of
   faith which does run well, but it is soon hindered, and it doth not
   obey the truth. That is not the faith to which the promise is given.
   The faith of God's elect continues and abides. Being connected with the
   living and incorruptible seed, it lives and abides for ever. Abraham
   returned not; Isaac returned not; Jacob returned not. The promise was
   to them as 'strangers and sojourners,' and so they continued. The
   apostle tells us, however, that they were not forced so to continue;
   they did not remain because they could not return. Had they been
   mindful of the place from whence they came out, they might have found
   opportunities to go back. Frequent opportunities came in their way;
   there was communication kept up between them and the old family house
   at Padan-Aram: they had news sometimes from the old quarters. More than
   that, there were messages exchanged, servants were sometimes sent, and
   you know there was a new relation entered into'did not Rebekah come
   from thence? And Jacob, one of the patriarchs, was driven to go down
   into the land, but he could not stay there; he was always unrestful,
   till at last he stole a march upon Laban and came back into the proper
   life'the life which he had chosen, the life which God had commanded
   him, the life of a pilgrim and a stranger in the land of promise. You
   see, then, they had many opportunities to have returned, to have
   settled comfortably, and tilled the ground as their fathers did before
   them; but they continued to follow the uncomfortable shifting life of
   wanderers of the weary foot, who dwelt in tents, who own no foot of
   land'they were aliens in the country which God had given them by
   promise.

   Now, our position is very similar to theirs. As many of us as have
   believed in Christ have been called out. The very meaning of a church
   is, 'called out by Christ.' We have been separated. I trust we know
   what it is to have gone without the camp, bearing Christ's reproach.
   Henceforth, in this world we have no home, no true home for our
   spirits; our home is beyond the flood; we are looking for it amongst
   the unseen things; we are strangers and sojourners as all our fathers
   were, dwellers in this wilderness, passing through it to reach the
   Canaan which is to be the land of our perpetual inheritance.

   I. I propose, then, first of all this evening, to speak to you upon the
   opportunities which we have had, and still have, to return to the old
   house, if we were mindful of it. Indeed, it seems to me as if the word
   'opportunity' as it occurs in the text, were hardly strong enough to
   express the influence and incentive, the provocations and
   solicitations, by which, in our case, we have been urged. It is a
   wonder of wonders that we have not gone back to the world, with its
   sinful pleasures and its idolatrous customs. When I think of the
   strength of divine grace, I do not marvel that saints should persevere;
   but, when I remember the weakness of their nature, it seems a miracle
   of miracles that there should be one Christian in the world who could
   maintain his steadfastness for a single hour. It is nothing short of
   Godhead's utmost stretch of might that keeps the feet of the saints,
   and preserves them from going back to their old unregenerate condition.
   We have had opportunities to have returned. My brethren, we have such
   opportunities in our daily calling. Some of you are engaged in the
   midst of ungodly men, and those engagements supply you with constant
   opportunities to sin as they do, to fall into their excesses, to lapse
   into their forgetfulness of God, or even to take part in their
   blasphemies. Oh, have you not often strong inducements, if it were not
   for the grace of God, to become as they are? Or, if your occupation
   keeps you alone, yet, my brethren, there is one who is pretty sure to
   intrude upon our privacy, to corrupt our thoughts, to kindle strange
   desires in our breasts, to tantalise us with morbid fancies, and to
   seek our mischief. The Tempter he is, the Destroyer he would be, if we
   were not delivered from his snares. Ah, how frequently will solitude
   have temptations as severe as publicity could possibly bring. There are
   perils in company, but there are perils likewise in our loneliness. We
   have many opportunities to return. In the parlour, pleasantly
   conversing, or in the kitchen, perhaps, occupied with the day's
   work'toiling in the field, or trading on the mart, busy on the land or
   tossed about on the sea, there are critical seasons on which destiny
   itself might appear to hang contingent. Where can we fly to escape from
   these opportunities that haunt us everywhere and peril us in every
   thing? If we should mount upon the wings of the wind, could we find 'a
   lodge in some vast wilderness,' think ye, then, we might be quite clear
   from all the opportunities to go back to the old sins in which we once
   indulged? No. Each man's calling may seem to him to be more full of
   temptation than his fellow's. It is not so. Our temptations are pretty
   equally distributed, I dare say, after all, and all of us might say,
   that we find in our avocations, from hour to hour, many opportunities
   to return.

   But, dear brethren, it is not merely in our business and in our
   calling; the mischief lies in our bone and in our flesh. Opportunities
   to return! Ah! Who that knows himself does not find strong, incentives
   to return. Ah! how often will our imagination paint sin in very glowing
   colors, and, though we loathe sin and loathe ourselves for thinking of
   it, yet how many a man might say, 'had it not been for divine grace,
   where should I have been?'for my feet had almost gone, my steps had
   well nigh slipped.' How strong is the evil in the most upright man! How
   stern is the conflict to keep under the body, lest corruption should
   prevail. You may be diligent in secret prayer, and, perhaps, the devil
   may have seemed asleep till you began to pray, and when you were most
   fervent, then will he also become most rampant. When you get nearer to
   God, Satan will sometimes seem to get nearer to you. Opportunities to
   return, as long as you are in this body, will be with you. To the very
   edge of Jordan you will meet with temptations. When you sit expectant
   on the banks of the last river, waiting, for the summons to cross, it
   may be that your fiercest temptation will come even then. Oh, this
   flesh, the body of this death'wretched man that I am, who shall deliver
   me from it? But while it continues with me, I shall find opportunities
   to return.

   So too, dear brethren and sisters, these opportunities to return are
   adapted to our circumstances and adjusted to any condition of life, and
   any change through which we may pass. For instance how often have
   professors, when they have prospered, found opportunities to return! I
   sigh to think of many that appeared to be very earnest Christians when
   they were struggling for bread, who have become very dull and cold now
   that they have grown rich and increased in goods. How often does it
   happen in this land of ours, that a poor earnest Christian has
   associated with the people of God at all meetings, and felt proud to be
   there, but he has risen in the world and stood an inch or two above
   others in common esteem, and he could not go with God's people any
   longer: he must seek out the world's church and join in to get a share
   of the respectability and prestige that will always congregate in the
   domain of fashion. Henceforth, the man has turned aside from the faith,
   if not altogether in his heart, at least in his life. Beware of the
   high places: they are very slippery. There is not all the enjoyment you
   may think to be gathered in retirement and in ease. On the contrary,
   luxury often pulleth up, and abundance makes the heart to swell with
   vanity. If any of you are prospering in this world, oh watch, for you
   are in imminent danger of being mindful to return to the place whence
   you came out.

   But, the peril is as instant every whit in adversity. Alas, I have had
   to mourn over Christian men'at least I thought they were such'who have
   waxed very poor, and when they have grown poor, they hardly felt they
   could associate with those they knew in better circumstances. I think
   they were mistaken in the notion that they would be despised. I should
   lie ashamed of the Christian who would despise his fellow, because God
   was dealing with him somewhat severely in Providence. Yet there is a
   feeling in the human heart, and, though there may be no unkind
   treatment, yet, oftentimes, the sensitive spirit is apt to imagine it,
   and I have observed some absent themselves by degrees from the assembly
   of God with a sense of shame. It is smoothing the way to return to your
   old place; and, indeed, I have not wondered when I have seen some
   professors grow cold, when I have thought where they were compelled to
   live, and how they have been constrained to pass their time. Perhaps
   they were living at home before, but now they have to take a room where
   they can have no quiet, but where sounds of blasphemy greet them, or,
   in some cases, where they have to go to the workhouse, and be far away
   from all Christian intercourse or anything that could comfort them. It
   is only God's grace that can keep your graces alive under such
   circumstances. You see, whether you grow rich or whether you grow poor,
   you will have these opportunities to return. If you want to go back to
   sin, to carnality, to a love of the world, to your old condition, you
   never need to be prevented from doing so by want of opportunities: it
   will be something else that will prevent you, for these opportunities
   are plentiful and countless.

   Opportunities to return! Let me say just one thing more about them.
   They are often furnished by the example of others.

   'When any turn from Zion's way,

   Alas, what numbers do!

   Methinks I hear my Savior say,

   Wilt thou forsake me too?'

   The departures from the faith of those whom we highly esteem are, at
   least while we are young, very severe trials to us. We keenly suspect
   whether that religion can be true which was feigned so cunningly and
   betrayed so wantonly, by one who seemed to be a model, but proved to be
   a hypocrite. It staggers us: we cannot make it out. Opportunities to
   return you have now; but ah! may grace be given you so that, if others
   play the Judas, instead of leading you to do the same, it may only bind
   you more fast to your Lord, and make you walk more carefully, lest you
   also prove a son of perdition.

   And ah, my brethren and sisters, if some of us were to return, we
   should have this opportunity'a cordial welcome from our former
   comrades. None of our old friends would refuse to receive us. There is
   many a Christian who, if he were to go back to the gaiety of the world,
   would find the world await him with open arms. He was the favourite of
   the ball-room once; he was the wit 'that set the table in a roar;' he
   was the man who above all was courted when he moved in the circles of
   the vain and frivolous: glad enough would they be to see him come back.
   What a shout of triumph would they raise, and how would they fraternize
   with him! Oh, may the day never come to you, you young people
   especially, who have lately put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and professed
   his name, when you shall be welcomed by the world, but may you for ever
   forget your kindred and your father's house, so shall the king greatly
   desire your beauty, for he is the Lord, and worship you him. Separation
   from the world will endear you to the Savior, and bring you into
   conscious enjoyment of his presence; but, of opportunities to return
   there is no lack.

   Perhaps, you will say, 'Why does the Lord make them so plentiful? Could
   he not have kept us from temptation?' There is no doubt he could, but
   it was never the Master's intention that we should all be hothouse
   plants. He taught us to pray, 'Lead us not into temptation,' but, at
   the same time, he does lead us there, and intends to do it, and this
   for the proving of our faith, to see whether it be true faith or not.
   Depend upon it, faith that is never tried is not true faith. It must be
   sooner or later exercised. God does not create useless things: he
   intends that the faith he gives should have its test, should glorify
   his name. These opportunities to return are meant to try your faith,
   and they are sent to you to prove that you are a volunteer soldier.
   Why, if grace was a sort of chain that manacled you, so that you could
   not leave your Lord; if it had become a physical impossibility to
   forsake the Savior, there would be no credit in it. He that does not
   run away because his legs are too weak, does not prove himself a hero;
   but he that could run, but will not run; he that could desert his Lord,
   but will not desert him, has within him a principle of grace stronger
   than any fetter could be'the highest, firmest, noblest bond that unites
   a man to the Savior. By this shall you know whether you are Christ's or
   not. When you have opportunity to return, if you do not return, that
   shall prove you are his. Two men are going along a road, and there is a
   dog behind them. I do not know to which of them that dog belongs, but I
   shall be able to tell you directly. They are coming to a crossroad: one
   goes to the right, the other goes to the left. Now which man does the
   dog follow? That is his master. So when Christ and the world go
   together, you cannot tell which you are following; but, when there is a
   separation, and Christ goes one way, and your interest and your
   pleasure seem to go the other way, if you can part with the world and
   keep with Christ, then you are one of his. After this manner these
   opportunities to return may serve us a good purpose: they prove our
   faith, while they try our character; thus helping us to see whether we
   are indeed the Lord's or not.

   But, we must pass on (for we have a very wealthy text) to notice the
   second point.

   II. We cannot take any opportunity to go back, because we desire
   something better than we could get by returning to that country from
   whence we came out. An insatiable desire has been implanted in us by
   divine grace which urges us to'

   'Forget the steps already trod,

   And onward press our way.'

   Notice how the text puts it:''But now they desire a better country,
   that is, a heavenly.' Brethren, you desire something better than this
   world, do you not? Has the world ever satisfied you? Perhaps it did
   when you were dead in sin. A dead world may satisfy a dead heart; but
   ever since you have known something of better things, and brighter
   realities, have you been ever contented with earthly things and emptier
   vanities? Perhaps you have tried to fill your soul with the daintiest
   provisions the world can offer; to wit'God has prospered you, and you
   have said, 'Oh, this is well.' Your children have been about you, you
   have had many household joys, and you have said, 'I could stay here for
   ever.' Did not you find very soon that there was a thorn in the flesh?
   Did you ever gather a rose in this world that was altogether without a
   thorn? Hare you not been obliged to say, after you have had all that
   the world could give you, 'Vanity of Vanities, all is vanity?' I am
   sure it has been so with me, with you, with all my kinsfolk in Christ,
   and with all my yokefellows in his service. All God's saints would
   confess that were the Lord to say to them, 'You shall have all the
   world, and that shall be your portion,' they would be broken-hearted
   men. 'Nay, my Lord,' they would reply, 'do not put me off with these
   biding presents; feed me not upon these husks. Though thou shouldst
   give me Joseph's lot, the ancient mountains, and the precious things of
   the lasting hills,' 'Thou art more glorious and excellent than the
   mountains of prey;' yea, though thou shouldst confer on me the precious
   things of the earth, and the fullness thereof, I would prefer before
   them all the goodwill of him that dwelt in the bush. Give me thyself,
   and take these all away, if so it please thee, but do not, my Lord, do
   not think I can be content with Egypt since I have set forth for
   Canaan, or that I can settle down in the wilderness now that I am
   journeying to the land of promise. We desire something better.

   There is this about a Christian that, even when he does not enjoy
   something better, he desires it; of that, verily, I am quite sure. How
   much of character is revealed in our desires. I felt greatly encouraged
   when I read this, 'Now they desire a better''The word 'country' has
   been inserted by our translators. It weakens the sense; vague but vast
   is the craving expressed in the sentence, 'They desire a better''I know
   I long for something far better, something infinitely preferable to
   that which my eyes can see or that my tongue can express. I do not
   always enjoy that something better. Dark is my path; I cannot see my
   Lord; I cannot enjoy his presence; sometimes I am like one that is
   banished from him; but I desire his blessing, I desire his presence;
   and, though to desire may be but a little thing, let me say a good
   desire is more than nature ever grew: grace has given it. It is a great
   thing to be desirous. 'They desire a better country.' And, because we
   desire this better thing, we cannot go back and be content with things
   which gratified us once.

   More than that, if ever the child of God gets entangled for awhile, he
   is uneasy by reason of it. Abraham's slips, for he had one or two, were
   made when he had left the land, and gone down among the Philistines;
   but he was not easy there: he must come back again. And Jacob'he had
   found a wife'nay, two'in Laban's land, but he was not content there.
   No, no child of God can be, whatever he may find in this world. We
   shall never find a heaven here. We may hunt the world through, and say,
   'This looks like a little paradise,' but there is not any paradise this
   side of the skies, for a child of God at any rate. There is enough out
   there in the farm yard for the hogs, but there is not that which is
   suitable for the children. There is enough in the world for sinners,
   but not for saints. They have stronger, sharper, and more vehement
   desires, for they have a nobler life within them, and they desire a
   better country, and even if they get entangled for awhile in this
   country, and in a certain measure identified with citizens of it, they
   are ill at ease'their citizenship is in heaven, and they cannot rest
   anywhere but there. After all, we confess to-night, and rejoice in the
   confession, that our best hopes are for things that are out of sight:
   our expectations are our largest possessions. The things that we have a
   title to, that we value, are ours to-day by faith: we do not enjoy them
   yet. But when our heirship shall be fully manifested, and we shall come
   to the full ripe age'oh, then shall we come into our inheritance, to
   our wealth, to the mansions, and to the glory, and to the presence of
   Jesus Christ our Lord.

   Thus you see the reason why the Christian cannot go back. Though he has
   many opportunities he does not embrace any, he shrinks with repugnance
   from them all, for, through divine grace, he has had produced in his
   heart desires for something better.

   Even when he does not realize as yet, or actually enjoy, that infinite
   good, which is something better than creature comfort or worldly
   ambition, the desires themselves become mighty bonds that keep him from
   returning to his former state. Dear brethren, let us cultivate these
   desires more and more. If they have such a separating, salutary,
   sanctifying influence upon our heart, and effect upon our character, in
   keeping us from the world, let us cultivate them much. Do you think
   that we meditate enough upon heaven? Look at the miser. When does he
   forget his gold? He dreams of it. He has locked it up tonight and he
   goes to bed, but he is afraid he heard a footstep down the stairs, and
   he goes to see. He looks to the iron safe: he would be quite sure that
   it is well secured. He cannot forget his dear gold. Let us think of
   heaven, of Christ, and of the blessings of the covenant, and let us
   thus keep our desires wide awake, and stimulate them to active
   exercise. The more they draw us to heaven, the more they withdraw us
   from the world.

   III. It would be unreasonable if we did not vehemently resist every
   opportunity and every solicitation to go back.

   The men of faith to whom the apostle referred in our text were not only
   strangers and pilgrims, but it is specially observed that they
   confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. They were
   a grand company. From an unit they had multiplied into a countless
   host. Sprang there not even of one, and him as good as dead, as many as
   the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the
   seashore innumerable? Now, brethren, you see we have here a very strong
   reason for not returning. It is because you are the descendants, the
   spiritual descendants, of the patriarchs. Let me try to show you how
   urgent a motive for steadfastness this is. Practically, it comprises
   two or three considerations of the highest moment. One thing it implies
   very obviously is that you thoroughly admire their example and
   fervently emulate their spirit. As you have glanced over the scroll of
   history, or narrowly scanned the records of men's lives, the pomp of
   Pharaoh has not dazzled you, but the purity of Joseph has charmed you;
   the choice of Moses was to your taste, though it did involve leaving a
   court where he was flattered, for fellowship with enslaved kinsmen by
   whom he was suspected; and, you would rather have been with Daniel in
   the lions' den than with Darius on the throne of empire. You have
   transferred their strong will to your own deliberate choice. And, when
   the jeer has been raised against canting methodists, you have said, 'I
   am one of them.' You have confessed as occasion served before the
   world, you have professed as duty called before the church, you have
   accepted the consequences as honesty demanded before angels and men.
   Therefore, in your heart of hearts you feel that you cannot go back.
   The vows of God are upon you. It is well they are. Review them often:
   refresh your memory with them frequently; recur to them and renew them
   in every time of trial and temptation. Howbeit, repent of them never,
   or woe betide you. There is a secret virtue in the confession, if it be
   steadfastly adhered to and zealously maintained. It is a talisman,
   believe me, against the contagion of an evil atmosphere that might
   otherwise instil poison into your constitution.

   Again, there is another thing; you have joined yourself to an ancient
   fraternity that has something more than rules to guide or legends to
   captivate; for it has a combination of both, seeing it is rich in
   poetic lore. Why, it is on this that patriotism feeds as its daintiest
   morsel. 'Thy statutes,' said David, 'have been my songs in the house of
   my pilgrimage.' Brother! there hath no sorrow befallen thee but what
   thy noble ancestors have celebrated in cheery tones, and set to music
   in cheerful strains. Oh, beloved! if you could forget the statutes, can
   you ever fail to remember the songs? There has never been a revival in
   the church that has not witnessed to the value of our psalmody. God be
   praised for our psalms and spiritual songs. Oh, how often they have
   made melody in our hearts to the Lord! While our voices blend, do not
   our very souls become more and more richly cemented? They are, in
   truth, the pilgrim's solace.

   Another thing strikes me. I should not like you to overlook it. There
   is, in this chapter, a special commendation for faith in a pleasing
   variety of operations. But the speciality of the strangers and pilgrims
   is that they all died in faith. So, then, you cannot go back, because
   you cannot accomplish the end for which you went forward till you die.
   You have joined the company that makes the goal of life the object for
   which you live. Your aim is to make a noble exit. 'Prepare to meet thy
   God' was the motto you started with. To go back can hardly cross your
   thoughts, when to look back seems to you charged with peril. Our lease
   of mortal life is fast running out. The time of our sojourn on earth is
   getting more and more brief. Therefore, because our salvation is nearer
   than when we first believed, it is but meet that our desire to reach
   the better country, and to enter the heavenly city should become more
   and more vehement, as 'we nightly pitch our roving tent a day's march
   nearer home.' It comes to this, brethren. You feel that you have little
   to show for your faith. It never built an ark like Noah; it never
   offered a sacrifice like Abraham; it never subdued kingdoms like
   Joshua; it never quenched the violence of fire as Shadrach, Meshach,
   and Abed-nego. Well, be it so; but he that endureth to the end shall be
   saved; and all those that die in faith are gathered with the great
   cloud of witnesses. Is not this enough to cheer the rank and file of
   the church?

   IV. But, I must close with the sweetest part of the text, wherein it is
   shown that we have a great and blessed assurance vouchsafed to us as an
   acknowledgment, on the part of God, of those opportunities, and those
   yearnings persisted in. 'Therefore God is not ashamed to be called
   their God, for he hath prepared for them a city.' Because they are
   strangers, add because they will not go back to their old abode,
   'therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God.' He might well be
   ashamed of that. What poor people God's people are'poor, many of them,
   in circumstances, but how many of them I might very well call poor as
   to spiritual things. I do not think if any of us had such a family as
   God has, we should ever have patience with them. We cannot, when we
   judge ourselves rightly, have patience with ourselves; but, how is it
   that God bears with the ill manners of such a froward, weak, foolish,
   forgetful generation as his people are. He might well be ashamed to be
   called their God, if he looked upon them as they are, and estimated
   them upon their merits. Own them! How can he own them? Does he not
   himself sometimes say of them, 'How can I put them among the children?'
   Yet he devises means, and brings about the purposes of his grace.
   Viewed as they are, they may be compared to a rabble in so many
   respects, that it is marvellous he is not ashamed of them. Still, he
   never does discountenance them, and he proves that he is not ashamed of
   them, for he calls himself their God. 'I will be your God,' saith he,
   and he oftentimes seems to speak of it as a very joyful thing to his
   own heart. 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of
   Jacob.' While he calls himself their God, he never forbids them to call
   him their God. In the presence of the great ones of the earth they may
   call him their God'anywhere'and he is not ashamed to be so called.
   Matchless condescension this! Have you not sometimes heard of a man who
   has become rich and has risen in the world, who has had some poor
   brother or some distant relative. When he has seen him in the street,
   he has been obliged to speak to him and own him. But oh, how
   reluctantly it was done. I dare say he wished him a long way off,
   especially if he had some haughty acquaintance with him at the time,
   who would perhaps turn round, and say, 'Why, who is that wretched,
   seedy-looking fellow you spoke to?' He does not like to say, 'That's my
   brother;' or, 'That's a relative of mine.' Not so our Lord Jesus
   Christ. However low his people may sink, he is not ashamed to call them
   brethren. They may look up to him in all the depths of their
   degradation. They may call him a brother. He is in very fact a brother,
   born for their adversity, able and ready to redress their grievances,
   he is not ashamed to call them brethren. One reason for this seems to
   me to be, because he does not judge of them according to their present
   circumstances, but much rather according to their pleasant prospects.
   He takes account of what he has prepared for them. Notice the text,
   'Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath
   prepared for them a city.' They are poor now, but God, to whom things
   to come are things present, sees them in their fair white linen, which
   is the righteousness of the saints. All you can see in that poor child
   of God is a hard-working laboring man, mocked and despised of his
   fellows. But what does God see in him? He sees in him a dignity and a
   glory assimilated to his own. He hath put all things under the feet of
   such a man as that, and crowned him with glory and honor in the person
   of Christ, and the angels themselves are ministering servants to such.
   You see his outward attire, not his inner self'you see the earthly
   tabernacle, but the spirit newborn, immortal and divine'you see not
   that. Howbeit, God does. Or, if you have spiritual discernment to
   perceive the spiritual creature, you only see it as it is veiled by
   reason of the flesh, and beclouded by the atmosphere of this world; but
   he sees it as it will appear, when it shall be radiant like unto
   Christ, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. God sees the
   poorest, the least proficient disciple as a man in Christ; a perfect
   man come unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
   such indeed as he will be in that day when he shall see Christ, for
   then he shall be like him as he is. It seems too, in the text, that God
   looks to what he had prepared for these poor people. He hath prepared
   for them a city. Methinks, that by what he has prepared for them, we
   may judge how he esteems and loves them'estimating them by what he
   means them to be, rather than by what they appear to be at present.
   Look at this preparation just a minute. 'he hath prepared for
   them'''them.' Though I delight to preach a free gospel, and to preach
   it to every creature under heaven, we must never forget to remind you
   of the speciality. 'He hath prepared for them a city''that is, for such
   as are strangers and foreigners'for such as have faith, and, therefore,
   have left the world, and gone out to follow Christ. 'He hath prepared
   for them''not 'for all of you''only for such of you as answer the
   description on which we have been meditating has he prepared 'a city.'

   Note what it is he has made ready for them. It is a city. This
   indicates a permanent abode. They dwelt in tents'Abraham, and Isaac,
   and Jacob'but he has prepared for them a city. Here we are tent
   dwellers, and the tent is soon to be taken down. 'We know that this
   earthly house of our' tent 'shall be dissolved, but we have a house not
   made with hands, eternal in the heavens.' 'He hath prepared a city.' A
   city is a place of genial associations. In a lonely hamlet one has
   little company. In a city, especially where all the inhabitants shall
   be united in one glorious brotherhood, the true communism of Liberty,
   Equality, and Fraternity may be realised in the purest sense and
   highest possible degree. In a city such as this there are plentiful
   occasions for intercourse, where mutual interests shall enhance mutual
   joy. 'He hath prepared a city.' It is a city too possessing immunities,
   and conferring dignity upon its residents. To be a burgess of the City
   of London is thought to be a great honor, and upon princes is it
   sometimes conferred; but, we shall have the highest honor that can be
   given, when we shall be citizens of the city which God has prepared.

   I must not dwell on this theme, delightful as it is; I want a few words
   with you, my friends, direct and personal, before I close. Do not
   wonder, those of you who are the children of God, do not wonder if you
   have discomforts here. If you are what you profess to be, you are
   strangers: you do not expect men of this world to treat you as members
   of their community. If they do, be afraid. Dogs don't bark as a man
   goes by that they know: they bark at strangers. When people persecute
   you and slander you, no marvel. If you are a stranger, they naturally
   bark at you. Do not expect to find the comforts in this world that you
   crave after, that your flesh would long for. This is our inn, not our
   home. We tarry for a night: we are away in the morning. We may bear the
   annoyances of the eventide and the night, for the morning will break so
   soon. Remember that your greatest joy, while you are a pilgrim, is your
   God. So the text says, 'Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their
   God.' Do you want a richer source of consolation than you have? Here is
   one that can never be diminished, much less exhausted. When the created
   streams are dry, go to this eternal fountain, and find it ever
   springing up. Your joy is your God: make your God your joy.

   Now, what shall be said to those who are not strangers and foreigners?
   Ah, you dwell in a land where you find some sort of repose; but I have
   heavy tidings for you. This land in which you dwell, and all the works
   thereof, must be burned up. The city of which you, who have never been
   converted to Christ, are citizens, is a City of Destruction, and, as is
   its name, such will be its end. The King will send his armies against
   that guilty city and destroy it, and if you are citizens of it, you
   will lose all you have'you will lose your souls'lose yourselves.
   'Whither away?' saith one''Where can I find comfort then and security?'
   You must do as Lot did, when the angels presses him and said, 'Haste to
   the Mount lest thou be consumed.' To what mountain, say you, shall I
   go? The mountain of safety is Calvary. Where Jesus died, there you
   shall live. There is death everywhere else but there. But there is life
   arising from his death. Oh, fly to him. 'But how?' saith one. Trust
   him. God gave his Son, equal with himself, to bear the burden of human
   sin; and he died, a substitute for sinners,'a real substitute, an
   efficient substitute, for all who trust in him. If thou wilt trust thy
   soul with Jesus, thou art saved. Thy sin was laid on him: it is
   forgiven thee. It was blotted out when he nailed the handwriting of
   ordinances that were against thee to his cross. Trust him now and you
   are saved; you shall become, henceforth, a stranger and a pilgrim. In
   the better land you shall find the rest which you never can find here,
   and need not wish to find, for the land is polluted; let us away from
   it. The curse has fallen: let us get away to the country that never was
   cursed, to the city that is for ever blessed, Where Jesus dwells there
   may we find a home and abide for aye. God add his blessing to this
   discourse, and give a blessing to your souls, for Jesus Christ' sake.
   Amen.

   'THE SWORD AND THE TROWEL.' Edited by C. H. SPURGEON.

   Contents for January, 1872.

   The Year of Grace, 1872. By C. H. Spurgeon.

   Paris and London. By C. H. Spurgeon.

   Our London Arabs. By G. Holden Pike

   Duncan Matheson, the Scottish Evangelist. By Vernon J. Charlesworth.

   On Surrendering.

   Sunday School Addresses. By E. D. Jones, A. M., St. Louis.

   Bad Air versus Religion.

   A Sabbath in Rome

   The Blessed Poor. By C. H. Spurgeon.

   Children in the Streets of Jerusalem.

   Reviews.

   Memoranda.

   Pastors' College Account.

   Stockwell Orphanage.

   Golden Lane Mission.

   Colportage Association.

   Price 3d. Post free, 4 stamps.

   London: Passmore & Alabaster, 18, Paternoster Row, and all Booksellers.
     __________________________________________________________________

                            How Can I Obtain Faith?

   A Sermon

   (No. 1031)

   Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, January 21st, 1872, by

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   'So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of
   God.''Romans 10:17.

   IT IS DIFFICULT to make men understand that the salvation of the gospel
   is not by works but entirely by grace, that it is not presented to men
   as the reward of their own endeavors, but is given to them freely upon
   their accepting it by an act of simple faith or trust in Jesus Christ.
   However plainly we may preach this truth, there will always be some who
   will misunderstand us, and as many more who will raise objections
   against it, as if it were their part to give an opinion, and not to do
   as they are bidden by the Lord. But when men are brought under the
   teaching of the word, to see that the pardon of their sins, and the
   acceptance of their souls does not lie with any merit of their own, or
   any doings of their own, another difficulty generally presents itself:
   they say, 'What is this faith of which you speak?' and when we assure
   them that it is a simple trust or confidence in the finished work of
   Christ, then straightway they say, 'How can we get this faith? How can
   we obtain this confidence?' To us, who have faith, this question is
   very easy to answer, for when we heard the gladsome news of a finished
   salvation for lost sinners, complete forgiveness for the guilty, and
   acceptance for the ungodly, simply upon believing in Jesus we came to
   Jesus, and we trusted in him, and we continue still to trust, and we
   have joy and peace through believing. We see far more reasons for
   belief than for doubt. Yet, nevertheless, there are hundreds and
   thousands who are awakened, and seriously enquiring, to whom this is a
   great difficulty''How can I get the faith which gives me possession of
   Christ Jesus, and brings me salvation?' Our text is the ready answer,
   practically a complete answer; not doctrinally or theologically
   complete, but practically perfect. 'Faith cometh by hearing, and
   hearing by the word of God.' 'But faith is the work of the Holy Spirit
   in the soul is it not?' Certainly. 'And it is given by the Spirit to
   God's own chosen?' Assuredly; yet, nevertheless, it was not necessary
   for the apostle to mention those facts here. Some persons are always
   for having a whole system of theology in every sermon, but it is not
   needful that they should be gratified. Paul is clear enough about the
   work of the Spirit in other places, and it is not needful that he
   should introduce that subject into every line he writes. It was
   practically unnecessary for him to mention that subject in the present
   instance, and, therefore, he did not do so. It would sometimes puzzle
   rather than instruct an enquirer if we were to go into the full details
   of a matter. For instance, if I am thirsty, how shall I quench my
   thirst? By a draught of water. But in what way can I obtain water? It
   quite suffices for practical purposes for you to tell me to go to the
   tap or the fountain. There is no need to explain to me before I drink
   that the water is supplied by a company, and forced to the spilt by
   sundry machines, having been first extracted from the great fountains
   beneath by artesian wells, or drawn from the river at Thames Ditton.
   Nor would it be needful in answer to my question to trace the river to
   the clouds, and to treat upon the formation of vapor by the skill and
   wisdom of God. Practically, to the thirsty man all you want to say is,
   'There's the water, drink.' I will add another illustration. A man is
   hungry, and he asks you, 'How can I get bread?' 'Go to the baker's,'
   you say. The answer is complete enough for him; it meets the case at
   once. If he wants a larger declaration of how bread is obtained, we can
   give it to him at another time when he is no longer hungry; we will
   tell him how the corn is sown in the furrow of earth, and how by
   mysterious processes of nature it germinates, grows, and ripens; we
   will trace it from the reaper to the thresher, and from the thresher to
   the mill, and we will also show that daily bread is as much a gift from
   heaven as the manna which dropped down upon the hungry people in the
   wilderness. But, it is not needful for the feeding, of the hungry that
   we should on every occasion go into all those details, although we hold
   very sound views upon them. And when you are dealing with an anxious
   person, it will suffice to say to him, 'Faith cometh by hearing;'
   further information can be supplied under happier circumstances. I mean
   to keep to our text this morning, and if any shall charge me with an
   omission of the work of the Spirit, or a failure to trace all saving
   faith to the electing grace of God, I shall bear the charge without
   murmuring, only saying that my soul rejoices as much as that of any man
   living in the work of the Spirit of God; and, that the electing love of
   God and his determinate purposes are precious truths to me. If the text
   was sufficient for Paul; it will, I trust, be sufficient for you.

   May the Spirit of God assist us while we meditate upon the way by which
   faith cometh. This shall be followed by a brief indication of certain
   obstructions which often lie in that way; and then we will conclude by
   dwelling upon the importance that faith should come to us by that
   appointed road.

   I. First, then, THE WAY BY WHICH FAITH COMES TO MEN. 'Faith cometh by
   hearing.'

   It may help to set the truth out more clearly, if we say, negatively,
   that it does not come by any other process than by hearing;'not by any
   mysterious and strange method, but in the most simple and natural mode
   conceivable, namely, by the hearing of the word.

   Some imagine that faith comes by hereditary descent, and they act upon
   the supposition. Hence, in certain churches, birthright membership is
   thought to be a proper practice, and the child of a Christian is
   thought to be a Christian. In some other churches, though the theory
   would not be stated in so many words, yet it is practically accepted,
   and children of pious parents are regarded as scarcely needing
   conversion. The text is forgotten which saith that the heirs of
   salvation are born, 'not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, but of
   God.' The typical covenant secured outward privileges to the children
   born after the flesh, but under the covenant of grace the blessing is
   secured to the spiritual and not to the natural seed. 'He who was of
   the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by
   promise.' (Galatians 4:23). That which is born of the flesh is flesh,
   and nothing more: the new-born nature is not transmissible from father
   to son like a natural temperament or a cast of countenance. I know the
   answer will be that 'the promise is to us and to our children,' but it
   will be well for the objector to reply to himself by completing the
   quotation''even to as many as the Lord your God shall call.' The fact
   is, that nothing spiritual is inherited by carnal generation. Our
   children, even if we are far advanced in grace, will still be 'shapen
   in iniquity.' No matter how high the sainthood of the professing
   Christian, his child (when capable of understanding) must for himself
   become a personal believer in Jesus.

   It appears to be thought possible to infuse grace by sacraments. There
   are persons yet alive who teach that a babe may be regenerated by
   certain aqueous processes, and be thereby placed in 'a state of
   salvation.' But is not faith a perpetual concomitant of regeneration?
   and what is that regeneration worth which leaves a person an
   unbeliever, and, consequently, 'condemned already, because he hath not
   believed on the Son of God?' Rest assured, that as faith does not come
   by descent, neither can it be produced by any rite which recognizes
   that descent: it comes in one way, and in one way only in every case,
   and that is, by the hearing of the word. To every person, whoever he
   may be, though nursed in the bosom of the church, and introduced to
   that church by the most solemn ritual, we are bound to say, you must
   hear as well as others, and you must believe as the result of that
   hearing as well as others, or else you will remain short of saving
   grace. Faith is not a mystery juggled into us by the postures,
   genuflexions, and mumblings of priests. We have heard a great deal
   about sacramental efficacy, but I think a man must have extraordinary
   hardihood who would say that either baptism, or the so-called
   Eucharist, are the sure creators of faith; yet see I not what saving
   service these forms can render to unbelieving men if they leave them in
   an unbelieving condition, and, consequently, in a state of
   condemnation. Seeing that without faith it is impossible to please God,
   the grace supposed to be conveyed by the mere participation in
   sacraments is of small value, it cannot give the cardinal requisite for
   acceptance before God. Faith cannot be washed into us by immersion, nor
   sprinkled upon us in christening; it is not to be poured into us from a
   chalice, nor generated in us by a consecrated piece of bread. There is
   no magic about it; it comes by hearing the word of God, and by that way
   only.

   These are superstitions, you tell me, and scarcely need to be mentioned
   here; very well then, we will have done with them, and treat of
   superstitions which linger in our own congregations. There are some who
   fancy that faith cometh by feeling. If they could feel emotions either
   of horror or of exquisite delight, they would then, they think, be the
   possessors of faith; but till they have felt what they have heard
   described in certain biographies of undoubtedly good men, they cannot
   believe, or even if they have a measure of faith, they cannot hope that
   it is true faith. Faith doth not come by feeling, but through faith
   arises much of holy feeling, and the more a man lives in the walk of
   faith, as a rule, the more will he feel and enjoy the light of God's
   countenance. Faith hath something firmer to stand upon than those
   ever-changing frames and feelings which, like the weather of our own
   sunless land, is fickle and frail, and changeth speedily from
   brightness into gloom. You may get feeling from faith, and the best of
   it, but you will be long before you will find any faith that is worth
   the having, if you try to evoke it from frames and feelings.

   'My hope is built on nothing less

   Than Jesus' blood and righteousness;

   I dare not trust the sweetest frame;

   But wholly lean on Jesus' name;

   On Christ the solid rock I stand,

   All other ground is sinking sand.'

   Some, also, have supposed that true faith will come to men by dreams
   and visions. It is surprising how a belief in these things lingers
   still in what is called this age of light; the notion is still current
   that if you dream of seeing Jesus, or fancy you have seen him while
   awake, or if a passage of Scripture strikes you, or if you hear or
   imagine that you hear a voice speaking to you, you are then a believer.
   Now, faith in Christ is like faith in anyone else, it comes to us by
   the same kind of mental processes, and is based upon simple principles
   and plain matters of fact, and needs no vision of the night. Though you
   should see all the angels in heaven, it would not prove that you would
   go to heaven, any more than my having seen the Pope's body guard would
   be a proof that I shall be made a Cardinal. Things which are seen of
   the eye save not, for the things which are seen are temporal, and
   cannot work eternal salvation. Moreover, men saw Christ, and yet
   pierced him and blasphemed him. Visions have been seen by heathens like
   Nebuchadnezzar, and angels have appeared to bad men like Balaam who,
   though he sighed out, 'Let me die the death of the righteous,' yet
   perished, fighting against the God of Israel. True faith has a more
   solid basis for its fabric than the fleeting fancies of the mind.

   I beg you to notice, too, that it does not say in the text that faith
   comes through the eloquence, earnestness, or any other good quality of
   the preacher. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word, not of
   man, but of God. The word of God is the substance of faith-creating
   preaching; it is by the hearing of God's word, and not by any other
   hearing that saving faith comes to the soul. I may hear a man descant
   upon the gospel with all the eloquence that can be commanded by the
   most fluent tongue, yet if my faith comes to me because the man spoke
   pathetically, or poetically, or argumentatively, or rhetorically, it is
   a poor miserable faith; being, of the power of the flesh, it will die,
   and so prove itself unlike the faith which springs from the
   incorruptible word of God, for that liveth and abideth for ever. On the
   other hand, I may hope for faith if I am listening to the true gospel,
   the very word of God, though the man who speaks it may be of stammering
   lips, and his voice may be disagreeable to my ear, and there may be
   much about his manner that does not commend itself to me. If he
   preaches truth it is by hearing not him, the man, but by hearing the
   word of God, that I shall come to faith. I do desire ever, as a
   preacher, to feel that it is not my word but God's word that saves
   souls; we are to explain it and expound it, but we are not to add to
   it, take from or conceive that we can improve it. We must not go into
   the pulpit and say, 'I have been working out a subject from my own
   mind, and I am going to give you the result of my thoughts.' We had
   better keep our own thoughts for some other place, and give the people
   the revealed truth of God. The theory now-a-days is that all preachers
   worth hearing by this refined generation must be profound thinkers, and
   inventors of improved theologies. Brethren, let man's thoughts perish
   for ever; the thoughts of God and not the thoughts of man will save
   souls. The truth of God should be spoken simply, with as little as
   possible of the embellishments of metaphysics, and philosophy, and high
   culture, and all that stuff. I say the word of God delivered as we find
   it is that which, when heard, brings faith to the souls of men. I
   counsel you, my occasional hearers, you who perhaps have come freshly
   to this city, or who reside where you have a choice of ministry, seek
   not that which tickles your ear, but that which your conscience
   approves as consistent with the word of God; and, though we or an angel
   from heaven should preach to you that which is not God's word, do not
   listen to us, for it will be mischievous to you. Hear you what God the
   Lord speaketh, and hear nothing else. What though he shall sound forth
   his word through a ram'shorn, if it be God's Spirit that giveth forth a
   certain sound, it shall be more profitable to your soul than though the
   silver trumpet should be set to the mouth of falsehood, and the
   sweetest music should regale your ear. The matter of a discourse is far
   more important than the manner. Saving faith never comes from hearing
   falsehood, but from the word of God alone.

   I ought, perhaps, to add that the expression 'by hearing,' though of
   course literally it must be confined to the hearing of words vocally
   uttered, is meant to include in its spirit the reading of the word; for
   reading is a sort of hearing with the eyes, and faith has often come
   and will often come to men while they are reading the word of God for
   themselves. We must not kill the spirit of the text by excessive regard
   to the mere letter of it, and we should do so if we excluded readings,
   which is a quiet hearing of the still small voice of the printed page.
   Faith comes by the word of God reaching our minds, and our knowing and
   understanding it. The entrance of God's word giveth light. 'Incline
   your ear and come unto me, hear and your soul shall live.' Thus, we
   have spoken of it negatively.

   Now, positively: 'Faith cometh by hearing.' Sometimes faith has come
   into men's minds by hearing the simple statement of the gospel. They
   have longed to be saved, and they have been told that Jesus the Son of
   God condescended to come into this world and to take upon himself the
   form of man, and as man to be partaker of our infirmities, and to offer
   himself as a sacrifice in the room, place, and stead of sinners; they
   have, moreover, been told that whosoever trusts in this substitutional
   sacrifice shall be saved, and straightway they have believed. All they
   have wanted has been merely to be informed of the way of salvation.
   God's Spirit has so prepared them that they have believed almost as
   soon as they have heard the saving truth. In many cases the only
   difficulty in the way of salvation has been a want of understanding the
   word. I know in my own case I would have given all I had, if I might
   but have been informed what I must do to be saved. Though I frequented
   places where the gospel was preached, I did not catch the meaning of
   believing, it puzzled me much. I do not remember to have heard the
   simple declaration that to trust in Jesus Christ would save my soul;
   or, possibly, I did hear it with my outward ears, but I must have been
   strangely infatuated, for I did not understand the sense; and I have
   often thought if I could have heard the way of faith simply stated, my
   soul would have leaped into liberty long before. I will not so say; but
   I am persuaded that faith often comes by hearing the simple declaration
   that God accepts sinners, not for what they are in themselves but for
   what Christ is, and that when sinners believe in Jesus they are saved
   there and then, and are acceptable with God through Jesus Christ his
   dear Son. The mere statement of this has brought, by the operation of
   the Spirit of God, faith into the soul. 'How is this?' saith one. Well,
   it is because the gospel commends itself to some hearts as true upon
   the very first blush of it, it strikes them as being undoubtedly the
   gospel of God. It is the same in other matters; you sometimes hear a
   story about which you say, 'Well, I do not know, it may be correct, but
   I shall have to look a little into that before I am certain;' but you
   often hear statements which you accept at once, because they commend
   themselves to your understanding, and you feel that they must be true.
   There are minds which God has so prepared that the moment they hear the
   gospel they respond to it. I think I hear the seeker after truth
   exclaim when he heard the gospel, 'True? Why, how could it be
   otherwise? It is so divinely grand, so harmonious, so good, so
   gracious, so unexpected'nobody could have thought of it but God
   himself'it must be the truth.' Having long sought goodly pearls of
   truth, the illuminated eye catches the gleam of the gospel and discerns
   it to be a priceless gem. Those are blessed indeed who are thus at once
   brought unto faith by the statement of the gospel.

   To some others, the convincing point has been the suitability of the
   gospel to their case, for while they have heard it preached as a gospel
   for sinners, they have felt that they were certainly among that class.
   When the preacher has gone on to describe the misery of the fall, the
   utter ruin of human nature, its deceitfulness, feebleness, fickleness,
   and folly, the hearer has said, 'Is the gospel sent to those who are
   thus lost, guilty, and impotent? Why, I am precisely in that
   condition?' And, then, when its great command is stated, namely, simple
   trust in Jesus, the soul perceives the suitability of the way of grace.
   We do not go to heaven to bring Christ down, or dive into the deeps to
   bring him up from the dead; we can neither keep the law nor find an
   atonement for our transgressions; but this simple trust, oh how
   suitable it is to undone sinners. Nothing to do'I can do nothing;
   noticing to bring'I have nothing to bring; it suits my case. Glory be
   to God for devising a plan so adapted to our wants. From the suitabilty
   of the gospel to the sinner, many have been by God's Spirit led to
   saving faith in Jesus, and so faith has come by hearing.

   In many, I do not doubt, faith has come through hearing of the
   condescending pity and the melting love of Jesus. Oh, that we dwelt
   more on this; that he loved his enemies, that he died for the ungodly,
   that his heart yearns over the lost sheep, that he is willing to
   receive prodigal sons, for he is full of grace and truth.

   'His heart is made of tenderness,

   His bowels melt with love.'

   When such texts as the following have been preached on:''This man
   receiveth sinners.' 'Come unto me all ye that labor.' 'Ho, every one
   that thirsteth,' etc. 'All manner of sin and transgression shall be
   forgiven unto men.' 'Whosoever will, let him come and take the water of
   life freely.' 'Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out,'
   that melting strain has touched the heart, and led the most hardened to
   believe in a Savior so kind to the undeserving. Men have found it
   impossible not to believe in a friend so self-sacrificing, a Redeemer
   so altogether lovely. The sweet love of Jesus has an omnipotence in it
   to win souls. They yield 'by mighty love subdued,' unable to resist its
   charms, and as if they could hold out no longer, they throw themselves
   by an act of faith into the Savior's arms. I can well understand their
   singing, 'I do believe, I must believe in such a friend as this.' Faith
   comes by hearing of the free forgiveness procured by the agony, the
   stripes, the wounds, the death of Jesus, the lover of our souls.

   At other times, faith has come not so much through hearing the
   statement of the gospel as from hearing of its authority. I may believe
   a statement because it looks like truth. I may, on the other hand,
   accept it not at all because I have myself perceived the apparent truth
   of it, but because of the person who tells it to me. And this is a very
   right and acceptable kind of faith. What has God said about my
   salvation? Before I hear it I am prepared to believe it on the
   testimony of God. He says it, and that is enough for me. I believe this
   Bible to be his book; I hear what it says, and whatsoever the Lord God
   hath said I must and will receive, whether it appears plain or not.
   There are persons who when they have heard the gospel preached have not
   at first believed it, but if it has pleased the Spirit of God to lead
   the minister to show that the gospel is of divine appointment, that the
   way proclaimed is ordained by God himself, and that God has set the
   sanction of his promise upon it''He that believeth and is baptised
   shall be saved''and has also set upon it the second sanction of his
   threatening''He that believeth not shall be damned''then they have
   yielded and given over all further question. God bids them trust in
   Jesus, and they do so through his grace. Without canvassing the
   statement itself they receive what God teaches, and since he hath set
   forth Christ to be a propitiation for sin they receive him us such:
   since he has said, 'Look unto me and be saved,' they look because God
   bids them look, and they are saved. To believe in Jesus is a command
   from God's own mouth, and is, therefore, to be obeyed, and the more so,
   because 'he that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he
   believeth not the record that God gave of his Son; and this is the
   record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his
   Son.'

   In some cases, too, the coming of faith has been helped by hearing and
   perceiving the veracity of the subordinate testifiers of the gospel,'I
   mean the writers of the sacred book, the prophets, and chiefly the
   apostles. These men are worthy of credit'they were honest,
   unsophisticated men, and they certainly gained nothing by testifying
   that Christ was the Messiah, and that he died and rose again from the
   dead. One of them, the Apostle Paul, lost his position, which was one
   of great eminence, and spent his whole life in toil, and suffering, and
   reproach, and ended with a bloody death because of what he preached,
   and thus he proved that he was a sincere, honest, upright man. If Paul
   or any other of the apostles were in the witness-box, nobody could
   demur to their evidence; whatever they said we should believe, because
   the men were truthful witnesses. Now, sometimes, persons have been led
   into faith in Christ, by feeling that those whom he sent to be
   testifiers to his person, death, and resurrection were evidently true
   to the core, and, therefore, their word was worthy of all acceptation.

   I believe, dear friends, that faith has come by hearing in another way.
   Perhaps the preacher has not so much stated the gospel, and brought
   forward its authority, as explained it. and so faith has come. If we
   spent our time in nothing else but just explaining the text, 'He that
   believeth and is baptised shall be saved,' we might achieve a blessed
   life-work, and perhaps might see greater results than when our ministry
   takes a wider range. When the preacher takes up one by one the soul
   difficulties which prevent man from seeing what faith is, and keep him
   away from looking to Christ, and when he tries to show, as he should,
   that all the hope of the sinner lies out of himself, none of it in
   himself, that all his help for salvation is laid upon one that is
   mighty, even Jesus Christ the Son of God, and that he must look away
   from his own feelings, and prayings, and doings, and even away from his
   own believings as any ground of confidence, and must rest simply and
   alone upon the one sacrifice of Jesus; it has often happened that faith
   has come through the hearing of such an explanatory word.

   In some cases, too, faith has come when the word has possessed a
   peculiar soul-revealing pointedness in it to the hearer's particular
   case. Remember the Samaritan Woman. Our Lord Jesus Christ explained to
   her the gospel, but she does not appear to have been enlightened by his
   explanations: it was that home stroke of his''Go, call thy husband and
   come hither,' which won her to faith. Such revealings of the thoughts
   and intents of the heart will occur in any God-sent preaching of the
   gospel, just because the Word pierces to the dividing of soul and
   spirit, and lays bare the secrets of the soul. Then it is that hearers
   cry, 'Come, see a man that told me all things that ever I did; is not
   this the Christ?' Thus, by the guidance of the Spirit, the word finds
   out the man, and faith cometh by hearing.

   Faith, also, comes in to many by hearing, when we detail the experience
   of those who have tasted and handled the good word of life; when the
   preacher or teacher tells how he trusted in Jesus, and found pardon,
   peace, and life eternal; when he is able to point to others who have
   felt the same, some of whom, perhaps, were even greater offenders than
   the person addressed, then conviction and faith are wrought in the
   mind. We bid you see what Jesus has done for us, in the hope that you
   will trust and try him for yourselves. Jesus prayed for those who shall
   believe on him through our word, and we hope you will be among the
   number.

   To set the whole matter clearly, we will suppose that you are laboring
   under a very serious disease, and a physician professes to heal you.
   You are quite willing to believe in him, but you cannot blindly follow
   any man, for there are thousands of quacks and impostors. You naturally
   want to know something about him. Now, in what way would you go to work
   to get faith in him? How would faith be likely to come to you? It would
   come by hearing. You hear him speak and you perceive that he
   understands your case, for he describes exactly all your symptoms, even
   those which none know but yourself and a skillful physician. You feel
   already some confidence in him. He next describes to you as much of the
   method of cure as you can comprehend, and it seems to you to be very
   reasonable, and withal suitable to the requirements of your case. His
   proposal commends itself to your best judgment, and you are already a
   stage nearer submission to his mode of operation. Then you enquire as
   to the man's character; you find that he is no mere pretender, but an
   authorized skillful, longestablished practitioner, well known for
   truthfulness, uprightness, and every good quality. Moreover, suppose in
   addition to this he charges you nothing whatever, but does everything
   gratis, having evidently no motive of gain, but being altogether
   disinterested, moved only by real pity for you, and a kind desire to
   remove your pain and save your life. Can you any longer refuse to
   believe and submit? But if, in addition to all this, he allows you his
   case-book, and bids you read case after case similar to your own in
   which he has affected perfect cure, and if some of these are your own
   acquaintances, if they are persons whom you know and esteem, why, sir,
   you will not insult him by saying, 'I wish I could believe you;' but
   you will be unable to help trusting him, unless you are unwilling to be
   cured. Faith, in such a case, does not depend upon the will at all; you
   are convinced by hearing, and you become a believer. In the same way
   faith comes by hearing. You are unreasonable if you sit still and say,
   'I cannot make myself believe;' of course you cannot, but you hear, do
   you not, of how Christ heals sinners; you hear that he is backed by
   divine authority; you see that he really does save those who trust him,
   and what more of evidence do you want? O soul! it seems to me a harder
   thing not to believe in Jesus than to believe in him, if you are indeed
   willing to be made whole. When one has heard these things, and
   understands them, surely the mind, if it be not wilfully blinded, must
   receive the Savior. May God forgive your long perverseness, and by his
   Spirit open your eyes to see the simplicity of that faith which comes
   by hearing the word of God.

   II. My time, however, flies much too rapidly this morning, and I must
   be brief on the second very important head, namely, OBSTRUCTIONS WHICH
   OFTEN BLOCK UP THIS WAY.

   One is a want of intention, by which I mean that many persons come to
   hear, but they have no wish to be led into faith. Like the butterflies
   which flit from flower to flower, they extract no honey because they
   come not for such a purpose: while the bees dive into the cups and
   bells of the flowers, and come up loaded with their luscious food. Oh,
   if men came to hear, praying to be endowed with faith in Jesus, faith
   would surely come to them by hearing. Many persons in hearing a sermon,
   are like children looking, at a cornfield'it is full of yellow garlic,
   or perhaps of scarlet poppies, and they cry 'What a lovely field;' but
   the farmer thinks not so, he is looking for the wheat. Many a hearer
   watches for pretty speeches and flowery metaphors, and cries, 'How well
   he puts it! What a well-turned sentence! How sweetly he quotes poetry!'
   and so on. Bah! Is that what you come to God's house for? O fools and
   slow of heart, is this your end in hearing the life-giving gospel of
   the bleeding Lamb? I assure you it is not this that we are aiming at in
   preaching to you. If you came to look after the good corn, you would
   care little for the gaudy poppies of a flaunting eloquence so much
   regarded by the men of these days. Come with the intent to find faith
   in Jesus; cry to God to make his word effectual to our salvation, and
   then hearing will be quite another business with you. Alas I fear you
   will perish, let us preach as we may, while we are regarded by you as
   mere orators to be criticized, and not as witnesses whose testimony is
   to be weighed.

   Some do not hear aright for want of attention. Sleepy hearers are not
   likely to be led to faith. Eutychus may fall from the third loft and be
   taken up for dead, but he is not likely to become a believer by
   sleeping, even though Paul should be the preacher. We want attention in
   order to the real reception of the word. Oh how pleasant it is to
   preach to earnest hearers who lean forward to catch every syllable,
   anxious to know how they can be saved. Wandering hearts lose the
   benefit of the truth, and vain minds trifle away the privilege of a
   gospel ministry. Take heed how ye hear, otherwise ye may remain hearers
   only, and so perish in unbelief.

   With many a want of candor is another reason why faith does not come by
   hearing. If a man hears with a prejudiced heart, making up his mind
   before hand what he will believe, he is not likely to be convinced, he
   puts himself as far as he can out of the reach of benefit. When the
   heart rebels against the word: when it says, 'If this be true I am
   living a bad life, and I shall have to give up my pleasures, therefore
   will not accept it.' Well then, faith does not come and cannot come by
   such hearing. Faith comes by hearing when a man does, as it were, give
   himself up to the word of God, like a person who is badly wounded and
   surrenders himself to the surgeon's hand. Oh, if I had a gangrened limb
   and it must be taken off, I think I would pray for patience enough to
   say, 'O sir, if you can but spare my life cut to the very bone.' When
   it is the soul that is concerned I would say to the preacher, 'Sir, do
   not flatter me, do not tell me that which will please but delude me; I
   do not want your flattery, I do not want your fine words. 'Sir, tell me
   what I am, and where I am in the sight of God, and how I can be saved;
   for it will little satisfy me to wake up in hell and remember that I
   used to hear a fine orator. I want to be saved in deed and of a truth.'
   'Ah,' says one, 'but some preachers are not only bold, but rough in
   their expression.' Yes, but suppose you were nearly drowned, and a
   strong swimmer plunged into the stream and plucked you out just as you
   were sinking for the last time, if he dislocated your arm would you
   grumble? No, you would say, 'The bone can be set at another time, but
   my life could not have been restored.' And so with the preacher, though
   he be rough, if it be the truth which he speaks, only pray that it may
   save your soul, and be content to put up with the man's infirmity, if
   by any means you may attain to salvation by Jesus Christ.

   With some, how ever, hearing does not bring faith, because they hear
   without any after meditation. There is a great trial going on, as you
   know, in the Tichborne case. Every juryman, I doubt not, wants to judge
   righteously. I am sure the sleepy one is not likely to do so, and I am
   pretty clear that the juryman who is most likely to get at the truth
   will be the man who, when he gets away from the court, having heard
   attentively all the time, takes home the notes of the evidence, weighs
   it, and makes comparisons, and endeavors to sift out the truth. So I
   would say to you when you hear us preach, sift the sermon afterwards,
   turn our sermons over, pick holes in them if you like, and find out our
   mistakes; but oh, do search into the truth, and be not content till you
   find it. If you want to find Christ, the wisdom of God, you should seek
   for him as for silver. You are likely to believe the truth when your
   mind turns it over and over. Here is a bag, and I am willing to make a
   man rich, and, therefore, I drop into it pound after pound, but I find
   that the bag is just as empty as before; the reason is plain,'there are
   holes in the bag, and the money drops through. Too many hearers are as
   a bag full of holes, and golden sermons will not bless them because
   they wilfully forget all. They will never come to faith because they do
   but look at their face in the glass of the word, and go their way and
   forget what manner of men they are. Oh for hearers who only need to
   know the gospel, and the evidence of it, and then consent thereto,
   saying, 'It is the truth of God, I cannot quarrel with it; I joyfully
   receive it.' Such are saved souls.

   III. But, now, I am sorry to be so brief, but I must conclude by
   speaking, of THE IMPORTANCE THAT FAITH SHOULD COME TO US BY HEARING. I
   will let my words drop rapidly without any ornament, and remind you,
   dear friend, that if you have been a hearer and faith has not come to
   you, you are, this moment, in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds
   of iniquity. You believe not in Christ, and you make God a liar,
   because ye have not believed in his only-begotten Son. The wrath of God
   abideth on you. You are dead while you live. Without God, without
   Christ, and strangers to the covenant of promise. My soul pities
   you'will you not pity yourselves? Hearers only; faithless, graceless,
   Christless! Christ died, but you have no part in his death. His blood
   cleanses from sin, but your sin remains upon you. Christ has risen, and
   he pleads before the throne,'you have no part in that intercession. He
   is preparing a place for his people, but that place is not for you. Oh,
   unhappy soul! oh, wretched soul! out of favor with God, at enmity with
   eternal love, destitute of eternal life! Truly, if Jesus were here he
   would weep over you, as he did over Jerusalem, and say, 'How often
   would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her
   wings, and ye would not.'

   Ah, remember, though your present state is terrible it is not all. You
   will soon die, and you will die without faith. Remember that word of
   Christ, it is one of the most terrible I know of, 'if ye believe not
   that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.' To die in a ditch, to die in
   a prison, to die on the gallows, none of us would desire it; but to die
   in your sins! O God, it is hell, it is eternal damnation. May the great
   Lord save you! But to perish for ever will be your lot as surely as you
   live, except you believe in Jesus and that speedily, for soon you will
   be out of the reach of all hearing. No more sermons, no more
   invitations of grace. Oh, what would you give to have the gospel once
   more when you are cast away from it! No more the preacher's voice,
   saying, 'Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die!' No more the pitiful
   accents of one who loves your souls, and fain would snatch you as
   firebrands from the flame: around you all will be dark, and hard, and
   the only message for you will be this,''He that is filthy, let him be
   filthy still.'

   'There are no acts of pardon passed,

   In that cold grave to which we haste;

   But darkness, death, and long despair,

   Reign in eternal silence there.'

   Ah! then it will he no assuagement of your miseries that you once heard
   the gospel; it will rather increase your torment. Conscience will cry
   aloud''I heard the gospel of grace, and I heard the arguments which
   proved it true, but I rejected a gospel which God himself proclaimed, a
   gospel which was genuine on the face of it, a gospel full of such love
   as ought to have melted a rock, a gospel that was brought to me without
   money and without price, a gospel that was pressed upon me from my
   infancy to my hoar hairs'I rejected it, I wilfully rejected it, not
   because it was not true, but because I would believe a lie, and would
   not believe the living God.' Eternal Father, thou who art mighty to
   save, let not one among us go down into the pit with a lie in his right
   hand, refusing to accept the gospel of thy blessed Son! The Lord save
   you all, for Christ's sake. Amen.

   PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON'Romans 1.
     __________________________________________________________________

                                 The Two Yokes

   A Sermon

   (No. 1032)

   Delivered on Lord's Day Evening, January 14th, 1872, by

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   'Thus saith the Lord; Thou hast broken the yokes of wood; but thou
   shalt make for them yokes of iron.''Jeremiah 28:13.

   ALL THROUGH THE BOOK of Jeremiah you will observe that the prophet
   taught the people not only by words, but by symbols. At one time he
   took his mantle and hid it in the earth till it was soiled and worn,
   and then taught them something by wearing it. At another time he took
   an earthen pot and broke it in their presence. And on this occasion he
   put a yoke about his own neck as the token that Israel should be
   subdued beneath the power of Nebuchadnezzar. This was a strange method
   of teaching. I have sometimes heard complaints made by those who are
   fond of criticizing things they know nothing about'when a teacher puts
   a truth very plainly, if he shall, as it were, act what he says, he is
   upbraided at once as being histrionic. I know not what ungenerous words
   are hurled at him. Yet after all, this was what Jeremiah did. He taught
   the people by signs and symbols. So, too, our Lord himself. I doubt
   not, that when he uttered those words, 'Consider the lilies,' he
   stooped down and plucked a lily; and when he said, 'Consider the
   ravens,' he pointed to the ravens flying overhead, in the sky. At any
   rate, we know that once he took a little child, and set it in the midst
   of them. What an outcry there would be if I were to take a little child
   and set him here and preach about him! Did we use any kind of symbol,
   to what ridicule we should expose ourselves! The fact is, we might do
   much more good if we did less regard the general current of public
   opinion, and ventured to do strange things, that anyhow the truth of
   God might come home to a slumbering generation, and the Word of God,
   which must be learnt by them or they must perish, were made to tell
   upon their minds. The prophet Jeremiah, though exceedingly faithful in
   his mission, which he discharged as God would have him discharge it,
   with many tears in great love and deep anxiety, nevertheless had a
   great obstacle in his way. He was met by false prophets who withstood
   and contradicted him to his face. Not so very surprising either. It
   must ever be expected that it will be so. If God shall speak by any
   man, there shall be some other who protests that God speaks by him to
   the contrary. If there be a Christ, there will be an Antichrist; if
   there be a Simon Peter, there will be a Simon Marcus, if there shall be
   raised up by God a Luther, there shall be an Eckius, or some other
   controversialist who shall seek to resist and overthrow him. Let no
   man's heart then fail him if he be flatly contradicted when he bears
   testimony for God. Let him rather expect it, and go on never caring,
   for the fact is, the truth will outlive error, and in the long run that
   Word of God before which all things else are as grass and as the
   flower, the perishing flower of the field'the Word of God shall endure
   for ever and triumph over the ruin of all the words of men. Tremble
   not, ye feeble adherents of the truth, who fear lest your weakness
   should make the truth itself weak, and the strong logic and the
   powerful rhetoric of its adversaries should overturn the oracles of
   God. It cannot be. The gates of hell shall not prevail against the
   gospel, mighty though they be both in power and in sophistry. The truth
   shall abide; the right shall prevail; for God is faithful, and Christ
   must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet.

   With this, by way of preliminary observation, we will now come to the
   text, and endeavor to make some use of it for ourselves. Hananiah took
   off the symbolic yoke, the wooden yoke, from Jeremiah's neck and broke
   it. Jeremiah comes again, and says, 'You have broken the yoke of wood,
   but God has commanded that ye shall now wear yokes of iron.' They were
   not benefited, therefore, by the change, but the reverse. This is
   suggestive of a broad principle. From the symbol, which was applicable
   in one case, we draw a general truth. Whenever men say of God, 'Let us
   break his bands asunder, and cast his cords from us,' they may do so if
   they will; but instead of the yokes of wood they will be sure to get
   yokes of iron. If they will not submit to the government of Christ,
   they will have to submit to the tyranny of Satan. Some yoke they will
   have to wear, and if they reject the easy yoke of the Christ of God,
   the wooden yoke as it were which he puts on men, there shall be made
   for them yokes of iron, which they shall neither be able to break off
   nor yet to support.

   So our thought will run this way. First, that men must wear some yoke
   or other; and, secondly, that the yoke of Christ is a very easy one;
   and, thirdly, that when it is refused, it is inevitable that men should
   wear a heavier one.

   I. MEN MUST WEAR SOME YOKE. It is so naturally. There is no stage of
   life in which this is not the case. The child must bear the yoke in his
   youth. He is an unhappy child that is under no control. Probably there
   is nothing so ruinous to a man as to be allowed to have his own way,
   while yet his judgment is not ripe enough to guide him. And when we
   advance into youth, we are usually placed in some position of life
   where we are under obligations to some superior, be he parent, or
   guardian, or employer. Nor if we become what is called our own masters,
   does it make much difference. As things go now, I think there are no
   people that are their own masters, for the masters are bound to yield
   to the terms which the servants dictate; and this condition of things
   is getting more and more rife. I shall not discuss the right or wrong
   of this, where questions arise between capitalists and skillful
   laborers, but I will say that if the employed claim liberty, the
   masters might very well be allowed a portion of that choice
   prerogative. As it is now, I am sure he that says, 'I am a master,' is
   as much under the yoke to his servants as the servant is under the yoke
   to his master. That a man who lives in the midst of society should hold
   some relationship to all around him is indispensable. But men are
   always for changing their forms of government. Some nations have a
   revolution almost with every moon, but for all that there is still a
   yoke upon them; and if it were ever to come to anarchy, to mob rule'ah,
   I warrant you, it would be a yoke of iron, and of red hot iron too. God
   save us from it. No yoke is so hard to bear as that yoke which a people
   put upon themselves when they reject all order, break through all law,
   and will not submit to any principle or any government, however just or
   righteous. You cannot get on in this world without a yoke of some sort.
   We are not going to wear a tyrant's yoke any of us. Let lords and lands
   have what masters they will: in this land of ours we will be free, and
   our own masters still; but the selfishness of individuals or of classes
   must never determine the boundary lines of power or of privilege; for
   we can only maintain our freedom by everyone of us paying that right
   obedience to the law which is due from every citizen, if we would
   promote alike his own comfort and the common weal.

   Away from those lower grounds into higher spheres'it is certainly true
   that we must wear the yoke. God has made us, and not we ourselves; and
   God has made us to be his servants. We are daily in dependence on him
   for the bread we eat. If any man shall say he is not dependent upon
   God, I will at least reply to him, 'You are dependent for the air you
   breathe and the power to breathe it. The life that is within you hangs
   upon a thread, and that thread is in the hand of the Most High.' Every
   moment each one of us is most certainly sustained by God. And in return
   for this support, there is something asked, namely, that we would
   submit to his will; that we would obey his law, which is perfect, and
   just, and right, and that having sinned against him we should rebel no
   longer or continue his enemies, but be reconciled to him. We are made
   dependent creatures, and from that very fact we must wear a yoke unto
   God.

   Moreover, dear friends, we are all so constituted as creatures, with
   such passions and propensities, that when we break one yoke, the yoke
   which it is meet we should wear, and do not serve God, we at once bend
   our necks to another yoke and begin to serve something else'we serve
   ourselves, and oh, the slavery of serving one's self! He that makes his
   belly his god, and bows down to the lusts of the flesh, serves a tyrant
   indeed. Something or other we must serve, not only because we are
   dependent creatures, but also it seems to be stamped upon us that we
   must follow some great principle, and must yield ourselves to some
   spiritual influence. A yoke of some kind or another we must submit to.
   The man who shall say, 'I am perfectly free, and I live for nothing but
   myself,' is so mean an animal, that he is hardly worthy to be called a
   man. In his boasted exemption from all regard to his fellow creatures
   and to his God, he sets himself up, in his own esteem, and that after a
   diabolical model, alone and apart in his awful selfishness, like an
   iceberg to melt away, and may be to crush others as he moves along his
   course. What is he but a beacon, against which all are to be warned?
   Sir, the yoke fits the human neck, and the human neck was made to wear
   it. We must have some God, we must have some ruler, we must have some
   principle, which shall master us, and be it ours in God's name to
   choose the right and the best master, or else, woe be unto us.

   II. Not to dwell longer upon our first point, I proceed to notice THAT
   THE YOKE OF CHRIST IS AN EASY YOKE. It is, as it were, a yoke of wood.
   Let us dwell upon this awhile. God grant that some who have never worn
   that yoke may, by the Holy Spirit's power, be led to carry it.

   If you become a servant of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the man of
   Nazareth, he asks of you nothing but what is absolutely right. His
   life, which is the Christian's law written out in living characters, is
   perfection itself. His precepts which distil like dew from his lips,
   are all pure and good, just and kind. It ought to be enough for a man,
   and would be enough for him if he were not fallen, to know that all
   rule is right, and to submit to it at once. When God gives a man a
   noble spirit, he pants to enlist in honorable service. He craves a post
   in the council or the camp. His heart's enquiry is, 'Where can I find a
   leader who will always lead me aright? Where shall I discover a law
   which will never lead me into evil, if I obey it? Where can I discover
   an example, which I may imitate in its very jots and tittles, and yet
   never be found any other than I ought to be?' I commend to such
   spirits, Jesus the Christ of God, for there is nothing in his precepts
   or his practices, in his profession or his life, that is not consonant
   with righteousness of the highest order, majestic in its compass, and
   scrupulously minute in its obedience.

   The yoke of Christ is framed in our interest. The law of Christ is
   drawn up and dictated by our Councillor for our welfare. If man were
   infinitely wise, and could draw up a code for himself, which would
   involve no hardship, and entail all that was happy, he could devise no
   regulations more healthful, more profitable, or more pleasant than
   those of the Savior; he would discover that to believe in Jesus was the
   highest wisdom; to repent of sin, the most delightful necessity; to
   follow after holiness the most blissful pursuit, and to serve God the
   greatest delight. Service and sovereignty blend here, as when Joseph
   became Prime Minister of Pharaoh he was lord over all the land of
   Egypt. To serve God in very truth is to reign, and to become a servant
   of Christ, is to be made a king and a priest unto God'to be ennobled
   with as much dignity as human nature can bear. Jesus Christ, if he
   forbids you anything, only forbids you what would harm you. Say any of
   you of sin'''Tis sweet'? Ah! and so are many I poisoned things. Your
   nature goes after it. Yes, and many a sick man's nature craves for that
   which would be his poison. The Lord Jesus denies to those who take his
   yoke nothing but that which would be injurious to them. His is a
   blessed yoke, because it is the yoke of righteousness, and it is the
   yoke of personal benefit.

   Moreover, Christ's yoke is not exacting. If he assesses us with one
   hand, he more richly endows us with the other hand. He in his grace
   always gives to us of his bounty what he asks of us as our duty. Under
   one view of divine truth, faith is man's act. The Holy Ghost never
   believes for anybody. A sinner must believe himself. It is a personal
   act. But yet in another phase of it, it is the Holy Spirit's work in
   the man'he gives the faith which the man exercises towards God. If then
   faith in Jesus be required, it is not a hard thing, because the Spirit
   works in men the very faith which Jesus seeks of them. If to repent of
   sin be thought difficult'how shall we get tears out of a rock?'the
   reply is, true repentance is the gift of the Holy Ghost, and when it is
   sought of the Lord, it is never denied. Christ is exalted on high to
   give not only the pardon of sin, but to give the repentance which comes
   before the pardon. To give repentance and remission of sins is the very
   office of Christ. If, then, the precepts should seem difficult, the
   difficulty is removed, because the virtues and graces which are a
   matter of precept are also a matter of promise. What is commanded in
   one Scripture, is conceded in another as an absolute gift of God
   according to the covenant of his grace. It is an easy yoke, then,
   sinner. Dost thou say: 'I cannot believe'? Hast thou asked for faith?
   Is thy heart hard? Hast thou asked to have it softened? If ye cannot
   come to Christ with broken hearts, come for broken hearts, for they are
   his gift. He will give you all'all that his gospel demands, for he is
   Alpha and Omega, the author and the finisher of our faith. It is an
   easy yoke, then, since he gives what he requires.

   That the yoke of Christ is easy, I might call to witness all those who
   have ever proved it. Never did a man wear it but he always loved to
   wear it. I think I have heard that Queen Elizabeth carried the crown in
   the procession of her sister Mary at the coronation, and she remarked
   that it was very heavy, but some one standing by told her it would not
   be heavy when she had to wear it herself. So the precepts which some
   men do but carry in their hands seem very heavy; but when a man comes
   to know Christ and to love him, those very precepts become light and
   easy. 'I could not,' says one, 'be a Christian as I am: it would be
   very hurtful to me: I should have to give up much that I have learned
   to prize.' Ah! but suppose you were made a new man in Christ Jesus,
   there would be nothing irksome at all about renouncing old habits. Here
   is a raven, to tutor it into cleanly living, it must forego all
   carrion, it must feed upon these grains sweet and pure. The raven might
   pine and repine at this as a hardship, unless by some transmuting
   influence the raven were turned into a dove. Then it would be no
   hardship to forsake the carrion, which its new nature would loathe; nor
   would it be grievous to feed upon the clean winnowed grain, for its
   appetite would crave it. And, O beloved, the life of the true Christian
   is not a life chafed and galled with vexatious prohibitions, because
   pursuits which, to the non-Christian heart are distasteful and
   repulsive, to the renewed heart are a matter of intense delight. A man
   shall carry a bucket of water on his head and be very tired with the
   burden, but that same man when he dives into the sea shall have a
   thousand buckets on his head without perceiving their weight, because
   he is in the element and it entirely surrounds him. The duties of
   holiness are very irksome to men who are not in the element of
   holiness; but when once those men are cast into the element of grace,
   then they bear ten times more and feel no weight, but are refreshed
   thereby with joy unspeakable. Christ's yoke is easy, for the new heart
   rejoices in it.

   The yoke of Christ is rendered easy by the bright example of Christ,
   and by the blessed fellowship with him to which his people are called.
   Christ himself carried it. Have you never read in Grecian story'I think
   there are one or two cases to the point'how the Grecian soldiers on
   their long marches grew exceedingly weary, and wished that the war were
   closed: they felt so dispirited. But there was a man whom they almost
   adored as a god'Alexander himself'and they saw him always sharing their
   toil. If the road was rough, the monarch walked with them: if they were
   short of a draught of water, Alexander would share their thirst. At the
   sight of him every man grew strong. Oh! it is grand to the believer to
   feel that, if there be a trial or a difficulty in the Christianity,
   Christ has borne it, and Christ is with us, bearing it still. Not like
   the scribes and Pharisees, who laid heavy burdens, grievous to be
   borne, upon men's shoulders, and they themselves would not touch them
   with one of their fingers; our Lord has taken the load himself and
   carried it, and he now says to the disciples, 'Take my yoke upon
   you'the very yoke I carried'and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in
   heart: I have borne the trial which you have to bear and endured to the
   end, as you shall do through my grace.'

   There is one remarkable fact about the yoke of Christ which I should
   like to mention. All who have borne it have always had grace given
   equal to the weight of the burden. I have never, yet discovered one
   cross-bearer among the children of God who ever expressed regret that
   to become a Christian and took upon himself the yoke. I have been
   familiar with death-beds: I have witnessed strange scenes, for the bony
   hand of death pulls back many curtains and plucks off many masks from
   faces that were accustomed to wear them. One thing however, I can
   solemnly say I have never scene. I have never seen a Christian weary of
   His Master's service. I have never heard from an aged pilgrim a word of
   complaint against Christ, or against his yoke. There have been a great
   many Christians beyond all suspicion of fanaticism, of whom none would
   suppose that they strove to act a part inconsistent with their true
   character, yet not one has had to regret that he served Christ. You
   know the words so often quoted of him who regretted that he had not
   served his God with half the zeal that he had served his kind; but I
   never remember, nor do any of you ever remember having heard of one
   who, in life's latest hour, bemoaned his allegiance to God, or bewailed
   the ardor with which he followed Christ. Surely, if remorse had ever
   begotten such a thought, some one would have been bold to utter it.
   And, verily, verily, if such an incident had ever occurred, there would
   have been no lack of historians to record it.

   Another thing I think tells strongly in favor of this yoke of Christ.
   The servants of Christ are always anxious to get their children into
   the same service. Often do I hear men say, 'I don't want to bring my
   boy up to my trade; the work is dirty, the hours long, and the pay
   small.' I have heard them say, 'I should not like to see my boy in our
   office; there are so many temptations,' and so on. Did you ever hear a
   pious man say, 'I should not like my boy to be a Christian'? Did you
   ever hear a godly matron say, 'I should deeply regret to see my
   daughter become a follower of Christ'? No, but what they have possessed
   for themselves they have longed to have for their children. I remember
   well hearing my grandfather's earnest prayer for all his household. It
   always lay near his heart that his children and his children's children
   might fear the Lord. I have lively recollections of his devotions. My
   father, whose prayer you heard just now'how often have I heard him pray
   for his children; and I can truly say the prayer that is nearest to my
   heart is for my sons, that they may serve the Lord. There is nothing I
   desire so much beneath the skies. Now if Christ's yoke were hard, we
   could not wish to bring our children under it. We have natural
   affections and common sense as well as you, and having tried Christ so
   long ourselves, that is our desire for our posterity. I have tried him
   now (what shall I say?) these twenty years. Had I found him a hard
   master I would not beguile you or belie my own conscience. I speak the
   truth, there is no lord like Christ, and no service like Christ's. I
   would that every young man and every young woman here believed in his
   name and submitted to his authority, and that they would take upon
   themselves, through his grace, his easy peace-giving yoke.

   III. If not, what then? THOSE WHO REFUSE TO WEAR THE EASY YOKE OF
   CHRIST WILL HAVE TO WEAR A WORSE ONE. 'Thou hast broken the yokes of
   wood; but thou shalt make for them yokes of iron.'

   Observe! Adam wore an easy yoke in Paradise: he broke it. Himself and
   his posterity have had to wear yokes of iron ever since. Death has come
   into the world with all its train of woes. I need not enlarge enough
   that it is a case in point. Whenever a child of God, a true child of
   God, under pressure of temptation, turns aside from the right path, he
   is always made to feel that after he has broken the yoke of wood, he
   must wear a yoke of iron. John Bunyan's illustration will serve me well
   here. The two pilgrims, Christian and Hopeful, when they went on their
   way, came to a place where the road was full of flints that cut their
   feet, and there were thorns and briers in the way; and by-and-by one of
   them said, 'Here is a meadow on the other side of the hedge, and if we
   were just to pass through the gap we might save a corner: it would be
   sure to come out in the way again, and so we should be certain to avoid
   the rough places.' Bunyan well describes how, when they got into
   By-path Meadow the night overtook them and the flood, and they wished
   to find the road again'longing for it, rough as it had been. But Giant
   Despair laid hold of them, took them to his dungeon, and beat them
   within an inch or their lives, and it was only by mighty grace that
   they escaped. Take care, Christian, take care, though you shall not
   utterly perish, you may often have to go with broken bones through a
   sin. David'ah, you recollect his sin, his repentance, and his life of
   sorrow'how he went to his grave halting still, as a consequence, an
   entail of his crimes. Do not, therefore, shrink from Christian duty
   because it is onerous. Never, O Christian, turn aside from the straight
   road, the highway of rectitude, because it threatens you with shame or
   loss. That first loss will be vastly less than the after-losses you
   will incur by seeking to avoid it. Jonah would resist the word of the
   Lord that came to him, saying, 'Arise, go to Nineveh,' but he had to
   endure the perils of a voyage, to encounter the fury of the tempest,
   and at length to sink to the bottom of the sea, and yet to Nineveh
   after all he must go. If you shirk a duty you will be brought up to it
   yet, but it will be with bitter pain. Be ye not as the horse or as the
   mule, which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in with bit
   and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.

   The principle of our text is very applicable to all backsliders. We
   have known men that set out apparently on the road to heaven'made a
   profession of being Christians, but after awhile they tired and
   fainted, and walked no more with us. Christianity was to them a yoke,
   and they put it off. I wonder whether they have improved their
   condition. I believe not. I will single out a person here'may his
   conscience single him out. When you lived in the country, every Sabbath
   you went with your wife and family to the house of God. Were you a
   Methodist then? Never mind: you were very earnest, whatever place it
   was you attended. And you and your little family were very happy too.
   But you came to London, and after awhile the general idle habits of our
   London people in the morning came over you. You were content with one
   service a day. You did not seek Church-membership, nor cast yourself in
   the way of God's people. By-and-by it was not one service a day you
   attended, it was none at all; or else you called it religion to go and
   hear the music and see the religious theatricals in certain great
   houses in London. I know not if you called that worshipping God when
   you were only whiling away the hour with sensual gratifications. And at
   last you gave up all presence of being a Christian or of frequenting
   places of worship. Now I will ask you a question. You have got rid of
   the yoke of wood: how about your shoulders now? Your Sundays, are they
   very pleasant? Your family, is it very happy? Your mind, is it very
   much at ease? Oh, no! I know while I am talking to you you wish
   yourself back in the little village again listening to the minister's
   voice once more; for your Sundays are distasteful and comfortless, and
   your week days, when you think about your condition, are wretched and
   reproachful, and your children are not growing up in the way you could
   wish. Ah, sir! I pray God to make that yoke of iron very heavy to you.
   Do you long to get rid of that and come back and take the yoke of wood
   again? God of his infinite mercy, bring you back if you are his child,
   or if you are not of his family may he put you among his children and
   teach you to walk worthily.

   We have known those who have backslidden in another way. Here you are
   now. Perhaps you used to be a professor of religion, but the little
   shop was situated in a neighborhood where a good deal of trade was done
   on Sunday; you heard it said by the neighbors: 'I do not know how it is
   you can shut up as you do.' The wife did not like it, nor the husband
   either: it was, however, done by slow degrees, and now it is always
   done, and you cannot both come together: there is only one can come,
   and the other must stop at home. Well, you have given up Christ's yoke;
   and Sabbath keeping seems to be too hard a thing for you. Are you
   better off? Are you really better off? Are you happier? Are you really
   happier? Something in your soul answers my question; you know you have
   a yoke of iron now, instead of a yoke of wood. May God help you to
   break away from your present slavery; and may you become a true heir of
   heaven.

   It may be, I have here before me, one who was led into backsliding by a
   very common occurrence. Young woman, knew you once, when your face was
   radiant with happiness, while we preached Christ, and sung the hymns of
   Zion, but you married, and your marriage was not in the Lord. An
   unbelieving husband was your choice. You thought the yoke of Christ was
   hard when we reminded you of the precept, 'Be ye not unequally yoked
   together with unbelievers.' You rejected the yoke of Christ. How have
   you found it since? I have seen a great many such marriages, and I have
   only seen one'I have seen one, it is fair to say that, but I assert I
   never saw but one'in which I could get anything like an acknowledgement
   of happiness from the ill assorted pair. Here and there it has happened
   perhaps, that God has forgiven the fault, but not seldom it leads to
   alienation of heart, and to utter departure from the living God, and
   often too, to disappointment and heart-breaking, and to wretchedness
   such as I shall not attempt to describe. Those that break Christ's yoke
   and become backsliders, shall find an iron yoke given in its stead.

   To take another class of illustrations. There are those in the world
   who will not have the yoke of Christ in the matter of religion'they
   prefer another. For instance, there are superstitious persons who are
   not satisfied with the Bible, they want tradition. They are not content
   with the teaching of the ancient church of Christ, as we find it in the
   Acts of the Apostles, but they hanker after those modern upstart
   churches, that call themselves catholic and apostolic, and amuse
   themselves by raking up the grotesque fashions of the middle ages. What
   is the consequence? Do these perverts, who cast off the yoke of the
   true Christian religion, get an easier yoke? Ask them. Their penances
   and their mortifications; their fast days and their festivals; their
   comminations, and their celebrations'oh, what do they get for them all?
   Is there one of them who can say he is saved? It is usually one of
   their cardinal doctrines, that no man can know he is saved, so that the
   only position they get in this life, is to slave on with a dim hope and
   to die with a grim rite, and according to one faith to go'even if it
   were the best man in the church'to go to purgatory. Ah, cheerless
   prospect! If I were a Roman Catholic, I should turn a heretic, in sheer
   desperation, because I would rather go to heaven than go to purgatory.
   I cannot see any advantage that is offered to a man: if he gets all he
   can get, it is not worth having. Who among you would slave his life
   away in voluntary humiliations, buoyed up with the cheering faith of
   purgatorial fires at the goal of your days? Where is the gain of it?
   And there is no church under heaven, except the true church of Christ,
   that says to men, 'Believe, and live: lay hold on Christ, and you are
   saved.' We present to you in Christ's name the greatest boon beneath
   the sky, and other churches dare not pretend to offer it. They will
   only tell you that you may get into a state in which you may be saved
   perhaps, but they do not know quite certainly: it may be you shall fall
   away and perish after all, but as to an absolute certain salvation in
   perpetuity, received by an act of faith, they know not what it is. They
   put upon a yoke of iron grievous to their necks.

   And look at self-righteous men and women who try to work their own way
   to heaven. The Pharisees of old'what a slavery their life was! Any man
   who is seeking to be saved by his good works makes himself a slave. He
   must know in his conscience that his good works are imperfect, and
   therefore he has no title, no sure, clear title to heaven. Only the man
   who takes Christ to be his wisdom, his righteousness, his
   justification, his redemption, his all and in all'knows that he is
   saved; but he that getteth Christ hath all that God asks of him, he
   hath his sins punished in his Savior, he hath had the law fulfilled by
   his Savior, and he is thus saved. Those who will not have Christ, put
   upon their necks a horrible yoke. Oh, beware of superstition; beware of
   self-righteousness! These are iron yokes indeed.

   But what remonstrance shall I address to the unbeliever, who says: 'I
   shall believe nothing: I am a skeptic. I will not bow my neck to
   revelation'? Well, sir, you will be sure before long to bow your neck
   to some tremendous absurdity. If you can once get a skeptic to tell you
   what he does believe, you will generally find that his credulity is on
   a par with his infidelity. What he relishes he feeds on without
   question; what he dislikes he rejects, because somebody shrugged his
   shoulders at it. I have sometimes tried to muddle my way through
   chapters of German neology. Thank God I have felt this is not the way
   of life, or else certainly I should never find it, though I had a
   doctor of divinity on either side to assist me. It is too hard and
   difficult for any intellects, except they happen to be of the German
   type, to be able to find a way through its labyrinths, and they miss it
   I am afraid. The men who do not believe in God, believe that this world
   was not made at all, but grew. If you were to sow some mustard and
   cress in your garden, in the form of the initials of your boy, and it
   came up as A or B, and you took him into the garden and said: 'Now,
   nobody ever sowed that seed; it grew there in that way,' you could not
   make him believe it. But these philosophical speculators believe that
   this big world, and sun, and moon, and stars, came forth without a
   creator. They can believe anything. You cannot convince the simplest
   boy in the street that somehow or other he was developed from an
   oyster, or some creature inferior to that, and yet these profound
   thinkers bow themselves down to such a belief as this. Verily, it is
   fulfilled in these days as of old, professing themselves to be wise,
   they become fools. He that will not believe the simple revelation of
   God, will presently find himself committed to systematic misbeliefs
   which distract reason, oppress the heart, and trammel the conscience.
   He wears a yoke of iron instead of a yoke of wood.

   Still giving but a word to each case, we have hearers who, when they
   listen to the word, are haunted with reproach, but never softened with
   repentance, because of their sins. They go on hardening their necks and
   persevering in their iniquities. Impenitent sinner, mark this word. The
   day will come when inasmuch as thou hast rejected the easy yoke of
   repentance, thou wilt have to bear the iron yoke of remorse. A man
   under remorse in this world is a dreadful sight. Horrified with the
   past and alarmed with the future, yet having knees so stubborn that
   they will not bow, and blood-shot eyes that will not weep; because,
   alas! his heart is like to adamant that cannot feel. Of all the pangs
   convinced and repentant sinners bear, there are none so dreadful as the
   gloomy torment of remorse. I could unfold scenes that I have witnessed
   with my own eyes, paint the visage, and repeat the expressions of men
   dying in fell despair, but I will spare you. God grant that you may
   never have to endure that foretaste of hell upon earth, for such it is.

   And what shall I say to the lover of pleasure? There are those who say,
   'I shall not bear the yoke of Christ: I shall live in pleasure.'
   Pleasure in some instances means lust, and gaiety means crime. Have you
   never seen the young man who was respectably brought up in his youth,
   after leading a life of pleasure shivering at your door in rags? One I
   knew whom I had often clothed; I supposed that he was dead. But I saw
   him return loathsome in his filthiness, squalid and tremulous, he came
   begging yet again, stranger still to virtue and to shame. The poor soul
   still lives'a life more like death than life'a prodigal whom none can
   help because he does not return unto himself, nor desire to return unto
   his Father. London dens have in them many hapless profligates that are
   terrible warnings that men who seek their own pleasure put upon
   themselves a yoke of iron.

   Oh, what revelations the infirmaries of our hospitals, and the wards of
   our lunatic asylums might disclose of men who have played the wanton
   and rioted in sin, and have worse than a yoke of iron upon their necks
   now! Oh, if there should have come into this house some fallen woman,
   about whose neck there is that yoke of iron, that she rejected a
   mother's precepts and disdained a father's counsel'sister, that yoke of
   iron from thy neck may yet be taken; but beware lest it grow heavier
   still! There are those who would help thee escape from thy sin in the
   Christian church. Arise, and flee from this evil that hath made thee
   captive, for there is hope yet. The Christ of God is willing to receive
   the foulest of the foul. Persevere not in your criminal course, or that
   yoke of iron will grow heavier and heavier and heavier, and be riveted
   to thee, till at last thou shalt perish in it'perish, and that for
   ever.

   All unholy persons who break the law of God, and break away From the
   gospel's holiness, in the long run get a yoke of iron about their
   necks. There are those in this place, perhaps, who once used to sit
   with us at the Lord's table, having made a profession of religion, but
   they gave way to drink. I know that if they could break away from that
   habit now they would. If it could be done with a resolution they would
   do it at once, for somehow they love this house, and slink in still;
   and when they pass me in the streets, half-ashamed, they still remember
   him for whom they yet retain a love, and who retains a love for them,
   and would fain see them back again. But ah! ye drunkards, when ye once
   fall into this sin, how seldom are ye restored! May God help you! May
   the eternal God deliver you; for this, this iron yoke, is often hard to
   break. Resolve now, and pray also in God's name that you may be free.
   Have done with the accursed thing. God can enable you to come clear of
   it. May he do so now!

   Another form of the same evil not often spoken of, but quite as bad, is
   that of avarice. We have known those who professed to be Christians,
   who succeeded in business and from that time they grew greedy. The gold
   they had stuck to their fingers burned into their flesh, yea, into
   their very souls and turned their hearts to steel. They have no pity
   now for the poor, and little care for the church of God. Ah, sirs; what
   an iron yoke avarice puts upon a man's neck! You see a man grown old
   still keep scraping, yearning still for more, afraid that he shall lose
   what he has, trembling in the night lest the burglars should make a
   forcible entrance, and fearing we know not what. His heart is in his
   iron safe, and is as hard as the iron of which it is made. O God,
   forgive! for the covetous man can no more enter heaven than the
   drunkard. The covetous have no place in the kingdom of God. There is a
   mark set upon the covetous man. Covetousness is idolatry. It is a heavy
   burden'the burden of avarice. Happy they who wear the yoke of Christ,
   for all their givings are a delight, and what they sacrifice is no loss
   to them, but becomes true storing'the laying up of treasure in heaven,
   where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt.

   Enough of this. The general principle running through every case is,
   that he who rejects the yoke of Christ bows his neck to something worse
   by far. Mark ye! The day cometh'I know not how soon'perhaps as here I
   stand and rudely talk of these mysterious things. Soon may this hand be
   stretched? and dumb the mouth that lisps this faltering strain. Ere
   this service is over, the sight of the Son of Man may be seen in the
   clouds of heaven, and the trumpet may ring out loud as that of Sinai of
   old, 'Awake, ye dead, and come to judgment. And ye living sinners, come
   ye also; for the great white throne is set.' And in that day the yoke
   of Christ will be a chain of gold about each believer's neck. To have
   served Christ will be our honor and our delight; but ah? the sin that
   once was pleasure'how it will turn to misery? How the rod of your joy
   will become a serpent and seek to devour you! How will you flee away
   from yourselves, and that which ye courted and ye loved, to ask the
   hills to hide you, and the rocks to engulf you, that you may not see
   the face of the Redeemer. Come to him now, ere yet that last tremendous
   day dawns. I lift him up to you now. Whosoever looks to Christ shall
   live Jesus the Son of God has died, and he that trusts him shall not
   die. There is life in a look at the crucified One. Pardon and peace
   come at once to the soul that trusts the Savior. May ye now trust him,
   ere ye leave this house, and God shall have the glory of it, both now
   and evermore. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

                          Faith's Dawn and Its Clouds

   A Sermon

   (No. 1033)

   Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, January 28th, 1872, by

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   'And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with
   tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.''Mark 9:24.

   LAST SABBATH MORNING we treated upon the way by which faith comes to
   the soul. 'Faith cometh by hearing.' It is our joyful persuasion that
   on the past Sabbath faith actually came to many, and they were enabled
   to rest themselves upon the Lord Jesus Christ to their soul's
   salvation. Now, every good shepherd knows that he ought to look very
   carefully after the newborn lambs, and, therefore, it seemed to me that
   it would be most expedient this morning to search after those who have
   just believed in Christ, and to endeavor to strengthen and help them
   against the very serious trials which are incident to their present
   weak condition. When a man first lays hold upon Jesus he is very apt to
   be in distress, if his joy be not always at its full height; he is
   untrained in spiritual conflict, and easily dismayed; the tremor of his
   former conviction is upon him, and he is prone to relapse into it. The
   light which he has received fills him with intense delight, but it is
   not very clear and abiding; he sees men as trees walking, and is ready
   to conjure up a thousand fears. The weakness of newborn faith,
   therefore, calls for the compassion of all who love the souls of men.
   In addition to their own weakness they are liable to special dangers,
   for at such times Satan is frequently very active. No king will
   willingly lose his subjects, and the Prince of Darkness labors to bring
   back those who have just escaped over the confines of his dominion. If
   souls are never tried afterwards, they are pretty sure to be assailed
   on their outset from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City.
   Bunyan very wisely placed the Slough of Despond at the very
   commencement of the spiritual journey. The cowardly fiend of hell
   assails the weak, because he would put an end to them before they get
   strong enough to do mischief to his kingdom. Like Pharaoh, he would
   destroy the little ones. He seeks, if possible, to beat out of them
   every comfortable hope, so that their trembling faith may utterly
   perish. Perhaps, the text of this morning will be suitable to many
   here. I trust it may, and that the Spirit of God will give us
   reflections upon it which shall come home comfortably to all troubled
   souls. 'Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.'

   In the text there are three things very clearly. Here is true faith;
   here is grievous unbelief; here is a battle between the two.

   I. Very clearly in the text there is TRUE FAITH. 'Lord, I believe,'
   says the anxious father. When our Lord tells him that, if he can
   believe, all things are possible to him, he makes no demur, asks for no
   pause, wishes to hear no more evidence, but cries at once, 'Lord, I
   believe.' Now, observe we have called this faith true faith, and we
   will prove it to have been so. First, it was faith in the person of
   Christ. It is a great mistake to fancy that to endorse sound doctrine
   is the same thing as possessing saving faith, for while saving faith
   accepts the truth of God, it mainly concerns itself with the person and
   work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and its essence lies in reliance upon
   Jesus himself. I am not saved because I believe the Scriptures, or
   because I believe the doctrines of grace, but I am saved if I believe
   Christ; or, in other words, trust in him. Jesus is my creed. He is the
   truth. In the highest sense the Lord Jesus is the Word of God. To know
   him is life eternal. By his knowledge he justifies many. I do not know
   that the father in the narrative before us had heard many sermons. I am
   not sure that he had very clear notions about everything that concerned
   the Savior's kingdom: it was not essential that he should have in order
   to obtain a cure for his son. It was a very desirable thing that he
   should be an instructed disciple, but in the emergency before us the
   main thing was that he should believe Christ to be both able and
   willing to cast the devil out of his son. Up to that point he did
   believe; and, though his faith may have been deficient as well in
   breadth as in depth, yet it enabled him to realize that the Messiah who
   stood before him was the Lord, and it led him to place all his reliance
   upon him. He did not believe in the disciples; he had once trusted them
   and failed. He did not believe in himself; he knew his own impotence to
   drive out the evil spirit from his child. He believed no longer in any
   medicines or men, for doubtless he had spent much on physicians; but he
   believed the man of the shining countenance who had just come down from
   the mountain. When he heard him say, 'If thou canst believe, all things
   are possible to him that believeth,' he at once said, 'Lord, I
   believe.' Beloved hearer, I hope that thou hast come, at some time or
   other'perhaps it is since last Sabbath day'to put thy trust in Jesus in
   the same way, believing him to be able and willing to save thee. This
   is the faith that will effectually save thee. Dost thou rest in him, in
   him thy God, thy brother, thy Savior; in him as living among the sons
   of men; in him as bleeding and suffering, as a substitutionary
   sacrifice, in thy stead; in him as risen from the dead no more to die;
   in him as sitting at the right hand of the Father, clothed with power
   to save? Dost thou trust him? If not, whatever thou believest, and
   however orthodox thy creed, thou art short of eternal life; but, if all
   thy trust is stayed in him, if thou bringest all thy help from him, if
   his wounds are thine only shelter, his blood thine only plea, himself
   thine only confidence, then art thou a saved man, thy transgressions
   are forgiven thee for his name's sake, thou art accepted in the
   Beloved. Rejoice with fullness of joy, for thou hast a right so to do,
   since every gladsome thing is thine.

   The faith of this good man was true and saving for another reason. It
   was personal faith about the matter in hand, faith about the case which
   he was pleading. Have you never found it to be wonderfully easy to
   believe for other people? I know when I was seeking the Savior, I had
   no doubt about his receiving any other penitent. I felt certain that if
   the vilest sinner out of hell had come to him, he was able to save him:
   and though I had no faith in him on my own account, yet had I met with
   another distressed soul in a similar condition to myself, I believe I
   should have encouraged him to put his trust in Jesus, though I was
   afraid to do so myself. To believe for others is an easy matter, but
   when it comes to your own case, to believe that sins like yours can be
   blotted out, that you, who have so badly played the prodigal, may be
   received by your loving Father, that your spiritual diseases can be
   cured, and that the devil can be cast out of you;'here is the labor,
   here is the difficulty. But, beloved, we must believe this or else we
   have not saving faith. O my Savior, shall I trifle in faith by
   believing or pretending to believe that thou canst heal a case parallel
   to mine, and yet cannot heal mine? Shall I draw a line and limit thee,
   thou Holy One of Israel, and say, 'Thou canst save up to me, but not so
   far as I have gone?' Shall I dream that thy precious blood has some
   power, but not power enough to blot out my sins? Shall I dare, in the
   arrogance of my despair, to set a boundary to the merits of thy plea,
   and to the virtue of thine atoning sacrifice? God forbid. Jesus is able
   to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him,'he is able to
   save me. Him that cometh unto him he will in no wise cast out; I come
   to him, and he will not, cannot cast me out. Hast thou a personal
   faith, a faith about thyself, about thine own sins, and thine own
   condition before God? Dost thou believe that Christ can save thee? Sink
   or swim, dost thou cast thyself upon him, thine own proper self? He,
   his own self, bore our sins in his own body on the tree; and we, our
   own selves, must cast ourselves upon him. If we have so done, then we,
   like the man in the narrative, have the real faith, the faith of God's
   elect.

   Lest any, however, should think this a very small thing, let me go on
   to show you that this man's faith was real, because it was faith which
   triumphed over difficulties, difficulties which typify our own, and
   hence it was clearly the work of the Spirit of God, for no other will
   endure the trial. I shall ask thee, dear hearer, whether faith has
   triumphed over difficulties in thy case. For observe, his child was
   grievously tormented, and the malady was of long standing. When the
   Savior said to him, 'How long hath this happened unto him?' he said,
   'Of a child.' Must it not have seemed, now that his son had grown
   older, a very unlikely thing that he should be recovered. We expect our
   children to outgrow some of their complaints; but here was one who,
   after many years, was none the better. Years had only increased but not
   diminished his pains. Yet in the teeth of that the man believed that
   Christ could cast that long-established demon out of his son. Dear
   friend, thy case of sin is similar. The sins of thy youth rise up
   before thee now: are they not in thy bones? The sins of thine early
   manhood, and the sins of thy riper years, and, mayhap, the sins of thy
   decaying years; all these come up before thee. Can the Ethiopian change
   his skin, or the leopard his spots? If so, then he that is accustomed
   to do evil may learn to do well. Can I, after lying asoak in the
   scarlet dye till it is ingrained in my very nature,'can I be washed and
   made whiter than snow? Crimes so long continued, evil habits so deeply
   rooted, can all these be overcome? O soul, if thou hast true faith,
   thou wilt say, 'Yes,' I believe that since Christ is God he can deliver
   me from all evil, and forgive me all sin. Even if I had lived as long
   as Methuselah, and had continued all that while in the vilest of
   transgression, yet Jesus is so mighty to save that he could deliver me
   in a moment. His word is, 'All manner of sin and of blasphemy shall be
   forgiven unto men.' Looking to those dear wounds, those founts of love
   and blood, I do believe, and will believe, that all my years of sin are
   gone as in a moment, and like thick clouds before a mighty wind are
   blown away never to return. Oh, this is faith, poor soul. I pray God
   enable thee to exercise it.

   This man had for a long time considered his son's case to be hopeless.
   Well he might. In addition to the fact that the child was subject to
   attacks of epilepsy and to extreme fits of fury, he was deaf and dumb,
   so that no intelligent expression of feeling could come from him: if at
   any time he felt stronger and better, he could not give his father a
   word of hope, he could not utter his gratitude for the sympathetic care
   that watched over him, neither could he hear any word of consolation
   which his father addressed to him. The ear was closed and the tongue
   was bound. Painful affliction, exceedingly painful to the parent, and
   to be continued year after year! At last the father must have felt
   there was no use in making any further effort. The child must be
   controlled, but he could not be restored; he was a hopeless maniac.
   Peradventure, there is one here, this morning, who had grown hopeless
   of salvation; he has felt as if his case was one out of the catalogue
   of mercy; he has written bitter things against himself, and supposed
   that God has sealed those bitter things and made them true; but you see
   the father in the presence of Christ believed over the head of his
   despair, 'in hope believing against hope,' and I pray that you may do
   the same. In the presence of Christ the man's confidence came back to
   him. Hast thou, my hearer, a hope that can do the same? I never could
   have believed it was possible for me to be delivered from my sins till
   now I see that he who came to save me is my Maker; he who came to
   redeem me is he who bears the earth's huge pillars on his shoulders and
   sustaineth all things by the word of his power. With him nothing can be
   impossible. I see his pierced hands and feet, and feel that if he
   stooped to suffer in the sinner's stead, the merit of his sacrifice
   must be beyond conception great. In Jesus the hopeless one hath hope,
   he who had despaired else now bids his heart be of good cheer. Oh, that
   is true faith which will not suffer itself to be any longer the slave
   of doubt and despondency now that it sees Jesus the Lord drawing near.
   It is a mighty faith which refuses to sit any longer in the valley of
   the shadow of death, but arises and shakes itself from the dust, and
   puts on its beautiful garments.

   The father had another trial for his faith in the fact that he had just
   then tried the disciples. He brought his child to Christ, and Christ
   being absent, he asked the apostles who were in the valley what they
   could do. They tried their best, but having lost their Master's power
   they utterly failed; and this must have been a very violent trial to
   the father's confidence. He knew that on other occasions Christ's power
   had passed through the apostles, and he had wrought his miracles by
   them; but here was a complete cessation of their healing energy. If
   Jesus did not choose to work by them on this occasion, the suggestion
   would arise in the man's heart, 'Perhaps his own power also has become
   lessened.' But he put the thought aside, and believed notwithstanding
   all. And, O soul, hast thou tried ministers and tried God's people, and
   hoped to get comfort, and hast thou found none? Hast thou gone to the
   ordinances and found them like dry wells? Hast thou resorted to the
   hearing of the gospel and found even it to be barrenness to thy spirit?
   Yes, yet suffer no shadow of suspicion to cross thy mind as to the
   Lord's ability or willingness to save thee. Come to the feet of Jesus
   and still believe in him. Whatever reason may say in thy soul to excite
   thee to despondency on account of past defeats, believe thou firmly
   that his power is still invincible; his arm is not shortened that he
   cannot save, neither is his ear heavy that he cannot hear. It was meet
   that thou shouldst see the failure of man that thou mightest glorify
   the grace of God; it was meet that the servants should be unable that
   the Master's ability might be the more conspicuous. May the Lord help
   thee to believe that though no man can do thee good, though all the
   pastors and bishops of the church, and all the martyrs and confessors
   of past ages, and all the apostles, and all the prophets, are unable to
   find a balm in Gilead that can meet thy case, yet there is a hand, a
   pierced hand, which can heal thy wounds and bleed a balm into thy soul
   which shall effectually restore thee. Yes, true faith believes over
   even such a discouragement as this.

   I would have you notice, also, once more, while we are upon this point,
   that this father believed in Christ and his power to save, though the
   child was at that very moment passing through a horrible stage of pain
   and misery. The spirit which possessed this poor child was accustomed
   to throw him sometimes into the fire, and sometimes into the water.
   Just our condition; for our spirit has sometimes been thrown into the
   very fire of presumption, and at another season into the floods of
   despair. We have alternated between the cold of melancholy and the heat
   of self-conceit. We have at one time cried, 'I love pleasure, and after
   it I will go;' and at another time we have said, 'My soul chooseth
   strangling rather than life; I would not live always.' When Satan is in
   a man, and he is full of despair, he goes to all extremes, and resteth
   nowhere, walking like the unclean spirit himself through dry places,
   seeking rest and finding none. At the moment while the father was
   speaking, the poor boy was on the ground wallowing in dreadful
   paroxysms of his disorder, foaming at the mouth, and gnashing with his
   teeth. Satan had great wrath, because he knew that his time was short.
   When the Savior spoke, and bade the devil come out of him, the fiercest
   struggle of all took place; for the unclean spirit rent the child, and
   the most terrible cries were heard. Still the father said, 'Lord, I
   believe.' Now, it may be, dear hearer, you are this morning yourself
   full of great trouble, vexed and tormented with innumerable fears of
   wrath to come; a little hell burns within your soul, anguish
   unutterable has taken hold upon you, your heart is like a battle field
   torn by contending hosts, which rush hither and thither, destroying on
   every side. You are yourself an embodied agony; you are like David when
   he said, 'The pains of hell get hold upon me, I found trouble and
   sorrow.' Can you now believe? Will now accept the word of the Most
   High? If thou canst, thou wilt greatly glorify God, and thou wilt bring
   to thyself much blessedness. Happy is that man who can not only believe
   when the waves softly ripple to the music of peace, but continues to
   trust in him who is almighty to save when the hurricane is let loose in
   its fury, and the Atlantic breakers follow each other, eager to swallow
   up the barque of the mariner. Surely Christ Jesus is fit to be believed
   at all times, for, like the pole star, he abides in his faithfulness,
   let storms rage as they may. He is always divine, always omnipotent to
   succor, always overflowing with lovingkindness, ready and willing to
   receive sinners, even the very chief of them. Sorrowful one, do not add
   to thy sorrows by unbelief, that is a bitterness which it is
   superfluous to mingle with thy cup. Better far is it to say, 'Though he
   slay me yet will I trust in him.'

   There must be power unbounded in him who deigned to die upon the cross.
   Come ye to Calvary and see! Can you look to that head crowned with
   thorns, and mark the ruby drops standing on his brow, and yet be
   doubtful of his power to save? Can you mark that sacred face, more
   marred than that of any man'marred with our griefs and stained with our
   sins, can you gaze on it and remain an unbeliever? Survey that precious
   body tortured in every part for our transgressions, and can you yet
   distrust him upon whom the chastisement of our peace was laid? Can you
   behold those hands and feet fastened to the ignominious wood for the
   guilty? Can you look upon that spectacle of woe, and know that Christ
   is divine, and yet harbour doubts as to his power to save you? As for
   myself, I am constrained to cry, 'Lord, I believe, I must believe; thou
   hast thyself compelled my faith.' Let all things reel beneath my feet,
   but the cross of my Lord stands fast. If the Son of God has died for
   sinners, it is certain that the believing sinner cannot die, but must
   be saved, since Jesus bled for him. May God grant to every one of us to
   stand just there where the poor father did as to his faith, and say as
   he did, 'Lord, I believe.'

   I am forced to leave this head incomplete, for the hour commands me to
   hasten on. The faith before us was earnest, it led the man to tears of
   repentance, it taught him to pray, it led him to open confession; in
   all these points may your faith be of a like character.

   II. But, now, we must turn to the second part of the subject, for HERE
   IS UNBELIEF. 'Help thou mine unbelief,' said he. He had doubted the
   power of Christ, he had said, 'If thou canst do anything for us, have
   compassion on us and heal us;' but yet he had faith and he had avowed
   it; he had not kept it secret within himself as though he were ashamed
   of it; before the scoffing scribes he had confessed, 'Lord, I believe.'
   He avowed it, too, with remarkable earnestness, for he said it with
   tears, as though his heart saturated his confession, running over at
   his eyes to bedew the words, 'Lord, I do believe; do not doubt it, I
   lie not; I do believe in thee.' But, then, he went on to make the
   confession at the same time there was an unbelief lingering in his
   soul. 'Help thou,' said he, 'mine unbelief.' Albeit that his faith had
   triumphed over the considerations which I just now mentioned, which
   appeared enough to damp, if not to quench it, yet these considerations
   may have had some effect upon his mind: they did not prevent his
   believing, but they hampered his faith with many questions. Some
   unbelief lingered, though faith was supreme. Learn from this that a
   measure of doubt is consistent with saving faith; that weak faith is
   true faith, and a trembling faith will save the soul. If thou
   believest, even though thou be compelled to say, 'Help thou mine
   unbelief,' yet that faith makes thee whole, and thou art justified
   before God.

   I thought I would, under this second head, mention some reflections
   which often cause unbelief to trouble the heart which, nevertheless,
   has been enabled by the Holy Spirit to believe.

   First, there are many true believers who at the first are tried with
   unbelief, because they have now, more than ever they had before, a
   sense of their past sins. Many a man receives a far deeper sense of sin
   after he is forgiven than he ever had before. The light of the law is
   but moonlight compared with the light of the gospel, which is the light
   of the sun. Love makes sin to become exceeding sinful.

   'My Sins, my Sins, my Savior!

   How sad on thee they fall;

   Seen through thy gentle patience,

   I tenfold feel them all.

   I know they are forgiven,

   But still their pain to me

   Is all the grief and anguish

   They laid, my Lord, on thee.'

   The light of the promise gleaming in the soul reveals the infinite
   abyss of horror which lies in indwelling sin. In the light of God's
   countenance we discover the filthiness, the abomination, the detestable
   ingratitude of our past conduct. We loathe ourselves in our own sight.
   While we bless God that sin is pardoned, we are staggered to think it
   should have been such sin as it is, and the natural feeling resulting
   from our discovery is a fear that we cannot be pardoned. We ask
   ourselves, can it be that such sins are forgiven? Possibly the memory
   of certain peculiarly heinous sins becomes very vivid to our
   conscience: we had half forgotten them, but they start up with dreadful
   energy, and cast suspicions into our mind as to whether forgiveness is
   possible. Oh, that we could blot out those evil days! We have said,
   'Cursed be the sun that it rose on such a day as that in which I so
   defiled myself with iniquity.' Thus, under a sense of sin, though there
   is the belief that we are pardoned, there may also arise the unbelief
   against which we need the Lord to help us.

   Some have been staggered, at times, by a consciousness of their present
   feebleness. 'Yes,' saith one, 'I trust the past is blotted out, but
   then how can I hope that I am saved? What a poor creature I am. I try
   to pray, but it is not worth calling prayer. I go up to God's house
   vowing that I will praise his name, and I get talking on the way and
   forget all about it, and I am dull all through the service. Then I was
   tempted yesterday, and I spoke unadvisably with my lips, or I did not
   defend the cause of my Lord and Master against that skeptic as I ought
   to have done. Only, just lately, I hoped that I had found peace with
   God, and yet I am behaving like this. Why I must be a hypocrite, it
   cannot be that I am a saved soul. Surely if my sins were forgiven me I
   should act very differently from this.' Now that is often the cause of
   unbelief. The soul still hopes in Jesus and rests in him, and she has
   nowhere else to go; but for all that the old monster unbelief gives her
   a desperate twitch, and she trembles while she hopes.

   Some others have been made to shiver with unbelief on account of fears
   for the future. 'I am afraid I shall not hold on,' says one. 'Why, to
   be a Christian you must persevere to the end. With such a heart as
   mine, how can I hope to be steadfast: and in such a position as mine,
   surrounded by so many ungodly associates, how can I hope to persevere?
   I see so-and-so made a profession, and he is gone back; and I know such
   an one who said he was a Christian, and he is a worse man than he used
   to be. Suppose the last end of me should be worse than the first;
   suppose I should put my hand to the plough and should look back and
   prove unworthy of the kingdom.' Poor heart, it forgets that word, 'I
   will never leave thee nor forsake thee;' and remembers not that other
   word, 'I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish,
   neither shall any pluck them out of my hand.' Rightly filled with a
   holy anxiety to hold on to the end, it gives way to improper unbelief,
   for it ought to rest confident that Jesus changeth not; and, where he
   has begun the good work, he will carry it on and perfect it unto the
   day of Christ.

   I have known some, again, whose unbelief has been excited by a
   consideration of the freeness and greatness of the mercy bestowed. I
   recollect how this staggered me once. I had believed in Jesus, and
   rejoiced in his salvation, but in meditating upon divine grace I was
   overcome with fear. What, pardoned, justified, a child of God, an heir
   of heaven, a joint heir with Christ, one of God's elect, secure of
   heaven, with a crown waiting for me at the last, and power to win that
   crown daily secured to me;'why, it seemed altogether too good to be
   true. Unbelief whispered, 'it cannot be.' If such great grace had been
   shown to others I should not have marvelled. If men of great abilities,
   at high station, and of eminent character, had received such grace, I
   could have believed it; or even if that holy woman, who had so long
   been a patient sufferer, had been so blessed, it would have appeared an
   ordinary circumstance; but for such a sinner as I was to be thus
   favored appeared to be too strange a miracle of love. I do remember how
   the very grandeur of the divine mercy threatened to crush me down and
   bury me under its own mass of goodness. I could believe that the Lord
   would give me a little mercy, but that he should give me such mercy,
   such unexpected favor, almost exceeded belief. And yet, what fully is
   there in such ideas, for were we not told beforehand that 'as high as
   the heavens are above the earth, so high are his ways above our ways,
   and his thoughts above our thoughts?' Do we not know that we are
   dealing with a great God, of whom the prophet asks, 'Who is a God like
   unto thee, passing by iniquity, transgression, and sin?' Do we think
   that God will only give according to our stinted measure? Is God to
   take man for his model? Remember ye that word, 'He is able to do
   exceeding abundantly above what we ask or even think.' Instead of the
   greatness of the divine mercy staggering us, it ought to console us and
   assist us to believe, seeing that it is so congruous with his nature.
   Yet, ofttimes, on this sea of love poor leaky vessels have begun to
   sink.

   I have known, too, not a few, whose unbelief has arisen through a
   sacred anxiety to be right'a most proper anxiety if not pushed beyond
   its sphere. The idea has been suggested to them: 'Suppose I should be
   after all presumptuous, and should deceive myself, by thinking I am
   saved, whereas I am not? What if I should film the wound, when it ought
   to be lanced, before there can be effectual healing.' How I wish that
   all hypocrites would be troubled with this sort of fear. It would be a
   great mercy for many boastful professors if they had grace enough to
   doubt. I think Cowper was right when he said'

   'He that never doubted of his state,

   He may, perhaps he may too late.'

   But yet, this anxiety may be carried too far, and the soul may slide
   into despondency through it. I ought to be afraid of presumption, but
   it cannot be presumptuous to believe God's word. I ought to be afraid
   of saying, 'Peace, peace, where there is no peace;' but if peace comes
   to me through the word of Christ, I need never be suspicious of it, let
   it be as profound as it may. I may doubt myself; I may go further, I
   may despair of self, but I must not doubt the Lord. If he has said,
   'Trust in me, believe in me, and thou shalt be saved;' if I believe in
   him, it is no presumption to know that I am saved. If he has declared
   that he that believeth in him is justified from all things from which
   he could not be justified by the law of Moses; if I have believed in
   him, I am justified from all my sins. There is far more presumption in
   doubting the Lord than there ever can be in trusting him. Faith is no
   more than God's due, it ought never to be looked at as too daring. If I
   believe in Jesus I have no right to say, 'I hope I am saved,' for that
   implies a doubt of God's declaration that the believer is saved. I have
   no right to say, 'I sometimes think I am safe.' I am so undoubtedly if
   I believe in Jesus. It is no matter of opinion, but a matter of
   certainty. There is nothing in this world about which a man may be so
   sure as about his own salvation, because other things come to us by the
   evidence of our own fallible senses, or by the testimony of men who may
   be mistaken; but the fact that the believer is saved is sealed to us by
   the testimony of God himself, who cannot lie. When the Scripture says
   plainly, 'He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,' I, having
   believed, and having been baptized, ought not to question the divine
   declaration, but should be as sure that, if I have believed, I am
   saved, as I am sure that I exist. This assurance is attainable, and
   should be the common condition of the believer. Yet has it often
   happened, I say, that an anxiety, which was commendable in its outset,
   has ended in a censurable unbelief.

   Once more, I have known unbelief arise in some souls through a most
   proper reverence for Christ, and a high esteem for all that belongs to
   him. You remember our text a few Sabbath mornings ago told us of John,
   who when he saw his Master in all his glory fell at his feet as dead.
   Ah, when the soul gets near to Jesus it perceives his perfection, and
   becomes conscious of its own imperfection; it sees his glory, and
   becomes aware of its own nothingness; it sees his love, and blushes at
   its own unloveliness; and then it is very, very apt to be tortured with
   mistrust, though it ought not so to be.

   And I have even known when children of God just converted have come
   into the church, they have had such a high esteem for their brethren
   and sisters, that they have feared to be numbered with them. When they
   have heard some earnest brother pray they have said, 'Oh, what a
   prayer, I shall never be like that man;' and, perhaps, they have
   listened to the preachings of some servant of God and said, 'Ah, I
   cannot come up to that standard; the very existence of such a man as
   that condemns me.' It is beautiful so see the little children loving
   the elder sons of the family, and admiring what they see of the father
   in them; but even this holy modesty may be turned into unbelief, though
   it ought not so to be; for, O child of God, if Christ be so lovely,
   thou art on the way to be made like him; and if there be anything
   beautiful in any of his people, that same shall be given unto thee, for
   they also are as thou art, men of like passions with thyself; and God
   who has done great things for them will do the like for thee, for he
   loves thee with the self-same love.

   I have thus set before you the unbelief which often will exist side by
   side with faith.

   III. Now, let us notice very briefly THE CONFLICT BETWEEN THE TWO.

   It is observable that this poor man did not say, 'Lord, I believe, but
   have some doubts,' and mention it as if it were a mere matter of common
   intelligence which did not grieve him. Oh, no; he said it with tears;
   he made a sorrowful confession of it. It was not the mere statement of
   a fact, but it was the acknowledgment of a fault. With tears he said,
   'Lord, I believe,' and then acknowledged his unbelief. Learn then, dear
   hearer, always to look at unbelief in Christ in the light of a fault.
   Never say, 'This is my infirmity,' but say, 'This is my sin.' There has
   been too much in the Church of God of regarding unbelief as though it
   were a calamity commanding sympathy, rather than a fault demanding
   censure as well. I am not to say to myself, 'I am unbelieving, and
   therefore I am to be pitied.' No, 'I am unbelieving, and therefore I
   must blame myself for it.' Why should I disbelieve my God? How dare I
   doubt him who cannot lie? How can I mistrust the faithful promiser who
   has added to his promise his oath, and over and above his promise and
   his oath has given his own blood as a seal, that by two immutable
   things, wherein it was impossible for God to die, we might have strong
   consolation. Chide yourselves, ye doubters. Doubts are among the worst
   enemies of your souls. Do not entertain them. Do not treat them as
   though they were poor forlorn travelers to be hospitably entertained,
   but as rogues and vagabonds to be chased from thy door. Fight them,
   slay them, and pray God to help thee to kill them, and bury them, and
   not even to leave a bone or a piece of a bone of a doubt above ground.
   Doubting and unbelief are to be abhorred, and to be confessed with
   tears as sins before God. We need pardon for doubting as much as for
   blasphemy. We ought no more to excuse doubting than lying, for doubting
   slanders God and makes him a liar.

   Then, again, having made a confession of his unbelief as you observe,
   the father, in the narrative, prayed against it, and an earnest prayer
   it was. It was, 'Help thou mine unbelief.' It is very noticeable that
   he does not say, 'Lord, I believe; help thou my child.' No, nor does he
   say, 'Lord, I believe; now cast the devil out of my boy:' not at all;
   he perceives that his own unbelief was harder to overcome than the
   devil, and that to heal him of his spiritual disease was a more needful
   work, than even to heal his child of the sad malady under which he
   labored. This is the point to arrive at, to feel that there is no
   deficiency in the merit of Christ; no lack of power in his precious
   blood; no unwillingness in Christ's heart to save me; but all the
   hindrance lies in my unbelief. There is the point. O God, bring thy
   power to bear where it is wanted. It is not because the blood will not
   cleanse me, it is because I will not believe; it is not because
   Christ's plea is not heard, but because I do not trust that plea. If I
   am not in the possession of full salvation, it is not because Christ is
   not mighty to save, but because I do not lean on him fully and
   entirely. O God, thou seest this is the center of the difficulty,
   bring, thy power to bear on that difficulty. I ask only this. No more
   do I cry, 'Help me here, or help me there;' but, 'Help mine unbelief.'
   That is the Slough of Despond; I carry that in my heart; that is the
   weak point. 'Lord, strengthen me just there.' It is well when, in
   addition to confession, we bring up all the great guns of fervent
   prayer to bear upon that position which needs to be carried by storm.

   And, lastly, this man did well in looking for the help against his
   unbelief to the right quarter. He did not say, 'Lord, I believe; and
   now I will try to overcome my belief.' No; but 'Lord help,' as if he
   felt that the Lord alone could do it. No physician can cure unbelief
   but Christ. He is the physic for it, and he is the physician too. If
   thou hast any unbelief, take thou the blood of Christ to cure it with.
   Think of him,'God in the glory of his person, tabernacling among men,
   working out a perfect righteousness, dying a felon's death upon the
   cross in the sinner's stead; think of him as rising from the dead, no
   more to die: think of him as ascending into heaven amidst the shouts of
   angels: think of him as standing at the right hand of God with the keys
   of death and hell at his girdle: think of him as always pleading the
   merit of his blood before the Father's throne; and, as thou considerest
   concerning him, in the power of the Spirit, thine unbelief will die,
   for thou wilt say, 'Lord, the thought of thee has helped mine unbelief;
   while I have been studying thee, and feeding my soul on thee, and
   making thee to be as bread and wine to my soul, my unbelief has gone. I
   do believe in thee, and I will; for thou hast helped mine unbelief.'
   Go, any of you who are in trouble about this matter, go where you
   gained your first faith, go there to get more. If you first obtained
   your faith at the cross foot, go there again to end your unbelief. View
   the flowing of his soul-redeeming blood, and continue viewing it till
   thou shalt by divine assurance know; that he has made thy peace with
   God. God bless thee in Christ Jesus. Amen.

   PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON'Mark 9:1-37.

   'THE SWORD AND THE TROWEL.' Edited by C. H. SPURGEON.

   Contents for Febuary, 1872.

   The Year of Grace, 1872. By C. H. Spurgeon.

   Will Shepherd's Letters. No. I.

   The Spring in the Mamertine.

   William Tyndale and Our English Bible.

   'Fresh Watercresses.'

   The London City Missionary among the Subjects of Misfortune. Part I. By
   G. Holden Pike

   Duncan Matheson, the Scottish Evangelist. By Vernon J. Charlesworth.
   (Continued.)

   The National Religion.

   The Year of Grace, 1872. By C. H. Spurgeon.

   Reviews.

   Memoranda.

   Pastors' College Account.

   Stockwell Orphanage.

   Golden Lane Mission.

   Colportage Association.

   Price 3d. Post free, 4 stamps.

   London: Passmore & Alabaster, 18, Paternoster Row, and all Booksellers.
     __________________________________________________________________

                            The Only Atoning Priest

   A Sermon

   (No. 1034)

   Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, February 4th, 1872, by

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   'And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes
   the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man,
   after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the
   right hand of God: From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made
   his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that
   are sanctified.''Hebrews 10:11-14.

   WE SHALL HAVE this morning to repeat a truth which has sounded forth
   from this pulpit many hundreds of times; but we shall offer no apology
   for our repetitions, seeing that the truth to be preached is one which
   cannot too often be proclaimed. If you lift up your eyes at night to
   the stars what a wonderful variety of celestial scenery is there! The
   astronomer can turn his telescope first to one quarter of the heavens,
   and then to another, and find an endless change in the sublimities
   which meet his gaze. Such are the doctrines of the gospel; they are
   full of variety and beauty, and glory: but yet in the heavens one or
   two conspicuous constellations are more often regarded by the human eye
   than all the rest put together. The mariner looks for the Great Bear,
   the pointers, and the pole star; or, if he should cross the equator, he
   gazes on the southern cross. Though these stars have been often looked
   upon, it is never thought to be superfluous that practical men should
   still observe them. Night by night they have their watchers; for by
   them ten thousand sails are steered. I should suppose that in those
   days, now happily past, when slavery reigned in the Southern States of
   America, the Negro if he desired liberty for his boy would be sure,
   whatever else of the stars he did not teach him, to point out to him
   the star of liberty. 'Know well, my child, those friendly stars which
   point to the lone star of liberty. Follow that light till it leads you
   to a land. There fetters no longer clank on human limbs.' Even so it
   seems to me that certain doctrines, and especially the doctrines of
   atonement and justification by faith, are like these guiding stars; and
   we ought frequently to point them out, make sure that our children know
   them, and that all who listen to us, whatever else they may be mistaken
   about, are clear about these, the guides of men to the haven of freedom
   and eternal rest. I believe if I should preach to you the atonement of
   our Lord Jesus Christ every Sabbath-day and that twice, and nothing
   else, my ministry would not be unprofitable, perhaps it might be more
   profitable than it is; so we are coming to the same truth which we
   handled last Sabbath evening. Many dishes are put upon the table at
   intervals, but bread and salt are always placed there; and so we will
   have the atonement again, and again, and again; for this is the bread
   and salt of the gospel feast.

   I purpose, this morning, to handle the text thus. First, we will read,
   mark, and learn it; and then, secondly, we will ask God's grace that we
   may inwardly digest it.

   I. Come, then, first of all to THE READING, MARKING, AND LEARNING OF
   IT; and you will observe that in it there are three things very clearly
   stated. The atoning sacrifice of Jesus, our great High Priest, is set
   forth first by way of contrast; then its character is described; and,
   then, thirdly, its consequences are mentioned. Briefly upon each.

   First, it is set forth by way of contrast'contrast with that ancient
   dispensation which was of divine origin, which conveyed much blessing
   to Israel, and which had the divine approval resting upon it. In that
   old dispensation, the first point mentioned in the text is, that there
   were many priests. 'For every priest standeth''implying that there were
   several. There were many priests at the same time'the sacrifices of the
   temple were too numerous to have been all of them performed by one man:
   all the descendants of Aaron were set apart to this work, and even then
   they required the aid of the Levites in certain inferior duties. And as
   there were many priests at one time, so there were many in succession.
   As a priest died, he was succeeded by his sons. By reason of infirmity,
   they were not able to continue in their office even through the whole
   of their lifetime; there was a certain period at which they were
   commanded to surrender their office to younger men. By reason of
   mortality the priesthood was perpetually changing; one high priest
   died, and was succeeded by another. Now the reason for the existence of
   many priests was this, that no one priest had accomplished the work of
   expiation. The good man has gone to his fathers and offered up the last
   of the morning lambs'but the morning lambs must still be offered. The
   high priest is dead, and there shall be no more opportunity for him to
   enter into that which is within the veil, but there must be a new high
   priest appointed, for the work is not finished. There were many
   priests, and as one generation passed away, another inherited the
   mitre. Now, herein is the glory of Christ that he is but one, and to
   this our attention is called by the apostle; that whereas there were
   many priests, and the sacrifices were hereby proved to be incomplete,
   since others had to take up the work; here is but one priest for ever,
   and he has finished his work, and therefore sits down at the right hand
   of God.

   In further contrast, we observe that as there were many priests, so
   there were many sacrifices for sins. The sacrifice was offered once,
   but sin was not put away, and therefore had to be offered again. The
   great day of atonement came every year, wherein sin was afresh brought
   to remembrance. There was a day of atonement last year, but the people
   are unforgiven, and there must be a day of atonement this year; and
   when that day is over and the priest has come forth in his holy and
   beautiful apparel, with the breastplate gleaming in the light of God,
   Israel may rejoice for awhile, but there is one thought that will
   sadden her; there must be an atonement day next year, for sin still
   remaineth upon Israel, notwithstanding all that the house of Aaron can
   do by all their sacrifices. Yea, and moreover, remembrance of sin was
   of necessity made every day. There was the lamb for the morning, the
   innocent victim was slaughtered and burned; but the morning sacrifice
   did not put away the day's sin, for as the sun began to descend in the
   west another victim must be brought, and so on each morning and each
   night, victim, victim, victim, sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice, because
   the expiation was always incomplete. But our blessed Lord, 'the Lamb of
   God that taketh away the sins of the world,' was sacrificed but once,
   and that one sacrifice hath completed his expiatory work. In very truth
   his was a sacrifice of nobler name and richer blood than theirs.

   Follow the contrast a little further, and observe the Apostle's
   assertion that the repeated sacrifices of the law could never take away
   sin. Those must have been strangely blind who thought they could. How
   could the blood of bulls and of goats put away sin? What conceivable
   connection can there be, except in symbol, between the death pangs of a
   beast and the sin of a man before God? The principle of substitution
   was by the legal sacrifices clearly set forth, but that was all; those
   offerings did not and could not provide the actual substitute. The
   principle of vicarious sacrifice they plainly unfolded, but they
   provided no real sin-offering. How could they? Where but in the Christ
   of God could a propitiation be found? Where else is there one who could
   in our nature make recompense to the injured law of God?

   You will observe, dear brethren, that the words used in the text are
   these, 'Can never take away sin.' The word is, 'Can never strip off
   sin.' As if our sins were like filthy garments'the vestures of our
   disgrace'these could not be taken from us by the daily ministering of
   priests. There was no power in their sacrifices to remove the polluted
   coverings. Yet the priests were very diligent, for 'every priest
   standeth' in the posture of activity, and they were persevering too,
   for 'every priest standeth daily.' They were obedient too, for they did
   not offer sacrifices according to their own devices, but, as the text
   saith, 'the same sacrifices''that is to say, such as were ordained of
   God. The priests were both diligent, constant, and obedient, and the
   principle of the truth was in their offerings'viz., the doctrine of
   substitution; yet sin still remained upon the consciences of the
   offerers, and none of them were made perfect.

   Mark well one inference from this. If the sacrifices which were
   presented reverently and perpetually, according to God's own command,
   and were presented by men about whose priesthood there could be no
   manner of question'for they had received it indisputably of the Lord'if
   these offerings were of no service to the taking away of sin, it is
   clear enough that the offerings of so-called priests in these modern
   times cannot have any efficacy. Here is a priesthood, certainly
   appointed of God, offering victims ordained by divine order, and yet
   their service does not put away sin. How much less, then, can it be
   wise to trust in doubtful priests, who present sacrifices unwarranted
   by the word of God. Their descent cannot be proved, their title their
   pretensions of one sect are ridiculed by another, they are all alike
   deceivers; have done with them and rest alone in Jesus, the apostle and
   high priest of our profession.

   If Jerusalem has no sacrifice in all her flocks, what use can it be to
   look to Rome? If Aaron's seed cannot put away sin, to what end shall we
   look to the shavelings of Antichrist?

   Following the apostle's words, we come to the character of our Lord's
   sacrifice, and we perceive, in reading, that his priesthood was
   personal, and entirely within himself. There is but one true atoning
   priest. The twelfth verse says, 'this man.' The word 'man' is not in
   the original; it is 'this,' 'this priest,' if you will; 'this man,' if
   you please; but its vagueness may make us think that the apostle
   scarcely knew what to say. You see the stars and the moon in their
   brightness, but suddenly they are all eclipsed and lost in a superior
   light. What can this glory be which has paled their fires? It is the
   sun rising in his strength. So, while we are beholding the priesthood
   of Aaron with all its excellence, it suddenly ceases to shine, because
   of the glory which excelleth, the radiant presence of one, for whom,
   like heaven's manna, it is not easy to find one fully descriptive name.
   Shall we call him 'man?' Blessed be his name; he is so, our near
   kinsman, the 'Son of Man.' Shall we call him 'priest?' He is so.
   Blessed be his name; he is the true Melchisedec. Shall we call him
   'God?' Well may we do so, for he counts it not robbery to be equal with
   God. But this one divinely mysterious person'this unique and solitary
   high-priest, accomplishes what the many priests of Aaron's race could
   not compass. They were weak, but he is allsufficient. He has wrought
   out eternal redemption, and made an end of sin.

   Note well, that none stand with him at the altar; none is appointed to
   aid him, neither before him nor after him is there one to share his
   office. He is without father, without mother, without predecessor, and
   without successor. He stands alone and by himself, this glorious one
   who looked and there was no man, and therefore his own arm brought
   salvation; he trod the wine-press alone, and of the people there was
   none with him. Jesus, the sole sacrificing priest of our profession,
   has completed what the long line of the Levitical priesthood must have
   left for ever incomplete.

   And we are told further, by the apostle, that as there was but one
   priest, so there was only one sacrifice. He 'offered one sacrifice for
   sins.' He himself was the sacrifice; his body the altar, himself the
   priest, himself also the victim. On Calvary's tree he presented himself
   a substitute for human guilt, and there he bore the crushing weight of
   Jehovah's wrath in his own body, on the behalf of all his people. On
   him their sins were laid, and he was numbered with the transgressors;
   and there he, in their stead, suffered what was due to the
   righteousness of God, and made atonement to divine justice for the sins
   of his people. This was done, not by many offerings, but by one
   sacrifice, and that one alone. Jesus offered no other sacrifice: he had
   never made one before, nor since, nor will he present another sacrifice
   in the future. His sin offering is one.

   The text adds further that, as there was but one sacrifice, so it was
   but once offered for ever, or, as puts it, 'Once for all.' 'Christ was
   once offered to bear the sins of many.' There is in the Scriptures no
   such idea as that of Christ perpetually offering himself; it is a
   childish invention of superstition. We are expressly told that he
   offered himself 'once.' Under the law the lamb was offered many times,
   the same sacrifices were repeated; but our Lord exclaimed, 'It is
   finished,' and concluded all his sacrificing works. He 'offered one
   sacrifice for sins for ever.' I do not know how your Bibles happen to
   be marked as to the comma in the passage; mine, now before me, reads
   thus:''After he had offered one sacrifice for sin for ever sat down;'
   but that which I use at home is marked in the other way''After he had
   offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down.' We do not quite
   know where the comma should be; some of the best scholars maintain that
   it should be joined to the preceding words, others that it belongs to
   the succeeding. It does not involve any point of doctrine; and it may
   be read whichever way you please, without error. I think, however, the
   preponderating testimony is in favor of its being read, 'he offered one
   sacrifice for sins for ever;' at any rate those words express a great
   and precious truth. Look back as far as you can, there was no sacrifice
   for sins, except the 'lamb slain from before the foundation of the
   world;' look on as far as you will, till this present dispensation
   shall have completed its circle, and men shall have passed the
   judgment-seat, and you shall find no atonement for sin except this
   one'it stands alone, shining as a lone star, or a solitary rock in the
   midst of a raging sea. The propitiation which God has set forth was and
   ever must be one. The Lord Jesus offered himself once, once only, once
   only for ever: there is no other atoning priest, no other sacrifice,
   and there is no repetition of that one sacrifice.

   Now we go on to notice the results of Christ's one offering, which are,
   in the text, described as threefold'towards himself, his enemies, and
   his people.

   Towards himself: After he had offered one sacrifice for sins he for
   ever sat down at the right hand of God. Every priest, under the old
   dispensation, stood; but this man sat down, and the posture is very
   instructive. The typical priests stood because there was work to do;
   still must they present their sacrifices; but our Lord sits down
   because there is no more sacrificial work to do; atonement is complete,
   he has finished his task. There were no seats in the tabernacle.
   Observe the Levitical descriptions and you will see that there were no
   resting-places for the priests in the holy place. Not only were none
   allowed to sit, but there was nothing whatever to sit upon. According
   to the rabbis, the king might sit in the holy places, and, perhaps,
   David did sit there; if so, he was a striking type of Christ sitting as
   king. A priest never sat in the tabernacle, he was under a dispensation
   which did not afford rest, and was not intended to give it, a covenant
   of works which gives the soul no repose. Jesus sits in the holy of
   holies, and herein we see that his work is finished.

   There is more teaching in the passage. He 'sat down;' this shows that
   he took possession of the holy place. Under the law, when the priest
   had done his work, what did he do? He went home. Neither the temple nor
   the tabernacle was his home. If you had asked a priest, 'Where dwellest
   thou?' he would have said, 'amongst the tribe of Levi yonder I have my
   abode.' But this man, when he had finished his work, sat down in the
   holy place, because he was at home, not a servant only but a son, yea,
   and Lord of the whole house; and, therefore, he took his own seat
   therein by right. It is a joyful truth that he did this
   representatively, to show us that while the law gave no permanent
   possession, and could not establish the seed of Israel in possession of
   sacred privileges, the gospel gives us an abiding place amongst the
   children of God, who dwell in his house for ever.

   The apostle tells us where this seat of Christ was. He says, he 'sat
   down at the right hand of God.' This indicates the highest glory
   possible; our poet calls it

   'The highest place that heaven affords.'

   There was no nobler position, or Jesus should have had it. Note the
   remark of this same apostle in the first chapter of this epistle: 'Unto
   which of the angels said he at any time, sit thou at my right hand?'
   Angels do not sit at the right hand of God; they are constantly in the
   place of service, and therefore they stand ready to fly on their
   Master's commands; but Jesus sits in the highest seat as Lord over his
   own house, clothed with honor and dignity, enthroned in the place of
   favor at the right hand of God. Sitting there he is to be viewed as
   clothed with everlasting power, 'able to save unto the uttermost them
   that come unto God by him.' 'Exalted to be a Prince and a Savior to
   give repentance unto Israel, and remission of sins;' no more the
   'despised and rejected, the Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief,'
   no more in weakness and dishonor taken out to die; he sits as a king
   upon his throne, distributing royal bounties, coequal with Jehovah
   himself. As King of kings, Jesus Christ is exalted at the right hand of
   the Father. So much with regard to the result of the Redeemer's passion
   in reference to himself.

   Now, observe carefully the result of his offering with regard to his
   enemies. He sits there 'expecting till they be made his footstool.'
   They are crushed already; sin which is the sting of death has been
   removed, and the law which was the strength of sin has been satisfied.
   Sin being put away by Christ's death, he has effectually broken the
   jawteeth of all his enemies. When Jesus Christ offered himself unto God
   he fulfilled that ancient promise, 'The seed of the woman shall bruise
   the serpent's head.' Christ has set his foot upon the old dragon's
   head, and crushed out his power. Still, however, a feeble fight is kept
   up; feeble, I say, for so it is to Christ, though to us it seems
   vigorous. Sin and Satan within us, and all Christ's enemies without us,
   including death itself, are vainly raging against the Christ of God,
   for every day they are being put beneath his feet; every day as the
   battle rages the victory turns unto the enthroned Christ. In us I trust
   sin has been put beneath Christ's feet; in thousands of others it shall
   yet be so. Jesus upon the throne expects the growth of that victory
   till all his enemies shall be utterly and ignominiously beaten. 'O long
   expected day, begin!' Father, fulfill thy Son's expectations, for thy
   saints expect it in him. Let the time come when every enemy shall be
   beneath his feet.

   We will not tarry, however, on that, but close this exposition of the
   words of the text by noticing the effect of Christ's death upon his own
   people. We are informed that he hath 'perfected' them. What a glorious
   word! Those for whom Christ has died were perfected by his death. It
   does not mean that he made them perfect in characters so that they are
   no longer sinners, but that he made those for whom he died perfectly
   free from the guilt of sin. When Christ took their sins upon himself,
   sin remained no longer upon them, for it could not be in two places at
   one and the same time; if it was on Christ it was not upon them; they
   were acquitted at the bar of God when Christ was, on their behalf,
   'numbered with the transgressors.' When Jesus suffered the penalty due
   to his people's sins to the last jot and tittle, then their sins ceased
   to be, and the covenant was fulfilled: 'Their sins and iniquities will
   I remember no more for ever.' There was a clean sweep made of sin: 'He
   hath finished transgression, and made an end of sin;' and that for all
   his people. They want no other washing, no further purging, as far as
   pardon of sin and acceptance with God in the matter of justification
   are concerned, for they are all perfected by his sacrifice.

   His people are described in the text as 'them that are sanctified,' and
   you must beware of misunderstanding that word as though it meant those
   who are made perfectly holy in character. The word implies an inward
   work of grace, but it means a great deal more. The passage should be
   read 'He hath perfected for ever them that are being sanctified,' for
   it is in the present in the Greek. The text is not to be made to say
   that those who are perfectly sanctified are perfected, that would be a
   common-place, self-evident truth; but the great high priest perfected
   for ever those who are being sanctified. Now, sanctification means,
   primarily, the setting apart of a people by God to be holy to himself.
   Election is sanctification virtually; all God's people were
   sanctified'set apart and made holy to the Lord'in the eternal purpose
   and sovereign decree or ever the earth was. Christ has by his death
   perfected all who were sanctified or set apart in election. This
   purpose of sanctification is carried out further when those set apart
   are called out by grace. When effectual grace separates men from the
   world by conversion and regeneration, then they become, in another
   sense, the sanctified; they are set apart even as Christ set apart
   himself, dedicated to God's service, and separated from sinners. As the
   work which began at regeneration is continued and carried on in them,
   they are in another aspect sanctified; they are realising in themselves
   that sanctification or dedication to God, which was theirs from before
   the foundation of the world. The text relates not only to those in
   heaven who are perfectly sanctified, but it relates to all who were set
   apart in the purposes of grace, that as far as their pardon and
   justification are concerned, Christ perfected them for ever when he
   offered up himself without spot unto God.

   II. We have thus studied the interpretation of the words, reading,
   marking, and learning them. Now, I ask your earnest attention while we
   try to DIGEST THESE TRUTHS. It is in the digestion that the real
   nutriment shall come to our hearts.

   All ye who desire eternal life lend me your ears, for this matter
   concerns you'observe that the whole business of this passage concerns
   sinners. The verse speaks about the Jewish priests who offered
   sacrifices for sins, and then it further speaks concerning Christ Jesus
   who has put away sin. O ye guilty, the gospel is meant for you. If
   there be any of you who are innocent and pure, and without spot, for
   you I have no words of consolation; but oh, ye sinners, the gospel is
   for you, for you the priesthood and the substitution of Jesus, for you
   his death on earth, for you his reign and power in heaven. This fact
   ought to encourage every trembling conscience. Are any of you saying,
   'Ah, I shall never be saved, I am so guilty?' Believe not that lie of
   Satan. 'The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was
   lost.' The gospel has for its special aim and intent the putting away
   of sin, and therefore it is suitable to your case.

   Hearken then further to me. See in the text the position out of which
   you should labor to escape. It is the position of those who stand daily
   ministering and daily offering sacrifices which can never put away sin.
   You are seeking mercy and I know what you are doing; you are going
   about to establish a righteousness of your own. You thought, 'I will
   pray very regularly,''you have done so for months, but prayers can
   never put away sin. What is there in prayer itself that can have merit
   in it to make atonement for sin? You have read the Scriptures
   regularly, for which I am most glad, but this you always ought to have
   done, and if you now do it most commendably, in what way will that put
   away sin? 'Ah, but I have been a regular attendant at a place of
   worship.' It is well you should, for 'faith cometh by hearing;' but I
   see no connection between the mere fact of your sitting in a place of
   worship and the putting away of sin; you know it has not eased your
   conscience yet, but has even increased your sense of sin. Perhaps some
   of you have for years been trying to save yourselves, and you have got
   no further; you feel as if you were further off than ever you were.
   'Wherefore do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and
   your labor for that which profiteth not?' Why stand you daily at the
   altar offering that which can never put away sin? It would be
   infinitely wiser to flee to the sacrifice which can atone.

   Now, follow on the text, and, oh, may it come into your very soul, for
   its practical teaching is that the one sole object of faith for the
   pardon of sin, is the man, the priest, Christ Jesus. 'This man,' says
   the Apostle, 'offered one sacrifice for sins for ever.' If thou wouldst
   have peace of heart, thou must get it only from this one glorious
   person, the Christ of God. I tell thee solemnly, thou wilt damn thyself
   by thy prayers, and thy tears, and thy repentings, and thy church
   goings, and thy chapel goings, as easily as by blasphemy and
   fornication, if thou trustest in them; for if thou makest a Savior and
   an idol of thy best works, they are accursed. Though thine idol be of
   purest gold, it is as much an abomination unto the living God as if
   thou hadst made it of filth. There must be no looking anywhere but to
   Jesus, not in any measure or degree. He who looks partly to Jesus, and
   partly to himself, looks not to Christ at all. If a man shall put one
   foot upon the land and the other on the sea'the foot that is on the
   land will not avail him, he must certainly fall, because his other
   standing place is weak. If a chain be made strong enough to bear huge
   weights in every portion except one link, yet as we all know its
   strength is not to be measured by the stronger portions, but by the
   weak link; and if you have one weak link in your hope, if you are
   resting in anything you are or hope to be, or can do or feel, that one
   weak link will snap and ruin you for ever.

   'None but Jesus, none but Jesus,

   Can do helpless sinners good.'

   From top to bottom, from foundation to pinnacle, our hopes must be in
   the work of Jesus, and we must trust in him alone, or else we shall
   build in vain. 'Other foundation can no man lay than that which is
   laid.' Other hope beneath the skies there is none. O soul, learn the
   uselessness of looking to anything but Christ; but, be thou assured of
   this, if thou wilt look to him, and to him alone, he will put away thy
   sin, nay, he has done it by the sacrifice of himself.

   Furthermore, here is another thought'I would that you would drink it in
   as Gideon's fleece drank in the dew'it is this: the efficacy of the
   atonement of Christ for sin is as great to-day as ever it was. He
   'offered one sacrifice for sins,' for what? for a thousand years? No!
   But the text says 'for ever!''for ever!

   'The dying thief rejoiced to see,

   That fountain in his day,

   Anal there may I, though vile as he,

   Wash all my sins away.

   Dear dying Lamb, thy precious blood,

   Shall never loose its power;

   Till all the ransomed church of God,

   Be saved to sin no more.'

   'One sacrifice for sins for ever.' The devil tells you it is of no use
   for you to believe in Christ, there is not efficacy for you, you have
   sinned away your day of grace; tell him he is a liar, Christ has
   offered one sacrifice for sins for ever; and while a man lives beneath
   the covenant of mercy, where the gospel is sounded in his ears, there
   is efficacy in the atonement for ever. The atoning sacrifice has no
   limit in its merit, the salvation of some has not drained it of even
   the smallest degree of its power. As the sunlight, though it be seen by
   millions of eyes, is as bright as ever it was, so is it with Jesus.
   Perhaps the Sun's fires may grow dull, and become dimmed in the course
   of ages, but it is certain that the eternal fount of mercy, the Sun of
   Righteousness, will never fail. He will continue to flood his people
   with the golden sunlight of his forgiving grace. He has made one
   sacrifice for sins for ever. I will come to him then. He is able to
   save me'he is able to save me even though I were a sinner of seventy
   years of age. I will come to him, I will rest in him'in him alone. Oh,
   believe me, if you do this you have eternal life abiding in you.

   A further thought. The text leads me to say to you that it is utterly
   hopeless, if you desire salvation, for you to expect Jesus Christ to do
   anything more than he has already done. Many are waiting for a
   something, and they scarce know what. Now Jesus, when he died and went
   to heaven, perfected for ever all his work; and if you do not believe
   to-day in what he has done, there will be no surer grounds for belief
   to-morrow. If faith be difficult to me to-day, I must not expect that I
   shall have any more evidence, or that there will be any more truth for
   me to rely upon, if I live another twenty years. God has set forth
   Christ for you as guilty sinners to rest on; and if that is not enough
   for you, what more would you have? Christ has offered himself, and died
   and suffered in our stead, and gone into his glory; and, if you cannot
   depend upon him, what more would you have him do? Shall he come and die
   again? You have rejected him once; you would reject him though he died
   twice. But that cannot be done; there is enough in his sacrifice to
   answer all the purposes of mercy, and if you sin wilfully by rejecting
   him, 'there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a fearful looking
   for of judgment and of fiery indignation.' This is the point; all the
   atonement that could save me in ten years time is here now; all that I
   can ever rely upon if I postpone all thoughts of faith, all is here
   already. There will be no improvement in Christ. He has perfected his
   work. Oh, poor troubled soul, rest thou on him now. While I put these
   words, as it were, into your mouths, how I wish I could put them into
   your hearts! How foolish you are who are looking for signs and wonders
   or else you will not believe. May the Spirit of God show you that Jesus
   is now able and willing to save you, and that all you have to do is to
   take what he has done, and simply trust him, and you shall be saved
   this morning, completely saved, perfected through his one sacrifice.
   There remaineth no more to be done by the Redeemer. He sits down, and
   he will not rise for any further sacrifice. He has finished his
   atonement and perfected those he means to save; and if you believe not
   in him, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.

   Yet, again, I want you, dearly beloved brethren, to gather from the
   text before us the true posture of every believer in Christ. 'This man,
   after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down.' If I
   am a believer that is my posture, if you are a believer that is
   yours,'you are to sit down. Under the law there was no sitting down.
   Even at the Passover the Israelites stood with their loins girt and
   their staves in their hands. There was no sitting down. It is only at
   the gospel supper that our proper posture is that of recumbency,
   reclining, or sitting down, because our warfare is accomplished. They
   that have believed have entered into rest. Jesus hath given us rest, we
   are not traversing the wilderness, we are come unto mount Zion, unto
   the glorious assembly of the church of the first born whose names are
   written in heaven. Our justifying work is finished, finished by Christ.
   Sit down Christian, sit down and rest in thy Lord. There is much to be
   done as to fighting your sins, much to be done for Christ in the world,
   but so far as justification and forgiveness are concerned, rest is your
   proper place, peace in Christ Jesus your lawful portion.

   Your position is also to be one of expectancy. Christ, when he sits
   down, expects his enemies to be made his footstool. Expect, O believer,
   the time when you shall be rid of all sin. Fight manfully against your
   inbred corruptions, struggle against sin as you see it in the outside
   world, and expect every day with holy faith that you shall get the
   victory. As Christ sits there expecting, he hath raised us up together
   and made us sit together in the heavenly places in himself; and we will
   sit there and look down upon this erring world, and expect the time
   when all evil shall be beneath our feet as it is beneath his.

   Meanwhile, our posture is, once again, that of those who are perfected
   in Christ Jesus. How I wish that we could all realize this, and live in
   the power of it. If I am, indeed, a believer, I have nothing whatever
   to do in order to put away the guilt of my sins. I have much to do by
   faith to overcome the power of sin in me, and to seek after holiness;
   but so far as the guilt of transgression is concerned, Jesus Christ's
   one offering hath perfected all his people, there is not a sin
   remaining upon them, nor a trace of sin; they are 'without spot, or
   wrinkle, or any such thing;' before God's sight they are perfectly
   lovely; they are not somewhat beautiful, but they are altogether lovely
   in Christ; they are accepted not in part but altogether, 'accepted in
   the Beloved.' When I get upon this strain, words are quite inadequate
   to express the emotions of my soul. This truth might well make David
   dance before the ark of the Lord'to think that though black in
   ourselves, we are comely in Christ; though like the smokedried tents of
   Kedar we are foul, yet clothed in our Savior's beauties we are like the
   curtains of Solomon for glory. The glory of the text is that we are
   perfected for ever; not for to-morrow, and then suffered to fall from
   grace; not for the next twenty years, and then turned out of the
   covenant; but he hath perfected 'for ever' those that are set apart. It
   is a work which abides like the worker himself, and while Christ sits
   on the throne his people cannot die; while his work remains for ever
   perfect, they are also for ever perfect in him.

   Now, brethren, another practical point is this, that it becomes us to
   make the evidence of our interest in this gracious work more and more
   clear to others. The text says, 'Hath perfected them that are
   sanctified,' or set apart as holy unto God. We must be more and more
   set apart every day, we must labor after holiness; this must be our
   object, not in order that we may be saved, for we are saved already,
   but in order that by others it may be clearly seen that we are saved,
   and they seeing our good works may glorify our Father which is in
   heaven. If I have in myself no measure of holiness, how shall I be
   recognized as belonging to Christ? Is it not foolish presumption to say
   'I am perfect in Christ,' if still my soul lives in sin, and loves it?
   May the Lord, by his Spirit, lead us in the ways of holiness, and then,
   walking in the light as he is in the light, we shall have fellowship
   one with another; and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son shall cleanse
   us from all sin.

   Finally, brethren, it remains for us to recollect that Christ will be
   one of two things to every one of us here present: either we shall see
   him at the right hand of God and rejoice that he is lifted so high, or
   else we shall behold him there with horror as we writhe beneath his
   feet. For his people, perfected for ever, it is their heaven to think
   that Christ is highly exalted. Oh, would we not exalt him if we could!
   Is there anything in this world that we would keep back from him? Is
   there any suffering from which we would shrink if we could lift him
   high? I hope I can speak for all of God's people and say, the dearest
   object of our life is to honor him. Oh for high thrones for Jesus and
   bright crowns for Jesus!

   'Let him be crowned with majesty

   Who bowed his head to death!

   And be his honors sounded high

   By all things that have breath!'

   Let him have the highest place that heaven can yield him.

   But, if we will not believe his Godhead, if we will not trust him as
   the Mediator, if we have no part in his sacrifice, if we oppose his
   gospel, if we reject his claims to our obedience, there is another
   position we shall have to take up, and that is, beneath his feet. Those
   feet will be heavy indeed! They were pierced once; but if ever those
   pierced feet come upon you, they will crush you to powder. Nothing is
   so terrible as love when once it is turned to anger. Oil is soft, but
   how it burns. Inflame love into jealousy and it is cruel as the grave.
   Beware, ye that reject the Savior, for in the day when he cometh he
   will smite you with a rod of iron, and even his face, which is full of
   tenderness to-day, shall then be full of terror, and this shall be your
   cry, 'Hide us ye mountains, ye rocks conceal us, from the face of him
   that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.' What a
   wonderful mixture of words, 'The wrath of the Lamb.' It is one of the
   most dreadful expressions in Scripture. The Lord grant we may never
   feel its terrible meaning. May his blood cleanse us. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

                The Real Presence, the Great Want of the Church

   A Sermon

   (No. 1035)

   Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, February 11th, 1872, by

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   'It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my
   soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought
   him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that conceived
   me. I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the
   hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he
   please.''Song of Solomon 3:4-5.

   IS IT NECESSARY to say that the Lord Jesus Christ is no longer
   corporeally present in his church? It ought not to be needful to assert
   so evident a truth; and yet it is important to do so, since there are
   some who teach that in what they are pleased to call 'the Holy
   Sacrament.' Christ is actually present in his flesh and blood. Such
   persons unwittingly deny the real humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ,
   for if he has indeed assumed our humanity, and is in all points made
   like unto his brethren, his flesh and blood cannot be in two places at
   one time. Our bodily humanity could not be present in more places than
   one at one time, and if Christ's humanity be like ours it cannot be in
   an unlimited number of places at once; in fact, it can only be in one
   place. Where that place is we know from Scripture, for he sitteth at
   the right hand of God, expecting till his enemies be made his
   footstool. Unless you are to suppose that the humanity of Christ is
   something altogether different from ours, it cannot be here and there
   and everywhere; but to suppose that it is a different humanity from
   ours is to deny that he is Incarnate in our nature. Our Lord Jesus told
   his disciples that he would go away, and he has gone away. He ascended
   into heaven, bearing humanity up to the throne of God. 'He is not here,
   for he is risen.'

   Remember, also, that because the Lord Jesus is absent corporeally, the
   Holy Spirit the Comforter is with us, for he especially said, 'If I go
   not away, the Comforter will not come unto you: but if I depart, I will
   send him unto you.' Those who believe that Christ's flesh and blood are
   or can be present on earth, deny the presence of the Holy Spirit; for
   the Scripture is plain enough upon that point'that the bodily absence
   of our Lord is the cause and condition of the presence of the
   Comforter. If Jesus dwells still corporeally upon the earth, then the
   Spirit of God is not upon the earth. Many other most serious errors
   follow from the supposition that the humanity of the Redeemer is
   present anywhere except at the right hand of God, even the Father; yet
   it is an imagination which lies at the basis of the sacramental system,
   and thousands are greatly enamoured of it.

   No word of mine this morning is intended to have the remotest
   connection with any sacramental presence of the corporeal nature of our
   Lord; our mind has a far other matter before it. Let us, therefore,
   having guarded ourselves so as not to be misunderstood, proceed to
   speak of another presence of our blessed Lord. The fact is, that Christ
   Jesus, the Lord, is present in his church by the Holy Spirit. The Holy
   Spirit is this day the representative of Christ in the midst of the
   church, and it is in the power and the energy of the Holy Ghost that
   Christ is with us always, and will be even to the end of the world. As
   God, Jesus is everywhere; as man, he is only in heaven; as God and man
   in one person, Mediator and Head of the Church, he is present with us
   by the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, whom the Father has sent in his name.
   It is by the working of the Spirit of God that Christ's presence in the
   church is manifested; and we are to expect no other presence than that:
   we have the spiritual divine presence of the second person of the
   blessed Trinity, and the presence of Christ Jesus also in the power of
   his representative on earth, the Holy Ghost. This presence, not a
   bodily but a spiritual presence, is the glory of the church of God.
   When she is without it she is shorn of her strength; when she possesses
   it all good things ensue. Brethren, if a church be without the Spirit
   of God in it, it may have a name to live, but it is dead, and, you
   know, that after death there follows corruption, corruption which
   breeds foulness and disease. Hence, those churches which have turned
   aside unto error, have not only lost all power to do good, but they
   have become obnoxious and the causes of great evil in the midst of the
   world. If any professing church abides not in Christ it is cast forth
   as a branch and is withered; and while it is decaying, it is injurious,
   and there is need for the world's welfare that it be utterly destroyed.
   We must have Christ in the church, or the body which was meant to be
   the medium of the greatest good becomes the source of the grossest
   evil. Let the Spirit of God be in the church, then there is power given
   to all her ministries; whether they be ministries of public testimony
   in the preaching of the word, or ministries of holy love amongst the
   brethren, or ministries of individual earnestness to the outside world,
   they will all be clothed with energy, in the fullness of the power of
   the Lord Jesus. Then her ordinances become truly profitable, then
   baptism is burial with the Lord, and the sacred supper is a feast of
   love; then the communion of the brethren in their solemn prayer and
   praise becomes deep and joyful, and their whole life and walk are
   bright with the glow of heaven. In the presence of the Lord the graces
   of the saints are developed; the church grows rich in all spiritual
   gifts; her warfare becomes victorious, and her continual worship sweet
   as the incense of the golden censor. What the moon is to the night, or
   the sun to the day, or the Nile to Egypt, or the dew to the tender
   herb, or the soul to the human frame, that is the presence of Jesus to
   his church. Give us the Spirit of God and we will ask no endowments
   from the State, nor sigh for the prestige of princely patronage. Endow
   us, O God, with the Holy Ghost, and we have all we need. The poverty of
   the members, their want of learning, their want of rank, all these
   shall be as nothing. The Holy Ghost can make amends for all
   deficiencies, and clothe his poor and obscure people with an energy at
   which the world shall tremble. This made the apostolic church mighty,
   she had the Holy Ghost outpoured upon her: the lack of this made the
   medieval ages dark as midnight, for men contended about words and
   letters, but forgot the Spirit: the return of this inestimable blessing
   has given us every true revival: the working of the eternal Spirit, the
   presence of Christ in the midst of his people is the Sun of
   Righteousness arising with healing beneath his wings. This has been our
   confidence, as a church, these eighteen years, and if we are yet to see
   greater and better things, we must still rely on this same strength,
   the divine presence of Jesus Christ by the wonder-working Spirit. 'Not
   by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.'

   It becomes then the great desire of every earnest Christian who loves
   the church of God, that Christ should be in the church, and that by his
   Spirit he should work wonders there, and I have selected this text with
   the view of stirring up the spiritual-minded among you to seek so great
   a blessing. Let me endeavor, in opening up this blessed text, to show
   the means and the course of action necessary if we would see the church
   revived by her Lord's presence.

   I. And first, we learn from the text that before ever we can bring the
   Well-Beloved into our mother's house, the church, WE MUST FIND HIM
   PERSONALLY FOR OURSELVES.

   We begin with that. 'It was but a little that I passed from them, but I
   found him whom my soul loveth.' How can we bring into the chamber of
   the church him whom we have not yet met with ourselves? How can we
   communicate grace to others instrumentally, unless, first of all, we
   have received it into our own hearts? I am not now about to speak of
   the need of conversion; we all know that no spiritual act can be
   performed until we become spiritual men; but I am now speaking about
   something higher than bare conversion. If we would bless the church, we
   must ourselves occupy a higher platform than that of being merely
   saved; we must be believers, walking in fellowship with Christ, and
   having, in that respect, found him whom our soul loveth. There are many
   believers who have only just enough grace to enable us to hope that
   they are alive; they have no strength with which to work for God's
   cause, they have not an arm to lend to the help of others, neither can
   they even see that which would comfort others, for they are blind, and
   cannot see afar off, they want all their sight, and all their strength,
   for themselves. Those who are to bring the Well-Beloved into our
   mother's house, must be of another kind. They must get beyond the
   feebleness which is full of doubting and fearing, into the assurance
   which grasps the Savior, and the fellowship which lives in daily
   communion with him. I know there are some such in this church, and I
   would single them out, and speak to them thus: 'Brother, if thou
   wouldst bring Christ into the church which thou lovest, then, first of
   all, thine inmost soul must so love Christ, that thou canst not live
   without his company. This must be thy cry: 'Saw ye him whom my soul
   loveth?' and this must be the goal of thine aspirations: 'I have found
   him whom my soul loveth.' It must not be talk, it must be soul-love; it
   must not be a profession of affection for Jesus, but the inmost bowels
   of our being must be moved by his name. The words are very strong, 'him
   whom my soul loveth;' as if though the spouse might love the daughters
   of Jerusalem, might love the watchmen of the city, might love them all
   in their place, yet her soul's love, the essence of her love, her
   deepest, fondest, purest, and most real love, was all for him. Are
   there not such hearts here, virgin minds in whom Christ is first, last,
   midst, chief, and all in all? Oh, if there be, ye are the men, ye are
   the women, who, finding your Beloved, can bring him into the church.
   May God multiply your number, and may each of you have compassion on
   the languishing church of this chill age, and labor to restore to her
   the glory which has faded from her brow. Pray ye for Laodicea in her
   lukewarmness, and Sardis in her spiritual death; but you will only
   prevail in proportion as your inmost soul loves the Redeemer and abides
   in his love.

   These ardent lovers of Jesus must diligently seek him. The chapter
   before us says that the spouse sought him, sought him on her bed,
   sought him in the streets, sought him in the broadways, sought him at
   last at the lips of the watchmen, sought him everywhere where he was
   likely to be found. We must enjoy the perpetual fellowship of Jesus. We
   who love him in our souls cannot rest until we know that he is with us.
   I fear that with some of us our sins have grieved him, and he has
   betaken himself to the far-off 'mountains of myrrh and hills of
   frankincense.' It may be our lax living, our neglect of prayer, or some
   other fault, has taken from us the light of his countenance. Let us
   resolve this morning that there shall be no rest unto our souls until
   once again he has returned unto us in the fullness of his manifested
   love, to abide in our hearts. Seek him, brother, seek him, sister. He
   is not far from any of you, but do seek him with an intense longing for
   him, for until thou dost thou art not the man to bring him into the
   assembly of the brethren. Labor to bring Jesus into the chambers of the
   church, but first be sure that thou hast him thyself, or thy zeal will
   be hypocrisy.

   In seeking our Lord we must use all ministries. The spouse enquired of
   the watchmen. We are not to despise God's servants, for he is usually
   pleased to bless us through them, and it would be ungrateful both to
   him and to them to pass them by as useless. But, while we use the
   ministries, we must go beyond them. The spouse did not find her Lord
   through the watchmen; but she says, 'it was but a little that I passed
   from them, that I found him whom my soul loveth.' I charge you, my dear
   hearers, never rest content with listening to me. Do not imagine that
   hearing the truth preached simply and earnestly will of itself be a
   blessing to your souls. Far, far beyond the servant, pass to the
   Master. Be this the longing of each heart, each Sabbath-day, 'Lord,
   give me fellowship with thyself.' True, we are led to see Jesus
   sometimes, and I hope often, through listening to the truth proclaimed,
   but, O Lord, it is no outer court worship that will satisfy us we want
   to come into the holy of holies and stand at the mercy-seat itself. It
   is no seeing thee afar off and hearing about thee that will content our
   spirits, we must draw nigh unto thee, and behold thee as the world
   cannot. Like Simeon, we must take thee into our arms or we cannot say
   that we have seen God's salvation: like John, we must lean our heads
   upon the bosom or we cannot rest. Thine apostles are well enough, thy
   prophets well enough, thy evangelists well enough; but oh, we feel
   constrained to go beyond them all, for we thirst after fellowship with
   thee, our Savior. Those who feel thus will bless the church, but only
   such.

   Note, that we must search to the very utmost till we find our Beloved.
   The Christian must leave no stone unturned till he gets back his
   fellowship with Christ. If any sin obstructs the way, it must be
   rigorously given up; if there be any neglected duty, it must be
   earnestly discharged; if there be any higher walk of grace, which is
   necessary to continuous fellowship, we must ascend it, fearing no hill
   of difficulty. We must not say, 'there is a lion in the way''if there
   be lions we must slay them; if the way be rough we must tread it; we
   must go on hands and knees if we cannot run; but we must reach to
   fellowship with Jesus; we must have Christ or pine till we do.
   Sacrifices we must make and penalties we must endure, but to Christ we
   must come, for we are feeble when we are absent from him, and quite
   incapable of rendering any great service to the church, till once for
   all we can say, 'I found him, I held him, and I would not let him go.'
   O dear brethren and sisters, I know there are some of you who can enter
   into what I mean; but I would to God there were many more to whom the
   first thought of life was Christ Jesus. Oh, for more Enochs, men who
   walk with God, whose habitual spirit is that of close communion with
   Jesus, meditating upon him, yea, more than that, sympathizing with him,
   drinking into his spirit, changed into his likeness, living over again
   his life, because he is in them the monarch of their souls. O that we
   had a chosen band of elect spirits of this race, for surely the whole
   church would be revived through their influence; God, even our own God,
   would bless us; and we should see bright, halcyon days dawning for the
   bride of Christ. Here, then, is the first point: we must find the Lord
   Jesus for ourselves, or we cannot bring him into our mother's house.

   I would beg every believer here to ask himself a few questions, such as
   these: 'Am I walking in constant fellowship with Christ? If I am not,
   why not? Is it that I am worldly? Is it that I am proud, or indolent,
   or envious, or careless? Am I indulging myself in any sin? Is there
   anything whatever that divides me from Christ my Lord?' Let this be the
   resolution of every one of the Lord's people: 'From this time forth I
   will seek unto the Lord my Savior, and I will not be satisfied until I
   can say, 'I am coming up from the wilderness leaning upon the
   Beloved.''

   II. This brings us to the second point of the subject. If we would be a
   blessing to the church, and have already found Christ, WE MUST TAKE
   CARE TO RETAIN HIM. 'I found him whom my soul loveth; I held him, and I
   would not let him go.' From this I learn that in order to be of great
   use to the church of God, it is needful for those who commune with
   Christ to continue in that communion. How comparatively easy it is to
   climb to the top of Pisgah! It needs but a little effort; many bold and
   gracious spirits are fully equal to it. But to keep there, to abide in
   that mountain, this is the difficulty. To come to Christ, and to sit
   down at his feet, is a simple thing enough for believers, and many of
   us have attained to it; but to sit day after day at the Master's feet
   is quite another matter. Oh, could I always be as I sometimes am! Could
   I not only rise above but remain there! But, alas, our spiritual nature
   is too much like this weather'it is balmy to-day; one would think that
   spring or summer had come; but, perhaps, to-night we may be chilled
   with frost and tomorrow drenched with rain. Ah, how fickle are our
   spirits. We are walking with Christ, rejoicing, leaping for joy; and
   anon the cold frosts of worldliness come over us, and we depart from
   him. Ye will never be strong to impart great blessings to others till
   you cease to wander, and learn the meaning of that text: 'Abide in me.'
   Note well, it is not 'Look at me;' nor 'Come near to me, and then go
   away from me,' but 'Abide in me.' The branch does not leave the vine
   and then leap back again to the stock; you never saw a living branch of
   the vine roaming into the corners of the vineyard, or rambling over the
   wall; it abides in connection with the parent stem at all times, and
   even so should it be with the Christian.

   Mark, that according to the text, it is very apparent that Jesus will
   go away if he is not held. 'I held him and I would not let him go;' as
   if he would have gone if he had not been firmly retained. When he met
   with Jacob that night at the Jabbok, he said, 'Let me go.' He would not
   go without Jacob's letting him, but he would have gone if Jacob had
   loosed his hold. The patriarch replied, 'I will not let thee go, except
   thou bless me.' This is one of Christ's ways and manners; it is one of
   the peculiarities of his character. When he walked to Emmaus with the
   two disciples, 'he made as if he would have gone further:' they might
   have known it was none other than the Angel of the Covenant by that
   very habit. He would have gone further, but they constrained him,
   saying, 'Abide with us for the day is far spent.' If you are willing to
   lose Christ's company he is never intrusive, he will go away from you,
   and leave you till you know his value and begin to pine for him. 'I
   will go,' says he, 'and return to my place, till they acknowledge their
   offense, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me
   early.' He will go unless you hold him.

   But note, next, he is very willing to be held. Who could hold him if he
   were not? He is the omnipotent Savior, and if he willed to withdraw he
   could do so: let us hold him as we might. But, mark his condescension.
   When his spouse said, 'I held him, and I would not let him go,' he did
   not go, he could not go, for his love held him as well as her hands.
   Christ is willing to be held. He loves that sacred violence which takes
   him by force, that holy diligence which leaves not a gap open by which
   he may escape, but shuts every door, bars every bolt, and saith, 'I
   have thee now and I will take care that if I lose thee it shall be
   through no fault of mine.' Jesus is willing enough to be retained by
   hearts which are full of his love.

   And, brethren, whenever you have Christ, please to remember that you
   are able to hold him. She who held him in the Song was no stronger than
   you are; she was but a feeble woman, poorly fed under the Old Testament
   dispensation; you have drunk the new wine of the new covenant, and you
   are stronger than she. You can hold him, and he will not be able to go
   from you. 'How,' say you, 'shall I be able to hold him?' Oh, have you
   grasped him? Is he with you? Now, then, hold him fast by your faith;
   trust him implicitly, rest in him for every day's cares, for every
   moments. Walk by faith and he will walk with you. Hold him also with
   the grasp of love. Let your whole heart go out towards him. Embrace him
   with the arms of mighty affection, enchain him with ardent admiration.
   Lay hold upon him by faith, and clasp him with love. Be also much in
   prayer. Prayer casts a chain about him. He never leaves the heart that
   prays. There is a sweet perfume about prayer that always attracts the
   Lord; wherever he perceives it rising up to heaven there will he be.
   Hold him, too, by your obedience to him. Never quarrel with him. Let
   him have his way. He will stop in any house where he can be master; he
   will stay nowhere where some other will lords it over his. Watch his
   words; be careful to obey them all. Be very tender in your conduct, so
   that nothing grieves him. Show to him that you are ready to suffer for
   his sake. I believe that where there is a prayerful, careful, holy,
   loving, believing walk towards Jesus, the fellowship of the saint with
   his Lord will not be broken, but it may continue for months and years.
   There is no reason, except in ourselves, why fellowship with Jesus
   should not continue throughout an entire life and oh, if it did, it
   would make earth into heaven, and lift us up to the condition of
   angels, if not beyond them, and we should be the men who would bring
   Christ into the church, and through the church into the world. The
   church would be blest, and God would be glorified, and souls would be
   saved, if there were some among us who thus held him, and would not let
   him go.

   I want to call your attention to one thought before I leave this, and
   that is, the spouse says, 'I held him.' Now, a great many persons in
   the world are holding their creed, and if it is a correct one I hope
   they will hold it; but that is the main business of their religious
   life; they do nothing else but hold this doctrine or that. Hold it,
   brother, hold it: it would be a pity you should let it go if it be the
   truth, but still it is more important to hold your Lord. Certain others
   are engrossed in holding scriptural ordinances, and saying, 'I hold
   this and I hold that.' Well, hold it brother; if it is God's ordinance
   do not let it go. But, after all, if there be anything I hold above all
   else, I hold him. Is not that the best grip a soul ever gets, when she
   lays hold of Christ? 'I held him and I would not let him go.' Ah, Lord,
   I may be mistaken about doctrine, but I am not mistaken about thee. I
   may, perhaps, be staggered in my belief of some dogma which I thought
   was truth, but I am not staggered about thee. Thou Son of God made
   flesh for me, thou art all my salvation and all my desire: I rest on
   thee only, without a shadow of mixture of any other hope, and I love
   thee supremely, desiring to honor thee and to obey thee in life and
   until death. I hold thee, thou Covenant Angel, and I will not let thee
   go.

   Dear friends! make this the mark of your life, that you hold him and
   will not let him go. You will be the kind of men to bless the church by
   leading the Well-Beloved into her chambers, if you know how to abide in
   him yourselves.

   III. It appears from the text that, after the spouse had thus found
   Christ for herself and held him, SHE BROUGHT HIM INTO THE CHURCH''I
   brought him to my mother's house.' We ought lovingly to remember the
   church of God. By the Holy Spirit we were begotten unto newness of
   life, but it was in the church, and through the preaching of the word
   there that we were brought into the light of life. We owe our
   conversion, the most of us, to some earnest teacher of the truth in the
   church of God, or to some of those godly works which were written by
   Christian men. Through the church's instrumentality the Bible itself
   has been preserved to us, and by her the gospel has been preached to
   every age. She is our mother and we love her. I know that many of you,
   dear friends, the members of this church, love the church, and you can
   say, 'If I forget thee, let my right hand forget her cunning.' When you
   are away from this place, and cannot mix in our solemn assemblies, your
   heart mourns like one in banishment. Have not I heard you cry, 'Ziona,
   Ziona, our holy and beautiful house, wherein we have worshipped our
   God, the house which is built of living stones, among whom Christ
   himself is the corner-stone, even thy church, O Jesus: would God I were
   in her midst again, and could once more unite my praises with those
   that dwell within her.' Yes, and because we love our mother's house and
   the chamber of her that conceived us, we desire to bring Christ into
   the church more and more. Did I hear a harsh but honest voice exclaim,
   'But, I find much fault with the church?' Brother, if thou lovest her,
   thou wilt go backward and cast a mantle over all. But, suppose thy
   candour is compelled to see faults in her; then there is so much the
   more need of her Lord's presence in her to cure those faults. The more
   sickly she is, the more she wants him to be her strength and her
   physician. I say, therefore, to thee, dear friend, above all things,
   seek to bring Christ into an imperfect church, and a weak church, and
   an erring church, that she may become strong in the Lord and in the
   power of his might.

   I have shown you by whom it must he'by those who have found him, and
   who hold him; and now we will mention the methods by which our blessed
   Lord can be brought into his church. The saints can bring him in by
   their testimony. I hope that often Christ is here when I have borne
   testimony to you of his power to save, of his atoning blood, of his
   exaltation in heaven, of the perfection of his character, and of his
   willingness to save. Many a Sabbath day his name has been like ointment
   poured forth in this place. Is there any subject that so delights you
   as that which touches upon Christ? Is not that the rarest string in all
   the harp of scriptural truth? Well, every true minister, by bearing
   witness for Christ, helps to bring him into the church.

   But, others can do it by their prayers. There is a mysterious efficacy
   in the prayers of men who dwell near to God. Even if they were
   compelled to keep their beds, and do nothing but pray, they would pour
   benedictions upon the church. We want our dear sick friends to get well
   and come among us at once in full health; but I do not know, I do not
   know; they may be of more service to the church where they are. 'Ye
   that make mention of the Lord keep not silence, and give him no rest
   day nor night, till he establish and make Jerusalem a praise in the
   earth.' Now, there were not some saints kept awake at night by sickness
   to pray, we should not so fully realize that word, 'Give him no rest
   day nor night.' Some of those dear ones, whose faces we miss from among
   us, keep up the perpetual ministry of intercession. Their incense of
   prayer goes up at all hours; when the most of us are rightly enough at
   sleep they are compelled to wake, and therefore are led still to pray.
   How many blessings come down upon the church of God through the prayers
   of his feeble saints it is not possible for us to tell; but I believe
   if all of us were to set apart a special time for praying and pleading
   with Christ that he would come into his church, we should not be long
   before we saw a wonderful effect resulting from those pleadings.
   Wrestling prayers bring Christ into the innermost chambers of the
   church of God. Let us try the power of prayer.

   And, there is no doubt, dear brethren, that Christ is often brought
   into the church by the example of those eminent saints who abide in
   Christ. You know what I mean. There is a very manner and air about some
   Christian men which honors Christ, and benefits his people. They may
   not be gifted in speech, but their very spirit speaks, they are so
   gentle, loving, tender, earnest, truthful, upright, gracious. Their
   paths, like the paths of God himself, drop fatness. They are the
   anointed of the Lord, and you perceive it. Perhaps you could not say
   that this virtue or that is very prominent, but it is the altogether;
   it is their life at home, their life in public, their church life,
   their private life, their entire conduct makes you see that the Holy
   Ghost is in them, and when they come into the church they bring the
   Spirit of God with them, and are thus a great means of blessing to all
   with whom they associate. I do pray, brethren, that in some way or
   other, each one of us may try to bring Jesus Christ into the midst of
   his own people. I am afraid there are some who on the contrary are
   driving him away'church members that, instead of blessing the church,
   are a curse to it. I see a great heap before me'a vast heap that God
   has gathered through my instrumentality; but the winnowing fan is
   going, and the chaff is flying. Are you, dear friends, among the chaff
   or the wheat? Are you seed for the sower, or fuel for the flame
   unquenchable? Oh! live near to Christ; live in Christ; may Christ live
   in you; then will you enrich the church of God; but if you do not, but
   only make a profession of love with your lips, what shall I say unto
   you? I mourn over you. Take heed of living a weak life'a life without
   God in it'a life without Christ in it'a life which a Pharisee might
   live. Seek to live the life of a trueborn child of God, lest you hinder
   the church's usefulness, and deprive her of her Lord's presence.

   IV. This leads me to the last point, which is this, to CHARGE THE
   CHURCH THAT SHE BE CAREFUL NOT TO DISTURB THE LORD'S REPOSE, if we have
   been enabled by divine grace to bring the Lord into the chambers of our
   mother's house. 'I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes
   and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love,
   till he please.' Observe, then, that the Lord Jesus in his church is
   not indifferent to the conduct of his people. We are not to suppose
   that because the sin of all God's elect is pardoned, therefore it is of
   small consequence how they live. By no manner of means. The Master of
   this great house is not blind nor deaf, neither is he a person who is
   utterly careless as to how the house is managed; on the contrary, as
   God is a jealous God, so is Christ a jealous husband to his church. He
   will not tolerate in her what he would tolerate in the world. She lies
   near his heart, and she must be chaste to him. What a solemn work the
   Lord did in the early church. That story of Ananias and Sapphira'it is
   often used most properly to illustrate the danger of lying; but that is
   not the point of the narrative. Ananias and Sapphira were members of
   the church at Jerusalem, and they lied not unto men, which would have
   been sin enough, but in lying to the church officers they lied unto
   God, and the result was their sudden death. Now, you are not to suppose
   that this was a solitary case. Wherever there is a true church of God,
   the judgments of God are always going on in it. I speak now not only
   what I have read, but what I have known and seen with mine eyes; what I
   am as sure of as I am sure of any fact in history. The apostle Paul,
   speaking of the same in his day, said that in a certain church there
   was so much sin that many were weak and sickly among them, and many
   slept; that is to say, there was great sickness in the church, and many
   died. Judgments are begun in the house of God and are always going on
   there. I have seen men in the church who have walked at a distance from
   God, who have been visited with severe chastisements; others who have
   been of hot and proud spirit, have been terribly humbled; and some who
   have arrogantly touched God's ark, and the doom of Uzzah has befallen
   them. I have seen it and do know it. And so it always will be. The Lord
   Jesus Christ looking around his church, if he sees anything evil in it,
   will do one of two things; either he will go right away from his church
   because the evil is tolerated there, and he will leave that church to
   be like Laodicea, to go on from bad to worse, till it becomes no church
   at all; or else he will come and he will trim the lamp, or to use the
   figure of the fifteenth of John, he will prune the vinebranch and with
   his knife will cut off this member, and the other, and cast them into
   the fire; while, as for the rest, he will cut them till they bleed
   again, because they are fruit-bearing members, but they have too much
   wood, and he wants them to bring forth more fruit. It is not a trifling
   matter to be in the church of God. God's fire is in Zion and his
   furnace in Jerusalem. 'His fan is in his hand, and he shall thoroughly
   purge''what? The world. O no, 'his floor,' the church. And then, again,
   'he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he shall
   purify''what? The heathen nations. No, 'the sons of Levi''his own
   people. So that Christ is not indifferent to what is going on in the
   church, and it is needful that when he comes to the church to take his
   repose, and solace himself there, we should not stir him up nor awake
   him till he please.

   But many things will drive our Lord away, and these shall have our
   closing words. Dear fellow members of this church, may we each one be
   more watchful lest the Bridegroom should withdraw from us. He will go
   away if we grow proud. If we are boastful, and say, 'There is some
   reason why God should bless us,' and should begin to speak hectoringly
   towards weaker brethren, the Lord will let us know that 'not unto us,
   not unto us, but unto his name shall be all the glory.'

   Again, if there be a want of love among us, the Lord of love will be
   offended. The holy dove loves not scenes of strife; he frequents the
   calm still waters of brotherly love. There the Lord commanded the
   blessing, even life for evermore, where brethren dwelt together in
   unity. If any of you have half a hard thought towards another, get rid
   of it; if there be the beginnings of anything like jealousy, quench the
   sparks. 'Leave off strife,' says Solomon, 'before it be meddled with,'
   as if he said, 'End it before you begin it,' which, though it seems
   strangely paradoxical, is most wise advice. 'Little children love one
   another.' 'Walk in love as Christ also has loved us.' May discord be
   far from us.

   Notice the beautiful imagery of the text. 'I charge you by the roes and
   the hinds of the field.' In ancient times gazelles were often tamed,
   and were the favourite companions of Eastern ladies: the gazelle might
   be standing near its mistress, fixing its loving eyes upon her, but if
   a stranger clapped his hands it would hasten away. The roes and hinds
   'of the field' are even yet more jealous things, a sound will startle
   them, even the breath of the hunter tainting the gale puts them to
   speedy flight. Even thus is it with Jesus. A little thing, a very
   little thing, will drive him from us, and it may be many a day before
   our repentance shall be able to find him again. He has suffered so much
   from sin that he cannot endure the approach of it. His pure and holy
   soul abhors the least taint of iniquity.

   Let us gather from the text that there are some things in the true
   church which give our Lord rest. He is represented here as though he
   slept in the church, 'That ye stir not up nor awake my love till he
   please.' Wherever he sees true repentance, real faith, holy
   consecration, purity of life, chastity of love, there Christ rests. I
   believe he finds no sweeter happiness even in heaven than the happiness
   of accepting his people's prayers and praises. Our love is very sweet
   to him; our deeds of gratitude are very precious, the broken alabaster
   boxes of self-sacrifices done for him are very fair in his esteem. He
   finds no rest in the world, he never did; but he finds sweet rest on
   the bosoms of his faithful ones. He loves to come into a pure church,
   and there to say, 'I am at home. I will declare thy name unto my
   brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.'

   Let us be very watchful, too, against all impurity. Anything like
   uncleanness in a Christian will soon send the Master away from the
   church. You know what it was that brought the evil upon the house of
   Eli. It was because his sons made themselves vile even at the
   tabernacle door. The young people in that case were the immediate cause
   of the mischief, but it was the fault of the elder ones that they
   restrained them not. Watch against all evil passions and corrupt
   desires. Be ye holy even as your Father which is in heaven is holy.

   And then, again, a want of prayer will send him away. There are members
   of some churches who never come to the prayer-meetings, and I should be
   afraid that their private prayers cannot be any too earnest. Of course
   we speak not of those who have good excuse; but there are some who
   habitually and wilfully neglect the assembling of themselves together;
   these are worthy of condemnation. Oh, let us continue a prayerful
   church as we have hitherto been, otherwise the Master may say, 'They do
   not value the blessing, for they will not even ask for it; they
   evidently do not care about my Spirit, for they will not meet together
   and cry for him.' Do not grieve him by any such negligence of prayer.

   So, too, we may grieve the Spirit by worldliness. If any of you who are
   rich get to imitate the fashions of the world and act as worldlings do,
   you cannot expect the Lord to bless us. You are Achans in the camp, if
   such is the case. And if you who are poor get to be envious of others
   and speak harshly of others to whom God has given more substance than
   to you, that again will grieve the Lord. You know how the children of
   Israel in the wilderness provoked him, and their provocation mostly
   took the form of murmuring; they complained of this and of that: if
   they had the manna they wanted flesh, and if they had water gushing
   from the rock they must needs have more. I pray you by the bowels of
   mercies that are in Christ Jesus, by all the compassion he has
   manifested towards us, by the high love he deserves of us, since he
   laid down his life for us, by your allegiance to him as your King, by
   your trust in him as your Savior, by your love to him as the Bridegroom
   of your souls, 'stir not up nor awake my love till he please.'

   Let me ask you to be more in prayer; let me pray you to live nearer to
   him; let me entreat you for the church's sake, and for the world's
   sake, to be more thoroughly Christ's than you ever have been and may
   the power of the Holy Spirit enable you in this. I do not fear lest I
   should lose that which I have wrought, for God will establish the work
   of our hands upon us, but yet I do put up to him daily the prayer that
   this church may not be found in years to come to be a building of wood,
   and hay, and stubble, that shall be consumed in the fire of heresy or
   discord, or some other testing flame which God may suffer to come upon
   it; but oh, may you, my beloved brethren and sisters, be gold, and
   silver, and precious stones, that the workman at the last, saved
   himself, may not have to suffer loss, nor the Master be dishonored in
   the eyes of men. May you stand as a sparkling pile of precious gems,
   inhabited by the eternal Spirit, to the praise and the glory of his
   grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved. Amen.

   PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON'John 15; Solomon's Song 3.
     __________________________________________________________________

                                Precious Deaths

   A Sermon

   (No. 1036)

   Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, February 18th, 1872, by

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   'Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.''Psalm
   116:15.

   DAVID SOUGHT DELIVERANCE from imminent peril, and he felt sure of
   obtaining it; for being a servant of the Lord he knew that his life was
   too precious in the sight of God for it to be lightly brought to an
   end. It should be a source of consolation to all tried saints that God
   will not deliver them over to the hands of their enemies; it is not the
   will of their Father who is in heaven that one of his little ones
   should perish. A shepherd who did not care for his sheep might suffer
   the wolf to devour it, but he who prizes it highly will put his own
   life in jeopardy to pluck the defenseless one from between the
   monster's jaws.

   The text informs us that the deaths of God's saints are precious to
   him. How different, then, is the estimate of human life which God forms
   from that which has ruled the minds of great warriors and mighty
   conquerors. Had Napoleon spoken forth his mind about the lives of men
   in the day of battle, he would have likened them to so much water spilt
   upon the ground. To win a victory, or subdue a province, it mattered
   not though he strewed the ground with corpses thick as autumn leaves,
   nor did it signify though in every village orphans and widows wailed
   the loss of sires and husbands. What were the deaths of conscript
   peasants when compared with the fame of the Emperor? So long as Austria
   was humbled, or Russia invaded, little cared the imperial Corsican
   though half the race had perished. Not thus is it with the King of
   kings; he spares the poor and needy, and saves the souls of the needy,
   and precious shall their blood be in his sight. Our glorious Leader
   never squanders the lives of his soldiers; he values the church
   militant beyond all price; and though he permits his saints to lay down
   their lives for his sake, yet is not one life spent in vain, or
   unnecessarily expended.

   How different also is the Lord's estimate from that of persecutors!
   They have hounded the saints to death, considering that they did God
   service. They have thought no more of burning martyrs than destroying
   noxious insects, and massacres of believers have been to them as the
   slaying of wild beasts. Did they not strike a medal to celebrate the
   massacre of the Huguenots in France? and did not the infallible Pope
   himself consider it to be a business for which to offer Te Deums to
   God? What if murder made the streets of Paris run with blood, the
   slaughtered ones were only Protestants, and the world thought itself
   well rid of them. Foxes and wolves, and Protestants were best
   exterminated. As for so-called Anabaptists they were counted worse than
   vipers, and to crush them utterly was reckoned to be salutary Christian
   discipline. The enemies of the church of God have hunted the saints as
   if they were beasts of the chase. They have let loose upon them the
   dogs of war, and the hell-hounds of the Inquisition, as if they were
   not fit to live. 'Away with such a fellow from the earth' has been the
   general cry of persecutors against the men of whom the world was not
   worthy. But, precious is their blood in his sight. Though they have
   been cast to the beasts in the amphitheatre, or dragged to death by
   wild horses, or murdered in dungeons, or slaughtered amongst the snows
   of the Alps, or made to fatten Smithfield with their gore, precious has
   their blood been, and still is it in his sight, who will avenge his own
   elect when the day shall come for his patience to have had her perfect
   work, and for his justice to begin her dread assize.

   The text, also, corrects another estimate, namely, our own. We love the
   people of God, they are exceedingly precious to us, and, therefore, we
   are too apt to look upon their deaths as a very grievous loss. We would
   never let them die at all if we could help it. If it were in our power
   to confer immortality upon our beloved Christian brethren and sisters,
   we should surely do it, and to their injury we should detain them here,
   in this wilderness, depriving them of a speedy entrance into their
   inheritance on the other side the river. It would be cruel to them, but
   I fear we should often be guilty of it. We should hold them here a
   little longer, and a little longer yet, finding it hard to relinquish
   our grasp. The departures of the saints cause us many a pang. We fret,
   alas! also, we even repine and murmur. We count that we are the poorer
   because of the eternal enriching of those beloved ones who have gone
   over to the majority, and entered into their rest. Be it known that
   while we are sorrowing Christ is rejoicing. His prayer is, 'Father, I
   will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am,' and
   in the advent of every one of his own people to the skies he sees an
   answer to that prayer, and is, therefore, glad. He beholds in every
   perfected one another portion of the reward for the travail of his
   soul, and he is satisfied in it. We are grieving here, but he is
   rejoicing there. Dolorous are their deaths in our sight, but precious
   are their deaths in his sight. We hang up the mournful escutcheon, and
   sit us down to mourn our full, and yet, meanwhile, the bells of heaven
   are ringing for 'the bridal feast above,' the streamers are floating
   joyously in every heavenly street, and the celestial world keeps
   holiday because another heir of heaven has entered upon his heritage.
   May this correct our grief. Tears are permitted to us, but they must
   glisten in the light of faith and hope. Jesus wept, but Jesus never
   repined. We, too, may weep, but not as those who are without hope, nor
   yet as though forgetful that there is greater cause for joy than for
   sorrow in the departure of our brethren.

   I. Coming now to the instructive text before us, we shall remark, in
   the first place, that THE STATEMENT HERE MADE IMPLIES A VIEW OF DEATH
   OF A PECULIAR KIND. 'Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of
   his saints.'

   Death in itself cannot be precious; it is terrible. It cannot be a
   precious thing to God to see the noblest works of his hand torn in
   pieces, his skillful embroidery in the human body rent, defiled, and
   given over to decay. Death in itself cannot be a theme for rejoicing
   with God. But death in the case of believers is another matter. To
   them, it is not death to die; it is a departure out of this world unto
   the Father, a being unclothed that we may be clothed upon, a falling
   asleep, an entrance into the Kingdom. To the saint death is by no means
   such a thing as happeneth unto the unregenerate.

   And, observe wherein this change lies. It lies mainly in the fact that
   death is no more the indiction of a penalty for sin upon the believer.
   One great cardinal truth of the gospel is that the sins of believers
   were laid upon Christ, and were punished upon Christ, and that,
   consequently, no sin is imputed to the believer, neither can any be
   penally visited upon him. His sin was punished in his substitute. The
   righteous wrath of God has altogether ceased towards those for whom
   Christ died. It could not be consistent with justice that the death
   penalty should be executed upon Christ, and then should be again
   visited upon those for whom Christ was a substitute. Death, then, does
   not come to me as a believer because I deserve it and must be punished
   by it: it comes so to the ungodly, it is upon them a fit visitation for
   their iniquities, the beginning of an unending death, which shall be
   their perpetual portion. To the saints the sting of death is gone, and
   the victory of the grave is removed; it is no more a penalty but a
   privilege to die. What if I say it is a covenant blessing: so Paul
   esteemed it, for when he said 'All things are yours, things present or
   things to come,' he added, 'or life, or death, all are yours; and ye
   are Christ's; and Christ is God's:' as if the believer's death came to
   him amongst other good and precious things by the way of his being
   Christ's; and Christ's being God's. To fall asleep in Jesus is a
   blessing of the covenant; it is a grace to be asked for, 'Lord, now
   lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word.' I
   would not miss it; if I might make my choice between living till Christ
   comes, so as to be changed only, and not to die, or of actually
   sleeping in the dust, I would prefer to die, for in this the believer
   who shall fall asleep will be the more closely conformed to Christ
   Jesus. He will have passed into the sepulcher and slept in the tomb as
   his master did; he will know, as Jesus knows, what death pangs mean,
   and what it is to gaze upon the invisible, while the visible retreats
   into the distance. Nay, let us die. The Head has traversed the valley
   of death-shade, and let the members rejoice to follow.

   'As the Lord their Savior rose,

   So all his followers must.'

   And, therefore, as the Lord the Savior slept, so let us sleep. When we
   think of our Master in the tomb, our hearts say, 'Let us go that we may
   die with him.' We would not be divided from him in life or in death. We
   are so wedded to him that we say, 'Where thou goest I will go, where
   thou diest I will die, and with thee would I be buried, that with thee
   in the resurrection morning I may be partaker of the resurrection.'
   Death, then, is so far changed in its aspect as it respects the saints,
   that it is no longer a legal infliction, but it comes to us as a
   covenant blessing conforming us to Christ.

   The statement of the text refutes the gloomy thought that death is a
   ceasing to be. It is not the annihilation of a man, nor ought it ever
   to be regarded as such. In all ages there has fingered upon mankind the
   fear that to die may involve ceasing to be; and of all thoughts this is
   one of the most gloomy. But, when God says that the death of a believer
   is precious to him, it is clear that no tinge of annihilation is in the
   idea, for where would be the preciousness of a believer ceasing to
   exist? Oh, no, the thought is gone from us. We know that to die is not
   to renounce existence; we understand that death is but a passage into a
   higher and a nobler existence. The soul emancipated from all sinfulness
   passes the Jordan, and is presented without fault before the throne of
   God. No purgatorial fires are needed to cleanse her; the self-same day
   she leaves the body she is with Christ in paradise, because fit to be
   there. The body in death, it is true, undergoes decay, but even for
   that meaner part of our manhood there is no destruction. Let us not
   malign the grave, it is no more a prison, but an inn, a halting place
   upon the road to resurrection. As Esther bathed herself in spices that
   she might be fit for the embraces of the king, so is the body purged
   from its corruption that it may rise immortal.

   'Corruption, earth, and worms

   Shall but refine this flesh

   Till my triumphant spirit comes

   To put it on afresh.'

   The body could not rise if it had not first died; it could not spring
   up like a fair flower unless it had first been sown. If a grain of
   wheat fall not into the ground and die, how springeth it up again? but
   the body is sown in dishonor that it may be raised in glory; it is sown
   in weakness that it may be raised in power; it is laid in the grave as
   a natural body, that it may arise therefrom by the infinite power of
   the almighty a spiritual body, full of life, and glory, and majesty.
   Let this mortal body die, aye, let it moulder into dust! What more fit
   than earth to earth, dust to dust, ashes to ashes. Let the gold go into
   the fining pot, it will lose none of its preciousness, it will only be
   delivered from its dross. Let the gem go to the lapidary's house, for
   it shall glitter the more brightly in the royal crown, in the day when
   the Lord shall make up his jewels.

   Death, too, we may be sure from this statement cannot be any serious
   detriment to the believer after all; it cannot be any serious loss to a
   saint to die. Looking upon the poor corpse, it does seem to be a
   catastrophe for death to have passed his cold hand across the brow, but
   it is not so, for the very death is precious; therefore, it is no
   calamity. Death if rightly viewed is a blessing from the Lord's hand. A
   child once found a bird's nest in which were eggs, which it looked upon
   as a great treasure. It left them, and by-and-by, when a week or so had
   passed, went back again. It returned to its mother grieving: 'Mother,'
   said the child, 'I had some beautiful eggs in this nest, and now they
   are destroyed; nothing is left but a few pieces of broken shell. Pity
   me, mother, for my treasure is gone.' But the mother said, 'Child, here
   is no destruction; there were little birds within those eggs, and they
   have flown away, and are singing now among the branches of the trees;
   the eggs are not wasted, child, but have answered their purpose. It is
   better far as it is.' So, when we look at our departed ones, we are apt
   to say, 'And is this all thou hast left us? Ruthless spoiler, are these
   ashes all?' But, faith whispers 'No, the shell is broken, but amongst
   the birds of paradise, singing amid unwithering bowers, you shall find
   the spirits of your beloved ones; their true manhood is not here, but
   has ascended to its Father, God.' It is not a loss to die, it is a
   gain, a lasting, a perpetual, an illimitable gain. The man is at one
   moment weak, and cannot stir a finger; in an instant he is clothed with
   power. Call ye not this a gain? That brow is aching; it shall wear a
   crown within the next few tickings of the clock. Is that no gain? That
   hand is palsied; it shall at once wave the palm branch. Is that a loss?
   The man is sick beyond physician's power; but he shall be where the
   inhabitant is never sick. Is that a loss? When Baxter lay a dying, and
   his friends came to see him, almost the last word he said was in answer
   to the question, 'Dear Mr. Baxter, how are you?' 'Almost well,' said
   he, and so it is. Death cures; it is the best medicine, for they who
   die are not only almost well, but healed for ever. You will see, then,
   that the statement of our text implies that the aspect of death is
   altogether altered from that appearance in which men commonly behold
   it. Death to the saints is not a penalty, it is not destruction, it is
   not even a loss.

   II. But now, secondly, I want your earnest thought to a further
   consideration of the text. THE STATEMENT HERE MADE IS OF A MOST
   UNLIMITED KIND.

   'Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.' It is a
   broad statement, wide and comprehensive, and I want you to observe that
   there is no limit here as to whom. Provided that the dying one be a
   saint, his death is precious. He may be the greatest in the church, he
   may be the least: he may be the boldest confessor, he may be the most
   timid trembler; but if a saint, his death is precious in God's sight. I
   can well conceive the truth of this in respect to martyrs; to see a man
   enduring torments, but refusing to deny his Lord; to behold him offered
   life and wealth if he will recant, but to hear him say, 'I cannot and I
   will not draw back by the help of God:' to mark every nerve throbbing
   with anguish, and every single member of his body torn with torment,
   and yet to see the man faithful to his God even to the close,'why, this
   is a spectacle which God himself might well count precious. The church
   embalms the memories of her martyrs wherever they die'precious in God's
   sight must their deaths be. The deaths too of those who work for
   Christ, until at last weary nature gives out, when body and brain are
   both exhausted, and the man can no longer continue in his beloved
   labor, but lays down his body and his charge together, never putting
   off harness until he puts off his flesh'methinks the deaths of such men
   must be precious in God's sight. But, not more so, mark that not more
   so than the departure of the patient sufferer, scarcely able to say a
   word, solitary and unknown, only able to serve God by submissively
   enduring pains which make night weary and day intolerable. Precious in
   the sight of the Lord is the death of the consumptive girl who
   gradually melts into heaven; the death of the pauper in the workhouse,
   without a friend, but uncomplainingly bearing God's will, is as
   precious (not perhaps under some aspects), but as truly precious in the
   sight of the Lord as that of the most useful preacher of the word.
   Precious to Jehovah is the death of the least in the ranks, as the
   death of those who rush to the front and bear the brunt of the battle
   well. There are no distinctions in the text; if you be a saint no one
   may know you, you may be too poor and too illiterate to be of much
   account in the world, you may die and pass away, and no record may be
   among the sons of men, no stone set up over your lonely grave, but
   precious in the sight of the Lord in every case is the death of his
   saints. There is no limit as to whom.

   And, mark you, there is no limit at all as to when. It matters not at
   what age the saint dies, his death is precious to God. Very delightful
   to those who observe them are the deathbed scenes of young children who
   have early been converted to God. There is a peculiar charm about the
   pious prattler's departing utterances. He can hardly pronounce his
   words aright, but he seems illuminated from above, and to talk of Jesus
   and his angels, and the harps of gold, and the better land, as if he
   had been there. Some of you have had the privilege to carry in your
   bosoms some of those nurselings for the skies, unfledged angels sent
   here but for a little while, and then caught away to heaven, that their
   mothers' hearts might follow them, and their fathers' aspirations might
   pursue them. I confess to a great liking for such books as 'Janeway's
   Token for Children,' where the deaths of many pious boys and girls are
   recorded with the holy sayings which they used. The Lord sets a high
   value on his little ones, and, therefore, frequently gathers them while
   they are like flowers in the bud. When these favored children die,
   Jesus stands at their little cots, and, while he calls them away, he
   whispers, 'Of such is the kingdom of heaven.' Equally precious,
   however, are the deaths of those who depart in middle life. These we
   usually regret most of all, because of the terrible blanks which they
   leave behind them. What, shall the hero fall when the battle wants him
   most? Shall the reaper be sent home and made to lay down his sickle
   just when the harvest is heaviest, and the day requires every worker?
   To us it seemeth strange, but to God it is precious. Oh, could we lift
   the veil, could we understand what now we see not, we should perceive
   that it was better for the saints to die when they died, than it would
   have been for them to have lived longer lives. Though the widow mourns,
   and the orphans are left penniless, it was good that the father fell
   asleep. Though a loving church gathered round the hearse and mourned
   that their minister had been taken away in the fullness of his vigor,
   it was best that God should take him to himself. Let us be persuaded of
   this, that no believer dies an untimely death. In every consistent
   Christian's case that promise is true, 'With long life also will I
   satisfy him, and show him my salvation;' for long life is not to be
   reckoned by years as men count them. He lives longest who lives best.
   Many a man has crowded half a century into a single year. God gives his
   people life, not as the clock ticks, but as he helps them to serve him;
   and he can make them to live much in a short space of time. There are
   no untimely figs gathered into God's basket; the great Master of the
   vineyard plucks the grapes when they are ripe and ready to be taken,
   and not before. Saintly deaths are precious in his sight.

   And, dear brethren, if the Lord's providence permits the saint to live
   to a good old age, then is his death precious too. The decease which
   has lately occurred among us will abide in my memory as one of my
   choice treasures. I say but little of it to-day, for on another Sabbath
   morning I may be able to tell you some of those choice things which our
   dear brother and venerated elder uttered which charmed and gladdened us
   all as we lingered about his bed. You knew him; you knew what a man he
   was in life; he was just such a man in death. But a day or so before he
   died, while he could scarcely draw his breath, he told me with a smile
   that it was the happiest day of his life. As he was always wont to
   rejoice in God while he was here among us, so he was kept in the same
   blessed spirit even to the end. 'See,' said he, 'what a blessed thing
   it is to be here.' 'Here!' I said. 'What, on a dying bed?' 'Yes,' said
   he, 'for I am Christ's, and Christ is mine; I am in him, and He is in
   me; what more would I have? It is the happiest day of my life,' and
   again he smiled serenely. It was all joy with him, all bliss with him.
   Pain might rack him, or weakness might prostrate him, but ever did his
   spirit magnify the Lord, and rejoice in God his Savior. Yes, these ripe
   ones, like the fruits of autumn, fall willingly from off the tree of
   life when but a gentle breeze stirs the branches. The deaths of these
   are precious unto God. There is no limitation as to when.

   And, again, there is no limitation as to where. Precious shall their
   deaths be in his sight, let them happen where they may. Up in the
   lonely garret where there are none of the appliances of comfort, but
   all the marks of the deepest penury, up there where the dying workgirl
   or the crossing sweeper dies'there is a sight most precious unto God;
   or yonder, in the long corridor of the hospital, where many are too
   engrossed in their own griefs to be able to shed a tear of sympathy,
   there passes away a triumphant spirit, and precious is that death in
   God's sight. Alone, utterly alone in the dead of night, surprised,
   unable to call in a helper, saintly life often has passed away; but in
   that form also precious is the death in God's sight. Far away from home
   and kindred, wandering in the backwoods or on the prairie, the believer
   has died where there was none to call him brother; but it mattered not,
   his death was precious in the sight of the Lord. Or, a bullet has
   brought the missive from the throne which said, 'Return and be with
   God,' and falling in the ditch to die amongst the wounded and the dead,
   with no onlooker but the silent stars and blushing moon, amidst the
   carnage the death of the believing soldier has been precious in the
   sight of Jehovah. Ah, and run over in the street, or crushed, and
   bruised, and mangled in the railway accident, or stifled in the pit by
   the coal damp, or sinking amidst the gurgling waters of the ocean, or
   falling beneath the assassin's knife, precious in the sight of the Lord
   is the death of his saints. They are everywhere in the sight of God
   when they die, and he looks upon them with a smile, for their death is
   precious to his heart.

   There is no limit as to where, and, dear brethren, there is no limit as
   to how. 'Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.'
   Their deaths may happen suddenly; they may be alive, and active, and in
   a moment fall down dead, but their death is precious. I could never
   understand that prayer which is put into the prayer-book, that God
   would deliver us from sudden death. Why, methinks, it is the most
   desirable death that a person could die, not to know you die at all, to
   have no fears, no shiverings on the brink, but to be busy in your
   Master's service here, and suddenly to stand in the white robe before
   his throne in heaven, shutting the eye to the scenes below, and opening
   it the scenes above. I know, if I might ask such a favor, I would covet
   to die as a dear brother in Christ died, who gave out this hymn from
   his pulpit:'

   'Father, I long, I faint to see

   The place of thine abode

   I'd leave thine earthly courts, and flee

   Up to thy seat, my God.'

   Just as he finished that line in the pulpit he bowed his head, and his
   prayer was answered, he was immediately before the throne of God. Is
   there anything in that to pray against? It seems to us much to be
   desired; but at any rate, such a death as that is precious in God's
   sight. But if we linger long, if the tabernacle be taken down piece by
   piece, and the curtains be slowly folded up, and the tent pins gently
   put away, precious in the sight of the Lord is such a death as that.
   Should we die by fierce disease, which shakes the strong man, or by
   gentle decline, which slowly saps and undermines, it matters not.
   Should a sudden stroke take us, and men call it a judgment, it is no
   judgment to the believer, for from him all judgments are past, and the
   true light of love shineth on him. Die how he may, and where he may,
   and when he may, and let him be in what position he will when he dies,
   'Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.'

   III. And now, thirdly, coming to the very soul and marrow of the text,
   we notice that THE STATEMENT OF THE TEXT MAY BE FULLY SUSTAINED AND
   ACCOUNTED FOR, 'Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his
   saints,' is a most sober and truthful declaration.

   First, because their persons were, and always will be, precious unto
   God. His saints! Why, these are his elect; these are they upon whom his
   love was set before the mountains lifted their heads into the clouds;
   these are they whom he bought with precious blood, cheerfully laying
   down his life for their sakes; these are they whose names are borne on
   Jesus' breast, and engraved upon the palms of his hands; these are his
   children; these are members of his body; these are his bride, his
   spouse; he is married unto them: therefore, everything that concerns
   them must be precious. Do I not look with interest upon the history of
   my child? Do I not carefully observe everything that happens to my
   beloved spouse? Where there is love the little becometh great, and what
   would seem a matter of no concern in a stranger is gilded with great
   importance. The Lord loves his people so intensely that the very hairs
   of their heads are numbered: his angels bear them up in their hands
   lest they dash their foot against a stone, and because they are the
   precious sons of Zion, comparable unto fine gold, therefore their
   deaths are precious unto the Lord.

   Precious are the deaths of God's saints next, because precious graces
   are in death very frequently tested, and as frequently revealed and
   perfected. How could I know faith to be true faith if it would not
   stand a trial? The precious faith of God's elect is proved to be such
   when it can bear the last ordeal of all; when the man can look grim
   death in the face, and yet not be staggered through unbelief, when he
   can gaze across the gulf, so often veiled in cloud, and yet not fear
   that he shall be able to overleap it, and land in the Savior's arms.
   Believe me, the faith which only plays with earthly joys, and cannot
   endure the common trials of life, will soon be dissipated by the solemn
   trial of death; but that which a man can die with, that is faith
   indeed. Faith, moreover, brings with it, as its companions, an
   innumerable company of graces, amongst which chiefly are hope and love.
   Blessed is the man who can hope in God when heart and flesh are failing
   him, and can love the Lord even though he smite him with many pains,
   yea, even though he slay him. The death of the body is a crucible for
   our graces, and much that we thought to be true grace disappears in the
   furnace heat; but God counts the trial of our faith much more precious
   than that of gold, and therefore he counts deathbeds precious in his
   sight. Besides, how many graces are revealed in dying hours. I have
   known plants of God's right hand planting that had always been in the
   shade before, and yet they have enjoyed sunlight at last; silent
   spirits that have laid their finger on their lips throughout their
   lives but have taken them down, and have declared their love to Jesus
   just when they were departing. Like the swan, of whom the fable hath
   it, that it singeth never till it comes to its end, so many a child of
   God has begun to sing in his last hours; because he has done with the
   glooms of earth, he begins to sing here his swan song, intending to
   sing on for ever and ever. You cannot tell what is in a man to the
   fullness of him till he is tried to the full, and therefore the last
   trial, inasmuch as it strippeth off earth-born imperfections and
   developes in us that which is of God, and brings to the front the real
   and the true, and throws to the back the superficial and the
   pretentious, is precious in God's sight.

   'Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints,' for a
   third reason, because precious attributes are in dying moments
   gloriously illustrated. I refer now to the divine attributes. In life
   and in death we prove the attribute of God's righteousness, we find
   that he does not lie but is faithful to his word. We learn the
   attribute of mercy, he is gentle and pitiful to us in the time of our
   weakness. We prove the attribute of his immutability, we find him 'the
   same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.' There is scarcely a single
   characteristic of the divine being which is not set out delightfully to
   the child of God and onlookers when the saint is departing. And the
   same is true of the promises as well as the attributes. Precious
   promises are illustrated upon dying beds. 'I will never leave thee nor
   forsake thee.' Who would have known the meaning of that to the full, if
   he had not found that the Lord did not leave him when all else was
   gone? 'When thou passeth through the river I will be with thee.' Who
   could have known the depth of truth in that word, if saints did not
   pass through the last cold stream. 'As thy days so shall thy strength
   be.' Who could have known to the full that word, if he had not seen the
   believer triumphant on his dying day? 'Yea, though I pass through the
   valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with
   me; thy rod and thy staff comfort me.' You may read commentaries upon
   that psalm, but you will never value it so well as when you are in the
   valley yourself. My dear departed friend said to me, ere I came away on
   one of my last visits, 'Read me a psalm, dear pastor,' and I said,
   'which one?' 'There are many precious ones,' said he, 'but as I get
   nearer to the time of my departure, I love the 23rd best, let us have
   that again.' 'Why,' I said, 'you know that by heart.' 'Yes,' said he,
   'it is in my heart too, it is most true and precious to me.' And is it
   not so? Yet you had not seen the 23rd Psalm to be a diamond of the
   purest water, if you had not beheld its value to saints in their
   departing moments.

   'Precious,' again, 'in the sight of the Lord is the death of his
   saints,' because the precious blood is glorified. It is memorable how
   saints turn to the cross when they die. Not very often do you hear them
   speak of Christ in his glory then, it is of Christ the sufferer, Christ
   the substitute that they then speak. And how they delight to roll under
   their tongue as a sweet morsel, such texts as that one, 'The blood of
   Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin.' With what delight do
   they speak about having trusted in him years ago, and how gladly will
   they tell you that they have not been confounded. All their hope and
   all their confidence lie in the crucified one alone, and they are
   persuaded that he is able to keep that which they have committed to
   him. It ought to be the object of our lives to magnify the blood of
   Jesus, and to speak well of it, and to recommend it to others. But oh,
   dear soul, if thou hast no faith in Christ's blood, one argument that
   ought to convince thee of the sin of unbelief above all others, is
   this,'that blood has afforded comfort when pains have been bitter, and
   consolation when death has been imminent, not in one case or a
   thousand, but in countless cases. Saints by myriads have died singing,
   for they have overcome the last enemy by the blood of the Lamb. Oh, you
   that were never washed in Jesus' blood, I dread to think of your dying.
   What will you do without the Savior? Oh, how will you pass the terrors
   of that tremendous hour, with no advocate on high pleading for you
   there, and no blood of Christ upon you pleading for you here. Oh, fly
   to that cross, rest in that cross, then will you live well and die
   well; but, without the blood, you shall live uneasily and die
   wretchedly. God prevent it, for his name's sake!

   Again, the deaths of believers are precious to God, because oftentimes
   precious utterances are given forth in the last moments. There are
   little volumes extant of the death bed sayings of saints, and if ever I
   have mistaken the utterances of man for inspiration, it has been when I
   have read some of these dying speeches. No one ever mistook the
   brilliant utterances of Shakespeare, or the wise sayings of Bacon, or
   the profound thoughts of Socrates, for Scripture'everyone could see
   that they were earthy and of the earth; but have you never caught
   yourself imagining that the saying of a dying man must have been
   borrowed from the Scriptures, and if you have searched for it you have
   not found it in Cruden, nor have you discovered it anywhere in the
   sacred page; the voice has been so near akin to inspiration, and so
   true, that if it had been permitted, you would have written it in your
   Bibles, and made a new chapter there. Oh, what brave things do they
   tell of the heavenly world! What glorious speeches do they make! To
   some of them the veil has been thrown back, and they have spoken of
   things not seen as yet. They have almost declared things which it were
   not lawful for men to utter, and, therefore, their speech has been
   broken, and mysterious, like dark sayings upon a harp. We could hardly
   make out all they said, but we gathered that they were overwhelmed with
   glory, that they were confounded with unutterable bliss, that they had
   seen and fain would tell but must not, they had heard and fain would
   repeat but could not. 'Did you not see the glory?' they have said, and
   you have replied, 'The sun shines upon you through yonder window;' they
   have shaken their heads, for they have seen a brightness not begotten
   of the sun. Then have they cried, 'Do you not hear it?' and we should
   have supposed that a sound in the street attracted them, but all was
   the stillness of night; silent all, except to their ear, which was
   ravished with the voice of harpers, harping with their harps. I shall
   never forget hearing a brother, with whom I had often walked to preach
   the gospel, say,'

   'And when ye hear my eyestrings break,

   How sweet my minutes roll;

   A mortal paleness on my cheek,

   But glory in my soul.'

   It must have been a grand thing to hear good Harrington Evans say to
   his deacons, 'Tell my people, tell them I am accepted in the Beloved;'
   or, to hear John Rees say, 'Christ in the glory of his person, Christ
   in the love of his heart, Christ in the power of his arm, this is the
   rock I stand on, and now death strike.' Departing saints have uttered
   brave things and rare things, which have made us wish that we had been
   going away with them, so have they made us long to see what they have
   seen, and to sit down and feast at their banquet.

   The last reason I shall give why the death of a saint is precious is
   this'because it is a precious sheep folded, a precious sheaf harvested,
   precious vessel which had been long at sea brought into harbour, a
   precious child which had been long at school to finish his training
   brought home to dwell in the Father's house for ever. God the Father
   sees the fruit of his eternal love at last ingathered: Jesus sees the
   purchase of his passion at last secured: the Holy Spirit sees the
   object of his continual workmanship at last perfected: Father, Son, and
   Holy Spirit rejoice that now the bloodbought ones are free from all
   inbred sin, and delivered from all temptation. The battle's fought, the
   battle's fought, and the victory is won for ever.

   The commander's eagle eye, as he surveys the plain, watches joyously
   the shock of battle as he sees that his victory is sure; but when at
   the last the fight culminates in one last assault, when the brave
   guards advance for the last attack, when the enemy gathers up all the
   shattered relics of his strength to make a last defense, when the army
   marches with sure and steady tramp to the last onslaught, then feels
   the warrior's heart a stern o'erflowing joy, and as his veterans sweep
   their foes before them like chaff before the winnower's fan, and the
   adversaries melt away, even as the altar fat consumes away in smoke, I
   see the commander exulting with beaming eye, and hear him rejoicing in
   that last shock of battle, for in another moment there shall be the
   shout of victory, and the campaign shall be over, and the adversary
   shall be trampled for ever beneath his feet. King Jesus looks upon the
   death of his saints as the last struggle of their life-conflict; and
   when that is over, it shall be said on earth, and sung in heaven, 'Thy
   warfare is accomplished, thy sin is pardoned, thou hast received of the
   Lord's hand double for all thy sins.'

   'Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.' Sirs,
   are you his saints? Preacher, thou speakest to others, hast thou been
   sanctified unto God? Answer this in the silence of thy soul. Officers
   of this church, are you saints or mere professors? Members of this
   church, are you truly saints, or are you hypocrites? You who sit in
   this congregation Sabbath after Sabbath, have you been washed in the
   blood of Jesus? are you made saints, or are you still in the gall of
   bitterness and the bonds of iniquity? Casual visitors to this house of
   prayer, the same question would I press on you, are you saints of God?
   If not, earth and hell combined, though they are both full of anguish,
   could not utter a shriek that should be shrill enough to set forth the
   woe unutterable of the death that shall surely come upon you. Oh I ere
   that death overtakes you, fly to Jesus. Trust Him, trust Him now! Ere
   this day's sun goes down cast yourself at the feet of the crucified
   Redeemer, and live! The Lord grant it, for his name's sake. Amen.

   PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON'Psalm 116; Revelation 7:9-17.

   * Rev. W. Dransfield, a beloved elder of the church at the Tablernacle,
   died February 15th, full of years.
     __________________________________________________________________

                             The Poor Man's Friend

   A Sermon

   (No. 1037)

   Delivered by

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   'For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him
   that hath no helper.''Psalm 72:12.

   THIS IS A ROYAL PSALM. In it you see predictions of Christ, not upon
   the cross, but upon the throne. In reference to his manhood as well as
   to his godhead, he is exalted and extolled and very high. He is the
   king'the king's son, truly with absolute sway, stretching his scepter
   from sea to sea, and 'from the river even unto the ends of the earth.'
   It is remarkable that in this psalm which so fully celebrates the
   extent of his realm and the sovereignty of his government, there is so
   much attention drawn to the minuteness of his care for the lowly, his
   personal sympathy with the poor, and the large benefits they are to
   enjoy from his kingdom. Where Christ is highest and we are lowest, and
   the two meet, there is 'glory to God in the highest, and on earth
   peace, goodwill towards men.' I might almost raise the question whether
   this psalm is more a tribute of homage to the Messiah, or a treasury of
   comfort for his poor subjects. We will compound the controversy by
   saying that as Christ here is highly exalted, so his poor needy ones
   are highly blessed, and while it is a blessing to them that he is
   exalted, it is an exaltation to him that they are blessed.

   Turning to our text without further preface, we shall note in it the
   special objects of great grace. 'He shall deliver the needy when he
   crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper;' then, the special
   blessings which are allotted to them. Here it is said that he shall
   deliver them, but all through the psalms there are scattered promises
   full of instruction and consolation all meant for them. And, lastly,
   the special season which God has appointed for the dispensing of these
   favors. 'He shall deliver the needy when he crieth.' That shall be
   God's time. When it is our time to cry, it shall be God's time to
   deliver.

   I. First, then, notice THE SPECIAL OBJECTS OF GREAT GRACE. There is a
   three-fold description'they are needy, they are poor, they have no
   helper.

   They are needy. In this they are like all the sons of men. We begin
   life in a needy state. We are full of needs in our infancy, and cannot
   help ourselves. We continue throughout life in a needy state. The very
   breath in our nostrils hath to be the gift of God's goodness. In him we
   live, and move, and have our being. And, as we grow old our needs
   become even more apparent. The staff on which we lean reveals to us our
   needs, and our infirmities all tell us what needy creatures we are. We
   need temporal things and we need spiritual things. Our body needs, our
   soul needs, our spirit needs. We need to be kept from evil; we need to
   be led into the paths of righteousness; we need on the outset that
   grace should be implanted; when implanted, we need that it be nurtured;
   when nurtured, we need that it be perfected and made to bring forth
   fruit. We are never a moment without need. We wake up, and our first
   glance might reveal our needs to us, and when we fall asleep it is upon
   a poor man's pillow, for we need that God should preserve us through
   the night. We have needs when we are on our knees, else where would be
   the energy of our prayers? We have needs when we try to sing, else how
   should our uncircumcised lips praise him aright? We have needs when we
   are relieving the needs of others, lest we become proud of our
   almsgiving. We have need in preaching, need in hearing; we have need in
   working, need in suffering, need in resting. What is our life but one
   long need? All men are full of needs. But God's peculiar people feel
   this need'they not only confess it is so, but they know it
   experimentally. They are full of needs. Once they thought that they
   were rich and increased in goods, and had need of nothing, but now,
   through the enlightenment of God's Spirit, they feel themselves to be
   naked, and poor, and miserable. Their needs were great before, but they
   appear now to be incalculable, more in number than the hairs of their
   heads. They have need of a covering for the sin of the past; they have
   need of help against the temptation of the present; they have need of
   perseverance as to the entire future. If there are any people under
   heaven who could claim the title of 'needy,' above all others, it is
   not the pauper in the workhouse, nor the mendicant who asks alms in the
   streets, but it is the child of God, for he feels himself to be so
   dependent that the more he gets from his great Benefactor the more he
   requires, and the more he must have to satisfy the enlarged desires of
   a heart that begins to know the will of God concerning us. Our needs
   are great and constant.

   The second description given is that he is poor''the poor also.' A man
   might be needy, and be able to supply his own need. As fast as his
   needs arose, he might have sufficient wealth to be able to procure what
   he wanted. I speak merely of his temporal wants. But, with regard to us
   in spiritual things, we are not only needy, but we are poor to utter
   destitution'there is nothing within our reach that we can help
   ourselves with. We have need of water for our thirst, but nature's
   buckets are empty, and her cisterns are broken. We have need of bread,
   but nature's granary is bare. Like the prodigal son in a far off
   country, there is a famine, a mighty famine, in that land, and we are
   in want. We have need of clothing; we have found that we are naked, and
   we are ashamed, but our fig leaves will not serve us, and we are too
   poor to buy a garment for ourselves. We are so poor that when a want
   comes it only shows us how empty the treasury is; and every want while
   it draws upon us meets with no fitting response; there is nothing,
   nothing, nothing, in human nature at its very best, that can keep pace
   with its own needs. Speak of self-reliance!''tis well enough in matters
   of the world, but self-reliance is absolutely madness in the things of
   God. We have heard of self-made men, but if any man would enter heaven,
   he must be a God-made man from first to last, for all that can come out
   of human nature will still be defiled. The stream shall never mount
   higher than the fountain-head, and the fountain-head of human nature is
   pollution, total depravity. It cannot rise higher than that, let it do
   its best. We are very needy, and very poor. If there be any poor in all
   the world, who have tasted the bitter ingredients of this cup of
   sorrow, it is God's people. We are very needy and very poor, though we
   did not always think so. When the discovery was first made to us, we
   felt the smart as those do 'who have seen better days.' Once we fancied
   ourselves able to do our work and sure to get our wages; we did hope to
   merit a reward for our good conduct; and we thought it was only for us
   to add a little piety to our decent morals in order to be well pleasing
   to God and our own conscience. Ah, sirs! when we woke from these
   foolish dreams, and faced our own abject poverty, how ashamed we were;
   how we shunned the light; how we sat alone and avoided company; how
   fear preyed on our heart; with what anguish we chattered to ourselves,
   saying, 'What shall I do? What shall I do?' Poor indeed we are and we
   know it.

   Moreover, it is said they have no helper. Now, until God enlightens us,
   we seem to have a great many helpers. We fancy'perhaps we once
   fancied'that a priest could save us. If we have a grain of grace we
   have given up that idea. Perhaps we imagined that our parents would
   help us, that our godly ancestry might stand us in some stead:'but we
   have long ago been brought to the conviction that we must each stand
   personally before God, for only personal religion is of any value. At
   one time we placed some dependence upon the ministry we attended, and
   hoped that in some favored hour that ministry might be of use to us;
   but, if God has awakened us, we look higher than pulpits and preachers
   now. Our eyes are up towards the hills whence cometh our help, and as
   to all earthly things, we see no help in them. 'Cursed is he that
   trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm.' 'He shall be like the heath
   in the desert'he shall not see when good cometh.' The Lord grant us all
   to be reduced to this'that we have no helper, because when we have no
   helper here, he will become our helper and our salvation. Put the three
   words together and you have a very correct description of the awakened
   people of God'needy, poor, and having no helper.

   We have felt this, beloved, very keenly some of us just before we
   looked to Christ. Oh! we can remember now when we wanted to have our
   sins forgiven us, we would have given all we had if we could but have
   found mercy;'we were full of needs. We turned all our good works over,
   but they had all become mouldy and worm-eaten, and they stank in our
   nostrils. We tried our prayers. We used to fancy if we began to pray
   earnestly it would all be well with us, but alas! alas! we found our
   prayers to be poor comforts'broken reeds. We looked all around us, and
   we could get no consolation. Even Scripture did not seem to cheer us;
   the very promises seemed to shut their doors against us. We had no
   helper. Oh, do you remember then when you cried to God in your trouble,
   and he delivered you? I know you verified the truth of the promise in
   our text, 'He shall deliver the needy when he crieth.'

   Since that time, we have been equally needy; we have been making fresh
   proof of our indigence; and getting into straits from which we could by
   no means extricate ourselves. Indeed, when a Christian is richest in
   grace he is poorest in himself. The way to grow rich in grace is to
   feel your poverty. Whenever you think you have stored up a little
   strength, a little comfort, a little provision against a rainy day, you
   are pretty sure to have the trouble you bargained for, and to miss the
   resources you counted on. Estimate your true wealth before God by your
   entire dependence on him. The more you have, the less you have, and the
   less you have, the more you have. When you have nothing at all in
   yourself, then Christ is all in all to you. The perpetual condition of
   every child of God in himself is that of a needy and a poor and a
   helpless one'on the high mountains with his Lord, rejoicing in his
   love, yet is he even there in himself less than nothing and
   vanity'still poor and needy.

   There have been times when we felt this very powerfully, perhaps, very
   painfully. Has Satan ever beset you, my brethren, with his fierce
   temptations? No doubt many of you have had to feel the ferocity of his
   attacks. Perhaps, blasphemous thoughts have been injected into your
   mind'dark forebodings, such as these, 'God has forsaken me.' Perhaps,
   he has said, 'He has sinned himself out of the covenant'he is a
   castaway,' and your poor little faith has tried to hold on to Christ,
   but it seemed as if she must be driven from her hold. While others
   found it as you thought easy to get to heaven, you realised the truth
   of the text''The righteous scarcely are saved.' You have had to fight
   for every inch of ground, and it seemed to you often as though you had
   not a spark of grace in you, not a ray of hope, and not so much as a
   single grain of the grace of God within your heart. Ah! and at such
   times you have been poor and needy, and you have had no helper. And,
   perhaps, at such seasons, too, temporal trouble may have come in.
   Whoever may go through the world without trouble, God's people never
   do.

   'The path of sorrow, and that path alone,

   Leads to the place where sorrow is unknown.'

   'In the world ye shall have tribulation' is as sure a promise as that
   other, 'In me ye shall have peace.' The trials of God's servants are
   sometimes extremely severe. Not a few are literally as well as
   spiritually poor. Hunger, privation, and embarrassment haunt their
   steps. And when you once come to be poor, how often does it happen that
   you have no helper. In the summer of prosperity your friends and
   acquaintances are numerous as the leaves of the forest, but in the
   winter of your losses and distresses, your friends are few indeed; your
   neighbors stand aloof, your old mates desert you, for like the wind
   your trials have borne them all away as sere leaves, and you cannot
   find them.

   But, do not think that the Lord has cast you off, because he is thus
   chastening you with the rod of men; take it as an exercise of your
   faith, and go to him and plead this promise, 'He shall deliver the
   needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper.'

   Thus I have set before you the character of God's especial objects of
   sovereign grace; they are poor and needy spiritually. Do you ask why is
   it that God selects these? Our first answer is, he giveth no account of
   his matters; he doeth as he will. He is a sovereign; who shall say unto
   him, 'What doest thou?' And, in order that he may make that sovereignty
   clear to the sons of men, he is pleased to select those whom naturally
   we might expect him to pass by. Did not Jesus lift his eyes to heaven
   full of gratitude and say, 'I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
   earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and
   hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good
   in thy sight.' Not many great men after the flesh, not many mighty are
   chosen, but God hath chosen the poor of this world, he hath chosen the
   things that are despised, (and as the Apostle puts it) 'Things that are
   not hath God chosen to bring to nought the things that are, that no
   flesh should glory in his presence.' When the chariot of the Eternal
   comes from above, he bids it roll far downward from the skies; he
   passes by the towers of haughty kings; he leaves the palaces of princes
   and the halls of senates, and down to the hovels of cottagers the
   chariot of his grace descends, for there he sees with joy and delight
   the objects of his everlasting love. 'I will have mercy on whom I will
   have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion,'
   is the word of divine sovereignty, and God makes it true by taking the
   poor and the needy, and them that have no helper.

   Still, if we may enquire into the reason, we see in the poor, and the
   needy, and the helpless, a reason for God's grace. They are the persons
   who are most willing to accept it, for they are the persons who most
   require it. Your generosity will not stand to be dictated to, but, at
   the same time, you usually prefer to give to those who want most. Wise
   mercy seeks out chief misery, and God therefore delights to give his
   blessings to those who need them most, not to those who fancy they
   deserve them'they shall have none of them, but those who need them,
   they shall have all of them.

   When a soul is made to feel its own poverty, it does not set itself up
   in rivalry with Christ; it does not pretend to be able to help itself;
   it has no disputing about the terms of the gospel. A sinner, when he is
   thoroughly famished, has such an appetite that he eats such things as
   God's mercy sets before him, and he raises no question. A proud
   Pharisee will say, 'I will not submit to this, to be saved by faith
   alone'I will not have it. To accept mercy as the absolute gift of
   heaven, irrespective of my character, I cannot endure it.' The high
   soul of a Pharisee, I say, kicks at it. But when God has brought a man
   low, till like the publican he cries, 'God be merciful to me a sinner,'
   he is glad to be saved in God's way, and no matter however humbling the
   plan of grace, nor how the sinner is debased and Christ exalted, the
   poor sinner loves to have it so. It is a way suitable to his own wants,
   a way which he accepts for the very reason that God has adapted it to
   his position. Hence, if there be reasons they lie here, not in man's
   merit but on the Lord's mercy. The fact that bare misery, when touched
   and guided by the Spirit of God, makes the soul to open its mouth like
   the hard chapped soil to drink in the rain, as soon as the rain
   descends from above, is an argument why grace so commonly flows in this
   course.

   In choosing to bless the poor and needy by his grace, the Lord finds
   for himself warm friends, those who will give him much praise, contend
   earnestly for his reign and for his sovereignty, and endure much
   obloquy for very love to his dear name. Why if the Lord were to save
   the Pharisees, they would hardly say, 'thank you,' they are so good
   themselves. They reckon themselves to be so excellent, that if they had
   salvation they would take it as a matter of course, and, like the
   lepers, they would never return to thank him that healed them. But when
   the Lord saves a great sinner, a man that feels there is nothing good
   in him; oh, how that man talks of it and tells it to others. He cannot
   take any praise to himself, he knows that he had nothing to do with it,
   that it is all of the grace of God. And, oh, see that man how he will
   stand up for the doctrines of grace! He is as the valiant men in
   Solomon's song, 'each man with a sword on his thigh because of fear in
   the night;' for the doctrines of grace are not to him matters of
   opinion, but matters of experience. They are dear to him as his own
   life. 'What,' says he, 'is not God the giver of salvation? Is not
   salvation all of God, from first to last? I know it is,' saith he.
   'Don't tell me. Whatever your arguments, however smooth may be the form
   and fashion of your theology, it does not tally with what I have tasted
   and handled and felt; for unless it is grace from first to last, I am a
   lost man; and, if I be indeed a child of God, then can I contend for
   the doctrines of grace, and will do till I die.' I know I felt myself
   last Sunday night, after I had talked to you about the difficulties of
   salvation, that if ever I got to heaven, I would praise and bless God
   with all my soul. I felt like that good old woman who said, that if the
   Lord ever saved her he should never hear the last of it, for she would
   tell it everywhere, and publish it abroad throughout all eternity, that
   the Lord had done it, that he was a good and gracious God to have mercy
   on such a soul as she was. Now, since one object of God in bestowing
   his mercy is to glorify himself, he does wisely in bestowing his mercy
   upon the poor and the needy, and such as have no helper. The Lord give
   to you, my dear hearer, to be brought down to this tonight. I know many
   of you have been brought there and are there now. Let my text encourage
   and cheer you. Dear objects of Almighty love, he finds you on the
   dunghill, but he lifts you from it. He finds you in the dust, but is
   not this the song of Hannah and the song of Mary too''He hath put down
   the mighty from their seat, and he hath exalted them of low degree: he
   hath filled the hungry with good things, but the rich he hath sent
   empty away?' It is God's way of dealing with the poor and lost; rejoice
   at it, it is full of encouragement to you. But I say to any of you that
   have never been humbled, good people, who have always been good people,
   you that have always kept the law from your youth up, and gone to
   church regularly, or to chapel regularly, very people'The Lord have
   mercy upon you, and let you see that your goodness is filthiness, that
   your righteousness is unrighteousness, and that the best that is in you
   is bad, and that the bad that is in you that you have never seen as yet
   will be your ruin, your eternal destruction, unless God set it before
   your eyes, and bring you down to loathe yourself, and feel yourself to
   be abominable in his sight, and abominable also in your own sight, when
   his law comes with power home to your souls. Thus I have spoken upon
   the special objects of divine grace.

   II. Now, a few words upon THE SPECIAL BLESSING WHICH THE GREAT KING HAS
   STORED UP FOR THESE PEOPLE. Kindly look at the second verse. 'He shall
   judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment;' so
   that one of the special blessings for God's poor is that they shall be
   judged with judgment. Alas! they are often judged with harshness; or
   they are judged in ignorance; or they are judged by malice'not judged
   by righteousness, nor by judgment. When their enemies see them, they
   say, 'These are a broken-spirited people; they are moping and
   melancholy, wretched and sad.' Thus hard things are spoken against
   them, and unkind stories are told of them. Sometimes they say they are
   out of their minds, and then they will insinuate that they are only
   hypocrites and pretenders. Slander is very busy with the children of
   God. God had a Son that had no fault; but he never had a son that was
   not found fault with. Ay, God himself was slandered in paradise by
   Satan: let us not expect, therefore, to escape from the venomous
   tongue.

   One blessing, however, that will always come to God's needy ones is
   this'Christ will right them, he will judge them with judgment. Are you
   harshly spoken of at home? Don't be angry, don't provoke in return,
   don't answer railing with railing. 'He shall judge his poor with
   righteousness.' Leave it to him. Wait, wait, till the judgment sits,
   for who are these that they should judge you? Their opinion, though it
   is bitter as gall to your spirit, does not really affect your character
   or your destiny. If you are right before the Lord, through faith in
   Christ, they cannot make you wrong by anything they say. God judges and
   God knows. 'He searcheth the heart and tries the reins.' You remember
   how David, among his brethren, was much despised. He had not the
   appearance and the carriage that his elder brethren had, and even
   Samuel, the Lord's prophet, thought the others to be better than David,
   and said of them, 'Surely the Lord hath chosen these.' David was
   therefore despised of his brethren, but what mattered it? The Lord
   looked not as man looks, for man looked upon the outward appearance,
   but God looketh at the heart. Bide your time you that are one of a
   family and alone. Or, if for Christ's sake you have been despised, have
   courage to-night and let not your spirit be bowed down. 'Rejoice ye in
   this day and leap for joy, for so persecuted they the prophets that
   were before you.' The King will speedily come, and when he cometh then
   will this word be verified. 'He shall judge his people with
   righteousness and his poor with judgment.' There is one mercy for
   you'to have your wrongs righted and your character cleared.

   God's poor and needy ones, you will perceive, if you turn a little
   further down, shall be saved from oppression. Fourth verse: 'He shall
   judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy,
   and shall break in pieces the oppressor.' The Lord's people are like
   sheep among wolves, the wolves treat them injuriously. Christ himself
   was oppressed and afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. His people
   may expect to be oppressed too; but they have this for their comfort,
   that Christ will surely deliver them, and he will break their
   oppressors in pieces. Are you to-night oppressed by Satan? Have you
   things laid to your charge by him that you know not of, and doth
   conscience oppress you with the remembrance of sins which have been
   forgiven? Have you ever believed concerning them in the atonement of
   Christ? Well, bow your head meekly, and go to the mercy-seat once
   again, pleading the precious blood, and he shall break in pieces the
   oppressor. There is no answer for Satan like the blood! and there is no
   answer for conscience but the blood. Plead it before God, plead it in
   your own soul, and you shall find that the great and glorious King in
   Zion shall, in your hearts, break in pieces the oppressor. There is
   another special mercy, then'help against the oppressor.

   The third blessing is that of our text: 'He shall deliver the needy.'
   Deliver them! You are brought into great troubles; you shall be
   delivered out of them. You are just now the subject of many fears: you
   shall be delivered from your fears. It seems as though the enemy would
   soon exult over you, and put his foot upon your neck, and make an end
   of you; you shall be delivered. You are like a bird taken in the
   fowler's net, and he is ready to wring your neck and take the breath
   out of you; but you shall be delivered out of the hand of the fowler,
   and brought safely through the perils that threaten you. Oh, that we
   all had faith! Oh, that we all could exercise faith when in deep
   waters. It is a fine thing to talk about faith on land, but we want
   faith to swim with when we are thrown into the flood. May you, tonight,
   get such a grip of this precious word that you may take it before the
   Lord and say, 'I am poor and needy, and have no helper. O God, deliver
   my soul now.'

   But, we have not exhausted the string of blessings. A little further
   down in the psalm, at the thirteenth verse, you will notice it is said
   of the King: 'He shall spare the poor and needy.' If he lays heavily
   upon them apparently, yet will he by-and-by stay his hand; if he bids
   one of his rough winds blow, he will save the other. As he is said to
   temper the wind to the shorn lamb, so will he certainly temper it to
   his people; they shall be afflicted, but it shall be in measure; he
   shall spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him: the rod
   shall make them smart, but shall not make them bleed; they shall be
   made to suffer, but they shall not be called to die. Perplexed, but not
   in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; there shall always be a
   gracious limit put to the blows that come from Jehovah's hand for his
   own people. Oh, what a mercy to be amongst his poor ones, and to feel
   that he will spare us; he spared not his own Son, but he will spare us,
   the poor and needy; he smote him with the blows of avenging justice,
   but concerning us it is written, 'The mountains shall depart, and the
   hills be removed, but the covenant of my love shall not depart. As I
   have sworn that the waters shall no more go over the earth; so have I
   sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.' He wilt
   spare his people; he will bring them safely through, and, meanwhile, he
   will not let the waters be deep enough to overwhelm them.

   There is one other blessing which sums up all the rest; you find it in
   the fourteenth verse: 'He shall redeem their souls from deceit and
   violence.' Redemption belongs to the Lord's poor people. He bought with
   a price his poor ones, and as the ransom has all been paid, they belong
   to Christ, and none shall take them out of his hand. He that redeemed
   them by price will redeem them by power. He will, if it be needful,
   divide the Red Sea again to redeem his people; and, if by no usual
   means his servants can be preserved, he will bring unusual means into
   the field. There are no miracles now, we say, but if they are ever
   wanted for the safety of God's people, there shall be miracles as
   timely and as plentiful as of yore. 'Heaven and earth may pass away,
   but his word shall never pass away.' He would sooner shake the heavens
   themselves than suffer one of his children to famish, or utterly to
   perish, rest assured of that. Oh, what glorious comfort there is in all
   this! We shall be spared, we shall be redeemed, we shall be delivered,
   we shall be saved, we shall be revenged and cleared before the
   judgment-bar of God; and, all because the great King has made the poor
   and needy the special objects of his love. Oh! my soul revels in this.
   I cannot speak out the thoughts I feel, much less the joy that arises
   out of them; but what a mercy it really is, that the great King, the
   King who rules from the river to the ends of the earth, is the poor
   man's friend. I am very poor and needy and helpless to-night, but the
   king has made me his favourite, counts me one of his courtiers: it is
   the same with you, dear brother, if you too are poor and needy, he
   rules, and he rules on the throne for us; he is great and hath
   dominion, but he uses all his greatness and his dominion for us. As
   Joseph in Egypt was invested with power for the good of his brethren,
   or at least such sovereignty as he held of Pharaoh he laid out for the
   welfare of his father's house, so Jesus has all power and authority in
   heaven and earth; all might, majesty, and dominion for the good of his
   people. He has the king's signet ring upon his finger, but he uses it
   for his own beloved ones that he may enrich, and honor, and cheer, and
   perfect them. His glory is concerned in every one of us. If one of the
   least of his people should perish, his crown would suffer damage. He is
   the shepherd and surety of the flock, and at his hand will the Father
   require all those who are committed to him. He cannot, therefore, let
   us perish, for then he would not be able to say at the last, 'Of all
   that thou hast given me I have lost none.' He must and will preserve
   us. We are wrapped up in his honor. His power, I say, his crown, his
   glory, his very name, as the Christ of God anointed to save sinners,
   all are wrapped up and intertwisted in the salvation of every poor and
   needy soul that is brought to rest in him.

   III. And, now, our closing word is, THE SPECIAL SEASON WHEN ALL THIS
   SHALL BE TRUE. He shall deliver the needy when he crieth.

   Ah! while I have been preaching there may have been some poor child of
   God here who has said, 'I am poor and needy, and I am in great
   distress, but I have not been delivered.' And there may be some sinner
   here who has said, 'God has taught me my poverty and need, and I know I
   have no helper, but I cannot find I have been delivered.' Perhaps, dear
   friends, you have been praying for months, praying very bitterly too,
   after a sort, and you have been desirous that you might find mercy.
   God's time, when will it come? Well, it will come when you cry. That is
   something more, I take it, than a mere ordinary prayer. A child asks
   you for something, and you may perhaps deny it; but you know there is a
   difference between asking for a thing and crying for a thing. Oh, when
   you get so that you must have it, and your heart breaks for it, when
   your needs are so extreme that you cannot stand up under them'well,
   now, it comes to this, that you must have Christ or perish. 'Give me
   Christ or else I die,' when it seems as if you could not put your
   prayer into words any more, that you could only fall at the foot of the
   cross, and say, 'O God, I cannot pray, but my very soul groans after
   thee, to have mercy upon me,' then is the time, then is the time, but
   not till then, when God will deliver you. The Lord loves to hear the
   prayers of his people, and he sometimes keeps them waiting at the posts
   of his door, that they may pray more. It is always a blessing for us to
   pray as well as to get the answer to prayer. Prayer is in itself a
   blessing. When the Lord hears us knock faintly at the door, he does not
   open; we may knock and knock again'he likes us to knock; it does us
   good to knock. But when it comes to this, that it is all knocking with
   us, and our very soul and body seem to knock, and our heart and flesh
   cry after God, the living God: when we shall thus come to appear before
   God, and open our mouth and pant vehemently for the mercy he has
   promised, then it will come. When thou canst not take a denial, thou
   shalt not have a denial. The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and
   the violent take it by force. There is none so violent as the man who
   is in desperate need. There is a person who has been without bread many
   hours, and he asks you for charity in the street. You would pass him
   by, but he is famished, and he says, 'Oh give me bread! I die.' He
   compels you to it. And such is the prayer that prevails with God. When
   the soul cannot wait, dare not wait, fears lest it should shut its eyes
   and open them in hell. Oh! God will not keep such a soul long waiting.
   I am always glad when I hear of convinced souls saying, 'I went up into
   my chamber with the resolution that I would never come down again till
   I had found the Savior.' I always delight to hear of men and women who
   say, 'I went upon my knees and cried to him, saying, I will not let
   thee go except thou bless me.' He will bless thee. If thou wilt let him
   go, he will go, but if thou wilt not let him go, thou shalt have thy
   request of him. 'But who am I,' saith one, 'that I should plead thus? I
   have no right to hold him thus.' 'Tis true, but when a man is hungry,
   when a man is dying, he does not think of rights. He holds you right or
   wrong. His need is his right. Poor soul, go and plead your need before
   God. Plead your sin, tell him you are wretched and undone without his
   sovereign grace. Use the strange argument which David used, the
   strangest in all the world, 'For thy name's sake, O Lord! pardon mine
   iniquity, for it is great.' Plead the very greatness of your sin as a
   reason for mercy; the damnable character of your sin; the certainty
   that you will soon be cast into hell, the fact that he might justly
   drive you from his presence for ever; plead all that before him; and
   say, 'Lord, if ever the heights and depths of thy grace might be seen
   in saving an undeserving soul, I am just that one. If thy mercy wants
   to honor itself by saving the most undeserving, ill deserving, hell
   deserving sinner that ever lived, Lord, I am the man. If thou wantest a
   platform on which to erect a monument of infinite grace, that men shall
   stand and wonder, and angels shall gaze on it with astonishment, Lord,
   here am I. If thou wantest emptiness, here is one who is all emptiness.
   If thou as the good physician wantest a bad case, a glaring case, a
   desperate case, to operate on, thou wilt never have a worse case than
   mine. O God, turn aside and have pity upon me, and show thy mighty
   power.' This is the way to plead. Not your merits'they will never get a
   hearing, but your misery, your sin, your guiltiness before God'these
   are the arguments. And then if faith can come in and plead the blood,
   and say, 'Didst thou not send thy Son to save sinners?' has he not said
   he came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance? Is it not
   written that the Son of Man is come to seek and to save not the good,
   but that which was lost? Oh! if you can plead the blood in that
   fashion, you will not fail. His name is the Savior'he came to save his
   people from their sins. He died for the ungodly, he justifieth the
   ungodly'the unrighteous he makes righteous through his own merits. If
   you can plead this, oh, then, you shall not long wait, for though God
   does not deliver till we cry, yet he does deliver when we cry. 'He will
   deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no
   helper.' Oh, what a mercy it is when the tide is ebbed right out, and
   there is nothing left. It will turn now, it will turn now. The streams
   of grace will turn now. When you are empty, when you are overwhelmed,
   when you are like a dish wiped out, and there is not anything good left
   in you'now will God come to you. The darkest part of the night is that
   which precedes the dawn of the day. When God has killed you, he will
   make you live. When he has wounded you through and through, he will
   come to your healing.

   ''Tis perfect poverty alone,

   That sets the soul at large;

   While we can call one mite our own,

   We get no full discharge.

   But let our debts be what they may,

   However great or small;

   As soon as we have nought to pay,

   Our God forgives us all.'

   May it be so now, for his name's sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

                            Another Royal Procession

   A Sermon

   (No. 1038)

   Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, 3rd, 1872, by

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   'Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek,
   and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.''Matthew 21:5.

   IT IS NOT OUR INTENTION to preach alone from this verse, but from the
   combined narrative of our Savior's triumphant entry into the city of
   Jerusalem, as contained in the four evangelists.

   When our Lord was here on earth, he was a humble man before his foes, a
   weary man and full of woes, and only now and then did some glimpses of
   his native royalty burst forth from him; he had now and then a day in
   which his regal rights were assumed and his royal position was claimed.
   He is gone from us now as to his actual presence, but he is with us
   spiritually, and his spiritual presence here is not unlike what his
   bodily presence was in the days of his flesh. For the most part, the
   glory of his gospel presence is unobserved, except among his own
   disciples, and when perceived by others he is still despised and
   rejected of men. He moves up and down among our assemblies, hearing our
   prayers and accepting our praises, but still his honor as a prince lies
   concealed from the eyes of the many who know him not as king by right
   divine. Yet, as in those days, he had his times of clearer display and
   his hours of partial manifestation, even so he has now. He gives to his
   church her glory periods, her days of thanksgiving, her court days, and
   her times of exultation; and I pray God that he may grant such times as
   these to his church now, that in the midst of these dull years he may
   gird his sword upon his thigh, and ride forth gloriously in his
   majesty. Oh, that the streets of his Jerusalem could be gladdened by
   the holy pomp and sacred splendor of his gracious and triumphal
   presence, beloved, the world doth well to salute righteous kings with
   all homage; our nation doth well to honor their well-beloved queen,
   whom may God long preserve! but shall Christ the King of kings be
   without his homage? I must confess I am jealous for him, jealous with a
   burning jealousy that the streets should blaze with splendor for the
   Queen of Britain, and that so little should be done in honor of the
   King immortal, eternal. Lo, the shouts of the multitude rend the skies
   for earthly princes, and I grudge them not; but, should there be no
   upliftings of joyful voices for the Prince of Peace? Why this lethargy
   in his church? Why such slender zeal for the Chief among, ten thousand?
   Why should not earth and heaven ring with His praises? If I might say
   so much as a sentence to-day that should lead the tribes to speak a
   word to bring the King back again to his own; if I might excite in any
   soul a fervent desire that Christ's kingdom should more speedily come,
   and his throne should be exalted more on high in the midst of his
   people, I should be thrice happy. To that end shall I endeavor to speak
   this day. Oh, for the anointing of the Holy Ghost to aid me therein.

   Our points of consideration this morning will he, first, that Christ
   hath even now his glorious days among men; and secondly, that when
   those glorious days come honors are paid to him similar to those
   described by the evangelists on the occasion of his entrance into
   Jerusalem. In the third place I shall remind you that he is wont on
   such occasions to perform the same mighty deeds; and in the close of
   our discourse we shall have to observe that even on those brilliant
   occasions, 'all is not gold that glitters.'

   I. First, then, here is a very pleasant consideration, that THE LORD
   JESUS HAS, EVEN NOW, BRIGHT AND GLORIOUS DAYS OF SPECIAL MANIFESTATION
   IN HIS CHURCH. He has ridden into his Jerusalem again and again in the
   history of the gospel. We call these times revivals; and in yet more
   scriptural language they are known as 'times of refreshing from the
   presence of the Lord.' They usually occur'(and I shall try to follow
   the narrative in all the remarks I make), they usually occur after the
   Lord has visited his beloved and quickened them. He came into Jerusalem
   after he had raised Lazarus from the dead. His omnipotent voice had
   said, 'Lazarus, come forth!' and Lazarus came forth, and the grave
   clothes were loosed from him; then and for that cause did the people
   come to meet our Lord with palm branches. First doth the Lord speak to
   his Church and he saith to her, 'Come forth out of the grave of thy
   sloth and thine indifference.' He saith, 'Loose her, take away the
   bands of her sloth and her conventionalism, and set her free,' and then
   when he hath restored among his church a people whom he loves, and
   granted to them renewed vigor of spiritual life in the power of his
   resurrection, then it is that the sign of the glory of the Son of Man
   is revealed. I despair, beloved, of any revival being of the slightest
   value which does not begin with the church of God. It never can
   originate outside and work into the interior, this is not the rule of
   spiritual life; it must commence with the spiritual in the midst of the
   church, it must next quicken the mass of the discipleship, and then it
   shall spread to those who are without, and in ever widening circles its
   power shall be felt. But, revival must begin at home. Hear ye this ye
   professors, and take heed lest ye hinder Christ of his glory. Hear this
   ye who profess to be members of his church, and beware lest ye be like
   the damp wood which will not kindle, and therefore no fire burneth
   among the sons of men. Oh, let not the Well-beloved find his worst
   hindrances in his own household; let not the glory of Christ be
   obscured most by those who stand nearest to him, and ought therefore to
   be most jealous for his holy name. Yet so I fear full often it is; the
   children Ephraim being armed and carrying bows turn back in the day of
   battle, and so Israel's God is dishonored. Lazarus must arise; our
   death must be shaken off, and then shall the Lord Jesus greatly
   triumph.

   The Lord was pleased to ride in state when his disciples were obedient
   to him. Note well their implicit obedience, for it is a sure prophecy
   of glorious displays in the church. He said to two of his disciples,
   'Go,' and they went; and others of them having his commission performed
   their errands without hesitation. Alas! I fear the disobedience of the
   church often hinders the advance of the gospel. The disciples do not at
   this day, as they did then, the things which Jesus commanded them. One
   of them saith, 'I will follow Paul, another I will follow Cephas''would
   God we laid aside all party leadership, and were only led by the master
   himself! One saith, 'This institution is venerable if it be not
   scriptural,' and another saith, 'I believe this ritual to be impressive
   and instructive, even if it be not ordained of God;' and so men excuse
   their will-worship. Oh, that we could lay all these things aside, and
   recognize that the law of the house is the law which the Master makes,
   and not the law which the servant may invent. It is time that we laid
   our perverse likes and our dislikes, our whims and our fancies, our
   opinions and even our more sober judgments, at the foot of him who is
   the only King of Zion; for be assured of this, his sacred majesty will
   not manifest its glory to disobedient disciples, except it be in a way
   of terror. Take heed, then, O ye who stand in his courts by your
   profession, and are his servants in name, that ye labor to do his will
   on earth as it is done in heaven, cheerfully, speedily, exactly, and
   with reverence to his every word, for otherwise he will veil his glory,
   and do but few mighty works among you.

   Another indication of our Lord giving us glory days will be found in
   the prompt and cheerful sacrifice which his disciples will make. On the
   day of his entrance into Jerusalem, the owner of the ass and its colt
   cheerfully surrendered them when he heard that the Lord had need of
   them: the disciples who brought the ass did not spare their own
   contributions, for they took their garments and piled them on the ass;
   and others would not be debarred from their share of homage, for they
   spread their garments in the way, counting it their greatest honor to
   be bare-backed for Christ. All hands contributed, for all hearts were
   warm. The willing offerings of the people carpeted the road for the Son
   of David when he went through his metropolis to his cathedral. None
   appeared before him empty; there was no withholding on that day. A
   generous spirit had seized upon all his followers, and mark this word,
   for there is more of solemn truth in it than some will think, Christ
   Jesus hath often taken away the power of his Spirit from the church
   because of the covetousness of many professors, who have grudged the
   cause of God what they ought spontaneously and cheerfully to have
   offered. They have said of sacrifice to the Lord, 'what a weariness it
   is!' They have robbed God in tithes and in offerings. They have counted
   the free-will offering to be a tax, when they ought to have considered
   it to be an honor and a privilege to be allowed to give to the Lord's
   cause. God has been insulted by miserly gifts and penurious
   contributions. What they would have been ashamed to offer to the
   meanest among princes they have presented to the Lord. How often have I
   blushed as I have heard in prayer that text, 'Prove me now herewith,
   saith 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.' Why have you blushed? say you. Because seldom or never do
   I hear that text quoted correctly, its point is dexterously turned
   aside. What is the proof which the Lord puts before his people in that
   text? How doth he say, 'Prove me now?' By your prayers? No. By your
   good works? No. But the text is, 'Bring ye all the tithes into the
   store-house that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now
   herewith, saith the Lord of hosts,' and so on. That is the peculiar
   test to which God brings his people, and in that test, alas, how many
   fail therein. They buy him no sweet cane with money, neither is he
   filled with their sacrifices. They will give their words in plenty,
   their lip homage in floods, but if it, comes to their substance they
   will have none of it. How few Christians have ever read this text and
   understood it, 'Sell what thou hast and give alms.' Their almsgiving
   has never come to that; they have given but the cheese parings and the
   candle ends to Christ; they never knew they had given them, they made
   no sacrifice to do so. Many do not give to Jesus so much in a year as
   it costs to clean their shoes. Christ's cause costs them not half the
   hire of the most menial servant in their kitchens. Is not this a crying
   evil, to be answered for by those who are guilty of it? How can we
   expect the kingdom to come and the cause of Christ to grow while in
   these days of unreal profession Christ's followers deny him his due,
   and straiten the exchequer of his church. If no garments strew the
   road, and no man gives up his colt, how shall the prince celebrate a
   triumph?

   But we must pass on from that; those three things are, however, very
   significant signs of Christ's glory days; a quickened people, an
   obedient discipleship, and a general self-sacrifice. Let us see these,
   and we shall be sure that one of Christ's glory days has come.

   Furthermore, the glory of Christ is seen when Jesus Christ is publicly
   proclaimed as King. Evermore, beyond doubt, we acknowledge Christ to be
   King in the church; I hope all believers are sound upon that point: but
   in what holes and corners doth the church whisper out the truth, which
   he hath told us in the closet. Years ago, many of the churches were
   quite content to hide their light under any bushel, meeting in the
   queerest courts, and lanes, and alleys, where nobody but an angel and
   themselves could ever find them out. This content with obscurity is
   contrary to the genius of the gospel; let moles and bats seek out the
   hidden places and dwell therein; the children of light are not ashamed,
   but make it their glory that these things are not done in a corner. It
   is a grand day for the kingdom of Christ when the King is proclaimed in
   the streets, when the great trumpet is sounded, when the disciples
   stand in the highways, and the voice of wisdom is lifted up in the
   chief places of concourse, at the going in of the gates. Then are
   things well ordered when Zion lifts up her voice, yea, lifts it up with
   strength, and saith unto the cities of Judah, 'Behold your God.' Our
   commission as preachers is to every creature, and, therefore, the more
   public the teaching of the gospel the better. Truly, there was grace in
   the earth when in popish times God was loved by men in quiet, and when
   Christ was worshipped by little knots in secret; but that was a grander
   day when Luther stood out in the open air and said that Christ was
   King, and salvation was by his blood. Then, when all over Europe the
   crowds began to gather in the fields, or beneath the gospel oak, or in
   the public squares, to listen to the men who not in a corner, not with
   bated breath, but aloud and boldly, before them all declared that
   antichrist must come to an end and that the Lord Jesus Christ must be
   exalted, and faith in him must be declared to be the salvation of the
   sons of men, oh, it was then that Christ and his church behests a
   glorious day. Blessed be God for the Reformation, but we must not rest
   in faded laurels, we need new victories. We desire the blessings of the
   gospel to be extended; and we ought to pray that the gospel may have
   free course and be glorified, that every street may ring with its
   charming music, that every alley and court may brighten with salvation,
   ay, and that not a house in London may he left without knowing that
   'Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.' It is a notable
   day when in the great gatherings of the people the Lord Jesus is
   declared to be the Lord of all.

   On such days, one part of the glory consists in many going forth to
   meet Christ. I wish I might live to see the facts of the gospel
   narrative fulfilled spiritually before our eyes. The people in
   Jerusalem took branches of palm trees and went forth to meet Jesus,
   glad that he was coming into the city, willing to swell the pomp of his
   entrance; and even thus God moves often on bright days upon the mass of
   the people making them willing to receive the gospel. There are times
   when the preacher feels that he is sowing on stony ground, but on other
   days when God's Spirit is abroad, the soil seems broken up, friable,
   ready to receive the grain, and the seed suddenly springs up, and a
   speedy harvest is produced. Pray, my brethren, that God would move our
   fellow countrymen to go forth to meet King Jesus. Pray that there may
   come a great cave of religious thought over the minds of the people.
   God can cause it; he has the keys of human hearts, and can secretly
   guide them according to his will. Pray that there may be a great
   religious movement among the people, for then we may look for one of
   the days of the Son of Man, as the days of heaven upon earth.

   Then, too, as another sign, we shall see enthusiasm prevailing on all
   sides. When Christ rode through Jerusalem, it was not possible for men
   to be cold at the sight of his majesty. Those who hated burned with
   malignity, but those who loved him were full of flaming affection
   towards him. It is one speciality of Christ's character that men can
   scarcely be indifferent in his presence; he that is not with him is
   against him. What enthusiasm there was in the crowd that day when the
   city rang again. The children climbed the trees and threw down the
   branches; their parents waved them in triumph and then cast them in the
   roadway that the Savior might ride over them. The shouts were loud and
   long, the day was full of gladness to the many. Ah, and it is a mark of
   Christ's presence when the church becomes enthusiastic. We sometimes
   hear complaints about revivals being too exciting, perhaps the censure
   is deserved, but I would like to see a little of the fault. This age
   does not generally sin in the direction of being too excited concerning
   divine things. We have erred so long on the other side that, perhaps, a
   little excess in the direction of fervor might not be the worst of all
   calamities; at any rate, I would not fear to try it. Doubtless our
   Lord's presence, like the rising of the sun scatters heat as well as
   light on all sides. Oh to be scorched by that sun, to be parched with
   that heat. Blessed would they be who should be guilty of too great a
   love for him, convicted of too consuming a zeal for the glory. I would
   gladly die of that heavenly malady.

   On that triumphal day, beloved brethren, where there was no enthusiasm,
   there was inquiry, for all the city was moved, saying, 'Who is this?'
   When our Lord grants revivals to his church, the congregations and the
   multitude outside begin to ask, 'Wherefore this stir? what meaneth all
   this? Who is this Christ, and what is his salvation?' This spirit of
   inquiry is eminently desirable. It is just now a matter to be sought
   for by importunate prayer. Would God that all this vast metropolis were
   stirred by the inquiry, 'Who is this?' and that everywhere men said,
   'What is this gospel about which so much noise is made?' May the Lord
   in his mercy move men's hearts as the trees of the wood are shaken with
   the wind. This is that shaking which the prophet saw in the valley of
   vision when bone came together to its bone, before the breath of the
   Spirit made the slain to live. Be instant day and night O ye chosen men
   of God, and pray that like Nineveh in the days of Jonah this whole city
   may be moved by the preaching of the word.

   The strange thing about the matter was that when Jesus entered
   Jerusalem, all his enemies were quiet. He rode publicly through the
   streets where Herod and Pilate held their courts, yet they did not
   attempt to molest him. The Romans were very jealous of their authority,
   they were always prompt to seize upon any person who pretended to be a
   king, and yet not a solitary pretorian guard laid his rough hand upon
   the King of the Jews, neither did Herod's men of war appear upon the
   scene. It does not appear that any information was carried to head
   quarters concerning this singular procession, neither was it laid to
   the Lord's charge by his enemies on his trial. As for the scribes and
   Pharisees, they did no more than bark a little, but bite they could
   not, for they feared the people. That day every foeman cowered down
   before the Lord, like dogs when a lion roareth. When he entered the
   temple he was unattended by armed followers, he took with him no sword,
   but simply a scourge made of small curds, and yet with that slight
   weapon he chased out the buyers and sellers, overturning their tables,
   and overthrowing the seats of them that sold doves; and yet it does not
   appear that any resistance was made to him; he was Lord of the hour.
   Against him durst not a dog move his tongue; in the presence of the
   King of Zion the enemy was as still as a stone till he and his people
   had passed through the city, and the day of the royal pomp was over. In
   like manner it is remarkable that, in times when the Lord is blessing
   his church, he restrains the wrath of his enemies or causes it to
   praise him. He hath power to make the proudest humble themselves, and
   the most stout-hearted bow their necks, and he uses that power to the
   glory of his name.

   While I am thus describing what the glorious days of Christ are when
   they dawn upon us, surely you, my dear fellow members, are all pleading
   with God and earnestly praying, 'O king of grace, Grant us one of these
   royal days in this church;' and you, the members of other churches, are
   crying, 'would God that Jesus would come to our town in that fashion,
   and that he would rule in our church, after that manner.' Let us pray
   for it unanimously and continually, and let us be of good cheer, for
   Jesus loves his church and he will give her what her heart is set upon.
   Let us plead with him for it, and we shall yet see the day in which the
   many shall cry, 'Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.'

   II. But, time could fail us if we lingered here, and therefore we pass
   to the second head, which is this, that ON THESE GLORY DAYS OF JESUS
   CHRIST IN HIS CHURCH, LIKE HONORS ARE PAID TO HIM NOW AS THEN.

   And first, he is at this time as loudly praised and as greatly rejoiced
   in among his people as he was then. They clapped their hands and called
   him 'Blessed;' and the whole multitude of his disciples rejoiced with
   an exceeding loud voice, and cried, 'Hosanna, Hosanna.' Oh, beloved, we
   are dull enough when Christ is away; how can the children of the
   bridechamber rejoice when the bridegroom is gone from them; but when
   his Spirit comes with power into our midst how can we fast? Oh, then
   our hearts rejoice, and leap along in glee like the long frozen brooks
   when the soft breath of spring hath set them free. Send us but a
   revival, O God, and Ready-to-halt shall leap upon his crutches, and
   Much-afraid, and Fearing, and Despondency, shall sing with holy mirth.
   No joy is like the joy of Christ's presence with his people. Oh, that
   we might have it! Bickerings soon cease, murmurings come to an end,
   complaints of one another, and of God's providence are all hushed; the
   sense that Jesus Christ is with his people drowns every note of sorrow,
   and every heart is tuned to loudest notes of thankfulness. O thou, my
   soul, bless God the Lord, and all that in me is be stirred up, his holy
   name to magnify and bless, on that auspicious day, when the power of
   Jesus Christ is revealed in the city of his choice. It is a gladsome
   time, a time of singing, a time of shouting, a time of exultation, and
   of intense delight when we go forth to meet our King Solomon to crown
   him anew. I need not say to you, should he favor us with such a
   delightful period, let us rejoice and be glad in him, for you would be
   sure to do it. When the Lord turns again the captivity of Sion, then is
   our mouth filled with singing and our tongue with laughter.

   The point that I shall dwell upon here would be that Christ's peculiar
   honor lay not only in the joy and rejoicing which flowed around him,
   but in the multitude who felt the contagion of that joy. It was said by
   those who saw the pageant of last week that the great sight of all was
   the multitude; the thing to look at and to wonder at was the crowd the
   dense, far-reaching, eager, surging crowd. And, surely, in Christ's
   glory days the thing which brings him much honor is the crowd, the
   multitude; for when he makes bare his arm, and his gospel is preached
   with power, the multitude are sure to listen to his gospel, and men
   say, 'Behold the whole world is gone after him.' It may seem strange
   and unaccountable, but so it is, that the very gospel which is opposed
   by men has a strange attraction for their ears, they cannot help
   hearing it; and though to this day there is an opposition in the human
   heart to the truth as it is in Jesus, yet is it a remarkable fact that
   men love to hearken to it. The numerical strength of Christ's church
   lies still in the multitude; the common people hear him gladly. Though
   it was known that Christ was coming, the princes did not go to meet
   him, the priests did not go to meet him; there were no long files of
   Jewish nobility to greet their King; but the people went in their
   thousands, the masses cheered him. I dare say the Pharisees called them
   the mob, the rabble, the unwashed. Yes, and let it stand for fact,
   'this man receiveth sinners;' he is the people's King, the helper of
   the poor and needy. The poor of this world have been rich in faith in
   him. In the old days of persecution, and of burning, who were the men
   that played the man most nobly at the stake? Here and there a bishop
   and a noble did so, but the rank and file of the heroes were from the
   poor or the middle class. There was one great man, with an unworthy
   right hand that recanted, and yet did well at the last; but the poor
   weavers of Colchester, and the cobblers of Bow, never recanted at all,
   but gloried in being made a burnt-offering for the truth. Wherever the
   gospel has been mainly upheld by the great ones of the earth it has had
   little success. Take, for instance, Spain and Italy, the converts of
   the Reformation there nearly all belonged to the higher ranks, and ere
   long its doctrines became extinct, but it lived among German peasants
   and British artisans. The valiant of Israel still come from the loom,
   the smithy, the plough, and the bench. Wherever the gospel entrenches
   itself among the common people, the devil himself cannot destroy it: it
   is then like a lion in its own forest, and none can drive it forth. The
   priests and the mighty ones may uphold what cause they will, but if the
   people are for King Jesus, his advocates have no need to blush. It is
   this day the glory of Christ that he doth save the poor and the needy,
   and that he is the prince of the multitude. 'I have exalted,' saith the
   Lord, 'one chosen out of the people''Jesus is the people's Christ, the
   people's man. He still hath honor out of the mouth of those whom others
   despise, for he hath chosen the base things of the world and the things
   that are not to bring to nought the things that are. Here was a part of
   Christ's glory.

   And then, observe, that, on that day it was Christ's glory that he
   received all sorts of homage from all kinds of people. As I have
   already said, he who had a beast that Christ might ride upon cheerfully
   surrendered it: he who had no beast had at least a garment, and he gave
   it; and he who was so poorly clad, that his best garment when spread in
   the way might seem rather to insult than to honor the king, gave a
   branch from the tree. He who could brought a palm, which probably he
   had to purchase with money; but those who could not buy palm branches,
   climbed the trees that were common and grew by the highway, and threw
   the branches down. I suppose these were branches of olives, for they
   were hard by the Mount of Olives: let the fatness of the earth honor
   him! There were also branches of the figtree, for Bethphage was the
   house of figs: let the sweetness of the earth honor him! Doubtless
   there were branches of the cedars: let the honor and strength of the
   earth adore him! There were branches of the myrtle: let all earth's
   honor and victory glorify him! I do not read that Christ rejected so
   much as one attempt to do him honor. He rebuked no disciple and
   silenced no child. Oh, in the day when Christ is glorious all his
   people try to serve him, each one brings his portion; the prince brings
   much, but the peasant brings his share, and the Lord accepts them all.
   No Christian when the Lord is abroad shirks his duty or forgets to
   bring his sacrifice, nor doth the Lord reject so much as one honest
   gift of a sincere heart.

   And, on that day, oh, it was a sweet thing to notice and delightful to
   remember, it will always be so when Christ is glorious, the little ones
   were conspicuous. Did not the boys in the Temple cry 'Hosanna!
   Hosanna!' and their throats here not hoarse half so soon as their
   fathers' were. They kept up the mirth of that gladsome day'a joyful
   holiday was it for them. Even thus where there is true grace working
   powerfully in a church I always expect to see young converts, boys and
   girls will be brought to Christ in any true revival, and where they are
   not, methinks we have good reason to suspect that the movement is not
   genuine, for had it been the work of the Spirit of God, the little ones
   would have been suffered to come unto him as well as those of older
   growth. Oh, may such honors be heaped on Christ in this Tabernacle!
   Would God I could hear the little ones say, 'Hosanna!' while their
   fathers and their mothers join the song. The Lord grant that the
   Sabbath-school may send up a noble regiment for the King's army. Oh,
   that on all sides, you men with wealth, and you men with none, you with
   great gifts, and you with few, you with much time and leisure, and you
   with scarce an hour to call your own, you aged men and you youngsters,
   would unite in magnifying the Redeemer. Oh, that I could see you all
   strewing somewhat in the way of Christ to glorify him in the midst of
   his church.

   III. But, I must not dwell there, though the theme is very tempting,
   but notice that when Christ comes into the church HE EXECUTES THE SAME
   DEEDS AS HE DID THEN.

   What was the first thing he did that we observe? He was seated on the
   colt, and as he rode along and heard the shouts of the people, I have
   no doubt that a smile was over his face, and when he saw the little
   ones in all their ardor, he looked at them with love; but, on a sudden,
   just as he came where he could see Jerusalem, though it was the day of
   his triumph he stopped, and all around could see that some mighty
   emotion was swelling his heart to bursting, and at last the tears
   coursed adown those cheeks, and he burst into this lament, 'O that thou
   hadst known, even thou, in this thy day.' I know that everywhere Christ
   is in the church in the power of his Spirit, compassion for souls
   becomes very prominent. Christ weeps through his people's eyes, and
   yearns through his children's hearts. He makes them pitiful and full of
   compassion. They cannot bear it that men should be damned, it grieves
   them that the day of a gracious visitation should come, and yet so many
   should reject Christ. Oh, my brethren, you who live near to Christ, and
   feel a sympathy with him, ask the Lord to give you heart-ache over
   dying souls; ask him to make you feel an anguish because men will not
   come unto him that they might have life, but will persist in committing
   spiritual suicide, by putting far from them life eternal. Oh, that we
   might see a holy passion for souls in the church. For that would be a
   blessed sign of rich grace.

   At the same time, on that very same occasion, there was conspicuous the
   judgments of Christ, for his compassion did not permit him to keep back
   the tidings of future punishment. He said, 'If thou hadst known, even
   thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace!
   but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee
   that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee
   round, and keep thee in on every side. And shall lay thee even with the
   ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee
   one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy
   visitation.' I have noted that in genuine revivals, the preachers of
   Gods truth are not backward in preaching the threatenings, as well as
   the promises. We are told that men are drawn to Christ by love, and the
   statement is true; but, at the same time, 'knowing the terrors of the
   Lord,' we are to persuade men, and not to keep back from them the evil
   tidings. Even Christ with weeping eyes and tender heart does not
   hesitate to tell Jerusalem of its coming destruction, and I believe it
   is a token that Christ is in the church when those terrible things of
   his are not kept back to please the popular taste; when there is no
   trying to cut them down and moderate them, in order to make the wrath
   to come look less terrible than it is. It must be thundered out again
   and again, 'except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.' It must be
   told the sinner that if he goeth on in his iniquity, he shall be driven
   away from hope and salvation, 'where their worm dieth not, and their
   fire is not quenched.' Christ is not present in an unfaithful church,
   and this is a point upon which some churches are very apt to grow
   unfaithful. We must deliver the whole truth, even the dark side of it
   as well as that which smiles with mercy and Christ is not present
   unless it be so. The sympathy of Jesus led him, as it should lead us,
   to be lovingly honest with the sons of men.

   But, you notice in the reading that our Lord, when he rode through the
   streets of his metropolis, went straight away to the cathedral gate,
   and when he entered there he began to purge the temple. With the
   scourge in his hand he smote right and left, and he overthrew the
   tables of those that were changing the shekels, and he cast out the
   cages of doves that were stored there for merchandise. Even thus doth
   Christ do. No church can remain long impure with Jesus in her midst;
   his presence brings reformation, things tolerated before become
   intolerable where he is. While a church is without the Spirit of God it
   will keep in its old way, it will plead precedent, it will endure
   grievous abuses, it will make excuses for this, and excuses for that;
   but, let the Lord once come, and out the hawkers and hucksters must go,
   tables, money-bags, doves, and all. He will not have them in his house
   of prayer; bag and baggage they must go when he comes in, and he only
   in his truth and power must reign in the midst of his own church. I do
   not believe we shall thoroughly purify any church by Acts of
   Parliament, nor by reformation associations, nor by agitation, nor by
   any merely human agency. No hand can grasp the scourge that can drive
   out the buyers and sellers, but that hand which once was fastened to
   the cross. Let the Lord do it and the work will be done, for it is not
   of man, nor shall man accomplish it.

   Then, when Christ had purged the church, the next thing was to heal the
   sick who came to him in the temple. The place which might not be a mart
   was allowed to be an hospital. So the glory days of Christ are always
   notable for the great cures that he works; the sons of men receive
   lasting benefits, and are relieved of grievous maladies. Eyes are
   opened, understandings are enlightened. Infirmities are removed, the
   lame walk. Wills are subdued; hearts are cleansed; and natures are
   changed. Where Jesus comes, salvation follows with all the train of
   blessings which it includes.

   And, then, we find that that day his foes were all confounded. They
   came to meet him with their questions, but he soon answered them; and
   what did they say the one to the other? 'Perceive ye how we prevail
   nothing? behold, the world is gone after him.' O master, give us to see
   such times as these: our soul now longeth for them. Cause thou our
   enemies to lament, and say, 'We thought we had put down these old
   doctrines, but we have prevailed nothing, behold the multitude is moved
   by them.' The devil thought in England years ago that the gospel light
   was put out; he had lulled the Church of England and Dissenters too
   into a deep sleep, and Arianism and all sorts of errors had spread all
   over the land: but the Lord touched the heart of Whitefield, and
   Wesley, and the godly ones; the Spirit of God came down, the multitude
   heard the Gospel gladly, and many an enemy of Christ as he stood at his
   window and saw the streets thronged to hear those men as they never had
   been thronged before, and heard the song borne on the distant breezes
   of the wide open spaces outside the towns and villages, said, 'Why,
   after all, no have not put this thing down: though we fancied we had
   destroyed it.' There is hope of this celestial tree; if it be cut down
   it will sprout again; at the scent of water it will bud. This child is
   not dead, but sleepeth. A certain vainglorious party of Pretenders to
   intellect and culture tell us now that the old Puritanic faith is
   nearly extinct; there are only a few of us ignorant people who now hold
   the same truths as John Owen, John Bunyan, Goodwin, and Charnock; but
   all the elite of the world, those who have all the 'sweetness and
   light' to themselves, the thinkers, the mental gentility have all been
   sensible enough to give their votes for something more suitable to the
   times. In the name of God, we shall show them the difference yet, and
   by his Spirit He will din their ears with the gospel ram's horn till
   they and their Jericho come down in a common ruin. The evangelical
   doctrine which shook Europe will shake it yet again, and England shall
   yet know that the self-same truth, for which her martyrs died and for
   which her Puritans fought on many a wellcontested field, shall break
   the rationalism and ritualism of this land in pieces yet, and all else
   that standeth in the way of the true gospel of the living God. We are
   not afraid nor discouraged, but we cry mightily unto the King that we
   may once more lift up a shout because of his presence, for then human
   philosophy shall be ashamed, and old Rome shall know, and all the cubs
   of the beast of Rome shall know, that the Lord liveth, and his
   invincible truth shall win the day.

   IV. Now lastly, I said that even on the occasion, when Christ came into
   Jerusalem, ALL WAS NOT GOLD THAT GLITTERED, and so we must not expect
   it to be in any revival of religion. They said, 'Hosanna! Hosanna!
   Hosanna!' till the heavens rang again, but there was an undercurrent,
   there were Pharisees and men of other classes with them, grizzling and
   snarling, trying there and then to devise a plan by which to destroy
   the Lord, and there was Judas at that very time plotting, planning,
   ready to sell his Master. However, what did that signify? The worst
   thing of all was this, that those same tongues which were that day
   crying 'Hosanna!''oh, shame to our humanity that we should have to
   mention it!'those same tongues which cried 'Blessed is he that cometh
   in the name of the Lord,' within that self-same week said, 'crucify
   him! crucify him!' I say not all, but some. It was the mob of Jerusalem
   that brought him in as their King, but when they found that he would
   not assume the throne, and that he spoke of a spiritual kingdom, and
   not an earthly one, then they were instant with loud voices, saying,
   'Let him be crucified! let him be crucified!' Expect not, therefore,
   when many hearts are impressed with the gospel, that all will be
   steadfast towards Christ. Do not reckon that every pious feeling will
   end in genuine conversion. The florist does not expect all his slips to
   become shrubs. Look ye at the trees which, in a few short days, will be
   smothered with blossoms and glorious with beauty; do you expect those
   blossoms all to become fruit? No gardener thinks that such a thing can
   be. He understands that full many of those flowers will wither, will be
   blown off in the March gales, or smitten by the evening's frost. He
   looks for fruit proportionate to the blossoming, but not to a fruit
   that shall be equal to the full promise of the bloom. And so, think not
   ill of Christ's great days, because they seem to inexperienced eyes
   greater on the surface than they are. Thank God there is a residuum of
   reality, be thankful for that; but, do not be disappointed, much less
   scoff, because it is not all that you had hoped it was. If some be
   saved we are glad; if I had a thousand professed converts, and only a
   hundred of them turned out to be genuine, I would be more grateful than
   if all my converts were genuine, and there was only half a dozen of
   them. Large dealers look for some losses and bad debts, and yet hope to
   gain much in the long run. So long as I do but get the number of real
   converts, I will forget, and my heart shall outlive, the disappointment
   of having expected more. Go on; brethren, go on praying, hoping,
   working, for the Lord will bless his people, the Lord will bless his
   people with peace. Amen and amen.

   As a very large number of friends from a distance desire occasionally
   to attend the Tabernacle, but do not like to encounter the crowds at
   the doors, the deacons have resolved to issue early admission tickets,
   which will admit the holder before the general public, during the month
   of issue. They will be purchasable at the price of one shilling, and
   can be had by letter, enclosing twelve penny stamps, and one half-penny
   stamp for postage, of Mr. C. Blackshaw, Tabernacle, Newington Butts.
     __________________________________________________________________

                             'Pray Without Ceasing'

   A Sermon

   (No. 1039)

   Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, March 10th, 1872, by

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   'Pray without ceasing.''1 Thessalonians 5:17.

   THE POSITION OF OUR TEXT is very suggestive. Observe what it follows.
   It comes immediately after the precept, 'Rejoice evermore;' as if that
   command had somewhat staggered the reader, and made him ask 'How can I
   always rejoice?' and, therefore, the apostle appended as answer,
   'Always pray.' The more praying the more rejoicing. Prayer gives a
   channel to the pent-up sorrows of the soul, they flow away, and in
   their stead streams of sacred delight pour into the heart. At the same
   time the more rejoicing the more praying; when the heart is in a quiet
   condition, and full of joy in the Lord, then also will it be sure to
   draw nigh unto the Lord in worship. Holy joy and prayer act and react
   upon each other.

   Observe, however, what immediately follows the text: 'In everything
   give thanks.' When joy and prayer are married their first born child is
   gratitude. When we joy in God for what we have, and believingly pray to
   him for more, then our souls thank him both in the enjoyment of what we
   have, and in the prospect of what is yet to come. Those three texts are
   three companion pictures, representing the life of a true Christian,
   the central sketch is the connecting link between those on either side.
   These three precepts are an ornament of grace to every believer's neck,
   wear them every one of you, for glory and for beauty; 'Rejoice
   evermore;' 'Pray without ceasing;' 'in everything give thanks.'

   But we cannot spare any time for the consideration of the context, but
   must advance to the precept in hand. Our text though exceedingly short
   is marvellously full, and we will discuss it under the following heads.
   We shall ask and answer four questions. What do these words imply?
   Secondly, What do they actually mean? Thirdly, How shall we obey them?
   And, fourthly, Why should WE especially obey them?

   I. WHAT DO THESE WORDS IMPLY? 'Pray without ceasing.' Do they not imply
   that the use of the voice is not an essential element in prayer? It
   would be most unseemly even if it were possible for us to continue
   unceasingly to pray aloud. There would of course be no opportunity for
   preaching and hearing, for the exchange of friendly intercourse, for
   business, or for any other of the duties of life; while the din of so
   many voices would remind our neighbors rather of the worship of Baal
   than that of Zion. It was never the design of the Lord Jesus that our
   throats, lungs, and tongues should be for ever at work. Since we are to
   pray without ceasing, and yet could not pray with the voice without
   ceasing, it is clear that audible language is not essential to prayer.
   We may speak a thousand words which seem to be prayer, and yet never
   pray; on the other hand, we may cry into God's ear most effectually,
   and yet never say a word. In the book of Exodus God is represented as
   saying to Moses, 'Why criest thou unto me?' And yet it is not recorded
   that Moses had uttered so much as a single syllable at that time. It is
   true that the use of the voice often helps prayer. I find, personally,
   that I can pray best when alone if I can hear my own voice; at the same
   time it is not essential, it does not enter at all into the
   acceptability, reality, or prevalence of prayer. Silence is as fit a
   garment for devotion as any that language can fashion.

   It is equally clear that the posture of prayer is of no great
   importance, for if it were necessary that we should pray on our knees
   we could not pray without ceasing, the posture would become painful and
   injurious. To what end has our Creator given us feet, if he desires us
   never to stand upon them? If he had meant us to be on our knees without
   ceasing, he would have fashioned the body differently, and would not
   have endowed us with such unnecessary length of limb. It is well to
   pray on one's knees; it is a most fitting posture; it is one which
   expresses humility, and when humility is truly felt, kneeling is a
   natural and beautiful token of it, but, at the same time, good men have
   prayed flat upon their faces, have prayed sitting, have prayed
   standing, have prayed in any posture, and the posture does not enter
   into the essence of prayer. Consent not to be placed in bondage by
   those to whom the bended knee is reckoned of more importance than the
   contrite heart.

   It is clear, too, from the text, that the place is not essential to
   prayer, for if there were only certain holy places where prayer was
   acceptable, and we had to pray without ceasing, our churches ought to
   be extremely large, that we might always live in them, and they would
   have to comprise all the arrangements necessary for human habitations.
   If it be true that there is some sanctity this side of a brick-wall
   more than there is on the other side of it, if it be true that the
   fresh air blows away grace, and that for the highest acceptance we need
   groined arches, pillars, aisle, chancel, and transept, then farewell,
   ye green lanes, and fair gardens, and lovely woods, for henceforth we
   must, without ceasing, dwell where your fragrance and freshness can
   never reach us. But this is ridiculous; wherefore I gather that the
   frequenting of some one particular place has little or nothing to do
   with prayer; and such a conclusion is consistent with the saying of
   Paul upon Mars' Hill, 'God that made the world and all things therein,
   seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples
   made with hands.'

   'Pray without ceasing.' That precept at one stroke overthrows the idea
   of particular times wherein prayer is more acceptable or more proper
   than at others. If I am to pray without ceasing, then every second must
   be suitable for prayer, and there is not one unholy moment in the hour,
   nor one unaccepted hour in the day, nor one unhallowed day in the year.
   The Lord has not appointed a certain week for prayer, but all weeks
   should be weeks of prayer: neither has he said that one hour of the day
   is more acceptable than another. All time is equally legitimate for
   supplication, equally holy, equally accepted with God, or else we
   should not have been told to pray without ceasing. It is good to have
   your times of prayer; it is good to set apart seasons for special
   supplication'we have no doubt of that; but we must never allow this to
   gender the superstition that there is a certain holy hour for prayer in
   the morning, a specially acceptable hour for prayer in the evening, and
   a sacred time for prayer at certain seasons of the year. Wherever we
   seek the Lord with true hearts he is found of us; whenever we cry unto
   him he heareth us. Every place is hallowed ground to a hallowed heart,
   and every day is a holy day to a holy man. From January to December the
   calendar has not one date in which prayer is forbidden. All the days
   are red-letter days, whether Sabbaths or week days they are all
   accepted times for prayer. Clear, then, is it from the text, that the
   voice, the posture, the place, the time'none of them enter into the
   essence of prayer, or else, in this case, we should be commanded to
   perform an impossibility, which we are quite certain is not after the
   manner of the Lord our God.

   There is one other thing implied in the text, namely, that a Christian
   has no right to go into any place where he could not continue to pray.
   Pray without ceasing? Then I am never to be in a place where I could
   not pray without ceasing. Hence, many worldly amusements without being
   particularized may he judged and condemned at once. Certain people
   believe in ready-made prayers, cut and dried for all occasions, and, at
   the same time, they believe persons to be regenerated in baptism though
   their lives are any thing but Christian; ought they not to provide
   prayers for all circumstances in which these, the dear regenerated but
   graceless sons and daughters of their church, are found? As, for
   instance, a pious collect for a young prince or nobleman, who is about
   to go to a shooting-match, that he may be forgiven for his cruelty
   towards those poor pigeons who are only badly wounded and made to
   linger in misery, as also a prayer for a religious and regenerated
   gentleman who is going to a horserace, and a collect for young persons
   who have received the grace of confirmation, upon their going to the
   theater to attend a very questionable play. Could not such special
   collects be made to order? You revolt at the idea. Well, then, have
   nothing to do with that which you cannot ask God's blessing upon, have
   nothing to do with it, for if God cannot bless it, you may depend upon
   it the devil has cursed it. Anything that is right for you to do you
   may consecrate with prayer, and let this be a sure gauge and test to
   you, if you feel that it would be an insult to the majesty of heaven
   for you to ask the Lord's blessing upon what is proposed to you, then
   stand clear of the unholy thing. If God doth not approve, neither must
   you have fellowship therewith.

   These matters are clearly implied in the precept, 'Pray without
   ceasing.'

   II. But now, WHAT DOES THIS ACTUALLY MEAN? If it does not mean we are
   to be always on our knees, nor always saying prayers nor always in
   church or in meeting and does not mean that we are to consider any day
   as unfit for praying what then? The words mean, first, a privilege;
   secondly, a precept''Pray without ceasing.' Our Lord Jesus Christ in
   these words assures you that you may pray without ceasing. There is no
   time when we may not pray. You have here permission given to come to
   the mercy-seat when you will, for the veil of the Most Holy place is
   rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and our access to the
   mercy-seat is undisputed and indisputable. Kings hold their levees upon
   certain appointed days, and then their courtiers are admitted; but the
   King of Kings holds a constant levee. The monarch whose palace was in
   Shushan would have none approach him unless he sent for them, but the
   King of kings has called for all his people, and they may come at all
   times. They were slain who went in unto the king Ahasuerus, unless he
   stretched out his scepter to them; but our King never withdraws his
   scepter, it is always stretched out, and whosoever desires to come to
   him may come now, and come at any time. Among the Persians there were
   some few of the nobility who had the peculiar and special right of an
   audience with the king at any time they chose. Now, that which was the
   peculiar right of a very few and of the very great is the privilege of
   every child of God. He may come in unto the King at all times. The dead
   of night is not too late for God; the breaking of the morning, when the
   first grey light is seen, is not too early for the Most High; at midday
   he is not too busy; and when the evening gathers he is not weary with
   his children's prayers. 'Pray without ceasing,' is, if I read it
   aright, a most sweet and precious permit to the believer to pour out
   his heart at all times before the Lord. I hear its still small voice
   saying, 'Come to the mercy seat, O my child, whenever thou wilt; come
   to the treasury of grace whenever thou desirest'

   'The happy gates of gospel grace

   Stand open night and day.'

   The doors of the temple of divine love shall not be shut. Nothing, can
   set a barrier between a praying soul and its God. The road of angels
   and of prayers is ever open. Let us but send out the dove of prayer and
   we may be certain that she will return unto us with an olive branch of
   peace in her mouth. Evermore the Lord hath regard unto the pleadings of
   his servants, and waiteth to be gracious unto them.

   Still, however, it is a precept, 'Pray without ceasing.' And what does
   it mean? It means a great truth which I cannot very well convey to you
   in a few words, and, therefore, must try and bring out under four or
   five points.

   It means, first, never abandon prayer. Never for any cause or reason
   cease to pray. Imagine not that you must pray until you are saved, and
   may then leave off. For those whose sins are pardoned prayer is quite
   as needful as for those mourning under a sense of sin. 'Pray without
   ceasing,' for in order that you may persevere in grace you must
   persevere in prayer. Should you become experienced in grace and
   enriched with much spiritual knowledge, you must not dream of
   restraining prayer because of your gifts and graces. 'Pray without
   ceasing,' or else your flower will fade and your spiritual fruit will
   never ripen. Continue in prayer until the-last moment of your life.

   'Long as they live must Christians pray,

   For only while they pray they live.'

   As we breathe without ceasing, so must we pray without ceasing. As
   there is no attainment in life, of health, or of strength, or of
   muscular vigor which can place a man beyond the necessity of breathing,
   so no condition of spiritual growth or advance in grace will allow a
   man to dispense with prayer.

   'Let us pray! our life is praying;

   Prayer with time alone may cease:

   Then in heaven, God's will obeying,

   Life is praise and perfect peace.'

   Never give up praying, not even though Satan should suggest to you that
   it is in vain for you to cry unto God. Pray in his teeth; 'pray without
   ceasing.' If for awhile the heavens are as brass and your prayer only
   echoes in thunder above your head, pray on; if month after month your
   prayer appears to have miscarried, and no reply has been vouchsafed to
   you, yet still continue to draw nigh unto the Lord. Do not abandon the
   mercy-seat for any reason whatever. If it be a good thing that you have
   been asking for, and you are sure it is according to the divine will,
   if the vision tarry wait for it, pray, weep, entreat, wrestle, agonise
   till you get that which you are praying for. If your heart be cold in
   prayer, do not restrain prayer until your heart warms, but pray your
   soul unto heat by the help of the everblessed Spirit who helpeth our
   infirmities. If the iron be hot then hammer it, and if it be cold
   hammer it till you heat it. Never cease prayer for any sort of reason
   or argument. If the philosopher should tell you that every event is
   fixed, and, therefore, prayer cannot possibly change anything, and,
   consequently, must be folly; still, if you cannot answer him and are
   somewhat puzzled, go on with your supplications notwithstanding all. No
   difficult problem concerning digestion would prevent your eating, for
   the result justifies the practice, and so no quibble should make us
   cease prayer, for the assured success of it commends it to us. You know
   what your God has told you, and if you cannot reply to every difficulty
   which man can suggest, resolve to be obedient to the divine will, and
   still 'Pray without ceasing.' Never, never, never renounce the habit of
   prayer, or your confidence in its power.

   A second meaning is this. Never suspend the regular offering of prayer.
   You will, if you are a watchful Christian, have your times of daily
   devotion, fixed not by superstition, but for your convenience and
   remembrance; just as David, three times a day, and as another saint,
   seven times a day, sought the Lord: now be sure to keep up this daily
   prayer without intermission. This advice will not comprehend the whole
   range of the text, I am not pretending that it does; I am only
   mentioning it now as supplementary to other thoughts. 'Pray without
   ceasing;' that is, never give up the morning prayer, nor the evening
   prayer, nor the prayer at midday if such has grown to be your habit. If
   you change hours and times, as you may, yet keep up the practice of
   regularly recurring retirement, meditation, and prayer. You may be said
   to continue in prayer if your habitual devotions be maintained. It
   would be quite correct for me to say that I know a man who has been
   always begging ever since I have been in London. I do not think that I
   ever passed the spot where he stands without seeing him there. He is a
   blind person, and stands near a church. As long as my recollection
   serves me he has been begging without ceasing; of course he has not
   begged when he has been asleep, he has not begged when he has gone home
   to his meals, nor did you understand me to have asserted anything so
   absurd when I said he had begged without ceasing for years. And so, if
   at those times when it is proper for you to separate yourself from your
   ordinary labors, you continue perseveringly begging at mercy's throne,
   it may be with comparative correctness said of you that you pray
   without ceasing. Through all hours are alike to me, I find it
   profitable to meet with God at set periods, for these seem to me to be
   like the winding up of the clock. The clock is to go all day, but there
   is a time for winding it up; and the little special season that we set
   apart and hedge round about for communion with our God, seems to wind
   us up for the rest of the day. Therefore, if you would pray without
   ceasing, continue in the offering of the morning and the evening
   sacrifice, and let it be perpetually an ordinance with you, that your
   times of prayer are not broken in upon.

   That, however, is only a help, for I must add, thirdly, between these
   times of devotion, labor to be much in ejaculatory prayer. While your
   hands are busy with the world, let your hearts still talk with God; not
   in twenty sentences at a time, for such an interval might be
   inconsistent with your calling, but in broken sentences and
   interjections. It is always wrong to present one duty to God stained
   with the blood of another, and that we should do if we spoiled study or
   labor by running away to pray at all hours; but we may, without this,
   let short sentences go up to heaven, ay, and we may shoot upwards
   cries, and single words, such as an 'Ah,' an 'Oh,' an 'O that;' or,
   without words we may pray in the upward glancing of the eye or the sigh
   of the heart. He who prays without ceasing uses many little darts and
   hand-grenades of godly desire, which he casts forth at every available
   interval. Sometimes he will blow the furnace of his desires to a great
   heat in regular prayer, and as a consequence at other times, the sparks
   will continue to rise up to heaven in the form of brief words, and
   looks, and desires.

   Fourthly, if we would pray without ceasing, we must be always in the
   spirit of prayer. Our heart, renewed by the Holy Ghost, must be like
   the magnetized needle, which always has an inclination towards the
   pole. It does not always point to that pole, you can turn it aside if
   you will; in an iron ship it exhibits serious deflections, under all
   circumstances it is not exactly true; but if you put your finger to
   that needle and force it round to the east, you have only to take away
   the pressure, and immediately it returns to its beloved pole again. So
   let your heart be magnetized with prayer, so that if the finger of duty
   turns it away from the immediate act of prayer, there may still be the
   longing desire for prayer in your soul, and the moment you can do so,
   your heart reverts to its beloved work. As perfume lies in flowers even
   when they do not shed their fragrance upon the gale, so let prayer lie
   in your hearts.

   But, perhaps, the last meaning that I shall give has the most of the
   truth of the text in it, namely this: Let all your actions be
   consistent with your prayers, and be in fact a continuation of your
   prayers. If I am to pray without ceasing, it cannot mean that I am
   always to be in the act of direct devotion; for the human mind, as at
   present constituted, needs variety of occupation, and it could not
   without producing madness or imbecility continue always in the exercise
   of one function. We must, therefore, change the modus or the manner of
   operation if we are ceaselessly to continue in prayer. We must pursue
   our prayers, but do it in another manner. Take an instance. This
   morning I prayed to God to arouse his people to prayerfulness; very
   well; as I came to this house my soul continued to ejaculate, 'O Lord,
   awaken thy children to prayerfulness.': Now, while I am preaching to
   you and driving at the same point, am I not praying? Is not my sermon
   the continuation of my prayer, for I am desiring and aiming at the same
   thing? Is it not a continuing to pray when we use the best means
   towards the obtaining of that which we pray for? Do you not see my
   point? He who prays for his fellow creatures, and then seeks their
   good, is praying still. In this sense there is truth in that old
   distich.

   'He prayeth best that loveth best

   Both man, and bird, and beast.'

   Loving is praying. If I seek in prayer the good of my fellow creature,
   and then go and try to promote it, I am practically praying for his
   good in my actions. If I seek, as I should do, God's glory above
   everything, then if all my actions are meant to tend to God's glory, I
   am continuing to pray, though I may not be praying with my thoughts or
   with my lips. Oh, that our whole life might be a prayer. It can be.
   There can be a praying without ceasing before the Lord, though there be
   many pausings in what the most of men would call prayer. Pray then
   without ceasing, my brother. Let thy whole life be praying. If thou
   changest the method, yet change not the pursuit; but continue still to
   worship, still to adore. This I think to be the meaning of our
   text,'never altogether abandon prayer; do not suspend the regular
   offering of prayer; be much in earnest ejaculations, be always in the
   spirit of prayer, and let the whole of your life be consistent with
   your prayer, and become a part of it.

   III. HOW CAN WE OBEY THESE WORDS? First, let us labor as much as we can
   to prevent all sinful interruptions. 'Pray without ceasing.' Then if it
   be impossible to be in the act of prayer always, at least let us be as
   much as possible in that act; and let us prevent those interruptions
   which I mentioned in the early part of my discourse, the interruptions
   occasioned by our own sin. Let us endeavor to keep clear, as far as we
   can, of anything and everything in ourselves, or round about us, that
   would prevent our abounding in supplication. And let us also keep clear
   of interruptions from the sins of others. Do others forbid us to pray?
   Let us not be afraid of their wrath. Remember Daniel, who while he was
   under the penalty of being cast into a den of lions, yet opened his
   window towards Jerusalem, and prayed seven times a day as he had done
   aforetime. Under no threats: and for no bribes, let us ever cease to
   pray. In private let us always pray, and if duty calls us to do so
   where others observe us, let us so much fear the eye of God that we
   shall not dare to fear the eye of man.

   Let us next avoid all unnecessary interruptions of every sort to our
   prayer. If we know that any matter, from which we can escape, has a
   tendency to disturb the spirit of prayer within us, let us avoid it
   earnestly. Let us try, as much as possible, not to be put off the scent
   in prayer. Satan's object will be to distract the mind, to throw it off
   the rails, to divert its aim, but let us resolve before God, we will
   not turn aside from following hard after him. Sir Thomas Abney had for
   many years practiced family prayer regularly; he was elected Lord Mayor
   of London, and on the night of his election he must be present at a
   banquet, but when the time came for him to call his family together in
   prayer, having no wish either to be a Pharisee or to give up his
   practice, he excused himself to the guests in this way,'he said he had
   an important engagement with a very dear friend, and they must excuse
   him for a few minutes. It was most true, his dearest friend was the
   Lord Jesus, and family prayer was an important engagement; and so he
   withdrew for awhile to the family altar, and in that respect prayed
   without ceasing. We sometimes allow good things to interrupt our
   prayer, and thus make them evil. Mrs. Rowe observes in one of her
   letters, that if the twelve apostles were preaching in the town were
   she lived and she could never hear them again, if it were her time for
   private devotion, she would not be bribed out of her closet by the hope
   of hearing them. I am not sure but what she might have taken another
   time for her private devotions, and so have enjoyed both privileges,
   but at the same time, supposing she must; have lost the prayer and have
   only got the preaching in exchange, I agree with her, it would have
   been exchanging gold for silver. She would be more profited in praying
   than she would be in hearing, for praying is the end of preachings.
   Preaching is but the wheat-stalk, but praying is the golden grain
   itself, and he hath the best who gets it.

   Sometimes we think we are too busy to pray. That also is a great
   mistake, for praying is a saving of time. You remember Luther's remark,
   'I have so much to do to-day that I shall never get through it with
   less than three hours' prayer.' He had not been accustomed to take so
   much time for pray on ordinary days, but since that was a busy day, he
   must needs have more communion with his God. But, perhaps, our
   occupations begin early, and we therefore say, 'How can I get alone
   with God in prayer?' It is said of Sir Henry Havelock that every
   morning when the march began at six, he always rose at four, that he
   might not miss his time for the reading of the Scripture and communion
   with his God. If we have no time we must make time, for if God has
   given us time for secondary duties, he must have given us time for
   primary ones, and to draw near to him is a primary duty, and we must
   let nothing set it on one side. There is no real need to sacrifice any
   duty, we have time enough for all if we are not idle; and, indeed, the
   one will help the other instead of clashing with it. When Edward Payson
   was a student at College, he found he had so much to do to attend his
   classes and prepare for examinations, that he could not spend as much
   time as be should in private prayer; but, at last, waking up to the
   feeling that he was going back in divine things through his habits, he
   took due time for devotion and he asserts in his diary that he did more
   in his studies in a single week after he had spent time with God in
   prayer, than he had accomplished in twelve months before. God can
   multiply our ability to make use of time. If we give the Lord his due,
   we shall have enough for all necessary purposes. In this matter seek
   first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things
   shall be added to you. Your other engagements will run smoothly if you
   do not forget your engagement with God.

   We must, dear friends, in order to pray without ceasing, strive against
   indolence in prayer. I believe that no man loves prayer until the Holy
   Spirit has taught him the sweetness and value of it. If you have ever
   prayed without ceasing you will pray without ceasing. The men who do
   not love to pray must be strangers to its secret joy. When prayer is a
   mechanical act, and there is no soul in it, it is a slavery and a
   weariness; but when it is really living prayer, and when the man prays
   because he is a Christian and cannot help praying, when he prays along
   the street, prays in his business, prays in the house, prays in the
   field, when his whole soul is full of prayer, then he cannot have too
   much of it. He will not be backward in prayer who meets Jesus in it,
   but he who knows not the Well-beloved will count it a drudgery.

   Let us avoid, above all things, lethargy and indifference in prayer.
   Oh, it is a dreadful thing that ever we should insult the majesty of
   heaven by words from which our heart has gone. I must, my spirit, I
   must school thee to this, that thou must have communion with God, and
   if in thy prayer thou dost not talk with God, thou shalt keep on
   praying till thou dost. Come not away from the mercy-seat till thou
   hast prayed.

   Beloved brother, say unto thy soul, thus''here have I come to the
   throne of grace to worship God and seek his blessing, and I am not
   going away till I have done this; I will not rise from my knees,
   because I have spent my customary minutes, but here will I pray till I
   find the blessing.' Satan will often leave off tempting when he finds
   you thus resolute in prayer. Brethren, we need waking up. Routine grows
   upon us. We get into the mill-horse way'round, and round, and round the
   mill. From this may God save us. It is deadly. A man may pray twenty
   years with regularity, as far as the time goes, and the form goes, and
   never have prayed a single grain of prayer in the whole period. One
   real groan fetched from the heart is worth a million litanies, one
   living breath from a gracious soul is worth ten thousand collects. May
   we be kept awake by God's grace, praying without ceasing.

   And we must take care, dear brethren, again, if we would perform this
   duty, that we fight against anything like despair of being heard. If we
   have not been heard after six times we must, as Elijah, go again seven
   times; if our Peter is in prison, and the church has prayed God to
   liberate him, and he still is in fetters bound in the inner prison, let
   us pray on, for one of these days Peter will knock at the gate. Be
   importunate, heaven's gate does not open to every runaway knock. Knock,
   and knock, and knock again; and add to thy knocking and to thy asking
   seeking, and be not satisfied till thou gettest a real answer.

   Never cease from prayer through presumption; guard against that. Feel,
   O Christian, that you always need to pray. Say not, 'I am rich and
   increased in goods, and have need of nothing.' Thou art by nature still
   naked, and poor, and miserable; therefore, persevere in prayer, and buy
   of the Lord fine gold, and clean raiment, that thou mayst be rich, and
   fitly clothed.

   Thus I have tried to set before you, beloved, how by resisting
   presumption and despair, indolence and lethargy, and trying to put
   aside all sinful and other interruptions, we may pray without ceasing.

   IV. Now, very briefly, in the last place, WHY SHOULD WE OBEY THIS
   PRECEPT? Of course we should obey it because it is of divine authority;
   but, moreover, we should attend to it because the Lord always deserves
   to be worshipped. Prayer is a method of worship; continue, therefore,
   always to render to your Creator, your Preserver, your Redeemer, your
   Father, the homage of your prayers. With such a King let us not be
   slack in homage. Let us pay him the revenue of praise continually.
   Evermore may we magnify and bless his name. His enemies curse him; let
   us bless him without ceasing. Moreover, brethren, the spirit of love
   within us surely prompts us to draw near to God without ceasing. Christ
   is our husband. Is the bride true to her marriage vows if she cares not
   for her beloved's company? God is our Father. What sort of a child is
   that which does not desire to climb its father's knee and receive a
   smile from its father's face? If you and I can live day after day and
   week after week without anything like communion with God, how dwelleth
   the love of God in us? 'Pray without ceasing,' because the Lord never
   ceases to love you, never ceases to bless you, and never ceases to
   regard you as his child.

   'Pray without ceasing,' for you want a blessing on all the work you are
   doing. Is it common work? 'Except the Lord build the house, they labor
   in vain that build it.' Is it business? It is vain to rise up early and
   sit up late, and eat the bread of carefulness, for without God you
   cannot; prosper. You are taught to say, 'Give us this day our daily
   bread,''an inspired prayer for secular things. Oh, consecrate your
   seculars by prayer. And, if you are engaged in God's service, what work
   is there in which you can hope for success without his blessing? To
   teach the young, to preach the gospel, to distribute tracts, to
   instruct the ignorant, do not all these want his blessing? What are
   they if that favor be denied? Pray, therefore, as long as you work.

   You are always in danger of being tempted; there is no position in life
   in which you may not be assaulted by the enemy. 'Pray without ceasing,'
   therefore. A man who is going along a dark road where he knows that
   there are enemies, if he must be alone and has a sword with him, he
   carries it drawn in his hand, to let the robbers know that he is ready
   for them. So Christian, pray without ceasing; carry your sword in your
   hand, wave that mighty weapon of all-prayer of which Bunyan speaks.
   Never sheathe it; it will cut through coats of mail. You need fear no
   foe if you can but pray. As you are tempted without ceasing, so pray
   without ceasing.

   You need always to pray, for you always want something. In no condition
   are you so rich as not to need something from your God. It is not
   possible for you to say, 'I have all things,' or, if you can, you have
   them only in Christ, and from Christ you must continue to seek them. As
   you are always in need, so beg always at mercy's gate. Moreover,
   blessings are always waiting for you. Angels are ready with favors that
   you know not of, and you have but to ask and have. Oh, could you see
   what might be had for the asking you would not be so slack. The
   priceless benisons of heaven which lie on one side as yet, oh, did you
   but perceive that they are only waiting for you to pray, you would not
   hesitate a moment. The man who knows that his farming is profitable,
   and that his land brings forth abundantly, will be glad to sow a
   broader stretch of land another year; and he who knows that God answers
   prayer, and is ready still to answer it, will open his mouth yet wider
   that God may fill it.

   Continue to pray, brethren, for even if you should not want prayer
   yourself there are others who do'there are the dying, the sick, the
   poor, the ignorant, the backsliding, the blaspheming, the heathen at
   home, and the heathen abroad. 'Pray without ceasing,' for the enemy
   works incessantly, and as yet the kingdom has not come unto Zion. You
   shall never be able to say, 'I left off praying, for I had nothing to
   pray for.' This side heaven objects for prayer are as multitudinous as
   the stars of the sky.

   And, now, I said I would say a word as to why WE ought to pray
   especially, and that shall close the sermon. Beloved friends, this
   church ought to pray without ceasing. We have been in years past
   notable for prayer. If ever a church has prayed it has been this
   church. I might find many faults with some who hinder prayer, but yet I
   must say in God's sight I know and feel that there has been living
   prayer in this church for many years, and hence it is we have had many
   years of peace and prosperity. We have lacked nothing because we have
   not lacked prayer. I do not doubt we might have had much more if we had
   prayed more; still prayer has been very mighty here. Now, brethren,
   suppose you had no pastor, suppose the preacher was gone from you, and
   that the black cloth upon this pulpit was not for a deceased elder of
   the church but for the preacher himself, you would pray, would you not?
   Will you not pray for me then while I live? If you would pray for
   another to come, will you not pray for me while I am here? I desire to
   discharge my office before you in God's sight with all earnestness, but
   I cannot without your prayers, and as being gone from you, you would
   lift up many sighs, and you would with prayers ask for a successor,
   pray for me while I am yet with you. Beloved, you have prayed very
   earnestly for the pastor when he has been sick, your prayers have been
   his consolation and his restoration; will you not pray for him now that
   he is able to preach the gospel, that his health may be sanctified to
   God's service, and the ministry of the truth may be mighty in the
   winning of souls. I ask it of you, I think I might claim it of you. I
   do beseech you, brethren, pray for us.

   Suppose again, dear brethren, there were no conversions in our midst,
   would not you pray? And since there are a great many conversions,
   should that be a reason for leaving off? Shall we worship God the less
   because he gives us moor? Instead of one prayer which would go up were
   there no conversions, there should be ten now that he continues to work
   salvation among us.

   Suppose we were divided, and had many schisms, and jealousies, and
   bickerings, would not the faithful ones pray in bitterness of spirit?
   Will you not pray since there are no divisions, and much Christian
   love? Surely, I say again, you will not treat God the worse because he
   treats you the better. That were foolish indeed.

   Suppose we were surrounded to-day with hosts of persecutors, and that
   error everywhere crept into our midst and did us damage, would you not
   pray, you who love the Lord? And now that we live in days of peace, and
   error, though it prowls around, is kept out of our fold, will you not
   commune with the Lord all the more? I will say yet a third time, shall
   we pray the less because God gives the more? Oh no, but the better he
   is to us the more let us adore and magnify his name.

   Just now we need to pray, for some are growing cold, and turning to
   their old sins. We need to pray, for we are doing much for Christ.
   Every agency is in full work. We want a great blessing upon great
   efforts. We have had such results from prayer as might make a man's
   ears to tingle who should hear of them for the first time: our history
   as a church has not been second even to apostolic history itself: we
   have seen God's arm made bare in the eyes of all the people, and to the
   ends of the earth the testimony of this pulpit has gone forth, and
   thousands have found the Savior,'all in answer to many prayers. Pray,
   then, without ceasing. O church in the Tabernacle, hold fast that thou
   hast, that no man take thy crown. Oh, continue to be a praying church
   that we together; when we shall stand before the judgement-seat of
   Christ, pastor and people, may not be accused of being prayerless, nor
   of being slack in the work of the Lord. I earnestly hope all this will
   tend to make to-morrow's day of prayer more earnest and intense; but
   yet more do I pray that at all times all of us may be fervent,
   frequent, instant, and constant in prayer; praying in the Holy Ghost,
   in the name of Jesus.

   PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON'1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and 5.
     __________________________________________________________________

                           What and Whence Are These?

   A Sermon

   (No. 1040)

   Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, February 25th, 1872, by

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   'And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which
   are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him,
   Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of
   great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in
   the blood of the Lamb.''Revelation 7:13-14.

   TOWARDS SOME SUBJECTS even the best of men need that their attention
   should be drawn. Certain themes need an introduction to our
   contemplations. We often see and yet do not see: we see that which upon
   the surface attracts the eye, but we fail to penetrate into the inner
   and more precious truth. Even in heaven, it would seem that the mind
   needs directing, and wants a friend to suggest inquiry; he who sees the
   whiterobed host may yet need to be led to the consideration of who and
   what they are. It is very gracious on the part of our heavenly Father
   that he condescends to send us messengers of different kinds to awaken
   our attention, to guide our inquiry, and to lead us to search deeper
   than we might otherwise have done. John looked at the long ranks of
   triumphant spirits and admired their glory, but his thoughts had not
   penetrated deep enough, and therefore an elder was sent to speak with
   him. That personage asked him a question, and this he did that John
   might confess his ignorance, might feel a desire to know more, and
   might be led to inquire upon the point which it was most needful for
   him to consider. While we are dwellers here below our minds are very
   apt to be engrossed with the things which surround us, and we want some
   one to direct our thoughts to the upper world; and in the same way the
   mind of a person dwelling above would naturally be most occupied with
   the things around it in the glory land, and it might be needful to bid
   him remember facts concerning the lower world. We generally take that
   view of a matter which is most consistent with our own present
   circumstances, whereas to see a thing completely we need to view it
   from many angles. Hence the elder suggests to John that he should see
   these glorified spirits from another point than that which naturally
   suggested itself to him. He was led to consider them, not as they then
   were, but as they had been. The question was therefore suggested him,
   'Who are these, whence came they? What was their earthly character?
   What manner of men were they in the days of their pilgrimage? Were they
   cherubim, or children of men? Did they come hither on wings of fire, or
   came they hither as do the sons of Adam? Who are these that now have
   attained to such dignity and bliss, as to be now wearing the white robe
   of innocence, and waving the palm of victory?' To that enquiry I hope
   to lead your attention this morning; may it be as profitable to you as
   doubtless it was to John.

   We are frequently tempted to think that our Lord Jesus was not in very
   truth a man like ourselves. His actual and proper humanity is believed
   among us, but not fully realized. We are apt to fancy that his was
   another flesh and another manhood from our own, whereas he was in all
   things made like unto his brethren, and was tempted in all points like
   as we are, though without sin. It is, therefore, needful again and
   again and again to set out the true brotherhood and kinship of Christ.
   The same spirit of error leads us into the feeling that those holy men
   who have attained to felicity must have been something different from
   ourselves. We set the apostles up in twelve niches, and look upon them
   as very superior beings. We can hardly imagine that they were partakers
   of our flesh and blood; and, as we see the whole white-robed host, we
   imagine in our hearts that they must have been far different from
   ourselves. They did well and valiantly we admit, and we rejoice that
   they have attained to a blessed reward; but we dream that we ourselves
   cannot do as well, nor win as great a recompense. Without exactly
   defining the feeling, we in some way persuade ourselves that something
   in their persons or in their circumstances entirely separated the
   glorified saints from us, and gave them an advantage over us, and
   therefore we despair of ever achieving their triumphs. Now, this error
   must be overcome, because it furnishes convenient excuses for
   indolence, and represses those holy ardours which are the life of
   elevated piety. Brethren, the point to which the elder drew John's
   attention is the one we are now driving at; he would have him note that
   those were glorified in heaven who were once tried and tempted as we
   are; they were, in fact, men of like passions with us. I grant you it
   would be very delightful for us to contemplate the present condition of
   joy and immortality possessed by yonder bright spirits, but for the
   moment it will be more practically useful for us to consider what they
   were and how they came to be what they now are, so that finding that
   they were of old what we now are, we may follow in their track, and may
   obtain to the same blessed rank as that which they now enjoy.

   Our sermon on this occasion will consist of an answer to these two
   questions,''Whence come they?' for though that was the second question
   asked, it was the first answered; and, secondly, 'Who are these?' Our
   third point shall be, 'What of all this?'

   I. Concerning the bright spirits in heaven'WHENCE CAME THEY? These
   bearing the palms'whence came they? Reason itself suggests that they
   came from battle. It is not according to the wont of God to use emblems
   without a meaning. The palm, the ensign of triumph, indicates most
   certainly a conflict and conquest. As on earth palm would not be given
   if not won, we may conclude that the Lord would not have distributed
   the prize unless there had been a preceding warfare and victory. A
   conflict for a temporal crown is severe; how much more for an unfading
   palm in heaven. The winners of these palms must have passed through a
   battle of battles, an agony of agonies, a great tribulation. Palms
   which may be waved even before the throne of the august majesty of
   heaven are not easily come by. From the very fact that the glorified
   carry palms, we may infer that they did not come from beds of sloth, or
   gardens of pleasure, or palaces of peace, but that they endured
   hardness, and were men trained for war. The inference is well
   warranted, for it is even so; and the answer to the question, 'Whence
   came they?' is this: 'These are they which came out of great
   tribulation.'

   1. They were then like ourselves, for, in the first place, they were
   tried like others. They came out of great tribulation. Note, then, that
   the saints now glorified were not screened from sorrow. I saw to-day a
   number of lovely flowers they were as delightful in this month of
   February as thee would have been in the midst of summer; but I did not
   ask, 'Whence came they?' I know very well that they were the products
   of the conservatory; they had not been raised amid the frosts of this
   chill season, else they had not bloomed as yet. But when I look upon
   God's flowers blooming in heaven, I understand from the voice of
   inspiration that they enjoyed no immunity from the chill breath of
   grief; they were made to bloom by the master hand of the Chief
   Husbandman, in all their glory, amid the afflictions, and adversities,
   and catastrophes which are common to men. God's elect are not pampered
   like spoiled children, neither are they like 'the tender and delicate
   woman who would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the
   ground for delicateness.' They are, it is true, secured from all fatal
   injury, but they are not protected from the rough winds and rolling
   billows which toss every barque which bears a son of Adam. Turn over
   the roll of the worthies of the Lord from the first hero of faith to
   the last, and you shall not meet with a sorrowless name. Great are
   their privileges, but immunity from trouble is not among them. Was Adam
   God's elect? We hope he was, but certainly in the sweat of his face he
   ate his bread, and through his tears he saw the mangled body of his
   second son. Did God honor Abraham, and call him his friend? He was not
   without family afflictions, among the chief of which was the call to
   take his son, his only son, and offer him up for a sacrifice. Moses was
   king in Jeshurun, but his yoke, as a servant of the Lord, was a very
   heavy one; for all the day long was he vexed with the rebellions of a
   wayward people. Was David, the man after God's own heart? You know how
   deep called unto deep, while all God's waves and billows went over him.
   Speak ye of the prophets; which of them escaped without trial? Come ye
   to the apostles; which of these enjoyed a life of ease? Did they not
   all of them but one pass through the gates of death, wearing the
   martyr's crown? And he who died of old age, had not he been an exile in
   Patmos? Where, from their day down to this, among the elect of heaven
   do you find a single child of God unchastened, a solitary branch of the
   heavenly vine unpruned, or one ingot of precious gold untried with
   fire? Through flood, and through the fire, lies the pathway of the
   chosen. Through troops we must cut our way, and over walls we must
   leap, for to none is there a luxurious path to heaven. We must fight if
   we would reign.

   True, God's people have been found in all ranks, but; in every position
   they have had their sorrows. You find Esther, a queen beloved of God,
   but what were the tremblings of her heart when, with her life in her
   hand, she went in unto the king to plead against that wicked Haman?
   Lazarus was in the opposite stage of human circumstance, but he lay
   suffering at the gate of his ungenerous neighbor, and the dogs came and
   licked his sores. In palace or in cottage the rod is the sure portion
   of all the heirs of salvation. Each state to the believer produces
   bitter herbs peculiar to itself, he shall never need to search far for
   the appointed accompaniments to the paschal lamb. I have heard that a
   great statesman once stopped his horse on a plain to speak with a
   shepherd who was resting in the midst of his flock. Thinking of his own
   heavy anxieties, he expressed his envy of the shepherd, because his
   life was so free from vexation. 'Sir,' said the shepherd, 'I may not be
   troubled exactly as you are, but I have my own worries; do you see that
   black ewe there?' 'Yes.' 'If she were dead,' continued the shepherd, 'I
   might be a perfectly happy man; but she is a plague to me, for every
   now and then she takes to going astray, and all the rest are sure to
   follow her.' Rest assured, that there is a black ewe in every flock.
   Man is born to trouble. All the sons of God in heaven passed by
   'weeping-cross.' Such burdens as we are now carrying on earth once
   pressed the shoulders of those now in glory. Our crosses are
   reproductions of the old yoke of Christ. Under our personal and
   relative griefs the glorified have smarted, and our sinkings of heart
   and fears of soul they have experienced. 'Through much tribulation'
   they have inherited the kingdom.

   Note, next, that they were not even screened from temptation. To the
   child of God, temptation to sin is a greater grievance than the
   suffering of pain. The saint has often said, 'I could endure adversity,
   but it is misery to be day after day solicited to evil, to have the
   bait perpetually dangling before me, and to feel something in my soul
   which half consents to sin, and would altogether surrender were it not
   for watchful grace.' Brethren, temptation to the pure mind is very
   grievous; to be sifted in Satan's sieve is a sore trial. Storms on any
   sea are to be dreaded; but a whirlwind raised by Satan on the black sea
   of corruption is horrible beyond conception. Yet do not say you cannot
   enter heaven because you are tempted, for all those snowwhite bands
   attained their glorious standing through much temptation, as well as
   through much affliction. They, like their Master, were tempted in all
   points as you are. Let me take you again to the old records, and ask
   you whether you find a single saint untempted? Oh, ye young men, who
   lament that you are so often allured to evil, have ye forgotten Joseph
   in Potiphar's house? Ye who dread the persecutor's frown, have ye
   forgotten Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego? Ye of riper years, who feel
   your feet almost gone, do ye not remember David, and how he was
   tempted; ay, and worse, how he fell, and with broken bones had to limp
   his way to heaven? Which of the saints has been unassailed by the fiery
   darts of the wicked one? Has not the fowler spread his nets to entangle
   every one of them? Has he not laid snares for every faithful soul?
   Review all the ranks of the white-robed squadrons, and enquire of every
   glorified spirit. Say to each one, 'And thou? wert thou also tempted?
   Did the world seek alternately to fascinate and frighten thee? Hadst
   thou a body of sin and death to drag thee down? Hadst thou foes among
   thine own household? Didst thou also cry, 'Woe is me, for I dwell in
   Meshech?'' To such questions each one of the perfected saints would
   reply that their perils were such as ours, and had it not been for
   Almighty grace, they would have utterly perished from the way. The
   shields of the mighty, which are now so highly exalted, were once
   battered by the blows of temptation, even as ours are at this hour.

   We may add to all this, again, that they were men who as keenly felt
   trial and temptation as we do. Too frequently, when we are forced to
   admit that the trials of the saints were similar to our own, we
   persuade ourselves that their natures were less tender, their feelings
   less sensitive, their spirits less vulnerable than our own. We imagine
   that these ancient heroes wore some secret armor, or had their hearts
   steeled within, or wore a charmed life; and yet we know right well that
   all flesh of man has the same power to suffer, that a wound in another
   man's body bleeds even as it would in our own, and that reproach is as
   bitter to one spirit as to another. As face answereth to face in water,
   so the heart of man to man. Good men, because they are good, are not
   the less sorrowful when their beloved ones are taken from them:
   gracious men are not by grace petrified so as to despise the
   chastening, of the Lord. Jacob mourned for Rachel, and David for
   Jonathan. You do not find the saints less troubled than other men when
   friendship turned to treachery, and love to hate. Tears flowed as
   readily from holy eyes as from the eyes of the ungodly. They were sons
   of men, born of women as we are, and subject to the same passions and
   emotions. Oh, no, they were not Stoics, nor men of iron, but, made of
   the same earth as ourselves, their hearts palpitated to the same tune.
   Daughter of grief, dost thou say, 'I wish I were as the holy women of
   old, that in my trouble I might not be so cast down?' Read thou the
   history of Hannah, and mark how her adversary 'vexed her sore to make
   her fret.' She, too, was a woman of a sorrowful spirit. That story in
   the commencement of the First Book of Samuel I am sure must often have
   cheered the daughters of affliction when they have prayed in the
   bitterness of their souls, for they have said, here was a woman,
   tempted like as we are and smarting as we do under unkind remarks and
   slanderous reports and ungenerous treatment, and yet she rejoiced in
   God's salvation. If your spirit is constitutionally sorrowful, and its
   wounds are often wantonly opened by those about you, read the story of
   Jeremiah, and his plaintive notes in the Lamentations will both help
   you to express your woes and furnish you with sympathy in them. Read,
   too, the sorrowful bemoanings of Job. That grand old patriarch of Uz is
   very stout, and plays the man right gloriously; he is no puling child,
   whining and wincing, at a gentle touch of the rod; but patient as he is
   and a very king, among men, yet how bitterly he curses the day of his
   birth, and how heavily he complains. Nor were New Testament saints less
   tender, for Mary and Martha wept, Magdalene was bowed down with sorrow
   at her Lord's death, and the heart of the Virgin was pierced as with a
   sword. Peter wept bitterly, and Paul had continued heaviness.
   Tribulations abounded and afflictions were multiplied to the first
   disciples, and we wrong both themselves and us if we dream that it was
   easier for them to suffer than for us. I grant you that they possessed
   a secret something which enabled them to endure, but that something was
   not homeborn in their nature any more than it is in ours. They were
   fortified by a secret strength which they found at the throne of God in
   prayer, a patience which the Holy Ghost wrought in them, and which he
   is equally ready to work in us.

   But, perhaps, it may be thought by some that those holy men who now
   wave the palm-branch were spared some of the keener and more refined
   tribulations; to which I reply, it certainly was not so. David
   especially appears to have compassed the whole round of affliction. He
   could say, 'all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.' From all
   quarters his trials arose; and from his youth to his death they
   assailed him. Let me remind you of that special grief which came upon
   him when his darling son excited rebellion against him, and his own
   chosen friend and counsellor, Ahithophel, betrayed him, and to this add
   the scene when that same darling son was slain in red-handed rebellion
   against his father, and David cried aloud, 'O Absolom, my son, my son!
   would God I had died for thee! O Absolom, my son, my son!' I should not
   feel that I had ventured too far if I said that there is no trouble
   known to any person in this audience which would not find its parallel
   in the case of the afflicted writer of the Psalms. But, perhaps, you
   tell me that yours is a spiritual grief, and that such a wound is the
   deepest of all. Turn, then, to the life of the apostle Paul, and, as
   far as he unveils his experience, you shall find him to be the subject
   of internal strifes and spiritual contentions of the sharpest kind.
   Remember, especially, when with the thorn in his flesh he prayed thrice
   to God to have it taken away, but it was not removed; sufficient grace
   was given him, but he had to bear the inward smart; for, through much
   tribulation even of that kind must the chief of the apostles follow his
   Lord. What need of multiplying words? It is plain to every man that
   understandeth, that the children of God have been tried like others,
   and they who have won the victory fought a real battle, armed only as
   we may be, and assailed neither more nor less as we are, by the same
   enemies and the same weapons. As the church militant we claim
   indisputable kinship with the church triumphant. We are their
   companions in tribulation.

   2. Next, we believe that the saints who are not in heaven needed trial
   like others. The word used in our translation is 'tribulation,' and you
   know that the word tribulatio is used by the Romans to signify a
   threshing instrument. When they beat out the corn from the straw, they
   called it tribulatio; and so tribulation is sent to us to separate our
   chaff from our wheat. Since the same tribulation happened to those who
   are now in heaven, we infer that they needed it as much as ourselves.
   To what end do men need tribulation? We reply, they often require it to
   arouse them; and yonder saints who serve God day and night in his
   temple, once slept as do others, and needed to be bestirred. Were they
   not apostles who slept Gethsemane? Yea, were they not three of the
   chief of the apostles who slumbered within a stone's cast of their
   Master in his agony? The best of men are prone to slumber, and need to
   be awakened by the buffetings of sorrow. They needed trial to chasten
   them. What son has God ever had, save his firstborn and well-beloved,
   that did not need chastening? Inasmuch as we are all sinners, we have
   need in our Father's house to suffer from the rod. They wanted
   tribulation as we do to loosen them from the earth, else they would
   have struck their roots into this poor soil, and tried to live as if
   this world were their portion. Affliction was also necessary to
   develope their graces; even as spices need bruising to bring forth
   their smell, and rose leaves require distilling to draw forth their
   sweetest perfume. They required adversity to educate them into complete
   manhood, for they too were once babes in grace. It is in the gymnasium
   of affliction that men are modelled and fashioned in the beauty of
   holiness, and all their spiritual powers are trained for harmonious
   action. It was meet also that they should suffer, in order to complete
   their service. Like their Lord, they had to be made perfect through
   suffering; and if they had not suffered they had not finished the work
   which he had given them to do. They needed tribulation, moreover, that
   they might be made like their Savior; for a saint untroubled, how can
   he be like the man who wore the thorn crown? Never smitten, never
   slandered, never despised, never mocked at, never crucified, then how
   could we be like our Head? Shall the servant be above his Master, or
   the disciple above his Lord? They who are in heaven passed through
   tribulation, and they needed it as much as we do. Let us think of all
   this, for it may encourage us to press forward. They were knights of
   the same order as ourselves, and by the self-same methods obtained the
   honors which they wear.

   3. Again, the children of God who are in heaven in their trials had no
   other support than that which is still afforded to all the saints. A
   miracle was here and there wrought I grant you; but then there are
   other things to be said on our side, for the Spirit of God was not
   given then as fully as we possess him now, and Christ had not then
   brought life and immortality to light through the gospel so that what
   little advantage they had in miracle is far outweighed by the advantage
   we have in the gospel dispensation. What was it that upheld the saints
   of old who are now before the throne? Their faith was sustained by the
   promise of God, but we have the promise too. They rested on God's
   faithful word; that word is faithful still. We have more promises by
   far than most of them had received. They had but here and there a word
   of inspiration, we have the whole volume of consolation; yea, we have a
   double portion, for we have two books full of choice and gracious
   words. We have, therefore, more to cheer us than they had. They had the
   Spirit of God, you say; but, I reply, so have we. They had him with
   them, we have him in us. He visited them occasionally; he dwelleth in
   us; he never removeth from his people but abideth in them for ever. You
   will tell me that God worked with them: God works with us. Providence
   was on their side; and is not providence on our side also? All things
   worked together for their good; they work together for our good in the
   same manner. The Lord who was at the helm of their vessel when storms
   assaulted it, still stands at the helm for us and holds the tiller with
   a strong hand. He who walked the waves of Gennesaret, and came to the
   rescue of the storm-tossed disciples, still saith to us, 'It is I; be
   not afraid.' I see no point in which they had superior resorts to those
   which are open to ourselves, for the Lord of hosts is with us; the God
   of Jacob is our refuge. Their rest lay where our rest still lies; their
   peace and comfort were the same as our own. The Prince of Wurtenberg on
   one occasion in the midst of certain kings and great men heard them
   boasting, one of the mines which enriched his dominions, another of his
   forests, another of his vineyards. Now the Prince of Wurtenberg was
   poor, but he said, 'I have a jewel in my country which I would not
   exchange for all your wealth,' and, when they questioned him, he said,
   'If I were lost in any forest of my territory, or could not find my way
   along a lonesome road, if I said to the first peasant that I met that I
   was his king, I could lean my head upon him and lie down to sleep, and
   sleep securely there, feeling certain that he would watch over his king
   as he would over his child.' So we feel, and so the saints of old felt
   a delightful security any where beneath the blue heavens of God. If we
   have not riches, if we have not honor, if we have nothing that flesh
   could desire, we can lie down anywhere and feel that we are perfectly
   safe in the divine keeping. The angels watch over us and protect us,
   for we are the children of God: all things work for our good; the
   beasts of the field are our friends, and stones of the field are in
   league for our defense. This was the portion of those who are now
   above; it is our portion still.

   4. Very hurriedly I must notice, before I leave this first point, that
   if there was any difference between those saints and our selves, it lay
   in their enduring superior tribulations, for 'these are they that came
   out of great tribulation.' If, I say, we must distinguish them from
   ourselves at all, it lies in this, that some of them were martyred as
   we are not, resisted unto blood as we have not, and were put to death
   by cruel torments as probably we shall not be. Theirs was the battle's
   brunt. For them the furnace was heated seven times hotter. My brethren,
   if their faith sustained them and won them the palm branch, why should
   not ours do the like for us? The text says, 'These are they that come
   out of the great tribulation,' for so it is in the original. It may
   mean some peculiarly severe tribulation which has befallen, or is about
   to befall the church; and, if so, it is consoling to observe that the
   saints shall come out of it unscathed: but I rather take it to mean the
   one long tribulation of God's Saints in all ages. It is all one; it is
   all a part of the sufferings of the body of Christ; the saints in glory
   have had their share in the great tribulation, and, if anything, a
   greater share than we. We feel persuaded then, that as they were men
   like ourselves, who suffered as we suffer, and were supported as we are
   supported, we shall, through the same grace, win the same victory.

   II. I will not detain you longer on that point, though there is much to
   be said, but I must take you to the second, and that is, WHAT ARE
   THESE? John beheld them all in white robes; and the question to be
   answered was, 'Who are these,'these in heaven?' The reply was 'They
   have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb;'
   from which we gather, first, that all those in heaven were sinners, for
   they all needed to wash their robes. No superfluity would have been
   written down in this book; but had the robes been perfectly white,
   there had been no necessity to cleanse them, certainly not to cleanse
   them in, Jesus' blood. They were sinners then, those glorious ones were
   sinners like ourselves. Look up at them now! Observe their ravishing
   beauty! See how guiltless they are! And then, remember what they were.
   Oh, ye trembling sinners, whose bruised hearts dare not indulge a hope
   of the divine favor, those fair ones were once like you, and you are
   to-day what they were once. They were all shapen in iniquity as you
   were: they were everyone of them of woman born, and, therefore,
   conceived in sin. They were all placed in circumstances which allured
   them to sin; they had their temptations, as we have shown, and they
   lived in the midst of an ungodly generation, even as you do. What is
   more, they all sinned, for mere temptation would not have soiled their
   robes, but actual sin defiled them. There were thoughts of sin, there
   were words of sin, there were acts of sin in all of them. Did you
   observe that bright one who sang most sweetly of them all? Shall I tell
   you a part of his earthly history? He was one of the chief of sinners;
   he takes rank now amongst the chief of choristers, because he has most
   to sing about, since he had most forgiven and loved most. He will not
   tell you that he was naturally a saintly spirit, and that by
   mortification, and self-denial, and diligent perseverance he won his
   place in heaven. No, he will confess that his salvation was all of
   grace, for he was like others a sinner, and had transgressed above
   many. You will say, perhaps, that none of the saints had committed sins
   like yours, but there I must flatly contradict you. Amongst that
   illustrious company there are those who were once sinners of the
   deepest dye'the adulterer, the thief, the harlot, the murderer; some
   who were such are now glorified, for we have such characters mentioned
   in infallible Scripture as having been forgiven, sanctified, and at
   length glorified. Whatever your sin may be, and I will not mention it,
   for the mention of sin does not help to purify us from it; whatever it
   is, all manner of sin and blasphemy have been forgiven unto men, and
   the precious blood of Jesus has brought into eternal glory men stained
   with every form of sin. Jesus has cleansed crimson sinners, deep
   ingrained with iniquity, and scarlet sinners, whose crimes were of the
   most glaring hue. They all in heaven were sinners, such as we are.

   Secondly, they all who are in heaven needed an atonement, and the same
   atonement as we rely upon. They have washed their robes and made them
   white in the blood of the Lamb. Not one of them became white through
   his tears of repentance, not one through the shedding of the blood of
   bulls or of goats. They all wanted a vicarious sacrifice, and for none
   of them was any sacrifice effectual, except the death of Jesus Christ
   the Lord. They washed their robes nowhere but in the blood of the Lamb.
   O sinner, that blood of the Lamb is available now. The fountain filled
   with blood, drunk from Immanuel's veins, is not closed, nor is its
   efficacy diminished. Every child of Adam now in heaven came there
   through the blood of the great substitute. This was the key that opened
   heaven's door,'the blood, the blood of the Lamb, it was the one
   purification of them all, without one exception. If I were in thy case,
   O sinner, God helping me, I would in the blood as they did, and enter
   heaven as they have done.

   You will further notice that the saints in haven realised the atonement
   in the same way as we must do. They washed their robes and made them
   white in the blood of the Lamb. The act which gave them the virtue
   which lies in the atonement was the act of faith. They did not bring
   anything to the blood, any merit, or feeling, or preparation; they only
   brought their filthy garments to the blood, and nothing else. They
   washed and were clean. That was all. They did not give, they took; they
   did not impart, but they received. In this same way I have realised the
   merit of my Savior's passion, and I know that every believer here will
   confess that this is his hope, he has washed and he is clean. There is
   nothing to do, and nothing to feel, and nothing to be, in order to
   forgiveness; we have but to wash and the filth is gone. Every child of
   God in heaven whether he were king or prophet, or seer, or priest, came
   there through simply relying and depending upon the blood of Jesus
   Christ, the Lamb, and that is all,'all. You must not dare to add to it,
   or you will sin against the all-sufficient sacrifice.

   The text tells that the sole reason for the saints being in heaven at
   all was because they washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb:
   'Therefore are they before the throne of God.' But, is not one of them
   there because he had not sinned? There is no answer from all the
   shining hosts. Is not one of them glorified because a long life of
   consecration wiped out the small offenses of his youth? No response
   comes to the enquiry. But, if you ask whether they were there because
   they have washed in the blood, the 'Yes' which comes from them all is
   like the voice of many waters, and like great thunders.

   III. Now, beloved, WHAT OF ALL THIS? Why, first of all, we must not
   draw the conclusion that trouble and temptation are any argument that a
   man will get to heaven. Perhaps I may be misunderstood this morning and
   therefore I add a caution. There is a groundless notion abroad, that
   those who are badly off in this world will certainly have it made up to
   them in the world to come; and I have heard the parable of Lazarus and
   Dives quoted as though it taught that those who are poor here will be
   rich hereafter. There is not a shadow of reason for any such belief.
   You may go through much tribulation to hell as well as to heaven; and
   as a man may have two heavens, here and hereafter, by living near to
   God, so may a man have two hells, the hell which he bringeth upon
   himself in this life by his extravagances, his wickedness, and his
   lust, and the hell that shall be his punishment for ever in the world
   to come. Believe me, many a ragged, loathsome beggar has been damned;
   he was as poor as Lazarus, but not as gracious as he, and therefore no
   angels carried him to Abraham's bosom. There is no efficacy in the
   tongues of dogs to lick away sin, neither can a hungry belly atone for
   a guilty soul. Many a soul has begged for crumbs on earth, and has
   afterwards craved in vain for water in hell. You must take care not to
   suck poisonous error out of the flowers of truth.

   I would, however, have you learn that no amount of trial which we have
   to suffer here, if we are believers in Jesus, should lead us to
   anything like despair, for however trouble may encompass us to-day,
   those in heaven came through as great a tribulation, and why may not
   we? If messengers should come one after the other with swift feet to
   bring us heavy tidings, if all our property should melt, and our
   children should die, and even the partner of our bosom should tempt us
   to curse God, we must still hold fast our confidence. Our faith's motto
   should be, 'Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.' God may smite
   his children, but he never can cast off his children. He must love
   them, and he will love them for ever and for ever. Let us also
   understand that no amount of sin of which we may have been guilty ought
   to lead us to despair of pardon, salvation, and ultimate entrance into
   heaven, if we also wash our robes in the blood of the Lamb. Those who
   are in heaven have washed their robes white by faith in Jesus, and so
   may we. I may be addressing some one who has written his own death
   warrant. I thank God that the Lord has never written it. You may have
   said, 'I know that I never shall have mercy.' Who told thee that God
   had set a limit to his grace? Who has been up to heaven and found that
   thy name is not written among his chosen? Oh, do God the justice to
   believe that he delighteth in mercy, and that it is one of his greatest
   joys to pass by iniquity, transgression, and sin. And, suppose this day
   you should have in your own person trouble and sorrow united; suppose
   you should be going through the great tribulation, and at the same time
   you should have committed sin which has defiled your garment most
   conspicuously; though the gall and the wormwood be both in your cup and
   both be bitterest of the bitter, yet do not despair, for the saints
   whom John saw had the double blessing of deliverance and cleansing, and
   why should not you? I make bold to tell you that if your troubles were
   tenfold what they are, and your sins also were multiplied ten times,
   yet there is power in the eternal arm to bear you up under the
   tribulation, and there is efficacy in the precious blood to remove your
   sinful stains. By an act of faith cast yourselves upon God in Christ
   Jesus. If you do so, you shall take your place amongst the white-robed
   bands when this life ends.

   I was led to these reflections this morning by the remembrance of the
   few short days ago since our beloved brother, Mr. Dransfield, whose
   mortal remains we committed to the tomb last Monday, was among us. You
   remember his accustomed seat, just here, at the prayer meeting; you
   remember how there was never an empty seat just over yonder at any of
   our public services. He was always among us, and he was just like
   ourselves. I am sure we all felt at home in his presence. He did not
   walk among us at all as a stilted personage or a supernatural being; he
   was a father among us; we loved him, esteemed him, revered him, but he
   was a man of men among us. I have tried to realize the same spirit
   before the throne of God, and I think I have been able to grasp the
   thought. I know he was like ourselves; I am equally certain that he is
   yonder, and that he is rejoicing in Christ; none of us doubt that. Now
   let us make a practical, common sense use of that fact and feel, I,
   too, resting, where he rested'for, oh, how sweetly did he rest in his
   dying Lord'I, too, hoping as he hoped, shall bear up under troubles as
   he did during his painful illness, and I, too, shall have a joyful
   death as he did, for his soul triumphed in his God beyond measure. Why
   should not all of us, his brethren, enter where he is gone? Dear
   sister, why should not you? You who are consumptive, you who know that
   death is drawing near to you, because you carry a disease about you
   which will take you home? Just realize the fact now before us. Our dear
   and well-known friend is really gone to the better land. You shook
   hands with that dear brother a few days ago, and now he is with God,
   and is waving the palm and wearing the white robe. It is not a dream, a
   fiction, or a fancy. It is not the delusion of high-blown fanaticism.
   It is not a wondrous attainment for some few special and renowned
   saints. Oh, no, it is for every one of us who believe in Jesus. They in
   heaven are those who came out of great tribulation, and have washed
   their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. It is not
   said, 'These are they that were emperors,' not 'These are they who were
   reared in marble halls,' not 'these are they who were great scholars,'
   not 'These are they who were mighty preachers,' not 'These are they who
   were great apostles,' not 'These are they who lived spotless lives;'
   no, but these are they who came through the tribulation of life, and
   were cleansed from their sins, as others must be, in the precious blood
   of Jesus; therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him
   day and night in his temple.

   Dear brother Dransfield, thou wast bone of our bone, and flesh of our
   flesh, and yet thou art perfected before the throne. We thy brethren
   are on the way and shall be with thee soon. Amen.

   PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON'Revelation 14.

   As a very large number of friends from a distance desire occasionally
   to attend the Tabernacle, but do not like to encounter the crowds at
   the doors, the deacons have resolved to issue early admission tickets,
   which will admit the holder before the general public, during the month
   of issue. They will be purchasable at the price of one shilling, and
   can be had by letter, enclosing twelve penny stamps, and one half-penny
   stamp for postage, of Mr. C. Blackshaw, Tabernacle, Newington Butts.
     __________________________________________________________________

                             Mercy's Master Motive

   A Sermon

   (No. 1041)

   Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, March 17th, 1872, by

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   'For my name's sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I
   refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off. Behold, I have refined thee,
   but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.
   For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should
   my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.''Isaiah
   48:9-11.

   THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL in all their generations were full of evil. Those
   who came out of Egypt were a rebellious people, and for forty years
   multiplied their provocations of the Lord in the wilderness, till at
   last they all found a grave in the desert. The generation following
   were stiff-necked and rebellious like their fathers, and they
   continually went astray after false gods. Though by the good hand of
   the Lord they were settled in a goodly land which flowed with milk and
   honey, yet they forgot the covenant and sinned grievously. Though they
   were smitten and bruised for their idolatries, yet their successors did
   the same: whether they were ruled by the high priest, or governed by
   the judges, or presided over by a king, it little mattered, they
   started aside still, they were never to be depended upon. Idolatry and
   rebellion against God were ingrained in their nature; this sin was in
   their bone, and it would come out in their flesh. At last the Lord,
   whose glory tabernacled in Zion, appeared to grow weary of keeping
   house with such ungracious children and unfaithful servants, and he
   broke up the house altogether: he gave up his temple to be destroyed,
   the whole land to be ravaged, and the inhabitants to be carried away
   captive into Babylon. The Lord was wroth with his heritage, and
   therefore he gave his holy and beautiful house to the fire, and the
   carved work thereof to be broken down with hammers, while the whole
   Jewish state was utterly shattered, and of the kingdom not one stone
   was left upon another that was not cast down. Yet such is the
   immutability of God in his affection, that he had not long sent his
   people into captivity before his bowels yearned towards them again. He
   cast his eye over to Babylon, and saw his chosen sitting in sadness by
   the far-off rivers, hanging their silent harps upon the willows, and
   weeping at the remembrance of Zion; and he said unto himself, 'I have
   chosen this people of old, and I have loved their fathers, and I have
   made them to be people unto me above all the people that are upon the
   face of the earth, therefore again I will have mercy upon them.' Then
   the Lord looked to find a reason for mercy in their past conduct, but
   could see none. He looked at their present character for a plea, and
   found none, for even while they were under the rod they exhibited
   hardness of heart, so that even the eyes of mercy could see no reason
   for favor in them. What should the Lord do? He would not act without a
   reason: there must be something to justify his mercy, and show the
   wisdom of his way. Since there is none in the offender, where shall
   mercy find her plea? Behold the inventiveness of eternal love! The Lord
   falls back upon himself; and within himself finds a reason for his
   grace. 'For my name's sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise
   will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off. For mine own sake,
   even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be
   polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.' Finding a motive
   in his own glory which was bound up in the existence of Israel, and
   would have been compromised by their destruction, he turned unto them
   in love and kindness; Cyrus wrote the decree of emancipation, the
   Israelites came back to the land, and once again they sat every man
   under his own vine and fig tree, and ate the good of the land. So far
   we give the historical meaning of the passage.

   We shall now use the text as an illustration of divine love in other
   cases, for from one deed of grace we may learn all. As God dealt with
   his people Israel after the flesh, in the same manner he dealeth with
   his people Israel after the spirit; and his mercies towards his saints
   are to be seen as in a mirror in his wondrous lovingkindness towards
   the seed of Abraham.

   I shall take the text to illustrate'first, the conversion of the
   sinner; and secondly, the reclaiming of the backslider; and I pray,
   dear friends, most earnestly, that while I speak God may move with his
   Spirit upon your hearts, so that many of you may follow me, sincerely
   feeling that which I describe. While I am speaking may your souls be
   silently saying, 'Yes, we know what that means, we have felt it; we
   gladly yield assent thereto, for we know it to be even so.'

   I. First, then, in reference to THE CONVERSION OF THE SINNER.

   Let us suppose a case. It is God's will to save yonder sinner; he has
   ordained him to eternal life, and predestinated him to he conformed to
   the image of his dear Son. In due time the Lord begins to deal with the
   man in a way of grace, and where does he find him? This shall be our
   first point this morning. He finds him so utterly ruined and depraved,
   that in him there is no argument for mercy, no plea for grace. I will
   suppose that such a soul is here this morning, awakened into a
   perception of his true condition, and craving for pardon. Soul, canst
   thou upon calm reflection find in thyself some good thing which may be
   pleaded in extenuation of guilt, or as a reason for forgiveness? What
   has been thy past conduct? Are there redeeming features in it? Alas,
   no! You must at once confess that your neck has been an iron sinew and
   your brow brass. You have been obstinate in sin; against many warnings,
   entreaties, and chastisements, you have persisted in it. Neither law
   nor gospel, providence nor conscience, has sufficed to turn you from
   your perverse ways. Your neck would not bend before either the terrors
   or the mercies of God. You have heard sermons which seemed enough to
   melt the heart of a stone, but you have been unmoved. You have seen
   others bowing themselves before the Lord Jesus Christ with holy joy,
   and yet you have done no such thing, but have been exceeding stout
   against the Lord of Hosts. Looking back upon the past also, you have to
   confess great impudence in your dealing with God; your brow has been
   brass. You have gone direct from his house to sin. He claims but one
   day in a week to himself but you have robbed him of that. It may be you
   have used his name in common jests, if not worse; you have dared to
   employ it profanely; you have scoffed at his people; you have derided
   everything that has been good, and in looking back you are obliged to
   confess that there are ten thousand reasons why God should not refrain
   from his anger, and overwhelming reasons why he should cut you off; but
   you cannot find so much as one single argument why he should be pleased
   to spare and save you. Every man who is really brought to Christ is
   first stripped of all on which he placed reliance as a ground of hope,
   and made to see that in himself there is guilt deserving condemnation,
   and rebellion demanding, punishment, but there is no quality which can
   enlist divine sympathy or secure, by its own excellence, divine regard.
   In us, by nature, there are no beauties of character, no charms of
   virtue, or loveliness of conduct to win the Almighty heart. We were
   called 'transgressors from the womb,' and rightly were we named.

   O awakened soul, where art thou this morning? I wish I could speak with
   thee face to face, and hear thee say, 'How can I expect divine goodness
   to spare such a one as I am, for, in addition to all other sins, I have
   behaved very treacherously towards the Lord my God. Not long ago I was
   laid upon a sick bed, and then I repented, or thought I did, and I
   sought God very vehemently, and I vowed unto the Lord, that if I was
   raised up again, I would not rest till I had sought his face. But I
   left my couch and my repentance died on my sick bed. No sooner had I
   recovered than I returned to my sin, as a dog to his vomit, and as the
   sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. After this, how can I
   have the face to go to God again? I lied unto him, I flattered him with
   my tongue, and my heart was not sound in his ways. My goodness was gone
   as the dew from the grass, or the meteor from the sky.' Yes, poor soul,
   this confession is true, and it proves, beyond all question, that no
   reason for mercy can be drawn from your past conduct when you have been
   under the rod. Why should you be stricken any more? you will revolt
   more and more. Chastisement is lost upon you; your nature is hopeless;
   do what he may with you, you will not turn unto the Lord.

   Ah, and I think I hear you say, 'neither can I promise to God anything
   as to the future. I dare not say to him to-day, have mercy upon me, and
   then I will be very different from what I have been. No, my heart is
   too treacherous for me to trust it. I might sooner promise what the sea
   will be to-morrow, than pledge my future character. Changeful as the
   winds that blow from every quarter of the sky is my nature a fickle and
   false am I. I seem to-day resolved for good, to-morrow I may be
   resolved evil, and what I vowed to do most vehemently will never become
   fact. I dare not say that in the future I can see any reason why God
   should have mercy upon me.' Oh, how glad my heart is when I can meet
   with a person who confesses this to be his case. It is a very sad
   difficulty to be in, a very painful one, when the soul at last abandons
   all arguments, extenuations, and apologies, and says, 'Lord, I am
   guilty, I stand at thy judgment-seat and I can say nothing but guilty.
   Thou art clear when thou judgest, thou art just when thou condemnest,
   and if thou shouldst put on the black cap, and say, 'Prisoner at the
   bar, hast thou anything to say why sentence should not be speedily
   executed upon thee?' I could not even stammer out an apology, but must
   stand speechless before my judge.'

   My lips, with shame, my sins confess

   Against thy law, against thy grace:

   Lord, should thy judgment grow severe,

   I am condemn'd, but thou art clear.

   Should sudden vengeance seize my breath,

   I must pronounce thee just in death;

   And, if my soul were sent to hell,

   Thy righteous law approves it well.'

   In the text I beg you specially to remark our second thought, namely,
   that God himself finds the reason for his mercy, and, O ye heavens hear
   it, and be astonished O earth, he finds it in himself. 'For my name's
   sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for
   thee, that I cut thee not off.' Here is the drift of the thought'the
   Lord is a patient God, and determines to make his patience glorious.
   When all was darkness the Lord said, 'Let there be light!' and light
   was;'thus he glorified his power. When all was chaos Jehovah brought
   fair order out of grim confusion, and so glorified his wisdom. So in
   the sinner's case the Lord sees a wretch who has provoked him to his
   face for thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, perhaps seventy or eighty years,
   and as the Lord desires an opportunity to glorify his patience, he
   finds it ready to his hand. Having permitted that sinner to live when
   he scoffed at the gospel, scorned the atonement, and rejected the
   Redeemer, the Lord at length crowns his longsuffering by blotting out
   his sins, and forgiving all his misdeeds, whereat all creatures stand
   amazed, and men, and angels, and devils in astonishment cry out, 'Who
   is a God like unto thee, passing by transgression, iniquity, and sin?'
   Who but the God of boundless grace could have borne with such a
   provoking sinner, and then after all have taken him into his own bosom
   as his child.

   God also would illustrate in the salvation of a sinner not only his
   patience, but his sovereign and abundant mercy towards sinners. If the
   Lord were to select this morning as the object of his grace some soul
   possessing merit, if such were the case, if he were to choose some soul
   in whom there was a claim for pity (of course I am supposing an
   impossibility), then there would be little glory to his grace; but
   when, casting his divine eyes of compassion all round this assembly, he
   selects a soul that is bad throughout, black without and black within,
   a soul that has laid soaking in sin like the wool in the scarlet dye,
   till the color is ingrain, then he magnifies the glory of his grace.
   When he looks upon a wretch who confesses either by his silence or by
   his tearful speech, that he deserves his wrath, and says, 'Thy sins
   which are many are all forgiven thee: I have laid them on the Savior's
   head, go and sin no more, thy transgressions are blotted out, I have
   purchased thee unto myself by the death of my Son,' oh, then, how the
   sinner's heart melts with gratitude, love, and wonder in the presence
   of such a God. The Lord is loved much in that heart which feels that
   much has been forgiven; thus God's glory begins to be known, and soon
   it spreads abroad; The neighbors and friends and kinsfolk of the
   pardoned penitent say unto one another, 'Was it ever done after this
   sort before? Have you ever heard the like of this? Here is this man
   saved'this man who lay at hell's dark door, and seemed only fit to be
   cast into the pit!' Oh, how the shouts go up to high heaven from the
   watchful angels who joy over penitents, 'Glory be unto almighty grace.'

   Now, look thee, man, once more, God can, by saving such a one as thou
   art, not only glorify his patience and grace but display his power. It
   is evident that it is not an easy task to conquer thee. Thou hast been
   like Leviathan whose heart is hard as a stone; yea, as hard as a piece
   of the nether millstone. 'The sword of him that layeth at him cannot
   hold: the spear, the dart, nor the habergeon; the arrow cannot make him
   see; he laugheth at the shaking of a spear.' Thou hast laughed at all
   men who would convince thee, and even the thunders of God's providence
   have not solaced to alarm thee; yet now the Lord intends to show what
   his Almighty grace can do. Now will he by a miracle of gracious power
   turn the lion to a lamb, the raven to a dove. The conversion of little
   sinners, if such there be, would but little honor him; but if they be
   desperately set on mischief there is room for the eternal and ever
   blessed God to display the glory of his name. For his name's sake will
   he do it; even for his own sake will he do it, that men may see what
   his patience, grace, and power can accomplish. Truly the Lord's love
   does accomplish great moral wonders. Forgiveness even among men is
   often more potent than punishment. I have heard it related of a soldier
   at Woolwich, that he had frequently been drunk and disorderly; and,
   though he had been very frequently imprisoned, and otherwise punished
   for his offenses, he was incorrigible. On one occasion he had incurred
   the severe penalty of the lash, and expected to receive it. He had no
   excuse to offer, and did not pretend to make any. He was sullen and
   obdurate. At last the commanding officer said to him, 'We cannot do
   anything with you; we have imprisoned you; we have dogged you; yet we
   cannot improve you. There is only one thing we have never done with
   you, and that we are going to try; we forgive you.' The culprit broke
   down at once. Hard as he was, this new treatment overcame him. That
   word, 'You are fully forgiven,' broke him down far more than the
   nine-thonged cat; he was never an offender again. Many a soul that has
   been very obstinate against God, even to persecuting the followers of
   the Lord Jesus, when the Lord has by the Holy Spirit said in his heart,
   'I have loved thee with an everlasting love, I gave my Son to die for
   thee; I laid thy sins on him, and now I freely forgive thee, and take
   thee to be my child, my well-beloved.' Oh, the heart dissolves and the
   rebellious will surrenders.

   'I yield'by mighty love subdued,

   Who can resist its charms?

   And throw myself, by wrath pursued,

   Into my Savior's arises.'

   God grant that in many and many a case this may be true at this moment.

   But, now, it may be that a soul here present is saying, 'Well, I can
   see that God can thus find a motive for mercy in himself, when there is
   none in the sinner, but why is it that the Lord is chastening me as he
   is?' Possibly you are sickly in body, have been brought low in estate,
   and are grievously depressed in mind. God now, in our text, goes on to
   explain his dealings with you, that you may not have one hard thought
   of him. It is true he has been smiting you, but it has been with a
   purpose and in measure. 'I have refined thee, but not with silver.' You
   have been put into the furnace of affliction, but not,'note the
   'but,'''but not with silver.' Now, when silver is refined it requires
   the most vehement heat of all metals. God has not brought upon you the
   severest troubles. You have been chastised, but not as you might have
   been, nor as you deserved to have been. You have been made to suffer,
   but his strokes have been fewer than your crimes and lighter than your
   guilt. You are now bowed down and depressed, but you are not quite
   without some rays of hope, especially now that you have heard the glad
   sound of a free-grace gospel. You have been 'refined,' that was God's
   object, but the process has been slight, it is 'not with silver.' The
   Lord has not dealt with you as men do with silver. What do they do with
   it? They put it into a fire that the dross may be consumed, and the
   silver may be made pure. Now, if you, poor sinner, had been put into
   such a fire as that, you would have been utterly destroyed, for in you
   there was no silver at all. As you are by nature you are not at all
   like silver, and the heat of a silver furnace would quite consume you.
   True it is that now his grace has created a vein of silver in your
   heart, but he does not yet intend to put you to extreme tests, for your
   weak graces would fail in the process. What he has sent to you has been
   with a view to awaken and to quicken, to take away your self-confidence
   and false peace, and so in a measure to refine you; but he does not
   depend for the refinement of either you or his people upon the furnace
   of affliction, he has other and more effectual modes of purification.
   The furnace of trouble is often used as a mode of refining, but after
   all it is only a means; the real refining fire is the Holy Ghost, the
   true purification lies in the blood of him who sits as a refiner.
   Remember it is not said that trouble will purify the sons of Levi; but
   'HE is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's sope,' and 'he,' not
   with trouble but by himself, 'shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge
   them as gold and silver.' Here suffering would only make a man more
   drossy; apart from divine grace affliction has no good effect. If we
   are not sanctified by the Eternal Spirit when in the furnace of
   affliction, and if the precious blood of Jesus be not applied to our
   soul, all the distress and grief in the world will not purify us. And
   so, poor soul, God has wrought in your trouble, but he does not mean to
   continue to vex you until your soul is perfectly refined, for that
   would be more than you could bear, even could it be possible. No, no,
   he will put away your sin by better means. Behold the precious blood!
   You have not to suffer for your sins, for Christ has suffered for them
   in thy stead. You are to be refined, but not by processes of a fiery
   character. Behold the sacred water from the river side of your
   Redeemer, for that will take your filthiness away. Behold the Eternal
   Spirit waiting to renew your soul'that will effectually remove your
   dross. The Spirit has refined you, in a measure, by what you have
   suffered, by awakening and convincing you; but the true refining shall
   come to you in another way, therefore be of good courage, thank God for
   what you have felt, but be not bowed down with abject terror as though
   your trials would quite consume you. They shall be both mitigated in
   degree, and useful in result.

   And now, notice the next thing: the Lord declares that the time of
   trial is the chosen season for revealing his love to you: 'I have
   chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.' This verse does not teach
   that God's choice of any man begins in time, or begins when he is under
   affliction. Oh, no, the choice of God is without beginning, it is
   eternal. God seeth the things that shall be as though they were;
   everything is now with him. But it often happens that the time in which
   God reveals his choice and manifests his electing love to a soul is
   when that soul is almost consumed with trouble. And now, dear hearer, I
   must again picture thee, for my object is not to preach to the winds,
   but to preach right into thy soul; thou hast been brought very low of
   late, thou hast been like a field ploughed, harrowed, cross-ploughed,
   scarified; there is no rest to thee; and thou canst plead no reason why
   God should give thee rest. Thou art brought into abject distress of
   spirit. Now is the time when the Lord reveals his love to such as thou
   art. I never knew his love when I strutted abroad in the bravery of my
   selfrighteousness, and I never should have known it. I never heard him
   say 'I have chosen thee,' when I fared sumptuously every day at the
   table of my own self-sufficiency. I never heard him say, 'My son that
   was dead is alive again, he that was lost is found,' when I had still
   the gold in my purse and was spending my living riotously. But, I will
   tell you when I heard him say, 'I have chosen thee': it was when I came
   fresh from the swine-trough with my belly aching because I could not
   fill it with husks, with my filthy rags about me, and my soul all
   sinking in despair; with no argument upon my lip except this: 'Father,
   I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to
   be called thy son.' Then for the first time I heard him say, 'I have
   chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.' It is when we are down to
   the very lowest, when we are brought to bankruptcy and beggary
   spiritually, when we lie at Christ's feet as though we were dead, it is
   then he puts his hand upon us, and says, 'Fear not, I am the first and
   the last': it is then he anoints us with the oil of joy, it is then he
   clothes us with the garments of salvation, it is then we hear the voice
   of eternal love, saying, 'I have loved thee with an everlasting love,
   therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.'

   But note, once more, before I leave the sinner's case, that lest the
   soul should forget it, the Lord repeats again the point he began with,
   and unveils the motives of his grace once more. What is the eleventh
   verse but the echo of the ninth: 'For mine own sake, even for mine own
   sake, will I do it; for how should my name be polluted? and I will not
   give my glory unto another.' God cannot save you, sinner, for your own
   sake, you are not worth the saving. If you are cast away upon the
   dunghill of oblivion for ever, it is as much as you deserve; you are
   not worthy of God's notice, you are a mere speck in his great universe,
   and having dared to sin against him, it is as fit that he should
   destroy you, as it is fit that a venomous reptile should be crushed
   beneath your foot. Yet the Lord declares that he will refrain from
   wrath. He will have mercy upon you, oh, broken heart, for his own sake;
   do you observe why it is 'for his own sake,' namely, that his name 'may
   not be polluted.' Now, suppose a sinner shall come to him and cry,
   'Lord, I am a guilty soul, I have no merit to plead, but I appeal to
   thy mercy, I trust in thy love. Thou hast said that through Christ
   Jesus, thou wilt forgive sinners. Lord, I trust in thy dear Son. Save
   me for his sake. Now if he does not save you, we speak with reverence
   and bated breath, but we use his own words, his name will be
   'polluted,' because then it will be said, 'Here is a soul that came to
   the Lord, and he cast it out, and yet he said, 'him that cometh unto me
   I will in no wise cast out.' Here is a poor sinner that rested on the
   love and mercy of God in Christ Jesus and yet was confounded, whereas,
   he promised that they that trust in the Lord should never be
   confounded, nor ashamed, world without end.' I know this morning that
   my hope is fixed on Christ Jesus alone. If I am ever lost I shall be a
   soul in hell resting upon Christ, and do you think that can ever be?
   Will they not publish it in the streets of Tophet; here is a soul that
   dared believe in Jesus, but Jesus repelled him as presumptuous. Here is
   a poor soul who cried

   'If I perish, I will pray,

   And perish only there;'

   and yet this soul is damned.' Why, surely such an one would be carried
   in triumph through the blazing streets of hell, and held up as an
   insult to the God of mercy, as a proof that he had not kept his word. O
   soul, he will save you, for his own sake, lest his name should be
   'polluted,' for he is jealous of his name. He will never permit it to
   be truthfully said, even by a devil, that he ever broke a promise, even
   to a devil. If you will go to him in Christ Jesus, though you be all
   but damned already, and feel that your death warrant is signed; he will
   not, he cannot, reject you. Throw yourself at the cross-foot, and say,
   'Lord I believe, help thou mine unbelief;' and God will never tarnish
   his name by thy destruction.

   And then, he adds, 'And I will not give my glory unto another.' But if
   a soul should perish while trusting in the blood of Christ, the glory
   of God would go over to Satan. It would be proved that Satan had
   overcome the truthfulness of God, or the power of God, or the mercy of
   God; that at last evil had proved more mighty than good, and sin had
   abounded over grace. Can it ever be that goodness shall find a
   difficulty which it cannot overcome, a Red Sea it cannot divide, or a
   Lebanon which it cannot climb? No, never, while God is God. Oh, that I
   had before me the biggest sinner that ever lived! I would like to look
   this morning into the face of a criminal who has piled up mountains on
   mountains of sins, defied his God, and derided the laws of his country;
   a ruffian red-handed with murder, and dripping with lust; for I would
   glory in saying to him, 'All manner of sin and of blasphemy shall be
   forgiven unto men. Come but to God's arms through Jesus Christ his Son,
   and you shall find him a God ready to forgive, and abounding in
   lovingkindness. He retaineth not his anger for ever, because he
   delighteth in mercy.'

   I do not know how to preach the gospel more fully than I am now doing.
   I am laboring to set before downcast sinners an open door, and to show
   them how effectually grace has removed every hinderance out of the way,
   by basing its arguments of love upon the name of God, and not upon the
   merit of the creature.

   II. Thus much to the sinner; we shall now speak OF THE RECLAIMING OF
   THE BACKSLIDER.

   Backsliding professor, your case is more evidently meant in the text
   even than that of the sinner, for God was speaking to his own people
   Israel in these remarkable words. Now your crime, if any thing, is a
   more censurable one than that of the sinner. I can see no more reason
   why God should have mercy upon you than upon the ungodly, indeed, I see
   more reason for punishing you, for you have made a profession and
   belied it. 'Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the
   name of Israel, which swear by the name of Jehovah, and make mention of
   the God of Israel, but not in truth or in righteousness.' That is your
   character, you have taken Christ's name upon you, I cannot say
   altogether that you have been deceived and a deceiver, but your actions
   look as if you have been, for you have gone aside from the faith, and
   turned aside from your Lord. You did know something of his love; and,
   unless awfully deceived, you once rested on the Lord Jesus. Shall I
   publish abroad your guilt? How hath the much fine gold become dim! How
   hath the blazing sun of your profession been altogether eclipsed? You
   have transgressed in opposition to light and knowledge; you knew more
   than the sinner, and yet you have sinned as he did; you knew something
   of the sweets of Christ's table, but you have joined yourself to the
   table of devils. And you have been very perverse about it too, for
   providence has dealt sharply with you, but you would not come back to
   your God. Your neck has been an iron sinew, and your brow has been
   brass! Alas, how treacherously have you dealt with the Lord your God!
   No sin is so destructive to married love as that of adultery, yet the
   Lord puts the backslider's case on the same footing, in the third
   chapter of the book of Jeremiah. 'They say, if a man put away his wife,
   and she go from him, and become another man's, shall he return unto her
   again? Shall not that land be greatly polluted? But thou hast played
   the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the Lord.'
   Cavil not at the imagery for its coarseness, but rejoice in its
   matchless grace. Read on in that same chapter, from the twelfth verse
   to the end, and note the verse, 'Turn unto me, O backsliding children;
   for I am married unto you, saith the Lord.' But why should the Lord bid
   his chosen nation come back? Not because she deserved to be received
   again, not because in heaven, or earth, or hell, there could be found
   any reason why she should for her own sake be restored. Her sins said,
   'Put her away, put her away; shall the holy God have anything to do
   with such an one as this?' Justice said, 'Put her away, the law demands
   it.' Holiness said, 'Put her away, how shall she come into God's
   house?' But, his infinite love replied, 'The Lord, the God of Israel,
   saith that he hateth putting away.' He will not hear of a divorce; and
   again he cries, 'Return, ye backsliding children, I am married unto
   you, saith the Lord.' Backslider, you see there is no reason for God's
   grace that can be found in your person or in your character, but it is
   found in the divine heart. I must go over the same ground again. 'For
   my name's sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I
   refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off.'

   The Lord has a reason for not cutting off backsliders, and it is
   this'first, his many promises must be kept in which he has declared
   that his chosen shall not perish, neither shall they utterly depart
   from him. Is not this the very tenor of the covenant? 'If his children
   forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; If they break my
   statutes, and keep not my commandments; Then will I visit their
   transgressions with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.
   Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor
   suffer my faithfulness to fail.' His gifts and calling are without
   repentance, irrevocable. It shall not be said that his promise was ever
   revoked or broken; he has made a covenant with our Lord Jesus, and that
   covenant is sealed with blood; know ye not the sum and substance of it?
   'I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn
   away from then, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their
   hearts, that they shall not depart from me.' Thus the faithfulness of
   God to his promises would be questioned if any of his people finally
   apostatised.

   God's grace is also interested in it; for if after all your
   provocations God were to say, 'I have given thee up, I will never deal
   with thee in grace again,' then it would be said that God's grace had a
   limit, that it could not abound over sin, and after all was a mutable
   thing. Can it be that forgiving grace should punish the forgiven? That
   adopting grace could unchild the child? That wrath should dismember the
   body of Christ, and mangle the Redeemer, to be avenged upon the
   backslider? Oh, no, such is Jehovah's truth, that he will keep every
   promise to the letter; such is his grace, that his people shall never
   sin to such an extent but what his grace will overtop it all; and such
   is his immutability, that though we believe not, yet he abideth
   faithful, he cannot deny himself. Hath he said, and will he not do it;
   hath he commanded, and shall it not come to pass? Come back,
   backslider, God has not changed towards you; return at once to him. His
   heart is still full of love to you. Return unto him, for still doth he
   say, 'How can I set thee as Admah, how can I make thee as Zeboim? My
   repentings are kindled; I will not destroy him, for I am God and not
   man.' There is a free course for mercy to those who have wandered
   furthest, when God finds a motive for grace in his own name and in his
   own praise. Why, do you not see, poor trembling backslider, that if God
   forgives you, and you once get to heaven, you will be among the
   heartiest of heaven's choristers? I mean to sing the loudest of any if
   I ever enter the celestial seats, for I shall owe so much to the sweet
   love and grace of God; but David and other great backsliders will also
   love most intensely. It is amazing grace which not only saves at first,
   bet restores the wandering sheep after it has gone astray. Oh, you
   Christians who are kept by divine grace walking with God, you have much
   to praise him for, you ought to bless him every day you live; but you
   who have fallen and gone aside, if the Lord brings you back you must
   henceforth render double diligence and sevenfold love. Henceforth you
   must be like the woman who broke the alabaster box over Christ's head,
   you must feel that you cannot do enough for that dear Lord and Savior
   who saw you in all your rebellions, and yet loved you. Loving you
   because he would love you; not because you were lovely, but because he
   would love you; not because you were deserving, but because he would
   love you. This ought to make you the very choicest of Christians, this
   should place you in the front of the champions of the Lord in the day
   of battle.

   Please to observe, that God having thus declared the reason of his love
   to the backslider goes on to tell him, that the present sufferings
   which he is now enduring as the result of his backslidings should be
   mitigated. 'I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have put thee
   into the fire, but I have not blown the heat to such an extreme degree
   that thy sin should be melted from thee: that would be a greater heat
   than any soul could bear. I have refined thee, that was needful, but
   not as silver; that would have been destructive to thee.' Thou sayest,
   'All that waves and billows have gone over me.' Not so; you know not
   what all God's waves and billows might be, for there is a depth
   infinitely lower than any you have ever seen. The deeps of hell are far
   more horrible than anything you can imagine. If you are in the furnace
   to-day do not repine, do not say like Cain, 'My punishment is greater
   than I can bear,' but rather say, 'I will kiss the rod, and bless my
   Father's name that he allows me to live at all, and now bids me to
   return to him. I will thank him for the rod; it is the token of the
   Father's love to his child.'

   Then comes his next word: 'I have chosen thee in the furnace of
   affliction;' that is, as if he said, 'I will renew my election of you.'
   It was never revoked, but now it shall be more manifestly declared. God
   has looked at you in prosperity and he has seen you treacherously
   forgetting him. You prospered in business and you grew very worldly,
   God could see no beauty in your face. You had your children about you,
   and your wife made you glad, and you lived almost without prayer,
   without reading the scriptures; God therefore hid his face from you.
   Now, however, your affairs are at a low ebb and you begin again to
   pray; the neglected Bible is brought down again; now the seat that
   could be left unoccupied half the Sabbath-day is always filled by you;
   now you begin saying, 'My God, my God, have mercy on me.' Hear this for
   your comfort,'the Lord never thinks his children's faces more lovely
   than when they are slobbered with tears; when repentance defiles the
   face before men it beautifies it before God; when the eyes grow red
   with sorrow they are lovely unto the Lord. Do you beat upon your
   breast, and say, 'God be merciful to me a sinner,' then know, that no
   sound of tabor is so sweet to God as the sound of beaten breasts, no
   music hath more melody in it than the sigh of a broken heart.

   Brethren, all of you, though you are not open backsliders, perhaps you
   may be worse than those who are. I know in my own soul, I never feel
   safe except when I stand as a sinner at the cross foot; and though I
   desire to grow in grace, and to be a saint, and would use language
   suitable to a child of God, and would not keep my hands off a single
   covenant privilege that belongs to me as one with Christ; yet, for all
   that, while I am in this flesh, I feel my happiest moments are those
   lowly times when I feel that I am nothing, and that Jesus is my all in
   all. God chooses his people over again when he sees them contrite in
   the furnace of soul affliction. When he sees them how he loves them;
   when he sees them down he lifts them up; when he sees them withered in
   themselves then he makes them flourish; when they are nothing his love
   is everything. When they are swollen with pride and self-reliant, he
   turns his face away from them; but to his dear brokenhearted children,
   he is all kindness; and this is his reason, 'How shall my name be
   polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.' If one poor
   believer who is pining after Jesus' face were forgotten by him, his
   name would be polluted'where would be his immutability? And then again,
   Satan would glory over that child of God and say, 'I have dragged a
   child of God down to hell!' Christ's blood would suffer dishonor, for
   it would be said that a soul was punished though Christ was punished in
   its stead, and that were to obliterate the atonement, and to make the
   substitution of Christ to be of none effect. If it could once be said,
   'Here is a spirit that God justified, and yet condemned it,' where were
   God's immutability? There were no God at all. He were a changeable
   being, and not Jehovah. If it could be said, 'Here is one that was
   espoused unto Christ in righteousness, a soul that was one with Jesus
   in vital union, yet he suffered this sheep of his flock to perish, this
   jewel of his crown to be cast away, this member of his body to rot into
   corruption, God's glory could be given to another, and he would not be
   what he now is. Oh, beloved, let us to one and all, whether we be
   unsaved sinners or backsliders, or may suspect ourselves to be either
   the one or the other, let us go to the dear fountain of his blood,
   whose open veins are the gates of healing to us; let us go again and
   touch the hem of his garment and be made whole, and together let us
   rejoice that he for his mercy's sake can save us, and magnify himself
   by the deed of mercy.

   PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON'Isaiah 48 and 49:1-12.
     __________________________________________________________________

                         A Persuasive to Steadfastness

   A Sermon

   (No. 1042)

   Delivered on Thursday Evening, February 29th, 1872, by

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   'For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our
   confidence steadfast unto the end.''Hebrews 3:14.

   HOW IS IT POSSIBLE for the preacher to say too much about faith, or to
   extol this grace too highly! It is of vital importance, not at one
   stage of the Christian's history only, but throughout the whole of his
   career, from his setting out even till he reaches the goal where faith
   is turned to sight. By faith we begin the life of obedience to Christ,
   and by faith we continue to lead the life of holiness, for 'the just
   shall live by faith.' This is the point of honor and of safety with all
   the just'the justified ones. The whole compass of their well-being,
   though it take in the sternest sense of duty and the highest grant of
   privilege, is to believe simply, to rely implicitly, and to confide
   cheerfully, in their covenant God. The beginning of their confidence is
   a hopeful sign. Time will test its value. The result of that profession
   has yet to be shown. Hence it is necessary that the beginning of their
   confidence should be held fast, steadfast even unto the end. When we
   begin in the spirit we do not proceed with a hope to be made perfect in
   the flesh. We do not start with justification by faith, and then look
   for perfection by works. We do not lean upon Christ when we are little
   children, and then expect to run alone when we are men; but we live by
   drawing all our stores from him, while as yet we are naked, and poor,
   and miserable. When most enriched by his grace, we still have to say
   and delight to say it, 'all my springs are in thee.' Faith at the
   beginning and faith at the close; faith all the way through is the one
   important matter. A failure in this, as we observed in our reading,
   shut Israel out of the promised land. 'They could not enter in because
   of unbelief.' Unbelief is always the greatest mischief to the saints;
   hence they have need earnestly to watch against it. Faith is always the
   channel of innumerable blessings to them: they ought, therefore, most
   watchfully to maintain it.

   We shall have to show the value of faith while we try to open up the
   text before us, in which I see, first, a high privilege: 'we are made
   partakers of Christ;' and secondly, by implication, a serious
   question'the question whether or no we have been made partakers of
   Christ and, then, in the third place, an unerring test. 'We are made
   partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence
   steadfast unto the end.'

   I. First, then, here is A VERY HIGH PRIVILEGE. 'We are made partakers
   of Christ.'

   Observe that the text does not say, 'we are made partakers with
   Christ.' That would be true, a very precious truth too, for we are
   joint-heirs with Christ, and because all things are his, all things are
   ours. Christ holds for us the entire heritage of the faithful as our
   representative, and as we are made partakers with him in the Father's
   favor, and in the world's hatred, so we shall be partakers with him in
   the glory to be revealed, and in the bliss which endures for ever and
   ever. But here we have to do with our being partakers of Christ, rather
   than our being partakers with Christ.

   Neither does it say we are made partakers of rich spiritual benefits.
   That is a fact which we may greet with thorough trust and hearty
   welcome. But, dear brethren, there is more than that here. To be
   partakers of pardoning mercy, to be partakers of renewing grace; to be
   partakers of the adoption, to be partakers of sanctification,
   preservation, and of all the other covenant blessings, is to possess an
   endowment of unspeakable value; but to be made 'partakers of Christ,'
   is to have all in one. You have all the flowers in one posy, all the
   gems in one necklace, all the sweet spices in one delicious compound.
   'We are made partakers of Christ''of himself. 'It pleased the Father
   that in him should all fullness dwell,' and we are made partakers with
   him of all that he is ordained to be of God unto us''wisdom,
   righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.' We are partakers of
   him; this is a privilege that no tongue can ever utter, no thought of
   finite mortal can ever grasp. But ah, it would need more time than we
   can afford, and far more spiritual teaching than we profess to have
   attained, to dive into this great and profound utterance, 'We are made
   partakers of Christ.' Still, as we stand spell-bound on the margin, let
   us venture to sail out just a little upon the surface of this ocean of
   goodness and of grandeur.

   We are made partakers of Christ, beloved, when first of all by faith in
   him we-procure a share in his merits. Sinful and sad, covered with
   transgressions and conscious of our shame, we come to the fountain
   filled with his blood, we washed in it, and were made white as snow. In
   that hour we became partakers of Christ. Christ is the substitute for
   sin. He suffered the penalty due from the unjust, for whom he died, to
   the violated law of God. When we believe in him we become partakers of
   those sufferings, or rather of the blessed fruit of them. The fact of
   his having borne what we ought to have borne becomes available to us.
   We present the memorial thereof at the altar of God, the throne of the
   heavenly grace, in prayers and professions, and in spiritual worship.
   The blood pleads our cause. The blood of Jesus, which speaketh better
   things than that of Abel, intercedes for mercy, not for vengeance. By
   its rich virtue, its real value, its vital merit, it puts our sins for
   ever to death and lays our fears for ever to rest. Oh, how blessed to
   be a partaker of Christ, the sin-atoning sacrifice'to stand before God
   as a sinner that deserves nothing but damnation in himself, and yet
   knows by precious faith, that

   'Covered is my unrighteousness,

   From condemnation I am free''

   'that I am a partakerof the meritorious sacrifice of the great high
   Priest, who, having once offered one sacrifice for ever, now sits down,
   his work being done, at the right hand of God. What a privilege is
   this!

   Moreover, we are partakers of Christ, inasmuch as his righteousness
   also becomes ours by imputation. We are not only freed from sin through
   his atonement, but we are rendered acceptable to God through his
   obedience as our responsible surety. We are 'accepted in the beloved,'
   we are justified through his righteousness. God seeth not us marred in
   the likeness of the first Adam who sinned, but he seeth us in Christ,
   the second Adam, remade, redeemed, restored, arrayed in garments of
   glory and beauty, with the Savior's vesture on, as holy as the Holy
   One. He seeth 'no sin in Jacob nor iniquity in Israel.' When Jacob
   learns to trust in the Messiah, and Israel hides behind his
   representative, the Lord our Righteousness, Jacob ceases to wrestle,
   for he prevails, and Israel stands in honor, for he is a prince with
   God. Blessed, thrice blessed, are they who are partakers of Christ in
   his righteousness.

   After we are thus saved from sin, and righteousness is imputed to us by
   faith, we further become partakers of Christ by living upon him,
   feeding on him. The sacramental table represents our fellowship. Though
   it does no more than represent it, it represents it well. At that table
   we eat bread, and we drink wine, and the body is thus fed, typifying
   that through meditation upon the incarnate Christ our soul is
   sustained, and by remembering the passion of the Lord, as the wine cup
   sets forth his blood, our spirits are comforted and revived, and our
   hearts are nourished. It is not that the bread is anything or the wine
   anything, but it is that Christ is everything to us. He is our daily
   bread, his atonement makes glad our heart'makes us 'strong in the Lord
   and in the power of his might.' Brethren, you know what it is to feed
   upon Jesus, and what satisfying food it is! When nothing else can give
   your soul rest and peace, remembering the incarnate God will do it, a
   study of the suffering Savior will bring the refreshment and
   consolation you want. Jesus Christ when he is our food makes us to be
   partakers of himself.

   But, is there not a doctrine concealed here of deeper significance? The
   union of believers with himself was among the latest of all the
   revelations which our blessed Lord when on earth made known to his
   disciples. With a parable he showed it, and without a parable he
   declared it plainly. Every true child of God is one with Christ. This
   union is set forth in Scripture by several images, to which we will
   just refer, but upon none of which can we just now enlarge. We are one
   with Christ and partakers of him as the stone is cemented to the
   foundation. It is built upon it, rests upon it, and, together with the
   foundation, goes to make up the structure. So we are built into Christ
   by coherence and adhesion, joined to him, and made a spiritual house
   for the habitation of God by the Holy Ghost. We are made partakers with
   Christ by a union in which we lean and depend upon him. This union is
   further set forth by the vine and the branches. The branches are
   participators with the stem, the sap of the stem is for the branches.
   It treasures it up only to distribute it to them. It has no sap for
   itself alone, all its store of sap is for the branch. In like manner we
   are vitally one with Christ, and the grace that is in him is for us. It
   was given to him that he might distribute it to all his people.
   Furthermore, it is as the union of the husband with the wife, they are
   participators the one with the other. All that belongs to the husband
   the wife enjoys and shares with him. Meanwhile she shares himself, nay,
   he is all her own. Thus it is with Christ. We are married unto
   him'betrothed unto him for ever in righteousness and in judgment, and
   all that he has is ours, and he himself is ours. All his heart belongs
   to each one of us. And then, too, as the members of the body are one
   with the head, as they derive their guidance, their happiness, their
   existence from the head, so are we made partakers of Christ. Oh,
   matchless participation! It is 'a great mystery' saith the apostle;
   and, indeed, such a mystery it is as they only know who experience it.
   Even they cannot understand it fully; far less can they hope to set it
   forth so that carnal minds shall comprehend its spiritual meaning. The
   day cometh when we shall be partakers of Christ to the highest and
   uttermost degree that symbols can suggest, prophecy forestal, faith
   anticipate, or actual accomplishment bring to pass; for, albeit, though
   of all that our Lord Jesus Christ is in heaven we have a reversionary
   interest to-day by faith, we shall have a share in it by actual
   participation ere long.

   Partakers of Christ! Yes, and therefore with him partakers in destiny.
   When he shall come his holy ones shall come with him. That he has risen
   from the dead is the earnest of their resurrection. At the day of his
   appearing they shall rise and participate in the fruition of his
   mediatorial work. Then, in the judging of the world, in the destruction
   of all his spiritual foes, in the great marriage-day when the bride
   shall have made herself ready, and he shall drink of the new wine in
   the kingdom of his Father, and in all else that is to come, too
   glorious to be described except by symbols like those of the
   Apocalypse, his people shall participate with him, for this honor have
   all his saints. All right and all might, all that can extol or delight,
   all that for ever and for ever shall contribute to the glory of Christ,
   shall be shared by all the faithful, for we are partakers not only with
   him, but of him'of Christ'therefore of all the surroundings of glory
   and honor that shall belong to him.

   The language of the text reminds us that none of us have any title to
   this privilege by nature. 'We are made partakers of Christ.' From our
   first parentage He derived a very different entail. We all of woman
   born became partakers of the ruin of the first Adam, of the corruption
   of humanity, of the condemnation common to the entire race. Oh, to be
   made partakers! This is a work of grace, of sovereign omnipotent
   grace'a work which a man cannot sufficiently admire, and for which he
   can never be sufficiently grateful. 'We are made partakers of Christ.'
   This is the Holy Ghost's work in us, to rend us away from the old wild
   olive, and to graft us into the good olive,'to dissolve the union
   between us and sin, and to cement a union between our souls and
   Christ,'to take us out of the Egyptian bondage and the Egyptian night
   in which we willingly sat, and to bring us into the liberty and the
   light wherewith Christ makes his people free and glad. This is work as
   grand and godlike as to create a world. For it let the Lord's name be
   magnified by each one of us if, indeed, we have been made partakers of
   Christ. If'I say; and that 'if' leads me to the second point I proposed
   to consider.

   II. The privilege of which we have spoken suggests A SOLEMN SEARCHING
   QUESTION. Are we made partakers of Christ? O beloved, many think they
   are who are not. There is nothing more to be dreaded than a
   supposititious righteousness, a counterfeit justification, a spurious
   hope. Better, I sometimes think, to have no religion than to have a
   false religion. I am quite certain that the man is much more likely to
   be saved who knows that he is naked, and poor, and miserable, than the
   man who says, 'I am rich and increased in goods.' It were infinitely
   better to take the road to heaven doubting than to go in another
   direction presuming. I am far better pleased with the soul that is
   always questioning, 'Am I right?' than with him who has drunk the cup
   of arrogance till he is intoxicated with selfconceit and says, 'I know
   my lot; the lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; there is no
   need for self-examination in my case.' Brethren, be assured of this;
   all men are not partakers of Christ: all baptised men are not partakers
   of Christ: all churchmen are not partakers of Christ: all dissenters
   are not made partakers of Christ: all members of this church are not
   made partakers of Christ: all ministers, all elders, all bishops, are
   not made partakers of Christ. Yea, all apostles were not made partakers
   of Christ. One of them, Christ's familiar friend, who kept the little
   purse which held all the Master's earthly store, lifted up his heel
   against him, betrayed him with a tender treacherous kiss, and became
   the son of perdition. He was a companion of Christ not a partaker of
   him?

   Am I made a partaker of Christ? Multiply the question till each
   individual among you makes it his own. In this congregation there are
   various classes. There are probably some here who are only
   hearers'hearers about Christ, not partakers of Christ. It is one thing
   to hear about a banquet, it is quite another thing to be fed at it. It
   is one thing in the wilderness to hear of rippling streams, and quite
   another to stoop down and drink the cooling draught'one thing for the
   prisoner by night to dream of liberty, or by day to read of roaming
   free through his native country, another thing to get rid of the
   chain'one thing to hear of pardon, another thing to be pardoned'one
   thing to hear of heaven, another thing to go there. O my dear hearers!
   some of you are as familiar with the gospel as you are with the house
   you live in; yet, though you live in the house, you never live in the
   gospel, and I fear you never will. You hear it, and hear it, that is
   all. God grant you may not have to hear of your hearing in another
   world, where it shall be laid down among the chief of your sins that
   you were of those who, when they heard did provoke'provoke because they
   rejected what they ought to have received.

   Others go farther than hearing. They become professors. May I remind
   you'and I would not judge anyone harshly'certainly no man more harshly
   than I would myself'it is one thing to profess to be a partaker of
   Christ, and another thing to be made a partaker of Christ. I may
   profess that I am rich and be all the while a bankrupt, a dishonest
   bankrupt for having made the profession. I may protest that I am in
   health, while a deadly cancer may lurk within. I may declare that I am
   honest, but it will not clear me before the judge if I am proved a
   thief. I may avow that I am loyal, but it would not save my life if I
   were convicted of high treason. Professions; ah, I fear they are in
   many cases but a painted pageantry that makes the road to hell
   attractive. Professions there are not unfrequently upon which we may
   gaze with a vacant wonder and turn away with a cold shudder, as from
   the sombre gaudiness of a funeral, wherein prancing steeds, stately
   mutes, nodding plumes, and velvet palls adorn the obsequies of the
   dead. God save us from a lifeless profession! May we never be like
   certain trees, of which Bunyan said, that they were green outside, but
   inwardly they were so rotten that they were only fit to be tinder for
   the devil's tinder-box. Many professors are too fair not to be false;
   too comely outside not to be loathsome within; for there is an
   over-doing of the sepulchre's whitewash. You feel convinced that there
   would not be so much whitewashing without if there were not a good deal
   of rottenness inside to be concealed. Essence of roses or of lavender
   is sweet, but much scent excites much suspicion. Oh, let us, each one
   who professes to-night, say to himself, 'I was baptised on a profession
   of my faith, but was I ever baptised into Christ? When the Sacred name
   of the triune God was named on me, did I then enter into the name of
   the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost? I have come often to
   the communion table; but have I communed with Christ there? My name is
   on the church-book, but is it written in heaven? I have said to others
   I am a Christian, but am I in very deed known unto Christ? Or will he
   say unto me in that day, 'I never knew you: depart from me ye workers
   of iniquity'?'

   These are solemn questionings. Many persons are temporary followers of
   Christ, and outwardly, as far as the human eye can follow, they appear
   to be real followers of Christ. I believe in the final perseverance of
   the saints; but I do not know, nor can any man know, how near a man may
   approach to the likeness of a saint and yet after all apostatise. Nor
   is any one of us able to say of himself, or of his fellow members, 'We
   never shall fall away.' I remember one whose voice I, and many of your
   heard in prayer, and we enjoyed the exercise of his gifts. The man had
   been reclaimed from the lowest class of society, and he distinguished
   himself by his devotion in such a way that he was accepted as a church
   officer among us. I remember, when the first charge of sin was brought
   against him, and of very grievous sin, one among us said, 'If that man
   is not a child of God I am not a child of God.' The expression seemed
   to me too strong, but in my heart I almost joined in it. I was ready to
   pronounce him innocent before I investigated the charges. I felt
   certain that there could not be in such a man as that the impurity laid
   at his door; yet it was there, it was all there, and worse than tongue
   can tell. He repented and though not received into the church because
   the profession of repentance did not seem to be all we could wish it to
   be, yet there was a turning aside from sin for awhile. But he went into
   it again, and he wallowed in it. He died in it. As far as we could any
   of us judge, he perished in it. He went from bad to worse. I feel I
   might say without uncharitableness this man carried his iniquity, as
   far as human judgment could track him. Therefore, without prejudice to
   the doctrine of the final perseverance of the saints, which I
   implicitly believe, I will not venture to say of any among you'much
   less will I venture to say it of myself, that I am sure I am so made a
   partaker of Christ that I shall hold fast my confidence to the end. I
   hope so. I rest in Christ, trusting in him. The possibility is that I
   am deceiving myself; the possibility is that you may be self-deceivers.
   At any rate, it is so far a possibility that I would beseech you to
   have no confidence but such as the Holy Ghost gives you; to put no
   reliance as to the future anywhere but in the eternal arms; have no
   assurance but that assurance which is based upon the word of God and
   the witness of the Spirit within your soul. That can give you
   infallible assurance. Apart from that, I repeat it again, I will say
   neither of you nor of myself, that I can be sure with all the
   profession that is made, that you are partakers of Christ. Some go even
   farther than being temporary followers of Christ, and yet after all
   perish. They maintain a consistent profession before the eye of men
   throughout the whole of their lives, as vessels that navigate the whole
   of the sea and go down in the harbour. There are soldiers that have
   held out and fought valiantly up to the very moment of victory, and
   then have run away. And there are professors that have been
   unexceptional in their lives, whose character has been apparently
   without a blemish, and even those who knew them in private could not
   detect any serious flaw in their conduct; yet, for all that, there was
   a worm at the root; a fly in the pot of ointment; a failure as to the
   sincerity of their grace. They had not, after all, the true faith which
   hangs upon Christ, and they did not persevere in heart, though they
   appeared to persevere in life. The difference between the Christian and
   the professor is sometimes such as only God can discern. There is a
   path which the eagle's eye hath not seen, and the lion's whelp hath not
   traversed'a path of life into which God can bring us, end of which it
   may be said that he knows all who are in it. But, there is a something
   like it, a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are
   the ways of death. There is a counterfeit of the true metal of grace so
   well manufactured, that only omniscience itself can tell which is the
   reprobate silver and which is the pure shekel of the sanctuary. Grave
   reason have we, then, for raising the question as to whether we are
   made partakers of Christ or not.

   III. Now we come to THE UNERRING TEST. Patience comes to the aid of
   faith here. Evidences accumulate till the issue is conclusive. 'We are
   made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence
   steadfast unto the end.'

   This passage may be read in two ways, neither of which violates the
   literal meaning of the original, either of which may express to us the
   mind of the Spirit'as we have it in our version, 'the beginning of our
   confidence,' or, as I would rather translate it, 'the foundation of our
   confidence,' the basis on which our confidence rests.

   Take your choice. We will expound and vindicate both. That man is a
   partaker of Christ who holds fast they he had at first, having received
   it, not as an education, but as an intuition of his spirit life; not as
   an argument, but as an axiom he could not challenge, or rather as an
   oracle he received joyfully and bowed to submissively. The confidence
   which is based upon the true foundation, even Christ Jesus, is simple
   and clear as one's own consciousness. It asks no proof because it
   admits no doubt. In vain the sceptic comes to me now and says, 'Sir,
   you are asleep, and dreaming.' I answer, 'No, sir, I am speaking to
   these thousands, and they are listening to me.' Even so, when I first
   believed the Gospel story it was with a childlike feeling that it was
   so and I knew it. The man who is not a partaker of Christ hears the
   gospel, professes to believe it, and in some measure acts accordingly;
   but he perishes because this pure, unwavering faith does not abide in
   him. He has not the faith of God's elect which never can be destroyed.
   He has only a notion, a creed of his own making, and not a faith of the
   Spirit's giving.

   Now, beloved, what was the beginning of our confidence? Well, the
   beginning of my confidence was, 'I am a sinner, Christ is a Savior; and
   I rest on him to save me.' Long before I began with Christ he had begun
   with me; but when I began with him it was, as the law writers say, 'In
   formƒ pauperis,' after the style of a wretched mendicant'a pauper who
   had nothing of his own, and looked to Christ for everything. I know
   when I first cast my eye to his dear cross and rested in him, I had not
   any merit of my own, it was all demerit. I was not deserving, except
   that I felt I was hell-deserving: I had not even a shade of virtue that
   I could confide in. It was all over with me. I had come to an
   extremity. I could not have found a farthing's worth of goodness in
   myself if I had been melted down. I seemed to be all rottenness, a
   dunghill of corruption, nothing better, but something a great deal
   worse. I could truly join with Paul at that time, and say that my own
   righteousnesses were dung. A strong expression he used; but I do not
   suppose he felt it to be strong enough. He says, 'I count them but
   dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him.' Well, that is how we
   began with Christ. We were nothing at all, and Jesus Christ was all in
   all. Now, brethren, we are not made partakers of Christ unless we hold
   this fast to the end. Have you got beyond that? Are you something
   creditable in your own estimation? I am afraid of you. Are you richer
   now in yourselves that you were then? I am afraid of you, brethren. Do
   you mind the place you used to stand in? you dared not lift your eyes,
   to heaven, but cried, 'God be merciful to me a sinner.' How in Christ
   you have a far nobler place than that, for you are made to sit with him
   in the heavenly places. But, I ask you, apart from Christ, have you any
   different place from that of deep selfabasement? If you have, you have
   not held the beginning of your confidence fast even until now. Begin to
   suspect yourself. This is the position always to take 'having nothing
   and yet possessing all things.'

   'I the chief of sinners am

   But Jesus died for me.'

   Such is the beginning of our confidence. Brethren, where else was the
   beginning of your confidence? May we not say of it that it was only and
   wholly, entirely and exclusively, in the blood and righteousness of the
   Lord Jesus Christ? In the beginning of your confidence you did not rely
   upon any ceremonies, nor upon priests, nor upon your Bible readings,
   nor upon your prayings, nor upon your feelings, nor your experiences,
   nor your orthodoxy, nor your knowledge of doctrine, nor upon your
   works, nor your preachings, your sanctifications or your
   mortifications. No, in the beginning of your confidence the one
   foundation was Jesus only. Nothing save Jesus would I know. Oh, if on
   that day, I had met with a man who had any trust in his own
   righteousness, I know I should have quarrelled with him. If he had told
   me that he hoped that Jesus Christ would help him to save himself I
   could have wept over him to think he should be such a fool. Why, Christ
   is all or nothing. He must save us from top to bottom, or we never
   shall be saved at all. If our foundation is partly on the rock of his
   finished work, and partly on the sand of our own unworthy doing, the
   whole house totters and it must come down.

   Well, brethren, is there any correspondence between the beginning of
   your confidence and your present look-out? Had you anything except
   Christ to depend upon in the hour you first believed? Is there ought
   now added to that one foundation that God has laid, or hath your trust
   been supplemented by any fresh conceit of your own? Are you faithless?
   God is faithful. With you, it may be yea and nay; with him it is yea
   and amen. Some of the Israelites when they came out of Egypt depended
   upon God. They saw that he had divided the Red Sea, and rained down the
   manna, and refreshed them with streams in the desert, and so they
   believed, but their faith did not hold out. While they could see
   miracles of mercy, they relied on God, with nothing else to rely on;
   but when they got into a little difficulty they did not hold fast the
   beginning of their confidence unto the end, for they began to lose
   faith in Moses, or to confide in a golden calf. So there are some that
   begin, in a time of weakness, calamity, or despondence, by saying, 'I
   trust in Christ, as a sinner.' They get beyond that when they recover
   from their temporary depression. Then they qualify their confessions
   after their altered circumstances, and elect their religion after their
   own deliberate choice. But the God of Israel will not allow it. He will
   not have us put any trust but in his dear Son. We must be stripped
   naked of everything but that which Christ spins. We must have all our
   bread mouldy til we cast it out because we loathe it, and we must feed
   on nothing but the bread of heaven. If we get beyond that and feed on
   anything else, we are not made partakers of him, for we have not held
   fast the beginning of our confidence.

   Let me call back your thoughts again, beloved, to the love of your
   espousals, when you acknowledged the Lord and went after him into the
   wilderness. Did you not then have confidence in Christ of a very humble
   character? Oh, at that time you did not want to be among the first of
   God's people to play the part of Diotrephes. When you were at the foot
   of the cross, and looked up as a poor sinner, you had no notion about
   being a distinguished man in the church. I know it did not come into my
   head that day that I should be a leader in God's Israel. Ah no, if I
   might but sit in the corner of his house, or be a door keeper it had
   been enough for me. If, like the dog under the table, I might get a
   crumb of his mercy, were it but flavoured by his hand, because he had
   broken it off that is all I wanted. That is just how we ought always to
   live'lowly, humbly, gentle, and broken-spirited, and ready to be
   anything, so that Christ may he glorified. It shows the risings of the
   old nature when we get to be such consequential people that if anybody
   should say a hard word, we wonder, or if anybody slanders us, instead
   of saying, 'Ah, if he knew us he could say something a good deal
   worse,' we are in a high and mighty temper because our brilliant
   character is injured.

   Verily, I think, that when I was first converted to God if the Lord had
   said, 'I have taken you into my house' and I am going to make use of
   you, and you shall be a door-mat for the saints to wipe their feet on,'
   I should have said, 'Ah, happy shall I be if I but take the filth off
   their blessed feet, for I love God's people; and may I minister to them
   in the slightest degree, it shall be my delight.' But when we get away
   from that position we are in danger. If we are made partakers of
   Christ, the proof will be in our continuing to be of a meek and lowly
   spirit'willing to serve him in any capacity'in our becoming like little
   children, for 'except we become as little children, we shall in no wise
   enter the kingdom of heaven.' Little children we were in the beginning
   of our confidence; little children we must continue to be, or else we
   may gravely question whether we have been made partakers of Christ.

   When we were first made partakers of Christ, we received him very
   gratefully. How thankful we were for one look from Jesus' eye. Half a
   promise seemed precious in those days. The sermon, though it was
   uncouth perhaps, if full of Christ, fed us to the full. Now, alas, how
   many professors despise precious truth if it does not happen to be
   clothed in the most polished phrases; they run hither and thither where
   there is no food for them: not hungering and thirsting after
   righteousness as of yore, they admire the banquet spread out with all
   flowers and no fruit: they look after gaudy periods, where pure silver
   and polished sham do sparkle, though there be no food for the soul to
   feed on. Did they hold fast the beginning of their confidence they
   would prize the truth and love the truth, and account that if it were
   but the truth, it did not matter in what shape it came to them, so long
   as they could get hold of a promise, have a smile from Christ's face or
   enjoy one ray of the blessed Spirit's consolation in their souls. But
   now the starving beggars have become dainty epicures; those who once
   were glad enough to come and feast on broken crusts from the Master's
   table, become connoisseurs of their Master's food; their soul 'loatheth
   this light bread,' though it is the bread of angels, and drops from the
   granaries of God. We should suspect ourselves, when we get into that
   squeamish condition. Such a proud captious state of heart does not
   evidence that we have been made partakers of Christ at all.

   When we first received our confidence, we were obedient in word and
   deed. I wish all disciples of Christ had the like scrupulous
   conscience. I speak my own experience. The first week after I was
   converted to God, I felt afraid to put one foot before another for fear
   I should do wrong; when I thought over the day if there had been a
   failure in my temper, or if there had been a frothy work spoken, or
   something done amiss, I did chasten myself sorely, and had I known at
   that time anything to be my Lord's will, I think I should not have
   hesitated to do it; to me it would not have mattered whether it was a
   fashionable thing or an unfashionable thing, if it was according to his
   word. Oh, to do his will! to follow him whithersoever he would have me
   go! Why, then it seemed as though I should never, never, never be slack
   in keeping his commandments. Dear brethren, have you held fast the
   beginning of your confidence? I smite upon my own breast when I
   remember that, in that respect, I have not held fast the beginning of
   my confidence. To the cross again! Beloved, if any of you have doubts
   aroused in your mind by such bitter reflections upon yourselves, do not
   dispute with your doubts; go to the cross again. Never dispute with the
   devil. He can always beat you. Go straight to the cross. If he says,
   'Thou art no saint,' say then 'Very likely I am not, but there is one
   thing even thou canst not deny thou canst not say I am not a sinner; a
   sinner I am. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners and if I
   never trusted him before, I will begin now. If I never yet did know the
   life of God, I will look to his death forthwith. Oh, if I never was
   healed of the disease of sin, there is healing in those dear wounds,
   and I, by faith, will have it while yet it is called to-day.' Jesus, I
   trust thee; I trust thee wholly, and thee alone. I have heard that some
   years ago there was a coal-pit in work, the shaft of which by some
   means got blocked up, and the men could not get out of it. They were
   very nearly perishing. One of them had heard that there was an old
   working which led to another mine, and though he was afraid it might be
   blocked up, yet the best thing they could do would be to go along, if,
   perhaps, they might come to the mouth of another shaft. This old
   working had not been traversed for some time; it never was very lofty.
   They had to go along on their hands and knees, and generally needed to
   crawl lying flat on the ground. At length they came to the mouth of
   that old shaft, were soon extricated, and they gladly found their way
   to the upper air again. Peradventure, some of you have been living
   heretofore by frames and feelings; that experience has been the shaft
   by which you have been coming and going; and this shaft has been
   blocked up to-night. Well, I am not sorry for it. Come, now, brethren,
   let us all go along on our hands and knees where the sinners go. Let us
   crawl to the old shaft: let us prostrate ourselves, confessing, 'Lord,
   I am vile, conceived in sin. Lord, I am unworthy: Lord, I am earthly,
   selfish, devilish. Lord, I am a mass of wounds and a mass of
   loathsomeness. I am unworthy of thy favor and thy love.' Let us just
   creep along in that fashion till we come to Christ, and say,

   'Just as I am, without one plea,

   Save that thy blood was shed for me,

   And that thou bidst me come to thee,

   O Lamb of God, I come.'

   You will find that old shaft is not shut up. There is light. Look up!
   There is the cross above you. Jesus is still willing to receive
   sinners, still able to save sinners, for he is 'exalted' on high 'to
   give repentance unto Israel and remission of sins.' O come to him just
   that way; and, brother, when you get back to Christ in that way by
   which you went years ago, the advice of the text, with which I will sum
   up all, is keep on coming to him in that same way always. Keep on
   coming always. Keep on coming always. Perhaps you have been on the top
   of a mountain such as the Rigi or as Snowden. You know these mountains
   do not move. They are good solid rock under your feet. But people erect
   platforms on the top of them to see the sun rise a little sooner, or
   something of that sort. From the top of one of those platforms a man
   may come down with a crash and break his limbs. That is something like
   our erections which we put up over our simple faith in Christ. Our
   beautiful frames and feelings and experiences'they will come down with
   a crash some day, for they are rotten stuff; but, when a man stands
   upon this''Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, and I am
   resting upon him: he is all my salvation and all my desire: his
   precious blood is all my confidence. The love of his heart, the power
   of his arm, the merit of his plea,'here I rest myself,''O beloved,
   there is no fear of that confidence ever giving way beneath your feet.
   There may you stand and serenely rejoice when worlds shall melt and the
   pillars of the earth shall reel. God bless you, and keep you ever
   holding the beginning of your confidence steadfast unto the end. So
   shall it be proved beyond question that you are partakers of Christ.

   PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON'Hebrews 3.

   'THE SWORD AND THE TROWEL.' Edited by C. H. SPURGEON.

   Contents for April, 1872.

   Advice Gratis. By C. H. Spurgeon.

   The Story of an Eventful Life.

   The Gospel in France.

   Recollections of the Rev. Rowland Hill. By an Old Member of Surrey
   Chapel.

   Remarks on Beecher's Life of Christ. By Vernon J. Charlesworth.

   Cromwell's Puritanism. By E. Leach.

   A New Interpretation of Pilgrim's Progress. By G. Rogers (Continued.)

   Parental Duties. By Edward Dennett.

   The Sinners of Mullion.

   Report of Visitor from the Sunday School Union (Lambeth Auxiliary).

   Reviews.

   Memoranda.

   Pastors' College Account.

   Orphanage for Girls.

   Stockwell Orphanage.

   Colportage Association.

   Price 3d. Post free, 4 stamps.

   London: Passmore & Alabaster, 18, Paternoster Row, and all Booksellers.
     __________________________________________________________________

                            Glorious Predestination

   A Sermon

   (No. 1043)

   Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, March 24th, 1872, by

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   'For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to
   the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many
   brethren.''Romans 8:29.

   YOU WILL HAVE NOTICED that in this chapter, Paul has been expounding a
   very deep inward, spiritual experience. He has written concerning the
   spirit of bondage, and the spirit of adoption, the infirmities of the
   flesh, and the helpings of the spirit; the waiting for the redemption
   of the body, and the groanings which cannot be uttered. It was most
   natural, therefore, that a deep spiritual experience should bring him
   to a clear perception of the doctrines of grace, for such an experience
   is a school in which alone those great truths are effectually learned.
   A lack of depth in the inner life accounts for most of the doctrinal
   error in the church. Sound conviction of sin, deep humiliation on
   account of it, and a sense of utter weakness and unworthiness naturally
   conduct the mind to the belief of the doctrines of grace, while
   shallowness in these matters leaves a man content with a superficial
   creed. Those teachings which are commonly called Calvinistic doctrines
   are usually most beloved and best received by those who have had much
   conflict of soul, and so have learned the strength of corruption and
   the necessity of grace.

   Note, also, that Paul in this chapter has been treating of the
   sufferings of this present time; and though by faith he speaks of them
   as very inconsiderable compared with the glory to be revealed, yet we
   know that they were not inconsiderable in his case. He was a man of
   many trials; he went from one tribulation to another for Christ's sake;
   he swam through many seas of affliction to serve the church. I do not
   wonder, therefore, that in his epistles he often discourses upon the
   doctrines of foreknowledge, and predestination, and eternal love,
   because these are a rich cordial for a fainting spirit. To be cheered
   under many things, which otherwise would depress him, the believer may
   betake himself to the matchless mysteries of the grace of God, which
   are wines on the lees well refined. Sustained by distinguishing grace,
   a man learns to glory in tribulations also; and strengthened by
   electing love, he defies the hatred of the world and the trials of
   life. Suffering is the college of orthodoxy. Many a Jonah, who now
   rejects the doctrines of the grace of God, only needs to be put into
   the whale's belly and he will cry out with the soundest free-grace man,
   'Salvation is of the Lord.' Prosperous professors, who do no business
   amid David's billows and waterspouts, may set small store by the
   blessed anchorage of eternal purpose and everlasting love but those who
   are 'tossed with tempest, and not comforted, are of another mind.' Let
   these few sentences suffice for a preface. I utter them not in the
   spirit of controversy, but the reverse.

   Our text begins by the expression, 'Whom he did foreknow, he also did
   predestinate,' and many senses have been given to this word 'foreknow'
   though in this case one commends itself beyond every other. Some have
   thought that it simply, means that God predestinated men whose future
   history ho foreknow. The text before us cannot be so understood,
   because the Lord foreknows the history of every man, and angel, and
   devil. So far as mere prescience goes, every man is foreknown, and yet
   no one will assert that all men are predestinated to be conformed to
   the image of the Lord Jesus. But, it is further asserted that the Lord
   foreknow who would exercise repentance, who would believe in Jesus, and
   who would persevere in a consistent life to the end. This is readily
   granted, but a reader must wear very powerful magnifying spectacles
   before he will be able to discover that sense in the text. Upon looking
   carefully at my Bible again I do not perceive such a statement. Where
   are those words which you have added, 'Whom he did foreknow to repent,
   to believe, and to persevere in grace?' I do not find them either in
   the English version or in the Greek original. If I could so read them
   the passage would certainly he very easy, and would very greatly alter
   my doctrinal views; but, as I do not find those words there, begging
   your pardon, I do not believe in them. However wise and advisable a
   human interpolation may be, it has no authority with us; we bow to holy
   Scripture, but not to glosses which theologians may choose to put upon
   it. No hint is given in the text of foreseen virtue any more than of
   foreseen sin, and, therefore, we are driven to find another meaning for
   the word. We find that the word 'know' is frequently used in Scripture,
   not only for knowledge, but also for favor, love, and complacency. Our
   Lord Jesus Christ will say, in the judgment, concerning certain
   persons, 'I never knew you,' yet in a sense he knew them, for he knows
   every man; he knows the wicked as well as the righteous; but there the
   meaning is, 'I never knew you in such a respect as to feel any
   complacency in you or any favor towards you.' See also John 10:14-15,
   and 2 Timothy 2:19. In Romans 11:2, we read, 'God hath not cast away
   his people which he foreknow,' where the sense evidently has the idea
   of fore-love; and it is so to be understood here. Those whom the Lord
   looked upon with favor as he foresaw them, he has predestinated to he
   conformed to the image of his Son. They are, as Paul puts it in his
   letter to the Ephesians, 'predestinated according to the purpose of him
   who worketh all things after the counsel of his will.'

   I am anxious not to tarry over controverted matters, but to reach the
   subject of my sermon this morning. Here we have in the text conformity
   to Christ spoken of as the aim of predestination; we have, secondly,
   predestination as the impelling force by which this conformity is to be
   achieved; and we have, thirdly, the firstborn himself set before us as
   the ultimate end of the predestinations and of the conformity.''that HE
   might be the first-born among many brethren.'

   I. Mark then, with care, that OUR CONFORMITY TO CHRIST IS THE SACRED
   OBJECT OF PREDESTINATION. Into predestination itself I will not now
   pry. The deeper things shall be left with God. I think it was Bishop
   Hall who once said, 'I thank God I am not of his counsels, but I am of
   his court.' If I cannot understand I will not question, for I am not
   his counsellor, but I will adore and obey, for I am his servant. Now,
   to-day, seeing we are here taught the object of his predestination, it
   will be our business to labor after it, to bless God that he has set
   such an object before him, and pray that we may be partakers in it.
   Here stands the case. Man was originally made in the image of God, but
   by sin he has defaced that image, and now we who are born into this
   world are fashioned, not in the heavenly image of God, but in the
   earthy image of the fallen Adam. 'We have borne,' says the Apostle, in
   the first Epistle to the Corinthians, 'the image of the earthy.' The
   Lord in boundless grace has resolved that a company whom no man can
   number, called here 'many brethren,' shall be restored to his image, in
   the particular form in which his Eternal Son displays it. To this end
   Jesus Christ came into the world and bore our image, that we, through
   his grace, might bear his image. He became a partaker of our
   infirmities and sicknesses that we might be partakers of the divine
   nature in all its excellence and purity. Now, therefore, the one thing
   to which the Lord is working us through his Spirit, both by providence
   and by grace, is the likeness of the Lord from heaven. He is evermore
   transforming the chosen, removing that defilement of sin, and moulding
   them after the perfect model of his Son, Jesus Christ, the second Adam,
   who is the firstborn amongst the 'many brethren.'

   Now, observe, that this conformity to Christ lies in several things.
   First, we are to be conformed to him as to our nature. What was the
   nature of Christ, then, as divine? We must not pry into it, but we know
   that he was verily of the nature of God. 'Begotten not made,' says the
   Athanasian Creed, and it says truly too, 'being of one substance with
   the Father.' Now, we also, though we at our conversion are new
   creatures, are also said to be 'begotten again into a lively hope.' To
   be begotten is something more than to be made: this is a more personal
   work of God; and that which is begotten is in closer affinity to
   himself than that which is only created. As Christ was, as the
   only-begotten of the Father, far above mere creatures; so also to be
   begotten of God, in our case, means far more than even the first and
   perfect creation could imply. As to his humanity our blessed Lord, when
   he came into this world, underwent a birth which was a remarkable type
   of our second birth. He was born into this world in a very humble
   place, amidst the oxen, and in the manger; but yet he lacked not the
   songs of angels, and the adoration of the heavenly hosts. Even so we
   also were born of the Spirit without human observation; men of this
   world saw no glory whatsoever in our regeneration, for it was not
   performed by mystic rites, or with sacerdotal pomp. The Spirit of God
   found us in our low estate, and quickened us without outward display.
   Yet at that selfsame moment, where human eyes saw nothing seraphic eyes
   beheld marvels of grace, and angels in heaven rejoiced over one sinner
   that repented, singing once again 'glory to God in the highest.' When
   Lord was born a few choice spirits welcomed his birth; an Anna and a
   Simeon were ready to take the new-born child into their arms and bless
   God for him: and even so there were some that hailed our new birth with
   much thanksgiving; friends and well-wishers who had watched for our
   salvation were glad when they beheld in us the true heavenly life, and
   gladly did the take us up into the arms of Christian nurture. Perhaps,
   also, there was one who had travailed in birth till Christ was formed
   in us the hope of glory, and how happy was that spirit to see us born
   unto God; how did our spiritual parent ponder each gracious word which
   we uttered, and thank God for the good signs of grace which could be
   found in our conversation. Then, too, a worse than Herod sought to kill
   us. Satan was eager that the new-born child of grace should be put to
   death, and, therefore, sent forth fierce temptations to slay us; but
   the Lord found a shelter for our infant spiritual life, and preserved
   the young child alive. In us the living and incorruptible seed abode
   and grew. As many of you as have been born again have been conformed to
   the image of Christ in the matter of his birth, and you are now
   partakers of his nature. It is not possible for us to be divine, yet it
   is written that we are made 'partakers of the divine nature.' We cannot
   be precisely as God is, yet as we have borne the image of the earthy we
   shall also bear the image of the heavenly, whatever that image may be.
   The new birth as surely stands us with the image of Christ as our first
   birth impressed us with a resemblance to the fathers of our flesh. Our
   first birth gave us humanity; our second birth allies us with Deity. As
   we were conceived in sin at the first, and shapen in iniquity, even so
   in regeneration our new man is renewed in knowledge after the image of
   him that created us. He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified
   are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them
   brethren.

   Furthermore, this conformity to Christ lies in relationship as well as
   in nature. Our Lord is the Son of the Highest,'the Son of God; and
   truly, beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear
   what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear we shall be
   like him, for we shall see him as he is. Jehovah has declared that he
   will be a father unto us, and that we shall be his sons and his
   daughters. As surely as Jesus is a son, so surely are we, for the same
   Spirit bears witness to both, as it is written 'And because ye are
   sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts,
   crying, Abba, Father.' When Jesus came into the world as God's Son, he
   was not left without attesting proofs. His first public appearance,
   when he came to the waters of baptism, was signalled by a voice out of
   the excellent glory, which said, 'this is my beloved Son,' and the
   descending Spirit, like a dove, rested upon him. So is it also with us.
   The voice of God in the word has testified to us our Heavenly Father's
   dove; and the Holy Spirit has borne witness with our spirits that we
   are the children of God. When first we dared to come forward and say
   'we are on the Lord's side,' some of us had sacred tokens of sonship
   which have never been forgotten by us, and oftentimes since then we
   have received renewed seals of our adoption from the Great Father of
   our spirits. 'He that believeth on the Son hath the witness in
   himself,' so that he can with his brethren say plainly 'we know that we
   have passed from death unto life.' God has given us full assurance, and
   infallible testimony, and in all this we rejoice. We have believed in
   Jesus, and it is written, 'as many as received him, to them gave he
   power to become the sons of God, even to as many as believed on his
   name.'

   Our Lord was declared to be the Son of God by the actions which he
   performed, both towards God and towards man. As a Son he served his
   Father, you could see the nature of God in him, in his deep sympathy
   with God and in his exact imitation of God. Whatever God would have
   done under the circumstances, that Jesus did. You perceive at once, by
   his deeds, that his nature was godlike. His works bore witness of him.
   It was evermore most clear that he acted towards God as a son towards a
   father. Now in proportion as God's determination has been carried out
   in us, we also act to God as children towards a loving father, and
   whereas the children of darkness speak of their own, and like their
   father, who is a liar, speak the lie; and like their father, who is a
   murderer, act out wrath and bitterness, even so the children of God
   speak the truth, for God is true, and they are full of love, for God is
   love; and their life is light, for their God is light. They feel that
   they must act, under the circumstances in which they are placed, as
   they would suppose Jesus would have acted, who is the Son of the ever
   blessed Father. Moreover, Christ wrought miracles of mercy towards men,
   which proved him to be the Son of God. It is true we can work no
   miracles, yet can we do works which mark God's children. We cannot
   break the bread and multiply it, we can, however, generously distribute
   what we have, and thus in feeding the hungry we shall prove ourselves
   children of our Father who is in heaven; we cannot heal the diseased
   with our touch, still we can care for the sick, and so in love towards
   the suffering we can prove ourselves to be children of the tender and
   ever-pitiful God. But our Lord has told us that greater works than his
   own shall we do, because he is gone to his Father; and these greater
   works we do. We can work spiritual miracles. Today, can we not stand at
   the grave of the dead sinner, and say, 'Lazarus, come forth?' And has
   not God often made the dead to rise at our word, by the power of his
   Spirit! Today, also, we can preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, casting
   it about us as it were as our garment, and he that toucheth the hem
   thereof shall he not also be made whole to-day, even as when Jesus was
   among men? This day, if we do not break fish and barley loaves, we
   bring you better food; this day, if we cannot give to men opened eyes
   and unstopped ears, yet in the teaching of the gospel of Jesus, by the
   power of the Spirit, the mental eye is cleansed, and the soul's ear
   also is purged; so that in every child of God, in proportion as he
   labors in the power of the Spirit for Christ, the works which he does
   bear witness of him that he is the son of God. His zeal in doing them
   proves that he has the spirit of a child of God, and the result of
   those works proves that God works in him as he will never do in any but
   his own children. Thus, in relationship, as well as in nature, we are
   conformed to the image of Christ.

   Thirdly, we are to be conformed to the image of Christ in our
   experience. This is the part of the subject from which our craven
   spirit often shrinks, but if we were wise it would not be so. What was
   the experience of Christ in this world? for that ours will be. We may
   sum it up as referring to God, to men, to the devil, and to all evil.

   His experience with regard to God, what was that? 'Though he were a
   Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.' Though
   without sin, he was not without suffering. The firstborn of the divine
   family was more sorely chastened than any other of the household; he
   was smitten of God and afflicted till, as the climax of all, he cried
   Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani. Oh, the bitterness of that cry''My God,
   my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' It was the father bruising the
   firstborn son; and, if you and I, brethren, are to be conformed to the
   image of the firstborn, though we may expect from God much fatherly
   love, we may also reckon that it will show itself in parental
   discipline. If ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers,
   then are ye bastards, and not sons; but, if ye be true sons, like to
   the firstborn, the rod will make you smart, and sometimes you will have
   to say, 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' 'For whom the Lord
   loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye
   endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is
   he whom the father chasteneth not?' If we are predestinated to be
   conformed to the image of his son, the Lord has predestinated us to
   much tribulation, and through it shall we inherit the kingdom.

   Next survey our dear covenant Head in his experience in relation to
   men. 'He came unto his own, and his own received him not.' 'He was
   despised and rejected of men.' He said, 'Reproach hath broken mine
   heart, and I am full of heaviness.' Now, brethren, in the very
   proportion in which we are conformed to the image of Christ we shall
   have to 'go forth unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach:' for
   the disciple, if he be a true disciple, is not above his Master, nor
   the servant above his Lord. If they have called the Master of the house
   Beelzebub, much more will they call them of his household by some yet
   more opprobrious title, if they can invent it. The saints of God must
   not expect crowns where Christ found a cross; they must not reckon to
   ride in triumph through those streets which saw the Savior hurried to a
   malefactor's death. We must suffer with him if we would be glorified
   with him. Fellowship in his sufferings is needful to communion with his
   glory.

   Then, consider our Lord's experience with regard to the prince of the
   power of the air. Satan was no friend to Christ, but finding him in the
   desert he came to him with this accursed 'if'''If thou be the Son of
   God.' With that attack upon his Sonship the fiend commenced the battle.
   'If thou be the Son of God.' You know how thrice he assailed him with
   those temptations which are most likely to be attractive to poor
   humanity, but Jesus overcame them all. The arch enemy, the old dragon,
   was always nibbling at the heel of our great Michael, who has for ever
   crushed his head. We are predestinated to be conformed to Christ in
   that respect; the serpent's subtlety and cruelty will assail us also. A
   tempted head involves tempted members. Satan desires to have us and to
   sift us as wheat. He attacked the Shepherd, and he will never cease to
   worry the sheep. Inasmuch as we are of the seed of the woman, there
   must be enmity between us and the seed of the serpent.

   And, as to all evil, our Lord's entire life was one perpetual battle.
   He was fighting evil in the high places and evil in the low, evil among
   the priests and evil among the people, evil in a religious dress, in
   Pharisaism, and evil in the dress of philosophy amongst the Sadducees;
   he fought it everywhere: he was the foe of everything that was wrong,
   false, selfish, unholy or impure. And you and I must be conformed to
   Christ in this respect. We are to be holy, harmless, undefiled and
   separate from sinners. Ye are of God, little children, and the whole
   world lieth in the wicked one. We are chosen out of the world to be a
   peculiar people, adversaries to all evil, never sheathing our sword
   till we enter into our rest. We are to be like him then in nature, in
   relation, in experience.

   Fourthly. We are to be conformed to Christ Jesus as to character. Time
   and ability alike fail us to speak of this. I only pray that God's
   Spirit may make our lives to speak of it. He was consecrated to God; so
   are we to be. The zeal of God's house ate him up; so should it consume
   us also. He went about his Father's business; so should we ever be
   occupied. Towards man he was all love; it becomes us to be the same. He
   was gentle and kind and tender; as he was, so are we to be in this
   world. He did not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax;
   neither should we. Yet was he stern in the denunciation of all evil; so
   should we be. Purity, holiness, unselfishness, all the virtues, should
   glow in us as they shone in him. Ah, and blessed be God they will too,
   by the work of the Spirit. Our text speaks not only of what we ought to
   be, but of what we shall be, for we are predestinated to be conformed
   to the image of God's Son. My brethren, what a glorious model! Behold
   it, wonder at it, and bless God for it. You are not to be conformed to
   the mightiest of the apostles, you will one day be purer than were Paul
   or John while here below; you are not to be conformed to the sublimest
   of the prophets, you shall be like the prophets' Master; you are not to
   be content with your own conception of that which is beautiful and
   lovely, but God's perfect conception incarnated in his own Son is that
   to which you shall certainly be brought by the predestination of God.

   Just a sentence upon another point. We are to be conformed to the image
   of his Son, fifthly, as to our inheritance for he is heir of all
   things, and what less are we heirs of, since all things are ours? He is
   heir of this world. 'Thou madest him to have dominion over all the
   works of thy hands: thou hast put all things under his feet, all sheep
   and oxen, yea, and the fowl of the air and the fish of the sea, and
   whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea.' We see not yet all
   things put under man, but we see Jesus who was made a little lower than
   the angels for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor; and
   in the person of Christ Jesus this day we, the men who are made in his
   image, have dominion over all things, being all made kings and priests
   unto God, and in Christ Jesus ordained to reign with him forever and
   ever. 'If children then heirs,' says the apostle; therefore, whatever
   Christ has we have, and though we may be very poor and unknown, yet
   whatever belongs to Christ to us. 'The good of all the land of Egypt is
   yours,' said Joseph to his brethren, and Jesus saith this to all his
   people, 'All are yours, for ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's.'

   I must close this point'time goes much too swiftly this morning when
   descanting upon this delightful theme'by observing that we are to be
   conformed to Christ in his glory. We will think of our bodies, for that
   is a point surrounded with consolation, since he shall change our vile
   body and make it like unto his glorious body. We are like Adam now in
   weakness and pain, and we shall soon be like him in death, returning to
   the ground whence we were taken; but we shall rise again to a better
   life, and then shall we wear in glory and incorruption the image of the
   second Adam, the Lord from heaven. Conceive the beauties of the risen
   Redeemer. Let your faith and your imagination work together to portray
   the unutterable glories of Immanuel, God with us, as he sits at the
   right hand of the Father. Such and so bright shall our glories be in
   the day of the redemption of the body. We shall behold his glory, we
   shall be with him where he is, and we shall be ourselves glorious in
   his glory. Is he exalted? you also shall be lifted up. Is he a King?
   you shall not be uncrowned. Is he a victor? you also shall bear a palm.
   Is he full of joy and rejoicing? so also shall your soul be filled to
   the brim with delights. Where he is every saint shall be ere long.

   Thus much upon the sacred end of predestination.

   II. Now, observe that PREDESTINATION IS THE IMPELLING FORCE TOWARDS
   THIS CONFORMITY. This truth divides itself thus: it is the will of God
   that conforms us to Christ's image rather than our own will. It is our
   will now, but it was God's will when it was not our will, and it only
   became according to our will when we were converted, because God's
   grace had made us willing in the day of its power. We cannot be made
   like Christ unwillingly; a consenting will is essential to the likeness
   of Christ; unwilling obedience would be disobedience. Naturally we
   never will towards good without God, but God works in us to will and to
   do. God treats us as men responsible and intelligent, and not as stone
   or metal; he made us free agents, and he treats us as such. We are
   willing now to be conformed to the image of Jesus, yea, we are more
   than willing, we are anxious and desirous for it; but still the main
   and first motive power lay not in our will, but in his will, and to-day
   the immutable force which is best to be depended upon does not lie in
   our fickle, feeble will, but in the unchanging and omnipotent will of
   God. The force that is conforming us to Christ is the will of God in
   predestination.

   And so, too, it is rather God's work than our work. We are to work with
   God in the matter of our becoming like to Christ. We are not to be
   passive like wood or marble; we are to be prayerful, watchful, fervent,
   diligent, obedient, earnest, and believing, but still the work is
   God's. Sanctification is the Lord's work in us. 'Thou hast wrought all
   our works in us.' From the first, and now, and to the last, 'he that
   hath wrought us to the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given to us
   the earnest of the Spirit.' There is no holiness in us of our own
   creating; no good thing in us of our own fashioning. 'Every good gift
   and every perfect gift is from above.' 'Not unto us, not unto us, but
   unto thy name be praise.' Still, true as it is that we are free agents,
   yet the Lord is the potter and we are the clay upon the wheel, and it
   is his work, and not ours, that makes us like to Christ. It there be a
   touch of our finger anywhere upon the vessel, it mars and does not
   beautify. It is only where God's hand has been that the vessel begins
   to assume the form of the model.

   Therefore, beloved, all the glory must be unto God and not to us. It is
   a great honor to any man to be like Christ; God does not intend that
   his children should have no honor, for he puts honor upon his own
   people; but, still, the true glory lies with him, since he has made us
   and not we ourselves. Cannot we say this morning with thankful hearts,
   'By the grace of God I am what I am?' and do we not feel that we shall
   lay all our honors, whatever they may be, at his dear feet, who hath
   according to his abundant mercy predestinated us to be conformed to the
   image of his Son?

   III. Now I must come to the third point, upon which with brevity. It
   sweetly appears that the ULTIMATE END OF ALL THIS IS CHRIST.
   'Predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son, that HE,'''that
   HE''God is always driving at something for him, his well-beloved Son.
   He aims at his own glory in the glory of his dear Son; if he blesses us
   the text of last Sabbath is still true, 'not for your sakes do I this;'
   it is for the sake of a higher, a better one than we are, it is 'that
   he might be the first-born.' Now, if I understand the passage before
   us, it means this. First, God predestinates us to be like Jesus that
   his dear Son might be the first of a new order of beings, elevated
   above all other creatures, and nearer to God than any other existences.
   He was Lord of angels, seraphim and cherubim obeyed his behests; but
   the Son desired to be at the head of a race of beings more nearly
   allied to him than any existing spirits. There was no kinship between
   the Lord Jesus and angels, for to which of the angels had the Father
   said at any time, 'Thou art my Son?' They are by nature servants, and
   he is the Son, this is a wide distinction. The Eternal Son desired
   association with beings who should be sons as he was, towards whom he
   could stand in a close relationship as being like to them in nature and
   Sonship, and the Father therefore ordained that a seed whom he has
   chosen should be conformed to the image of the Son, that his Son might
   head up and be chief among an order of beings more nearly akin to God
   than any other. The serpent said to Eve, 'God doth know that ye shall
   be as gods, knowing good and evil.' That lie had in it a residuum of
   truth, for by sovereign grace we have become such. There were no
   obedient creatures in the world of that sort, knowing good and evil, in
   the days of Eden's glory. The angels in heaven had known good, and only
   good, and preserved by grace had not fallen; the evil spirit had
   fallen, and he knew evil, but he had forgotten good, and was incapable
   of ever choosing it again; he is now for ever banished from hope of
   restoration. But here are we who know both good and evil; we understand
   the one, and the other too, and now there is begotten in us a nature
   which loves holiness and cannot sin, because it is born of God; we are
   left free agents, yea, we are freer than ever we were, and yet in this
   life, and in the life to come, our path is like that of the just which
   shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Angels know not evil; have
   never had to battle with evil known and felt within; they have not
   tried the paths of sinful pleasure, and through grace been turned from
   them, so as with full purpose of heart to cleave to holiness for ever.
   Jesus now heads a race assailed but victorious; sorely tempted but
   enabled to overcome. Joyfully and cheerfully for ever shall it be our
   delight to do the Father's will. For ever with Christ at our head he
   shall be the nearest to the eternal throne; the most attached of
   servants, because also sons; the most firmly adhesive to good, because
   we once knew the bitterness of evil. Even as Christ had to drink the
   cup of suffering, for sin, we also have sipped of it. We have known
   horror caused by guilt, and, therefore, for the future shall be
   throughout eternity a nobler race, freer to serve, and serving God
   after a nobler fashion than any other creatures in the universe. I take
   it that it is the meaning of the text, that the Lord would have Christ
   to be the first of a nobler order of beings.

   But, secondly, the object of grace is that there may be some in heaven
   with whom Christ can hold brotherly converse. Note the expression,
   'Many brethren''not that he might be the firstborn among many, but
   among 'many brethren,' who should be like himself. Our blessed Lord
   delights in fellowship; such is the greatness of his heart that he
   would not be alone in his glory, but would have associates in his
   happiness. Now, I speak with bated breath. God can do all things, but I
   see not any way by which he could give to his only-begotten Son beings
   that should be akin to himself, except through the processes which we
   discover in the economy of grace. Here are beings that know evil, and
   know also good, beings placed under infinite obligations by bonds of
   love and gratitude to choose for ever the good, beings with a nature so
   renewed that they always must be holy beings; and these beings can
   commune with the incarnate God upon spurring as angels cannot, upon the
   penalty of guilt as angels cannot; upon heart-throes, conflicts,
   reproaches, and brokenness of spirit as angels cannot: and to them the
   Lord Jesus can reveal the glory of holiness, the bliss of conquering
   sin, and the sweetness of benevolence as only they can comprehend them.
   Renewed men are made fit companions for the Son of God. He shall feast
   all the more joyously because they shall eat bread with him in his
   kingdom. He shall be joyful when he declares the Lord's name unto his
   brethren. He shall joy in their joy, and be glad in their gladness.

   No doubt, however, the text means that these will for ever love and
   honor the Lord Jesus Christ himself. The children look up to the
   firstborn. In the East the firstborn is the lord and king of the
   household. We love Jesus now, and esteem him our head and chief. How
   will we, when we once get to heaven, love and adore him as our dear
   elder brother with whom we shall be on terms of the closest familiarity
   and most reverent obedience. How joyfully will we serve him, how
   rapturously adore him. Shall we not want to have our voices made more
   loud till they become as thunders, or like many waters, or surely we
   shall not be able to praise him as we would? If there be work to do for
   him in future ages we will be the first to volunteer for service; if
   there be battles to be fought in times to come with other rebellious
   races, if there be wanted servants to fly over the vast realms of the
   infinite to carry Jehovah's messages, who shall fly so swiftly as we
   shall, when once we feel that in his courts we shall dwell not as mere
   servants, but as members of the royal family, partakers of the divine
   nature, nearest to God himself. What bliss to know that he who is 'very
   God of very God,' and sits on the eternal throne, is also of the same
   nature with ourselves, our kinsman, who is not ashamed even amidst the
   royalties of glory to call us brethren. O brethren, what honors are
   ours! What a heritage lies before us! Who among us would change with
   Gabriel? We shall have no need to envy angels, for what are they but
   ministering spirits, servants in our Father's halls; but we are sons,
   and sons of no inferior order, no sons of a secondary rank like
   Abraham's children born of Keturah, or like the son of the bondwoman,
   but we are the Isaacs of God, born according to the promise, heirs of
   all that he hath, a seed beloved of the Lord for ever. Oh, what joy
   ought to fill our spirits this morning, at the prospect which this text
   reveals, and which predestination secures!

   Perhaps our fullest thought upon the text is this. God was so well
   pleased with his Son, and saw such beauties in him, that he determined
   to multiply his image. 'My beloved,' said he, 'thou shalt be the model
   by which I will fashion my noblest creature, I will for thy sake make
   men able to converse with thee, and bound to thee by bands of love, who
   shall be next akin to myself, and in all things like to thee.' Behold
   from heaven's mint golden pieces of inestimable value are sent forth,
   and each one bears the image and superscription of the Son of God. The
   face of Jesus is more lovely to God than all the worlds, his eyes are
   brighter than the stars, his voice is sweeter than bliss; therefore
   doth the Father will to have his Son's beauty reflected in ten thousand
   mirrors in saints made like to him, and his praises chanted by myriads
   of voices of those who love him, because his blood has saved them. The
   Father knew how happy his Son would be to associate his chosen with
   himself, for of old his delights were with the sons of men. As a
   shepherd loves his sheep, as a king loves his subjects, so Jesus loves
   to have his people around him; but deeper yet is the mystery, as it is
   not good for a man to be alone, and as for this cause doth a man leave
   his father and mother and is joined unto his wife, and they twain are
   one flesh, even so is it with Christ and his church. He was made like
   to her for her salvation, and now she is made like to him for his
   honor. In what way could the Father put greater honor on his Son than
   by forming a race like to himself, who shall be the many brethren among
   whom he is the well-beloved firstborn?

   Now, brethren, this word I say and send you home. Keep your model
   before you. You see what you are to come to, therefore, set Christ
   before your eyes always. You see what you are predestinated to be: aim
   at it, aim at it every day. God worketh, and he worketh in you not to
   sleep, but to will and to do according to his own good pleasure.
   Brethren, grieve at your failures; when you see anything in yourselves
   that is not Christlike mourn over it, for it must be put away, it is so
   much dross that must be consumed; you cannot keep it, for God's
   predestination will not let you retain anything about you which is not
   according to the image of Christ. Cry mightily to the Holy Spirit to
   continue his sanctifying work upon you; beseech him not to be grieved
   and vexed, and, therefore, in any measure to stay his hand. Cry, 'Lord,
   melt me, pour me out like wax, and set thy seal upon me until the image
   of Christ be clearly there.' Above all, commune much with Christ.
   Communion is the fountain of conformity. Live with Christ and you will
   soon grow like Christ. They said of Achilles, the greatest of the
   Grecian heroes, that when he was a child they fed him upon lion's
   marrow, and so made him brave; feed upon Christ and be Christlike. They
   record on the other hand of blood-thirsty Nero, that he became so
   because he was suckled by a woman of a ferocious, barbaric nature. If
   we drink in our nutriment from the world, we shall be worldly; but, if
   we live upon Christ and dwell in him, our conformity with him shall be
   readily accomplished, and we shall be recognized as brethren of that
   blessed family of which Jesus Christ is the firstborn. How I wish every
   one here had a share in the text: I mourn that some have not, for he
   that believeth not on the Son hath not life, and therefore cannot have
   conformity to a living Christ. God grant to you all to be believers in
   Christ, now and for ever. Amen and amen.

   PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON'Romans 8:16-39; 1 Corinthians
   15:39-58.

   'THE SWORD AND THE TROWEL.' Edited by C. H. SPURGEON.

   Contents for April, 1872.

   Advice Gratis. By C. H. Spurgeon.

   The Story of an Eventful Life.

   The Gospel in France.

   Recollections of the Rev. Rowland Hill. By an Old Member of Surrey
   Chapel.

   Remarks on Beecher's Life of Christ. By Vernon J. Charlesworth.

   Cromwell's Puritanism. By E. Leach.

   A New Interpretation of Pilgrim's Progress. By G. Rogers (Continued.)

   Parental Duties. By Edward Dennett.

   The Sinners of Mullion.

   Report of Visitor from the Sunday School Union (Lambeth Auxiliary).

   Reviews.

   Memoranda.

   Pastors' College Account.

   Orphanage for Girls.

   Stockwell Orphanage.

   Colportage Association.

   Price 3d. Post free, 4 stamps.

   London: Passmore & Alabaster, 18, Paternoster Row, and all Booksellers.
     __________________________________________________________________

Loosening The Sandal Strap

   (No. 1044)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MARCH 31, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "One mightier than I comes, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to
   loose." Luke 3:16.

   IT was not John's business to attract followers to himself but to point
   them to Jesus, and he very faithfully discharged his commission. His
   opinion of his Master, of whom he was the herald, was a very high one.
   He reverenced Him as the Anointed of the Lord, the King of Israel, and,
   consequently, he was not tempted into elevating himself into a rival.
   He rejoiced to declare, "He must increase but I must decrease." In the
   course of his self-depreciation he uses the expression of our text
   which is recorded by each one of the Evangelists with some little
   variation. Matthew words it, "whose shoes I am not worthy to bear." He
   was not fit to fetch his Lord His shoes.

   Mark writes it, "whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and
   unloose." And John has it very much as in Luke. This putting on and
   taking off and putting away of sandals was an office usually left to
   menial servants. It was not a work of any repute or honor, yet the
   Baptist felt that it would be a great honor to be even a menial servant
   of the Lord Jesus. He felt that the Son of God was so infinitely
   superior to himself that he was honored if only permitted to be the
   meanest slave in His employ. He would not allow men to attempt
   comparisons between himself and Jesus--he felt that none could, for a
   moment, be allowed.

   Now this honest estimate of himself as less than nothing in comparison
   with his Master is greatly to be imitated by us. John is to be
   commended and admired for this, but better still he is to be carefully
   copied. Remember that John was by no means an inferior man. Among all
   that had been born of women before his time there had not been a
   greater than he. He was the subject of many prophecies and his office
   was a peculiarly noble one. He was the friend of the great Bridegroom
   and introduced Him to His chosen bride. He was the morning star of the
   Gospel day, but he counted himself no light in the Presence of the Sun
   of Righteousness whom he heralded. The temperament of John was not that
   which bowed or cringed--he was no reed shaken by the wind--no man of
   courtly habits fitted for a king's palace.

   No. We see in him an Elijah, a man of iron, a son of thunder. He roared
   like a young lion on his prey and feared the face of none. Some men are
   so naturally meek-spirited, not to say weak-minded, that they naturally
   become subservient and set up others as their leaders. Such men are apt
   to err in depreciating themselves. But John was every inch a man-- his
   great soul bowed only before that which was worthy of homage. He was,
   in God's strength, as an iron pillar and a bronze wall. He was a hero
   for the cause of the Lord, and yet he sat down in the Presence of Jesus
   as a little child sits on a stool at his master's feet, and he cried,
   "whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and to loose."

   Remember, moreover, that John was a man endowed with great abilities
   and these are very apt to make a man proud. He was a Prophet, yes, and
   more than a Prophet. When he stood in the wilderness to preach, his
   burning eloquence soon attracted the people from Jerusalem and from all
   the cities round about! The banks of Jordan saw a vast multitude of
   eager hearers crowding around the man clothed with a garment of camel's
   hair. Thousands gathered together to listen to the teaching of one who
   had not been brought up at the feet of the rabbis, neither had been
   taught eloquence after the fashion of the schools!

   John was a man of bold, plain, telling, commanding speech! He was no
   second-rate teacher, but a master in Israel. Yet he assumed no airs of
   self-conceit, but accounted the lowest place in the Lord's service as
   too high for him. Note, too, that he was not only a great preacher, but
   he had been very successful--not only in attracting the crowds--but in
   baptizing them. The whole nation felt the effects of John's ministry
   and knew that he was a Prophet! They were swayed to and fro by his
   zealous words, as the corn of autumn is moved in the breath of the
   wind. A man is very apt, when he feels that he has power over masses of
   his fellow creatures, to be lifted up and exalted above measure, but
   not so John! It was

   safe for the Lord to trust him with a great popularity and a great
   success, for though he had all those honors he laid them meekly down at
   Jesus' feet, and said, "I am not worthy to be even the lowest slave in
   Messiah's household."

   Remember, also, that John was a religious leader and he had the
   opportunity, if he had pleased, of becoming the leader of a powerful
   sect. The people were evidently willing to follow him. There were some,
   no doubt, who would not have gone over to Christ, Himself, if John had
   not bid them go, and testified, "Behold the Lamb of God," and confessed
   over and over again, saying, "I am not the Christ." We read of some,
   who years after the Baptist was dead, still remained his disciples so
   that he had the opportunity of leading away a multitude who would have
   become his followers, and so of setting up his own name among men. But
   he scorned it!

   His elevated view of his Master prevented his entertaining any desire
   for personal leadership. Putting himself down not in the place of a
   captain of the lord's hosts, but as one of the least soldiers in the
   army, he says, "His sandal straps I am not worthy to loose." What was
   the reason, do you think, of John's always retaining his proper
   position? Was it not because he had a high idea of his Master and a
   deep reverence for Him? Ah, Brothers and Sisters, because of our little
   estimate of Christ it is often unsafe for the Lord to trust us in any
   but the very lowest positions. I believe many of us might have been 10
   times as useful--only it would not have been safe for God to have
   allowed us to be so--we would have been puffed up and, like
   Nebuchadnezzar, we would have boasted, "Behold this great Babylon that
   I have built."

   Many a man has had to fight in the back ranks and serve his Master but
   little--and enjoy but little success in that service because he did not
   reverence Christ enough--did not love his Lord enough, and,
   consequently self would soon have crept in to his own overturning--to
   the grief of the Church, and to the dishonor of his Lord. Oh, for high
   thoughts of Christ, and low thoughts of ourselves! Oh, to see Jesus as
   All in All, and to see ourselves as less than nothing before

   Him!

   Having thus introduced the subject, our object this morning is to draw
   instruction from the expression which John here and elsewhere used with
   regard to himself and his Lord--"Whose sandal strap I am not worthy to
   loose." I gather from this, first, that no form of holy service is to
   be lightly esteemed. Secondly, that our unworthiness is apparent in the
   presence of any sort of holy work. And that, thirdly, this unworthiness
   of ours, when most felt, should rather stimulate us to action than
   discourage us--for so it doubtless operated in the case of John the
   Baptist.

   I. First, then, note THAT NO FORM OF HOLY SERVICE IS TO BE LIGHTLY
   ESTEEMED. To unloose the straps of Christ's sandals might seem very
   trivial. It might even seem as if it involved the loss of self-respect
   for a man of position and influence to stoop to offices which a servant
   might quite as well perform. Why should I bring myself down to that? I
   will learn of Christ--I will distribute bread among the multitude for
   Christ--I will have my boat by the sea shore ready for Christ to preach
   in, or I will go and fetch the donkey upon which He shall ride in
   triumph into Jerusalem. But what need can there be for the disciple to
   become a mere menial?

   Such a question as that is here forever silenced and the spirit which
   dictates it is practically rebuked. Nothing is dishonorable by which
   Jesus may be honored! Nothing lowers a man, if, thereby, he honors his
   Lord! It is not possible for any godly work to be beneath our
   dignity--rather ought we to know that the lowest grade of service
   bestows dignity upon the man who heartily performs it. Even the least
   and most obscure form of serving Christ is more high and lofty than we
   are worthy to undertake.

   Now, note that little works for Christ--little sandal bearings and
   strap loosening often have more of the child's spirit in them than
   greater works. Outside, in the streets, a man's companion will do him a
   kindness and the action performed is friendly. But for filial acts you
   must look inside the house. There the child does not lend money to its
   father, or negotiate business--yet in his little acts there is more
   than sonship. Who is it that comes to meet Father when the day is over?
   And what is the action which often indicates childhood's love? Look,
   the little child comes tottering forward with father's slippers and
   runs off with his boots as he takes them off! The service is little,
   but it is loving and filial--and has more of filial affection in it
   than the servant's bringing in the meal, preparing the bed, or any
   other more essential service. It gives the little one great pleasure
   and expresses his love.

   No one who is not my child, or who does not love me in something like
   the same way, would ever dream of making such a service his specialty.
   The littleness of the act fits it to the child's capacity, and there is
   also something in it which makes it a suitable expression of a child's
   affection. So, also, in little acts for Jesus! Oftentimes men of the
   world will give their money to the cause of Christ, putting down large
   sums for charity or for missions. But they will not weep in secret

   over other men's sins, or speak a word of comfort to an afflicted
   saint. To visit a poor sick woman, teach a little child, reclaim a
   street Arab, breathe a prayer for enemies or whisper a promise in the
   ear of a desponding saint may show more of sonship than building a row
   of almshouses or endowing a Church! In little acts for Christ it is
   always to be remembered that the little things are as necessary to be
   done as the greater acts.

   If Christ's feet are not washed. If His sandals are not loosed He may
   suffer and His feet may be lamed so that a journey may be shortened,
   and many villages may miss the blessing of His Presence. So with other
   minor things. There is as much need for the quiet intercessions of
   saints as for the public delivery of God's Truth before the assembled
   thousands. It is as necessary that babes be taught their little hymns
   as that monarchs be rebuked for sin. We remember the old story of the
   losing of the battle through the missing of a single nail in a
   horseshoe, and perhaps up to this moment the Church may have lost her
   battle for Christ because some minor work which ought to have been done
   for Jesus has been neglected.

   I should not wonder if it should turn out that many Churches have been
   without prosperity because, while they have looked to the public
   ministry and the visible ordinances, they have been negligent of
   smaller service to their Master. Many a cart comes to grief through
   inattention to the linchpin. A very small matter turns an arrow aside
   from the target. To teach a child to sing, "Gentle Jesus," and to point
   its young heart to the Redeemer may seem a trifle, but yet it may be a
   most essential part of the process of that gracious work of religious
   education by which that child shall afterwards become a Believer, a
   minister and a winner of souls! Omit that first lesson and it may be
   you have turned aside a life.

   Take another instance. A preacher once found himself obligated to
   preach in an obscure village. The storm was terrible, and, therefore,
   though he kept his appointment, he found only one person present in the
   place of meeting. He preached a sermon to that one hearer with as much
   earnestness as if the house had been crowded. Years later he found
   Churches all over the district, and he discovered that his audience of
   one had been converted on that day and had become the Evangelist of the
   whole region! Had he declined to preach to one, what blessings might
   have been withheld! Brethren, never neglect the loosing of the sandal
   strap for Christ since you do not know what may hang upon it.

   Human destiny often turns upon a hinge so small as to be invisible.
   Never say within yourself, "This is trivial"-- nothing is trivial for
   the Lord! Never say, "But this surely might be omitted without much
   loss." How do you know? If it is your duty, He who allotted you your
   task knew what He did. Do not you, in any measure, neglect any portion
   of His orders, for in all His commands there is consummate wisdom--and
   on your part it will be wisdom to obey them, even to the jots and
   tittles. Little things for Christ, again, are often the best tests of
   the truth of our religion. Obedience in little things has much to do
   with the character of a servant. You engage a servant in your own house
   and you know very well whether she is a good or bad servant if the main
   duties of the day are pretty sure to be attended to. The meals will be
   cooked, the beds will be prepared, the house will be swept, the door
   will be answered--but the difference between a servant who makes the
   house happy and another who is its plague lies in a number of small
   matters, which, perhaps, you could not put down on paper--but which
   make up a very great deal of domestic comfort or discomfort, and so
   determine the value of a servant.

   So I believe it is in Christian life. I do not suppose that the most of
   us here would ever omit the weightier matters of the Law. As Christian
   men we endeavor to maintain integrity and uprightness in our actions,
   and we try to order our households in the fear of God in great matters.
   But it is in the looking to the Lord upon minor details that the spirit
   of obedience is most displayed. It is seen in our keeping our eyes up
   to the Lord, as the eyes of the handmaidens are to their mistresses for
   daily orders about this step and that transaction. The really obedient
   spirit wishes to know the Lord's will about everything, and if there is
   any point which to the world seems trifling, for that very reason the
   obedient spirit says, "I will attend to it to prove to my Lord that
   even in the minutiae I desire to submit my soul to His good pleasure."

   In small things lie the crucibles and the touchstones. Any hypocrite
   will come to Lord's-Day worship, but it is not every hypocrite that
   will attend Prayer Meetings, or read the Bible in secret, or speak
   privately of the things of God to the saints. These are less things, so
   they judge, and therefore they neglect them and so condemn themselves!
   Where there is deep religion, prayer is loved--where religion is
   shallow only public acts of worship are cared for. You shall find the
   same true in other things. A man who is no Christian will very likely
   not tell you a downright lie by saying that black is white, but he will
   not hesitate to declare that whitey-brown is white--he will go that
   length.

   But the Christian will not go halfway to falsehood, no, he scorns to go
   an inch on that road! He will no more cheat you out of two pence
   farthing, than he would out of 2,000 pounds. He will not rob you of an
   inch any more than of an yard! It is in the little that the genuineness
   of the Christian is made to appear. The Goldsmiths' hallmark is a small
   affair, but you know true silver by it. There is a vast deal of
   difference between the man who gladly bears Christ's sandals and
   another who will not stoop to anything which he thinks beneath him.
   Even a Pharisee will ask Christ to his house to sit at meat with
   him--he is willing to entertain a great religious leader at his table.
   But it is not everyone who will stoop down and loose His sandal straps,
   for that very Pharisee who made the feast neither brought Him water to
   wash His feet, nor gave Him the kiss of welcome. He proved the
   insincerity of his hospitality by forgetting the little things.

   I will be bound to say Martha and Mary never forgot to loose His sandal
   straps and that Lazarus never failed to see that His feet were washed.
   Look then, I pray you, as Christians, to the service of Christ in the
   obscure things, in the things that are not recognized by men--in the
   matters which have no honor attached to them--for by this shall your
   love be tried. Mark, with regard to little works, that very often there
   is about them a degree of personal fellowship with Christ which is not
   seen in greater work. For instance, in the one before us, to unloose
   the straps of His sandals brings me into contact with Himself, though
   it is only His feet I touch.

   And I think if I might have the preference between going forth to cast
   out devils and to preach the Gospel and to heal the sick, or to stay
   with Him and always loose His sandal straps, I should prefer this last,
   because the first act Judas did-- he went with the 12 and saw Satan,
   like lightning, fall from Heaven--but he perished because he failed in
   the acts that came into contact with Christ. In keeping Christ's purse
   he was a thief, and in giving Christ the kiss he was a traitor. He who
   does not fail in things relating personally to Christ is the sound
   man--he has the evidence of righteousness of heart. There was never a
   grander action done beneath the stars than when the woman broke her
   alabaster box of precious ointment and poured it upon Him! Though the
   poor did not get anything out of it. Though no sick man was the better
   for it--the act was done distinctly unto Him--and therefore there was a
   peculiar sweetness in it.

   Oftentimes similar actions, because they do not encourage other people,
   for they do not know of them--but because they may not be of any very
   great value to our fellow men--are lightly esteemed. Yet seeing they
   are done for Christ, they have about them a peculiar charm as
   terminating upon His blessed Person. True, it is but the loosening of
   sandal straps, but then they are His sandals and that ennobles the
   deed! Dear fellow Christians, you know what I mean, though I cannot put
   it into very good language this morning.

   I mean just this--that if there is some little thing I can do for
   Christ--though my minister will not know about it, though the deacons
   and elders will not know and nobody will know. And if I leave it undone
   nobody will suffer any calamity because of it, but, if I do it, it will
   please my Lord and I shall enjoy the sense of having done it for Him,
   therefore will I attend to it, for it is no slight work if it is for
   Him. Mark, also, once more, concerning those gracious actions which are
   but little esteemed by the most of mankind, that we know God accepts
   our worship in little things! He allowed His people to bring their
   bullocks, others of them to bring their rams, and offer them to Him.
   And these were persons of sufficient wealth to be able to afford a
   tribute from their herds and flocks.

   But He also permitted the poor to offer a pair of turtledoves, or two
   young pigeons, and I have never found in God's Word that He cared less
   for the turtledove offering than He did for the sacrifice of the
   bullock. I do know, too, that our ever blessed Lord, Himself, when He
   was here, loved the praise of little children. They brought neither
   gold nor silver like the wise men from the East, but they cried,
   "Hosanna," and the Lord was not angry with their Hosannas--He accepted
   their boyish praise. And we remember that a widow woman cast into the
   treasury two mites, which only made a farthing, but, because it was all
   her living, He did not reject the gift, but rather recorded it to her
   honor.

   We are now quite familiar with the incident, but for all that it is
   very wonderful. Two mites that make a farthing given to the infinite
   God! A farthing accepted by the King of kings! A farthing acknowledged
   by Him who made the heavens and the earth, who says, "If I were hungry
   I would not tell you, for the cattle on a thousand hills are Mine." Two
   mites received with pleasure by the Lord of All! It was scarcely so
   much as a drop thrown into the sea, and yet He thought much of it!
   Measure not little actions by human scales and measures, but estimate
   them as God does--for the Lord has respect unto the hearts of His
   people. He regards not so much their deeds in themselves as the motives
   by which they are actuated. Therefore, value the loosing of the
   Savior's sandal straps, and despise not the day of small things.

   II. Now, Brothers and Sisters, I wish to conduct you, in the second
   place, to the consideration of OUR OWN UNWORTHINESS, which is sure to
   be felt by us whenever we come practically into contact with any real
   Christian service. I believe, as a general rule, that a man who does
   nothing at all thinks himself a fine fellow. You shall usually find
   that the sharpest critics are those who never write, and the best
   judges of battles are those who keep at a prudent distance from the
   guns.

   Christians of the kid-gloved order, who never make an attempt to save
   souls, are marvelously quick to tell us when we are too rough or too
   light in our speech--and they readily detect us if our modes of action
   are irregular or too enthusiastic. They have a very keen sense for
   anything like fanaticism or disorder. For my part, I feel pretty safe
   when I have the censures of these gentlemen--we are not far wrong when
   they condemn us! Let a man begin earnestly to work for the Lord Jesus
   and he will soon find out that he is unworthy of the meanest place in
   the employ of One so glorious! Let us turn over that fact a minute.

   Dear Brothers and Sisters, when we remember what we used to be I am
   sure we must feel unworthy to do the very least thing for Christ. You
   know how Paul describes the wickedness of certain offenders, and he
   adds, "But such were some of you"? What hardness of heart some of us
   exhibited towards God! What rebellion! What obstinacy! What quenching
   of His Spirit! What love of sin! Why, if I might stoop down to loose
   the sandal strap of that foot which was crucified for me, I must bedew
   the nail print with my tears, and say, "My Savior, can it be that I am
   allowed to touch Your feet?" Surely, the prodigal, if he ever unloosed
   his father's shoes, could say to himself, "Why, these hands fed swine!
   These hands were often polluted by harlots! I lived in uncleanness, and
   was first a reveler, and then a swineherd, and it is amazing love which
   permits me, now, to serve so good a father." Angels in Heaven might
   envy the man who is permitted to do the least thing for Christ, and yet
   they never sinned! Oh, what a favor that we who are defiled with sin
   should be called to serve the sinless Savior!

   But, then, another reflection comes at the back of it--we recollect
   what we are as well as what we were--I say what we are, for though
   washed in Jesus' blood and endowed with a new heart and a right spirit,
   yet we start aside like a deceitful bow, for corruption dwells in us!
   It is sometimes hard work to maintain even a little faith. We are so
   double-minded, so unstable, so hot, so cold, so earnest, and then so
   negligent. We are so everything except what we ought to be, that we may
   well wonder that Christ allows us to do the least thing for Him! If he
   were to shut us in prison and keep us there, so long as He did not
   actually execute us He would be dealing with us according to mercy and
   not giving us our full deserts! Yet He calls us out of prison and puts
   us in His service, and therefore we feel that we are unworthy to
   perform the least action in His House.

   Besides, Beloved, even small services, we feel, require a better state
   of heart than we often have. I am sure the service of preaching the
   Gospel here often brings to my sight my unworthiness far more than I
   should otherwise see it. If it is a gracious thing to see one's
   sinfulness, I may thank God I preach the Gospel, for it makes me see
   it. Sometimes we come to preach about Jesus Christ and glorify Him and
   yet our heart is not warm towards Him and we do not value Him aright.
   While the text we are preaching from seats Him on a high throne, our
   heart is not setting Him there. And oh, then we think we could tear our
   heart out of our very body if we could get rid of the black drops of
   its depravity which prevent our feeling in unison with the glorious
   Truth before us!

   Another time, perhaps, we have to invite sinners and seek to bring them
   to Christ, and that needs so much sympathy that if Christ were
   preaching our sermon He would bedew it with His tears--but we deliver
   it with dry eyes, almost without emotion--and then we flog our hard
   heart that it will not stir and cannot be made to feel. It is just the
   same in other duties. Have you not felt, "I have to go and teach my
   class this afternoon, but I am not fit, I have been worried all the
   week with cares and my mind is not up to the mark now. I hope I love my
   Lord, but I hardly know whether I do or not. I ought to be earnest
   about these boys and girls--but it is very likely I shall not be
   earnest--I shall sit down and go through my teaching as a parrot would
   go through it, without life, without love"? Yes, then you painfully
   feel that you are not worthy to loose the straps of your Lord's
   sandals.

   Possibly you are going, this afternoon to visit a dying man and you
   will try and talk to him about the way to Heaven. He is unconverted.
   Now, you need a tongue of fire to speak with, and instead of that you
   have a tongue of ice! You feel, "O God, how can it be that I shall sit
   by that bedside and think of that poor man who will be in the flames of
   Hell, perhaps, within a week, unless he receives Christ, and yet I
   shall treat his tremendously perilous condition as

   though it were a matter of the very slightest consequence?" Yes, yes,
   yes we have had hundreds of times to feel that we are in and of
   ourselves not fit for anything! If the Lord wanted dishwashers in His
   kitchen, He could get better than we are! And if He needed someone to
   shovel out the refuse of His house, He could find better men than we
   are for that. To such a Master we are unworthy to be servants.

   The same feeling arises in another way. Have we not to confess,
   Brothers and Sisters, in looking upon what we have done for Christ,
   that we have far too much eye to self in our conduct? We pick and
   choose our work, and the picking and choosing is guided by the instinct
   of self-respect. If we are asked to do that which is pleasant to
   ourselves we do it. If we are requested to attend a meeting where we
   shall be received with acclamation. If we are asked to perform a
   service which will lift us up in the social scale, or that will commend
   us to our fellow Christians, we jump at it like a fish at a fly! But,
   suppose the work would bring us shame? Suppose it would reveal to the
   public our inefficiency rather than our ability? We excuse ourselves!

   The spirit which Moses felt a little of when the Lord called him, is
   upon many of us. "If I were to speak for Christ," says one, "I should
   stutter and stammer." As if God did not make stuttering mouths as well
   as intent mouths, and as if, when He chose a Moses, He did not know
   what He was doing! Moses must go and stammer for God and glorify God by
   stammering! But Moses does not like that--and many in similar cases
   have not had Grace enough to go to the work at all. Why, if I cannot
   honor the Lord with 10 talents, shall I refuse to serve Him with one?
   If I cannot fly like a strong-winged angel through the midst of Heaven
   and sound the shrill-mouthed trumpet so as to wake the dead, shall I
   refuse to be a little bee and gather honey at God's bidding? Because I
   cannot be a leviathan, shall I refuse to be an ant? What folly and what
   rebellion if we are so perverse!

   And, if you have performed any holy work, have you not noticed that
   pride is ready to rise? God can hardly let us succeed in any work but
   what we become big-headed. "Oh, how well we have done it!" We do not
   need anybody to say, "Now, that was very cleverly, and nicely, and
   carefully, and earnestly done," for we say all that to ourselves, and
   we add, "yes, you were zealous about that work, and you have been doing
   what a great many would not have done, and you have not boasted of it
   either! You do not call in any neighbor to see it. You have been doing
   it simply out of love to God, and, therefore, you are an uncommonly
   humble fellow and none can say you are vain."

   Alas, what flattery, but truly, "the heart is deceitful above all
   things, and desperately wicked." We are not worthy to loose the straps
   of Jesus' sandals because, if we do, we begin to say to ourselves,
   "What great folks we are. We have been allowed to loose the Lord's
   sandal straps." If we do not tell somebody else about it with many an
   exultation, we at least tell ourselves about it and feel that we are
   something, after all, and ought to be held in no small repute! My
   Brothers and Sisters, we ought to feel that we are not worthy to do the
   lowest thing we can do for Christ because, when we have gone to the
   lowest, Jesus always goes lower down than we have gone!

   Is it a little thing to bear His shoes? What, then, was His
   condescension when He washed His disciples' feet? To put up with a
   cross-tempered brother, to be gentle with him, and feel, "I will give
   way to him in everything because I am a Christian"--that is going very
   low--but then our Lord has borne far more from us! He was patient with
   His people's infirmities and forgave even to 70 times seven. And
   suppose we are willing to take the lowest place in the Church, yet
   Jesus took a lower place than we can, for He took the place of the
   curse--He was made sin for us, even He that knew no sin--that we might
   be made the righteousness of God in Him.

   I have sometimes felt willing to go to the gates of Hell to save a
   soul, but the Redeemer went further, for He suffered the wrath of God
   for souls. If there should be any Christian here who is so humble that
   he has no lofty thoughts about himself, but prefers to be least among
   his brethren and so proves his graciousness, yet, my dear Brother, you
   are not so lowly as Christ made Himself, for He "made Himself of no
   reputation," and you have some reputation left. And He took upon
   Himself the form of a servant, and He became obedient to death--you
   have not come to that yet--even the death of the Cross. The felon's
   death upon the gallows--you will never be brought to that.

   Oh, the condescending of the Redeemer's amazing love! Let us, from this
   hour on, contend how low we can go side by side with Him. But remember
   when we have gone to the lowest, He descends lower still--so that we
   can truly feel that the very lowest place is too high for us because He
   has gone lower. Beloved Friends, to put these things in a practical
   shape it may seem to be a very small duty for any of you to do--to
   speak to one person alone about his soul. If you were asked to preach
   to a hundred you would try it. I ask you solemnly, in God's name, not
   to let the sun go down today till

   you have spoken to one man or woman, alone, about his or her soul. Will
   you do that? Is it too little for you? Then I must be honest with you
   and say you are not worthy to do it.

   Speak today to some little child about his soul. Do not say, "Oh, we
   cannot talk to children, we cannot stoop to them." Let no such feeling
   occupy any of our minds, for if this work is as the loosing of the
   Master's sandal straps, let us do it. Holy Brainerd, when he was dying
   and could no longer preach to the Indians, had a little Indian boy at
   his bedside, and taught him his letters. And he remarked to one who
   came in, "I asked God that I might not live any longer than I could be
   of use, and so, as I cannot preach any more, I am teaching this poor
   little child to read the Bible." Let us never think that we are
   stooping when we teach children! But if it is stooping let us stoop!

   There are some of you, perhaps, who have the opportunity to do good to
   fallen women. Do you shrink from such work? Many do. They feel as if
   they could do anything rather than speak to such. Is it the loosening
   of the straps of your Master's sandals? It is, then, an honorable
   business! Try it, Brother. It is not beneath you if you do it for
   Jesus. It is even above the best of you--you are not worthy to do it.
   Possibly there is near your house a district of very poor people. You
   do not like going in among them. They are dirty and perhaps infected
   with disease. Well, it is a pity that poor people should so often be
   dirty, but pride is dirty, too.

   Do you say, "I cannot go there"? Why not? Are you such a mighty fine
   gentleman that you are afraid of soiling your hands? You will not
   unloose your Master's sandal strap, then, is that it? The Lord lived
   among the poor, and was poorer even than they, for He had nowhere to
   lay His head. Oh, shame on you, you wicked and proud servant of a
   condescending, loving Lord! Go about your business and unloose the
   straps of His sandals! Instead of imagining that you would be lowered
   by such work for Jesus, I tell you it would honor you! Indeed, you are
   not fit for it--the honor is too great for you--and it will fall to the
   lot of better men. It comes to this, Beloved--anything that can be done
   for Christ is too good for us to do!

   Somebody wanted to keep the door! Somebody wanted to rout out the back
   lanes! Somebody wanted to teach ragged roughs! Somebody wanted to ask
   people to come to the place of worship and to lend them their seats,
   and stand in the aisle while they sit. Well, be it what it may, I had
   rather be a door keeper in the House of the Lord, or the doormat, even,
   than I would be accounted among the noblest in the tents of wickedness.
   Anything for Jesus, the lower the better! Anything for Jesus, the
   humbler the better! Anything for Jesus! The more going down into the
   deeps! The more thrusting the arms up to the elbows in the mud to find
   precious jewels! The more of that the better!

   This is the true spirit of the Christian religion. Not the soaring up
   there to sit among the choristers and sing in grand style! Not the
   putting on of apparel and preaching in lawn sleeves! Not the going
   through gaudy and imposing ceremonies--all that is of Babylon--but to
   strip yourself to the shirt sleeves to fight the battle for Christ! To
   go out among men as a humble worker, resolved by any means to save
   some--this is what your Lord would have you to do, for this is the
   unloosing the straps of His sandals.

   III. And, now, our last remark shall be that ALL THIS OUGHT TO
   STIMULATE US AND NOT DISCOURAGE

   US. Though we are not worthy to do it, that is the reason why we should
   avail ourselves of the condescending Grace which honors us with such
   employ. Do not say, "I am not worthy to loose the straps of His
   sandals, and therefore, I shall give up preaching." Oh no! But preach
   away with all the greater vigor! John did so, and to his preaching he
   added warning. Warn people as well as preach to them! Tell them of the
   judgment to come and separate between the precious and the vile.

   We should perform our work in all ways, not omitting the more painful
   part of it, but going through with whatever God has appointed to us.
   John was called to testify of Christ. He felt unworthy to do it, but he
   did not shirk the work. It was his life-long business to cry, "Behold,
   behold, behold the Lamb of God!" and he did it earnestly. He never
   paused in that cry. He was busy in baptizing, too. It was the
   initiatory rite of the new dispensation, and there he stood continually
   immersing those who believed! Never a more indefatigable worker than
   John the Baptist--he threw his whole soul into it because he felt he
   was not worthy to do the work!

   Brothers and Sisters, your sense of unworthiness will, if you are idle,
   sadly hamper you! But if the love of God is in your soul, you will
   feel, "Since I do so badly when I do my best, I will always do my
   utmost. Since it comes to so little when the most is done, I will at
   least do the most." Could I give all my substance to Him, and give my
   life, and then give my body to be burned it would be a small return for
   love so amazing, so Divine, as that which I have tasted! Therefore, if

   I cannot do all that, at any rate I will give the Lord Jesus all I can.
   I will love Him all I can. I will pray to Him all I can. I will talk
   about Him all I can, and I will spread His Gospel all I can. And no
   little thing will I count beneath me if His cause requires it.

   Brethren, John lived hard, for his meat was locusts and wild honey. His
   dress was not the soft raiment of men who live in palaces. He wrapped
   about him the rough camel's skin, and as he lived hard he died hard,
   too--his boldness brought him into a dungeon. His courageous fidelity
   earned him a martyr's death. Here was a man who lived in self-denial
   and died witnessing for the Truth of God and righteousness--and all
   this because he had a high esteem of his Master. May our esteem of
   Christ so grow and increase that we may be willing to put up with
   anything in life for Christ, and even to lay down our lives for His
   name's sake!

   Certain Moravian missionaries, in the old times of slavery, went to one
   of the West Indian Islands to preach and they found they could not be
   permitted to teach there unless they, themselves, became slaves. And
   they did so--they sold themselves into bondage, never to return--that
   they might save slaves' souls. We have heard of another pair of holy
   men who actually submitted to be confined in a leper house that they
   might save the souls of lepers, knowing as they did that they would
   never be permitted to come out again. They went there to take the
   leprosy and to die, if by so doing they might save souls.

   I have read of one, Thome de Jesu, who went to Barbary among the
   Christian captives, and there lived and died in banishment and bondage
   that he might cheer his Brothers and Sisters and preach Jesus to them.
   Brethren, we have never reached to such devotion! We fall far short of
   what Jesus deserves. We give Him little--we give Him what we are
   ashamed not to give Him. Often we give Him our zeal for a day or two
   and then grow cool. We wake up all of a sudden and then sleep all the
   more soundly. We seem, today, as if we would set the world on fire, and
   tomorrow we scarcely keep our own lamp trimmed. We vow at one time that
   we will push the Church before us and drag the world after us, but
   by-and-by we, ourselves, are like Pharaoh's chariots with the wheels
   taken off--and drag along right heavily.

   Oh, for a spark of the love of Christ in the soul! Oh, for a living
   flame from off Calvary's altar to set our whole nature blazing with
   Divine enthusiasm for the Christ who gave Himself for us that we might
   live! From this hour on take upon yourselves in the solemn intent of
   your soul this deep resolve--"I will loose the sandal straps. I will
   seek out the little things, the mean things, the humble things. And I
   will do them as unto the Lord and not unto men--and may He accept me
   even as He has saved me through His precious blood." Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Joy in a Reconciled God

   (No. 1045)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, APRIL 7, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
   by whom we have now received the atonement." Romans 5:11.

   OUR text begins with these words, "And not only so." It is the second
   time in which they occur in the chapter--I might almost have said the
   third--for a similar expression is used in another verse. The Apostle
   had been mentioning very great and amazing privileges. He had gone from
   great benefits to yet greater--he had advanced, I might say, from
   silver to gold, and from gold to the priceless crystal--and when he had
   reached the highest point that we could have thought to be conceivable,
   he adds, "And not only so." There is always in Christian privilege a
   beyond. The ancient mariners spoke of the pillars of Hercules and the
   Ultima Thule, and they supposed that when once their sails had whitened
   the sea in that direction they had come to the end of the universe and
   could go no further. But, more venturous ships forced their way to a
   new world and proved that the former boundaries were imaginary.

   Even so we may have concluded in the early days of our Christian
   experience that we never could be happier, that we never could enjoy
   greater privileges, that there could not be greater treasures than we
   had discovered! But even at the present time we have pushed far beyond
   our young attainments and are preparing for yet more far-reaching
   endeavors. We have not yet attained. Far be it from us to imagine that
   we are, or have all that the Lord intends. Let us not sit down
   contented with the notion that the Gospel contains no more, for rest
   assured, to him who is able to follow after it there are whole worlds
   of privileges yet to be discovered! We are only at the foot of the
   mountain as of yet. We may take for our motto the words, "Higher,
   higher, higher," and may soar aloft again and again on eagles' wings,
   for Heaven is higher than our loftiest flight.

   At the end of all we have known and experienced there may be written,
   "And not only so." A nobler future allures us--a higher line of
   spiritual things invites us! Let us, by faith and patience, press
   forward to it. The borders of Immanuel's land have yielded us choice
   fruit, but the inner valleys are rich with Eshcol clusters and the
   brooks in the heart of the country overflow with milk and honey. The
   present passage indicates a high attainment in spiritual life, when the
   soul learns not only to rejoice in salvation--which is an early
   experience, or to rejoice in tribulation--which is a far riper fruit,
   but advances even beyond that and learns to make her joy, her glory,
   and her boast in God, in God alone. "And not only so, but we also joy
   in God." There is the point of elevated experience of which the Apostle
   speaks with such confident familiarity.

   It certainly touches the confines of Heaven, if it is not altogether
   Heaven! This is the joy of angels and of spirits purified from all
   stain--they joy in God! Yet this is an attainment possible to us here.
   I might confine my thoughts to that subject, but it might be for profit
   if I use the text in another way--embracing that thought and making it
   the main topic of discourse--but taking a somewhat wider range. My text
   seems to me to describe the progress of a soul towards God. There is
   the first step visible in it, though somewhat in shadows and rather
   implied than expressed. The second step is very clear--it is "receiving
   the atonement," or more correctly "the reconciliation." The third step
   shines in a yet brighter light--having received the reconciliation, "we
   joy in God." And so we complete our fellowship with Him and ascend to
   an elevation which, if it is not in Heaven, lies on the confines of it.

   I. Our text shadows out, by implication at any rate, THE FIRST STEP OF
   A SOUL IN COMING TO GOD. It lies here. We begin to be conscious that
   God is angry with us. The text declares that we have received the
   reconciliation. There was, therefore, a time when we had not received
   it, and before we could receive it we were made sensible that we needed
   it. And before we could be conscious of that need we were led to see
   that from necessity of His Nature, God must

   be angry with such sinful creatures as we were. It is the dawn of
   Divine Grace in the soul when the heart perceives that there is a holy
   God and that such a God cannot be on terms of amity with an unholy
   thing like itself.

   God is not angry with men arbitrarily because He chooses to take a
   dislike to them. Oh, no! God is necessarily angry with evil because He
   is holy, and pure, and good. A being who has no anger against evil has
   no love towards goodness. This is one mark of righteousness--that it of
   necessity takes fire and burns with indignation against
   unrighteousness. Now, I may preach this Truth of God to this present
   congregation and many, when they hear my words, will carelessly
   enquire, "Well, and what concern is that of ours? What does it matter?"
   But, if God's Grace has begun a work in any heart, that soul will say,
   "Alas, alas, how true it is! How could the great Lawgiver in the
   heavens suffer me to break His Laws with impunity? How could He be God
   and yet smile on sin? How could He be worthy of the seraphic song,
   'Holy, holy, holy Lord God of Sabaoth,' and yet look with complacency
   upon one so unholy, so depraved, so unrighteous as I am by nature?"

   The awakened soul perceives that unless God could cease to be God, He
   could not look with complacency upon sin, nor upon the sinner, either,
   so long as sin lies upon him. This is a discovery which is very painful
   but very simple. One would think that every man ought to see this
   fact--but no man does see it till the Spirit of God convinces him of
   sin, of righteousness, and of judgment--and even then the natural heart
   endeavors to shut its eyes to it. That God is angry with us for sin is
   so unpleasant a thought that the convinced sinner would, if he could,
   escape from it. He would willingly take the wings of the morning and
   fly to the uttermost parts of the sea that he might escape from his
   dread of Divine wrath for sin--but there is no land of peace for such a
   soul.

   A guilty conscience will follow a man like his shadow. It will dog his
   footsteps, it will embitter his food. It will disturb his sleep, it
   will molest his waking hours. Neither will he be content till by some
   better method than forgetting it, he shall have escaped from its force.
   The avenger of blood never ceases to pursue the manslayer till he has
   gained the city of refuge. That God is justly and of necessity angry
   with him as a sinner is a thought which haunts every convinced person.
   If I believed that God were angry with me simply out of arbitrary whim,
   and that He might not be angry with me if He chose, my heart would
   harden itself like steel in enmity against Him! But, when it comes home
   to me that He is rightly angry with me--that if I were God I should be
   angry with such a one as I am, that if I could be perfectly holy as God
   is I should be equally indignant as God is with sin--then my soul feels
   the sting of wrath! Its justice cuts my conscience to the quick and
   makes my heart bleed. It is a blessed thing when the heart is thus
   aroused from its fatal slumber--for then there is hope that it will
   seek out the divinely appointed way of escape from sin!

   A second degree of this same step is a consciousness that we also are,
   ourselves, at enmity with God. We will not believe that our heart is
   opposed to God though the preacher often warns us that it is so, and
   though the Word of God teaches the same. We will not be brought to
   admit that our heart is at war with the Lord. "Why," says one, "I pay
   respect to God and go to a place of worship. Therefore I am not at
   enmity with Him." Only when the Spirit of God comes do we discover that
   there is in our heart, latent to a great extent, but also very readily
   developed, an enmity against the living God. Then a man starts, and is
   astonished at himself. He asks, "Why is it that thoughts of God are
   unpleasant to me? Why is His Day so long, His worship so wearisome, and
   His Book so dull to me? It must be because I do not love the

   Lord."

   In very deed, if a proclamation were made that God had ceased to be, or
   was no longer holy and just, there are many who would count it the best
   of news. Alas, man would gladly make an end of his Maker! The awakened
   heart enquires, "Is it really so that I am a deicide, and would, if I
   could, blot God out of existence and have no God because then I should
   be at peace? Is it, indeed, so?" When the Spirit of God makes the man
   confess that it is so, then he is amazed, indeed, for he did not know,
   before, how far he had fallen. Now I am certain that if I could assure
   you upon solid grounds that there was no God, and consequently no need
   of repentance and no fear of punishment--and consequently no need of
   pardon through the blood of Christ--it would make many of my hearers
   feel much relief and give them great ease of mind!

   Even very respectable and moral people would say, "Now we have got out
   of that difficulty about the new birth, Atonement, Heaven and Hell in a
   very short and easy manner, and upon the whole we are glad about it."
   But, to some of us, such information would be the most awful tidings
   possible, for the very fact that there is a God who is a righteous
   Governor and that there is a way of righteous pardon through the
   precious blood is our joy and our gladness now that we are reconciled
   to God! While you are not reconciled there is an enmity within you
   which the deceitfulness of your

   heart will not let you see--but when you are brought to see it and to
   sorrow for it--it will be one of the steps by which God will lead you
   to Himself.

   We need you, dear unconverted Hearers, to see clearly that there is a
   quarrel between God and you! On God's side there is a righteous
   disagreement with you because He could not agree with you and be holy.
   And, on your side an unrighteous and wicked opposition to Him because
   His thoughts and ways--God's Laws--are too pure, too just, and too good
   for you. A further portion of this same step, (and I pray every hearer
   who is seeking God to see whether he knows anything about it), is the
   perception that, in order to perfect reconciliation with God there must
   be something done God-ward and there must be something done man-ward.
   That is to say, something offered to God by which the insult and injury
   done to His most holy and righteous Law shall be recompensed. And,
   next, a thorough change in us before we can walk with God in perfect
   communion.

   If God were to forgive sins outright and make no more ado--and if He
   were to receive us into Heaven, itself--yet, as long as our nature is
   what it is, we should carry a Hell within our own souls, and Heaven
   would be to us misery emphasized. While we are unrenewed and our nature
   remains contrary to God--the nearer we could get to God, if that were
   possible--and the more of God's love we could perceive, if that were
   possible, the more intensely wretched we should become. In order to
   reconciliation it is not enough that one party should be forgiving--the
   other must yield, too. If the aggrieved party on his part should go all
   the way towards reconciliation, it may only encourage the other to
   further evil unless he desires reconciliation, too. So you perceive
   that in order to reconciliation between a sinner and God, the sinner
   must be brought into a different state of heart--he must in fact
   repent, or, more fully--he must be born-again.

   One other part of this first step I must mention--a soul upon whom the
   Spirit of God is thus operating begins to desire to be reconciled to
   God. "O God," he says, "You are angry with me. Can Your anger be turned
   away? Is there a Sacrifice? Is there an Atonement? If there is, I
   beseech You, turn Your face of kindness towards me and have pity upon
   me. And, O Lord, I know that in my bosom there is an evil heart which
   departs from You. I beseech You, renew me. It is true the Ethiopian
   cannot change his skin, or the leopard his spots--but surely You who
   made me at the first can make me anew. O my great Creator, could You
   not make me anew? Would You not quench in me the fire of enmity against
   Yourself and make me yet to be Your friend? And, whereas these two
   things stand in the way, Your anger and my enmity, can You not make a
   clean sweep of both? At one stroke can You not both justify me and
   regenerate me so that I may walk with You and be agreed with You?"

   This is the dawn of Grace, and a blessed dawn it is! How thankful am I
   if these words are reaching the ears of men who are undergoing this
   sacred process! Of old, when the world was without form and void, and
   darkness was upon the face of the deep, the Spirit of God moved upon
   the face of the waters, and it is written, "There was light." We find
   the next effect was order, and the next was life and then a fair wind
   arose beneath the brooding wings of the ever-blessed Dove. Oh, may He
   come forth now in like manner! May He bring light into your souls,
   though this should cause you to painfully perceive the disorder of your
   nature. And may He then turn your chaos into order, your death into
   life, and your deformity into the beauty of holiness to the praise of
   the glory of His Grace! This is but the first step, but it is one for
   which to be devoutly grateful if the Holy Spirit has led us to take it.

   II. Secondly, the text sets forth before us in the far clearer light of
   actual statement A SECOND STEP. "We have now received the
   "at-one-ment." The word "atonement" is a very improper translation
   here. It is the only case in which our translators have used the word
   at all in the New Testament. And it is very unfortunate that they
   should have used it in the wrongs place, because the word is as plainly
   as possible reconciliation, and does not so much refer to the Atonement
   by which the reconciliation is made as to the reconciliation itself.

   I believe that here our excellent translators used the word in the
   sense of "at-one-ment," or bringing two together. We have "received" an
   "at-one-ment." We are made to come into oneness with God through Jesus
   Christ. Now, the second step God-ward, and the truly vital one, is
   receiving the reconciliation. Observe how we are reconciled. It is not
   by working out a reconciliation. Please observe that. The first
   instinct of a man who finds himself with an angry God gazing upon him,
   and with enmity in his own heart towards God, is to set to work to try
   and better this state of things. "What shall I do? How shall I avert
   the Divine anger?"

   The heart suggests a multitude of expedients. Sometimes it runs into
   the enchantment and fascination of ceremonialism, but more commonly
   among us it falls back upon its own natural self-righteousness and
   dreams of reconciliation by amendment, and by future carefulness, and
   by a diligent obedience in the future which it hopes to be able to
   render. Now, observe, the text does not say that we have made any
   atonement for sin, neither does any Scripture ever tell us that we can
   do so, or that by any good deeds of our own we are to be reconciled to
   God! I tell you, awakened Souls, that all your struggles to be
   reconciled to God apart from Christ are only another form of the
   rebellion of your hearts against God! You are evidently opposed to Him
   because you reject His plan of reconciliation, and in defiance of His
   will you make a pretense of offering to be reconciled on other terms
   than those which He ordains.

   While talking of peace you insult the Lord, again, by rejecting the
   blood of His Son, which is the only Atonement. From the top of Sinai,
   amidst the smoke and burning of His awful Presence, He forbids you to
   draw near and He sets bounds about the mount. But your daring reply is,
   "By this mount I will approach to God. I will break the barriers and
   climb Sinai's rocky sides." Your attempt is vain! The fire of His Law
   will devour you, for this is not the way, neither is this the road by
   which God can permit a sinful soul to approach Him--since if He did
   accept a sinner in his own righteousness it would be an insult to the
   righteousness of Christ!

   If He should admit a sinner into His favor by any door but faith in His
   dear bleeding Son, it would be to make a liar of Himself! It would make
   void all His promises and do despite to the Cross of Jesus! No, we
   receive the reconciliation-- there is the meat of the matter. We do not
   make it, we receive it. I would like to dwell on that blessed word a
   little while--"We have now received the atonement." We do not buy it.
   We receive it without money and without price. We do not complete it,
   we receive it. "It is finished," was the verdict pronounced upon it
   long before we were born. We did not assist in commencing it, nor can
   we add anything to it--neither is there any need that we should wish to
   do so. We receive reconciliation. It is a free gift. We have only to
   put out our hand and take it. We have only to be empty vessels to be
   filled with it. We receive it perfect.

   Oh, that precious word, "receive!" How well it suits all cases. A
   person may be very poor, but I never yet met a person who was too poor
   to receive--in fact, it is the poor man who is the most willing and
   ready to receive! When the pitcher is empty it is in the fittest state
   to receive, for when it is full it cannot receive! And the lower, the
   more humble, the more broken, the more ruined, the more condemned--I
   was almost about to say the more near being damned--the more fit you
   are to receive Divine Grace. I put it as strongly as I can in order
   that any here who are despairing may lay hold of it. If you are emptied
   to the last drop and cannot find a trace of a footstep of anything good
   in you--why then you are ready to receive! Surely, if you have nothing
   you are the very man who can receive what Christ has provided!

   Let me explain the process of receiving reconciliation. It begins
   thus--The man, being already on the first step-- knowing that he needs
   reconciliation, believes the Truth about the Gospel. Now the Gospel is
   that reconciliation! It is made for every soul that believes in Jesus.
   It is a great mercy when a man becomes clear about that and accedes to
   it as God's Truth. God is not reconciled to anybody who will not
   believe in Christ--but He is reconciled to every soul that trusts in
   Jesus. No wrath remains against a Believer in Jesus--to such, God is
   all love and tenderness.

   All sinners who receive Christ by faith, He is a true and effectual
   Substitute. He suffered in their place and bore, that they might never
   bear, the Divine wrath that was due to sin. Now be very clear about
   this, for though we preach it every Sunday we still have need to repeat
   it. Many teach that Christ has made an equal atonement for all men.
   But, since a great number of men are lost, it is evident that their
   guilt was not effectually removed, neither were they actually
   reconciled. If those men were all reconciled to God and yet were cast
   into Hell, there is little to be desired in so useless a
   reconciliation. An Atonement for all which does not save all is not, in
   itself, an effectual Atonement! It is clear that if it of itself saved
   one for whom it was offered, it would save all--the same cause, if
   complete within itself, would always produce the same effect. An
   atonement said to be universal is also admitted to be ineffectual
   unless all are reconciled to God by it. The fact is, there is no
   redemption worth having but the Particular Redemption by which the Lord
   Jesus redeemed His own people only, that is to say, made for all who
   believe in Him an effectual sacrifice. Now, if you can receive that
   Truth of God cordially it will mightily help you--God is reconciled to
   every Believer.

   Then, the next step to receiving is to become a Believer, because then
   the man is reconciled. How can I become a Believer? Why, of course only
   by believing! And what is to believe? The other word for it is,
   "trust." Jesus Christ made a full, satisfactory, substitutionary
   Atonement for every soul that trusts in Him. I trust Him, therefore I
   know that He has

   made a full satisfaction for me. I received the reconciliation the
   moment I trusted Him. I have believed God's record concerning His Son
   that He is able to save me, and I know for that reason--and I do not
   need any other reason--that I am reconciled to God and God to me. There
   is the long and the short of the actual process of reconciliation by
   faith.

   The soul becomes consciously reconciled to God, yet further, when peace
   flows into the soul as the result of the conviction that God is
   reconciled through Jesus Christ. My heart feels, this morning, perfect
   reconciliation with God, because I know that whatever my sins may have
   been, and I know they are far more than I think them to be--they were
   all laid upon Christ's head upon Calvary--and whatever punishment was
   due to me for my sins Christ has borne on my behalf. How do I know that
   He bore my sins in particular? Is it because I think He bore the sins
   of all men? By no means! That would give me no comfort, because some
   men are lost, and I might be among them--and if Jesus bore the sins of
   all men it is clear that His bearing sin in that sense is not in every
   case effectual.

   But, when I know that He so bore the sins of Believers--that they are
   clear, and I am also certain that I am a Believer--I feel the most
   profound peace of mind. Search my soul through and through, and there
   is not a more honest thought in my nature than this--that I rest on
   Christ alone! Very well, then, my sins are forgiven me since they were
   laid on Jesus, and they cannot be in two places. If Christ took them
   they are not on me. Jesus was punished for them and God cannot punish
   two individuals for one and the same sin. If He laid my sin upon my
   Substitute, He cannot lay it upon me. God is not unrighteous to forget
   Christ's labor of love for me. He cannot demand payment twice--first at
   the bleeding Savior's hands--and then again at mine. O you heavens, was
   there ever heard of such a monstrous injustice as for Christ to be a
   Substitute for a sinner, and then that sinner to be punished after
   Christ was punished in His place?

   It cannot, must not, shall not be even thought of! It were an atrocious
   blasphemy! I have God's Word for it, that Jesus died for
   Believers--then am I sure He died for me--and I cannot be condemned!
   The peace which that belief sheds over the mind is wondrous. There is
   no peace like it! Out of this there arises a reconciliation to God more
   and more deep and happy, for the Spirit of God, from time to time, more
   and more opens up to the Believer the work of Christ. He shows him that
   this work was no novelty, that it was no mere expedient invented late
   in the day--but that eternal love had laid out this plan before the
   clouds were weighed, or the mountains were created. Then the Holy
   Spirit reveals the all-sufficiency of the true sacrifice of God. What
   merit there must be in the death of One who is Divine! What a boundless
   extent of overflowing mercy there must be in the pangs and groans of
   One who thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but yet made
   Himself of no reputation and took upon Himself the form of a servant
   for our sakes! Every Believer here will bear me witness that the more
   fully he understands the work of the Lord Jesus the deeper is his
   peace, and, consequently, the more full is his sense of reconciliation
   to God.

   Then, Brothers and Sisters, being persuaded of all this, our heart
   drops her former enmity to God. "What?" says the man. "Has the Lord
   really forgiven me all, and has He forgiven me by giving up His
   only-begotten Son for my sake? Did He take Him from His bosom whom all
   Heaven adored, and give Him up for me? How can I oppose Him any longer?
   I yield, and gladly call Him Lord." Then our love is enraptured with
   His blessed Character and we magnify Him with our whole heart. We adore
   as much His justice as His mercy! We love His holiness as well as His
   Grace, for we see all blended in the Person of the Only-Begotten. We
   learn to bless God that He is angry with sin! We would not have Him
   otherwise. We bless Him that He did require satisfaction, for there
   ought to be a penalty exacted lest sin, through being condoned without
   punishment, should be lightly thought of both by men and other races of
   intelligent beings.

   We thank God that He is just what He is and we would not have Him
   changed in any degree or manner! Ever since by faith we met the Lord on
   Calvary's bloody tree and crossed hands over the great Sacrifice for
   sin, all our enmity is slain. If the old lusts within us dare rebel, we
   proscribe them as traitors and call in the aid of heavenly power to
   subdue them. Our inmost heart is now at one with God--in its very deeps
   we feel a delight in Him!

   Thus I have shown you the second step, or receiving the reconciliation.

   III. By THE THIRD STEP we get into the brightest light--"we joy in
   God." He becomes our highest and loftiest joy. I must take you back a
   step for a minute. No man ever rejoices in God except the man who
   receives the Atonement by Jesus Christ. Suppose a man should say, "I do
   not need an atonement. I am a good man and always have been. I have not
   broken the Law." Well, Friend, I will tell you what is according to
   nature and what I am certain is the fact--you will rejoice in yourself.
   I know if I were half as good as you say you are I would rejoice in
   myself, indeed! If I had kept the Law from my youth up, and had never
   broken one of the Commandments of God, I assure you I would boldly say,
   "God, I

   thank You that I am not as other men are! I have kept Your Law! I have
   done no sin in thought, word, or deed!" I should rejoice in myself.

   Dear Friends, you will never know anything of what it is to rejoice in
   God while you are self-righteous! Neither does any man rejoice in God
   who feels that he has obtained reconciliation with God by his own
   self-reforms. Reforms are admirable and I would not say a word against
   them. But, suppose a man who was once far from God were able to boast
   that he refined himself into fellowship with God--in whom, do you
   think, would he rejoice? Why, in himself, certainly! Did I hear a man
   say, "I have had moral courage and resolution enough to make myself all
   I ought to be. I have brought myself up from the horrible pit and out
   of the miry clay, and this is no small thing"? My dear Man, you are a
   fine fellow! Let me pat you on the back! What? Do you say that you
   don't need to be patted on the back? Don't be angry, I quite agree with
   you!

   You do that quite sufficiently for yourself, and I should do the same
   if I had so much to say for myself as you have! Why should I care to
   rejoice in God? Samson crying, "heaps upon heaps" is nothing to a man
   fighting in his own strength, and conquering all his spiritual foes.
   Why, my valiant Friend, when you get to Heaven you will throw your cap
   up and say, "Glory be to myself!" No doubt you will if ever you get
   there. No, joy in God never could result from a man's saving himself.
   The only way a man comes to joy in God is by receiving reconciliation
   by Divine Grace, and I think that is clear to any thoughtful mind. If
   there is anything of our own of merit, or endeavor which can bring us
   into a state of reconciliation with God, then we shall rejoice in it.
   But if there is nothing of our own, and we have simply to stand still
   and receive salvation and take it all as a matter of the free Grace of
   God through Jesus Christ--then we joy in God.

   Let me dwell on this for a moment. The moment a man is reconciled to
   God his view of God alters entirely. Have you not noticed how your
   opinions of persons will vary? A neighbor has done you a displeasure
   and, therefore, you do not esteem him. Very likely that person is a
   very excellent man, but you read everything he does in the evil limit
   of suspicion. If he meets you with frank courtesy you think him a
   fawning hypocrite. And if he passes you by you, set it down to haughty
   contempt. If he should offer to serve you, you would suspect that he
   wished to place you under a humbling obligation. And if he stands
   aloof, you feel sure that he gloats over your necessities. His name is
   no sweet sound to your ear, you have no joy in him. If, however, by a
   discovery of his kindness you escape from prejudice, his whole conduct
   wears another aspect.

   When a soul becomes reconciled to God by the way of the Cross, as I
   have described, then its whole mind with regard to God alters. And from
   that moment it reads Him aright, and understands Him, and delights in
   Him! I will show you wherein a soul which is reconciled to God delights
   in Him. First, in His very existence and Person. That there is a God is
   to the Christian supreme bliss! "Oh," he says, "what should I do
   without my God? The infidel may say there is no God, but if that were
   true I should have lost my Father, my Friend, my All." The Christian
   feels that his hope of prevailing over injustice and wrong lies in the
   fact that there is a reigning God who will set all things right at
   last. His hopes for preservation and sustenance spring from God's being
   the Source of all life, and the Giver of all good gifts to His people.

   If there were a place in the world where God never came, no Christian
   would ever go there! But, if there is a spot where God peculiarly
   reveals Himself, beloved Brothers and Sisters, is not that where you
   delight to meet? And since we believe there is to be a fuller
   revelation of Himself in Heaven, is not that our main reason for
   longing to be there? Not because the angels are there, or because the
   harps of gold ring out superior melodies, but because we shall be with
   God, and shall be like He! Oh, yes, I do but speak your inmost hearts
   when I say you joy in the very existence of God! As loyal subjects
   rejoice that they have a king. As affectionate children rejoice that
   they have a father. As a loving spouse rejoices that she has a husband,
   so do we, but infinitely beyond all this, rejoice that we have a God!

   Next, we rejoice in His Character. All the attributes of God are themes
   of joy and rejoicing to a Christian. "Why," he says, "He is a merciful
   God. Blessed be His name for that, else I had never been saved! He is a
   gracious God. Glory be to Him for that, for He can save the souls of my
   children by His Grace. He is a powerful God, and I would not have Him
   otherwise. This, indeed, is a well of joy."--

   "The God that rules on high,

   And thunders when He pleases.

   That rides upon the stormy sky,

   And manages the seas.

   This amazing God is ours,

   Our Father and our love. He shall send down His hea venly powers To
   carry us above." We are glad that we have a God who can do all things
   on our behalf!

   The Lord is also Immutable, and oh, what a sun of consolation that
   is--without variableness or shadow of a turning! I shift and change
   like the winds and the waves, but He is always the same. Many a
   fainting Believer has drunk from this fountain when all others have
   failed him. Moreover, the Lord is faithful to His promises. What a joy
   is this! And He is holy, and just, and good--here, too, is joy, for if
   He is holy He cannot do an unrighteous action, and it were unrighteous
   of Him not to save His people for the sake of His Anointed. Every
   attribute of God darts thunder and lightning upon an unreconciled man.
   And, on the other hand, every part of the Divine Character smiles with
   eternal sunlight upon a spirit which has received the Atonement.

   Beloved, when we come to joy in God's Person and attributes, we further
   learn to glory in His Sovereignty. Before our reconciliation we quibble
   at the Divine will. If there is one doctrine in the world which reveals
   the enmity of the human heart more than another it is the doctrine of
   God's Sovereignty. Men will bear with you unto that word, but when they
   hear the Lord's voice saying, "I will have mercy on whom I will have
   mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion," they
   gnash their teeth and call the preacher an Antinomian, a High
   Calvinist, or some other hard name!

   They do not love God except they can make Him a little God! They cannot
   bear for Him to be Supreme! They would gladly take His will away from
   Him and set up their own will as the first cause, and say, "These are
   your gods, O Israel." But the moment we are reconciled to God we
   consent that Jehovah should do as He wills! What better rule could be
   than the absolute empire of love? What can be better as a government
   for all mankind than the absolute authority of One so good, so true, so
   holy, and so just? Set up a limited monarchy in the universe? Yes, it
   were proper enough if the devil were the ruler--but with God for the
   King we need no check upon His superlative justice and immaculate
   holiness! He cannot do unrighteously or unmercifully. He must act
   according to His Nature, and His Nature and His name are Love.

   Let Love reign without limit! Let Love be sovereign! Let Love bear the
   keys of government upon her shoulder and let her name be called the
   Mighty God. Much of men's hatred to the doctrine of Sovereignty is
   rooted in their enmity to the Sovereign Himself--but when the heart is
   reconciled to God we can read the sternest passages of the ninth of
   Romans, or any other Scripture, and say, "Amen, so let it be! What God
   ordains must be right." When the soul becomes reconciled to God, again,
   it joys in God under all His dispensations. Of course we joy in God
   under comfortable dispensations. There is no question whether we do
   not, then, very much divide our joy between the comforts and God.

   But in dark times, when the comforts all go, we can joy in God if we
   can act as David did at Ziklag--when they spoke of stoning him, when
   his goods and his wives were gone and all his followers' wives,
   too--David "encouraged himself in his God." "Oh," he said to the
   soldiers round about him, "do not fret. It is true we are beggars, but
   we have not lost our God! Let us sing a Psalm to His praise." Then
   might they have sung, "The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice," while
   they sharpened their swords to strike the foe.

   Beloved, I will only add these two or three thoughts. Joy in God is the
   happiest of all joys. There are other sweets, but this is the virgin
   honey dropping fresh from the comb. Joy in God is also a most elevating
   joy. Those who joy in wealth grow greedy. Those who joy in their
   friends too often lose nobility of spirit. But he who boasts in God
   grows like God! It is a solid joy, and he who joys in God has good
   reasons for rejoicing. He has arguments which will justify his joy at
   any time. He who rejoices in God shall never be confused or ashamed,
   world without end. It is an abiding joy. If I rejoice in the sun, it
   sets. If in the earth, it shall be burnt up. If in myself, I shall die.
   But to triumph in One who never fails and never changes but lasts
   forever--this is lasting joy! In a word, it is celestial joy. It flows
   like the river of God which rises at the foot of His Throne and waters
   the celestial streets, while trees on either side bear all manner of
   fruits. Blessed is the man whose nature strikes its roots deep into the
   banks of this river--he shall bring forth his fruit in his season--his
   leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper.

   The only sad reflection is, and with that I close, that there are so
   many who know nothing about joy in God. They could never gaze upon yon
   stars and say, "My God, You have made all these, and I love You. I love
   You not as I fancy You are, but as You have said You are in the
   Scripture. I would not alter Your Nature if I could. I would not tempt
   You

   by saying, 'Do not this or that.' Whatever You do I admire, for I am
   reconciled to You, and I joy in You." When Mungo Park looked at that
   little piece of moss growing in the desert where he was lost, he
   thought, "God is here taking care of that little moss," and his heart
   was full of gladness. I know a Christian woman who was in great family
   trouble and was near despairing, but she saw a little feather on the
   floor which the draft of air from under the door blew to and fro, and
   the thought came into her mind, "God knows the motion of every filament
   of that feather, and He is moving it. God is here." And all her sorrow
   disappeared and she rejoiced in God!

   Did you ever feel like that? You know how your child feels when you put
   it to bed. As long as its mother is there it does not cry, but when she
   goes, it is sad. Did you ever feel towards God as the child does to its
   parent? At this moment my soul is lying on God's bosom, and I am happy.
   God is mine and I love Him. Oh, how I love Him! You unconverted ones
   cannot say that. I wish you could, for if you are unreconciled to God
   your state is a very perilous one and at the same time a very mean one.
   I would not like to be at enmity with a good man who had always shown
   me kindness. I should not like to feel that I did not love good men.

   I must be a wretch if I do not respect and love the only perfect Being!
   If good for anything, myself, I shall be pleased to call the good my
   friends. Look at yourselves in that light and see, Sinners, what mean
   creatures you are. I pray you may say, "We will not be so mean any
   longer. We will be at peace with God." There is only one way of
   reconciliation and that is you must receive the Atonement Christ Jesus
   worked out by His death. That way is most suitable to you, and I hope
   you will agree with it at once. Oh, may the Spirit of God make you put
   out your receiving hand. Is it palsied? Does it quiver and shake? Never
   mind! A palsied hand is sufficient to receive with! I have seen many a
   shivering beggar beg in the streets, but he could always receive! I
   have never found his hand too feeble for that.

   Put forth that trembling hand and take the Savior by trusting in Him!
   The moment you trust Him you are saved! God is reconciled to every soul
   that trusts Christ. May God grant that you may feel the power of the
   reconciliation by His Holy Spirit. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Covenant Blessings

   (No. 1046)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, APRIL 14, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "A newheart also willI give you, and a new spirit will Iput within you:
   and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give
   you an heart of flesh. And I willput My Spirit within you, and cause
   you to walk in My statutes and you shall keep My judgments, and do
   them." Ezekiel 36:26,27.

   LUTHER has well said that the experience of the minister is the best
   book in his library. I am persuaded it is so and that God often leads
   His servants through peculiar states of mind, not so much for their own
   benefit as for the sake of those to whom they may afterwards minister.
   It is not long ago since I felt myself, when engaged in devotion, cold
   and dead. And in looking into my own heart I saw no ground of
   comfortable assurance as to my being a possessor of the Grace of
   God--my feelings towards the great Father in Heaven were not, as far as
   I could judge, those of a child--my love towards Jesus Christ for His
   redemption was almost extinct.

   I thought over the story of His Cross without emotion and I recalled to
   my mind the history of His everlasting love without gratitude. My soul
   was not, as it sometimes is, like the crystal lake which is ruffled
   with every passing breath of the breeze, but like some northern sea
   hardened into iron by the fierce reign of endless winter. The sublime
   Truths of infinite Grace stirred not my soul. My heart sank within me
   for a moment, but only for a moment, for there flashed across me this
   thought--"The Holy Spirit can produce within your heart all those
   emotions you are seeking for, all those desires you gladly would feel,
   all the melting, and the moving, and the yearning, and the rejoicing,
   which are significant of the Grace of God."

   Under the influence of that Truth of God, as in a moment, my deadness
   and coldness were driven away and I was filled with adoring love. Then
   I wondered greatly that the Lord should deign to handle such coarse
   material as our nature, that He should condescend to work upon such
   gross spirits, such groveling minds, such carnal understandings as
   ours. And when, by faith, I perceived that He could not only, then and
   there, give me to feel spiritual life but could maintain it against all
   hazards, and perfect it beyond all imperfections, and bring me safe
   into His eternal Kingdom and Glory--an act of faith exerted upon the
   Holy Spirit through the Cross of Christ made my soul eager for prayer,
   and my joy and peace in believing were more than restored to me!

   Then I said within myself, there may be others in a similar case and
   especially there may be seeking souls who, seeing what must be worked
   in them before they can hope to be partakers of the eternal rest, may
   despair that such a work should ever be done, and looking only to
   themselves may be inclined to give up all hope, and conclude that
   within the pearly gates they can never enter. Perhaps, I thought, if I
   remind them that "the Spirit also helps our infirmities," that Jesus
   Christ's bequest to us, in virtue of His having gone to Heaven, is an
   Omnipotent One who can work all our worlds in us, causing us to will
   and to do of His own good pleasure--the thought may encourage their
   hearts and enable them to look with restful confidence to Him who works
   all our worlds in us.

   Our text is a portion of that delightful rendering of the Covenant of
   Grace which is given us by Ezekiel, and we will, for a single moment,
   ask you to remember the persons with whom the covenant of Grace was
   made. An early version of the Covenant of Grace was given to Abraham
   and this in Ezekiel is a repetition, expansion, or explanation of the
   same. This Covenant, and that form of it made with Abraham, concern the
   same individuals. Let us, then, remind ourselves that the Covenant was
   not made with the fleshly seed of Abraham. If it had been, it would
   have run in the line of Ishmael as well as that of Isaac--but it was
   not made with Ishmael, for what says the Scriptures--"Cast out the
   bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir
   with my son, even with Isaac."

   The Covenant of Grace was not made with the children who are born after
   the flesh as was Ishmael, but with those who are born according to the
   promise as was Isaac--who was not born by virtue of the energy of the
   flesh, for of Abraham it was said that he was as good as dead, and as
   for Sarah that she was long past bearing. But Isaac, the child of
   laughter, the child of joy, the heir of the promise, was born according
   to the power of God and not after the energy of nature. Isaac evidently
   typifies not the man of works but the man offaith. The man of works is
   born after the flesh. He has reformed himself. He has done his best--he
   continues to do his best. He is the child of his own energy. He is the
   result of human power. He is under the Law--he tries to save himself by
   the Law--he is, therefore, the son of Hagar the bondwoman and he is
   under bondage. His destiny may be learned from the words, "Cast forth
   the son of the bondwoman, he shall not be heir with my son."

   But the man of faith has received his faith supernaturally. It has been
   worked in him by the Holy Spirit. It is not the fruit of the creature's
   power, it is the gift of God--it is the child of promise and it is the
   child of joy and laughter to him--it is a fresh spring of joy within
   his soul. The man of faith, therefore, is the heir of the promise and
   the partaker of the Covenant since he believes in Jesus, whom God
   raised from the dead. The man who rests upon the Grace of God and
   believes in God as holy Abraham did--he is a faithful man and,
   consequently, he is one of the sons of the father of the faithful. Let
   every man, therefore, who believes in Jesus Christ this morning know
   assuredly that every word of this text belongs to him and shall be
   fulfilled in him.

   I earnestly pray that many sinners may put in their claim and say, "I
   have no works, but I believe in Jesus Christ. I come now and rest
   myself upon the bloody Sacrifice offered upon Calvary and I humbly
   receive the mercy of God through Jesus Christ by simply depending on
   Him." To everyone who exercises faith in God, even though it is but a
   weak and struggling faith, the precious promise we are about to expound
   is a heritage which cannot be taken away from him! The main promise of
   the text before us is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Observe that
   the text divides itself thus--first, it contains an assured promise of
   preparation for the Spirit's indwelling. Secondly, a plain promise of
   that indwelling. And, thirdly, the blessed results which flow from the
   promise.

   I. Observe, first, we have here to all God's covenanted people, or in
   other words, to all Believers, a promise of PREPARATION FOR THE
   SPIRIT'S INDWELLING. "A new heart also will I give you, and a new
   spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out
   of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh." This promise is
   as a cluster of nuts, or a bough with many golden apples. Like the
   cherubim of Ezekiel it has four faces, all smiling upon the heirs of
   salvation. Like the new Jerusalem it lies four-square. It is a
   quadruple treasure worthy of four-fold consideration!

   The first of the four blessings is the gift of a new heart. "A new
   heart also will I give you." The Holy Spirit cannot dwell in the old
   heart--it is a filthy place devoid of all good--and full of enmity to
   God. His very first operation upon our nature is to pull down the old
   house and build Himself a new one that He may be able to inhabit us
   consistently with His holy spiritual Nature. A new heart is absolutely
   essential. We must be born-again or the Spirit of Truth cannot abide
   within us. Observe where the inward work of Grace begins. All man's
   attempts at the betterment of human nature begin from without, and the
   theory is that the work will deepen till it reaches that which is
   within. They profess to emancipate the man from the grosser vices,
   trusting that the reform will go further--that he will be brought under
   superior influences--and so be elevated in mind and heart.

   Theirs is an outward ointment for an inward disease--a bandage upon the
   skin to stop the bleeding of the heart. Miserable physicians are they
   all! Their remedies fail to eradicate the deep-seated maladies of
   humanity. God's way of dealing with men is the reverse. He begins
   within and works towards the exterior in due course. He is not a mere
   quack, who, seeing in a man the signs of disease, operates upon the
   symptoms, and never looks to the root of the mischief. It is very
   possible that by potent poisons a charlatan may check unpleasing
   indications--and he may kill the man in doing so. But the wise
   physician looks to the fountain of the disease, and if it is not
   possible to touch the core and center of it, he leaves the symptoms to
   right themselves.

   If your watch is out of order the watchmaker does not consider it
   sufficient to clean the silver case, or to remove dust from the
   face--he looks within and may discover that this wheel is broken, this
   cog out of order--or the main spring needing to be replaced. He is not
   much concerned about setting the hands accurately at first, for he
   knows that the external manifestations of the correct time will follow
   from the setting to rights the time-keeping machinery within.

   Look at our brooks and rivulets which have been, by a lax legislature,
   so long delivered over to the tormentors to be blackened into
   pestiferous sewers--if we need to have them purged it is of no use to
   cast chloride of lime and other chemicals into the stream--the only
   remedy is to forbid the pollution, to demand that factories shall not
   poison us wholesale, but shall in some other manner consume their
   useless products! The voice of common sense bids us go to the original
   cause of the defilement and deal with it at its sources.

   That is just what God does when He saves a sinner! He begins at the
   origin of the sinner's sin and deals with his heart. My Brothers and
   Sisters, what a difficult work this is--"A new heart also will I give
   you." If it had been said, "A new garment will I give you," many of us
   could have conferred the same gift. If it had been said, "A new speech
   will I teach you," this, also, with a little skill, might have been
   arranged. And, if the promise had been, "new habits will I create in
   you," this, also, we could have attempted, and perhaps successfully, to
   imitate, for habits are to be engendered. But a new heart? Ah, here
   human power and wit are nonplussed. Jannes and Jambres in Egypt could
   imitate some of the miracles. They "did so with their enchantment," and
   there is much in true religion which men can successfully counterfeit.

   But, as in Egypt, a point was reached wherein the magicians were
   foiled, so that they confessed, "This is the finger of God." So in the
   regeneration of our nature--in the changing the heart--the Lord alone
   is seen. Who shall pretend to give another a new heart? Go, boaster,
   and suspend the laws of gravitation! Recall the thunderbolt! Reverse
   the chariot of the sun! Transform the Atlantic to a lake of fire and
   then attempt to change the nature of the heart of man! This, God alone
   works, for He only does wondrous things! The affections are the most
   powerful part of our nature! They, to a great extent, mold even the
   understanding itself. And if the heart is defiled, all the mental
   faculties become disturbed in their balance. God, therefore, commences
   at the heart--and therein begins a work in which man cannot compete
   with Him, nor can he even help Him.

   God must do it. The same God who made men must make them new, if the
   new-making is to begin with a change of heart. Blessed be God, He is
   Omnipotent enough to give us new hearts! He has wisdom enough to renew
   us! He has purity sufficient to cleanse us! He has abounding mercy to
   bear with us. Mark, He gives us "a new heart," not an old heart
   touched-up and mended. Not an old heart a little purified and
   improved--but a new heart which enters into a new life, receives new
   inspirations, feeds on new food, longs for new happiness, performs new
   actions, and is, in fact--an inhabitant of the new heavens and the new
   earth wherein dwells righteousness! Brethren, I will read this sentence
   over again, "A new heart also will I give you."

   And I would call your attention to the style of the language. It is, "I
   will," and yet again, "I will." Jehovah's Ego is the great word. It is
   not "I will, if," or, "I will, perhaps," or, "I will upon certain
   conditions," but--"I will give." He speaks in a God-like tone. It is
   royal language, the very word of Him who of old said, "Light be," and
   light was! He who spoke the world into being now speaks the new world
   of Grace into being in the self-same majestic voice! Turn, now, to the
   second blessing--"A new spirit will I put within you." Perhaps this
   clause may be explained as an interpretation of the former one. It may
   be that the new heart and the new spirit are intended to represent the
   same thing. But I conceive there is more than this.

   "A new spirit"--does not the term indicate that a new vital principle
   is implanted in men? We have often explained to you that the natural
   man, is correctly and strictly speaking, a compound of soul and body
   only. The first man, Adam, was made a living soul, and, as we bear the
   image of the first Adam, we are body and soul only. It is our own
   belief that in regeneration something more is done than the mere
   rectifying of what was there--there is in the new birth infused and
   implanted in man a third and more elevated principle--a spirit is
   begotten in him! And, as the second Adam was made a quickening Spirit,
   so in the new birth we are transformed into the likeness of Christ
   Jesus, who is the second Adam. The implantation, infusion and putting
   into our nature the third and higher principle is, we believe, the
   being born-again. Regarded in this light, the words before us may be
   regarded as an absolute and unconditional promise of the Covenant of
   Grace to all the seed that a new spirit shall be put within them.

   But, if we view it as some do, we shall then read it thus--the ruling
   spirit of man's nature shall be changed. The spirit which rules and
   reigns in Godless Christless men is the spirit of a rebellious slave,
   the spirit of self. Every natural man's main motive is himself. Even in
   his religion he only seeks self. If he is attentive to prayers and
   sermons, it is that he, himself, may be saved. And if he fears God, and
   dreads the terrors of His Law, it is on his own account--not that he
   cares for God's Glory, God's honor, or the rights of God--not one whit!
   He has no more interest in God than a rebellious

   slave has in the property of his master. He wears the yoke, but he
   groans under it. He would gladly enough escape from it if he could. He
   is only happy when he is breaking his master's laws and fulfilling his
   own selfish will.

   But, when the Spirit of God comes upon us to make our spirit a fit
   place for His residence, He takes away the spirit of the slave and
   gives us the spirit of a child--and from that moment the service of God
   becomes a different thing. We do not serve Him now because we are
   afraid of the whip, but nobler motives move us. Gratitude binds us to
   the Lord's service and love gives wings to the feet of obedience. Now
   the Lord is no more regarded as a tyrant, but as a wise and loving
   parent. Whatever He may do with us we rejoice in His wisdom and
   goodness. We view Him no longer with suspicion and dread, but with
   confidence and joy. No more do we ask, "where shall I go from Your
   Presence?" But we desire to come near to Him. And in our sorrows our
   cry is, "Oh that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come even
   to His seat." It is a revolution, indeed, when the hatred and dread of
   a slave are exchanged for the loving subjection of a son! This is one
   of the precious privileges of the Covenant of Grace, which I trust,
   Beloved, many of you have already received, and which I hope others who
   have not received it will seek after. If they have believed in Jesus, a
   new spirit, a spirit of sonship is their privilege--let them not be
   content unless they have it now.

   A third and further blessing of the text is the removal of the stony
   heart. "I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh." I do not
   think the Lord removes, all at once, the evil heart out of any man's
   flesh--there it remains to be fought with like the Canaanites in Canaan
   when Israel had entered there--to prove us and to try us. But He does
   take away the stony heart at once. The stony heart is a hard heart. The
   moment anything strikes a stone it repels the blow. When the Gospel is
   heard by a hard heart it throws it off again. It is not moved by it. It
   is not affected by it. You might as well throw feathers at a wall as
   preach Gospel sermons to hard hearts if your confidence is in the
   sermon itself! Only God's power can make the feather-like sermon
   penetrate the heart of stone!

   The Lord can do it, but the thing itself cannot be done by Nature. The
   natural heart is an impenetrable heart--you may make scratches on the
   surface--but you cannot enter within it to reach its inner core. What a
   marble heart by nature each one of us has! Till Grace visits us, the
   Truth of God cannot enter us any more than light can shine into a
   stone. A stony heart is unfeeling--you can make no impression upon
   it--it cannot smart, it cannot breathe, it cannot sigh, it cannot
   groan. A stony thing because a dead thing. Bruise it and that which
   would make flesh black and blue does not affect the stone. Cut it and
   that which would cause an agony to living flesh makes no disturbance in
   its granite mass. A cold, insensible thing--not to be warmed even by
   the rehearsal of the love of Calvary--such is our heart by nature.

   Dear Hearers, such is the heart of every one of you till God deals with
   you--just a lump of stone! Of course we speak not literally but
   spiritually, yet what we assert is a solemn fact. God says, "I will
   take away the stony heart." What a wonderful operation to take a stone
   out of the heart! How much more wonderful to take the stony heart,
   itself, right away and create a fleshy heart in its place! I would ask
   you again, though it may seem like a repetition, to notice how royally
   the Lord speaks. He does not say, "perhaps I will." He does not say,
   "If you are willing I will," but, he says, "I will." Oh, it is
   gloriously worded, "I will take away the stony heart out of your
   flesh." The Lord's Omnipotence can accomplish it!

   We have heard of many expedients for softening hard hearts, but none of
   them are of any use. I know preachers who delight in talking of a
   mother's tears, and a father's gray hairs--of dying children and
   consumptive sisters, and I believe these are all legitimate topics. But
   no hearts are ever turned from stone to flesh merely by natural
   emotion. You may make a man weep over his dead child or his dead wife
   till his eyes are red--but his heart will be black for all that. Men's
   hearts are changed by quite another agency than oratorical or
   rhetorical appeals to the natural affections. I readily admit that such
   appeals have their own sphere, but for the renewing of the heart
   something much more effectual is needed than natural emotion. It is
   written, "/ will take away the heart of stone out of your flesh," and
   there is the secret of the matter!

   The fourth promise of the preparation of the heart for the indwelling
   of the Spirit is this--"I will give you an heart of flesh," by which is
   meant a soft heart, an impressible heart, a sensitive heart, a heart
   which can feel, can be moved to shame, to repentance, to loathing of
   sin, to desiring, to seeking, to panting, to longing after God. It
   means a tender heart, a heart that does not require a thousand blows to
   move it, but, like flesh with its skin broken, feels the very faintest
   touch--such is the heart which the Holy Spirit creates in the children
   of God! It is a teachable heart, a heart willing to be guided, molded,
   governed by the Divine will--a heart which, like young Samuel, cries,
   "Speak, Lord, for Your servant

   hears"--an obedient heart, ready to be run into the mold, putty beneath
   the sacred hand, anxious to be conformed to the heavenly Pattern.

   This is an early work of Grace in the soul, for as soon as ever the
   Gospel is heard in power and the Spirit of God comes upon a man, long
   before he enters into the liberty where Christ makes men free, he
   ceases to have a heart of stone! Long before he can say, "Christ is
   mine," he becomes tender and impressible under the Truth, and it is a
   great mercy it is so! It is a blessed sign of a work begun which will
   be effectually carried on where the heart trembles at God's Word, where
   there are earnest desires towards Christ and the man is no longer a
   braggart rebel, but a trembling child come back to his father, and
   longing to cry, "Father, I have sinned against Heaven and before You."

   Beloved, it is necessary, here, to add a word of caution to some of
   you. Do not mistake natural tenderness for that heart of flesh which
   God gives. There are many persons who are naturally very impressible,
   many among women, and some among men. For this characteristic they are
   rather, to me, admired than censured. But, let them not mistake this
   for a work of Grace. A heart of wax is soft, but it is not a heart of
   flesh. The softness of Nature is not the sensitiveness of Divine Grace.
   It is often the case that some persons who are religiously sensitive
   are equally sensitive the other way, and, while you can influence them
   for good, others can as easily influence them for evil. They happen to
   be just now religious because the associations surrounding them have
   that tendency, but were they under other influences they would be
   skeptical if not utterly irreligious.

   They would have been lovers of the pleasures which others pursue had
   not home habits sobered their minds, for their hearts are still
   unrenewed. Mere religious impressibility is not Grace--it is Nature
   alone--and I even fear that to some it is a temptation to be so
   extremely impressionable. I am not always sanguine concerning persons
   who are readily excited, for they so soon cool down again. Some are
   like India rubber and every time you put your finger on them you leave
   a mark--but it is wasted time, because they get back into the old shape
   again as soon as you have done with them. I was preaching once, in a
   certain city, and a very worthy but worldly man went out of the
   congregation while I was in the middle of the sermon, the third sermon
   he had been hearing from me during the week.

   One who followed him out asked him why he left, and he frankly replied
   that he could not stand it any longer, "for," he said, "I must have
   become religious if I had heard that sermon through. I was nearly gone.
   I have been," he added, "like an India rubber doll under this man. But
   when he goes away I shall get back into the old shape again." Very many
   are of the same quality. They have so much natural amiability, good
   sense, and conscientiousness, that the Gospel ministry has a power over
   them and they feel its influence, though not so as to be saved by it.
   Beware, then, that you do not mistake the gilding of Nature for the
   solid gold of Grace.

   When God's Grace helps the preacher to wield the Gospel hammer and it
   comes down with power upon a piece of flint, how speedily the stone
   flies to shivers and what a glorious work of heart-breaking is done!
   And then the Lord comes in and gives, by His own almighty Grace, a
   heart of flesh! This is the change we need--the taking away of the
   stone--the giving of the heart of flesh. Let us read these four
   promises again, and I hope they will reach any poor trembling soul who
   may be saying, "I would, but cannot repent. I would but cannot feel. If
   anything is felt 'tis only pain to find I cannot feel! My heart is so
   bad, so hard, so cold, I can believe in Christ but I cannot change my
   nature."

   Poor Soul, there is no need you should! For there is One who can do the
   work for you and these are His absolute promises to you if you are now
   looking to Christ upon the Cross and resting all your hopes in Him--"A
   new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you:
   and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give
   you an heart of flesh."

   II. But time flies, and therefore let us consider, in the second place,
   THE INDWELLING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

   When the Spirit has thus prepared His habitation, He comes to reside
   within the renewed man. I call your attention to each word of the text.
   Observe first that the Lord says, "I will put My Spirit within you."
   Now it does not say, "the influences of the Spirit shall come within
   you"--not that--but, "I will put My Spirit within you." It is literally
   the fact that God Himself, the Eternal Spirit in "propria Persona," in
   His own Person, resides and dwells within the renewed heart. I again
   remark that it is not said, "I will put the Grace of My Spirit, I will
   put the work of My Spirit," but, "I will put My Spirit within you."

   It is the Holy Spirit Himself who, in very deed, lives in every heart
   of flesh--every new heart and right spirit. Can you get that thought?
   Simple as it is, it is one of the greatest marvels under the sun! An
   Incarnate God is a mystery--the

   Word was made flesh and dwelt among us--but here is another mystery!
   God dwells in every son of God. God dwells in us, and we in Him! The
   mystery of the Incarnation is no greater than that of the Holy Spirit's
   indwelling, nor does it appear to me to involve more condescension. I
   marvel at Christ's dwelling with sinners and I marvel, equally, at the
   Holy Spirit's dwelling in sinners! God Himself, for whom the universe
   is not too vast a temple! The ever blessed Spirit in whose Presence the
   heavens are not clean, yet says, "To this man will I look even to him
   that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and that trembles at My Word."

   The indwelling of the Holy Spirit within us implies the exercise of His
   influences, the bestowal of His gifts, and the implantation of His
   Graces. And, moreover, it involves the exercise of all His sacred
   offices, for where the Holy Spirit indwells He acts as a Teacher, an
   Illuminator, a Comforter, a Creator, a Strengthener, a Preserver--all
   that He is in all His offices He will be according to His own will to
   every man in whom He takes up His abode. Note a little word, also, in
   the text worthy of your attention. "I will put My Spirit within you."
   It is not the spirit of angels. It is not the spirit of good men--it is
   God's own Spirit who takes up His residence in every sinners when God
   renews it. "My Spirit." And perhaps this may allude to the fact that
   this is the same Spirit which abode without measure in our Lord Jesus
   Christ.

   We have a union of experience with Christ in the fact that the same oil
   which anointed Him anoints us. The same dew which fell upon His branch
   refreshes ours. The same holy fire which burned in His breast is
   kindled in ours. "I will put My Spirit within you." Observe also
   carefully the words, "within you." "I will put my Spirit within you."
   We thank God that we come near to the Spirit of God when we devoutly
   read the Holy Scriptures, for He wrote them and His mind is in them.
   But we have a greater privilege than this! We thank God when the Spirit
   acts upon us under a sermon, or under any form of Christian teaching so
   that we feel the Spirit of God to be with us. But we have a privilege
   richer, even, than this. "I will put My Spirit"--not with you, nor side
   by side with you, nor in a book, nor in an oracle, nor in a temple, nor
   in one of your fellow men, but--"I will put My Spirit within YOU"--in
   your own souls, in your own renewed hearts!

   This is marvelous! Augustine, when reflecting upon the various glories
   which come to God, and the benefits which accrue to men through
   redemption--none of which could have been revealed without the fall of
   Adam--exclaimed, "O beata culpa." "Oh, happy fault!" And I have the
   same expression trembling on my lips. Where sin abounded Grace has much
   more abounded. Sin, which laid man in the dust and made him like a
   devil, afforded an opportunity for Mercy to step in and lift humanity
   higher than before! Where was man in Eden compared with man in Christ?
   In Paradise he was perfect in beauty, but in Jesus he wears a radiance
   superlative, for the Holy Spirit is within him!

   In Adam man was made a living soul, but in Christ Jesus he has now
   risen to the dignity and majesty of a quickening Spirit. My brethren,
   where the Holy Spirit enters He is able to subdue all things unto
   Himself. When the ark came unto the Philistine temple, down went Dagon.
   And when the Holy Spirit enters the soul, sin falls and is broken. If
   the Holy Spirit is within, we may rest assured He will tolerate no
   reigning sin. He is a Spirit of burning, consuming our dross! He is a
   Spirit of light, chasing away our darkness. When He makes a heart His
   temple, He will scourge out the buyers and sellers who pollute it! He
   is not only the Purifier within but the Protector, too--from
   temptations that assail us from without He is as an unconquerable
   garrison to our soul making us impregnable to all assaults.

   Treasonable sins lurk within us, but the Omniscient eye of God discerns
   each evil ambush and He lays His hands upon every sin which hides
   itself away in the dark recesses of our nature. With such an Indweller
   we need not fear--this poor heart of ours will yet become perfect as
   God is perfect--and our nature, through His indwelling, shall rise into
   complete meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light. Oh, what
   blessings are here, and in what royal language are they all promised!
   "I will put My Spirit within you." How positive! How decisive! Suppose
   they will not accept the Spirit? Suppose they strive against the
   Spirit? Suppose their free will should get the mastery? Suppose
   nonsense!

   When the Lord says, "I will," nothing remains to be supposed. If He
   speaks to chaos, it is order. Do not ask, "Suppose chaos refuses to be
   arranged?" When Jehovah speaks to darkness, it becomes light! Do not
   ask, "But, suppose the darkness resists?" What shall resist His fiat?
   When the Lord comes forth in His Omnipotence who shall stay His hand or
   say unto Him, "What are you doing?" When the Spirit comes to deal in
   Sovereign Grace with the hearts of men, without violating their wills
   He has the power to accomplish His Divine purpose, and it shall be
   accomplished to the praise of the glory of His Grace.

   III. Lastly, we must ask you to give your thoughts a moment to THE
   BLESSED RESULTS which come from all this. The indwelling Spirit leads
   every man in whom He reigns into obedience to the ways of God. I said
   that the work of Grace is commenced from within, but the work does not
   end there. Before we have considered the whole of the Covenant promise
   we shall find that change of life is guaranteed--a change apparent in
   works and actions, "You shall keep My judgments and do them." We do not
   begin with works, but we go on to works. Faith first receives the
   blessing and then produces holy work. We will not allow the effect to
   take the place of the cause, but we are equally sure that the effect
   follows after the cause.

   Now, observe the promise of the text before us--"I will cause you to
   walk in My statutes." The soul that possesses the Spirit becomes
   active. It walks. It is not passive as one carried by main force--it
   works because the Spirit works in it, "to will and to do of His own
   good pleasure." The man who has no active godliness may fear whether he
   has any Grace at all. If I am only a receiver and have never brought
   forth fruit, I may fear that I am the ground that is "near unto
   cursing," for if I were a field that the Lord has blessed I should
   yield Him a harvest. The Spirit causes us to walk, but yet we ourselves
   walk. He works in us to do, but the doing is actually our own. He does
   not repent, and He does not believe--He has nothing to repent of, and
   He has nothing to believe. Neither does the Spirit perform works for
   us--we are led to do these ourselves. We repent and we believe, and we
   do good works because He causes us to do so.

   A willing walk with God is a sweet result of the Holy Spirit's
   indwelling. The Holy Spirit leads us to holy habits, for, mark the
   phrase, "I will cause you to walk in My ways." The figure does not
   represent us as taking a run now and then, or as leaping a step or two
   and then lying down--but as walking on and on, steadily and
   continuously. Here excitement may produce momentary zeal and transient
   morality, but habitual holiness is the fruit of the Spirit. Note, next,
   the delight it implies. "I will cause you to walk in My ways"--not as a
   man who toils, but as one who walks at ease. The Believer finds it as
   sweet to walk in God's ways as Isaac felt it sweet to walk in the
   fields at eventide. We are not slaves sweating in sore bondage, but
   children serving with delight! His Commandments are not grievous. His
   yoke is easy and His burden is light.

   It implies, too, holy perseverance--the words have the meaning of
   continuing to follow after holiness. It is a small matter to begin, but
   to hold out to the end is the testing point. The text promises to us a
   complete obedience--"I will cause you to walk in My statutes, and you
   shall keep My judgments." A Christian man is obedient to God--he minds
   the first table. He is just to man--he does not despise the second
   table. Statutes and judgments are equally dear to Believers. We are not
   willing to give a lame, one-sided obedience to God. The Holy Spirit,
   when He makes us devout God-ward, makes us honest man-ward. And the
   Holy Spirit also works a holy care for righteousness in the soul. "I
   will cause you to keep My judgments"--that is, to have an exactness of
   obedience--a precision, a deliberation, a willingness to find out God's
   will and a care to attend to it in every jot and tittle.

   A man in whom dwells the Holy Spirit is careful not to yield himself to
   the traditions of men but to the commands of God. He pays no attention
   to the statutes of the great councils of the Church, or the ordinances
   of popes, or the laws of priests, or the mandates of bishops. He
   searches out the will of the Lord, only. The knee of his conscience
   bows with lowly reverence before the Lord but nowhere else. He who has
   bound us to His altar has loosed all other bonds, so that the
   traditions of men and the ordinances of priests are contemptible to us.
   To God, and God alone the renewed heart renders obedience, but that
   obedience he does render!

   Now, to what a delightful consummation has our text conducted us. It
   began with a renewed heart and it ends in a purified life. It commenced
   with taking away the stone and giving the flesh. Now it gives us the
   life of Christ written out in living characters in our daily practice.
   Glory be to God for this! O Soul, if you are a partaker of it, you will
   join in this thanksgiving! And if you are not renewed as yet, I beseech
   you do not go about to find these good things anywhere but where they
   are. At the foot of the Cross you will find a change of heart--where
   fell the drops of blood from Jesus' nailed hands and feet--there is
   salvation! The Spirit of God will give you a right spirit, and,
   consequently, a pure life. Look not to your own efforts! Rake not the
   dunghill of your own heart! Look to the Holy Spirit through the blood
   of the precious Savior.

   Now, to close. All this glorifies God doubly. It glorifies God that a
   man should walk in His ways. It glorifies God, yet more, that such
   obedience should be the result of Divine power. The outward life honors
   God, but the inward, spiritual, gracious work which that life produces,
   honors Him yet more abundantly. While this glorifies God doubly, it

   ennobles the soul supremely. To be made holy is to receive a patent of
   nobility. To be made holy by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, oh,
   what shall we say to this? Bring here the poorest peasant--let her, if
   you will, be an aged woman, wrinkled and haggard with labor and with
   years. Let her be ignorant of all learning, but, let me know that in
   her there is faith in Christ and that, consequently, the Holy Spirit
   dwells in her, and I will reverence her above all emperors and kings,
   for she is above them all!

   What are these crowned ones but men who, perhaps, have waded through
   slaughter to a throne, while she has been uplifted by the righteousness
   of Jesus? Their dynasty is, after all, of mushroom growth--but she is
   of the blood royal of the skies! She has God within her! She has Christ
   waiting to receive her into His bliss! Heaven's inhabitants without her
   could not be perfected, nor God's purpose be fulfilled! Therefore is
   she noblest of the noble! Judge not after the sight of the eyes, but
   judge after the mind of God, and let saved sinners be precious in "your
   sight."

   Honor, also, the Holy Spirit. Speak of Him with lowly awe. Never take
   His name in vain. Take heed lest you blaspheme it. Reverently seek His
   company. Rejoice in His gifts. Love Him. Quench Him not. Strive not
   against Him. Bow beneath His power, and may He dwell in you and make
   you fit to dwell with Him forever, for His name's sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Triumph Of Christianity

   (No. 1047)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, APRIL 21, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and
   all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before You." Psalm 22:27.

   SOME have thought that this Psalm was used as a soliloquy by our Lord
   when He was expiring upon the Cross. It may be so. Fitter words could
   scarcely have been conceived, even by our Lord Himself. We must not,
   however, strain a point to establish a conjecture, nor attempt to prove
   that which is not revealed to us. We have no sort of hesitation,
   however, in asserting that this Psalm describes both the outward
   sufferings and the inward emotions of our expiring Lord--and in that
   light it becomes a very wonderful Psalm, indeed. Its clear prophetic
   description is an evidence of our Lord's Messiahship, and indeed, it is
   so full and plain that it is a key to His sufferings.

   Here the Prophet explains the Evangelist, just as in ordinary cases the
   Evangelist is the expositor of the Prophet. Towards the close of this
   Psalm its tone is singularly altered--mournfulness departs and joy
   occupies its place--the mighty Hero sees the conflict ended,
   anticipates the victory and begins to chant the conquerors paean. We
   have selected our text out of that part of the Psalm which overflows
   with the joy of anticipated triumph, and we trust that this morning the
   joy of the Lord may be our strength so that we may be moved to prayer
   and nerved for action. As this is the annual Missionary Sabbath, I feel
   bound to preach upon the subject, yet, while I do so, I shall at the
   same time desire to speak personally to the souls of all present.

   Remembering that we are in a dying world, I, a dying preacher to dying
   hearers, would not deliver even a single discourse without appealing to
   the consciences and aiming at the hearts of those who are present.
   Because we are thinking of heathens, or of the coming triumphs of
   Christ in the latter days, we must not forget those who are perishing
   before our eyes. Excuse me, therefore--no, commend me--if every now and
   then I drive right away from the subject to assail men's hearts.

   I. Our first point this morning is, I think, pretty clear in the text,
   namely, that THE CONVERSION OF THE NATIONS TO GOD MAY BE EXPECTED. "All
   the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all
   the kindreds of the nations shall worship Him." We are all agreed that
   such a thing is to be desired. It is, indeed, a "consummation devoutly
   to be wished," since this is the true and only remedy for the ills of
   human society. Nothing else will ever cure earth's woes but the
   bringing of her back again to her God from whom she has wandered.

   We are equally well agreed, I think, in the sorrowful conclusion that
   such a consummation does not appear at all likely to the eye of
   observation and the judgment of reason. How little progress has the
   Kingdom of God made in the world in these latter days! In the heroic
   age of Christianity the Cross was borne as a conquering symbol from
   land to land in a short space of time! The Apostles were clothed with
   extraordinary power and their immediate successors, retaining much of
   their spirit, went from strength to strength till the nations heard the
   testimony of Christ and myriads submitted to it.

   A long pause has intervened, with only occasional breaks, such as the
   Reformation, the times of refreshing under the Methodists, and the
   partial revival of our own times. Despite these hopeful outbreaks of
   life, the progress of Christianity has been very slight, indeed,
   compared with what might have been expected from its rapid strides at
   the commencement, and compared with what might have been expected from
   the force of its essential truth, and from the fact that its message
   commends itself to the best sympathies of the human heart. Alas, alas!
   The battle is long and weary, and the end is not yet. So far from going
   on to victory, we so decline that men taunt us with the decadence of
   our holy faith and foretell that we are nearing the period of decay
   when something better will supplant the Gospel.

   We do not believe the insinuation! We reject it as blasphemy! And yet
   we should not wonder if our lethargy and non-success have been the soil
   in which this noxious thought has grown. It is unquestionable that the
   Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, except to those who regard it with
   very sanguine eyes, has not progressed of late as we could have
   desired. It would be fair to conclude, judging of things to come by the
   things that appear, and setting aside the hopes of faith and the
   teachings of Revelation, that it is not probable that so spiritual a
   faith as that of Christ should ever subdue the nations. Men need a
   coarser system of religion--their minds are groveling, they desire a
   creed which will tolerate their lusts--they crave a religion which will
   afford scope for their pride and their self-will.

   The doctrines of the Gospel kindle men's hostility when they are fairly
   and honestly preached--there would be more opposition to it if it were
   not so frequently diluted, and even falsified by its professed
   teachers. True Christianity causes a warfare and a division, and has to
   force its way against inveterate hatred. Only the Grace of God can make
   it spread. Yet, for all that, Brothers and Sisters, we judge not after
   the sight of the eyes, neither do we look into the future through the
   glass of human calculation. We believe in God, and viewing the future
   with the eyes of faith, we expect a complete triumph! As in the past,
   so in the future, the Church walks by faith. We are to believe, and we
   shall be established. The sooner we have done with reasoning and
   conclusions drawn from things that can be seen, the better! After all,
   our only reason, as far as I can see, for the firm conviction that the
   Gospel will yet subdue the nations lies in this--that God will have it
   so--He has promised it, and He can effect His own purposes.

   Certain persons in these days tell us that we must not expect to see
   the nations converted to Christ, nor hope for any general spread of the
   Gospel. I have heard it said that we are to look upon the world as a
   great wreck, going to pieces out on the yonder surf where a thousand
   breakers loosen every timber, and quicksand is hungry to engulf the
   whole--and all we can hope to do with a life boat is to pluck, here and
   there, a soul out of the general catastrophe. God's elect will be
   rescued but the nations will perish, and the mass of mankind will be
   castaways. According to this theory we are not to hope for a glorious
   future upon earth in the last days--at least not one brought about by
   the conversion of men under the preaching of the Gospel.

   They give us another picture which I need not paint this morning--but
   the universal spread of the Gospel in the world is thought by them to
   be unscriptural! I cannot agree with them. I think them in error, and I
   have these reasons for it. Our new-born nature craves for the spread of
   the Redeemer's kingdom and prays for it instinctively. Nor is the
   instinct wrong--for the Lord, when He was asked by His disciples to
   teach them to pray, said, "After this manner pray you," and He gave
   them as part of the manner of their prayer the right to express the
   desire, "Your kingdom come, Your will be done in earth as it is done in
   Heaven." Do not your souls long for the conversion of your families?
   Does not the same desire make you pant for the salvation of the people
   among whom you dwell--your townsfolk and your countrymen?

   And when you are nearest to God and most spiritual, have you not still
   larger aspirations? Do you not pray for the conversion of all mankind?
   Yes, have you not found yourselves breaking out with a cry like that of
   dying David, "Let the whole earth be filled with His Glory?" Do you
   think the Lord has taught His spiritual people to desire this, not in
   moments of excitement, but in times of sober fellowship with Himself,
   and will He not grant it? Surely God the Holy Spirit knows what the
   mind of God is! Does He not make intercession in the saints according
   to the will of God? He has taught us to desire and long for, and pray
   for this because He intends to give it! The prayers of the saints are
   the shadows of coming blessings. As you may prognosticate the storm by
   the motion of the mercury in the barometer, so may you much more
   infallibly foretell the future from the emotions, the longings, and the
   agonies of the saints of God! Therefore I feel that the whole earth
   must be filled with the Lord's Glory because the souls of His saints
   pine for it.

   Does it not, again, seem a very unlikely thing to you that on this
   earth, where God has stood, as it were, foot to foot in the Person of
   His dear Son with evil, that evil, after all, should vanquish Him and
   win the day? Eden has been blasted, Calvary has been stained with
   blood--this is defeat so far--at least Satan thinks it so. Will it ever
   end in triumph? Shall it always be that the Deliverer's heel shall be
   bruised, and is the time never coming when the same wounded heel shall
   break the serpent's head? Is half the prophecy uttered at the gates of
   Eden to be fulfilled, and the other half to be null and void?

   Up to this moment we see the Church persecuted, the Truth of God
   despised, God dishonored, Christ rejected, idols set up, doctrines of
   devils taught and the whole world lying in the Wicked One! Is Satan
   forever to have his own way?

   Shall the King of kings never win this world unto Himself? Has He not
   died for the whole world? Is it not so said? We who hold the doctrine
   of a special redemption of the elect, and hold it firmly, yet never
   quarrel with those texts which speak of the redemption of the race,
   because we look for it, and believe that it will yet come. We trust the
   time shall hasten on when, as the morning chases away the darkness, so
   the Truth, and the right, and the Christ of God shall, from among the
   sons of men, destroy sin, error, and rebellion! In his den has the old
   lion been bearded, and in his own forest shall he be slain?

   Even here, where Satan has held high carnival and been Lord of Misrule,
   even here shall he be defeated and his power abolished! The strong man
   in his own house shall be bound by a stronger than he, and Christ shall
   be victor where the foe of God and man once reigned supreme. For this
   purpose He came into the world, that He mighty destroy the works of the
   devil, and I see not how this could well be if there is not to be a
   wider spread of the Gospel than we have seen as yet. And again,
   Brethren, we look for the extension of the Redeemer's reign in the
   world on account of the promises of reward for His Redemption--"He
   shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied."

   Do you think that He is satisfied yet--satisfied with a mere handful?
   For, certainly, not enough are saved as yet out of the world's vast
   population. Is Christ, the great King, satisfied to settle down in a
   corner of the world as ruler over one scanty province? Think you that
   He does not expect to divide the spoil with the strong when the nations
   shall flock unto Him and their kings shall bow down before Him?
   Brothers and Sisters, the present state of affairs does not satisfy us,
   and since our Lord's heart is larger than ours, it surely does not
   satisfy Him! What Christian minister is satisfied with the progress of
   the Gospel? What lover of the souls of men is fully at ease under
   present conditions? I shall never be at peace while so many of my
   hearers are unsaved!

   Yet, none of us bore the pangs which He endured, and cannot, therefore,
   measure the vastness of the expected recompense. Surely the ascended
   Redeemer deserves a numerous seed, a countless progeny, to be His crown
   of rejoicing! Shall not Jesus at last have the pre-eminence? Shall He
   not win more souls than Satan shall destroy? Is sin to prove itself
   mightier than Divine love? When the tale is told and the number is made
   up, shall there be more in the kingdom of Satan than in the kingdom of
   Christ? Shall it be so? I dare not think it! My soul revolts from the
   dreary supposition and therefore I look forward to the spread of the
   Gospel over all parts of the world, and a period of the ingathering of
   the sons of men to Christ so large as to make up innumerable multitudes
   and swell the army of the saved beyond all human computation.

   But, Brethren, these are only inferences and hopes, though fairly
   gathered from our spiritual instincts and from Divine Truths. Let us
   turn to Scripture and read a few of its utterances which appear to us
   full of hope for the future. David shall be our first witness. Mark
   you, I am not about to give all the texts on the subject, nor a tenth
   of them, nor even do I suppose that I have selected the best. I have
   merely gathered a few as I remembered them. In the Second Psalm God
   declares, concerning His dear Son, our Lord Jesus, "Yet have I set My
   king upon My holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree the Lord has
   said unto Me, You are My Son, this day have I begotten You." What is
   added? "Ask of Me and I shall give You the heathen for Your
   inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Your possession."
   Will the heathen never be His? Shall He never possess the far-off lands
   and call them His own? Be you sure that His prayers will yet be heard!

   Turn next to that Seventy-second Psalm, of which I might read the
   whole, for from beginning to end it flows over with gracious promises,
   but, as we should not have time to go through the whole, let us read
   from the eighth verse. "He shall have dominion from sea to sea, and
   from the river unto the ends of the earth. They that dwell in the
   wilderness shall bow before Him; and His enemies shall lick the dust.
   The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents; the kings
   of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yes, all kings shall fall down
   before Him: all nations shall serve Him." Turn to the 17th verse--"His
   name shall endure forever. His name shall be continued as long as the
   sun, and men shall be blessed in Him. All nations shall call Him
   blessed."

   If David is questioned yet again, he will reply in something like the
   same manner in the Eighty-sixth Psalm, at the ninth verse--"All nations
   whom You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord, and shall
   glorify Your name." We see not this as yet, neither in any era of human
   history has it been performed. We, therefore, confidently expect it
   by-and-by. That glorious Evangelist of old prophecy, Isaiah, has many
   passages to the same effect, and we will, therefore, quote one or two
   of them. In his second chapter, at the second verse, you will find him
   saying, "It shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of
   the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and
   shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it.

   "And many people shall go and say, come you, and let us go up to the
   mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will
   teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths; for out of Zion
   shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He
   shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they
   shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning
   hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall
   they learn war any more."

   Of a similar purport is the 11th chapter pretty nearly all through,
   where he speaks of the days of peace wherein the lion shall eat straw
   like the ox, and says in the ninth verse, "They shall not hurt nor
   destroy in all My holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the
   knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." The 40th chapter
   also is a bright window through which the future may be seen
   resplendent in the sunlight of God. If you turn to the fifth verse, the
   Lord concerning the first advent of His Son: "And the glory of the Lord
   shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth
   of the Lord has spoken it." This is but one verse out of many similar
   ones in the same connection.

   In the 60th chapter he begins, as you know, with these words, "Arise,
   shine; for your light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon
   you. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross
   darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon you, and His glory
   shall be seen upon you. And the Gentiles shall come to your light, and
   kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes round about,
   and see: all they gather themselves together, they come to you: your
   sons shall come from far, and your daughters shall be nursed at your
   side. Then you shall see, and flow together, and your heart shall fear,
   and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted
   unto you, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto you. The multitude
   of camels shall cover you, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all
   they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring gold and incense; and they
   shall show forth the praises of the Lord. All the flocks of Kedar shall
   be gathered together unto you, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto
   you."

   The whole of Isaiah is full of such clear visions and plain promises.
   If you will read in Daniel, you will find that the little stone cut out
   of the mountain without hands is to break in pieces the image of gold,
   and iron, and clay, and is to fill the whole earth. In one of his night
   visions Daniel saw four great kingdoms, typified by four beasts. All
   these have passed away, as we know, and another part of his dream is
   even now being fulfilled. But then he saw a fifth monarchy, altogether
   dissimilar from those which had preceded it, which is most assuredly to
   be of equal extent, consequence, and glory with those which preceded
   it--yes, it is infinitely to excel them.

   We do not pretend to go into the minutiae now or at any other time, for
   our knowledge thereof is slender but, at any rate, we gather from
   Daniel and others that a day is coming when the kingdom of Christ shall
   be conspicuously among men and His scepter of right and truth shall
   sway mankind. Time fails me, otherwise there are many passages I might
   mention, such as Habakkuk 2:14--"The earth shall be filled with the
   knowledge of the glory of the Lord," and Micah 4:1-3. Note, however,
   our Lord's own parable of the mustard seed which was the least of all
   seeds, but it grew and became a great tree. Some may think that the
   mustard seed parable has been fulfilled, and to these we grant that,
   compared with its beginning, the Gospel is a great tree--but I cannot
   feel that we have reached at all to the satisfactory fulfillment of the
   prophetic parable as yet.

   There are birds of the air yet to come and build their nests in the
   branches of it. Though little at the beginning, the Gospel kingdom is
   to be far greater than any of us have dreamed. The beloved Disciple, I
   think, learned the future aright, when in the visions of God at Patmos,
   he heard a voice which said--"The kingdoms of this world are become the
   kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ." That is yet to be, and for it
   we hopefully and joyfully look.

   Now, Brethren, I have reminded you of this doctrine, which I believe is
   held by most of you, not because I thought you needed confirming in the
   belief of it, but because the consideration of its joyful hope is
   likely to fire you with holy ardor. We shall not labor well if we do
   not labor in hope. If we think mission work to be a forlorn enterprise,
   we shall go about it with faint hearts and slack hands. If we do not
   believe in a great success ultimately to come, we shall not use great
   means. We shall straiten ourselves in action if we narrow our
   expectations. Certainly we have not used very great means yet, for all
   the missionary operations now being carried on in the world are very
   little more than casting the crumbs from under our table to the poor
   heathen dogs. We have not done so much as to give the fragments of the
   Gospel feast to the nations.

   A few cheese parings and candle ends Christians have given away to
   missions, but little more. Liberality has barely yielded the tail-corn
   of her barn and the dregs of her wine vat. We have not learned
   self-denial for Christ, and pinching ourselves for His service is a
   rare thing among us. The men who have gone abroad have not always been
   the pick and chief of the Church--honor to them that they have gone at
   all--but small honor to the men of greater ability who ought to have
   gone forth but have laid out their talents in some poor worldly
   business, and occupied their time in a far less worthy cause. If the
   Church expects small results from missions, I readily concede that she
   is acting consistently with her anticipations! And if she has, indeed,
   given up the work as a hopeless case, I think she is doing about as
   little as she could consistently with the bare appearance of obeying
   her Lord's commands to evangelize the nations.

   May the day come when her spirit shall revive, when she shall feel that
   the earth belongs to Christ and shall hear her Master's voice pealing
   like thunder within her conscience, "Go you into all the world and
   preach the Gospel to every creature." May she rise to the dignity of
   her position and perceive that her field is the world, since the earth
   is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. All things are possible to him
   that believes--may we yet receive the faith which subdues nations! When
   the Church is ready for great events they shall occur to her.

   God has blessed us already up to the full measure of our fitness to be
   blessed, and perhaps a great deal beyond it. We have seen more gracious
   results than we could have expected from our poor efforts, but when the
   whole Church shall become fired with the love of Christ--when every
   man's heart shall glow with a furnace heat of ardent desire for the
   glory of Jesus--then like molten lava from the red lips of a volcano
   the current of Church life shall burn a passage for itself. As soon as
   Zion shakes herself from the dust and goes forth to war in the strength
   of her Lord, she shall cause her enemies to flee before her as Midian
   fled before the sword of the Lord and of Gideon.

   II. Our text teaches us very plainly that THE CONVERSION OF THE NATIONS
   WILL OCCUR IN THE USUAL

   MANNER OF OTHER CONVERSIONS. And here it is that I need the attention
   of unconverted persons especially. "The nations," it says, "shall
   remember and shall turn unto the Lord, and shall worship before Him."
   Observe the first step. They shall "remember." In this manner
   conversion begins in men. When he had come to himself the prodigal
   said, "How many hired servants of my father have bread enough and to
   spare?" He remembered the house from which he came. The nations will
   one day remember God.

   Mysterious traditions are floating among them now. In mystic verse and
   hoary legend memories of the Creator are still preserved. Man is far
   off from God, but there lingers in the race some recollection of a
   happy past when God and man were friends. It is so with individuals
   after their kind. Oh, may some of you have recollections which look
   God-ward and remind you of what you learned at your mother's knee, of
   what was taught you by a father's earnest lips! May you remember from
   where you have fallen and repent! Such regrets are holy and healthful.
   The prodigal remembered his sins, they came forcibly before him. The
   harlots and the wine cups were remembered with sorrow and loathing. May
   you, dear Hearers, be moved by penitent memories of all the unhallowed
   past, for so shall repentance be created within you.

   The nations will, by-and-by, remember the wickedness they
   committed--their debauchery, covetousness, tyranny, cruelty, and
   idolatry will be seen in their true colors--and they will mourn for
   them with sincere hearts. Oh, when will it come--that blessed Bochim?
   At this moment I pray God's Spirit to make some of you remember your
   transgressions. May they come up in dread array before you! May you be
   convicted of sin and made to tremble before God! The nations will
   remember their idolatries against God and the disappointments which
   have come of them. They will say, one to another, "To what purpose is
   it that we have worshipped these gods of stone? Have they helped us in
   the day of trouble? We have sacrificed unto them. Have they given us
   rain in the day of drought? Have they helped us in the hour of death?"

   And, as they recollect this, they will turn unto God. I would that some
   here might remember and say, "What has the flesh done for us? What have
   the pleasures of the world ministered to us, after all? We are even now
   degraded and made ashamed. What fruit have we in these things?" Blessed
   memories will one day come over this wicked world and lead it to turn
   unto the Lord. It is the work of the missionary to stir the world's
   memory--to go and tell it over, and over, and over again about its
   Savior--for there is a power which God has kept alive in human
   consciences which will respond to the voice of the Gospel. I hope that
   response will be found in some here today. But, the day is coming when
   the conversion of the nations shall begin by their remembering their
   God, remembering their sins, remembering the disappointment of their
   idols and remembering to turn unto the Lord.

   The next step in the conversion of the nations will be their turning to
   the Lord. Do you note that? "They shall remember and turn unto the
   Lord." It is not merely they shall turn. Ah, my dear Hearers, there is
   a vast difference between "turning" and "turning to the Lord." Some of
   you turn from drunkenness to total abstinence and I am glad enough of
   that, but it is far short of a saving change! Others turn from
   profanity to decent speech! And we are thankful for that, but that,
   also, is not salvation! Genuine conversion lies in turning to the Lord.
   Therefore, in Hindustan, it is a very small gain that has been effected
   by educational institutions--the people are evidently turning, but what
   does it matter if they turn from a false god to no god? Is it really a
   turn for the better?

   I do not know whether we might not more hopefully contend against an
   idolatrous Hindustan than with an infidel Hindustan. It is much the
   same devil, though he may appear in a different shape. The conversion
   of the heathen will not come through their being gradually civilized
   into Christianity--do not entertain any hope in that direction. God
   will turn them to Himself and the gracious work will be done. We do not
   at home see sinners gradually come to God by processes of reformation,
   for generally these reformations lead to self-righteousness. But we
   find them coming to God first, and then reforming afterwards--and even
   so shall we find it with the heathen. We have first to seek their
   turning to God, and after that we may look for civilization, education,
   refinement and so on. Man must first, in the Gospel, come to his
   Father, and then shall he lose his rags of barbarism and put on his
   robes of education and his shoes of progress and liberty, and hear the
   music and the dancing of joy. First, the kingdom of God and His
   righteousness must be sought, and all the rest shall follow.

   Note the next point. "They shall worship before Him." Every sinner who
   has truly turned to God becomes a worshipper--he adores the Christ, he
   adores the Father, he adores the Spirit--he was a rebel before, he is a
   worshipper now. What a blessed sight it will be to behold an adoring
   world! At this day around the august Throne of Heaven all the stars are
   floating, perhaps inhabited each one by a distinct race--from every
   star as from a silver bell there ascends to the Throne of God music
   most sweet and solemn. From only one star--this sin-darkened
   earth--discordant sounds arise. This poor earth shines not in the light
   of Jehovah as once it did--a demon's wing has covered it and hidden
   from it the light of the central sun--it is swathed in cloud and mist
   today.

   But can't you see, it begins to shine forth! Seen from the Throne of
   God it is not altogether darkness. As when the new moon first shows her
   slender ring of light, so the earth is rimmed and edged with a Divine
   illumination which shall increase till the whole circle of the globe
   shall be irradiated and shall, in full orbed splendor, reflect the
   Glory of God! Then, also, shall music blend with the growing
   brightness--light and sweetness shall be wedded again--and earth, like
   a lamp of God's sanctuary and a golden bell of the high priest's
   garment shall shine forth and ring out the praises of her God. O
   blessed consummation! May the Lord send it, and send it soon!

   But, you can plainly see that the conversion of the nations follows the
   usual rule, and by no means differs from the conversion of men at home.
   It is a remembering, a turning to the Lord, and a worshipping of Him.
   They turn to Christ, they look to Him and are enlightened--and then,
   straightway, they begin to adore and reverence Him who has saved them.
   It is clear, then, that we are to seek the salvation of the nations by
   using the ordinary means. If we expect to see them saved in some
   extraordinary way differing from what we have up to now seen, we shall
   be disappointed, and we shall be led into practical mistakes. We have
   nothing to do in Hindustan, or in Caffraria but just what the Apostle
   did in Asia Minor, and what we are doing here--we are to preach Jesus
   Christ and Him crucified.

   I do not believe that any race of men needs a peculiar Gospel, or a
   novel mode of administering it. There may be different styles of
   preaching--God will give us those--but there need be no other mode of
   action than the Apostolic one--"They that were scattered abroad went
   everywhere preaching the Word." The mode prescribed in the marching
   orders of our grand Captain is this--"Go into all the world and preach
   the Gospel to every creature"--not found schools, nor debate with
   skeptics, nor civilize, but "preach the Gospel." "Preach the Gospel."
   "Preach the Gospel." Do this to every creature and the sure results
   will follow in one place as in another! Men shall remember, shall turn
   unto the Lord, and shall worship Him.

   Dear unconverted Hearer, the very best means for your conversion are
   being employed now, and, therefore, I would have you remember that if
   these fail, neither would you be converted though one rose from the
   dead. This deserves your solemn consideration and I beseech you to lay
   it to heart.

   III. The last point is the most important of all. THE MEANS TO
   ACCOMPLISH THIS RESULT ARE TO BE FOUND AT CALVARY. Our text is in a
   Calvary Psalm. Its connection is full of sacrificial suffering. If you
   desire to comprehend its real meaning you must hear it from the dying
   lips of the Incarnate God. It is through the Cross that the nations
   shall fear and tremble and turn to God.

   Note then, first, that the death of Christ secures the conversion of
   the nations. Every conversion is the result of the death of Christ. It
   is the Spirit's work to minister life and spiritual health, but Your
   blood, O Christ, has the glory of it! It were vain to talk of
   conversion if there had been no Redemption, or to speak of man's
   remembering and turning to God if Your Cross, O Savior, had not been
   lifted up as the way of salvation for all who look to it! On the Cross
   the Lord Jesus redeemed effectually all His people and He must have
   them. On the Cross He established the Covenant of Grace for all the
   souls for whom He died, and He will lose none of them, nor suffer them
   to miss the blessing. His blood shall not be shed in vain!

   The stipulations of the Covenant--signed, sealed, and ratified by His
   own blood--must stand fast and firm! And one of those stipulations is
   this, "in You shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." It must,
   therefore, be so! I do not look for the triumph of the Church to her
   treasuries, nor to her institutions of learning, nor even to her zeal,
   or to the popular ability of her preachers. I look to the Cross! O
   conquering Crucified One, You have secured the victory, for You have
   finished the redemption of myriads, and therefore they must be saved!
   Let us, when fainting in conflict, fall back into the arms of a dying
   Savior and we shall find courage for our future fray.

   The death of Christ is, moreover, our motive for attempting the spread
   of the Gospel throughout the world. Because Jesus died we feel that He
   must be glorified. I never feel so ardent for His cause as when I have
   been baptized afresh into His agonies. If we stand at His Cross and
   view His crown of thorns, and His marred Countenance, and His pierced
   hands, and nailed feet. And if we gaze with affection into the gash
   where the soldier's spear set--if we approach His heart--we cannot but
   feel that we must have human hearts to worship Him.

   He is Lord of my soul, and I would gladly see Him equally dear to my
   brothers. Jesus has won many hearts in England and in other countries,
   too, but oh, He must have more! He must have more! He must have all of
   England for His own! He must have Scotland! He must have the United
   States! He must possess Europe--He must govern the whole world--it is
   imperative that He should possess them! We feel that He must reign! If
   we could throw ourselves upon the spikes of His foes to win victory for
   Him we would rejoice. If like the old Swiss hero we could gather up all
   the death-bearing lances into our own bosom and die in opening a road
   to victory for our fellow soldiers it were a destiny for which to bless
   God!

   It would be a glorious thing to die, if by our martyrdom the world
   might be won for Him! High thrones for Jesus, where shall we find them?
   Bright crowns for Jesus, where shall we find them? We will snatch them
   from your heads, you kings, if there are no others! No, your diadems
   are too mean for His brow, and are only worthy to be thrown into the
   dust before Him--they have not luster enough for Him. We will find
   jewels for Him in the tears of penitents, and gold in the songs of
   Believers! We will weave wreathes for Him out of emancipated souls and
   perfected spirits! He must have them! He must have them! Such an One as
   He cannot but be great unto the ends of the earth.

   And, Brethren, as His death is thus the security of future triumph and
   is to us the impelling motive for the winning of it, so is His Cross
   the instrument of our victory! We shall conquer the world, but it will
   be by the Cross! The old legend of Constantine, "In hoc signo vinces,"
   has truth in it for us. By this shall we conquer--by the Cross, by the
   preaching of Jesus Christ, and nothing else! I charge the Church of God
   not to hamper herself with a mass of lumber, either of ceremonies,
   buildings, schools, or officers--but to go forth with the sling and the
   stone of David! Saul's armor is, however, in good favor at this hour,
   and the Church looks everywhere but to her God.

   It is miserably amusing to mark the way in which our so-called National
   Church tries to win men to God. It has recently been stated that in
   seven of the leading Ritualistic churches in London the subscriptions
   to foreign missions only reached the sum of £7 13s. 2d. for a whole
   year! It is fair to add that one of them contributed £5 13s. 10d. to a
   special fund for Honolulu, but even with this extra effort the total is
   not raised to £14, and the average is not £2 apiece! These seven
   superfine Apostolic Churches contributed between them £13 7s. for
   foreign missions, and yet the incumbent of one of them, before the
   Ritual Commission, stated in his evidence that the cost of his choir,
   alone, was "about £1,000 a year"!

   model Church, with what wisdom have you acted? Behold you give £2 for
   the salvation of the heathen, and a £1,000 for a box of whistles and a
   set of singing men and singing women to make music with! Verily, this
   is a plain index of the whole business! Theirs is a religion of
   sensuous gratification and not of soul-winning. To charm ears with
   music, eyes with dainty colors, and noses with incense--this is their
   religion! Men pay money for these delights, even as they would for the
   opera or any other amusement in which their tastes find pleasure. But,
   for the winning of souls abroad, a few halfpence may suffice to show
   the lack of zeal.

   Dear Friends, we know that souls are not to be won by music. If the
   world were, indeed, to be conquered by chants, to be converted by
   songs, regenerated by organs and saved by little boys in surplices,
   then it would be time for us to cease our ministry and give place to
   choir boys, opera singers, organists, and organ blowers! Then might we
   set up a vast array of gilded pipes, lift up the crucifix, wave the
   censor, cry, "These are your gods, Israel." But, while the Word of God
   remains unchanged, we shall rely upon the blood of the Lamb and resolve
   to know nothing among men but Jesus Christ and Him crucified! Our hope
   of success lies, under God, in the preaching of the Gospel. "God was in
   Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their
   trespasses unto them." "Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is
   born of God." "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be
   saved." The preaching of the Cross will win the world, but all else is
   vanity of vanities!

   Therefore, Brethren, let our ministry be full of Christ! Whether we
   preach at home or abroad, let us preach Substitution and tell of the
   vicarious sacrifice of Calvary! Let Jesus' death be our first theme and
   our last theme--utter all others in proportionate harmony--but let this
   be first and chief. Let our Lord in our ministry be "the chief among
   ten thousand." Let His Cross be the standard to which all other Truths
   of God shall rally. Oh, preach Christ, live Christ, catch the spirit of
   Christ, devote yourselves to Christ, drink of His Cross and be baptized
   with His Baptism--and then it shall be that all the nations shall
   remember and shall turn unto the Lord--and all the kindreds of the
   people shall worship before Him!

   Sinner, your hope is at the Cross! Hasten there! Anxious Soul, your
   peace is at the Cross! Fly there! Despairing Soul, your salvation is at
   the Cross! Look there! 0ne look will save you! God help you to give it
   now. Through those tears which dim your eyes look at once, for Jesus
   smiles upon you Look to Him and you shall now have everlasting life!
   God bless you all, and God prosper His work in the world, for Christ's
   sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Sin-Offering for the Common People

   (No. 1048)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, APRIL 28, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "And if any one of the common people sins through ignorance, while he
   does something against any of the commandments of the Lord concerning
   things which ought not to be done, and is guilty. Or if his sin, which
   he has sinned, comes to his knowledge: then he shall bring his
   offering, a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin
   which he has sinned. And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin
   offering, and slay the sin offering in the place of the burnt offering.
   And the priest shall take of the blood thereof with his finger, and put
   it upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and shall pour out
   all the blood thereof at the bottom of the altar. And the priest shall
   burn it upon the altar for a sweet sa vor unto the Lord; and the priest
   shall make an atonement for him, and it shall be forgiven him."
   Leviticus 4:27-31.

   VERY much of interesting truth clusters around the sin-offering. The
   type is well worthy of the most careful consideration and I regret that
   we shall not have time, this morning, to enter into all its details.
   The reader of the chapter will perceive that it gives us four forms of
   the same sacrifice. These may be regarded as four views of the same
   thing, probably views taken by four classes of Believers according to
   their standing in the Divine life. Although all men who are saved have
   the same Savior, they have not the same apprehensions of Him. We are
   all cleansed, if cleansed at all, by the same blood, but we have not
   all the same knowledge of the manner in which it is effectual for
   cleansing.

   The devout Hebrew had but one sin-offering, but that was set forth to
   him under varying symbols. The following remarks may aid you in
   understanding the type before us. The chapter begins with the
   sin-offering for the anointed priest, and describes it with the fullest
   detail. It then proceeds, in the 13th verse and onwards, to give the
   sin-offering for the whole congregation, and it is most notable that
   the sin-offering for the anointed priest is almost in every
   circumstance identical with the sin-offering for the whole
   congregation.

   Is not this designed to show to us that when Christ, our anointed
   Priest, took upon Himself the sin of all the congregation of God's
   chosen as His own there was demanded of Him the same expiation and
   atonement as would have been demanded of His people had they been
   reckoned with in their own persons? His Atonement for sins which were
   not His own, but which were laid upon Him by the Lord on our behalf, is
   equivalent to the penalty which would have been required of all the
   congregation of Believers for whom His blood was especially shed. This
   is a memorable lesson which ought not to be forgotten. We ought to see
   herein the inestimable value of the Sacrifice of Christ by which the
   many offenses of a number that no man can number are forever put away.

   There was given, in the death of our Lord, as full a recompense to
   justice as if all the redeemed had been sent into Hell. No, the truth
   goes far further than that--they could not have made a complete
   expiation, for even had they suffered for sin for thousands of years,
   the debt would "still be paying, never paid." Glory be to the name of
   our great Substitute! He by His sin-offering has perfected forever them
   that are set apart. In the case of the sin-offering for the priest we
   have a fuller picture of the atonement than is offered by the two
   latter instances, and you will please note that the sin-offering was a
   victim without blemish.

   In the first two cases a bullock was to be slain. Thus the most
   precious animal the Hebrew owned, the noblest, the strongest--the image
   of docility and labor--was to be presented to make atonement. Our Lord
   Jesus Christ is like the firstling of the bullock, the most precious
   thing in Heaven, strong for service, docile in obedience, One who was
   willing and able to labor for our sakes--and He was brought as a
   perfect Victim, without spot or blemish, to suffer in our place.

   The priest slew the bullock, and its blood was poured forth, for
   without shedding of blood there is no remission. The vital point of the
   Atonement of Christ lies in His death. However much His life may have
   contributed to it, and we are not among those who, in the matter of
   salvation, separate His life from His death by a hard and fast
   line--yet the great point of the putting away of human guilt was the
   Lord's obedience unto death, even the death of the Cross.

   The victim was slain, and so the atonement was made. Returning to the
   passage before us, we find that the blood of this victim was taken into
   the Holy Place which was immediately outside the sacred veil of the
   sanctuary. And there the priest dipped his finger in the blood and
   sprinkled the blood seven times before the Lord, before the veil of the
   sanctuary. So in making atonement for sin there is a perfect exhibition
   of the blood of Jesus before the Lord. That life has been given for
   life is openly proven where alone the proof is available.

   Before the offended Lord the vicarious death is thoroughly
   exhibited--for was it not written of old in the Book of Exodus, "When I
   see the blood I will pass over you"? Our sight of the blood Christ
   gives us peace, but it does not make the satisfaction--it is God's
   seeing of the blood which makes the Atonement--and, therefore, seven
   times before the veil was this blood exhibited before the Lord, that a
   perfect atonement might be made. The next thing the priest did was to
   go up to the golden altar of incense which stood hard by the veil, and
   put some of the blood upon each one of the horns, indicating that it is
   the blood of the atonement which gives power (for that is the meaning
   of the horns) to intercession.

   The sweet perfume of the altar of incense stands for the prayers and
   praises of the saints, and especially for the intercession of Christ
   Jesus, and, because the blood is there, Christ's intercession is heard.
   And, therefore, our prayers and praises come up with acceptance before
   the Lord. Then the priest removed to the bronze altar of burnt
   sacrifice and all the blood which remained he poured out at the bottom
   of the altar of the burnt offering which stood at the door of the
   tabernacle of the congregation.

   Full bowls of blood colored the base of the altar. Blood was seen on
   every side--on the veil, on the golden altar, and now upon the altar of
   brass. Within and without the Holy Place but one voice was heard--the
   voice of the blood of atonement crying to God for peace! The whole
   tabernacle must have been almost at all times so smeared with blood as
   to have been far from pleasant to the eye! This was intended to teach
   Israel that God's anger against sin is terrible, and that the
   dishonored Law will be satisfied with nothing less than the giving of
   life for life, if sinners are to be saved. The altar of burnt offerings
   was the altar of acceptance--it was the place where those sacrifices
   were presented in which there was no mention of sin--but which were
   brought as thanksgivings to God. Therefore, as much as to teach us that
   the very ground and foundation of the acceptance of the Christian and
   his offering lies in the precious blood of Jesus, full bowls of blood
   were poured upon the base of the altar. See what wonders the precious
   blood of Jesus Christ can do! It is the strength of intercession and
   the foundation of acceptance!

   From the bullock which had been slain certain choice pieces were
   taken--especially the inward fat--and these were laid upon the altar
   and consumed, to show us that even while the Lord Jesus was a
   sin-offering He has still accepted of God, and though His Father
   forsook Him so that He cried out, "Why have You forsaken Me?" He was
   still a sweet savor unto the Lord in the obedience which He rendered.
   But the most significant part of the whole sacrifice remains to be
   described, and you will notice that it is only described in the first
   two forms of the sin-offering. The priest was not allowed to burn the
   bullock, itself, upon the altar, but he was commanded to take up the
   whole carcass--its skin, flesh, head, and everything--and carry the
   whole forth outside the camp.

   It was a sin-offering, and therefore it was loathsome in God's sight.
   And the priest went right away from the door of the tabernacle, past
   all the tents of the children of Israel, bearing this ghastly burden
   upon him. Went, I say, right away, till he came to the place where the
   ashes of the camp were poured out--and there--not upon an altar, but on
   wood which had been prepared upon the bare ground, every single
   particle of the bullock was burned with fire. The distance the bullock
   was carried from camp is said to have been four miles. The tracking of
   which is just this--that when the Lord Jesus Christ took the sins of
   His people upon Himself, He could not, as a Substitute, dwell any
   longer in the place of the Divine favor, but had to be put into the
   place of separation, and made to cry, "Eloi, Eloi, lama Sabacthani?"

   Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews puts the matter clearly, "For the
   bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by
   the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp. Wherefore Jesus
   also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered
   outside the gate." Outside Jerusalem our Lord was led to the common
   place of doom for malefactors, for it is written, (and oh, the power of
   those words, I dare not have uttered them if they had not

   been inspired), "He was made a curse for us, for it is written, cursed
   is everyone that hangs on a tree." The blessed Son of God was made a
   curse for us and put to an accursed death by being hung upon the
   Cross--and all because sin anywhere is hateful to God, and He must
   treat it with indignation!

   The fire of Divine Justice fell upon our blessed Sin-Offering until He
   was utterly consumed with anguish and He said, "It is finished," and
   gave up the ghost. Now this is the only way of putting away sin--it is
   laid upon Another, and that Other is made to suffer as if the sin
   belonged to Him--and then, since sin cannot be in two places at once
   and cannot be laid upon Another and rest upon the offerer, too, the
   offerer becomes clear from all sin! He is pardoned and he is accepted
   because his Substitute has been slain outside the camp instead of him.

   I have thus introduced to you the first two forms of the sin-offering.
   It seemed necessary to begin there. The third form of the sin-offering
   was for a ruler, a person of considerable standing in the camp. There
   is nothing very remarkable about that third form which needs now detain
   us. We, therefore, come to the subject in hand. The sin-offering for a
   common person.

   I. And, here, we will begin our discourse upon the text itself by
   speaking of THE PERSON, a common person. It gives me unspeakable joy to
   read these words, "If any one of the common people sin," for which one
   of the common people does not sin? The text reminds me that if a common
   person sins his sins will ruin him--he may not be able to do so much
   mischief by his sin as the ruler or a public officer--but his sin has
   all the essence of evil in it and God will reckon with him for it. No
   matter how obscurely you may live, however poor and unlettered you may
   be, your sin will ruin you if not pardoned and put away.

   If one of the common people sins through ignorance, his sin is a
   damning sin. He must have it put away or it will put him away forever
   from the face of God. A common person's sin can only be removed by an
   atonement of blood. In this case you see the victim was not a
   bullock--it was a female of the goats or of the sheep, but still it had
   to be an offering of blood--for without shedding of blood there is no
   remission. However commonplace your offenses may have been. However
   insignificant you may be yourself--nothing will cleanse you but the
   blood of Jesus Christ! That verse is quite correct--

   "Could my zeal no respite kno w, Could my tears forever flow, All for
   sin could not atone. Christ must save, and Christ alone." It is true
   the sins of great men cover a larger space, but yet there must be a
   bloody Sacrifice for the smallest offenses. For the sins of a housewife
   or of a servant--of a peasant, or of a crossing-sweeper--there must be
   the same Sacrifice as for the sins of the greatest and most
   influential. No other Atonement will suffice. The sins of the common
   people will destroy them unless the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses
   them. But here is the point of joy--that for the common people there
   was an Atonement ordained of God! Glory be to God! I may be unknown to
   men, but I am not unthought-of by Him! I may be merely one of the many,
   but still He has thought of me. As each blade of grass has its own drop
   of dew, so each guilty soul coming to Christ shall find an Atonement
   for itself in Christ. Blessed be the name of the Lord--it is not
   written that there is a Sacrifice for the great ones of the earth,
   alone--but for the common people there is a Sin-Offering so that each
   man coming to the Savior finds cleansing through His precious blood!

   Observe with thankfulness that the sacrifice appointed for the common
   people was as much accepted as that appointed for the ruler. Of the
   ruler, it is said, "the priest shall make an atonement for him as
   concerning his sin, and it shall be forgiven him." The same thing is
   said of the common person. Christ is as much accepted for the poorest
   of His people as for the richest of them! He as much saves the unknown
   as He does the Apostolic names of high renown! They need the sacrifice
   of blood, but they need nothing more--and the blood which pleads before
   the Throne of God speaks as well for the least as it does for the chief
   of the flock!

   Come here, then, you who belong to the common people! If any of you
   have sinned, come at once to Jesus, the great Sin-Offering! Though you
   are common in rank, know you not that the common people heard Him
   gladly? Publicans and sinners pressed around Him to hear Him! Though
   you are but commoners in your wealth, possessing little of this world's
   goods, yet come, buy wine and milk without money and without price!
   Common in your talents and in your gifts, yet He bids you come, for
   these things are hid from the wise and prudent. It is not for those who
   think themselves distinguished

   that He has especially laid down His life, but, "the poor have the
   Gospel preached to them," and in their salvation He will be glorified!

   Mark it says, "If any one of the common people sin, through ignorance,"
   or if his sin, which he has sinned, comes to his knowledge, then he
   shall bring his offering." Has it suddenly come to the knowledge of any
   person here that he has sinned as he thought he had not sinned? Has
   some fresh light broken in upon you and revealed to you your darkness?
   Did you come to this House depressed in spirit because you have
   discovered that you are guilty and must perish unless the mercy of God
   prevents it? Then come, you common people who have discovered your sin
   and bring your sacrifice! No, it is here already for you! Come and
   accept the Sacrifice which God provides, and let your sins be put away
   forever!

   I wish the words of the text could provoke the same feelings in every
   heart that they do in mine, for I could gladly stand here and weep my
   soul away in joy that for the common people's sin there should be a
   Sacrifice, for I can put my name down among them. I have sinned! I have
   come to the knowledge of my sin! And I thank God I need not ask myself
   any other question--be I who I may or what I am, though but one of the
   common people--there is a Sin-Offering for me!

   II. Now, pass on from the person to THE SACRIFICE. "He shall bring his
   offering, a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin
   which he has sinned." Observe my Brothers and Sisters, that there is a
   discrepancy between the type and the reality, for first, the
   sin-offering under the Law was only for sins of ignorance. But we have
   a far better Sacrifice for sin than that, for have we not read in your
   hearing this morning those precious words, "The blood of Jesus Christ,
   His Son, cleanses us from all sin"? Not from sins of ignorance only,
   but from all sin. Oh, that blessed word "all!" It includes sins of
   knowledge. Sins against the light and love of God. Sins wantonly
   perpetrated. Sins against man and against God. Sins of body and of
   soul. Sins of thought and word and deed. Sins of every rank and
   character. "Sins immense as is the sea"--all, ALL are removed--no
   matter what they are! "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us
   from all sin."

   Yet do I bless God that the type deals with sins of ignorance because
   we may get a Gospel out of it. We have committed many sins which we
   know not. They have never burdened our conscience because we have not
   yet discovered them, and, besides, we do not know them to be sins. But
   Christ takes those sins, too, and prays, "Father, forgive them, for
   they know not what they do." "Cleanse me," said David, "from secret
   faults," and that is just what Jesus does. It used to be a doctrine of
   the church of Rome that no man could have a sin forgiven which he did
   not confess. Truly, if it were so, there would be no salvation for any
   of us, since it is not possible for the memory to charge itself with
   the recollection of every sin, nor for the conscience to become so
   perfect as to take cognizance of every form of transgression!

   But, while we ought to confess to God all sins which we know, and while
   we should confess them as much as can be in detail, yet, if through
   ignorance they remain unacknowledged, except in the gross and the bulk,
   Jesus Christ, the Sin-Offering bears our sins of ignorance--sins which
   we knew not to be sins when we committed them, or which we still know
   not to be sins. He takes them away! It must be so, for He "cleanses us
   from all sin"--sins of ignorance, as well as sins against light and
   knowledge.

   Now, what comfort there is here for all you of the common people! Be
   your sins what they may, there is a Sin-Offering which takes away all
   sin from you however you may have defiled yourselves--though you are
   black as night and hideous as Hell--yet is there power in the atoning
   blood of the Incarnate God to make you white as newly-fallen snow!
   Washed once in the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness, there
   shall remain upon you no trace of guilt! Note another discrepancy--the
   sinner of the common people, in this case, had to bring his
   sacrifice--"he shall bring his offering." But our Sin-Offering has been
   provided for us.

   You remember the question of Isaac to his father Abraham, as they went
   up Moriah? He asked him, "My Father, behold the fire and the wood, but
   where is the lamb for the burnt-offering?" And Abraham said, "My Son,
   God will provide Himself a lamb." Isaac's enquiry might have been the
   eternal question of every troubled heart. "O God, where is the lamb for
   the burnt offering?" Who will bear human sin? But JEHOVAH JIREH GOD has
   provided Himself a Lamb for a Burnt-Offering and a Sin-Offering,
   too--and now we have not to bring a sacrifice for sin, but have simply
   to take what God provided from before the foundations of the world!

   Now let us notice that in the type the victim chosen for a sin-offering
   was unblemished--whether a goat or a sheep--it must be unblemished. How
   could Christ make an Atonement for sins if He had had sins of His own?
   Had He

   been guilty, it would have required that He should suffer for His own
   guilt. But, being under no obligation whatever to the Law of God except
   such as He voluntarily undertook, when He had rendered obedience He had
   an obedience to give away, and He has graciously bestowed it upon us!
   When He suffered, His suffering not being due to God on account of
   anything that He had personally done, He had much suffering to
   spare--and He has transferred it to us. The Immaculate Christ has died,
   the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God!

   His is full of comforts, for if you will study, O seeking Soul, the
   perfect Character of your blessed Lord as God and as Man, and see how
   fairer than the lilies He is in matchless purity, you will feel that if
   He suffered there must be in such suffering a merit unspeakable which,
   being transferred to you, can save you from the wrath to come! In the
   dear Redeemer we have an unblemished Sacrifice! But I do not
   understand, and therefore, cannot explain why the victim was a female
   in this case, for most of the sacrifices were males of the first
   year--but this is peculiar in being a female. Is it because there is
   neither male nor female, bond nor free, but all are one in Christ
   Jesus?

   Or, am I wrong if I conjecture that this was intended to typify a view
   of Christ taken by one of the common people, and therefore it is
   purposely made incomplete? It is an incomplete view of Christ to have
   before you the female as the type, and the type is purposely made
   incomplete in order that this Truth of God may lie before us--that
   while a complete view of Christ is very comforting, instructive and
   strengthening, yet even an imperfect view of Him will save us if
   accompanied by real faith. If we should make a mistake upon some point,
   yet, if we are clear upon the main Truth of His Substitution, it is
   well with us.

   On purpose, then, it seems to me that a victim was introduced which did
   not, with exactness, set forth Christ so that the Lord might say to His
   people and to us, "You have not reached the perfect conception of My
   dear Son, but even an imperfect apprehension of Him will save you if
   you believe in Him." Who among us knows much of Christ? Oh, Brothers
   and Sisters, we know enough to make our hearts love Him! We know enough
   of Him to make us feel that we owe all to Him, and we desire to live
   for His Glory. But He is far greater than our greatest thoughts! We
   have only skirted the shores and navigated the little bays and creeks
   of Christ--we have not sailed out into the main ocean, nor fathomed the
   great deeps as yet. Yet what little we know of Him has saved us, and
   for His dear sake we are forgiven and accepted in the Beloved!

   Does not the Lord seem to say to us, "Poor Souls, you have misconceived
   My Son and made many mistakes about Him--but you do trust Him, and I
   save you." A certain woman thought that there was power in the hem of
   Jesus' garment to make her whole. She was mistaken in imagining that
   there was a healing efficacy in His garment--but since it was a mistake
   of faith and reflected honor upon Christ, the Lord made it true to
   her--He made virtue go out of Himself even into the hem of His garment
   for her sake! And so, though we may err here and err there in reference
   to our Lord, yet if our soul does but cling to Him like a child to its
   mother, knowing little of its mother except that its mother loves
   it--and that it is dependent upon her--that clinging will, by His
   Grace, be saving.

   But the main point about the sacrifice was it was slain as a
   substitute. There is nothing said about its being taken outside the
   camp--I do not think it was in this case--all that the offerer knew was
   it was slain as a substitute. And, dear Hearers, all and everything
   that is essential to know in order to be saved is to know that you are
   a sinner and that Christ is your Substitute. I beseech the Lord to
   teach every one of us this, for though we should go to the University
   and learn all knowledge--though we should ransack all the stores of
   learning, unless we know this--"He loved me and gave Himself for me,"
   we have not learned the very first principles of a true education for
   eternity. God gives us to know this, this very day.

   III. But, now thirdly, we pass on from the sacrifice to THE AFTER
   CEREMONIES upon which only a word. In the case of one of the common
   people, after the victim was slain the blood was taken to the bronze
   altar and the four horns of it were smeared to show that the power of
   fellowship with God lies in the blood of substitution. There is no
   fellowship with God except through the blood. There is no acceptance
   with God for anyone of us except through Him who suffered in our place.

   And then, secondly, the blood was thrown at the feet of this same
   bronze altar as if to show that the atonement is the foundation as well
   as the power of fellowship. We get nearest to God when we feel most the
   power of the blood. Yes, and we could not come to God at all except it
   were through that bloody way. After this, a part of the offering was
   put upon the altar, and it is said concerning it what is not said in
   any other of the cases, "the priest shall burn it upon the altar for

   a sweet savor to the Lord." This common person had, in most respects, a
   dim view of Christ, compared with the others, but yet there were some
   points in which he had more light than others, for it does not say of
   the priest that what he offered was a sweet savor.

   But, for the comfort of this common person, that he might go his way
   having sweet consolation in his soul, he is told that the sin-offering
   he has brought is a sweet savor unto God. And oh, what a joy it is to
   think not only has Christ put away my sin if I believe in Him, but now,
   for me, He is a sweet savor to God and I am for His sake accepted--for
   His sake beloved, for His sake delighted in--for His sake precious unto
   God! When God had destroyed the earth by the Flood and Noah came out of
   the ark, you will remember that he offered a sacrifice unto God and it
   is said, "The Lord smelled a sweet savor," or a savor of rest--and then
   He said I will no more destroy the earth with a flood and He entered
   into a Covenant with Noah.

   Oh, happy is that soul that can see Christ, his Sin-Offering, as being
   a savor of rest unto the Lord Most High so that a Covenant of Grace is
   made with him--a Covenant of sure mercies that shall never be removed!
   But I must pass on again.

   IV. The fourth point is one to which I ask all your heart's attention.
   I have purposely omitted mentioning why the sacrifice in order to
   enlarge upon it now. Please observe that in all four cases there was
   one thing which was never left out, "He shall lay his hand upon the
   head of the sin-offering." It was no use killing the bullock. It was no
   use slaying the heifer. No use pouring out the blood or smearing the
   horns of the altar unless this was done. The guilty person must come,
   and must himself lay his hands upon the victim. Oh, that while I speak
   of this, some of you may lay your hands upon Christ Jesus according to
   the verse of the poet--

   "My faith does lay her hand

   On that dear head of Yours, While like a penitent I stand, And there
   confess my sin."

   Now that act of laying on the hand signified confession. It meant just
   this--"Here I stand as a sinner and confess that I deserve to die. This
   goat which is now to be slain represents in its sufferings what I
   deserve of God." O Sinner, confess your sin now unto your great God!
   Acknowledge that He would be just if He condemned you! Confession of
   sin is a part of the meaning of laying on of the hand. The next thing
   that was meant by it was acceptance. The person laying his hand said,
   "I accept this goat as standing for me. I agree that this victim shall
   stand instead of me." That is what faith does with Christ--it puts its
   hand upon the ever-blessed Son of God, and says, "He stands for me, I
   take Him as my Substitute."

   The next meaning of it was transference. The sinner standing there
   confessing, putting his hand on the victim and accepting it, did by
   that act, say, "I transfer, according to God's ordinance, all my sin
   which I here confess, from myself to this victim." By that act the
   transference was made. You know there is a blessed passage which says,
   "the Lord has laid on Christ the iniquity of us all." From this
   expression an objection has been revised to that blessed hymn--

   "I lay my sins on Jesus."

   Yet I think the expression is quite correct. Cannot both utterances be
   true? God did lay sin in bulk upon Christ when He laid upon Him the
   iniquity of us all. But, by an act of faith every individual, in
   another sense, lays his sins on Jesus, and it is absolutely necessary
   that each man should so do if he would participate in the substitution.

   Now, do observe, I pray you, that this was a personal act. Nobody could
   lay his hand upon the bullock, or upon the goat, for another--each one
   had to put his own hand there. A godly mother could not say, "My
   graceless boy will not lay his hand upon the victim, but I will put my
   hand there for him." It could not be. He who laid his hand there had
   the blessing, but no one else! Had the godliest saint with holy but
   mistaken zeal said, "Rebellious man, will you not put your hand there,
   I will act as sponsor for you," it had been of no avail! The offender
   must personally come. And so, dear Hearer, must you have a personal
   faith in Christ for yourself.

   The word is sometimes interpreted to mean, and some give it the
   meaning, of leaning hard. What a blessed view of faith that gives us.
   Sometimes, according to the Rabbis, those who brought the victim leaned
   with all their might and pressed upon it as if they seemed to say by
   the act, "I put the whole burden, weight and force of my sin upon this
   unblemished victim." O my Soul, lean hard on Christ! Throw all the
   weight of your sin upon Him, for He is able to bear it and came on
   purpose to bear it--and He will be honored if you will lean heavily on
   Him! And, Beloved, what a simple

   act it was! The man who would not be absolved from sin in this way
   deserved to perish--there was nothing but to lay his hand, nothing but
   to lean--how could he refuse?

   Faith in Christ is no mystery--no problem needing to be explained in
   long treatises--it is simply trust Him! Trust Him! Trust Him and you
   are saved! "There is life in a look at the Crucified One." "Look unto
   Him, and be you saved all the ends of the earth." Nothing can be
   plainer--nothing can be simpler--why is it that so many puzzle
   themselves where God has given us simplicities? It must be that God
   made man upright, but he has found out many inventions with which to
   bewilder himself. The laying on of the hand was the act of a sinner. He
   came there because he had sinned and because his sin had come to his
   knowledge.

   Had he been sinless there would have been no meaning in his bringing a
   sin-offering. Innocence needs not a substitute or sacrifice for sin.
   The sin-offering is evidently for the man who has sin, and what if I
   say there is no soul here to whom Christ is so suitable as the soul
   that is most full of sin? You that are a great, big, evil sinner--a
   thoroughpaced sinner, a damnable sinner--you are the very sinner to
   come to Christ and glorify His Grace! He is a Physician who did not
   come into this world to cure finger aches, and pinpricks, but to heal
   great diseases, loathsome leprosies, and burning fevers! Come, you
   Sinner of the common people, come and rest alone on Jesus! I wish I
   knew how to speak of this theme so as to move your souls.

   Within a few months or years at the longest, we shall all be before the
   bar of God--and what if some of us should be there with our sins upon
   us? I am afraid some of you will be there unforgiven. O you to whom I
   have so often spoken, will you be there unpardoned? I shall not be able
   to make excuses for you there and say you did not know the way of
   salvation, for I have preached it with great plainness of speech. I
   have often cast aside language which contended itself to my taste, to
   use, instead, more homely words, lest one of you should miss my
   meaning. God knows I have often forsaken tracks of thought which opened
   before me, and which might have interested many of my hearers, because
   I have felt while so many of you are unsaved, I must keep on plowing
   with simplicity and sowing elementary Truths of God!

   I am evermore telling over and over again the story of the
   substitutionary work of the Lord Jesus. What? Do you hate your souls so
   much that you will damn them to spite Christ? Is there such a hatred
   between you and yourself that you will reject God's own Sacrifice for
   sin? You cannot say it is difficult for you to avail yourself of the
   death of Jesus. It is but to lay your hand of faith on that dear head!
   What enmity must there be in your hearts that you will not be
   reconciled to God even when He makes the reconciliation by the death of
   His own dear Son! To what a pitch has man's rebellion against his Maker
   gone, when, sooner than be at peace with Him, he will reject eternal
   love and will forever ruin his own soul!

   Oh, may God grant that some this morning may say, "I will stretch out
   my hand, I will trust in Jesus!" You see that the hand to be stretched
   out is an empty one and the heart which leans may be a fainting one.
   Weakness and sinfulness find strength and pardon by taking Jesus to be
   their All-in-All.

   V. The last word I have to speak to you makes the fifth head, namely,
   THE ASSURED BLESSING. Turn to your Bibles, at the 31st verse. Let every
   soul here that is conscious of sin read those last lines--"and it shall
   be forgiven him." There is the sacrifice. The man must put his hand
   upon it. The sacrifice is slain, and, "his sin shall be forgiven him."
   Was not that plain speaking? There were no ifs, no buts, no
   perhaps--but--"it shall be forgiven him."

   Now, in those days it was only one sin, the sin confessed, that was
   forgiven. But now "all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven
   unto men." In those days the forgiveness did not give the conscience
   abiding peace, for the offerer had to come with another sacrifice
   by-and-by. But now the blood of Christ blots out all the sins of
   Believers at once and forever--so that there is no need to bring a new
   sacrifice or to come a second time with the blood of Atonement in our
   hands. The sacrifice of the Jew had no intrinsic value. How could the
   blood of bulls and goats take away sin? It could only be useful as a
   type of the true Sacrifice, the Sin-Offering of Christ.

   But in our Lord Jesus there is real efficacy. There is true Atonement.
   There is real cleansing and whoever believes in Him shall find actual
   pardon and complete forgiveness at this very moment. What a joy it is
   to know that--

   "The moment a sinner believes And trusts in his crucified God, His
   pardon at once he receives, Salvation in full through His blood." I
   delight to believe that of Christ Jesus, Kent's verse is true--

   "Here's pardon for transgressions past, It matters not how black their
   cast, And oh, my Soul, with wonder view, For sins to come here's pardon
   too."

   Our sins were all laid on Christ in one bulk, and were all put away at
   one time. Woe unto any man who should have to take his sins upon
   himself as they come! The blessing is that as our sins are committed
   they are still laid on Jesus, according to the words of the Psalmist,
   "Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is
   covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputes not iniquity,
   and in whom there is no guile."

   The Believer sins, but the Lord imputes not his sin to him--he lays it
   still upon the Scapegoat's head who bore our sins of old, even Christ
   Jesus our Savior! The meat of all my discourse is this--if there is a
   child of God here who is in the dark and burdened with sin--dear
   Brother, dear Sister--do not stand controverting with the devil as to
   whether you are a child of God or not! Do not be going over your
   experience and saying, "I am afraid I am a hypocrite and I have been
   deceived." But, for the moment, suppose the worst. Let the devil take
   for granted his accusations, and then reply to him in words like those
   of Martin Luther--

   "You say I am a great sinner and a law-breaker, and all this, to which
   I reply I will cut your head off with your own sword, for what if I am
   a sinner? It is written Jesus Christ came to save sinners and I rest my
   soul as a sinner simply upon Him." I like beginning again. The best way
   to get back lost evidences is to leave the evidences alone and go again
   to Jesus. Evidences are very like a sundial--you can tell what time it
   is if the sun is shining, but not if it isn't! And truly, a man of
   experience can tell the time of day without the sundial if he can but
   see the sun itself. Evidences are clearest when Jesus is near, and that
   is just the time when we do not need them!

   Here is God's direction for acting when under a cloud. "If any walk in
   darkness and see no light, let him"--what? Fret about his evidences?
   No, "let him trust," there is the end of it--"let him trust in the Lord
   and obey the voice of His Servant," and the light will soon come to
   him. Come away, O burdened Believer, to the Sin-Offering! "If any man
   sin we have an Advocate with the Father." The fountain that was opened
   for sin and for uncleanness was not opened for the unregenerate only,
   but for the people of God, for it was opened "in the house of David,"
   for the "inhabitants of Jerusalem," that is, for those who are God's
   people.

   If there is a poor soul here who has never believed in Jesus but is
   burdened with sin, I invite him, and I pray God the Holy Spirit to make
   the invitation effectual, to come now to Jesus Christ. I think that
   when I was seeking the Savior if I had been in this congregation and
   had heard Christ set forth as bearing sin as a Substitute, and heard
   the plain talk you have listened to this morning, I would have found
   peace immediately. Instead of which I was months and months hunting
   after peace because I did not know this--that I had nothing to do, for
   Christ had done it all--and all I had to do was to take what Christ had
   done and simply trust in Him!

   Now that you know it, oh, may God add something to your knowledge! May
   He give you power to lay your hand on Jesus! Lean on Him, Soul! Lean on
   Him! If you cannot lean, fall back into His arms! Faint away upon the
   bosom of the Savior! Trust Him! Rest in Him! It is all He asks of you!
   And then faith shall justify you and cleanse you, and shall give you
   sanctification, and by-and-by perfection, and shall bring you into His
   eternal Kingdom and Glory. The Lord bless you, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Intercessory Prayer

   (No. 1049)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 5, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "For yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities." Psalm 141:5.

   THIS is a very difficult passage in the original and it is hard to fix
   its meaning with absolute certainty. However, it is no business of
   mine, at the present, to go into the various interpretations which have
   been given, for I am aiming at something else. I am, for my immediate
   purpose, quite content with the authorized version. The meaning given
   to the passage by our translators is this--David says although the
   righteous man should rebuke him most sternly so as to strike his
   conscience and bring before him his wrong-doing--and even though he
   should do this with considerable severity, yet he would not be
   displeased with him. He would love him all the better, be thankful to
   him for having acted so faithfully, and he would prove his love by
   continuing to pray for his reprover, should the good man at any time be
   overtaken by calamity.

   David would always give his honest censor a warm place in his prayers.
   Now, if this is the meaning, and I think it is, it shows us that David
   was in the habit of praying for the saints. If he had not been, he
   would not have said that even in their calamities his prayers should go
   up for them. He had made it his daily custom to bring before his God in
   his private prayers the names of God's righteous ones, or else, I say,
   he would not have made the remark that even if some of them should
   rebuke him and reprove him sternly, he still would continue to pray for
   them.

   Our subject this morning shall be the high duty of intercession, a duty
   all too little regarded in these days. We shall speak upon it, first,
   as the text would lead us to do, in reference to saints, and, secondly,
   we shall urge it upon you on behalf of sinners.

   I. First, then, we have to speak upon the duty of INTERCESSORY FOR THE
   PEOPLE OF GOD. To arrange our thoughts in some order we will take for
   our first keynote the word obligation. It is incumbent upon every child
   of God to pray for the rest of the sacred family. Does not Nature,
   itself, teach us this? I mean not the old nature, but the new nature
   created within us by the Holy Spirit. Did you not find, my Brethren, as
   soon as you were yourselves possessors of Divine life, that you began
   without any exhortation to pray for others? Your very first believing
   cries began with, "Our Father which are in Heaven," and so included
   others besides yourself.

   Among the earliest prayers which a renewed heart offers will be one for
   the man through whose agency it was brought to Jesus. No new convert
   forgets to pray for the minister who was the instrument of his
   conversion. The newly delivered soul also pleads for others who are
   still in the deplorable condition from which Grace has enabled it to
   escape. "You have brought my soul out of prison, Lord, set my fellow
   captives free. In Your loving kindness enable others to taste the
   sweetness of Your salvation." Then the Christian people who have at any
   time conversed with the convert, who have ministered to his comfort or
   instruction, will be sure to obtain a share in his prayers--for a
   renewed heart is a tenderly grateful heart--and a man is not born-again
   from above who feels no thankfulness to earnest friends below.

   Set a bird free from a cage and it will sing you its thanks as it
   speeds forth into the air! Even thus, if you are enabled to open the
   prison doors of bandaged spirits, they will repay your loving efforts
   with prayer. I say it is a natural instinct of the new-born Believer to
   begin to intercede for others, and this instinct continues with him
   throughout his life. It is one of the things that he must do--it is a
   pleasure for him to do it--it would be impossible for him to utterly
   cease from it, for the indwelling Spirit in his bosom makes
   intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

   And, Brothers and Sisters, as it is an instinct of the Heaven-born
   nature, so it is a law of the elect household. The saints in their due
   order may be described as "praying always with all prayer and
   supplication in the Spirit, and watching with all perseverance and
   supplication for all saints." Every Believer has a watchman's place
   appointed him in the matter of prayer and he is bound not to be silent,
   but to give the Lord no rest till He establish and make Jerusalem a
   praise in the

   earth. We are all equally bound to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and
   our prosperity is made to hinge upon it. The new commandment which the
   Lord has given us, in which He bids us, "love one another,"
   necessitates our praying for each other. How shall a man claim that he
   loves his brother if he never intercedes with God for him?

   Can I live continually with my fellow-Believers and see their sorrows,
   and never cry to God on their behalf? Can I observe their poverty,
   their tribulation, their temptation, their heaviness of heart and yet
   forget them in my supplications? Can I see their work of faith and
   labor of love and never implore a blessing upon them? Can I wrap up
   myself within myself and be indifferent to the cares of those who are
   my Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus? Impossible! But if I can, I
   must belong to some other family than that of God, for in the family of
   love common sympathy leads to constant intercession. God forbid that we
   should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for our Brethren! Every
   bee in the hive of the Church should bring in its own share of this
   honey to the common store. As all the roots of a tree traverse the
   earth for nutriment and all suck in provision for the benefit of all,
   so should each Believer with open mouth of prayer search out and drink
   in spiritual blessings for the benefit of the whole Church. Forget not,
   then, my Brethren, the sweet obligation under which you are laid by
   your relationship to the saints and their ever-blessed Lord.

   Moreover, Beloved, we recognize a vital union among Believers, a
   oneness of a very intimate kind. We are not barely brethren, but we are
   "members of the same body." Christ is the Head of His mystical body the
   Church, and we are all members of His body. Now, as in the human frame
   each separate limb, member, organ, vein and nerve is necessary to the
   whole, so in the Church each Believer is necessary to the rest, and the
   rest are necessary to him. We may not be able to show what particular
   mischief would be done to the arm by an injury to the knee, yet, rest
   assured there would be a sympathetic suffering. No single cell or sac
   within the whole system can be out of order without in some degree
   affecting all the rest of the frame.

   Even so has God made us dependent upon one another--far more than we
   imagine. In Church unity every man contributes to the health or to the
   disease of the whole corporation, nor can he avoid doing so. No man
   lives to himself in the Church of God and no man dies to himself. When
   a Believer grows in Grace, he is enriched not for himself alone--the
   Christian community has increased its spiritual wealth by his gains.
   When, on the other hand, a man declines in Divine things and so becomes
   poor and feeble, it is not to himself, alone, that the injury occurs,
   but in a measure the Church is impoverished, weakened, and injured. O
   Brethren, since this is the case, let us discharge abundantly the
   duties which we owe to the body of which we form a part! And in the
   delightful exercise of supplication let us abound more and more.

   Intercession should throb like a pulse through the whole body, causing
   every living member to feel the sacred impulse. Intercession is one of
   the least things which we can do, and yet it is one of the
   greatest--let us not be slack in it. A prayerless Church member is a
   hindrance--he is in the body like a rotting bone, or a decayed
   tooth--and, before long, since he does not contribute to the benefit of
   his Brethren, he will become a danger and a sorrow to them. Brothers
   and Sisters, let it not be so with any one of you! Besides, Brethren,
   if an argument were needed to touch our hearts, it is not far to find.
   We ourselves owe much to the prayers of others. Many Christians can
   trace their conversion to their mother's prayers which went up to
   Heaven for them when as yet their infant tongues could not pronounce
   the Savior's name.

   A mother brought them to Jesus and besought Him to lay His hands on
   them and bless them. Many of you owe your conversion to the pleadings
   of Sunday school teachers, or to the supplications of ministers, or to
   earnest individual Christians who were led to intercede for you. Now,
   if by the way of prayer you have received a blessing, show your
   gratitude by praying for others! Endeavor to confer the blessing in the
   same way as you have received it. For myself, personally, I say this
   morning that no man can do me a truer kindness in this world than to
   pray for me! I reckon, Brethren, that the more of prayers I have the
   wealthier I am in real riches, in that form of personal estate which is
   better that gold and silver.

   An old Puritan remarks that when a man thrives in business he sets many
   hands to work for him, and, he says, when a man grows in usefulness he
   brings many souls to pray for him and so his business is carried on.
   The greater the expenditure of Divine Grace in the case of the Lord's
   servant, the more he needs intercessory help from all his Brothers and
   Sisters that he may be able to carry on his work under the Divine
   blessing. I am under bonds, my Brethren, to pray for you since I know
   that many of you continually besiege the Throne of Grace on my behalf.
   I put the argument,

   therefore, to you--if you have received blessings through the
   intercession of saints, would you not be ungrateful, indeed, if you did
   not intercede for others in return?

   Did a mother's prayers bring you to Christ? Then, dear young Mother,
   send up your entreaties to the Lord for your dear little ones. Did a
   father's supplications lead to your salvation? Then, young Man, uphold
   your father with your constant prayers and so enrich his latter days.
   Freely you have received, freely give. The soil fertilized by the dew
   gives back its harvest--you also make a fair return to the Church which
   has been the channel of blessing to you. It is not, therefore, a matter
   of choice with us, today, whether we shall pray for our Brothers and
   Sisters in Christ or not! Beloved Brethren, you are not alive unto
   God--you have not the instincts of the new life if you do not intercede
   for the household of faith! You have not the love which is of
   God--which is the sure sign of regeneration--if you forget
   intercession! You are unmindful of the debt you owe, and you are acting
   unworthily of your professed union with the Church of Christ if
   intercession is neglected by you. As with a trumpet call I would
   entreat you, my Brothers and Sisters, to effectual, earnest prayer for
   the family of the living God.

   Let us change our watchword now from obligation to honor. What an honor
   it is to be permitted to pray for the saints! For, observe, this brings
   us into the closest conceivable fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ
   Himself. We cannot assist in providing an atonement for human sin--"It
   is finished," said the Savior, and finished it is. In that work we can
   have no fellowship except as we receive of its results, for, "He has
   trod the winepress alone, and of the people there was none with Him."
   In preaching the Gospel today, we are exercising an office in which our
   Lord Jesus has now no share-- the Holy Spirit helps us, but the Man,
   Christ Jesus is at the right hand of the Father and His voice is not
   heard proclaiming the glad tidings. Therefore, in some respects we have
   diverse occupations and exercise different offices, but, in the
   business of intercession we are one--at this very moment our Lord is
   pleading before the Truth of God and when we intercede for His people
   we are doing precisely the same!

   We, in praying for the saints, have actual present fellowship with our
   great High Priest who intercedes within the veil. I say again, if I
   preach today, Christ is not preaching. But if I pray, my voice
   harmonizes with His! If I pray for the Brethren, I remember that He
   stands before the Throne of Glory with the breastplate on, having the
   names of all His chosen glittering there upon its precious stones. Is
   it not, then, a delightful thing to be partakers with the Son of God in
   the ministry of intercession? In this service He has made us priests
   unto our God! He is the great Angel with the golden censor, and the
   smoke of the incense which He offers ascends with the prayers of the
   saints before the Lord! Beloved, you would be conformed in service to
   the Lord Jesus--the opportunity is ready to your hand--be much in
   intercession for the saints!

   And, what an honor it is that we, who so lately were beggars for
   ourselves at Mercy's door, are now received so much into royal favor
   that we may venture to speak a word in the king's ear for others! It
   was sovereign mercy which allowed us to say, "Have mercy upon me!" But
   what condescension is this which has taken us into such nearness with
   itself that now we can come to the Lord and say, "I would wish to speak
   a word with You for a Brother of mine. I would venture to ask bounties
   at Your hands, my Father, for a Sister who needs compassion." See, my
   Brothers and Sisters, how eminently you are promoted--you are ordained
   to the high office of "the King's remembrancers," to enquire of Him
   concerning the good things of His Covenant! You are constituted a royal
   social worker for the King! He sets before you His open treasury and
   bids you ask what you will. O priceless Grace!

   If you, O Believer, know how to ask by faith, you may hand out to your
   Brothers and Sisters wealth more precious than the gold of Ophir, for
   intercession is the key of the ivory palaces wherein are contained the
   boundless treasures of God! Saints in intercession reach a place where
   angels cannot stand! Those holy beings rejoice over penitent sinners,
   but we do not read of their being admitted as suppliants for the
   saints. Yet we, imperfect as we are, have this favor! We are permitted
   to open our mouth before the Lord for the sick and for the tried, for
   the troubled and for the downcast--with the assurance that whatever we
   shall ask in prayer, believing, we shall receive. In this thing great
   honor is put upon us. Brothers and Sisters, avail yourselves of this
   honor!

   I know very well if Her Majesty should give a permission to any one of
   you to call at the palace, and to ask what you would for your friends,
   you would not neglect the opportunity. Why, in these days if a man
   thinks he has the ear of a member of Parliament, or somebody in power,
   it is not often that he neglects the opportunity of speaking for his
   cousin or his son who desires an office where there is little to do and
   much to receive. All over the world place-seekers are in

   abundance. Men of influence, having the ear of the authorities, are
   always pressed to make all possible use of their position in society.
   And yet I have to stand here this morning and urge you, dear Brothers
   and Sisters, who have the ear of God, to exercise your choice
   prerogative!

   You have promises from God of the granting of your request, and many
   are saying, "I would be spoken for unto the King"--pray to be not slow
   to help. Use the liberty which your Prince has given you and plead for
   your Brothers and Sisters! If there are no other who needs your
   prayers, I eagerly ask for a place in them. "Brethren, pray for us,"
   said an Apostle--how much more may I say it! Having to minister daily
   in holy things, our responsibilities and needs are very great. Do not,
   therefore, forget us when it is well with you. Say a kind thing unto
   the Prince for His servants and ask Him to grant us more of His Grace.

   We will change the word now from honor to excellence. Intercessory
   prayer is a most excellent thing, for first, it benefits those who use
   it. I know you desire, Beloved, to be of real service in the Church of
   God. I trust we have no members of this Church who are satisfied to
   have their names in the book, and to attend services, and to feel that
   all is done when this is done. No, you wish to be really helpful and to
   bring glory to God. Well, then, I urge upon you for this end the
   excellence of intercessory prayer! First, Brethren, it will suggest to
   you to know your Brothers and Sisters. You cannot pray well for those
   you know nothing about. You will not, therefore, go in and out of the
   assembly not knowing the person who sits next to you in the pew, but
   you will enquire how the Brethren fare, and, when you hear of anyone
   being in distress of mind, or body, or estate, you will be ready to
   take notice of that, in order that you may offer prayer on his account,
   and then there will be in you a sympathetic knowledge of your Brethren.

   Paul tells us to know them that labor among us and are over us in the
   Lord! And I wish all Church members did know more of their pastor's
   struggles, and sorrows, and joys--that they might have more sympathy
   with him. And the same is true of the rest of the Brethren--the more
   you know and sympathize the better will your prayers be. And because
   you will need to know, in order to intercede, I call intercession an
   excellent exercise. Earnest intercession will be sure to bring love
   with it. I do not believe you can hate a man for whom you habitually
   pray. If you dislike any Christian, pray for him doubly--not only for
   his sake, but for your own--that you may be cured of prejudice and
   saved from all unkind feeling.

   Remember the old story of the man who waited on his pastor to tell him
   that he did not enjoy his preaching? The minister wisely said, "My dear
   Brother, before we talk that matter over, let us pray together," and,
   after they had both prayed, the complainant found he had nothing to say
   except to confess that he, himself, had been very negligent in prayer
   for his pastor. And he laid his not profiting to that account. I
   ascribe need of brotherly love to the decline of intercessory prayer.
   Pray for one another earnestly, habitually, fervently, and you will
   knit your hearts together in love as the heart of one man. This is the
   cement of fair colors in which the stones of the Church should be laid
   if they are to be compact together.

   Dear Brothers and Sisters, when you pray for one another, not only will
   your sympathy and love grow, but you will have kinder judgments
   concerning one another. We always judge leniently those for whom we
   intercede. If a talebearer represents my Brother in a very black light,
   my love makes me feel sure that he is mistaken. Did I not pray for him
   this morning, and how can I hear him condemned? If I am compelled to
   believe that he is guilty I am very sorry, but I will not be angry with
   him--but I will pray the Lord to forgive and restore him--remembering
   myself, also, lest I be tempted. We think our children beautiful
   because they are our own and have a place in our heart. And in the same
   way we are quick to perceive any admirable traits of character which
   may exist in those for whom we intercede--and we are willing to suggest
   extenuations for the failings of their dispositions.

   Prayer is a wondrous blender of hearts and a mighty creator of love.
   Intercessory prayer is of much efficacy in fostering watchfulness.
   Suppose that you, as a member of this Church, are brought into contact
   with backsliders and are led to seek their restoration. Your prayers
   for their recovery will naturally lead you to pray, "Lord, preserve me
   from this evil. Keep me from backsliding. Preserve me from becoming
   cold and indifferent as these Brethren have done." If we meet with
   professed Christians who have fallen into drunkenness and we are
   earnest in pleading with the Lord to rescue them from that horrible
   ditch, our own souls are made to loathe the sin and to stand upon its
   watchtower against it. If we perceive that two Brethren have disagreed
   and cannot be brought into a state of peace, if we pray to God that
   unity

   may be restored between them, we are led, also, to ask that we may be
   of a gentle and quiet spirit--that we may not cause strife--and that if
   we have caused it at any time we may be prepared to confess the wrong
   and amend it.

   Thus the objects of our prayerful solicitude become beacons to us. If
   you observe others with critical dispositions and censure them eagerly,
   and go from house to house to spread the ill-savor industriously, your
   unhallowed course of action will breed self-righteousness in yourself.
   But, if you go to the Lord with sorrow about all misdeeds of Brethren
   and importunately seek the restoration of the erring, you will foster
   in your own heart tenderness of feeling and watchfulness against sin.
   Those who supplicate much for others will frequently find on their own
   lips the prayer, "Search me, O God, and try me, and know my ways. See
   if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

   I cannot stay to tell you what other excellent things there are wrapped
   up in this exercise of intercession, but I am persuaded it is one of
   the holiest, healthiest, and most heavenly exercises in which a devout
   man can possibly be occupied. Do you not think, dear Brothers and
   Sisters, that if we were, each one, required upon the spot to give an
   account of his attention to this excellent duty we should, most of us,
   need to be ashamed? May I venture to put the question to every
   Christian here--have you rendered to God and His Church your fair
   proportion of intercessory prayer? We have not interceded too much, I
   am certain, for of this salt it may be said, "salt without prescribing
   how much." No man prays too much for his fellow man!

   Have we prayed enough? I give you space and make a pause in which you
   may put the question. I will give you my own answer. I am clear as to
   my duty to this Church in the matter of preaching, for I have not
   shunned to declare the whole counsel of God. If I could learn to preach
   better I would gladly do so. I am conscious of my failures, but I have
   served you heartily and faithfully before God in this pulpit. But I
   cannot say so of my intercessions. I have many confessions to make to
   God of shortcomings in that department. And I am afraid that a great
   number of my fellow workers here must plead guilty to the same
   indictment. You have never missed your class on Sunday afternoon. You
   are always at your work on time with the Scripture lesson well studied.
   That is right, but, dear Brother, do you always pray the lesson into
   your soul?

   Dear Sister, have you made a habit of praying for the girls under your
   care, one by one, with intense fervor? I do not accuse, but I ask you
   to look into your own soul, for the fault is not a trivial one, but
   causes ourselves and the Church no little damage. Elders and Deacons of
   this Church, are you clear in the matter of intercession? Some men
   among us may be without blame in this business, but I am afraid that
   the most of us have attended to other duties far beyond the proportion
   in which we have attended to this. We have prayed in public at the
   Prayer Meetings, and we have not forgotten supplication for the saints
   at the family altar, either, I trust. But, still, if we had prayed for
   our Brethren 10 times as much, or even a 100 times as much, we should
   not have gone too far!

   We stand up, sometimes, on the public platform, and we charge the
   Church of God with growing cold. Let us ask ourselves the
   question--Have we, by our prayers, added to her heat? Have we pleaded
   for her revival? We find fault with the Missionary Societies because
   such slender results are apparent. Do we pray for missions as we
   should? I hear a mournful complaint about the present and rising race
   of preachers--have we interceded for students and for pastors as we
   should? I hear people speak of Christians as either worldly,
   superficial or proud. Have you prayed them out of their worldliness and
   pride? May it not be that you would have done far better if you had
   prayed for them than found fault with them? Yes, and may not the errors
   you see in them be, in a considerable measure, traceable to the neglect
   of the office of intercession by yourself? Oh, let us have done with
   murmuring and complaining, criticism and finding fault, and take the
   whole of it up to the Mercy Seat--for if half the breath that is vainly
   spent in censorious complaints were turned into intercession--there
   would be much more holiness in the Church!

   Now, I must come to the text, again, while I give you another word, and
   that is extent. David says in the text, "For my prayer also shall be in
   their calamities" and his meaning is this--if any of the saints of God
   should, by their fidelity to his soul displease him, he would
   nevertheless pray for them. Brothers and Sisters, we are not to confine
   our prayers to those who please us in their mode of addressing us--but
   we are to pray lovingly for those who are too sharp, too harsh, too
   cutting in their remarks.

   Suppose they should be so severe as to grieve our spirits? Suppose
   their rebukes appear to be uncalled for, injurious and unjust? We are
   still bound to pray for them. David, in the text, seems to say
   this--let the righteous do what they might with him, he would still
   pray for them in their calamities. And I urge you, my Brethren, if
   there is any member of

   this Church who has treated you unkindly, revenge yourself upon him by
   loving him 10 times more than ever you did, and praying for him more
   constantly and more earnestly! If some Brother has crushed your spirit
   and wounded you so that to think of him causes you pain, never mind!
   The best cure for the wound is to go to God in prayer and pour out your
   soul for him--ask the Lord to give him a great blessing and to make him
   a better Christian--to fill him full of Divine love!

   And, then, when you see him improved, you will either come to think
   that you made a mistake in judging what he said, and took wrongly what
   he meant to do you good, or else you will find that he will come to you
   and will say, "I was in the wrong, my Brother." Or, if he does not
   confess that in words, he will by extra kindness to you acknowledge it
   in his deeds. And, Brethren, if ever we find a fellow Christian in a
   calamity, then we are to pray for him doubly. Men of the world leave
   their companions when they get into trouble--as the herd leaves the
   wounded deer. We have many friends when all goes well. We have very few
   when the evil days are lowering. But with Christians it should not be
   so! We should be faithful friends--we ought to be more kind to those
   who become poor than we are to others.

   If we meet with a fellow Christian who has lost his comfort and is
   desponding--though his society may not be very pleasant and may even
   have a depressing influence upon ourselves--we should pray for him
   more, and try to lift him out of the Slough of Despond. Especially if a
   Brother in Christ should be slandered we are bound to stand by him. Too
   many follow the bad habit of getting right out of the way of a man who
   is disgraced. Somebody has thrown a handful of mud at a professed
   Christian--let us clear the coast, for the mud may light upon us, too.
   So say cowards, but we do not! No, Brother, if you belong to the army
   of Immanuel and our persecuted Brother has done no wrong, let us stand
   or fall by him! Let us never desert a comrade!

   If the world says, "Down with him! Down with him! Down with him!" we
   will rush like the old Greek hero to the rescue and hold our shield
   over the fallen one, fighting for him till he can get up again--for one
   of these days we may be down, too, and we may need a Brother soldier to
   cover us from the enemy. Let us pray our Brothers and Sisters out of
   their troubles and not desert them--and if that prayer should be long
   before it gets an answer, let us persevere in importunity, saying with
   David, "Yet my prayer shall be in their calamities."

   I shall say no more upon this matter of intercession for the saints,
   but shall leave it before the Eternal Throne and with your own
   consciences. I beseech you, unless you are traitors to Christ--if you
   are members of the true unity, if your souls are knit together by the
   Holy Spirit--wrestle much for one another and do not let the Covenant
   Angel go till a blessing shall come to the whole house of God, and then
   flow into the world at large.

   II. Now, secondly, the high office of intercession FOR SINNERS. Upon
   this I shall speak briefly, but, I trust, earnestly. As a Church we
   have a crown, and for many years we have held it. But, I would use the
   language of Christ in the Book of the Revelation. When speaking to one
   of the Churches, He says, "Hold fast what you have, that no man take
   your crown." Now, what has been our crown as a Church? It has not been
   our wealth, for in that we do not excel. It has not been our
   learning--we do not make any show of it. It has not been our tasteful
   services, the beauty of our music, or the sweetness of our chants.

   No, we do not care about such things, but cultivate simplicity. Our
   crown has been this one thing--that if there has been a Church in
   Christendom which has given itself to winning souls, this Church has
   done so. Our ministry has aimed always at this--the plucking of the
   brands from burning, the bringing of sinners out of darkness into
   marvelous light. And I do you nothing but simple justice, my Brethren,
   when I say that by far the larger part of this Church is really alive
   for soul-winning. It does my heart good to meet with different knots of
   Brethren among you who everywhere about this city are working away
   unostentatiously but successfully in bringing souls to Christ. I hope
   it always will be so. Hold fast, O Church, what you have, that no man
   take your crown! Let it always be our joy and glory that God gives us
   spiritual children and souls are born to Him.

   Now we desire to do this, and I am sure we do, but we must look more to
   intercession for the souls of the unconverted. Pray first, for this is
   the most essential thing to do. What can you and I alone do in the
   conversion of a man? We cannot chance his heart! We cannot put life
   into him--we might as well think to create a soul within the ribs of
   death! It is God's work to regenerate souls. What then? If I am to be
   His instrument in doing it, my very first action must be to fall on my
   knees and pray, "O God, work with me." You are going to your Sunday
   school this afternoon, or you are off to your street preaching. Now, if
   you could do the work, I would not urge you to waste time in asking God
   to do

   what you could do alone! But, as you are utterly powerless to win a
   single soul to Jesus without the Spirit of God, let your first action
   be to pray, "O Divine power, come and clothe me! O tongue of fire, be
   given to me, and sacred, rushing, mighty Wind, come forth to breathe
   life upon dead souls!" Prayer is the most essential thing in turning
   sinners from the error of their ways.

   Then intercessory prayer will fit you for becoming God's instrument. If
   I pray for a person's conversion, especially if I single out some
   individual, then my heart gets warmed into love to that individual as I
   think over his position and condition in prayer. Very well, that
   instructs me, and helps me to deal out the proper word to him when I
   come near to him. I am like a surgeon, who, coming to a case where he
   has to use the knife, knows exactly where every bone is and also what
   part has been injured. My prayer has given me a diagnosis of the man's
   state. I have looked it through and considered it in my petitions, and
   when I come practically to work upon him, I shall be wise, by the
   Spirit of God, to do the right thing and in the right way.

   If we wished to send a man to college to make him a good helper to
   troubled hearts, we should send him to the college of all-prayer, for
   intercession is the mode to become wise in winning souls! And,
   Brethren, prayer will have this effect upon you--that you will go to
   work hopefully. It is a very horrible thing to think of persons being
   buried alive, put underground by their friends in their coffins while
   yet there was breath in their bodies. Let us mind that we never bury a
   soul alive--I am afraid we are in the habit of doing it. We judge of
   such an one that he will never be converted-- it is a case, we say,
   where all effort would be useless. We think of another person that he
   is so abandoned we may very well give him up and attend to more hopeful
   cases.

   In all this we are wrong, since we have no right to sign a soul's death
   warrant, or to say to the Grace of God, "to here You may come but no
   further." Believe that as long as a man lives in this world there are
   possibilities of Grace for him! Take him in your arms before God in
   prayer--and when you begin to pray for him you will feel that there is
   hope--and you will afterwards converse with him in a hopeful and,
   perhaps, believing manner. I do not believe a man was ever saved by
   another one talking to him in a tone of despair, but the cheerful
   utterance of hopeful love wins its way. Believe that the hard heart may
   be broken, the blasphemer's tongue cleansed, the persecutor's mind
   changed and that the rebel may yet obey Christ Crucified and become a
   bright star in the Heaven of God.

   Dear Brothers and Sisters, I pray you, then, since the power is of God,
   and since intercession will make you fit to be used by God, and since
   also it will give you great hopefulness with regard to those you deal
   with--exercise yourselves much more than ever in intercessory prayer.
   This is a work in which all of you can aid. If I came to you this
   morning and said, "Brothers and Sisters, the Lord's cause requires
   money," I know, from long experience, that you would do your best. But
   there are some who would be compelled to reply, "The necessities of my
   family do not permit my doing anything in that direction." But, when we
   ask for intercession, no Christian can say, "I cannot plead with God."
   If I were to press upon you at this moment the need of more public
   preaching, many of my congregation would be justly excused, for they
   are slow of speech and without gifts of utterance.

   But, O Brothers and Sisters, when it comes to interceding you can all
   fulfill the office! And by so doing you can have a share in all the
   great works of the Church. I have heard of a holy woman who used to
   say, "I cannot preach but I can help my minister to do it by my
   prayers. Therefore, whenever I see him come into the pulpit I will pray
   that God will bless his word, and so I shall have a share in what he
   does." When you hear of a missionary working anywhere abroad, pray for
   him, and then you will become his co-worker. Beloved, some of you are
   often sickly in body and during the weary night you get but little
   sleep--do you know why the Lord keeps you awake? It is that while
   others of us are sleeping you may be praying for us!

   God must have some to keep the night watches! He determines that a
   guard of prayer shall be set around His Church all day and all night
   long--you are the sentries of the night watches. You cannot do anything
   else, but you can pray-- and by praying you can obtain a share in the
   noblest works of the Church! Now mark--David, by implication, tells us
   that some of those we pray for may, perhaps, not care for our prayers
   and they may come into great calamities through their sins. Then is our
   time when we should be yet more earnest in intercession for them! If I
   have spoken to an ungodly man for many years and he has ridiculed all I
   have said, then I will resolve within myself, "I will never leave off
   praying for him. Perhaps one of these days I shall find him sick, and
   then he will ask for the prayers he now rejects. Perhaps I shall find
   him with a broken heart, and then the words he now jests at will be
   very sweet to his taste."

   You who seek after souls must know how to keep up the chase--those who
   are short of breath in soul-winning will never be successful. Follow
   them up! Follow them up! Follow them to the gates of the grave! If they
   are not saved after 20 years of prayer, follow them up to the gates of
   Hell! If they once pass those gates your prayers are unallowable and
   unavailing, but to the very verge of the infernal Pit follow
   then--follow them with your prayers. If they will not hear you speak,
   they cannot prevent your praying. Do they jest at your exhortations?
   They cannot disturb you at your prayers, for they do not know when you
   offer them. Are they far away so that you cannot reach them? Your
   prayers can reach them! You can still bless them. Have they declared
   that they will never listen to you again, nor see your face? Never
   mind, God has a voice which they must hear--speak to Him, and He will
   make them feel.

   Though they now treat you despitefully, rendering evil for your good,
   follow them, follow them, follow them with your prayers! Never let them
   perish for need of your supplications. The time may come when those who
   have been longest in yielding their hearts to Christ will repay us a
   thousand-fold for all the efforts and supplications we may put forth. I
   have sometimes seen a great sinner, when he is saved, become of as much
   use as 20 ordinary converts, for in proportion as he was hard to win,
   he has become useful when won. We do not expect that we shall get Sauls
   every day made into Pauls, but when it is so, then the Church is rich,
   indeed, for one Paul is worth a thousand ordinary Believers! These deep
   sea pearls are precious. These difficult cases may turn out to be
   Pauls--therefore be instant in season and out of season-- praying for
   them till they are brought to Christ.

   The one thing I desire this morning is that my dear Brothers and
   Sisters in Christ should pledge themselves to be more importunate in
   prayer for sinners all around us. Like Abraham, a great city is before
   us--let us plead for it! Like Moses, we dwell among a sinful
   people--let us stand in the gap for them I charge every member of this
   Church, by his fealty to God, if, indeed, he is not a liar in the
   profession that he has made, to pray importunately for the ungodly that
   they may be brought to Jesus! Plead with Jehovah! Plead--He loves your
   prayers--your intercessions are like the sweet incense upon the golden
   altar. Plead with Him and you shall live to see a reward for your
   pleadings in the conversion of the sons of men! Go home and make your
   children the special objects of this afternoon's cries. Implore the
   Lord to save your husbands or your wives, your kinsfolk and your
   nearest neighbors.

   Implore a blessing upon the seat-holders and hearers of this
   congregation who remain unregenerate! Then take your streets, take the
   district in which you live and entreat a gracious visitation--you shall
   never lack for persons to pray for--therefore continue in supplication.
   It was but a few days ago I saw four husbands who were converted to
   God, but their wives were left outside the Church. And those four
   Brothers, probably all here this morning, met together in prayer for
   their wives' conversion--and on the first communion Sunday of last
   month the four wives were brought in in answer to the prayers of the
   four husbands!

   Anything is possible! Everything is possible to him that believes! God
   help us to believe and to intercede, and then may He send His
   benediction, for Christ's sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

A Bright Light in Deep Shades

   (No. 1050)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 12, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Hearken to me, you that follow after righteousness, you that seek the
   Lord. Look unto the rock where you are hewn, and to the hole of the pit
   where you are dug." Isaiah 51:1.

   THE Israelites were commanded to remember all the ways which the Lord
   their God had led them in the wilderness. That precept was not given
   without reason. The remembrance of God's mercy in the past is helpful
   to us in many ways. To look back upon our past condition and upon the
   manner in which God befriended us at such times as we were reduced to
   sore straits will often prove salutary and bracing to our souls. For
   one thing, it tends to bring forth in us the meekness of wisdom. Should
   we become rich and increased in goods spiritually, it will humble us
   and keep us in our right place if we remember that once we were naked,
   poor and miserable.

   Are we, today, rejoicing in the Lord, sitting down at our Father's
   table, enjoying the privileges of sonship? It will prevent our being
   proud if we remember that not long ago we gladly would have filled our
   belly with the husks that the swine ate, and in our rags and filth we
   were led to say, "I will arise, and go to my Father." Whenever, O child
   of God, you become self-complacent through beholding the excellence of
   your present estate, it will do you good to remember what you once
   were, how you have now become what you are, and to whom the glory of it
   is due. It will cool your hot blood, calm your feverish pulse and
   constrain you to bow in the dust of adoration before Him to whom your
   well-being, like your being, exclusively is due.

   A remembrance of the past also will be sure to excite our thankfulness.
   God's people are always happy when they are grateful. We would be 10
   times more full of bliss if we were proportionately more full of
   thankfulness. We bury God's mercies and then sigh for His comforts. If
   we remembered how near to Death's dark door we once laid, and how the
   gates of Hell were opened for us--and gladly would have closed upon us
   forever--we should bless that mighty arm which plucked us like brands
   from the burning, and adore that matchless Atonement which has
   delivered us from going down into the Pit because a ransom has been
   found!

   If no other results came from a retrospect of our past condition but
   humility and thankfulness, these would be sufficient to justify the
   Prophet in bidding us look to the rock where we were hewn, and to the
   hole of the pit where we were dug. But, in this particular instance
   Isaiah had not in his mind's eye the cultivation either of humility or
   of gratitude. He was led by the Spirit of God to admonish the
   Israelites to look back for quite another reason, though one of equal
   importance. It was this--that they might be cheered and encouraged in a
   time of gloom and sadness, and that they might be animated with fresh
   confidence in God's power to bring them up again from their sad
   condition as they thought of all that He had done for them in times
   past, when they were equally low, or when, perhaps, they were even in a
   worse plight than they were at present.

   Give ear, then, Beloved! Listen to this appeal, all you that follow
   after righteousness! There is a cheerful view for you if you will but
   look back--and brighter scenes will yet open up before you as you go
   forward! It is a great thing for people to be encouraged. Sometimes
   Satan makes the pendulum vibrate in one direction, and sometimes in
   another direction. If it swings this way, men become presumptuous in
   sin. Or, if he make it swing that way, they become desponding as to the
   pardon of their sin and the renewal of their heart. Quite as many souls
   are ruined by the latter as by the former. I desire, this morning, to
   speak so that every one of you that follows after righteousness and
   desires the Lord, may say, "There is hope for me, then. There is good
   cheer for me," and with your face turned towards your Father's house,
   may quicken your footsteps towards the place where pardon and love are
   awaiting you.

   I. First, WE SHALL EXPOUND THE TEXT WITH GREAT BREVITY IN ITS
   APPLICATION TO ISRAEL LITERALLY. They are bid to look back to the
   origin of their nation, in order that they may be comforted. Abraham

   was the stock out of which the nation of Israel came. He was only one
   man. "Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bore you, for
   I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him." He was a
   single individual. His wife and he made up but one family. One tent
   enclosed them--and yet the Lord said to him, "I will make of you a
   great nation; and I will bless you, and you shall be a blessing, and in
   you shall all the families of the earth be blessed."

   Yes, more, the Lord said to him, "I will establish My Covenant between
   Me and you, and your seed after you, in their generations for an
   everlasting Covenant." And God bade Abraham look towards Heaven and
   count the stars, and He said, "So shall your seed be." A progeny that
   should be like the innumerable sand upon the seashore was assured to
   the Patriarch and Sarah, his wife! Moreover, the man was old, well
   stricken in years, and we read concerning him that his body was now
   dead--that is to say, he was too far advanced in years to be likely to
   become the progenitor of a race. As for his wife, she also, it is said,
   was barren.

   And yet, from these two, who seemed the least likely of all flesh and
   blood, God was pleased to create a people countless as the stars!
   Abraham was not a man in a commanding position, with large armies at
   his feet who could make a show in the world. He was a dweller in tents,
   a Bedouin sheik, wandering through the plains of Palestine--yet he was
   never injured--for God had sent forth a secret mandate, which fell,
   though they knew it not, upon men's hearts, "Touch not My anointed, and
   do My Prophets no harm." And though in many cases it seemed as if this
   embryo of a race might have been crushed, and become extinct, yet
   Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachel, must live on--
   they must survive because God's promise was that He would make a great
   nation out of these few men and women.

   Now, the Prophet turns to the Israelites, and he says, "You say God can
   never restore us--we have been thinned out by innumerable
   invasions--the sword of war has slain the tribes. Judah and Israel can
   never rise again. But are there not more left of you than there were at
   first? There were but two, Abraham and Sarah, that bore you, and yet
   God made you a people! Can He not make you a people again? You are not
   lower, now, than you were then. You say that you are in poverty--true,
   but these, your progenitors, were not great in the earth. You say that
   you have no strength, that the men of valor have ceased, and that you
   are not skillful in the use of arms. Be it so. Neither were your first
   ancestors expert in war--they were but few and feeble in the land--yet
   God preserved them!

   He worked great deliverances for them, and brought the country to great
   strength and power! And cannot He who did this for them do the same
   again for you, now that He promises to visit you and to restore you? I
   think you see that the thoughts which would be awakened in the heart of
   a Jew by these reflections would be eminently consolatory. They ought
   to be consolatory to us now with regard to the Jewish people. They are
   scattered--behold them wandering on the face of the earth without a
   country of their own. They are a people who have been oppressed and
   downtrodden almost beyond belief. The hand of the heathen and the hand
   of the so-called Christian has been very heavy upon them--they have
   been jeered and hooted at for ages--though they are, in truth, the very
   nobles of God, and their ancient lineage is like that of kings.

   Let us not, however, despair for them. Abraham, their father, was but a
   heathen when God called him out of a family that had worshipped the
   seraphs and made him to be a witness of the living and true God, and
   honored his faith with exceedingly great rewards. Doubt not, then, that
   He can call Israel again from all her wanderings, cleanse her from all
   her profane traditions and her unbelief and separate her unto Himself
   to be a holy people in whom, once again, His power shall be made known!
   And it shall be made known in such a way that they shall not speak of
   the ark of the Lord, or the redemption out of Egypt as the chief symbol
   of their national glory or the grand theme of their patriotic song--
   for a greater redemption and a greater manifestation of the Divine
   Presence shall be in the midst of Israel than the wilderness of Sinai
   had ever known, or the mountains round about Jerusalem have ever
   witnessed!

   God grant it to them, and hasten the fulfillment of the promises in
   which He has made us to hope. We are encouraged from the very origin of
   Israel to hope that great things shall yet be done for her.

   II. But now, secondly, our text may be used in reference to the
   CONDITION OF THE CHURCH, THE CHURCH

   OF GOD IN THE WORLD. Let us look back to the rock where we were hewn,
   and to the hole of the pit where Christ's Church was dug. We shall see
   great encouragement under present discouragements if we do so. I know
   many of the people of God who scarcely dare look for brighter times
   because they say the people of God are few. Nominal professors abound,
   but vital godliness, they say, where shall we find it?

   Behold, the faithful servants of the Most High are become like the
   gleanings of the grapes when the vintage is over! The spirit of Elijah
   in some Christians, while it makes them very jealous for the Lord God
   of Hosts, makes them very uncharitable towards His people, and they
   say, "Only I am left, and they seek my life to take it away." Do I hear
   the bitter complaint of some Brother who is afflicted with the belief
   that there now are very few good and gracious people? Perhaps he may
   have sound reasons for his apprehensions in the Church with which he is
   connected, seeing that through many circumstances it may have been
   thinned and brought very low in numbers. My dear Brother, hope in your
   God! Trust in Christ! Cry mightily for the Spirit! Work heartily for a
   revival and have confidence in the power of the Gospel, for was not the
   Church very small at the first?

   It could all be contained in one upper room! Has it not been very small
   many times since then? Had you looked well all over the Continent of
   Europe and been able to read all men's hearts, how very few of the
   faithful would you have found in the days of Huss, or Jerome of Prague!
   Here and there a godly monk in his cell had found the Savior. Here and
   there simple-minded men and women had heard the good tidings of the
   Cross, as it were, by chance, and rejoiced. But the people of God were
   very scant--so few, a little child might count them. They were like the
   trees of the woods when the axe has passed through and through the
   forest. But did not the Lord strengthen His Church in the Apostolic
   times? How speedily did the 120 grow to three thousand!

   How soon had the 3,000 been scattered over the world and multiplied a
   hundredfold! How soon had all nations felt the growing power of the
   Church! And, in the Dark Ages, how very speedily did the time of the
   singing of birds come! How sweetly was the voice of the turtle heard in
   our land, and in all lands! God had but to speak by His servant,
   Luther, and brave men came to his side and right soon His Church sprang
   up. Though she is built of costly stones and hewn stones, and abides
   for the ages, yet she sprang up as though she had been the offspring of
   a dream, and like the gourd which comes up in a night, for the Lord was
   with her and He worked marvelously. Look back, then, if discouraged
   with the fewness of God's people--to the rock where the Church was
   hewn!

   But, is it possible, you ask, while the Church of God in these days
   possesses so few men of influence, so few of the nobility throughout
   the land? Those that follow after Christ are, for the most part,
   recruited from the poor or the middle classes. The men of literary
   repute, where are they? Are they not opposed to the Gospel? Men of
   station and of rank--do they not look down with contempt upon the
   followers of the simple faith of Christ? There are no kings, nor
   princes, nor great ones of the earth to hold the standard and unfurl
   the banner of the Cross. But, dry your tears--yes-- let them not even
   spring to your eyes, for this is a small matter of regret! Was it not
   said that it should be as of old? Did not Inspiration say, "Not many
   great men after the flesh, not many mighty have been called, but God
   has chosen the poor of this world"?

   Do you suppose that God has changed His plans, or that men's hearts
   have changed their bias? It will be so to the end of the chapter! Nor
   must we expect otherwise. Albeit, when the Gospel spreads broadly and
   groves mightily, there will be more of all classes comprehended in it.
   Yet God looks not to the greatness of men, neither shall the triumph of
   the Gospel ever owe anything of its good speed to the prowess of
   man--the wealth of his intellect, the spell of his eloquence--or the
   multitude of his possessions. The Lord, alone, is to be exalted, and He
   will establish His right by multiplying His people from a class that
   shall not be able to claim eminence among the sons of men. Look, then,
   to the rock from where you were hewn, and you will no longer sorrow for
   lack of men of great influence and high standing.

   "But alas," one says, "I see grave cause for sorrow, even for sorrow
   like the lamentation of Jeremiah at the gates of Jerusalem, for in
   these days many have departed from the faith, and the Truth of God lies
   in the streets bespattered." Alas, it is to be confessed that it is
   even so. False teaching is varnished with fair words. Lies long
   exploded are brought into the Church again. Error is taught in our
   pulpits--covered over with new phrases--and heresies that were once
   slain have had a resurrection and are living among us. You see in one
   Church rampant popery--popery maintained by men who eat the bread of a
   Protestant Church! You see in another place every doctrine of our holy
   faith practically denied by men who occupy the pulpits of the old
   Puritans.

   We have certainly fallen upon evil days in this respect, nor do I think
   it would be possible for a man to be too censorious in the statement of
   this fact. The times are dark and ominous, and thick clouds are
   gathering. But for all this there is no room for fear--there is no
   place for trembling. Put not your hand upon the Ark of the Lord, like
   Uzzah, for

   God will preserve it--it is safe in His keeping. Look back to the pit
   where we have been dug. There have been eras and epochs in which gross
   heresies spread a contagion through the entire Church.

   The period at which Arianism was so prominent comes at once to our
   recollection. That Christ was merely a man was almost the universal
   belief of Christendom. Only a few faithful ones maintained His Godhead
   at all hazards. But yet, today, where is Arianism? It has gone among
   the moles and the bats--the few that held the Truth of God survived the
   deadly epidemic and won the victory after all. God was with them, and
   in His name they became triumphant--and it will be so again. Error is
   like a hydra, as quickly as we cut off one of its heads another comes
   up in its place. But we must keep on killing till the last is slain.

   In the Dark Ages, Romanism was not only predominant, but it seemed to
   be and it really was all but universal--yet by the bright shining of
   His revealed Word, did not God soon chase away the dense shades of
   ignorance and superstition? Once the sound was heard, "By the works of
   the Law there shall no flesh be justified." "Being justified by faith
   we have peace with God." Then the rolling thunder of that Gospel shook
   the Vatican and very soon its power over the nations had passed away
   never to be predominant again. So will it be again. Let us not fear, we
   have the same God, we have the same Gospel, we have the same Holy
   Spirit to make the Gospel effectual against error--we may say the
   virgin daughter of Zion has shaken her head at you, and laughed you to
   scorn, for the Lord of Hosts is with her, the God of Jacob is her
   refuge, therefore shall she not fear.

   Again, I hear the voice of lamentation from some Brother who cries, "It
   is not merely that error spreads in the land, but the Church is
   lukewarm in these times. Jesus does not seem to be loved as once He
   was. The heroic spirit, the martyr spirit, has departed from us.
   Christians seek to get gain and wrap themselves up in garments of fine
   linen and fare sumptuously every day. They are as earthly and as carnal
   as the rest of mankind. How is the fine gold become dim, how is the
   most fine gold changed!" Here, again, the warmest advocate for the
   Church must confess that the indictment is true. This is a lukewarm
   age. "I would you were either cold or hot," might be addressed to the
   Churches of this day as justly as to the Church of Laodicea.

   We will neither insist upon it, nor bring proofs about it, nor will we
   argue against it--but we will admit the charge just as the accuser
   brings it--and what then? Though I see much cause for our grieved
   feelings, I see still no cause for our being dispirited. The Church has
   been in a like listless state before, and out of that languid condition
   God has roused her up and brought her forth. I am sure I need not
   unroll a page of history and ask you to glance your eye down it except
   for a second--for again and again you will see it has occurred that the
   Church has fallen asleep and her ministers have become as mute
   inglorious neuters--destitute of zeal, having no ardent passion and
   giving themselves up to no arduous enterprise. But it is only needed
   once more for God to make bare His arm, and His Church will be full of
   life and of power--renewing the vigor of youth--abounding in hope and
   intrepid in courage!

   Must you have a modern instance? Think of the days of Wesley and
   Whitefield. When they began to preach, gross darkness had covered this
   land. They did not appear to be the men who were likely to remove the
   veil that covered the nation, yet God used their very feebleness and
   eccentricity. He used everything about the men to be the means of
   restoring the Church, reinforcing her ranks and augmenting her
   energies. Therefore, be of good cheer! Though the Church should slip
   and slide again, and disgrace herself by her lack of zeal, yet she is
   the spouse of Christ--and He will not divorce her--He will turn to her
   in mercy yet again!

   There is a complaint made by some, and I fear there is some truth in
   it, that we have not many valiant ministers nowadays. Godly men will
   say if we had a Luther, then we might hope--if anywhere within the
   horizon we could find a man like Howe or Baxter--then we might be of
   good courage. But where are the champions for the Gospel now? We are a
   race of pigmies, they say, and the time of the giants has long since
   gone by. Perhaps so. It is likely enough, but for all that, there have
   been periods in the Church's history when she lacked men of valor and
   God has found them! Why should He not find them again? The Apostles
   were certainly eminent, but their fame was, to a great extent,
   posthumous--they were not eminent in the judgment of their own
   generation.

   There seemed to be in the early Church no very remarkable person who
   was all on fire to carry the Gospel to the ends of the earth. But one
   who had been brought up at the feet of Gamaliel--a Pharisee of the
   Pharisees, a persecutor of the Church. A man of great learning, a man
   of mighty reasoning faculties--an extraordinary man, one of the
   greatest men that God ever endowed with gifts--was summoned into the
   field of service! In a moment the Lord arrested that man, for

   He had need of him, and at the gates of Damascus He converted him by
   Grace and called him to be an Apostle! Nor was he a whit behind the
   very chief of the Apostles! And he became renowned among the sons of
   men for the brightness of the Revelation he received--for the magnitude
   of the labor he performed--and for the intensity of the sufferings he
   endured.

   The Lord can work as extraordinary a miracle of Grace at this very
   hour! If He willed it, He could take from among the cardinals a man who
   should preach Christ's Gospel! He could find among the priests that now
   abhor Him, men that should be from now on so full of faith and power
   that their adversaries could not resist the wisdom and spirit by which
   they speak! Yes, and not from these only, but in the slums of
   Whitechapel and the dark corners of the Seven Dials, God could find a
   Paul and a Barnabas. From the very highest of the population, or from
   the lowest, whichever He willed, He could raise up men that should
   defend the Truth and carry the banner of the Cross into the very heart
   of the foe! Let us not fear! He that made the earth and man that is
   upon it, can make men for His Church! There are live coals upon the
   altar, still, and there are still seraphs to bring them to touch
   stammering lips and say to men who before had been silent, "Lo! This
   has touched your lips. Go and preach the Gospel in Jehovah's name, and
   the signs of His Grace shall follow."

   Brethren, I see nothing whatever to discourage us when I look back upon
   the past--I see the days of the present at once transmuted into signs
   of hope. I know there is much to deplore, but so there always has been.
   I know there are hills to be leveled, and leveled they shall be. I know
   there are valleys to be filled up, and filled up they shall be. I know
   there are crooked things, but they shall be made straight! And there
   are rough places, but they shall be made plain. If the Gospel's
   progress were always smooth and easy, where were the glory of it?

   But, inasmuch as the Church meets with opposition at her every step,
   this mighty maid that God has sent into the world armed from head to
   foot shall fight her way through the midst of all her enemies--and
   Truth and Righteousness, her sisters, shall go with her even to that
   Throne that shall be set up above the hills, on which she shall reign
   as queen in the midst of the people.

   III. I leave that point because I am anxious to dwell upon another. OUR
   TEXT MAY BE VIEWED AS INSTRUCTIVE TO OURSELVES. Beloved Brothers and
   Sisters, our experience varies. Probably some of you may not be able to
   sympathize with an experience I am about to describe. I am sorry to say
   I am very cognizant of it and I am afraid that there are many here who
   know as much about it as I do, perhaps more. It sometimes happens to
   men who are truly saved and resting upon Christ, that they fall from
   the condition which they occupied when they were in their first love,
   and they get into a state of which I must give you some particulars.

   They will say, "I have lost all enjoyment of religion. I could once
   sing for joy of heart in the precious love of Christ. When I went to
   the House of God the Word was like music to my ears. When I bowed the
   knee in prayer it was delightful to speak with my heavenly Father--

   'What peaceful hours I then enjoyed, How sweet their memory still.'

   "But I do not enjoy these sacred exercises now. I follow after them.
   God forbid I should ever give them up. Still I am afraid there is very
   much that is mechanical in my devotion. Certainly I have not much
   inward peace. Alas, that I must confess it, my feelings seem to have
   become dull and blunt! At one time I wept if I thought I had sinned.
   The least touch of sin grieved me, I was like a sensitive plant--the
   very brush of evil I felt. But now, Sir, I cannot feel! Oh, what would
   I give for the tenderness of years gone by! I sometimes think--

   'If anything is felt, 'tis only pain,

   To think I cannot feel.'

   "I read the story of Christ's death without a tear, and I think of
   sinners perishing without the shudder that used to thrill every nerve
   of my body. At one time it would have broken my heart, but now I treat
   it as a matter of course. Not only is the joy gone, but other Graces
   which were apt to bloom now droop as if there were a blight among all
   the flowers in the garden of my soul." Such a one may say, "I do not
   doubt the faithfulness of God, but I am afraid I have no interest in
   it. I do not doubt the power of Jesus' precious blood to cleanse from
   sin, but I am afraid I never had any faith in that precious blood, and
   that I cannot be one of His disciples. I feel, oh, I cannot tell you
   how--it is like a dead calm in my spirit--

   'No stir in the air, no stir in the sea, The ship was as still as a
   ship might be.'

   "And so is my soul, till it seems to be like the deep described in
   Coleridge's 'Ancient Mariner'--

   'The very deep did rot,'

   "Alas, that ever this should be! My soul seems in that awful calm, as
   though every good thing were rotting within her and I cannot help
   myself."

   Well, dear Friend, I need you to follow the counsel of my text, "Look
   to the rock where you were hewn, and to the pit where you were dug." I
   need you to look back to what you once were. Time was when you were all
   you are now, but you did not know the wretchedness of it. You then
   loved sin, and the wages of it, and you found pleasure in your evil
   pursuits. It is not so with you now. Then you were an enemy to God by
   wicked works, and far off from Him. There was no heaving within your
   spirit, no desire for better things. Not only had you no feeling, but
   you did not need to have any feeling--you would rather not have had
   any, whereas now you would be glad enough if the Spirit of God would
   visit you again and rekindle the fire which has almost gone out.

   Why, in those days, your sins had never been acknowledged nor
   confessed, and were not pardoned--they were heaped upon you, then, with
   all their aggravations. But you were brought by the precious power of
   Grace to wash in the "fountain filled with blood." My dear Brother. My
   dear Sister--why cannot you be washed again? What reason is there why
   the Lord should not bring you, a second time, to Himself and make you
   stand and weep again at the Cross--weep for very joy because your sins
   were laid upon the Lord Jesus and were put to death in His death? Your
   state is bad, but it is not what it was! Oh, blessed be God, if I
   cannot feel, at least I want to feel! And if I cannot pray as I would,
   at any rate, I long to pray! And, if I cannot clasp Christ in my arms
   and say, "I have seen Your salvation," I may say I shall never be happy
   till I do!

   If I cannot, everyday, sit at His table, yet I know I cannot feel at
   home anywhere else! If Jesus is not mine, yet will I never be content
   till He shall be mine, for I will seek Him--and if I perish I will
   perish still crying to Him, "God be merciful to me." Your present
   condition is not what your past one was, and yet the Lord visited you
   when in your lost estate! Beloved, there is the same God today as there
   was when you first sought Him. Your Father did welcome you with
   abounding love when you first came to Him confessing your sins. His
   heart is not hardened towards you--return to Him, for He will receive
   you yet again! There is the same purpose in God's heart, now, as there
   was then. Then He resolved to save you, and He did. He never changes
   His resolve to save you. You are under the same Covenant as you
   were--it was not a covenant of works but of pure Grace!

   He loved you because He would love you, and He saved you not because
   there was any good in you, for there was none! And He will place you
   now upon the same terms--He will receive you graciously and love you
   freely, for His anger is turned away from you. There is the same Savior
   today as there was then. Jesus revealed Himself to you as having bled
   in your place--His blood has not lost its efficacy, neither has He cast
   away the people whom He has redeemed. And remember there is the same
   Spirit now that there was then. It melted you then, it can melt you
   now. It wounded you then, it can wound you now. It healed you then, it
   can heal you now. The Spirit has not lost His might nor lost His love.
   He still can work upon you according to the wonders of His Grace.

   "If," says the Apostle, "when we were enemies, we were reconciled to
   God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be
   saved by His life." If the enemy were brought in, shall not the child
   be kept in? If when I had no thoughts of God He had thoughts of me,
   will He not think of me now? If when I strove against His Grace He
   constrained me with His sweet attractions, will He not visit me now? If
   I feel dead today, yet when I was dead as the dry bones of the valley
   years ago and the breath of His Spirit came upon me and made me to
   live, why should I dispute the power, the Grace of my Heavenly Father?

   My dear Brothers and Sisters, when the Lord first looked upon you in
   love, and you had not even a trace of any goodness in you, was it not
   all Grace? Did not He deal with you just on this footing--"I mean to
   save this undeserving wretch just because I will, and for no other
   reason"? Will you listen to me for one minute? God will deal with you
   today just as He dealt with you the first day! You fancy that you have
   got under a Covenant of Works, some of you. You think the Lord will not
   love you unless you are faithful. The old Hagar covenant, which genders
   bondage is enthralling you! The fact is He did not see anything good in
   you at first and He does not discern any merit in you now! That has
   nothing to do with His eternal purpose to save you--He saves you
   because He will do it! Because He will love you He loves you, and not
   for anything else!

   If I thought the Lord only loved me because He saw some beauty in me, I
   should know it was only He who had put it there, and I should fear that
   it would fade in an hour or two and then He would despise my image.
   But, when I know that He has chosen us in Christ Jesus, and that the
   beauty He sees in us is the beauty of Christ, and not any natural charm
   of our own, then I see His love stands on a stable foundation that
   cannot be shaken, even the Covenant of Grace, which will stand when yon
   sky and this poor earth shall both have gone! The Lord our God will
   rest in His love because He loves us on the blessed terms of His own
   will and His own Grace. When the Lord first saved you, was there
   anything in you to help or assist?

   A poor man once told his minister that the Holy Spirit did much for Him
   and he did the rest. "And pray, what did you do," said the minister.
   "Why," said he, "the Holy Spirit did it all, and I stood in His
   way--that was all I did." And I can truly say that was all I could do
   in my own salvation. He did it all from first to last! There was
   nothing in me to help Him. Suppose there is nothing in me to help now,
   even so I am not in a worse plight than I was then, and so, as I look
   to the hole of the pit where I was dug, my soul takes comfort! It was a
   dead lift then, it is a dead lift now. Grace had to do it all then and
   Grace must do it all now! And, if the eternal and ever-blessed God
   could save a dead sinner, a hateful sinner, a hardhearted, loathsome
   sinner that despised Christ, and could bring him to the foot of the
   Cross, why, then, blessed be His name! He can save him now that he
   stands at the same hallowed spot, and says, "Jesus, my All, I trust in
   You."

   There is much comfort to be had in looking to the rock where we were
   hewn.

   IV. But now, to close, I think OUR TEXT MAY BE FITTINGLY USED TO
   ENCOURAGE OUR HOPE FOR

   OTHERS. I thank God that I have a working Church about me, and that the
   most of you are engaged in soul-winning. Brethren, launch this
   afternoon into the deep and let down your nets for a catch! Let not
   this day pass over your heads till you have lovingly sought to
   introduce to the Savior someone who has been a stranger to Him. Suffer
   not any thoughts about the character of the person you are brought in
   contact with to dampen your ardor. Do you say of some sinner, "I am
   afraid his is a hopeless case"?

   My dear Brothers and Sisters, look unto the rock where you were hewn,
   and to the hole of the pit where you were dug! Where is that sinner? I
   will tell you. He is where the whole race is naturally. What sort of a
   sinner is he? I have his likeness drawn here--if you turn to Romans 3,
   you will see the photograph of the man you are intended to bless,
   "There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understands,
   there is none that seeks after God. They are all gone out of the way,
   they are together become unprofitable; there is none that does good,
   no, not one." That poor sinner is where all other sinners are! He is
   without any goodness. The imagination of the thoughts of his heart are
   evil, only evil, and that continually--and there is nothing in the
   individual that you are sent to, this afternoon, that is at all
   unusual--he is in the same Fall where our father Adam left him!

   He was born in the same corruption. There is the same evil in his
   heart--no more, no less--and therefore you must go to him with that
   upon your mind. Remember, too, that the sinner is where you were. You
   look down and see him in a horrible pit--it looks a long way down, and
   the pit is full of mud and mire and dirt. He is not deeper down than
   you were--at least the sinner who is further gone than I was must be an
   extraordinary one! Though not in outward actions, yet in my inward soul
   I was as far from God as any man could be not to be actually in Hell!
   And yet His Grace has brought me near. Since the Lord saved me I never
   despair of anybody--and I think there are some of you, who, in your
   olden times, before you knew the Lord, were perhaps given to actual
   vice and sin and have been reclaimed. And I am sure when you go out to
   talk to sinners that are now what you were, you may very well feel,
   "The Lord that saved me can save them. The Gospel that came with power
   to my soul can come with power to their souls, and therefore I will go
   to them remembering the hole of the pit where I was dug, and feel
   encouraged concerning them."

   Remember, again, that that poor sinner whose soul you are going to seek
   this afternoon is where the best and brightest of the saints were.
   Peter was there! Paul was there! They were all in the same
   condemnation. By nature they were all heirs of wrath such as that
   sinner is. In all the glorious company of the Apostles, the noble army
   of the martyrs, and the goodly fellowship of the Prophets there is
   never one that was not born in sin as that sinner is, and prone to
   break God's Laws--and all alike needed the eternal power and Godhead of
   Christ to put forth all its strength--or else none of them would have
   been saved!

   And remember that that sinner you are going to speak with this
   afternoon, perhaps a child in your class, perhaps a drunkard in the
   street, is, today, where those that are in Heaven once were! Their
   robes are white, but they washed them

   in the blood of the Lamb! They are without fault, but they were once
   under condemnation! There is nothing to prevent the Lord from taking
   the drunk, the blasphemer, the adulterer, yes, and the murderer, and
   washing such in the fountain that is open for sin and uncleanness, and
   robing them in the immaculate garment and making them to take their
   place among the host of the blessed at the right hand of the Eternal
   Throne! Be of good comfort, and if you ever do despair of any, look to
   the rock where you were hewn and the hole of the pit where you were
   dug.

   Of all the saints that ever were saved there was nothing in their human
   nature, physical or mental, that aided their salvation--nothing! Some
   of them were more moral than others, but their whole head was sick and
   their whole heart faint--they were all lost, utterly lost, utterly
   undone! It was the work of the Spirit in every case and of the Spirit,
   alone. But, on the other hand, in the case of no soul has there ever
   been found any evil power which has absolutely been able to defeat the
   Spirit of God when He has put forth His Omnipotence! It is impossible
   to conceive of anything that can resist the Spirit of God when He
   operates on the heart with purpose and with power! His ordinary
   ministrations are resisted, and effectually, too--but when He puts
   forth His might to quicken the dead--in that regenerating operation He
   works, and what is there that can stand against Him?

   In the case of every soul that was saved, God's only revealed motive
   was His Grace--He saved the man not because he deserved it, not because
   it would be any advantage to God to save him--but simply because He
   delights in mercy, and He has put it on record--"I will have mercy on
   whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have
   compassion." Now, in bad cases there is the same room for Divine Grace.
   And when the man is deeply sunk in sin, it will glorify the mercy of
   God all the more to save him, and therefore I would rather expect that
   man to be saved than gather from his sin that he was unlikely to be
   blessed of God. I would go with confidence to the chief of sinners if I
   knew him. I would preach to him the Savior, Christ the Lord, and bid
   him look to Him, and I would hope that God would bless that word to
   him, none the less, because he had become so ingrained in sin and so
   rank in corruption!

   Brothers and Sisters, I am sure it will be a great help to you in
   working for God at any time if you keep in remembrance what the Lord
   has done for you. Have it fresh on your own mind. Oh, we never teach so
   well as when we teach from the heart! We never preach so well as when
   we preach about what we, ourselves, have experienced, dipping every
   word in gratitude to God for what we have known and received from Him!
   I have heard of a lady who on one occasion was out in the street
   walking. The frost was severe, the snow was deep, and she felt so
   keenly for the poor that she resolved that when she got home she would
   write a check and have the money distributed to provide them with food
   and fuel.

   After a short time she reached her home and sat down by the fireside.
   She felt so extremely warm and comfortable that she thought, after all,
   it would be a pity to waste money on the poor, for she had no doubt
   whatever if they kept by the fire. The cold was not so severe as she
   had imagined. Now, there are some of us who have got to be very
   comfortable in our religion--we sit down in it. It would be a great
   mercy for us, and probably a mercy for thousands of others if we were
   made to go out and feel the old discomfort and to know, once again,
   what we were and where we were before the Lord brought us into the
   house of His mercy and sat us down before the fire of His love! Oh, it
   is a dreadful thing because one feels happy, himself, to have no care
   for the souls of others!

   I earnestly pray you to live today as if you were only saved today! Go
   and try to bring others to Christ as if your own conversion had only
   been accomplished five minutes ago--with the blood fresh upon you--just
   fallen warm from those dear wounds. Go as if your sin was just gone and
   your soul astonished at the miraculous change worked in you! Go as if
   the love of God were just newly shed abroad in your own soul, in all
   the freshness of new-found love, and all the recollection of the sorrow
   and the sin from which you have just escaped. Oh, if you so went, God
   would bless you, and many souls would be saved to the praise of the
   glory of His Grace! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Golden Bowls Full Of Incense

   (No. 1051)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, MAY 19, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Golden vials full of incense, which are the prayers of saints."
   Revelation 5:8.

   I SHOULD not have addressed you upon the subject of intercession today
   if this week had not been set apart for general prayer, for it was only
   two Sabbaths ago that I endeavored to set before you the duty and
   privilege of intercession [Sermon #1049, Intercessory Prayer.] However,
   as our mind is now directed to it again, it may be that the line upon
   line, the precept upon precept, the here a little and there a little,
   may not be without benefit to us. The vision before us is a very
   remarkable one. We do not intend, for we have not the time, to go into
   all the details of it. No doubt it is a vision referring to some
   special occasion, but at the same time we may regard it as descriptive
   of the usual worship which is offered before the Throne of God and the
   Lamb.

   We have sometimes in continental galleries seen a mediaeval painting
   representing the assembly of the great council of the ancient German
   Empire. There is the emperor surrounded by the various kings, princes,
   electors, dukes, and counts. Yonder are the knights of the Golden
   Fleece. There are the bishops and the cardinals, the barons, knights,
   and burghers of various degrees making up a marvelous spectacle of pomp
   and pageantry. If we made minute enquiries we should, perhaps, discover
   the one particular Diet which the picture represented--but even without
   such investigation the painting is instructive--we know that if it
   represents the Diet on one occasion, the one might stand for all.

   And so in the great assembly of Heaven, the outline which the seer of
   Patmos gives us here may, if we wish to be very accurate, be referred
   to some one particular event. But it will suffice for us to believe
   that it represents in general the homage which is rendered at the
   Throne of the Eternal. In considering the brilliant scene before us,
   note carefully that the worship described is not confined to the
   occupants of Heaven's immediate courts. Moses Stuart, believing that we
   have here an entirely celestial scene, concludes that these, "golden
   vials full of incense, which are the prayers of saints," represent the
   intercessions of glorified spirits.

   He makes the remark that the saints in Heaven still continue to pray.
   To this last statement I do not object, for in the sixth chapter the
   souls under the altar are said to cry for vengeance, and I see no
   reason why the perfect saints above should not pray. But I very greatly
   question whether we can draw that inference from this particular
   passage, for the prayers here intended are not those of Heaven only,
   since from the 13th verse we are taught that the scene represents the
   adoration of the Lamb by the entire universe. "Every creature which is
   in Heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in
   the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor,
   and glory, and power be unto Him that sits upon the Throne, and unto
   the Lamb forever and ever."

   The presence angels lead the strain. The saints made perfect join the
   rapturous hallelujah, and then 10,000 times 10,000 angels swell the
   growing strain. Meanwhile, from every starry orb comes up its note of
   worship and the firmament rings with music. Earth from afar has heard
   the sound and wakens all her life to take its part in the harmony! The
   fowls of the air and the fish of the sea, the songsters of the forest
   and the monsters of the deep render with zeal their tribute of grateful
   praise. 'Tis not the inner circle, alone, which thus resounds Jehovah's
   praise but widening and widening, the praise encompasses all space and
   fills immensity! Not Heaven alone, but all creation yields the Lord His
   praise.

   Now, dear Brothers and Sisters, let us, by faith, pass into the inner
   circle, draw near to the Throne of God and gaze upon the golden vials
   full of incense, for with these we have to do this morning. It is
   probably known to all of you that the idea conveyed to us, by "golden
   vials," is as far removed from the meaning of the Greek word as well
   could be, for a vial is to us generally a deep but narrow vessel. But
   the vessel here meant is both shallow and broad. A better rendering
   would be "golden bowls," or "golden goblets full of incense which are
   the prayers of saints." The idea is that each one of

   the 24 elders bears an open bowl or censor filled with smoking incense
   which pours forth a sweet perfume before the Lord--and this is the
   symbol of the supplications of the people of God.

   Leaving the figure, the thoughts before us are just these. The prayers
   of God's people are sweet as incense to Him. Secondly, their blended
   prayers are peculiarly acceptable in His sight. And, therefore,
   thirdly, let us unite our supplications with the general prayer.

   I. THE PRAYERS OF GOD'S PEOPLE ARE AS SWEET TO HIM AS INCENSE. This is
   not due to any natural excellence or merit which they possess in
   themselves and by themselves. Far from it. In the best prayer that was
   ever offered by the holiest man that ever lived, there was enough sin
   in it to render it a polluted thing if the Lord had looked upon it by
   itself. When we approach nearest to the Throne of Grace, we still fall
   very far short of being where and what we ought to be. The sins of our
   holiest thoughts are, alone, enough to condemn us! We often come before
   God in prayer unfit to pray, and spoil the action in the very outset by
   having an unprepared heart.

   At other times, when we are in the midst of devotion--when we are being
   borne up upon the wings of zeal,pride will intrude--and we congratulate
   ourselves upon the excellence of our worship. Alas, one dash of that
   spirit mars all--it is the Pharisaic spirit, and is the bane of
   devotion. At other times, just as our supplication is closing, we are
   assailed with suspicions as to the faithfulness of God--doubts as to
   the success of our pleas--or else some other unhallowed thought
   pollutes the sacrifice. Alas, how hard it is to begin, continue, and
   end a prayer in the Spirit! If any one of our prayers were put into the
   scales of the sanctuary, alone and of itself, the only verdict upon it
   must be it is weighed in the balances and found wanting.

   No, my Brothers and Sisters, the prayers of the saints, of themselves
   considered, would rather be an offense unto Divine holiness than a
   sweet savor unto God. Our consolation lies in this--that our beloved
   Intercessor who stands before God for us, even Christ Jesus--possesses
   such an abundance of precious merit that He puts fragrance into our
   supplications and imparts a delicious aroma to our prayers! He makes
   our intercessions to be, through His merit, what they could not have
   been without it--acceptable before the Majesty of Heaven. I think it is
   Ambrose who uses a very pretty figure concerning Believers' prayers. He
   says we are like little children who run into the garden to gather
   flowers to please their father, but we are so ignorant and childish
   that we pluck as many weeds as flowers--and some of them very noxious!
   And then we carry this strange mixture in our hands, thinking that such
   base weeds would be acceptable to

   Him!

   The mother meets the child at the door, and she says to it, "Little
   One, you know not what you have gathered." She unbinds this mixture and
   takes from it all the weeds and leaves only the sweet flowers. And then
   she takes other flowers sweeter than those which the child has plucked
   and inserts them instead of the weeds. And then she puts back the
   perfect bouquet into the child's hand, and it runs with it to its
   father. Jesus Christ, in more than motherly tenderness, thus deals with
   our supplications. If we could see one of our prayers after Christ
   Jesus has amended it, we should scarcely know it again! He has such
   skill that even our good flowers grow fairer in His hands. We clumsily
   tied them into a bundle but He arranges them into a fair bouquet, where
   each beauty enhances the charm of its neighbor.

   If I could see my prayer after the Lord has prayed it, I should miss so
   much, and I should find so much there that was not mine that I am sure
   its fullest acceptance with God would not cause me a moment's pride but
   rather make me blush with grateful humility before Him whose boundless
   sweetness lent to me and my poor prayer a sweetness not my own. So
   then, though the prayers of God's saints are as precious incense, they
   would never be a sweet smell unto God were it not that they are
   accepted in the Beloved! Note well that true, acceptable intercession
   must be composed of the prayers of saints. "Golden bowls full of the
   prayers of saints."

   Nothing is here said of the prayers of officials, hirelings, and
   functionaries. It is thought most important by some Churches that there
   should be kept up a daily repetition of certain words and sounds. This
   is not done by persons selected for their eminent spirituality or
   prevalence in prayer, but by officials whose appointment is arranged on
   very different principles. These persons are not qualified for the
   function in their ordinary dress, but derive some mystic qualification
   from garments more or less savoring of the bleaching starch of the
   laundry. Then, having certain words before them, they have nothing to
   do but with appointed bows and scrapes to go through them--and in going
   through them they believe they have offered unto God acceptable prayer!

   I have always been expecting to hear that before long praying to God
   would come to be managed by machinery. Our friends have, for a
   considerable time, praised God in that way--and a little inventiveness
   might surely arrange the same for prayer! There is now scarcely a place
   of worship dedicated to Christian worship but what the most of the
   praise to God is done by an organization of wind and pedals--sometimes
   with the addition of electricity--and doubtless it is quite as
   consistent. And they surely would believe it quite as acceptable to
   God, too, that we commence to pray by wind, or water, or fire, or
   magnetism, or, better still, by steam! I cannot see why what is done in
   many cathedrals and churches by machines which eat bread and meat,
   could not as equally be well done by engines consuming coal and coke.
   The making of sounds is a mechanical business and needs only a little
   attention, and we might soon have a whole service performed by figures
   filled with clock-work.

   There is a certain note of the organ called vox humana which certainly
   is amazingly like the human voice, and as long as you have no need of
   heart and soul, it cannot matter much whether the sound is made by the
   vox humana of an organ or the real human voice. The fact is, vocal
   prayers are nothing in themselves, whether they are said or sung,
   whether they are read or intoned--it is the heart which alone prays
   acceptably. I cannot believe in a God who finds any satisfaction in the
   ritualistic services which I have witnessed. I have asked myself, "What
   kind of a being must he be who could find pleasure in this sort of
   thing?" Thought is disgusted, reason sickened, intellect provoked,
   contemplation annoyed--only a florid taste and a childish love of
   display are gratified. The God of these Popish ceremonialists must
   surely be a huge, almighty doll-loving baby--certainly not an
   intelligent Being, such as Scripture reveals to us in the God that made
   Heaven and earth!

   Alas, the frivolous sons of men imagine, because they go to their
   operas and listen to sweet music, and because in their drawing rooms
   they delight in the perfume which they scatter from their
   handkerchiefs, and because they are pleased to array themselves in silk
   and satin and the like, that God is like themselves, and is pleased
   with chants, and robes, and incense! Truly, the God they make is like
   themselves! They do not know the ever-blessed Lord! If He would be
   adored with glittering blue, look at the azure of the sky, or the deep
   blue of the sea! If He would be worshipped with lamps and candles,
   behold yon stars, and sun, and moon! If He would be reverenced with
   music, hark how the thunder rolls like drums in His awful march!

   Is the Infinite mind to be worshipped by vain shows? O you sons of
   earth, will you thus worship Him that rides on the heavens, before Whom
   you all are but as grasshoppers? The prayers which the Lord accepts are
   not the chants of functionaries, the litanies of priests, or the devout
   tones of a mechanical service--they must be the prayers of saints! The
   sweetness lies in the life, the character, the soul! The acceptance
   comes not unless they are the prayers of saints! And who are the
   saints? They are men and women whom the Lord has made holy by the power
   of His Spirit. The are those whose nature He has purified. They are
   those whom He has washed in the precious blood of Jesus and so
   sanctified unto Himself! He has filled them with His Spirit and so set
   apart to His worship.

   These persons love Him, praise Him, bow before Him with solemn awe!
   They lift their whole souls up in adoring love--these are they who can
   offer sweet incense--their thoughts, their desires, their longing,
   their confessions, their pleading, their praises--these are sweet to
   God! This is music to Him! This is perfume to His heart! This is
   delightful to His infinite mind, pleasant to His sacred Spirit--for God
   is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in
   truth--and after no other fashion is a spiritual God to be worshipped!

   Then, in the matter of intercession, one of the most important things
   is the character of the person. If I live in constant sin and then go
   and say, "Our Father, which are in Heaven," surely I might feel His
   hand closing my mouth while I hear Him say, "How can you speak so? How
   dare you say, 'Hallowed be Your name,' when you do constantly defile
   it? How can you say, 'Your kingdom come,' when you will not submit to
   My rule, nor yield allegiance to My government? How dare you mutter out
   before Me the words, 'Your will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven,'
   when you rebel against My will, and set up your own will instead of
   Mine."

   Such prayers--what would they be but an insult to the Hearer, instead
   of sweet perfume offered before the Most High? Yes, and note too, my
   Brethren--and I would note it myself with deep solemnity--that even
   where the man who presents intercessory prayer is a child of God, yet,
   unless he maintains, in the power of God's Spirit, his character as a
   saint, he will not preserve the prevalence of his prayers. For though
   our heavenly Father does not hear our prayers because of any merit in
   us, yet it is written, "If you abide in Me, and My Words abide in you,
   you shall ask what you will,

   and it shall be done unto you." If we turn aside from the Lord's
   commands we shall lose power in prayer and our petitions will cease to
   bring down answers of peace.

   It is certain that every child of God who has watched it will know that
   there is nothing which so weakens prayer as sin, and that to be a man
   like Elijah, who can prevail with God upon Carmel, you must walk in the
   Lord's ways. If you walk contrary to Him, He will walk contrary to you.
   In the golden bowls the sweet incense is not the prayers of hypocrites
   or formalists, but the prayers of saints. We must, by the Spirit's
   power, maintain the saintly character. We must walk apart from
   worldliness and covetousness. We must put aside uncleanness, anger,
   wrath, and every evil thing, or else we shall not be able to present
   unto the Lord such sweet odors as He delights in.

   Note next that these prayers must be compounded of precious Divine
   Graces, for they are compared to incense, and, as you know, the incense
   used in the Temple was made up of many sweet spices, compounded,
   "according to the work of the apothecary." Stacte and onycha, and
   galbanum were mixed with pure frankincense, tempered together and
   beaten small. Now, in prayer, that which is sweet to God is not the
   words used, though they ought to be appropriate and care should be
   taken with the language, which is as the golden bowl. But the sweetness
   lies not in anything perceptible to the outward senses, but in secret
   qualities, comparable to the essence and aroma of sweet spices. In the
   incense there lies a subtle and almost spiritual essence which is
   fetched forth from it by the burning coals which causes the latent
   sweetness to spread itself abroad till all around confesses its power.

   So it is in prayer. Beloved Brothers and Sisters, our prayers may be
   very comely in appearance, and, if printed, might read most correctly
   and appear to be the very paragon of devotion, but unless there is a
   secret spiritual force in them they are vain things! We must speak to
   God believing that He is, and that He is the Rewarder of them that
   diligently seek Him. Faith must be a part of the savor of prayer. Now I
   am not able to tell, when I hear a Brother pray, whether he prays in
   faith or not, any more than I might, with my eyes, be able to tell
   whether what is presented to me as incense has in it the proper
   pungency. But God perceives the faith or the absence of it, and the
   prayer is received or rejected as the case may be.

   So, too, in prayer there must be the true frankincense of love. How can
   I pray as a child to a Father whom I do not love? If my heart is cold
   towards God my prayer will be frozen to death. There is need, moreover,
   of the Grace of humility to be mixed, like precious stacte, with the
   other ingredients--for he who does not pray humbly will be no more
   justified than the Pharisee. There was much of this precious spice in
   the publican's prayer, when he dared not lift so much as his eyes
   towards Heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, "God be merciful to
   me, a sinner." Much of this ought to lie in every prayer. But I cannot
   stay to tell you what all the separate spices ought to be which are
   necessary to make up the incense of an acceptable prayer. Only let me
   remind you that the incense of the Temple was mingled "according to the
   art of the apothecary."

   Let us bless God that the Holy Spirit is the Believer's Apothecary. He
   it is who knows the proper quantity of each ingredient in prayer--how
   much of faith, how much of love, how much of repentance, how much of
   humility there ought to be in every supplication. He helps each
   Believer's infirmities and makes for us a mixture of all choice Graces
   so that when we pray our pleadings are accepted as sweet incense
   because they contain an harmonious amalgamation of all the things which
   are sweet to the Lord God of Sabaoth. In passing onward, let us observe
   that this incense, in order to be accepted before God, must burn. It
   might be the best incense in the world. It might be well compounded and
   put into the golden bowls--but it was never accepted by God till it was
   set on fire.

   Live coals must be taken from off the altar and applied to the spices,
   and then the clouds of the sweet smoke began to rise up towards Heaven.
   Ah, Brethren, here many men's prayers fail! They are correct but cold,
   excellent but lifeless. They lack life, vigor, earnestness--fire! Some
   make up for this deficiency by noise and wild-fire, but it will not do.
   The Holy Spirit alone can give us true fervor. I confess that I have
   too often prayed in this pulpit and have not used the holy violence
   which wins with Heaven. And in our Prayer Meetings I have heard
   excellent supplications which have failed only in this--that the living
   fire had never touched them. How often in the family we go through the
   usual petitions, praying for ourselves and for the Church of God, and
   for the heathen, and so on--and then we go our way.

   We knelt down mechanically and we continued there mechanically, and we
   rose up mechanically, and though the prayer was extemporaneous, yet I
   fear there is no more heart in it than if we had read it from a book!
   Remember well this Truth of God--that neither extemporaneous prayer nor
   any other is of any use unless holy fire consume it! We must have

   the live coals! I have heard prayers made up of broken, fragmentary,
   ill-assorted sentences--but the man who presented them has been all
   alive--and I have blessed God and felt I could say, "Amen, amen, the
   Lord hear that Brother's petition." Beloved, have you not gone to your
   closet and felt, "I have only one thing upon my mind, but oh, how
   heavily that weighs upon me! I could not construct an elaborate prayer
   if it were to save my life, for I am so distressed about that one
   thing"?

   But then, that one petition has poured forth from you with all your
   soul and you have been heard concerning it. The Lord teach us to pray
   in earnest! May He send upon the continent of Europe, and upon America,
   and upon all the world at this time His own fire and the heavenly flame
   of His Spirit, the Spirit of Grace and of supplication--that saints may
   know how to pray--for we must have the fire with the incense! Then the
   fire, being with the incense, it was necessary for acceptance that it
   should ascend. If the wind had blown the smoke of the incense downward,
   scattering it to the right and to the left, it would have been an ill
   omen. The incense was accepted with God as it went straight up into the
   air, mounting till it seemed to join the clouds and lose itself.

   Brothers and Sisters, our intercessions, when they are sweet to God, go
   straight up to Him. Do your prayers always do that? Have you ever
   prayed thinking, "Well, that is a very nice expression which I have
   used. My learned Brethren will be pleased with that. My spiritual
   friends will be able to join in that and they will think, 'What a
   spiritual man he is to pray as he is now doing." Ah, my Brother, the
   smoke is blowing down, you see--blowing away towards man's nostrils,
   and not towards God. So much waste and only waste! The prayer which God
   accepts is offered to Him alone. He who presents it cares not one atom
   who likes it or who does not like it--he is talking with his God--he is
   pleading with the Majesty unseen! He is very careless of the criticism
   of his fellow creature--his only desire is to please the Lord. The
   prayers of the Churches will never be accepted before God until they go
   straight up to Him, only, having respect to Him who is invisible.

   Now the question returns, why are the prayers of saints so sweet to
   God? We reply, partly because they are the work of the Spirit of God.
   There is no acceptable prayer in the world but that which the Spirit of
   God has inspired. The Holy Spirit knows what the mind of God is, and He
   writes it upon the minds of God's people, "making intercession in the
   saints according to the will of God." Now, when God sees His own will
   reflected in the bosoms of His own children, He cannot but accept the
   work of His own Spirit. The prayers of His saints are acceptable with
   Him, also, because they are the pleadings of His Son. The saints are
   members of Christ's body, and, as they plead, Christ pleads in them.
   The very strength of their pleading lies in this--that they urge His
   merits--and the Lord delights to be reminded of His Son's
   excellences--it is a theme that He delights in.

   You may ring that bell as long as you ever will--the Father will never
   weary of it. Tell Him what His Son has done. Remind Him of Gethsemane.
   Bring up before the Father's mind the Cross of Calvary. Tell Him of His
   promise to His Son--that He shall see His seed and have a full reward.
   You cannot by any possibility displease God by dwelling upon this
   topic. Hold Him with it, yes, hold Him with the resolution of a Jacob,
   and say, "I will not let You go until You bless me, for I plead the
   name and merit of Your only begotten Son." Everything about Christ is
   sweet to God, and because Believers' prayers are full of Christ,
   therefore they are sweet to God.

   And, again, the prayers of the saints are sweet to God because they
   honor Him, and this they do in many ways-- first, they assert His
   existence. In prayer the people of God declare better than they could
   by any other means their sure belief that God is, for should we pray to
   One who has no existence? Our prayer to God, therefore, is our
   continual assertion that, "The Lord, He is God," "The Lord, He is God."
   Our asking for special and particular mercies, and expecting them, is a
   declaration of our belief in a living God, a conscious God, an acting
   God, a God who is not asleep and far away, but who is near at hand
   listening to human voices and able to fulfill human desires. This,
   then, is very agreeable to God that we should believe and testify that
   He is, and that He is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek

   Him.

   What if I were to say that prayer is, in itself, essentially a
   doxology? It is an utterance of glory to God in His attributes. Do I
   ask Him to bless me? Then I adore His power, for I believe He can. Do I
   ask Him to bless me? Then I adore His mercy, for I trust and hope He
   will. Do I ask Him to bless me because of such and such a promise? Then
   I adore His faithfulness, for I evidently believe that He is truthful
   and will do as He has said. Do I ask Him to bless me not according to
   my request, but according to His own wisdom? Then I adore His wisdom. I
   am evidently believing in His

   prudence and judgment. I say to Him, "Not my will but Yours be done"--I
   am adoring His Sovereignty. When I confess that I deserve to suffer
   beneath His hand, I reverence His justice. When I acknowledge that He
   does right evermore, I adore His holiness. And, when I humbly say,
   "Nevertheless, deal graciously with Your servant and blot out my
   transgressions," I am reverencing His Grace. We do not wonder,
   therefore, that through Jesus Christ the prayers of the saints should
   be precious to God, since they are a homage to the Supreme of an
   eminently practical kind.

   Brothers and Sisters, after all, perhaps the best reason we can ever
   give why God loves to hear us pray, is one which comes home to our own
   hearts. You love to hear your own little children's talk. Now you know
   very well when your little girl wants a new dress, and you are well
   aware that your little boy needs fresh school books--there is no
   necessity whatever that Mary should inform you about her clothes, or
   that Master John should tell you about his books--for you know what
   they had need of long before they ask you. But you like them to feel
   their needs and to recognize that they are supplied by their
   father--and, therefore, you like to hear them express their desires.

   Sometimes you will stop a bit and say, "No, why should I give you
   this?" You set them a pleading because you like to hear their little
   prattling voices and to have them put their little arms around your
   neck and overcome you with kisses. You let them believe that they
   master you with their pretty reasoning and fond embraces, and it is
   pleasant to you as well as to them. Now, our heavenly Father is far
   above us, and yet He bids us learn His Character from our own feelings
   as parents. If we, being evil, know how to give good gifts to our
   children, how much more shall our heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit
   to them that ask Him? The Lord declares that He deals with us as with
   children.

   I know the next word is, "For what son is there whom his father
   chastens not?" But I do not believe that God's likeness to a father is
   limited to His chastening. The text cannot be so cross and crabbed as
   that. Oh no, there is a likeness to a father in His hearing our cries!
   He loves communion with His people. The Lord loves to have the hearts
   of His children talk to Him. He delights to hear them spread out their
   needs before Him and order their case with arguments and prevail with
   them. Oh, then never be slack in your pleadings which are pleasant to
   God as fragrant incense!

   II. Now, secondly and briefly, BLENDED PRAYERS ARE PECULIARLY
   ACCEPTABLE TO GOD. "The prayers of saints." The prayers of a saint are
   sweet, but the prayers of saints are sweeter! I had many points here,
   but I think I must forego them all this morning for the sake of one.
   United prayers possess the power of harmony. In music there is melody
   in any one distinct note--but we have all recognized a peculiar charm
   in harmony.

   Now, the prayers of one saint are to God melody, but the intercessions
   of many are harmony--and to God there is much that is pleasing in the
   harmony of His people's prayers. Let us turn the subject over a minute.
   No two children of God pray exactly alike. There is a difference of
   tone. If taught of God, each one will pray graciously, but there will
   be in one prayer what there is not in another. If all the fruits of the
   garden are luscious, yet each one has its own special flavor. All the
   bells may be of silver, and yet each one will have its own tone.

   For instance, some Brothers and Sisters, when they pray, dwell very
   tenderly upon the dishonor done to God by sin. They pray as if they
   their hearts would break and they weep at every other sentence. "O God,
   the idols are placed on Your Throne. Jesus is dishonored, the Law is
   broken, the Gospel is despised." Such loving contrition for the sin of
   others wails itself out in soft, low notes of magic power. But, listen
   to others, and you will find their prayers pitched upon quite another
   key. The Brother prays with full assurance that God's kingdom is
   established upon the mountains, where its foundation can never be
   removed. And though the heathens rage, and the people imagine vain
   things, yet surely God's kingdom and purpose will stand and He will do
   all His pleasure.

   And as you hear such petitioning, shrill and clear like the sound of a
   trumpet, you feel that the voice of faith is both musical and
   prevalent. The man has no doubt as to God's triumphing! He is quite
   certain that the Lord's hosts will win the day, and He prays in that
   spirit. Now, if these varying tones are melted into one, what masterly
   harmony they make! Therefore the Lord promises great things when two of
   us agree as touching anything concerning His kingdom. But, now comes in
   a third petitioner, and his tone of prayer differs from the other two.
   The same spirit of prayer is in him, but its voice varies. He prays in
   this way. Bowed down with a sense of awe in the Presence of God, the
   God of all the earth, he seems to speak measuring out each word, and he
   cries, "O God, shall not the nations fear You? Such an One as You are,
   shall they not tremble in Your Presence? Will You not be king to them,
   O You Creator and Preserver of all things?"

   Like the cherubim, he veils his face in the Presence of the excellent
   Glory, and your soul, by his prayer, is solemnly ushered into the
   Presence of God and laid prostrate there. But mark yet this fourth man,
   whose prayer is of another

   mold--he is familiar with the Lord--he seems to have merged his sense
   of the sublime in that of the condescending, and he speaks somewhat in
   this way--"O Lord, my Father. You love the sons of men. Will You not
   come and meet Your prodigal sons who are coming back to You? Have You
   not given Jesus Christ to be a Man and bought men with Your precious
   blood? And will You not come to them and press them to Your bosom, and
   make them Yours?" As the Brother calls on God he appears to come close
   to Him and lay hold upon Him, and say, "I beseech You have mercy upon
   my fellow men."

   Now, there is something blessed in both those prayers. I do not know
   which I prefer, but I do know, when I can get the blending of the two,
   the awe and the holy boldness, the familiarity and the sense of
   sovereignty, I find a double sweetness fills my heart! Ah, Brothers and
   Sisters, did you ever hear a prayer of that kind which moved the Lord's
   heart in the wilderness--I refer to the prayer of Moses, when he said,
   "If not, blot my name out of the Book of Life." This is the prayer of
   self-sacrifice, when the man feels, "I must have God glorified. I must
   have these people saved. I would pawn my soul for it. I would lose
   myself if but this nation might be redeemed." That is grand praying--it
   is not all of us who can rise to it! If that were alone and the only
   prayer, it might grow monotonous, for it lacks compass, but, if you put
   all these prayers together which I have mentioned--the prayers of the
   tender and the prayers of the brave, the prayers of the awe-struck and
   the prayers of the familiar, the prayers of the importunate, the
   prayers of the self-sacrificing--then they fill the golden bowl full of
   sweet incense!

   For my part, I love, at Prayer Meetings, to hear the prayers of the
   aged. There is a lack in our Prayer Meetings, and has been for some
   months through the loss of one dear saint whose prayers used to be
   marrow and fatness to some of our souls on Monday evenings. The prayers
   of men on the verge of Heaven are to us as angels to lead us, also, up
   to the gates of pearl. But it is very pleasant to hear the prayers of
   young people, also, even the very young, for as they talk before the
   Lord there is a charming simplicity and frankness too little found in
   others. And then, the prayers of men in middle life, full of
   experimental trouble, or, on the other hand, overflowing with
   experienced joy! These have their peculiar aroma, and I believe God
   loves to see them all mixed in the golden bowls!

   And, what if I add He would have His people, with their various
   peculiarities put their prayers together? I, as a Calvinist, remark
   that our Arminian friends pray wonderfully Calvinistic! I can seldom
   perceive difference between them and ourselves, but no doubt they do
   view more than we do some particular parts of the Truth of God. We, on
   the other hand, pay a higher regard to another part of Truth. Now these
   various constitutions of Christians affect, in some degree, their
   prayers. And when they are blended they give a peculiar harmony of
   sweetness to the incense. At this time it is delightful to my thoughts
   to think that the prayers of different nationalities are being put into
   the golden bowl!

   Our French Brothers and Sisters always charm me when they pray. There
   is a tender, filial love--an affectionate gentleness which is most
   delicious. Our American friends, so bold and sanguine, also delight us
   with their confidence in God. Their prayers will balance somewhat the
   timidity of the French utterance. Then, our German Brethren, with their
   deep thoughtfulness, and their habit of going to the bottom of
   things--how solidly they make supplication! So with all our Brothers
   and Sisters of many lands, what a choice amalgam they make!

   I have been present at Prayer Meetings when I have heard the various
   nations pray, and my heart has rejoiced, and I can conceive that to God
   there is a peculiar harmony in the blended prayers of the many peoples
   and tongues. Look back and think of the prayers of all the ages as
   being in the golden bowl at this one time. The prayers of the Apostles,
   the cries of the persecuted times, the wrestling of the lonely ones of
   the Middle Ages, the moans from the valleys and mountains of
   Piedmont--the groans of our Brothers and Sisters during the Marian
   persecution, the pleadings of Covenanters and of Puritans--all in the
   golden bowl together! And all with the live coals upon them, coming up
   from the hand of the great Covenant Angel who stands for them before
   the Throne, pleading with God on the behalf of His people! Let us
   rejoice that the blended prayers of the Church are very sweet to the
   eternal God.

   III. And now, lastly, Brothers and Sisters, LET US BLEND OUR PRAYERS,
   however faulty and feeble they may

   be, with the general supplications of the period. If united prayer is
   sweet to God, and we are sure it is, O let us give Him much of it! We
   cannot make God happier than He is in reality, for He is the infinitely
   happy God. But yet, if there is anything concerning which He expresses
   satisfaction, let us abound in it! O Church of God, cry day and night
   unto Him! If your voice, O Spouse, is sweet in His ears--if He says,
   "Let Me hear your voice. Let Me see your face, for sweet is your

   voice and your countenance is comely," O turn not away your face and
   let not your voice be silent! But cry, and even in the night watches
   pour out your heart like water before the Lord your God!

   We fail, I am afraid, we Dissenters, in devotion very much because we
   do not value it aright. In the service of today, I believe the sermon
   to be a very important part. But I do not believe, as some do, that it
   is the all-important matter. I have heard friends say, "So-and-so will
   take the preliminary service," as if our praying and singing were only
   a little preliminary affair to be gotten through, and the preaching was
   the great concern. But, my Brethren, praying is the end of
   preaching--the preaching is only the stalk--the real ear is the
   devotion which we pay to God. Let us see to this, and seeing God is
   pleased with prayer, offer it to Him more and more. And remember that
   if we do so, we shall find a blessing in it ourselves. The more we
   pray, the more we shall need to pray--the more we pray, the more we can
   pray--the more we pray, the more we shall pray. He who prays little
   will pray less, but he who prays much will pray more--and he who prays
   more will desire to pray more abundantly.

   And, dearly Beloved, remember that prayer is effectual with God. We
   want to see souls saved. Are we not getting weary of living in this
   world among so many who are going down to Hell? Is it not terrible to
   think that after all the Church is doing, thousands are being lost
   every day? We ought to bestir ourselves for men's souls and we cannot
   do better for them than praying for them. Let us, therefore, bestir
   ourselves in prayer! In the eighth chapter of the Revelation you will
   find that the great angel who stood before God with the golden censer
   in his hand, full of the prayers of the saints, held it up and the
   smoke went up to God.

   But, after a while, when the incense was all burnt out, he took that
   golden censer and he filled it with coals from off the altar, and then
   you notice what he did--he emptied the golden censer out upon the
   earth, and there were voices and thunders and lightning and
   earthquakes. Read the passage. Now, when the censer of God's Church
   shall have been well filled with prayer, and that prayer shall have
   been presented to the Lord, He will begin to work, and that censer
   which has been before God a weapon to prevail with Him, shall then
   become against men a weapon to prevail with them! God will fill it full
   of coals and pour it out upon the earth. His Divine power shall then be
   seen. Then will come voices-- preachers here and there will rise, in
   the newspaper press, in the universities, in the public
   assemblies--there will be voices denouncing oppression, voices crying
   against priestcraft, voices preaching the Truth of God--voices
   declaring

   Christ!

   Then will come thunder, for with the Gospel will go the voice of God,
   which is like thunder, louder than the voice of man. Then will flash
   forth lightning, for the light of God's power and Truth will come forth
   with majesty, and men's hearts shall be smitten with it, and made
   obedient to it. And then shall earthquakes shake society till the
   thrones of despots reel--till hoary customs are dashed in pieces--till
   the land that could not be plowed with the Gospel plow shall be broken
   up with secret heaviness from the eternal God!

   We have but to pray! All things are possible to us! Pray, Brothers and
   Sisters! You have the key in the door of Heaven, keep it there and turn
   it till the gate shall open. Pray, Brethren, for prayer holds the chain
   which binds the old dragon! Prayer can hold fast and retrain even Satan
   himself! Pray! God girds you with omnipotence if you know how to pray!
   May we not fail here, but may the Spirit of God strengthen us, and to
   God shall be glory forever and ever. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Sphere Of Instrumentality

   (No. 1052)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 26, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Jesus said, Take away the stone." John 11:39.

   "Jesus said to them, Loose him, and let him go." John 11:44.

   THERE lay Lazarus in the grave, dead. His restoration to life was
   utterly hopeless upon any ordinary principles. Certainly Lazarus could
   not raise himself! His affectionate sisters could not, with all their
   weeping, give him a resurrection nor could the disciples call back the
   departed spirit and reanimate the decaying corpse. If was a hopeless
   case, for who could revive a dead man who had lain in the grave so long
   that he had begun to stink?

   This is a parallel case with that of every unconverted sinner in the
   world. He is dead in trespasses and sins--not a little sick or somewhat
   wounded, or in a swooning fit--but spiritual death reigns over him. The
   sinner never gives life to himself. The thing is inconceivable. There
   are persons who imagine that the natural will of man sometimes inclines
   towards good, but, alas, this flattering supposition is far from the
   fact. Jesus said, "You will not come unto Me, that you might have
   life." Neither will they come, now, any more than they did then! Until
   we see dead men raising themselves, we do not expect to meet with
   sinners who have spontaneously and without Divine assistance turned
   themselves towards righteousness.

   Neither can relatives or friends regenerate the soul in which they take
   an interest, nor can the most earnest ministers bestow the quickening
   spirit. Those whom God has blessed in other instances are yet quite
   powerless in any fresh case unless the same power shall again be put
   forth through them. Death is a terrible picture of our natural state,
   but it is by no means an exaggerated one. The whole world lies before
   us as a valley of dry bones, according to Ezekiel's vision, and if ever
   the dry bones are to live, it will not be through an energy innate
   within themselves nor through a power resident in the most zealous of
   men, nor through any might which even a Prophet could exert apart from
   God.

   Education cannot develop life out of death. Persuasion cannot excite
   it. Reasoning cannot infuse it--the Divine arm must be revealed, or the
   case is past hope. Jesus must come to the tomb of Lazarus and His voice
   must cry, "Lazarus, come forth," or else the corpse shall remain
   inanimate and increase in putrefaction. All that can be done by mortal
   man may be done, but nothing will be effected unless Jesus, who is the
   Resurrection and the Life, shall speak the quickening word! In His
   Omnipotent voice lies the power, but only there.

   Now, let this be taken as a plain statement of our belief as to the
   Lord's work in salvation, and taken without any mitigation or dilution.
   We believe that in every case, salvation is of the Lord alone and
   altogether! Regeneration is a supernatural work. Man must be born-again
   from above--any power short of that from Heaven will be ineffectual.
   The new creation is as much and entirely the work of God as the old
   creation--

   "Can anything beneath a power Divine

   The stubborn will subdue?

   'Tis Your Eternal Spirit, Yours

   To form the heart anew.

   To chase the shades of death a way,

   And bid the sinner live!

   A beam of Heaven, a vital ray

   'Tis Yours alone to give."

   And, having said this, we proceed to bear witness that what can be done
   by us ought to be done, since what can be done by man will not be done
   by Christ. It is a rule with our Lord never to work needless miracles.
   Indeed, He only

   begins the miraculous when the ordinary means can go no further. He
   follows the ordinary up to its verge, and then the extraordinary comes
   in. If a multitude are to be fed, so long as there are barley loaves
   and fishes to be had, Jesus will use them. He will multiply them and
   make them go further than they naturally could, but He will use them as
   far as they will go. Had there been neither loaf nor fish I do not
   doubt He would have commenced with an act of creation, but as it was,
   since there were a few loaves and fishes, He does not ignore them, but
   makes them the basis of a work of multiplication.

   What a man can do for himself God will not do for him, and what
   Christian people can do for sinners they must not expect the Lord to
   do--they must work themselves according to the ability God has given
   them up to the point of possibility--and then they may look for Divine
   interposition. Observe in this instance that there was a stone before
   the mouth of the cave in which Lazarus was interred. Could not our Lord
   have removed that stone with a word? Could not He have said, "Be you
   removed, O stone," and it would have been done?

   Yes, He could have consumed the stone with a glance if He had so
   minded. But He did not choose to do so, because the bystanders were
   quite competent to take away the stone. Therefore He said to them,
   "Take away the stone." And when Lazarus was raised, when he had come
   forth from the niche in which his friends had laid him, he was
   enshrouded with the cerements of the tomb. Rolls of linen were about
   his body, and a napkin wrapped around his head--and Jesus did not, by
   Divine power, remove the vestments of the grave.

   It would have been, if miracles may be compared, a smaller miracle to
   loose the living with a word than it was to quicken the dead, but since
   it could be done without a miracle, it must be done without a miracle.
   And Jesus said to those who stood by, "Loose him, and let him go." The
   analogy teaches us that there are some things which we can do for the
   unconverted, and we are bound to do them--and there are certain other
   things in which we can aid those who are newly converted--and these we
   should hasten to perform. While we look alone to the life-giving Lord
   to quicken the soul, we do not fold our arms in indifference or excuse
   ourselves from all effort upon the ground of inability--we are on the
   watch to see where instrumentality is applicable, and ready at all
   times to be made useful wherever we can be.

   We cannot turn the dry bones into living men, but we can prophesy to
   them, and, blessed be God, we can also prophesy to the four winds and
   so, by our means, the dead may live! The sphere of human action in
   connection with regeneration is my subject this morning. Help us, O
   Divine Spirit! First, there are some things which we can do for the
   unconverted before they are quickened. He said, "Take away the stone."
   Secondly, there are some things which we can do for them after they
   have been quickened. He said, "Loose him, and let him go."

   I. First, then, dear Brethren, THERE ARE SOME THINGS WHICH WE CAN DO
   FOR THE UNCONVERTED

   BEFORE THEIR QUICKENING. I am sure, if our hearts are right, all that
   can be done we are most anxious to do. Jesus Christ is our Model, and
   observe how He labored in the work of blessing the sons of men! In this
   case He took a long journey. He wept. He groaned. He was troubled in
   spirit. He prayed and then He spoke with a loud voice. True picture of
   what every Christian should be, and especially every Christian
   minister. We should journey after souls! We should weep over their
   ruined estate! We should groan for them and be troubled at heart on
   their account! We should be incessant in our prayers and when God
   speaks through us to the awaking of the dead, it should not be with
   unearnest tones, but with a voice tender with love and vehement with
   zeal.

   We are to be imitators of Christ in this. We ought to throw our whole
   heart into the blessed work which He honors us to do in His name.
   Brethren, all of us can do for the ungodly what the sisters did for
   their brother. Mary and Martha called in the Master to minister to
   their sorrow. Being well-assured when their brother was ill that they
   had no more sympathizing or able Friend in all the world than the
   Master whom they loved, they sent a message to Jesus. And though they
   did not send another afterwards, yet I doubt not they felt that the one
   sufficed. So you and I ought, in the case of all the unconverted over
   whom our spirit yearns, to call the Savior to the rescue. Let us send a
   message to Him about them.

   You may word it in some such terms as these--"O Lord, I grieve to tell
   you that my dear child is still unsaved." Or thus--"Lord, You know Your
   servant's heart breaks because my wife, or my husband, is still
   unconverted." Or, you may put it thus--"O Savior, You know that in my
   Sunday school class the children are not yet brought to You." Or, I may
   send it as my message--"My God, You know I have preached to many of
   these people for many years, and yet they still remain unmoved and
   abide strangers to You." We must earnestly intercede with the Lord for
   souls! Jesus is the Wonderworker. He is the Resurrection and the Life,
   and our wisdom is to lay hold upon His strength and beseech Him to
   reveal His saving might!

   In addition to this we must, then, express our confident faith in
   Jesus, that even now whatever He will ask of God, God will give it to
   Him. We must believe that He is able to raise the spiritually dead. We
   must never allow ourselves to despair of any person, since the matter
   is in the hands of an Almighty Savior. Though the sinner by this time
   stinks and has become immoral, as well as unholy, yet it is not too
   late to ask the Lord Jesus to work. We ought never to say of any
   person, "It would be vain for us to labor for his conversion, he is so
   vicious as to be incapable of Divine Grace." We are not thus to
   forestall man's condemnation, but rather to obey the Master's message
   and go into all the world with good news for every creature, for the
   Gospel is without limitation when it declares, "He that believes and is
   baptized shall be saved." Beloved, have faith in the Lord Jesus! Tell
   Him how desperate the case is for you, but say to Him, "Lord, it is not
   impossible with You." Assure Him that while you feel yourself to have
   no power, you are sure that one single word from Him will accomplish
   all that your soul desires. Now, every Believer can do this--God
   helping us we can repair by faith to the Lord Jesus.

   But our first text indicates yet more clearly the line of our capacity.
   Jesus employed others in the rolling away of the stone. You cannot make
   the dead live, but you can take the stone away from the mouth of their
   sepulcher. Let us speak of certain stones which we should, with all
   diligence, remove. The first is the stone of ignorance. This heavy
   weight lies at the mouth of many a spiritual grave at this day. I think
   we take for granted too high an attainment of knowledge among the
   people at this present time. I am sure that many sermons are preached
   to people as though they perfectly understood the plan of salvation,
   whereas, if the preacher did but know his hearers better, he would
   discover that even upon the elements of the Gospel of Christ many of
   them are deplorably ignorant.

   In fact, I fear that the elementary truths of Christianity are not
   preached sufficiently often because too much is taken for granted. It
   is to be feared that the alphabet of the Gospel is unknown to thousands
   whose teachers are trying to instruct them in the classics of
   theology--a waste of effort and a dangerous experiment. Why, in this
   city of London you shall find persons who frequent Protestant places of
   worship who yet believe in salvation by their own works and are
   horrified at justification by faith! You shall discover, if you go
   among the masses, an indifference to salvation so great as to be
   appalling, and this originates largely in ignorance. Salvation? Why
   thousands do not know what you mean by the term, and here, in this
   century of light and advancement as we boastfully call it, gross
   darkness covers the minds of a large proportion of our countrymen!

   Brethren, the time has not come for you to cease distributing the most
   plain tracts. The time has not arrived for you to be silent at the
   street corners even upon the first principles of the faith. You must
   still proclaim Atonement by the sacrifice of Christ, and the simple
   doctrine of Justification by Faith. Possibly there may come an age when
   it will be wise to expatiate mainly upon the deep things of God, but
   for this present distress we may wisely give our whole strength to
   telling out the foundation fact--that Jesus Christ came into the world
   to save sinners. Our sermons must repeat times out of number the story
   of the Cross.

   The hymns most commonly sung should be of the same order as--"Rock of
   ages, cleft for me." "Jesus, lover of my Soul." "Come, you sinners,
   poor and wretched." and "Just as I am, without one plea." We have even
   need of such simple ditties as--"I do believe, I will believe, that
   Jesus died for me." For upon that point ignorance and unbelief still
   cloud the mass of the people among whom we dwell. Let not the people be
   destroyed for lack of knowledge! Let none go down to Hell because they
   know not of a Savior. Let me say here that even with those who have
   heard the Gospel well preached, this ignorance may still remain--as it
   did in my own case.

   I believe if I had known that all I had to do was to look to Christ and
   I should live. If I had really understood that there was nothing for me
   to be, nor feel, nor do--but I had only to rest in a finished work and
   take from God's mercy that which Christ had completed--I think if I had
   known that Truth of God, I should have found peace with God much
   earlier. But I did not understand the Gospel, and therefore remained in
   distress of mind. Do, then, tell everybody about Jesus! Tell them of
   the Son of God made flesh! Tell them about Substitution! Speak the word
   plainly. Tell them--

   "He bore that we might never bear His Father's righteous ire."

   Assure them that whoever believes in Him is not condemned, and that to
   believe is to trust. Open up that word, for even plain and simple words
   get to be technical and men dream that there is some other meaning in
   them than that which they

   ordinarily have. You cannot put the Gospel too plainly, but anyway, put
   it before them, and then roll away this stone from the mouth of the
   sepulcher.

   Alas, a second stone is often there, namely that of absolute error. The
   mind without knowledge is not good, for if we sow not wheat, weeds will
   assuredly spring up. Men ignorant of God's righteousness always go
   about to establish their own righteousness in some way or other.
   Thousands think that if they are sober, honest, upright, and so on,
   they have done all that is required of them. They assume at least a
   little spice of attendance at Church or Chapel, and just a little
   addition of religious ceremonies may eke out any deficiencies of their
   practice. And, certainly, to call in a clergyman or minister when they
   shall lie dying, and to have prayers said or read to them will complete
   the structure which they have themselves begun.

   Brothers and Sisters, this great stone covers many an Englishman's
   grave! Seek to roll it away! Bear your own personal protest against the
   idea that the Law of God will ever be satisfied by an imperfect
   obedience. Teach men that God's commandments are exceedingly broad,
   that they deal with the thoughts and intents of the heart as well as
   with men's outward actions. And when they see this, perhaps they will
   perceive the impossibility of ever keeping the Law of God and they will
   leave off attempting to work out salvation by an obedience of their
   own. Show them plainly, lovingly, tenderly--but honestly--that by the
   works of the Law there shall no flesh be justified, for by the Law is
   the knowledge of sin.

   You know well, my Brethren, that there are attempts made continually to
   place a huge stone of error over men's minds in the form of
   Sacramentarianism. Regeneration, to what do they degrade it? They make
   it a ceremony in which drops of water effect marvels! Feeding upon
   Christ, what is that with these men? It is nothing but the eating of
   bread and drinking of wine. They put ceremonial foolishnesses into the
   place of spiritual truths! They steal the substance, and, as a
   substitute they do not even give us so fair a shadow as that of the
   days of Moses! They give a mere smoke--a shade of a shade, rather
   blinding to the eyes than suggestive to the mind--and yet myriads of
   our fellow men are quite content with such vanities! They suppose that
   there is some mystic efficacy in outward rites. Tell them, oh, tell
   them, that--

   "Not all the outward forms of earth,

   Nor rites that God has given, or will of man,

   Nor blood, nor birth,

   Can raise a soul to Heaven."

   Declare the need of Divine Grace and the uselessness of outward show.
   Point out the spirituality of acceptable worship and the childishness
   of ritualism. You will have done good service if you roll away this
   huge obstruction.

   Very frequently the sepulcher of men's souls is closed up by the stone
   of prejudice. Men cannot really find anything faulty in Christ Jesus,
   or in His Gospel, but still they will persist in stumbling at this
   stumbling stone. They invent reasons for declining the Gospel
   invitation. They prejudge the Revelation of God and make up their minds
   that it is unworthy of their acceptation. They shut their eyes and then
   are obstinate in their assertion that there is no light. For instance,
   how common is the notion that religion is associated with melancholy?
   In every sphere of life you will find a number of persons who fight shy
   of understanding religion because they believe it to be the mother of
   mental miseries. They quote someone who went insane and took to
   Biblical speculations--and another who is morose, and yet is a great
   stickler for devotion.

   They infer that religion is the science of making long faces, the art
   of being gloomy. Therefore men refuse to be soured by "crabbed
   divinity," and decline to imitate the morose and melancholy Puritans.
   An amazing mistake, that, about the Puritans, for there is evidence
   enough, and more than enough, to show that they were among the most
   happy of men with a robust joy to which the Cavaliers' noisy mirth was
   mere froth. At this present moment if you desired to find a happy
   people, I would advise you to search in the Church of God for them! It
   were a strange thing if to have one's sins forgiven would make one
   unhappy! It were a very odd thing if being at peace with God caused a
   man to be wretched! It were a very turning of the world upside down if
   the possession of a good hope of Heaven should be the source of gloom
   in the soul!

   And it is not so. Brethren, by your continual happiness and manifest
   cheerfulness, roll away this stone, and especially remove it from the
   minds of young people. Make them see, in the brightness of your
   countenance, the practical answer to the common calumny. Convince them
   that you have an inward joy which they do not understand. Tempt them,
   as it were, to Christ, by telling them of the sweetness which you
   experience in Him. Many have the notion, too, that true religion

   makes a man unmanly and effeminate. Perhaps certain professors have
   lent a color to this charge by affectation of manners and absence of
   common sense. Certain religionists are always dwelling upon the "must
   nots" of religion, as if godliness was a set of negatives, a garden
   enclosed with thorns!

   The manufacture of new commandments is a very fascinating occupation
   for some people. You must not do this, and that, and the other, till
   one feels like a baby in leading strings. I find ten commandments are
   more than I can keep without a great deal of Grace, and I do not mean
   to pay the slightest regard to any beyond. Liberty is the genius of our
   faith, nor do we mean to barter it away for the esteem of modern
   Pharisees. They say to us, "You shall not laugh on Sunday. You shall
   never create a smile in the House of God. You shall walk to public
   service as though you were going to the whipping post, and you shall
   take care when you preach that you always make your discourse as dull
   as it can possibly be."

   We do not reverence these precepts! Anything which is of God we honor,
   but not the sickening decrees of cant. We are men, and not slaves. Our
   manhood is not annihilated by Grace. We think, and speak, and act for
   ourselves and are not the serfs of custom and fashion. We speak our
   minds even when propriety is shocked and respectability is enraged. I
   would always give to young men this piece of advice--Quit yourselves
   like men, let nobody have to say that your religion is mamby-pamby, and
   your conversation affected. Do not be always sugaring every person you
   speak of as, "Dear this," and, "Dear that," for this savors of nauseous
   hypocrisy! Do not whine or turn up your eyes, or affect to be very
   devout. Be holy, but not showy--true, but not obtrusive. Be men, be
   manly, be Christians, be like Christ! He was the very highest type of
   man! You never see anything stilted or unnatural in Him. He is always
   Himself, transparent, outspoken, brave, honest, true, and manly. Redeem
   religion from the reproach of stiltedness and so roll away one of the
   stones from the sepulcher.

   Some, we know, have a notion that religion is a mere sentiment. They
   think that it is only about being affected about your dead children and
   your parents in Heaven--in weeping over death-bed scenes. In fact, it
   is best seen in excited meetings and their consequent emotions.
   Religion is judged by worldlings to consist in womanly feeling, to have
   no truth, no facts, no philosophy at its back. Oh, but it is not so! We
   can give as good a reason for the hope that is in us as though our
   religion never brought a tear to our eye and never stirred the emotion
   of joy within our souls. I venture to say it, that our religion is as
   much based on facts as astronomy or geology--I mean indisputable
   historical facts! And I assert that the doctrines of Revelation are
   Truths of God as certain as the demonstrations of mathematics!

   The Gospel reveals certainties and they are worthy of the contemplation
   of men of the most enlarged minds. Our Gospel is not mere platitude and
   baby talk--there is a depth in it which no intellect can fathom.
   Titanic intellects have found their match in the things of God. The
   genius of Newton and Locke did not complain of need of room in the
   wondrous Truths of God--to them they were waters to swim in. There is
   room for all the high culture, and all the thought and all the training
   that this world shall ever see! Room for it, yes, and at its utmost it
   shall only stand upon the shore of the main ocean of Divine Truth and
   cry, "O the depths of the wisdom of the Lord!" By intelligently setting
   forth the great matters of the Gospel, let us roll this stone away, for
   to some it has been a crushing obstruction.

   Very commonly among our working classes another stone lies over their
   graves, namely, the opinion that the Gospel is not for the likes of
   them. I have frequently heard it expressed by them that it is very
   proper, indeed, for ladies and gentlemen--persons of money and leisure,
   to be religious--but it is quite out of the question for a man who has
   to earn his living and tuck up his shirt sleeves to hard work. "Why,"
   they say, "what have dockyard laborers, cabdrivers, and costermongers
   to do with religion?"

   Now, of all the strange prejudices in existence, this is one of the
   strangest because from time immemorial it has been the boast of the
   Gospel that, "thepoor have the Gospel preached to them." If there is
   one class of the population to whom the Gospel is gladder tidings than
   to any other, it is to them that labor and are heavy laden! Why, dear
   Friends, if you have little in this life, that is the more reason why
   you should seek the boundless treasures of the life to come! And if you
   have much trouble and sorrow here, the more reason why you should seek
   Christ to be the balm of all your wounds and the cordial of your cares!
   Christianity drew its Apostles from the working classes, and from the
   same source it has gathered numberless martyrs. Though the Lord has had
   a remnant in the upper ranks, yet it has still been true, that, "not
   many great men after the flesh, not many mighty are chosen."

   The great mass of Christian discipleship has been taken from among the
   poor and the working men. Besides, Christ is the people's Christ. What
   a grand sentence is that of the Psalm, "I have exalted One chosen out
   of the people." Jesus is the people's Man by birth, by education, and
   by sympathy! He was ordained of God to be a Leader and Commander for
   the people. Jesus Christ is just such a Friend as the people need! Tell
   the people this--especially you who belong to them and know it! Make
   your houses preaching places to your fellow workmen, and make your
   conduct a constant sermon upon the adaptation of the Gospel of Jesus
   Christ to their needs! So much for the stone of prejudice. I must pass
   on.

   Frequently, over the graves of spiritually dead persons, there lies a
   stone of solitariness. They feel as if no man cared for their soul. I
   have known that happen in this Tabernacle. Persons have come in for
   months and nobody has spoken to them because they were strangers--and
   therefore the Gospel did not enter into their hearts because they said,
   "The Church of God does not care for us--we are unknown and unvalued."
   Half a word from some kind Christian sitting near them has been the
   means of melting them down, and the very next sermon they have heard
   has been in God's hands the means of bringing them to Christ!

   In this city a man may lose himself more effectually than he could in
   the desert of Sahara. You may get away into one of our streets, yes,
   and work in one of our factories, and nobody will interest himself
   about you. While happily few pry into their neighbor's affairs,
   unhappily few have any sympathy for their neighbor's griefs. Hearts may
   be breaking around us and we may be as merry as May. Children of God, I
   charge you in the name of the quickening Savior, never let this stone
   lie two Sundays together over the grave of a single attendant of this
   house! Prove to those who sit with you here that you have a loving care
   for their souls!

   Another stone that can be rolled away is that of degradation. Some
   bring themselves into the ditch by their sins. They break the rules of
   society, they become dangerous, and, at length are treated as outcasts.
   When a person feels himself outlawed, there is little hope of raising
   him. Many sink themselves to poverty by their vices and extravagances,
   and thousands degrade themselves by abominable drunkenness. The
   Christian Church does well when it rises its utmost power to deliver
   the drunkard from his besetting sin. Temperance will not suffice
   instead of godliness, but it may put men in the way of Gospel
   influences. God forbid we should stop short in any reforms, for these
   will only roll away the stone from the grave, but yet, let no stone
   remain!

   Many a man has first been delivered from the habit of intoxication and
   then his ears have been opened to listen to the Truth as it is in
   Jesus. The poor harlot, too, when Christian love has followed her and
   spoken to her of our Father who is in Heaven who bids the wandering
   return to Him--how often have her feelings of degradation been overcome
   and she has fled to Christ for mercy! Brothers and Sisters, none are
   outcasts to us! If the world says to the fallen, "Get out of here, you
   are not good enough for us," let the Church of God open her door and
   invite the outcasts in! The Church is the true Hospital for incurables,
   among whom Jesus delights to work! Those whom the world calls lepers
   and drives away into contempt, it is our glory to restore! Come here,
   you chief of sinners, for Jesus waits to receive you! Do not tarry, for
   you, and such as you He came to save! The Pharisees repel you, but this
   Man receives sinners and eats with them!

   We will mention one more stone, and that is despair. Some men are not
   only spiritually dead, but they are buried fathoms deep in despair.
   They have signed their own death warrants, though the Lord has not yet
   written them out. You people of God, look out for those who think
   themselves beyond all hope--and when you meet with them argue the point
   with them! Tell them that you were once in the same plight as they are
   and show them what Grace did for you. Point them to the promises of God
   which are so suitable to their condition. Above all, tell them of the
   precious Savior who does not quench the smoking flax, and who is able
   to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him. You will have
   done good service if in any case you roll away the stone of despair.

   I exhort you, dear fellow laborers in Christ, yourselves saved, to do
   all that lies in you to take away every one of these hindrances from
   sinners' souls, and then pray the Lord to speak the quickening Word!

   II. But my time goes too swiftly, and therefore I must come to my
   second point with brevity. AFTER A MAN IS CONVERTED he labors under
   many disabilities, and Christian love should help him. When lambs are
   born the shepherd takes care of them. Christ's word is, "Feed My
   lambs." When plants are put into the ground they must be watered. It is
   not enough that the child is born--it needs a mother's care. "Take this
   child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages," is God's
   word to His people whenever a new convert is born into the Church.

   Lazarus is alive, but he is encumbered with grave clothes and it is the
   business of those who are his friends to loose him and let him go. New
   converts need loosing for the sake of their own comfort. It was a very
   uncomfortable thing for Lazarus to be tied up in his
   winding-sheets--for his own ease they must be taken off. When a man is
   saved, perhaps he does not grasp all that is involved in salvation. He
   thinks, "I am a Christian, but I may fall from Grace." Unwrap that band
   at once and let him know that the Lord does not cast away His people
   whom He did foreknow.

   The new Christian, I say, thinks that he is pardoned, but that some sin
   may still remain upon him. Unwind that cerement! Let him know that "the
   blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin." Perhaps he
   fancies, when he feels a strife within him, that he cannot be a child
   of God. Tear off that bandage and tell him that all the children of God
   experience an inward strife and feel a battle raging between life and
   death within their souls! You will find young converts apt to be the
   victims of doubts and fears--perplexing themselves about this, and
   fretting themselves about that! And you who are instructed in the faith
   must lay out yourselves to loose them, and let them go! They need,
   also, loosing for their own freedom. Lazarus might as well be in the
   cave as be in bonds. Men may be converted and yet be far from enjoying
   the full liberty of the children of God.

   Perhaps the saved one is fettered by bad habits and he does not know
   that they are bad. Tell him gently, but let him know that these things
   are not consistent with Christian life. I know at this time some real
   Christians who are going about with relics of their grave clothes upon
   them, and they appear very unseemly. Those grave clothes stick to all
   of us more or less--and I suppose till we enter Heaven the loosing
   operation will need to be continued! But let us help our Brethren in
   this by example and by precept. Let us take away from them that which
   hinders them from the liberty of holiness.

   Moreover, Lazarus wanted loosing for the sake of fellowship. He could
   not talk with Mary and Martha yet, for he had a napkin about his
   head--he could scarcely move or speak. So many of our dear converts do
   not like to join the Church just yet. They say they are not perfect.
   Poor souls, if they were we should not need them in our churches! Being
   all imperfect ourselves, they would be out of place if they joined with
   us! They plead that they are not fit to come, imagining that something
   of fitness is needed beyond believing in Christ--as if that which Jesus
   laid down as the Gospel of salvation was not also a sufficient basis
   for fellowship with saints on earth! Still, the timid hold back and do
   not like to communicate to others what the Lord has done for them.

   Encourage them, compel them to come in! Do not let them wander in
   solitude, but introduce them to the fellowship of the saints. We have
   known cases in which the liberty was needed to enable them to bear
   testimony. Lazarus could not even say, "I live and blessed be the name
   of God," for the napkin was about his head. He must be loosed that he
   may tell what God had done! Oh, what amazing testimonies the Church
   might have if saints were but encouraged to deliver them! But there are
   some who carry wet blankets about with them, and the moment a young
   Christian talks about Christ, because he does not speak exactly
   according to orthodoxy, they try to silence him. Let it never be so
   among us! Let us encourage the babes to cry, that by-and by they may
   learn to speak! Let us encourage them to prattle, for perhaps before
   long they shall correctly speak the language of the kingdom.

   As for testimony, so for service, help is needed. Paul was converted on
   the road to Damascus, but he did not know what God meant to do with
   him--and he was not fit for God to use till Ananias had instructed him.
   So with Apollos. He was a true Christian, but he needed further
   teaching--he needed loosing and being let go, and therefore Aquila and
   Priscilla became the instruments thereof. There was the eunuch on his
   way to Ethiopia--he needed to learn more about the Scriptures--to have
   the meaning of the Prophet Isaiah opened up to him and to be baptized
   on profession of his faith in Christ. Do not suffer any of God's dear
   living ones to be waiting, bound up and captive, because we are so
   devoid of brotherly love that we will not do for them the necessary
   offices of heavenly charity! The Lord help us, Brothers and Sisters, to
   be earnest about this!

   Once more, after Lazarus was unbound, we read that he sat at the table
   with Jesus--so he needed loosing for the enjoyment of communion with
   Christ! The trembling convert thinks himself as yet unwarranted to lay
   hold upon the nearer, dearer, and sweeter joys which surround the
   Person of Christ. He dreams that these are reserved for old saints,
   that these wines on the lees well refined are for men who have fought
   the good fight and almost finished their course. But, indeed, he errs
   and deprives himself of joy! The songs of Zion are for the early
   morning as well as for the shades of evening. Go and tell young
   Christians so! Encourage them to commune with Jesus! Tell them He loves
   all His people with

   an equal love and is ready to manifest Himself to them as He does not
   unto the world. In this respect you will loose them and let them go.

   I will not prolong my talk, but finish with two inquiries which I
   desire to put very plainly. The first is this--Dear Brethren, I have
   told you what can be done for sinners before conversion. I have told
   you what can be done for them afterwards. I beg to inquire how many of
   you are doing either the one or the other? I will not take the writer's
   inkhorn and make a list of the diligent among you, but I will ask each
   man's conscience to officiate as a scribe and to put down his name if
   he is really serving Christ. For, mark you, Beloved, it is idle to talk
   about our duty--the thing is to be daily and constantly doing it!

   Time is gliding away, men are dying, Hell is filling, Christ's name is
   being dishonored! There are but 12 hours in the day--are we walking
   while we have the light, and working for God while we have the
   opportunity? If every one of us will give an honest answer to that
   question it will do us good, even if we have to confess that we have
   been sluggards. It may lead to shame, and that to confession--and that
   to prayer, and that to a renovation of life! If we are, indeed, the
   Lord's, let us live while we live! Much of professing life nowadays is
   a thing to be ashamed of--it is cold, weak, narrow, and timid. I see
   enthusiasm everywhere, except in the Church! I see stir and push and
   vigor in business! I see the world girdled that men may send the
   messages of commerce with lightning speed--while the message of the
   Gospel lags! I see the mountains bored, I know not next but the sea's
   deep bed may be tunneled! Earth for earth can do anything, but for
   Heaven how little will earth perform? May God quicken us that we may be
   a living, earnest people.

   The other inquiry is this, how far is the Lord Jesus working in our
   families, and among our connections in the matter of raising the
   spiritually dead? Are your children saved? Are your servants
   regenerated? Brothers and Sisters, are they saved? Husbands and
   wives--has God quickened them? Come, let us pass the question round.
   The angel said to Lot, "have you here any beside?" A very weighty
   question. Oh, that God may grant that you and I may be like Noah who
   had all his sons, and his sons' wives, and his own wife in the ark with
   him! May we never leave off praying till it is so! If there is but one
   unconverted one in any way linked with us, let us pray day and night
   till that soul is saved and then let us take up the neighborhood in
   which we dwell, and the streets where we reside!

   This great city, this perishing city--God help it, and in mercy visit
   it! I believe He will if He finds us willing to do the work of rolling
   away the stone, and equally willing to unloose the bands. God will not
   send children to us if we cannot nurse them! He will not send lambs to
   us if we will not shepherd them! God is not so unkind to new-born souls
   as to send them among a people that do not care for them. He will make
   us travail in birth before children shall be born to God here, because
   soul travail is the means by which love is worked in us towards them,
   and so we are taught to handle them affectionately, cherish them
   carefully, and bring them up for the Lord.

   O Church beloved, over whom Christ rejoices, I charge you serve the
   Lord Jesus with diligence in this Divine service of doing good to the
   sons of men. God bless you, Beloved, for Christ's sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Testimony And Experience

   (No. 1053)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JUNE 2, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the
   saying of the woman, who testified, 'He told me all that I ever did.'So
   when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them;
   and He stayed there two days. And many more believed because of His own
   word. Then they said to the woman, 'Now we believe, not because of what
   you said, for we have heard Him ourselves, and we know that this is,
   indeed, the Christ, the Savior of the world." John 4:39-42.

   THE most important question concerning any man living is this--is he a
   saved soul or not? It is of comparatively little consequence whether he
   is rich or poor, educated or uneducated, compared with this--is he
   among the living before God--or is he dead in sins? Is he pardoned or
   unpardoned? Is he a child of God or an heir of wrath? Is he walking in
   the darkness or has he passed into light? Therefore of all the days of
   a man's history the most important is the day in which he is
   born-again.

   If the man is, indeed, saved, and a new man in Christ Jesus, he will
   look back upon the day of his regeneration as his chief birthday. His
   new birth is second in order of time, but he will always put it first
   in importance. His birth gave him his being, but his new birth secured
   his well-being. Being born first we might have descended into Hell,
   but, being born a second time we are assured of Heaven! If we were to
   observe those days with the greatest festivity which deserved best to
   be commemorated, we should certainly make high days and holidays of the
   days in which we looked to Jesus, and "found in Him our star, our sun."

   For this reason the circumstances which surround our new birth are to
   us among the most deeply interesting incidents of our own or any other
   human history. The details may be very simple. They may not suffice to
   make a biography, but still, to us, they are most important. We delight
   to think of the place where Jesus met with us, the Providence which
   brought us to the spot where we first heard the words which convicted
   us of sin. We feel pleasure in remembering every detail of our sorrows
   when we were seeking rest and finding none--and we are charmed as we
   read in our diary the story of how it was that we found the way of
   salvation--how it was that we looked to Jesus and lost our burden in a
   moment!

   Our memory lingers and our heart loves to remember where it was, and by
   whose lips it was, that the life-giving message came and we looked to
   the Crucified One and were lightened. This is the reason why this
   chapter is so interesting, because it is the story of a conversion--the
   registry of a new birth--the record of salvation. It is the story of
   the conversion of a remarkable woman, great in sin and afterwards great
   in zeal! It tells us how the work was effected, what was said to her by
   the Lord, how she replied, what she felt, and how she was brought out
   into light. This fourth chapter of the Gospel of John has in it not
   only that touch of nature which makes the whole world kin, but that
   touch of Divine Grace which creates sympathy in all regenerate hearts.
   And, consequently, it will always remain one of the most interesting
   portions of Holy Writ.

   But it is not for itself alone that I shall conduct your minds to this
   suggestive history. While I shall be talking of this woman, my earnest
   desire is to feel in my own soul whatever of the Truth of God is
   uttered, and that each one here may be putting every Truth to himself
   in the form of searching questions--saying concerning each thought now
   uttered-- "Do I understand that Truth? Am I partaker of that Grace?"
   Thus, our hearing will be profitable, by the blessing of the Holy
   Spirit, and the woman of Samaria will become a prophetess to us, also.

   First, then, our text most naturally suggests the remark that testimony
   is frequently the means of creating faith. "Many of the Samaritans of
   that city believed in Him because of the saying of the woman, who
   testified, "He told me all that I ever did." But, secondly, where
   personal testimony fails, faith may yet arise, apart from human
   witness, for "many more believed because of His own word." Then,
   thirdly, even where faith has been begotten through testimony, personal
   experience very soon eclipses all human witness. "Now we believe," they
   said, "not because of what you said, for we have heard Him ourselves,
   and we know that this is, indeed, the Christ, the Savior of the world."

   I. The first doctrine, this morning, is that HUMAN TESTIMONY IS
   FREQUENTLY MADE THE MEANS OF PRODUCING FAITH IN MEN'S HEARTS. That is
   evident to all. Hundreds of instances in proof thereof are present here
   this morning. A very large number of us owe our conversion to God to
   the personal testimony of others who told us what the Lord had done for
   them--told us in words, but also showed us in their actions--for we
   perceived the change that was in them. We saw their calm mind under
   trouble. We noticed their general happiness. We noticed and we admired
   their holiness. And we were led, both by their verbal and practical
   testimony, to seek a Savior.

   This is the usual mode of Divine operation, that the testimony of one
   renewed soul should be blessed to another, and so the kingdom of Christ
   should be propagated in men's hearts. To encourage all here who know
   the Lord to bear testimony for Him, let us notice the case before us.
   It was that of a woman. Paul's preaching is very plain upon the subject
   of female preaching. He does not allow a woman to preach, but this by
   no means bars her from bearing testimony in her own way--and she can so
   bear it as to do God's work quite as effectually as if she occupied the
   pulpit!

   A woman was the founder of the Church in Samaria, which was afterwards
   multiplied by Christ's teaching, which continued till the time of
   Philip--and was then in a state of gracious revival. The first person
   baptized in Europe was a woman, therefore let none of our Sisters in
   Christ exempt themselves from bearing witness for Jesus Christ! Neither
   let them think that their witness is unimportant. God will put high
   honor upon it if it is rendered in simple faith in Him and, perhaps,
   where public ministry may have failed, their private testimony may yet
   succeed!

   Again, the testimony was not only that of a woman, but of a sinful
   woman--one who would usually be condemned to silence by the customs of
   society. She had lost her character. It was fit for her to be quiet.
   How could she be expected to be a witness for holiness, whose life had
   been unholiness? How should she bear witness to the pure Savior who had
   been, herself, impure? It is best for the unchaste to be little seen
   and never heard. The objection would have been unanswerable had not the
   woman been changed in character. She was washed, she was sanctified and
   renewed--and now the very life which had otherwise been so just a cause
   for silence, became an impelling motive for witness-bearing since she
   loved much because much had been forgiven!

   In her own person she was a notable proof of the Savior's power to
   pardon and reclaim. She had become a saint who formerly had been one of
   the chief of sinners and her witness for Christ was all the weightier.
   If any of you shall have been, up till now, great offenders against
   God, this is no reason why you should not come to Jesus at once and
   seek and find mercy! And after you have come to Him, your past
   transgressions shall be no bar to your future usefulness--on the
   contrary, you shall the more zealously and powerfully declare the power
   of His Grace! The more mischief we have done in the past the more good
   we should try to do in the future--that by any means we may undo the
   evil we have done. How often has it turned out that the chief of
   sinners, like Paul, have become not a whit behind the very chief of the
   Apostles, and the very force of character which made them ringleaders
   in evil has aided in bringing them to the front as captains of the
   Lord's host! We ought to be thankful, therefore, that we are allowed to
   bear testimony, and that our testimony may be useful even though much
   of our past life has been such that we would wish to blot it out
   forever.

   Observe that this woman's testimony was personal, and there was the
   secret of its power. She said, "Come, see a Man that told me all things
   that I ever did: is not this the Christ?" Now, suppose that she had
   said, "Come, see a man who has opened up the prophecies to me"? Why
   they would have said, "Prophecies? What have you to do with prophecies?
   Go and fetch your water pot, attend to your business, mend your
   character, and do not talk to us about prophecies." Or, if she had
   said, "I find, by reference to the words of Rabbi Simeon, that the
   Messiah is to be very much like a person in whom I have just now seen
   sitting on the well." They would have cared very little for the Rabbi,
   or for her inference from his words.

   It was not because of any learning in what she said that they were
   convinced, but the personality of her declaration puzzled them. Now, we
   make a mistake, I believe, when we assail men's consciences with
   quotations from the fathers and

   passages from the reformed Divines. Human hearts will not be conquered
   by such poor artillery! And if we think that explaining a doctrine will
   suffice to win most men to Christ, we labor under a mistake. This woman
   did far better than that. She did as good as say, "You know what I have
   been, all of you! It is of no use for me to attempt concealing it. But
   I went to draw water at the well and there sat a stranger, a Jew. And
   though He could not have known anything about me by report, yet He
   directed a question to me which led me to discourse upon my character,
   and then He told me in detail all that I had ever been, and mentioned
   some facts which you do not know, and which I had forgotten myself.
   Surely, He must be the Messiah."

   They were very startled as they heard the woman's tale. She was
   startled herself! How surprised she appeared! They listened to her
   eagerly, wondering why she should talk of holy things. And, let me say,
   Beloved, if we wish to win souls to Christ, there is nothing like
   telling to others what the Lord has done for our souls. It is of small
   use to tell them what we have learned in books--we must declare what
   God has written on our hearts! It is not describing what was said by
   the preacher, but what has been felt in our souls. Many a husband has
   been won to God by his wife's witness to the power of religion in her
   own soul--and many a child has been brought to the Savior's feet by the
   father's speaking to him of what Divine Grace had done for him.
   Proclaim, then, your personal testimony, each of you, for this is the
   most effectual weapon for overcoming human unbelief and bringing men to
   Christ!

   But, then, you will note that the woman's personal testimony was
   delivered very earnestly. In the first place she had left her water
   pot, which was not only left for Christ to use, but much more likely
   because she was absorbed in the purpose to tell others what she had
   learned and she was so full of her message that she left the water pot
   behind! The men would notice that it was so--they would observe the
   hurried way in which she came back from the well, and, above all, they
   would see the way in which her eyes shone--the manner in which every
   muscle of her body bespoke the excitement under which she labored.

   She said, "Come, come, see, see, a man that told me all things I ever
   did." How much depends in bearing testimony upon the way in which it is
   done! If our sermons were to hang like icicles around our lips they
   would not be very likely to melt the ice in your minds. And if, in
   speaking to your Sunday school class, your words fall like snow, they
   are not very likely to make children's hearts burn within them. If, in
   speaking privately to an individual, you treat your own conversion as
   though it were a commonplace affair, or aim at his conversion whom you
   address as though it were a matter that was not very significant, you
   might as well be silent! O Brothers and Sisters, you waste your breath!
   You waste your time! No good will come of it!

   Your testimony must be earnest or it will be fruitless! There must be
   passion and there must be pathos. The soul must run over at the mouth,
   and the speech must be the lava flowing out of a heart that swells and
   heaves with inward fires. I would have you notice the judiciousness of
   the woman's testimony. It is very striking. She did not say, "Come, see
   a Man that told me all things that I ever did: I am sure He is the
   Christ." She was too wise to be peremptory. If you positively assert a
   thing it is very likely that somebody will deny it. There is a
   propensity in many minds to question inferences drawn by others, though
   they would draw those very inferences themselves if let alone. So,
   though she did not doubt that it was the Christ, yet she did not say it
   is, but she deferred to the self-assumed wisdom of the men!

   And she said to them, "Is not this the Christ? Don't you think it is?"
   as though she would have her belief confirmed by their judgment and
   humbly requested them to come and see. This is a kind of Pauline taking
   them by guile--a method which is commendable--because there is no
   sinful guile in it. It is all plain, innocent guile. She knew something
   about human nature from herself, and, judging the men by herself, she
   did not dogmatize, but she put it in such a way that she knew what
   answer they must give to her question, "Is not this the Christ?" In
   fishing for the souls of men you need as much judgment as you do in
   angling--for men are curious fish and they will often be frightened at
   a shadow! And, in the very way of throwing the line and managing the
   fly, there is an art not very readily learned.

   Some never learn the way and are never able to attract souls, while
   others are endowed with sacred instincts by which they know how to
   handle men's hearts and win power over them. We must be wise to win
   souls! Souls are not won by fools. We must have a sympathy with men,
   even reaching to their infirmities--and we must woo them as men,
   dealing with them not as they ought to be, but as they are--and putting
   the Truth of God in the shape in which it is likely to be acceptable to
   them. David chose out a smooth stone from the brook--he knew what sort
   of stone he could sling best,

   what sort of a stone was suited to his sling, what stone was best
   adapted to Goliath's forehead--and he sent the right stone in the right
   way.

   And so must you. If you bear witness for Christ, ask the Spirit of
   Wisdom to guide you. Pray to be directed lest your earnestness should
   lead you into an injudicious mode of speech. Let prudence be mingled
   with your zeal. He is the Christ, but if you need men to believe that
   He is, you will sometimes do better to ask men if He is than actually
   to assert His claims. The woman bore her testimony, and bore it well.

   Now, observe the result. There were many that believed on Christ at
   once, because of the woman's speech. Happy woman, thus to become a
   mother in Israel! Blessed testimony, which was thus fruitful on the
   spot a hundred-fold! I guarantee you that many a bishop and doctor of
   divinity, and many a mighty orator has spoken hundreds of times with
   less result than this poor untrained, un-ordained, female Apostle of
   Jesus Christ! Her simple talk did more than eloquence could accomplish,
   though it should be as mighty as that of Cicero or Demosthenes! Her
   heart was in the words she spoke! Her speech was simple--there was
   nothing to recommend it of beauty of verbiage, or gaudiness of oratory.
   She said what she knew and testified what she had seen with an earnest
   desire that others would know and see what she had learned. Therefore
   God blessed her. Oh, may God bless many of us, whether men or women, to
   the same end--the bringing of many to Jesus!

   Those who were not converted under her were awakened and stirred up so
   that they went to see the Lord Jesus and brought Him into their city,
   and asked Him to stay with them. Many of these were afterwards
   converted, so that she became, in some sense, the instrument of their
   salvation. Would to God that each one of us aimed at the same thing!
   But, I have more practical work to do than this. I have a question to
   put to many here who have not believed in Jesus. Your not believing in
   Jesus, many of you, does not arise from need of testimony about Him.
   The Samaritans only heard the testimony of a woman of very doubtful
   character--but they believed in Jesus Christ through it! I need to
   speak very pointedly to some here. You have heard the testimony of the
   best people who have ever lived, and yet you have not believed! Had you
   not the testimony of a mother who loved the Savior and loved you, and
   above all things in this world coveted that you should love her Savior,
   too?

   You know how earnestly she has spoken to you with as many tears as
   words, and how often she has backed her testimony with her prayers--but
   you have not believed. She told you that Jesus could pardon sin, could
   give rest to your conscience and could preserve you unto His eternal
   kingdom and glory. And she besought you to come to Him, but you did not
   come. In her case there was a good character to back her testimony. You
   saw, year after year, her quiet, patient, godly life, and what is more,
   it may be I speak to some who saw the triumphant death of that same
   mother--and yet you have not believed!

   I have seen death beds which I have thought would have been enough to
   have convinced the most hardened, for there has been about the dying
   saint evidence conclusive of the power of Divine Grace. The body has
   been pained but the soul has been placid. Storms have swept through
   every nerve, and yet perfect peace has ruled the spirit--yes, and more
   than peace--for the soul has rejoiced with unspeakable joy and full of
   glory! That is an unbelieving heart, indeed, which will not be
   convinced by the testimony of a near and dear one--a testimony
   supported throughout a holy life and crowned by a glorious death!

   There are husbands here, probably, whose wives always bear good witness
   for Christ. Your wife is not dead and you know very well, in the bottom
   of your heart, that religion has done great things for her. If she were
   to die you would feel deep regrets for the ridicule you sometimes pour
   upon her. Why, if I were not this day a Believer in Christ, I think I
   should be of all men the most incorrigible, for I have seen the fruits
   of Grace in a beloved mother and in a gracious father! I could not be
   so base as to doubt their truthfulness, and yet I must do so or else
   accept their witness for the Lord Jesus. Did I not believe in the
   depravity of the human heart, I should wonder how so many can reject
   the pious testimonies which everywhere surround them--testimonies of
   persons of the most honorable character, who, on any other matter would
   be at once believed!

   Perhaps there may be some here who will say, "I do not know that I have
   ever had any testimony of the sort borne to me." Now, if you will allow
   me, you shall not be able to say that any longer. I will bear my
   testimony for Jesus Christ at once. When I preach Christ and His
   salvation to you I do not preach what I learned in a college or was
   taught by men! I preach to you what I would die for! I preach to you
   what is the chief joy of my soul! I preach to you what I know and

   believe and have experienced! Years ago I was under the greatest
   conceivable darkness of spirit. I was but a lad, but my sin haunted me.
   I had such an idea of the guilt of my past life that my heart was heavy
   within me, and at intervals I was crushed down with fear. I would get
   away into corners, where no one could see me, and cry and pray. And I
   labored under the belief that everybody else might be saved, but that I
   should perish.

   Now I heard of Jesus Christ, that He was able to put away sin at once
   from anyone who simply looked to Him and trusted Him. I heard that, and
   I was enabled by Divine Grace, as soon as I heard it, to trust the
   Savior. I did then and there rest the whole weight of my soul for time
   and eternity upon the Person and work of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of
   God. And my witness is that, in one single moment, a load was rolled
   from off my spirit and as swiftly as a flash of lightning I passed from
   darkness into light--from misery into joy! From that hour I bless God
   that, being not exempt from trouble, and especially not free from a
   tendency to despondency which is always with me, I yet rejoice and will
   rejoice, and am happy, unspeakably happy in resting upon Jesus Christ!

   Moreover, I have found that those points of my character which were
   most weak have been strengthened, while strong passions have been
   subdued, propensities have been kept under, and new principles have
   been implanted. I am changed! I am as different from what I was as a
   man could be who had been annihilated and had then been made again. Nor
   do I claim any credit for this--far from it! God has done great things
   for me, but He has done the same for others, and is willing to do it
   for any soul that seeks His face! He is willing to do it for every
   seeker here! There is such a thing as a new heart and a right spirit--I
   know there is. There is such a thing as perfect happiness in death,
   yes, and even a longing to depart! I know that peace with God is to be
   had, for I have felt it and bear witness to it!

   Do you reject my witness? Perhaps you doubt my truthfulness. Then I
   must endure your injustice, for I know that I do not lie. But, if my
   character is right, and if you think I speak the truth, then I ask you
   to receive the witness I bear! I wish I could bear it more judiciously
   and more earnestly, but I do bear it in all sincerity with this desire
   in my soul--I would that not only some of you, but all that hear me
   this day knew the preciousness of Christ Jesus my Lord, and understood
   that beneath God's Heaven there is nothing so blessed as to be resting
   upon the blood and merits of the once crucified but now exalted Savior!

   I bear my testimony as the woman from the well did. If you reject it,
   so must it be. But I pray you do not, but come and see Jesus for
   yourselves, for He is, indeed, the Christ, the Savior of the world!

   II. FAITH MAY ARISE APART FROM THE TESTIMONY OF MEN. I shall speak of
   this second head for this reason. When you, who are earnest
   soul-winners, have borne testimony to any man about Christ, and he does
   not yield to it, do not despair of him. When you have preached to a man
   and he is not converted, do not think that there is no other hope for
   him. The Lord has other ways of work besides the witness of His
   servants. Some of those Samaritans who had not received the woman's
   testimony believed because of His own word. Have we God's own Word
   among us now? Yes, thank God, we have.

   We have it in the Scriptures! There are some who will not listen to the
   witness of men, though it is loving and personal, who will yet bow
   before the majesty and power of the infallible Word of God. Let us hope
   that those who refuse our persuasions will yield homage to the Word of
   God. Let us trust that some, in quietly reading their Bibles, may yet
   be convicted and converted. If all our arrows shall miss them, let us
   hope that God's Word will yet dart an arrow between the joints of their
   harness. Remember, the Spirit of God can work on men's hearts through
   Truths of God which they heard a long time ago. He will not reveal new
   truths to anybody--the complete Revelation is in the Scriptures--but He
   will often freshen up old Truths in the mind.

   I have hopes of many men in London who never go to a place of worship,
   that they will be converted, because when they were children they were
   at a Sunday school and there they obtained knowledge which the devil
   will never be able to make them forget. The seed is hidden, but not
   dead! I have seen in the country men digging a ditch, throwing up the
   earth from 10 or 12 feet deep, and yet in that earth there were strange
   seeds, long covered with earth, which only wanted unearthing and
   exposure to rain and sun to develop them to the amazement of the
   neighborhood. And so there may die seeds of Truth deep down in the
   memory, and God the Holy Spirit may quicken them! We have known persons
   at their work not thinking of Divine things at all, but yet a sudden
   thoughtfulness has come over them, and they have considered their ways.

   The Spirit of God, in fact, moved upon them! They began to meditate,
   and meditating they confessed their sins and turned to God. Besides,
   remember that God has many preachers that are not in human flesh. For
   instance, fever is a terrible Elijah. When the cholera came to London
   it was a Jonah in our streets! Many, then, began to think who would
   have gone blindfold down to perdition! When poverty visits some men's
   houses and they can no longer indulge in drunkenness and gluttony, then
   they think of their Father's house and the hired servants who have
   bread enough and more to spare. Omnipotence has servants everywhere!
   God can make use of even the ills of life to work eternal good.

   I have even known cases in which sin has been overruled by God to the
   awakening of souls. I remember a young man whose life had been strictly
   moral and upright but who had disregarded all religion. He was a
   working man, and on one occasion he upset a can of varnish at his work.
   He was afraid of his master's anger and, when asked who did it, he
   denied the fact. He had never lied before--at least not in such a
   manner--and he felt himself so mean, so degraded in having told a lie
   that he felt himself to be no longer righteous before God. He bowed his
   knee and confessed his sin, and with a burdened conscience he went to
   hear the Gospel and found peace and pardon through the precious blood
   of Jesus!

   Disease within a man may be as dangerous as when it breaks out and
   throws its pustules through the skin. When the man sees sin in
   eruption, he only sees what was in him before--it could never come out
   if it were not first in him! The wrong act could never come forth if it
   was not in the man and, sometimes, the wrong act has convinced the man
   that his nature was impure, and so sin, though evil in itself, has been
   the means of bringing conviction to the soul. God has many ways of
   bringing men to Himself and we should pray that where we fail, the Word
   of God, accompanied by the power and energy of the Divine Spirit may
   convert them that they may be saved!

   There are persons in the world of a singular disposition, and of a
   peculiarly independent mind who do not care to be shown anything, but
   prefer to find it out for themselves. And the probability is that if
   you wish them to see they will shut their eyes. The very thing they
   would find out and rejoice in, they will not learn from you. They keep
   themselves to themselves and will never be brought in by testimony. But
   they will be converted, let us hope, by the effectual working of the
   Spirit. I have known some, too, who are of such a skeptical turn of
   mind so that testimony is not received by them. They have seen so much
   of persons being led by the nose by priests that they will not believe
   anybody! And, whereas some will swallow a lie, these will only, with
   difficulty, accept the Truth of God itself from fear of being
   credulous.

   They are something like Thomas. Mary Magdalene said she had seen the
   Savior. "Ah, no doubt you are an excellent woman, but you have
   certainly been deceived. You are so imaginative." Then Peter said, "I
   have seen the Lord." "I am sure you think so, but you must be in
   error." Then John said, "But, indeed, I have seen the Lord." "That is
   good evidence for yourself. But it does not convince me." Then
   Bartholomew and others would say, "We have seen the Lord. And five or
   six others have told you so. Do you think we have conspired to tell a
   lie?" "To, my Brethren, far from it! Yet I have known such things in
   the world as for five or six persons to be mistaken. I feel that your
   witness deals with such improbabilities that I cannot receive it."

   At last Thomas declared downright, "Except I shall see in His hands the
   print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and
   thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe." Now this was not
   right, but at the same time it was so--and our Lord was graciously
   pleased to yield to the infirmity of Thomas, and He said, "Reach here
   your finger, and behold My hands, and reach here your hand and put it
   into My side, and be not faithless but believing." Persons of this
   character make eminent saints when once convinced--and our Lord has, in
   some cases, dealt with them in a special way. And, where the word of
   man has failed, His own Word, attended with special power of the Holy
   Spirit, has brought them to believe.

   We must tarry no longer. I only introduce the point by way of
   encouragement to you who work for Jesus, not by way of sedative to you
   who will not believe! You have no right to expect you will ever have
   any other testimony than you have already received. You have Moses and
   the Prophets--if you will not hear them, neither would you be converted
   though one rose from the dead! You are not to expect miracles to
   convert you! Christ may go out of His way, but He is not bound to do
   so, and you have no right to look for it. You may say, "Except I see
   signs and wonders I will not believe," but the probabilities are that
   you will not see signs and wonders, and will perish in your unbelief!
   Beware, I pray you!

   III. PERSONAL EXPERIENCE ECLIPSES HUMAN TESTIMONY. The very people who
   believed through the woman, afterwards said, "Now we believe, not
   because of what you said, for we have heard Him ourselves, and we know
   that this is, indeed, the Christ, the Savior of the world." Personal
   experience is far more convincing than any testimony

   can be! You may believe a thing because you are credibly informed of
   it, but you believe it a great deal more deeply and thoroughly when you
   have seen it for yourself! In the times of famine Jacob was told there
   was corn in Egypt, and the Patriarch believed the word. But when they
   had gone to Egypt and had their sacks full, there was a deeper
   conviction in their minds about Egypt's corn than ever before.

   A missionary, speaking to the inhabitants of a tropical region,
   informed them that water in our country, through cold, sometimes became
   solid. The generality of the natives would not believe him! It was too
   absurd a thing to be true! One, however, who knew the missionary's
   character, did believe that water could become solid so that persons
   could walk upon it. And when he came to England and saw a river frozen
   over, his faith was very different from what it had been before! It was
   the same in essence, but of a deeper degree. So when we heard that
   Jesus Christ is precious and that He is a Savior, we believed it. But
   when we were saved by Him, and found peace through Him, we received a
   far deeper faith! The faith that is based upon personal experience is
   more essential than any other, for until we have this faith we cannot
   know that we are saved.

   Those doctors who advertise their medicines know that the public
   depends very much upon testimony and therefore they generally give us a
   list of cures with the names of persons who have been healed. They
   expect that the readers of such testimonials will look with favor upon
   their medicine--and I suppose it is so. But if ever you have taken any
   medicine and you have yourself been perfectly restored from some very
   painful and dangerous ailment, your faith in that medicine is quite
   another thing! Before, you said, "I do not know that all those people
   live at the addresses which are given, and perhaps they never lived
   anywhere." Or, if you really believed that the thing was correct
   enough, you did not take any interest in it, but, after your own
   disease has been removed by it, you are certain to talk about it to
   other people and say to them, "You know such-and-such a medicine? It is
   wonderful how it acts--perfectly marvelous the restoration I have
   received through it!" Now, it is just so when we come to Jesus. We are
   so fully convinced that we begin to tell others.

   But my point is that it is essential we come. If I believe in the man's
   medicine, and yet do not take it, it is of no use to me. If I believe
   in Christ's saving sinners, but do not go to Him to save me, He is
   nothing to me. If I am in danger at sea and there is a lifeboat, and I
   believe in her, such faith will not save me--I must get into her! If I
   am hungry and believe in bread--it will not take away my hunger--I must
   eat it! If I am dying of thirst and see the crystal spring by my
   side--it will not save me merely to believe in the water--I must stoop
   down and drink it for myself! Personal experience is the essential
   proof and we must have it.

   And, let me add, that personal experience is always a more complete
   witness than testimony can ever be. Testimony can tell you something
   about Christ, but not much compared with what you will learn by going
   to Him yourself! The Queen of Sheba was told of Solomon that he was
   wise, that his court was richly furnished and that his dominion was
   magnificent. But, when she had herself entered the royal presence, her
   heart failed her, and she said, "The half has not been told me."
   Witnesses about other things exaggerate, but witnesses concerning,
   Jesus Christ always fall short! Painters have frequently won repute by
   making portraits fairer than the originals, but none can ever paint
   Jesus with a pencil that shall give too much of luster to His noble
   face. He is so glorious that even angels, who have seen Him all their
   lives, and bowed before Him where His splendor is best revealed, could
   not tell man nor one another the thousandth part of His excellences!

   If you need to know Him you must see Him for yourself. You must make
   Him your personal acquaintance. You must press by faith into the inner
   circle and cry with the spouse, "Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His
   mouth, for His love is better than wine." This kind of evidence is the
   most enduring. What you receive from another man you might, perhaps,
   give up. In days of persecution those who believed the Bible on
   second-hand have denied the faith, but those who have had it worked
   into the warp and woof of their being--who have had their souls dyed
   and tinctured through and through with it, because they have lived upon
   Christ, and Christ has lived in them--those were the people who stood
   on the firewood to burn, and learned to sing the high praises of God
   while their flesh and bones were being consumed! If we need to become
   stalwart men who cannot be turned aside by every wind of doctrine--whom
   neither Rationalism nor Sacramentarianism can shake from the Gospel--we
   must be those who have been with Jesus! In that way we learn
   experimentally from Him--and such experimental Christians can never
   give up the Truth of God.

   Now, to close, I would observe this--only those who know the Savior
   experimentally can bear testimony to others, for this woman, through
   whose secondary testimony many were converted, had, first of all, a
   personal experience herself.

   She said, "He told me all things that I ever did." If she had not
   personally learned of Him, she could not have gone out and spoken to
   others. So you who would be useful must get the Truth into your own
   souls by personally feasting upon it. Only that which is in yourself
   can you communicate to others. Out of an empty bottle nothing comes.
   The Lord says to you as to Ezekiel, "eat this roll." Digest in your own
   soul the doctrine you would preach! Have within yourself a well of
   living water, and then out of you shall flow rivers for others!

   Let me add that while it is a serious thing to reject the personal
   witness of others, it is a fatal thing to reject this other test of
   Truth, namely, the trying for yourself whether Jesus is what He
   professes to be. When the offer is made to a man concerning any article
   of commerce, "This is an excellent production and here are
   recommendations given by persons able to judge. But, moreover, you can
   take it home with you. You can try it for a month and if it does not
   answer your purpose it can be taken back"--that is always considered to
   be an honest system of trade.

   Now, we say concerning the things of God--if you do not care to take
   our testimony, do not take it. But, do another thing, try the Lord
   Jesus for yourself! God hears prayer--go and see if He does. God
   accepts penitent hearts and He has regard to contrite spirits--come and
   see, come and see for yourself--

   "There is life in a look at the Crucified One." Go and try it, go and
   try it! If you can prove Jesus Christ to be false. If, after having
   tried Him, He rejects you, very well--then it must be so--but there has
   never been anything of the kind yet! "Him that comes unto Me, I will in
   nowise cast out." Did He ever cast out one of you? If so, He has broken
   His Word, and that shall never be! Heaven and earth shall pass away,
   but none of His Words shall ever fail! He declares that He is able to
   save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him. Go to God by Him
   and see!

   If He does not save you. If it turns out that you are beyond His
   power--that He cannot save to the uttermost--then proclaim it! Preach
   the devil's gospel all the world over, and say the truth, however
   horrible it may be! We challenge you to the test! If God is God, serve
   Him! If the Gospel is true, believe it! If it is a lie, don't come here
   worshipping, or anywhere else pretending to worship a God you know to
   be false! Be not as double-faced persons who say, "We are Christians,"
   and yet do not worship the Savior. One thing or the other! If the
   Gospel is true, it ought to be accepted. If it is not true, bear your
   witness honestly like men and let the world be undeceived! We challenge
   the trial!

   In the name of Him that died and rose from the dead. In the name of ten
   thousands times ten thousands arrayed in white robes who have washed
   them in His precious blood! In the name of the Church militant, which
   is on its way to Heaven, we challenge you to the test this day whether
   Jesus is a Savior or not! And we pray God to lead you to try it, for we
   know that your conclusion will be--"We have heard Him ourselves, and we
   know that He is the Christ, the Savior of the world." May God's Spirit
   rest on these words, and may we meet in Heaven, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

"Waters To Swim In"

   (No. 1054)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL 25, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Waters to swim in." EzekieI47:5.

   THE whole vision, though bearing other meanings, may be applied to the
   spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It began at Jerusalem as a tiny
   rivulet. By our Savior's preaching, a few disciples, some of whom
   became Apostles, were converted. These were the means of the conversion
   of a still larger number. But at first the stream was very shallow, for
   the whole Church could meet in one upper room. Even after the
   Pentecostal increase it was but as a small brook. Herod thought that he
   could leap across it, or could dam it up, but his persecutions swelled
   the stream. Very shortly after, the watercourse grew broader and deeper
   till it attracted the attention of the Roman Emperors and excited their
   alarm.

   They thought that it was time to drain the river lest it should become
   a torrent so great as to sweep them away. Their attempts to stay its
   course only added to its floods. Its current became stronger and wider
   than before, and on it went from age to age till at last it had become
   a mighty river, watering the whole earth and greatly blessing the
   nations. It is destined to grow until it shall be like the main ocean
   itself, for "the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the
   waters cover the sea." We bless God that the day of small things which
   dawned at Bethlehem has already grown to a day of great things--and our
   faith fully expects to see greater things than these!

   The vision might equally well be applied to the growth of Christian
   experience. When we first know the Lord the Gospel is a very precious
   thing to us. We rejoice in its pardon and the consequent salvation
   which we expect to receive through it. But, compared with what we shall
   know of it by-and-by, our knowledge of the Gospel at first is like a
   tiny rivulet. As we advance in Grace it becomes a river flowing up to
   the ankles. As we are further instructed, so that our faith is
   confirmed and our Graces are developed, it deepens into a river up to
   the knees--and by-and-by up to the loins. And farther on (with some it
   has already happened--I trust it may happen to us all) it becomes
   "waters to swim in." I shall speak of the text as illustrating the
   Christian's experience when he arrives at that stage.

   At the same time the vision might be applied to our knowledge of the
   Gospel as well as to our experience of it. The Gospel was gradually
   revealed, first, in outline in the Old Testament--in symbol and type to
   the older saints--and then was taught by our Lord. Then the details
   were, as it were, put into His outline by the Apostles under the
   guidance of the Holy Spirit--and so, to our own soul, the knowledge of
   the Gospel does not shine forth all at once. There is a daybreak before
   the fullness of noon. There is a blade--a tender green blade--before
   the full corn in the ear. The babe cries in penitence before the
   perfect man in Christ Jesus sings the song of assurance.

   Perhaps we have not yet come to know the height, and depth, and length
   and breadth of the love of Christ--neither have we yet discovered how
   exceedingly broad the Gospel is--but what we now don't know we shall
   know hereafter. Contracted notions we shall leave behind as the bird
   casts off the shell in which it was imprisoned! Dim ideas will vanish
   as the trees walking were seen no more when the blind man's eyes were
   fully opened. Childish knowledge makes us dream of comprehending the
   Gospel in the hollow of our hand, but when we become men and put away
   childish things we shall find in it "waters to swim in."

   I see in the metaphor before us three ideas. The first is abundance.
   The second is space. And the third is trust, for there are not only
   great waters, but "waters to swim in."

   I. The first thought of the text concerning the Gospel is this--the
   idea of ABUNDANCE. Beloved, God has provided for His people, in the
   Gospel of His dear Son, no stinted store. He has not killed a sheep and
   invited one or two to His supper--His oxen and His fatlings are killed
   and, "All things are ready." The provisions of God are on a royal
   scale--on an infinite scale. There is so much provided at the Gospel
   feast that none need keep back from fear that there is

   not enough! Neither shall the greatest eater at that feast ever say, "I
   have exhausted what was provided for me." The wine ran short at the
   marriage feast at Cana until the Lord came in and then there was enough
   and to spare.

   As a king gives to a king so has God given to the poor ones of the
   earth--to His afflicted--to sin-stricken souls who seek His face. Honey
   out of the rock and oil out of the flinty rock He gives His people.
   Moses spoke concerning Israel, "Butter of cattle and milk of sheep,
   with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats with the
   fat of kidneys; with wheat; and you did drink the pure blood of the
   grape." But the food of the spiritual Israel is richer by far. The
   child of God, as he advances in the Divine life rejoices in the
   abundance of Covenant provisions. Let me mention some which strike me
   as exceedingly abundant.

   The first is the abundant provision for the removal of sin and for
   making us accepted in the Beloved. To put away my sin there needed an
   infinite Atonement. I do not marvel, therefore, that it should have
   needed the Son of God to die for exceedingly great sin--but sometimes,
   as my soul has stood at the foot of the Cross and considered who He was
   that shed His blood for me, I have felt as if the price were too much.
   When I have seen my sin I thought it impossible for it to be removed.
   But when I have seen my Savior, I have thought it equally impossible
   that there could be any conceivable sin which Jesus' blood could not
   wash away. An infinite degree of merit must reside in the sufferings of
   our blessed Lord! Such sufferings as they were, of body, of mind, and
   of spirit--the suffering of being forsaken of man and of God, too-- and
   being left alone in utter desertion to die when He became obedient even
   unto death.

   It is the astonishment of all worlds that Christ should be the victim
   for human sin, and, when we think of Him, we say, "O God, what waters
   there are here of pardoning love--what 'waters to swim in.' Surely
   whole hosts of sin shall be swept away by this mighty river of atoning
   blood."--

   "It rises high and drowns the hills Has neither shore nor bound. Now if
   we search to find our sins, Our sins can ne 'er be found.

   The wonder is, however, that while there is provision made to put away
   our sin, there is equal provision made to impute righteousness to us.
   We were guilty, for all broke the Law. God provided a Substitute who
   suffered the penalty of our law-breaking, but, He has done more--He has
   found a Representative who has kept the Law for us, so that after
   washing us He clothes us. After taking away our guilt He makes us
   positively righteous and praiseworthy before the Throne of Justice
   through Jesus Christ, His Son, whose righteousness we wrap about our
   loins and in it stand fair and comely before the eyes of infinite
   Purity. Oh, this is right royal and truly Divine!

   Here is blood most precious removing every spot, and a righteousness
   most glorious conferring a matchless beauty, a beauty such as Adam in
   his perfection never had, for his was but human righteousness! But this
   day the children of God wear the righteousness of the Lord Himself--and
   this is the name which Jesus is called, "The Lord our Righteousness"!
   Brethren, here are "waters to swim in," if we only contemplate this one
   particular of the arrangement for our justification in the sight of
   God!

   Turn next to God's stores for our sustenance and for our protection.
   For our sustenance there is bread provided from Heaven such as angels
   have never tasted. There is water leaping from the rock such as the
   fathers drank not in the wilderness. There is no fear that either the
   heavenly granary or the celestial fountain shall ever be exhausted. The
   manna was without limit except according to the capacities of the
   people--and so the bread which we eat, even Christ the Infinite One is
   not measured out to us by weight, but each may have according to his
   eating. We are never straitened in Him--if stinted at all, we stint
   ourselves. After feeding millions of saints upon Himself for these
   hundreds of years, Jesus is as full and as precious, and as
   soul-satisfying as ever He was.

   O blessed food! How well has God stored His granaries for all His
   people! And the heavenly drink is equally abundant. Rivers are ours to
   drink of--floods and standing pools of living water. Drought can never
   befall us, for "the deep which lies under" has been broached for us.
   And as for our protection, think, my Brothers and Sisters, how the
   Lord's right arm is uplifted that His power may preserve the
   saints--how His Wisdom goes to and fro in the earth watching for their
   good--how His heart of love beats high with constant affection for
   them. Just think how the whole of Godhead bows itself to protect the
   chosen--for does He not compare Himself to the hen that covers her
   chickens? Has He not said, "He shall cover you with His feathers, and
   under His wings shall you trust: His truth shall be your shield and

   buckler"?

   God, even our own God, is both the sustenance and the preservation of
   His people! And if we should need more, though more there cannot
   be--yet, if our unbelief should think of more--is not all Providence on
   our side? Blows there a wind that does not waft us blessings? Breaks
   there a wave upon any shore which does not bear us good? The huge
   wheels of Providence, as they are, are full of eyes--and these eyes
   look toward the chosen of God. "All things work together for good to
   them that love God." And don't you see? If your eyes are opened you
   will see them--horses of fire and chariots of fire surrounding all the
   saints! Invisible spirits of superior race are servitors to the beloved
   sons of God! All Heaven's hosts are ready for our defense!

   If it were necessary, the new Jerusalem would empty out itself of its
   thousands, as Thebes did of its myriads from all its hundred gates--and
   every angel would, with sword drawn, assail our foes and put them to
   utter rout--for the Lord will not allow one of the least of His own to
   perish! See then, Brethren, what "waters to swim in" are here so that
   for our provision and our protection we need not fear. Our needs are
   great, but the supplies are greater. Our daily dangers are enough to
   provoke our anxieties, but the Lord's eternal preservations lay those
   anxieties at once to rest. Blessed Lord, we are poor feeble infants,
   but when we lie on Your bosom we feel ourselves mighty in Your
   strength. We are penniless beggars, but when we feast at Your table we
   would not exchange our position for the banquets of Ahasuerus or the
   feasts of Solomon! It is our bliss to be nothing and to find our all in
   You.

   We must not tarry, however, but remark that the same breadth and depth
   will be found if we reflect upon the provision made for our training
   and our perfecting. Beloved, the Lord will not merely keep us alive and
   preserve us from perishing, but He means to make something of us. He
   has great designs in view. The poor clay of the earth, when it is first
   dug up for the brick maker does not know what is to become of it. It
   passes through many processes and at last is built up into a goodly
   house--a mansion for its owner. The clay of the pit may yet be built
   into a palace for a king! And shall we, poor earthly things, ever be
   living stones in the temple of God? I trust we are in some sense
   already so! But shall we ever glisten and glow like rubies and
   emeralds, each one after his own kind, as a portion of that city whose
   jeweled light is enough to blind the eyes of mortals by its excess of
   glory?

   Shall we ever be a part of the radiance of Heaven? Shall we be
   revealers in our measure of the Glory of God? Yes! We shall come to
   that and though it may seem impossible, yet we shall believe it if we
   reflect a moment. God has already done much for us by giving us the
   inner life--a matchless miracle! It needs as much of His power to make
   new hearts and right spirits as to create new worlds--yet He has done
   that for us. He has, moreover, preserved us up to this moment amid a
   thousand dangers, and has made those dangers contribute to our growth
   in Grace. He has made our afflictions minister to our spiritual
   advancement. I owe more than I can tell to the Engraver's tool, and yet
   'tis sharp and I feel the lines of its cutting even now. Yet, let not
   the Engraver stay His hand, for how shall His work be done if He does
   not bear hard and cut deep? If there are no sharp cuts, surely there
   shall be no working out of His grand idea!

   Moreover, in addition to affliction He has provided all the Truth of
   God in the Bible to sanctify us. He has given us the blood of Christ to
   purify us. He has sent forth the blessed and eternal Spirit to refine
   us, and, as subordinate agencies, He has provided all our comforts, as
   well as all our trials--all our companionships with holy men and all
   the beacons of unholy lives--that we may be educated for the skies. He
   is putting forth His wisdom and His strength, and His prudence, and His
   love--I must repeat myself--to make something of us, though we are
   nothing by nature, and "it does not yet appear what we shall be."

   I think, sometimes, when I see my own nature, that it were difficult
   for me ever to become a vessel fit for the Master's use in the halls of
   the golden house above. And then, when I think Who has begun to work us
   to the same thing, and Who it is that still is persevering in the
   work--why then I conclude that if I were even worse than I am, He could
   yet make me what He would have me to be! And seeing the power that is
   ready to work it out, my soul rejoices in hope of complete conformity
   to the Divine ideal. Here, again, are "waters to swim in."

   Brethren, take another view of God's great goodness to us. What "waters
   to swim in" have we by way of consolations and strengthening. Are you
   ever cast down? I hope you are not, but if you are, as some of us are
   frequently bowed down into the very dust, what a relish you will have
   for the promises of God! I am sure that a number of promises in the
   Bible were written on purpose for me. You may dispute it and say, "No,
   they were meant for me." I have no wish to contest the point, but I
   still believe, as I have said, that they were meant for me, for they
   fit my case so exactly even in

   their very words that they appear as if my case were especially
   intended. No doubt other Believers think the same, and will join with
   me in blessing God for such a grand Bible. Well does our hymn-writer
   put it--

   "What more can He say than to you He has said You, who unto Jesus for
   refuge have fled?"

   None can comfort a child like a mother. The mother knows exactly the
   child's state, and by her very love she throws a sweetness into what
   she says which another could not successfully imitate. There are no
   comforts like the comforts of God. The Comforter puts into the Inspired
   Word a singular sweetness which the most able ministers cannot arrive
   at, even though they should be, like Barnabas, sons of consolation.
   Brothers and Sisters, let us think over our comforts now, for a minute,
   and our consolations. Have we not this for consolation--that God has
   loved us with an everlasting love, even the Lord who cannot change? Up
   to now He has never failed us--He has promised that all good things
   shall be ours as we need them, and it has been so.

   Have we not this for a consolation--that He has given us Christ, and
   therein has given us all things? Can He deny us anything now, after
   having given to us His own dear Son? Let us think how dear we are to
   Christ, how much we cost Him, how precious we are in His sight. Can He
   leave us? Can He be unkind to us? Let us reflect upon the way in which
   the Lord has always appeared for us in times of difficulty, and rescued
   us in days of jeopardy. Turning to the Book and finding it written, "I
   am God: I change not," let us be consoled for the future and go on our
   way confident that all shall be well. All the Covenant promises are
   meant to console us. All the gifts of Sovereign Grace are intended to
   give us joy! The attributes of God are springs of consolation for us.
   The Human Nature of Christ in which He comes near to us is a source of
   bliss! The gentleness and tenderness of the Holy Spirit who dwells in
   us on purpose to be our Comforter are dear subjects of delight! Indeed,
   if we are down cast we must blame ourselves. "Why are you cast down, O
   my Soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope you in God: for I
   shall yet praise Him." The consolations of the Spirit are "waters to
   swim in."

   Beloved, we must draw to a close upon this one thought of
   abundance--just think of what God has done for us by way of making us
   happy and noble! He has not only pardoned us, but He has received us
   into His family. And He has taken us there, not to be His hired
   servants as we once thought He might do, but He has made us His own
   sons! And what is more than that, He has made us heirs--and not
   secondary heirs either--but "joint-heirs with Christ Jesus," so that we
   have come right up from the place of the slave into the position of the
   heir of all things! Our Lord Himself, our dear and ever blessed Savior,
   was not content to pluck us like brands from the burning--not content
   to make us His sheep whom He should watch over with tender care--but He
   has taken us to be His spouse and He calls us His beloved.

   Yes, and He has done more. He has taken us to be members of His body,
   and we are of His flesh and of His bones. Was there ever such an
   exaltation as this? When Scripture speaks of lifting a beggar from the
   dunghill and setting him among princes, surely it falls short of this
   wonder--that of taking a worm of the dust, a sinful wretch that was
   only fit for Hell--and putting him into union with Christ Jesus, so
   that he should be a part of the mystical body of the Son of God! This
   is marvelous, and as I think of it, I feel that I have brought you to
   the sea shore and shown you an ocean to swim in--the depth of which you
   cannot fathom! Oh the depths of the mercy of God!

   Now, in all this nobility which God has given us there is not a single
   piece of unhappiness. I should imagine that to rise into some positions
   in society must entail sorrow instead of happiness, for, as you ascend
   the heights the air grows chillier and the frosts are more perpetual.
   But the nobilities which God bestows are, all of them, of that
   happy--what if I should say--homely, divinely comforting sort, that the
   nobler we are, the happier we are? If He makes us sons, our sonship is
   not all responsibility--it means love. And if He makes us heirs, oh,
   what happiness to be possessors of earth and Heaven! And if He makes us
   His own spouse, the chief thought of our marriage union is not service,
   but love! God is not to us, "Baali," but, "Ishi shall His name be
   called." Not, "lord," but "husband"--duty is there, but love is in the
   forefront. We become members of His body--it is an honor, but it is
   much more than that--it is a bliss to be vitally, eternally united to
   Christ, our Covenant Head!

   Why, dear saints of God, however poor you may be, and however low in
   spirits, and however sickly in body, you have a whole sea of happiness
   before you! You have a drop of bitterness now and then, but you have an
   Atlantic of sweetness, rivers of wine and milk. "Rejoice, rejoice,"
   says the Scriptures, and that most fitly, too, because there are, after
   all, more reasons for rejoicing than arguments for sorrow. And then,
   beyond! Beyond! Think of that which remains

   in Immanuel's land beyond Jordan! Open your eyes a moment. Do not let
   them rest upon that stream which is not near so wide as you have fabled
   it, whose waves are not so rough as your fears have made them. Look
   beyond that narrow stream of death--what do you see?

   Moses' sight from Nebo is nothing compared with the view which faith
   gets of the Glory to be revealed! We shall see Him, and shall be like
   He is and shall be with Him eternally! His glory is our soul's delight
   on earth--it shall be our soul's transport in Heaven! What will it be
   to see the shining ranks of the glorified, and hear their blessed song
   and join with them and with the angelic choirs forever and forever?--

   "Far from a world of grief and sin,

   With God eternaIIy shut in."

   Oh, Beloved, here are "waters to swim in!" Let us bathe our weary souls
   in them by faith before we leave this place. The Lord grant it, in the
   power of His Holy Spirit, and He shall have the praise.

   II. But now, secondly, our text gives us the idea of space, amplitude,
   room. "Waters to swim in." Room enough. And here, let us remark that in
   the Gospel, when our experience and our knowledge have deepened, we
   shall find a place of broad rivers and streams under the following
   aspects. First, as to thought. Many persons have the notion that the
   Gospel is very contracted and narrow. I am afraid that a large number
   of our members have not yet obtained a comprehensive idea of the
   Gospel--no, I am half afraid that they never will under some preachers
   who do not seem to have any clear view of the Gospel system themselves,
   or, if they have, they fail to communicate it.

   Some deny the need of a system at all, but, somehow or other,
   everything we know throws itself into a systematic shape. And though we
   ought, beyond all things, to deprecate a cast-iron creed and the
   attempt to force every Truth of God into one circle, yet it is a good
   thing to have a definite idea of what we believe in the things of God.
   Some have a tolerably clear idea, but it is a very narrow and
   contracted one.

   Now there is nothing contracted in the Bible--it is a great Book of a
   great God, inspired by a great Spirit and calculated to give men great
   minds--for it is, in the great subjects of holy thought, "waters to
   swim in." Think only for a moment of one or two subjects of thought,
   and you will see the "waters to swim in." Think of God as He is
   revealed in Holy Scripture. The Father ordaining all things, according
   to the council of His will--take the whole line of Truth which connects
   itself with the Father. Then consider the Son as Man and as God, the
   Surety of the Covenant, the Substitute for His people, the Intercessor,
   Prophet, Priest, and King--the Lord who is yet to come. You have a wide
   range of thought.

   Then consider the Holy Spirit. Dr. John Owen has written a massive
   volume upon the work of the Spirit, and you might write a thousand such
   volumes and not exhaust the mighty theme! He dwells upon the work of
   the Spirit in creation. The work of the Spirit in sustentation. The
   work of the Spirit in inspiration. The work of the Spirit upon the
   human body of Christ. The work of the Spirit upon our Lord in His
   ministry. The work of the Spirit in regeneration, in illumination, in
   consolation. Here are "waters to swim in" Brethren! Indeed, the waters
   are so broad that I cannot attempt even to number them or make a map of
   them. Take only those lines of thought which come from the Trinity--
   Father, Son, and Spirit--and you have boundless Truth before you!

   Young man, you need never say, "I need to get a thought-breeding book."
   Man alive, was there ever such a thought-breeding book as the Bible?
   You need never say, "I found myself stinted for need of subjects." Oh,
   if you know anything at all in your soul about the things of God, you
   will admire the infinity of Scripture and never complain of having
   slender room for thought! Then think of the doctrine of election and
   all those stupendous Truths of God which spring out of predestination.
   If you love deep subjects you certainly will find "waters to swim in"
   there! But if you are not a child of God, you are likely to find them
   waters to drown in as well as waters to swim in, for it needs a man to
   be taught to swim by God's own Grace in such waters as these! But when
   he once knows how to swim, it is one of the most delightful exercises
   in the world to take a bold stroke into the Everlasting Covenant and
   dive into the deep things of

   God.

   Think, again, of the subject which lifts itself aloft from the opposite
   point--human responsibility, and turn that over--a rugged subject,
   assuredly, but most true, and as certainly taught in the Scripture as
   the doctrine of Divine Sovereignty in election. There are many who will
   not believe both these Truths of God, but rest assured, you will have
   to put out one eye, and you will practically lose one arm unless you
   will believe both, for they are both taught in the

   Scriptures, and both sides of the Truth will furnish you with "waters
   to swim in." If a man should have the largest mind that ever existed
   upon the face of the earth--if he should be a Newton or a Locke--still,
   if he would set himself down and prayerfully study Scripture, he would
   find that the themes for meditation are altogether boundless "waters to
   swim

   in."

   I could enlarge, but that might not be so profitable to you as to go
   forward. Brothers and Sisters, there are "waters to swim in," next, not
   only as regards subjects of thought but matters of faith. There are
   topics in Scripture which one can hardly think of very long
   together--they are too perplexing. If we bend towards them and fix our
   eye upon them, we may strain our eyeballs before we shall see with
   understanding. There are mysteries beyond us. I thank God--I bless God
   that He has given me a Gospel, much of which I cannot understand! For I
   am sure if I were able to grasp all revealed Truth and I met the devil
   in my vestry tonight, and he said, "Why, you have comprehended it all
   in your small brain: therefore, it cannot be from God"--I should not
   know how to answer him.

   But now, if he ever meets me and tauntingly enquires, "How do you make
   these two doctrines square? How do you make them consistent?" I answer
   him thus, "Are you, also, omniscient? Is nothing too hard for you?" It
   is no business of mine to make God's teaching consistent in man's
   judgment! If the Lord has revealed a Truth, all I have to do is to
   believe it. I will look at it as long as ever I can--I will pry into it
   as far as I can go--but, when God locks the door and does not leave me
   the key, I shall not attempt to break the door open. And if He does not
   tell me, I believe it is my wisdom not to need to know. Going to Heaven
   does not lie in untying Gordian knots.

   Oh, how sweet to have something to believe where you get right out of
   reason's depths! We thank God that in the Scriptures there is a good
   deal which you cannot reason on--which you could not explain to a man
   who has only reason to go upon--something which he scoffs at because he
   cannot see what it means by his blind carnal eyes. I am glad to think
   that there is something for higher faculties to grasp--something for
   the spirit, the new-born spirit, to lay hold upon! I thank God that
   there are great things to be believed as well as great things to be
   understood. And if I were now to try and show you the vast area which
   is opened up to faith, I am sure you would exclaim in the words of the
   text, "There are, indeed, 'waters to swim in.'"

   Then, blessed be his name, there are "waters to swim in" not only for
   thought and faith, but also for love. Some make the doctrines of the
   Gospel a cold stream, like the waters of the Arctic pole, and love
   would be frozen if she were to venture into them. But the Scriptures
   are like the gulf stream, warm, as well as deep, and love delights to
   plunge into them and swim in them. Time would fail me if I were to try
   and show you the room there is for love in the Scriptures. We will
   therefore dwell only on one thing. Think of the love of Christ to
   us--the love which nailed Him to the Cross--the love which made Him
   give up His reputation on earth as well as His royalties in Heaven.
   Think of the love which made Him become a worm and no man, despised of
   men and a reproach of the people for our sakes!

   A certain writer has written two volumes upon the sufferings of Christ
   upon the Cross. He has managed to write a chapter upon the nails, and
   upon the sponge, and upon the thorns, and upon the vinegar. And I must
   confess I have read his book with no small delight, and I have thought
   that he did not make too much of anything he handled. And, if he did
   seem to strain a point here and there too much one way, he might have
   gone a great deal farther the other way if he but had his eyes more
   open.

   In the agonies of Christ there is, to the contemplative mind, a
   fullness of love unspeakable which makes the heart feel, "now I can
   love here without stint." I can love the dear companion of my life. I
   can love my children. But there comes the thought, "I may make them
   idols, and I may thus injure both them and myself." That is not "waters
   to swim in." But, if we loved the Lord 10,000 times more than we do, we
   should transgress no command in so doing--no, rather, the only
   transgression lies in falling short! Oh, that we could love Him more!
   There can be no excess of love in loving Him supremely. The coolest
   logic can justify the most intense enthusiasm towards Christ. If a man
   had no heart, but were all head, he might reasonably act towards the
   Savior as those do whose whole nature is on a blaze with affection for
   Him, and who seem, sometimes, to have forgotten the dictates of reason
   in the impulses of love. Oh, what "waters to swim in" is the love of
   Christ us!

   But, it is just the same with the love of the Father. And, (I think I
   have told you once or twice lately), I am sure it is so with the love
   of the Holy Spirit. While it was most gracious of the Lord Jesus to
   come and live with men, is it not quite as gracious of the Holy Spirit
   to dwell in men? I marvel at Christ among sinners, but I marvel quite
   as much at the Holy

   Spirit in sinners, for the best of saints are still sinners! To live in
   us, indwelling in these poor bodies of ours--oh, the love of the pure
   and Holy Spirit to do so! Here are, indeed, "waters to swim in."

   Yet, once again. I have not exhausted this thought of space. There is
   room here for the exercise and expansion of every faculty within the
   range of the Gospel. These are days of "modern thought." As you are all
   aware, men have become wondrously wise and have outgrown the
   Scriptures. Certain unhappy children's heads are too big, and there is
   always a fear that it is not brain, but water on the brain--and this
   "modern thought" is simply a disease of wind on the brain--and likely
   to be a deadly one if God does not cure the Church of it. Within the
   compass of the orthodox faith-- within the range of the simple
   Gospel--there is room enough for the development of every faculty,
   however largely gifted a man may be!

   It doesn't matter, though the man is a Milton in poetry, though he is a
   master in metaphysics and a prince in science--if he is but pure in his
   prose, accurate in his metaphysics, and honest in his science--he will
   find that the range of his thought needs no more space than Scripture
   gives him. It has been thought by some that these persons who run off
   to heretical opinions are persons of great mind. Believe me, Brothers
   and Sisters, it is a cheap way of making yourself to be thought so, but
   the men are nobodies! That is the sum of the matter. We are satisfied
   with the theology of the Puritans and we assert this day that when we
   take down a volume of Puritan theology we find in a solitary page more
   thinking and more learning--more Scripture, more real teaching--than in
   whole folios of the effusions of modern thought!

   Modern men would be rich if they possessed even the crumbs that fall
   from the table of the Puritans. They have given us nothing new, after
   all. A few variegated bladders they have blown--and they have burst
   while the blowers were admiring them! But, as for anything worth
   knowing which has improved the heart, benefited the understanding, or
   fitted men for service in the battle of life--there have been no
   contributions made by this "modern thought" worth recording. Whereas
   the old thought of the Puritans and the Reformers, which I believe to
   be none other than the thought of God thought out again in man's brain
   and heart, is constantly giving consolation to the afflicted,
   furnishing strength to the weak, and guiding men's minds to behave
   themselves aright in the house of God and in the world at large.

   There are "waters to swim in," in the Scriptures! You need not think
   there is no room for your imaginations there. Give the coursers their
   reins--you shall find enough within that Book to exhaust them at their
   highest speed. You need not think that your memory shall have nothing
   to remember--if you had learned the Bible through and through, and knew
   all its texts--you would have much to remember above that! You would
   still need to remember its inner meaning, and its conversations with
   your soul, and the mysterious power it has had over your spirit when it
   has touched the strings of your nature as a master harper touches his
   harp strings and has brought forth music which you knew not to be
   sleeping there.

   There is no faculty but what will find room enough in the Word of God,
   if we will but obediently bring it to the service of the Lord. There
   are, in this respect, "waters, to swim in."

   III. But now, lastly, the text has the idea of TRUST, at least, to my
   mind. I think it will have to yours, also. "Waters to swim in." I
   should like to swim very much. When I have been at the seaside I have
   had a great passion for swimming, and I think I should have been able
   to swim by this time, but I could never persuade myself to take both
   feet off the bottom at one time. I have gone into the bath and when I
   have felt a little of the buoyancy of the water I have lifted one foot,
   and I have been half inclined to remove the other, but somehow it was
   not done. I could not, after all, quite trust the liquid element.

   The text speaks, of "waters to swim in," and swimming is a very
   excellent picture of faith. In the act of swimming it is necessary that
   a man should float in the water--so far as he is passive and the water
   buoys him up. You must keep your head above water if you are to swim.
   We are told that the body is naturally buoyant, and that if a person
   would lie quite still upon the water he would not sink--but if he kicks
   and struggles he will sink himself. The first sign of faith is when a
   man learns to lie back upon Christ--to give himself up entirely to
   Him--when he ceases to be active and becomes passive! When he brings no
   good works, no efforts, no merits to Jesus by way of recommendation,
   but casts his soul upon the eternal merit and the finished work of the
   great Substitute. That is faith in its passive form--floating faith.

   In the heavenly river you must float before you can swim. I pray God to
   teach every sinner here to rest upon Jesus. You need to save yourself,
   do you? You will drown, Man! You will drown! As surely as you live you
   will drown! Will you give up and let Christ save you? Will you believe
   that He can save you? Fall back into His arms. You will float, then.

   There is no drowning a soul that gives itself up to Christ, and trusts
   entirely to Him. But the text does not speak of waters to float in,
   though this is essential. Many people never get beyond that floating
   period, and they conclude that they are safe and all is well because
   they fancy their heads are above water.

   But the man who is really taught of God goes on from the floating to
   the swimming. Now swimming is an active exercise. The man progresses as
   he strikes out. He makes headway. He dives and rises--he turns to the
   right, he swims to the left, he pursues his course--he goes where he
   wills. Now, the holy Word of God and the Gospel are "waters to swim
   in." You know only what it is to float--many of you. You are resting in
   the Truth of God for your salvation, but making no advance in heavenly
   things. Oh, Beloved, let us learn to swim in those waters--swim in
   them! I mean let us learn to trust God in active exertions for the
   promotion of His kingdom--to trust Him in endeavors to do good.

   How blessedly our friend, Mr. Miller of Bristol, swims! What a master
   swimmer he is! He has had his feet off the bottom many years and as he
   swims he draws along behind him some 2,000 orphan children, whom, by
   God's Grace, he is saving from the floods of sin and bringing, we
   trust, safe to shore. Dear Brother, dear Sister, could you not swim,
   too? "Oh, but I have no money." You need to walk, I see. "But I have
   very slender gifts compared with what I need." Cannot the Lord give you
   gifts and graces? Will you not trust Him? Dear Brother, are you called
   to serve God in a very difficult sphere of labor? Cannot you go on? "I
   have nobody to hold me." Oh, I see, you are all for walking on the
   bottom. Brethren, it is "waters to swim in." Cannot you swim without
   any help except the help of the All in All?

   See how the arch of Heaven stands without a pillar? See yon lamps of
   Heaven how they burn? Who gives them oil? See how they are swung in
   Heaven without a golden chain to hold them in their place? Yet they
   flicker not! Neither do they fall from their sockets--neither does the
   arch of Heaven tremble! May the Holy Spirit teach us to trust! Oh, may
   God teach us not only the passive trust which leans on Christ and
   floats, but the active trust which manages the waters-- walks them,
   swims them, dives into them at will, as God helps it! We are not
   trustful enough of the invisible God. We are young eaglets, born of God
   to mount up to the sun, but we stand shivering by the nest, not daring
   to try our wings.

   Young eaglets, trust the invisible air--trust it and rise aloft! It
   shall bear you up, and you shall not fall. Trust it more! Put out all
   your wing strength. Lean on it more and it will bear you up, up, up,
   beyond clouds and mists, up to the very sun itself! He shall rise
   highest who can trust most. He shall have most who can believe most in
   God. If you will treat with the Eternal on His own terms of boundless
   credit, and trust yourself without reserve to Him, there are great
   things in store for you!

   Blessed Master, give us "waters to swim in." Though they should be
   stormy waters. Though they should be drowning waters to our
   unbelief--they shall be swimming waters to our faith! And as we swim to
   Heaven we will rejoice in You, "having no confidence in the flesh." May
   God bless these few words to you, beloved Friends, and comfort us all
   with His own consolations, and be unto us ever more and more God All
   Sufficient. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Ingratitude of Man

   (No. 1055)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JUNE 9, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not." John 1:11.

   I WOULD very frankly confess at the outset that I am not about to
   preach from the words of this text and that I have selected it solely
   because it contains an epitome of man's behavior towards the Savior. He
   came unto His own people, the Jews, and answered in every particular to
   the descriptions which their Prophets had given. But as they were
   looking for a temporal leader who should dazzle them with an earthly
   kingdom, they would not acknowledge the true Messiah. And though He
   continued to come unto them preaching and working such miracles among
   them as no other man did, so that their unbelief was without excuse,
   they still rejected Him. This was a gross act of ingratitude. It was
   superlative kindness which brought Jesus to that nation in particular
   and to the sons of men in general--it was supreme ingratitude when that
   nation, alas, in this representing us all, would not receive Him, but
   rejected the Lord of Glory.

   I use our text as an illustration of the ingratitude of men towards our
   Lord, and it is upon that subject that I intend to preach at this time.
   I lay the charge against not only those who lived in Christ's day, but
   against mankind in general--against this assembly in particular--and
   against myself, also, in sad measure. We have treated the Lord
   ungratefully and have not rendered unto Him according to the benefits
   received. In commencement, we shall speak upon the fact that those
   among whom Jesus lived were guilty of ingratitude towards Him.
   Secondly, coming home to ourselves, we shall dwell more at length upon
   the lamentable fact that we, too, are guilty of ingratitude towards
   Him. We shall close by observing, What then? What follows out of this?
   What lessons are we to learn from it?

   I. First then, THE PEOPLE AMONG WHOM OUR LORD DWELT WERE GUILTY OF
   INGRATITUDE TOWARDS HIM. They were a favored people above all nations.
   It was a distinguishing mark of Divine favor that the Messiah should be
   born among them. They ought to have received Him with delight. His
   signs and evidence of Messiahship were clear enough. He worked among
   them unexampled miracles, and He spoke as no other man spoke, yet they
   rejected Him, treating their best friend as though He had been their
   worst foe. This was a high-handed act of national ingratitude!

   Special cases occurred in our Lord's life involving still greater
   ingratitude. Among the people of Israel many became partakers of our
   Lord's healing power. Many blind eyes did He bless with sight. Into
   many deaf ears did He cause sound to enter. Not a few lame men leaped
   as an hart at His bidding, and many that were sick of palsy and all
   manner of diseases were suddenly restored by His word. Yet the mass of
   these healed ones did not become His disciples, for the number of His
   male disciples, after He had ascended, was about 120--yet our Savior
   had not healed merely120, but, according to the Evangelists, many
   hundreds--I might, without exaggeration, say many thousands had been
   partakers of His healing benefits! They were in their own persons
   testimonies to the Lord's Divine power and yet they did not worship
   Him!

   From where did this obstinate unbelief come? Strange ingratitude this
   must have been, that a man should owe to Christ his eyes, and yet
   refuse to see in Christ his Savior--that he should owe to Christ the
   tongue with which he spoke, and yet should be silent in the great
   Physician's praise! Yet so it was. Many were healed, but few believed.
   We know, moreover, that our Lord fed thousands of hungry persons. He
   multiplied loaves and fishes, and fed crowds so that they did all eat
   and were filled. For a time He was very popular with them--as anyone
   will be who has loaves and fishes to distribute--and they would have
   made him a king, for idle men much desire a monarch who will supply
   their needs and relieve them from personal labor.

   Yet these persons had no affection for His person or doctrine, but
   followed Him simply and alone for what they could get from Him. Many of
   these selfish followers, doubtless, gave their voices against Him and
   shouted, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" They ate bread with Him and lifted
   up their heel against Him. Surely, after sitting at a table so

   marvelously supplied, reason itself would have suggested to every
   feaster that their Host must be a Prophet sent of God, if not God
   Himself. 'Tis strange, 'tis passing strange, 'tis amazing that men
   receiving so much at His hands should still remain unbelievers in Him.

   The same treatment was dealt out to our Lord when He acted as the
   Teacher of the people. He taught them pure Truths of God in the best
   conceivable manner, and small, indeed, was His reward. They could not
   complain of His sermons, that they were dull and unattractive, or that
   they were austere and devoid of sympathy. We never read that a hearer
   ever fell asleep under Christ's preaching, as Eutychus did under the
   lengthy discourse of Paul. Neither were any terrified by His looks, as
   men have been by fierce fanatic leaders--His ministry was pleasing and
   charmed the ear--yet it was ill received. When His sermon at Nazareth
   was finished, what was His reward? They took Him to the brow of the
   hill and they would have cast Him down headlong had He not escaped!

   When He taught the Jews in the Temple, "they took up stones again to
   stone Him." In return for His arguments of mercy, they assailed Him
   with the weapons of malice. Though, by declaring the glad tidings of
   salvation He rendered to His hearers the most precious service, some of
   them, in return, sought to entrap Him in His speech and others gnashed
   their teeth in rage against Him. He brought light into the darkness,
   and the darkness comprehended it not. Sometimes, when He found around
   Him a more select audience than usual, the great Teacher would not
   merely preach the elements of the Gospel, but would go more deeply into
   the mysteries of it, but He had no thanks for doing so. On one occasion
   He spoke to them concerning eating His flesh and drinking His
   blood--but He had cast His pearls before swine--they turned again to
   tear Him apart! And many of those who had followed Him up to that point
   forsook Him and walked no more with Him.

   Even the disciples who were true at heart to Him did not always prize
   His sayings well enough to keep them in their minds--and they were not
   influenced by His teaching and example so much as they should have
   been. How often must the tender bosom of our Lord have been wrung with
   anguish over human unkindness? The adder's tooth of ingratitude left
   its print upon Him. Men returned unto Him evil for good, and for the
   heaped-up measure of His benevolence they filled up equally high the
   measure of their hate. What a plaintiveness is there in that question
   which He asked after He had healed 10 lepers, and only one of them
   returned to thank Him--"Were there not 10 cleansed, but where are the
   nine?" as if He had expected at least that they would thank Him--it was
   the least they could do in return for so matchless a blessing as
   deliverance from a deadly disease!

   Surely, whenever our Lord looked upon the handful of His followers He
   must have recollected the hosts upon whom He had conferred benefits,
   and said within himself, "Where are the nine?" From that thankless
   generation the meek and lowly One received no recompense of love for
   His temporal and spiritual bounties. Here and there a grateful woman
   ministered to Him of her substance, and now and then a thankful soul
   became His disciple. But, for the most part there was no response to
   His love, save such as that which Jerusalem heard when, for His tearful
   cries of compassion, He received shouts of murderous hate demanding
   that He should be crucified!

   Dear Brothers and Sisters, the further our Lord Jesus Christ went on in
   life the more did He experimentally know the base ingratitude of
   mankind. He lived for them--in obedience to His Father He spent His
   whole life for men. He lived first for God's Glory, and next for love
   of men. His meat and drink was to do men good. He forgot Himself--He
   utterly renounced all ambitious purposes and gave Himself away that He
   might seek and save the lost. As a mother devotes herself to her babe
   so did Jesus lay Himself out for men. No! No mother ever loved her babe
   as Jesus loved His own which were in the world! And yet, continually,
   in every way, men sought to take away His life, which was more valuable
   to them than it was to Him--for it was for their sakes, only, that He
   continued, still, to live on earth.

   How often had He to escape their cruel hands, and when His hour was
   come how eagerly did they conspire to hound Him to His death! One would
   have thought when the mob stood in the street of Jerusalem howling out,
   "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" that He must have been a common informer
   who had betrayed men for self--or a poisoner who had secretly tainted
   the bread of the people with a deadly drug! Or a blasphemer who had
   profaned every holy thing! Or a wretch whose character was doubly dyed
   in infamy! Instead of which, there stood before that furious crowd the
   meekest among men! The most inoffensive, and, at the same time, the
   most generous! The most self-denying, the most tender Man of all of
   woman born. Yet, how lustily they cry, "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" and
   when the question is put by the Roman Governor, "Why, what evil has He
   done?" they can give no answer to it, and, therefore, they drown the
   question with

   their shouts, "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" Oh, base ingratitude of men
   to recompense such a life as His with such a cruel

   death!

   At last that evil generation had its way with the Man of Sorrows and
   they took Him after He had been scourged, and led Him away to be
   crucified. We know well that He needed not have died even then. One
   thought of His could have averted the arrows of death. He had but to
   will it and the nails would have sprung from their places, and from the
   Cross the Lord would have leaped into the midst of His foes--to their
   horror and dismay. He was dying for men! He suffered each pang for men!
   For men the crown of thorns! For men the nailed hands! For men the
   pierced side! For men the bleeding feet! For men the gall cup! For men
   the pain! And for men the thirst! "He saved others, Himself He could
   not save."

   It was the greatest sacrifice that man had ever made for man, and yet
   how was it repaid? The cruel crowd stood around Him and scoffed at His
   pains. They made jests upon His Person--they insulted His faith--they
   mocked His prayers! O You dear Christ of God, gladly would we have
   covered Your sacred body from those lewd and brutal eyes, and sheltered
   Your tender spirit from those inhuman taunts, but so it could not be!
   Man is allowed to be infamous that You may suffer to the uttermost,
   and, in so doing redeem Your people! See the contrast--Jesus loves and
   man hates! He dies for sinners, and sinners insult Him in His agonies.

   When our Lord had died and had lain in the grave three days, and had
   risen again, His rising was for men. He might have gone into His Glory
   if He had pleased, but He tarried for 40 days to minister blessings to
   His people. The requital which He received from the Jewish people was
   of the same evil character. They doubted whether He had risen from the
   dead at all, and there were those who were base enough to invent that
   idle tale concerning the stealing of His body at night by His
   disciples. They laid imposture to the door of the Son of God, and
   charged the Perfect One with acting a lie!

   O man, how mad you must be! What strange insanity of iniquity is this
   that you do thus requite your loving Lord! I think I hear a murmur
   among you, as though you said, "Ah, but this was the guilt of the
   Jews--the crime of unbelievers. All were not so cruel." But surely you
   have forgotten that in this ingratitude even those who were nearest to
   Him had a share! Those who were His immediate companions were
   ungrateful to Him. What do you think of him who said, when his Lord had
   been anointed by a loving woman's hand for His burial, that it was a
   waste? That what was given to anoint the King of Glory might have been
   sold for much, begrudging an offering to that divinely generous One who
   had given up all for us? One would have thought that those who abode
   with Him would have unanimously delighted in every honor shown to Him,
   and one is apt to imagine that they should more often have interposed
   to screen Him, if they might, from the ills of poverty, weariness and
   need.

   Among them all, was there not one who should have pressed hospitality
   upon Him again and again, that He might no longer cry, "Foxes have
   holes and the birds of the air have nests, but I, the Son of Man, have
   not where to lay My head"? At any rate, when it came, at last, to the
   dying struggle, should not His bosom friends have watched with Him one
   hour? Might they not have guarded Gethsemane's gates when He left them
   outside the wall? And the three who came within a stone's cast of His
   grief and could hear His groans--could they not have forborne to
   slumber? Must they sleep while the Lord is in agony? He excused them,
   but could they excuse themselves?

   The case of Judas was peculiarly afflicting to our Redeemer's sensitive
   soul. In him treason reached its climax and base ingratitude outdid
   itself. Yet Judas was an Apostle--the keeper of his Master's purse, the
   friend who ate bread with Him and lifted up his heel against Him. Shame
   on you, Judas! But, alas, you are not alone--others follow your hideous
   example, and some such may be among us! "Lord, is it I?" But, where
   were the rest of the disciples? Did they not accompany their Lord to
   the judgment seat and come forward and boldly bear witness to the
   righteousness of His Character? Not one of them was there to do Him
   service! "All the disciples forsook Him and fled." One ventured where
   he saw his Master's ill-treatment, but he thrice denied Him and added
   oaths and curses, saying, "I know not the Man." Thus acted those whom
   He had carried in His bosom and loved even to the end!

   Those to whom He had opened up His inmost soul--who had eaten with Him
   His last solemn meal before His passion--untrue to all their
   professions of affection, sought every man his own safety, and left Him
   to His fate. Call you not this ingratitude? What is worse than the
   ingratitude of bosom friends and Brethren? The indictment lies against
   all that were of His day with whom He came in contact, from the worst
   even to the best. Where is the advocate who will plead their cause?
   There was none faithful, no, not one. Ingratitude stained all.

   II. But let us not think severely of them and forget ourselves, for we,
   too, are in the same condemnation. This is our second point--WE ALSO
   HAVE BEEN UNGRATEFUL TO OUR LORD. While I have been turning over this
   subject in my own mind it has deeply affected me. But I feel quite
   powerless to produce it before you so that you shall be affected in the
   same manner unless God the Holy Spirit shall now be pleased to melt
   your hearts. Remember that to bring a charge of ingratitude against a
   man is a very strong thing to do. I would not like to be called
   untruthful. I should grievously feel it, but to be called ungrateful is
   equally as degrading.

   Can any accusation be more dishonoring? Ingratitude is a mean and
   despicable vice! He who is guilty of it is unworthy of the name of man.
   A soldier who had been kindly rescued from shipwreck and hospitably
   entertained, was mean enough to endeavor to obtain from Philip of
   Macedon the house and farm of his generous host. Philip, in just anger,
   commanded that his forehead should be branded with the words, "The
   ungrateful guest." That man must have felt like Cain when the mark of
   God was upon him--he must have desired to hide himself forever from the
   gaze of man. Prove a man ungrateful and you have placed him below the
   beasts, for even the brutes frequently exhibit the most touching
   gratitude to their benefactors.

   The old classic story of Androcles and the lion rises before us--the
   man healed the lion, and years after, the lion, being let loose upon
   him, crouched at his feet and acknowledged him as a friend. Only the
   most despised creatures are used as metaphors of ingratitude! For
   instance, we speak of the donkey which drinks, and then kicks the
   bucket it has emptied, but we never speak thus of nobler animals. An
   ungrateful man is thus lower than the animals! Inasmuch as he returns
   evil for good, he is worse than bestial--he is devilish. Ingratitude is
   essentially infernal. Ingratitude to friends is vile, to parents it is
   worse--but to the Savior it is worst of all!

   Therefore, what I shall have to say must not be received with coolness,
   as though the charge were a trivial one. It is a very serious matter
   that we should be open to an indictment of ingratitude towards the Lord
   Jesus Christ. Hear, then, and sorrow as you hear, for I also mourn as I
   speak! I lay the charge, first, against Believers--against those of us
   who are Christians--and are, therefore, most indebted to Christ's love
   and Grace. And we will observe at the outset that every sin of the
   Believer has in it a measure of ingratitude, for, since our Savior has
   suffered by reason of our sins, we are ungrateful when we wander into
   sin! Since He came to destroy the works of the devil--it is ungrateful
   to build, again, that which He has destroyed.

   Shall that very sin which was the murderer of our Beloved be harbored
   by us? The very thought is treason! Since these sins of mine were my
   best Friend's worst enemies, and more to be blamed than the Jews or the
   Romans, would it not be a shameless need of love to make them my bosom
   companions? Our sins were the nails and our unbelief the spear! Away,
   then, with them all! Brothers and Sisters, if we do not watch most
   carefully against our besetting sins we shall be false to our Redeemer.
   If a woman saw her husband's murderer before her and gave her heart to
   him, what should we think of her? May the Lord, by His Grace, prevent
   us from being equally shameless! May Grace enable us to take vengeance
   on our sins because they drew down vengeance on our Savior!

   Saints are especially ungrateful to the Lord Jesus when they allow any
   rival to set up his throne in their hearts. He, "the chief among 10,000
   and the altogether lovely," deserves to be admired and adored by our
   souls--not only beyond all others--but to the exclusion of all others.
   If your hearts were capacious enough to hold a thousand times more
   affection than they now contain, the Lord Jesus would deserve it all!
   If our hearts were as wide as Heaven, yes, as vast as seven heavens in
   one--Jesus, having bled and died for us ought to monopolize all our
   love! Yet we must confess that a wife, a child, a friend will steal
   away our hearts. Ambition for position, love of pleasure, desire to
   please, joy in wealth will invade and conquer a province of our hearts.
   Oh, base ingratitude which allows us to set up Dagon in the temple
   where the Crucified One, alone, should reign!

   Oh, wretched unfaithfulness, which pines after these fleeting things in
   preference to the eternal Lover of souls! How common is this
   ingratitude! Do I address a single child of God but what must
   acknowledge, "I am, indeed, guilty"? I sorrowfully confess my own
   offenses against the infinite love of Jesus in this respect, and will
   do so before God far more at large than here would be either fit or
   profitable. How often, too, might we be charged with ingratitude when
   we lose large measures of the Grace which we have already received. We
   have power given us, at times, by the Holy Spirit, to rise above the
   dead level of man's ordinary life, and we climb the mountain and stand
   upon a higher platform altogether.

   There are times with us when we love the Lord with all our hearts--when
   our faith mounts to assurance and all our graces are bright and
   strong--but we come down from that mountain almost immediately! Our
   feet slide from the glorious elevation! It seems far easier to mount
   than it does to tarry aloft upon the wing. The Holy Spirit admits us
   into peculiar nearness to the heavenly Father and then we act
   inconsistently and lose our communion, and come to follow afar off as
   so many do. We have the sweet flavor of Divine love in our mouths and
   yet desert the banquet table--what is this but ingratitude? Is it not a
   slighting of the precious gifts of Jesus' Divine Grace?

   He permits us to lean our heads on His bosom and we will not do so! He
   stands at our door and knocks, and we refuse to open to him! He calls
   us to take our fill of love, and we turn to the poor husks of earth.
   Have we not grievously provoked Him? Would He not long ago have
   divorced His unfaithful spouse if it had not been true that He hates
   putting away? Beat on your breasts, Beloved, and confess your ill
   manners towards your best Beloved!

   Could we, any of us, plead innocence if the charge were brought in
   another way, namely, that we render Him but little service and give Him
   but lukewarm love? How much have we done for Jesus, after all? How much
   have we ever loved Him? How much do we love Him now? I must correct
   myself-- I ought to have said how little. If we hear of the death of
   Christ upon the Cross, we listen to it as coldly as though it were a
   thrice told tale with which we had no concern. How is this? Are our
   hearts like an adamant stone? A silly story of a lovesick maid will
   bring tears to our eyes far sooner than the tragedy of the Cross!

   If we did but see one of our fellow creatures suffer but a millionth
   part of what the Lord of Glory bore for us, we should be moved
   infinitely more than we are, now, when Calvary is before us. Why? Is
   not this black ingratitude? Who can extenuate such need of tenderness?
   Our love to Jesus, is it love at all? When I read of some of the saints
   giving up all that they have, crossing the sea, penetrating into
   barbarous regions, bearing their lives in their hands, sacrificing
   comforts, and living day by day on the verge of death amid fever and
   wild beasts--and all that they might honor Christ--I am utterly
   ashamed! What are we, my Brethren? Unto what shall we liken ourselves?
   Like a Colossus such men bestride their age, while we, base things,
   hide our dishonorable heads for shame at our spiritual littleness!

   The love of Christ to us is like that ancient furnace which was heated
   seven times hotter, while our love is like a solitary spark which
   wonders within itself that it is yet alive. May the Holy Spirit change
   this and give us yet to glow and burn with sacred fire like the bush in
   Horeb when it was aglow with Deity!

   The same humiliation reflections arise when we meditate upon the
   consecration, or rather non-consecration, of our substance to the
   Redeemer's cause. What a small portion do the most of us give to His
   work, or to His poor! If you were to take the numbers of Church
   members, and the contributions to missions, you would hardly dare to
   say how little per head is given! It is so trifling that it is rather
   an insult to the Savior than an offering to Him. Some hearers even try
   to cheat the minister whom they flock to hear and evade every claim,
   even from the Church to which they belong. For the most part, when
   Christians take stock of what they have, and then calculate what they
   have given, they have great cause for shame. If our estimate of
   Christ's worth is according to our gifts to Him, there are some who
   would not give 20 pieces of silver for Him. To some these remarks are
   more applicable than to others--to many congregations more necessary
   than to you, for, thank God, there are those among you who delight to
   honor the Lord with their substance. But these are the last persons to
   think that they have done enough--in fact, those who do most for Christ
   are the first to feel that they do far too little!

   Furthermore, Brethren, how often is ingratitude shown to our Lord Jesus
   by neglect of His commands. Some professors need to be driven to
   obedience. If you tell the man who earnestly loves Christ his duty, he
   is charmed to know it, and to attend to it at once. But love to Christ
   is so low in some professors' hearts that you must hammer the precept
   into them again and again, and again, and again! And yet they will
   linger long before they will fulfill their Master's will. They must be
   persuaded and threatened before they will yield. Fervent gratitude runs
   with winged feet wherever Jesus bids it go. If we were more jealously
   obedient to our Lord, it would be evident that we were more grateful to
   Him.

   Now, I feel, Brothers and Sisters, in my heart as if I would be glad to
   have done preaching, for I need to get alone and sigh and weep this
   sermon over by myself. I need to confess and mourn over my own
   conscious ingratitude to my ever-blessed Lord, whom, nevertheless, I
   love. I do remember well the time when I imagined that if the Lord
   would only give me pardon through the atoning blood, nothing would be
   too difficult for me to attempt for His dear sake. And yet, though I
   have been cleansed from sins and accepted in Christ Jesus, I am too
   often sluggish in my Master's errands. Well

   do I remember when I first began to preach His Word--I thought if I
   might but have opportunities of pleading with men for Jesus I would
   pour out my very soul while I urged them to flee from the wrath to
   come!

   Alas, although I am not altogether without zeal for God, my zeal falls
   far short of what it should be. Gladly would I speak fire--fire which
   should melt your hearts--and then set them on flame with ardent love to
   Jesus! I cannot reach my own ideal and I doubt not that if I could, I
   should still be faulty. I charge you not, my Brethren, with ingratitude
   without confessing and acknowledging it in myself. Come, my Brothers
   and Sisters, let us not confess with our lips only, but with inward
   penitential grief! Let us seek godly sorrow which works practical
   repentance! May we, in the power of the Holy Spirit, resolve that we
   will love our Lord better for the future and yield to the sweet
   constraints of His love.

   Now I have a heavy task, indeed, and that is to speak of some whose
   ingratitude to Christ is even greater, if greater can be, for they
   utterly refuse to trust Him. I desire to speak with you to whom I have
   preached in vain these many years. The one topic of every Sabbath in
   this place is Jesus Christ crucified. I have other things to say to
   you, but this is repeated over and over again. You are told without
   ceasing that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners and that,
   "whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life."
   Notwithstanding all this, up to this moment many of you refuse to trust
   Him! You "stumble at the Word being disobedient," and you thus make the
   rock of salvation to be a rock of offense to you.

   If you deny it, I will ask you, Why, then, have you not accepted Him
   for your Savior? Why are you still alienated in your hearts from Him?
   Perhaps your reply is that you do not think of these things. Is this,
   then, your conduct towards the dying Savior--that you will not even
   think of Him? Is He nothing to you? Do you despise His blood? Perhaps
   it is that you do not understand. Then surely, in your case it must be
   a willful blindness of understanding, for the Truth of God has been put
   before you as plainly as words could utter it! And neither do I know
   how I could have spoken more clearly. You have rejected, up to this
   moment, the Christ who died for sinners! Do you know what you have
   done? I wish He would stand here upon this pulpit at this moment, that
   you might see who it is that you have despised.

   See Him with the ruby drops still glistening upon His crown of thorns,
   His face bruised, His countenance lined with grief, His eyes red with
   tears, His shoulders furrowed with the lash, His hands and feet wounded
   with the nails and His side gashed with the lance--this is the Man of
   Sorrows whom you have refused! Look, now on Him whom you have pierced!
   Can you, in His Presence, continue your rejection? Will you still bar
   your hearts against Him? Will you now say to Him to His face, "Son of
   God, bleeding for human sin, we will not trust You! Son of Man, dying
   in the place of sinners, we will not yield to You"? Yet you have said
   that in His Presence, which is everywhere real, though undiscerned by
   eye or ear. With those eyes of fire which discern from Heaven
   everything that is done on earth, He has seen you impudently refusing
   to be saved by Him.

   Alas, I have to go further. Some of you have not been content with
   rejecting the Lord, but have gone the length of opposing Him! You have
   made His Gospel the theme for jest and treated His people with
   indignity. It always staggers me that men should treat the meek and
   lowly Jesus and His gracious Gospel so roughly. There is something so
   tender and so meek about the Savior that I pity from my soul the wretch
   who had the heart to strike Him in the face, or was so base as to
   insult with spit that dear and sorrowful visage! Once in the sack of a
   city, when the fierce soldiers had commenced a general massacre, a
   little child was seized by a rough warrior, who was about to kill him,
   but stayed his hand when the little one said, piteously, "Please, Sir,
   don't kill me, I am so little."

   I think the Savior's meek and gentle manners might be a similar
   argument for staying the hand of wrath. Who can harm the harmless Lamb
   of God? Persecutor, what evil has Jesus done to you? Reviler, what has
   He ever said to injure you? When has He given you an ill word or look?
   Ah, it is to His silence that you owe your life! Should He accuse you,
   you would be undone forever! Yet He has not accused you to the Father,
   but has pleaded for your reprieve! Sometimes in our police courts you
   may have seen an inhuman husband brought before the magistrate for
   having maltreated the poor unhappy woman who is linked to him for life.
   The policeman has taken him in the very act of assaulting her--her poor
   sickly face bears evidence of his brutality.

   She can scarcely stand, for his cruelty has put her life in jeopardy.
   Watch her closely. The magistrate asks her to give evidence against the
   creature who has so cruelly injured her. She weeps and shakes her head,
   but says not a word. She is asked, "Did he not ill-treat you
   yesterday?" She is long before she speaks, and then not a word is
   uttered against the husband whom she still loves, though there is
   nothing loveable about him. She declares that she cannot bear to appear

   against her husband and she will not. What a stone must that man's
   heart be if he does not love her from then on all her days!

   But, see a nobler counterpart! There is the Lord whom you have injured
   by your hard speeches and cruel mockeries. See you not His face all
   marred with your bruises? Yet He does not accuse you to the Father but
   when He opens His mouth to speak for sinners, He cries, "Father,
   forgive them, for they know not what they do." He must be ingratitude
   incarnate who can continue to use Him or His cause despitefully! There
   is no chivalry, no--there is no manhood in the heart which treats
   despitefully one who neither provokes nor retaliates. I must add,
   before I close this point, that some are ungrateful to Christ, from
   whom, above all others, such conduct ought never to have proceeded. The
   text says--"He came to His own, and His own received Him not."

   In this very place the Lord Jesus has come to those who appeared to be
   His own. You, Sir, were your mother's own boy, and she, now in Glory,
   was an ardent lover of the Savior. And when Jesus came to you He might
   have said, "This is the son of one of My dearest friends, the son of a
   woman whose whole heart was Mine--surely her son will love Me, too."
   Yet you did not respond to Him. Jesus has come to your house and found
   there a wife who ardently loves Him, and He might well have said,
   "Surely the husband of My handmaiden will receive his wife's Friend."
   Yet you have shut the door upon Him.

   Possibly I address an unconverted person who is not only the son of a
   Christian father, but the child of one of God's own ambassadors, yet he
   himself is an enemy to God! Surely a minister's children should be the
   Lord's, and yet ministers' sons and daughters have been seen among
   reprobates. I know not why it is, but sadly often has this been the
   case. Do I address one such? I pray that you may no longer be
   ungrateful to your father's God. Yes, and there are some here who years
   ago were sorely sick and on the borders of the grave, and they said,
   "Please, God, if we ever get up again, we will seek the Lord." You were
   thus in a sense, "His own" by your own voluntary vow--but you have not
   received Him.

   Today the Lord Jesus comes to you again, and shows His hands and side,
   and asks you why it is you break your promises to Him? He asks why it
   is you love not your mother's Savior? Why it is you care not for your
   father's God? And what it is that has turned you against Him? Many good
   works has He shown you, and for which of these do you stone Him? He is
   full of love, and pity, and mercy and power to save--for what reasons
   do you reject Him?

   May the Lord grant that these appeals may have power with you by the
   voice of the Holy Spirit.

   III. I close by answering the question WHAT THEN? What comes of all
   this? Why, first, let us appreciate the sufferings of our Lord Jesus
   Christ! We must never lower our estimate of the bodily pains of Jesus.
   They were undoubtedly very great, but, after all, His mental sufferings
   were far greater and among the most acute of them must have been
   this--to be always treated with ingratitude by those whom He loved so
   well. Do I address, here, a tender heart which has bled from the stabs
   of ingratitude? A mother with an ungrateful son? A friend with a
   treacherous friend?

   You know that nothing stings more than ingratitude, yet your Lord had
   to feel it every day! He was always occupied in doing everything for
   men, and men, on the other hand, were doing everything against Him. He
   was from day to day like Sebastian the martyr who was bound to a tree
   and made the target for a thousand arrows. The archers have sorely shot
   at Him and wounded Him, but His love abides in strength and so remains
   to this day.

   Next, admire the Savior's love. When a man is kind and loving he will
   continue so until he meets with base returns, and then he is very apt
   to become indignant and stay the course of his benevolence. When we try
   to bring men together who have fallen out with each other--where
   ingratitude has been the cause of it--we use strong arguments. We have
   to say to the injured person, "You have been badly used, but labor to
   rise superior to it all. It is true that such ingratitude does deserve
   to forfeit your kindness, but do more than ordinary men would do--heap
   coals of fire on the ungrateful

   head!"

   The Savior knew that men would be unkind to Him. He knew it all
   beforehand, and when men were ungrateful He did not merely hear their
   words, but He read their hearts--and He knew that their hearts were yet
   more opposed to Him--yet He never turned aside from His course of love.
   He pressed on, still, through reproaches and shame and derision and
   every form of human evil till He had finished the redemption of His
   people! Admire His love and let it kindle in you love in return.

   Dear Brothers and Sisters, see next the mighty power of the pardoning
   blood of Jesus. Jesus can take away even this scarlet sin of
   ingratitude! Though He came to His own and His own received Him not,
   yet to as many as received Him to

   them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to as many as
   believed on His name. Have you rejected Jesus 50 years? Come to Him
   even now, and He will blot out your sins in a moment! Have 70 years
   rolled over your guilty head, and have you remained deaf to all His
   appeals of mercy? Yet come and welcome, come and welcome! The gentle
   Savior has not exhausted His pity! May His Spirit draw you now, and you
   shall find Him as ready to receive you as He would have been 50 years
   ago. Admire the Grace which continues to invite and the efficacy of the
   blood which is still able to cleanse.

   Another practical lesson is to let us see how we ought to forgive. If
   another man has injured me it is no reason why I should injure myself.
   Perhaps you do not see the application of that utterance. Well, here is
   the explanation of it. If I have loved a man and his only return is
   unkindness, shall I injure myself by leaving off loving him? After all,
   it will be a great injury to my heart to become unkind. If I have
   sought a man's good and he has only returned me evil, do not let me
   bring myself down to his level. Let me rather seek to rise higher! And
   because of his evil let me seek to do more good to him-- then I shall
   be like Christ, for He did! When our sin abounded, His Grace did much
   more abound! In our Lord's life, sin and love contested which should
   win the day. Man sinned yet more and more, and Christ loved yet more
   and more. On the Cross He loved to the death and won the battle, and
   this day human ingratitude is beneath the feet of the conquering
   Savior. Love has won the day and sin is crushed beneath its feet. O
   Christian, do battle in the same spirit and the Lord help you to be
   more than conqueror through Him that loved you!

   Dear Brothers and Sisters, lastly, let us judge how we ought to live in
   the light of this subject. If we have been ungrateful up till now,
   shall we be so any longer? No, let us now, on bended knee, with earnest
   soul, cry to God to inflame us with something of the fire which set the
   Savior on a blaze with sacred ardor for our good! Let us devote
   ourselves wholly to Him. Let us cry, "Bind the sacrifice with cords,
   even with cords to the horns of the altar." What manner of people ought
   we be who owe so much to the Grace of God?

   And there is this mournful reflection--what will become of those who
   shall die after having lived a life of constant ingratitude to Christ?
   There is a limit even to His mercy, for death shuts the golden gate of
   love. Justice takes the place of mercy as soon as the impenitent man
   has closed his dying eyes. An excellent writer has well said that,
   "Divine justice is love in flames," and so it is. When once love turns
   to jealousy, it is cruel as the grave--the coals thereof are of juniper
   that have a most vehement flame. You may despise Him, whose feet were
   pierced, and reject the Savior whose heart was opened with the
   spear--but He will come again. I know not when, but His Word is,
   "Behold, I come quickly."

   Beware, I pray you, for in that day this shall be the word, "Behold,
   you despisers, and wonder and perish!" In that pierced hand shall be a
   rod of iron and He shall break His enemies in pieces like potters'
   vessels! His pierced feet shall be sandaled with light and out of the
   mouth which now speaks promises shall come forth a two-edged sword with
   which to strike His adversaries.

   "Kiss the son lest He be angry and you perish from the way while His
   wrath is kindled but a little." He will forgive you now! He waits to be
   gracious to you now! Mercy now rules the day! But let the sun of mercy
   go down and the blackness of darkness shall abide forever. O provoke
   not the Lord! May His mercy turn your hearts by the power of His ever
   blessed Spirit and unto Him shall be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Perseverance Without Presumption

   (No. 1056)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON THURSDAY EVENING, MARCH 7, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall
   any man pluck them out of My hand." John 10:28.

   THOSE of you who were present last Thursday evening will remember that
   I spoke, then, upon the necessity of "holding fast the beginning of our
   confidence steadfast unto the end," [A PERSUASIVE TO STEADFASTNESS, NO.
   1042] and I showed you that it is only by continuing in the faith with
   which we began that we are proven to be partakers of the Lord Jesus
   Christ. Now, let us speak as plainly as we may, we are always liable to
   be misunderstood. The most eager hearer may easily confuse his thoughts
   with our words, and so attribute notions to us that spring up
   spontaneously in his own mind.

   Thus I met this week with an earnest anxious enquirer who thought I had
   meant that though a man should be a Believer in Jesus Christ, yet after
   all he might perish. I dare say some expressions I used led him to
   think so. Had he been long a hearer here, he could not have imagined
   that I could give utterance to such a statement! For all of you who
   hear me continually know that if there is one doctrine I have preached
   more than any other, it is the doctrine of the Perseverance of the
   Saints even to the end. What I intended to say, and I do not wonder
   that he did not quite understand me, was this--the Believer must always
   be a Believer--having began in that confidence, he must continue in
   that confidence.

   The alternative would be that he draws back unto perdition, in which
   case he would perish as an unbeliever--and then the inference would be
   that the faith he seemed to have was a fiction, that the confidence he
   seemed to enjoy was a bubble--that he really never did believe to the
   saving of his soul. This is a fair argument based on the operation of
   the Spirit of God. It is in no sense a condition dependent on the good
   behavior of men. The one way by which a soul is saved is by that soul's
   abiding in Christ--if it did not abide in Christ, it would be cast
   forth as a branch and be withered.

   But, then, we know that they who are grafted into Christ will abide in
   Christ! We reason in the manner of the Apostle Paul who, when he had
   spoken of the danger that some were in that, having begun well, they
   should end badly--after being enlightened and tasting the good Word of
   God and the powers of the world to come, they should turn aside--he
   adds, "But Beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things
   that accompany salvation, though we thus speak."

   The question, however, having been mooted, it occurs to me that it may
   not be unprofitable if I state briefly--not by way of controversy, but
   simply for the sake of instruction--the doctrine of the security of the
   Believer in Christ, the certainty of the Believer's perseverance even
   to the end, and of his entrance into eternal rest. This text at once
   suggests itself to me--"I give unto My sheep eternal life; and they
   shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of My hand." The
   three clauses of this sentence represent to us three gracious
   securities. Here is a Divine gift--"I give unto them eternal life."
   Here is a Divine promise, far-reaching and wide--"they shall never
   perish." And here is a Divine holdfast--"neither shall any pluck them
   out of My hand."

   I. First, then, observe THE DIVINE GIFT--"I give unto them eternal
   life." Eternal life comes to every man who has it as a matter of gift.
   He did not possess it when he first entered into the world. He was born
   of the first Adam and born to die. He did not educe it or evolve it
   from himself by some mysterious processes. It is not a home growth, a
   product of the soil of humanity--it is a gift. Nor is eternal life
   bestowed as a reward for service done. It could not be-- for it is a
   prerequisite to the doing of service!

   The term "gift" shuts out all idea of debt. If it is a gift, or of
   Divine Grace, then it is no more of debt or of reward. Wherever eternal
   life is implanted in any person's soul it is the free gift of the Lord
   Jesus Christ--not deserved but

   bestowed on the unworthy. Therefore we see no reason why it should be
   revoked from the person who has received it. For, suppose there are
   certain disqualifications in the man who has participated in the gift,
   yet they cannot otherwise operate to his prejudice in enjoying the gift
   than they would have operated to his ever receiving it if they had been
   taken into account at all.

   The thing does not come to him because of any worthiness in him, but
   comes as a gratuity. There is no reason why it should not continue,
   since it has come into existence, or why the present tense, as we have
   it here, should not always be a present fact. "I give"--I continue to
   give--"to them eternal life," that cannot be affected by an
   unworthiness subsequently discovered because God knows the end from the
   beginning. When He bestowed eternal life upon the man who has it, He
   knew right well every imperfection and failing that would occur in that
   man. These demerits, had they been reasons at all, would have been a
   cause for the not giving, rather than for giving and then taking away
   again.

   It is inconsistent with the gifts of God for them ever to be
   disannulled. We have it laid down as a rule of the kingdom of which
   there is no violation, that, "the gifts and calling of God are without
   repentance." He does not rescind in caprice that which He has conferred
   of His own good will. It is not according to the royal Nature of the
   Lord our God to bestow a gift of Grace upon a soul and then afterwards
   to withdraw it--to lift up a man from his natural degradation and set
   him among princes by endowing him with eternal life, and then to cast
   him down from his high estate by depriving him of all the infinite
   benefits He has conferred.

   The very language I am using is contradictory enough of itself to
   refute the suggestion. To give eternal life is to give a life beyond
   the contingencies of this present mortal existence. "Forever" is
   stamped on the charter. To take it away is not consistent with the
   royal bounty of the King of kings, even if it were possible that such a
   thing could be. "I give unto them eternal life." If He gives, then, He
   gives with the sovereignty and generosity of a king. He gives
   permanently, on an enduring tenure. He gives so that He will not revoke
   the grant. He gives and it is theirs--it shall be theirs by Divine
   charter forever and ever.

   We may infer the certain safety of the Believer, not only from the fact
   that this life is an absolute gift and will not, therefore, be
   withdrawn, but from the nature of the gift, it being eternal life. "I
   give unto My sheep eternal life." "Yes, but," says somebody, "they lose
   it." Then they cannot have had eternal life. It is a mistake in terms
   to say that a man has eternal life and yet perishes. Can death befall
   the immortal, or change affect the immutable, or decay corrode the
   imperishable? How can life be eternal if it comes to an end? How can it
   be possible that one shall have eternal life and yet die with sudden
   shock, or drop as feeble Nature fails of all her functions?

   No! Eternity is not to be measured by weeks or months or years! When
   Christ says eternal, He means eternal, and if I have received the gift
   of eternal life, it is not possible for me to sin so as to lose that
   spiritual life by any means whatever. "It is eternal life." We may
   reasonably expect the Believer to hold on to the end, because the life
   which God has implanted within him is of that Nature that it must
   continue to exist, must conquer all difficulties, must ripen, must
   perfect, must cast out sin from him and must bring him to eternal
   Glory! When Christ spoke by the well to the Samaritan woman, he said,
   "Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst;
   but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water
   springing up into everlasting life."

   This cannot mean a transient draught that would slake the thirst for an
   hour or two--it must imply such a partaking as changes a man's actual
   constitution and his destiny--and become in him a never-failing
   wellspring. The life which God implants in Believers by regeneration is
   not like the life which we now possess by generation. This mortal life
   does pass away. It is connected with flesh and all flesh is like
   grass--it withers. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." Not so
   the new life that is born of the Spirit and it is Spirit, and Spirit is
   not capable of destruction--it shall continue and last on, world
   without end. The eternal life within every man who has it was begotten
   in him "not of the will of man, nor of flesh, nor of blood, but of God"
   Himself.

   Thanks be unto the Father, for it is of Him that we are "begotten again
   unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."
   Tracing this implanted life to its germ, we are said to be "born-again,
   not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the Word of God which
   lives and abides forever." It is a holy seed. It cannot sin, for it is
   born of God. We are made partakers of the Divine Nature, and the new
   life within us is a Divine life. It is the life of God within the soul
   of man! We become the twice-born, with a life that can no more die than
   the life of God Himself, for it is, in fact, a spark from that great
   central Sun--it is a new well in the soul which draws its supplies from
   the deep that lies

   under--from the inexhaustible fountain of the fullness of God! This,
   then, is a second reason for believing in the security and final
   perseverance of the Believer. He has a gift from Christ, and Christ
   will not withdraw His gift--he has a life which is in itself immortal
   and eternal.

   But further, this life within the Believer which is a gift from Christ
   is always in connection with Christ. We live because we are one with
   Christ--as the branch sucks its sap from the vine--so do we continue to
   derive our life's blood, our life's supplies from Christ Himself. The
   union between the Believer and Christ is vital and to the fullest
   degree assuring. For what does our Lord say of it?--"Because I live,
   you shall live also." It is not a partnership which may be dissolved or
   a connection which may be severed--it is a necessity that no accident
   can interfere with! It is a fixed law of being--"because I live, you
   shall live also."

   That the union between Christ and His people is indissoluble appears
   obvious from the figures which are used to illustrate it. To such an
   overwhelming extent do they denote that there can be no separation,
   that we may well say, "Who shall separate us from the love of God which
   is in Christ Jesus our Lord?" Are we not married to Christ? What
   metaphor could be more expressive? To estimate its value you must take
   the Divine account of the relationship. Although weddings are
   secularized by our Acts of Parliament, and nuptial ties are looked upon
   as civil contracts, God has pronounced man and wife to be one flesh!
   Yes, in the sight of Heaven, he that is joined to a harlot is one body
   with her.

   In ordinary marriage, divorce is possible, and, alas, too common--but
   when you come to Scripture, you find it written that He hates putting
   away. He has said, "I will betroth you unto Me forever, I have
   betrothed you unto Myself in righteousness and in faithfulness, and you
   shall know the Lord." The marriage between our souls and Christ can
   never be dissolved! It were blasphemy to suppose that Christ shall
   appeal for a divorce, or that there should be a proclamation made that
   He has put away that spouse whom He chose of old, for whom He has
   prepared the great wedding feast and for whose eternal bliss He has
   gone to Glory to prepare a place! No, we cannot imagine such espousals
   leading to a separation!

   Again, are we not members of His body? Shall Christ be dismembered?
   Shall He, every now and then, lose one limb or another? Can you suppose
   that Christ is maimed? I scarcely like to think, much less to express
   the thought, of here or there an eye, or a foot, or an ear needed to
   complete the perfection of His mystic Person. No! It shall not be!
   Members of the body of Christ shall be so vitally quickened by the
   heart, and by Himself, the Head, that they shall continue to live
   because He lives! When a man stands in water, the flood might naturally
   have power to drown him, but as long as his head remains above water,
   the stream cannot possibly drown his feet or his hands! And because
   Christ, the Head, cannot die, cannot be destroyed, all the floods that
   shall come upon the members of His body shall not--cannot--destroy
   them!

   Moreover, the life of the Believer is constantly sustained by the
   indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It is a matter of fact under the Gospel
   dispensation that not only is the Holy Spirit with Believers but He is
   in Believers. He dwells in them! He makes them His temple! The life, as
   we have shown you, is "sui generis," of its own kind, immortal. It is
   immortal because united with an undying Christ--but it is also immortal
   because supported by a Divine Spirit who cannot be overcome. The Holy
   Spirit has power to meet all the mischief of false and evil spirits
   that aim at our destruction, and, from day to day adds fresh fuel to
   the eternal flame of the Believer's life within. Were it not for the
   Holy Spirit's abiding with us, we might be the subjects of some doubt,
   but as long as He continues to abide with us forever, we will not fear.

   The first consolation that we thus draw from the text is that we are
   the recipients of a Divine gift--"I give unto My sheep eternal life."

   II. Now, secondly, we have added to this, A DIVINE PROMISE--"They shall
   never perish." I am very thankful for this Word because there have been
   some who have tried to do away with the force of the entire
   passage--"neither shall any pluck them out of My hand." "No," they have
   said, "but they may slip between His fingers, and though they cannot be
   plucked out, yet they may go out on their own accord." But here is a
   short sentence that puts all such thoughts out of the question--"they
   shall never perish"--in His hands or out of His hands, under any
   supposition whatever--"they shall never perish"!

   Observe that there is no restriction here--it includes all time. "They
   shall never perish." Are they young Believers? Are their passions
   strong? Are their judgments weak? Have they little knowledge, small
   experience, and tender faith? May they not die while yet they are lambs
   and perish while they are so feeble? "They shall never perish." But, in
   middle life, when men too often lose the freshness of early Grace, when
   the love of their espousals may, perhaps, have lost its

   power, may they not get worldly? May they not, somehow or other, then
   be led aside? "They shall never perish." "They shall never perish."

   Perish they would, could worldliness destroy them! Perish they would
   could evil utterly and entirely get the mastery of Grace--but it shall
   not. "They shall never perish!" But, may they not grow older, and yet
   not wiser? May they not be surprised by temptation, as so many have
   been in times when they have become carnally secure, because they
   thought their experience had made them strong? "They shall never
   perish"--neither if they are beginners, nor if they have all but
   finished their course. "They shall never perish." It shuts out all
   time--all reference to time--by taking the whole range of possible
   periods into the one word, "never." "They shall never perish."

   No less does the sweep of the sentence include all contingencies. "They
   shall never perish." What? Not if they are severely tempted? "They
   shall never perish." Not if they backslide? They shall be restored
   again. "They shall never perish." But, if they continue in backsliding
   and die so? Ah, that they shall not do--"They shall never perish." You
   must not suppose that which never can occur. "They shall never perish."
   They shall never get into such a condition that they shall be utterly
   without Divine Grace--they shall never be in such a state of heart that
   sin shall have dominion over them--utter and entire dominion.

   It may come in. It may seem for a time to get the mastery, but sin
   shall never have dominion over them that they shall perish before the
   Lord. "They shall never perish." It takes in all the flock. "They shall
   never perish"--that is, not one of His sheep. This is not the
   distinctive privilege of a few, but the common mercy of them all! None
   of them--not one of them--shall ever perish. If you, Believer in
   Christ, are the most obscure of all the family, you shall never perish.
   If you have, indeed, received the inner life and true Grace is in your
   soul, though no one knows your name and no one lends you a helping
   hand--though, as a solitary pilgrim you should walk the heavenly road
   all alone, weak and feeble, and trembling all the way--yet you shall
   never perish! The promise is not to some, but to all the believing
   sheep of Christ. "They shall never perish."

   And, Beloved, it may greatly strengthen our faith and sweetly revive
   our spirits if we consider how this doctrine harmonizes with other
   doctrines which are most surely believed among us. Christ's sheep were
   of old chosen of God unto salvation. But if they perished, the election
   of God would be frustrated! From the foundation of the world He
   appointed them that they should bring forth fruit unto holiness, even
   unto the end, and, if they do not, how can His will be done on earth as
   it is in Heaven? They were a people set apart unto Himself that they
   might honor Him by good works. If they failed of this. If they fell
   from their blest estate. If they did utterly perish, the Father's
   counsel would be foiled--and that cannot be!

   The purpose of God secures their final perseverance. "They shall never
   perish." We may rest assured that they shall be preserved because of
   the effectual redemption which Christ has worked out for them. We
   believe, Beloved, in this place, (though the doctrine is very much
   disparaged nowadays), in an actual and literal substitutionary
   Sacrifice. We believe that Jesus died for His people, and--

   "Bore, that they might never bear The Father's righteous ire."

   Now, if He paid their debts, they have no debts to discharge! If He has
   borne their punishment, they have no penalty to suffer. If He stood in
   their place, Justice as well as Grace--Justice and Grace
   together--demand that they should be saved. Jesus Christ has offered
   for them an Atonement--and, "who is he that condemns?" "It is Christ
   that died, yes, rather that has risen again."

   "If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His
   Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." If He
   died to bear our guilt, much more, the Atonement being completed, shall
   we enter into the fullness of rest! If He would not lose us, viewing us
   as unredeemed, but came and paid the price, much less will He lose us
   now that He has redeemed us unto God, by His blood, out of every nation
   and people and kindred and tongue. He laid down His life for His sheep.
   He loved the Church and gave Himself for it, that He might present it
   unto Himself a glorious Church--and He will effect the purpose for
   which He has already ventured so much. He will surely claim and as
   surely receive at the hand of Justice the salvation of those for whom
   He was a vicarious Victim.

   Furthermore, dear Friends, he that believes in Christ is justified from
   all things from which he could not be justified by the Law of Moses. Is
   it according to the manner of man, first to justify, and afterwards to
   condemn? Certainly not!

   But if it were, it is not according to the supreme equity of the Most
   High God! Has He pronounced a man just? That man is just. When He has
   declared the man's transgressions forgiven, shall they be again
   reckoned to him?--again laid to his door? Is it not said that He has
   put away our sins like a cloud, and will He gather the cloud of
   yesterday again?

   Has He not said He has cast our sins into the depths of the sea? Shall
   that which Jehovah Himself has consigned to the oblivious ocean be
   washed up again as though He had only committed it to the shallows? As
   far as the East is from the West, so far has He removed our
   transgressions from us! Our East and West are wide enough apart--but
   what must God's East and West be when He looks through infinite space?
   He has removed those sins so far from us that the swiftest-footed devil
   could not bring them back again though he had a whole eternity to
   perform the feat. He has put them away forever!

   Yes, hear what is said of the Messiah--"He has finished transgression,
   made an end of sin, and brought in everlasting righteousness." If it is
   finished, it is finished, and if He has made an end of it, where is it?
   Where is it? "If it is searched for it shall not be found"--yes, it
   shall not be, says the Lord. O Beloved, how, then, shall the man that
   believes in Christ be condemned--condemned for sin that has been
   pardoned? How shall he be cast into Hell? For what? For offenses that
   have been borne by the Savior? How shall he be condemned whom God has
   justified? Give no countenance to the thought! Let no fear nor fancy
   induce you to lend an ear to the suggestion! The sentence of remission
   once passed upon a man stands irrevocable. "It is God that justifies;
   who is he that condemns?"

   In the Believer, moreover, there is a work of God begun which He has
   engaged to complete. It has never been said of God that He began to
   build and was not able to finish. "We are persuaded that He which has
   begun a good work in you will carry it on and perfect it to the Day of
   Christ." It has not been according to Jehovah's habit to leave
   unfinished His works--why should He leave them unfinished? Is there a
   need of power? Inconceivable! Is there a need of will? We cannot
   imagine it--for if His will has changed there must be some reason for
   the change. And if it is so, is God wiser than He was? Has he altered
   His plan because He has discovered some error in it? If not, if
   Infinite Wisdom led Him to put His hand to it, Infinite Wisdom will
   keep His hand to the work--

   "The work which Wisdom undertakes, Eternal Mercy ne'er forsakes." O
   Beloved, the very beginning of the work from God foretells that the
   work will be fully carried out!

   The doctrine of Adoption supplies us with yet another argument for our
   safety. Every man who is saved, justified, forgiven, is also adopted
   into the family of God. And do you think that God shifts and changes
   His children who are called by His own name? Do you imagine such a
   thing credible? Does it sound like a fact? Are you your Father's child
   today, and somebody else's child tomorrow? Is not the absurdity too
   obvious to need refutation? No--I know not where could have come so
   whimsical a thought as that we should be children of God today, and
   by-and-by children of the devil--changing, thus, the blessed paternity
   which God Himself claims as to all His people.

   "But, we may play the prodigal," says one. Yes, I answer, and we may be
   brought back again after we have gone astray as the prodigal was.
   Besides, the prodigal was still a son--even when at the swine trough,
   and when he had wasted all his substance in riotous living--he was
   still beloved of the father. And because he was a son he came back
   again with weeping and bitterness of spirit, and found peace and
   pardon. Had he been no son, he might, like others, have spent his
   living with harlots and there had been no saying, "I will arise and go
   unto my father." But Grace operated on his heart--he was quickened
   mysteriously, and he said--"I must leave this life of poverty and sin
   and go back to my father's house."

   And, if God's child shall go astray, as it is possible, (only God grant
   you and I never may), yet there is a voice that says, "Return, return
   you backsliding Israel! I am married unto you, says the Lord." Adoption
   is surely a grand proof that the Lord's people shall be kept and
   preserved--that there shall be an unbroken family of God in Heaven. He
   shall not have to lament that His own dear sons and daughters, begotten
   by His Grace, have utterly perished. Jesus shall say, "Here am I and
   the children You have given Me."

   III. And, now, the last point is THE DIVINE HOLDFAST--"None shall pluck
   them out of My hand." Then all the saints are in Jesus' hands! They are
   not only in His heart, but in His hands--just as the high priests wore
   the names of the 12 tribes on the breastplates, and wore them on the
   shoulders, too. The power, as well as the affection of Christ shall

   preserve the people of God. They are in His hands. "All Your saints are
   in Your hands." What a blessed place for us to be in--in the hands of
   Christ--always there!

   But does not our Lord intimate as if to forewarn us that a great many
   attempts would be made to pluck us out of those hands? Satan would do
   it--our own base lusts would do it--the ungodly would do it. The very
   air is full of tempters who would, if they could, pluck us away from
   Christ. We have, therefore, cause for great watchfulness, deep
   humility, but also for much thankfulness that we are placed where the
   tempters cannot reach us, for the promise assures us that none is able
   to pluck us out of Christ's hand! There is not power enough in legions
   of fallen spirits, if they were marshaled in battle array against one
   poor weak Christian, to snatch him away from Christ!

   Yes, should they besiege him without intermission like a vast herd of
   lions seeking to devour one lamb, the defense were so much stronger
   than the invasion that they could not pluck even that one out of
   Christ's hands! The Destroyer has never yet celebrated a triumph over
   the Redeemer! He is not able to hold up a single jewel of the
   Redeemer's crown and say, "Aha! Aha! I stole it from Your diadem! You
   could not keep it!" He has no single sheep there to which he can point
   and say, "Ah, Shepherd of the sheep, You could not keep them all! The
   strong were safe enough--they helped themselves, but this poor weakling
   could not help itself--and You could not help it. Lo! I have borne it
   away from You! Your flock, which is Your pride, is not complete! You
   Yourself, as Shepherd, have a spot upon Your name, for You have lost at
   least this one that Your Father gave You and whom You have purchased
   with Your blood!"

   It cannot be! It shall not be! The powers of darkness have conspired
   for this and struggled for this, but they have not yet prevailed, nor
   shall they! "None shall pluck them out of My hand." Oh, rest in the
   hands of Christ, rest quietly--now that you are there you are secure,
   neither shall any pluck you away. As if He would make assurance doubly
   sure, and give us a very strong consolation, He added, "My Father which
   gave them Me is greater than all, and none shall pluck them out of My
   Father's hand." You can interpret the figure. There was Christ's hand
   and His people in it, and He shall shut it fast to hold them. But that
   hand was pierced once, and so to make it doubly sure, the Father clasps
   it with His hand, and so within a double encircling the elect of God
   are held and embraced!

   There is the pierced hand of Jesus and there is the Father's almighty
   hand--so there are two hands to protect and defend them. Well may they,
   now, cheerfully defy all power--terrestrial or infernal--to ever
   destroy them. They must, they shall forever rest in perfect security
   beneath the guardian care of the Man Mediator, Christ the Lord, and God
   the everlasting and ever blessed Father, who also takes them into His
   sacred keeping! Do I hear anyone object, saying, "Well, but if this is
   true, then may not a man live as he likes?" Sir, how can you ask that
   question? What do you mean by it? Do you mean, "May a man live in sin?"
   I have been trying to show that if a man is one of Christ's sheep, he
   cannot perish, by which I mean, he cannot live in sin--for that is to
   perish!

   When I maintain that he cannot live in sin as he did, and cease to be a
   gracious man--do you ask me whether he will not, therefore, sin
   willfully because he is saved from his sins? You must surely
   misunderstand me! "But, may not a man fall? Now I have these checks
   taken from me, I may grow wanton." What checks? What checks? If I lay
   it down that a man who is enlisted as a soldier is always a soldier,
   how can you tell me I have taken away some checks? I see not how that
   can be! I have rather implied a great many strong incentives to virtue
   than offered a single pretext for vice. Certainly he is not to lay down
   his commission because he is enlisted for life in the service of his
   Lord!

   If he ever did lay it down, he never could take it up again. Could
   these fail away, it were impossible, again, to renew them to
   repentance. If God's work did fail, if Christ's atoning blood did fall
   short of its aim, there would remain no hope for them. The ground on
   which the dew that moistens the flowers descends--when it yields
   nothing but thorns and briars--is given up as worthless. Were a man in
   some fit of enthusiasm to profess that he believed the Gospel, and then
   take a fit of liberty and plunge into dissipation, you would all know
   what to think of his sincerity. When the guilt of sin is removed, the
   love of sin is purged out of the heart--and when the Spirit of holiness
   is given, the love of holiness is infused into the heart. The man who
   truly believes begins a life of holiness, and from that life of
   holiness he will never utterly depart.

   I grant you he may be overtaken in a fault. He may be surprised with a
   temptation. He may stumble through weakness, or through lack of
   watchfulness--but he will be led back again into repentance--he shall
   not be allowed to perish. The life that is in him is immortal--a holy
   incorruptible seed--and it will continue to develop in spite of sultry
   heat or biting frost, blight or mildew, till it blooms in the
   perfection of life above. Says one, "Ah, Sir, I hold no

   argument about your doctrine. My fear is for myself--I do not think I
   should live as I now do if I were not afraid of falling away." Is not
   that a suitable fear for the child of the bondwoman--"Unless I do
   so-and-so I shall be sent into the wilderness with my mother Hagar."
   Very likely you will!

   But I know this, I am the child of the free woman, that is Sarah, and I
   know my Father will never send His child into the wilderness. What
   then? Shall His attachment provoke my alienation? Shall I act
   shamefully because He appoints me to honor? No, no, but because He
   loves me so, I will love Him in return! I pray Him to forgive my
   offenses, but I will seek to do all that is possible to show that I
   realize the greatness of His love, and desire to make some poor return
   for it as best I can. "Well, but," says somebody, "are we not
   admonished with warnings against falling away?" Certainly, and they are
   the most terrible that language can describe. Undoubtedly the Scripture
   paints the pilgrim's path as full of peril. It is not by creature
   strength that we can hold our own!

   Could the precious blood lose its virtue--did the blessed Spirit
   withdraw His influence--were the timely succor withheld, we have no
   resources! For all manner of sin there is a remedy--believe in Christ
   as a Savior--but for apostasy there is no cure. If you trample on the
   one Sacrifice, no second sacrifice will ever be offered. There is but
   one new birth. Regeneration is once and once only. "But why these
   warnings," you say, "if it cannot happen?" Remember God does not deal
   with His people as if they were blocks of wood or iron cast and run
   into a mold. We are beings with a will and a judgment, and God deals
   with us in that way.

   Now, if I have poison in my house and it should be necessary for some
   reason or other that poison should be there, I do not intend that my
   children should ever have that poison or take it. Suppose me to be
   Omnipotent and that I have power to prevent their taking it, yet I do
   not lock it up and put it where they could not possibly get it? I put
   it where they can get it if they like, and it will kill them if they do
   get it--but I tell them they must not take it. I describe to them the
   results that will follow, and I have such a loving power over my
   children's hearts--(suppose it to be so)--that they do not disobey me
   so as to take this poison. Though it is there and devils come into the
   house and tempt them to take it, yet they will not take it but put it
   from them. I should thus be making an exhibition to those who looked
   on, of the love to me that was in my children's hearts, and also of my
   power over my children's hearts, though I did not violate their wills
   and did not make it impossible for them to destroy themselves.

   Now, it is so here. Sin is permitted to be in the world--I do not know
   why--and God does not render it impossible for a man to go and commit
   any sin. The man might--he would--unless God's Grace prevented. But
   God's Grace is not mechanical in its action. It is not like a fetter,
   or a chain. It is not, (as I have heard some say), dragging people to
   Heaven by their ears. No, it is a mighty force--an Omnipotent
   power--but quite consistent with free agency. It never operates
   contrary to the laws of mind, and God is glorified in this--that though
   His children are thus tempted, they do not run into fatal
   soul-destroying sin! They do not go into such apostasy from Him as
   would be final and prove altogether destructive.

   They are kept by His gracious power--kept as men--drawn, but with cords
   of love--bound, but with the bands of a man. Do you object that "good
   men fall?" Good men do not fall so as to perish. Good men do fall, for
   they are men! The old nature is in them. But, the truly gracious man
   with all his sins, repents, still believes, and with broken bones goes
   back to his Lord and proves himself to be still a child. The sheep may
   fall into a ditch--it will not roll in the mire as a hog would if it
   fell there. A sheep, even when it falls into a ditch, proves that it is
   a sheep, still. There is a difference in the nature of it.

   When I have seen a child of God fall into sin, I have known that if he
   were a child of God he would hate himself for it, he would grieve over
   it, and could not be at peace and ease in it. Do you tell me of a
   Christian who lived in sin and seemed very happy? Be sure that he was
   not a Christian but a pretender! He who can continue in sin and delight
   in it is no child of God! He that can go day after day into vice or can
   tolerate in himself any known sin has a spot which is not the spot of
   God's children. He has a mark upon him which never was and never shall
   be upon a truly quickened child of God! "Be you holy, for I am holy,"
   is the voice which sounds in the saint's ear, and if he does not always
   obey it as he should, this is the complaining of his soul--and it makes
   him go weeping and lamenting before his God. But still, in the main, it
   ever shall be the righteous shall hold on his way, and he that has
   clean hands shall wax stronger and stronger.

   I have one word for any here who are unconverted but would desire
   salvation. Do you know, dear Friends, that one of the great leading
   thoughts of my young life, the master thought that brought me to the
   Savior, was belief in the

   doctrine of final perseverance? Perhaps you wonder how that could be,
   but so it was. I saw while yet I was a lad many promising boys and lads
   who made total shipwreck early in their lives by falling into gross
   vices. I felt in my soul a loathing of the sins which I heard they had
   committed. I had been kept from them by Divine counsels, by gracious
   interpositions, by parental teaching and by pious example. Still I
   feared lest the sins into which these young men had fallen might master
   me. Such knowledge as I had of the depravity of my own heart led me to
   distrust myself.

   I was convinced that unless I was converted, born-again, and received
   the new life, I had no safeguard. Whatever good resolutions I might
   make, the probabilities were they would be good for nothing when
   temptation assailed me. I might be like those of whom it has been said,
   "They see the devil's hook and yet cannot help nibbling at his bait."
   But, that I should morally disgrace myself as some had done whom I had
   known and heard of, was a hazard from the very thought of which I
   shrunk with horror. When I heard and read with wondering eyes that
   whoever believed in Christ Jesus should be saved, the Truth of God came
   to my heart with a welcome I cannot describe to you. The doctrine that
   He would keep the feet of His saints had a charm, indeed, for me!

   I thought, "Then if I go to Jesus and get from Him a new heart and a
   right spirit, I shall be secured against these temptations into which
   others have fallen. I shall be preserved by Him." I do not say that
   drove me to Christ--a sense of sin did that--but it attracted me to
   Him. It was one of the beauties of His face that ravished me--that He
   was a faithful Keeper of all souls that were committed to Him--that He
   was able and willing to take the young man and make him cleanse his way
   and keep him even to the end! O young people, there is no life
   assurance like a believing in Jesus Christ!--

   "Grace shall preserve your following years, And make your virtues
   strong."

   I do not preach to you, tonight, a sandy foundation that will give way
   under your feet, but a Rock to which you may continually retreat--in
   which you may always dwell secure. I do not present to you a salvation
   that may fail you under some stress of temptation, but a salvation that
   is strong, having in it "the sure mercies of David." He that believes
   and is baptized shall be saved--saved from sinning, from the guilt as
   well as the punishment of sin, and brought to Heaven holy and meet for
   the inheritance of the saints. God grant you to Believers in Christ.
   Amen, and amen!
     __________________________________________________________________

Untrodden Ways

   (No. 1057)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JUNE 23, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "For you have not passed this way before." Joshua 3:4.

   THEY had come out of Egypt. They had gone up and down in the
   wilderness, but they had never before crossed the Jordan. It was new
   ground to them, a new difficulty, and a new series of events lay before
   them. As a fresh emergency had arisen, they had new orders direct from
   the Lord, their leader, and Joshua and his officers were busy going
   throughout the host to communicate the Divine directions. Beloved, when
   it shall be our lot to come into new positions we shall always obtain
   renewed guidance from the Spirit of God if we will but wait upon Him
   for it and cry, "Show me Your way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain
   path."

   It is a most important matter with all of us who are Believers in
   Christ that our faith should be in a thoroughly sound condition. It is
   not only grievous to ourselves, but dishonoring to God when our faith
   falls to a low ebb. To see a distrustful Christian is to see a man who
   is robbing God of His Glory. Since the Holy Spirit so vehemently cries,
   "Comfort you, comfort you My people; speak comfortably to Jerusalem,"
   we may safely come to the conclusion that it is solemnly important that
   the saints should be comforted, and that for them to lose their comfort
   is a very grievous thing. He glorifies God most whose faith staggers
   least. To maintain faith in full vigor is, therefore, a most important
   matter.

   Now there is one very severe trial of faith which will happen to us
   all, and probably has already occurred to most of us. It is that of a
   change of trials, a passing into new territory, an entrance into novel
   circumstances. There is a conservative tendency about most of us so
   that we build our nest and would gladly live and die in it. Even if we
   are ill at ease in our present circumstances, this feeling--

   "Makes us rather bear the ills we have Than fly to others that we kno w
   not of." Some spirits are given to change and would almost leap from
   the pan into the fire, but others of us take root deeply and dread
   transplanting. We know the present and we dread the unknown tomorrow.
   We are familiar with wilderness tribulations, but we shudder at the
   Jordan which lies before us and the giants and the chariots of iron
   which are yet to be encountered.

   We are not given to change, but are far more likely to settle upon our
   lees. We would gladly abide where we are and make no experiment of
   novel circumstances. This principle is so strongly developed in certain
   minds that they have even been afraid to learn Truths of God which are
   new to them! From the milk diet of their spiritual infancy they are
   unwilling to be weaned even though strong meat awaits them. They were
   not taught certain sublime Truths in their early days, and therefore
   they wish not to be instructed now. Like the aged man in Solomon's
   proverb, they are afraid of that which is high.

   The doctrine of Election--they see how full of comfort it is, but not
   having heard it preached before, they feel afraid to hear it and accept
   it. That "wine on the lees well refined" they will not drink, because
   up to now it has not been poured into their cup. We have known such
   persons to be suspicious of spiritual attainments--they have been
   victims of doubts and fears so long that they are now afraid to
   believe! As for full Assurance, they are as much alarmed at it as if it
   were a crime rather than a Divine Grace! They regard it as dangerous
   presumption, and put it far from them. Holy courage, brave reliance
   upon God, fervent zeal, confidence in prayer, unspeakable joy--these
   and such like blessings are to their timorous souls perilous things
   which had better be let alone.

   The high attainments which some of God's people have possessed of
   access to the Throne of Grace, of close communion with God, of insight
   into the secrets of the Lord--those things our dear Brothers and
   Sisters have thought to be too good for them, too precious for present
   enjoyment--and they have even suspected that those who profess to

   enjoy them were likely to have been deceived, or were carried away by
   carnal excitement! Because they have not yet gathered the grapes of
   Eshcol, they will not believe that such clusters exist! Because they
   have not passed this way before, they doubt whether there is, indeed, a
   highway of holiness undisturbed by ravenous beasts.

   This fear of that which is new is more powerful, still, when we are
   called to enter upon new labors. We become accustomed to our present
   service, which at first was difficult--continual exercise in it has
   made it easy to us--and, therefore, when the Lord calls us to something
   else, we are afraid to venture. We feel as if we were quite competent
   for the work we are now doing, whereas we ought to know that even
   there, "our sufficiency is of God," and we are not able, even in that,
   to do anything of ourselves. But we are afraid to sail upon seas which
   we have never navigated before, even though our unerring Pilot steers
   the ship in that direction! Like Jonah, we would sooner go to Tarshish
   than bear testimony for God in the streets of Nineveh. And, like the
   man of God at Horeb, we complain that we stammer and are slow of
   speech, and we are ready to forego the honor of the Lord's service if
   we may escape its responsibilities.

   Ah, dear Brethren, this is of the flesh! It is altogether contrary to
   the course of faith! Yet how frequent a temptation it is with the
   people of God! And, Beloved, when this fear takes the shape of a
   foreboding of coming trial it is even more common and crushing. We have
   sometimes to look forward to a period of sickness. Already it may be
   the disease has commenced to prey upon us--already consumption has
   weakened our strength by the way. Or a more acutely painful disease is
   tearing at our vitals, and therefore we naturally expect that month
   after month our pain will greatly increase and come to an alarming
   height.

   When death appears to be near we persist in imagining that there is
   something terrible about departure out of this world unto the Father.
   Though tens of thousands of Christians have passed away with songs upon
   their lips, yet we are still afraid to ford the stream--though Jordan's
   banks have been made to ring ten thousands of times with triumphant
   shouts--yet still we linger shivering there and think it a dreadful
   thing to die! Forebodings, then, of pain, decay, and death too often
   haunt us because we have not passed that way before. To many the fear
   of poverty is very bitter, they dread the infirmities of old age. They
   are dismayed in prospect of the desertion of friends, or the loss of
   beloved relatives in whom their heart is wrapped up.

   All these things, because as yet we are new to them, are apt to
   exercise an influence over our faith of the saddest kind. To help those
   who are so exercised shall be my aim this morning, hoping that the Lord
   may have sent by me comfort for His mourners to make the faces of His
   afflicted to shine. First, we shall utter certain words by way of
   consolation. Then, others by way of instruction. And, lastly, a few
   more by way of exciting expectation.

   I. First, let us consider thoughts suggestive of CONSOLATION. Let us
   turn first to the case of the children of Israel. They were certainly
   where they had never been before. With the exception of Joshua and
   Caleb, none of them had even passed the Red Sea. They were a fresh
   generation, born in the wilderness, so that they had not the
   recollections of the Red Sea as a preparation for their present
   circumstances.

   They saw before them, now, a river which was full to the brim, owing to
   the melting of the snows of Lebanon. It was both deep and broad--how
   were they to cross it? They had no apparatus, there was not a boat in
   all their tents. Suppose they did cross it--there was a walled city
   within view frowning upon them on the other side--and behind the walls
   were many powerful and ferocious enemies. Suppose they should conquer
   the men of Jericho--the whole land was full of cities equally strong,
   "walled up to Heaven" they said, and therefore, apparently impregnable.
   Their case was one that might naturally excite a thousand fears--but
   faith drove all fears away.

   God sent them His consoling Word at the time when their faith was about
   to be tried, and, sustained by its power, they did not show the
   slightest sign of wishing to turn back--they advanced straight on at
   God's bidding, and the Lord came to their rescue by drying up the
   river, casting down the walls of Jericho, routing their adversaries,
   and ultimately giving them the whole of the land from Dan to Beersheba
   as their inheritance! Now, are you in such a case as that? Are you just
   now where you have never been before as to trial? Are the demands upon
   your strength heavier than at any former period of your life?

   Is there now a tax upon your faith such as never exercised it before?
   Come, then, let us talk together, and may the words be words of
   comfort! Remember, whether your way in Providence is new or old, it is
   not a way of your own appointing. A higher power than yours has led you
   to your present place! The people of Israel could have said, "We
   removed from this place to that, and from that to the next, but we
   never went without being led on by the fiery cloudy

   pillar. And here we are just at the brink of Jordan, but we did not
   come here in a willful spirit--we were guided here-- Jehovah Himself
   went before us!"

   Feeling this they felt secure, and we may unite with them. Surely the
   Lord cannot make mistakes! Eternal Wisdom cannot err! Your path, my
   dear Brother, and the path of all the saints has ever been directed by
   the unerring skill of the great Father and therefore it must be right!
   Providence cannot have placed us in a wrong position--it must be right
   for us to be just where we are! Yes, though armed men were binding us
   to cast us into Nebuchadnezzar's furnace, heated seven times hotter
   than before, we are in the right place if God has brought us there! He
   has never erred yet--either in guiding a star in its orbit, or in
   directing the chaff from the winnower's hand--and He cannot err in
   steering the course of one of His people!

   "Say you unto the righteous it shall be well with him," for, "the steps
   of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and He delights in his way." "My
   times are in Your hands." Desperate, therefore, though your position
   may appear to the eye of fear, yet faith knows that God has put you in
   the best possible position for you to be in at this moment. If it were
   better, taking everything into account, for you to be in Heaven today
   than where you are, you would be there! God will do the best possible
   thing for His people. If it were better for them that there should be
   no devil and no death, there should be neither devil nor death, but to
   Heaven should they be caught up at once! Infinite, unspeakable,
   boundless love arranges all our pathways, and infinite wisdom joins in
   the decree.

   Note, again, your present pathway is new to you, but it is not new to
   your God. Everything that happens today, or will happen tomorrow is new
   to us because we can only live in the present moment. And even though
   we endeavor to project ourselves a little forward, yet it is generally
   in a wrong fashion, so that we do not see the truth of coming events,
   seeing not, but only imagining that we see. But all things are present
   to the eye of God. Tomorrow--there is no such thing with Jehovah.
   Yesterday--there is no such thing! Past, present, future--these are
   human words! "Now" is God's word, and it comprehends all!

   He who should look upon a country from a star, taking a bird's-eye
   view, would have all parts equally before him while he who traverses it
   with a slow step leaves a portion of the territory behind him, and
   another part is yet before him. So is it with man. Creeping like an
   insect from leaf to leaf, he leaves something behind, and has something
   yet before-- but God looking down upon all things at once, serenely
   fills His own eternal "NOW," and sees our ages pass! The peculiar
   troubles of today, which are exercising you, dear child of God, your
   heavenly Father was cognizant of 10,000 years ago! And nothing about
   them comes upon Him by surprise!

   The Lord has no emergencies. He is never at the end of His resources. O
   Beloved, it makes my heart smile while I mention such a notion! It is a
   childish folly, indeed, to think that the infinite God who fills all,
   and sustains all, can ever meet with anything that to Him shall be
   difficult! Rest, then, O fellow Pilgrim, in this confidence, that the
   new road to you is an old road to God!

   Moreover, there is one view of this thought which ought to be very
   encouraging to the sorrowful, namely, that He who is at your Father's
   side, the Man of Love, the Crucified, has, in His practical sympathy
   with you, actually walked this pathway of yours. That God has seen it
   is consoling, but that Christ has walked it is richest comfort!--

   "In every pang that rends the heart The Man of Sorrows bears His part."
   You may see all along the way the blood-stained footsteps of Him who
   gave His feet to the nails. Right down to Jordan's brink, and through
   the flood and up the far shore there are the marks of the goings of Him
   who loved the sons of men and bore their sorrows in His own Person for
   their sakes! Courage, my Brothers and Sisters--where Jesus has been we
   may go.

   He leads us through no darker places than He went through before, and
   His having gone through them has sown them with light. We thought them
   novel places of trial, but they are no longer so since our Covenant
   Head has traversed them. Remember, also, the trials which seem new to
   us are not new to God's people. Joshua said to the tribes, "You have
   not passed this way before"--but their forefathers had gone through the
   Red Sea, which was much the same thing--and perhaps on a greater scale
   still. Do not, therefore, say or imagine that your woes are peculiar.
   Others have suffered as much as you are enduring. Ask your fathers, the
   elders of the Christian Church, whether these griefs of yours are new,
   and they will smile and tell you that they have done business in the
   same deep waters and that the waves and billows

   which go over you have also covered their heads. Dream not that a
   strange thing has happened to you. If it is strange to you it is only
   to you strange, for the rest of God's saints have suffered the same.

   But suppose our position should be new, the labor new, the affliction
   new--it is no sort of reason why it should be any more dangerous. It is
   folly to be alarmed at new things because they are new. There may be
   less danger, my dear Brother, after all, in the trial you dread than in
   that which you are bearing today. You dread poverty, do you? It is an
   evil, but it may not be such an evil as that which at this present
   moment bows your spirit down. Care to keep abundance is more gnawing to
   the heart than the scantiness of penury. Poverty in the experience of
   God's people has proved to be an evil in the midst of which men are
   capable of great rejoicing!

   You tremble at approaching sickness. But perhaps there will come with
   the sickness such joy unspeakable to your soul, that the spiritual joy
   will far outweigh the increased bodily infirmity. It is clear, then,
   that a change is not always for the worse, and altered circumstances do
   not necessarily involve more burdens. Your trial is new, but not,
   therefore, the more perilous. Go on, and be not alarmed! And suppose
   that being new, it were dangerous--one thing is very clear, namely,
   that fear will not diminish the danger! To fret, and worry, and
   mistrust--will that prepare you for what is coming? Will it help you to
   lie on the sick bed and be patient if you now begin to fret because you
   are going to be bedridden? Will it aid you to die to begin this day to
   "feel a thousand deaths in fearing one?"

   No, Brothers and Sisters, if the worst comes to the worst, nothing can
   sharpen your sword so well for battle as faith in the ever-living God.
   What if I must weep tomorrow? Yet will I sing today, and perhaps my
   song will gather such force that some of its stanzas will carry over to
   tomorrow, and I may sweeten my sighs with my Psalms. While we may, let
   us rejoice in the Lord and not begin to exercise ourselves about unborn
   troubles.

   I saw in the monastery of the monks of La Trappe a few days ago, a
   grave which they had dug in their garden. Not that any one of them was
   dead, but it was a profitable and amusing exercise to take a turn at
   digging the grave of some friend who might die. A happy family, truly,
   in which the brothers have a grave in readiness for the next who shall
   depart! I would like to have filled the hole up at once, for surely it
   is time enough to dig graves when our friends are dead, and even so it
   is time enough to prepare for troubles when troubles come. "Sufficient
   unto the day is the evil thereof is the voice of Inspiration. Let us
   not import from tomorrow the miseries which God has mercifully screened
   us from today.

   Further considerations may also console us. In the past and up to this
   moment we have found our God to be faithful to us. These present
   crosses which are now upon our shoulders, we say we would rather always
   bear them than have new crosses, but is this wise? Do you not remember
   when these very crosses were, themselves, new? They fit our shoulders
   now--somehow or other we have adapted our back to the burden, or God
   has adapted the burden to our back, and we do not like changing the
   load--though a few years ago we were just as reluctant to bear it! Our
   present crosses were new once, and God gave us strength to carry them.

   Today's grief will only be new for today and for a little time to come.
   It will soon grow old, if we live long enough, and we shall become as
   used to the new trial as to the old. As today we have learned to wing
   our way joyously under the broiling sun of summer, so by-and-by we
   shall sit upon the bare bough in the desolate winter and cheerfully
   sing of the coming of spring. Press on, press on, you warriors of the
   Cross! The new foes shall be as the old. The novelty of sorrow is but
   of the hour--the hour will wear it out as it wears out itself--and we
   shall receive strength to bear up under all.

   Moreover, beloved Friends, should we become distrustful while passing
   by a way which we have never trod before if we remembered that progress
   implies a change of difficulties and trials? Who wants to be like a
   blind horse going round a mill forever and ever, feeling the lash of
   the same whip at the same place, and dragging the same machinery round
   without advancing? No, let us advance! And what if in going on we meet
   with sterner trials? Then so let it be, for we shall receive richer
   Grace! Towards the Heaven of God we vehemently desire to make progress
   by His Grace.

   The trials of manhood are not at all the same as those of a child.
   There are diseases of childhood from which we are quite free when we
   come to manhood--and there are difficulties and trials both of the body
   and of the mind which will come upon us in riper years which children
   know not--yet we are very glad to get out of childhood and into
   manhood! When a stroke means knighthood no one wishes to avoid it, and
   if trial brings higher degrees of Grace, who desires to shirk it?
   Perhaps I would weary you were I to continue much longer in this
   strain, but let me remind you that if there come new trials they
   generally end the old ones.

   It is quite certain that if we are troubled with a west wind, if a
   rough east wind should blow, we shall not be troubled with the west
   wind any longer. Heat and cold will not both torment us at the same
   moment. When the children of Israel were in the desert they had one set
   of trials--there was the hot sand beneath their feet, and the
   Amalekites pursuing them and attacking them. And, therefore, at any
   rate whatever there might be in Canaan, they would be out of the desert
   and away from desert inconveniences. If they had the Gergashites to
   fight with there would be no Amalekites. So there is something of gain
   to be set over against any possible loss. Let every child of God
   remember that.

   When the Lord calls us to a change of position and brings out a new
   burden, He removes the older one. We shall not, tomorrow, be pressed
   with the weight of today. I do not know what my trials may be seven
   years from now, but I do know that the trials of the month of June,
   1872, will not, then, disturb me. When we bow beneath the infirmities
   of age, we may rest assured that we shall not be annoyed by the
   temptations of boyhood, nor molested by the vexations of middle life.
   In advancing there are prospects of gain as well as of loss.

   Moreover, although we have not passed this way before, the path runs in
   the right direction. The children of Israel had their faces set towards
   the Promised Land. If they had been called to cross a Jordan which led
   them into the bondage of Egypt, there would have been something to
   distress them--but they were traveling to the land of brooks and rivers
   which flowed with milk and honey! Men of faith among them would say,
   one to another, "We pitched our tent each night all through the
   wilderness a day's march nearer to our rest, and now there is only one
   more day between us and the land of promise, therefore let us not
   fear."

   How brave they must have felt when Canaan was just in view. Courage,
   Brothers and Sisters! The way may be rough to us, but it is the King's
   highway, leading to the New Jerusalem--

   "Yet the dear path to Your abode

   Lies through this horrid land,

   Lord, we would keep the heavenly road,

   And run at Your command.

   Our souls shall tread the desert through

   With undiverted feet,

   And faith and flaming zeal subdue

   The terrors that we meet.

   Our journey is a thorny maze,

   But we march upward still.

   Forget the troubles of the way,

   And reach at Zion's hill."

   II. In the second place a few sentences of INSTRUCTION. How shall a man
   be guided when he comes to a way which he has not passed before? When
   our way is devoid of familiar footprints, what shall we do? The first
   instruction is this-- be most concerned to hear the Word of the Lord
   and obey it. Notice that this chapter seems taken up with, "The Lord
   said unto Joshua," and, "Joshua said unto the people of Israel." It
   must have struck you, in reading it, that it is full of

   commands.

   The only details are the taking up of the stones of memorial, heaping
   them on the shore, and the setting up of other stones in the
   Jordan--otherwise, all the verses are repeated commands from the Lord,
   and the record of the nation's obedience to them, from which we may
   gather that in time of trouble our chief enquiry ought not to be--"How
   should we get through this?" but, "What is our duty while we are in
   it?" "How would God have us act under these circumstances?" Depend upon
   it, there is no temptation more perilous than that of supposing that
   self-preservation screens us from duty, and that obedience may be
   suspended while we provide for ourselves.

   Remember the words of the hymn--

   "'Tis mine to obey; 'tis His to provide." Would you take the Lord's
   work into your own hands? You cannot do it! Attend to your own. If you
   were at this very moment in the worst trouble that ever befell a son of
   Adam, I do not believe wiser advice could be given to you than
   this--"Trust in the Lord and do good, so shall you dwell in the land,
   and verily you shall be fed." Be it yours to hear what God, the Lord,
   shall speak, and to do what He bids you--all will come right, then. The
   chief point in every dilemma is to wait till you hear the Master's
   voice.

   The next instruction is to distinctly recognize the Presence of the
   Covenant God of Israel with you. The Ark which went before the people
   had three-fourths of a mile of distance between it and the people in
   order that they might see it, because had they been nearer to it the
   front rank might have seen it, but the rest would not. But now there
   was a space put between it and the people that they all might see it
   before them as they went on their march. We never travel so sweetly
   over the rough ways of this life as when we see that God, the living
   God, the God of the Covenant, the God of the Mercy Seat, the God of our
   Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the God of the reconciliation by blood is
   with us and fulfilling His promise, "I will never leave you nor forsake
   you."

   Is God with us? What more do we need? Omniscience, Omnipotence, and
   infinite Love--are all these leading the van? Then we will not fear to
   follow, though it were into Hades itself--for if Jehovah led the way
   His saints would be safe, even there. Treasure that up! Do not think so
   much of the presence of friends in trouble as the Presence of God in
   trouble. "Fear not"--what is the next word?--"I am with you: be not
   dismayed." What is the next sentence? "I am your God." The richest
   consolation you can have is that which is derived from the Presence of
   the Lord God of the Covenant!

   Note the third instruction. Dismiss from your soul the anxiety which
   arises from the idea that you are the keeper of the Divine life within
   your soul. "Strange instruction," you say. Yes, but let me explain it.
   When the children of Israel marched through the wilderness, some tribes
   were before and some were behind the Ark, as if they were guarding it.
   But on this occasion the Ark went far ahead of them, as though God had
   said, "You, My people, are no protection to Me! I guard you." Now in
   the time of danger the priests who carry the Ark advance into the very
   teeth of the enemy and into the bed of the Jordan--and there they
   stand, as though the eternal God threw down the gauntlet to all the
   hosts of Canaan and said, "Come and contest it with Me if you can. I
   have left My people behind. I alone will meet you. I have come up
   alone, unattended, and I defy you all."

   It will often happen that in the time of trouble our worst fear is
   this--"I am so afraid that I shall not be able to preserve the Grace of
   God in my heart." Get rid of that, dear Brother, for the right question
   is not will you preserve the Grace of God, but will the Grace of God
   preserve you! Man, be assured of this--God's Grace will take care of
   him upon whom it lights. There may be a sense in which we are to
   preserve the Divine life, for there is a watchfulness which each man
   must render to his own soul--but far higher, and above that, is the
   truth that the Lord is our Keeper, the Lord is our Shield upon our
   right hand. The Lord Himself will go before you! He shall cover you
   with His feathers, and under His wings shall you trust! And instead of
   saying in such a trial, "Shall I be able to keep the Grace I have?"
   rather say, "I have received the Grace of God, and it will sustain me
   and make me more than conqueror."

   As further instructions let me briefly say, Beloved, if you are now
   about to enter into a great trouble, do not hurry, make no rash haste.
   We often, when we are afraid of a thing, dash into it like a moth
   dazzled by the candle's flame. We become so disturbed in our minds that
   we do not act wisely and prudently, but fall into that haste which
   brings no good speed. The children of Israel did not rush pell-mell to
   Jordan to swim across, but they waited while the priests went on before
   and tarried till the Ark stood still in the midst of Jordan. Everything
   was done deliberately. Ask Grace to do the same. Be calm. If the Grace
   of God does not make us calm in the time of peril and suffering, we
   have some reason to question whether it is healthily operating upon our
   spirits at all.

   But next, while you do not hurry, do not hesitate. Not one man of all
   the tribes said, "I must wait and see others cross and know whether the
   road is really open." At the moment the trumpets sounded the advance
   they all went on, asking no questions. A brave man, that first priest
   must have been who went right up to the brink of Jordan and put down
   his foot! It must have been a noble sight to see the water suddenly
   roll right away in curling waves till it made a great wall of sparkling
   crystal up towards the right. He was a brave man who stepped there,
   first, and passed along the novel way which God had newly fashioned!
   His was the first foot which had trodden the bottom of that ancient
   river, the river Jordan. Be brave, also, my dear Brothers and Sisters,
   and go straight on, though it were a river of fire instead of water. If
   Jehovah bids you, the way is right--hesitate not!

   There is one instruction which we must not omit, because it is put by
   itself for special observance--it is this, "sanctify yourselves."
   Whenever we are in new trials a voice speaks out of them, saying,
   "Sanctify yourselves." I suppose the Israelites washed themselves with
   water and practiced the ceremonial rights which made them clean. So the
   child of God should come afresh in time of trouble to the precious
   blood of Christ. He should also ask for Grace that he may purge out the
   old leaven. Our trials are not punishments--for all the punishment of
   sin was laid on Christ--and God

   will not punish us for whom Jesus was a Substitute. But they are sent
   as paternal chastisements and also as loving hints and indications to
   us that there is something in us to be put away. What is the voice of
   your present trial, Beloved? What is the voice of the trial that you
   are dreading?

   I cannot interpret its special note, but I know that its general
   meaning is this, "Sanctify yourselves." Do we expect, soon, to be laid
   aside from active service? Then let us work for Jesus while we can! Do
   we reckon upon a speedy death? Then let us, with both hands, serve the
   Master in the vineyard while life remains in us. May we be more than
   ever set apart unto God? If we expect poverty or desertion of men, we
   may feel that the Lord is weaning us from the poor dainties of earth
   that He may fill us with the ineffable delights of Heaven. "Sanctify
   yourselves." That is the voice of God to every man who is led by a way
   which he has not passed before.

   III. Lastly, a few sentences by way of exciting EXPECTATION. Before us
   rolls this river, full to its brim. Beyond the river, contention and
   strife await us. Let us lift up our hearts to God and trust Him, and
   what shall then happen? Why, first, we shall discern the Presence of
   the living God! Did you notice in this chapter how Joshua puts it in
   the 10th verse? "Hereby shall you know that the living God is among
   you." The men of this world have no living God. They will hardly endure
   the name of God!

   They talk of nature, the forces of nature, the laws of nature, and so
   on. They have banished the Lord from their philosophy. I am afraid
   there are some professing Christians with whom things go so smoothly
   that they seldom recognize the hand of the living God. Now, O tried
   Believer, that you are coming into a new trouble, will you know that
   there is a God, a God who acts, a God who interposes for His people and
   actually works for them! We have not a God who will hear and then
   refuse to put out His hand to help us--who will look upon us--but will
   not come to our succor. You might have continued in your present
   circumstances without discovering what you know now, namely, that the
   Lord whom you serve will deliver you with a high hand and with an
   outstretched arm! Anything which gives us an opportunity to see our God
   is worth having! Even the light of the fiery furnace, if no other light
   can reveal that Fourth who is like the Son of God, is a precious light!
   It is worth while treading the blazing coals to have a visit and a
   sight of that mysterious but beloved Personage! Thank God that trouble
   is coming, for now, as through a glass, shall you behold the Glory of
   the Lord!

   What next will happen? Why, in all probability the difficulty in your
   way will cease to be--for while the children of Israel saw the living
   God, they also saw a totally new and wonderful phenomenon. The Red Sea,
   it is true, had been dried up, but that generation had not seen it! It
   was a new thing to them when the river Jordan was made dry for them to
   march through it. I have seen in my short life some very singular and
   remarkable things, but I cannot now narrate them. I have often heard
   persons say, in reading, "Huntington's Bank of Faith," that it was a
   Bank of Nonsense. I do not believe it. I think there is much in that
   that any Christian man could have written, and I believe that if many
   of us were to detail our experiences, they would be quite as wonderful,
   even though many would say of them, "We cannot believe it, there must
   be some coloring about it."

   The writings of novelists are not one half as interesting as the actual
   lives of Christians would be if they were written out at length. God
   does interfere in ways which could not have been prognosticated by
   those who best understand the science of probabilities. You do not know
   what is going to happen--a trouble is coming, it will come--but there
   will come with it a mercy which will swallow it up. "The flood," you
   say, "the flood is before me, it overflows its banks." It is there and
   yet it is not there, for lo, when you shall come to it, it shall have
   disappeared--

   "You fearful saints, fresh courage take,

   The clouds you so much dread

   Are big with mercy, and shall break

   In blessings on your head."

   It has been well up till now. It shall be well to the end. You have not
   a changing God to deal with--remember that! Shall the God of our
   childhood, who nursed us when we could not help ourselves, leave us
   when we come to second childhood? God forbid! Shall He who loved us
   before the world was leave us when we come into peril? It cannot be!
   "Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have
   compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, they may forget, yet will I not
   forget you." Rest assured of this, that God has resources you have
   never dreamed of and difficulties shall only put you into a position to
   see new displays of Jehovah's power and Grace!

   God flings down the challenge every day to Satan and to sin, and says,
   "Here is My child. I put him in a new position today--see if you can
   overcome him now." Tomorrow God will issue the same challenge, and so
   on to the end. Perhaps this new trouble has come because Satan has
   said, "Put forth now, Your hand and touch his bone, and his flesh, and
   he will curse You to Your face." But God is saying, "Try him, try him,"
   only with this view, that He may get glory by causing our weakness to
   overcome all the strength of Hell through Divine Grace!

   Is this all that we have to expect? No, Beloved, we shall see such
   deliverances that we shall be prepared for future trials. Observe
   this--Joshua said, "Hereby you shall know that the living God is among
   you, and that He will without fail drive out from before you the
   Canaanites and the Hittites." Sometimes a trouble, when we are
   marvelously brought through it, becomes a kind of stock-in-trade for
   us. We look back upon it when the next affliction comes and we say,
   "No, I am not afraid. The God who helped me on that occasion can help
   me now." How we may bless God for great afflictions, for now all that
   are coming will be little troubles in comparison!

   He has brought us through the Jordan! Come on, you Hivites! Come on,
   you Jebusites! Come on, you Gergashites! Behold how God has given you
   as driven stubble to our bow! He will drive you before us and say,
   Destroy them, for He who divides the Jordan is a God with whom nothing
   is impossible! Be glad then, Beloved, if the Lord strangely exercises
   you. He is trying your muscles and bracing them up for greater feats.
   As sacred athletes you shall do marvelously in the presence of that
   crowd of witnesses who compass you about. Rejoice and be glad that thus
   the Lord prepares you more fully to glorify His name!

   Lastly, and this is best of all, and will please the children of God
   most--all that is coming to you will magnify Jesus in your eyes! On
   that day when Israel went through the river, God began to magnify
   Joshua--and oh, when we pass through deep waters of affliction, how the
   Lord magnifies His Son Jesus in our souls! Jesus is very dear to every
   child of God, but to the most tried He is the most precious. You who
   have had Him with you when everyone else has left you know what a dear
   Friend He is! You who have been nursed by Him when your bones have come
   through your skin know what a beloved Physician He is!

   You who have been succored, and fed, and led and guided by Him when all
   around has been a wilderness to you know what a good Shepherd He is!
   And you who have been upon the brink of death and have seen all things
   melt away know how blessedly He is Immortality and Life, and what a
   fullness dwells in Him sufficient to fill the soul when all created
   joys are gone! O Lord God, if it will magnify Jesus, do what You will
   with Your people! Not one of us would flinch and try to make provision
   for the flesh if Jesus can be made great! For any other reason less
   than this we would not say as much--but for Jesus' Glory, for the
   magnifying of His name--if only You will give us strength we will not
   dread martyrdom though it is by fire!

   Anything for Jesus! Everything for Jesus! Does not your heart say so,
   my Brothers and Sisters? I know it does if you are loyal to your
   Savior, and, therefore, today you will shoulder the new cross--you will
   grasp the fresh weapons of the changed warfare--you will take up the
   new tools in a fresh corner of the vineyard, though "you have not gone
   this way before." If it is for Jesus' honor for us to advance, who
   desires to loiter? "Forward," then, is the message of today to all the
   soldiers of Christ. Great Joshua, lead the way! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

No Quarter

   (No. 1058)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JUNE 30, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Elijah said unto them, take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them
   escape," 1 Kings 18:40.

   ELIJAH may be called the Iron Prophet. He was a stern and brave man who
   flinched not to deliver his Master's message at all hazards. It was
   right that such a man should be raised up just at that time, for the
   Sidonian queen, Jezebel, was a woman of imperious spirit, superstitious
   to the last degree and resolute in carrying out her will. She ruled
   King Ahab with sovereign sway and had issued her mandate that the
   Prophets of Jehovah should be slain--a mandate which was all too well
   obeyed. None could stand before this tigress until Elijah came and
   dared her malice to do its worst. That lone man, of heroic soul,
   stemmed the fearful torrent of idolatry and like a rock in mid-current,
   firmly stood his ground. He, alone and single-handed, was more than a
   match for all the priests of the palace and the groves, even as one
   lion scatters a flock of sheep.

   On the occasion of our text, you will remember that he had proved the
   prophets of Baal to be liars and pretenders, and then, like a practical
   man as he was, he went on to the natural conclusion. The Law of Israel
   was, "The prophet which shall presume to speak a word in My name, which
   I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of
   other gods, even that prophet shall die." And, therefore, the case
   being proven before all men, Elijah became, himself, the executioner.
   He bade the people seize the impostors and he himself purpled the
   Kishon with their blood. "Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of
   them escape," was the thundering voice of the Prophet of fire. The man
   did his Master's will thoroughly, never dreaming of compromise.

   Perhaps it was for this reason that he, with but one other of woman
   born, ascended to Heaven by an unusual road. The God who made him so
   grandly faithful had determined that he who passed through the world
   differently from other men should pass out of it differently, and he
   who had in life flamed like a seraph, should in a chariot of fire be
   carried to his reward. I am not, however, about to go further into the
   details of that matter, but would seek instruction from its main idea.

   Brothers and Sisters, the spiritual teaching of such an utterance as
   this is far-reaching. There is a lesson in it which might be turned to
   many accounts, for like the cherubic sword at the gate of Eden, it
   turns every way. One use of it must suffice for this morning--but at
   the same time--as a hint of how it might be employed, we would observe
   that it has a distinct bearing upon the present condition of the Church
   of God. "Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape," is a
   voice which our cathedrals and parish Churches might be the better for
   hearing. Unholy compromises are the fashion of the day! An infusion of
   honest blood is needed, greatly needed. Men are growing utterly
   careless as to religious truth because they see the servants of God and
   the votaries of Baal associated in the same church, and worshipping at
   the same altars!

   Sincere loyalty to God brooks not this confederacy with idolaters.
   Errors were suffered to remain in the National Church for the sake of
   peace, and now they have become dominant and threaten to destroy the
   lovers of the Truth of God! It is now clear that every error of
   doctrine or ordinance is as mischievous as a prophet of Baal and should
   not be endured. The world is wide and men are only responsible to God
   for their beliefs--but the Church should not, within her borders,
   suffer falsehood to propagate itself. Christians have no right to
   associate themselves with any Church which errs in its teaching. If we
   see that gross error is rampant in a Church and we join it in
   membership, we are partakers of its sins--and we shall have to share in
   its punishment in the day of visitation. It is utterly false that it
   does not matter to what Church we belong!

   It matters to every man who has a conscience and loves his God. I dare
   not associate in Church fellowship with Ritualists and
   Rationalists--loyal subjects will not join the society of traitors.
   What a blessing it would have been in

   Luther's time if the Reformation had been carried out completely! Great
   as the work was, it was, in some points, a very superficial thing and
   left deadly errors untouched. The Reformation in England was checked by
   policy almost as soon as it commenced. Ours is a semi-popish Church! If
   in this country the axe had been laid to the root of the trees, as John
   Knox laid it in Scotland, we might have been spared a thousand evils!
   But now, the trees, which were only lopped, begin to send out their
   branches again and the errors which were allowed to occupy a secondary
   place by permission, now come to the front and threaten to thrust out
   the Truth of God altogether.

   The only way in which our conscience can be kept clear before God, so
   that we can walk with Him in light, is that we abhor every false way
   and renounce everything which is not of God and of the Truth. "To the
   Law and to the Testimony: if they speak not according to this Word, it
   is because there is no light in them." When will Christians see this?
   The Bible, and the Bible alone, is said to be the religion of
   Protestants, but the statement is a terrible lie! The most of
   Protestants believe a crowd of other things over and above what is
   taught in the Bible! They practice ordinances destitute of Scriptural
   authority and believe doctrines which are not revealed by the Holy
   Spirit. Happy will the Churches be when they shall cast off the yoke of
   all authority apart from the Scriptures and the Spirit!

   What have the Lord's free men to do with councils of the Church? With
   fathers and doctors, with tradition and custom? The true Church has but
   one Rabbi, and His Word suffices her. Away with the commandments of
   men! Down with the traditions which make void the Law of God. "Take the
   prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape." A thorough purgation is
   needed--a root and branch reformation is imperatively necessary. May
   the Lord send us a Prophet, clothed with the spirit and power of
   Elijah, by whom the fruitless and poisonous trees of error shall be
   hewn down and cast into the fire!

   I am not, however, about to speak upon that important subject. I need
   to carry fire and sword into another district where I trust the
   invasion will yield practical results. Let us look at home, searching
   our own hearts, testing our own souls. Our manhood is a triple
   kingdom--spirit, soul, and body are the United Kingdom of the Isle of
   Man--that kingdom ought to be wholly dedicated to the one God of
   Israel! But instead, sin has polluted it, and even where, by God's
   Grace, the reigning power of evil has been subdued, sin still intrudes
   and seeks to regain the mastery. The great Law of Christian life in
   regard to sin within ourselves is, "Take the prophets of Baal; let not
   one of them escape." We hold neither truce nor parley with
   iniquity--war to the knife against every sin of every sort should be
   the constant habit of the Christian man's innermost nature!

   I shall, this morning, only speak to the people of God. Let that be
   fully understood. I am not addressing myself now to unregenerate
   persons, to those who are not Believers in Jesus Christ. I should be
   foolish, indeed, if I were to exhort those who are dead in sin to fight
   with their sins in the hope of obtaining salvation--for that is not the
   way of salvation at all--even were they capable of it! Sinners must
   first be led to Christ and find saving Grace in Him by a look of faith!
   Faith is the first business, not works. To talk of good works before
   the new birth is to disregard the Divine order and put the last first.
   It is idle to talk of the duties of a Christian to a man who is not a
   Christian.

   To you unconverted hearers, the first, and for the present, the only
   work of God is that you believe in Jesus Christ whom He has sent.
   "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved," for, "he
   that believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believes not
   shall be damned." I address myself to only those who have believed--and
   upon them I would press home the clear, sharp, thorough counsel of the
   text. We shall give, first of all, reasons for the slaughter which we
   now command. Secondly, arguments for its thoroughness, "let not one
   escape." And then, thirdly, truths of practical value will be
   mentioned, to help us in carrying out the command.

   I. First, then, let us cite some REASONS FOR THE SLAUGHTER which we now
   advise. At the outset we remind you that our sins deserve to die, every
   one of them, because they are traitors to our God. Once we were
   traitors, too, and then we gave our sins a willing shelter. We
   conspired against the Majesty of Heaven, and, therefore, our
   transgressions were loved and pampered. They were our darlings and we
   doted on them.

   At this time, Beloved, the case is altered, the Lord Jehovah is our God
   and King--we delight in His reign--and our prayer is, "Let the whole
   earth be filled with His Glory." Our inbred sins would gladly rob the
   Lord of His Glory. Every sin is virtually an attack upon the Throne of
   the Most High. It is a treasonable assault upon the crown rights of
   Heaven.

   He who rebels against the Law of God by his breach of that law
   virtually says, "I will not have this Lawmaker to rule over me." It is
   not right then, O you children of the kingdom, that sin should be
   permitted to assail the Lord through

   you! It is not right that souls redeemed by the blood of Jesus, loved
   with an everlasting love and made secure of endless favor, should
   harbor those black and foul traitors--the sins of the flesh and of the
   mind! Let the decree go forth in the power of God the Holy Spirit this
   day to crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts! Take those
   foxes which spoil the vines and let not one of them escape!

   Let them be slain, secondly, because they have already done us infinite
   evil. In their assault upon God we have already found a master motive
   for their overthrow. Let us remember, also, that they have sorely
   injured us and our race. My Brethren, what has sin done for us? Can you
   point to any advantage or blessing with which it has enriched us? Look
   down the roll of history and see if sin is not man's worst enemy. Whose
   hot breath blasted Eden, withered all its bowers of bliss and caused
   the earth to become barren so that without labor even unto sweat she
   will not yield bread for our sustenance? Mark well yon innumerable
   graves which cover every plain with hillocks. Who slew all these?

   By what gate came Death into the world? Was not Sin the janitor to open
   the portal? Hearken at this moment to the shouts of war which in every
   age of the world's history have created a horrible din of groans of
   dying men and shrieks of flying women. Who first dipped yon flag in
   blood and made the air pestilent with carnage? And yonder despotic
   throne which has crushed down the multitude and made the lives of many
   bitter with hard bondage--who laid its dark foundations and cemented it
   with blood? From where came war with its carnage and tyranny with its
   sufferings? From where, indeed, but from the sins and lusts of men?

   All over the world, if there is hemlock in the furrow and thistles on
   the ridge, Sin's hand has sown them broadcast. Sin turned the apples of
   Sodom to ashes and the grapes of Gomorrah to gall. The trail of this
   serpent, with its horrid slime, has obliterated the footsteps ofjoy!
   Before the march of Sin I see the garden of the Lord, and behind it a
   desert and a morgue! Stay awhile. No, start not, but come with me. Look
   down into the ghastly gloom of Tophet, that abhorred region where dwell
   the finally impenitent who died with unforgiven sins upon their heads!
   Can you bear to hear their groans and moans of anguish? We will not
   attempt to describe the sufferings of spirits driven from their God,
   eternally banished from all hope and peace, but we will ask you, O
   Brothers and Sisters, who dug yon pit and cast men into it? Who
   provides the fuel for that terrible flame, and where gets the worm that
   dies not its tooth which never blunts?

   Sin has done it all! Sin, the mother of Hell, the fountain of fire to
   which we may trace each burning stream. O Sin, it is not right that any
   heir from Heaven, redeemed from Hell, should make friends with you!
   Shall we fondle the adder, or press the deadly cobra to our bosom? If
   it had not been for the Grace of God our sins would have shut us up in
   Hell already! And even now they seek to drag us there! Therefore let us
   take these enemies of our souls and slay them--let not one escape!

   But further, dear Brethren, it is right that every sin should die
   through the Grace of God, whether it is pride, or sloth, or
   covetousness, or worldliness, or lust, or any other form of evil. It is
   right that it should die because it will work us serious mischief if it
   is not put to death. Of great sins, as men think them, there is little
   need that I speak unto you for you all know how dangerous they are--but
   those called little sins are equally to be renounced! To fall by little
   and little is a terrible way of falling. A Christian cannot indulge a
   known sin and yet walk with God! As soon as we tolerate sin within
   ourselves we lose power in prayer. The Scriptures cease to be sweet to
   us when sin becomes pleasant. The services of the sanctuary are dull
   and lifeless when the heart is fascinated by evil.

   No tongue can ever tell what mischief a single sin will do to a
   professor--it is like the one worm at the root of Jonah's gourd. Take
   David's case--what a change came over the spirit of that man's life
   from the moment when he went astray! He reached Heaven, but how
   painfully he limped all the way there--and how heavily he groaned at
   every step! The songs he wrote before that time are frequently jubilant
   and often ring with the crash of the loud sounding cymbals! But after
   that the voice of the sweet singer of Israel is hoarse. He touches the
   mournful string and supplants the psaltery by the trombone. Sin broke
   that eagle wing and dimmed that eagle eye!

   Samson is a yet sadder case. Let his shorn locks and blind eyes speak
   to us. O Soul, if you would behold your worst enemies, look upon your
   sins! If you would see that which can straiten your soul's estate,
   bankrupt your heart of joy, shipwreck your assurance and kill your
   usefulness, you have only to look upon sin. Can't you see it? Its
   scales are bright with many colors, and its eye gleams with
   fascination, but its fangs are deadly. As Amalek was the remorseless
   foe of Israel, so is sin the pitiless enemy of the Believer. Therefore,
   to arms against it! Take all its children and let not one escape!

   These reasons might suffice to arouse us to the slaughter. Shall not
   traitors die? Shall not those who have compassed our ruin be put far
   from us? Shall not these insatiable adversaries who are swifter than
   eagles and stronger than lions to injure us--shall not these, I say--be
   resisted and overcome? Peace with them is not to be dreamed of! The
   Lord and His people shall have war with Amalek from generation to
   generation! Let not our heart incline to spare a single sin, but with a
   jealousy cruel as the grave let us hunt down these unclean beasts!

   I think when Elijah said, "Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of
   them escape," he derived an argument from the spot where the altar had
   so lately stood. By that wondrous spectacle, when bullock, wood, stones
   and water were all licked up by heavenly fire, he would plead with them
   to serve Jehovah. Surely Elijah would say, "Look you there, the
   sacrifice has been accepted by Jehovah. What then? What is the natural
   consequence of it but that the enemies of that sacrifice, the setters
   up of a rival victim, should at once be slain?"

   Brothers and Sisters, you and I have seen the Sacrifice of Calvary--a
   sight far more august than that of Carmel. No bullock was there, but
   the Son of God made flesh! Your faith has seen Him nailed to the tree.
   You have beheld the sufferings of His body and by contemplation you
   have gazed upon the agony of His soul. And you know that it "pleased
   the Lord to bruise Him. He has put Him to grief." When He made His soul
   "a Sacrifice for sin," the flames of Divine justice fell upon the
   Victim and now the Sacrifice is finished! Christ has made an accepted
   Atonement for all our sin. Will you not draw the inference that from
   now on you cannot serve sin? By the blood of Jesus you are under bonds
   to hate evil!

   These sins necessitated the griefs of Christ--will you indulge them?
   For these, your transgressions, your Savior bore the wrath of God--will
   you return to them? This would be barbarous ingratitude--can you be
   guilty of it? Can you gaze upon the bleeding wounds of Jesus and then
   wound Him afresh with sin? Say, Believer, are you justified and yet can
   you go back to wanton dalliance with transgression? It cannot be! There
   is no more sanctifying spectacle in the world than the sight of the
   bloody Sacrifice of Jesus Christ! There is nothing which to the
   Christian mind is a more convincing proof that sin must die than the
   fact that Jesus died!

   Heaven's eternal Darling bleeds and suffers for transgression--then
   transgression must die, too! The Cross crucifies sin. The tomb of Jesus
   is the sepulcher of our iniquities. By the blood and wounds of Jesus we
   are constrained to take the prophets of Baal and let not one escape!
   Have your swords ready for their hearts! Up and slay them! Hew them in
   pieces, as Samuel hewed Agag before the Lord! The Prophet might have
   used another argument which would be sure to agree with them.
   "Hearken," he might have said, "you have yourselves confessed that
   Jehovah is God. Awestruck by the miracle, you have a second time
   repeated the ascription of praise to Jehovah and owned that He is God.
   What then? Let these seducers be put down at once."

   Such a confession demanded consistent action. The most of you to whom I
   speak this morning have avowed that the Lord of holiness is your God.
   You have not only said it by joining in the solemn worship of the
   sanctuary--and thus declaring it in Psalms and hymns, and by saying
   Amen to our prayers--but many of you have avowed your personal faith
   before the Church of God. You have come before the assembled Brethren
   and you have declared that the Lord is your God and King. Moreover, you
   have, in obedience to your Master's command, submitted yourselves to
   that symbolic ordinance by which you have declared yourselves to be
   dead to the world and buried with the Lord Jesus in Baptism unto death.
   Solemnly have you been baptized into His name and in His name have been
   raised up from the liquid grave--will you be false to all that this
   symbolizes? Is your profession a lie? Was your Baptism a blasphemous
   falsehood, a presumptuous intrusion? Let me put it to each heart as I
   would put it to my own. Let us have no profession, or else make it
   true! And if our profession is true, it certainly demands that sin
   should not be pampered but abhorred!

   But am I not speaking to Church members who think it consistent with
   their profession to do, during the week, what they would not like to
   have known today? Are there not some of you who in trade have not clean
   hands and yet have been outwardly washed as professors of Christ? It
   may be you will come this evening to the Lord's Table wherein you set
   forth the Redeemer's death and yet the morsels from Satan's table are
   hardly out of your mouths. If your life all the week has been contrary
   to the life of Christ, what are you doing among His people on the
   Sabbath? If you indulge at home in a passionate spirit, in a proud and
   hectoring conversation--if you are dishonest, if your talk is unchaste,
   if you practice intoxication or any other unhallowed indulgence of the
   flesh--who can clear you from guilt?

   You have declared that you worship God, how dare you follow Baal! You
   say that you are the servants of Christ, how can you be servants of
   Belial, also? Can you link the two together? It must not, cannot be! If
   God is God, serve Him with all your heart and mind! But if the world
   and sin, after all, are better than the Lord's way, then say so
   honestly and take your choice! Be true, I pray you--be always true to
   your solemn professions. The Prophet had a claim upon them because he
   was undoubtedly under the inspiration of God. He had no need to tell
   them so, for they all observed it. The actions of Elijah that day were
   very remarkable, and indeed, apart from the fact of his being guided by
   God's Spirit, they would have been questionable. But God gave him
   certain sacred instincts which stood him in the place of verbal
   directions and the man was led beyond himself by a mysterious influence
   to which he was pliant and plastic.

   When he laughed at the priests of Baal, he did what God would have him
   do. When he bowed his knee and cried for the fire, and the fire came,
   he was yielding to the Divine impulse which struggled within him. And
   so, when he said, "Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them
   escape," all the people were obedient because they felt that God was
   speaking through the man. Now, if there is any voice in the world which
   is assuredly Divine, it is that which cries out of the excellent Glory,
   "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." "Put off concerning the
   former conversation of the old man, which is corrupt according to the
   deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind." "Abstain
   from all appearance of evil." "Be you therefore perfect, even as your
   Father which is in Heaven is perfect."

   This is the intention of Election--He has chosen us that we should be
   holy. This is the object of Redemption--He has determined to redeem us
   from all iniquity. This is the great end and aim of the Spirit of
   God--that we may be His workmanship, created in the image of God.
   Holiness is the great requirement and at the same time the great
   privilege of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. O Brethren, think not
   that these lips speak alone when I say slay the sins that are in you,
   let not one escape--it is God that speaks it--and let His voice have
   power over your souls!

   Again, I think Elijah had a very prevalent argument as he pointed to
   the fields around Carmel and to the parched sides of the mountain. Far
   as the eye could see there was not a speck of green. Even where the
   water-course at other times had supported a narrow line of straggling
   vegetation, there was now no trace of rush, or reed, or grass--all
   brooks and rivulets were dried up and their banks were desolate. Men
   looked with eager gaze but saw no trace of grass for beasts, or corn
   for men. With what eloquence could Elijah have pleaded had he cared to
   do so! "All this has been brought upon you by your sins! You have
   turned aside from God and He has struck you till Lebanon languishes and
   Sharon's plains are as the dust of the furnace. If you would remove the
   evil, sweep away the cause of it! Slay the traitors who have despoiled
   you."

   Let me, at this time, point some of you to the barrenness of your
   spirits incident upon sin. Remember your loss of fellowship with
   Christ, your need of joy in God, your powerlessness in prayer, your
   lack of influence for good upon the Church and upon the world? What has
   made you barren? There was a time with you, in those young days of your
   espousals, when your soul was like the garden of the Lord and the
   excellency of Carmel and Sharon were yours. But now, this day, even
   though you sit with God's people, you do not enjoy the Word as they do.
   And though you pray, it is not prevailing prayer. And when you sing,
   the hymns which charmed you once are now monotonous.

   The joy has departed from your life. Its verdure and its comeliness are
   gone, and why? Have not your secret sins betrayed you? Were they not to
   your souls as a moth to a garment--fretting and devouring it? Gray
   hairs were here and there upon you and you knew it not, till a
   spiritual decay made you totter for weakness. The thieves of sin have,
   in the night, broken through and stolen away your jewels and carried
   off your choice treasures. If you wish to recover your former state of
   bliss, you must at once, with resolution, take these prophets of Baal
   and let not one of them escape!

   Might not Elijah have said, "Think of your unanswered prayers?" Some of
   you have a long file of them. Like the Israelites in Elijah's day who
   cried for rain, but no rain came, you have been praying to God for your
   children's conversion and they are not converted. You have asked for
   spiritual life of a dear friend, and you have not had it. Perhaps the
   reason is this--you walk contrary to God, and He is walking contrary to
   you. If you will not hear Him, neither will He hear you. He will not
   cast you out and let you utterly perish, but He will restrain the
   heavens and they shall be as brass above you.

   You cannot be a Jacob in prayer if you are an Esau in life! If you are
   weak on your knees, your sins have worked the mischief--let them not
   escape! Remember, if you will slay the Lord's enemies, He will remove
   your barrenness and hear your cries. When the prophets of Baal had
   watered the ground with their heart's blood, the Lord deluged the
   fields with

   rain, but not till then. When we give up sin we shall find our
   captivity turned. Put away sin from you and God will visit you.
   Christian, purge your way and you shall see Christ's face again!

   He has gotten Himself away into His chamber, to see what you will do
   when He has left you, and now if you will sigh and cry to Him, He will
   return. Above all, if you will say--

   "The dearest idol I have known,

   Whatever that idol be.

   Now will I tear it from its throne,

   And worship only You,"

   you shall soon have back your Master--and with Him all the dews of His
   Spirit--and your soul shall blossom again, and the fruits of joy and
   holiness shall be brought forth. Need I argue longer? Is not every
   Christian ready to take up the sacrificial knife and slay his
   transgressions?

   II. Secondly, let me remind you that the text is a very thorough going
   one. "Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape." Let me
   give some ARGUMENTS FOR THIS THOROUGHNESS. I fear there is good need
   why I should argue for the thoroughness of the slaughter of sin because
   human nature makes desperate attempts to rescue at least one sin. Like
   Saul, it cannot bear to kill all the Amalekites--it would save a few of
   the better sort. I have heard men very eloquent against drunkenness,
   very, and I would not have them less so. But they have not had a word
   to say against Sabbath-breaking, or against unbelief, hardness of
   heart, pride, or self-righteousness. They would kill the adder and
   spare the viper!

   Have you not, also, known some who justify the taunt in Hudibras and,
   "compound for sins they are inclined to by damning those they have no
   mind to." They are ferocious against certain sins and fond of others.
   They would not touch arsenic, but poison themselves with prussic acid.
   Just as Lot said of Zoar, so do they say, "Is it not a little one?"
   Some will avow that they have a constitutional tendency to a sin and
   therefore they cannot overcome it. They take out a license to sin and
   reckon themselves clear though they indulge in their evil propensity.

   Brothers and Sisters, this will never do! Indulgences for sin issued by
   the Pope are now rejected--shall we write them out for ourselves? Is
   Christ the messenger of sin? I know that some persons feel they are
   occasionally excused in the use of bitter language because they are
   provoked--but I find no such excuses in the Word of God! In no one
   passage do I find a permit for any sin, or a furlough from any duty.
   Sin is sin in any case and in any man--and we are not to apologize for
   it--but to condemn it!

   It is pleaded by some that their father was passionate and they are
   passionate--and therefore it runs in their blood. But let them remember
   that the Lord must cleanse their blood or they will die in their sin.
   Others will say that their constant discontent, moroseness, murmuring
   and tendency to quarrel with everybody must be set down to their
   infirmity of body. Well, I am not their judge--but the Word of the Lord
   judges them--and declares that sin shall not have dominion over the
   Believer. Does a sin easily beset us? We are doubly warned to lay it
   aside. More Grace is needed and more Grace may be had.

   Never suppose that God has given you a license for any sin so that you
   may live in it as long as you please. No, but believe that Jesus has
   come to save us from our sins. I have received no intimation from the
   Lord to deal delicately with any man's sins or to become an apologist
   for transgression. My message is that of Elijah, "Take the prophets of
   Baal; let not one of them escape." For, observe this--one sin may
   result in fatal consequences. "To a child of God?" you ask. I say not
   that, but how do we know that you are a child of God? How dare you
   think yourself born from above while your heart loves any one sin!

   In truth, you may be assured that you are not a child of God if there
   is any one sin from which you do not long to be delivered. A child of
   God may, for awhile be the captive of sin, but never a lover of sin.
   One sin ruined our race! One fruit plucked from the forbidden tree
   hurled manhood from its pristine glory! The effect of that one sin has
   gone on rankling in our blood through 6,000 years and will go on when
   years cease to be counted--destroying men throughout an eternity of
   woe--if it is not purged out of them. That is something dreadful to
   think of as the result of one sin!

   Where one sin does not ruin a Church, see what mischief it causes.
   There was only one Achan, but Israel was defeated at Ai and could not
   conquer until the accursed thing was discovered and put away. There are
   poisons so potent that one drop will envenom the whole body! One leak
   in a ship may be sufficient to send it to the bottom! One lone rock may
   break

   the staunchest timbers of a gallant vessel! Say not that there is no
   danger in one sin, but may God grant us Grace to feel that no evil must
   be spared!

   Then, dear Brothers and Sisters, there is this about it--there never
   was one sin, alone, yet. Sins always hunt in packs. See one of these
   wolves and you may be certain that a countless company will follow at
   its heels. I spoke just now of the sin of Adam in the Garden in taking
   forbidden fruit--let me ask, what was the essence of that sin? I think
   it would not be difficult to maintain the thesis that it was pride, or
   that it was discontent, or that it was lust, or unbelief, or, indeed,
   almost any other sin you may like to name! It was a many-sided
   transgression--its light resolves itself into all the colors of evil.
   That devil's name was legion, "for they are many."

   Sin's whole brood may be hatched out of one egg--the first original sin
   had all others in its loins. So we must not think of indulging even one
   sin, because it will bring seven others more wicked than itself. He who
   sports with one sin will soon come to play with more and go from bad to
   worse. A thief who cannot get in at the front door because he finds it
   locked, tries the back door and the windows--and then finds a little
   window so small that it was not fastened because no full-grown man
   could enter by it--and therefore he puts a child through it and that is
   quite enough, for the little one can unlock the door and let in as many
   thieves as he will. So one sin put into the soul and allowed to run
   riot there may prepare the heart for transgressions never dreamed of!
   Men do not all at once grow abominable--sin works the way for sin and
   folly nursed grows into crime.

   Dear Brethren, there are Christians who, through a measure of yielding
   to some one sin, are all their lifetime subject to bondage. They are
   weak in Grace. They are melancholy. They never rejoice in the Lord.
   Their characters are doubtful. They are poor examples. They have but
   little influence for good. Their usefulness is questionable. Their life
   is weak and in all probability their death will be clouded. They will
   be saved, but so as by fire. They will get into harbor, but they will
   be like a vessel I saw some few days ago after the late gales--they
   will have to be tugged in--their masts gone, their sails torn to pieces
   so that they cannot realize the blessed word, "So an entrance may be
   administered unto you abundantly into the kingdom of our Lord and
   Savior Jesus Christ."

   There is one strong reason for thoroughness in searching out sin with
   which I will close this point. It is this--there is certainly no sin
   that Jesus loves--consequently there is no sin that we should love.
   Jesus never smiles on any sin of ours, but for every sin He wept,
   groaned, bled and died. Shall His murderers be our favorites? Shall we
   harbor those who spat in His dear face and pierced His blessed side? I
   think there is no argument so powerful to the Christian as the love of
   Christ! If you are a wife, a loving, tender wife, you will do nothing
   which would grieve your husband. If you have grown cold in love, that
   motive will not sway you. But if your heart is warm and you feel the
   love of your espousals, you will need no other law.

   Beloved, will you grieve the Lord that bought you? Will you do despite
   to Him whose heart bled for you? By all the charms of His matchless
   beauty and the flames of His quenchless love, I charge you to be chaste
   to your soul's Bridegroom and chase away the wanton rivals which would
   steal your heart and defile you. Let Calvary be the Tyburn of your
   sins--

   "Yes, my Redeemer, they shall die,

   My heart has so decreed

   Nor will I spare the guilty things

   That made my Savior bleed."

   III. And now we shall close, in the third place, by mentioning CERTAIN
   DOCTRINES WHICH MAY HELP US IN THIS PRACTICAL WORK. While I have been
   giving the exhortation to the people of God, I dare say many of you
   have been whispering, "Who is sufficient for all this?" That is just
   what I wanted you to say and my first inference is this-- now we see
   how incapable is the natural man of self-salvation and of sin-killing
   efforts. Tell him to slay his sins, not he-- he will hide them as Rahab
   the harlot hid the spies--and let them out again when a quiet time
   comes round.

   Kill his sins! Not he--they are his Absaloms and he would sooner die
   than lose them! The sinner kill sin? Ah, no. There is an old league
   between them, a scorn confederacy. The unregenerate will no more
   quarrel with sin than bees with honey, or dogs with bones. Sin is the
   sunshine in which the sinner, like an insect, dances through his little
   hour. "You must be born-again, you must be born-again." All
   reformations which do not begin with regeneration are wood, hay and
   stubble and will come to an end. All that fallen nature weaves in her
   loom will be unraveled. "You must be born-again, you must be
   born-again!"

   And then, secondly, see how much this work is beyond all human
   strength. If I had to slay one sin, how could I do it? To kill sin is
   not such easy work--it is hundred-headed and hundred-lived. You think,
   "I have overcome that evil," and meanwhile you may hear it laugh at
   you. How true is that of pride. A man says, "I will be humbler, I will
   pray down my pride," and at last he thinks, "Well, now, I have become
   humbler"--a sure sign that he is prouder than ever! A humble man mourns
   over his pride daily--it is only a proud man who has any humility to
   boast of. But if one sin cannot readily be put to death, what shall we
   do with the thousands which haunt us and find such convenient
   hiding-places in our old Adam nature? How shall we slay all these? He
   that made us must make us again or we shall never be worth a farthing!
   He who first of all gave a pure nature to Adam must impart to us the
   pure nature of the second Adam or our existence will be a failure. O
   God, how weak we are!

   But then the third reflection is, behold the power of the Holy Spirit!
   The Holy Spirit is God and He has undertaken to make us pure and
   perfect! Brethren, He will do it! Blessed be His name, He will do it!
   We cannot help Him in it. We cannot do it ourselves--it is absolutely
   certain we shall fail if we make the attempt--but He can perfect His
   own work. By His Divine power and Godhead He will certainly take these
   prophets of Baal within us and slay them till not one survives! Let us
   adore the Holy Spirit! Let us love and bless Him. Let us make His
   Person the Object of our confidence and the thought of Him one of our
   richest delights. The Spirit of God will sanctify you wholly--spirit,
   soul and body-- and you shall be presented faultless before the
   Presence of God, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. What a
   comfortable Truth is this to our souls!

   The next word is this--dear Brothers and Sisters, let us be very
   watchful. Since all these sins must die, let us be constantly watching
   for an opportunity to put them to death. They are watching for our
   weakening--let us watch for their slaying. Sleeping Christian, you
   might be justified in sleeping if the devil would sleep, too, but he
   was never known to slumber yet. Sleeping Christian, you might have some
   excuse if sin would go to sleep, but sin never sleeps--day and night it
   dogs our footsteps. Up, then, in the name of God, and be well motivated
   to watch and pray!

   And lastly, and I delight to make this a closing note--what admiration
   and adoration ought we to give to our Redeemer, the blessed Son of God,
   because in Him was no sin! Remember, Brethren, that the Manhood of
   Christ was really human. Do not think of your Lord as though He were
   not truly Man. Remember, He was tempted in all points like as we are,
   but, oh, that word, "yet without sin." The devil sets Him on the high
   mountain and bribes Him with a world, but He says, "Get you behind Me
   Satan." The devil puts Him on the pinnacle of the Temple and bids Him
   cast Himself down, but he will not tempt the Lord his God. Satan
   appeals to His hunger and bids Him turn stones to bread, but He will
   not take the way of the flesh--He rests on God, knowing that "man lives
   not by bread alone."

   O blessed Redeemer, Pattern of our spirit, Model to whom we are to be
   conformed, we reverence You! Conquering in so many conflicts, coming
   forth from every trial victorious, You are glorious, indeed! It is not
   ours to open up the whole matter. It is ours to worship, ours to love,
   ours to imitate. O God, help us to do so and the glory shall be unto
   You forever! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

To The Thoughtless

   (No. 1059)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JULY 7, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master's crib: but Israel
   does not know, My people do not consider." Isaiah 1:3.

   IT IS clear from this chapter that the Lord views the sin of mankind
   with intense regret. We are obliged to speak of Him after the manner of
   men and in doing so we are clearly authorized to say that He does not
   look upon human sin merely with the eye of a judge who condemns it, but
   with the eye of a friend who, while He censures the offender, deeply
   laments that there should be such faults to condemn. "Hear, O heavens,
   and give ear, O earth: I have nourished and brought up children and
   they have rebelled against Me," is not merely an exclamation of
   surprise or an accusation of injured justice, but it contains a note of
   grief, as though the Most High represented Himself to us as mourning
   like an ill-treated parent and deploring that after having dealt so
   well with His offspring they had made Him so base a return.

   God is grieved that man should sin. That thought should encourage
   everyone who is conscious of having offended God to come back to Him.
   If you lament your transgression, the Lord laments it, too. Here is a
   point of sympathy. He will not meet you upon rigid terms and say to
   you, "By your own choice you have sinned, and now what remains to you
   but to bear the penalty?" No, He will rejoice when you return, even as
   He has sorrowed that you departed from Him! Let that thought of love be
   the keynote of our discourse this morning. The point immediately in
   hand is the inconsiderateness of mankind towards God.

   Israel in this case is not so much a type of Believers as a
   representative of sinners in general. The accusation will lie against
   all ungodly men--they do not know, they will not consider. The greatest
   difficulty in the world is to make men think! I mean think about
   spiritual things, think about their souls, think about their God. You
   can bring them to any other point but this. They will listen to holy
   words, but they will not lay them to heart. They will go through a
   round of ceremonial performances--but to worship in spirit the God who
   is a Spirit is far from them! Thoughtfully and carefully to consider
   their way is what they will never do until the Spirit of the living God
   comes upon them and teaches them true wisdom.

   I shall this morning speak about this inconsiderateness of men, first,
   as a serious fault. And then as attended in many cases with most solemn
   aggravations. I shall next try, if I can, to find out the secret causes
   of this fault and then we shall close with mingled expostulation and
   invitation.

   I. We have to speak of A SERIOUS FAULT, common, yes, universal. "Israel
   does not know, My people do not consider." Men are most inconsiderate
   towards God. One would pardon them if they forgot many minor things and
   neglected many inferior persons--but to be inconsiderate to their
   Creator, to their Preserver, to Him in whose hands their everlasting
   destiny is placed--this is a strange folly as well as a great sin.
   Whoever a courtier may neglect he is sure to consider his king. Men,
   when they start their sons in business, will bid them mind the main
   chance and attend to the principal point--and especially take care that
   they stand well with such a man who has the power to help or to ruin
   them.

   Men, as a general rule, are far too ready to seek the assistance of
   those who are in power, and this makes it the more strange that the
   all-powerful God who lifts up and casts down should be altogether
   forgotten, or where remembered should still be dishonored by mankind.
   If it were only because He is so great and therefore we are so
   dependent upon Him, one would have thought that a rational man would
   have acquainted himself with God and been at peace! But when we reflect
   that God is supremely good, kind, tender and gracious, as well as
   great, the marvel of man's thoughtlessness is much increased.

   Every good man desires to be on good terms with the good. Unusual
   goodness wins admiration and an invitation to associate with the
   eminently excellent is generally accepted with pleasure. Yet in the
   case of the thrice holy God whose name is Love, it is not so. All
   attractions are in the Character of God and yet man shuns his Maker. If
   God were a demon, man could hardly be more cold towards Him. Why is
   this? Why should I neglect One who is superlatively glorious, who has
   done me no evil, but has bestowed upon me boundless good? If I reflect
   upon the way in which He provides for me day after day. If I remember
   how He spares me, notwithstanding the provocations of my sin. If I
   consider how He still entreats me to be at peace with Him, I may well
   hear Him ask me the question, "For which of these good things do you
   neglect Me, and on account of which of these benefits do you forget
   Me?"

   Strange freak of the madness of sin, that it should make a man
   forgetful of the everywhere-present God and unmindful of the Being
   whose bounties are constant and countless as the moments of the day!
   Oh, grief upon grief, Israel does not consider her God! Then, again,
   man is inconsiderate towards himself in reference to his best
   interests. Alas, that in a matter of the greatest possible importance,
   involving his all, man fails to use his thoughtful reason! Most men
   trifle with their past history. They do not sit down and look it in the
   face and mark, with repenting eyes, what sins they have committed.

   They are often wantonly thoughtless with regard to the present--they
   waste life as though it had no relation to eternity--as though time
   were only meant for pastime, or for earthly task work. Neither its
   mercies nor its judgments, nor its obligations nor its sins will they
   worthily think upon! But like men in a thick darkness they travel
   onward unobservant of the solemnities which surround them. The future,
   too, is equally unthought upon--the bright or the terrible future--the
   Heaven eternal or the Hell unending. 'Tis strange, 'tis passing
   strange, 'tis amazing that immortal man should press on towards
   unspeakable misery with closed eyes, unconcerned of the wrath to come!

   He will not weigh his soul in the balances of the Truth of God and
   learn what its end will be. A thousand voices call to him and bid him
   pause and think awhile, but he lashes, still, the steeds of life and
   like another Phaeton drives on, madly on, towards his own destruction!
   Man is inconsiderate towards himself. When we ask men to attend to
   matters which do not concern them, we are not astonished if they plead
   that they have little time and no thought to spare. If I were, this
   morning, to address you, my dear Hearers, upon a matter which affected
   the interests of the dwellers in the Dog Star, or had some relation to
   the inhabitants of the moon, I should not marvel if you were to say,
   "Go to those whom it may concern and talk to them, but, as for us, the
   matter is so remote that we take no interest in it."

   But how shall we account for it that man will not know about himself
   and will not consider about his own soul? Any trifle will attract him
   but he will not consider his own immortality or meditate upon the joy
   or the misery which must be his portion. I state the fact in far too
   cold a manner and you also hear it with mournful indifference! This
   must surely be because we have heard it so often and the fact is so
   universal. Yet, it is in very truth a miracle of human depravity--what
   if I say insanity--that man should be unmindful of his immortal soul!

   Here we must add that thoughtless man is inconsiderate of the claims of
   justice and of gratitude, and this makes him appear base as well as
   foolish. I have known men who have said, "Let the heavens fall, but let
   justice be done," and they have scorned, in their dealings with their
   fellow men, to take any unrighteous advantage, even though it were as
   little as the turning of a hair. I believe there are such present. I
   have known some also, who, if they were called ungrateful, would
   indignantly spurn the charge. They would count themselves to be utterly
   loathsome if they did not return good to those who have done them good.
   They feel that the obligations of gratitude cannot he disputed, nor do
   they wish to avoid them.

   And yet it may be these very same persons have been throughout life
   unjust towards God and ungrateful towards Him to whom they owe their
   being and all that makes it endurable. Think of it! God created
   you--ought He not to be the object of your worship? Besides creating
   you, He has preserved you in being--ought He not have some service in
   return for this? You have been indulged, perhaps, with a smooth
   pathway. You are not, today, among the poorest of the poor. You have
   not been deprived of the use of your limbs. You have your reasoning
   faculties--you have not been struck down with a stroke of
   paralysis--you are still able to mingle with men and go about your
   business. And for all this ought not God to be thanked?

   His service is a delight to those who are in it--ought you not to
   render service to Him? His Law is the most just Law that can be
   conceived. It contains the essence of all honest Law, yet you have not
   observed His commands nor loved Him

   with all your heart and strength. Is this right? You discharge right
   willingly the obligations due to man--but will you rob God? You would
   think it shameful to be dishonest to your fellow creature, but will you
   be a robber to your God? Will you withhold the honor and glory which
   you ought to render to Him?

   You will observe that the text says, "Israel does not know." Now,
   Israel is a name of nobility. It signifies a prince. And there are some
   here whose position in society, whose condition among their fellow men
   should oblige them to the service of God. That motto is true "noblesse
   oblige"--nobility has its obligations--and where the Lord elevates a
   man into a position of wealth and influence, he ought to feel that he
   is under peculiar bonds to serve the Lord.

   I speak also to those who are the sons of pious parents. I address
   myself to those who have been trained in the fear of God--you have been
   nourished and brought up with the children of God, you have often been
   looked upon as belonging to them--surely you ought not to have been
   unmindful of your gracious Benefactor! To you more is given and
   therefore of you more is required. Does it not disgrace you, as a man
   of godly lineage, to be no better than the sons of Belial in the matter
   of earnest consideration? You should, at this moment, feel a deep
   regret that up to this present moment you have been false to your
   pedigree and traitorous to your God. Man is forgetful of what is due to
   his position and his ancestry.

   One sad point about this inconsiderateness is that man lives without
   consideration upon a matter where nothing but consideration will avail.
   Nothing can stand in lieu of thoughtfulness in religion. There are some
   who say, "Well, I cannot think about it, but I will pay a man to do it
   for me. I will find a priest and give him so much money that he may see
   to my soul, just as my doctor attends to my body." This is an invention
   of a rebellious heart to quiet a conscience, but it is both idle and
   wicked. The Lord demands personal love of the heart and He will be
   content with nothing less.

   "But I go up to the House of God regularly. I sit with God's people. I
   give of my substance." Just so, but God demands your heart and if the
   heart is not given--if you do not love Him with all your soul, mind and
   strength--you have done nothing whatever in religion! In vain your
   Baptism! In vain your coming to the sacramental table! True religion is
   not a bodily exercise, nor a manual performance. The soul, the mind,
   the heart--with all its intents and faculties--must think of God and
   yield submission to Him! Otherwise, though all the ceremonies ordained
   of God Himself were rightly performed upon you, yet would they yield
   you not one particle of Divine Grace! Religion is a spiritual business
   and if man lives and dies refusing to consider it, he has put away from
   him altogether all hope of being saved, for Grace comes not into us by
   mechanical process, but the Holy Spirit works upon the mind and soul.

   This inconsideration, also, it should be remarked, occurs upon a
   subject where, by the testimony of tens of thousands, consideration
   would be abundantly remunerative and would yield the happiest results.
   We should not marvel at men if they would not think upon topics which
   made them unhappy--it would not seem strange if subjects, known to
   deprive men of joy and gladness--were avoided by wise men. But although
   there are some who have suffered frightful depression of spirits in
   connection with true religion, yet its general and ultimate fruit has
   ever been peace and joy through believing in Christ Jesus--and even the
   exceptions could be easily accounted for.

   In some melancholy spirits their godliness is too shallow to make them
   happy. They breathe so little of the heavenly air that they are
   distressed for need of more. In others the sorrows occasioned by
   gracious reflection is but a preliminary and passing stage of
   Grace--there must be a plowing before there can be a harvest--there
   must be medicine for the disease before health returns. In some, the
   newly-awakened are just in the stage of plowing and the condition of
   drinking bitter medicine. This will soon be over and the results will
   be most admirable.

   A great cloud of witnesses, among whom we joyfully take our place,
   bears testimony to the fact that the ways of the Lord are ways of
   pleasantness. Our deepest joy lies in knowing our God and considering
   Him. God in Christ Jesus is to us an unfailing fountain of peace, joy,
   content and blessedness. O that you would hearken unto the Lord, for
   then would your peace be as a river and your righteousness as the waves
   of the sea! Thus says the Lord, "O that My people had hearkened unto
   Me, and Israel had walked in My ways! I should soon have subdued their
   energies and turned My hand against their adversaries. I should have
   fed them, also, with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the
   rock should I have satisfied them."

   Down here below, godliness has the promise of the life that now is and
   after death its weight of glory is unspeakable! O that you thoughtless
   ones knew the joy which you are losing and were aroused from apathy!

   II. Thus have I spoken upon the serious fault. Let us note next,
   AGGRAVATIONS WHICH ATTEND IT in many cases. And remember, first, that
   some of these careless persons have had their attention earnestly
   directed to the topics

   which they still neglect. Observe in this passage that these people had
   been summoned by God to consider. The heavens and the earth were called
   to bear witness that they had been nourished and brought up by the good
   Father. And in the fourth verse they are rebuked--they are earnestly
   scolded because they continue to be so unmindful of their God.

   Now, if a person should, for awhile, forget an important thing, we
   should not be surprised, for the memory is not perfect. But when
   attention is called to it again and again. When consideration is
   requested kindly, tenderly, earnestly, and when, because the warning is
   neglected, that attention is demanded with authority and possibly with
   a degree of sharpness, one feels that a man who is still unmindful is
   altogether without excuse and must be negligent on purpose and with
   determined design.

   Some of you now present have thought of everything except your souls
   and your God, and though this morning I would, even with tears, beg you
   to give an hour before the sun goes down to serious reflection upon
   spiritual matters, the probabilities are that you will do no such
   thing. Here is the aggravation of your folly--that you have again, and
   again, and again been reminded of this weighty business--and all in
   vain. When you were running on in childish waywardness, parents plucked
   you by the sleeve and said, "Consider your ways." They exhorted you,
   when you were rejoicing in your youth, to look forward to the day when
   for all this God would bring you into judgment.

   Since then, if you have been a sermon-hearer, you have often been
   called earnestly and urgently by men who spoke with all sincerity, to
   amend your ways and turn unto the Most High. Yes, and God's voice has
   come to you in the very midst of your business. When you have had a
   quiet interval and have been sitting down awhile, a voice, silent, but
   not unheard, has said to you, "Will you never think? Will you plunge
   into eternity without consideration? Will you never open your eyes and
   look about you till you are in Hell?"

   Your conscience, by fits and starts, has troubled you. The Bible in
   your house, which you have not read, has yet, from the very fact of its
   being there, upbraided you. And the mere presence of godly men has been
   a rebuke to you. When you have recollected how family prayer used to be
   offered in your father's house when you were a child, and how it is
   neglected in your own house, the neglect has rebuked you. Can you deny
   this? And can you doubt this, also, that he who is often reproved and
   hardens his neck, deserves that he shall be suddenly destroyed--and
   that without remedy?

   The Prophet then mentions the second aggravation, namely, that in
   addition to being called and admonished, these people had been
   chastened. They had been chastised, indeed, so often and so severely
   that the Lord wearied of it! He saw no use in striking them any more.
   Their whole body was covered with bruises, they had been so sorely
   beaten. The nation as a nation had been so invaded and trodden down by
   its enemies that it was utterly desolate, and the Lord says, "Why
   should you be stricken anymore? You will revolt more and more."

   Of course I cannot tell what has been the history of all of you, but I
   may be addressing someone this morning whose life of late has been a
   series of sorrows. You have plunged from one calamity to another. You
   have sailed over every known sea of affliction. You know what sickness
   means--there are in your body the scars of old diseases. You have known
   what perils mean on the waters and perils on land. Perhaps you have
   been brought down from competence to poverty. Perhaps you have been
   deserted, too, by those who should have comforted you--you know almost
   all the pangs which wring the human heart with anguish.

   Don't you know that all these are sent to wean you from the world? Will
   you still cling to it? All these are calls from Heaven, like the voice
   of hunger in the prodigal when he could not fill his belly with the
   husks and therefore said, "I will arise and go to my father." Will you
   never say the same? How shall God afflict you, now? Is your wife dead?
   Would you like to lose your child? Is one child gone? Shall death take
   away the other? Shall the last darling be taken from you?

   What stroke would touch your hard heart? Must the Lord strike again and
   again, and again and again before you will hear Him? If He is resolved
   to save you, depend upon it, He will not spare you! He will bring you,
   somehow or other, to Himself if He means to bless you. Be you not as
   the horse and the mule which have no understanding--whose mouth must be
   held in with bit and bridle--but yield now to the afflictions you have
   already suffered, or else you will certainly enhance your guilt by
   despising the chastening of the Lord!

   It was an additional piece of guilt that these people were, all the
   while that they would not consider, very zealous in an outward
   religion. They would not serve God in His own way, but they were very
   diligent in a way of their own. As you read the chapter you will notice
   how attentive they were to burnt offerings, new moons and feast
   days--and yet they would not consider. Certain individuals will become
   out-and-out Ritualists and yet will not think upon the Lord. They

   will go the whole hog with Popery and yet they will not turn unto the
   Most High and confess their sins and seek mercy at His hand, or yield
   their souls to His Truth. Strange, but yet it is so.

   There are persons here who seldom miss a service and even come to
   Prayer Meetings, and yet are not a bit the better for it. They are men
   of bad lives and yet they love the preacher--yes, and would stand up
   for him if any spoke against him--and yet they are still evil,
   regardless of that preacher's warnings, and what is worse, they are
   careless concerning God and the world to come. They live, and I fear
   they will die, without Christ and without hope! O Sirs, how can I
   reason with you? Your inconsistency is so glaring. You stand up today
   and sing the praises of God, yet tomorrow you will blaspheme Him! What?
   Will you shut your eyes when we are praying and pretend to join with us
   when you know that tomorrow you will act wantonly or do unjustly?

   How can you habitually sit with the people of God, yes, and in some
   measure feel at home with them, and yet afterwards keep company with
   the children of darkness and find yourselves at home at the bar of the
   alehouse, on the settle of the gin palace, or in the theater, or in
   other places where blasphemy is on all sides to be heard and iniquity
   on all sides to be seen? Will a man mock God and insult Him to His
   face? I beseech you, yes, I implore you to think of this, for it
   greatly aggravates your thoughtlessness that you still continue in the
   midst of the people of God. To be in a man's house and not to think of
   him--to sing a man's praises and not respect him--to mix up with that
   man's children and yet not care about him, why, surely this would be
   most provoking! Shall such conduct be shown towards the Most High?

   Yet, further, I need you to notice that there was an aggravation to
   Israel's forgetfulness of God because she was most earnestly and
   affectionately invited to turn to God by gracious promises. Let me read
   you that Word of God, "Come now, and let us reason together, says the
   Lord: though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.
   Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

   A man might say, "Why should I think of God? He is my enemy. Why should
   I meditate upon my sinfulness, for it cannot be forgiven. And why
   should I think of righteousness when I know I can never attain to it?"
   O Man, you know better! You know that God is Love! You know that there
   is forgiveness with Him that He may be feared. You know that a change
   of heart is possible and the Spirit of God can make a new man of you.
   If the case were hopeless I should not wonder if you refused to enter
   into such dreadful contemplations--but when the brightness of Jehovah's
   Grace invites you--how can you turn your back upon Him and still
   continue unmindful of Him?

   As a last aggravation, carefully note that these very people had
   ability enough to consider other things, for we find that they
   considered how to get bribes, and were very sharp and shrewd in
   following after rewards--yet they did not know and did not consider
   their God! Oh, how quick are some men in the ways of evil, and yet if
   you talk to them about religion, they say it is mysterious and beyond
   their power of apprehension. Those same persons will discuss with you
   the knottiest points of politics, or unravel the mysteries of
   science--and yet they pretend they cannot understand the simplicities
   of Revelation!

   "I am a poor man," says one, "I am a poor man and you cannot expect me
   to know much." Yet, if anybody were to meet that same "poor man" in the
   street and tell him he was a fool, he would be indignant at such an
   accusation and would zealously prove that he was not inferior in common
   sense. "I cannot," says one, "vex my brain about such things as these."
   Yet that very man wears his brain far more in pursuit of wealth or
   pleasure. Oh, if men were idiots, then were they exempt from blame! If
   they were physically blind they would be excused from seeing, but when
   men have eyes they are to be blamed if they will not see! If a man has
   an understanding and can exercise it well upon minor matters, how shall
   we apologize for his neglect of his God?

   I can invent no excuse for them, though I would gladly be their
   advocate. I can only beseech them to repent of this, their wickedness,
   and no longer have it said of them that they will not know, that they
   will not consider.

   III. We shall now investigate some of THE SECRET CAUSES of human
   indifference to topics so important. In the case of many thoughtless
   persons we must lay the blame to the sheer frivolity of their nature.
   Some individuals appear to have a brain case which was never properly
   filled. Like butterflies, they flit from flower to flower but gather no
   honey.

   Look at the life of many in the West End who pass all their existence
   in dressing and undressing, distributing bits of cardboard, riding in
   carriages, bowing and scraping and eating and drinking. These notable
   do-nothings remind me of a set of butterflies flitting about a field of
   poppies. Nor are the poorer districts clear of such beings. Note the
   many fellows

   who go loafing from public-house to public-house, lolling and dawdling
   about from morning till night as if they had nothing whatever to live
   for but to talk and booze.

   I hope that is not the case with any ofyou. If so, let me remind you
   that you may live in jest but you will have to die in earnest. You may
   waste this life in frivolity, but you will have to spend the next in
   eternal damnation! The moth may play, but the candle burns it and then
   it suffers in earnest. You will come to be earnest enough when you wake
   up and find yourself condemned of God. Oh, if you are a fool, or have
   been a fool up to this moment, may God sober you and make you wise to
   number your days!

   I have no doubt that in every case, however, the bottom reason is
   opposition to God Himself. You do not think of God because you do not
   like Him. Nothing will persuade you to consider because you do not love
   the subject to be considered. If you are called to consider a topic
   which is pleasurable to you, you very readily turn to it--but in this
   case, for 50 or 60 years or more you have shunned this subject--though
   it has been forced upon you in all sorts of ways. You have either
   huffed it off in bad temper, or smiled it off in pleasantry! And when
   it has come upon the cool of the evening when you have been alone, you
   have called it "having the blues," and have gone off into company to
   get rid of it. The real reason is that you have no love to your God.

   Now this argues a base mind. It is disgraceful that you should not love
   one so infinitely good, noble, generous and just. His Character
   engrosses the admiration of all honorable spirits and would commend
   itself to you if you were not bad at heart. Consider how depraved you
   must be not to love the Perfect One. Upon some minds the tendency to
   delay operates fearfully. Probably if I went round this place I should
   not find a single person who intends always to remain indifferent
   towards God and the world to come. Nobody here intends to be lost! I do
   not suppose that any one of you has chosen to make his bed in Hell! You
   have all good intentions and you mean one of these days to carry them
   out.

   Ah, and out of those who are now shut up in Hell, there are very few,
   if any, who resolved to be there! The most of them meant one day to
   seek the Lord, but Death came and found them still sleeping, as I fear
   he will find many of you! Do you know that you are in the presence of
   Death now? He spreads his wing, even now, over your head--out of this
   vast company some of us must soon feel his dart! One of our city
   missionaries was witness to a dreadful scene, when in a poor house he
   found persons playing cards, using for a table a coffin covered with a
   white cloth--the coffin containing the father of the family!

   This was a mournful instance of hardness of heart, but in some aspects
   all triflers with religion are in much the same condition, for their
   souls are in jeopardy of eternal wrath and yet they persevere in their
   merriment! They enjoy their frivolities while God's sword is furbished
   and bathed in Heaven and must before long strike them to destruction!
   If they could see where they are, and what they are, they would no more
   be able to enjoy themselves than a man would sit down and feast beneath
   a gallows tree, or laugh with his neck bared and fixed beneath the
   knife of the guillotine! O that men were wise and that they would
   consider this! Put not off reflection, for death is near, and it is
   this putting off and putting off which is Satan's most potent engine of
   destruction.

   Some make an excuse for themselves for not considering eternity because
   they are such eminently practical men. They are living for the
   realities of the nature of hard cash and they will not be induced to
   indulge in fancies and notions. For my part I feel great sympathy with
   them in their downright practicality. I, too, am a matter-of-fact man
   without speculation or fancy in me. "What I need is facts." I only wish
   that those who profess to be practical were more truly so, for a
   practical man always takes more care of his body than of his coat,
   certainly--then should he not take more care of his soul than of the
   body which is but the garment of it?

   If he were truly practical he would do that. A practical man will be
   sure to consider matters in due proportion. He will not give all his
   mind to a cricket match and neglect his business. And yet how often
   your practical man still more greatly errs--he devotes all his time to
   money making--and not a minute to the salvation of his soul and its
   preparation for eternity! Is this practical? Why, Sir, Bedlam itself is
   guilty of no worse madness than that! There is not in all yon wards a
   single maniac who commits a more manifest act of insanity than a man
   who spends all his force upon this fleeting life and lets the eternal
   future go by the board!

   I have no doubt with a great many their reason for not thinking about
   soul matters is prejudice. They are prejudiced because some Christian
   professor has not lived up to his profession, or they have heard
   something which is said to be the doctrine of the Gospel which they
   cannot approve of. Now, if this morning I stood here and said, "Attend
   to me! Give

   your souls up to my guidance! Be led by me," I should admire you for
   saying, "We shall do no such thing!" But I disclaim all idea of wishing
   to be a priest to any one of you. My teaching is always, "There is
   God's Bible, read it and judge for yourselves." You have brains, use
   your brains!

   My judgment was never meant to excuse you from using your own. If any
   man asks you to let him put a ring in your nose that he may lead you as
   a farmer does a bull, away with him! What can he be but an impostor? We
   say search for yourselves! Come to God's Book, to God's own revealed
   Truth! Come to Jesus Christ and find salvation in Him. Surely you ought
   not to be prejudiced against a faith which speaks after this fashion!

   In most cases men do not like to trouble themselves and they have an
   uncomfortable suspicion that if they were to look too narrowly into
   their affairs they would find things far from healthy. They are like
   the bankrupt before the court the other day who did not keep books. Not
   he! He did not know how his affairs stood, and, moreover, he did not
   need to know! He did not like his books, for his books did not like
   him! He was going to the bad and he therefore tried to forget it.

   They say of the silly ostrich, that when she hides her head in the sand
   and does not see her pursuers, she thinks she is safe--that is the
   policy of many men. They spread their sails and get up the steam and go
   with double speed straight ahead. What? Not look at the chart? No, they
   do not need to know whether there are rocks or breakers ahead. Arrest
   that captain! Put him in irons and find a sane man to take charge of
   the vessel! O for Grace to arrest that folly which is the captain of
   your boat and put sound sense in command, or else a spiritual shipwreck
   is certain.

   IV. I am going to conclude with a few words of EXPOSTULATION. Few, I
   say, for if the few words I have spoken do not reach men's hearts by
   God's Spirit, I know that a great many words cannot. My dear Hearers,
   is not your inconsiderateness very unjustifiable? Can you excuse it in
   any way? Perhaps you think you will never die. Well, go to the cemetery
   and you will soon change your mind. Our sires and grandsires died--how,
   then, should we expect to live?

   Do you hope to live to an extreme old age? I have heard of one who
   often boasted that he expected to be quoted at par in the life market,
   but he fell thirty per cent short of the hundred. Have you imbibed the
   idea that God will make a difference in dealing with you from what He
   does with other people? If so, get that out of your head, too, for He
   has not one rule for one, and another for another! If you die without
   Christ, you will die without hope! And if you have never repented of
   sin, God is no respecter of persons--there will be the same punishment
   for you as for other impenitents.

   Are you so mad as to hope that, after all, there will be no future?
   Then I can understand your thoughtlessness! Are you like a certain poor
   rambler who calls himself a philosopher, and lately said, "the only
   immortality is that when the body is disintegrated its ammonia,
   carbonic acid and lime serve to enrich the soil and to nourish plants
   which feed other generations of men"? Here the ox and the donkey of my
   text are outdone in stupidity! The man confesses that he is no better
   than a beast and has no soul! As it would be useless to argue with a
   compound of ammonia and lime, he must not wonder if we hold no further
   debate with him.

   Now, my Hearer, if you are such an ox or donkey as that, your
   thoughtlessness is accounted for! But if you are not so far gone I am
   at a loss to make your conduct consistent. Do you think you will be
   able to brawl it out with God in the end? You are as wax and He is the
   fire! You are stubble and He is the flame! How can you hope to fight it
   out with Him? There are stranger things in this world than my
   philosophy has dreamed of, but I cannot invent an excuse for you, nor
   do I think you can, yourself, devise a justification! Let me ask you,
   again, if you do not think that many a man's good opinion of himself
   would collapse if he were to consider--his opinion of himself would
   fall to zero if he would but think?

   Yon spendthrift who squanders his gold so freely, scattering with a
   fork what his miserly father gathered with a rake--could he go on as he
   did if he did not stupefy himself into thoughtlessness? Do you think
   money-grubbers who toil and slave, and starve to amass wealth--would
   think it worth their while to do so if they really thought about it?
   For is the result worth the trouble? Merely to have people say, "he
   died worth a plum"? Perhaps you have not chick nor child to leave it to
   and the stranger who will inherit it, every time he drinks his wine,
   will jest about the old fellow who fretted and steered to provide for a
   stranger's son.

   When men think they are so good that they will go to Heaven by their
   works, would not that bladder burst if they pricked it with a little
   thought? It looks very fine. Look at it, "I have always been a stanch
   Dissenter, or an orthodox Churchman, and I have done my duty." Is not
   that boast like a beautiful bubble which a boy blows from his pipe with
   a little soap? What charming colors! It is beautiful as a rainbow! But
   if we touch it with a little meditation it is dissolved!

   The same may be said of nominal religion--if a man thinks God will take
   him to Heaven because he calls himself a Christian, and has taken the
   sacrament, and paid his pew rent, and sat with God's people--he must
   surely have but a scanty brain! If he would exercise what little mind
   he has, he would see that his hopes do not hold water. Do you want to
   be deceived? Do any of you really want to mislead yourselves? If so,
   shut your eyes and dream yourselves into destruction! But if in earnest
   and you would be right now, and right at last, then awake at once! How
   is it that you will not know and that you will not consider? May the
   Holy Spirit save you from this desperate state!

   Let us just consider for half a minute one or two things. If a man will
   resolvedly and prayerfully turn these things over in his mind, God may
   help him to come right. If I consider awhile, I see that I have not
   lived as I ought to have lived. I have often done wrong. That is quite
   clear to me and it is equally clear that the Ruler of the world ought
   to punish sin. The letting off of certain atrocious murderers of late,
   and the easy way in which certain criminals have escaped makes us all
   demand a little more vigorous dispensation of justice, or else we shall
   have our land made a pandemonium.

   Even thus, if God did not punish sin, He would not be a wise and
   efficient moral Governor for the world. Then if God must punish sin, He
   must punish me and I must expect to suffer. But when I turn to this
   Book I find He has devised a way by which to save me. He has laid sin
   upon Christ that so I may escape! If I am puzzled to see how the sin of
   one could be laid upon another, I find in the Word of Truth that Christ
   Jesus is One with His people and it is right enough that He should take
   their sin and suffer in their place. I find that Christ actually did
   take the sins of all those who trust Him and really suffered in their
   place. That seems to me to be a glorious Truth of God!

   It meets the case of justice and leaves a door for mercy. How can I
   avail myself of what Christ has done? I find in the Word that I am
   commanded to trust Him. Trust Him! That does not seem to be a harsh
   demand! He is true, He is great, He is God. I will trust Him! God help
   me to trust Him. I learn that whoever trusts Him is saved. That is a
   glorious Truth! I am now saved and pardoned for I believe in Jesus.
   Will not some of you turn these things over in your minds? I pray God
   the Holy Spirit to lead you to do so!

   I believe it is often the way of salvation to men to be made to hearken
   diligently to the Gospel and to consider and meditate upon it. And with
   that view I have preached to you this morning, hoping that the Word may
   incline you towards Him and bring you to consider Him, that you may now
   enter into His salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Behold The Lamb!

   (No. 1060)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JULY 14 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Behold the Lamb of God!" John 1:36.

   IT IS the preacher's principal business--I think I might say, his only
   business--to cry, "Behold the Lamb of God!" For this reason was John
   born and sent into the world, and such were the prophecies which went
   before concerning him. If he had been the most eloquent preacher of
   repentance. If he had been the most earnest declaimer against the sins
   of the times, he would, nevertheless, have missed his lifework if he
   had forgotten to say, "Behold the Lamb of God." He did well when he
   baptized the repenting crowd. He spoke nobly when he faced the
   Pharisees and was a true hero when he rebuked Herod. But above all his
   chief errand was to herald the Messiah, to bear witness to the Son of
   God!

   What we have said of John we may say of every God-sent minister--he is
   sent to bear witness to the Christ of God and whatever else he may do,
   if he does not this continually, habitually, earnestly--he is not
   fulfilling the errand for which his Master sent him, but has turned
   aside to baser ends. When any one of us who are called ministers shall
   die and come before the Lord to give our account, it will be a sorry
   thing for us if we can only say, "Lord, I have preached the dogmas of
   the Church to which I belonged," unless we can also add that we have
   directed men to the living Savior.

   Vain will it be to have argued with accurate logic and persuaded with
   lofty rhetoric unless we have uplifted Christ among the people. It will
   be idle to say, "I have preached against the skepticism of the times. I
   have rebuked the sins which raged around me and have proclaimed what I
   knew of the glory of God in Nature and in Providence," for our chief
   and distinguishing work is to declare the name of the Lord Jesus and
   the power of His precious blood. As the stars called "the Pointers"
   always point to the Pole star, so must we always point to the Redeemer.

   I think the minister who has failed to cry, "Behold the Lamb of God,"
   may expect at the last to be cut in pieces and to have his portion with
   the tormentors. I can scarcely conceive a doom too terrible for the man
   who dazzled his hearers with oratorical fireworks when he ought to have
   lifted up the Cross, or mocked immortal souls with the carved stone of
   his elocution when they were starving for the Bread of Heaven. Sermons
   without Christ condemn the preacher and delude the hearer. Sermons
   which do not point to Christ in them will be as hard to answer for as
   blasphemy or murder when the Judge is on His great white throne. It is
   cruel to amuse with trifles those whose souls are in jeopardy of
   eternal fire! Playing with men's souls is murderous work and truly, if
   the Lamb of God is not preached, the ministry is playing with souls, if
   not worse.

   John, however, most thoroughly discharged his lifework, for he was ever
   saying, "Behold the Lamb of God." Notice in the text the attitude of
   the preacher, for it is very instructive. "Looking upon Jesus as He
   walked," John said, "Behold the Lamb of God!" The preacher's eyes
   should be upon his Master while he points to his Master. They preach
   Christ best who see Him best. John had his own eyes fastened upon Jesus
   and therefore he did, by his own example as well as by his words, say,
   "Behold the Lamb of God."

   If you will take your place in a crowded street and stand for a few
   minutes looking at a certain object in the heavens, or gaze upward as
   if something were there to be seen, you will soon find that without
   asking others to do the same, a company will gather round you and begin
   to look in the same direction. Indeed, a vast crowd might be collected
   by no other action than by your gazing intently into the air! So John,
   in addition to his saying, "Behold the Lamb of God," was doing the best
   thing to attract others to behold Him--when he fixed his own eyes on
   Jesus--with a fixed wondering, admiring, adoring gaze.

   John had no eyes for anyone but "the Lamb of God that takes away the
   sin of the world," and therefore his words had point and power in them.
   And note that John's eyes were upon Christ not only when Christ was
   coming to him, but as He walked by him! Well may the preacher have his
   Master before him when his Master is cheering him with His

   fellowship and honoring him with His Presence. But on this occasion
   Jesus was walking alone, as though in meditation, with His eyes
   probably bent upon the ground. It was not meet that He should always be
   coming to John--He had done that once and so had put an honor upon His
   servant.

   But this time He came not to him lest men should think that He had a
   dependence upon John--He walked in quiet musing as though His thoughts
   were otherwise occupied. Nevertheless the Baptist had not forgotten his
   Lord, but again pointed Him out. If the Lord denies to the preacher His
   comfortable Presence; if no light of fellowship shines forth from the
   brow of the Crucified, it is still ours whenever and wherever we preach
   to let the eye of faith realize Christ as present and still to cry to
   others with a heart that palpitates in union with our words, "Behold
   the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world."

   Even when I preach in chains I would labor to honor Jesus, looking to
   Him as the End and Object of every word I utter! It is mine to preach a
   Savior in whom I believe, whom having not seen, I love. I am looking to
   Him now for everything, even as I would have you do. I see in Him
   superlative beauties which I wish you to see and I worship a Divinity
   in Him which I desire you to worship. I preach not to you an unknown
   God or an untried Savior! There is something notable in our text as to
   the hearers. This was a brief but weighty sermon, worthy to be preached
   a thousand times. Nobody needs a new sermon when, "Behold the Lamb of
   God," is the old one!

   John had delivered this same discourse before an assembled crowd, but
   now he had only two hearers and those two were not unconverted
   persons--they were his own disciples--and they were at least very near
   to the kingdom if not already in it. Yet to the solitary two and those
   already discipled he had only the same message to deliver, "Behold the
   Lamb of God." He was a man of rich mind and ready utterance yet he kept
   to this one point in all companies. It is thought that if we go into
   the theater to preach to the mob, we must be sure to preach Christ--let
   me ask you what subject would be fitter for an assembly of saints? I
   pray you tell me!

   It has been said that he who preaches in the street ought to confine
   himself to the simple Gospel--my Brothers, in what place would that
   subject be inappropriate or unprofitable? Paul knew nothing among the
   Corinthians save Jesus Christ and Him crucified--the resolve is a safe
   one for all companies. In this respect some preachers know too much and
   the sooner they join the holy know-nothings the better. Christ is
   appropriate as a subject for two disciples as well as for a thousand
   scoffers, for while He is the Resurrection to those who are dead, He is
   also the Life of those who have been already quickened.

   No subject is more sweet, more refreshing, more inspiriting, more
   sanctifying to the saint than the Cross of our dying Lord! The sinner
   needs it if he would be saved, but the saint requires it that he may
   persevere, advance, conquer and attain perfection. Give me that harp
   and let my fingers never leave its strings--the harp whose strings
   resound the love of Christ alone! To harp upon the name of Jesus is the
   blessed monotony of a true ministry--a monotony more full of variety
   than all other subjects besides. When Jesus is the first, the midst,
   and the last, yes, All in All, then do we make full proof of our
   ministry. We do well when we are able to say, "of the things which we
   have spoken, this is the sum, we have such an High Priest who is set on
   the right hand of the Throne of the Majesty in the heavens." May Christ
   be "All in All" in all our ministries, for so shall we prove that God
   has called us to testify concerning His Son Jesus!

   This may serve as an introduction to our subject. Now let us take the
   text itself. John says, "Behold the Lamb of God." And first let us
   behold Jesus and know Him to be the Lamb of God. It will be well to be
   fully assured upon that point and heartily to accept the witness of God
   concerning His Son. When we have done so, let us secondly behold
   Him--that is contemplate Him and humbly and attentively view Him as the
   great Propitiation, the true Sacrifice for sin. Then thirdly, beholding
   Him again, let us gather instruction from the Redeemer's appearance as
   the Lamb of God. And fourthly, let us behold Him, that is, reverently
   adore Him in His blessed capacity as the Lamb slain.

   I. First, then, let us behold our Lord and LEARN THAT HE IS THE LAMB OF
   GOD. What does the term, "the

   Lamb of God," mean? The Hebrews are accustomed that a thing is "of God"
   when they mean that it is the greatest, the noblest, the chief of the
   kind. For instance, they call the cedars, "trees of God," and the
   thunder is the "voice of God." Therefore we may understand, in the
   first place, by the expression, "the Lamb of God," that Jesus is the
   chief of all sacrifices, the first of all offerings by which atonement
   is made to God for sin.

   And truly He is so. He stands above all others because He contains all
   others. All other sacrifices of God's ordaining were but pictures,
   representations, symbols and shadows of Himself. There is only one
   Sacrifice for sin--there never was

   another and there never can be. All those offerings under the Aaronic
   priesthood which were presented because of sin were only
   representations of the one Sacrifice--they were that and nothing more.
   Jesus far excels them all. Beloved, if you need to see the Lamb that
   Abel offered on the altar, the lamb because of which God accepted his
   faith and had respect unto him, you must see Jesus Christ, for we are
   accepted only in the Beloved.

   God has respect unto any man who brings this Sacrifice--but unto any
   who bring a bloodless sacrifice, such as the priests of Rome foolishly
   do when they offer the unbloody sacrifice of the mass, unto them God
   has no respect and never can have. The blood of Jesus once presented
   has forever put away sin and no further sin-offering can be brought.
   Whoever rests in Jesus as the true and only Sacrifice is accepted in
   his faith. If you desire to see the Lamb which Noah offered when he
   came out of the ark, together with other sacrifices of which it is said
   that, "The Lord smelled a sweet savor of rest," you must look to Jesus
   Christ--for the bullocks, rams and lambs of Noah all pointed to the one
   sweet savor offering of Christ Jesus offered upon the Cross, where God
   and the souls of all Believers meet in blessed union and find sweetest
   rest.

   This, Beloved, is the Lamb of which Abraham spoke when he said to
   Isaac, "My son, God will provide Himself a Lamb." And today if you
   would understand the paschal supper, first of all, spread on that dread
   night when the destroying angel went through Egypt and smote the first
   born of all her land--if you would know who it is whose blood is the
   true Passover when it is sprinkled upon the conscience and whose flesh
   is meat, indeed, when it is fed upon by the children of God--you must
   look to Jesus, for He is the Lamb of God's Passover.

   And if, pursuing your studies, your thoughts should turn into the
   tabernacle of old, or into Solomon's Temple and you should see each
   morning a lamb slaughtered and its blood poured out, and each evening
   the same sacrifice repeated--if you desire to know what was intended by
   the morning and evening lambs you will find that they were but lambs of
   men, lambs presented by men, but they pointed to the Lamb of God in
   whom their teaching is all summed up. He is the Substance of that of
   which they were but the shadow. Jesus is the Lamb of the morning slain
   from before the foundation of the world and He is the Lamb of the
   evening offered up in these last days for His people.

   Thus might we speak of all other sacrifices and show that in Jesus they
   are all fulfilled. Atonement for sin is truly and in very deed to be
   found in the Son of God. In Him, alone, is there remission, for in His
   blood, alone, is there efficacy to satisfy the Law of God. Stern as the
   Truth of God is, we ought never to flinch from repeating it--that sin
   cannot be put away under the moral government of God without
   punishment. This is a rule from which there is no variation and there
   should be none, for ifjustice is left unsatisfied, the foundations of
   society are out of course.

   Infinite Wisdom has found for us a door of escape by the way of a
   vicarious Sacrifice, but that way does not violate justice. Seeing that
   we originally fell by the sin of another, namely, our representative
   Adam, God has seen fit that we should rise through the righteousness
   and sufferings of another, namely, Jesus, the second Adam. Because
   Jesus was one with His people, and their federal Head, it was just to
   allow Him to suffer in their place and He has so done. Apart from this,
   every man must bear his own burden of sin and punishment. The only
   possible way by which a man can be forgiven his sin is by that sin
   being punished in his legal Representative--the Lord Jesus.

   Jesus has borne, Himself, what every believing sinner ought to have
   borne, or an equivalent for it, sufficient to recompense the injury
   done to eternal justice. No other person could be a Substitute for our
   sin, for no other is our Head and Representative before God, and yet
   Himself innocent. There is none other name given under Heaven by which
   we may be saved. The Lord Jesus is of God appointed and provided to be
   the one vicarious Sufferer, the true bearer away of the sin of the
   world by enduring its penalty in His own Person so that whoever
   believes in Him is redeemed from the punishment of sin. That is the
   Gospel!

   I would sooner state it in the most simple language than have the power
   to deliver an impromptu poem, though it should excel the productions of
   Homer or Milton. There is more of precious truth and priceless learning
   in that faithful saying that, "Jesus Christ came into the world to save
   sinners" than in the most profound discourse, or the most stately epic.
   Be thankful that you have heard it! Be thankful that there is
   forgiveness with God because Jesus Christ has become the Savior of men.
   O fellow Sinner, you may approach your God without being plunged into
   suffering yourself, or needing to bring a victim with you, for Jesus
   Christ has been brought as a lamb to the slaughter and His soul has
   been made an offering for sin! Tremble not, but receive the
   reconciliation effected by the Lamb of God! Come boldly, for the way is
   open and man is invited to approach his God.

   Moreover, our Savior is called the Lamb of God, not only, par
   excellence, because He is, beyond all others such, but, secondly,
   because He is the Lamb of God's appointing. God from all eternity
   appointed the Lord Jesus! He was chosen and ordained to be the great
   Sacrifice for Sin. So was it decreed and written of Him in the volume
   of the Book, that oldest of books, "I delight to do Your will O God."
   In the fullness of time Jesus came to do the Father's will and
   therefore it is plain that there was such a will to do, such a decree
   to fulfill. Jesus is elect, precious!

   Peter tells us that the Lord Jesus is "a Lamb without blemish and
   without spot, who verily was foreordained from before the foundation of
   the world." Jesus is the choice of the Father. Our hearts rejoice that
   it is so, for when we rely upon Jesus Christ to save us, we trust in
   One whom God has appointed to save His people. If, as a poor guilty
   sinner, I leave my sin upon Christ, the Lamb of God, I leave it where
   God has bid me cast it, namely, on the appointed Scapegoat. I rest in a
   Sacrifice which God, Himself, ordained of old to be the Sacrifice for
   sin. O Soul, there can be no question that if you come to the Father in
   the way in which He, Himself, appoints, you come acceptably!

   For if you were not accepted, you might well say, "O God, You have set
   forth Christ as a Savior and yet You do not save men through Him. You
   have bid Him say, 'Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out,'
   yet I have come and You have cast me out! This is far from You, Lord."
   Such an event shall never happen. No human lips shall utter such a
   complaint. God's appointment is the guarantee of the acceptance of
   everyone that believes in Jesus.

   Thirdly, Christ is called the "Lamb of God" because He is of God's
   providing. The Father not only appointed His Son to be the Sacrifice
   for sin, but He gave Him freely to be such. Out of the bosom of God
   came Jesus Christ as love's richest blessing. He is the Father's only
   begotten, God's dear Son, and to us, "His unspeakable gift." "He spared
   not His own Son, but freely delivered Him up for us all." "Herein is
   love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to
   be the Propitiation of our sins."

   Men were bid to provide the sacrifice under the Law, but the one
   Sacrifice of the Gospel is the gift of God. "This is the record that
   God has given to us, eternal life, and that life is in His Son." It
   endears Jesus to us to know that He is the dearest pledge of Jehovah's
   love to His chosen. And then, fourthly, He is not only of God's
   appointing and God's giving, but He is of God's offering. Let us never
   forget that Jesus Christ was not presented to God by a human
   priest--there might, then, have been some mistake in the sacrifice. It
   was not left to the sons of Aaron to offer up this true sacrifice to
   God. We may be quite sure that the Offering was presented in fit order
   and in an acceptable way--it is written, "It pleased the Father to
   bruise Him, He has put Him to grief. The Lord has laid on Him the
   iniquity of us all."

   God Himself had a hand in the sufferings of His Son! What does that cry
   mean, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" but that God,
   Himself, had turned away from Him and so had brought His soul into the
   extremity of woe? What do the Scriptures say? Is it not the Father's
   voice which says, "Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the
   Man that is My Fellow"? Oh, Beloved, when I think of this, that God
   chose His Son to be the Atonement, that He gave His Son--and then,
   Himself, did, as it were, like another Abraham, offer up His own
   Isaac--I feel that the Sacrifice must be acceptable and all sufficient,
   so that he who rests in it need not have a shadow of a doubt but that
   his soul is saved!

   One other reflection here--this Sacrifice is also of God's setting
   forth to the sons of men. Remember the text, "Whom God has set forth to
   be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His
   righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the
   forbearance of God." When we, as God's ambassadors, tell you of Jesus
   Christ, we do not so in our name but we do our Lord's bidding and God
   Himself, by us, is setting Christ forth, showing Him, revealing Him,
   exhibiting Him and bidding you come to Him. "Behold," says God "I have
   given Him for a Covenant to the people, a Leader and Commander to the
   people."

   This is God's will, that Christ should be made known to the ends of the
   earth! Everywhere Jesus is to be preached, whether men will bow before
   Him or not. We are quite sure we are doing God's will when we are
   setting forth Christ, for we are bid to go into all the world and
   preach Him to every creature. Assuredly, what the Lord thus sets forth
   He intends to give to those who seek it. There are no mockeries with
   God! He does not exhibit bread and refuse it to the hungry, or set
   garments before the naked and refuse it to them. Happy are the men who
   see Jesus set forth manifestly crucified among them, for they have good
   ground to hope in Him!

   Now then, Sinner, look at this. You want to be rid of your sin. You are
   conscious of it this morning, and you do confess it with shame. Well
   then, God's way of pardoning you is that your sin be laid on Jesus. As
   far as you are

   concerned, you can obtain all the merit of the great Atonement of
   Calvary by a simple act of faith. As of old the Jew laid his hands upon
   the victim and then the victim was his substitute, so if you do but lay
   your trembling hands upon Christ, He suffered for you! He was an
   Atonement for you, and what a blessed Atonement! Let us rehearse that
   point again--He is the Chief of all sacrifices, the Sacrifice of God's
   ordaining, of God's bestowing, of God's presenting, and now of God's
   setting forth to you!

   What more would you have? In order that all things might be of God in
   this matter, from first to last, Jesus is the Lamb of God--is not this
   well? Jesus is God's own chosen Savior--what can be better? On what
   surer ground would you wish to rest? O that you were led to receive Him
   now to be yours forever! Jesus is my All, and I am a man as you are!
   Why should He not be your All, also? I feel as if I could tarry here
   just a minute and pass round among all this audience this one solemn
   question for each one to answer--will you accept Jesus of Nazareth, the
   Son of God, to be unto your soul the Lamb of God which takes away your
   sin? Come, what do you say?

   It is ours to point to Him and to bear our witness--will you accept our
   testimony? Truly He is a great God and a Savior! We have trusted in Him
   and we are not confused. Oh, if the Spirit of God sweetly leads you,
   now, to say from your heart--

   "My faith does lay her hand On that dear head of Yours While like a
   penitent I stand, And there confess my sin"--

   it is indeed well with you both for time and eternity . Be of good
   cheer--your sins, which are many, are forgiven you! Go your way, you
   are accepted in the Beloved! Your iniquities are blotted out like a
   cloud--not one of them shall be mentioned against you any more forever!
   O blessed Spirit of God, out of Your great mercy grant that many and
   many a heart may lay hold upon the Lord Jesus at this hour!

   II. But now we most pass on to a second point. "Behold the Lamb of
   God," that is, let us CONTEMPLATE JESUS UNDER THAT CHARACTER. Let us
   meditate upon Him for a few minutes and then let us constantly fix our
   thoughts upon Him. Jesus Christ, as the atoning Sacrifice, ought to be
   the principal Object of every Believer's thoughts. There are other
   subjects in the world which we must think of, for we are yet in the
   body--but this one Subject ought to engross our souls, and, as the
   birds fly to their nests so ought we, whenever our minds are let
   loose--to fly back to Jesus Christ.

   He should be the main Topic of each day's consideration and of each
   night's reflection. We might, with truthfulness, transfer the words of
   the first Psalm, and say, "Blessed is the man whose delight is in the
   Christ of God and who meditates in Him both day and night; for he shall
   be as a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth his
   fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he
   does shall prosper."

   To meditate much upon the Lamb of God is to occupy your minds with the
   grandest Subject of thought in the universe! All others are flat
   compared with Him! What are the sciences but human ignorance set forth
   in order? What are the classics but the choicest of Babel's jargon when
   compared with His teachings? What are the poets but dreamers, and
   philosophers but fools in His Presence? Jesus alone is wisdom, beauty,
   eloquence and power! No theme for contemplation can at all equal this
   noblest of all topics--God allied to human nature! Just think--God the
   Infinite--Incarnate among sons of men! Marvel at God in union with
   humanity taking human sin--out of stupendous love condescending to be
   numbered with the transgressors and to suffer for sin that was not his
   own!

   O Wonder and Romance, if men desire you, they may find you here! O
   Love, if men seek you, here alone, they may behold you! O Wisdom, if
   men dig for you, here shall they discover your purest ore! O Happiness,
   if men pine for you, you dwell with the Christ of God and they enjoy
   you who live in Him. O Lord Jesus, You are all we need!--

   "Such as find You find such sweetness Deep, mysterious and unknown; Far
   above all worldly pleasures, If they were to meet in one."

   You may search the heavens above and the earth beneath. You may
   penetrate the secret mysteries to find out the callow principles and
   the beginnings of things, but you shall find more in the Man of
   Nazareth, the equal with God, than in all else besides!

   He is the Sum and Substance of all truth, the Essence of all creation,
   the Soul of life! He is the Light of light, the Heaven of heavens, and
   yet He is greater, far, than all this, or all else that I could utter!
   There is no subject in the world so vast, so sublime, so pure, so
   elevating, so Divine! Give me to behold the Lord Jesus and my eyes see
   every precious thing! Brothers and Sisters, no subject so well balances
   the soul as Jesus, the Lamb of God! Other themes disturb the mental
   equilibrium and overload one faculty at the expense of others.

   I have noticed in theology that certain Brethren meditate almost
   exclusively upon doctrine, and I think it is not severely critical to
   say that they have a tendency to become hard, rigid, and far too
   militant. It is to be feared that some doctrinalists miss the spirit of
   Christ in fighting for the words of Christ. God forbid I should speak
   against earnestly contending for the true faith, but still, without
   fellowship with the living Savior we may, through controversy, become
   ill-developed and one-sided.

   I think I have noticed that Brethren who give all their thoughts to
   experience are also somewhat out of square. Some of them dwell upon the
   experience of human corruption until they acquire a melancholy
   temperament and are at the same time apt to censure those who enjoy the
   liberty of the children. Other Brethren turn all their attention to the
   brighter side of experience and these are not always free from the
   spirit of carnal security which leads them to look down upon trembling
   and anxious hearts as though they could not possess true faith in God.
   I think, also, that I have noticed that those who pay all their homage
   at the shrine of practical theology have a tendency to become legal and
   to exchange the privileges of Believers for the bondage of servants.
   This also is a grievous fault.

   But when a man takes Christ Jesus crucified to be his mind's main
   thought he has all things in one--doctrine, experience and practice
   combined! As Canaan contained Carmel, and Sharon, and Eshcol, and
   Hermon, so Jesus comprehends all good things. If "the Lamb of God that
   takes away the sin of the world" is the object of our thoughts we have
   wine and milk, butter and honey, the fat of the kidneys, wheat and oil
   out of the rock, all in one. "A bundle of myrrh is my beloved unto me,"
   "a cluster of camphor in the vineyards of Engedi."--

   "All human beauties, all Divine In my Beloved meet and shine." Beloved,
   this, indeed, is the most necessary Subject of contemplation that can
   be brought before you! You may forget many other things without serious
   damage, and even upon important matters you may somewhat err and yet be
   safe-- but you must live upon Christ, your souls must meditate on
   Him--or else you have left the bread from the feast and missed the
   water from the well! The crucified Savior is as necessary for our
   meditation as the air is for our breathing. The blood of Jesus is the
   life-blood of true religion--a bloodless faith is a lifeless faith.

   I stood yesterday by the little open grave of one of our orphans and it
   said far more to me than I could say to those who mourned around it,
   for it reminded me that there is nothing worth living for beneath the
   sky, since all things are as a dream. Then I thought within myself, as
   I looked on the poor orphan lads around me--yes, there is something to
   live for--to help the poor and train the young, and to make men holier
   and happier. But then I remembered that they, too, like myself, were
   dying creatures and therefore even the benefit received by them would
   also pass away. To live, then, for men is, as far as eternity is
   concerned, an unsatisfactory thing unless there is some higher light in
   which to view it.

   But when the heart lives for Jesus it is not less philanthropic, for it
   loves men for His sake, but its object melts into the Divine, for we
   love God when we love Jesus since He is very God of very God. Beloved,
   this leads me to the very marrow of the matter--to believe in Jesus as
   Divine is essential to real Christianity--and one of the distinguishing
   subjects of faith which separate Christians from other men. Individuals
   are to be found who possess great admiration for the Prophet of
   Nazareth but they know Him not as the Son of God, or as the Lamb of
   God. They deny His Divinity and reject His Atonement.

   With fair words and oily speeches they compliment His Character and
   bedaub His name with their worthless praises. Yet they are not
   Christians and the name is dishonored when they wear it! Of late we
   have heard deniers of our Lord's Divinity spoken of as Christian
   Brethren. Now my common sense does not enable me to see how a man can
   be called a Christian who rejects Christ! Charity by all manner of
   means, but not falsehood! Union certainly, but not union in deadly
   error! Confederacy with those who do not believe Jesus Christ to be God
   and deny His atoning Sacrifice? It is treason to the Lord of Glory!

   Such persons may be excellent Muslims, or Jews, or pure Theists, but
   they are not Christians! And if they wrongly assume that title we ought
   not to concede it to them. In this matter he that is not with our Lord
   is against Him, and he that gathers not with Him scatters abroad.
   Without a distinct and hearty recognition of our Lord's Deity and
   Atonement, how can a man be a partaker of Christ at all? True
   Christians have no questions about these Truths of God--Jesus is to
   them the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, and the Son
   of God whom the world shall yet adore!

   III. Now let us pass on to a third run of thought, but indulge in it
   very briefly. Let us behold the Lamb of God, that is, GATHER
   INSTRUCTION FROM JESUS UNDER THAT ASPECT. I beg you to gather some
   doctrinal instruction. If the Sacrifice provided by God for human sin
   must be none other than the Son of God Himself, then sin is a gigantic
   evil, and necessarily the punishment of sin is stupendous, too.

   I observe with pain the attempt that is made to lower the meaning of
   Scripture upon the subject of the penalty due to sin. It has been
   usually believed to be everlasting, but this is now denied--denied in
   the teeth of express Scriptures! Now the moment we begin to mitigate
   our thought of Hell's terrors, we also lower our idea of sin's
   evil--and with it we also decrease our estimate of the Savior. All
   things in the temple of Truth are to scale. If you take the inch scale
   which now seems to be getting popular you diminish the dimensions
   throughout! A little Hell involves a little Atonement. But, to be
   consistent, grant a Divine Savior an infinite Sacrifice and you grant
   the infinite demerit of sin and then the eternity of future punishment
   is seen to be consistent.

   All these Truths in Scripture lean the one upon the other and your
   judgment upon every other will be affected by your opinion of any one.
   Do not err, I pray you. Uplift the Christ of God and believe in the
   Lamb of God as none other than "very God of very God" and have Him in
   high reverence whatever that reverence may involve. What though your
   inmost soul is awed with the deepest dread and made to tremble at the
   fate of those who reject the Savior and perish in their sins, yet seek
   not to save your feelings at your Savior's cost.

   Moreover, what a conception of the love of God the gift of the Lord
   Jesus for our salvation gives us. Despite the terrible wrath of God
   against sin, He loved the sinner so much that He gave His only son to
   die for his redemption! Here is love! Let us infer from that gift His
   willingness to answer prayer. "He that spared not His own Son but
   freely delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also
   freely give us all things." Let us also see here sure proof of the
   security of the saints, for if Christ is the Lamb of God and no less
   than Divine, how shall they perish for whom such a Sacrifice was
   offered? If it is the blood of the Son of God which has bought us, we
   must be most effectually redeemed beyond all fear of perishing. So far
   you get doctrinal Truth from beholding the Lamb of God.

   Now, if you desire experimental aid look to the Lamb of God, also. Is
   there a heart here troubled with sin? Do not meditate upon your sin
   hoping to find comfort from any consideration connected with it--as
   well look for Heaven in Hell! Do not look to your own resources for
   consolation--as well search the Arctic ocean for tropical heat! "Behold
   the Lamb of God!" Sin vanishes when the Savior appears. Are you
   tormented with the power of sin? Beloved, if you long to conquer sin
   within you, behold the Lamb of God! Crucified, your sin shall be upon
   that Cross where Jesus died. Contemplations of the Savior are the death
   of sin--no other weapon will destroy them.

   If you suffer today from personal affliction and need fresh strength to
   bear it, "Behold the Lamb of God!" His way was much rougher and darker
   than yours--pluck up courage, He will bear you through it! He is
   familiar with all your griefs, His pitying eyes behold your sorrows.
   And oh, if you are getting weary in the battle of life and tired of
   serving God, "Behold the Lamb of God!" wrestling unto blood, and your
   courage will return! Reaper in the summer's heat, see Him as He grasps
   with that pierced hand the sickle! What strides He makes! How
   untiringly He labors till His bloody sweat falls on the ground. Up and
   do your reaping, too, working at His side!

   Builder in the House of God, if you don't see the temple rising as you
   desire, do not lay down your trowel or the mallet, but see the
   Master-Builder standing there with indefatigable perseverance following
   out His glorious design! Let not self-denial or self-sacrifice be
   difficult when the Lamb of God is before you. Let not perseverance be
   difficult, or shame, or scorn be hard to endure--or defeat, or death
   itself be impossible to triumph in--when the Lamb of God is before
   them! He conquered upon Golgotha, perhaps you will conquer there. Only
   keep your eye upon the Lamb of God and this will make you strong to do
   and to endure!

   I might thus continue urging children of God to their profit to look to
   the Lamb of God, but I shall only add this, that if at any time we grow
   discouraged about God's work and are afraid that it will not succeed
   and so on, the very best encouragement for us is to Behold the Lamb of
   God! You are afraid that sin will conquer in your soul--how can it,
   when Jesus died for you? Sin seemed to win the day when Christ was
   dead, but He rose again and so shall you rise, and you shall be more
   than a conqueror!

   And in this world is it not a very weary business to be a minister of
   Christ today? If I might have my choice I would sooner follow any
   avocation, so far as the comfort of it is concerned, than this of
   ministering to the sons of men! For we beat the air and this deaf
   generation will not hear us! What is this perverse generation the
   better for after years and years and years of preaching? This land is
   going back to the foul doctrines which its fathers would not
   bear--those who know better are in concert and continue in fellowship
   with the priests of Rome! The world is not worth preaching to--we have
   piped unto it and it has not danced! We have mourned unto it, but it
   has not lamented! It needs an Elijah, a man of fire and thunder to deal
   with such an age as this!

   But for all that, there is no room for discouragement, for the Truth of
   God will win the day! It is in the hands of One who cannot fail or
   falter. He shall not fail or be discouraged till He has set judgment in
   the earth and the isles wait for His Law. The fight may seem to hang in
   the scales today, but the conquest is sure to come unto Him whose right
   it is. He shall gather all the scepters of kings beneath His arm in one
   mighty sheaf and take their diadems from off their brows, and be
   Himself crowned with many crowns, for God has said it, and Heaven and
   earth shall pass away but every promise of His must and shall be
   fulfilled!

   Push on, then, through hosts of enemies, you warriors of the Cross!
   Fight up the hill, you soldiers of Christ, through the smoke and
   through the dust! You may not see your banner just now, neither do you
   hear the trumpet that rings out the note of victory, but the mist shall
   clear away and you shall gain the summit of the hill--and your foes
   shall fly before you, and the King Himself shall come and you shall be
   rewarded who have continued steadfast in His service.

   IV. Now the last thought was to be this. Behold the Lamb of God WITH
   REVERENCE. I will not dwell upon it for I have not time. Lift up your
   eyes and worship Him now. He exists, He is as truly there in Heaven as
   He was here on earth. Behold Him! Worship Him! Trust Him! Love Him, for
   be this remembered, He will come before long and that which we shall
   have to dread if we are unbelievers will be the wrath of the Lamb!

   Read through the book of Revelation and you shall find there, I think,
   more than 20 times the Lord described as a Lamb. The song is the "song
   of Moses and of the Lamb." Worship is given "unto the Lamb, for He is
   worthy." He it is that takes the book and looses the seven seals, and
   it is the Lamb that shall come "to judge the quick and the dead."
   "Therefore kiss the Son lest He be angry and you perish from the way
   while His wrath is kindled but a little." Worship Him at this hour for
   He comes before long! As the Lord lives before whom I stand, He will
   summon every one of you to His bar. Take heed that He is not an object
   of terror to you as He will be if you continue in unbelief, but turn
   unto Him that He may be your joy and gladness in the day of His
   appearing! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Rahab

   (No. 1061)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JULY 21, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not,
   when she had received the spies in peace." Hebrews 11:31.

   "Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she
   had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?" James
   2:25.

   THESE are two New Testament summaries of the life of Rahab and they are
   equally honorable to her. Paul puts her among the great worthies who,
   by faith, worked wonders. The 11th chapter of Hebrews is a triumphal
   arch to the soldiers of faith and among the illustrious names inscribed
   there are the name of this harlot of Jericho. We are not, however, so
   much surprised at that, for she was evidently an instance of great
   faith--but we are somewhat surprised, I think, to find her name
   recorded by James because he is an eminently practical writer--and was
   writing of good works rather than of faith. His object is to show that
   the faith which justifies the soul is a faith which produces good
   works, and therefore he looks for instances of holy service of God.

   We should not have thought that he would have singled out Rahab, but he
   has done so and this is the more remarkable because the only other
   person whom he mentions is Abraham--Abraham the Father of the Faithful,
   the Friend of God, a perfect and an upright man! James cites Abraham as
   standing for the one sex and Rahab the harlot for the other. I have no
   doubt that James knew what he was doing and that the Inspiration which
   guided him was infallible. Possibly Rahab was chosen to represent the
   Gentiles in connection with the founder of Israel who fitly stood for
   the Jews. While Abraham possessed a faith which manifested itself by
   works, so also did Rahab, the daughter of the Gentiles descended from a
   race doomed to destruction--a Gentile of the Gentiles.

   But possibly another reason for mentioning her may be that as Abraham
   renounced his own kindred at the call of God and came forth from Ur of
   the Chaldees, separated unto the Most High, so did this woman leave all
   her associations with Jericho, practically renouncing her nationality,
   forsaking her country and leaving it to its destiny and doom while she
   took her part with Israel to be a partaker with the people of God in
   the promised inheritance. It is no small honor, then, to this
   remarkable woman that she has her name recorded, not only with the
   heroes of faith, but also that she is selected by the great practical
   Apostle as one of two remarkable instances of the works which result
   from faith.

   Let us consider her faith and her character all the more attentively
   because of this high position which the Holy Spirit has accorded to
   her. With the commendation of Paul and the praise of James, backed as
   they both were by the witness of the Spirit of God, this woman's
   character is well worthy of attentive consideration. May the Spirit of
   God bless our meditation to our profit.

   I. Our first observation upon her shall be that she possessed SINGULAR
   FAITH. This will be apparent if we reflect that she received no
   instruction from her parents. Birth-right membership was not a question
   which touched the case of Rahab. Her parents were of the condemned race
   of the Canaanites. They had no faith in God, themselves, and could not
   inculcate it. She did not become a worshipper of Jehovah because the
   family had always been so. They had no family pew in the sanctuary, no
   Prophet's chamber in the house, no name to keep up among the Lord's
   people. She was the first and only one of her race called out by Grace.
   God had chosen her as "one of a family" by His electing love, and
   though we hope that Grace continued in the household for many
   generations, yet it first of all came by her.

   Now we do not so much wonder, though I believe in many respects it is
   equally to God's Glory when we see the children of godly parents
   becoming Believers in Christ--for we remember the many prayers offered
   for them, the

   instructions which they have received, the affectionate admonitions
   which they have heard--and above all the godly examples which they have
   seen. We do not so much wonder, though indeed, even in that case it is
   a work of the Spirit of God as much as in any other if the conversion
   is genuine. But we do marvel, and we cannot help it, when we see one
   rising out of a family in which no true religion had ever been seen
   before! Here we see a lone palm in the desert, a solitary life among
   the tombs.

   It is a struggle, as some of you know, to stand in the position of a
   lonely witness for God in a family. When in seeing enquirers I have to
   talk to young persons who are the only ones of the family attending the
   House of God at all--the only ones who make any pretensions to
   godliness--I feel great sympathy with them because I know they will
   have much to put up with and a heavy cross to carry. Such converts are
   not plants in the conservatory, but flowers exposed to the winter's
   cold. Yet it is right to add that I have often observed that these have
   become among the strongest and most decided Christians that I have ever
   met! Even as Rahab, though her faith was solitary and was like a lily
   among thorns, yet was her faith none the less strong and perhaps, all
   the more unwavering.

   Reflect again that her faith was singular because she was not in a
   believing country. Not only within doors had she none to sympathize
   with her, but in the whole city of Jericho, so far as we know, she was
   the only believer in Jehovah. It is right to conclude that if there had
   been other Believers there, either the city would have been spared for
   the sake of ten righteous, or else there would have been means found
   for their preservation--but she was the only one there. If we could
   have taken a birds-eye view of the city of Jericho and had been
   informed that there was one Believer there, I assure you we would not
   have looked to Rahab's house! She would have been about the last person
   that we should have supposed had been a possessor of faith in the true
   God.

   God has a people where we little dream of it and He has chosen ones
   among a sort of people whom we dare not hope for. Who would think that
   Grace could grow in the heart of one who was a harlot by name, as
   though her sin was openly known to all? Yet it grew there, like a fair
   flower blooming upon a dunghill, or a bright star glittering on the
   brow of night. There her faith grew and brought forth glory to God! I
   know not what god they worshipped at Jericho, but the whole city was
   full of idolatry and Rahab, alone, looked to the living God! The whole
   city was full of filthiness, and, bad as she had been, her faith must
   have made her loathe the sin. Jericho was neighbor to Sodom, not only
   as to locality but as to condition, and bad as this woman had been, it
   is probable that her sin was among the least of the offenses practiced
   there.

   It is a shame even to speak of the loathsome crimes which defiled
   Jericho. When reclaimed by Sovereign Grace Rahab must have found
   herself as much alone in Jericho as Lot had found himself alone in
   Sodom. She was the one and only Believer amidst an idolatrous and
   depraved generation. May we not have hope, dear Friends, that from the
   lowest slums of our vast city there may come other Rahabs? Why not a
   Rahab in the Haymarket as well as in Jericho? May we not trust that
   among those who have been in our prisons, there yet may arise believers
   in the Lord God of Israel? May we not even hope that the fame of the
   Gospel may have been carried by rumor into cities unvisited by
   missionaries and that here and there Rahabs in unknown cities may be
   seeking after the Lord? There is no telling what Divine Grace may be
   silently doing throughout the world in culling out the ones and twos
   whom God has chosen! Israel dreamed not of finding an ally within her
   enemy's walls, yet the Lord would have it so, and so it was.

   Remember, too, that Rahab's faith was remarkable because her means of
   knowledge were very slender and, therefore, the food of her faith was
   comparatively scant. She had no book inspired of God to read. She had
   been instructed by no Prophet--no Elijah had spoken to her in the name
   of God--no Jonah had gone through the streets of her city, warning men
   to repent. What information she had obtained she had gathered by odds
   and ends. She had put together the talk of the marketplace, the chat at
   the well and the gossip outside the city gates. And she had concluded
   that a nation had come out of Egypt, and that for their sakes and by
   their God, Jehovah, the Egyptian king had been destroyed at the Red
   Sea-- that Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan, had
   been overthrown in battle by this people--and that it was certain they
   were on their way to take the whole of Palestine to themselves because
   their God had given it to them.

   Out of these common reports this woman had gathered evidence sufficient
   for faith to rest upon. The proverb has it that common fame is a common
   liar, but in this case the general panic with which her countrymen had
   been seized convinced her that the reports were true. The terms in
   which the advance of Israel was everywhere described convinced her that
   a terrible calamity hung like a cloud over the country. A cloud that
   paralyzed the court, the army and the

   people. She saw that the ground of fear was that a living God was with
   this people and she said within herself, "Verily, there is one God,"
   and her conscience within responded to that declaration. She felt it
   was so and light streamed in upon her spirit. She believed in Jehovah,
   the God of Israel, and she began to worship Him, expecting that the
   cause which He espoused would be successful and that those who were His
   enemies would certainly come to destruction. Slender, I say, was the
   basis--strong enough in itself--but far inferior to that line upon
   line, precept upon precept, which we have so long received.

   Many here present have the whole of God's Book before them and yet do
   not believe! They have the testimony of His saints by the thousands and
   yet do not believe! They are earnestly entreated by living witnesses,
   yet do not believe! But this poor woman, with her few opportunities,
   became a believer in Jehovah! Take heed lest in the day of judgment she
   should rise up against you! She believed with far less testimony--how
   will you be able to excuse your own persistent unbelief? I pray you,
   dear Hearers, think of this! Perhaps the most wonderful thing about her
   faith was that she should be a woman of such a character. She was
   apparently the most unlikely person to become a believer in Jehovah.
   She was a harlot, a woman that was a sinner and universally known to be
   such!

   Desperate attempts have been made to find some other meaning for the
   word rendered harlot, but they have been utterly fruitless. Both Paul
   and James declare, concerning her, that she was what we commonly call
   her. The idea that she was a hostess or tavern keeper is absurd because
   such a thing as an innkeeper was not known in those days, as everybody
   knows. To foist such an interpretation as that upon the original Hebrew
   is not to translate, but to misinterpret--and no one has ever attempted
   it with the Greek! She had doubtless been a great sinner--it is no use
   trying to mince the matter. Let the glory be to Divine Grace! Why
   should we wish to rob God of His honor in having delivered such a woman
   from her sin?

   But after she became a believer in Jehovah, it strikes me she forsook
   her sin and became another character though she was still known by her
   old title. We read that she hid the spies among the stalks of flax. For
   what purpose had she stalks of flax upon her roof if she had not begun
   to be an industrious working woman? A little thing will often indicate
   character. A straw shows which way the wind blows and it seems to me to
   be most probable that she had forsaken her unhallowed life. And then,
   since hospitality had come to be forgotten in Jericho and the other
   Canaanite cities, she, being a follower of Jehovah and knowing that
   hospitality was His delight, would go to the city gate every now and
   then, just as Lot had been accustomed to do, and watch for strangers to
   see if she could entertain them.

   She was under no suspicion in doing this, because her old name would
   stick to her and give her a license to do what others might not attempt
   without being suspected of treason against the crown by entertaining
   aliens and as such, adversaries. So I doubt not she most honestly
   entertained strangers and the reason why, on this occasion the spies
   came to her was because she was generally on the lookout to receive
   wayfarers who else perhaps would have received bad treatment at the
   hands of her wicked townsmen. So the generous spirit which true
   religion gave her brought her into contact with the Israelites who came
   to spy the land--and they became, in God's hands, the means of her
   safety when the city was destroyed.

   The Grace of God had, even before these men came, lifted her up out of
   her former self! And though her old name stuck to her, I think I see
   reason to believe that her old character was gone and she had become a
   new creature through the power of faith. However, she was a harlot once
   and the wonder is that she became a Believer! Wonders of Grace are
   God's delight! He loves, for Jesus' sake, to call unto Himself the
   lowest of the low and the vilest of the vile. The Lord still works in
   the same manner. Let us rest assured that Jesus still receives sinners
   and that publicans and harlots enter into the kingdom of Heaven before
   the self-righteous and captious! It is very remarkable that in the
   pedigree of Christ there should be so many women with blotted
   characters--that there should be an incestuous Tamar, a harlot Rahab,
   an idolatrous Ruth and an adulterous Bathsheba--so that Jesus Christ,
   the Savior of sinners, has descended His earthly parentage from the
   loins of sinners and so is nearly akin to them! O the depths of the
   Grace of God! How matchless is the condescension of the Redeemer!

   Once more, Rahab's faith was singular because the subject of it was
   difficult. What was it she had to believe? Was it not this--that Israel
   would destroy Jericho? Now, between Jericho and the tribes flowed the
   Jordan and the Israelites had no means of crossing it. Only a miracle
   could divide that overflowing river. Did Rahab's faith expect a
   miracle? If so, it was remarkably strong. Around Jericho stood a
   gigantic wall. There was no likelihood of the assailants scaling it or

   making a breach in it. Did Rahab think that those walls would fall flat
   to the ground? Or did she leave the way of the capture with God, firmly
   believing that it would be conquered? If so, she was a woman of no
   small faith! I have known intelligent Christians whose faith could
   neither have divided a flood nor leaped over a wall--but this poor
   woman's faith in God did both!

   She was sure that the God of the Red Sea would be the God of the Jordan
   and that He who smote Og, king of Bashan, could strike the king of
   Jericho, too! Her faith was special because it was strong and stronger
   than faith often is in those who have far more of a basis on which to
   rest it. Now, let each one of us say, as we think of this woman's
   strange faith, "Why should not I have the same faith in the living God?
   God can give it to me. Though my past life may have been greatly
   defiled with sin, yet why should I not put my trust in the Lord, the
   Savior? Is not faith the very Grace which best becomes a sinner and
   does most for a sinner? Has not God sent Jesus Christ into the world to
   redeem men from sin? Has He not redeemed many already by the power of
   His Spirit and the application of His precious blood? I will believe in
   Jesus."

   Oh, may the Holy Spirit give you faith at this moment! May God's
   electing love single out some here who have been, if not actually yet
   in heart, as bad as Rahab--and may they be led by infinite mercy,
   having followed her in sin--to imitate her in faith! Come, you fallen,
   Jesus can raise you! Come, you filthy, Jesus can cleanse you! Believe
   and eternal life is yours!

   II. In the second place RAHAB'S FAITH WAS ACTIVE. It was not a sleeping
   faith, or a dead faith--it was an operative faith. It was active first,
   mentally. When she believed, she began to think. Some persons get
   converted at revivals and wild excitement and seem to me as if they
   either have no brains or else their heads were never entered by Grace.
   You have always to keep up a great excitement or you will miss them.
   They have no well-considered principles. If you asked them what they
   believe they would not know, nor would they be able to tell why they
   believe.

   They probably believe because other people believe--the minister is
   earnest and they had a good time in general, hence their faith--but
   reasonable reason they have none. The best Believers to wear and endure
   are the thoughtful ones, men of principle, men who weigh and judge.
   They, of course have their conflicts all the more for their
   thoughtfulness, but then, on the other hand, they gather strength by
   the mental exercise and these are the men who are not carried about
   with every wind of doctrine, but who stand fast in the trying hour.
   Would to God we had a large army of thoughtful Believers, for then
   Ritualism and Rationalism would do far less mischief!

   Rahab was a thoughtful woman and had quite a system of theology of her
   own. She knew the past--she knew the story of the Red Sea and of Og and
   Sihon. She knew something about God's having promised by Covenant to
   give the country to the Israelites and from that she gathered the
   present. Notice her doctrine upon present things, "The Lord Jehovah, He
   is God in Heaven above and in earth beneath." She laid that down as a
   certain fact that the Lord Jehovah who had done so much must be the God
   in Heaven above and in the earth beneath! And then from that she drew
   her inference as to the future. She believed that God would give the
   country into Israel's hand and she asked that when the Lord did
   actually do so, they would deal kindly and truly with her.

   So she had a doctrine about the present, the past and the future and
   she had it all arranged in her own mind. Her thought was not only so
   active that she became a doctrinalist--one commentator even calls her a
   semi-prophetess--she was active in her mind as to her decision for the
   Lord. She said, "I belong to this town. I have citizen privileges in
   Jericho, but I will give them all up. God is against this city and it
   will be destroyed--and I shall be destroyed in it if I am against God.
   But He is the true God--I, therefore, side with Him and take part with
   His people. If He will but have me, I will put myself beneath the
   shadow of His wings and ask Him to cast the skirt of His garment over
   me. Henceforth I am no citizen of Jericho--I disavow my allegiance to
   its king."

   When the spies came she knew her course of action. She did not regard
   herself as bound to take any part in the defense of the city by sending
   word to the king that spies had come. She considered herself as an
   Israelite and acted as such. Oh, I wish that some professors were half
   as decided as this! They know the Truth of God but they do not stand up
   for it! They will hear it laughed at and ill words thrown at it, yet
   their blood never boils with indignation against the adversaries of
   God! They keep very quiet and perhaps one reason is that they have
   nothing to say. They have not learned Christ--they have no reason for
   the hope that is in them and therefore they cannot give it with
   meekness and fear--and so their religion appears to be a dead letter as
   far as their mind is concerned. God deliver us from such a faith as
   that!

   May we have a faith which thrills our entire manhood, moves our
   judgment, enlightens our understanding and makes us decide for the
   Truth of God and righteousness in whatever company we may be thrown!

   But next came another form of activity. Her faith was active in her own
   sphere. As I have already conjectured that she became willing to
   entertain strangers, so when she saw the servants of God in the form of
   the two spies she knew at once what to do. She took them home and she
   did her best to hide them. She did not set up to be a heroine and say,
   "Now I am a follower of Jehovah I must be doing something
   extraordinary." She did not pack up her clothes and start off to some
   distant place where she could find more glittering service for
   Jehovah--she stopped where she was and served God there! She minded her
   own guests and kept her own house. I believe that home duties are one
   of the very best forms of the activity of faith--our business is not to
   do what we fancy but what the Lord appoints for us.

   Of many a Christian woman it is best to have it said, as of Sarah, when
   they said, "Where is Sarah?" and the answer was, "In her tent." It is a
   good thing when a Christian feels he will not choose his work but will
   take the work God chooses for him--he resolves not to be somebody else,
   but to follow the special path which the Lord marks out for him. Now
   Rahab was not to anticipate Joel, and drive a tent pin through the head
   of the King of Jericho, nor to be a Deborah and call some Barak to the
   battle. She had work at home ready to hand and what her hand found to
   do she did with all her might. May we see in all of you who are
   Christians the faith which works in its own sphere! May you exhibit the
   religion of common things.

   Do not believe in knight-errantry. Do not be spiritual Don Quixotes.
   God has made you what you are, a mother, or a daughter--a husband, a
   servant, or a master--serve God as such. There is something for you to
   do in your position. Extraordinary calls may come and I pray they may
   come to some here present, but they are not likely to be given to those
   who cannot use their present everyday opportunities. We may be called
   to very special service and have special Grace given, but it is best
   for us, till such calls are felt, to mind our business in the station
   of life in which God has placed us. Moses kept sheep till he was bid to
   deliver Israel. Gideon was threshing when the angel appeared to him.
   And the disciples were fishing when Jesus called them. They used
   diligence in their callings and then threw their hearts into their
   higher calling.

   And so did Rahab. The spies came to her; she received them in peace;
   she hid them and after she hid them she led them down by a rope from
   her house on the wall--which perhaps she did before to very different
   characters. Then she gave them the best advice she could and was thus
   the means of preserving their lives. She fulfilled a very necessary
   part in Israelite history. Her faith was truly active and is to be
   commended. And let me say that she did all this to the best of her
   ability and used her common sense. She covered them up with flax--she
   put them on the housetop--she let them down after it was dark. She told
   them to go to the mountain. She recommended them wait three days till
   the heat of the search was over--she acted prudently. She did all she
   could and she did it with remarkable tact and shrewdness.

   I never could see why true religion should be so often associated with
   stupidity and yet I have remarked that some gracious people either
   affect a babyish simplicity, or else the Lord has, indeed, chosen the
   foolish things of this world. If you have faith surely you are not,
   therefore, to act as if you had lost your reason! It seems to me that
   faith is common sense spiritualized--carried into the affairs of
   religion and that it is quite consistent--there is no imperative upon
   us to discontinue common sense in our ordinary affairs. We are to be
   wise as serpents, as well as harmless as doves.

   Does not the Apostle say, "In understanding be you men"? Oh, if men had
   their wits as much about them when they serve God as they have when
   they are looking for guineas, how much more would be done in the Church
   and the world! But there is often a blundering in the management of
   Christian societies and Christian Churches which would not be tolerated
   for a moment in a house of business--and men are allowed to be head and
   foremost in Christian enterprises who would not be reckoned worth their
   salt for selling pins or driving pigs! We ought to be as thoughtful, as
   careful, as prudent, as quick, as enterprising--what if I say as
   go-a-head--in the service of God as we should be in the pursuits of

   life.

   I commend Rahab's faith because while she was thoroughly active, she
   was active in the way in which she could best serve the Church of God,
   and brought all her wits and abilities into full play. Rahab was also
   active at great risk. Rahab's faith made her run the risk of being put
   to death, for if the spies had been discovered there would have been
   short work of Rahab. The king of Jericho's sword would soon have taken
   off the head of the woman who dared to conceal the enemies of her
   country! She gladly staked all upon the Truth of God and ran all risks
   to save the servants of

   the Lord. In this she was being far superior to those, today, who will
   not risk their employment, their situation, their good name or even the
   love of a single relative for Jesus Christ's sake.

   She was thus possessed of an active faith and we may say as James does,
   "Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she
   had received the messengers and had sent them out another way?" Did not
   her works go with her faith? Was not the faith which justified her a
   faith which produced works? Did not the Holy Spirit work in her a
   manifest activity which justified her faith by proving it to be real,
   and justified her by showing that she was sincere?

   III. RAHAB'S FAITH WAS MARRED WITH GROSS WEAKNESS. She lied to the men
   who came to the door to seize the spies. She said that two strangers
   had come to her but she did not know from where they came, which was a
   lie--and she did not know where they were gone and they had departed
   some time ago, and they had better be pursued--this was another
   falsehood and is altogether inexcusable. But at the same time, please
   remember that she did not know it was wrong to lie.

   There were, no doubt, in her conscience, indistinct glimmerings of an
   idea that to lie was an evil thing, but, nevertheless, her surroundings
   prevented her clearly knowing it as we know it. To this very day among
   many Orientals it is far more usual to lie than to speak the truth. In
   fact, a thoroughbred aboriginal eastern never speaks the truth unless
   by mistake, and he would be very sorry for it if he knew he had done
   so, even by accident! Among the Hindus men cannot readily be believed
   upon their oaths in courts of justice. We despise a great liar, but the
   Easterns consider him a genius! Sad it is, but it has always been so
   and this very much accounts for our finding such men as Abraham and
   Isaac deliberately saying, under certain trying circumstances, a thing
   that was not.

   You must judge individuals from their own standpoint, and consider
   their circumstances, or you may do them an injustice. I am not going to
   excuse Rahab's lie. A lie in Rahab, or in Abraham, is as bad as in
   anyone else--but in this case there is this to be said--she had not
   been taught, as most of us have been, that a lie is a degrading sin.
   Nobody had ever said to her, "To deceive is contrary to the Law of God,
   for His Spirit teaches us not to lie to one another, seeing we have put
   off the old man with his deeds." There is one thing else to be said. I
   have often tried to put myself in Rahab's place, and have said, "Now
   suppose I had been hiding two servants of God during the old days of
   Claverhouse's dragoons. For instance, if I had Alexander Peden and
   Cameron in the back room and two dragoons should ride up to my door and
   demand, "Are the ministers here?" I have tried to imagine what I would
   say and I have never yet been able to make up my mind.

   I suppose I have more light than Rahab and certainly I have had more
   leisure to consider the case, and yet I do not see my way. I do not
   wonder, therefore, that she blundered. And I am not much astonished
   that she said what she did say, for it would most readily suggest
   itself to her ignorant and anxious mind. I have turned over a great
   many schemes of what I would have said. I do not see how I could have
   said, "Yes, they are indoors." That would be to betray God's servants
   and that I would not do. I have concocted a great many pretty-looking
   plans, but I confess that, upon examination, they appear to be more or
   less tinctured with the deceit which tries to justify or conceal
   deceit--and therefore I have had to abandon them as being no better
   than falsehood and perhaps not quite so good.

   I am not sure whether Rahab's lie was not more honest and outspoken
   than many an evasion which has suggested itself to very clever people.
   In fact, as a rule, things which are not obvious and need cleverness to
   suggest them, are rather suspicious. Strip a Russian and you find a
   Tartar, and if you strip these clever plans, they peel into falsehoods,
   after all. I do not need to say a word of apology for the
   falsehood--far from it. It is wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong,
   altogether wrong! But, for all that, before you condemn Rahab be quite
   sure that you do not condemn yourself, and ask yourself first, what you
   would have said, or what you would have done under the circumstances.
   To tell the truth is always right. Consequences are not so much to be
   thought of as the claims of the God of Truth. Sometimes plain truth has
   had a very wonderful effect and doubtless it would, in every case, be
   the best policy.

   I have heard of a man, a Mr. Story, who had been brought up before
   Judge Jeffreys to be tried for rebellion against King James II, and
   there was always very faint hope of a man escaping who had once been
   introduced to that monster. By some means, Story had gained a great
   repute for honesty and Jeffrey brought him before the king to speak for
   himself. As I remember the history it ran somewhat in this way--The
   king said, "Well, Mr. Story, you were in Monmouth's army, were you
   not?" "Yes, please your majesty." "And you were a commissary there,
   were you not?" "Yes, please your majesty." "Did you not preach and make
   speeches to the crowd?" "Yes, your majesty." "Pray," said the king, "If
   you

   have not forgot what you said, let us have a taste of your fine florid
   speech--give us some flowers of your rhetoric and a few of the main
   points on which you insisted."

   "I told them, your Majesty, that it was you that set fire to the City
   of London." "Upon my word," said the king, "and pray, what else did you
   tell them?" "I said you poisoned your brother and that you were
   determined to make us all papists and slaves." By this time the king
   had heard enough and asked him what he would say if, after all this, he
   should grant him his life and a free pardon. Mr. Story there upon
   declared that he should, in such an unlikely case, become a right loyal
   subject--whereupon he received a free pardon as an honest, though
   mistaken man. In his case plain speaking did what falsehood could not
   have done, and if, in all cases, it did not turn out so, yet our duty
   is clear, and, therefore, we must be prepared to do it and take the
   consequences.

   I suppose if Rahab had possessed great faith she would have said, "It
   is my business to serve God but not to break God's Laws, and as it will
   be breaking God's Laws to lie, I will not do it. I will take care of
   His servants as far as possible, but it is His business to take care of
   them, after all, and I must not do evil that good may come." Though
   that would have been the best course, Rahab was not yet so instructed
   as to have thought of it and I fear that a great many here would not
   have thought of it either. Her fault was by no means one which we can
   afford to throw stones at--avoid it carefully--but do not censure it
   self-complacently.

   IV. Rahab's was A FAITH THAT WAS NOT ABOVE THE USE OF OUTWARD SIGNS AND
   SEALS. Please note this. There are persons in the world who altogether
   despise the outward ordinances. They may be good but they are not wise.
   Rahab, first of all, required from these spies an oath that they would
   preserve her and next they gave her a token, a scarlet line, which was
   to be hung in her window. This was the blood red flag of Israel. Was it
   not hoisted on the Passover night so that the angel might pass by and
   deliver the people?

   She felt great comfort when she had placed the token in her window. She
   was not superstitious--she did not believe that anything mystical was
   in the red cord--but she put it there because she had been told to do
   so. Now, the highest faith in Christ is perfectly consistent with the
   obedient use of Christian ordinances. We are resting on the precious
   blood of Christ, not upon sacraments! God forbid we should ever build
   our hope upon Baptism or on the Lord's Supper. What are these things in
   themselves but very vanity if we repose confidence in them? At the same
   time the Lord has given us Baptism as the emblem of His death, His
   burial and His resurrection. If we believe we have been buried with Him
   and are risen with Him, let us hang this scarlet cord in our window.

   He has given us the ordinance of the Lord's Supper to be the emblem of
   His death--let us eat the bread and drink the wine in memory of Him. We
   do not trust in the emblems in the slightest degree. We abhor the idea!
   Still, we put the scarlet cord in our window and thus let all men know
   that we believe in Jesus. We are not ashamed to show His death till He
   come. Yes, and we enter the house, that is the Church, and we delight
   to dwell there, numbered among God's people! We are not ashamed to be
   known to be members of the Brotherhood of the Lord Jesus Christ! Do not
   seek to get a faith that would cast off the assistance which God's
   Spirit appoints you! Everything that is of man's invention put
   aside--but that which is of God's ordaining is for your benefit--and
   you are bound to hold to it even though it is little as a scarlet line
   in the window.

   V. HER FAITH WAS SAVING FAITH. I have shown how it was grievously
   marred but it was effectual, notwithstanding. She was saved when all
   the city wall went down. Her house was on the wall but there it stood.
   Must it not have seemed strange? The walls began to rock and shake and
   then down they fell with a thundering sound, and upward flew dense
   clouds of dust--but above all there stood the piece of the wall on
   which was Rahab's house--like an island in the midst of a tempestuous
   sea!

   The Israelites dashed over the ruins of the wall, pursued the doomed
   men with fury and slew them, for they had been ordained of God to be
   their executioners. Not one escaped! But no sword came near to Rahab's
   bosom. No death took away one of her kindred! She was saved! She was
   taken out of her house with her friends and put outside the camp of the
   Israelites BUT afterwards received into it. She was married to Salmon,
   a prince of Judah, and afterwards had the high dignity of being one of
   the ancestors of our Lord Jesus Christ!

   So, dear Brothers and Sisters, true faith in Christ, despite its
   weakness will save us! It separates us from the world, joins us unto
   God's Israel, marries us to the true Prince of Judah, gives us kinship
   with the Lord Jesus Christ--and what higher dignity is there to
   receive?

   IV. With this I shall close when I have mentioned the last point, and
   that is HER FAITH BECAME ACCEPTABLE WITH GOD SO THAT SHE WAS THE MEANS
   OF THE SALVATION OF OTHERS. Oh, I like this in Rahab, that she did not
   bargain for her own safety, alone! Her sin had not hardened her heart
   as sin does in many cases. She thought of her father, her mother and
   her brothers and her sisters. Now, wherever there is a real child of
   God there will be anxiety for his family. If you do not want to have
   your children saved you are not saved yourself!

   I have seen professors who thought it quite enough if they, alone, went
   to Heaven. I knew a man who would walk 20 miles on Sunday to hear "the
   truth"--nobody preached it but at one place. But when he was asked
   where his family went, he said that it was no business of his--God
   would save His own elect. Such people are not the children of God,
   because God's children are not worse than heathen men and publicans,
   for they care for their own households. Rahab was a good daughter--with
   all her wrong she loved her father and her mother. She was a good
   sister and desired her brother and sisters to be saved.

   O you Christian people, seek to be good in your relationships at home!
   I won't give a penny for you if you are not a good husband or a good
   wife. Away with your Christianity if it makes you a bad child. A
   domineering, surly father--a rebellious child, a gossiping wife, an
   idle servant, a tyrannical master--these may belong to Satan, but God
   will not own them! Rahab, with all that was wrong about her, had an
   intense love for her kindred. But notice, love them as she might, she
   could not save them unless she got them under the red flag. If any of
   them stopped in the streets when the Israelites were slaying the
   people, they might say, "We belong to Rahab," but the reply would be,
   "We cannot help that, the oath we took was to spare all in the house
   where the red line was in the window, and if you are not there you
   cannot be spared."

   It will be of no use, when you die, to say, "Spare me, O avenging
   Angel, my mother prayed for me! My sister agonized for my conversion."
   No, you must personally get into Christ yourself and have a real faith
   in Him or no prayers of others can be of any use for you. But the mercy
   was that somehow Rahab was helped by God to bring all her family in.
   Her father did not say, "No, my Girl, I do not believe in it." Some of
   you have fathers who say that. Pray hard for them! And the mother did
   not say, "My Child you are mad. I have always thought you a little
   affected in the brain. Do not come teaching your mother." No, but
   mother came, too.

   When the Israelites marched round the city the six days and the people
   of Jericho laughed and said what fools they were to think they were
   going to make the walls tumble down by walking round them, she still
   confided in God--and I dare say she had some difficulty in persuading
   her lively sisters and her argumentative brothers to believe, too. They
   would say, "Rahab, are you quite clear about this? Is it not all a mere
   farce?" Somehow, such was the influence God gave her, such was the
   power of her faith--that they all remained in the house and with their
   families were saved.

   The house, I dare say, was filled as full as could be from top to
   bottom and glad was Rahab to see it. God grant I may have all my family
   thus preserved! I am sure every child of God here is breathing the same
   prayer--"God of Rahab, give me my father and my mother and my brothers
   and my sisters and all my kindred." The Lord hear your prayers, and
   bless you for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Why Am I Thus?

   (No. 1062)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON THURSDAY EVENING, MARCH 14, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "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." Romans
   7:22,23.

   LAST Thursday evening, as many of you will remember, I addressed you
   upon the final perseverance of the saints. I have been greatly
   surprised and gratified during the week to learn how many persons found
   comfort and cheer from the simple explanation of that doctrine which I
   gave you. In fact, on the past two Thursday evenings [PERSEVERANCE
   without presumption, #1056, and A persuasive TO steadfastness, #1042]
   we have been handling a precept and a promise both relating to the same
   matter, though each putting it in a different light. The one admonished
   us to perseverance by holding fast--the other assured us of
   preservation because we are fast held.

   The welcome you gave to these familiar expositions has led me to think
   it would be acceptable, especially to such of you as have been lately
   brought into the sacred household and may not even know the rudiments
   of religious experience, were I tonight to follow up those two
   elementary discourses with some little account of the great inward
   conflict to which the Believer's life is exposed.

   The passage before us tells a portion of the experience of the Apostle
   Paul. We all of us concede that he was a most eminent saint. Indeed, we
   place him in the front rank. For this reason his experience is the more
   valuable to us. If your greatest saints have their inward struggles,
   how much more should we expect to have them who have not attained the
   same degree of Divine Grace the Apostle did? If he who was not a whit
   behind the very chief of the Apostles yet had to say, "When I would do
   good, evil is present with me," then you and I, who can only take the
   position of babes in Grace, or of ordinary disciples of Jesus Christ,
   must not be surprised if we have to bear assaults that surprise us and
   enter into struggles that distress us. We must not be surprised if we
   are often, by emotional stress, forced to cry out, "O wretched man that
   I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"

   I shall ask you, therefore, for your personal consolation to notice,
   first of all, that the ruling power in the Christian's mind is a strong
   affection and, therefore, an intense pleasure in that which is pure and
   holy--"I delight in the Law of God after the inward man." Secondly,
   there are passions and propensities within the breast of a man which
   come into direct conflict with this holy principle--"I see another law
   in my members warring against the law of my mind." And, thirdly, that
   the discipline involved in this constant hostility, despite all the
   fretfulness and irritation it causes, is not without true and
   satisfactory evidence of our spiritual welfare. "I thank God through
   Jesus Christ our Lord."

   I. It may be said of every true Christian that the ruling power in him
   delights in the Law of God. The new nature which God has created in
   every Believer cannot sin because it is born of God. This is the work
   of the Holy Spirit and as such without guile, unblemished,
   incorruptible. We are made partakers of the Divine Nature. The Divine
   Nature, so far as it is communicable, is given to us when we are
   begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
   from the dead.

   We are born not of the flesh, not of blood, nor of the will of man, but
   of God. We receive from God a new nature at the time of our
   regeneration. This new nature, though it is the younger, compels the
   older nature within us to submit to it. It has a struggle, but it gets
   the victory--that significant word, "The elder shall serve the
   younger," is abundantly fulfilled in the little kingdom within our
   souls! It has a long struggling trial before the full subjugation and
   there are many harassing rebellions to encounter, but at length, that
   which is born of the Spirit shall overcome that which is born of the
   flesh and the Divine Nature within us shall vanquish the sensual
   nature. The Christian man, because of this new nature implanted in him,
   delights in the Law of God. He has no desire to change that Law in any
   way whatever.

   When we read the Ten Commandments, our conscience approves the
   ordinances of God while it reproves our own culpable shortcomings. Yes,
   we feel that only God could have drawn up so complete, so perfect a
   code. We would not wish to have one single iota, word, or syllable of
   that Law altered, though it condemns us! Though we know, apart from the
   precious blood of Christ, it would have cast us into Hell and most
   justly so, yet with holy instinct, pure taste and righteous judgment we
   consent unto the Law that is good. It expresses God's mind on the
   difference between right and wrong, good and evil, truth and falsehood,
   harmony and discord--and our mind agrees with God's mind.

   We perceive it not as Truth established by investigation, but as Truth
   all radiant, shining in its own majesty. We would willingly take our
   place on Mount Ebal or Mount Gerizim to give our Amen to the curses
   pronounced on disobedience, or to hail with solemn joy the blessings
   avouched to those who observe and do His Commandments. Nor, Beloved,
   would the Christian man wish to have the spirituality of the Law in any
   degree compromised. He is not only pleased with the Law as he reads it,
   though, as I have said, it condemns him--he is pleased with the very
   spirit of the Law.

   What if the Law condemns in him an unchaste look as well as an unchaste
   action? He condemns that unchaste look in himself. What if the Law
   reaches to the heart and says, "You should not even desire your
   neighbor's goods, much less should you steal them"? He feels in his
   soul that it is sin and that it is a bitter thing in him even to covet
   where he does not defraud. He never thinks that God is too exacting. He
   never, for a moment, says, "I knew that you were an austere man,
   gathering where you had not planted," but he consents to the Law though
   it is high and broad, exceedingly broad. Though the thunder, the
   lightning and the voices which usher in that Law terrify him, yet the
   wisdom, the equity and the benevolence which ordained it resolves this
   awe into admiration!

   Being born from above--in fellowship with Christ, at peace with
   God--his very constitution is in unison with the Law of the Lord. Is
   the Law spiritual? So is He. The pact is unbroken, the concord perfect.
   I trust full many of you, my Hearers, can endorse this, for, doubtless,
   as many of us as have been born-again can bear witness we delight in
   the Law of God after the inward man. Again, no Christian desires to
   have any dispensation to exempt him from complying with any one of the
   Lord's commands. His old nature may desire it, but the inner man says,
   "No, I do not wish to get or to give any concession to the flesh, to
   have an allowance or make an excuse for sin in any point whatever." The
   flesh craves for liberty and asks to have provision made for it. But,
   does any Believer need liberty to sin?

   My Brothers and Sisters, if it were possible to conceive without
   blasphemy that the Lord should say to you, "My Child, if there is one
   sin that you love, you may continue in it," would you desire any sin?
   Would you not rather say, "Oh, that I may be purged from every sin, for
   sin to me is misery! It is but another term for sorrow! Moral evil is
   its own curse--a plague, a pest--I shudder at the thought of it"?

   It is thought a blessing, in the Church of Rome, that a dispensation is
   given to men from certain religious duties. We ask no such favor! We
   value not their gifts! Liberty to sin would mean putting double fetters
   upon us. A license even for a moment to relax our obedience to Christ
   would be but a license to leave the paths of light and the way of peace
   to wander awhile in darkness and to exchange the glow of health for
   sore distemper and smarting pain. Brethren, I am sure you never did,
   and never will, if you are Believers, ask the Lord for permission to
   transgress His Statutes! You may have taken leave to do what you did
   not know was sinful at the time. There may have been a desire in your
   heart after something that was wrong. I grant you that. But the
   new-born nature, the moment it discovers its culpability, recoils at it
   and turns from it! It could not do otherwise. It cannot sin, for it is
   born of God!

   The new nature that is in you shudders at sin! It is not its element.
   It cannot endure it, whereas before you could riot in it and take
   pleasure in it and drink iniquity like water. You ask no dispensation
   that you may escape from the Law of God. You delight in it after the
   inward man. The new-born nature of the Christian also laboriously
   desires to keep the holy Law according to the mind of God. If it were
   proposed to any one of us that we should have whatever we would ask
   for--if in a vision of the night the Lord should appear to us and say
   to us as He did to Solomon, "Ask what I shall give you," I do not think
   any of us would hesitate.

   I cannot imagine myself asking for riches or honor, or even for wisdom
   unless it were wisdom of a far higher order than is commonly esteemed
   among the sons of men. But the gift which I feel I should crave beyond
   every other is holiness, pure and immaculate holiness! Possessing, now,
   an interest in Christ--knowing that my sins are forgiven me for His

   name's sake--the one thing I desire beyond everything else is to be
   perfectly free from sin and to lead an unblemished life without sin of
   omission or sin of commission.

   Now, every Christian that has that desire within his soul will never be
   satisfied until that desire is fulfilled! And this shows that we
   delight in the Law of God after the inward man. Nor is it long before
   that desire will be fulfilled. Why, we shall be like He when we shall
   see Him as He is--and until we see Him as He is and are like He, we
   shall always have restlessness of spirit--and always be crying out for
   more Divine Grace and laboring against the evil that is in us, if by
   any means we may subdue it. O yes, Beloved, in the fact that this is
   what we hope for, this is what we pray for, this is what we fight for,
   this is what we would be willing to die for--that we might be entirely
   conformed to the mind and will of God--there is evidence that we see
   that the Law of God is good and delight in it after the inward man.

   This, however, is proven in a more practical way to onlookers when the
   Christian shows that the life of God is enabling him to overcome many
   of the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Oftentimes, in striving to
   be holy, he has to put himself to much stern self-denial--but he does
   it cheerfully. For instance, should it happen in business that by using
   a very common trick in trade he might gain more profit, he will not do
   it if he is a Christian--he feels he cannot do this evil and sin
   against his God. Or should the young convert find that a little
   divergence from the right path would please the worldly people with
   whom he is obliged to associate, he may, perhaps, turn aside in his
   weakness, but the new life within him will never be easy if he does.

   The inner life, when it is in its vigor, will make him say, "Though I
   should lose the goodwill of these people, let me serve my Lord and
   Master. I must forfeit my situation, if it comes to that, sooner than I
   can do wrong. I must be put even in peril of my daily bread sooner than
   I will be found willfully breaking a Commandment of Christ. I cannot do
   it." Now, I know many of God's children have often suffered very
   severely and have passed through a great many trials and troubles
   because they would not flinch from following their Lord. This is one of
   the proofs that they delight in the Law of God after the inner man.
   When a man is willing to bear reproach, to be scoffed at, to be
   ridiculed and taunted as mad for righteousness sake--when he is willing
   that men should sneer at him as a hypocrite and accept him as a
   Pharisee when he braves the cold shoulder from those whose company he
   would otherwise have enjoyed--and all because he must and will follow
   the mind and direction of God's Spirit, I say, then, it is then the man
   gives proof that he delights in the Law of God!

   I thank God there are, in this Church, those who have given that proof
   and I pray that you and I, all of us who have received the Divine
   Nature, may give constant evidence by using the good at all hazards and
   taking up the cross at all risks--that our soul, even if it cannot be
   perfect in action--at any rate would be perfect in aim and determined,
   by God's help, to cherish a love and desire in all things to do
   Jehovah's will. Is there anyone here who is obliged to say, "Well, I do
   not consent to the Law of God. I do not delight in it. When I hear it
   said, 'You shall not covet,' 'You shall not commit adultery,' 'Remember
   the Sabbath day to keep it holy,' I wish it were not evil to do those
   things that are forbidden. It is a pity our pleasure and our profit,
   our duty and our delight should be so much at variance. I would rather
   there were less Law and more license. Those Commandments, especially
   those that touch our thoughts and trench on the freedom of our will,
   are harsh and unpalatable. I am not content to be bound by them. I
   would rather live as I

   like."

   Well, my dear Friend, I will say nothing more severe to you than
   this--you have no part or lot in this matter at all! If you had--if
   your heart had been renewed--you would talk after a very different
   matter. Whenever you hear persons commending a low standard of
   religion, a low standard of morality--whenever you find them
   vindicating lax views of right and wrong--you may rest assured that the
   spirit that is in them is not the Spirit of the holy God, but it is the
   spirit of their sinful nature! Yes, the spirit of Satan may have come
   in to make the human spirit even worse than it was before!

   But, does your heart delight in God's Law? Is there a charm in that
   which is right to your soul? Is there a beauty in that which is
   virtuous to your spirit's eye? Do you especially admire the Character
   of Jesus because, "in His life the Law appears drawn out in living
   characters"? If so, then I trust, dear Friends, you give evidence that
   you have been made partakers of the Divine Nature, that you are
   regenerate and though there is still evil in you, yet there is the life
   of God in you which will resist the evil and subdue it till you are
   brought safely to His right hand.

   II. Now, secondly, we come to the conflict. Where there is this delight
   in the Law of God, yet there is another law in the members, so Paul
   says and he seems to me to speak of it in three different stages. He
   could see it first and then he had to encounter it and at length, to
   some extent, he was enslaved by it, for he says, "bringing me into
   captivity."

   There is in each one of us a law of sin. It may always be seen, even
   when it is not in active operation, if our eyes are lightened. Whenever
   I hear a man say he has no propensity to sin, I infer at once that he
   does not live at home. I should think he must live a long way from
   home, or else he has never been anywhere except in the front parlor of
   his house where he keeps his profession. He cannot have gone through
   all the chambers and searched them thoroughly, or he would have
   discovered somewhere that there is an evil heart of unbelief in
   departing from the living God. This is true of the Believer--he has to
   cry out against another nature and say, "Help my unbelief."

   It is always in the man. Sometimes it is dormant. I do not know whether
   the devil ever goes to sleep, but our sinful nature seems, for a time,
   to do so--not, indeed, that it is any the less sinful when asleep than
   when it is awake. It is just as bad as it can be. Gunpowder is not
   always exploding, but it is always explosive. Bring but the spark to it
   and soon it bursts out, as though it had been ready and waiting to
   exert its powers of explosion. The viper may be coiled up doing no
   damage, but it has a deadly virus beneath its fangs. It is still a
   viper even when it is not putting forth its poisonous teeth.

   There is within our nature that which would send the best saint to Hell
   if Sovereign Grace did not prevent. There is a little Hell within the
   heart of every child and only the great God of Heaven can overmaster
   that mischievous indwelling sin. This sin will crop up when it is least
   expected. Generally it breaks forth suddenly, taking us by surprise. I
   have known it to my sorrow. I am not going to stand here and make many
   confessions with regard to myself. Howbeit I did know a man once who,
   in attending a Prayer Meeting, felt his heart much lifted up in the
   ways of God. He drew very near to his heavenly Father, held sweet
   communion with Christ and enjoyed much of the fellowship of the Spirit.
   Little did he think that the moment the Prayer Meeting was over
   somebody in the congregation would insult and bitterly affront him!

   Because he was taken unawares his anger was roused and he spoke
   unadvisedly with his tongue. He had better have held his peace. Now, I
   believe that man, if he had been met at any other time--for he was of a
   tolerably quiet temper-- would have taken the insult without resenting
   it or making any reply whatever. But he had been unwarned, therefore he
   was unguarded. The very love shed abroad in his heart caused the
   animosity he encountered to shock his feelings the more. He had been so
   near Heaven that he expected everybody present had thoughts in harmony
   with his own! He had not reckoned upon being assailed then. When there
   is most money in the house, then is the likeliest time for thieves to
   break in--and when there is most Divine Grace in the soul, the devil
   will try, if he can, to assault it.

   Pirates were not accustomed to attack vessels when they went out to
   fetch gold from the Indies--they always waylaid them when they were
   coming home--with a view of getting rich spoil worth the capture. If
   you have enjoyed a sermon. If you have gotten near to God in prayer. If
   the Scriptures have been very precious to you, you may expect, just
   then, that the dragon that sleeps within will wake up and disturb the
   peaceful calm of your soul--

   "We should expect some danger near, When we receive too much delight."
   Let us be the most watchful, then, in seasons of tranquility. This evil
   nature, you see, will sometimes be exercised as if by jealousy when we
   are being refreshed with good. It will certainly be developed when we
   are exposed to evil.

   The man who congratulates himself because he feels no sinful
   proclivities, no unholy thoughts, no impure imaginations, no conceited
   ideas, no turbulent passions, had need be reminded of that saying of
   old Rutherford--"When the temptation sleeps the madman is wise, the
   harlot is chaste. But when the vessel is pierced, out comes that which
   is within, be it wine or water." O my Soul, you have only been at rest
   awhile because there was not any exciting cause for a time. Put into
   the company of godly people and the mind occupied with good things
   continually, the bad instincts may sleep. But cast into other society
   it only needs a slight provocation, and oh, how soon the evil that
   always was within manifests itself abundantly!

   There are weeds in almost every soil. If you throw up the soil from 10
   or 20 feet deep there will be found the seeds from which they grow. Now
   those seeds cannot germinate until they are put in a convenient place.
   Then let the sun shine and the dew fall--and the weeds begin to show
   themselves. There may be many weeds in our nature, deep down, out of
   sight--but should they be thrown up by some change of circumstances we
   shall find in ourselves evils we never dreamt of. Oh, let no man boast!
   Let no man say, "I should never fall into that particular sin." How do
   you know, my Brother? You

   may never have been in that position in which such a sin would have
   allured you. Beware! Perhaps where you think you are iron, you are
   clay. And when you think that the gates are closed with bars of brass
   it may be but rotten wood.

   With respect to none of us, even the holiest, is there reason to trust
   his best faculties, his best desires, his best resolutions! We are
   utter weakness through and through and prone to transgressions,
   notwithstanding all that God's Grace has done for us. The sin which is
   in us, as a taint in our constitution, might easily break out as a
   loathsome distemper, spreading over the entire man from head to foot
   and spoiling all the character. I pray God it never may! It is
   remarkable how sin will show itself in the Christian, even in the
   holiest of his duties. Suppose it is prayer. When you feel that you
   ought to pray and would draw near to God, do you not find, sometimes,
   an unwillingness as if the knees were stiff and the heart was hard?

   In prayer, when your soul is led away with thoughts of Divine things,
   straight across your soul like some carrion crow flying across a
   landscape there comes a bad thought and you cannot get rid of it! Or
   perhaps you get through your devotion with much delight in God, but you
   have not got out of your little room before an alien pleasure steals
   over your mind--a self-satisfaction that you have prayed so well that
   you are growing in Grace--that you are rising to the fullness of the
   stature of a man in Christ. Is it so, that you come from the chamber of
   reverent worship musing on your own importance--meditating your fitness
   to occupy a place above the common rank and file of the soldiers of
   Christ--or that you might very well take a lieutenant's rank in the
   Church of God?

   Perhaps, again, you did not feel any liberty in prayer and then with a
   peevish fretful temper you will inwardly murmur, if you do not actually
   say, you might as well give up praying such prayers as those, there can
   be no use in them. So do what you may, or leave undone what you may,
   yet still the evil that is within will rise--it will intrude upon you
   at some time or other to let you know of its existence. You may bolt
   the door and you may fancy that no thief can get in, and begin to take
   off your clothes and go to rest while yet the thief is under the bed!
   So many a man has thought, "I have barred the door against those
   temptations," and, lo, they have been hidden in his soul like the
   images which Rachel took that were concealed under the camel's
   furniture. Somewhere or other they were secreted where he had not
   discovered them.

   Take it for granted, dear Friends, and do not doubt it. The Apostle
   Paul saw it, so may you if you choose to look. He said, "I see another
   law in my members." And this law in his members, he goes on to tell us,
   was "warring against the law of his mind." It strove to get the
   mastery, but the new nature, on the other hand, would not let it get
   the mastery. The old lusts fight and then the new life fights, too, for
   there must be two sides to a war. Such is the warfare going on within
   the renewed soul. We have known this warfare takes different shapes. At
   times it has been on this wise--a wrong desire has come into a
   Christian and he has loathed it--utterly loathed it--but that desire
   has followed him again and again.

   He has cried to God against it. He has wept over it. He has not
   consented to it. He fears lest he may have found it sweet or palatable
   to him for the moment, but when he has had time for reflection he
   shudders at the very thought of giving way to that temptation. And yet
   by the restiveness of his own flesh and by the reprisals of Satan that
   hateful desire will come up and up and up again! He will hear it baying
   behind him like a bloodhound following his prey and sometimes it will
   take a leap and grip him by the throat and cast him down. It will be as
   much as that poor man can do to keep down that ferocious temptation
   that has arisen in his spirit.

   I can bear witness that such warfare is a very terrible ordeal, for it
   sometimes lasts for days, and weeks and months together. I have known
   thoughtful Christians who have been harassed with doubts which have
   been suggested about the Inspiration of Scripture; about the deity of
   our Lord; about the sureness of the Covenant of Grace or some other
   fundamental doctrine of our most holy faith. Or it may even be the
   temptation has been to blasphemies which the Believer has abhorred from
   his very soul. Yet the more bitterly he has detested it the more
   relentlessly it has pursued him. If he drives it away, it returns with
   redoubled force.

   "Is it true?" "Is it so?" Maybe a hideous sentiment is wrapped up in a
   neat epigram and then it will haunt the memory, and he will strive in
   vain to dislodge it. He would gladly hurl the thought and the words
   that clothe the thought into the bottomless pit. Out, cursed specter,
   he will cry! Back like the ghost of one's own crimes it comes. From
   where do these evils come? May they sometimes be traced to Satan? Yes,
   but most commonly temptation derives its strength, as well as its
   opportunity, from the moods or habits to which our own constitution is
   prone. In the discharge of

   public duties, when straining every nerve to serve the Lord, we may
   meet with men whose temper acts on our temper to stir up the bile and
   make us think evil of those to whom we are bent on doing good.

   In the peaceful shades of retirement which wise men seek out as a
   relief from the distractions of society, what strange fancies and
   monstrous vagaries will often come into the heart and confuse the
   brain. Or, sad to tell, in the walks of study where thoughtful men set
   out reverently to enquire into the counsels of God, how frequently have
   they been lured from the open paths to trespass on dangerous ground--to
   lose themselves in labyrinths, to leave the footsteps of the flock--
   and so to become giddy and high-minded. Anywhere, everywhere we are
   challenged to fight--and we must give battle to the sin that besets us.

   But, the war carried on by this evil nature is not always by the
   continual besieging of the soul. At times it tries to take us by
   assault. This is a favorite mode of warfare within our own corrupt
   heart. When we are off guard, up it will come and attack us! And as I
   have said before, we are apt to be off our guard when we have been
   brought up into the high mountain apart--when have been near the Lord.
   In that exalted sphere of communion we have not thought of the devil.
   His existence has not come across our mind--but when we go down, again,
   into the plain, we soon find that he is still living, still distressing
   our Brothers and Sisters--still lying in wait to ensnare us.

   For this cause our experience should quicken our sympathy. Full many a
   Christian has been surprised into a sin for which he was to be greatly
   blamed, but for which he ought not to be condemned by his fellow
   Christians with so much severity. They ought to condemn the sin, but to
   remember, themselves, lest they also should be tempted. Many a man has
   been good because he had not a chance of being bad, and, I believe,
   many a professing Christian has stood because the road did not happen
   to be very rough and there was not much to be gained by idling down. We
   do not judge each other as God does. He knows the infirmities of His
   dear children. While He does not make excuses for their sin--He is too
   pure and holy for that--yet, having blotted out their sins through the
   Atonement of Christ Jesus, He does not cast them off and turn them out
   of fellowship, as sometimes His people do their poor Brethren who may,
   after all, be as true children as they are themselves and have as much
   real love to their Father.

   This evil nature, when it is warring, laughs at our own resolutions and
   mocks our own attempts to put it down. It must be warred against by
   Divine Grace! No arm but the Almighty arm can overcome our natural
   corruption. Like the leviathan it laughs at the spear! It counts it but
   as rotten wood. You cannot come at a besetting sin as you would like.
   At times you fancy, "I'll wound it to its deadly hurt," and in the very
   act of wounding one sin you are calling another into play! Many a man
   has tried to overcome his propensity to faintheartedness and he has run
   into presumption. Some have tried to be less profuse in their
   expenditure and they have become penurious. Some have said, "I will no
   more be proud," and then they have become mean-spirited.

   I have known some that were so stern for the Truth of God that they
   became bigoted. They have afterwards become latitudinarian and hold the
   Truth with so loose a hand that their constancy could hardly be relied
   on. Look straight on and "do the duty that next lies before you." It is
   no easy thing, believe me, to defend yourself from the surprises of
   sin. It is a thing impossible unless God who created the new nature
   shall come to its rescue--shall feed it with the Bread of Heaven, shall
   give it water out of the Rock of Ages--and lead it on its way to the
   goodly land where the Canaanite shall never be and where our soul shall
   feast on milk and honey.

   I must not linger on this point, but pass on to notice the next. It is
   a sadder one. The Apostle said this warring brought him into captivity
   to the law of sin. What does he mean by this? I do not think he means
   he wandered into open flagrant immoralities. No observer may have
   noticed any fault in the Apostle's character. He could see it in
   himself and he saw flaws in his life where we are not able to detect
   them which probably was a habit with the Apostle. When I hear a good
   man lamenting his faults, I know what the world will say--they will
   take him at his word and think that he is as they are. Whereas with
   every godly man if you knew him and marked his life and conversation,
   you would be compelled, if you judged him candidly, to say that he was
   like Job--perfect and upright, one that feared God and eschewed evil.

   Yet that very man would be the first to see spots in himself because he
   has more light than others--because he has a higher idea of what
   holiness is than others--and chiefly because he lives nearer to God
   than others. He knows that God is so infinitely holy that the heavens
   are not pure in His sight and He charged His angels with folly!
   Therefore, everyone who sees himself in the glass of the Law sees in
   himself a filthiness that he never saw before. As Job said, "I have
   heard of You by the hearing of the ear: but now my eyes see You.
   Therefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes."

   But I think the Apostle was not referring, here, to acts of gross
   misdemeanor having brought him into captivity so far as he himself was
   concerned, though many who are God's children get into sorry captivity
   because the law of sin and death in their members gets the mastery over
   them, sometimes. Oh, watch against this! Weep against this--I was about
   to say wrestle unto blood against this! Brethren, they that have
   committed great sins who have been God's children, though they have
   been saved, have been saved so as by fire.

   And if they could tell you how their very bones were broken, how the
   Lord made them see that He hated sin in His own family even more than
   anywhere else--if you could hear them confess how they lost the light
   of His Countenance, lost enjoyments, lost the sweet savor of the
   promises--oh, it would make you say, "My God, be pleased not only to
   save me at the last but all the journey through! Hold up my footsteps
   in Your way that they slip not! Make me to run in the way of Your
   Commandments." It is a captivity like that of the Israelites in
   Babylon, itself, when a child of God suffers to fall into some great
   sin.

   But, long before it comes to pass, and I hope in your case it may never
   go so far, I think this law of sin brings us into captivity in other
   respects. While you are fighting and contending against inbred sin,
   doubts will invade your heart. "Am I a child of God?" If it is so, why
   am I thus? I cannot pray as I would. Surely if I were a child of God I
   should not be hampered in devotion or go out to a place of worship and
   feel I have no enjoyment, while others feast and sing for joy of
   heart." Oh, what a captivity the soul is brought into when it allows
   inbred sin to cast any doubts upon its safety in Christ! Christ, having
   been all our Confidence, is always in us the hope of Glory. To as many
   as received Him, to them He gave power to become the sons of God, even
   to as many as believed on His name.

   If I have believed on His name, whatever my inward experience may
   be--or may not be in my own estimation--if I have believed on the name
   of Jesus I have the privilege to be a child of God. But sometimes
   doubts will come over us and so we are brought into captivity. I have
   known those who were almost driven to despair. The child of God has
   written bitter things against himself and signed his own death warrant.
   Thank God, even if we sign our own death warrant it does not stand for
   anything! Nobody can sign that but the King and He will never sign it
   for any soul that believes in Him, however feeble his love may be!

   We may be brought into captivity by a sense of sin, a temptation to
   sin, or a yielding to sin. If we ever come to that it will make us weak
   in serving, cold in prayers when alone, and joyless in the society of
   the saints. No, we shall feel almost lifeless. Oh, may God save us from
   it! Oh, may we wrestle hard! May we wrestle every day that we may keep
   sin down! May Divine Grace, even that Grace which is treasured up in
   Christ Jesus, secure to us the victory!

   III. It is some comfort when we feel a war within the soul, to remember
   that it is an interesting phase of Christian experience. Such as are
   dead in sin have never made proof of any of these things. Time was,
   when we were self-righteous, lost, ruined and without the Law, sin was
   dead in us, or so we thought. We were dead in trespasses and sins,
   though we boasted of our own righteousness! These inward conflicts show
   that we are alive. There is some life in the soul that hates sin--even
   though it cannot do as it would.

   I have known what it is to bless God for the times when my soul has
   felt inward war and I would have been glad to feel the war renewed.
   Rest assured that the strong man of the soul, while he keeps the house
   will keep it in peace. It is when a stronger than he comes to eject him
   that there is a fight within your soul. I would suggest, therefore, to
   you that it is a cause for consolation and thankfulness. Do not be
   depressed about it. Say, "after all, there is some life here." Where
   there is pain there is life. The best of God's saints have suffered in
   this very same manner. Your way to Heaven is not a bad one.

   Some, I know, are not so troubled to any great extent, but the majority
   of God's saints have to endure fights outside and fears within. You
   read of Martin Luther. That great bold man became a master of theology
   by being taught in the school of temptation. Even his last hours were
   full of stern conflict. He was a man of war from his youth up. How
   constantly did he have to contend against himself! We get the same
   testimony from this chapter of the life of Paul. Be not, therefore,
   downcast as though some strange thing had happened to you! Look up
   yonder to those saints above in their white robes singing their
   unending song! Ask them from where their victory came! They will tell
   you that it did not come to them because they were sinless or perfect
   in themselves, but through the blood of Jesus--

   "Once they were wrestling here below, And wet their couch with tears.

   They wrestled hard as we do now, With sins, with doubts and fears." The
   richest consolation comes from the last verse of the chapter. Paul,
   having asked how he should be delivered, answers the question "I thank
   God through Jesus Christ our Lord." "They shall call His name Jesus,
   for He shall save His people from their sins"--not only from the guilt
   of their sins but from the power of their sins! What a mercy it is that
   the Lord Jesus has struck a deadly blow at our sin! He has broken the
   head of it. It is a monster and has immense vitality-- but its back is
   broken! Its legs are broken! It is a broken-headed monster! There it
   is--it lies hissing and spitting, and writhing, capable of doing us
   much mischief--but He that has wounded it will strike it again and
   again, until at last it shall utterly die!

   Thank God it has not vitality enough to get across the river Jordan. No
   sinful desire shall ever swim on that stream! They are not molested
   there with tendencies and propensities to sin--and when they shall be
   restored to their bodies and their bodies shall rise again--they shall
   have bodies not of flesh! Bodies of flesh shall not inherit the kingdom
   of Heaven, neither shall their bodies see corruption! But bodies fit
   for celestial minds, they shall be eternally free from their former
   sin. Let us rejoice that Jesus Christ can do it all! He can save us
   from all sin. He who has bought us with His blood, He will not cheaply
   lose that which He has dearly bought! He will deliver us from all sin
   and He will bring us into His eternal kingdom and Glory without fail!

   So we fall back upon this sweet consolation. Though the fight may be
   long and arduous, the result is not doubtful. Remember the text of last
   Thursday night. That shall settle the point. "I give unto My sheep
   eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them
   out of My hand." "My Father who gave them to Me is greater than all,
   and none shall pluck them out of My Father's hand." You will have to
   get to Heaven fighting sin every inch of the way, but you will get
   there! Some on boards and some on broken pieces of the ship--they all
   came safe to land in Paul's shipwreck--so shall it be with the saints.
   When the sheep shall pass again under the hand of Him that counts them
   one by one, there shall not be one of them missing!

   They were all so weak that the wolf could have torn them in pieces.
   They were all so foolish that if left to themselves they would have
   wandered on the mountains and in the woods and have been destroyed. But
   the eternal Shepherd makes this a point of honor--"Of all them that You
   have given Me, I have lost none. Here am I, and the children that You
   have given Me." It ought to make you quite well, now, to know that you
   are sure of victory! Oh, by the lilies of the love of Christ, and by
   the strong right arm that once smote Rahab and cut the dragons in two,
   let every Christian be of good courage! The Omnipotent is with us! The
   Invincible is for us!

   Forward to the charge, onward to the conflict, though the fight waxes
   warmer and sterner! Onward forever! Onward without fear or a moment's
   hesitation! "He that has loved us bears us through and makes us more
   than conquerors, too." "The breaker is come up before them. They have
   broken up and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it, and
   their King shall pass before them and the LORD on the head of them."
   They have put to the route their foes! Thus shall it be spoken of all
   those that follow under the leadership of Christ! This is the heritage
   of the saints and their righteousness is of Me, says the Lord. God
   grant us to be victors in this holy war for Christ's sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Moses' Decision

   (No. 1063)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JULY 28, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "By faith Moses, when came of age, refused to be called the son of
   Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the
   people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
   esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in
   Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward." Hebrews
   11:24,25,26.

   LAST Sunday we spoke upon the faith of Rahab [RAHAB, #1061]. We had
   then to mention her former unsavory character and to show that,
   notwithstanding, her faith triumphed and both saved her and produced
   good works. Now it has occurred to me that some persons would say,
   "This faith is, no doubt, a very suitable thing for Rahab and persons
   of that class. A people destitute of sweetness and light may follow
   after the Gospel and it may be a very proper and useful thing for them,
   but the better sort of people will never take to it."

   I thought it possible that, with a sneer of contempt, some might reject
   all faith in God as being unworthy of persons of a higher condition of
   life and another manner of education. We have, therefore, taken the
   case of Moses, which stands as a direct contrast to that of Rahab, and
   we trust it may help to remove the sneer, though, indeed, that may be
   of small consequence--for if a man is given to sneering it is hardly
   worth while to waste five minutes in reasoning with him. The scorner is
   usually a person so inconsiderate that his scoffing deserves to be
   unconsidered. He who is great at sneering is good for nothing else, and
   he may as well be left to fulfill his vocation.

   It occurred to me, also, that nevertheless, some might in all
   seriousness, say, "I have, through the Providence of God and the
   circumstances which surround me, been kept from outward sin. Moreover,
   I am not a member of the lowest ranks and do not belong to the class of
   persons of whom Rahab would be a suitable representative. In fact, I
   have, by the Providence of God, been placed in a choice position and
   can, without egotism, claim a superior character." It is possible that
   such persons may feel as if they were placed under a disadvantage by
   this very superiority! The thought has passed over their mind, "The
   Gospel is for sinners. It evidently comes to the chief of sinners and
   blesses them. We are free to admit that we are sinners, but perhaps
   because we have not sinned so openly we may not be so conscious of the
   sin, and consequently our mind may not be so well prepared to receive
   the abounding Grace of God which comes to the vilest of the vile."

   I have known some who have almost wished that they were literally like
   the prodigal son in his wanderings, that they might be more readily
   like he is in his return! It is altogether a mistake under which they
   labor, but it is by no means an uncommon one. Perhaps, as we introduce
   to their notice one of the heroes of faith who was a man of noble rank,
   high education and pure character, they may be led to correct their
   thoughts. Moses belonged to the noblest order of men, but he was saved
   by faith, alone, even by the same faith which saved Rahab! This faith
   moved him to the faithful service of God and to an unparalleled
   self-denial. My earnest prayer is that you who are moral, amiable and
   educated may see in the action of Moses an example for yourselves.

   No longer despise a life of faith in God! It is the one thing which you
   lack--the one thing above all others necessary. Are you young men of
   high position? Such was Moses. Are you men of spotless character? Such,
   also, was he. Are you now in a position where to follow out conscience
   will cost you dearly? Moses endured as seeing Him who is invisible and
   though for a while a loser, he is now an eternal gainer by the loss!
   May the Spirit of God incline you to follow in the path of faith,
   virtue and honor where you see such a man as Moses leading the way!

   We shall first consider the decided action of Moses. Secondly, the
   source of his decision of character--it was "by faith." Thirdly, we
   shall look into those arguments by which his faith directed his action,
   after which we shall briefly reflect upon those practical lessons which
   the subject suggests.

   I. And first let us observe THE DECIDED ACTION OF MOSES. "When he had
   come to years he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter."
   We need not narrate the stories which are told by Josephus and other
   ancient writers with regard to the early days of Moses, such as, for
   instance, his taking the crown of Pharaoh and trampling upon it. These
   things may be true, but it is equally possible that they are pure
   fiction. The Spirit of God has certainly taken no notice of them in
   Holy Scripture and what He does not think worth recording we need not
   think worth considering.

   Nor shall I more than hint at answers to the question why it was that
   Moses remained no less than 40 years in the court of Pharaoh and
   doubtless, during that time, was called, "the son of Pharaoh's
   daughter," and if he did not enjoy the pleasures of sin, at any rate,
   had his share in the treasures of Egypt. It is just possible that he
   was not a converted man up to the age of forty. Probably during his
   early days he was, to all intents and purposes, an Egyptian, an eager
   student, a great proficient in Egyptian wisdom and also, as Stephen
   tells us in Acts, "a man mighty in words and in deeds."

   During those early days he was familiar with philosophers and warriors,
   and perhaps in his engrossing pursuits he forgot his nationality. We
   see the hand of God in his being 40 years in the court of Pharaoh.
   Whatever of evil or indecision in him may have kept him there we see
   the good result which God brought out of it, for he became, by his
   experience and observation, the better able to rule a nation and a
   fitter instrument in the hand of God for fashioning the Israelite state
   into its appointed form. Perhaps during the 40 years he had been trying
   to do what a great many are aiming at just now--he was testing whether
   he could not serve God and remain the son of Pharaoh's daughter, too.

   Perhaps he was of the mind of our Brethren in a certain Church who
   protest against, but still remain in that Church which gives to
   ritualism the fullest liberty. Perhaps he thought he could share the
   treasures of Egypt and yet bear testimony with Israel. He would be
   known as a companion of the priests of Isis and Osiris and yet at the
   same time would bear honest witness for Jehovah. If he did not attempt
   this impossibility, others in all ages have done so! It may be he
   quieted himself by saying that he had such remarkable opportunities for
   usefulness that he did not like to throw them up by becoming identified
   with the Israelite dissenters of the period. An open avowal of his
   private sentiments would shut him out from good society and especially
   from the court where it was very evident that his influence was great
   and beneficial.

   It is just possible that the very feeling which still keeps so many
   good people in a wrong place may have operated upon Moses till he was
   40 years of age. But then, having reached the prime of his manhood and
   having come under the influence of faith, he broke away from the
   ensnaring temptation as I trust many of our worthy Brethren will,
   before long, be able to do. Surely they will not always maintain a
   confederacy with the allies of Rome but will be men enough to be free!
   If when Moses was a child he spoke as a child and thought as a
   child--when he became a man he put away his childish ideas of
   compromise. If, when he was a young man he thought he might conceal a
   part of the Truth of God and so might hold his position--when he came
   to ripe years enough to know what the Truth of God fully was, he
   scorned all compromise and came out boldly as the servant of the living
   God.

   The Spirit of God directs our eyes to the time when Moses came to
   years, that is to say, when his first 40 years of life were over. Then,
   without any hesitation he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's
   daughter and took his part with the despised people of God. I beg you
   to consider, first, who he was that did this. He was a man of
   education, for he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.
   Somebody says he does not suppose the wisdom of the Egyptians was
   anything very great. No, and the wisdom of the English is not much
   greater! Future ages will laugh as much at the wisdom of the English as
   we now laugh at the wisdom of the Egyptians.

   The human wisdom of one age is the folly of the next. Philosophy, so
   called, what is it but the concealment of ignorance under hard names
   and the arrangement of mere guesses into elaborate theories? In
   comparison with the eternal light of God's Word all the knowledge of
   men is "not light but darkness visible." Men of education, as a rule,
   are not ready to acknowledge the living God. Philosophy in its
   self-conceit despises the Infallible Revelation of the Infinite and
   will not come to the light lest it be reproved. In all ages, when a man
   has considered himself to be wise, he has almost invariably despised
   the Infinite Wisdom. Had he been truly wise he would have humbly bowed
   before the Lord of All, but being only nominally so, he has said, "Who
   is the Lord?"

   Not many great men after the flesh, not many mighty are chosen. Did not
   our Lord Himself say it, and His Word is for all time--"I thank You, O
   Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, that You have hid these things from
   the wise and prudent, and have revealed them unto babes"? But yet,
   sometimes a man of education like Moses is led, by the blessing of

   Heaven, to take the side of Truth and of the right--and when it is so
   let the Lord be magnified! Beside being a man of education, he was a
   person of high rank. He had been adopted by Thermuthis, the daughter of
   Pharaoh, and it is possible, though we cannot be sure of it, that he
   was the next heir, by adoption, to the Egyptian crown. It is said that
   the King of Egypt had no other child and that his daughter had no son,
   and that Moses would, therefore, have become the King of Egypt.

   Yet, great as he was and mighty at court, he joined with the oppressed
   people of God! May God grant that we may see many eminent men bravely
   standing up for God and for His Truth and repudiating the religion of
   men! But if they do it will be a miracle of mercy, indeed, for few of
   the great ones have ever done so! Here and there in Heaven may be found
   a king, and here and there in the Church may be found one who wears a
   coronet and prays. But how rarely shall they that have riches enter
   into the kingdom of Heaven! When they do so God is thanked for it. In
   addition to this remember that Moses was a man of great ability. We
   have evidence of that in the administrative skill with which he managed
   the affairs of Israel in the wilderness. Though he was inspired of God,
   yet his own natural ability was not superseded but directed.

   He was a poet--"Then sung Moses and the children of Israel this song
   unto the Lord." That memorable poem at the Red Sea is a very masterly
   ode and proves the incomparable ability of the writer. The 90th Psalm,
   also, shows the range of his poetic powers. He was both Prophet, priest
   and king in the midst of Israel--and a man second to no man save that
   Man who was more than man! No other man I know of comes so near in the
   glory of his character to Christ as Moses does, so that we find the two
   names linked together in the praise of Heaven--"they sung the song of
   Moses the servant of God, and of the Lamb."

   Thus you see he was a truly eminent man yet he cast in his lot with
   God's people. It is not many that will do this, for the Lord has
   usually chosen the weak things to confuse the mighty, and the things
   that are not to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh
   should glory in His Presence. Yet here He who will have mercy on whom
   He will have mercy, took this great man, this wise man and gave him
   Grace to be decided in the service of his God. Should I address such an
   one this morning I would anxiously pray that a voice from the excellent
   Glory may call him forth to the same clear line of action!

   Next, consider what sort of society Moses felt compelled to leave. In
   coming forth from Pharaoh's court he must separate from all the
   courtiers and men of high degree, some of whom may have been very
   estimable people. There is always a charm about the society of the
   great, but every bond was severed by the resolute spirit of Moses. I do
   not doubt that being learned in all the wisdom of Egypt, such a man as
   Moses would be always welcome in the various circles of science. But he
   relinquished all his honors among the elite of learning to bear the
   reproach of Christ. Neither great men nor learned men could hold him
   when his conscience had once pointed out the path.

   Be sure, also, that he had to tear himself away from many a friend! In
   the course of 40 years one would suppose he had formed associations
   that were very dear and tender. But to the regret of many, he
   associated himself with the unpopular party whom the king sought to
   crush and therefore no courtier could acknowledge him. For 40 years he
   lived in the solitude of the desert and he only returned to strike the
   land of Egypt with plagues--so that his separation from all his former
   friendships must have been complete.

   But, O true-hearted Christian, should it break every fond
   connection--should it tear your soul away from all you love--if your
   God requires it, let the sacrifice be made at once! If your faith has
   shown you that to occupy your present position involves complicity with
   error or sin, then break away, by God's help, without further parley.
   Let not the nets of the fowler hold you, but as God gives you freedom,
   mount unfettered and praise your God for liberty! Jesus left the angels
   of Heaven for your sake--can you not leave the best of company for His
   sake?

   But I marvel most at Moses when I consider not only who he was and the
   company he had to forego, but the persons with whom he must
   associate--for in truth the followers of the true God were not, in
   their own persons, a loveable people at that time. Moses was willing to
   take upon himself the reproach of Christ and to bear the affliction of
   God's people when, I venture to observe again, there was nothing very
   attractive in the people themselves. They were wretchedly poor. They
   were scattered throughout all the land as mere drudges, engaged in
   brick making--and this brick making, which was imposed upon them for
   the very purpose of breaking down their spirit--had done its work all
   too well.

   They were utterly spiritless. They possessed no leaders and were not
   prepared to have followed them if they had arisen. When Moses, having
   espoused their cause, informed them that God had sent him they received
   him at first, but when the Prophet's first action prompted Pharaoh to
   double their toil by an enactment that they should not be supplied with
   straw, they upbraided Moses at once, even as 40 years before, when he
   interfered in their quarrels, one of them said, "Will you slay me as
   you did the Egyptian yesterday?" They were literally a herd of broken
   down slaves, crushed and depressed. It is one of the worst things about
   slavery that it unmans men and unfits them, even for generations, for
   the full enjoyment of liberty.

   Even when slaves receive liberty we cannot expect them to act as those
   would do who were free born, for in slavery the iron enters into the
   very soul and binds the spirit. Thus it is clear that the Israelites
   were not a very select company for the highly educated Moses to unite
   with. Though a prince, he must make common cause with the poor. Though
   a free man, he must mingle with slaves. Though a man of education, he
   must mix with ignorant people. Though a man of spirit, he must
   associate with spiritless serfs. Many would have said, "No, I cannot do
   that! I know what Church I ought to unite with if I follow Scriptures
   fully and obey in all things my Lord's will--but they are so poor, so
   illiterate--and their places of worship are so far from being
   architecturally beautiful! Their preacher is a plain, blunt man and
   they themselves are not refined. Scarcely a dozen of the whole sect can
   keep a carriage! I should be shut out of society if I joined with
   them."

   Have we not heard this base reasoning till we are sick of it, and yet
   it operates widely upon this brainless, heartless generation! Are there
   none left who love Truth even when she wears no trappings? Are there
   none who love the Gospel better than pomp and show? Where God raises up
   a Moses, what cares he how poor his Brethren may be? "They are God's
   people," he says, "and if they are very poor I must help them the more
   liberally. If they are oppressed and depressed, so much the more reason
   why I should come to their aid. If they love God and His Truth, I am
   their fellow-soldier and will be at their side in the battle."

   I have no doubt Moses thought all this over but his mind was made up
   and he took his place promptly. In addition to other matters, one
   mournful thing must be said of Israel which must have cost Moses much
   pain. He found that among God's people there were some who brought no
   glory to God and were very weak in their principles. He did not judge
   the whole body by the faults of some, but by their standards and their
   institutions--and he saw that the Israelites, with all their faults,
   were the people of God--while the Egyptians, with all their virtues,
   were not so.

   Now, it is for each one of us to try the spirits by the Word of God and
   then fearlessly to follow out our convictions. Where is Christ
   recognized as the Head of the Church? Where are the Scriptures really
   received as the rule of faith? Where are the Doctrines of Grace clearly
   believed? Where are the ordinances practiced as the Lord delivered
   them? With that people I will go! Their cause shall be my cause, their
   God shall be my God! We look not for a perfect Church this side of
   Heaven, but we do look for a Church free from Popery and
   Sacramentarianism and false doctrine! And if we cannot find one we will
   wait until we can--but with falsehood and priestcraft we will never
   enter into fellowship! If there are faults with the Brethren, it is our
   duty to bear with them patiently and pray for Grace to overcome the
   evil. But with Papists and Rationalists we must not join in affinity or
   God will require it at our hands!

   Consider now what Moses left by siding with Israel. He left honor--he
   "refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter." He left
   pleasure--for he refused to "enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season."
   And, according to our Apostle, he left wealth as well, for in taking up
   the reproach of Christ he renounced "the treasures of Egypt." Very
   well, then, if it comes to this--if to follow God and to be obedient to
   Him I have to lose my position in society and become a pariah. If I
   must give up a thousand pleasures, and if I am deprived of emoluments
   and income, yet the demands of duty must be complied with. Martyrs of
   old gave their lives--are there none left who will give up their
   living? If there is true faith in a man's heart he will not deliberate
   which of the two to choose--beggary or compromise with error. He will
   esteem the reproach of Christ to be greater riches than the treasures
   of Egypt!

   Consider yet once more what Moses espoused when he left the court. He
   espoused abounding trial, "choosing rather to suffer affliction with
   the people of God." And he espoused poverty for he, "esteemed the
   reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt." O
   Moses, if you must join with Israel, there is no present reward for
   you! You have nothing to gain and all to lose! You must do it out of
   pure principle, out of love to God, out of a full persuasion of the

   Truth--for the tribes have no honors or wealth to bestow! You will
   receive affliction and that is all! You will be called a fool and
   people will think they have good reason for calling you so!

   It is just the same today. If any man today will go outside the camp to
   seek the Lord. If he goes forth unto Christ outside the gate, he must
   do it out of love to God and to His Christ and for no other motive. The
   people of God have no benefices or bishoprics to offer--they therefore
   beseech men to count the cost. When a fervent convert said to our Lord,
   "Lord I will follow You where ever You go," he received for answer,
   "Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but I, the Son
   of Man, have nowhere to lay My head." To this hour Truth offers no
   dowry but herself to those who will espouse her. Abuse, contempt, hard
   fare, ridicule, misrepresentation--these are the wages of
   consistency--and if better comes it is not to be reckoned on.

   If any man is of a noble enough spirit to love the Truth of God for
   Truth's sake, and God for God's sake, and Christ for Christ's sake, let
   him enlist with those of like mind! But if he seeks anything over and
   above that, if he desire to be made famous, or to gain power, or to be
   well beneficed--he had better keep his place among the cowardly
   dirt-eaters who swarm around us! The Church of God bribes no man! She
   has no mercenary rewards to offer and would scorn to use them if she
   had. If to serve the Lord is not enough reward, let those who look for
   more go their selfish way! If Heaven is not enough, let those who can
   despise it seek their Heaven below.

   Moses, in taking up with the people of God, decidedly and once and for
   all acted most disinterestedly, without any promise from the right
   side, or any friend to aid him in the change. For the Truth of God's
   sake, for the Lord's sake he renounced everything! He was, by God's
   Grace, content to be numbered with the down-trodden people of God.

   II. Now, secondly, what was THE SOURCE OF MOSES' DECISION? Scripture
   says it was faith, otherwise some would insist upon it that it was the
   force of blood. "He was by birth an Israelite, and therefore," they
   say, "the instincts of nature prevailed." Our text assigns a very
   different reason. We know right well that the sons of godly parents are
   not led to adore the true God by reason of their birth. Grace does not
   run in the blood--sin may, but righteousness does not. Who does not
   remember sons of renowned lovers of the Gospel who are now far gone in
   Ritualism? It was faith, not blood, which impelled Moses in the way of
   the Truth of God!

   Neither was it eccentricity which led him to espouse the side which was
   oppressed. We have sometimes found a man of pedigree and position who
   has associated with persons of quite another rank and condition simply
   because he never could act like anybody else, and must live after his
   own odd fashion. It was not so with Moses. All his life through you
   cannot discover a trace of eccentricity in him--he was sober, steady,
   law-abiding--what if I say he was a concentric man, for his center was
   in the right place and he moved according to the dictates of prudence.
   Not thus can his decision be accounted to eccentricity.

   Neither was he hurried on by some sudden excitement when there burned
   within his soul fierce patriotic fires which made him more fervent than
   prudent. No, there may have been some haste in his slaying the Egyptian
   on the first occasion, but then he had 40 years to think it over and
   yet he never repented his choice, but held on to the oppressed people
   of God and still refused to think of himself as the son of Pharaoh's
   daughter. It was faith then, faith alone, that enabled the Prophet of
   Sinai to arrive at his decision and to carry it out.

   What faith had he? First, he had faith in Jehovah. It is possible that
   Moses had seen the various gods of Egypt, even as we see them now in
   the drawings which have been copied from their temples and pyramids. We
   find there the sacred cat, the sacred ibis, the sacred crocodile and
   all kinds of creatures which were reverenced as deities. And in
   addition there were hosts of strange idols, compounds of man and beast,
   and bird, which stand in our museums to this day and were once the
   objects of the idolatrous reverence of the Egyptians. Moses was weary
   of all this symbolism. He knew in his own heart that there was one God,
   only one God, and he would have nothing to do with Amun, Pthah, or
   Maut.

   Truly, my very soul cries to God that noble spirits may, in these days,
   grow weary of the gods of ivory and ebony and silver which are adored
   under the name of crosses and crucifixes, and may come to abominate
   that most degrading and sickening of all idolatries in which man makes
   a god with flour and water, bows down before it, and then swallows it,
   thus sending his god into his belly, and, I might say, worse! The
   satirist said of the Egyptians, "O happy people, whose gods grow in
   their own gardens." We may say with equal force, O happy people, whose
   gods are baked in their own ovens!

   Is not this the lowest form of superstition that ever debased the
   intellect of man? O that brave and true hearts may be led to turn away
   from such idolatry and cast off all association with it, and say, "No,
   I cannot, and dare not. There is one God that made Heaven and earth.
   There is a pure Spirit who upholds all things by the power of His
   might--I will worship Him alone! And I will worship Him after His own
   Law, without images or other symbols, for has He not forbidden them?"
   Has He not said, "You shall not make unto you any graven image, or any
   likeness of anything that is in Heaven above, or that is in the earth
   beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: you shall not bow
   down yourself to them, nor serve them: for I, the Lord your God, am a
   jealous God"?

   Oh that God would give to men faith to know there is but one God and
   that the one God is not to be worshipped with man-ordained rites and
   ceremonies, for He is "a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship
   Him in spirit and in truth!" That one Truth of God, if it were to come
   with power from Heaven into men's minds, would shiver St. Peter's and
   St. Paul's from their topmost cross to their lowest crypt--for what do
   these two churches teach us now but sheer clear idolatry--the one of
   rule and the other by permission! And now men who boldly worship what
   they call the "sacred elements" have leave and license to exercise
   their craft within the Church of England! Every man who loves his God
   should shake his skirts clear of these abominations and I pray God that
   we may find many a Moses who shall do so!

   The faith of Moses also rested in Christ. "Christ had not come," says
   one. No, but He was to come and Moses looked to that coming One. He
   cast his eyes through the ages that were to intervene and he saw before
   him the Shiloh of whom dying Jacob sang. He knew the ancient promise
   which had been given to the fathers, that in the seed of Abraham should
   all the nations of the earth be blessed--and he was willing, in order
   to share in the blessing--to take his part in the reproach.

   Dear Friends, we shall never have a thorough faith in God unless we
   have, also, faith in Jesus Christ! Men have tried long and tried hard
   to worship the Father apart from the Son--but there it stands and it
   always will be so--"No man comes unto the Father but by Me." You get
   away from the worship of the Father if you do not come through the
   Mediation and Atonement of the Son of God! Now, though Moses did not
   know concerning Christ all that is now revealed to us, yet he had faith
   in the coming Messiah and that faith gave strength to his mind. Those
   are the men to suffer who have received Christ Jesus the Lord. If any
   man should ask me what made the Covenanters such heroes as they were or
   what made our Puritan forefathers fearless before their foes--what led
   the Reformers to protest and the martyrs to die--I would reply it was
   faith in the Invisible God, coupled with faith in that dear Son of God
   who is God Incarnate! Believing in Him they felt such love within their
   bosoms that for love of Him they could have died a thousand deaths!

   But then, in addition to this, Moses had faith in reference to God's
   people. Upon that I have already touched. He knew that the Israelites
   were God's chosen--that Jehovah had made a Covenant with them and in
   spite of all their faults God would not break His Covenant with His own
   people. And he knew, therefore, that their cause was God's cause and
   being God's cause it was the cause of right--the cause of truth! Oh, it
   is a grand thing when a man has such faith that he says, "It is nothing
   to me what other people do, or think, or believe. I shall act as God
   would have me act. It is nothing to me what I am commanded to do by my
   fellow creatures.

   "It is nothing to me what fashion says or what my parents say as far as
   religion is concerned. The Truth is God's star and I will follow
   wherever it may lead me. If it should make me a solitary man. If I
   should espouse opinions which no one else ever believed in. If I should
   have to go altogether outside the camp and break away from every
   connection--all this shall be as immaterial to me as the small dust of
   the balance. But if a matter is true, I will believe it and I will
   propound it and I will suffer for its promulgation. And if another
   doctrine is a lie I will not be friends with it, no, not for a solitary
   moment. I will not enter into fellowship with falsehood, no, not for an
   hour! If a course is right and true, through floods and flames, if
   Jesus leads me, I will pursue it."

   That seems to me to be the right spirit, but where do you find it
   now-a-days? The modern spirit mutters, "We are all right, every one of
   us." He who says, "yes," is right, and he who says, "no," is also
   right! You hear a man talk with mawkish sentimentality which he calls
   Christian charity. "Well, I am of opinion that if a man is a Muslim, or
   a Catholic, or a Mormon, or a Dissenter--if he is sincere--he is all
   right." They do not quite include devil worshippers, thugs and
   cannibals yet--but if things go on they will accept them into the happy
   family of the Broad Church. Such is the talk and cant of this present
   age, but I bear my witness that there is no truth in it and I call upon
   every child of God to protest against it and, like Moses, to declare
   that he can have no complicity with such a confederacy!

   There is Truth somewhere--let us find it! The lie is not of the
   truth--let us abhor it. There is a God--let us follow Him and it cannot
   be that false gods are gods, too! Surely truth is of some value to the
   sons of men! Surely there must be something worth holding--something
   worth contending for--and something worth dying for! But it does not
   appear now-a-days as if men think so. May we have a respect for God's
   true Church in the world which abides by the Apostolic word and
   doctrine! Let us discover it and join with it, and at its side fight
   for God and for His Truth!

   Once again, Moses had faith in the "recompense of the reward." He said
   thus within himself, "I must renounce much and reckon to lose rank,
   position and treasure. But I expect to be a gainer, nevertheless, for
   there will be a day when God shall judge the sons of men. I expect a
   judgment throne with its impartial balances and I expect that those who
   serve God faithfully shall then turn out to have been the wise men and
   the right men, while those who truckled and bowed down to gain a
   present ease shall find that they missed eternity while they were
   snatching after time and that they bartered Heaven for a paltry mess of
   pottage."

   With this upon his mind, you could not persuade Moses that he ought to
   compromise and must not be uncharitable! You could not convince him he
   ought not to judge other good people, but should be large-minded and
   remember Pharaoh's daughter and how kindly she had nurtured him--and
   consider what opportunities he had of doing good where he was! You
   could not persuade him how he might just befriend his poor Brethren and
   what influence he might have over Pharaoh--how he might be the means of
   leading the princes and the people of Egypt in the right way--and
   perhaps God had raised him up on purpose to be there.

   Who could tell, and so-on, and so-on, and so-on--you know the
   Babylonian talk, for in these days you have all read or heard the
   plausible arguments of the deceivableness of unrighteousness which in
   these last days teaches men to do evil that good may come! Moses cared
   for none of these things. He knew his duty and did it--whatever might
   be the consequences. Every Christian man's duty is to believe the Truth
   of God and to follow the Truth and leave the results with God. Who
   dares do that? Again I ask it, who dares do that in these days?

   III. Thirdly, we are going to run over in our minds some of THE
   ARGUMENTS WHICH SUPPORTED MOSES in his decided course of following God.
   The first argument would be he saw clearly that God was God and
   therefore must keep His Word, must bring His people up out of Egypt and
   give them a heritage. Now he said within himself, "I desire to be on
   the right side. God is almighty, God is all truthful, God is altogether
   just. I am on God's side, and being on God's side I will prove my
   truthfulness by leaving the other side altogether."

   Then, secondly, we have it in the text that he perceived the pleasures
   of sin to be but for a season. He said to himself, "I may have but a
   short time to live but even if I live to a good old age, life at the
   longest is still short. And when I come to the close of life, what a
   miserable reflection it will be that I have had all my pleasure and
   then I have to appear before God as a traitorous Israelite who threw up
   his birthright for the sake of enjoying the pleasures of Egypt." Oh
   that men would measure everything in the scales of eternity! We shall
   be before the bar of God, all of us, in a few months or years, and then
   think how we shall feel?

   One will say, "I never thought about religion at all," and another, "I
   thought about it, but I did not think enough to come to any decision
   upon it. I went the way the current went." Another will say, "I knew
   the Truth well enough, but I could not bear the shame of it--they would
   have thought me fanatical if I had gone through with it." Another will
   say, "I halted between two opinions, I hardly thought I was justified
   in sacrificing my children's position for the sake of being out and out
   a follower of the Truth of God." What wretched reflections will come
   over men who have sold the Savior as Judas did! What wretched deathbeds
   must they have who have been unfaithful to their consciences and untrue
   to their

   God!

   But oh, with what composure will the Believer look forward to another
   world! He will say, "By Grace I am saved, and I bless God I could
   afford to be ridiculed, I could bear to be laughed at--I could lose
   that situation, I could be turned out of that farm and could be called
   a fool--and yet it did not hurt me. I found solace in the society of
   Christ. I went to Him about it all and I found that to be reproached
   for Christ was a sweeter thing than to possess all the treasures of
   Egypt! Blessed be His name! I missed the pleasures of the world, but
   they were no miss to me! I was glad to miss them, for I found sweeter
   pleasure in the company of my Lord and now there are pleasures to come
   which shall never end." O Brothers and Sisters, to be out and out for
   Christ--to go to the end with Him even though it involve the loss of
   all

   things--this will pay in the long run! It may bring upon you much
   disgrace for the present, but that will soon be over and then comes the
   eternal reward.

   And, then, again, Moses thought within himself that even the pleasures
   which did but last for a season, while they lasted, were not equal to
   the pleasure of being reproached for Christ's sake. This ought also to
   strengthen us, that the worst of Christ is better than the best of the
   world! That even now we have more joy as Christians, if we are sincere,
   than we could possibly derive from the sins of the wicked. I have only
   this to say in closing. First, we ought, all of us, to be ready to part
   with everything for Christ, and if we are not, we are not His
   disciples. "Master, you say a hard thing," says one. I say it yet
   again, for a greater Master has said it--"He that loves son or daughter
   more than Me is not worthy of Me." "Unless a man forsakes all that he
   has he cannot be My disciple." Jesus may not require you actually to
   leave anything, but you must be ready to leave everything if required.

   The second observation is this--we ought to abhor the very thought of
   obtaining honor in this world by concealing our sentiments or by making
   compromises. If there is a chance of your being highly esteemed by
   withholding your witness for Jesus, do not run the risk of winning such
   dishonorable honor! If there is a hope of people praising you because
   you are so ready to yield your convictions, pray God to make you like a
   flint never to yield again--for what more damning glory could a man
   have than to be applauded for disowning his principles to please his
   fellow men? From this may the Lord save us!

   The third teaching is that we ought to take our place with those who
   truly follow God and the Scriptures, even if they are not altogether
   what we should like them to be. The place for an Israelite is with the
   Israelites. The place for a Christian man is with Christian men. The
   place for a thorough-going disciple of the Bible and of Christ is with
   others who are such--even if they should happen to be the lowest in the
   land and the poorest of the poor, and the most illiterate and
   uneducated persons of the period--what is all this if their God loves
   them and if they love God? Weighed in the scales of the Truth of God
   the least one among them is worth 10,000 of the greatest ungodly men!

   Lastly, we must all of us look to our faith. Faith is the main thing.
   You cannot make a thorough character without sincere faith. Begin
   there, dear Hearer! If you do not believe in Christ, if you believe not
   in the one God, may the Lord convert you and give you now that precious
   gift! To try and raise a character which shall be good without a
   foundation of faith is to build upon sand and to pile up wood, hay and
   stubble--which wood, hay and stubble are very good things as wood, hay,
   and stubble--but they will not bear the fire! And as every Christian
   character will have to bear fire, it is well to build on the Rock and
   to build with such graces and fruits as will endure trial.

   You will have to be tried and if you have, by sneaking through life as
   a coward, avoided all opposition and all ridicule, ask yourself whether
   you really are a disciple of that master of the house whom they called
   Beelzebub! Ask yourself whether you are truly a follower of that
   crucified Savior who said, "except a man take up his cross daily and
   follow Me, he cannot be My disciple." Suspect the smooth places! Be
   afraid of that perpetual peace which Christ declares He came to break.
   He says, "I came not to send peace on the earth, but a sword." He came
   to bring fire upon the earth and, "how I wish," He said, "it were
   already kindled."--

   "Must I be carried to the skies

   On flowery beds of ease,

   While others fought to win the prize,

   And sailed through bloody seas?

   Surely I must fight if I would reign.

   Increase my courage, Lord,

   I'd bear the toil, endure the pain,

   Supported by Your Word."

   Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Salvation All of Grace

   (No. 1064)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, AUGUST 4, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "By Grace are you saved." Ephesians 2:8.

   OTHER Divine attributes are manifest in salvation. The Wisdom of God
   devised the plan. The Omnipotence of God executes in us the work of
   salvation. The Immutability of God preserves and carries it on--in
   fact, all the attributes of God are magnified in the salvation of a
   sinner--but at the same time the text is most accurate since Grace is
   the fountainhead of salvation and is most conspicuous throughout. Grace
   is to be seen in our election, for, "there is a remnant according to
   the election of Grace, and if by Grace then it is no more of works."

   Grace is manifestly revealed in our redemption, for you know therein
   the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and it is utterly inconceivable
   that any soul could have deserved to be redeemed with the precious
   blood of Christ. The mere thought is abhorrent to every holy mind. Our
   calling is also of Grace, for, "He has saved us, and called us with an
   holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own
   purpose and Grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
   began."

   By Grace also are we justified, for over and over again the Apostle
   insists upon this grand and fundamental Truth of God. We are not
   justified before God by works in any measure or in any degree, but by
   faith alone, and the Apostle tells us, "it is of faith, that it might
   be by Grace." We see a golden thread of Grace running through the whole
   of the Christian's history--from his election before all worlds even to
   his admission to the Heaven of rest. Grace, all along, "reigns through
   righteousness unto eternal life," and, "where sin abounds, Grace does
   much more abound." There is no point in the history of a saved soul
   upon which you can put your finger and say, "In this instance he is
   saved by his own merit." Every single blessing which we receive from
   God comes to us by the channel of free favor, revealed to us in Christ
   Jesus our Lord. Boasting is excluded because merits are excluded. Merit
   is an unknown word in the Christian Church--it is banished once and for
   all--and our only shouts over foundation or top stone are, "Grace,
   Grace unto it!"

   Perhaps the Apostle is the more earnest in insisting upon this Truth of
   God here, and in many other places, because this is a point against
   which the human heart raises the greatest objection. Every man, by
   nature, fights against salvation by Grace. Though we have nothing good
   in ourselves, we all think we have! Though we have all broken the Law
   and have lost all claim upon Divine regard, yet we are all proud enough
   to fancy that we are not quite so bad as others--that there are some
   mitigating circumstances in our offenses and that we can, in some
   measure, appeal to the justice as well as to the compassion of God.

   Hence the Apostle puts it so strongly, "By Grace are you saved, through
   faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works,
   lest any man should boast." The statement of the text means just
   this--that we all need saving--saving from our sins and saving from the
   consequences of them. And that if we are saved it is not because of any
   works which we have already performed. Who among us, upon looking back
   at his past life, would dare to say that he deserves salvation?

   Neither are we saved on account of any works foreseen which are yet to
   be performed by us. We have made no bargain with God that we will give
   Him so much service for so much mercy--neither has He made any Covenant
   with us of this character. He has freely saved us and if we serve Him
   in the future, as we trust we shall, with all our heart and soul and
   strength--even then we shall have no room for glorying because our
   works are worked in us of the Lord! What have we, then, which we have
   not received? We are saved not because of any mitigating circumstances
   with regard to our transgressions, nor because we were excusable on
   account of our youth, or of our ignorance, or any other cause! We are
   not saved because there were some good points in our character which
   ought not to be overlooked, or some hopeful indications of better
   things in the future!

   Ah, no--"By Grace are you saved." That clear and unqualified statement
   sweeps away all supposition of any deserving on our part, or any
   thought of deserving! It is not a case of a prisoner at the bar who
   pleads, "not guilty," and who escapes because he is innocent. Far from
   it, for we are guilty beyond all question! It is not even a case of a
   prisoner who pleads, "guilty," but at the same time mentions certain
   circumstances which render his offense less heinous. Far from it, for
   our offense is heinous to the last degree and our sin deserves the
   utmost wrath of God! Ours is the case of a criminal confessing his
   guilt and owning that he deserves the punishment, offering no
   extenuation and making no apology, but casting himself upon the
   absolute mercy of the judge, desiring him, for pity's sake, to look
   upon his misery and spare him in compassion.

   As condemned criminals we stand before God when we come to Him for
   mercy. We are not in a state of probation, as some say--our probation
   is over--we are already lost! "Condemned already," and our only course
   is to cast ourselves upon the sovereign mercy of God in Christ Jesus,
   not uttering a syllable of claim, but simply saying, "Mercy, Lord, I
   crave undeserved mercy according to Your loving kindness and Your Grace
   in Christ Jesus." "By Grace are you saved." This is true of every saint
   on earth and every saint in Heaven--altogether true without a single
   sentence of qualification! No man is saved except as the result of the
   free favor and unbought mercy of God, not of merit, not of debt, but
   entirely and altogether because the Lord, "will have mercy on whom He
   will have mercy," and He wills to bestow His favor on the unworthy sons
   of men.

   I. This simple Truth of God we do not mean to work out this morning,
   doctrinally or controversially, but to use it for practical purposes
   and the first is this--THIS GREAT DOCTRINE SHOULD INSPIRE EVERY SINNER
   WITH HOPE. If salvation is altogether of the free favor and Grace of
   God, then who among us dares to despair? Who in this place shall be so
   wicked as to sit down in sullenness and say, "It is impossible for me
   to be saved"? For first, my Brothers and Sisters, if salvation is of
   mercy only, it is clear that our sin is by no means an impediment to
   our salvation!

   If it were ofjustice, our transgression of the Law would render our
   salvation utterly impossible. But if the Lord deals with us upon quite
   another footing, and says, "I will forgive them freely," that very
   promise presupposes sin! If the Lord speaks of mercy, that very word
   takes it for granted that we are guilty, or else there would be no room
   for mercy at all! The very statement that we are saved by Grace implies
   that we are fit objects for Grace--and who are fit objects for Grace
   but the guilty, the wretched, the condemned?!

   O Souls of men, the Law stops your mouths and makes you silently admit
   that you are guilty before God! But the Gospel opens the mouth of the
   dumb by declaring, "Christ died for the ungodly," and, "He came into
   the world to save sinners." If mercy comes into the field, sin is
   swallowed up in forgiveness, and unworthiness ceases to be a barrier
   for love! Is not this both clear and comforting?

   Now observe that this prevents the despair which might arise in any
   heart on account of some one special sin. I meet with many whose terror
   of conscience arises from one particular crime. Had they not committed
   that crimson sin they consider that they might have been pardoned, but
   now they are in an evil case. "Surely," they say, "that sin, like an
   iron bolt, has fast closed the gates of Heaven against me." And yet it
   cannot be so if salvation is of Grace! Whatever the sin may be, its
   greatness will only serve to illustrate the great Grace of God.
   Undeserved mercy can pardon one sin as well as another if the soul
   confesses it. If God acted on the rule of merit with us, then no sin
   would be pardonable under any circumstances! But when He deals with us
   in a way of Grace He can pass by any offense for which we seek
   forgiveness.

   The great sinner is so much the fitter object for great mercy. He who
   has but little sin, can, as it were, but draw forth little mercy from
   God to blot it out. But he who is guilty of some great, crowning,
   damning sin--he it is to whom the heights and depths of Divine mercy
   may be displayed! And if I speak to such an one this morning I would
   look upon him with joyful eyes. Sorrowful as he is, I am thankful to
   have found out such an one. You are a rare platform on which my Lord's
   love may display itself because you know yourself to be so utterly a
   lost sinner! You are but a black foil to set forth the brilliant
   diamond of my Master's Grace! Your foulness shall but illustrate the
   virtue of His precious blood and your crimson sin, by yielding in a
   moment to the precious blood, shall only show how great is His power to
   save!

   It is clear, too, that if the sinner's despair should arise from the
   long continuance, multitude and great aggravation of his sins, there is
   no ground for it. For if salvation is of pure mercy only, why should
   not God forgive 10,000 sins as well as one? "Oh," you say, "I see why
   He should not." Then you see more than is true, for once come to Grace
   you have done with bounds and limits!

   Know, moreover, that, "His thoughts are not your thoughts. And as the
   heavens are higher than the earth so are His thoughts higher than your
   thoughts and His ways than your ways." To blot out 10,000 sins is, with
   Him, no effort of Grace, for, "He is plenteous in mercy." He has been
   forgiving the sons of men ever since the first sinner crossed the
   threshold of Paradise and He delights to do it! So that, guilty Ones, I
   see in the multitude of your sins only so much the more room for the
   Lord to exercise His own delightful attribute of mercy! If He delights
   to blot out one sin, then He delights 10,000 times more to blot out
   10,000 sins! If you will look at it in that light, though your
   transgressions may be as many as the hairs on your head or as the sands
   on the sea shore, you need not for a moment think you are cast away
   from hope!

   The Lord's mercy is a sea which cannot be filled though mountains of
   sin are cast into its midst! It is like Noah's flood which covers all
   and drowns even the mountaintops of Heaven-defying sins! I wish to
   speak right home to the hearts of those who are in trouble and seeking
   mercy, and to them I say--do you not see that if salvation is of Grace
   alone, then the depravity of your nature does not shut you up in
   despair? What? Though your Nature is inclined to sin, and especially
   inclined to some sins--what if you are naturally angry and passionate?
   What if you are proud and covetous? What if you are in your natural
   disposition skeptical or lustful? Yet from the Grace of God hope flows
   even for you!

   If the Lord were to deal with you according to your constitution and
   Nature, then, indeed, it were a hopeless case with you. But if He
   blesses you, not because you are good but because you need to be
   blessed. If He looks upon you in mercy, not because you are beautiful
   but because you are sick unto death and defiled, and need to be healed
   and cleansed. If it is your misery and not your merit which He
   considers, then you are yet in the land of hope! However fallen you may
   be, you may yet be raised up!

   Why should not the Lord take the most depraved and abandoned, and
   obstinate among us, and renew his Nature and make of him a miracle of
   Grace? Would it not magnify His mercy if He should make of such an one
   the opposite of what he now is? What if He should make him tender in
   heart, holy in spirit, devout in character, ardent in love and fervent
   in prayer? He can do it! Glory be to His name, He can do it! And now
   that He deals with us in Grace let us hope He will do it in the case of
   many here today.

   Remember, too, that any spiritual unfitness which may exist in a man
   should not shut him out from a hope since God deals with us in mercy. I
   hear you say, "I believe God can save me, but I am so impenitent." Yes,
   and I say it again, if you were to stand on terms of debt with God,
   your hard heart would shut you out of hope. How could He bless such a
   wretch as you are, whose heart is a heart of stone? But if He deals
   with you entirely upon another ground, namely, His mercy, why I think I
   hear Him say, "Poor hard-hearted Sinner, I will pity you and take away
   your heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh."

   Do you say, "I cannot repent"? I know the criminality of that sad fact.
   It is a great sin not to be able to repent, but then the Lord will not
   look upon you from the point of what you ought to be, but He will
   consider what He can make you, and He will give you repentance! Has not
   His Son gone up to Heaven, "exalted on high, to give repentance and
   remission of sins?" Do I hear you confess that you cannot believe? Now,
   the absence of faith from you is a great evil, yes, a horrible evil.
   But then the Lord is dealing with you on terms of Grace and does not
   say, "I will not strike you because you do not believe," but He says,
   "I will give you faith," for faith is "not of yourselves, it is the
   gift of God." He works our faith in us and has pity upon us, and takes
   away the unbelieving heart and gives the tender heart, the believing
   heart, in the presence of the Cross of Christ!

   Oh, though I were black as the devil with past sin and vile as the
   devil with innate depravity, yet, if the Lord's mercy looked upon me,
   could He not forgive the past and chance my Nature, and make me as
   bright a seraph as Gabriel before His Throne? "Is anything too hard for
   the Lord?" O Sinner, what a door of hope there ought to be open to you
   in this Truth of God--that salvation is altogether of Grace! And now,
   to sum up all in a word, there is no supposable circumstance or
   incident, or anything connected with any man that can shut him out of
   hope if he seeks forgiveness through the Savior's blood! Whoever you
   may be and whatever you may have done, Grace can come and save you! I
   say again, if your character is the question at issue, you are a lost
   man! If your power to amend your character is the hinge of the
   business, you are a lost man!

   But if the Grace that pardons and the power that amends both come from
   God, why should you be a lost man? Why should the harlot perish? Why
   should the thief perish? Why should the adulterer perish? Why should
   the murderer perish? "Let the wicked forsake his way and the
   unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him turn unto the Lord and He
   will have mercy upon him, and to our God for He will abundantly
   pardon." You have heaped up your sins but God will heap up His mercies!
   You have highly aggravated your transgressions--you have sinned against
   light and knowledge-- you have done evil with both hands greedily! But,
   thus says the Lord, "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your
   transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins: return unto Me; for I have
   redeemed you." "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."

   Thus much upon the first statement, that this doctrine ought to give
   hope to the sinner.

   II. Secondly, THIS DOCTRINE AFFORDS DIRECTION TO THE SINNER as to how
   to act before his God in

   seeking mercy. Clearly, O Soul, if salvation is of Grace alone, it
   would be a very wrong course of action to plead that you are not
   guilty, or to extenuate your faults before God--that were to go upon
   the wrong tack altogether. If salvation is by your merit, or by an
   absence of demerit, then you would be right enough to set up a good
   character as a plea, though I believe that in the trial you would break
   down mightily, for you are as full of sin as an egg is of meat and your
   sin is as damnable as Hell itself!

   And therefore it were vain for you to plead innocence--but if you could
   plead it, it is the wrong plea. If salvation is of Grace, then go to
   the Lord and confess your sin and transgression, and ask for Grace. Do
   not, for a moment, attempt to show that you have no need of Grace, for
   that were folly, indeed! What more foolish than for a beggar to plead
   that he is not in need? Do not shut the door of Grace in your own face!
   To say, "I am not guilty," is to say "I do not need mercy." To say, "I
   have not transgressed," is to say, "I do not need to be forgiven," and
   how better could you commit spiritual suicide than by such pleading?

   Neither, O Sinner, hope to propitiate the Lord with gifts and
   sacrifices. If salvation is of Grace, how dare you think to buy it? If
   He says He gives it freely, bring not with you any bribe, for in so
   doing you will insult and anger Him. Indeed, what could you bring to
   Him when Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof for
   a burnt sacrifice? If you could give Him rivers of oil that should
   deluge a continent, or seas of sacrificial blood broad as the Pacific,
   yet could you not for a moment render yourself acceptable with Him!
   Therefore do not try it! Venture on no ceremonies. Rest not in rituals.
   If salvation is of Grace, accept it as a free gift and bless the Giver.
   Do not think to dress yourself in garments of outward religiousness, or
   to borrow virtue from a fellow man who claims to be a priest! But since
   salvation is of free mercy, go and cast yourself on that free mercy!

   That is to act according to the dictates of prudence. Your true course
   is this--since God is willing to show His mercy--go and confess that
   you need that mercy. Aggravate your sin in the confession if you can.
   Instead of trying to make it appear white, try to see its unutterable
   blackness. Say that you are without excuse, justly condemned for your
   transgressions. I assure you you shall never go beyond the truth in
   stating your sin, for that were quite impossible. A man lying wounded
   on the field of battle--when the surgeon comes round, or the soldiers
   with the ambulance--does not say, "Oh, mine is a little wound," for he
   knows that then they would let him lie. But he cries out, "I have been
   bleeding here for hours, and am nearly dead with a terrible wound," for
   he thinks that then he will gain speedier relief. And when he gets into
   the hospital he does not say to the nurse, "Mine is a small affair. I
   shall soon get over it." But he tells the truth to the surgeon in the
   hope that he may set the bone at once and that double care may be
   taken.

   Ah, Sinner, you must do the same with God! The right way to plead is to
   plead your misery, your impotence, your danger, your sin. Lay bare your
   wounds before the Lord and as Hezekiah spread Sennacherib's letter
   before the Lord, spread your sins before Him with many a tear and many
   a cry, and say, "Lord, save me from all these! Save me from these black
   and foul things for Your infinite mercy's sake." Confess your sin!
   Wisdom dictates that you should do so, since salvation is of Grace.

   And then yield yourself up to God. Capitulate at discretion. Make no
   terms with Him, but say, "Here I stand before You, O my Maker. I have
   offended You. I yield to You because You have said You will deal with
   me on terms of Grace. Behold, I cast myself at Your feet. The weapons
   of my rebellion I cast from my hands forever. I desire that You would

   take me and make me what You would have me to be. And seeing You are a
   God of Grace, I beseech You to have pity upon me. You have appointed a
   way of salvation by Jesus Christ. Oh, save me in that way, I entreat
   You."

   Now, mark, I need to dwell upon this next point--because salvation is
   of Grace it directs the guilty as to how to plead before God. When we
   are praying and pleading we sometimes feel we need a help to guide us
   in the pleading. Let this guide you. Take care that all your pleas with
   God are consistent with the fact that He saves by His Grace. Never
   bring a legal plea, or a plea that is based upon self, for it will be
   an offense to God. Whereas, if your argument is based on Grace, it will
   have a sweet savor to Him.

   Let me teach you, seeking Sinner, for a moment how to pray. Let it be
   in this way. Plead with God your miserable and undone condition. Tell
   Him you are utterly lost if He does not save you. Tell Him you are
   already lost, so that you can not help yourself hand or foot in this
   matter if He does not come to your rescue with the fullness of His
   power and love. Tell him that you are afraid to die and to come before
   His righteous bar, for unless He saves you Hell will be your portion.
   Plead with Him and ask Him whether it will delight Him that you should
   make your bed in Hell. Say to Him, "Shall the dead praise You? Shall
   the condemned set forth the praise?" Show Him the imminence of your
   danger. He knows it, but let Him see that you know it, and this will be
   good pleading with His mercy. "Save me, O Lord, for if ever a soul
   needed saving, if ever a soul were in the jaws of destruction, I am
   that soul! Therefore have pity upon me." Thus pour out your heart
   before Him.

   Then humbly urge the suitableness of His mercy to you. "Lord, You are
   merciful. Your mercy will find ample scope in me. Does your Grace seek
   out sin to purge it away? It is here, Lord--I teem with it--my heart
   swarms with evils! If You are pitiful, here is a heart which bleeds and
   is ready to perish. Oh, if You are, indeed, a physician, here is a sick
   soul that needs you! If You are ready to forgive, here are sins that
   need forgiving. Come to me, Lord, for Your mercy will find a
   grievousness of misery in me! Besides, is not Your mercy free? It is
   true I do not deserve it, but You do not give it to men because of
   their merit, else were it not Grace and mercy at all. Let Your free
   mercy light on me! Why should You pass me by? If I am the vilest of the
   sons of men You will be the more gracious if You look upon me. What?
   Though I have forgotten You these many years and have even despised
   Your love, will it not be the greater mercy on Your part to turn and
   give Your free Grace to me, even to me?"

   Then argue with Him the plenteousness of His Grace. Say to Him, "Lord,
   Your mercy is very great, I know it is. 'According to the multitude of
   Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.' If You were a little
   God and You had but little mercy, I should have but little hope in You,
   but oh, You are so great and glorious! You can cast my transgressions
   behind Your back! By the greatness of Your compassion, then, look on
   me." It is well, also, to return to the first plea and repeat it,
   saying, "Lord, because You have this greet mercy and I need it, look on
   my impotence this day. I am so weak I cannot come to You unless You
   come to me. You bid me repent, but see how hard my heart is! You
   command me to believe in Jesus, but my unbelief is very strong! You
   tell me to look to Your dear Son upon the Cross, but I cannot see Him
   for my tears which blind these weary eyes.

   "Master, come to the rescue! Come and help Your servant for You are
   strong, though I am weak. You can break my heart though I cannot break
   it and You can open my poor bleared eyes, though I cannot as yet see as
   I would see the Savior Jesus Christ. Oh, by Your power and mercy save a
   weak, dead sinner." And then, if you feel as if you wanted some other
   plea, begin to plead His promises. Say--

   "You have promised to forgive All who on Your Son believe. Lord, I know
   You cannot lie! Give me Christ or else I die.

   "You have said that if the wicked forsake his way and turn unto You he
   shall live. Lord, I turn to You. Receive me. You have said that all
   manner of sin and of blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men. You have
   declared that the blood of Jesus Christ Your Son cleanses from all sin.
   Go not back from Your word, O God! Since You are dealing with men on
   terms of Grace, keep Your promise and let Your rich, free mercy come to
   me."

   I know what all this means by experience. I have gone over all these
   pleas by the week together and pleaded with God that He would have
   mercy upon me. "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and
   delivered him from all his fears." Therefore, I bear testimony unto
   you, O seeking Souls, that this is the way to move His heart. Go upon
   the plan of Grace and plead His love. Not your merits, but your
   demerits! Not your profession of what you hope to do, but your

   acknowledgment of your misery will have power with Him. I have found it
   sweet work, sometimes, to plead with God His mercy in the gifts of
   Christ.

   Let me help you, Sinner, to do it and may the Spirit help you. Say you
   unto God thus, "Lord, You have given Your only begotten Son to die.
   Surely He need not have died for the righteous. He died for the
   guilty--I am such an one-- Lord, will You give Your Son for sinners and
   then cast sinners away? Did You nail Him to the Cross only for a
   mockery, that we might come to that Cross and not find pity? O God of
   Mercy, in the gift of Your Son You have done so much that You cannot
   draw back! You must save sinners now that You have given Jesus to die
   for them."

   Then plead with Jesus the compassion of His heart. Tell Him that He
   said He would not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax.
   Pluck Him by the sleeve, and say, "You have said, 'Him that comes unto
   Me, I will in no wise cast out.'" Tell Him that it was written of Him,
   "This Man receives sinners and eats with them." Tell Him that you have
   heard, "this is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that
   Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners," and say to Him,
   "Have You lost your compassion, Savior? Will You not dart a glance of
   love on me, even me? You did heal lepers--heal my leprosy! You did
   permit the woman, whom You did call a dog, to come and receive
   blessings at Your hands, and although I AM a dog, yet give the crumbs
   of Your mercy to me, even me."

   This is the style of plea that will win the day. And then I would
   advise you, if you still fail in prayer, to go to God and say to Him,
   "Lord, You have sworn with an oath--'As I live, says the Lord, I have
   no pleasure in the death of him that dies, but had rather that he would
   turn to Me and live.' I know that you mean this, my God. Will You take
   pleasure, then, in my death and spurn me now that I turn to You?" Tell
   Him that He has saved other sinners like yourself. Remind Him of your
   wife, or child, or friend. Tell Him of Saul of Tarsus. Tell Him of the
   woman that was a sinner. Tell Him of Rahab, and say unto Him, "Lord, do
   You not delight to save great, big, evil sinners? I am just such an
   one! You have not changed. By all that You have done for others, I pray
   You do the same for me."

   And then say to Him again, "I thank You, O God, that You have permitted
   even me to pray to You. I bless Your Grace that You have moved me to
   come to You. And as You have given me Grace to feel my sin in a
   measure, will You leave me to perish after all? Oh, by the Grace I have
   received in being spared so long in being permitted to hear Your
   Gospel, I beseech You to give me more Grace."

   Then throw yourself down before Him and if you perish, perish there. Go
   to the Cross with such pleas as these and resolve that if it can be
   that a sinner may die at the foot of the Cross, you will die there, but
   nowhere else. As the Lord my God lives, before whom I stand, there
   shall never a soul perish that can cast itself upon the sovereign Grace
   of God through Jesus Christ His Son!

   III. Now, to turn away from that to a third point. A FULL CONVICTION OF
   THIS TRUTH WILL RECONCILE

   OUR HEARTS TO ALL DIVINE ORDINANCES WITH REGARD TO SALVATION. I feel in
   my own heart, and I

   think every Believer here does, that if salvation is of Grace, God must
   do as He wills with His own. None of us can say to Him, "What are You
   doing?" If there were anything of debt, or justice, or obligation in
   the matter, then we might begin to question God--but as there is none
   and the thing is quite out of court as to law and far away from rights
   and claims--as it is all God's free favor, we will, therefore, stop our
   mouths and never question Him.

   As to the persons whom He chooses to save, let Him save whom He wills.
   His name shall be had in honor forever, let His choice be what it may.
   As to the instrument by whom He saves, let Him save by the coarsest
   speaker, or by the most eloquent--let Him do what seems good to Him. If
   He will save by the Bible, without ministers, we will be glad to hold
   our tongues. And if He will save souls by one of our Brothers and not
   by us, we will grieve to think that we are so little fitted for His
   service, but still, if after doing all we can, He uses another more
   than us, we will say, "Blessed be His name." We will not envy our
   Brothers. The Lord shall distribute His Grace by what hands He pleases.
   Send, Lord, by whomever You will send.

   And here I come to the sinner again--with the two great Gospel commands
   we will raise no dispute. Has He said, "He that believes and is
   baptized shall be saved"? We will never raise a question against either
   the believing or the Baptism. If the Lord chooses to say, "I will save
   those who trust in Christ," it is both so natural a thing that He
   should claim our faith and so gracious a thing that He should give us
   the faith He claims of us that we cannot question it! And even if it
   were not so, He has a right to make what rules He pleases. If God
   permits entrance only by one door, let us enter

   by it and raise no contention. The Lord bids you trust in Jesus--say
   not in your heart, "I would rather do or feel some wonderful matter."

   If He had bid you do some great thing would you not have done it? How
   much rather, now, that He says to you, simply trust in Jesus and be
   saved? I know if I were authorized to preach this morning that every
   man who would sail round the world should be saved, you would begin
   saving your money to make the great excursion! But when the Gospel
   comes to you there in those very pews and aisles and bids you now turn
   your eyes to the crucified Savior and only look to Him, I know if you
   have not learned the Truth of God, that salvation is of Grace, you will
   kick at that Divine command! But if you know it is of Grace, and only
   Grace, you will say, "Sweet is the command of God! Lord, enable me,
   now, to trust myself with Your dear Son."

   And then you will not quarrel with the ordinance of Baptism, either. I
   know it is very natural that you should say, "What is there in it?" I
   also would say, what is there in it? What can there be in a mere
   washing in water? If you thought there were any salvation by it
   meritoriously, you would have missed the track altogether. But the Lord
   has put it, that "he that believes and is baptized, shall be saved,"
   and therefore you must obey! I do not attempt to justify my Lord for so
   commanding, for He needs no defense from me. But if He so chooses to
   put it, the true heart will yield a prompt obedience to His will. If it
   were of merit, I could see no merit in Baptism or in the believing, for
   surely it cannot be meritorious to believe what is true, or to have
   one's body washed with pure water. But salvation is of Grace--and if
   the Lord chooses to put it so, let Him put it as He wills.

   I am such a sinner, I will take His mercy, let Him present it in what
   way He pleases. As to the manner in which the Lord may be pleased to
   reveal Himself to any one of us, I am sure that if we know that
   salvation is of Grace, we shall never quarrel about that any more. To
   some of us, the Lord revealed Himself on a sudden. We know when we were
   converted to the day. I know the place to a yard. But many others do
   not. The day breaks on them gradually--first twilight, then a brighter
   light--and afterwards comes the noon. Do not let us quarrel about that.
   So long as I get a Savior, I do not mind how I get Him! So long as He
   blots out my sins I will not quibble about the way in which He
   manifests His love to me. If it is of Grace, that silences
   everything--Jew and Gentile shut their mouths without a murmuring
   word--and all together sit down at the foot of the Cross, no more to
   question, but reverently to adore.

   IV. I pass over this point rapidly, for time flies. I gladly would clip
   his wings. But I must introduce to you the next fact--that the doctrine
   that salvation is of Grace furnishes to those who receive it A MOST
   POWERFUL MOTIVE FOR FUTURE HOLINESS. A man who feels that he is saved
   by Grace says, "Did God of His free favor blot out my sins? Then, oh,
   how I love Him! Was it nothing but His love that saved an undeserving
   wretch? Then my soul is knit to Him forever."

   Great sin becomes in such a case no barrier to great holiness, but
   rather a motive for it, for he who has had much forgiven loves much,
   and loving much he begins at once to be in earnest in the service of
   Him whom he loves. I put it to you, Sinner, if the Lord this morning
   were to appear to you and say, "All your sins have been blotted out,"
   would you not love Him? Yes, I think a dog would love such a Master as
   that! Would you not love Him? Yes, I know you would! I know you proud,
   self-righteous people would not--but you real sinners, if pardon were
   to come to you--would you not love God with all your hearts? Assuredly
   you would, and then your soul would begin to burn with a desire to
   honor

   Him!

   You would need to tell the next person you met--"The Lord has had mercy
   upon me! Wonder of wonders, He has had mercy upon me!" And then you
   would desire to put away everything that would displease Him. Away, you
   Sins! Away, you Sins--how can I defile myself with you again? And then
   you would desire to practice all His will, and say, "For the love I
   bear His name no duty shall be too difficult, no command too severe."
   There are none that love God like those who are saved by Grace!

   The man who thinks to save himself by works does not love God at
   all--he loves himself--he is a servant working for wages and that is
   the kind of servant who would turn to another master tomorrow if he
   could get better paid. And if the wages do not suit him he will strike.
   The old-fashioned servants were the best servants in the world, for
   they loved their masters and if paid no wages at all would have stuck
   to the family for love's sake. Such are the servants of God who are
   saved by His Grace. "Why," they say, "He has already pardoned me and
   saved me, and therefore my ear is bored and

   fastened to the door of His house to be His servant forever. And my
   glory is, 'I am Your servant, I am Your servant, and the son of Your
   handmaid, You have loosed my bonds.'"

   Such a man feels that he must perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord.
   He will not stop short with a measure of Grace--he wants immeasurable
   Grace! He will not say, "There are some sins in me which I cannot
   overcome," but by God's Grace he will seek to drive out all the
   Amalekites. He will not say, "Up to this point I am commanded to go,
   but beyond that I have a license to say, 'That is my besetting sin--I
   cannot get rid of it.'" No, but loving God with all his heart he will
   hate sin with all his heart and war with sin with all his might, and
   will never put sword in scabbard till he is perfected in the image of
   Christ.

   The Lord fires us with such ardent love as this and I know no way by
   which to get it except by coming to Him on terms of Grace, confessing
   sin, receiving mercy, feeling love kindled in the heart in consequence,
   and thus the whole soul becomes consecrated to the Lord.

   V. Lastly, I wish I could handle my text as I desire and as it handles
   me, but the truth of my text will be A TEST FOR THIS CONGREGATION. The
   way you treat this text shall well reveal what you are. It will be
   either a stone of stumbling to you this morning, or else a foundation
   stone on which you build. Is it a stone of stumbling? Did I hear you
   murmur, "Why, the man does not hold up morality and good works! He
   preaches salvation for the guilty and the vile! I do not need such a
   religion"?

   Alas, you have stumbled at this stumbling stone and shall be broken
   upon it. You shall perish, for you do insult your God by thinking
   yourself wiser than His Word and by fancying that your righteousness is
   purer than the righteousness of Christ! You do imagine you can force
   your way to Heaven by a road that is most effectually blocked up! You
   despise the path which the Lord has opened! Beware of
   self-righteousness! The black devil of licentiousness destroys his
   hundreds, but the white devil of self-righteousness destroys his
   thousands!

   But do you accept this text as a foundation stone? Do you say, "I need
   Grace, indeed, for I am guilty"? Then come and take all the blessings
   of the Covenant, for they are yours! "He has put down the mighty from
   their seat and He has exalted them of low degree. He has filled the
   hungry with good things, but the rich He has sent away empty." Are you
   guilty? Come and trust your Savior! Are you empty? Come and be filled
   out of the fullness which is treasured up in Christ Jesus! Believe in
   Jesus now, for one act of faith sets you free from all sin! Do not
   tarry for a moment, nor raise questions with your God. Believe Him
   capable of infinite mercy and through Jesus Christ rest in Him.

   If you are the worst soul in the world in your own apprehension, and
   the one odd man that would be left out of every catalogue of Grace, now
   write not such things against yourself--or even if you do, come and
   cast yourself upon your God! He cannot reject you or if He should, you
   would be the first that ever trusted in Him and was refused! Come and
   try! Oh, that His Spirit may bring you to Jesus at this very moment and
   that in Heaven there may be joy in the presence of the angels of God
   because a soul has confided in the Grace of God and found immediate
   pardon and instantaneous salvation through the precious blood of
   Christ!

   The Lord bless every one of you. Oh, how I would like that every soul
   here should be washed in the blood of Christ this morning! Would God
   that every one of you were robed in the righteousness of Christ this
   day and prepared to enter into His rest! Pray for it, Christian
   Brothers and Sisters! Why should we not have it? Why, this
   congregation, great as it may seem, comparatively, is very little to
   God! Why should there be one left out? Let your prayers encircle the
   whole house and bear the entire audience up to God! Lay it before Him
   and say, "By Your mercy and by Your loving kindness save all this
   gathered company, for Christ's sake." Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Healing of One Born Blind

   (No. 1065)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, AUGUST 11 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of
   one that was born blind." John 9:32.

   THAT was quite true--there was no instance recorded in Scripture or in
   profane history at the time when this man spoke, of any person who was
   born blind having obtained his sight. I believe it was in the year 1728
   that the celebrated Dr. Cheselden, of St. Thomas's Hospital, for the
   first time in the world's history achieved the marvel of giving sight
   to a man who had been blind from his youth up. And since then the
   operation of couching the eyes has been several times successfully
   performed upon persons who were born blind.

   This man was, however, quite correct in the statement that then, and in
   his day, neither by skillful surgery nor even by miracle had
   birth-blindness been healed. There was no doubt this man was a great
   student in the matter of blindness--it touched so nearly his own
   consciousness since he himself dwelt beneath its perpetual shadow. He
   was the one man in the city who understood the subject thoroughly. But,
   alas, by all his researches he found no ground for hope. Having learned
   the whole history of blindness and its cure, this man had come to the
   assured conviction that none ever had been healed who were in his
   plight--a mournful conclusion, indeed, for him.

   Our Lord Jesus did for him what never had been done before for any man.
   This pleasing fact seems to me to be full of consolation to any persons
   here present who labor under the idea that theirs is a most peculiar
   and hopeless case. It probably is not so solitary and special a case as
   you think, but even if we grant your supposition, there is no room for
   despair since Jesus delights to open up new paths of Grace. Our Lord is
   inventive in love! He devises new modes of mercy! It is His joy to find
   out and relieve those whose miserable condition has baffled all other
   help. His mercy is not bound by precedents. He preserves a freshness
   and originality of love.

   If you can find no instance in which a person like yourself has ever
   been saved you should not, therefore, conclude that you must
   necessarily be lost. Rather, you should believe in Him who does great
   wonders, yes, and marvels unsearchable in the way of Divine Grace! He
   does as He wills, and His will is love. Have hope that inasmuch as He
   sees in you a singular sinner, He will make of you a singular trophy of
   His power to pardon and to bless. It was so with this man's eyes--if
   never eyes that had been born blind were opened before, Jesus Christ
   would do it--and the greater would be the glory brought to His name by
   the miracle.

   Jesus does not need showing the way--He loves to strike out paths for
   Himself and the greater the room for His mercy the better He likes the
   road. I purpose this morning gathering instruction from the particular
   expression which the healed man here used. May the Holy Spirit make the
   meditation truly profitable to us. And, first, I shall ask you to
   observe the peculiarity of his case--he was a man born blind. Then,
   secondly, the specialties of his cure shall occupy a little of our
   attention. And, thirdly, we shall make a few remarks upon the singular
   condition of the healed man from the moment that his eyes were opened.

   I. First, then, THE PECULIARITY OF HIS CASE. It was not an instance of
   need of light--that might both speedily and easily have been remedied.
   There was light enough all around him, but the poor creature had no
   eyes. Now, there are millions of persons in the world who have little
   or no light. Darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the people.
   It is the Church's business to spread light on all sides and for this
   work she is well qualified. We ought not to suffer any person to perish
   for lack of knowing the Gospel. We cannot give men eyes, but we can
   give them light. God has placed among us His golden candlesticks and
   expressly said, "You are the lights of the world."

   Now, I believe that there are some persons who have eyes who,
   nevertheless, see but little for need of light. They are children of
   God but they walk in darkness and see no light. God has given to them
   the spiritual faculty of sight, but as

   yet they are down in the mines, in the region of night and death shade.
   They are imprisoned in Doubting Castle where only a few feeble rays
   struggle into their dungeon. They walk like men in a mist, seeing and
   yet not seeing. They hear doctrines preached which are not the pure
   Truth of God, the winnowed corn of the Covenant and, while their eyes
   are blinded with chaff and dust, they themselves are bewildered and
   lost in a maze.

   Too many in this murky light weave for themselves theories of doubt and
   fear which increase the gloom. Their tears defile the windows of their
   soul. They are like men who hang up blinds and shutters to keep out the
   sun. They cannot see, though Grace has given them eyes. May it be yours
   and mine by explanation and example, by teaching with the language of
   the lips and the louder language of our lives, to scatter light on all
   sides--that those who dwell in spiritual midnight may rejoice, because
   for them light has sprung up!

   Again, this was not the case of a man blinded by accident. Here, again,
   the help of man might be of much service. Persons who have been struck
   with blindness have again recovered. Notably is this recorded in Bible
   history when Elijah struck a whole army with blindness, but afterwards
   prayed to God for them and they received their sight at once. There is
   much that we can do in cases where the blindness is rather to be
   traceable to circumstances than to Nature. For instance, everywhere in
   the world there is a degree of blindness caused by prejudice. Men judge
   the Truth before they hear it! They form opinions about the Gospel not
   having studied the Gospel itself!

   Put the New Testament into their hands, entreat them to be candid and
   to investigate it with their best judgments and to seek guidance from
   the Holy Spirit, and I believe many would see their error and amend.
   There are some true spirits whose mental perceptions are blinded by
   prejudice who would be helped very graciously to see the Truth if we
   would tenderly and wisely put it before them. The prejudices of
   education sway many in this country. We are to the backbone a very
   conservative people, tenacious of established error and suspicious of
   any long neglected truth. Our countrymen are not soon moved to receive
   the most obvious truth unless it has been in vogue for ages.

   Perhaps it is better that we should be so than that we should be
   whirled about with every wind of doctrine and should run after every
   novelty, as some other nations do. But for this cause the Gospel has in
   this country to combat a mass of prejudice. "Such were my fathers, such
   ought I to be." "Such our family has always been, therefore such will I
   be and such shall my children be." No matter how sure may be the Truth
   of God that is brought before some men's minds, they will not even give
   it a hearing because old men, good men and men in authority have
   decided otherwise. Such persons assume that they are right by
   inheritance and orthodox by ancestry--they cannot learn anything--they
   have reached the fullness of wisdom and there they mean to stop.

   The Church of God should try to remove all prejudices from human eyes
   from whatever sources they may come. Such opthalmia we may be able to
   cure--and it is within our province to attempt it. Like Ananias, we may
   remove the scales from the eyes of some blinded Paul. When God has
   given eyes we may wash the dust out of them. Mingle with your fellow
   men. Tell them what the faith is that has saved you, let them see the
   good works which the Grace of God produces in you--and as the Gospel at
   first removed from men's eyes the scales of Judaism, of the Greek
   philosophy and of the Roman pride--so doubtless in this land and in
   this age it will make short work of the prejudices which some are doing
   their best to foster.

   But this was not the case of a man who was blind by accident and
   consequently not a type of an understanding darkened by prejudice. The
   man was blind from his birth! His was the blindness of Nature and,
   therefore, it baffled all surgical skill. And, concerning the blindness
   caused by human depravity, the blindness that comes with us at our
   birth and continues with us till the Grace of God causes us to be
   born-again, I may say that since the beginning of the world it has not
   been heard that any man has opened the eyes of one whose spiritual
   blindness was born with him and is a part of his Nature!

   If it is something from without that blinds me, I may recover. But if
   it is something from within which shuts out the light, who is he that
   can restore my vision? If from the beginning of my existence I am full
   of folly--if it is a part of my nature to be without understanding--how
   dense is my darkness! How hopeless is the fancy that it can ever be
   removed except by a Divine hand! Let us think and say what we will, we
   are, every one of us, by nature born blind to spiritual things! We are
   not capable of perceiving God, not capable of perceiving the Gospel of
   His dear Son, not capable of understanding the way of salvation by
   faith in such a practical way as to be saved by it. We have eyes but we
   see not! We have understandings but those understandings are
   perverted--they are like balances put out of gear, or a compass which

   forgets the pole. We judge, but we judge unrighteously. By nature we
   put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! We put darkness for light,
   and light for darkness--and this is inbred in our nature, worked into
   our very constitution. You cannot get it out of man because it is a
   part of the man--it is his Nature.

   If you ask me why it is that man's understanding is so dark, I reply,
   because his whole nature is disordered by sin-- his other faculties,
   having been perverted, act upon his understanding and prevent its
   acting in a proper manner. There is a confederacy of evil within which
   deceives the judgment and leads it into captivity to evil affections.
   For instance, our carnal heart loves sin--the set of our unrenewed soul
   is towards evil. We were conceived in sin and shaped in iniquity and we
   as naturally go after evil as the swine seeks out filth. Sin has a
   fascination for us! We are taken by it like birds with a lure, or
   fishes with a bait.

   Even those of us who have been renewed have to watch against sin
   because our nature so readily inclines to it. With much diligence and
   great labor we climb the ways of virtue, but the paths of sin are easy
   to the feet--is not that because our fallen nature inclines in that
   direction? You have only to relax your energy and to loose your soul
   from its anchor-hold and it drifts at once downwards towards iniquity,
   for so the current of Nature runs. It needs much power to send us
   upward, but we go downward as readily as a stone falls to the ground!
   You know it is so! Man is not as God made him-- his affections are
   corrupt.

   Now it is certain that the affections very often sway the judgment. The
   balances are held unfairly because the heart bribes the head. Even when
   we fancy that we are very candid we have insensible leanings. Our
   affections, like Eve's, seduce the Adam of our understanding and the
   forbidden fruit is judged to be good for food. The smoke of the love of
   sin blinds our mental eyes. Our desire is often father to our
   conclusion--we think we are judging fairly but we are really pandering
   to our baser nature. We think this thing to be better because we like
   it better! We will not condemn a fault too severely because we have a
   leaning that way ourselves! Neither will we commend an excellence,
   because it might cost our flesh too dearly to be able to reach it--or
   the not reaching it might strike too severe a blow upon our conscience.
   Ah, while our natural love of sin covers the mind's eye with cataracts
   and even destroys its optic nerve, we need not wonder that the
   blindness is beyond removal by any human surgery!

   Moreover, our natural pride and self-reliance revolt against the
   Gospel. We are, every one of us, very important individuals. Even if we
   sweep a street-crossing we have a dignity of self which must not be
   insulted. A beggar's rags may cover as much pride as an alderman's
   gown. Self-importance is not restricted to any one position or grade of
   life. In the pride of our nature we are all accounted by ourselves to
   be both great and good, and that which would in any way lowers us we
   repudiate as unreasonable and absurd. We cannot see it and are angry
   that others should! He who makes us suspect our own nothingness asks us
   to believe a doctrine hard to be understood. Pride will not and cannot
   understand the doctrines of the Cross because they ring her
   death-knell.

   In consequence of our natural self-sufficiency we all aspire to enter
   Heaven by efforts and merits of our own. We may deny human merit as a
   doctrine but flesh and blood everywhere lusts after it. We need to save
   ourselves by feelings if we cannot by works and to this we cling as for
   dear life. Then the Gospel comes with its sharp axe and says, "Down
   with this tree! Your grapes are gall. Your apples are poison. Your very
   prayers need to be repented of! Your tears need to be wept over, your
   holiest thoughts are unholy! You must be born-again and you must be
   saved through the merits of Another, by the free, undeserved favor of
   God." Then straightway all our manliness, dignity and excellence stand
   up in indignation and we resolve never to accept salvation on such
   terms! That refusal assumes the shape of a need of power to understand
   the Gospel. We do not and cannot understand the Gospel because our
   notions of ourselves stand in the way! We start with wrong ideas of
   self and so the whole business is confusion and we ourselves are
   blinded.

   Again, Beloved, one reason why our understanding does not and cannot
   see spiritual things is because we judge spiritual things by our
   senses. Imagine a person who should take a foot rule as his standard of
   everything which exists in Nature and conceive that this man with his
   foot rule in his pocket becomes an astronomer. He looks through the
   telescope and he observes the fixed stars. He is told when he takes out
   his foot rule that it is quite out of place in connection with the
   heavens--he must give up his feet and inches and calculate by millions
   of miles.

   He is indignant. He will not be deluded by such enthusiasm. He is a man
   of common sense and a foot rule is a thing which he can see and
   handle--why, millions of miles are mere matters of faith, no one has
   ever traveled them--and he does not believe in them! The man
   effectually closes his own eyes! His understanding cannot develop
   within such limits.

   Thus we measure God's corn with our own bushel. We cannot be brought to
   believe that, "as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His
   ways higher than our ways, and His thoughts than our thoughts." If we
   find it hard to forgive, we dream that it is the same with God.

   Every spiritual Truth of God is acted upon in the same way. We propose
   to measure the ocean of Divine love in thimbles and the sublime Truths
   of Revelation we estimate by drops of the bucket. We shall never be
   able to reach the thoughts and things of God while we persist in
   judging after the sight of the eyes, according to the measure of an
   earth-bound, carnal mind. Our understanding also has become unshipped
   and out of gear from the fact that we are at a distance from God and
   that, consequently, we do not believe in Him. If we lived near to God
   and habitually recognized that in Him we live and move and have our
   being, we should accept everything that He spoke as being true because
   He spoke it. And our understanding would be clarified at once by its
   contact with Truth and God.

   But now we think of God as a remote person--we have no love to Him by
   nature nor any care about Him. It would be the best news some sinners
   could hear if there were information given that God was dead! They
   would rejoice above all things at the thought that there was no God.
   The fool always says, "no God," in his heart, even when he does not
   dare say it with his tongue. We all by nature would be glad to be rid
   of God--it is only when the Spirit of God comes and brings us near to
   God and gives us faith in our heavenly Father that we joy and rejoice
   in Him--and are able to understand His will.

   Thus, you see, our entire nature, fallen as it is, operates to the
   blindness of our eyes and therefore the opening of the eye of the human
   understanding towards Divine things remains an impossibility to any
   power short of the Divine. I believe there are some Brothers whose
   notion is that you can open a sinner's blind eye by rhetoric. As well
   hope to sing a stone into sensibility! They dream that you must enchant
   man with splendid periods and then the scales will fall from his eyes.
   The climax is a marvelous engine and the preposition is more wonderful
   still! If these will not convince men, what will? To finish a discourse
   with a blaze of fireworks--will not that enlighten?

   Alas, we know well enough that sinners have been dazzled a thousand
   times by all the pyrotechnics of oratory and yet have remained as
   spiritually blind as ever they were! A notion has been held by some
   that you must argue the Truth of God into men's minds. They say that if
   you can put the doctrines of the Gospel before them in a clear,
   logical, demonstrative form they must give way. But, truly, no man's
   eyes are opened by syllogisms. Reason alone gives no man power to see
   the light of Heaven. The clearest statements and the most simple
   expositions are equally in vain without Divine Grace!

   I bear witness that I have tried to make the Truth of God "as plain as
   a pike-staff," as our proverb is, but my hearers have not seen it for
   all that! The best declaration of Truth will not, of itself, remove
   birth-blindness and enable men to look unto Jesus. Nor do I believe
   that even the most earnest Gospel appeals, nor the most vehement
   testimonies to its Truth will convince men's understanding. All these
   things have their place and find their use but they have no power in
   and of themselves to savingly enlighten the understanding. I bring my
   blind friend to this elevated spot and I bid him look upon yonder
   landscape. "See how the silver river threads its way amid the emerald
   fields. See how yonder trees make up a shadowy wood--how wisely yonder
   garden, near at hand, is cultivated to perfection--and how nobly yonder
   lordly castle rises on yon knoll of matchless beauty."

   Look! He shakes his head--he has no admiration for the scene. I borrow
   poetical expressions, but still he joins not in my delight. I try plain
   words and tell him, "There is the garden and there is the castle, and
   there are the woods and there is the river--do you see them?" "No," he
   cannot see one of them and does not know what they are like. What ails
   the man? Have not I described the landscape well? Have I been faulty in
   my explanations? Have I not given him my own testimony that I have
   walked those glades and sailed along that stream? He shakes his
   head--my words are lost. His eyes, alone, are to blame.

   Let us come to this conviction about sinners, for, if not, we shall
   hammer away and do nothing! Let us be assured that there is something
   the matter within the sinner himself which we cannot cure. Let us do
   what we will with him and yet we cannot get him saved unless it is
   cured. Let us believe this, because it will drive us away from
   ourselves and it will lead us to our God. It will drive us to the
   Strong for strength and teach us to seek for power beyond our own. And
   then it is that God will bless us, because then we shall be sure to
   give all the glory to His name!

   But I must leave the case--it is the case of a deep-seated blindness of
   Nature which cannot be touched by human

   skill.

   II. Now, secondly, we shall dwell a little upon THE SPECIALITIES OF THE
   CURE--not exactly of this man's cure, but of the cure of many whom we
   have seen--and the first is, it is usually accomplished by the most
   simple means. The man's eyes were opened with a little clay put into
   them and then washed out at the pool of Siloam. God blesses very
   slender things to the conversion of souls. It is very humbling,
   sometimes, to a preacher who thinks, "Well, I did preach a pretty fair
   sermon that time," to find God does not care a pin about him or his
   sermon and that a stray remark he made in the street which he hardly
   thought was of any value whatever was what God has blessed!

   That man, when he thought he succeeded best, had done nothing! And when
   he thought he had succeeded worst-- then God blessed him. Many a soul
   has had his eyes opened by an instrumentality which never dreamed of
   being so useful and, indeed, the whole way of salvation is, in itself,
   extremely simple, so as to be well compared to the clay and spit which
   the Savior used. I do not find many souls converted by bodies of
   divinity! We have received a great many into the Church but never
   received one who became converted by a profound theological discussion.

   We very seldom hear of any great number of conversions under very
   eloquent preachers--very seldom indeed! We appreciate eloquence and
   have not a word to say against it by itself--but evidently it has no
   power spiritually to enlighten the understanding and neither does it
   please God to use the excellency of words for conversion. When Paul
   laid aside human wisdom and said he would not use the excellency of
   speech, he only laid aside what would not have been of much service to
   him. When David put off Saul's armor and took the sling and the stone,
   he slew the giant--and giants are not to be conquered today any more
   than they were then, by champions arrayed in Saul's armor. We must keep
   to the simple things, to the plain Gospel plainly preached. The clay
   and the spit were not an artistic combination--taste was not charmed by
   them, or culture gratified--yet by these and a wash in Siloam eyes were
   opened! Even thus it pleases God by the foolishness of preaching to
   save them that believe!

   But, secondly, in every case it is a Divine work. In this case it was
   evidently the Lord Jesus who opened the man's eyes, literally, and it
   is always His work by the Holy Spirit spiritually. He gives a man to
   know spiritual things and to embrace them by faith. No eye is ever
   opened to see Jesus except by Jesus. The Spirit of God works all our
   good things in us. Do not let us get away from this belief on any
   account. The exigencies of some men's doctrinal systems require them to
   ascribe some measure of power to the sinner--but we know that he is
   dead in sin and altogether without strength. Beloved, alter your system
   of divinity but do not disavow the Truth of God which is now before us,
   for it stands confirmed by our own daily experience as well as revealed
   in the Word of God. It is the Spirit that quickens and enlightens.
   Blindness of soul yields only to that voice which of old said, "Let
   there be light."

   Next, this opening of the eyes is often instantaneous and when the eye
   is opened it frequently sees just as perfectly as if it had always been
   seeing. I saw, a few hours ago, what I verily believe was the opening
   of the eyes of one seeking soul. Two enquiring ones came to me in the
   vestry. They had been hearing the Gospel here for only a short season
   but had been impressed by it. They expressed their regret that they
   were about to remove far away but they added their gratitude that they
   had been here at all. I was cheered by their kind thanks but felt
   anxious that a more effectual work should be worked in them, and
   therefore I asked them, "Have you in very deed believed in the Lord
   Jesus Christ? Are you saved?"

   One of them replied, "I have been trying hard to believe." "No," I
   said, "that will not do. Did you ever tell your father that you tried
   to believe him?" They admitted that such language would have been an
   insult. I then set the Gospel very plainly before them in as simple
   language as I could, but one of them said, "I cannot realize it, I
   cannot realize that I am saved." Then I went on to say, "God bears
   testimony to His Son, that whoever trusts in His Son is saved. Will you
   make Him a liar now, or will you believe His Word?"

   While I thus spoke, one of them started as if astonished and she
   startled us all as she cried, "Oh, Sir, I see it all, I am saved! O do
   bless Jesus for me, for showing me this and saving me, I see it all."
   The esteemed sister who had brought me these young friends knelt down
   with them while with all our hearts we blessed and magnified the Lord.
   One of the two sisters however, could not see the Gospel as the other
   had done, though I feel sure she will. Did it not seem strange that
   both hearing the same words, one should come out into clear light and
   the other should have to wait in the gloom? The change which comes over
   the heart when the understanding grasps the Gospel is often reflected
   in the face and shines there like the light of Heaven!

   Such newly-enlightened souls often exclaim, "Why Sir, it is so plain!
   How is it I have not seen it before now? I understand all I have read
   in the Bible now, though I cared not for it before. It has all come in
   a minute and now I see what I never perceived before." I simply give
   one instance because it is one among thousands which one has seen--in
   which the eyes have opened instantly. I can only compare the
   enlightened sinner to a person who has been shut up in a dark prison
   and has never seen the light and suddenly his liberator opens a window
   and the prisoner is staggered and amazed at what he sees when he looks
   abroad on hill and flood.

   To the Believer, Heaven-given sight is so superlative a gift and what
   is revealed to him so amazes him that he scarcely knows where he is!
   Very frequently, when Christ opens the eyes it is done in a moment and
   done completely in that moment, though in other instances it is a more
   gradual light--men are at first seen as trees walking--and then by
   decrees film after film is taken from the spiritual eye. Now you must
   not wonder if light comes so suddenly that it should be quite a new
   sensation to the man and therefore should surprise him. Do you remember
   the first breath of spiritual life you ever drew? I think I remember it
   still.

   Do you remember the first sight you ever had of Christ? Oh, you must
   recollect it! There is fixed in the memories of some of us the first
   time we saw the sea and the first time we gazed upon the Alps, but
   these were nothing! We felt they were still but pieces of this old
   world and we had only seen a little more of what we had seen before.
   But conversion opens up a new world! It teaches us to peer into the
   invisible and to see the things not seen of mortal eyes. When we
   receive new eyes, we see a thousand things which utterly astound and at
   the same time delight us. Do you wonder if young converts get excited?
   I neither wonder nor blame--I wish we had a little more excitement in
   our gatherings for worship.

   Who hears now-a-days the cry, "What must I do to be saved?" Or who
   hears a soul saying, "I have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and the
   Prophets did write"? Let us give plenty of liberty to the work of the
   Spirit of God and believe that when He comes men will not always act
   after the sober rules of decorum but will break through them and even
   be suspected of being drunk because they speak as men in their ordinary
   minds are not likely to do! It is a strange and marvelous thing to men
   when the Spirit of God opens their eyes and we must not wonder if they
   scarcely know what they say and forget where they are!

   One thing is certain that when the eyes are open it is a very clear
   thing to the man himself. Others may doubt whether his eyes are opened
   but he knows they are--about that he has no question. "One thing I
   know, whereas I was blind, now I see." When the Lord in His infinite
   mercy visits a spirit that has been long shut up in the dark, the
   change becomes so great that he does not need to enquire, "Am I changed
   or not?" but he himself is assured of it by his own consciousness. Once
   give the man the eyes to see and he possesses a faculty that is capable
   of abundant use. The man who could see the Pharisees, could, by-and-by,
   see Jesus. He who has his eyes opened can not only see the trees and
   fields around him, but he can behold the heavens and the glorious sun!

   And once give a man spiritual light, he has at once capacity for seeing
   Divine mysteries. He shall see the world to come and the glories yet to
   be revealed. Those newly-created eyes are those which shall see the
   King in His beauty and the land that is very far off. He has the
   faculty for seeing everything which shall be beheld in the day of the
   revelation of our God and Savior Jesus Christ! Oh, what a marvelous
   work is this! May everyone of us know it personally! I put the
   question, Do we know it? Have we thus had our eyes opened?

   III. I must close with a third point, which is this--THE CONDITION OF
   THE HEALED MAN. When his eyes were opened, first he had strong
   impressions in favor of the Glorious One who had healed him. He did not
   know who He was, but he knew He must be something very good. He thought
   He must be a Prophet and when he came to know Him better he felt that
   He was God and he fell down and worshipped Him. No man has had his eyes
   opened without feeling intense love to Jesus--yes, and I will add
   without believing in His Deity--without worshipping Him as the Son of
   God!

   We do not want to be uncharitable, but we have a little common sense
   left. We never can see how a man can be a Christian who does not
   believe in Christ! Or how a man can be said to believe in Christ who
   only believes in the smallest part of Him--receives His Humanity--but
   rejects His Godhead. There must be a real faith in the Son of God and
   he is blind and dark, still, who does not fall down like the man in
   this story and worship the living God--beholding the Glory of God in
   the face of Jesus Christ--and blessing God that he has found both a
   Prince and a Savior in the Person of the Lord Jesus who has laid down
   His life for His people.

   Oh, I am sure if your eyes are opened, you love Jesus this morning! You
   feel your heart leap at the very thought of Him! Your whole soul goes
   after Him! You feel, if He has opened your eyes, those eyes belong to
   Him and your whole self, too! This man, therefore, became from that
   moment a confessor of Christ! They questioned him and he did not speak
   bashfully and conceal his convictions, but he answered the questions at
   once. Stephen was the first martyr, but this man was the first
   confessor, assuredly, and before the Pharisees he put it out plainly
   and straight to their faces, in simple language.

   And so, Beloved, if the Lord has opened our eyes we shall not hesitate
   to say so. He has done it, blessed be His name! Our tongue might well
   be smitten with eternal silence if we were to hesitate to declare what
   Jesus has done for us. I charge you who have received Grace from Christ
   Jesus to become confessors of the faith, to acknowledge Christ as you
   ought to do! Be baptized and united with His people and then, in
   whatever company you are, however others may speak for Him, or against
   Him, take your stand and say, "He has opened my eyes, and I bless His
   name."

   Now this man becomes an advocate for Christ as well as a confessor, and
   an able advocate, too, for the facts, which were his arguments, baffled
   his adversaries. They said this and that, but he replied, "Whether it
   is so or no it is not for me to say, but God has heard this Man,
   therefore this Man is not a sinner as you say He is. He has opened my
   eyes, therefore I know where He must have come from. He must have come
   from God."

   We have been arguing for a long time against infidelity with arguments
   which have never achieved anything. I believe that skeptics glean their
   blunted shafts and shoot them at the shield of Truth again. I fear that
   the Christian pulpit has been the great instructor in infidelity, for
   we have taught our people arguments which they never would have known
   if we had not repeated them under the notion of replying to them. But,
   Beloved, you will never meet infidelity except with facts. Say what it
   is God has done for you and prove it by your godly lives. Against the
   holy lives of Christians, unbelief has no power! Stand in serried
   phalanx, each man with his sword of holy living, covered in the power
   of the Holy Spirit, and the assaults of your foes, however desperate
   their malice, will utterly fail! God grant us, like this man, to learn
   the art of arguing for Christ by personal testimony!

   Well, then, it came to pass that this man with his eyes opened was
   driven out of the synagogue. Speckled birds are always hunted away by
   their fellow birds. One of the worst things that can happen to a man,
   as far as this world is concerned, is to know too much. If you will
   barely keep abreast with the times you may be tolerated. But if you get
   a little ahead of the age you must expect ill-treatment. Be blind among
   blind men--it is the very dictate of prudence if you would save your
   skin. It is a very unsafe thing to have your eyes opened among blind
   men. For they will not believe in your assertions and you will be very
   dogmatic--and as they cannot see, you have no common ground for
   argument-- and you will fall at once to quarrelling.

   And if the blind men shall be in the majority, the probabilities are
   you will have to go out of door or window and make yourself company
   elsewhere. When God opens a man's eyes to see spiritual things,
   straightway others say, "What is this fellow talking about? We do not
   see what he sees." And if the fellow is very simple he turns round to
   these blind men and says, "I will explain to you now." Dear Friend, you
   will lose your pains for they cannot see! If a man is born blind, you
   need not talk to him about scarlet and mauve and magenta--he cannot
   understand you--he does not know anything at all about it. Go on, for
   it is no use reasoning with him! The only thing you can do with him is
   to take him where he can get his eyes opened. To argue with him is
   utterly useless--he has not the faculty.

   If you knew a person to be devoid of taste you would not quarrel with
   him because he said sugar tasted like salt--he neither knows what
   "sweet" means nor what "salt" means--but only uses words without
   understanding them. And a man who is without Grace in his heart does
   not and cannot know anything about religion. He catches up the phrases
   but he knows as much about the Truth of God itself as a botanist knows
   about botany who has never seen a flower, or as a deaf man knows of
   music. Do not try to reason with such people--believe that they are
   incapable of learning from you by reasoning--and go to God's Holy
   Spirit, with this cry, "Lord, open their eyes! Lord, open their eyes!"
   Be very patient with them for you cannot expect blind men to see and
   must not be very angry with them if they do not.

   But be very prayerful for them and bring the Gospel to them in the
   power of the Holy Spirit. And then who knows but their eyes may be
   opened? But wonder not if they say you are a "fanatic," an
   "enthusiast," a "Methodist," "Presbyterian," "cant," "hypocrite"--those
   are the kind of words which the spiritually blind fling at those who
   can see.

   You say you have a faculty which they have not--they, therefore, deny
   the faculty because they would not like to admit that you have the best
   of them--and they put you out of the synagogue.

   But notice, when this man was put out, Jesus Christ found him. It was a
   blessed loss for him, then, to lose the Pharisees and find his Savior!
   O Brothers and Sisters, what a mercy it is when the world casts us out!
   I remember an estimable lady of title, who is now in Heaven, who, when
   she was united with this Church was forsaken by all those persons of
   rank who had formerly associated with her. And I said to her, and she
   joined in the sentiment, "What a mercy you are rid of them. They might
   have been a snare to you. Now (I said) you will have no further trouble
   from them." "Yes," and she added, "For Christ's sake I could be content
   to be accounted as the off-scouring of all things." The society of the
   world never was any benefit to us and it never will be! Trying to be
   very respectable and to mingle in elevated society, and all that, is a
   snare to many Christians. Prize men for their real worth and not for
   their gilt! Believe those to be the greatest men who are the holiest
   men, and those to be the best company who keep company with Christ.

   It is a great blessing to the Church when it is persecuted. For the
   matter of that we might be glad to have back the days of Diocletian
   again. The Church is never purer on the whole--never more devout--and
   never increases more rapidly than when she enjoys the bad opinion of
   society! But when we begin to be thought very excellent people and our
   Church is honored, esteemed, and respected--corruption sets in--we get
   away from Christ and prove again that the friendship of this world is
   enmity with God.

   The Lord grant that we may have our eyes so opened that our testimony
   may bring upon us the charge of singularity, and, then, if put away
   from the company of those who cannot see the Lord, may we live all the
   closer to Him and this shall be a great gain to us. The Lord bless you,
   Beloved, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

A Call For Revival

   (No. 1066)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, AUGUST 18, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Come my beloved, let us go forth into the field, let us lodge in the
   villages. Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine
   flourish, whether the tender grapes appear, and the pomegranates bud
   forth: there willI give you my loves. The mandrakes give a smell, and
   at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I
   have laid up for you, O my beloved." Song of Solomon 7:11-13.

   I REMEMBER to have heard it said that when a Church is in a right
   condition, all that it wants on the Sabbath is that the sermon should
   be like the orders given by a commanding officer to his troops--it need
   not be rhetorical or eloquent, it only need be clear and plain--a word
   of direction for the Lord's servants. If the soldiers are prepared for
   action they will not look to be regaled with oratory, but having heard
   the words of command they will, with all their hearts, go about to obey
   them.

   Assuredly the Church needs instructing, consoling and edifying, as well
   as directing, but this morning I feel that I have a word from the
   Captain of our salvation, addressed first to this particular regiment
   and next to those other portions of the Grand Army which are
   represented here this morning. I speak as unto wise men--judge what I
   say! Traveling along our island just now you see everywhere the sickle,
   or the reaping machine, in full work. Harvest whitens the plains!
   Everywhere the loaded wagons are bearing home the precious fruits of
   the earth. My spirit is stirred within me and my soul is on fire, for I
   see everywhere a harvest except in the Church of Christ.

   Reapers are busy everywhere except in the fields of our Divine Boaz.
   All fields are ripe but those of Bethlehem! All barns are filling but
   those of the Great Husbandman! Christ Jesus has scarcely a sheaf
   ingathered of late. We hear of very few results from the sacred sowing
   of the Word of God. Here and there the Church, like Ruth, gathers an
   ear--a very precious ear, it is true--for who shall estimate the value
   of a single soul? But we have no wave-sheaves as in the days of
   Pentecost, or, if we have them, they are few and far between. And as
   for the harvest home which we have so long expected, our eyes fail in
   looking for it in vain.

   As a Church constituting a part of the Master's field, we have had, for
   years, one continued harvest but still never such an one as has
   satisfied our spirits, for our idea of our King is such that the
   largest increase to His Church would not content us--we should still
   feel that our Lord Jesus deserved far more! As He has not yet seen of
   the travail of His soul so as to be satisfied, so neither are we, His
   servants, content on His behalf, but we long, and cry, and pray for a
   larger harvest as His reward for the dread sowings in bloody sweat and
   streams of vital blood of Gethsemane and Golgotha!

   The time when our Churches can operate extensively with the greatest
   convenience will soon be upon us. We do not usually look for any great
   things during the summer, when congregations are scattered at the
   seaside and workpeople are busy many hours in the day. The summer of
   Nature is the winter of the Church, and the earth's winter is our
   harvest. These warm days will soon be gone and the long evenings will
   come--and with them abounding opportunities of doing good. Therefore,
   it seemed to me to be a seasonable thing to give the rallying cry this
   morning and bid our friends remember that the harvest of the Church
   comes on quickly!

   I would urge you all to sharpen your sickles and with good hope and
   prayerful confidence prepare for the appointed weeks of our harvest!
   May God, by His Holy Spirit, inspire you with zeal for the work which
   awaits you and give you to walk in fellowship with Jesus in all that
   you do.

   I. We shall, this morning, first of all, call your attention to the
   fact which is implied in the words of our text, that LOVE IS THE GREAT
   MOTIVE FOR ACTION IN THE CAUSE OF CHRIST. All through these verses the
   spouse acts with reference to her beloved. It is for him that she goes
   forth into the field. For the sake of his company and the quiet

   enjoyment of his love she would lodge in the villages. And all manner
   of pleasant fruits, new and old, which are stored within her gates she
   declares to be laid up for her beloved. Love, then, is the fittest and
   most powerful motive to holy service. "The love of Christ constrains
   us."

   This love has about it certain marked peculiarities. It is first a love
   which realizes the person of the beloved. In the text the spouse speaks
   of "my beloved" as of a real person, whom she sees, upon whom she
   leans, and with whom she talks. Christ Jesus is to His Church no
   fiction, no myth, no imaginary hero. Throughout the song both the
   personages are most real to each other, so real that they both enter
   into graphic descriptions of each other's beauties and present us with
   portraits drawn by the pencil of admiring love. Now a Church will
   always be strong when the Lord Jesus is real to her! By this, indeed,
   may her power be estimated. Jesus must be to us no historical Person
   who was once on earth, but is now dead and powerless--He must be an
   actual Person living still in our midst.

   Imagine, my Brothers and Sisters, with what enthusiasm the present
   audience would be stirred if I should retire and in my place there
   should come forward the very Christ who was nailed to the Cross of
   Calvary! You would know Him by His hands and His feet--the sacred marks
   of His passion. Oh, how the sight of Him would stir your souls! You
   would be bowing your heads in adoration and grudging the closing of
   your eyes even for a second in prayer, for you would desire, without a
   pause, to drink in the blessed vision! And if the Crucified One should
   stand here, and say, "My Brethren, My blood-bought Ones for whom I laid
   down My life, there is yet much to be done to extend My kingdom. There
   are precious souls, Brothers and Sisters of yours who know not My name,
   who must be brought in. There are ignorant ones to be taught and sinful
   ones to be restored."

   And suppose He should then point with His hand to one of you, and say,
   "I send you there," and to another, "I send you there." Why you would
   feel at once anointed to the appointed work and go forth to do it with
   much earnestness, carefulness and joy! You would be right pleased to
   receive a commission from those dear honey-dropping lips! My Brethren,
   have you forgotten that you walk by faith and will you permit it to be
   thought that sight would have more power over you than faith? I trust
   you will not have it so! Then, remember, by faith you may realize and
   ought to realize this morning that Jesus walks among the golden
   candlesticks and is in His Church now, saying to every one of His
   people, "Go and serve Me! Seek My blood-bought ones! Help My feeble
   ones! Feed My sheep and My lambs!"

   I pray you, let your faith, this morning sweeten your duties by the
   knowledge that they arise out of your Beloved's personal commands!
   Execute His holy commands as if you had received them, as in very deed
   you have--directly from Himself! Let your heart go with mine, while I
   say--"Jesus, my Beloved, though I see You not, and must be content to
   behold You by faith, alone, yet my faith shall be more influential than
   my sight. I know that You are here and what You bid me do my soul shall
   perform with all her might, because You say it!"

   Note next that the love here spoken of was well assured of the
   affection of its beloved. Note the verse which precedes our text, "I am
   my beloved's, and his desire is towards me." A Christian is never
   strong for service when he does not know whether Christ loves him or
   not. If that is a question, you have put out the fire by which alone
   the force can be generated which must work the machinery of your
   spirit. You must know beyond question that Jesus loves you and gave
   Himself for you! You must feel that He is loving you now, that His
   heart is looking out through those dear eyes which once wept over
   Jerusalem and that the meaning of His loving glance is, "Soul, I love
   you, I loved you so that I gave Myself for you and I have not repented
   of the gift. I love you still as much as I loved you upon Calvary's
   bloody tree."

   It is strength to feel that still "His desire is toward me." Oh, when
   you feel, "Jesus loves me, Jesus desires me to show my love to Him.
   Jesus at this moment thinks of me and takes a delight in me"--this will
   make you strong as a giant in the cause of your Beloved! Between the
   very jaws of death a man would venture who felt that the love of Christ
   was set upon him! Love to Jesus is the fountain of courage, the mother
   of self-denial and the nurse of constancy. Strive, then, for a
   well-assured sense of the Savior's love. Be not content till you
   possess it, for it will be health to your spirit and marrow to your
   bones--it will be a belt of strength to your loins and a chain of honor
   about your neck.

   Observe that the love of the spouse lived in fellowship with the
   well-beloved. "Come, my beloved, let us go, let us lodge, let us get
   up, let us see." "There will I give you my loves." True love to Jesus
   grows stronger and stronger in proportion as it abides in Him. We are
   cold in our love because we live at a distance from Him. The angel who
   dwells in the sun has never to complain of an ice-bound heart, and he
   who lives in Christ and abides in Him will blaze and glow with a warmth
   of love comparable to that of Christ Himself. I do not think that the
   numbers of a Church will have so

   much to do with the work it accomplishes--that depends more upon the
   degree of love than upon the length of the Church roll!

   A small Church inflamed with ardent affection for the Divine Lord will
   do more for Him than a great host eaten up by worldliness. Love burns
   its way by its own vehement flames. Coals of juniper are soon felt. The
   Enochs are the men-- they walk with God and therefore they have power
   over their times. The Johns are the men--they lean on Jesus' bosom and
   when they come forth to tell of what they have seen and heard, they
   speak with authority as sent by the Most High. The Lord give to us, as
   members of this Church, to abide in habitual fellowship with Jesus--not
   to have occasional spasms of delight in God--but one unbroken rest in
   Him!

   We would not now and then look through the windows of agate and behold
   the King in His beauty, but we would continue "looking unto Jesus." We
   would have His praise continually in our mouths and His love burning
   like the quenchless altar fire of the temple forever within our hearts.
   This is the one thing necessary to promote and sustain a revival in a
   Church. If we have abounding love to Jesus we can prosper under
   disadvantages, but if we have it not we have lost the great secret of
   success. Love to Jesus teaches our hands to war and our fingers to
   fight. It sets us side by side with the conquering Immanuel and makes
   us share His victories. It yokes us with the strong Son of God and so
   makes our infirmities to be but opportunities for the display of His
   power.

   This love leads the Church to hold all things in joint possession with
   Christ. Observe that word, "at our gates are all manner of pleasant
   fruits." Love to Jesus constrains us to make over all that we hold to
   Him, while faith appropriates all that Jesus has to itself. Love will
   not stand to have divided properties. Such was the love of Jesus that
   He gave all that He had to us. He could not bear to have anything, not
   even His Throne itself, that should be altogether to Himself. He
   stripped Himself to His last rag to clothe us and then gave us His
   breath to be our life, His blood to be our health! And now, today, if
   we love Him as we should, we are saying--

   "IfI might make some reserve, And duty did not call; I'd love my God
   with zeal so great, That I would give Him all."

   I like to think, in Church matters especially, that we are all
   Christ's--that if we have any ability, it is Christ's ability--to be
   laid at His feet. If we have any substance, it is Christ's money--to be
   used in spreading His Church. Our Sunday school is Christ's nursery and
   the little ones are Christ's lambs. Our work out of doors in preaching
   at the corners of the streets is Christ's mission--it is His trumpet
   that is blown when the Gospel is preached! Every form of agency is not
   ours--it is Christ's. Or if ours, it is only because it is His. Oh, to
   have more and more all things common with our Lord, and no longer to
   speak of mine or yours! Beloved, we are joint heirs with Him! All that
   we have is His and all that He has is ours! When the Church believes
   and acts upon this, the hour of her success is close at hand.

   Consider once more that the love which is the great motive to Christian
   action is a love which looks to Jesus for united operation. It is,
   "Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field, let us get up early
   to the vineyard." Oh, it is glorious when Christ comes with the
   preacher, not the servant alone, but the Master looking through His
   servant's eyes, and speaking with His servant's tongue and pleading
   with His servant's heart! Oh, it is good teaching in your Sunday school
   when Jesus sits there among the boys and girls and speaks to their
   hearts! It is good going into lodging-houses or calling at the people's
   doors to tell them of the Savior when Jesus knocks as well as you and
   the Crucified goes with you among the fallen, the infidel and the
   profane!

   All is well when the Redeemer leads the way. Be not afraid, Beloved,
   for you go in good Company. Who among us will be afraid to do anything
   or go anywhere if Jesus says, "I will go with you"? Such was the prayer
   the spouse put up, and doubtless she was led to pray for that which God
   will grant. Let us pray with her as she prayed. Come, Savior, come up
   with us to whatever we attempt for You! If there are any Brethren here
   who are working away for You in dark places in London, dear Savior
   carry the lantern with them--be their Light! If they are digging for
   You and quarrying amidst granite rocks which refuse to yield to their
   strokes, come Almighty One and wield Your hammer and straightway the
   stones shall be broken!

   Come with us, Lord! This is the fellowship we desire of You--the
   fellowship of labor and of soul-winning. We would not only sit at Your
   feet to learn, but we would take up our cross and follow You! We would
   go with You where

   ever You go! We would fight, or labor, or suffer, or live, or die at
   Your bidding! Be this the fellowship You shall bestow upon us!

   II. Secondly, LOVE LEADS US TO GO AFIELD IN THE SERVICE OF JESUS.
   "Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field." A loving Church
   spontaneously puts herself upon widened service. She has a large heart
   towards her Lord and longs to see Him reign over all mankind. She does
   not wait to hear, again and again, the Macedonian's cry, "Come over and
   help us," but she is prompt in mission enterprise. She does not tarry
   till she is forced by persecution to go abroad everywhere preaching the
   Word, but she sends forth her champions far and wide. As sure as ever
   she loves her Lord she asks herself the question, "What more can I do
   for Him?"

   When she looks over the plot of ground which she has been tilling, she
   says, "It is not large enough! The harvest I can get out of this will
   not suffice me for my dear Lord." And she says to Him, "Let me go to
   the regions beyond to break up the fallow ground and cause the
   wilderness to blossom." Now, beloved members of this Church, do you not
   feel some such desire this morning? It is upon my heart that we should
   be undertaking larger things for Christ. Keep up the old agencies by
   all manner of means--quicken them, strengthen them! But does not love
   suggest that as increasing years add increasing indebtedness to
   Christ--as we are always receiving fresh mercies, so we should make new
   and larger returns to our best Friend?

   If by us, as a Church, nothing new may be ventured, yet cannot each
   individual have his own plan and branch out afresh? Will not each man
   say in his heart, "What can I do for Jesus today, over and above what I
   should have done if things had gone on in the ordinary course?" Enquire
   of Him you love and if your hearts are with Him, it will not be long
   before you will discover what He would have you do. The spouse, when
   she said, "Let us go forth into the field," knew that the proposal
   would please her Lord for the nature of Christ is a large and loving
   one, and, therefore, He would bless the far-off ones. His is no narrow
   heart! His thoughts of love are far reaching and when the Church says,
   "Let us go forth into the field," truly her Lord is not backward to
   accept the invitation!

   The spouse does not guess at this, nor does she merely infer it from
   her Bridegroom's nature, but she has it in express command from His own
   lips, "Go you into all the world and preach the Gospel to every
   creature." There stand the orders! And when our largest enterprises
   shall have been fulfilled we shall not have exceeded them. There is no
   exclusion put upon any tribe or clan. No classes are laid under ban, no
   individuals are exempted. Therefore, Church of Christ, by the love you
   bear to your crucified Master, by His wounds and death for you and by
   His living love to you, seek out the lost and gather together the
   outcasts! You fishers of men, launch out into the deep and let down
   your nets for a draught! You sowers of holy seed, go abroad, and sow
   the untrodden wastes! You consecrated builders, break away from old
   foundations and lay fresh groundwork for a larger temple for your God
   and King! Surely the Spirit of love in a Church will suggest this.

   Note that the spouse is evidently prepared for any discomfort that may
   come as the result of her labor. She must leave the fair palaces of her
   royal husband and lodge in rustic cottages. Poor lodging there for
   Solomon's fair spouse, but what does she care? Any roof which covers
   her from the evening dew and shields her from the drops of the night
   shall quite suffice her. Yes, if he is there, the tents of Kedar shall
   be fair as the curtains of Solomon, for his sake. Brothers and Sisters,
   if you serve the Lord Christ in breaking up fresh ground you may have
   to meet difficulties and make sacrifices, but they will be as nothing
   to you--you will welcome them for His dear sake!

   Am I stirring no hearts now? Has my finger touched no responsive
   strings? I think I feel in my own soul that some of you are responding!
   Some Brother, some Sister is here--I know not to whom the prophetic
   word is coming--who is saying, "Lord, I am Your spouse. I will go forth
   with You into the field and I will lodge with You in the villages if
   there I may but glorify Your name." Observe, too, the spouse is quite
   ready to continue in this uncomfortable service. She says, "I will
   lodge in the villages." There will she abide awhile, not paying a
   flying visit, but stopping until the good work is done for which her
   Lord and she went forth.

   Oh, get out, you Christians, into the distant fields of labor! Many of
   you men--how often have I said it!--sit here Sunday after Sunday and
   hear many sermons when I believe you would be better engaged if you
   were yourselves preaching and winning souls for the Redeemer! I have
   often been glad to miss some of my dearest Brothers from our
   assemblies. Your presence gives me great pleasure but when I know you
   have been away, seeking after Christ's blood-bought souls, I have had
   pleasure in your absence! Go, and the Lord go with you! Go, more of
   you! Yes, I say, go, more

   of you! Your empty seats will be occupied by sinners whom God will
   save, while you, dear Brothers, if you are fighting for my Master
   somewhere else, will do my Master much more service than you could have
   done by listening to me!

   We must not allow a single talent to lie idle. We must not waste an
   hour of these blessed Sabbaths. We must get us away among the ignorant
   ones and carry them the light! We must hunt for precious souls. For our
   Master's sake and in His strength and company we must compass sea and
   land for His redeemed ones! Only, if any of you go, do not try to go
   alone. Stop until you breathe the prayer, "My Beloved, let us go." You
   go in vain when you go not with the Master, but when you have secured
   His company, then go and welcome, for you "shall doubtless come again
   rejoicing, bringing your sheaves with you."

   Observe how the spouse says, "There will I give you my loves." As much
   as to say, if Jesus will thus go with us into active service, then will
   we reveal to Him the love of our hearts. I suppose there may have been
   times in the Church when a hermit's life would suitably reveal the
   heart's love to Jesus but I am certain it is not so now. If there are
   any here who love contemplation and would gladly spend their whole
   lives in quiet retirement, I am persuaded that such a course would be
   injurious to their generation and to the cause of the Truth of God. Of
   course there may be exceptions and if you have no gifts but such as
   could be serviceable to Christ in solitude, use them in solitude. But
   from the most of us the times demand activity. So dark is the world we
   cannot afford to lose a glow-worm's spark. Men are perishing, can we
   let them perish? Would we suffer a soul to be lost even though it were
   given to us in exchange to enjoy the highest fellowship with

   Christ?

   Behold this day the sheep have gone astray and the wolves are howling
   after them--not even to enjoy the great Shepherd's company can we, the
   under-shepherds, dare to leave you wanderers to perish! The Church
   today has her vocation which is not so much to eat the fat and drink
   the sweet as to light her candle and sweep her house and seek
   diligently till she find her lost piece of money. Think not that active
   service prevents fellowship--no, it is but another form of sitting at
   His feet--another shape of fellowship quite as true and because more
   called for at this era--even more acceptable! I know I have had as
   great fellowship with Christ in His service as ever I have had in quiet
   contemplation.

   When I have met with a poor soul who has rejected the Lord I have felt
   my heart breaking over him like the heart of Christ over obstinate
   Jerusalem. When I have seen the tears flowing from a penitent's eyes
   who could not, as yet, find the Savior, I have felt sympathy with Jesus
   when He has looked upon the like and had compassion upon them! And when
   I have seen the glow of joy when the sun of Christ's countenance has
   shone at last upon the troubled heart, I have entered into the joy of
   the Lord when He rejoices over one sinner that repents!

   Laziness never yet had communion with Christ. Those who walk with
   Christ must walk swiftly. Jesus is no idler or loiterer--He is about
   His Father's business--and you must march with quick step if you would
   keep pace with Him. As vinegar to the teeth and as smoke to the eyes,
   are sluggards to active persons. Those who have much to do have no
   fellowship with gossips who drop in to while away the hours with chat.
   Jesus has no fellowship with you who care not for souls that are
   perishing. He is incessantly active and so must you be if you would
   know His love. There is a fierce furnace heat beating upon everything
   today--men are toiling hard to hold their own--and Jesus must not be
   served by slothful hearts.

   I am sure that I err not, from His mind, when I say to you, Beloved, if
   you would know the Beloved fully you must get up early and go afield
   with Him to work with Him. Your joy shall be in spending and being
   spent for Him.

   III. Thirdly, LOVE LABORS, ALSO, AT HOME. Nearer the palace there were
   vineyards and the spouse said, "Let us get up early to the vineyards."
   Note, then, that the Church does her work at home as well as abroad.
   When she loves her Lord she works with zeal and she gets up early. All
   men in Holy Scripture who loved God much rose early to worship Him. We
   never read of one saint engaged upon sacred service who rose late.
   Abraham rose early. David rose early. Job rose early and so did they
   all.

   It is put here as the very type and symbol of an earnest, vigorous
   service of Christ. Dear Brothers and Sisters, there is such a thing,
   you know, as keeping the Sunday school going and keeping the Tract
   Society going, and keeping the Evangelists' Society going--and yet
   nobody is up early, but, after a fashion, everybody is nodding. I know
   these warm Sunday mornings it is not a very difficult thing for some of
   you, if you try hard, to go to sleep during a sermon. Well, that is a
   visible slumber and is soon over, but there is an invisible sleep which
   will come on Sunday afternoon when you

   are teaching which is neither so soon discovered nor so easily cured.
   You are talking, talking, addressing your class, or speaking to your
   men and women, or whatever else may be your calling, and all the while
   your soul is nodding.

   Anybody can wake you up with a push in your side if only your body is
   sleeping, but when the soul is slumbering it is not so easy. I fear
   greatly that a large proportion of Christian workers are usually
   asleep. What a difference there is between what a man teaches when he
   is asleep and what he teaches when he is awake! You can see it in a
   minute. I could not describe the difference but it is apparent in tone
   and manner and in every other way. The man may say and do the same
   thing, but still it is a different thing. The children soon perceive it
   if it is in your class. Your hearers soon perceive it if it is in your
   pulpit.

   Oh that God would wake up this Church! I do not believe that success so
   much depends upon what the Church does as upon how she does it. You may
   take your hammer and go tinkering about and not fasten a tin-tack, but
   if your arm has muscle in it you will soon be driving the nails home to
   the very head and clinching them. May the Lord's love so come upon you
   all, my Brothers and Sisters, that what you do you may do with all your
   might, plunging your whole soul into His service and never sparing
   force in anything.

   Notice God's people, when they are awake, first look well to the
   Church. "Let us see if the vine flourishes." The Church is Christ's
   vine. Let us take stock of it. Beloved, we ought to be, each one of us,
   in a measure, pastors of the Church. In so large a Church as this the
   pastoral office cannot be vested in one, or even in twenty. Each must
   look after his brother and thus you must be pastors of one another.
   Watch over one another, pray for one another. How wonderful is the
   power of prayer! We do not know what blessings come from our prayers.
   Ten thousand darts might long ago have pierced the Lord's elect were it
   not that the prayers of the saints are a shield over their heads,
   defending the sacramental host from harm.

   Then the Church looks after the little ones. "Let us see if the vine
   flourishes, whether the tender grape appear." No earnest Church forgets
   the children of her Sunday school and every other agency for the young
   will be sure to be well minded. An active Church seeks to bring Jesus
   among the children to see if the tender grapes appear. She pays her
   visits and performs her services, but always in His dear company.
   Helpers in the Sunday school and workers for Christ, I salute you! The
   Lord be with you. The Lord give you to see many tender grapes appearing
   and may this Church have joy of you as hundreds shall be converted to
   God by your instrumentality!

   Then the Church also takes notice of all enquiries. "Let us see whether
   the pomegranates bud forth." If a Church is alive there will always be
   many to observe where the first tear of repentance is glistening. In
   this congregation every Sunday, thank God, some persons are pricked in
   the heart. Watch them, Brothers and Sisters! Those of you who occupy
   your seats and do not go afield can do the cause great service by
   watching at home. There is no need to leave those seats in order to be
   useful. Around you there are unconverted persons. Each Sunday, morning
   and evening there come in here strangers and it may be the Lord will
   deal with them, only be on the alert. Speak with them and try, if you
   can, to use the shorthanded claymore, that if my longer bladed sword
   may not have reached them, you who are near at hand may send a deadly
   wound into the very heart of their sins.

   my Brethren, words fail me to set before you the ways in which you may
   show your love to Jesus in the Church itself, but I am certain that
   there is no need for me to speak. Love, herself, will teach you!
   Mothers somehow bring up their children, though there are no colleges
   for mothers! Love, with its instincts makes them wise and so will
   Christians with their love to Jesus become wise to serve. I do believe
   the less rule and human direction there is in the Church, the better. I
   do not need to say, "Brother, do this, and do that." If you love Christ
   you will know what to do better than anybody else can tell you. You
   will find your own places--the Lord will lead you to them.

   1 might put a square man into a round hole if I had the placing of you,
   but love always puts the man into the right position. It tells him what
   suits his qualifications and it puts him to his work. And what is more,
   it keeps him to it! I shall measure your love to Jesus and measure my
   own, not by the way in which we can talk, or the way in which we can
   criticize other workers, but by the way in which we shall henceforth
   labor for the Lord!

   IV. The last point is this, that LOVE IN A CHURCH BRINGS FORTH ALL ITS
   STORES FOR THE BELOVED.

   The Church of God has, in herself, through the rich love of her
   Husband, all manner of pleasant fruits. This Church is a large one, but
   the same Truth of God will hold good of the smallest Church. The Lord
   never leaves His Church without a suitable measure of gifts and Divine
   Grace. If our spiritual nostrils and eyes could act this morning, we
   should discern all

   the fruits of the Paradise of God in this Church and we should smell
   the sweet savor of all pleasant things--for some Brethren here have the
   apples of faith, others bear the delicious pomegranates of love--and
   others yield the charming clusters of hope and joy.

   There are all manner of pleasant fruits among us. One has one, another
   has another and in some hearts there are many fruits united. A Church
   of God, if well cultivated, is rich in multiform displays of the fruit
   of the Spirit of God. Some of these fruits are new, and oh, how full of
   savor they are! Our new converts, thank God for them--what a freshness
   and power there is about their love! Certain moldy old professors have
   lost their taste all together--they have passed beyond the time in
   which they were sweet--they have gotten into the sleepy pear state and
   are getting rotten. They are chips in the porridge--the taste has gone
   out of them--if they ever had any. Alas, some have acquired a nauseous
   flavor, they are very naughty figs, indeed! The new fruits may be sharp
   and have more pungency than mellowness about them, but for all that
   they are choice to the Lord Jesus whose Soul desires the first ripe
   fruits. I thank God for youthful zeal! It might, with advantage, have a
   little more knowledge mingled with it, yet the zeal is good and the
   fervent is good. May we never be without new-born souls!

   Then there are old fruits, the experience of Believers who are ripening
   for Heaven--the well-developed confidence which has been tried in a
   thousand battles and the faith which has braved a lifetime of
   difficulties. These old fruits--the deep love of the matron to Christ,
   the firm assurance of the veteran Believer--there is a mellowness about
   them which the Lord delights in! All these choice things ought to be
   laid up. Every good thing in a Church is meant to be stored up, not to
   be despised and forgotten! And the point of all is that all in the
   Church ought to be laid up for our Beloved. And now is the time when I
   earnestly ask, in the name of the Lord Jesus, by the roes and by the
   hinds of the field, yes, by each sacred token of the love you bear your
   Master, that each one of you should bring forth his pleasant fruits
   whether they are new or whether they are old.

   We do not bring them forth to buy His love, we know better--for though
   we should give all the substance of our house for love it would be
   utterly worthless! We do not bring forth these fruits to secure His
   love for the future, either-- we know His is an everlasting love that
   never can be taken away from us. We do not bring them forth because we
   need to commend ourselves. Ah, no, any beauty we have does not lie in
   the fruits of our storehouses but in what He has put upon us and in
   what His love sees in us. Neither do we bring forth these pleasant
   fruits to feed on them ourselves. Old experiences are moldy things. Old
   manna breeds worms and stinks. And as for any fruits which we have
   brought forth we take no satisfaction in them ourselves. All we have
   belongs to Him and to Him alone and at His feet we would lay it all!

   I beseech you, Brothers and Sisters, if you have any love, pour it out
   upon Him! If you have any faith exercise it for Him! If you have any
   courage be bold for Him! If you have any endurance endure hardness for
   Him! If you have any Grace, any virtue, any gift of His
   Spirit--anything that is lovely and of good repute--use it for Him! Now
   is the day, now is the hour, now His love puts in her claim and serves
   you with her sacred writs. By the espousals which you have not
   forgotten, by the Covenant which you have oft repeated with Him, by the
   seals of His table, by your burial with Him in Baptism in days gone by,
   I beseech you now bring forth all your pleasant things for your
   Beloved! None for anyone else, but all for Him!

   I fear we often forget to do all for Him. I know if I preach a sermon
   and have any recollection that such-and-such a passage might please a
   learned or wealthy hearer, I have failed to please God. If I have any
   consideration in my mind as to whether I shall gain esteem for
   excellence of speech I am weak. But if I preach for Jesus only, then
   whoever finds fault it doesn't matter because my work is sweet to Him.
   And if you pray in the Prayer Meeting, or teach in the class, or give
   your contribution to the Lord's work--if you feel you have done it for
   HIM--oh, then you know you have done right because that is the point
   which sweetens all! I believe that many have stolen up to the
   offering-box and dropped in what they could give for the Lord's sake,
   and none have known it, and therefore Christ has accepted it--while
   others may have given large sums ostentatiously because others of their
   standing were giving as much, and therefore they were not accepted.

   I need your aid for the College and the Orphanage, but do not give for
   my sake, but for my Lord's sake! Put what you give into the pierced
   hands--make that your treasury! Jesus is your Master! No one else has
   bought you! No one else has died for you! No one else will receive you
   until His fond embrace at the last! No one else is preparing Heaven for
   you! No one else can say, "Well done good and faithful servant." Serve
   Him, then, with both your hands, with all your heart,

   with every drop of blood in your veins and every breath in your lungs!
   Give Him yourself, your whole self, from the soles of your feet to the
   crown of your head--and when you have done that, if He spares you for
   another half century you will find that you have spent the best life
   for yourself--though that must not enter into your thoughts.

   I have thus spoken to my own dear Friends and Brothers and Sisters in
   Christ, but let me remind those who are not in Christ that nothing of
   this has anything to do with them. I don't bid you do anything for
   Christ. I cannot. Christ does not need His enemies to work in His
   vineyard. I do not ask you either to give to Jesus or to work for Him!
   Why should you? Till you love Him your services would be a mockery of
   Him. I hold up no standard to enlist under it men whose hearts are
   disloyal toward our Captain. Ah, no! And if your service is rejected,
   and you feel grieved at heart that it is so, let me whisper this word
   in your ear--your heart may yet be made right.

   You may yet come and serve Him. Here is His message to you--"Come now
   and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are as
   scarlet they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like
   crimson they shall be as wool." "He that believes and is baptized,
   shall be saved." There is the point for you, good Friend. You must
   begin with being, yourself, saved--and then when you are saved you can
   serve Christ. Christ will have no man work for Him with the view of
   saving himself--you must first be saved, and then you have not your own
   salvation to look to! When you have left that with Christ, you can then
   labor for Him.

   A rich English merchant was requested by Queen Elizabeth to take up
   certain affairs of hers. "Your Majesty," said he, "I am willing enough,
   but if I do your bidding my business will be ruined." "Sir," said the
   Queen, "You attend to my business, and I will attend to yours." Now,
   Sirs, give the business of your soul's salvation to Christ! Let Him
   save you and when that is done you can make it your business to serve
   Him and He will be glad of such a servant. The Lord bless you, for
   Jesus' sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Resurrection Credible

   (No. 1067)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, AUGUST 25, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should
   raise the dead?" Acts 26:8.

   CONCERNING the souls of our believing friends who have departed this
   life we suffer no distress, we feel sure that they are where Jesus is
   and behold His Glory according to our Lord's own memorable prayer. We
   know but very little of the disembodied state, but we know quite enough
   to rest certain beyond all doubt that--

   "They are supremely blest,

   Have done with sin,

   And care, and woe,

   And with their Savior rest."

   Our main trouble is about their bodies, which we have committed to the
   dark and lonesome grave. We cannot reconcile ourselves to the facts
   that their dear faces are being stripped of all their beauty by the
   fingers of decay and that all the insignia of their manhood should be
   fading into corruption. It seems hard that the hands and feet and all
   the goodly fabric of their noble forms should be dissolved into dust
   and broken into an utter ruin.

   We cannot stand at the grave without tears--even the perfect Man could
   not restrain His weeping at Lazarus' tomb. It is a sorrowful thought
   that our friends are dead, nor can we ever regard the grave with love.
   We cannot say that we take pleasure in the catacomb and the vault. We
   still regret, and feel it natural to do so, that so dreadful a ban has
   fallen upon our race as that it should be "appointed unto all men once
   to die." God sent it as a penalty and we cannot rejoice in it. The
   glorious doctrine of the resurrection is intended to take away this
   cause of sorrow! We need have no trouble about the body any more than
   we have concerning the soul.

   Faith being exercised upon immortality relieves us of all trembling as
   to the spirits of the just. And the same faith, if exercised upon
   resurrection, will, with equal certainty, efface all hopeless grief
   with regard to the body, for though apparently destroyed, the body will
   live again--it has not gone to annihilation. That very frame which we
   lay in the dust shall but sleep there for awhile and, at the trump of
   the archangel, it shall awaken in superior beauty, clothed with
   attributes unknown to it while here. The Lord's love to His people is a
   love towards their entire manhood--He chose them not as disembodied
   spirits, but as men and women arrayed in flesh and blood. The love of
   Jesus Christ towards His chosen is not merely an affection for their
   better nature but towards that, also, which we are apt to think their
   inferior part.

   In His Book all their members were written--He keeps all their bones
   and the very hairs of their head are all numbered. Did He not assume
   our perfect manhood? He took into union with His Deity a human soul,
   but He also assumed a human body--and in that fact He gave us evidence
   of His affinity to our perfect manhood, to our flesh and to our blood,
   as well as to our mind and to our spirit. Moreover, our Redeemer has
   perfectly ransomed both soul and body. It was not partial redemption
   which our Kinsman effected for us.

   We know that our Redeemer lives, not only with respect to our spirit
   but with regard to our body so that, though the worm shall devour its
   skin and flesh, yet shall it rise again because He has redeemed it from
   the power of death and ransomed it from the prison of the grave. The
   whole manhood of the Christian has already been sanctified. It is not
   merely that with his spirit he serves his God, but he yields his
   members to be instruments unto righteousness to the glory of his
   heavenly father. "Know you not," says the Apostle, "that your bodies
   are the temples of the Holy Spirit"? Surely that which has been a
   temple of the Holy Spirit shall not be ultimately destroyed!

   It may be taken down, as the tabernacle was in the wilderness, but
   taken down to be put up again! Or, to use another form of the same
   figure, the tabernacle may go but only that the temple may follow. "We
   know that if this earthly house

   of our tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God, a house not
   made with hands, eternal in the heavens." My Brothers and Sisters, it
   would not be a complete victory over sin and Satan if the Savior left a
   part of His people in the grave! It would not look as if He had
   destroyed all the worlds of the devil if He only emancipated their
   spirits. There shall not be a bone, nor a piece of a bone of any one of
   Christ's people left in the grave at the last. Death shall not have a
   solitary trophy to show--his prison shall be utterly rifled of all the
   spoil which he has gathered from our humanity.

   The Lord Jesus in all things shall have the pre-eminence and even as to
   our materialism He shall vanquish death and the grave, leading our
   captivity captive. It is a joy to think that as Christ has redeemed the
   entire man and sanctified the entire man, He will be honored in the
   salvation of the entire man, so our complete manhood shall have it in
   its power to glorify Him! The hands with which we sinned shall be
   lifted in eternal adoration. The eyes which have gazed on evil shall
   behold the King in His beauty. Not merely shall the mind which now
   loves the Lord be perpetually knit to Him and the spirit which
   contemplates Him delight forever in Him, and be in communion with
   Him--but this very body which has been a clog and hindrance to the
   spirit and an arch rebel against the sovereignty of Christ--shall yield
   Him homage with voice, and hands, and brain, and ears and eyes! We look
   to the time of resurrection for the accomplishment of our adoption, to
   wit, the redemption of the body!

   But, this being our hope and though we believe and rejoice in it in a
   measure, we have, nevertheless, to confess that sometimes questions
   suggest themselves and the evil heart of unbelief cries, "Can it be
   true? Is it possible?" At such times the question of our text is
   exceedingly necessary, "Why should it be thought a thing incredible
   with you that God should raise the dead?" This morning I shall first
   ask you, dear Brethren, to look the difficulty in the face. And then,
   secondly, we will endeavor to remove the difficulty--there is but one
   way of doing so--and that a very simple one. And then, thirdly, we
   shall have a word or two to say about our relation to this Truth of
   God.

   I. First, then, LET US LOOK THIS DIFFICULTY IN THE FACE. We shall not,
   for a moment, flinch from the boldest and most plain assertion of our
   belief in the resurrection, but will let its difficulties appear upon
   the surface. Attempts have been made at different times by misguided
   Christians to tone down or explain away the doctrine of the
   resurrection and kindred truths in order to make them more acceptable
   to skeptical or philosophical minds. But this has never succeeded.

   No man has ever been convinced of a Truth of God by discovering that
   those who profess to believe it are half ashamed of it and adopt a tone
   of apology. How can a man be convinced by one who does not, himself,
   believe? For that, in plain English, is what it comes to. When we
   modify, qualify and attenuate our doctrinal statements, we make
   concessions which will never be reciprocated and are only received as
   admissions that we do not believe, ourselves, what we assert. By this
   cutting and trimming policy we shear away the locks of our strength and
   break our own arm. Nothing of that kind affects me, either now, or at
   any time. We do, then really in very truth believe that the very body
   which is put into the grave will rise again! And we mean this literally
   and as we utter it.

   We are not using the language of metaphor, or talking of a myth. We
   believe that, in actual fact, the bodies of the dead will rise again
   from the tomb! We admit and rejoice in the fact that there will be a
   great change in the body of the righteous man--that its materialism
   will have lost all the grossness and tendency to corruption which now
   surrounds it--that it will be adapted for higher purposes. Whereas now
   it is only a tenement fit for the soul or the lower intellectual
   faculties, it will then be adapted for the spirit or the higher part of
   our nature. We rejoice that though sown in weakness it will be raised
   in power--though sown in dishonor it will be raised in glory! But we
   nevertheless know that it will be the same body. The same body which is
   put into the grave shall rise again!

   There shall be an absolute identity between the body in which we die
   and the body in which we rise again from the dust. But, let it be
   remembered that identity is not the same thing as absolute sameness of
   substance and continuance of atoms. We do not mention this
   qualification at all by way of taking off the edge from our statement,
   but simply because it is true. We are conscious, as a matter of fact,
   that we are living in the same bodies which we possessed 20 years ago.
   We are told and we have no reason to doubt it, that perhaps not one
   single particle of the matter which constitutes our body now was in it
   20 years ago! The changes our physical forms have undergone from
   infancy to manhood are very great, yet we have the same bodies.

   Admit the like identity in the resurrection and it is all we ask. The
   body in which we die will be the same body in which we were
   born--everybody admits that, though it is certainly not the same as in
   all its particles--no, every particle

   may have been exchanged and yet it will remain the same. So the body in
   which we rise will be the same body in which we die--it will be greatly
   changed, but those changes will not be such as to affect its identity.
   Now, instead of mentioning this statement in order to make the doctrine
   appear more easy to believe, I assure you that if I saw it taught in
   Scripture that every single fragment of bone, flesh, muscle and sinew
   which we put into the ground would rise again, I should believe it with
   the same ease as I now accept the doctrine of the identity of the body
   in the manner just stated.

   We are not at all wishful to make our beliefs appear philosophical or
   probable--far from it! We do not ask that men should say, "That can be
   supported by science." Let the scientific men keep to their own sphere
   and we will keep to ours. The doctrine we teach neither assails human
   science, nor fears it, nor flatters it, nor asks its aid. We go on
   quite another ground when we use the words of the passage, and say,
   "Why should it be thought a thing incredible that God should raise the
   dead?" We look for a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and of
   the unjust. The literal rising again of the human body is our firm
   belief.

   Now this hope is naturally surrounded with many difficulties, because,
   first of all, in the great mass of the dead decay has taken place. The
   large majority of dead bodies have rotted and been utterly dissolved
   and the larger proportion of all other bodies will probably follow
   them. When we see bodies that have been petrified, or mummies which
   have been embalmed, we think that if all bodies were preserved in that
   way it were easier to believe in their restoration to life. But when we
   break open some ancient sarcophagus and find nothing there but a little
   impalpable brown powder--when we open a grave in the churchyard and
   find only a few crumbled pieces of bone--and when we think of ancient
   battlefields where thousands have fallen, where, notwithstanding,
   through the lapse of years there remains not a trace of man, since the
   bones have so completely melted back into earth, and in some cases have
   been sucked up by the roots of plants and have passed into other
   organizations, it certainly does seem a thing incredible that the dead
   should be raised!

   Moreover, corpses have been destroyed by quicklime, burned, devoured of
   beasts, and even eaten by men--how shall these arise? Think how widely
   diffused are the atoms which once built up living forms. Who knows
   where the atoms may now be which once composed Cyrus, Hannibal, Scipio,
   or Caesar? Particles once wedded through a man's life may now be
   scattered wide as the poles asunder--one atom may be blowing across the
   Sahara and another may be floating in the Pacific! Who knows amidst the
   revolutions of the elements of this globe where the essential
   constituents of any one body may be at this time? Where is the body of
   Paul? Where is the body of Festus, who sent Paul to Rome, or of the
   emperor who condemned him to die? Who can even guess an answer?

   What wonder, then, if it seems an incredible thing that all men should
   rise again! The difficulty increases when we come to reflect that the
   doctrine of the resurrection teaches that all men will rise again--not
   a certain portion of the race, not a few thousand persons--but all men!
   It might be easier to believe in an Elijah, who should raise a dead man
   occasionally, or in a Christ who should call back to life a young man
   at the gates of Nain, or raise a Lazarus, or say, "Tabtha cumi," to a
   little deceased girl. But it is difficult for the reason the doctrine
   teaches that all shall rise--the myriads before the Flood, the
   multitudes of Nineveh and Babylon, the hosts of Persia and of
   Media--the millions that followed at the feet of Xerxes, the hosts
   which marched with Alexander--and all the innumerable millions that
   fell beneath the Roman sword.

   Think of the myriads who have passed away in countries like China,
   swarming with men, and conceive of these throughout 6,000 years
   fattening the soil. Remember those who have perished by shipwreck,
   plague, earthquake and, worst of all, by bloodshed and war. And
   remember that all these will rise without exception--not one born of
   woman shall sleep on forever--but all the bodies that ever breathed and
   walked this earth shall live again. "O monstrous miracle," says one,
   "it wears the aspect of a thing incredible!" Well, we shall not dispute
   the statement, but give even yet more reason for it.

   The wonder increases when we remember in what strange places many of
   these bodies now may be. For the bodies of some have been left in deep
   mines where they will never be reached again. They have been carried by
   the wash and swell of tides into deep caverns of the ancient main.
   There they lie, far away on the pathless desert where only the
   vulture's eyes can see them--or buried beneath mountains of fallen
   rock. In fact, where are man's remains not? Who shall point out a spot
   of earth where the crumbling dust of Adam's sons is not? Blows there a
   single summer wind down our streets without whirling along particles of
   what once was man? Is there a single wave that breaks upon any shore
   which holds not in solution some relic of what was once human? They lie
   beneath each tree. They enrich the fields. They pollute the

   brooks. They hide beneath the meadow grass. Surely from anywhere, from
   everywhere, the scattered bodies shall return, like Israel from
   captivity. As certainly as God is God, our dead men shall live and
   stand upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.

   And, moreover, to make the wonder extraordinary beyond conception, they
   will rise at once, or perhaps in two great divisions. There is a
   passage (Rev. 20:5, 6,) which apparently teaches us that between the
   resurrection of the righteous and the resurrection of the wicked there
   will be an interval of a thousand years. Many think that the passage
   intends a spiritual resurrection but I am unable to think so. Assuredly
   the words must have a literal meaning. Hear them and judge for
   yourselves. "But the rest of the dead lived not again until the
   thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed
   and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection: on such the
   second death has no power but they shall be priests of God and of
   Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years."

   Yet, granted that there may be this great interval, yet what a mass
   will be seen when the righteous rise, a "multitude that no man can
   number"--an inconceivable company known only to God's enumeration shall
   suddenly start up from "beds of dust and silent clay." The break of a
   thousand years shall be as nothing in the sight of God and shall soon
   be over, and then the unjust shall also rise. What teeming multitudes!
   Where shall they stand? What plains of earth shall hold them? Shall
   they not cover all the solid earth even to the mountaintops? Shall they
   not need to use the sea itself as a level floor for God's great assize?
   In a moment shall they stand before God when the trumpet of the
   archangel shall ring out clear and shrill the summons for the last
   assize!

   No years shall be needed in order that in God's great workshop bone
   shall be fitted to its bone and the wondrous mechanism be refitted--a
   moment shall suffice to rebuild the ruins of centuries! Curiously
   worked as our bodies were at first in the lowest parts of the earth,
   their restoration from the dead shall be effected in the twinkling of
   an eye! Man needs time, but God is the Creator of time and needs it
   not. Ages of ages are no more to Him than moments--in an instant His
   greatest marvels are accomplished. Matchless marvel! We marvel not that
   to many it seems a thing incredible that God should raise the dead. But
   then, do not think that this resurrection will not be a mere
   restoration of what was there, but the resurrection in the case of the
   saints will involve a remarkable advance upon anything we now observe.

   We put into the ground a bulb and it rises as a golden lily. We drop
   into the mold a seed and it comes forth an exquisite flower,
   resplendent with brilliant colors--these are the same which we put into
   the earth, the same identically, but oh, how different! Even thus, the
   bodies which are sown in burial, are so many seeds, and they shall
   spring up by Divine power into outgrowths surpassing all imagination in
   beauty! This increases the wonder, for the Lord Jesus not only snatches
   the prey from between the teeth of the Destroyer but that which had
   become worm's meat, ashes, dust, He raises in His own sacred image!

   It is as though a tattered and moth-eaten garment were torn to shreds,
   and then by a Divine Word restored to its perfection and in addition
   made whiter than any fuller on earth could make it, and adorned with
   costly fringes and embroideries unknown to it before--and all this in a
   moment of time! Let it stand as a world of wonders, marvelous beyond
   all things! We will not, for a moment, attempt to explain it away or
   pare down the angles of the Truth of God. One of the difficulties of
   believing it is this--that there are positively no full analogies in
   Nature by which to support it. There are phenomena around us somewhat
   like it so that we can compare, but I believe that there is no analogy
   in Nature upon which it would be at all fair to found an argument.

   For instance, some have said that sleep is the analogy of death and
   that our awaking is a sort of resurrection. The figure is admirable,
   but the analogy is very far from perfect since in sleep there is still
   life. A continuance of life is manifest to the man himself in his
   dreams and to all onlookers who choose to watch the sleeper, to hear
   him breathe, or to watch his heart beat. But in death the body has no
   pulse or other signs of life left in it--it does not even remain entire
   as the body of the sleeper does. Imagine that the sleeper should be
   torn limb from limb, pounded into mortar and reduced to powder--and
   that powder mixed up with clay and mold. And then see him awaken at
   your call and you would have something worth calling an analogy--but a
   mere sleep from which a man is startled--while it is an excellent
   comparison, is far enough from being the counterpart or prophecy of
   resurrection.

   More frequently we hear mentioned the development of insects as a
   striking analogy. The larva is man in his present condition. The
   chrysalis is a type of man in his death and the image or perfect insect
   is the representation of man in his resurrection. An admirable simile,
   certainly, but no more, for there is life in the chrysalis. There is
   organization, there is,

   in fact, the entire fly. No observer can mistake the chrysalis for a
   dead thing. Take it up and you shall find everything in it that will
   come out of it--the perfect creature is evidently dormant there. If you
   could crush the chrysalis, dry up all its life juices, bruise it into
   dust, pass it through chemical processes, utterly dissolve it--and then
   afterwards call it back into a butterfly--you would have seen an
   analogy of the resurrection. But this is unknown to Nature as yet.

   I find no fault with the picture. It is most instructive and
   interesting. But to argue from it would be childish to the last degree.
   Nor is the analogy of the seed much more conclusive. The seed, when put
   into the ground dies, and yet rises again in due season, hence the
   Apostle uses it as the apt type and emblem of death. He tells us that
   the seed is not quickened except it dies. What is death? Death is the
   resolution of an organization into its original particles, and so the
   seed begins to separate into its elements, to fall back from the
   organization of life into the inorganic state. But still a life germ
   always remains and the crumbling organization becomes its food from
   which it builds itself up again.

   Is it so with dead bodies of which not even a trace remains? Who shall
   discover a life germ in the putrid corpse? I shall not say there may
   not be some essential nucleus which better instructed beings might
   perceive, but I would demand where in the corrupted body it can be
   supposed to dwell. Is it in the brain? The brain is among the first
   things to disappear. The skull is empty and void. Is it in the heart?
   That also has a very brief duration, far briefer than the bones.
   Nowhere could a microscope discover any vital principle in bodies
   disinterred from the sod. Turn up the soil where the seed is buried, at
   anytime you will, and you will find it where you placed it, if indeed
   it will ever rise from the ground.

   But such is not the case with the man who has been buried a few hundred
   years--of him the last relic has probably passed beyond all
   recognition. The generations to come are not more undiscoverable than
   those which have gone. Think of those who were buried before the Flood,
   or drowned in that general deluge. Where, I ask, have we the smallest
   remnant of them? Grind your corn of wheat to fine flour and throw it to
   the winds and behold corn fields rising from it, and then you will have
   a perfect analogy. But as yet I do not think that Nature contains a
   parallel case.

   The resurrection stands alone! And concerning it the Lord might well
   say, "Behold, I do a new thing in the earth." With the exception of the
   resurrection of our Lord and those granted to a few persons by miracle,
   we have nothing in history that can be brought to bear upon the point.
   Here, then, is the difficulty, and a notable one it is. Can these dry
   bones live? Is it a credible thing that the dead should be raised?

   II. How are we to meet the demands of the case? We said that in the
   second place we would REMOVE THE DIFFICULTY. We made no empty
   boast--the matter is simple. Read the text again with due emphasis and
   it is done. "Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that
   GOD should raise the dead?" It might seem incredible that the dead
   should be raised, but why should it seem incredible that GOD, the
   Almighty, the Infinite, should raise the dead? Grant a God and no
   difficulties remain. Grant that God is and that He is Omnipotent--grant
   that He has said the dead shall be raised and belief is no longer hard
   but inevitable!

   Impossibility and incredulity--both vanish in the Presence of God! I
   believe this is the only way in which the difficulties of faith should
   be met. It is of no use to run to reason for weapons against
   unbelief--the Word of God is the true defense of faith! It is foolish
   to build with wood and hay when solid stones may be had. If my heavenly
   Father makes a promise or reveals a Truth, am I not to believe Him till
   I have asked the philosophers about it? Is God's Word only true when
   finite reason approves of it? After all, is man's judgment the
   ultimatum and is God's Word only to be taken when we can see for
   ourselves and therefore have no need of Revelation at all?

   Far from us be this spirit! Let God be true and every man a liar! We
   are not staggered when the wise men mock at us, but we fall back upon,
   "thus says the Lord." One Word from God outweighs for us a library of
   human lore. To the Christian, God's ipse dixit stands in the stead of
   all reason. Our logic is, "God has said it," and this is our rhetoric,
   too. If God declares that the dead shall be raised, it is not a thing
   incredible to us. Difficulty is not in the dictionary of the Godhead.
   Is anything too hard for the Lord? Heap up the difficulties, if you
   like. Make the doctrine more and more hard for reason to compass--so
   long as it contains no self-evident contradiction and inconsistency--we
   rejoice in the opportunity to believe great things concerning a Great
   God!

   When Paul uttered our text he was speaking to a Jew. He was addressing
   Agrippa, one to whom he could say, "King Agrippa, do you believe the
   Prophets? I know that you believe!" It was, therefore, good reasoning
   to use with Agrippa, to say, "Why should it be thought a thing
   incredible with you that God should raise the dead?" For first, as a
   Jew, Agrippa had the testimony of Job--"For 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: whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall
   behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me."

   He had, also, the testimony of David, who, in the 16th Psalm, says, "My
   flesh also shall rest in hope." He had the testimony of Isaiah in the
   26th chapter and the 19th verse, "Your dead men shall live, together
   with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, you that dwell in
   dust: for your dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out
   the dead." He had the testimony of Daniel in his 12th chapter, 2nd and
   3rd verses, where the Prophet says, "And many of them that sleep in the
   dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to
   shame and everlasting contempt. And they that are wise shall shine as
   the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to
   righteousness as the stars forever and ever."

   And then again, in Hosea 13:14 Agrippa had another testimony where the
   Lord declares "I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will
   redeem them from death: O death, I will be your plagues; O grave, I
   will be your destruction: repentance shall be hid from My eyes." Thus
   God had plainly promised resurrection in the Old Testament Scriptures
   and that fact should be quite enough for Agrippa. If the Lord has said
   it, it is no longer doubtful. To us as Christians there has been
   granted yet fuller evidence. Remember how our Lord has spoken
   concerning resurrection-- with no bated breath has He declared His
   intention to raise the dead. Remarkable is that passage in John 5:28,
   "Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming in the which all that are
   in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that
   have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done
   evil, unto the resurrection of damnation."

   And so in chapter 6:40, "And this is the will of Him that sent Me, that
   everyone which sees the Son, and believes on Him, may have everlasting
   life: and I will raise him up at the last day." The Holy Spirit has
   spoken the same Truth of God by the Apostles. In that precious and most
   blessed 8th chapter of Romans, we have a testimony in the 11th verse,
   "But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in
   you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your
   mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwells in you." I read you just now
   the passage from First Thessalonians which is very full, indeed, where
   we are bid not to sorrow as those that are without hope.

   And you have in Philippians the 3rd chapter and 21st verse, another
   proof, "Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like
   unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able
   even to subdue all things unto Himself." I scarcely need remind you of
   that grand chapter of massive argument, Corinthians Fifteen. Beyond all
   doubt the testimony of the Holy Spirit is that the dead shall rise, and
   granted that there is an Almighty God, we find no difficulty in
   accepting the doctrine and entertaining the blessed hope. At the same
   time it may be well to look around us and note what helps the Lord has
   appointed for our faith.

   I am quite certain, dear Friends, that there are many wonders in the
   world which we should not have believed by mere report if we had not
   come across them by experience and observation. The electric telegraph,
   though it is but an invention of man, would have been as hard to
   believe a thousand years ago as the resurrection of the dead is now.
   Who in the days of packhorses would have believed in flashing a message
   from England to America? When our missionaries in tropical countries
   have told the natives of the formation of ice and that persons could
   walk across frozen water, and of ships that have been surrounded by
   mountains of ice in the open sea, the water becoming solid and hard as
   a rock all around them--the natives have refused to believe such absurd
   reports!

   Everything is amazing till we are used to it, and resurrection owes the
   incredible portion of its marvel to the fact of our never having come
   across it in our observation--that is all. After the resurrection we
   shall regard it as a Divine display of power as familiar to us as
   Creation and Providence are now. I have no doubt we shall adore and
   bless God and wonder at Resurrection forever, but it will be in the
   same sense in which every devout mind wonders at Creation now. We shall
   grow accustomed to this new work of God when we have entered upon our
   longer life. We were only born but yesterday and have seen little as
   yet. God's works require far more than our few earthy years of
   observation--and when we have entered into eternity and are out of our
   minority and have come of age--that which astounds us now will have
   become a familiar theme for praise.

   Will Resurrection be a greater wonder than Creation? You believe that
   God spoke the world out of nothing. He said, "Let it be," and the world
   was. To create out of nothing is quite as marvelous as to call together
   scattered particles and refashion them into what they were before!
   Either work requires Omnipotence, but if there is any choice between
   them, Resurrection is the easier work of the two. If it did not happen
   so often, the birth of every child into the world

   would astound us. We should consider a birth to be, as indeed it is, a
   most transcendent manifestation of Divine power. It is only because we
   know it and see it so commonly that we do not behold the wonder-working
   hand of God in human births and in our continued existence. The thing,
   I say, only staggers us because we have not become familiar with it as
   yet--there are other deeds of God which are quite as marvelous.

   Remember, too, that there is one thing which, though you have not seen,
   you have received on credible evidence, which is a part of historic
   truth, namely, that Jesus Christ rose again from the dead. He is to you
   the cause of your resurrection, the type of it, the foretaste of it,
   the guarantee of it! As surely as He rose you shall rise. He proved the
   Resurrection possible by rising, no, He proved it certain because He is
   the representative Man. And, in rising He rose for all who are
   represented by Him. "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be
   made alive." The rising of our Lord from the tomb should forever sweep
   away every doubt as to the rising of His people. "For if the dead rise
   not, then is Christ not raised," but because He lives, we shall live
   also.

   Remember also, my Brothers and Sisters, that you who are Christians
   have already experienced within yourselves as great a work as the
   Resurrection--for you have risen from the dead as to your innermost
   Nature. You were dead in trespasses and sins and you have been
   quickened into newness of life! Of course the unconverted here will see
   nothing in this. The unregenerate man will even ask me what this means,
   and to him it can be no argument, for it is a matter of experience
   which one man cannot explain to his fellow. To know it you must
   yourselves be born-again. But, Believers, you have already passed
   through a resurrection from the grave of sin and from the rottenness
   and corruption of evil passions and impure desires--and this
   resurrection God has worked in you by a power equal to that which He
   worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His
   own right hand in the heavenly places.

   To you the quickening of your spiritual Nature is an assured proof that
   the Lord will also quicken your mortal bodies. The whole matter is
   this--that our persuasion of the certainty of the general resurrection
   rests upon faith in God and His Word. It is both idle and needless to
   look elsewhere. If men will not believe the declaration of God, they
   must be left to give an account to Him of their unbelief. My Hearer, if
   you are one of God's elect, you will believe your God, for God gives
   faith to all His chosen. If you reject the Divine testimony, you give
   evidence that you are in the gall of bitterness, and you will perish in
   it unless Grace prevents it. The Gospel and the doctrine of the
   Resurrection were opened up to men in all their glory to put a division
   between the precious and the vile. "He that is of God," says the
   Apostle, "hears God's Words."

   True faith is the visible mark of secret election. He that believes in
   Christ gives evidence of God's Grace towards him, but he that believes
   not gives sure proof that he has not received the Grace of God. "But
   you believe not," said Christ, "because you are not of My sheep, as I
   said unto you. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow
   Me." Therefore this Truth of God and other Christian Truths are to be
   held up, maintained and delivered fully to the whole of mankind to put
   a division between them--to separate the Israelites from the
   Egyptians--the seed of the woman from the seed of the serpent. Those
   whom God has chosen are known by their believing in what God has
   said--while those who remain unbelieving perish in their sin, condemned
   by the Truth of God which they willfully reject.

   III. Thus much upon these points. Now let us consider, lastly, OUR
   RELATION TO THIS TRUTH. Our first

   relation to this Truth is this--Children of God, comfort one another
   with these words. You have lost those dear to you--amend the
   statement--they have passed into a better land and the body which
   remains behind is not lost, but put out to blessed interest. Sorrow you
   must, but sorrow not as those that are without hope! I do not know why
   we always sing dirges at the funerals of the saints and drape ourselves
   in black. I would desire, if I might have my way, to be drawn to my
   grave by white horses or to be carried on the shoulders of men who
   would express joy as well as sorrow in their habiliments, for why
   should we sorrow over those who have gone to Glory and inherited
   immortality?

   I like the old Puritan plan of carrying the coffin on the shoulders of
   the saints and singing a Psalm as they walked to the grave. Why not?
   What is there, after all, to weep about concerning the glorified? Sound
   the gladsome trumpet! Let the shrill clarion peal out the joyous note
   of victory! The Conqueror has won the battle! The King has climbed to
   His throne. "Rejoice," say our Brethren from above, "rejoice with us,
   for we have entered into our rest." "Blessed are the dead which die in
   the Lord from henceforth: yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from
   their labors and their works do follow them." If we must keep up the
   signs of woe, for this is natural, yet let not your hearts be troubled,
   for that were unspiritual. Bless God evermore that over the pious dead
   we sing His living promises.

   Let us, in the next place, cheer our hearts in prospect of our own
   departure. We shall soon pass away. My Brothers and Sisters, we, too,
   must die. There is no discharge in this war. There is an arrow and
   there is an archer--the arrow is meant for my heart--and the archer
   will take deadly aim. There is a place where you shall sleep, perhaps
   in a lone grave in a foreign land. Or, perhaps, in a niche where your
   bones shall lie side by side with those of your ancestors--but to the
   dust you must return. Well, let us not repine! It is but for a little
   while--it is but a rest on the way to immortality. Death is a passing
   incident between this life and the next--let us meet it not only with
   equanimity but with expectation, since it is not death now but
   resurrection to which we aspire!

   Then again, as we are expecting a blessed resurrection, let us respect
   our bodies. Let not our members become instruments of evil. Let them
   not be defiled with sin. The Christian man must neither, by gluttony
   nor drunkenness, nor by acts of uncleanness in any way whatever defile
   his body, for our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit. "If any
   man defiles that temple of God, him will God destroy." Be pure! In your
   Baptism your bodies were washed with pure water to teach you that
   henceforth you must be clean from all defilement. Put away from you
   every evil thing. Bodies that are to dwell forever in Heaven should not
   be subjected to pollution here below.

   Lastly, and this is a very solemn thought, the ungodly are to rise
   again but it will be to a resurrection of woe. Their bodies sinned and
   their bodies will be punished. "Fear Him," says Christ, "who is able to
   destroy both soul and body in Hell." He will cast both of them into a
   suffering which shall cause perpetually enduring destruction to
   them--this is terrible, indeed. To slumber in the grave would be
   infinitely preferable to such a resurrection--"the resurrection of
   damnation," so the Scripture calls it. A rising "to shame and
   everlasting contempt," so Daniel styles it. That is a dreadful
   resurrection, indeed--you might be glad to escape from it.

   Surely it were dreadful enough for your soul to suffer the eternal
   wrath of God without the body having to be its companion, but so it
   must be. If body and soul sin, body and soul must suffer, and that
   forever. Jeremy Taylor tells us of a certain Acilius Aviola who was
   seized with an apoplexy and his friends, conceiving him to be dead,
   carried him to his funeral pile, but, when the heat had warmed his
   body, he awoke to find himself hopelessly encircled with funeral
   flames. In vain he called for deliverance! He could not be rescued but
   passed from lethargy into intolerable torment.

   Such will be the dreadful awakening of every sinful body when it shall
   be aroused from its slumber in the grave. The body will start up to be
   judged, condemned, and driven from God's Presence into everlasting
   punishment! May God grant that it may never be your case or mine, but
   may we believe in Christ Jesus now and so obtain a resurrection to life
   eternal. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

A Simple Remedy

   (No. 1068)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 1, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "With His stripes we are healed." Isaiah 53:5.

   EVER since the Fall, healing has been the chief necessity of manhood.
   There was no physician in Paradise, but outside that blissful enclosure
   professors of the healing art have been precious as the gold of Ophir.
   Even in Eden itself there grew herbs which should, in after days, yield
   medicine for the body of man. Before sin came into the world, and
   disease which is the consequence of it, God had created plants of
   potent efficacy to soothe pain and wrestle with disease. Blessed be His
   name, while thus mindful of the body, He had not forgotten the direr
   sicknesses of the soul--for He has raised up for us a Plant of renown,
   yielding a balm far more effectual than that of Gilead! This He had
   done before the plague of sin had yet infected us. Christ Jesus, the
   true Medicine of the sons of men, was ordained of old to heal the
   sicknesses of His people.

   Everywhere, at this present hour, we meet with some form or other of
   sickness. No place, however healthful, is free from disease. As for
   moral disease, it is all around us and we are thankful to add that the
   remedy is everywhere within reach. The Beloved Physician has prepared a
   healing medicine which can be reached by all classes which is available
   in every climate, at every hour, under every circumstance and is
   effectual in every case wherever it is received. Of that Medicine we
   shall speak this morning, praying that we may have God's help in so
   doing. It is a great mercy for us who have to preach, as well as for
   you who have to hear, that the Gospel healing is so very simple--our
   text describes it-- "With His stripes we are healed."

   These six words contain the marrow of the Gospel and yet scarcely one
   of them contains a second syllable. They are words for plain people and
   in them there is no affectation of mystery or straining after the
   profound. I looked, the other day, into old Culpepper's Herbal. It
   contains a marvelous collection of wonderful remedies. Had this old
   herbalist's prescriptions been universally followed there would not
   long have been any left to prescribe for--the astrological herbalist
   would soon have extirpated both sickness and mankind! Many of his
   recipes contain from 12 to 20 different drugs, each one needing to be
   prepared in a peculiar manner. I think I once counted 40 different
   ingredients in one single draught!

   Very different are these recipes, with their elaboration of
   preparation, from the Biblical prescriptions which effectually healed
   the sick--such as these--"Take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaster
   upon the boil." Or that other one--"Go and wash in Jordan seven times."
   Or that other--"Take up your bed and walk." One cannot but admire the
   simplicity of truth, while falsehood conceals her deformities with a
   thousand tricks! If you want to see Culpepper's Herbal carried out in
   spiritual things, go and buy a Directory for the carrying on of the
   Ritualistic services of the Church of England, or the Church of Rome.

   You shall find, there, innumerable rules as to when you shall bow and
   to what quarter of the heavens you shall look--when you shall stand up,
   and when you shall kneel--when you shall dress in black, in white, in
   blue, or in violet. There are instructions on how you shall pray and
   what you shall pray--a collect being appointed for today--and another
   for tomorrow. On the other hand, if you would know the true way of
   having your souls healed, go to the Word of God and study such a text
   as this: "With His stripes we are healed." In the one case all is
   mysterious--in the other all is simple and clear. Quackery cannot live
   without mystery, show, ceremony and pretence. But the Truth of God is
   as plain as a pikestaff, legible as though it were written on the broad
   heavens and so simple that a babe may comprehend it. "With His stripes
   we are healed."

   I saw in Paris, years ago, a public vendor of quack medicines and an
   extraordinary personage he was. He came riding into the market place
   with a fine chariot drawn by horses richly adorned, while a trumpet was
   sounded before him. This

   mighty healer of all diseases made his appearance clothed in a coat of
   as many colors as that of Joseph! And on his head was a helmet adorned
   with variegated plumes. He delivered himself of a jargon which might be
   French, which might also be Latin, or might be nonsense--for no one in
   the crowd could understand it. With a little persuasion the natives
   bought his medicines, persuaded that so great and wise a man could
   surely cure them. Truly, this is one reason why there is an adoption in
   the Romish Church of the Latin tongue and why in many other Churches
   there is an affectation of a theological jargon which nobody can
   comprehend--and which would not be of any use to them if they did
   comprehend

   it!

   The whole is designed to delude the multitude. To what purpose are fine
   speeches in the Gospel ministry? Sicknesses are not healed by
   eloquence! It was an ill day in which rhetoric crept into the Church of
   God and men attempted to make the Gospel a subject for oratory. The
   Gospel needs no human eloquence to recommend it! It stands most
   securely when without a buttress! Like beauty, it is most adorned when
   unadorned the most. The native charms of the Gospel suffice to commend
   it to those who hate spiritual eyes and those who are blind will not
   admire it, deck it as we may.

   I shall, therefore, content myself this morning with declaring the
   Gospel to you in the plainest possible language, forfeiting any
   attempts at excellency of speech. I know it to be the Gospel of God. I
   know it will save you if you receive it--it has saved me--it has saved
   thousands more! I shall put it before you in plain, unvarnished
   language. I beseech you to receive it and I pray that God's Holy Spirit
   may lead you to do so. Coming at once to our text, we observe, first,
   that these are sad words--"With His stripes we are healed." We remark,
   secondly, that these are glad words! And, then, we shall notice,
   thirdly, that these are very suggestive words.

   I. THESE ARE SAD WORDS. They are part of a mournful piece of music
   which might be called "the Requiem of the Messiah." Hear its solemn
   notes--"Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows: yet we
   did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But He was
   wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the
   chastisement of our peace was upon Him and with His stripes we are
   healed." Do you not feel that the song so softly stated has touched
   your heart to pity and moistened your eyes with tears? "With His
   stripes we are healed."

   This is not the brine of woe, but yet it is salt with sorrow. The sun
   is not eclipsed but it shines through a cloud. No one reads the inner
   sense of these words without feeling grief of soul. This is caused by
   the fact that the words imply the existence of disease and speak of
   great suffering connected with the remedy. I say these are sad words
   because they imply disease. "With His stripes we are healed. This,
   "we," comprehends within itself all the saints and hence it is clear
   that all the saints needed healing. Those who are today before the
   Throne of God without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, were once as
   defiled as the lepers who were shut out of the camp of Israel!

   Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, David, Elijah, Hezekiah, Daniel--all these
   were once sick of the accursed malady of sin. All the excellent of the
   earth among us now who have been saved by Sovereign Grace were once
   heirs of wrath even as others--as surely shaped in iniquity and
   conceived in sin as the rest of mankind! There is a confession here, by
   implication, of all who are washed in the blood of Jesus that they
   needed washing--of all who are healed by His stripes--that they were
   sorely sick with sin.

   This confession is true. Every child of God will join in it and he that
   knows himself best will make it with greatest emphasis. We were so
   diseased that nothing could have restored us but the precious blood of
   our dear Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is a dread fact that sin has
   infected the entire family of man. We are all sinful--sinful through
   and through--we are all corrupt with evil passions and depraved
   desires. Our fathers were fallen men and so are we, and so will our
   children be. The putting of bitter for sweet and of sweet for bitter,
   of darkness for light and light for darkness is engendered in us all.
   "Every one of them is gone back; they are altogether become filthy,
   there is none that does good, no not one."

   Oh, mournful, miserable fact--in a fair world, "where every prospect
   pleases"--beneath a glorious sky where stars peer down upon us like the
   eyes of God, man lives a rebel to his God, a traitor to the Truth of
   God, an enemy of good, a slave of evil! He who was made to rule the
   world rules not himself! Fashioned for wisdom, he drivels like a fool!
   Ordained immortality, he labors for the wages of sin which is death!
   Sin has dimmed his eyes, hardened his heart, uncrowned his head,
   weakened his strength, filled him with putrefying sores and left him
   naked to his shame! The disease of sin is of the most loathsome
   character. Supposing it possible for every man to have had the leprosy
   and yet for no man to have had sin, that would have been no calamity at
   all compared with that of our becoming sinful!

   If it could so have happened that we could have been deprived of our
   most useful faculties and yet had remained innocent, that would have
   been a small catastrophe compared with this depraving of our nature by
   sin. To inoculate the parent stock with evil was the great design of
   Satan, for he knew that this would work the worst conceivable ill to
   God's creatures. Hell itself is not more horrible than sin. No vision,
   ghastly and grim, can ever be so terrible to the spiritual eye as the
   hideous, loathsome thing called sin. Remember that this dread evil is
   in us all! We are, at this day, every one of us, by nature only fit to
   be burned up with the abominations of the universe!

   If we think we are better than that, we do not know ourselves. It is a
   part of the infatuation of evil that its victims pride themselves upon
   their excellence. Our infernal pride makes us cover our leprous
   foreheads with the silver veil of self-deception. Like a foul bog
   covered over with green moss, our Nature hides its rottenness beneath a
   film of suppositious righteousness. And, Brothers and Sisters, while
   sin is loathsome before God at the present time, it will lead to the
   most deadly result in due season. There is not a man or woman among us
   that can escape the damnation of Hell apart from the healing virtue of
   the Savior's atoning sacrifice. No, not one!

   Your lovely little girl is defiled in heart, albeit that as yet nothing
   worse than childish folly is discoverable. Just leave that little mind
   to its own devices and the fair child will become an arch-transgressor!
   Yonder most amiable youth, although no blasphemous word has ever
   blackened his lips and no lustful thought has yet inflamed his eyes,
   must yet be born-again or he may wander into foulest ways! And yonder
   most moral tradesman, though he has as yet done justice to his fellow
   men, will perish if he is not saved by the Grace of God through Christ
   Jesus! Sin dwells in us and will be deadly in the case of everyone
   among us, without a solitary exception, unless we accept the remedy
   which God has provided.

   Ah, dear Friends, this disease is none the better because we do not
   feel it. It is all the worse. It is one of the worst symptoms in some
   diseases, when men become incapable of feeling. It is dreadful when the
   delirious sick man cries out, "I am well enough! I will leave this bed!
   I will go to my business!" Hear how he raves--must we not put him under
   restraint? The louder his boasts of health the more sad the delirious
   patient's condition. When ignorance is known and felt it is not dense,
   but he who knows nothing and yet fancies that he knows everything, is
   ignorant, indeed.

   Sin is also a very painful disease when it is known and felt. When the
   Spirit of God leads a man to see the sin which is really in himself,
   then how he changes his note! Oh, children of God, have you forgotten
   how acutely sin made you smart? Those black days of conviction! My soul
   still has them in remembrance--remembering the wormwood and the gall!
   The period of my conviction of sin is burnt into my memory as with a
   red-hot iron--its wounds are cured, but the scars remain. As Habakkuk
   has well put it, "When I heard, my belly trembled, my lips quivered at
   the voice, rottenness entered into my bones and I trembled in myself."
   Oh, 'tis a burden, this load of sin--a burden which might crush an
   angel down to Hell!

   There I stood and seemed like another staggering Atlas, bearing up a
   world of sin upon these shoulders and fearing every moment lest I
   should be crushed into the abyss and justly lost forever. Only let a
   man once feel sin for half-an-hour--really feel its tortures--and I
   guarantee you he could prefer to dwell in a pit of snakes than to live
   with his sins! Remember that cry of David, "My sin is ever before me"?
   He speaks as though it haunted him! He shut his eyes but he still saw
   its hideous shape! He sought his bed, but like a nightmare it weighed
   upon his breast. He rose and it rose with him. He tried to shake it off
   among the haunts of men--in business and in pleasure--but like a
   blood-sucking vampire it clung to him! Sin was ever before him, as
   though it were painted on his eyeballs--the glass of his soul's window
   was stained with it!

   He sought his closet but could not shut it out. He sat alone but it sat
   with him. He slept, but it cursed his dreams. His memory was burdened
   by it. His imagination it lit up with lurid flames--his judgment it
   armed with a ten-thronged whip--his expectations it shrouded in
   midnight gloom. A man needs no worse Hell than his own sin and an
   awakened conscience. Let this be instead of racks and whips of burning
   wire. Conscience once aroused will find in sin the worm undying, the
   unquenchable fire and the bottomless pit. Though God Himself will
   punish sin, yet it is a wolf which tears its own flesh, a viper which
   turns its envenomed fang upon itself!

   Perhaps many of you may reply, "But we do not feel this!" True, because
   you have contrived, for the present, to give sedatives to conscience. I
   pity you because you are not aware of the truth. I see how it is with
   you. You think your money making, or spending your days pleasantly, or
   your performance of your daily labor is all you need consider. But if
   you were not deceived by sin you would know better! You would
   understand that you are God's creatures and that God did

   not make you to live for yourselves. Which among you builds a house and
   does not intend either to live in it or gain something by the letting
   of it? And do you think God made you without designing to glorify
   Himself in you?

   Oh, men and women, did your Creator make you that you might live only
   for yourselves and make your bellies your gods? Do you dream that you
   may miss the end of your being and not have it required at your hands?
   Will He suffer you to rob Him of your service and wink at your
   rebellion, and treat it as if it were nothing? It shall not be so, as
   you will find to your regret! Oh, may you be taught, now, the evil of
   sin! Spirit of God, it is Your office to convict the world of sin, of
   righteousness and of judgment--do Your office now, for none will apply
   for healing till they feel the smart-- none will look to the stripes of
   Jesus till they feel the wounds of sin! When sin is bitter, Christ is
   sweet, but only then. When death threatens, then do men fly to Christ
   for life. No man ever loves Christ till he loathes himself! No man ever
   cares for Jesus till he comes to see that out of Jesus he is a lost,
   ruined and undone soul! Oh, may God grant that the sorrowful part of
   these words may ring in your ears till you mourn your grievous sin!

   But there is a second sorrow in the verse, and that is sorrow for the
   suffering by which we are healed. "With His stripes we are healed." I
   find that the word here used is in the singular and not as the
   translation would lead you to suppose. I hardly know how to fully
   translate the word. It is read by some as "weal," "bruise," or "wound,"
   meaning the mark or print of blows on the skin. But Alexander says the
   word denotes the tumor raised in flesh by scourging. It is elsewhere
   translated, "blueness," "hurt," and "spots," and evidently refers to
   the black and blue marks of the scourge. The use of a singular noun may
   have been intended to set forth that our Lord was, as it were, reduced
   to a mass of bruising and was made one great bruise. By the suffering
   which that condition indicated we are saved.

   Our text alludes partly to the sufferings of His body, but much more to
   the agonies of His soul. The body of our Lord and Savior was bruised.
   Scourging under the Jewish law was always moderate--there was a pause
   made at a point which mercy had appointed. Thirty-nine stripes were all
   that could be given. But our Lord was not beaten according to the
   Jewish law--He was scourged by Pilate and the scourging of the Romans
   was peculiarly brutal. They stopped not at the 40 stripes save
   one--they struck at random, according to their own will. The Savior
   endured a scourging which was intended to be a substitute for death--"I
   will scourge Him and release Him," said Pilate--but instead of its
   being a substitute for death it became a prelude to it.

   Probably most men would prefer to die rather than to be scourged after
   the Roman fashion and might be wise in making such a choice. Sinews of
   oxen were intertwisted with knuckle bones of sheep and these were armed
   with small slivers of bone so that every stroke gashed the flesh deeply
   and caused fearful wounds and tears--as says the Prophet, "the plowers
   made deep furrows." Our Savior's back was plowed and furrowed deeply in
   the day of His scourging. Now you may look at the Person of Jesus, your
   Substitute and Sacrifice, covered with livid bruises by human cruelty
   and say, "With His stripes we are healed."

   But you must not stop there and think that flesh wounds were all His
   stripes, for our Lord bore more terrible stripes in His soul. He was
   struck in His heart each day of His life. He had to suffer the ills of
   Providence. Being a Man He had sympathy with us in all those stripes
   which are the inheritance of Adam's sons. He felt the stripes of
   poverty, stripes of weariness, stripes of sickness, stripes of
   heaviness, stripes of bereavement--above all others, He was a "Man of
   sorrows and acquainted with grief." Moreover, He had to run the
   gauntlet of all mankind. Stripes fell upon our Savior from all sorts of
   men--for every man's sin laid a stroke upon His shoulders.

   When He was here on earth, if He saw men sin, that smote Him. If He
   heard them speak a wrong word, that smote Him. Having sinned, we have
   been hardened by sin--but He was pure and perfect--and it was a bruise
   to Him to come into contact with sin. You remember how His adversaries
   called Him a drunk and a wine-bibber--how they said He had a devil and
   was mad? Thus they were all striking Him. Each man laying on his blow
   with all his might. Worse than all, He was wounded in the house of His
   friends. Was any blow equal to that which Judas lay upon those
   shoulders? And next to that, could anything surpass in pain the blows
   which Peter gave when he said, "I know not the Man"?

   There was a cruel process in the English navy in which men were made to
   run the gauntlet all along the ship, with sailors on each side, each
   man being bound to give a stroke to the poor victim as he ran along.
   Our Savior's life was a running of the gauntlet between His enemies and
   His friends who all struck Him, one here and another there. By those
   sorrowful and shameful stripes we this day are healed! Satan, too,
   struck at Him. I think I see the Arch-fiend ascend from

   the pit with haste and, lifting himself upon his dragon wings, come
   forward to strike the Savior, daring to inflict upon His soul the
   accursed temptations of Hell!

   He struck Him in the desert and in the garden, till beneath that
   smiting great drops of blood crimsoned His face. But this was nothing
   compared with the fact that He was smitten of God! Oh, what a word is
   that! If God were to lay His finger on any one of us this morning, only
   His finger, we should be struck with sickness, paralysis, yes, and
   death! Then think of God smiting! God must strike sin wherever He sees
   it--it is just that He should do so--it is as much an essential part of
   God's Nature that He should crush sin as that He should love, for,
   indeed, it is only love in another form that makes Him hate that which
   is evil!

   So when He saw our sin laid upon His Son, He struck Him with the blows
   of a cruel One till beneath that smiting His Son cried out, "My God, My
   God, why have You forsaken Me?" He was bearing, in that moment, all the
   crushing blows of that great sword of vengeance of which we read in the
   Prophets--"Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the Man
   that is My Fellow, says the Lord." Put these things all together as
   best you can, for I lack words with which to fitly describe these
   bruises from the ills of life--bruises from friends and foes, stripes
   from Satan, and blows from God--and surely it is the most sorrowful
   story that ever was told--

   "O King of Grief! (A title strange, yet true.

   To You, of all kings, only due). O King of Wounds!

   How shall I grieve for You Who in all grief outruns me?

   Shall I weep blood?

   Why, You have wept such store,

   That all Your body was one sore.

   Shall I be scourged, flouted, boxed, sold?

   'Tis but to tell the tale is told;

   My God, my God, if You do part from me,

   Is such a grief as cannot be."

   One needs to be a Niobe, a dripping well of tears, to mourn the Chief
   of among 10,000 made the Chief of sufferers! That the Ever-Blessed One
   should suffer! That the Lord of Life should bleed! The angels worship
   Him and yet Jehovah struck Him! He is so fair that nothing else is
   beautiful to any eye that has once gazed upon Him, and yet they spit in
   His face and marred His lovely countenance with cruel blows of brutal
   fists! He is all tenderness, but they are all cruelty! He is harmless
   as a lamb! He never thought nor spoke a thing of wrong to mortal man,
   but yet they strike Him as though He were a fierce beast of prey, fit
   only to be bruised to death.

   He is all love and, when they strike Him worst, He does but pray for
   them, yet strike they still! No curses drop from those dear lips, but
   words of pity only, and of sweet intercession follow each blow, yet
   still they wound and buffet and blaspheme! Oh, grief far deeper than
   the sea! Oh, woe immeasurable! They strike Him for whom they ought to
   have gladly died--Him for whom the noble army of martyrs counted it all
   joy to render up their lives--they despitefully entreat Him who came on
   errands of pure mercy and disinterested Grace. Oh, cruel whips and
   cruel hands and yet more--cruel hearts of wicked men! Surely we should
   never read such words as these without feeling that they call for
   sorrow--sorrow which if mingled with spiritual repentance, will be a
   fit anointing for His burial, or, at least, a bath in which to wash
   away the blood stains from His dear and most pure flesh.

   II. Next--and may the Spirit of God help us with fresh power--THESE ARE
   GLAD WORDS. "With His stripes we are healed." They are glad words,
   first, because they speak of healing. "We are healed." Understand these
   words, oh Beloved, of that virtual healing which was given you in the
   day when Jesus Christ died upon the Cross. In the moment when Christ
   yielded up the ghost, all His elect might have said, and said with
   truth, "We are healed!" For, from that moment their sins were put
   away--a full atonement was made for all the chosen! Christ had laid
   down His life for His sheep!

   He had redeemed His saints from among men--the ransom price was fully
   paid--a complete expiation for sin was made and the redeemed were
   clear. Let us, this morning, walk up and down with perfect peace and
   confidence, for from the day when Jesus died we were perfectly clear
   before the judgment seat of God! "With His stripes we are healed," or
   rather, "we were healed," for the words are in the past in the original
   Hebrew. "With His stripes we were healed." My

   sins, they ceased to be centuries ago! My debts, my Savior paid them
   before I was born and nailed up the receipted bill to His Cross and I
   can see it there! The handwriting of ordinances that was contrary to
   us, He took away and nailed it to His Cross.

   I can see it and while I read the long list of my sins--oh, how long,
   what a roll it needed to contain them--yet I see at the bottom, "The
   blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin." It matters not
   how long that roll was--the debt is all discharged. I am acquitted
   before God and so is every Believer in Jesus! Every soul that rests in
   Jesus was at the time when Jesus died, then and there absolved before
   the sacred Judgment Seat! "Who shall lay anything to the charge of
   God's elect?" is a fit challenge to ring forth from the Cross where
   atonement was finished.

   But, dear Friends, there is an actual application of the great
   expiation to us when, by faith, we receive it individually and it is
   that, also which is intended here. To as many as have believed in
   Jesus, His stripes have given the healing of forgiveness of sin and,
   moreover, it has conquered the deadly power of sin. Sin no longer has
   dominion over them, for they are not under the Law but under Grace.
   Nothing ever delivers a man from the power of sin like a sight of the
   suffering Savior. I have heard of a man who had lived a dissolute life,
   who could never be reclaimed from it by any means, but at last, when he
   saw his mother sick and die from grief at his ways, the thought that
   she had died because of his sins touched his heart and made him repent
   of his ungodliness.

   If there was such efficacy to cause repentance in that form of
   suffering, much more is there when we come to see Jesus die in our
   place! Then our heart melts with love to Him! Then hatred of sin takes
   possession of the soul and the reigning power of evil is destroyed!
   Christ's stripes have healed us of all love of sin! Faith in the
   Crucified One has healed our eyes--once they were blind--for "when we
   saw Him, there was no beauty that we should desire Him." Now, since we
   have seen His stripes, we see all beauties unite in His adorable
   Person! I know, Beloved, if you have put your trust in the sufferings
   of Jesus, you think Him to be the most precious of beings--you see a
   loveliness in Him which all Heaven's angels could not rival.

   The stripes of Immanuel have also healed our hearts. "We hid, as it
   were, our faces from Him. He was despised and we esteemed Him not," but
   now our hearts delight in Him and we turn our faces towards Him as the
   flowers look to the sun. We only wish that we could see Him face to
   face! And He has healed our feet, too, for they were prone to
   evil--note the verse that follows our text--"All we, like sheep, have
   gone astray. We have turned, everyone, to his own way." A sight of His
   stripes has brought us back and charmed by the disinterested love which
   suffered in our place, we follow the great Bishop and Shepherd of our
   souls and desire never again to wander from His commands. From head to
   foot His stripes have bound up our wounds and mollified them with
   ointment.

   He forgives all our iniquities, He heals all our diseases. Beloved, if
   you would be cured of any sin, however spreading its infection, fly to
   Jesus' wounds! This is the only way to be rid of the palsy of fear, the
   lever of lust, the sore blisters of remorse, or the leprosy of
   iniquity! His stripes are the only medicine for transgression. Men have
   tried to overcome their passions by the contemplation of death, but
   they have failed to bury sin in the grave. They have strived to subdue
   the rage of lust within their Nature by meditating upon Hell, but that
   has only rendered the heart hard and callous to love's appeals. He who
   once believingly beholds the mystery of Christ suffering for him shakes
   off the viper of sin into the fire which consumed the great Sacrifice.
   Where the blood of the Atonement falls, sin's hand is palsied, its
   grasp is relaxed, its scepter falls, it vacates the throne of the heart
   and the Spirit of Grace, and truth, and love, and righteousness
   occupies the royal seat.

   I may be addressing some this morning who despair of being saved.
   Behold Christ smarting in your place and you will never despair again.
   If Jesus bore the transgressors' punishment there is every room for
   hope. Perhaps your disease is love of the world and a fear of man. You
   dare not become a Christian because men would laugh at you. If you
   could hear the scourges fall upon the Savior's back, you would
   henceforth say, "Did He suffer thus for me? I will never be ashamed of
   Him again." And instead of shunning the fight you would seek out the
   thick of the fray. "With His stripes we are healed." It is a universal
   medicine. There is no disease by which your soul can be afflicted but
   an application of the blue bruises of your Lord will take out the
   deadly virus from your soul.

   Are you ambitious? This will bring you down. Are you desponding? This
   will lift you up. Are you hot with passion? This will cool you. Are you
   chill with indolence? This will stimulate you. The Cross! The Cross!
   The Cross of Christ! What power dwells in it! Full sure, if even for
   Satan that Cross had been set up on earth, it would have lifted him
   from

   Hell to Heaven! But it is not for him--it is, however, for the vilest
   of the sons of men--and there are no sons of men so corrupt that the
   Cross of Christ cannot purge them of all evil!

   Bear this Gospel into Africa, where superstitious sorcery holds men's
   minds in thralldom--it will uplift before all eyes the charter of
   Africa's liberty! Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands, liberated from
   her chains, when she shall see a Crucified Savior! Bear the Cross among
   the Brahmins or among the Hindus--preach the Cross among a race of men
   who boast their wisdom and they shall become ignorant in their own
   esteem but truly wise before the Lord--when they shall see the light
   that streams from Immanuel's wounds! Even Oriental cunning and
   lasciviousness are thus healed! Do not tell me that we ought mainly to
   preach Christ exalted--I will preach my Lord upon the throne and
   delight therein--but the great remedy for ruined manhood is not Christ
   in glory, but Christ in shame and death!

   We know some who select Christ's Second Advent as their one great theme
   and we would not silence them yet they err. The Second Coming is a
   glorious hope for saints, but there is no cure in it for sinners! To
   them the coming of the Lord is darkness and not light! But Christ
   smitten for our sins--there is the star which breaks the sinner's
   midnight! I know if I preached Christ on the Throne, many proud hearts
   would have Him. But, oh, Sirs, you must have Christ on the Cross before
   you can know Him on the Throne! You must bow before the Crucified! You
   must trust a dying Savior or else if you pretend to honor Him by the
   glories which are to come, you do but belie Him and you know Him not.
   To the Cross, to the Cross, to the Cross! Write that upon the signposts
   of the road to the City of Refuge! Fly there, you guilty ones, as to
   the only sanctuary for the sinful for, "with His stripes we are
   healed." There is joy in this!

   There is another joy in the text--joy in the honor which it brings to
   Christ. The stripes, let us lament them. The healing, let us rejoice in
   it! And then, the Physician, let us honor Him. "With His stripes we are
   healed." Jesus Christ works real cures. We are healed, effectually
   healed. We were healed when we first believed; we are still healed.
   Abiding cure we have, for still to His wounds we fly. An eternal cure
   we have, for never man was healed by Christ and then relapsed and died.
   "With His stripes we are healed"--by nothing else--by no mixture of
   something else with those stripes. Not by priestcraft, not by
   sacraments, not by our own prayers, not by our own good works. "With
   His stripes we are healed"--healed of all sin of every kind--of sins
   past, of sins present and sins to come! We are healed, completely
   healed of all, and that in a moment--not through long years of waiting
   and of gradually growing better but--"With His stripes we are healed,"
   completely healed, even now. Blessed be His name!

   Now, child of God, if you would give glory to God, declare that you are
   healed this morning! Be not always saying, "I hope I am saved." The man
   who he says hopes he is cured does not greatly recommend the physician.
   But the man who knows he is, he is the man who brings him honor. Let us
   speak positively--we can do so. Let us speak out in the face of all
   mankind and not be ashamed. Let us say, "As surely as we were diseased,
   so surely are we healed through the stripes of our Lord Jesus Christ."
   Let us give Jesus all glory! Let us magnify Him to the utmost.

   I see now in vision a company of men gathering herbs along the slopes
   of the Seven Hills of Rome. With mystic rites they cull those ancient
   plants whose noxious influence once drugged our fathers into deadly
   slumbers. They are compounding again the cup of Rome's ancient sorcery
   and saying--"Here is the universal medicine! The great Catholic
   remedy." I see them pouring their Belladonna, Monkshood and deadly
   Henbane into the great pot forever simmering on the Papal hearth. Do
   you think the nations are to be healed by this accursed amalgam? Will
   not the end be as in the days of the Prophets, when one gathered wild
   gourds and they cried out, "there is death in the pot"?

   Yes, indeed, so it will be, even though Oxford and Canterbury set their
   seal upon the patent medicine! Come, you brave sons of protesting
   fathers! Come and overturn this witches' caldron and spill it back into
   the Hell for which alone it is fit! Pity that even old Tiber's tawny
   flood should be poisoned with it, or bear its deadly mixture to that
   sea across which once sailed the Apostolic boat. The wine of Rome's
   abominations is now imported into this island and distributed in a
   thousand towns and villages by your own national clergy! And all
   classes and conditions of men are being made drunk with its filth! You
   lovers of your race and of your God, stop the traffic and proclaim
   around the Popish caldron, "There is no healing here."

   No healing plants ever grew upon the Seven Hills of Rome, nor are the
   roots improved in virtue if transplanted to Canterbury, or the city on
   the Isis. There is one Divine remedy and only one. It is no mixture.
   Receive it and live--"With His stripes we are healed." No sprinkling
   can wash out sin! No confirmation can confer Divine Grace! No masses
   can propitiate God! Your hope must be in Jesus! Jesus smitten! Jesus
   bruised! Jesus slain! Jesus the Substitute for sinners!

   Whoever believes in Him is healed, but all other hopes are a lie from
   top to bottom. Of Sacramentarianism I will say that its Alpha is a lie
   and its Omega is a lie! It is as false as the devil who devised it! But
   Christ and only Christ is the true Physician of souls, and His stripes
   the only remedy.

   Oh, for a trumpet to sound this through every town of England! Through
   every city of Europe! Oh, to preach this in the Coliseum! Or better,
   still, from the pulpit of St. Peter's!--"With His stripes we are
   healed." Away, away you deceivers with your mixtures and compounds!
   Away you proud sons of men with your boasts of what you feel and think
   and do and what you intend and vow! "With HIS stripes we are healed." A
   crucified Savior is the sole and only hope of a sinful world.

   III. Now, I said this is a VERY SUGGESTIVE text, but I shall not give
   you the suggestions for time has failed me, except to say that whenever
   a man is healed through the stripes of Jesus, the instincts of his
   nature should make him say, "I will spend the strength I have, as a
   healed man, for Him who healed me." Every stripe on the back of Christ
   cries to me, "You are not your own! You are bought with a price." What
   do you say to this--you who profess to be healed? Will you live to Him?
   Will you not say, "For me to live is Christ. I desire now, having been
   healed through His precious blood, to spend and be spent in His
   service"?

   Oh, if you all were brought to this it would be a grand day for
   London--if we had a thousand men who would preach nothing but Christ
   and live nothing but Christ, what would the world see? A thousand? No,
   give us but a dozen men on fire with the love of Jesus and if they
   would preach Christ out and out, and through and through and nothing
   else, the world would know a change before long! We should hear again
   the cry, "The men that turn the world upside down have come here,
   also." Nothing beneath the sun is so mighty as the Gospel! Believe me,
   there is nothing so wise as Christ and nothing so potent over human
   hearts as the Cross! Vain are the dreams of intellect and the boasts of
   culture! Give me the Cross and keep your fineries!

   You will know this when you come to die, Beloved. You will find nothing
   able to cheer your departing moments but the Savior on the bloody tree.
   When the man is panting for existence and the breath is hard to fetch,
   and the spirit faces eternity, you need no priest--no dead creed, no
   gaudy oratory, no sacraments, no dreams--you will demand certainties,
   verities, Divine realities! And where will you find them but in the
   Divine Substitute? Here is a rock to put your foot on! Here are the rod
   and the staff of God Himself to comfort you! Then nothing will seem
   more admirable than the simple Truth of God that God became Man and
   suffered in man's place and that God has promised that whoever believes
   in His Son shall not perish but have everlasting life!

   Beloved, if you know that Jesus has healed you, serve Him by telling
   others about the healing medicine. Whisper it in the ear of one. Tell
   it in your houses to the twos. Preach it, if you can, to the hundreds
   of thousands. Print it in the papers. Write it with your pen. Spread it
   through every nook and corner of the land. Tell it to your children.
   Tell it to your servants. Leave none around you ignorant of it. Hang it
   up everywhere in letters of boldest type. "WITH HIS

   STRIPES WE ARE HEALED!"

   Oh, sound it! Sound it! Sound it loud as the trumpet of doom! And make
   men's ears to hear it, whether they will or not! The Lord bless you
   with this healing. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Laboring And Not Fainting

   (No. 1069)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 8, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "For My name's sake you ha ve labored and ha ve not fainted."
   Revelation 2:3.

   THE Lord Jesus Christ never removes His eyes from His Church. He notes
   everything that concerns her, observing not merely the life of her
   members but their soul's health, and not merely their health, but the
   way in which they spend their spiritual strength. He knows their works,
   He observes their charity, their patience, their zeal for His name's
   sake. Seven times in His words to the Churches, He says, "I know your
   works." This should make us live with great care, for albeit the whole
   world is under the eye of God, yet of His Church it is true, "upon one
   stone there shall be seven eyes." The full perfection of Omniscience
   exerts itself upon the Lord's chosen people. The farmer has an eye to
   all his estate but his chief care is his own family. And, even so,
   while the Great Husbandman of all creation observes all His works, He
   chiefly looks upon His own household. "The eye of the Lord is upon them
   that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy."

   Our Lord Jesus, it appears from the text and its connection, notices
   what it is that His Church cannot bear and He is very glad when she
   cannot endure false doctrine or unholy living. He would have her never
   to endure these but to purge herself from them with all strictness. But
   He notes also, with joy, what she can bear--toilsome labor, abundant
   self-denial, reproach for His sake, persecution and suffering even unto
   blood. In this He sees her love made manifest and His delight is in
   her. It appears that our Lord especially fixes His eyes upon the labors
   of the Church. What is the Church allowed to be on earth for but that
   she should labor for her Lord? If there were nothing to be done in this
   world there would be no reason for her lingering here below. She would
   be transported to the better land if there were not great ends to be
   accomplished by her tarrying here.

   She is put here because the world needs her and because God's Glory is
   to be revealed through her. She is to be salt to a society which
   otherwise would be putrid--light to a people who otherwise would sit in
   darkness. Consequently a Church which does not labor misses the chief
   end of its being--it is a plant that bears no flower--a vine branch
   that yields no cluster. Christ observes the labor of His Church and He
   has special delight in it when it is continuous, so that He can give to
   her the double commendation of our text, "You have labored and have not
   fainted." Oh, that we might receive this commendation from our Master's
   lips at the last! May He whose blood and righteousness are our only
   hope of salvation see in us abounding evidences of the grateful love
   which He so well deserves at our hands.

   We shall, this morning make persevering service our theme.

   I. First I would call your attention to the text itself, noticing THE
   POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE GOOD here combined. "You have labored"--there is
   something positive. "You have not fainted"--there is a negative which
   helps to make the positive more positively excellent. "You have
   labored." We will not consider the original, but we will take the words
   of our version.

   "You have labored." Now, to labor signifies working with the putting
   forth of much strength. It is work with an emphasis. It means hard
   work, intense exertion, vigorous action. Men may work, but yet not
   labor and I fear there are many who claim to be working men who do not
   often trouble themselves with anything approaching to "labor." There
   are also working Christians who do not approach to laboring--a lifetime
   of such work as theirs would not exhaust a butterfly.

   When a man works for Christ he should work with all his might. Surely
   we should not offer less love under the Gospel than was required under
   the Law, and you know the Law speaks on this wise--"You shall love the
   Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all
   your mind, and with all your strength." Surely Jesus Christ deserves
   all that--and when we labor for Him it should not be with the careless
   indifference of slaves--but with the

   ardor of lovers, the devotion of enthusiasts. If any master is to be
   served badly, let it not be our Master who is in Heaven! We owe Him too
   much to wish to be eye-servants towards Him. If anywhere a dilatory
   servant may be excused, certainly it cannot be in the service of Him
   who redeemed us with His most precious blood! A Church ought,
   therefore, not merely to be a working Church, but a great deal more--it
   should be a Church working to its highest pitch--a laboring church.

   If I may use the figure, we ought to employ every particle of our steam
   power. We should drive the engine at high pressure. We have no force
   that can be allowed to escape in waste. We should not be simply walking
   to Heaven, but running the heavenly race and running it with diligence
   and eagerness! When a man truly labors it takes a good deal out of him.
   Laboring, therefore implies self-denial. In labor the man's strength is
   brought forth and expended. See how the hot sweat stands upon his brow,
   how it pours from him as he continues to exert himself. He has to deny
   himself, for he would like to be at rest. He sees his comrade, perhaps,
   lounging against yonder pillar or stretching himself at ease upon the
   greensward. But he cannot do that and labor--he knows he cannot. He
   lays aside his ease and comfort for the sake of what he has to do.

   So would the Church if she were what she should be--she would deny
   herself and take up the cross of high-pressure service. She would toil
   without cessation and give without stint. An energy far beyond anything
   usual in Christendom would be common in the Church if she were in a
   right state of heart. Alas, I fear the bulk of professors are not
   earnest enough to preserve their professions from ridicule. I noticed
   the other day a remark which struck me. Speaking of a certain
   congregation, the writer said he believed there were a hundred persons
   in it who were worth not less than 5,000 pounds a year each, and then
   he mentioned the sum that was given for the maintenance of the work of
   God, and he added, "if any ordinary person who was not a Christian,
   went in there and heard them sing--

   "And if I might make some reserve,

   And duty did not call,

   I love my God with zeal so great,

   That I would give him all"

   --he would say to himself, "I was at the theater on Saturday night and
   saw a farce, but if I need a screaming one I must come here on a
   Sunday."

   Indeed, I thought the remark to be sadly true. When I see how much
   there is of available strength both in worldly substance, in mental
   vigor and in other forms in the Church which is never used, I dare
   hardly say that any Church now upon earth really labors for Christ. A
   little of your spare strength is given to Jesus and then you think you
   have done well. He is put off with odds and ends--the cheese parings
   and the potato peelings of the Church! I ask you, does He get much
   more? What are the gifts of most? Do they give as much as would keep
   the lowest menial in their kitchens? It was not so in early times. Then
   men were Christians all over and altogether and served Christ first,
   Christ last, Christ midst, and Christ without end! But now it is enough
   if we gloss over life with a little varnish of holy talk and pious
   profession.

   Would God these eyes might live to see a Church that really labored,
   putting forth all its strength with all its might, using all the force
   in its possession for the propagation of the Gospel of the Lord and the
   extension of the Redeemer's kingdom! But labor implies not merely the
   strong effort I have tried to depict, but a continuance of it, for a
   man might take up a workman's tool and for a few minutes make a mighty
   show of effort and yet be no laborer unless he kept on working till his
   task was done.

   If a few minutes sufficed him and he said, "I have had practical
   experience of what labor is and I rather think it does not agree with
   me." And if, therefore, he should lay down his tool and go back to his
   gentlemanly ease, he would be no laborer. He merely plays at labor,
   that is all. So have we known too many whose service for God has been
   occasional-- they have fits and starts of effort, but they are soon
   over--their spasmodic zeal is today so hot as to be well near fanatical
   and tomorrow it will be succeeded by an indifference far more
   astounding! If the Church is said to labor, it means that she puts
   forth all her strength as a regular thing. Like the sun and moon she
   continues in her orbit of duty. She does not flash and foam for a brief
   interval like a torrent, but she flows on steadily and continually like
   a river. She keeps at her lifework and with all her might she continues
   in well-doing and is not weary.

   There is the positive good. The negative, as I have said, crowns the
   positive--"And have not fainted." Now, there are different degrees of
   fainting. Some may be said to faint comparatively when they flag in
   exertion. They drop from running to walking, from diligence to
   indolence. They did run well--what hindered them? They flag. Many
   continue to do as much as ever they did outwardly, yet their heart is
   not in it and so they faint. Their service is the same to the eyes of

   man, but not the same to the eyes of God. They act as mere
   officials--their work is done mechanically--they go through the
   routine, but they put forth no energy, no life power. There is no
   anointing of the Holy Spirit in them.

   There is fruit, but it resembles the berries of a sunless summer. It is
   tasteless, insipid, and all but worthless. Some flag by growing weak in
   all they do. They do put forth such force as they have, but they are
   essentially feeble. They preach their best, but their best is wine
   mixed with water. They teach in the school and what they teach is the
   Truth of God and they deliver it with some degree of earnestness--but
   they have lost the power with which to influence the heart. Ears they
   can weary, but they cannot stir consciences!

   They are vigorously feeble, vehemently weak. They have got away from
   God, the Source of all spiritual strength and therefore their locks are
   shorn and though, like Samson, they shake themselves, they shake
   themselves in vain. The power of God has departed from them and though
   they may not know it, Ichabod is written upon their works. Too many go
   further than this--they renounce all or a large part of the Christian
   work they were accustomed to do. Content with the efforts of other days
   they surrender to the sluggard's vice. They faint, that is, they give
   up the work altogether! The soldier grounds his arms; the workman puts
   away his tools--they count their day's work to be done before the day
   is done, and cry for their wages before the pay day has arrived!

   It is sad that there should be so many in the Church of this kind. And
   some go even further than that, for after retiring from labor,
   themselves, they cease to have any care about the Lord's work. They
   grow indifferent. They even become critical and censorious towards
   those who are zealously occupied--whether Christ's kingdom grows or
   declines appears to be little or nothing to them. They still wear the
   Christian name but they have fainted. They are like persons in a swoon
   who have become unconscious of all around. They need assistance from
   others and can give no help in return. They are a draft upon the
   Church's resources, instead of an addition to her strength. For all
   usefulness they might as well be dead--only as a tax upon the energy of
   the Church can they be said to be alive. Happy are they who are
   preserved from fainting in any of these degrees! God grant especially
   that we may never come to that last, lest it should be said of us that
   we had a name to live and were dead.

   But, Brothers and Sisters, members of Christ's Church, by His Grace
   this may be said of us through a long course of years--"They labored
   and fainted not." When our hair is white with the snows of many
   winters, may it truly be said by the dear lips of Him who is in Heaven
   for us, "You have labored and have not fainted." When we lie in our
   last narrow bed, may this be the encomium which our spirit shall hear
   before the Throne of God, "You have labored and have not fainted." May
   this be such a sentence as an honest affection may dare to write upon
   our tombs. Have we begun to faint already? If we are yet in our youth
   let us scorn to faint so soon. If we are yet in the prime of our days,
   let us call shame upon ourselves for fainting before yet the sun
   shines.

   Or, are we beginning to faint now that we are growing gray? Why should
   we faint now when the day is almost over, and the shadows are drawn
   out? Brothers and Sisters, call shame upon yourself if you would faint
   in your last evening hours when Glory is at your door and the crown of
   immortality is all but upon your brow! Let us be steadfast, immovable,
   always abounding in the work of the Lord so that this text may be our
   own at the last--"You have labored for My name's sake, and have not
   fainted."

   II. Now we pass on to a second part of our discourse and that is to
   dwell upon EXCUSES FOR FAINTING. Fainting has become so common in the
   Church of God that various apologies have been made for it and they are
   constantly being repeated. When a sin is frequent, excuses for it are
   multiplied until men cease to blush and think that they have done no
   ill whatever.

   There are some who faint in the work of God because the work itself has
   proven very tedious to them. When they first undertook it and the
   novelty was upon it they did not tire, but now the freshness is gone
   and they have come into the real wear and tear of it, they do not enjoy
   it quite so much as they thought they should. They hoped for an office
   in which the chief labor should be to gather lilies, or lie upon beds
   of roses. The service of the Crucified is far less romantic and far
   more laborious.

   Dear Friends, if any of you think that the road of Christian service is
   all level and rolled with a steam roller, you have made a very great
   mistake. There is no royal road to eminence in anything--it is always
   uphill work and rough climbing--and certainly there is no such road in
   the service of God! Never was there a truer sentence than that we sung
   just now--

   "True, it is a straight and thorny road, And mortal spirits tire and
   faint."

   Friends were debating the other day concerning the work of the
   ministry, the ease or the labor of it, and I reminded one of them of
   that saying of Baxter, "God have mercy upon the man who finds the
   ministry of the Gospel to be easy work, for he will have need of all
   God's mercy, indeed, when he renders up his account at the Last Great
   Day."

   I cannot conceive of a more atrocious offender against humanity and
   against God than the man who, having souls committed to his trust,
   finds it an easy thing to take care of them and watch for their
   salvation! Sirs, the ministry is a matter which wears the brain and
   strains the heart--and drains out the life of a man if he attends to it
   as he should. If God were served by any of us as He should be, I
   question whether we should not grow old before our tine through labor
   and anguish, even as did that great lover of Souls, Jesus, the great
   Shepherd of the sheep! Soul-winning is a work that might fill an
   angel's heart--it did fill a Savior's hands. Any service for God, if it
   is done at all, should be hard work.

   If you need to be feather-bed soldiers go and enlist somewhere
   else--Christ's soldiers must fight and they will find the battle rough
   and stern. We, of the Church militant, are engaged in no mimic
   maneuvers and grand parades! Our life is real and earnest. Our battle,
   though not with flesh and blood, is with spiritual wickedness in high
   places and it involves hard blows and keen anguish. You must look for
   real fighting if you become a soldier of Christ, and oh, Sir, if the
   excuse for fainting is that the work is toilsome, that it is too much a
   drag upon you, why did you begin it? You ought to have known this at
   the first. You should have counted the cost!

   But, ah, let me say, the work was not toilsome when your heart was
   loving! Neither would it now be so hard if your soul were right with
   God. This is but an unworthy excuse. Ardent spirits love difficulties!
   Fervent love delights in making sacrifices! They would not wish to swim
   forever in smooth seas of pleasure. They know that manhood's truest
   glory lies in contending with and overcoming that which is hard. Give
   to the child the easy task, but let the man have something worth the
   doing to perform. Instead of shrinking because the work is tedious, we
   ought to gird up our loins and push on the enterprise with all the
   greater force.

   Another apology is pretty frequently heard. "But I have been so long at
   it now. I have been a tract distributor. I have been a city missionary.
   I have been an evangelist, or I have been a Bible Woman, or I have been
   a Sunday school teacher now 20 or 30 years and I think it is time to
   retire." Say you so, my Comrades? The sun has been shining now a great
   many thousand years, but I have not heard that he intends retiring from
   the business yet. God has given to us fruitful seasons and I have not
   heard that He intends to cease to bless our husbandry. Every day we
   drink from the river of His mercy and we have had no intimation, yet,
   that that river has ceased to flow and that God intends to cut off the
   supplies.

   Why, then, should any one of us dream of staying his hand? What is a
   lifetime at its utmost length for the service of God? Suppose a man
   could spend 70 clear years in unflagging exertion in the service of his
   Master--what would it be, after all? But now half our time must go in
   sleep and in the necessary refreshment of the body. Next, a very large
   proportion must be taken off for the business of the world--and then
   what is left? Why, we can only give our Master a few hours in the week,
   the most of us, and yet you talk about having served Him so long! Dear
   Master, put Your hand upon our lips next time we would use such words
   and never permit us to insult the sovereignty of Your dear love by
   making such an excuse for our sluggishness!

   Other excuses, however, will be sure to come and among them, this, that
   we have been disappointed up till now in the success of what we have
   attempted. We have sown, but the most of the seed has fallen upon the
   wayside or upon the rocks--and where it did spring up we have not
   gained anything like a hundred-fold increase. We thought that in our
   class we should have had all the girls or all the boys converted almost
   immediately--and when we went into the village to preach, we concluded
   everybody would come to hear us and that hearing us, they would be
   converted and a Church would be speedily formed. We dreamed that when
   we visited a district in the crowded city, we should be able, very
   soon, to so reform the people that the public houses would grow fewer
   and the Sabbath would be better kept, and I do not know what beside!
   Very little of this fair vision has been realized--we have not
   succeeded as we desired.

   And what is very perplexing to us is the fact that we know of somebody
   who has succeeded where we have failed--a person who does not appear to
   have all the gifts we have, or all the capacities we have--whose sphere
   was evidently quite as difficult as ours and yet he has prospered and
   we have not. And therefore we conclude that we would do well to cease

   our working. If we were in our right minds and did not need an excuse
   for being sluggards, we should not reason thus, but should argue to a
   conclusion of a diametrically opposite nature!

   He who has succeeded so well might, perhaps, have an excuse for going
   home and saying, "Master, my work is done," but he who has done so very
   little should continue at his work till he can show some sort of result
   for his efforts. He should say, "I will stick to this till I succeed,
   or till I can say, 'If I have not succeeded it was no fault of mine--I
   did what my Master bade me, I called upon Him for help in it--and I
   went to work in His way with faith in Him,' and if I have not
   prospered, I have done what I could."

   I remember hearing a certain young preacher exclaim after he had heard
   an older Divine who had preached with some power, "There now, I shall
   never be able to preach again after this. I shall feel quite ashamed to
   go into the pulpit with my poor sermons!" I could not help remarking
   that the effect ought to be the other way. If this man had done so
   well, it only shows what God can enable me to do, and I will go to God
   and ask Him to help me. If this Brother is so useful in the Church, I
   will bless God that he is a better man than I am and if God pleases to
   give me a gleam of success occasionally, I will thank Him even if I am
   not able to bear so much success as my fellow servant. We must not give
   up the war because we have not yet conquered, but fight on till we can
   seize the victory. Let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season
   we shall reap if we faint not.

   Another set of excuses I must mention. They are little, pettish,
   pitiful, proud excuses--but they are very common. Here is one. "I shall
   leave the work, for I am sure I am not appreciated as I ought to be."
   You do not exactly use these words, but that is your feeling. I am only
   photographing your thoughts. You began to serve God very
   enthusiastically and you thought the minister ought to have said, "I am
   thankful that God has sent such a very zealous young man into our
   Church." But he has not made any such remark. You have gone on for some
   time working among the poor, but the good people around you have not
   been heard to say, "Have you heard of So-and-So? She is such a
   remarkably useful woman, quite a godsend among us, an example to us
   all." You feel hurt that you are not admired. You are vexed that you
   are not highly esteemed.

   Now, I will not waste words in exposing this feeling, but I will at
   once ask you to look at it and tell me if you don't think it is the
   meanest and most miserable thing you have ever set your eyes upon? Do
   you mean to give way to such pettiness and silliness? If so, I have
   done with you, for you will never do any good in this world! The slave
   of such a mean feeling is incapable of being free. "Ah," cries another,
   "my complaint is more reasonable, for I am discouraged because no one
   aids me in my work. I should not mind their not appreciating me, but
   they have not assisted me though I have needed much help. I have kept
   on under great pressure, and where I thought I should surely find
   sympathizers and helpers, I have met with the cold shoulder and unkind
   remarks."

   Oh, my Brother! My Brother! Does your life, after all, depend upon the
   breath of other men's nostrils? Has it come to this, that you cannot
   live upon the approbation of your Master unless you gain also the smile
   of your fellow servants? Does it mean this, that you will not do your
   duty because other people are negligent of theirs? It seems to me if
   others will not aid me I must put my shoulder to the wheel and do the
   work myself by the help of God! If the toil is unshared the honor will
   be undivided. To tread the winepress alone makes us more like our Lord.
   Therefore, let us labor on in the name of the Lord whose support is far
   better than the help of kings or princes!

   Another says, "I have no patience with these frivolous excuses, but
   mine is a solid one. I must leave my work, for I am so much opposed in
   it." Granted that you are opposed, but why should you run away?
   Overcome the opposition, dear Brother--the more of it to be overcome,
   the more Divine Grace you need--and the more honor you may gain.
   Suppose a troop should come against you. Is it not said of Gad, "A
   troop shall overcome him, but he shall overcome at the last"? Would you
   be crowned without a conflict and made a victor without fighting? Of
   one of old it is said that he broke through a troop and leaped over a
   wall through his God. Why should you not do the same?

   "But my wall is so high," you say, "I cannot leap over it." Is it an
   iron wall or a granite wall? Then, if God tells you to leap, leap right
   at it. He will either bear you over it, or else its solid substance
   will dissolve into impalpable vapor and vanish quite away. You only
   need courage! Go in this, your might, for you shall thresh the
   mountains and the wind shall winnow them and carry them away. "But I am
   so incompetent and feel so weak," says one, "in fact, the further I go
   the weaker I get!" You are progressing admirably, dear Brother, and
   when you become still weaker you will succeed!

   Gideon could not win the battle because he had too many soldiers--the
   faint-hearted had to be sent away, but still there were too many troops
   remaining! And when the whole army was reduced to 300 and they had no
   weapons but earthen vessels and trumpets--then it was that the
   Midianites were conquered! When we are weak then we are strong. Oh,
   Brother, renounce this excuse and labor on, fainting not! God keep you
   from fainting.

   III. Now, for a moment or two, I am going to mention the REAL CAUSES OF
   FAINTING. The first is an actual decline in spiritual strength. When a
   working Believer suddenly becomes a loitering professor, you may gather
   from it that his spiritual constitution has gray hairs upon it here and
   there, though he knows it not. It is not, dear Brother, merely that you
   do not do so much--it is that you are not so much--you have not the
   amount of life in you which you once had.

   And is not this a sad thing? Ought not this to be an indicator to you
   of spiritual sickness and drive you at once to the Good Physician to
   seek healing at His hands? There is, if you would look a little into
   your spirit, I am quite sure of it, a falling off in your love to
   Jesus. Holy work is no harder, but you do not love Christ so well. You
   have, in truth, no more enemies than you had, but you have forgotten
   your best Friend. Oh, if you had been in the banqueting house with Him
   and His banner of love had waved over you--and you had been made to
   drink of the spiced wine of His pomegranate in sweet communion with His
   blessed Person, you would not have fainted--for he who is on fire with
   love will burn his way through difficulties.

   I am afraid, too, there is coming over your spirit a great deal of
   deadness to spiritual and eternal things. You are now more moved and
   actuated by the things that are seen, and less by the things that are
   unseen. It is a very easy thing for us to get to enjoy the world and to
   give our hearts up to its troubles and cares. It needs the Spirit of
   God to make us sensitive to the Divine touch so that we feel
   eternity--so that we know the value of other men's souls, so that we
   put before us the great day in which actions shall be revealed--so that
   we estimate life aright as it will weigh in the balances of infinite
   justice! Oh, to be dead to these spiritual realities in any degree is a
   dreadful death and to be callous to holy things is a terrible hardness!
   May God keep us from spiritual insensibility and may we be tender and
   sensitive to the faintest motion of the Holy Spirit.

   It is to be feared, also, that those who faint have lost their reliance
   upon Divine power, at least in a degree. The man who labors for God
   aright never works in his own strength. He who works aright acts
   because he believes that God works through him--and can a man faint
   when he feels that? When we fight for God's Truth it is not our arm but
   the arm of the Eternal which deals the blow! When we bear testimony to
   His Word it is not we that speak, but God's Spirit speaks through us!
   Let the man of God go forth to any enterprise and hear the sound of his
   Master's feet behind him and he will march to the tune of Miriam's
   timbrel! But let him go alone and he will moan and murmur, and pine and
   fail, and die. Confidence in God makes us strong, but by turning away
   from our great unseen Helper we straightaway begin to faint.

   Moreover, I am afraid that we forget that the Lord requires of us an
   unselfish dedication to His service and that we do not serve Him at all
   unless His Glory is our chief object. When I hear of a fainting Sunday
   school teacher who gives as a reason for fainting that he does not
   think the other Sunday school teachers are as kind to him as they ought
   to be, I ask him whether his main object was that he should be loved of
   men--for if he loved his God, what would it be to him how his fellow
   men regarded him? When I hear a man saying, "I shall give up that post,
   or that service"--(of course I am not mentioning those who have
   justifiable reasons, and there are such cases), but when I hear of a
   man's retiring because he is faint-hearted, I say to him, "You have met
   with difficulties--did you not know you would meet with difficulties?
   You have gained no honor--did you not serve for another motive, namely,
   God's Glory?

   "If you looked for ease and contentment and pleasure, and have not
   gained them, what wonder? You ought not to have looked for them. Oh,
   Brother, you have made a mistake! You must get into a better state of
   heart before God can use you! You must feel that you would have the
   Lord use you just as in His infinite wisdom He sees fit to do. You
   should be a piece of iron on the Almighty's anvil to be welded into a
   scepter if He chooses you to break the potter's vessels--to be beaten
   into a plowshare and plunged into the earth, if by you He means to turn
   up the furrows of the fallow ground-- or fashioned into a spear-point,
   if by you He intends to strike His enemies."

   Whatever He wishes to make us, that we should desire to be. We know not
   what it is to serve God fully until we come to perfect submission to
   His will.

   IV. I have a little medical business to do in closing this sermon. Four
   sorts of persons are very common among us. There are, first, those who
   neither labor nor faint. Next, those who faint but never labor. Then,
   those who did labor once, but have fainted. And, fourthly, those who
   labor still but are ready to faint. To each of these four I desire to
   administer a little medicine.

   Let the first come here. There are some who neither labor nor faint. I
   do not mean outsiders, now! Those God shall judge. I mean members of
   the Church. Labor? No. The greatest labor they ever do is to walk from
   home to the Meeting House to hear a sermon and some of them are hardly
   able to keep awake during the time of hearing the discourse. They are
   slumbering hearers like Eutychus and it is a great mercy God does not
   make an example of them as He did of that sleepy Brother. We have
   Church members who never labor and, therefore, never faint. What would
   they faint about? They have never done enough to come anywhere near an
   approach to that state of exhaustion.

   They never draw the Gospel coach but they are delighted to ride on the
   top of it! They especially prize the box seat if they can get it. They
   never go into the Lord's vineyard to trim the vines but they are very
   fond of eating the clusters, though, indeed, even these they will, at
   times, call sour and destitute of the flavor of the older vintages.
   They do nothing, nothing whatever and, therefore they find fault with
   those who do! I am very thankful that very few of this class are among
   us, yet there are too many.

   Now, I would prescribe for them a taste of the gall of bitterness. It
   might be beneficial to them if they had the flavor of it in their
   mouths, for I am very much afraid that unless they repent it will be
   their eternal portion. A Church member who brings forth no fruit, what
   did the Lord say about him? He said, "Every tree that brings not forth
   fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire." How would you like that,
   you idle Church members? Every branch in the true vine that bears no
   fruit He takes away. What do you say to this? How do you like the looks
   of that threat, you fruitless members?

   I speak not to you that are sick and whose fruit is patience--God bless
   you--you are good fruit-bearing branches. I speak not to you who are
   feeble in health, poor, obscure and with little gifts who,
   nevertheless, do what you can--the Lord accepts and blesses you--He
   counts your mite a greater gift than the rich man's larger portion! He
   calls your little word that you are able to speak for Jesus truer
   service than many an eloquent discourse.

   But I mean you who could and do not! You who should and do not! You who
   eat the fat and drink the sweet in Zion and yet let men die and be
   damned while you take no care of their souls and do not even give them
   a tract, or write them a letter to tell them the way to Heaven or give
   them a warning. Believing that you are saved yourselves, you button
   yourselves up and are perfectly content to sneak into Heaven alone! A
   pretty Heaven it would be if it were full of selfish spirits like
   yourselves!

   Oh, that we may be stirred up to escape from such an unholy spirit! I
   loathe the very thought of living here merely to get into Heaven
   myself--going to Christ to be washed from my own sins and for daily
   mercy--and then never doing a hand's turn towards the building of His
   Temple, but just sitting down and caring for none besides. You idlers
   need to have a taste of salutary bitterness! May it be kept in your
   mouths till it is rinsed out with a glass of repentance and may it lead
   you to Jesus to ask Him to save you from all indolence and selfishness.

   The next sort of persons to be dealt with are those who faint but do
   not labor. "Who are they?" you ask. I remember one in the days of
   Solomon who had to go down a street upon an errand, but did not go.
   Dear man, he would not venture out for there was a lion in the way.
   Now, truth to say, there was no lion that any man could see, but his
   imagination had invented the bloodthirsty animal. We know persons of
   the same family who would say, "Oh, do not attempt to do anything that
   has not been done before, it would be hazardous! Our forefathers were
   content to have sermons preached down back streets where nobody could
   find the Meeting Houses--let us keep to our obscurity."

   Yet men of bolder heart have pushed to the front and mean to keep
   there. But hear how these cowards talk. "Do not go down that court!
   There are Catholics there! Do not think of going to that lodging
   house--they are sure to mock at you! Do not introduce religion to such
   a man, it will be of no use--he will only turn again and tear you
   apart! Do not cast pearls before such swine." These are excellent wet
   blankets and the stock is large. We have some of them in all
   congregations.

   What advice shall I give to them but this--My dear Brothers and
   Sisters, just stand aside, please--get out of the way and let others
   come forward and serve God if you do not mean to do it yourselves. If
   you do not like to be so ignominiously put on one side, I would suggest
   to you the following medicine. Take every morning a few drops of the

   essential oil of "try," and you do not know what an effect it may have
   upon you! Powers now dormant would be awakened and things impossible
   would be achieved. Add to this a strong draught of the wine of
   "must"--necessity is laid upon me--yes, woe is me unless I serve my
   Master! And I think you might be brought back into a tolerably healthy
   condition and yet, after all, labor and not faint.

   Our third patient is one who did labor once, but has fainted. If he has
   fainted because he thinks he has done enough let me prescribe for him a
   strong potion of the salts of fear. They may be useful to him. He that
   puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not worthy of the kingdom.
   "Remember Lot's wife." Shall I repeat that prescription, for it is a
   very useful one to those who leave off working for Christ! "Remember
   Lot's wife." If her fate is recollected perhaps your heart will be
   stirred up to renewed diligence.

   But there are some who labor and are ready to faint. To them I would
   prescribe the "wines on the lees well-refined," the rich promises of
   God's Word, the sweet prospect of an eternal reward! I would recommend
   them to take the spirit of confidence in large quantities, yes, to be
   filled with it! Confide in God--He will not suffer you to labor in
   vain, or spend your strength for nothing! To you, my fellow Soldiers in
   this Church, I have these words to say--These are not times for
   fainting, these are not times for idling. All the world is active--the
   wheels of commerce are revolving at a greater rate than ever-- events
   everywhere march with a giant stride! We have seen what our fathers
   dreamed not of! Now, if ever, the Church of God ought to be awake! The
   demands of souls require our utmost diligence. The enemy is active in
   deceiving--we must be active in instructing and saving.

   Now, by the precious blood of Christ who bought you, oh, you Believers
   in Christ, bestir yourselves! If, indeed, you are legitimately born
   from above! If the imperial blood is in your veins and if you are
   soldiers of that great Captain who unto death strove against sin! And
   if you expect to wear the white robe and wave the palm of victory--in
   the name of the eternal and ever-living One, seek His Spirit and the
   Divine energy that you may labor yet more abundantly and faint not! I
   am longing to have this Church all in working order for the campaign on
   which we are about to enter. The long evenings of Fall are our time of
   hope!

   Oh, Brothers and Sisters, help us, that by the power of the Holy
   Spirit, between now and next spring we may have many conversions and a
   large increase to our numbers! If the whole Church should be awakened
   throughout we might expect far greater blessings than we have ever
   received before! Oh, Spirit of the living God, come upon us! Come upon
   pastors and officers and members--and upon the whole congregation--and
   all the glory shall be unto Your name forever and forever! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Wrecked, But Not reckless

   (No. 1070)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JUNE 9, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "All hope that we should be sa ved was then taken away." Acts 27:20.

   HERE was a case of extreme peril, in which there seemed to be no
   possibility whatever of any of the lives of nearly 300 persons being
   preserved. In this emergency the Apostle Paul resorted to prayer. We
   may avail ourselves of this privilege in the worst pinch. When things
   are so black that they cannot be any darker we may still pray. God is
   good at a dead lift. Our extremities, as we well know, are always His
   opportunities. When we can do nothing to help ourselves, let us pray
   and we can get help from God in everything. Or, after we have done the
   little we can do, let us leave all with God and resort to Him in
   prayer.

   This is one case out of many in which prayer has averted peril while
   faith has grappled with fear and despair has been routed from the heart
   by a calm dependence on the Lord. Thus Paul was enabled by his
   supplication to save the lives of all that were in the ship. Do not
   think, dear Brothers and Sisters, then, that your prayers in time of
   extremity will prove fruitless. God enable you to pray with faith!
   Remember there never was a prayer of faith that failed yet! Heaven and
   earth shall pass away but this Truth of God shall never cease to be
   true, that God is the Hearer of prayer if we will but believe in Him.
   He that wavers must not expect to receive an answer, but he that is
   confident in his God shall never be confounded.

   However, I am going to take the text out of its connection--I need to
   use it for different reasons and purposes. We have frequently known men
   to be in a condition in which they have said that all hope that they
   should be saved was taken away. We are going to speak to such tonight.
   Sometimes I have been glad to hear that cry and sometimes I have
   deplored it. Sometimes I have heartily sympathized with it. Upon those
   three phases of the cry we shall speak.

   I. Sometimes, as I have said, when we have heard a man say that all
   hope that he shall be saved has been taken away, we have REJOICED TO
   HEAR HIM SAY SO. Does that appear to be a cruel statement? It is not
   meant to be. Let me explain and then I hope you will understand it.
   Multitudes of persons are sailing in what they think to be the good
   ship of self-righteousness--they are expecting that they shall get to
   Heaven in her. But she never did carry a soul safely into the fair
   haven yet and she never will.

   Self-righteousness is as rapid a road to ruin as outward sin itself. We
   may as certainly destroy ourselves by opposing the righteousness of
   Christ as by transgressing the Law of God. Self-righteousness is as
   much an insult to God as blasphemy and God will never accept it,
   neither shall any soul enter Heaven by it. Now, this vessel manages to
   keep on her way against all the good advice of Scripture. Often men
   have a soft south wind blowing and things go easy with them, and they
   believe that through their own doings they shall assuredly find the
   port of Peace. I am glad, therefore, when some terrific tempest
   overtakes this vessel and when men's hopes, through their own doings
   and their own feelings, are utterly wrecked.

   I am glad when the old ship parts timber from timber--when she goes
   aground and breaks to pieces and men find safety in some other way--for
   whatever seemingly safety they may have today will only delude them. It
   must end in destruction and it is therefore a thousand mercies when
   they find it out soon enough to get another and a better hope of being
   saved rather than this, which will certainly deceive them. I remember
   very well when that terrific storm blew on my vessel. It was as good a
   vessel as any of you have, although I would be bound to say each of you
   would vindicate your own. The sails needed mending and here and there
   she needed a little touch of paint, but for all that she was sea-worthy
   and fit to be registered "A.1." at Lloyd's, and entered in the first
   class--at least so I thought.

   And I remember when the storm blew over her and she went to pieces! I
   bless God that she went to pieces altogether, for I should have been
   kept on board to this very minute if I had not been washed off. I tried
   to cling to it to the very last

   plank but I was obliged to give it up and look somewhere else for help
   and safety. Now, it will happen, sometimes, when God is dealing with a
   self-righteous person who is delighting himself with the thought that
   he is all right--that he is not a great sinner, that he is a religious
   person, that he takes the sacraments, that he says his prayers, that he
   is as good as most people, perhaps rather better--and that if he does
   not go to Heaven he wonders who will.

   I say it will happen to such a man, if God loves him, (if He does not
   care about him He will let him go on in his own way till he is
   destroyed, but if He has set His eternal love on him it will so
   happen)--that a storm will come, perhaps on a sudden, just as the
   tempest did to Paul's vessel, and twist him right round and make his
   gallant vessel in the storm to be like a thing that has lost its mind
   and will not obey the rudder and cannot be quieted and controlled. Oh,
   we have seen them, sometimes, when they have woke up on a sudden and
   said, "I never knew this! I could not have believed it! I find myself
   to be a sinful creature, lost and undone and up to this moment I really
   thought I was as right as could be and almost fit for Heaven, and quite
   sure of it."

   A terrible awakening it has been to some! They have been
   bewildered--they have almost lost their reason for a time when they
   have seen that the Law of God is spiritual--that it condemns us for
   sins of thought as well as sins of action! That it never was meant to
   justify us and cannot do so--by it comes the knowledge of sin and
   nothing more! When a man has found out that his heart is evil, noxious,
   deceitful--that in it there are enmities, murders, filthinesses of all
   sorts, that it is a nest of unclean birds, a den of ravenous
   beasts--when he has found all that out he says to himself, "If this is
   true, where am I? What can I do? Where can I look?" And he drifts
   before the pitiless storm and the horrible tempest, all hope of being
   saved beginning to fail him.

   Yet it is really amazing how self-righteous persons will do their best
   to preserve their self-righteousness as long as they can. We have seen
   them pull in the boat like these mariners. They had got a boat behind
   the vessel. So there are some who have not only good works enough, but
   a few to spare. They have had a little righteousness over and above
   what they ordinarily required, so that they could boast and rejoice in
   it as a kind of security against accident or misadventure. They have
   hauled this in very soon under stress of weather and got the boat on
   deck for fear of losing it altogether. And then they have set to work
   right mightily to run under the lee, if they could, of some favorable
   shore as Paul's mariners did. "If we cannot be saved by good works,"
   they say, "we will get under the lee of some Church and get ceremonies
   to help us out--Baptism, Confirmation, the Lord's Supper--we will just
   get into a snug place there so as to escape the storm."

   Or else they have thought, "Well, we will make a profession of
   religion. We will join with some sort of Christian people, pass through
   their rites and take their sacraments and then, perhaps, our vessel
   need not go down after all, for, good as we are, with just a little
   shelter of profession of religion, we shall be able to weather the
   tempest." And when the hurricane has blown them out to sea and they
   have found that there is no defense for a soul in all the rites and
   rituals, the ordinances and observances of the Churches--that even the
   rites which God ordains for a testimony have no atoning efficacy--when
   they discover that only the precious blood can cleanse away sin and
   even that must be applied through the Holy Spirit by faith to give the
   conscience peace--alas, poor souls, their hope of being saved has
   become more slender than before!

   But they will take to undergird the ship like these sailors did--they
   passed hawsers right round the vessel. So people try to gird their
   self-righteousness together--they pray more, read the Bible more, go to
   a place of worship more often--by any means they will endeavor to keep
   together the timbers that the storm had begun to loosen. Oh, I remember
   well how I went to a place of worship three times always on the Sunday
   thinking that surely I should get some good by it. When I woke in the
   morning I began to read religious books! I would have done anything and
   everything if I might have found peace through my own doing and
   feelings! But the storm blew too severely and the vessel could not be
   preserved even by such appliances as these.

   And then you will notice that Paul's sailors set to work cutting down
   all that might hamper them. They took away the sails and masts and
   every superfluous thing, for the wind was strong. Men convicted of sin
   do the same. "Oh yes," they cry, "we cannot boast any longer. We must
   confess we are sinners! We acknowledge we have transgressed in some
   respects, but, Lord, accept our confessions. Receive them and in Your
   infinite mercy put away our sin because we have confessed it, because
   we have repented of it." They have given up a good deal, you see, but
   they still cling to the old ship as long as they can.

   She must go to pieces or you cannot get them out of her! So the Lord
   sends the wind and the storm again breaks over them, gives them no rest
   or respite. Every timber creaks and the old crazy thing is ready to go
   to pieces. They go to the Word of God for comfort but, like the
   mariners in Paul's story, they get no food--they cannot find anything
   that can stay their souls, for there are no promises in God's Word for
   people that are self-righteous. There are no consolations in the whole
   Bible for those who can save themselves! Plenty of good words for
   sinners and good words for those that are righteous in the
   righteousness of Christ--but for you good people, you Pharisees, it is
   all thunder and lightning from Genesis to Revelation--not a word of
   comfort, but all storms and hurricanes for you! And it is a great mercy
   when you feel that, too, and get battered and dashed till every timber
   is shivered and then you give it up.

   We find that the sailors on board the vessel with Paul had not only
   been unable to get anything to eat for a long time, but they labored
   hard--they tried to pump the vessel. They had been cutting the masts
   away and reefing the sails, and doing everything necessary in the
   storm. They must have been cold and wet and altogether in confusion.
   Meanwhile, neither sun, nor moon, nor stars appeared. They had no
   compass as we have now-a-days--they could not tell where they
   were--they were all in the dark. And that is just the condition of a
   self-righteous soul when the Spirit of God blows with His rough north
   wind upon it and it comes to see that, "By the works of the Law there
   shall no flesh be justified." It is an awful condition to be in, in
   some respects, but it is a most blessed one in others.

   Mark this, dear Hearers, I desire nothing for you unconverted persons
   so much as to see you thoroughly convinced that there is nothing that
   you can do which can save you! My prayer is that your realize there is
   no merit whatever in anything that you can do or feel--that you are
   lost, utterly and helplessly lost apart from the interposition of
   Christ! I desire that you believe that only He can save you--that you
   cannot save yourselves, nor help Him to save you! From top to bottom,
   He, alone, must be your Savior! I do not need to stir you unconverted
   persons to activity at first--the first thing is to slay you! After
   that God must make you active.

   You must lie dead at Christ's feet and then He will make you alive! You
   must confess that you are nothing and then He will be everything to
   you! You are simply to be empty and He will come and fill you. I know
   you will cry, "Well, I would give up all trust in myself, but I do need
   to feel deep convictions." Yes, the fact is that is only another way of
   trying to bring something to Christ. "But I must feel," says one. Yes,
   you shall feel enough if you come to Christ first, but He does not need
   you to bring any feelings to Him. "But my heart is so hard," says one.
   Do you expect to soften it yourself? "But I feel so unfit." Do you know
   that the only fitness you have got is the fitness of being unfit?

   "Oh, but I am so utterly unworthy." Do you think He came to save the
   worthy? Do you ever expect to have any worthiness in yourself? Did not
   Christ die to save "the ungodly?" Is it not written that He came into
   the world to save "sinners?" Now, "the ungodly" and "sinners"--these
   are two terms in which I cannot see anything good even if I look them
   through and through with a microscope! They are bad, altogether
   bad--"ungodly" and "sinners"--yet these are the sort of people Christ
   came to save! Oh, that you had Divine Grace to put yourself down in
   that number! It is your badness, not your goodness that draws Christ to
   you as a Savior!

   You had no goodness and therefore that could not bring Him from
   Heaven--it was because you were vile that He died for you to make you
   clean! It was because you were lost that He came to save you, that you
   might be lost no longer! I tell you, Sinner, your righteousness will be
   your ruin! But your sin will never ruin you if you will come and lay it
   upon Christ by the simple act of dependence upon Him. Oh, for such a
   storm as would wreck that vessel which is sailing under the flag of
   self-righteousness, that all hope of being so saved might be taken away
   from you!

   Now, in doctrine and theory, my hearers, at least my regular hearers,
   all believe this. But for all that, it will have to become a matter of
   experience to you or you will never be saved! It is one thing to say,
   "I know I must be empty before Christ can fill me." It's a different
   thing to be empty. The stripping room is a place we do not like to go
   to--but Christ will never robe us till He strips us. We do not like the
   lancet that cuts out the proud flesh, but our good Physician will never
   film our soul's sores--He will cut out all that is bad and then will He
   make sound work of it. We must be leveled-- brought down to the
   condition of being utterly undone or otherwise we shall never have the
   hand of Christ to come and lift us up into the condition of being saved
   by Him!

   Thus much upon the first phase. There are times when we like to hear
   this cry.

   II. But we have heard this same statement at other times when we have
   GREATLY DEPLORED IT. "All hope that we should be saved was taken away
   from us." I have heard some such lamentation as this from men who had
   certainly no

   self-righteousness but who had fallen into despair. They had perhaps
   committed some very gross sin. Perhaps they had been guilty of stifling
   conscience, or, possibly, they had grown careless while hearing the
   Word and they had gradually worked themselves into the belief that they
   must be lost. I meet with many--not so very many, but still with many--
   whose prevalent thought with regard to religion is, "All hope that I
   shall ever be saved is taken away from me!"

   My dear Friend, are you here tonight? I should like to take you by the
   hand and speak very familiarly with you, for I am very sorry to hear
   you talk so. And I am sorry for these reasons. First, I am afraid that
   you will go and do something very wrong, for when a man gives himself
   up in despair, he is like the sere wood that is ready for the fire.
   "Because there is no hope," says the man, "I do not care what I do. As
   the old proverb has it, 'As well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb.'
   I shall be damned anyway and I may as well have my full swing of sin
   before I go to Hell."

   Ah, despair has been employed by Satan to lead many men into desperate
   crimes which they would never have thought of if they had had a hope
   left! And therefore I am very much concerned about many of you that
   despair, for I do not know what you may do. Some have taken their own
   lives. Some have committed gross acts of crime. They have thought
   themselves useless and they have flung themselves away. Do not believe
   what Satan is telling you! There is hope! The hope that you may be
   saved is not altogether gone--no, I will tell you the very reverse
   before I have done. I am also exceedingly sorry that you should think
   as you do because I fear that now you are very likely to leave off
   hearing the Gospel.

   I have met with some who said that they would never go any more to the
   House of God because it was no good. They had been a great many years
   and seen a great many converted, but it had never touched them and
   therefore it was no use. They were only adding to their
   responsibilities and they should never participate in Grace. I remember
   one person whose case I cannot think of without deep sorrow. I think I
   said one Sunday that there were some here who had heard me for many
   many years and if they never meant to be converted or turn to God, I
   almost wished they would make room for somebody else who would. And
   there was one who heard that who has never come again and I do not
   think he ever will. The word of rebuke that was only meant to startle
   the conscience awakened an obstinacy within the soul!

   Oh, I hope it won't be so with any of you! I hope you will never say,
   "It is no use, and, therefore, I will not come." A dear Sister told me
   this afternoon a sweet instance of how useful it may become to
   persevere in hearing the Word of God. She says she had prayed a long
   time for her landlord who was an old man and very deaf, and not likely
   to get good by coming here. She had lent him the sermons and he had
   often read them with great attention. And it pleased God, suddenly, to
   give him his hearing so that he came here and heard one sermon and
   found the Savior and went home to his bed and died. One sermon saved
   his soul so that he could rejoice in Christ! Don't give up hearing, I
   pray you.

   I would sooner you came here and went to sleep than that you should not
   come at all, for perhaps when you woke up a saving word might get in
   somehow or other--God might put it in and it might be blessed to your
   soul. No, don't say, "There is no hope," for, possibly--and this would
   be almost as bad--if you say, "There is no hope," you will keep on
   coming out of custom, but you won't listen with any attention because
   you will feel, "It is no good." I have heard of a boy who was noticed
   to lean forward to catch every word of the preacher, and his mother
   said to him, "William, what makes you so very attentive?" "Because,"
   said the boy, "our minister said that if there was a sentence in the
   sermon that was likely to do us good Satan would try so that we should
   not hear it, and therefore I need to hear all that is said in the hope
   that God may bless me."

   I do believe, if you were to hear like that you would get good one of
   these days! At any rate, if God does not mean me to speak to you, I
   should be very glad if He would do it by somebody else so that you may
   get a blessing. But really you must not, you must never give way to
   that feeling that there is no hope. And I shall tell you why. First, it
   is quite contrary to Scripture. Do you find the passage there that says
   there is no hope for you? You say you think God has determined to cast
   you away. Where did you find that? Did you read it anywhere within the
   pages of this Book? I know you never have read the secret decrees of
   God. No one has--not even Gabriel can pry between the folded leaves. Do
   not oppose Scripture! Don't go in the teeth of it, for the Scripture
   says, "Him that comes unto Me I will in no wise cast out."

   Why do you say He will cast you out? "He is able to save to the
   uttermost them that come unto God by Him." Why do you say He cannot
   save you? He says, "Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy
   laden, and I will give you rest." Do you not labor? Are you not a
   laboring man? Are you never heavy laden? Have you no trouble, nothing
   that depresses you? Well then, if the description suits you, He bids
   you come to Him, and He says, "I will give you rest." Do

   you not believe Him? Do you think the Scriptures must all be untrue and
   your despairing notion must be the only fact? No, dear Friend, you need
   not tantalize yourself with any such idea because it is opposed to all
   fact!

   There are many here present who were sinners and seekers like you now
   are and they have found peace. Now if they have been delivered out of
   all their distresses, why should not you? You say, "But I have sinned
   too much." I could find somebody that has sinned more, I daresay. And
   if I could not, even then you might venture on the promise, "All manner
   of sin and of blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men." Do not despair, I
   pray you, for that is to insult the great Father who always receives
   the prodigals that come back to Him. You say that He cannot save you?
   Why you deny His Omnipotence! You say that He will not save you? Why
   you distrust His mercy! Nothing makes Him happier than to forgive
   sinners! It is a great part of the joy of God in that portion of His
   Nature which He reveals to us, to display His Grace towards the
   undeserving sons of men.

   Moreover, you grieve Jesus Christ when you say there is no hope that
   you shall be saved. Do you think His blood cannot cleanse you? What? Is
   there some new sin come up that Jesus did not know of? Is there some
   fresh transgression which at last has overcome the precious blood? You
   know this morning we talked about the battle between sin and love,
   [INGRATITUDE OF MAN, #1055] and we showed you how they wrestled
   together and how Sin seemed to be all but omnipotent, but Love kept on
   and won the day and gave Sin a deadly fall and set its foot upon it.
   Never suppose that Christ's love is going to be conquered by your sin!
   I will say one thing to you--if you will go to Christ and He rejects
   you, I have done with preaching--it is in vain. If you go to Christ and
   He rejects you, I will mention it tomorrow--I will promulgate it next
   Sunday--that I have been mistaken about Christ and that He does reject
   sinners.

   I beseech you, put it to the test! Some of us have tried it. I went to
   Him with a rope about my neck--I mean I went conscious that I deserved
   to be lost. And I thought when brightest hopes elated me that perhaps
   He might, after a long while, receive me and I might get a little hope
   and perhaps slink into Heaven through some hole or corner. But oh, when
   I came to Him, He received me in such a bounteous manner that the like
   of it was never known except by those that have tried Him, too! He
   forgave my sins without a rebuke! He received me as it were into His
   heart and gave me to rejoice in His finished salvation! He is a good
   Savior, a precious Savior! Oh, that the Spirit of God would lead
   sinners here to go and try Him!

   Once again let me admonish you. Don't despair, dear Heart, don't
   despair, for you do injury to the Holy Spirit-- you dishonor Him if you
   do--for there is nothing which the blessed Spirit cannot move out of
   your way which is now an impediment. If your heart is like the nether
   millstone, He can turn it into wax. If you cannot feel your sin, He can
   make you feel. What if you cannot believe? He can give you faith! What
   if you are dead? He can give you life! The Holy Spirit is God
   Himself--and is anything too hard for the Lord? No, no! You must not go
   away and say, "All hope that I shall be saved is taken away from me."
   Have you fallen, Sister, for by that name I will call you? Have you
   forfeited your good name? Yet all hope that you shall be saved is not
   taken away! Jesus Christ receives such as you are and forgives them and
   cleanses them and puts them into the family.

   Young Man, have you done wrong? Are you afraid of being found out?
   Confess the wrong that you have done and make restitution and come to
   God, for there is hope for you yet. Backslider, have you come here
   tonight? Have you dared to show your face here again? We are glad to
   see you, for all hope that you should be saved is not taken away from
   us though it may seem to be so to your stricken conscience. Come back,
   come back, come and welcome to the Savior's feet and you shall find
   mercy! Is there one that has said, "Well, I can believe all this for
   others, but not for myself. I am the one out of the catalog. I am the
   odd man. There is nothing that can ever deal with me"?

   You are the very man I am seeking after! Your hope of being saved has
   been wrecked but there is a better hope than the one you have lost!
   There is life in a look at the crucified Savior! If you will but come
   and throw yourself at the foot of His Cross and let His drops of blood
   fall on your soul, you shall be cleansed, yes, you shall be saved
   tonight! The Lord God, the Father of mercies, grant to despairing souls
   to find peace and life just now.

   III. I pass on to the last phase of this cry. At times I have heard the
   exclamation, "All hope that we should be saved is taken away," when I
   have SYMPATHIZED IN IT--sympathized with those who uttered it because
   not once nor twice, but many a time have I felt the same. Children of
   God do not always find it smooth sailing to Heaven. Even in the good
   boat of Christ-Crucified there are storms. Christ may be in the vessel
   but He may be asleep and the ship may be tossed with the tempest.

   I shall describe with great brevity what I believe to be with some
   Christians a frequent experience. The light of God's Countenance is
   taken away from us. We were sitting yesterday at the banquet of wine
   with Christ, with His banner of love waving over us and now, today, we
   cry, "He has brought me into darkness, not into light! He has turned
   against me in His fierce anger! Oh, that I knew where I might find Him
   that I might come even to His feet, for, truly, He is turned against me
   and He smites me with a heavy hand!"

   At such seasons it will happen that our graces will refuse to act. Like
   some flowers that shut up their cups when the sun is gone, so will our
   love and our faith shut themselves up. They are reflectors--when there
   is no light outside they cannot reflect any within. I have known what
   it is to search my heart through and through without being able to
   discover any spark of love to Jesus Christ in it, yes, and to bring my
   soul to the closest investigation, with diligent enquiry asking, "Is
   this faith, or is it presumption? Is it really trusting in Christ, or
   is it all a fond persuasion of my own, an unwarranted confidence, a
   false security?"

   At such times you may rest assured that the devil will cast in
   suggestions to torment us. He is an old coward--he always strikes the
   saints when they are down. I only wish he would meet me on some sunny
   day when my faith is strong and Christ is with me--I would give him a
   wound or two for himself! But, alas, he comes on us in the dark, when
   we have been slipping and tumbling down about in that Valley of
   Humiliation where we are afraid of the Valley of the Shadow of Death!
   And there he stands right in the way and swears that he will spill our
   soul's blood and farther on the road to Heaven we shall never go! And
   then, if Satan comes and his tyrannical voice is heard, the dogs that
   did lay quiet within our soul begin to howl and the corruptions that we
   almost thought dead and buried suddenly lift their hydra heads!

   It seems, then, as though the fountains of the great deep were broken
   up and a very Noah's flood, a mighty deluge, breaks forth to inundate
   even the mountains of our last hope till we seem to have no chance of
   escape and the soul is ready to die. Perhaps at this moment we turn to
   the Word of God and it seems all a blank. The very promises that used
   to cheer us refuse to speak to us! We go where the saints of God go to
   hear the Gospel but we find no comfort there. The Word appears to
   condemn rather than console us. Perhaps at that very minute we are
   assailed with some temporal trouble and when spiritual trouble and
   temporal trouble come together and two seas meet--ah, it is hard for
   the poor boat to keep above the water at all!

   Yet have we known it so. There has been a perplexity about money, or an
   anxiety about a sick child, or sore disquietude concerning a dear sick
   wife or a dire apprehension that the health of our body, or the
   stability of our circumstances is menaced. A strange fever, a wild
   deliriousness has seized us. At the same time there has been this
   horrible thought, "After all may I not have been deluded?" and Satan
   howls out, "Why, of course you were! You are no child of God!" and the
   flesh prevails awhile over the spirit and conscience itself becomes a
   tormentor and upbraids and accuses us! Then alas for our poor
   vessel--it seems as if all hope that we should be saved were utterly
   taken away.

   Well, but cannot we turn to prayer at such times as that? Yes Brothers
   and Sisters, and that is the only thing we can do. And perhaps the only
   prayer we can get at then is a groan or a sigh and it is a thousand
   mercies that if we cannot pray we can groan, or, if we cannot get to a
   groan, we can breathe and our very breath of desire is accepted of God.
   When we are so down in the dust, so crushed and broken and bruised that
   we could not put half-a-dozen sentences together--and would not dare to
   utter even one as children of God--we may still come as sinners and
   say, "Lord receive a poor worm of the dust and if I never was Your
   child, make me one now. Take me just as I am! I come to You just as I
   thought I did before, and sink or swim, I rest my guilty soul on
   Christ."

   Now why I have introduced this at all is just this. There are many
   young Believers who get into such a squall and do not know what to make
   of it. They say, "Why, had I been a child of God I could not have
   drifted into this frightful tempest." Why do you say so? Did not David
   go through it? He said, "All Your waves and Your billows have gone over
   me." You must be very little acquainted with the history of the people
   of God if you think that they are strangers to these conflicts. There
   are some old mariners here that I could call up into the pulpit, if it
   were needed, to tell you that they have done business on great waters
   many years and they have encountered many storms. You cannot expect to
   be upon these seas and not be tossed to and fro sometimes.

   The strongest faith that ever was in this world has sometimes faltered.
   Even Abraham had times when his faith was exceedingly weak, though,
   indeed, at other times it staggered not at the promise through
   unbelief. David was a great man in battle but he waxed faint and almost
   slain. So you will find the bravest of God's servants have their times
   when it

   is hard to hold their own--when they would be glad to creep into a
   mouse-hole if they could there find themselves a shelter. But this is
   the point, dear Brothers and Sisters--no soul that rests in Jesus will
   ever be wrecked! You may have the storms and be tossed about, but you
   will come to land--be assured of that. The old story tells us of Caesar
   in the storm, when he said to the trembling captain, "Fear not! You
   carry Caesar and all his fortunes!"

   Now Christ is in the same boat with all His people. If one of His
   members can perish, He must perish, too. "Strong language!" you say.
   Well, it is all in that verse--"Because I live you shall live also."
   You know, if you have got a man and you put him in the water, as long
   as his head is above the water you cannot drown him. There are his feet
   down in the mud--they will not drown, and he cannot drown. There are
   his hands in the cold stream--the hands are not drowned, cannot
   be--because his head is all safe.

   Now look at our glorious Head! See where He is exalted in the highest
   heavens, at the right hand of the Father! The devil cannot drown me and
   cannot drown you if you are a member of Christ's body, because your
   Head is safe! Your Head is safe and you are safe, too! Rest in this,
   that your faith may be shaken but it cannot be destroyed if you are
   resting upon Christ! Your little temporary foundations that may have
   overlain Christ may move, but the rock of Christ Jesus never can! You
   remember Mr. James Smith telling a story of a good woman whom he
   visited upon her dying bed? He said to her, "Well, my Sister, how are
   you? Are your spirits good?" "Yes," she said--

   "The Gospel bears my spirit up, A faithful and unchanging God Lays the
   foundation of my hope In oaths, and promises, and blood."

   "But," said the minister, "don't you feel yourself sinking?" "Sir," she
   said with surprise, "What do you mean?" He repeated his question,
   "Don't you feel yourself in these times weak and sinking?" She said to
   him, "Minister, I would not have believed that you would have put such
   a question, but as you have I must answer it. What do you say? Sinking?
   Sinking? Did you ever hear of anyone sinking through a rock? If I stood
   upon the sand I might sink, but standing upon the Rock, how can I
   sink?" Glory be to God in Christ, we are on that Rock and there is no
   sinking for us! God bring you all there and to Him shall be the praise
   forever and ever! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Ministry Of Gratitude

   (No. 1071)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 15, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE NEWINGTON.

   "And immediately she arose and ministered unto them." Luke 4:39.

   PETER'S wife's mother had been sick of a great fever and had been
   restored by the touch of the Savior's hands and by the power of the
   Savior's word. The Grace of God does not secure us from trial. The
   house of Peter and of Andrew, (for it was common to them both), was a
   highly favored one. The Grace of God had passed by many other houses
   and had selected this for its dwelling place and yet in that abode
   there was great sickness--the wife's mother lay sick of a fever and was
   near death. This was no small grief to the household--but that grief
   was for their lasting benefit.

   God loves His chosen too well to let them always live without the rod.
   If He loved us less He might allow us unalloyed pleasure, but the love
   of our wise Father is too great to deprive us of the saved benefits of
   affliction. Sickness came to that house not as an enemy but as a
   friend, for it was the means whereby Christ's great power was made
   manifest to that family and through His power His love. The wife's
   mother could never have been so distinguished a subject of the
   Redeemer's power if she had not been prostrated with fever. The malaria
   from the marshes around the city occasioned her being made a trophy of
   our Lord's Divine energy.

   The worst of ills are often the black horses upon which the very best
   of blessings ride to us. It was no small honor to Peter that his house
   became the headquarters of the Savior. The sick thronged the door as
   the sun went down and the Sabbath was over. The multitude brought
   persons afflicted with all manner of diseases and panted to reach that
   favored dwelling to lay them before the Lord. The healing power which
   had displayed itself within poured forth from the house like a mighty
   flood and all who drank of it were restored. That house contained the
   springhead and was beyond measure honored by it. Surely for many a year
   that house would be one of the most notable in the city--surely it
   would be called the House of the Great Physician.

   Not like that ancient house in Antwerp, detestable because it was the
   den of the Inquisition, but dear to many of the healed ones and their
   sons as the Hospital of Mercy, the Palace of Blessing. Peter among the
   Apostles is singularly honored, for everything about him was in some
   way or other connected with a miracle. His person--it was by a miracle
   that he had walked the waters. It was by a miracle that he had been
   saved from drowning when the Savior stretched out His hand and bade him
   stand fast upon the liquid wave. There was a miracle in connection with
   his boat, for it was from that boat that the miraculous draught of
   fishes had been taken and it was filled so full that it began to sink
   and Simon knelt down and adored the Savior.

   There was a miracle in connection with Peter's rusty sword--he cut off
   with it the ear of the high priest's servant, but the Master healed the
   wound that his rash defender made. And here, in this case, there was a
   miracle performed upon his relative--his wife's mother was restored
   from a great fever by the almighty power of the Lord Jesus Christ.
   Every Christian man should be ambitious to have the hand of God
   connected with everything that he has, so that when he looks upon his
   house he may see God's Providence in giving it to him. When he looks
   upon the garments that he wears he may see them to be the livery of
   love and may view the food upon his table as the daily gift of Divine
   charity.

   In looking back upon his whole biography, the Believer may see bright
   spots where the Presence of God flames forth and makes the humblest
   circumstances to be illustrious--but, above all, it ought to be his
   prayer that God's hand should be very conspicuous in connection with
   his relatives--that of every one of them it might be said, "The Lord
   restored her," or, "The Lord gave him spiritual life in answer to my
   prayer." May husband, wife, children, servants--all received healing
   from "the beloved Physician." May our whole household be, "holiness
   unto the Lord," and may all sing for joy because the Lord has done
   great things for them whereof we are glad!

   The occurrence about which we are to speak this morning happened on a
   Sabbath. Sabbaths were generally Christ's great chosen field days to
   break down the superstitiously rigid observance of the Sabbath among
   the Pharisees and because it seemed as a holy day to be peculiarly
   adapted for the display of the greatest works of the holy Savior. It
   was a Sabbath and the poor patient was probably lying there complaining
   in her soul that she could not go to the synagogue, or mingle with the
   people where prayer was sure to be made. Perhaps her fever had reduced
   her to such a state that she was quite unable to remember Christ the
   Healer, and unable to breathe a prayer to Him.

   But Peter and Andrew went to Him and told the case and besought Him to
   come and heal her. It is a blessing for you, my Friend, even though you
   are sick in soul, to have saints for your relatives--to have some in
   the household who will remember you in prayer and speak into the ear of
   Christ on your behalf. If through despair or depression of spirit you
   cannot pray for yourself, happy are you that there are compassionate
   friends who will speak unto the King on your behalf! One Christian in a
   family may bring a great blessing to it, but here were two, for Simon
   and his brother Andrew were both here. And if two of you are agreed as
   touching anything concerning the Master's kingdom, it shall be done
   unto you.

   The two prevailed with the Savior and, that Sabbath, when the patient
   little dreamed it, the Savior came to her lowly room and standing over
   her in infinite pity, He first spoke a royal word of rebuke to the
   disease, and then, lifting her up gently in His own kind familiar
   manner she found herself perfectly restored to health! What love she
   must have felt to her gracious Benefactor! Little wonder is it that
   thankfulness glowed in her heart and being healed, she rose at once and
   began to serve her Healer. Her ministering commenced from the very
   minute of her recovery. Of that ministering we are about to speak.
   "Immediately she arose and ministered unto them."

   I. Now, the fact that this restored woman began at once to minister to
   Christ and to His disciples proves, first, THE CERTAINTY OF HER CURE,
   and there are no better ways of proving the thoroughness of our
   conversion than by conduct similar to hers. Suppose now, in order to
   prove that this woman was really restored, we were critically to
   examine the modes operandi of Christ? Suppose the Master had been
   accustomed, as He was not, to use one set of ceremonies over everybody
   whom He healed, and we were to say, "Well, He has done this, that and
   the other, as He is accustomed to do. Therefore the woman is healed."

   It would not be at all conclusive reasoning, yet this is the reasoning
   of a great many today. This child was baptized. This young person was
   confirmed and afterwards took the sacrament and consequently this
   individual is regenerated in Baptism and established in Grace, and so
   on! The ceremonies are correct and therefore the work is done! Some may
   believe such reasoning but I marvel that they do--to us it seems that
   there is a far better way of testing whether persons have Grace or not!
   If these aforesaid baptismally-regenerated people and
   sacramentally-confirmed people live in sin like other people, it
   appears to us that they have none of the Grace of God in them, let them
   pretend to have received it however they may! If the woman had still
   been hot with fever and had all the symptoms of her disease continued
   in her, it would have availed nothing to have said, "This has been done
   and the other"--the woman would not have been healed. And if men live
   like unregenerate sinners, depend upon it, the work of the Holy Spirit
   is not in them!

   Suppose the patient had lain there and had begun to talk about how she
   felt, how much better she was, what a strange sensation passed through
   her when the Savior rebuked the disease, and how strangely well she
   felt? Yet if she had not risen up, but had lain there, still, there
   would have been no evidence of her restoration--at any rate none that
   you or I could judge of. So when persons tell us that they have felt
   great changes of heart, that they know they are renewed because they
   enjoy this and love that and hate the other, we are very hopeful and
   desire to believe what they say. But, after all, trees are known by
   their fruit--and converted people, while they will, themselves, know
   their inward experience--cannot convince us by it! We must see their
   outward ministering for Christ. If their actions are holy, if their
   lives are purified, then shall we know, but not till then, that their
   nature is renewed!

   Suppose this good woman, still lying upon her bed, had begun to say,
   "Well, I hope I am healed," and had begun to express some feeble
   expectation that one day she would be able to exercise the functions of
   health? We would not have known that she was restored. Something more
   was needed than mere hopes and expectations. Or suppose she had leaped
   out of her bed in wild excitement, rushed down the street and performed
   strange antics--it would have been no proof that she was recovered--but
   it would have made us feel sure that she was delirious and the fever
   still strong upon her!

   So when we see persons inactive as to holiness, we cannot believe that
   they are saved. Or when we see them full of empty excitement about
   religion but not serving God in the common acts of life, we think them
   to be in the delirium of a sinful presumption, but cannot regard them
   as healed by the cooling, calming hand of the Great Physician, who,
   when He puts out the fever, restores the soul to quiet and peace.

   The woman gave a much better proof than any of these could be. This
   leads us to remark that the only irresistible proof with onlookers of a
   person being spiritually healed by Christ must be found in the change
   in his conduct, and especially in his from that moment on living to
   serve Christ and to be obedient to Him. This is the test and nothing
   short of it. When we see holy living in the man who was once a gross
   offender, we are quite sure that Christ has healed him because the man
   begins to do what he could not have done before.

   Perhaps this poor fevered woman might have made some shift to have done
   something for the Savior, but the unconverted man is dead in trespasses
   and sin--he may go through forms of religion, but real holiness is far
   above and out of his sight--he cannot obey the Law of God. His nature
   is set against it--he is unable to walk in the way of God's
   commandments. Therefore, when we see him doing so, we exclaim, "This is
   the finger of God! God has healed that man or else he would not be able
   to live as he is now living." Besides, the unconverted man, before
   conversion, hates holiness. He is disinclined to it so that in his
   case, when his life becomes pure and upright, when he spends and is
   spent in the service of Jesus Christ, you know that this must be the
   work of the Holy Spirit in his soul for nothing else could have changed
   his nature but the same Omnipotence which first of all created him!
   God's hand is in that conversion which is proved by the holiness of the
   man's outward character.

   Beside this, while the sinner is disinclined to everything that is
   holy, we know that he especially despises the Savior and thinks little
   of His people. Consequently, when a man is brought to serve the Savior
   and is willing to do good to the children of God for Christ's sake,
   there is a sure mark that a miracle has been worked in him which has
   touched the secret springs of his being and altogether transformed him.
   The woman's rising up to minister to our Lord was a sure sign of
   returned health and the change of outward character which leads a man
   to devote himself to the service of Christ is even more infallibly a
   proof of true salvation!

   I need you to note, however, dear Friends, for a moment, the nature of
   the acts which this restored woman performed, because they are symbolic
   of the best form of actions by which to judge of a person's being
   renewed. Her duties were humble ones. She was probably the head of the
   household and she began at once to discharge the duties of a
   housewife--duties unostentatious and commonplace. Many persons who
   profess to be converted aspire at once to preaching--a pulpit for them
   is the main thing and a large congregation is their ambition! They must
   do some great thing and occupy the chief seat in the synagogue!

   But this good woman did not think of preaching--women are always best
   when they don't. She thought of washing Christ's feet and preparing Him
   necessary food which was her proper business. To these kind but simple
   actions she devoted herself. Attention to humble duties is a better
   sign of Grace than an ambition for lofty and elevated works. There is
   probably far more Grace in the loving service of a mother towards
   Christ in bringing up her children in the fear of God than there might
   be if she were well known as taking a leading part in great public
   movements. There may be more service for Christ done by a workman in
   discharging his duties, as such, and trying to do good to his fellow
   workmen than if he aspired to become a great leader of the minds and
   thoughts of others.

   Of course there are exceptions, for glorious was Deborah and great
   shall be her name in Israel! And those who are sent of God to lead His
   Church shall not be without their reward, but even then, when they have
   to look for personal evidences of Grace they never dare say, "We know
   that we are passed from death unto life because we preach the Gospel,"
   for they remember that Judas did the same! They never say, "We are
   confident of salvation because God has worked wonders by us," for they
   remember that the son of perdition had the same distinction! No,
   Brothers and Sisters, they fall back upon the same evidences which
   prove the truth of the religion of humbler people--they rejoice in
   testimonies common to all the elect--"We know that we have passed from
   death unto life because we love the Brethren."

   The humbler graces and duties are the best tests. Hypocrites mimic all
   public duties but the private and concealed life of true godliness they
   cannot counterfeit! And because they cannot "do so with their
   enchantments" we feel like the men of Egypt, that, "this is the finger
   of God." Remember, too, that this good woman attended to home duties.
   She did not go down the street a 100 yards off to glorify Christ. She,
   I dare say, did that afterwards, but she began at home. Charity

   begins there and so should piety. That is the best religion which is
   most at home at home. Grace which smiles around the family hearth is
   Grace, indeed.

   If your own household cannot see that you are godly, depend upon it,
   nobody else can! And if your parents or children have grave doubts
   about the sincerity of your religion, I am afraid you ought to have
   grave doubts about it yourself. Peter's mother-in-law ministered to
   Christ at home and that was clear evidence of her being restored to
   health. And in your case it will be the best witness to your conversion
   if you serve Jesus in the bosom of your family and make your house the
   dwelling place of all that is kind and good and holy. She attended to
   suitable duties, duties consistent with her sex and condition. She did
   not try to be what God had not made her, but did what she could. She
   attended to natural duties, duties which suggested themselves in a
   moment and were not far-fetched and fanciful.

   She set about doing present duties required then and there, and did not
   wait to serve the Lord in a year's time. In a quiet natural manner she
   pursued her calling as if it never occurred to her to do otherwise. If
   somebody had thought it wonderful that she ministered to Christ, she
   would have been surprised at them! It seemed to her the most natural
   thing for her to do. Dear Soul, I dare say while lying in bed sick
   there were 50 things she would have liked to have done--what housewife
   would not in such a case see many grievous arrears of work all around
   her? But Jesus being there, no sooner did she feel her health returned
   than she at once arose to discharge the offices of grateful hospitality
   as a matter of course. How could she do otherwise but wait upon Jesus
   and His friends?

   Now, observe that those good works which prove a man to be a Christian
   are not such as he could boast of. He does them as a matter of course.
   He feels he could not do otherwise and wonders that anybody else can.
   Is he born of God? He yearns to teach others about the Savior--he
   cannot help it--his tongue needs to be talking about Jesus! Then he
   begins to give of his substance to the poor. It does not strike him as
   being at all a remarkable or extraordinary thing--he wonders if anyone
   can help being generous to real need! Now he begins to enquire about
   the little children in the neighborhood--can he get them into the
   Sunday school? Or he occupies himself with some other form of Christian
   work and he does it because he feels it to be inevitable for him to do
   so--it is one of the instincts of the new Nature which God the Holy
   Spirit has implanted in him.

   Those natural, commonplace duties which grow out of holy instincts
   within are the best evidence of a work of Grace! The more genuinely
   natural and unstrained the better. Vain is the religion which aims at
   unnatural conditions and makes much of distinctions of a needless kind.
   What is there in a peculiar garb, or affectation of speech, or
   separation of residence? These minister to our own vainglory! True
   godliness aims not at her own honor, but is content to labor among the
   many, to be a man among men, yet differing in nothing but character.
   Ours it is, as the true salt, to mingle with the masses--not to seek a
   proud isolation. We are men, not monks! And our Sisters are women, not
   nuns! All that interests men interests us--we only differ from our race
   by being conformed to the image of Jesus, while they wear the image of
   the fallen Adam.

   May God grant us Grace to exhibit the Christianity of common life--the
   real and practical Christianity of every day. Christianity is not with
   hermits in their cells, nor nuns in their convents, nor priests in
   their cloisters--those are all cowardly soldiers who shun the battle of
   life! The true faith is the joy and strength of all who love the Lord
   and fight His battles on the broad plains of life. True religion must
   be manifested in your workshops, in your houses, in the streets, in the
   fields, in the nursery and in the parlor. This celestial flower reveals
   its richest perfume, not in the conservatories of unnatural seclusion,
   but under the clear sky of human life, for "as a flower of the field so
   it flourishes," where God has planted it.

   One other point before leaving this--these things become a conclusive
   proof of Divine Grace in the heart when they are voluntarily rendered
   as this good woman's ministry was. I do not read that she was asked to
   do anything for Christ, but it suggested itself to her at once without
   command or request. Her work was done promptly, for, "immediately she
   arose" and did it. She no sooner had power to work than occasion was
   seized without delay. Promptness is the soul of obedience--"I made
   haste and delayed not to keep Your commandments." I doubt not she did
   her ministering cheerfully. There is all the air of cheerfulness about
   the words, "She arose." It reads as if with alacrity, vigor,
   sprightliness and eagerness she entered into the service.

   That is the best service for God that is done promptly, without delay;
   voluntarily, without pressing; generously, without grudging; heartily,
   without complaining. With us it is not, "This you should do, and this
   you must do," but we serve Jesus because we love to do so and because
   labor for Him is to us a joy and a delight!

   II. I have thus brought before you the first point of our discourse,
   now notice the second one which is most interesting. This woman's
   ministry for Christ and His disciples showed, secondly, THE PERFECTION
   OF HER CURE. It may not strike you for a moment, but just think about
   it. She was sick with a fever. Supposing a Prophet should visit your
   house and restore your friend from a great fever. Yet the person healed
   would not be able to rise from the bed for some time--fever leaves
   extreme weakness behind and when the fever itself is entirely gone, it
   needs some two or three weeks, and sometimes more--before the person
   who has been prostrated by it will be able to go about his daily work.

   This was healing from God, indeed, a Divine work emphatically because
   the woman was so healed that all her weakness vanished and she was able
   to proceed to her work without difficulty! And, Beloved, it is our mark
   of a work of Grace in the soul when the converted man becomes at once a
   servant of Christ. The human theory of moral reformations makes time a
   great element in its operations. If you are to reclaim a great offender
   you must win him first from one vice and then from another. You must
   put him through a process of education by which he gradually perceives
   that what he has been accustomed to do is bad for himself and wakes up
   to the conviction that honesty and sobriety will be the best for his
   own profit.

   Time is required by the moral reformer or he cannot develop his plans.
   He ridicules the idea of effecting anything in an hour or two. Man, the
   creature of time, must have time for the accomplishment of his very
   imperfect works--but to the eternal God time is nothing! His miracles
   annihilate time. A man who is converted is cured at once of his
   sins--the tap root of his sins is cut away then and there and though
   some of his sins linger, yet every one has received the stroke which
   will prove its deathblow. Once and for all, in a moment--when a man
   believes and is born-again--the axe is laid at the root of all the evil
   trees within him! Sin is then and there condemned to die and what is
   more, all Divine Graces are in a moment implanted in the soul, not in
   perfection--they will have to grow. But they are all sown in the man in
   a moment in embryo so that the renewed sinner, though he has only been
   born-again five minutes, has within him the embryo of the perfect saint
   who shall stand before the Throne of God--this is one of the marvels
   which certify the work to be Divine.

   For note, Beloved, those who have just been converted to God can
   worship God, can praise God, can pray to God, can love God though they
   were strangers to these things up to then. And some of the sweetest
   worship that God Himself ever hears comes from the hearts of the newly
   regenerate. Of all the prayers that strike the Christian's ear like
   music, surely among the sweetest are the broken pleadings of those who
   have just found the Savior! I delight in the expressions of faith of
   elderly and full-grown Christians--they are exceedingly instructive and
   precious. But, oh, that first grip of the hand, that first flash of the
   eye, that first tear of joy when a soul has seen Christ for the first
   time and stands astonished at the matchless vision of incarnate love!
   Why, there is no worship sweeter beneath the sun!

   The woman arises at once and ministers to Christ and the sinner arises
   at once and begins to adore Christ. Did not I say that the
   newly-converted sinner can love and does love his Lord as soon as ever
   he is born to God? I must correct myself. He not only can and does
   love, but he loves beyond most others, for very seldom do men's
   after-love exceed in fervency the love of their espousals, which is
   also called their first love! This standard love is implanted in us at
   once, all blooming and full of perfume. Hating Christ one minute,
   hearts have been brought to be ravished with His love the next! The men
   were enemies to God an hour ago, and now they could die to defend His
   Gospel, so changed are their natures!

   This must be a Divine work! If that which was water flood, quenching
   every spark of fire, should suddenly blaze and glow like
   Nebuchadnezzar's furnace, God alone could have worked the change! Say,
   who has turned the waters of raging hatred into the flame of holy love?
   Who has done it but the mighty God Himself? If the iceberg suddenly
   becomes a flaming beacon, who can have worked this marvel but the
   Miracle Worker who alone does great wonders? Glory be to God, we often
   see it and He shall have the praise of it!

   How pure some men's lives become at conversion--pure at once, though
   before they were polluted with every vice! Certain sins we may have to
   fight with all our lives, but a renewed man usually has no difficulty
   whatever with the grosser sins. For instance, I have known a man
   habituated to blasphemy who probably never did, since he was a boy,
   speak a dozen sentences without an oath, and yet, after he had been
   converted the profane habit has never molested him.

   We have known some who have been troubled with a ferocious temper which
   made them like demons, but from the moment of conversion they have been
   remarkable for their singular gentleness and meekness. We have known
   misers instantly display the freest generosity and thieves become
   scrupulously honest.

   Though the temptation to old sin may return, yet for the most part
   those who have been saved from gross vices have been the greatest
   loathers of the very mention or name of their former abominations. Such
   is the work of God in the soul, that these evils are driven out at once
   and sent right away--and then the man who before had been an adept in
   all manner of evil work becomes as much an expert in all manner of holy
   labor! He may not at once have picked up the technicalities of
   religion--perhaps it would be as well he never did--but he gets to the
   bottom of it, the secret of it and goes to work for Jesus Christ in his
   own fashion and way, with wonderful wisdom and extraordinary skill from
   the very

   first!

   Some of the best evangelists we have ever seen have been those who
   learned at once to evangelize--who seemed to have known it from the
   first hour in which they were converted to God--taking to it from
   inward love as the young swans take to the stream. Some of the best
   persons who speak to others about their souls, privately, began to do
   so as soon as they have found the Savior! They have attained to the
   sacred art--and a blessed art it is--as though they were in a moment
   touched by the hand of God and inspired for the service He meant them
   to render.

   Now, what is the practical drift of this second remark but this? As it
   proved the real divinity of this woman's cure that she was able,
   immediately, to go to work for Christ, so you young converts should
   hold the honor of Christ in great esteem and prove the reality of His
   Grace in your souls by bringing forth immediate fruit to His honor. See
   if you cannot at once rise and minister to Him! Be as zealous as the
   dying thief--he had no sooner known Christ than he confessed Him and he
   did the only thing he could do for his dying Lord--he rebuked the other
   malefactor who had reviled the Savior. Oh, if you love Jesus, do not
   wait till you have been 10 years a Christian! Serve Him now!

   If you are healed from sin, do not wait for experience--with your
   inexperience of everything except the new birth, go and seek the good
   of others! Do not suppose you must be trained for this war through a
   long process of spiritual drill, but march forward at once with all
   your heart and soul in the freshness of your newly-given life. It may
   be you will achieve greater triumphs than some of the older ones, for
   alas, some of them are dry and sapless and have long forgotten their
   early days of enthusiasm. In too many Christians the peach has lost its
   bloom, the flower has withered from the stem--they are not now loving
   and earnest--they have declined into the sere and yellow leaf of
   religion. Go with the dew of the morning still upon your spirit and I
   know not what great and gracious works the Lord may do by you!

   III. Now we pass on to a third head briefly. Peter's wife's mother in
   ministering to Christ proved HER OWN GRATITUDE. Her acts of hospitality
   were an exhibition of her thankfulness. Brethren, if we need to
   evidence our gratitude to Christ we had better do it in the same way as
   she did. There is no record of her having fallen at Jesus' feet and
   saying, "Blessed be Your name." She may have done so--the Bible has not
   room for many holy expressions, though it finds space for gracious
   acts.

   I do not know that she sat down and sang a hymn, perhaps she did--good
   women before her have done so and I hope they will after her--but the
   hymn is not recorded. Holy Scripture has not room for all the hymns
   which good people sing, but it finds a corner for the actions which
   they perform. We have the Acts of the Apostles, through we have not the
   devotional emotions, the hymns, or the pious resolutions of the
   Apostles. This good woman proved her gratitude by tangible deeds. Did
   she not say to herself, "The Lord has served me; I will serve Him"? It
   never strikes an awakened person that mere words are a fit return for
   the Grace of God. Can you give for the Lord's healing fruit a handful
   of mere leaves from the tree of talk? It looks like mockery! Give Him
   the leaves, but wrap the fruit up within them! Let Him have true action
   and consecrated service--for this is the fittest fruit of a grateful
   heart.

   Observe that it is not said that she waited upon Christ before she was
   healed. The fevered patient is first restored and then she begins to
   minister. I am far from exhorting any of you to serve Christ in your
   lives if your inner life is not first of all renewed by Him. There must
   be a regenerated heart through His blessed touch, or else a renewed
   life may be imitated but cannot be truly possessed. First the healing,
   then the serving! The healing is first, but note well that the serving
   follows close at its heels. If you are saved, arise and work out your
   own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that works in you
   to will and to do of His own good pleasure. Since the light is now
   kindled, let it shine forth from

   you--since Christ has opened in your soul a well of living waters--let
   it flow out of the midst of you as a river of water for His service and
   the benefit of your fellow men.

   This good soul knew to what end she had been raised up. She knew from
   Whom she had received the healing--it was from the Lord alone. She knew
   from what she was restored, namely, from the very jaws of death. She
   knew to what she was restored, for she felt that health and strength
   had returned to her, and therefore she guessed rightly for what she was
   restored, namely, that she might wait upon the Lord. You, my Brother,
   are saved from Hell. You are lifted up into spiritual life and
   acceptance. You are ennobled and made an heir of Heaven. Why was this
   done but that you might minister to your Lord here and glorify Him
   hereafter? Our gratitude ought to teach us the Divine object of Grace
   and we ought to take care that it is attained.

   The Lord cannot have saved us at such an expense as the death of His
   own Son for any reason less than that we should live unto Him! What is
   the reckoning of all our grateful hearts about this? Is it not this,
   that if we are bought with a price, we are not our own? That if the
   Holy Spirit has given us a new Nature it must be that we should lead a
   new life, and that our new life must be consecrated to Him who is the
   Author of it? Beloved, true gratitude always leads us to serve and it
   distinctly makes our healing Lord the object of our service--it puts
   Him in the forefront. "She arose and ministered unto them." To Him
   first, and to His disciples next--to the Head and for the Head's sake
   to all the members. To the Redeemer and because of Him to all the
   redeemed.

   I put to each one here present who has been healed from sin and saved
   from spiritual death by Christ, this question-- What are you rendering
   unto your Lord? What are you doing for Him? Begin with Him. Do it as
   unto Him. Do what you do in His Presence and present it at His dear
   feet--then I know you will be doing something for His people, too! His
   poor you will befriend. His backsliding ones you will seek to gather
   in. His sick ones you will visit. His comfortless ones you will
   console. His wandering ones--as yet uncalled--you will seek after them.
   His lost sheep, your anxieties will go out for them. You will minister
   to Him and to His chosen--to all the members of His body.

   What are you doing, Brother? What are you doing, Sister? I do not ask
   you now in my own name, for I am no master of yours--neither are you
   accountable to me--but I ask it in the name of Him whose hands were
   pierced for you and whose heart was opened by the soldier's spear for
   your redemption! Oh, what are you doing for Him? Do you love Him? If
   you love Him feed His lambs and His sheep. If you love, serve! And if
   you serve, serve Him first and serve His children and His people next,
   and you will prove your gratitude.

   IV. But now, lastly, this woman's ministering to Christ proved in the
   fourth place, THE CONDESCENSION OF THE PHYSICIAN. He who healed her of
   the fever did not need her to minister to Him! He who had power to heal
   diseases had certainly power to subsist without human ministry. If
   Christ could raise her up He must be Omnipotent and Divine--what need,
   then had He of a womanly service? Might He not have used the grand
   style of the Old Testament, and said, "If I were hungry I would not
   tell you, for the cattle on a thousand hills are Mine"? But instead of
   this the mighty Master of all angels condescended to be waited upon by
   a poor female.

   It was great condescension on Christ's part that He needed ministry and
   great gentleness that He so often chose woman's ministry. He came to
   earth and the first garments of His Infancy were wrapped about Him by a
   woman's hands, and here He dwelt till at last He died and holy women
   bound Him up in the cerements of the tomb and laid Him in the
   sepulcher. Matchless marvel was this of condescension, that He who is
   Almighty and ever-blessed should stoop from Heaven to need the ministry
   of human beings! He has ministered to us by humbling Himself to accept
   mortal ministry! Peter's wife's mother was one of the despised poor,
   but Jesus honored her. What was she but a fisherman's wife--at any rate
   the mother of a fisherman's wife, a poor, obscure, illiterate woman,
   yet Christ allowed her to wait upon Him--an honor which Herodias the
   royal princess never had!

   So the Lord today should be beloved of us for His humility in allowing
   us to wait upon Him--in allowing me, in allowing you--to do anything
   for His dear name's sake. I do not wonder that Christ allowed Paul and
   Peter and John to serve Him, but that He should suffer me to do it? I
   am overwhelmed with astonishment at it! Do you not marvel, also? It
   seems easy enough to believe that the blessed Virgin and Mary Magdalene
   and other holy women were honored of God. But that you, dear Sister,
   should be allowed to take a part in His service, is not this marvelous?
   Will you not bless Him and minister with the utmost cheerfulness
   because you feel it to be so great a Grace? Is it not gracious on our
   Lord's part to leave room in His Church for ministry?

   Suppose, now, the Lord had made all His people rich? Then there would
   be no room for the generosity of His people to help His poor saints and
   you would not have the opportunity of proving your love to Him as you
   now can. Suppose He had converted all His elect by the secret working
   of His Spirit without any teaching? Then He would not have needed you
   in the Sunday school, nor you with your tracts, nor me with my
   sermons--and we should have had nothing to do for Christ--we should
   have been sighing and crying, "The good Master has not permitted us to
   give Him anything! Why, on our birthdays our little children love to
   give their father something, if it is only a bunch of flowers out of
   the garden, or a four-penny piece with a hole in it!"

   They like to do it to show their love and wise parents will be sure to
   let their children do such things for them. So is it with our great
   Father in Heaven. What are our Sunday school teaching and our preaching
   and all that, but these cracked four-penny pieces? Just nothing at all!
   But the Lord allows us to do His work for His own love's sake. His love
   to us finds a sweetness in our love to Him. I am most thankful that in
   the Church there is room for such a variety of ministries. Some
   Brethren are so strangely constituted that I cannot tell what they were
   made for--but I believe if they are God's people there is a place for
   them in His spiritual temple!

   A man who was accustomed to buy timber and work it up, on one occasion
   found a very crooked stick of wood in his bargain and said to his son
   as he put it aside, "I cannot tell, John, whatever I shall do with it.
   It is the ugliest shaped piece I ever bought in my life." But it so
   happened, while building a barn, that he needed a timber exactly of
   that shape and it fitted in so thoroughly well that he said, "It really
   seems as if that tree grew on purpose for that corner." So our gracious
   Lord has arranged His Church so that every crooked stick will fit in
   somewhere or other, if it is only a tree of His own right hand
   planting--He has made it with a purpose and knows when it will answer
   that purpose.

   How this ought to rebuke any who say, "I do not see what I can do."
   Dear Friend, there is a peculiar work for you. Find it out--and I think
   it will not be far off--the exercise of a little rejection will soon
   enable you to discover it. Be grateful that this is a certain fact,
   without exception, that every child of God who has been healed has some
   ministry which he can render to Christ and which he ought to render at
   once! May the Lord allow every one of you to show your gratitude in
   this way, and while you do it, let it always be in an adoring spirit,
   saying, "Lord, I thank You I am allowed to go to my Sunday school
   class."

   Do not look at your work as a burden! Say, "Lord, I thank You I am
   permitted to do it." "O God, I bless You that I am allowed to go round
   that little district and call at the houses." You Bible Women, bless
   God that He has let you be Bible Women! And you city missionaries,
   thank God that you are allowed to be city missionaries. "Oh," says one,
   "I can hardly do that because I suffer so much abuse and so much
   ill-treatment." Bless God, dear Brother, that He counts you worthy to
   suffer for His name's sake! You know the old story of Sir Walter
   Raleigh. When Queen Elizabeth, one day, came to a miry place in the
   road, he took off his cloak for her to walk upon.

   Did he regret it? No, he was delighted at it, and half the court wished
   for another muddy place that they might be able to do the same! Oh, you
   that love your Lord, be willing to lie down for Christ's sake and pave
   the miry parts of the way by being despised for His name's sake! This
   honor you should covet and should not shun! Arise, and minister, you
   healed ones! And as for you who are not healed, may you believe in Him
   who is able to restore you with His touch. He is mighty to save.
   Believe in Him and you shall live forever! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

My Prayer

   (No. 1072)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 22, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Quicken me in Your way." Psalm 119:37.

   I THINK you will find the prayer for quickening repeated nine times in
   this Psalm. The form of it differs but it is always the same vehement
   cry, "Quicken me, O Lord." In addition to this you will hear David
   twice acknowledge that God had quickened him, saying on one occasion,
   "Your Word has quickened me," and in another place, "Your precepts have
   quickened me," so that 11 times in one Psalm David turns his
   contemplations to the subject of quickening. This shows us the very
   great importance which he attached to it.

   Remember well that this Psalm is dedicated to the praise of the Word of
   God. Throughout its entire length it sounds forth the honor of God's
   statutes and in some way or other the Word of the Lord is mentioned in
   every one of its 176 verses. The Psalm is a star of the first magnitude
   and all its beams direct us to the Divine statutes. It is clear from
   this that there must be an intimate connection between quickening and
   the Word of God. Indeed, it is so, for when we are much acquainted with
   the Word of God we also discover more of our own deadness and lack of
   spiritual life.

   And, moreover, inasmuch as we find David twice blessing God that the
   Word had quickened him, we see another connection between the Word and
   quickening, namely, that while the Word convinces us of our death, it
   is also the means in the hand of the Spirit of God of our resurrection
   to newness of life. It kills, but it also makes alive! It quickens and
   it sustains what it begets. "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by
   every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God shall man live."

   Would you mourn your sluggishness? See it in the light of God's Word.
   Would you escape from your sloth? Be animated by the holy warmth of the
   revealed Truth of God. For both purposes, for conviction and for
   edification, the precious Truths which are set forth in Scripture by
   the Holy Spirit will be exceedingly efficacious.

   I purpose, this morning, in handling the brief prayer of our text, to
   note, first, that it deals with the Believer's frequent need. Secondly,
   it directs him to the sole Worker of his quickening. Thirdly, it
   describes the true sphere of renewed spiritual vigor. And fourthly, it
   denotes that there may be special reasons and seasons when we should
   say, "Quicken me."

   I. The prayer before us, "Quicken me in Your way," DEALS WITH THE
   BELIEVER'S FREQUENT NEED. I am sure that this is a frequent need of
   Believers because we find David in this Psalm so often confessing his
   need--and where the best of God's servants feel their need of a
   thing--we may be quite sure that the rest of the family are under the
   same necessity. David seems to have been by no means sluggish in the
   Divine life. That wonderful photograph of his internal being which we
   have in the book of Psalms shows us that he was a man of intensely
   fervent love to God. We see he was a man whose nature was vital to a
   degree of sensitive and energetic energy seldom, if ever, exceeded.

   Panting, crying, pleading, singing, rejoicing, exulting--he was all
   life and of him it could not be said that he was neither cold nor hot.
   Notwithstanding the grievous fault into which he fell, his inner life
   was, as a rule, vigorous, healthy and energetic. And yet that man of
   God prayed often, "Quicken me." Oh my Soul, you are not to be compared
   with David for a single moment! What need, then, have you to pray again
   and again, even with agony of soul, "Quicken me, O

   God!"

   But, Beloved, there is no reason to refer to others of God's servants
   for proof of this. You yourselves know, in your own souls, that your
   spirit is most apt to become sluggish and that you have need frequently
   to put up the prayer, "Quicken me." Apart from Him who is your life,
   what are you but a mass of corruption? You know this experimentally, do
   you not? There are some among you who have received a more abundant
   measure of spiritual life than the preacher has yet obtained, but I
   fear that the great majority of us are in the very opposite condition
   and have need to sigh and cry

   over our lack of inward strength. We need to lament more deeply our
   manifold deficiencies. If there is a prayer in this Bible which well
   becomes my lips, it is just this, "Lord, quicken me in Your way."

   I fear that those who are least ready to confess this are the very
   persons who ought to admit it first, and I am certain that a large
   number of God's people feel that they are dry and sapless and have need
   to be revived by life from above. Let us think over this matter a
   minute. Some years ago we needed quickening most emphatically, but then
   we had no power to pray, "Quicken me," for we were dead in trespasses
   and sins. No dead man ever prayed to be quickened! Such a prayer would
   be an index of life. A really spiritual prayer for quickening can only
   come from those in whom the quickening Spirit has already taken up His
   abode!

   Now, Beloved, blessed be the name of the Lord, we are no longer dead as
   we once were--the Spirit of God has breathed into our nostrils the
   breath of life and we have become living souls in the family of God.
   Let us be thankful for this, but let us, as we look around upon the
   spiritually dead who swarm our streets, take care to pray for them,
   "Lord, quicken the dead in sin." Let our relatives be the special
   objects of our prayers for quickening. If we have a brother who is
   rotting in the grave of his iniquities, let us pray the Master to say,
   "Lazarus, come forth." If we have a son who is dead in sin, let us ask
   the Lord to raise him up even from the bier of his transgressions. Or
   if it is a little daughter at home, fair and lovely yet unquickened,
   let our prayer be to the great Master that He would come and raise her
   up. He is able to raise any of the spiritually dead for He has raised
   us. Let our own conversion encourage us in praying for the spiritual
   resurrection of others.

   But, Brothers and Sisters, although we ourselves are quickened in that
   sense we have still need to continue the prayer. Do you remember the
   days of your first awakening, when you had only sufficient life to
   mourn and lament that you had so little? The first sense of life in you
   was painful--you were under a sense of sin and your guilt lay heavy
   upon you--you had only life enough to dread the death that never dies.
   Your life did little else for you but enable you to tremble, to mourn,
   to dread and to reproach yourself. It was the dark side of life--the
   pain which is the true evidence of vitality but is terrible to endure.
   Then you needed fuller light and healthier life and no prayer could
   have better suited you than this which is now before us, "Quicken me."
   Oh, the agonizing cries of awakened sinners! Theirs are no mimicries,
   but stern realities! Believe me, they pray.

   Since that season, for blessed be God that state is over now, we have
   joy and peace in believing--not all the joy and peace we could wish,
   but still a good share of it. But we still have great cause to cry
   aloud and that right often, "Quicken me." For instance, have you never
   felt the need of this prayer when you have been cast down by
   affliction? The spirit, broken and bruised, can only rally through an
   infusion of fresh life. When you could not get a grip at the promises
   because the hand of your faith was numbed, you needed an increased
   vitality. In temporal trial more Grace was your best support--and when
   the trouble was not only bodily, but spiritual--then increased inner
   life was the doubly efficacious remedy.

   Do you remember when you were broken in pieces all asunder through some
   surprising sin and God, in chastisement, seemed to hunt you with the
   terrors of His Law? Then your expiring faith and swooning hope needed a
   new vitality! There was no restored joy for you till you learned,
   again, the meaning of the Redeemer's words, "I am the Life." Lying at
   the foot of His Cross you saw the vital blood flowing from His dear
   wounds and you cried "Quicken me!" Forth from the heart of Jesus came a
   stream of warm life which entered your soul, renewed your faith,
   inspired you with sacred confidence and diffused within your spirit a
   blessed calm in which you softly breathed the life of God and rose as
   one quickened from among the dead!

   How many times, also, have you been the victim of worldliness, that
   horrible swoon of the heart towards Christ? Even over those who try to
   live nearest to God this evil influence exerts itself like some
   stifling vapor, engendering a dreadful sleepiness, even where it cannot
   accomplish death. Men after God's own heart have cried, "My soul
   cleaves to the dust: quicken me, O God!" You have loved some earthly
   thing--some child, perhaps, has clambered into your heart's throne
   while it has been fondled on your knee. Lawful loves have become
   engrossing and have eaten the Lord's portion. The Son of David has been
   displaced by an usurper, or at least another throne has been set up in
   His palace. Have you not been horrified at your own idolatry and
   resolved to have done with it, cost what it may?

   You have sought for the axe which should remove the right hand of sin,
   the hammer which should dash down the usurper's image--but your heart
   has failed you, the fascination of the sin has spell-bound you! Around
   you the coils of

   the serpent have been twined and you could not tear them off, for a
   poison chilled your blood and stupefied your brain and heart. Ah, then
   you saw the beauty of the prayer, "Quicken me," and well was it for you
   that, feebly as you uttered it, it was answered from the Throne of
   Mercy! What could have stood you in good stead if you had been left a
   victim to the deadly drugs and mortal opiates of sin?

   You, my Brothers, who are much engaged in business from morning to
   night--when things go with you very roughly, or on the other hand when
   they go with you very smoothly--have the deepest cause to pray, "Lord
   quicken me." Earth sticks to our hearts, especially those forms of it
   known as gold and silver--and lumps of adhesive earth make a pilgrim's
   progress tardy. You cannot wrestle in prayer while you are loaded down
   with worldly cares! No runner can win a race when he stoops under great
   weights. It is impossible to commune with God and yet to fix one's
   heart on money-making. While business is what it is and the wheels of
   trade revolve at such a terrific rate, men had need be very vigorous in
   Divine Grace or their souls will be ground to dust amid their own
   machinery.

   Oh you very busy men, you ought day by day to plead with the
   Lord--"Quicken me my God, lest I be overcome by the deadly influences
   of the world." Though I mingle little with the business or the politics
   of the hour, I feel a drowsy influence creep over me from the smoke of
   these tents of Kedar in which I dwell, like that which Bunyan mentions
   in his description of the Enchanted Ground where the very air made men
   drowsy. This influence tends to preaching mechanically, as an automaton
   might do if properly wound up, and it leads to praying by routine after
   the manner of a Tibetan windmill or a Ritualistic priest.

   Hideous is this temptation to perform one's duties officially--because
   it is the time to do this and the proper hour to do that! Oh, my God,
   deliver us from crawling along in the ruts and slipping sleepily along
   the grooves! We need life, vivacity, vigor, diligence, fervor, passion,
   vehemence in the service of our God or else our Christianity is worth
   no more than a nutshell out of which the worm has eaten the kernel and
   left nothing but rottenness! Our God is a consuming fire and only by
   fire can we worship Him! Sacrifices without heart are an abomination to
   Him. The name to live is loathsome unless the spirit of life is
   present. The garments of a man may frighten birds, but only the heart
   and soul of manhood can avail with Heaven! Without the living soul of
   sincerity and earnestness, what is religion but a tomb, whitewashed on
   the outside but rotten within? We must have life! First, last and
   midst, we must have life! Therefore to all professors I commend this
   prayer, "Quicken me."

   My Brothers and Sisters, do not the most warm-hearted among us feel the
   need of more quickening? Let us consider a few matters which may awaken
   our desires more fully. First, let us enquire if we are as earnest in
   the things of God as in the common things of daily life? Is our soul as
   vigorous in its acts for God as in its emotions towards man? We are
   told by the Spirit that the time is short and it remains that those who
   have wives be as though they had not; they that rejoice as though they
   rejoiced not and they that weep as though they wept not because all
   these things are passing away and therefore our emotions about them
   should be comparatively slight.

   But spiritual things, seeing they endure forever, ought to have a
   lodgment in the center of our being and concerning them we should think
   deeply and feel strongly. Sorrow for sin should be the keenest sorrow.
   Joy in the Lord should be the loftiest of joy. Is it so? How do you
   find it with yourselves? Suppose it is the love of a newly-married
   wife--is there not an intensity about it which needs no inflaming? Do
   you always or often find your soul so ardent towards the Lord Jesus
   Christ? Yet ought He not to be before all others? Or suppose it is your
   weeping for your lost husband or your dear departed child--you do not
   need excitement to grief--no, your hearts bleed all too freely and you
   need arguments to relieve your sorrows!

   Is it thus when you lament the dishonor done to the name of Jesus? Are
   the water floods quite as plentiful? Is repentance as deep and living
   an emotion with you as sorrow under bereavement? I fear that in these
   earthly matters our heart is wax and in spiritual things it is as the
   nether millstone. Yet is it sad, indeed, that our affections entwine
   themselves about a mere creature but put forth no tendrils towards the
   Lord of Love who laid down His life for us! If you are suddenly made
   possessors of wealth, the joy you have over your substance is very
   manifest. None can question it. Or if your wealth is taken away by some
   loss in trade or otherwise, your distress is by no means superficial. I
   pray you tell me, are you equally concerned about the true riches?

   If you have found the priceless pearl, are you enchanted with it? If
   you have lost fellowship with Jesus, does the loss depress your spirit?
   Are you as eager to be rich in Grace as to be great in wealth? Do you
   prize Christ as you do your

   profits? Are you as eager in a Prayer Meeting as you are in the market?
   I fear, Brothers and Sisters, that a comparison between our zeal for
   temporal and spiritual things would lead to very humbling conclusions
   and give us reason to cry, "Lord, deaden me to this world, but quicken
   me towards the world to come."

   The same truth will be apparent if we will think of the earnestness of
   men of the world in their callings and pursuits. How men will wear
   themselves out in seeking the secular objects on which their hearts are
   set! To what sacrifices will they expose themselves! The votaries of
   science altogether shame the followers of religion. They have
   penetrated into the densest swamps defying fever and death. They have
   lost themselves among the wildest savages, or they have died amidst
   eternal snows. Have they not lost their lives while using deadly drugs
   out of which they hoped to discover curative agents? Or worn away their
   eyesight by weary night watching of the orbs of Heaven? Science daily
   increases her martyrologies but where do we find ours? Where is the
   chivalry of Christians? Alas, where survives the heroism of the

   Cross?

   In former times the followers of Christ counted not their lives dear
   unto them for His sake. But now we hug ourselves in ease and venture
   little for the Lord. The world has warm followers and devoted friends,
   but Jesus is attended by a lukewarm band of men who are more likely to
   sleep at Gethsemane's gates than to watch with Him for a single hour.
   Oh Lord of Love, will You not quicken us? Behold our need! Forgive our
   sin and from this good hour teach us how to live! We shall surely also
   be rebuked if we think of the zeal of some of the Lord's servants.
   Their lives should make us feel how little life we have. Put yourself,
   beloved Brother, side by side with Paul for a few minutes. Think of his
   unquenchable zeal. Remember his voluntary exposure to a thousand
   risks--his suffering and his labors for the propagation of his Master's
   Gospel. Where are we, and what are we? Alas, we blush and sink to
   nothing in the presence of such a man!

   Others of like energy have been and are in the Church. Why are we so
   unlike them? Shame, shame upon us! Perhaps it may touch us with some
   degree of feeling if we recall what our own zeal was at one time. It
   never was much to boast of-- when we were most earnest we could well
   have borne to be heated seven times hotter and yet not become too much
   inflamed--but are we now as zealous as once we were? May I ask you to
   look back upon the early days of your religion? Oh you then ran where
   now you creep! You blazed and glowed where now but a few sparks are
   left! The love of your espousals, when you went after your Master into
   the wilderness, when nothing was too heavy or too hard for His dear
   sake--where is it now? Where is it now?

   As you grew in years you should have grown in zeal, for you know more
   of Him and you have received more from Him. But is it so? Why, we
   thought we would push the Church before us or drag the world behind us
   and we meant to do I know not what--but have we done it? Then we cried,
   "Who are you, great mountain?" "Before Zerubbabel you shall become a
   plain." But the great mountain remains where it was because our faith
   has declined and our zeal has flagged. Oh, for the Spirit to re-baptize
   us into the fullness of His life and strength!

   Once more, think, dear Friends, of our condition of spiritual life and
   of what it ought to be when we remember our obligations to our Savior.
   Stand in spirit at the foot of the Cross and see the five wounds and
   the precious blood that bought us. Can you remain unmoved? Do we gaze
   into yon dear face, that mirror of love and grief, and feel no love to
   Him? Can we think of His returning into His Glory, and bearing our
   names upon His breastplate day and night before the Eternal Throne and
   feel no enthusiasm for Him? Can we meditate upon Him as from before all
   worlds loving us, and to all worlds loving us still, and yet remain
   indifferent?

   Why, Sirs, if we lived for Jesus solely and evermore and died a
   thousand deaths for Him, these were cheap things to lay at the foot of
   His dear Cross! He deserves infinitely more from us! Think, I pray you,
   of all the Truths of our religion and ask yourselves what kind of life
   they require of us. We believe that men are lost and shall we be idle
   when in our hands is the Gospel which alone can save them? We know that
   men are passing into a condition in which they shall forever abide,
   everlastingly blessed or eternally accursed of God--and only the Truth
   of God that we have to tell them can secure them from unending
   misery--and can we withhold the saving Word?

   I do not wonder that those who believe the contrary to this should take
   things coolly, but I do marvel at ourselves that we are so insane at
   heart that we are not moved to passionate earnestness for ourselves and
   our fellow men! Fanaticism itself were, under some aspects of it,
   nothing but cold-blooded reason in the face of such Truths as these! We
   ought to live impassioned lives, full of flaming energy and we would if
   this prayer were heard, "Quicken me in Your

   way." Thus I have spoken upon the first head. Now may we be helped to
   dwell upon the second and may the Spirit bless us thereby.

   II. Our text DIRECTS US TO THE SOLE WORKER OF QUICKENING. "Quicken me."
   David seeks quickening

   from the Lord alone. He goes at once to Him in whom were all his fresh
   springs. Life is the peculiar sphere of God--He is the Lord and Giver
   of life. No man ever received spiritual life, or the renewal of it,
   from any other source but the living God. Beloved, this is worth
   remembering, for we are very apt, when we feel ourselves declining, to
   look anywhere but to the Lord. We too often look within. "Why seek you
   the living among the dead?" You might find a diamond upon a dunghill,
   but you will never find spiritual refreshing in human nature. Look,
   then, to some better source than to the howling wilderness of self.

   We are very apt, also, to think that in the use of the means of Grace
   we shall necessarily obtain reviving and refreshing. "If I can hear Mr.
   So-and-So preach, who has often laid his hands among my heart-strings
   and brought out music there, then I should be again awakened. Oh, could
   I hear him once again I should see better days." You do not know. That
   beloved voice may have lost all power over you. If you look to the
   servant and not to the Master, the Master will leave the servant and
   the servant will be of no use to you. Dig the pools by all manner of
   means--passing through the valley of Baca make it a well, but remember,
   the life-refreshing water does not rise from the bottom of the well, it
   drops from above--"the rain also fill the pools."

   God out of Heaven, alone, can make instrumentality to be of vital
   service to us. Not even the sweet succors of the Communion Table can
   bring back vigorous life to the Christian apart from the anointing of
   the Holy Spirit. Rest you not in the outward, for it cannot touch the
   inward! Above all, never go to the law for reviving. Do not begin
   chiding yourself by saying, "This I ought to have done and I shall lose
   the love of God if I do not," and so on. That is all legal. The child
   of God, when he hears the roar of Sinai's thunder, sinks into a deeper
   death--it cannot rouse him into life. Slaves may be moved by terror,
   but not the true born child of God--a nobler motive sways his heart. Go
   not, then, to rewards and punishments for your life--you will never
   find it there. The ministry of the Law is the ministry of death, not of
   life. We must take ourselves to the Spirit of God who is the gift of
   the Gospel, not of the Law. Remember, Beloved, that Jesus Christ is
   come that we might have life and that we might have it more abundantly!

   Now, if any poor soul first of all obtained life from looking alone to
   Jesus it is clear that if she wants more life she must get it in the
   same way. They say that for a sick man his native air is the best. My
   native air was Calvary--was it not yours, dear Brothers and Sisters?
   Let us together seek the blood-stained spot. Go and breathe the
   atmosphere of atoning love again! Get back to the foot of the Cross
   once more and you will find effectual quickening. The Holy Spirit is
   the great Agent by whom the life of Jesus is infused into our nature.
   The Holy Spirit at this moment can come upon the coldest heart in this
   place and make it flame and blaze with more than angelic ardor! You are
   like a bush at this moment, dry and dark, but God has but to put one
   spark of His life in you and you will be like the bush in Horeb which
   flamed like the sun.

   Dear Sister, have you fallen very low? Go to God, for He can lift you
   up when no one else can. My ministry cannot quicken you, but the Lord
   can. He has only to send forth the Divine Life and the dullest and most
   slothful, the most barren, the most dead among us would become warm
   with Apostolic fervor and the Divine Life would make us shine as the
   glittering seraphim which surround the burning Throne! Oh God, how this
   moves us to pray to You! You can do it. Do it now! "Quicken me in Your
   way!"

   Did you notice that in the text nothing is said about the means by
   which the Lord is to quicken us? David leaves that to God's discretion.
   Let Him use His own methods. There is a prayer--you will find it in the
   149th verse, and also in the 156th--in which David prays, "Quicken me
   in Your judgment," as if he left it to infinite prudence to select its
   own methods. He did not pretend to say what was the best way, but left
   himself in God's hands, only praying, "Lord, quicken me." Let us
   consider the various methods by which the Lord can quicken His people.
   Usually He does it by His Word. "Your Word has quickened me."

   There are promises in God's Word of such effectual restorative power,
   that if they are but fed upon and their nutriment absorbed into our
   nature, they will make a dwarf into a giant in the twinkling of an eye!
   And he who lies faint upon the ground and cannot move hand or foot
   shall mount upon the wings of eagles, and run and not be weary, if but
   one Word out of the mouth of God is applied to him by the Spirit.
   Sometimes, however, God uses other instruments,

   such as affliction. It is wonderful how a little touch of the spur will
   quicken our sluggish natures! God has ways and means of touching our
   flesh and bone and rendering sleep an impossibility in more senses than
   one. Personal affliction is like a tonic medicine, by which our relaxed
   energies are strung up again--but to this end it must be sanctified, or
   it will fail. Blessed be God for a flick of His whip! We might else
   have stumbled in our sleep and fallen. It does good to such sorry jades
   as we are. I pray that some of you may get a touch of it, for you are
   dull enough. Just a touch now and then does all of us good and rest
   assured we shall have it, too, if we do not keep awake without it, for
   God loves us too well to withhold His paternal rod.

   At the same time, He can quicken us by great mercies. A man may be
   stirred up to diligence by a sense of gratitude to God for great
   mercies. I grant you it does not always have that effect, but it ought
   to. Oh, if our hearts were right, it would be sweet to say, "Here is
   another mercy, another favor from God, this binds me with another cord
   to His service. I will love Him more and devote myself more intensely
   to His work." Christian example, too, sometimes stirs us up. I believe
   the reading of holy biographies has been exceedingly blessed of God.
   The life of such a man as M'Cheyne, or the diary of Brainerd, or the
   story of Whitfield's ministry--such things make us think, "What are we?
   What are we living for?" Put microscopes upon our eyes and yet we can
   hardly see ourselves, we are so little--we are as grasshoppers in their
   sight--yes, we are as grasshoppers in our own sight. This stimulates
   us.

   On the other hand, if you fall in with a number of idle dolts of
   professors, as sometimes you do, your indignation at them will help to
   excite you to zeal, or it ought to do so. We have known some who have
   said, "I am superior to these, at any rate," and therefore
   congratulating themselves they have gradually sunk down to the same
   ignominious level. But in a true heart the sluggishness of others is a
   spur to greater exertion, for such a man says, "Is my Master served in
   such a beggarly manner as this? Then will I serve Him with all my
   heart, to make up for the lack of service in others."

   It is said that Augustus Caesar was once asked to a feast by one of his
   subjects, but the attendance was so dilatory, and the feast so meager,
   that he rose in disgust and said he supposed he was invited to be
   honored, but he had discovered that it was intended to insult him.
   Truly in many a congregation of Christians--yes, even of our own
   denomination-- the worship of God is done in such a mean, stingy,
   dead-and-alive way that it seems as if Christ were asked to the
   assembly to be insulted rather than to be honored! Verily such
   treatment of our Lord is enough to make us weep tears of blood and then
   drive us onward to a service unparalleled in these frigid days!

   Doubtless, too, a warm-hearted ministry has much to do with quickening
   us and if we have a choice of ministries in any place, we should select
   not that which tickles the ear most, but that which most enlivens the
   heart. If there are two ministries to be had, one of which is highly
   rhetorical and exceedingly pleasing to the intellect, but the other,
   though lacking in these points, nevertheless appeals to our conscience,
   arouses our heart, feeds us with spiritual meat and incites to higher
   degrees of sanctity--choose that one--for it is the ministry which God
   approves.

   Under God's blessing, every one of our Divine Graces may become a means
   of enlivening us. For instance, our faith, as it believes the great
   things of God, will be sure to arouse us. Our hope, as she looks
   forward to the bright reward, will cause us to labor where otherwise we
   should have fainted. And love, which is the fore-horse of the team,
   will draw us to serve Christ with might and main. True love to Jesus,
   if it comes to a great vehemence, will quicken the entire spiritual
   Nature and then will the prayer be answered, "Quicken me." Thus,
   Brothers and Sisters, you see God has both gentle and rough means of
   quickening us, but for my part if He will but quicken me, I will make
   no bargain with Him--let Him do it as He wills. Do what You will with
   me, my Lord, only keep me from being lukewarm, coldhearted, dead and
   alive. Do make me to be all on fire for You!

   Remember, Beloved, that this is a promised blessing. David says,
   "Quicken me according to Your Word." You will find that thought
   repeated in the Psalm. It is a blessing to be pleaded for, for in a
   former verse David says, "Quicken me in Your righteousness," as if he
   felt that God would not be righteous, would not be keeping His promise
   if He did not quicken him. This is a blessing which is always a token
   of God's loving kindness wherever it comes. Look at the 88th verse and
   the 159th, and you will find them both saying, "Quicken me after Your
   loving kindness."

   III. Our text DESCRIBES THE SPHERE OF RENEWED VIGOR. "Quicken me in
   Your way." I have no business to ask God to quicken me in my own
   way--no right to ask Him to quicken me merely that I may enjoy myself
   religiously, or be thought to be a very eminent Christian--or be able
   to sit down and contemplate my own beauties and perfections with
   self-complacency.

   Somebody once said to a Christian man, "Pray, what faith have you?"
   Said he, "I have none to boast of." If you see a fellow who has not a
   sixpence to bless himself with, if he chances to possess an imitation
   diamond ring, how careful he is to show it. See how he always puts out
   his finger to let you see it! But he who is worth his millions never
   thinks of displaying his gewgaws in that fashion. He that has merely a
   name to be religious is sure to advertise it, but he who is rich
   towards God is the very man who thinks himself poor, and cries out,
   "Lord quicken me!"

   Now, what is the path in which we require to be quickened? First, it is
   in the way of duty in common life. Am I a father--quicken me to bring
   up my children aright. Am I a housewife--Lord quicken me that my duties
   at home may be discharged as in Your fear. Am I a servant or
   master--Lord, quicken me. I have my temptations in my daily calling--
   quicken me to stand against them. And I have also my daily
   opportunities for serving You--quicken me to make use of them.

   It means next, "Quicken me in sacred activity." Am I a preacher? Lord
   help me to preach with all my might and with all Your might, too. Am I
   a teacher in a school? Lord grant that I may not go to sleep over my
   children, but may win their souls, being blest by You with the
   earnestness which impresses youthful minds. Have I any other work to
   do? Am I a deacon or elder of the Church? Let me be so ardent in piety
   that my fellow members may be excited by my zeal. You have all some
   work to do for Christ--I hope you have. If you have not, go home and
   begin. But if you are doing your work, I know your prayer must be,
   "Quicken me in Your way."

   Did not David mean, again, quicken me in the way of patient suffering?
   I must not forget that there are some whose service for Christ is more
   honorable even than the service of the worker, but who are very apt to
   think that Christ considers them useless. Oh dear Brothers and Sisters,
   are you called to suffer bodily pain? Your work is to bring forth the
   inexpressibly sweet fruit of patience! Go and pray, "Quicken me in Your
   way." You know the story about poor Betty, who said the Lord had called
   her to do this and that while she was well, but now, "The Lord has
   said, 'Betty, go and lie on that bed and cough,' " and she said, "I
   will do it for His sake." May you rejoice in the Lord's will even if it
   causes you to pine, to cough and to die! Not even the song of the
   angels is more sweet to God's ear than the resignation and patience
   which are to be found in the hearts of the sons and daughters of
   affliction. But you will need great Grace for this, my Sister. You will
   need a strong inner life for this, my Brother--therefore pray, "Quicken
   me in Your way."

   And the same is true of the way of hallowed worship. We need to be
   quickened there, quickened in private prayer, quickened in public
   prayer, quickened in our family devotion, quickened in our reading the
   Scriptures, quickened in our contemplations of Divine love, quickened
   in all forms of worship. We require to be quickened in our growth in
   Grace, in humility, in patience, in hope, in faith, in love, in every
   good gift. Especially we need to be quickened in communion with our
   God. Then let us pray the prayer, "Quicken me in Your way."

   IV. Lastly, the connection of our text DENOTES THAT THERE MAY BE
   SPECIAL REASONS AND SPECIAL

   SEASONS FOR THIS PRAYER. Just observe it. Turn away my eyes from
   beholding vanity, and, "Quicken me in Your way." You see the connection
   of the prayer? David is exposed to a temptation--the temptation reaches
   him through his eyes--he prays God to turn his eyes away from it and
   then as a cure for the evil he says, "Quicken me." Brethren, are you
   never fascinated by a sin? Whenever you have been conscious of that
   diabolical fascination it has been time to cry, "Quicken me in Your
   way." I see I am weaker than I thought I was, Lord. I was carried away
   with anger when I thought I had gained a quiet temper at last. Lord, I
   found my heart going after an evil which I thought I had no relish for.
   Give me more Grace, Good Master. "Quicken me in Your way."

   A fit time for this prayer is a season of great affliction. The 107th
   verse teaches us that. "I am afflicted very much: quicken me, O Lord,
   according to Your Word." Times of great temptation of spirit and trial
   of soul should be seasons for praying that God would give us
   extraordinary Grace. When we have been confessing past sloth we should
   pray for Grace to resist it in the future. If God at this time should
   convince any of us that we have not done 1/10th of what we ought to
   have done and that we have been living at a distance from the love of
   Christ, then the prayer should arise, "Quicken me in Your way."

   Are we just now called to some extraordinary service? Does the Lord lay
   upon us a heavy burden for His name? Do not let us shirk it, or say, "I
   cannot do it." No, "Lord, quicken me!" Give me more Grace and then I
   shall be equal to any emergency, for as my days my strength shall be.
   This prayer is very suitable to the members of this Church because at
   this time we have seen so many of the good and excellent among us taken
   away. It scarcely seems as if the Lord would leave us

   any. During the last few months He has continued to sweep away one and
   another from us, and this week another valuable Brother has been borne
   to the tomb. Surely everyone remaining should say, "Lord, quicken me!"
   Grant that I may live so that if I am also soon to be removed I shall
   have finished my course and have fought the fight right through and
   gained the crown which Grace has promised.

   Perhaps within the course of another week this black upon my pulpit may
   wear a third significance, as it has a double one already. From which
   of us shall it derive its third meaning. Do I stand here to preach in
   feebleness my last sermon to you? Do my beloved Church officers sit
   around me for the last time? And have I here members of this fellowship
   who are now, upon this last occasion, gathered for united worship?
   Brethren, it may be so! Then let us pray for quickening, that we may
   live while we live and waste no precious moment of our scant earthly
   existence! The needs of our Church are very great. If I stood in a
   harvest field and saw that the crop needed to be ingathered, and that a
   laborer was working in it till he fainted again and again--and if I saw
   him in great feebleness grasping the sickle, impelled by a brave spirit
   which kept him to his work--I think I should pray, "Lord, help me to
   reap, too. Help me to go into that mass of standing corn and reap, too,
   for I see Your servant overworked with service."

   My fellow Servants, bought with the same blood, the harvest truly is
   plenty but the laborers are few! I entreat you, by the blood and wounds
   of Him who bought you, let not a single one turn away but rise up and
   serve God with heart and soul and strength! Ah, we shall soon have to
   give account for all these things. Within a few short weeks or months
   we shall stand before His Judgment Seat whose eyes of fire shall read
   us through and through! We shall then be called to account for these
   ungodly ones who sit with us this day! Can we answer for their souls?
   We are a great Church in a great city and multitudes are dying without
   knowing Christ--if we do not give them all the help and instruction we
   can-- how shall we answer for it?

   If standing in this pulpit to preach to crowds I do not stir my soul
   and preach earnestly, how shall I answer for it? When blood shall be
   upon these skirts in the day of judgment--the crimson of souls damned
   through my indolence-- how shall I answer for it? Great God, forbid
   that it should ever be! But it may be so with you as well as with
   me--each one according to his responsibility and position. I again
   entreat you by every name that can tell upon your hearts and arouse
   your consciences--pray to God to quicken you to an ardor of love and an
   intense diligence of service for His dear and precious name!

   Ah, some of you I cannot ask to offer this prayer. I have told you why.
   Dead Souls, how can you pray for life? But I will ask God's people to
   pray for you and I will pray for you--that the Gospel which I am
   commanded to preach even to the dead in sin may come with power to your
   souls. Here it is: "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved! He
   that believes not shall be damned." The Lord lead you to obey the Word!
   Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

A Honeycomb

   (No. 1073)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 29, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against
   Himself, lest you are wearied and faint in your minds." Hebrews 12:3.

   WHEN the Hebrew Christians were suffering dire persecution the Apostle
   could suggest no better support for their faith than this, "Consider
   Him." He bade them look to Jesus and compare their case with that of
   their Lord. Such contemplations would prove a sovereign balm for their
   distressed minds. A consideration of our Lord and Master is the best
   conceivable stay and support during persecution. Let us look into that
   fact for a few minutes. The Believer under persecution should remember
   that he is suffering no strange thing, but is only enduring that which
   fell upon his Master before him.

   Should the disciple expect to be above his Lord? "If they have called
   the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them
   of His household?" If they had received Christ they would have received
   us, but since they reject both Christ and His sayings, the followers of
   Christ must expect that both their persons and their doctrines will be
   lightly esteemed. Remember that in addition to His being our Master,
   Jesus is also God. Shamefully unrighteous was the opposition of mankind
   to God, whom by all reasons of right and justice they were bound to
   reverence--yet He endured with almighty patience the contradiction of
   sinners against Himself. A word from His lips would have withered them,
   but, like a sheep before her shearers, He was dumb.

   One glance of His eyes of fire would have consumed their spirits, but
   those eyes distilled tears instead. You are but men--is it much that
   men should mock you? If God Himself, in the Person of His dear Son has
   endured the opposition of sinners, who are you, O sons of men, that you
   should wonder, much less should murmur when you are reviled for Jesus'
   sake? Remember, too, that our dear Lord and Master was perfectly
   innocent. It was a cruel thing that He should be opposed who had done
   no harm to anyone. "For which of these works do you stone Me?" He asked
   a plaintive question, as much as if He had said--"I have healed your
   sick, I have fed your hungry, I have raised your dead. And do you thus
   requite me! Are stones the only testimonies of your appreciation?" They
   called Him a drunk, yet well we know He was Temperance itself. They
   said He had a devil, though He was the Lord of angels. They charged Him
   with treason, and yet He was, Himself, the King of kings and Lord of
   all.

   Now, Brothers and Sisters, in us there is much that is evil and when
   men speak evil of us falsely we may say within ourselves, "Ah, had they
   known me better they might have truthfully found fault with me in some
   other direction." You are not innocent, Beloved. Oftentimes you bring
   the rebuke upon yourselves and the contradiction of sinners against
   your religion is due to your own fault quite as well as to the world's
   opposition to the Truth of God which you love. Therefore if He, the
   Spotless One, endured, should not you endure who are so far from
   innocent? Should not you be willing for His sake to suffer persecution?

   Remember, too, the loving mission upon which our Master came. He came
   into this world on purpose to save men. He had no sinister motive, nor
   even a secondary aim. The glory of God in the salvation of lost souls
   was all He lived for, and yet for all that, sinners were infuriated
   against Him and opposed Him with might and main. Now, the good you can
   confer upon them is slender enough compared with the rich gifts with
   which the Master's hands were laden. You come, it is true, to tell them
   of a Savior, but you cannot save them. You bring glad tidings of good
   things, but you are only tiding-bearers of the good things your Master
   actually brought. If they persecuted Him who gave His blood for their
   redemption, it is not amazing if you, who can only tell what He has
   done, should bear some of the reproaches that fell upon Him.

   We remember, dear Friends, how bitter were the reproaches that assailed
   Him--how the enmity of man put forth all its cruel force. They were not
   content with slandering Him in life--they must hurry Him away to death.
   Reproach broke His heart and He was full of heaviness. Thus they
   tortured His soul and you have not forgotten their cruelties to Him in
   Pilate's Hall where the mental and physical agonies were blended. You
   cannot forget the nailing to the Cross and the scorn which saluted Him
   in the midst of His dying grief. You have not yet resisted unto blood,
   striving against sin. What have you endured compared with His?

   As the poet standing upon the desolate mounds of ruined Rome
   considering the death-throes of an empire, said, "What are our petty
   griefs? Let me not number mine." So may you say, "What are the
   sufferings of any of the saints compared with the infinite griefs of
   the eternal Son of God?" His was suffering, indeed. "Consider Him, lest
   you are weary and faint in your minds." Yet reflect, Beloved, amid all
   these sufferings our Lord's temper remained unruffled. He spoke strong
   words against hypocrisy and falsehood wherever He beheld them. He
   spared neither Scribe nor Pharisee, but in those stern denunciations
   not a single atom of personal anger was blended. He did not denounce
   them in resentment for their attacks upon Himself, but because they
   deserved to be denounced and were in themselves too vile to be
   tolerated. No personal animosity ever ruffled the serenity of our great
   Master's spirit.

   Moreover, He was never moved to take the slightest revenge upon His
   foes--even for those who nailed Him to the Cross He had no return but
   the prayer, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
   And, as He had no vengeance against them, so they exerted no evil
   influence upon Him. He persevered in His lifework just as much as if He
   had never been opposed. Like the sun that goes on in its strength
   whether there are clouds to hide it or whether it shines out of the
   blue serene, Christ continued in His heavenward way. Coming out of His
   chamber full of love to His spouse like a bridegroom girded for the
   race He pursued His mighty journey, tarrying not till He had fulfilled
   His course.

   Oh, how strengthening is this contemplation! Let us consider Him and
   reflect that by reason of His sufferings and His patience, and His
   forgiveness, and His perseverance He achieved a triumph over evil which
   was, in effect, a complete victory of righteousness over sin! If He
   could have been ruffled He had been defeated. If He could have been
   angered He had been overthrown. If He could have been stayed in His
   progress, then He had not been victorious. But He bore and bore and
   bore again--He suffered and He suffered and He suffered, still, like
   the anvil that replies not to the hammer-- He yet wore out those
   hammers by His patience!

   Brethren, consider this and suffer yourselves with a patience like your
   Master's. Consider Jesus, and push on in the allotted path of holy
   service just as He did. Consider Him, and look forward with expectancy
   to the joy of triumphing over evil, for Christ will, in you, get the
   victory over sin again--in you He will again be crowned with many
   crowns and in you, again, His cross shall become the symbol and weapon
   of victory!

   But now I must confess I did not take this text with the view of
   preaching from it as it stands, but from a light which breaks out of
   it. We have given you an outline of what could have been said upon the
   text, but the thought occurred to me if the consideration of Christ is
   a most effectual medicine to the persecuted so as to prevent their
   being weary or faint in their mind, doubtless the same sacred balm
   would be beneficial to all other cases of spiritual distress. And as I
   thought of all the diseases of God's people, and like a physician tried
   this prescription upon them, I discovered that it was equally suitable
   and effectual in every case!

   So I thought I would speak this Sunday morning to those souls which
   most need our care, namely, to those who are seeking Jesus and longing
   after salvation but are filled with doubts and despondencies. And I
   will say to them, "consider Him." I am persuaded, Beloved, if I am
   enabled by God's Spirit to lead any seeking soul to "consider Him," I
   shall also lead that soul into liberty! I believe this topic will be
   the opening of the prison doors to them that are bound. I feel for some
   of you that God has set before you, this morning, an open door which no
   man can shut! And my prayer shall be offered over every syllable that I
   utter, that God may lead you through that open door at this very
   moment--so that not 20 or 100, but thousands of you may find Christ and
   be saved with an everlasting salvation!

   I know the medicine has power in it if God the Holy Spirit will but
   apply it. I shall now speak to the seeking sinner, taking him by the
   hand and appealing to him in simple but earnest language. You that seek
   salvation I say unto you, in the name of the living God, consider
   Christ Jesus, the Son of God, the only Savior of man! And do this,
   first, to meet your own consideration of your SIN. You are awakened
   enough to know that you have sinned against God. Though a little while
   ago sin seemed a trifle, you now know that your sin is a terrible
   thing, a deadly thing. And the thought

   oppresses your spirit that your sin deserves the wrath of God--that it
   must be punished--that God would not be a just moral Governor if He
   were to pardon you absolutely! You know He must take vengeance upon
   your inventions and punish you for your iniquity.

   Now I am glad that you have considered your sin and the heinousness of
   it, but, poor Soul, let me take you by the hand and say to you,
   consider Him--the Savior, Christ Jesus. For if you will think of Him
   you will remember that God has been just and has laid the sin of His
   people upon the Lord Jesus Christ. It was impossible that sin should be
   wiped out with no reaction from God. But He has been pleased to accept
   a Substitute in the Person of His only-begotten Son who could lawfully
   be a Substitute because He is the Head of His people and it was natural
   that in their fall He should take an interest as being to them what
   Adam was to the whole human race.

   Now, the Lord need not punish you, oh Sinner, for sin, for He has
   punished Jesus Christ in the place of all believing sinners! He need
   not visit you with stripes, for the stripes due to your sin, if you
   believe in Jesus, were laid upon another's back--your iniquities were
   gathered all together in one mighty load and then placed upon the
   shoulders of Jesus Christ, the great Scapegoat for sin! Does not that
   remove distress from your mind? If you consider your sin, consider also
   the five wounds, consider the bloody sweat, consider the tortured
   Person of the Immaculate Christ who was God at the same time that He
   was Man, and say to your soul, "If Jesus died in your place, there is a
   sufficient recompense made to the injured honor of Almighty God so that
   He can be just and yet the Justifier of the ungodly."

   But there rises in your mind this thought, "My sin has placed me in a
   miserable position, for I am a sinner and being a sinner I must be
   obnoxious to the anger of God. It is not possible that a pure God could
   permit me to dwell in His Presence, for He cannot look upon iniquity.
   How can I hope for acceptance before God when I am defiled?" Now
   hearken, Soul. You are a sinner, but "consider Him." Ask yourself what
   is Jesus Christ? I speak with reverence of His name, as our Redeemer,
   what is He apart from sinners? Is not His name, "Jesus, for He shall
   save His people from their sins"? If there were no sinners, what could
   be the value of His name? It would be an empty sounding title without a
   meaning! How could He save if there were no lost ones to be saved? He
   could only be called a Savior by way of compliment and fancy.

   Think about it, what did Jesus come from Heaven for if He had not a
   relation to sinners? "It is a faithful saying and worthy of all
   acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." He
   came for nothing if He does not find sinners and save them! And if you,
   and such as you, have no right to look to Jesus, then what did He come
   to earth for? If there is a righteous man here who has no sin, Jesus
   has nothing to do with you--you will perish without a Savior! But if
   you are a sinner, you are the kind of person that He came to save and
   the fact of your knowing that you are a sinner should give you comfort!

   Look at the Characters of Christ--"consider Him." Is He not a Priest?
   And what is a priest for, but to make propitiation for the sins of the
   people? Is not our Lord described as a Sacrifice for sin? But to what
   end is there a bloody sacrifice if there is no sin to put away? Jesus
   is our Advocate. What says the Apostle? "If any man sin, we have an
   Advocate." Who needs an Advocate with God but the man who has offended?
   Jesus is an Intercessor, too, but who needs Him to intercede for him if
   he is innocent? He makes intercession for the sins of His people. You
   see, then, if you will consider Him, just as a poor man is necessary
   before there can be an almsgiver--just as a disconsolate soul is
   necessary before a comforter can exercise his office--so a sinner is
   necessary before a Savior can be what He is ordained to be!

   Jesus needs your sinnership that He may exercise His sacred craft upon
   it! Put a surgeon down amidst men who are never sick and what is there
   for him to do? Tell a physician that in a certain city no one is ever
   ill and he will take himself off by the next train. If there were no
   sinners what use would a Propitiation be? Therefore as you consider
   Him, though your sense of sin will not vanish, your despair about it
   will be driven away. "Yes, but," says another, "while I have been
   considering my sin I have been stunned altogether by a sense of its
   greatness. Oh Sir, mine has not been mere verbal sin--I have committed
   crimson transgressions of which it were a shame to speak! I have
   defiled myself by actual crimes which I cannot efface from my memory."

   Be it so, but I bring you my one remedy--"Consider Him." What sort of a
   Savior is Jesus Christ--a little Savior or a great one? Is He not the
   Son of God and, Himself, God? What need is there of a Divine Person to
   be a Propitiation for limited sin? It was the infinity of sin that
   required the Godhead itself to become Incarnate in order that human
   guilt might be put away. If you say, "I have but little sin," I tell
   you Christ will have nothing to do with you. He came not

   from Heaven to be a physician to a pin's prick of a man's finger which
   will heal of itself--He is a Physician who delights to heal putrefying
   sores and gaping wounds and incurable diseases! And you, you great,
   big, devilish Sinner, you are just the sort of man that Christ delights
   to operate upon, for in you will He show His power, His mercy, His
   Grace, His Sovereignty!

   There is room to display the infinity of His mercy in such a one as you
   are. Therefore, be not cast down, be not faint and weary in your
   seeking after Him, but come at once and close in with Him who is mighty
   to save. "Yes," says another, "but in turning over my sin I see the
   peculiarity of it. I believe my case is one by itself. I do not think
   another man could have committed the sin I have done under the
   circumstances and with the peculiar aggravations." Be it so. You are a
   unique sinner, but "consider Him," for He is a unique Savior! Was there
   ever such a one as Jesus? You are a terrible sinner, but His name is
   called Wonderful. If you are a sinner of such a class that if you are
   saved all the angels will throng the streets to see you come to Heaven
   and point at you, and say, "Behold a monstrous sinner, saved." I say,
   if it is so you will bring all the more glory to Christ--you will only
   make His name the more famous through every heavenly street!

   But I tell you, however much by yourself you may be, Christ will meet
   you. If you have out-roared all others in the daring flights of your
   sin, Jesus has gone beyond you in the flights of His mercy! Though you
   should have gone as near the gates of Hell as possible and have
   imitated the devil in his worst qualities, yet the Redeemer is able to
   save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him! He is a Savior,
   and a great one! If you can ever find such a Savior as Christ, then I
   will ask you to find such a sinner as yourself. But since you think you
   are such a unique sinner, since you must say of yourself, "Ne plus
   ultra," I will say the same of Jesus--there is none beyond Him. He
   stands alone and by Himself, and so the sinner and the Savior are well
   matched. Let your fears be hushed to sleep and put your trust in Him.

   Now, the same precious sentence will be useful to the seeking soul if
   its contemplation should have taken another shape. I can well believe
   that some of you are grievously oppressed with the sense of the
   greatness of GOD. You have lived for years negligent of the God who
   created you and supplied your needs. But now you have been awakened and
   aroused to the fact that there is a God, a God whom you have
   despitefully entreated, whom you have shamefully disregarded-- and you
   are shocked to find that it is so, for now you have a sense of the
   greatness of God--and you are afraid that He will crush you! You know
   the justice of God and you are sure that He must avenge the injuries
   you have done to His holy Law and, therefore, you go about every day
   with a dreadful sound in your ears, crying, "Where shall I go from His
   Presence, and how shall I escape from His vengeance?"

   You are surrounded with God and in Him you live and move and have your
   being--and this everywhere present God is your enemy, for you have made
   Him so by your rebellions against Him! Now as a cure for all this, I
   have to say to you, "consider Him"--Christ Jesus. You are afraid of God
   because He hates sin. Your fears are based on truth! God hates sin
   infinitely! If there were only one grain of sin in the whole universe,
   He would burn it to ashes to get rid of that grain of sin for it is
   such a detestable thing in His sight. But now consider Christ
   Jesus--sin was laid on Him. If you will come now and put your trust in
   Jesus, you may be sure that your sin was laid on Christ and the wrath
   of God concerning sin was spent upon Him. The vials of Jehovah's
   indignation were poured upon the devoted head of the Great Shepherd of
   the sheep. God hates sin, but He will not hate you, for you have no sin
   if you believe in Jesus, seeing your sin is transferred to your Surety
   and laid upon Christ--you are clean.

   "Ah, but," you say, "He is such a holy God, how can I approach Him?"
   Well, I will tell you the most blessed secret out of Heaven. It is
   this--you can, by faith, put on the perfect righteousness of the Lord
   Jesus and when you have it on you, you will be as holy in the sight of
   God as Christ is holy! Did not Jesus keep the Law? What need was there
   that He should? He needed not to have become a servant to His Father!
   He has a righteousness to spare and He gives it to us, for He is made
   unto us, "wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." When
   a soul puts on the righteousness of Christ by faith, even the
   all-seeing eyes of God cannot see a flaw in that righteousness!

   Adam in the Garden had a perfect righteousness, but then it was only a
   human one. You and I, when we believe in Jesus, have a perfect
   righteousness which is Divine--the righteousness of the Eternal Son of
   God Himself--and so we can come to God as if we had been perfectly
   innocent, and stand on terms of full familiarity with the Thrice Holy
   One. "Ah," says one, "there is good cheer in all this, but still, I
   have some dread remaining, for God is infinitely great." It is true, it
   is true, but I would have you, "consider Him," for remember, the God
   you have to do with is not God as seen on

   Sinai, or rather as obscurely heard amidst the dense darkness of the
   trembling mountain! You have to do with God in Christ Jesus and
   therefore, "consider Him."

   Now think for a minute. Jesus is a strong God, it is true. Do you not
   see Him walking the waters of the sea? But why does He pause in the
   midst of His wondrous march over the waves? It is to stretch out His
   hand and save Peter from sinking, who had said, "Lord save me, or I
   perish!" The strength of God shall do the same for you--as you are
   sinking and ready to perish--the Omnipotent God will put out His hand
   and snatch you from the waves of fire and deliver your soul from
   destruction! Consider Christ Jesus a moment as a strong God, and how He
   uses His strength. He walks down the streets where the sick folk lie in
   their beds and does He trample on them and crush out the last spark of
   life from those poor wretches? No, but He torches this one and an eye
   is opened, and He puts his finger on another and an ear is unstopped.
   He lays His hand on the dead and they arise!

   Oh, yes, and He will do this for you. Be thankful for a mighty God, for
   in Christ Jesus the Omnipotence of God will only come to heal your
   woes. See this Omnipotent One take the loaves and the fishes in His
   hands and break them, and as He breaks them they multiply till all
   those thousands are fed out of one basket of barley loaves and small
   fishes--He will feed your soul with heavenly bread to the fullest! His
   greatness will reveal itself in supplying your great necessities and
   blessing you greatly. You will see it so, if you will consider Jesus--

   "Till God in human flesh I see

   My thoughts no comfort find.

   The holy, just, and sacred Three,

   Are terrors to my mind.

   But if Immanuel's face appears,

   My hope, my joy begins,

   His name forbids my slavish fears,

   His Grace forgives my sins."

   So I have used the remedy thus far. I dare say I shall be a little
   tedious--the doctor is always tedious when he has many wounds to bind
   up. It may be that some soul here is saying, "You have not touched my
   difficulty yet. I am troubled about sin, and I am troubled about God,
   but still my greatest anxiety is this--I know that if I could believe,
   my sins would be pardoned, but I am perplexed with UNBELIEF and I am
   sorely distressed because of the HARDNESS OF MY HEART which will not
   let me repent."

   Come, then, Soul, and "consider Him." First, you say, "I have little or
   no faith." Then "consider Him." Did Jesus ever stipulate for great
   faith before He healed a soul? What trembling faith He accepted in the
   days of His flesh! The poor leper says, "Lord if You will, You can make
   me clean." You can get as far as that, can't you? And Jesus Christ
   said, "I will, be you clean." A poor woman came into the crowd and was
   afraid to face the Master, so she crept behind Him and touched the hem
   of His garment and stole a cure, for she said, "If I may but touch the
   hem of His garment I shall be made whole." And Jesus did not rebuke her
   but said, "Your faith has made you whole, go in peace."

   So Jesus Christ loves little faith! Therefore you, poor Much-Afraid,
   and you, Despondency, "consider Him," and His gentleness towards the
   timid and trembling, and let your fears be gone. But you say, "Ah, I am
   afraid I have no faith at all." Then, Beloved, "consider Him," and
   among other matters consider well how He deserves your faith. Tell me,
   what did Jesus ever do that you should doubt Him? He says He will save
   you if you will trust Him. Point to one promise He has broken. I
   challenge you, yes, I challenge all the world to point to one Word that
   ever fell from His lips and was not fulfilled! That dear and precious
   Savior is Truth itself! I feel I can trust Him and whenever I do not
   trust Him it is because I have not considered Him.

   The sight of Him makes me feel that I would rush into His arms. What?
   Not trust Him who "bears the earth's huge pillars up?" I must trust
   Him! Son of God and Son of Man, I see both Your strength and Your
   tenderness, and I must rely upon You. I pray the man who feels that he
   cannot believe to consider Christ Jesus, think of Him in the Garden!
   Think of Him on the Cross. Will not His death suffice? Think of Him as
   rising from the dead and pleading before the eternal Throne--

   "Venture on Him, venture wholly, Let no other trust intrude, Surely
   this Savior

   Can do helpless sinners good."

   Well, then, suppose that after all you should still say, "But I still
   find unbelief my trouble"? Then I ask you to remember that He was
   exalted on high on purpose that He might bestow the gift of faith and
   repentance. Even while He was here on earth, His disciples prayed,
   "Lord, increase our faith," and you may without doubt pray to Him to
   give you faith. And you, who mourn a rocky heart, you may say, "Lord,
   You are exalted on high to give repentance to Israel--give repentance
   to me!"

   Jesus can touch your heart and make it tender in a moment! Only let
   that nail-pierced hand be laid upon your cold, petrified heart and it
   will become warm and instinct with heavenly life. If you look to
   yourself to find repentance, you will look long, but if you will look
   to Him, is it not written, "They shall look on Him whom they have
   pierced and they shall mourn for Him as one mourns for his first-born"?
   A sight of Christ breeds repentance in the heart! Jesus looked on
   Peter--Peter's eyes were dry till then, but Peter saw that look and it
   melted Peter's heart--right through his nature it pierced like some
   mighty gleam of a ten-fold sun! In a moment it pierced the iceberg of
   his nature and dissolved his soul! One look at Jesus will melt a heart
   of stone. "Consider Him," then.

   Come to the point. You cannot believe nor repent, but He can give you
   both! If you urge yourself to these, you will often make a mistake and
   make yourself more unbelieving and more impenitent than before. But if
   you go to Him for every Grace that brings you near and ask that without
   money--He will give you everything! He will freely bestow them upon
   you. If you let Him be Savior from top to bottom, from beginning to
   end--if you will just go to Him as helpless, lost and ruined and
   confide yourself entirely to Him--you shall find He will not and cannot
   fail you in this, the time of your need. Thus you see, considering Him
   gets rid of those troubles. May the Spirit of God prove it to be so!

   Perhaps YOUR OWN INSIGNIFICANCE causes you to doubt. You complain and
   say, "I cannot think Christ would save me. I am nobody. I am mean,
   poor, obscure." Dear Friend, consider Jesus! Did He ever fawn at the
   great ones' feet? Did He preach in the royal chapel and utter there
   soft nothings, fit for the ears of kings and queens? You know He did
   not! He wore the smock-frock of the peasantry and called fishermen to
   be His Apostles--thus pouring contempt on princes--for, "not many great
   men after the flesh, not many mighty are called." He has chosen the
   base things of this world and the things that are not has God chosen to
   bring to nothing the things that are.

   "Ah," says one, "but I mean I have no gift or knowledge." Then
   "consider Him," and let me bring Him before your eyes. I see Him
   standing with uplifted hands, exclaiming, "Father I thank You that You
   have hid these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them
   unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seems good in Your sight." Does
   not that settle that question once and for all? I am sure it ought to
   do so! "Ah," says one, "but I am so unworthy." Yes, and will you tell
   me where Christ was accustomed to seek out the worthy ones? Did He not
   go and touch blind beggars' eyes who were nothing but beggars and had
   no recommendation but poverty?

   Did He not bless those who had no claim by way of righteousness? Does
   mercy ever ask for merit? Does it not, on the contrary, seek for
   misery? If an angel of mercy hovered over this congregation, poising
   himself in mid air, I should know that he did not come with mercy to
   those of you who are good and have no sin--why should he come to insult
   you? But if there is a broken-hearted sinner here, I know that the
   angel has a gracious word for him, from the heart of Him who delights
   in mercy! Do not say I am a nobody, and am therefore forgotten! Christ
   Jesus loves nobodies! He delights to pick up those whom society throws
   away--the very offscouring and sweepings are His choice! Solomon built
   his temple of cedar, but our Lord builds His temple with the meanest
   woods in the forest. Any jeweler can make a precious thing of gold, but
   Jesus makes diamonds out of dross and crowns out of clay!

   Yes, but perhaps I have not met the peculiar distress of some and so
   let me try again. "Ah," says one, "but I feel my POWERLESSNESS for
   everything that is good. I am sure if I am saved I cannot help in it."
   Ah, poor Fool, it is strange that ever we should think we could help
   the Lord to save us! Could you have helped in Creation? If you had been
   there, when God was making the world, would you have offered to help
   Him? When He said, "Let there be light," would you have rushed forward
   with a match and said, "Permit me to add my little spark"? It is
   insulting to think of such a thing! But Salvation is a greater work
   than Creation! Stand back, you impertinent flesh and blood! You can
   only hinder the great work. God does not need your help. Abase yourself
   and He will glorify Himself in your salvation.

   "Still," says one, "I feel so feeble in everything I try to do. I tried
   to pray, but I could not." What did you do? "I fretted because I could
   not pray." Well, you prayed much better than if you had thought you had
   prayed, for he who

   groans because he cannot pray has prayed the best prayer in the world!
   The poor publican did not say much, but when he smote upon his breast,
   even if he had not added the recorded words, he prayed! That smiting on
   his bosom meant the true prayer of his soul, "God be merciful to me, a
   sinner." "Ah," says another, "I have been trying to overcome sin
   lately, and I have been beaten." You shall overcome by the blood of the
   Lamb, but all your own warring against sin will certainly end in
   defeat. Let the sword of the Lord and of Gideon be laid bare and the
   Midianites will soon be put to the rout. But unless it is the sword of
   the Lord there will be no routing your foes. "Consider Him," and have
   hope.

   "Oh, but if I have any love to Christ it is so little. If I have any
   faith it is almost unbelief. If I have any life it is but a flicker.
   How can I be saved?" Now, Soul, once and for all have done with all
   this talk! Your salvation is in Christ, and not in you! Do not say, "/
   have little strength"--confess you have none at all and then you are
   nearer the truth! Do not say, "I have little life"--confess that you
   are dead by nature and you have hit the mark.

   Do not say, "I have little virtue"--say, "All unholy and unclean, I am
   nothing else but sin." When you reach the bottom you cannot fall lower
   and that is the place where you ought to be--and Jesus will never meet
   you till you come to the lowest point. Your extremity is His
   opportunity! When you are a beggarly bankrupt and cannot pay half a
   farthing in the pound, then all Christ's richest treasures shall be
   yours! But if you have a little to add to help the Savior, just so that
   you may have a side glance at the Glory, He will have nothing to do
   with you! He wants you, but He needs nothing of yours. He wants your
   emptiness to fill it and He needs nothing of your own to increase His
   fullness.

   Now I must hasten on for time fails me. Perhaps, I have some here who
   say, "My case lies out of your track this morning, for I am the subject
   of very fierce Satanic TEMPTATIONS. I have lately been met with such
   blasphemous thoughts and horrible suggestions that I can scarcely
   conceive any other human being has ever been subjected to them." Now,
   at once "consider Him." He was "tempted in all points like as we are,
   yet without sin." "We have a High Priest who can be touched with a
   feeling of our infirmities." I need you to remember this and so to
   "consider Him." I know that if a preacher of the Gospel has had no
   temptations nobody ever goes to him with questions of conscience. But
   if a man of God has been led through great adversity and soul trouble,
   all the distressed and afflicted people in the neighborhood are sure to
   fly to him because he can sympathize with them.

   Now, our dear Redeemer can sympathize with you who are tempted of the
   devil, for He was 40 days in the wilderness tempted of Satan, too. Go
   to Him. "But I am afraid of the temptations I shall have in years to
   come." Are you? Then "consider Him," for "He is able to save unto the
   uttermost them that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make
   intercession for them." What a choice word that was of His to Peter,
   "Satan has desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat, but I
   have prayed for you that your faith fail not." Oh, poor Soul, consider
   Jesus and remember that if all the devils in Hell were to tempt you and
   you had but Jesus Christ present with you, you need no more be afraid
   than if the dogs in the streets barked at your heels when all their
   teeth were drawn!

   Jesus has broken the devil's teeth by the power of His intercession.
   Satan has power to howl at us but he cannot bite us! He worries whom he
   can't devour with a malicious joy, but the Lord has smitten our enemy
   upon the cheek bone and by one tremendous blow of His pierced hand He
   has broken the teeth of the Oppressor. I hear yet another cry. "Come
   here," says one, "I have something to whisper in your ear I can hardly
   tell. My trouble is about my INWARD CORRUPTION. Oh, if ever there was
   an unclean heart in all the world I have it! It is like some foul pond
   which bubbles up with putrid gas. My inmost nature is filled with all
   manner of filthiness and iniquity like a mud volcano which pours forth
   a horrid stream. Oh, Sir, my heart is abominable! A cage of unclean
   birds is nothing compared to it--it is a den of

   devils."

   Well, well, "consider Him." You remember how He came into the Temple
   and there were the buyers and sellers with their bullocks and sheep and
   doves? I have often marveled at the ease with which He drove them out.
   He had not even a rope with Him, but only a few small cords--and He
   began, straightway, to lay about Him, and oh, how they ran! Those
   money-grubbers, who would not have lost a shekel for their lives unless
   their gold and silver spilt on the ground, quickly fled while the
   bullocks and the sheep ran from the holy place and the doves fluttered
   out into the air! Let Christ come into your heart and He will soon
   drive out the buyers and sellers, yes, and the old dragon himself!

   Remember, too, that Jesus is Creator. He made the heavens and the
   earth--cannot He create you anew? Is it not said, "He that sat upon the
   Throne said, behold I make all things new"? Consider His Omnipotent
   power--having given you a new heart, can He not make you completely
   holy? Oh, think not so continually of your sin and sinfulness and
   proneness

   to transgression, but think of Christ, almighty to save--and whether
   you sink or swim cast yourself upon Him! Lost or saved, come and cling
   to His Cross this morning and I guarantee you not one of you shall
   perish, but eternal life shall be the portion of every man that rests
   in Him!

   Still, somebody says, "I am troubled about THE THREE LAST THINGS. I am
   afraid of death, and I am afraid of judgment, and I am afraid of Hell."
   Afraid of death? Well, but if you will but trust the Son of God who
   died for sinners, you need never be afraid to die! Your little child,
   when she has run about and wearied herself and wants to sleep, is she
   afraid to fall asleep in Mother's arms, with her head on Mother's
   breast? And you, dear child of God, when you are wearied with your
   work, you shall go and lay your head on Jesus' bosom and fall asleep.
   And it shall be just as easy and just as sweet as for your little ones
   to sleep on your bosom.

   "But I am afraid of judgment," says one. Judgment? But your judgment is
   past already! Your sins were judged in Christ and punished in Christ,
   if you believe in Him. The sins of all Believers were brought before
   the bar of judgment and condemned and broken on the wheel in Christ.
   Let us go back to that famous passage by Paul for a minute. He pictures
   God's chosen people standing before the Throne, and he cries, "Who
   shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?" Who is afraid of
   judgment when nobody can lay anything to his charge? And then he goes
   on to say, "Who is it that condemns?" None can condemn but the Judge,
   and who is He? It is Christ that died, and can He that died for us
   condemn us? Impossible! He cannot belie Himself! So you need not be
   afraid of judgment.

   "But I am afraid of Hell," says one. Ah, and there is good cause to
   fear it. "Fear Him who can cast both body and soul into Hell, yes, I
   say unto you, fear Him." But you need not fear Hell if you trust in
   Jesus, for Christ has suffered the punishment of your sin and as far as
   you are concerned Hell is not! There are no flames of wrath for
   you--they spent themselves upon the Savior! When the Jew laid his
   sin-offering on the altar and the fire consumed it, the sinful Jew
   stood there and said, "That bullock stands for me." When it had all
   burned, he said, "My sins are burned." And when they took the ashes
   into an unclean place and utterly consumed them, he said, "my sin is
   put away. They have put it outside the camp, it is consumed."

   So when we "consider Him," even our dear Lord Jesus on the Cross, we
   see Him there a complete Sacrifice. We see the fire of God roasting and
   burning Him up, consuming Him till He is utterly consumed as a
   Sacrifice, and there our sin was annihilated. Every Believer may know
   that there his sin ceased to be, for it is written, "He has finished
   transgression. He has made an end of sin and has brought in an
   everlasting righteousness."

   I do not want to stop when I have such a subject as this, but I must.
   As I finish it shall be with this earnest prayer that every seeking
   sinner here may believe in Jesus at once. Oh, weary one, why do you not
   repose upon Him? Wanderer, you will never find rest till you come to
   Jesus! Seeker, vain is your seeking if you will not have my Lord!
   Trembler, your trembling itself is to be trembled at if it keeps you
   from the Cross! There is the Savior to be had without money and without
   price--He is preached to you. Believe Him--that is trust Him--and live
   forever! The Lord bless you, now, and constrain you of His mercy to do
   so for Jesus' sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Paraclete

   (No. 1074)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, OCTOBER 6, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that
   He may abide with you forever." John 14:16.

   THE unspeakable gift of the Son of God was followed up by the equally
   priceless gift of the Holy Spirit. Must it not be confessed by us that
   we think far less of the Holy Spirit than we should? I am sure we do
   not exalt the Savior too much, nor is He too often the subject of our
   meditations, but at the same time we give to the Holy Spirit a very
   disproportionate place compared with the Redeemer. I fear that we even
   grieve the Spirit by our neglect of Him. Let me invite your devout
   contemplations to the special work of the Holy Spirit. Such an
   invitation is necessary. The subject has not grown stale, for it too
   seldom occupies our thoughts.

   We have not been unduly engrossed with honoring the Spirit of God for
   this is a fault seldom or never committed. We have met with
   uninstructed persons who have glorified the love of Jesus beyond that
   of the Father, and there are others so occupied with the decrees of the
   Father as to cast the work of the Son into the background--but very few
   and far between are those Believers who have dwelt upon the doctrine of
   the Holy Spirit beyond its proper measure and degree. The mistake has
   almost invariably been made in the opposite direction.

   The personal name of the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity is, "the
   Spirit," or the, "Holy Spirit," which words describe His Nature as
   being a pure, spiritual, immaterial existence and His Character as
   being in Himself and in His workings pre-eminently holy. We commonly
   also speak of Him as the, "Holy Ghost," but the name is now an
   erroneous one. The word "ghost" was the same as "spirit" in years gone
   by, when the present translation of the Bible was made, but it does not
   popularly signify "spirit" now. Superstition has degraded the word from
   its elevated meaning and it might be as well, perhaps, if the word were
   dropped altogether and we confined ourselves to the more accurate word,
   "Holy

   Spirit."

   The term, "Holy Spirit," is His personal title and we have in this
   verse His official title--He is in the English version called, the
   "Comforter," but the word used in the original, upon which we will
   meditate this morning, has a much wider range of meaning. The word is
   Parakletos--we used it just now in our hymn, translating it into the
   English as,

   "Paraclete"--

   "Cheer our desponding hearts, You hea venly Paraclete! Give us to lie,
   with humble hope, At our Redeemer's feet."

   Now, it is true that the name, "Comforter," is a fair translation from
   some points of view, but it rather translates a corner of the word than
   the whole of it. It is a light which really streams from the text, but
   it is one of the seven prismatic colors rather than the combined light
   of the very instructive and wonderful word, Paraclete. Understand,
   then, that we have now to consider, this morning, the official title of
   the Holy Spirit. May we be filled with loving reverence while we study
   His gracious work and His official name.

   I. First, this morning, I shall try to EXPLAIN HOW THE SPIRIT OF GOD IS
   THE PARACLETE. The word, Paraclete, is so full that it is extremely
   difficult to convey to you all its meaning. It is like those Hebrew
   words which contain so much in a small compass. It is sternly and even
   primitively sublime in its simplicity, yet it comprehends great things.
   Literally, it signifies, "called to," or, "called beside" another to
   aid him. It is synonymous verbally, though not in sense, with the Latin
   word, advocatus, a person called in to speak for us by pleading our
   cause. Yet, as we have come to

   use the word, "advocate," in a different sense, that word, although it
   would, like that of, "comforter," convey a part of the meaning, it
   could not contain it all.

   Paraclete is wider than "advocate" and wider than "comforter." I think
   the meaning of the word, "Paraclete," might be put under the two
   headings of one "called to," and one "calling to." One called to, that
   is, to come to our aid, to help our infirmities, to suggest, to
   advocate, to guide and so on--and one who, in consequence thereof, for
   our benefit, calls to us--for some see in it the idea of monitor, and
   certainly the blessed Paraclete is our Teacher, Remembrancer, Incentive
   and Comforter. His work as One called in to help us, consists very
   largely in His strengthening us by admonition, by instruction, by
   encouragement and by those works which would come under the head of a
   Teacher or a Comforter.

   Paraclete is a word too extensive in meaning to be exchanged for any
   one word in any language. It is most comprehensive and we shall hope
   not so much to interpret as to paraphrase it in the first head of our
   sermon this morning. Let us take all the passages in John 14:15-16
   which refer to this title and study them with care. From the first,
   which is our text, we learn that the Holy Spirit, as the Paraclete, is
   to be to us all that Jesus was to His disciples. Read the text, "I will
   pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter," plainly
   teaching that the Lord Jesus Christ is the first Paraclete and that the
   Holy Spirit is a second Paraclete occupying the same position as the
   living Jesus did.

   It would not be easy to describe all that Jesus was to His disciples
   when He dwelt among them. If we called Him their "Guide, and Counselor,
   and Friend," we should but have begun to catalogue His kindnesses. What
   a valiant leader is to an army when his very presence inspires them
   with valor, when his wisdom and tact conduct them to certain victory
   and when his influence over them nerves and strengthens them in the day
   of battle--all that, and more, was Jesus Christ to His disciples! What
   the shepherd is to the sheep, the sheep being foolish and the shepherd,
   alone, wise--the sheep being defenseless and the shepherd strong to
   protect them--the sheep being without power to provide for themselves
   in any degree, and the shepherd able to give them all they require--all
   that was Jesus Christ to His people!

   You see Socrates in the midst of his pupils and you observe at once
   that the great philosopher is the factotum of his school. But still,
   some follower of Socrates may improve upon what he teaches. Now, when
   you see Jesus, you observe at once that all His disciples are but as
   little children compared with their Master and that the school would
   cease at once if the great Teacher were gone. He is not only the
   Founder but the Finisher of our system. Jesus is to us not only the
   doctor but the doctrine--"He is the Way, and the Truth, and the Life."

   The disciple of Christ feels Jesus to be inexpressibly precious. He
   does not know how many uses Christ can be put to, but this he
   knows--Christ is All in All to him. As the Orientals say of the palm
   tree, that every fragment of it is of use-- and there is scarcely any
   domestic arrangement into which the palm tree, in some form or other,
   does not enter--even so Jesus Christ is good for everything to His
   people and there is nothing that they have to do, or feel, or know that
   is good or excellent, but Jesus Christ enters into it. What would that
   little company of disciples have been as they went through the streets
   of Jerusalem without their Lord? Conceive Him absent and no other
   Paraclete to fill His place and you see no longer a powerful band of
   teachers equipped to revolutionize the world, but a company of
   fishermen without intelligence and without influence--a band which in a
   short time will melt under the influence of unbelief and cowardice!
   Christ was All in All to His people while He was here.

   Now, all that Jesus was, the Spirit of God is now to the Church. He is
   "another Paraclete to abide with us forever." If there is this day any
   power in the Church of God, it is because the Holy Spirit is in the
   midst of her. If she is able to work any spiritual miracles, it is
   through the might of His indwelling. If there is any light in her
   instruction; if there is any life in her ministry; if there is any
   glory gotten to God; if there is any good worked among the sons of men,
   it is entirely because the Holy Spirit is still with her! The entire
   weight of influence of the Church as a whole, and every Christian in
   particular, comes from the abiding Presence of the sacred Paraclete!

   And Brothers and Sisters, we shall do well to treat the Holy Spirit as
   we would have treated Christ had He been yet among us. Our Lord's
   disciples told Him their troubles. We must trust the Comforter with
   ours. Whenever they felt that they were barbed by the adversary, they
   fell back upon their Leader's power--so must we call in the aid of the
   Holy Spirit. When they needed guidance they sought direction from
   Jesus--we, also, must seek and abide by the Spirit's leadings. When,
   knowing what to do, they felt themselves weak for the accomplishment of
   it, they waited upon their

   Master for strength--and so must we upon the Spirit of all Grace. Treat
   the Holy Spirit with the love and tender respect which are due to the
   Savior, and the Spirit of God will deal with you as the Son of God did
   with His disciples.

   Now, Beloved, we must pass on in our review of the passages of
   Scripture which relate to the Paraclete and remember there are only
   five. We know that the Holy Spirit comforts the people of God by the
   mere fact of His Presence and indwelling. "I will pray the Father, and
   He shall give you another Paraclete that He may abide with you
   forever." "For," says the 17th verse, "He dwells with you, and shall be
   in you." Beloved, I have said that the mere fact of the Presence of the
   Holy Spirit is comfort to the saints, and is it not? Jesus has not left
   you orphans, O you His chosen friends! He has gone, but He has left an
   equally Divine Substitute, the Holy Spirit!

   And if at this moment you do not feel His power, if you are even crying
   out under a sense of your own natural deadness, yet is it not a comfort
   to you that there is a Holy Spirit and that the Holy Spirit dwells in
   you at this present time? You are not required to bring down the Holy
   Spirit from Heaven by praying--

   "Come Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove, With all Your quickening powers." He
   has come down from Heaven and has never gone back again! He dwells in
   His Church perpetually and is not to be brought from on high. He is
   lawfully to be called upon to work in us, and He is always here! "Oh,"
   you say, "then I must have hope, for if the Spirit of God is in me, I
   know that He will expel my sin. If I were alone and had to fight my
   spiritual battles alone, I might despair. But if it is true that the
   eternal God Himself, in the majesty of His Omnipotence, dwells within
   my bosom, then, my Heart, be of good comfort and be encouraged! The
   Lord who is in you is mightier than all they that are against you."

   Satan may roar, the lusts of the flesh may rebel and the temptations of
   the world may assail, but if the Holy Spirit is really resident within
   the Believer's heart, then perfection will one day be attained and the
   last enemy will be trod down! It is consolation to us to know that the
   Holy Spirit dwells in us and He deserves His name of Comforter from the
   mere fact of His Presence and indwelling. But we pass on to notice that
   according to the 26th verse, the Spirit of God exercises His office as
   a Paraclete and comforts us by His teaching--"The Comforter, who is the
   Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you
   all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatever I have
   said unto you."

   It is a part of the Spirit's work to make us understand what Jesus
   taught. If He were merely to bring to remembrance the words of Jesus it
   would do us little good--even as when a child learns his Catechism and
   does not understand it, it is not of much service to him to bring to
   remembrance the words of the questions and answers. But if you first
   teach him their meaning and then bring the words to remembrance, you
   have conferred upon him a double and an inestimable gift. Now, we can,
   so far as the letter goes, learn from the Scriptures the words of Jesus
   for ourselves--but to understand these teachings is the gift of the
   Spirit of God and of none else! After He takes the key and lets us into
   the inner meaning of the Lord's words--after He makes us experimentally
   and inwardly to know the force and the power of the Truth of God which
   Christ revealed--then it is very profitable to us to have brought up
   before our minds the very words of Jesus and they come to us full of
   power and sweetness.

   Now, Beloved, you perceive that while the word, "Comforter," does not
   take in all the meaning of the word Paraclete, yet every work of His
   assists our consolation and the Holy Spirit as a teacher teaches us
   Truths which comfort us. What comfort is there in the world equal to
   the words of Jesus when they are really understood? Is not Jesus Christ
   Himself, "the consolation of Israel"? And, therefore, everything that
   is of Him is full of consolation to Israel. If the Spirit of God makes
   us understand the doctrines of Christ, as, for instance His teaching
   concerning the pardon of sin by faith, and the love of God towards the
   contrite--and His teaching in His own Person of the need of a
   Substitute and of the provision of a Substitute--if those things are
   really taught to our souls, the Paraclete becomes, indeed, a Comforter
   to us! I can, as God may help me, teach you the letter of God's Word,
   but there is One who teaches you to profit effectually and savingly.
   May He exercise His office upon each one of you!

   Furthermore, we note that in this manner, through the Holy Spirit, we
   obtain peace. Observe the verse which follows: "Peace I leave with you,
   My peace I give unto you: not as the world gives, give I unto you." He
   who is taught of God naturally enjoys peace for if I am taught that my
   sins were laid on Jesus and the chastisement of my peace was upon Him,
   how can I help having peace? If I am taught that Jesus intercedes for
   me before the Eternal Throne and has taken

   His blood as my Atonement into the Holy Place, how can I help having
   peace? And if I am taught the promises of God and made to know that
   they are, "yes and amen in Christ Jesus," how can I be prevented from
   enjoying peace? Can I not sing--

   "The Gospel bears my spirit up

   A faithful and unchanging God

   Lays the foundation for my hope,

   In oaths, and promises, and blood"? Let the Spirit of God reveal God to
   you as the everlasting God who loved you before the world was! As the
   unchanging God who never can turn away His heart from you and can you
   do otherwise than rejoice with exceedingly great joy? Let the Spirit of
   God reveal to you the pierced hands and feet of Jesus. Let Him enable
   you to put your finger into the prints of the nails and touch the
   wounds of His feet, and lay your heart to His heart--why, if you have
   not peace you would be a melancholy miracle of perverse despondency!
   But you must have rest when you have Jesus Christ, yes, and such a rest
   that Jesus calls it, "My peace," the very peace that is in the heart of
   Christ, the unruffled serenity of the conquering Savior who has
   finished forever the work which God gave Him to do. What rich comfort
   is this which the Paraclete brings to us!

   But we have not brought out all the meanings yet, for, as we have
   already said, the word, Paraclete, signifies Advocate. You remember in
   John's first Epistle he uses this expression, "If any man sin, we have
   an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous"? Now in the
   Greek the passage stands, "If any man sin, we have a Paraclete with the
   Father"--it is the same word which is here rendered Comforter and you
   see clearly that it would not do to render it Comforter in that place,
   else it would read, "If any man sin, we have a Comforter with the
   Father," which would be absurd! The word means, "Advocate," there, and
   so it must here. The Spirit of God exercises for us the office of an
   Advocate--but He is not an Advocate or Intercessor in Heaven--our Lord
   Jesus Christ fills that office. The Holy Spirit does not intercede for
   the saints, but He makes intercession in the saints according to the
   will of God. God the Son makes intercession for the saints. God the
   Holy Spirit makes intercession in the saints.

   Let me show you how that is, by bringing you back to the chapters which
   we are studying. In the 15th chapter we find the Savior describing His
   saints in the world as hated and persecuted for His sake, and He bids
   them expect this. But He consoles them in the 26th and 27th
   verses--"When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the
   Father, even the Spirit of Truth, which proceeds from the Father, He
   shall testify of Me: and you also shall bear witness, because you have
   been with Me from the beginning."

   Now the passage means just this--while Jesus Christ was here, if anyone
   had anything to say against Him or His disciples, forward to the front
   came the Master and He soon baffled His foes so that they confessed,
   "Never man spoke like this Man." At this present time our Master and
   Head is gone from us--how are we to answer the attacks of the world?
   Why, we have another Paraclete to come to the front and speak for us,
   and if we had but confidence in Him, Beloved, He would have spoken for
   us much more loudly than sometimes He has done! And whenever we learn
   to leave the business in His hands He will do two things for us--first,
   He will speak for us Himself--and next, He will enable us also to bear
   witness. At this present time many questions of doctrine are mooted,
   many objections to the Truth of God are started and there are many who
   would lay the axe at the very root of Christianity and cut it down as a
   rotten tree.

   What is our answer? I will tell you. Nearly all the books that have
   been written to answer modern philosophies are a waste of time and a
   waste of paper. The only way in which the Church can hold her own and
   answer her detractors is by real power from God! Has she done anything
   for the world? Can she produce results? For by her fruits shall she be
   proved to be a tree of life to the nations! Now the Spirit of God, if
   we would but trust Him and give up all this idolatry of human learning,
   cleverness, genius, eloquence, and rhetoric and I know not what beside,
   would soon answer our adversaries! He would silence some of them by
   converting them as He answered Saul of Tarsus by turning him from a
   persecutor to an Apostle.

   He would silence others by confounding them, by making them see their
   own children and relations brought to know the Truth of God! If there
   is not a miraculous spiritual power in the Church of God at this day,
   she is an impostor! At this moment the only vindication of our
   existence is the Presence and work of the Paraclete among us. Is He
   still working and witnessing for Christ? I fear He is not in some
   Churches, but here we behold Him. Look at His workings in this place.
   Nearly 20 years ago our ministry commenced in this city under much
   opposition and hostile criticism--the

   preacher being condemned on all hands as vulgar, unlearned, and, in
   fact, a nine days' wonder! Jesus Christ was preached by us in simpler
   language than men had been accustomed to hear, and every one of our
   sermons was full of the old-fashioned Gospel.

   Many other pulpits were intellectual, but we were Puritanical.
   Rhetorical essays were the wares retailed by most of the preachers, but
   we gave the people the Gospel--we brought out before the world the old
   Reformers' doctrines, Calvinistic truth, Augustinian teaching and
   Pauline dogma. We were not ashamed to be the "echo of an exploded
   evangelism," as some wiseacre called us. We preached Christ and Him
   Crucified, and by the space of these 20 years have we ever lacked a
   congregation? When has not this vast hall been thronged? Have we ever
   lacked conversions? Has a Sunday passed over us without them? Has not
   the history of this Church, from its littleness in Park Street until
   now, been a march of triumph with the hearts and souls of men as the
   spoil of the war of which the standard has been Christ Crucified?

   And it is so everywhere! Only let men come back to the Gospel and
   preach it ardently, not with comeliness of words and affectation of
   polished speech, but as a burning heart compels them and as the Spirit
   of God teaches them to speak it! Then will great signs and wonders be
   seen! We must have signs following--else we cannot answer the world.
   Let them sneer; let them rave; let them curse; let them lie--God will
   answer them! It is ours in the power of the Spirit of God to keep on
   preaching Christ and glorifying the Savior. Just as Jesus always met
   the adversary in a moment and the disciples had no need of any other
   Defender, so we have another Paraclete, who in answer to prayer will
   vindicate His own cause and gloriously avenge His own elect.

   And, then, Brothers and Sisters, we are promised that this same Spirit
   will make us witnesses, too. It shall be given us in the same hour what
   we shall speak. The Christians who were brought before the Roman
   tribunals often nonplussed their enemies, not by excellency of words
   and human wisdom, but by their holy simplicity and zeal. Christ, by His
   Spirit, was manifest in the midst of the primitive saints and they were
   victorious through this other Paraclete who was with them. Moreover,
   Brethren, the advocacy of the Holy Spirit does not merely relate to the
   ungodly, but it has to do with ourselves. The Spirit of God is an
   Advocate with us, or within us. He leads us into comfort and advocates
   our cause before the judgment seat of our conscience. This work He does
   in a manner strange to flesh and blood. Beloved, if the Holy Spirit is
   an advocate within you, speaking peace within you by Jesus Christ, I
   will tell you how He will plead with you.

   First, He will convict you of sin. He will show you to be altogether
   lost and ruined, and undone--for till your self-righteousness is swept
   out of you there will be no solid consolation. He will convict you of
   the master sin of having been an unbeliever in Christ and He will lay
   you low at the foot of the Cross as well as at the foot of Sinai to
   make you feel that you are a sinner against Love as well as Law--a
   rebel against the five wounds of Jesus as well as against the Ten
   Commandments of God. And when He has done this He will convict you of
   righteousness, (John 16:10) that is to say, He will show you that the
   righteousness of Christ renders you perfectly acceptable with God. He
   will show you, in fact, that Jesus is "made of God unto you
   righteousness."

   Then the Spirit of God will comfort you again by bringing home to you a
   sense ofjudgment. He will show you that you and your sins were both
   judged and condemned on Calvary. He will show you that the evil which
   now seeks to get the mastery over you was then and there judged and
   condemned to die, so that you are fighting with a convicted adversary
   who only lingers for a little while and then shall be entirely dead,
   even as he now is crucified with Christ. When the Spirit of God has
   brought these three things home to you, what an Advocate He will be
   with you! He will say, "Heart, can you now despair? What will you
   despair about? Your sin was laid on Jesus! What do you fear? Oh Heart,
   do you lament your lack of righteousness? You have it all in Jesus! Why
   do you tremble? Do you fear the coming judgment? You have been judged
   and condemned in Christ--therefore the sin that is in you shall
   die--and your inner life shall live eternally."

   It is blessed when the Spirit of God argues thus in our conscience.
   Memory will say, "You did such-and-such that will condemn you." But the
   Spirit of God replies, "That has been already acknowledged. I have
   already condemned this sin, but it was laid upon the great Scapegoat's
   head and carried away." Then Fear will come up and say, "The Lord will
   visit this man's sin upon him." The Spirit of God will plead again, and
   ask, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of

   God's elect? Is God unrighteous to forget the work and labor of His
   dear Son?" So with blessed debating power the Holy Comforter within our
   soul will plead and intercede in us and we shall obtain consolation!

   Once again, the Holy Spirit is a Paraclete according to the 16th
   chapter, at the 13th verse, by His guiding us into all Truth, which is,
   I think, more than was meant by His teaching us all Truth. There are a
   number of caverns, full of sparkling stalactites, in some parts of the
   world. Now, it is a good thing when you are traveling, to be taught
   where each of these caverns is--that is teaching you truth. But it is a
   better thing when the guide comes forward with his flaming torch and
   conducts you down through the winding passages into the great
   subterranean chambers and holds his flambeau aloft while 10,000
   crystals, like stars, vying in color with the rainbow, flash their
   beams upon you!

   So the Spirit of God will convince you that such-and-such a teaching is
   the Truth of God and that is very much to know. But when He leads you
   into it so that you experimentally know it, taste it, and feel it--oh,
   then you are admitted to the innermost cave of jewels where "the
   diamond lights up the secret mine!" It is a blessed thing when the
   Spirit of God guides us into all Truth! A great many Christians never
   get into the Truth. They sit on the outside of it, but do not enter in.
   It is like a great nut to them--they polish the shell and prize it--but
   if they could once pierce the kernel and taste the interior flavor of
   the nut, how greatly would they be comforted!

   John Bunyan used to say he never knew a Truth of God until it was
   burned into him as with a hot iron. I sympathize in that expression.
   There are some Truths in the Bible which nobody could make me doubt at
   all because they are interwoven with my vitality. And others are so
   profitable to my inmost soul that I could not give them up--they are
   the very life and joy of my being. There is an old story of a bishop
   making £10,000 a year who had an argument with a young man upon the
   correctness of Episcopacy, and at the end replied to his
   antagonist--"Does this young man imagine that he can reason me out of
   £10,000 a year?"

   Self-interest in the bishop's case sustained his reasoning! The same is
   true with me, only in an infinitely higher degree and in a far more
   spiritual sense. If the doctrines I preach to you are not true, I am a
   lost man--my life becomes an agonizing disappointment and my death a
   horrible calamity. I know the Gospel is true because I have tried and
   proved its power! I know its inside as well as its outside! I do not
   merely believe its creed, but its Truth is to me real and practical.
   Hence I say, "Does the fool think he can argue me out of my peace of
   heart, my joy in the Lord, my hope of Heaven?" It cannot be! The
   experienced Believer is invulnerable from head to foot against anything
   and everything that can be hurled against him by skepticism. We are as
   sure of the Truth of the Gospel as we are of our own existence!

   The old philosopher heard a man assert that we do not exist, and his
   only reply was to get up and walk! So when we hear arguments against
   our holy faith, all we have to do is just live on in the power of the
   Spirit and silence gainsayers. May the Holy Spirit thus lead you into
   all Truth--into the secret of the Lord may He conduct you--and there
   may you feast upon fat things, full of marrow and upon wines on the
   lees well-refined.

   Once more, in the 16th chapter and 14th verse, we are told that the
   Paraclete glorifies Christ by, "taking of the things of Christ and
   showing them to us." Could infinite Wisdom select a sweeter topic for a
   disconsolate heart than, "the things of Christ?" Ah, Man, when you
   speak of the things of Christ to a broken heart you have laid your
   fingers on the right string! You may bring me the things of Moses and
   of David, of Solomon and of Daniel--but what are they to me compared
   with the things of Christ? Bring me the things of Christ! These are the
   balm of Gilead! These are the plasters which heal the sores! These are
   the true medicines of diseased souls!

   Therefore the Holy Spirit, in His infinite wisdom, lifts Jesus up
   before us, makes Him great in our esteem, glorifies Him in our hearts
   and straightway our souls are full of consolation! How could it be
   otherwise? I am sorry that my subject is much too long for my time this
   morning, and therefore I must pass away from this first head to glance
   at the second point which I had hoped to have dwelt upon at length.

   II. We shall now, secondly, REMARK UPON THE NATURE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT'S
   COMFORT, and will speak very briefly. It is evident from the passages
   we have read to you this morning that the Spirit of God never
   dissociates His comfort from His Character. John 14:15--"If you love
   Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He shall give
   you another Comforter." The Spirit of God never comforts a man in his
   sin! Disobedient Christians must not expect consolation. The Holy
   Spirit sanctifies and then consoles. Search and look, you who hang your
   heads like bulrushes! See what it is that makes you sorrow--obey, and
   you shall be comforted!

   Next, the Spirit of God does not aim at working mere comfort by itself
   and alone, but He produces peace in the heart as the result of other
   divinely useful processes. He does not comfort us as a fond mother may
   please her wayward child by yielding to its foolish wishes. The mother
   does not teach the child anything, nor does she cleanse its body or
   purify its heart in order to comfort it--perhaps she even neglects
   these to please the little one. But the Holy Spirit never acts so
   unwisely. He blesses by purity and then by peace. When a man is feeling
   pain he is very desirous that the surgeon should administer some drug
   which will stop the unpleasant sensation immediately--yet the surgeon
   refuses to do anything of the kind but endeavors to remove the cause of
   the evil--which lies far deeper than the pain. Is not the doctor right?

   So the Spirit of God comforts us by taking away our ignorance and
   giving us knowledge, by removing our misapprehensions and giving us
   clear understanding and by taking away our insensibility and convicting
   us of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Do not expect to get
   comfort by merely running to sweet texts, or listening to pleasing
   preachers who give you nothing but cups of sugared doctrine! Expect to
   find comfort through the holy, reproving, humbling, strengthening,
   sanctifying processes which are the operation of the Divine Paraclete!

   Note next, the comfort of the Holy Spirit is not a comfort founded upon
   concealment. Some have obtained consolation by conveniently forgetting
   troublesome Truths of God. Now the Holy Spirit lays the whole Truth of
   God open before us. He brings all Truth to our recollection and hides
   nothing from us. Therefore, the comfort we obtain from Him is worth
   having--the consolation, not of fools but of wise men--peace, not for
   blind bats but for bright-eyed eagles! A peace which age and experience
   will not invalidate, but which both these will deepen, causing it to
   grow with our growth and strengthen with our strength. Such is the
   consolation which the Holy Spirit gives.

   And mark, and be glad of it, it is a comfort always in connection with
   Jesus. If you get near to Jesus in your contemplations, you feel you
   are approaching those comforts which the Spirit intends you to enjoy.
   Oh, Beloved, do not run for consolation to mere prophecies of the
   future, or soft reflections about the past. Hard by the Cross is the
   deep well of undefiled consolation from which the Eternal Spirit draws
   full buckets for His thirsty people! Be afraid of that comfort which is
   not based upon the Truth of God! Hate the comfort which does not come
   from Christ! Water from the well of Bethlehem is what you need.

   It is comfort, too, which is always available. The comforts of the Holy
   Spirit do not depend upon health, strength, wealth, position or
   friendship. The Holy Spirit comforts us through the Truth, and the
   Truth does not change. He comforts us through Jesus, and He is, "yes,
   and amen." Therefore our comforts may be quite as lively when we are
   dying as when we are in vigorous health. And our consolations may be
   even more abounding when the purse is empty and the cruse of oil low
   than when all worldly store and cheer abound to us. This is the
   comfort, Beloved, which in all ages has been the mainstay of Believers.

   It was the comfort of the Spirit which brought the martyrs to stand
   before their accusers and to face death without fear. It was the
   comfort of the Holy Spirit which led the Waldenses to count not their
   lives dear to them. It made Luther so brave in the face of death and
   Latimer so merry even upon the blazing stake! Many a man has died in
   ecstasy under the power of this consolation and many a woman has pined
   away slowly, rejoicing to do so, because when heart and flesh have
   failed her, this consolation has been the strength of her soul! If you
   can know the Holy Spirit as your Paraclete you need not desire any
   other consolation!

   III. And now, finally, let us utter SOME OBSERVATIONS UPON THE WHOLE
   SUBJECT. First, to the

   Believer--Dear Brothers and Sisters, honor the Spirit of God as you
   would honor Jesus Christ if He were present! If Jesus Christ were
   dwelling in your house you would not ignore Him, you would not go about
   your business as if He were not there! Do not ignore the Presence of
   the Holy Spirit in your soul! I beseech you, do not live as if you had
   not heard whether there were a Holy Spirit. To Him pay your constant
   adorations. Reverence the august Guest who has been pleased to make
   your body His sacred abode. Love Him, obey Him, worship Him!

   Take care never to impute the vain imaginings of your fancy to Him. I
   have seen the Spirit of God shamefully dishonored by persons--I hope
   they were insane--who have said that they have had this and that
   revealed to them. There has not, for some years, passed over my head a
   single week in which I have not been pestered with the revelations of
   hypocrites or maniacs. Semi-lunatics are very fond of coming with
   messages from the Lord to me and it may save them some trouble if I
   tell them once and for all that I will have none of their stupid
   messages. When my Lord and Master has any message to me He knows where
   I am and He will send it to me direct, and not by mad-caps!

   Never dream that events are revealed to you by Heaven, or you may come
   to be like those idiots who dare impute their blatant follies to the
   Holy Spirit. If you feel your tongue itch to talk nonsense, trace it to
   the devil, not to the Spirit of God! Whatever is to be revealed by the
   Spirit to any of us is in the Word of God already--He adds nothing to
   the Bible, and never will. Let persons who have revelations of this,
   that, and the other, go to bed and wake up in their senses. I only wish
   they would follow the advice and no longer insult the Holy Spirit by
   laying their nonsense at His door.

   At the same time, since the Holy Spirit is with you, Beloved, in all
   your learning ask Him to teach you. In all your suffering ask Him to
   sustain you. In all your teaching ask Him to give you the right words.
   In all your witness-bearing ask Him to give you constant wisdom and in
   all service depend upon Him for His help. Believingly reckon upon the
   Holy Spirit. We do not continually take Him into our calculations as we
   should. We reckon up so many missionaries, so much money and so many
   schools--and so conclude the list of our forces. The Holy Spirit is our
   great need, not learning or culture! Little knowledge or great
   knowledge shall answer almost as well if the Spirit of God is
   there--but all your knowledge shall be worthless without Him.

   Let but the Spirit of God come and all shall be right. I would we took
   the power of the Spirit into our calculations always. You have a class
   at school and do not feel fit to teach it--ask Him to help you and you
   do not know how well you will teach! You are called to preach, but you
   feel you cannot--you are dull and your talk will be flat, stale,
   unprofitable. Bring the Holy Spirit into it and if He fires you, you
   shall find even the slender materials you have collected will set the
   people on a blaze! We ought to reckon upon the Spirit--He is our main
   force--what if I say He is our only force and we grieve Him exceedingly
   when we do not reckon upon Him?

   Love the Spirit. Worship the Spirit. Trust the Spirit. Obey the Spirit,
   and, as a Church, cry mightily to the Spirit! Beseech Him to let His
   mighty power be known and felt among you. The Lord fire your hearts
   with this sacred flame, for as this made Pentecost stand out from all
   other days, may it make the close of this year stand out in our history
   from all other years. Come, Holy Spirit, now! You are with us, but come
   with power and let us feel Your sacred might!

   To the unconverted, these few words--Dear Friend, if you are ever to be
   saved, the Holy Spirit is essential to you. Except you are born-again
   from above, you can never see the kingdom of God, much less enter it.
   Without the Holy Spirit you are dead. You will never come to any life
   unless He quickens you and even the Savior Himself upon the Cross will
   never be a Savior to you till the Holy Spirit comes and gives you eyes
   with which to look upon Him and a heart with which to receive Him!
   Remember that.

   Therefore I charge you take care that you honor the Spirit and never
   say a word against Him, lest you be found guilty of that sin against
   the Holy Spirit which shall never be forgiven, neither in this world
   nor in that which is to come. And let me ask you, has He ever convinced
   you of the sin in not believing in Jesus? Has He convinced you that
   there is no righteousness but in Christ? Has He convinced you that God
   will judge you and all the rest of mankind according to our Gospel by
   Christ Jesus? If so, since He has done that much for you, beseech Him
   now to take of the things of Christ and show them to you. There is hope
   for you there. All the salvation of a sinner lies in Jesus--and when
   the Spirit of God brings Jesus to the heart, He brings salvation!

   Oh, poor Heart, you will never get out of Doubting Castle, never cease
   to be a captive, till the Spirit brings the things of Jesus to you! And
   I pray that He may, and that He may do so at once. Submit yourself,
   now, to all that He teaches you! Believe the Truth of God as He reveals
   it. Above all, listen and be obedient to that great command, "Believe
   on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." "Incline your ear,
   and come unto Me: hear, and your soul shall live, and I will make an
   everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David." "Let
   the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and
   let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him and to
   our God, for He will abundantly pardon."

   May the Spirit of God lead you in the way of humble confession of sin,
   of repentance of sin and of believing in Jesus, and then we will meet
   in Heaven to bless the Eternal Paraclete, with the Father and Son
   forever! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

A Root Out Of A Dry Ground

   (No. 1075)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, OCTOBER 13, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "A root out of a dry ground." Isaiah 53:2.

   THE Prophet is speaking of the Messiah. He declares of Him, "He shall
   grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry
   ground: He has no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there
   is no beauty that we should desire Him." It is marvelous that with such
   plain prophecies concerning the Messiah the Jews should have made such
   a fatal mistake in reference to Him. They looked for a temporal prince
   who would come in splendor, notwithstanding that this and other
   Scriptures speak of His humiliation in express terms. Every
   unprejudiced person might have seen from this passage that the Messiah,
   when He came, was not to be surrounded with pomp but would come as "a
   Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief," to be, "despised and
   rejected of men."

   Yet, though the Truth of God was written as with a sunbeam and the
   Jewish people were pretty generally acquainted with their own
   Scriptures so that they had the opportunity of knowing it, yet when the
   Messiah came unto His own, His own received Him not. And though favored
   with the clearest prophecies concerning Him, they rejected His claims
   and cried, "Let Him be crucified!" Does not this teach us that the most
   plain instruction, earnestly and forcibly delivered, will not be
   understood by the unregenerate mind? The carnal mind discerns not
   spiritual things--its eyes are darkened, its ears are heavy.
   Inspiration itself cannot put a spiritual Truth of God so clearly that
   men will see it unless their eyes are opened by the Holy Spirit. Vain
   is the best light to blind men!

   Beloved, remember that what was true of the Jews is equally true of the
   Gentiles. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the simplest thing in the
   world, but no man truly understands it until he is taught of God. There
   are preachers who labor after simple words and seek out instructive
   similitudes by which to make the Gospel clear to every
   apprehension--but still, of the unregenerate it may be said, "Their
   foolish heart is darkened." Sin has brought upon the human race a
   mental incapacity with regard to spiritual subjects. They rush on in
   darkness, though the Gospel creates a noonday around them--they grope
   for the wall like the blind, though the Sun of Righteousness shines
   with infinite brightness!

   Alas, to what has our nature fallen! How is the image of God marred
   within us! How ardently should we adore the Holy Spirit, that He stoops
   to us even in this, our blindness, and is pleased to remove the scales
   and pour light into our souls! Whatever we have rightly discerned has
   been revealed to us by His teaching, for apart from His illumination we
   should have been as obstinately unbelieving as the Jews. Dear Hearers,
   how is it with you? Are you, also, blind? Though living in the Gospel
   day, it may be you have never seen the Savior with the eyes of faith.
   Are you blind, also? Oh, if you are, may He who alone can teach you to
   profit, instruct you in the faith of Jesus and in His light may you see
   light!

   Now, turning to the text itself, you will observe that Isaiah describes
   our Lord Jesus as growing up like "a tender plant," a weak branch, a
   suckling, a sapling, a plant that very readily might be destroyed. We
   cannot pass over that comparison without a note or two, though we
   intend to dwell mainly upon the next clause. Our Lord Jesus Christ in
   His humiliation appeared in great feebleness. He was born a helpless
   Babe. He was, in His infancy, in great danger from the hand of Herod,
   and though preserved, it was not by a powerful army, but by flight into
   another land.

   His early days were not spent amid the martial music of camps, or in
   the grandeur of courts, but in the retirement of a carpenter's
   shop--fit place for "a tender plant." His life was gentleness--He was
   harmless as a lamb. At any time it seemed easy to destroy both Him and
   His system. When He was nailed to the Cross to die, did it not appear
   as if His whole work had utterly collapsed and His religion would be
   forever stamped out? The Cross threatened to be the death of
   Christianity as well as of Christ--but it was not so, for in a few days
   the power of the Divine Spirit came upon the

   Church!

   At its first setting up, how feeble was the kingdom of our Lord! When
   Herod stretched out his hand to vex certain of the Church, unbelief
   might have said, "there will be an utter end before long." When, in
   later years, the Roman Emperors turned the whole imperial power against
   the Gospel, stretching forth an arm long enough to encompass the entire
   globe and uplifting a hand more heavy than an iron hammer--how could it
   be supposed that the Christian Church would still live on? It bowed
   before the storm like a tender shoot but it was not uprooted by the
   tempest--it survives to this day--and although we do not rejoice at
   this moment in all the success which we could desire, yet still that
   tender shoot is full of vitality!

   We perceive the blossoms of hope upon it and expect soon to gather
   goodly clusters of success. Christianity in our own hearts--the Christ
   within us--is also a "tender plant." In its springing up it is as the
   green blade of corn which any beast that goes by may tread upon or
   devour. Oftentimes to our apprehension it has seemed that our spiritual
   life would soon die. It was no better than a lily with a stalk bruised
   and all but snapped in two. The mower's scythe of temptation has cut
   down the outgrowth of our spiritual life, but, blessed be God, He who
   comes down like rain upon the mown grass has restored our verdure and
   maintained our vigor to this day! Tender as our religion is, it is
   beyond the power of Satan to destroy it! Weak as we are, we have not
   utterly fallen, nor shall we--for the feeble shall be victorious and
   the "lame shall take the prey."

   Though Grace is often like the hyssop for its weakness, it is ever as
   the oak for endurance. Man threatens to crush the Church, or hopes to
   uproot true Grace from the heart of the timid Believers, but it shall
   not be done--the "tender plant" shall become a goodly cedar and the
   weakness of God shall baffle the power of man!

   Now let us turn to the similitude which we have selected for our
   text--"A root out of a dry ground." First, we will explain the meaning
   of the metaphor. Then, secondly, we will speak of our experimental
   knowledge of its truth. Thirdly, we will dwell, for a while, upon the
   encouragements which it affords. And, fourthly, upon the glory which it
   displays.

   I. First, then, this morning, our Lord Jesus is said to be "a root out
   of a dry ground." What is THE HISTORICAL MEANING OF THIS METAPHOR? We
   believe that it applies to the Person of the Lord and also to His cause
   and kingdom--to Himselfpersonally and to Himself mystically. He is "a
   root out of a dry ground."

   A root which springs up in a fat and fertile field owes very much to
   the soil in which it grows. We do not wonder that some plants thrive
   abundantly, for the earth in which they are planted is peculiarly
   congenial to their growth. But if we see a root or a tree luxuriating
   upon a flinty rock, or in the midst of arid sand, we are astonished and
   admire the handiwork of God. Our Savior is a root that derives nothing
   from the soil in which it grows, but puts everything into the soil.
   Christ does not live because of His surroundings, but He makes those to
   live who are around Him--and Christianity in this world derives nothing
   from the world except that which alloys and injures it, but it imparts
   every blessing to the place where it comes.

   Note, then, this Truth of God--that Christ is always "a root out of a
   dry ground"--He derives nothing from without, but is self-contained and
   self-sustained in all the strength and excellence which He displays.
   Let us dwell on that Truth. It is quite certain that our Lord derived
   nothing whatever from His natural descent. He was the Son of David and
   lawful heir to the royal dignities of the tribe of Judah, but His
   family had fallen into obscurity, had lost position, wealth, and
   repute. Joseph, His nominal father, was only a carpenter. Mary, His
   mother, but a humble village maiden. The glory had altogether departed
   from Judah when Shiloh came. No crown was treasured amid the heirlooms
   of Joseph, and no scepter was comprehended in the scanty portion of
   Mary. He who was born King of the Jews inherited nothing from His
   parents by way of honor and dignity--His only portion was the danger of
   being sought out by the cunning and cruelty of Herod.

   Now, had our Lord been descended from the Pharaohs; had He come into
   the world as the scion of a long line of Caesars, or as the heir to a
   wide-spread monarchy, it would have been said, "Every man respects
   pedigree and descent, and hence the triumphs of His teaching." But who
   shall do otherwise than magnify the Lord alone, when the blessed and
   only Potentate is born in lowliest poverty?--

   "Lo God bedews old Jesse's root

   With blessings from the skies;

   He makes the Branch of promise shoot,

   The promised Prince arise."

   Nor did our Lord derive assistance from His nationality. It was no
   general recommendation to His teaching that He was of the seed of
   Abraham. Why, to this day, to many minds, it is almost shameful to
   mention that our Savior was a Jew. Though certainly the Jew is of an
   honorable race, ancient and venerable--having been chosen of God of
   old--yet among the sons of men the name of Jew has not yet lost the
   opprobrium which long ages of cruel oppression and superstitious hate
   have cast upon it.

   It is said that there was no nation, immediately after the time of our
   Savior, that the Romans ardently hated except the Jews. The Romans were
   peculiarly tolerant of all religions and customs--by conquest their
   empire had absorbed men of all languages and creeds and they usually
   left them undisturbed. But the Jewish faith was too peculiar and
   intolerant to escape derision and hatred. After the siege of Jerusalem
   by Titus, the Jews were hunted down and the connection of Christianity
   with Judaism so far from being an advantage to it, became a serious
   hindrance to its growth. Christianity was confused with Judaism and
   made to share the political disgrace of the Jewish nation as well as
   its own reproach.

   Had our Savior been born in Greece, there is no doubt that as a
   religious teacher He would have commanded far more attention than as
   coming forward from Jerusalem or Nazareth. He owed nothing to His
   Jewish birth, for if anything good could have come out of Israel in
   former days, behold into what a state it had fallen--it was dead
   politically, religiously, and mentally! Look at Phariseeism--what shall
   I say of it but that it had perverted the noblest into the basest? Look
   at the Sadducees with their profession of superior wisdom, their
   intense unbelief, and, I may add, their consequent folly. Whatever
   power the Jewish Monotheism may have had in the world had perished
   beneath the destructive influences of a ritualistic Phariseeism and a
   broad church of the Sadducees. Our Savior, could He have disowned all
   connection with Israel, might have been rather strengthened than
   weakened by so doing. He was, in this respect, "a root out of a dry
   ground."

   Mentally, among the Jews nothing was left. No harp resounded with
   Psalms like those of David. No Prophet mourned in plaintive tones like
   Jeremy or sang in the rich organ tones of Isaiah. There remained not
   even a Jonah to startle, or a Haggai to rebuke! No wise man gave forth
   his proverbs, nor preacher took up his parable. The nation had mentally
   reached its dregs. Its scribes were dreaming over the letters of
   Scripture, insensible to its inner sense--and its elders were driveling
   forth traditions of the fathers--and so sinking lower and lower in an
   empty superstition. It was a "dry ground" out of which Jesus sprang.

   Nor did the Savior owe anything to His followers. He might have
   selected, had He pleased, certain eminent persons as His first
   converts. Casting His eyes upon the reigning Caesar and his royal
   subordinates, He might have turned their hearts to serve Him and so
   have surrounded Himself with a discipleship culled from men of renown.
   But He did not do so, else would men have said, "His religion might
   well spread with such powerful men at its head." The Man chosen out of
   the people passed by the noble and elected the base. He might have
   journeyed at once to Athens and have collected from the remnant of the
   old philosophic schools the choice thinkers of the age. There still
   survived the sects of the Stoics and the Epicureans--and the old
   learning of Socrates and Plato was not quite forgotten.

   He might have called to His feet the leaders in the more potent schools
   of thought, but He did not so, else they would have said that
   Christianity might well triumph with such master minds to propagate it.
   He might have gone to the Forum at Rome and there have selected men of
   mighty eloquence. He might have converted the orators of the tribune,
   or the persuasive speakers of the senate and have set such men to lead
   the van of the new faith--but He did not do so, else they would have
   said that rhetoric achieved the victory and eloquence, with her charms,
   had spell-bound the world.

   See you not how He hastens to the fisher boats on the Lake of
   Gennesaret and calls men of the roughest exterior and the least
   cultured intellect? Shall a world-subduing religion be disseminated by
   peasants and mariners? So did He ordain it! He selected men commonly
   known to be unlearned and ignorant, and made them Apostles of the
   faith! Whatever they became in later life, He made them that. Peter did
   not make Christianity, but Christianity made Peter what he was. Paul
   brought nothing to Christ, but Christ gave everything to Paul. I admit
   that the Apostles became great men--they were eloquent and learned in
   the truest sense of the term, being taught of God. But Jesus, as "the
   root," bore them, they did not bear the root! This wondrous root
   fertilized the soil in which it grew! It derived nothing from the men,
   but gave the men all they possessed. But we will pass on.

   Our Savior is "a root out of a dry ground" as to the means which He
   chose for the propagation of His faith. Nobody wonders that
   Mohammedanism spread. After the Arab prophet had for a little while
   himself personally borne the brunt

   of persecution, he gathered to his side certain brave spirits who were
   ready to fight for him at all odds. You marvel not that the sharp
   arguments of scimitars made many converts. Any religion will win assent
   when the alternative is either conversion or instant death! Give a man
   a strong right hand and a sharp saber and he is a fit missionary of
   Mohamed's doctrine! Our Savior gave to His soldiers neither spears nor
   swords, but said, "Put up again your sword into his place: for all they
   that take the sword shall perish with the sword."

   He asked no aid from governments, He disowned the temporal arm
   altogether as His ally. Had our Savior been a State-churchman, and not,
   as He was, the grandest of Nonconformists, it would have been said that
   under the wings of the State His Church was fostered into power. If
   Caesar had said, "I will gather your children together as a hen gathers
   her chickens under her wings," it would not have been surprising if the
   brood of Christians had multiplied indefinitely. But our Savior sought
   no succor from potentates and rested not upon an arm of flesh. The
   people would make Him a king, but He hid Himself, for His kingdom is
   not of this world, and therefore His servants did not fight. Our
   Savior, as He used no force, so neither did He use any means which
   might enlist man's lower nature on His side.

   When I have heard of large congregations gathered together by the music
   of a fine choir, I have remembered that the same thing is done at the
   opera house and the music hall and I have felt no joy. When we have
   heard of crowds enchanted by the sublime music of the pealing organ, I
   have seen in the fact rather a glorification of St. Cecilia than of
   Jesus Christ. Our Lord trusted in no measure or degree to the charms of
   music for the establishing His Throne. He has not given to His
   disciples the slightest intimation that they are to employ the
   attractions of the concert room to promote the kingdom of Heaven. I
   find no rubric in Scripture commanding Paul to clothe himself in robes
   of blue, scarlet, or violet--neither do I find Peter commanded to wear
   a surplice, an alb, or a chasuble.

   The Holy Spirit has not cared even to hint at a surpliced choir, or at
   banners, processions and processional hymns. Now, if our Lord had
   arranged a religion of fine shows and pompous ceremonies, and gorgeous
   architecture, and enchanting music, and bewitching incense and the
   like, we could have comprehended its growth--but He is "a root out of a
   dry ground," for He owes nothing to any of these. Christianity has been
   infinitely hindered by the musical, the aesthetic and the ceremonial
   devices of men, but it has never been advantaged by them, no, not a
   jot! The sensuous delights of sound and sight have always been enlisted
   on the side of error, but Christ has employed nobler and more spiritual
   agencies.

   Things which fascinate the senses are left to be the chosen instruments
   of Antichrist, but the Gospel, disdaining Saul's armor, goes forth in
   the natural simplicity of its own might, like David, with sling and
   stone. Our holy religion owes nothing whatever to any carnal means--so
   far as they are concerned, it is "a root out of a dry ground." Neither
   did the Savior owe anything to the times in which He lived.
   Christianity, it is said by some, came upon the field at a time when it
   was likely to succeed. I utterly deny it! It was born at a period of
   history when the world, by wisdom, knew not God and men were most
   effectually alienated from Him. The more thinking part of the world's
   inhabitants at the time of Christ's coming were atheistic and made
   ridicule of the gods--while the masses blindly worshipped whatever was
   set before them.

   The whole set and current of thought at the advent of our Lord was in
   direct opposition to such a religion as He came to inculcate. It was an
   age of luxury--Rome was full of wealth and the desire for
   self-indulgence. Wherever Romans settled, they built magnificent villas
   and used all the arts for the gratification of the flesh--was this a
   preparation for the doctrines of the Cross? It was an age of universal
   vice. It is a great mercy that most of the ancient cities have been
   destroyed and their works of art dashed to shivers--for many of them
   were unutterably vicious--and such as remain are doing not a little to
   degrade humanity.

   Vices which now we dare not speak of were then perpetrated in public!
   Things that are now detested were performed as a part of sacred
   worship! The world was rotten through and through. If darkness is a
   preparation for light, I grant you the world did prepare itself for
   Christ. If an Augean stable, poisoned with a putridity which supersedes
   all common rottenness, is in readiness for the coming of Him who shall
   cleanse it, the world was prepared for Jesus, but not else. I deny that
   He owed anything to His times. He came when the times could not help
   Him in any degree whatever, and His religion was "a root out of a dry
   ground."

   Neither, again, let me say, did the religion of Jesus owe anything to
   human nature! It is sometimes said that it commends itself to human
   nature. It is false--the religion of Jesus opposes unrenewed human
   nature. In Christ's day

   revenge was one of the most glorious things known--it was sung of, it
   was preached upon, it was the joy of men--and what religion but
   Christianity ever taught men never to retaliate? Christ said, "Love
   your enemies, and pray for them that despitefully use you." Is this in
   human nature? Is there anything in the commands of Christ that at all
   flatters pride or conciliates lust? He judges our thoughts as well as
   our actions. "He that looks upon a woman to lust after her has
   committed adultery with her already in his heart." Is that agreeable to
   human nature? Do you think that runs in the same vein as our passions?

   Mohammed prospered because his religion pandered to human weakness! But
   there is in the religion of Christ no yielding to what are called the
   natural passions, no providing for sensual desires. "Take up," He says,
   "not your scimitar but your cross." He says not, "Increase your harem."
   No, but, "Crucify the flesh." Is there any glorification of human
   intellect in the religion of Jesus? Is not its invariable command,
   "Believe, and live"? If Christianity spreads, it spreads in opposition
   to human nature by changing human nature, by making it what it never
   was and never could have been had not the incorruptible Truth of God
   been planted in it like "a root in a dry ground." Thus much, and
   perhaps too much, upon the historical meaning of the metaphor.

   II. Now, briefly, but earnestly, OUR KNOWLEDGE OF ITS TRUTH
   EXPERIMENTALLY. Beloved, you remember your own conversion? When Jesus
   Christ came to you to save you, did He find any fertile soil in your
   heart for the growth of His Grace? I must bear witness that to convince
   me of sin and humble me, He had need of all the mighty hammers of His
   power to break my rocky heart. Conviction of sin was no natural product
   of my mind. Repentance was a plant of the Lord's right hand planting
   and not a native of the soil. Remorse we might have had by nature, but
   repentance, never!

   And, Brothers and Sisters, if now we have believed in Christ Jesus and
   are resting in Him, I am sure we must admit that faith never sprang up
   naturally in the garden of our hearts--the Holy Spirit taught us how to
   believe in Jesus and led us to look unto Him that we might be saved. So
   far from helping Christ, my whole soul was opposed to Him. If now I bow
   before His feet and delight to call Him my Master and my Lord, it is
   because I am subdued by His power, not because I have educated myself
   to it, or was at all inclined thereto. Religion, true religion, in the
   heart at conversion is "a root out of a dry ground."

   Let me ask you who look into your own hearts--how have you found them
   since? Has there been anything in your natural humanity congenial with
   the new life which Grace has begotten within you? You have the higher
   life in your souls, has it found sustenance in your flesh? Ah, it is
   sadly the reverse. Christ's life has come into us like Israel into the
   wilderness and it finds in us no food. If manna does not drop from
   Heaven and water leap from the smitten rock, it must die in the desert
   of our soul. "In me, that is, in my flesh," said the Apostle, "there
   dwells no good thing." Our carnal nature is still as evil as ever it
   was--"The carnal mind is enmity against God, it is not reconciled to
   God, neither, indeed, can it be."

   If you have Divine Grace in your hearts today, Beloved, you have been
   made to feel that it is "a root out of a dry ground." I bless the Lord
   that we have felt this at peculiar seasons. When you have had great joy
   in God, great exhilaration and delight, has it not usually been at
   times when you might least have expected it? When the body is gradually
   pining away with sickness we have seen the spirit more triumphant than
   it was in health, deriving none of its joy from the strength of Nature,
   but flourishing upon a secret provender of which the world knows
   nothing--it has been "a root out of a dry ground." Sometimes we have
   been desponding in spirit. Our animal spirits, as they are called, have
   been quite dried up and yet, before we knew it, our souls have been
   made like the chariots of Amminadab and we have flashed and glowed with
   sacred delight! "A root out of a dry ground" again.

   Children have died and perhaps a beloved wife has been taken away.
   Possibly business has been against us, trials have multiplied and yet
   at that very season we have walked nearer to God than ever we did
   before, and had more delight in His company, and have known more of the
   power of the Holy Spirit in our souls than ever we did in days of
   prosperity--all to show us that the Grace within us lives by its own
   inward vigor and by supernatural help--and owes nothing to bodily
   health, nothing to outward circumstances--but is still a root
   flourishing best in a dry ground! There is much that is painful about
   this experience of the dryness of the ground, but there is something
   delightful in the experience of the growing of the root under such
   circumstances, for then all the glory is given to the Lord alone, and
   we dare not touch it, no, not so much as with one of our fingers.

   III. But I will pass on. This whole subject appears to me to afford
   much ENCOURAGEMENT to many. And first, let me speak, as earnestly as I
   can, a word to those of you who are seeking after the Savior but are
   very conscious of your own sinfulness. You are depressed under a sense
   of being unworthy to be saved, and what is perhaps worse, you feel that
   though the Gospel is preached to you, you are unable to receive it of
   yourself. Deadness and powerlessness are the main thoughts upon your
   mind.

   Now, Beloved, let this console you. Christ Jesus, when He saves a
   sinner, borrows no help whatever from the sinner himself. "It pleased
   the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell." If there is all
   fullness in Him, He does not need any contribution from us, and,
   blessed be His name, He never waits for any. We can give none and He
   will receive none. Christ is all--does not that cheer you? Do you say,
   "I need power"? In Him is strength. "I need wisdom" you say --He is
   "made of God unto us wisdom." "I need a tender heart"--who can give it
   to you but Christ? "But, ah, I need to repent"--is He not "exalted on
   high to give repentance?" "But I long for faith." Well, and have you
   never read, "it is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God"? He is "a
   root out of a dry ground," and your ground is very, very dry. He will
   come and put fertility into it, but remember He does not first need
   fertility in you.

   Poor, helpless, hopeless, stripped, and emptied one, you need not look
   for, nor desire anything in yourself to prepare you for Jesus! He
   delights to come into empty hearts to fill them with His love--into
   cold hearts to warm them with His sacred flame--and into dead hearts to
   give them life. Now, the same thought which may thus comfort the
   seeker, and I pray it may, ought also to encourage any Christian who
   has been making discoveries of his own barrenness. It is not every
   child of God that knows himself thoroughly. We may go on a long time
   after our first conversion without any very deep understanding of what
   poor things we are.

   Have you begun to see yourself in the looking glass of the Word and
   does the sight alarm and distress you? Are you crying, "My barrenness!
   My barrenness"? Beloved Brothers and Sisters, Christ "is a root out of
   a dry ground," and though you are thus barren now, you are not one whit
   more barren than you always have been! Your sin alarms you, but it was
   always there! Your natural death disgusts you, but it is no new thing.
   "Oh, but I seem to be less, now, than I was!" You never were anything
   and if you had begun by understanding you were nothing, you would have
   begun in a wiser and happier state than you are now.

   Whenever the child of God says, "I find my total of natural strength is
   getting smaller," he is only approximating to the truth, for his
   strength is "perfect weakness." Beloved, when we get to realize the
   lesson taught us in our Baptism, we are drawing near to the Truth of
   God. What is that? you ask. Why, it is the burial of the creature in
   Christ's tomb! Circumcision signifies the putting away of the filth of
   the flesh, but Baptism teaches us the burial of it altogether, as an
   incorrigible and utterly corrupt thing, not to be reformed and mended
   but to be reckoned as dead and buried. "Mortify therefore your members
   which are upon the earth." Be nothing at all, and let Jesus be All in
   All. When at any time you are cast down by a sense of your nothingness,
   remember that your Lord is "a root out of a dry ground."

   The same comfort avails for every Christian worker. You who work for
   Jesus in the pulpit, or in the Sunday school, or elsewhere, I am quite
   sure, if God blesses you, you do not always feel the same. Those
   machines that preach regularly in the same way accomplish very little.
   God means to use men, and while men are men they will be sensitive and
   changeable. Flesh and blood are not like marble--they change--and God
   means to use the feelings of His ministers and His servants for Divine
   ends and purposes. If God ever honors a man in public, He will whip him
   every now and then behind the door, and make him cry out, "Who is
   sufficient for these things?"

   Now, Brother, when you feel you are barren, do not fret or despair
   about it, but rather say, "Lord, here is a dry tree, come and make it
   bear fruit and then I shall joyfully confess, 'from You is my fruit
   found.' Lord, I am a withered branch by nature, come and put sap into
   me and make me bud and blossom like Aaron's rod--so shall men see a
   miracle of Grace and You shall have all the praise of it!" Do not think
   that your unfitness to be used is really a disqualification with God!
   The last thing a man might choose to fight with would be the jawbone of
   a donkey, and yet Samson found it handy enough and it made his victory
   the more famous!

   The last instrument God might choose to use might be yourself, and yet
   if He pleases, there is a fitness in your unfitness and a qualification
   in your disqualification! A man's conceit that he is well prepared for
   God to use him will prove fatal to him. If a man is possessed of
   polished diction--very learned, a man of high family, a man of great
   repute,

   and so on--the likelihood is that he will be esteemed by his fellows so
   much that the Lord will say, "I cannot use this man lest men glorify
   him."

   Therefore God often uses young men because people know they are fools!
   He honors illiterate men that people may know that it is not by their
   learning. He chooses home-spun people who speak without the polish
   which others have gained, and He uses them because the world says, "He
   is an unlearned man, and a rough vulgar fellow." Do you not see that
   thus all the glory goes to God? The man's disqualifications are his
   fitness! "The rather, therefore," says the Apostle, "will I glory in
   infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." Go on, dear
   Worker, for Jesus is "a root out of a dry ground," and in your dryness
   He will flourish!

   Don't you think that this also ought to comfort all of us with regard
   to the times in which we live? They are said to be very horrible
   times--they always were ever since I have known anything of the
   world--and I suppose they always were in our fathers' time. We are
   always at a crisis according to some people. I am not about to defend
   the times--they are, no doubt, very bad--for the innumerable spirits of
   evil are bold and active, while good men seem to have lost their
   courage. We find amalgamations and compromises ad infinitum, and the
   precious Truth of God is trodden as the mire of the streets.

   What about all this? Are we discouraged? Far from it! Bad times are
   famous times for Christ! When Wycliffe came the times were dark enough
   in England and therefore the morning star was the more welcome. When
   Luther came into the world the times were almost as black as they could
   be and therefore good times for reformation! The times were dead enough
   when Wesley and Whitfield came--but they proved glorious days for the
   Lord to work in! And if you discern now that there is not much
   prayerfulness, nor much spirituality, nor much truthful doctrine, nor
   much zeal--do not fret--it is thoroughly dry soil and now the root of
   Grace will grow!

   John Bunyan once said that when he heard the young fellows swear so
   profanely in his parish, he used to think what men God would make of
   them when he converted them! Let us think like that! Suppose He saves
   those wretched priests who are trying to swallow down England? Suppose
   He converts these profane rationalists who almost deny God's
   existence--what penitent sinners they will make when He once breaks
   their hearts--and what preachers of the Word they will be when He
   renews them! Let us have good hope! Our faith does not rise when people
   say the times are improving, nor do we despond when men denounce the
   times as bad.

   Eternity is the lifetime of God and He will work out His purposes. Time
   may ebb and flow, God is in no hurry. But if the world goes on for
   millions of years, God will triumph in the end and the poem of human
   history will not wind up with a dirge, but will end with a triumphant
   hymn after all. Let us be of good courage about that. And thus we may
   be encouraged concerning any particularly wicked place. Do not say, "It
   is useless to preach down there, or to send missionaries to that
   uncivilized country." How do you know? Is it very dry ground? Ah, well,
   that is hopeful soil! Christ is a "root out of a dry ground," and the
   more there is to discourage, the more you should be encouraged.

   Read it the other way. Is it dark? Then all is fair for a grand show of
   light! The light will never seem so bright as when the night is very
   very dark. Come with the salt of Christ where there is most rottenness.
   Where is the scene for the triumph of the physician but where disease
   has reigned supreme? Go with Christ's Gospel in your hands where it is
   most required. The same is true of individual men--you should never
   say, "Well, such a man as that will never be converted." You parents do
   not say, "Now, there is Mary, she has a sweet temper. I expect to see
   her brought to Christ. And there is John, an open-hearted lad. He seems
   very attentive in the House of God, I expect to see him saved. But, as
   for Tom, he is such a wild daredevil fellow, I shall never see him
   saved."

   I should not wonder that he is just the very one whom God will bring to
   Himself and make him to be the joy and gladness of your old age! Who
   are you that you should set up to elect God's people? He has done that
   years ago and He has often elected the very ones whom you would have
   cast out. Seek the conversion of all persons and all classes, all men,
   and all your relatives, and all your children for you do not know
   whether any shall be saved. He is "a root out of a dry ground." Look
   for the dry ground and rather rejoice when you see it is dry ground,
   with the comfortable hope that the root will spring up there.

   IV. I must close with a few words upon THE GLORY WHICH ALL THIS
   DISPLAYS. Christ's laurels, Beloved, at

   this day are none of them borrowed. When He shall come in His glory
   there will be none among His friends who will say, "O King, You owe
   that jewel in Your crown to me." None will whisper among themselves
   that if the honor is given to

   the Captain yet it was a soldiers' battle, after all. No, but everyone
   will admit that Jesus was the Author and the Finisher of the whole work
   and therefore He must have all the glory of it, since we who were with
   Him were dry ground, and He gave life to us and borrowed nothing from
   us.

   In the end of the world it will be seen how Christ has sedulously
   shaken off from Him everything that could have marred His victory. This
   is most prominent in history. The Church of God went on gloriously and
   subdued the nations till that unbaptized heathen Constantine thought,
   as a piece of State policy, that he would get the Christians on his
   side to secure for him a throne which else he would have lost. And that
   old sinner made Christianity a national religion and from that day
   Christianity was pure no more. You could not find pure religion except
   you went to the valleys of Piedmont, among the persecuted Waldenses,
   where it was maintained. Religion, as far as real, true, pure holiness
   was concerned, almost ceased to exist from the day when the royal hand
   inflicted a spiritual cancer upon the Church by its touch.

   The Dark Ages were a chastisement to the Church for leaning upon an arm
   of flesh. Then came the Reformation and as long as men preached the
   Gospel and depended upon spiritual power only, even persecution made it
   spread. But those sinners, Henry the Eighth and Elizabeth, must needs
   extend the royal wing over it and it sickened almost to death. The
   despised Puritans became the representatives of the Crucified Lord. And
   then there came a time when these Puritans were multiplied, but they
   erred--they took the sword, (and if Puritans take the sword they can
   fight, mark you), and they got the upper hand by the arm of flesh--and
   then down went the spirituality of Puritanism because whoever it is
   that thinks to bring glory to God in that way, God will have nothing to
   do with him.

   And now, at this day the Lord may bless His dissenting people in this
   country, but if they seek political power and lean upon the education
   of their ministers, or any other earthly thing, God will cast them off
   as He has all the others. History shows that Christ blesses a humble,
   believing, trustful, spiritually-minded people. And history shows that
   when they cringe before the king, or use sword or bayonet--from that
   moment the Master puts them down and begins again at the first
   foundation--for it is "not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,
   says the Lord of Hosts." And so it shall be. When at the last the
   entire Church shall rise in all its splendor, not a single stone shall
   bear the mark of the carver's tool of human workmanship--from basement
   to pinnacle there shall be no token of human masonry!

   No king shall be able to say, "I gave that glorious window of
   chrysolite." No prince shall say, "I contributed that pinnacle of
   sapphire or chrysoprasus." No minister shall be able to say, "My
   eloquence made yonder gate of agate and opened those windows of
   carbuncle." No angel, even, shall be able to say, "I spread the sacred
   pavement of transparent gold like unto pure glass." But it shall be to
   God, to God, to God alone--the foundations laid in the Divine decree,
   the stones cemented with the fair vermillion of the Savior's atoning
   blood, each gem fashioned and placed by the mysterious Spirit of the
   living God and the whole temple fitly framed together--glowing with the
   Glory of God, bright with the Presence of God, from foundation to
   pinnacle, it shall speak of God, God, God alone!

   When that palace shall be complete, then from the ends of the earth
   shall be heard the shout, "Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, the Lord
   God Omnipotent reigns!" Hushed will be every other acclamation! This
   anthem will drown them all. Let it in our hearts drown them all. "The
   Lord, the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day, for He is God and
   beside Him there is none else!" Amen and Amen!
     __________________________________________________________________

                                The Great Assize

   A Sermon

   (No. 1076)

   Delivered on Lord's Day Evening, August 25th, 1872, by

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   'For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that
   everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that he
   hath done, whether it be good or bad.''2Corinthians 5:10.

   THIS MORNING WE preached concerning the resurrection of the dead, and
   it seems consistent with order to carry forward our thoughts this
   evening, to that which follows immediately after the resurrection,
   namely: THE GENERAL JUDGMENT; for the dead rise on purpose that they
   may be judged in their bodies. The Resurrection is the immediate
   prelude to the Judgment. There is no need that I try to prove to you
   from Scripture that there will be a general judgment, for the Word of
   God abounds with proof-passages. You have them in the Old Testament.
   You find David anticipating that great assize in the Psalms (especially
   in such as the forty-ninth and fiftieth, the ninety-sixth Psalm, and
   the three that follow it), FOR MOST ASSUREDLY THE LORD COMETH: HE
   COMETH TO JUDGE THE EARTH IN RIGHTEOUSNESS. Very solemnly and very
   tenderly does Solomon in the Ecclesiastes warn the young man, that, let
   him rejoice as he may and cheer his heart in the days of his youth, for
   all these things God will bring him into judgment; for God will judge
   every secret thing. Daniel in the night visions beholds the Son of Man
   coming with the clouds of heaven, and drawing near to the Ancient of
   Days; then he sits upon the throne of judgment AND THE NATIONS ARE
   GATHERED BEFORE HIM. It was no new doctrine to the Jews; it was
   received and accepted by them as a most certain fact that there would
   be a day in which God would judge the earth in righteousness. The New
   Testament is very express. The twenty-fifth of Matthew, which we read
   to you just now, contains language, which could not possibly be more
   clear and definite, from the lips of the Saviour himself. He is the
   faithful witness, and cannot lie. You are told that before him will be
   gathered ALL NATIONS, and he shall divide them the one from the other,
   as the shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats. Other passages there
   are in abundance, as, for instance, the one that is now before us,
   which is plain enough. Another we might quote is in the second epistle
   to the Thessalonians, the first chapter, from the seventh to the tenth
   verse. Let Us read it, ' And to you who are troubled rest with us, when
   the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in
   flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey
   not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with
   everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the
   glory of his power; when he shall come to be glorified in his saints,
   and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among
   you was believed) in that day.' The book of the Revelation is very
   graphic in its depicting that last general judgment. Turn to the
   twentieth chapter, at the eleventh and twelfth verses. The seer of
   Patmos says, ' And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it,
   from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found
   no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before
   God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is
   the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which
   were written in the books, according to their works.' Time would fail
   me to refer you to all the Scriptures. It is asserted over and over
   again by the Holy Spirit, whose Word is truth, that THERE WILL BE A
   JUDGMENT OF THE QUICK AND OF THE DEAD.

   Beside that direct testimony, it should be remembered there is a
   convincing argument that so it must needs be, from the very fact that
   God is just as the Ruler over men. In all human governments there must
   he an assize held. Government cannot be conducted without its days of
   session and of trial, and, inasmuch as there is evidently sin and evil
   in this world, it might fairly be anticipated that there would be a
   time when God will go on circuit, and when he will call the prisoners
   before him, and the guilty shall receive their condemnation. Judge for
   yourselves: is this present state the conclusion of all things? If so,
   what evidence would you adduce of the divine justice, in the teeth of
   the fact that the best of men are often in this world the poorest and
   the most afflicted, while the worst of men acquire wealth, practice
   oppression, and receive homage from the crowd? Who are they that ride
   in the high places of the earth? Are they not those, great
   transgressors, who 'wade through slaughter to a throne and shut the
   gates of mercy on mankind'? Where are the servants of God? They are in
   obscurity and suffering full often. Do they not sit like Job among the
   ashes, subjects of little pity, objects of much upbraiding? And where
   are the enemies of God? Do not many of them wear purple and fine linen
   and fare sumptuously every day? If there be no hereafter, then Dives
   has the best of it; and the selfish man who fears not God, is after
   all, the wisest of men and more to be commended than his fellows. But
   it cannot be so. Our common sense revolts against the thought. There
   must be another state in which these anomalies will all be rectified.
   'If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the
   most miserable,' says the apostle. The best of men were driven to the
   worst of straits in those persecuting times for being God's servants.
   How say ye then, 'Finis coronat opus,' the end crowns the work? That
   cannot be the final issue of life, or justice itself were frustrated.
   There must be a restitution for those who suffer unjustly: there must
   be a punishment for the wicked and the oppressor.

   Not only may this be affirmed from a general sense of justice, but
   there is in the conscience of most men, if not of all, an assent to
   this fact. As an old Puritan says, 'God holds a petty session in every
   man's conscience, which is the earnest of the assize which he will hold
   by and by; for almost all men judge themselves, and their conscience
   knows this to be wrong and that to be right. I say 'almost all,' for
   there seems to be in this generation a race of men who have so
   stultified their conscience that the spark appears to have gone out,
   and they put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. The lie they seem
   to approve, but the truth they do not recognize. But let conscience
   alone and do not stultify her, and you shall find her bearing witness
   that there is a Judge of all the earth who must do right.' Now this is
   peculiarly the case when conscience is allowed full play. Men who are
   busy about their work or entertained with their pleasures, often keep
   their consciences quiet. As John Bunyan puts it, they shut up Mr
   Conscience; they blind his windows; they barricade his doors; and as
   for the great bell on the top of the house, which the old gentleman was
   wont to ring, they cut the rope of it, so that he cannot get at it, for
   they do not wish him to disturb the town of Man-soul. But when death
   comes, it often happens that Mr. Conscience escapes from his
   prison-house, and then, I warrant you, he will make such a din that
   there is not a sleeping head in all Man-soul. He will cry out and
   avenge himself for his constrained silence, and make the man know that
   there is a something within him not quite dead, which cries out still
   for justice, and that sin cannot go unchastised. There must be a
   judgment, then. Scripture asserts it, that would be enough: but by way
   of collateral evidence the natural order of things requires it; and
   conscience attests it.

   Now we come to consider what our text says about the Judgment. I pray
   you, brethren, if I should speak coldly tonight on this momentous
   truth, or fail to excite your attention and stir your deepest emotions,
   forgive me, and may God forgive me, for I shall have good reason to ask
   God's forgiveness, seeing that if ever a topic should arouse the
   preacher to a zeal for the honor of his Lord and for the welfare of his
   fellow creatures, and so make him doubly in earnest, it is this. But,
   then, permit me to say, that, if ever there was a theme quite
   independent of the speaker, which on its own account alone should
   command your thoughtfulness, it is that which I now bring before you. I
   feel no need of oratory or of speech well selected: the bare mention of
   the fact that such a judgment is impending, and will ere long occur,
   might well hold you in breathless silence, still the very throbbings of
   your pulse, and choke the utterance of my lips. The certainty of it,
   the reality of it, the terrors that accompany it, the impossibility of
   escaping from it, all appeal to us now and demand our vigilance.

   I. Ask ye now, who is it, or who ARE THEY THAT WILL HAVE APPEAR BEFORE
   THE THRONE OF JUDGMENT? The answer is plain; it admits of no exemption:
   'We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.' This is very
   decisive, if there were no other text. We must all appear; that is to
   say, every one of the human race. We must all appear. And that the
   godly will not be exempted from this appearance is very clear, for the
   apostle here is speaking to Christians. He says, 'We walk by faith, not
   by sight. We are confident. We labour' and so on; and then he puts it,
   'We must all appear.' So that, beyond all others, it is certain that
   all Christians must appear there. The text is quite conclusive upon
   that point. And if we had not that text, we nave the passage in
   Matthew, which we have read, in which the sheep are summoned there as
   certainly as are the goats; and the passage in the Revelation, where
   all the dead are judged according to the things which are written in
   the books. They are all there. And if the objection should be raised,
   'We thought that the sins of the righteous being pardoned, and for ever
   blotted out, they could never come into judgment,' we have only to
   remind you, beloved, that if they are so pardoned and blotted out, as
   they undoubtedly are, the righteous have no reason to fear coming into
   judgment. They are the persons who covet the judgment, and will be able
   to strand there to receive a public acquittal from the mouth of the
   great Judge. Who, among us, wishes, as it were, to be smuggled into
   heaven unlawfully? Who desires to have it said by the damned in hell,
   'You were never tried, or else you might have been condemned as we
   were.' No, brethren, we have a hope that we can stand the trial. The
   way of righteousness by Christ Jesus enables us to submit ourselves to
   the most tremendous tests which even that burning day can bring forth.
   We are not afraid to be put into the balances. We even desire that day
   when our faith in Jesus Christ is strong and firm; for we say, 'who is
   he that condemneth?' We can challenge the day of judgment. Who is he
   that shall lay anything to our charge in that day, or at any other,
   since Christ hath died and hath risen again?It is needful that the
   righteous should be there that there may not be any partiality in the
   matter whatever; that the thing may be all clear and straight, and that
   the rewards of the righteous may be seen to be, though of grace, yet
   without any violation of the most rigorous justice. Dear brethren, what
   a day it will be for the righteous! For some of them were'perhaps some
   here present are'lying under some very terrible accusation of which
   they are perfectly guiltless. All will be cleared up then, and that
   will be one great blessing of that day. There will be a resurrection of
   reputations as well as of bodies. Men call the righteous, fools; then
   shall they shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. They
   hounded them to death, as not being fit to live. In early ages they
   laid to the Christians charges of the most terrible character, which I
   should count it shame to mention. But then they will all be clear; and
   those of whom the world was not worthy, who were driven and hunted
   about find made to dwell in the caves of the earth, they shall come
   forth as worthy ones, and the world shall know her true aristocracy,
   earth shall own her true nobility. The men whose names she cast out as
   evil, all then be held in great repute, for they shall stand out clear
   and transparent without spot or blemish. It is well that there should
   be a trial for the righteous, for the clearing of them, the vindication
   of them, and that it should be public, defying the evil and criticism
   of all mankind.

   'We must all appear.' What a vast assembly, what a prodigious
   gathering, that of the entire human race! It struck me as I was
   meditating upon this subject, what would be the thoughts of Father
   Adam, as he stood there with Mother Eve and looked upon his offspring.
   It will be the first time in which he has ever had the opportunity of
   seeing all his children met together. What a sight will he then
   behold'far stretching, covering all the globe which they inhabit,
   enough not only to people all earth's plains, but crown her hill-tops,
   and cover even the ways of the sea, so numberless must the human race
   have been, if all the generations that have ever lived, or shall ever
   live, shall at once rise from the dead. Oh, what a sight will that be!
   Is it too marvelous for our imagination to picture? Yet it is quite
   certain that the assemblage will be mustered, and the spectacle will he
   beheld. Every one from before the Flood, from the days of the
   Patriarchs, from the times of David, from the Babylonian kingdom, all
   the legions of Assyria, all the hosts of Persia, all the phalanx of the
   Greeks, all the vast armies and legions of Rome, the barbarian, the
   Scythian, the bond, the free, men of every color and of every
   tongue'they shall all stand in that great day before the Judgment Seat
   of Christ. There come the kings'no greater than the men they call their
   slaves. There come the princes'but they have doffed their coronets, for
   they must stand like common flesh and blood. Here come the judges, to
   be judged themselves, and the advocates and barristers, needing an
   advocate on their own account. Here come those that thought themselves
   too good, and kept the street to themselves. There are the Pharisees,
   hustled by the Publicans on either side and sunk down to the natural
   level with them. Mark the peasants rising from the soil; see the
   teeming myriads from outside the great cities streaming in, countless
   hosts such as no Alexander or Napoleon ever beheld! See how the servant
   is as great as his master! 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,' are now
   proclaimed. No kings, no princes, no nobles, can shelter themselves
   behind their order, assert a privilege or claim an immunity. Alike on
   one common level they stand together, to be tried before the last
   tremendous tribunal. There shall come the wicked of every sort. Proud
   Pharaoh shall be there; Senacherib, the haughty; Herod, that would have
   slain the young child; Judas, that betrayed his master; Demas, that
   sold him for gold; and Pilate, who would fain have washed his hands in
   innocency. There shall come the long list of infallibles, the whole
   line of popes, to receive their damnation at the Almighty's hands, and
   the priests that trod upon the necks of nations, and the tyrants that
   used the priests as their tools'they shall come to receive the
   thunderbolts of God which they so richly deserve. Oh, what a scene will
   it be! These little companies, which look to us so large when they are
   gathered together beneath this roof, how do they shrink into the drop
   of a bucket as compared with the ocean of life that shall swell around
   the throne at the last great Judgment day. They shall all be there.

   Now, the most important thought connected with this to me, is that I
   shall be there; to you young men, that you will be there; to you, ye
   aged of every sort, that you, in propria personae'each one shall be
   there. Are you rich? Your dainty dress shall be put off. Are you poor?
   Your rags shall not exempt you from attendance at that court. None
   shall say'I am too obscure.' You must come up from that hiding place.
   None shall say, 'I am too public.' You must come down from that
   pedestal. Everyone must be there. Note the word 'We', 'We must all
   appear.'

   And still further, note the word, 'appear.' ' We must all appear.' No
   disguise will be possible. Ye cannot come there dressed in masquerade
   of profession or attired in robes of state, but we must appear; we must
   be seen through, must be displayed, must be revealed; off will come
   your garments, and your spirit will be judged of God, not after
   appearance, but according to the inward heart. Oh, what a day that will
   be when every man shall see himself, and every man shall see his,
   fellow, and the eyes of angels and the eyes of devils, and the eyes of
   God upon the throne, shall see us through and through. Let these
   thoughts dwell upon your minds, while you take this for the answer to
   our first enquiry, 'Who is to be judged?'

   II. Our second question is, Who will be the judge? 'We must all appear
   before the judgment seat of Christ.' That Christ should be appointed
   judge of all mankind is most proper and fitting. Our British law
   ordains that a man shall be tried by his peers, and there is justice in
   the statute. Now the Lord God will judge men, but at the same time it
   will be in the person of Jesus Christ the man. Men shall be judged by a
   man. He that was once judged by men shall judge men. Jesus knows what
   man should be; he has been under the law himself in deep humility, who
   is ordained to administer the law in high authority. He can hold the
   scales of justice evenly, for he has stood in man's place and borne and
   braved man's temptations; he therefore is the most fit judge that could
   be selected. I have sometimes heard and read sermons in which the
   preacher said that a Christian ought to rejoice that his judge is his
   friend. There may be no impropriety intended, still it seems to me
   rather a questionable suggestion. I should not like to put it use that
   way myself; because any judge that was partial to his friends when he
   sat on the judgment seat would deserve to come off the seat
   immediately. As a judge I expect no favoritism from Christ. I expect
   when he sits there he will deal out even-handed justice to all. I
   cannot see how it is right for any minister to hold it forth that we
   should find encouragement in the judge being our friend. Friend or no
   friend, we shall go in for a fair trial every one of us, and Christ
   will not be a respecter of persons. Of him whom God has appointed to
   judge the world, it shall not be said when the assize is over that he
   winked at the crimes of some and extenuated them, while he searched out
   the faults of others and convicted them. He will be fair and upright
   throughout. He is our friend, I grant you, and he will be our friend
   and Saviour for ever; but, as a judge, we must keep to the thought, and
   believe and maintain it that he will be impartial to all the sons of
   men. You will have a fair trial, man. He that will judge you will not
   take sides against you. We have sometimes thought that men have been
   shielded from the punishment they deserved, because they were of a
   certain clerical profession, or because they occupied a certain
   official position. A poor labourer who kills his wife shall be hanged,
   but when another matt of superior station does the like deed of
   violence, and stains his hands with the blood of her whom he had vowed
   to love and cherish, the capital sentence shall not be executed upon
   him. Everywhere we see in the world that with the best intentions
   justice somehow or other does squint a little. Even in this country
   there is just the slightest possible turning of the scale, and God
   grant that may be cured ere long. I do not think it is intentional; and
   I hope the nation will not long have to complain about it. There ought
   to be the same justice for the poorest beggar that crawls into a casual
   ward, as for his Lordship that owns the broadest acres in all England.
   Before the law, at least, all men ought to stand equal. So shall it be
   with the Judge of all the earth. Fiat justia, ruat coelum. Christ will
   by all means hold the scales even. Thou shalt have a fair trial and a
   full trial, too. There shall be no concealment of anything in thy
   favour, and no, keeping back of anything against thee. No witnesses
   shall be borne across the sea to keep them out of the way. They shall
   all be there, and all testimony shall be there, and all that is wanted
   to condemn or to acquit shall be produced in full court at that trial,
   and hence it will be a final trial. From that court there will be no
   appeal. If Christ, saith ' Cursed!' cursed must they be for ever. If
   Christ saith 'Blessed!', blessed shall they be for aye. Well, this is
   what we have to expect then, to stand before the throne of the man
   Christ Jesus the Son of God, and there to be judged.

   III. Now the third point is, WHAT WILL BE RULE OF JUDGEMENT? The text
   says that 'every one may receive the things done in his body according
   to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.' Then it would appear
   that our actions will be taken in evidence at the last. Not our
   profession, not our boastings, but our actions will be taken in
   evidence at the last, and every man shall receive according to what he
   hath done in the body. That implies that everything done by us in this
   body will be known. It is all recorded; it will be all brought to
   light. Hence, in that day every secret sin will be published. What was
   done in the chamber, what was hidden by the darkness, shall be
   published as upon the housetop'every secret thing. With great care you
   have concealed it, most dexterously you have covered it up; but it
   shall be brought out to your own astonishment to form a part of your
   judgment. There, hypocritical actions as well as secret sins will be
   laid bare. The Pharisee who devoured the widow's house and made a long
   prayer, will find that widow's house brought against him, and the long
   prayer too; for the long prayer will then be understood as having been
   a long lie against God from beginning to end. Oh, how fine we can make
   some things look With the aid of paint and varnish and gilt; but at the
   last day off will come the varnish and veneer, and the true metal, the
   real substance, will then be seen.

   When it is said that everything that is done in the body will be
   brought up as evidence against us or for us, remember this includes
   every omission as well as every commission; for that which is not done
   that ought to have been done is as greatly sinful as the doing of that
   which ought not to be done. Did not you notice when we were reading the
   twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew, how those on the left hand were
   condemned, not for what they did, but for what they did not do: 'I was
   an hungry, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no
   drink.' Where would some of you stand, according to this rule, who have
   lived in neglect of holiness, and neglect of faith, and neglect of
   repentance, before God all your days? Bethink yourselves, I pray you.

   Recollect, too, that all our words will be brought up. For every idle
   word that man shall speak he will have to give an account. And all our
   thoughts, too, for these lie at the bottom of our actions and give the
   true colour to them good or bad. Our motives, our heart sins,
   especially, our hatred of Christ, our neglect of the gospel, our
   unbelief'all of these shall be read aloud and published unreservedly.
   'Well,' saith one, 'who then can be saved?' Ah! indeed, who then can be
   saved? Let me tell you who will be. There will come forward those who
   have believed in Jesus, and albeit they have many sins to which they
   might well plead guilty, they will be able to say, 'Great God, thou
   didst provide for us a substitute, and thou didst say that if we would
   accept him he should be a substitute for us and take our sins upon
   himself, and we did accept him and our sins were laid upon him, and we
   have now no sins; they have been transferred from us to the great
   Saviour, substitute and sacrifice.' And in that day there will be none
   who can put in a demurrer to that plea: it will hold good; for God has
   said, 'Whosoever believeth on Christ Jesus shall never be condemned.'
   Then will the actions of the righteous, the gracious actions, be
   brought forth to prove that they had faith. For that faith which never
   evidences itself by good works is a dead faith and a faith that will
   never save a soul. Now, if the dying thief were brought up, he would
   say, 'My sins were laid on Jesus.' 'Ay, but how about your good works?
   Thou must have some evidence of thy faith,' Satan might reply. Then
   would the recording angel say, 'The dying thief said to his fellow
   thief who was dying with him, 'Wherefore art thou railing? In his last
   moments he did what he could; he rebuked the thief that was dying with
   him and made a good confession of his Lord. There was the evidence of
   the sincerity of his faith.' Dear hearer, will there lie any evidence
   of the sincerity of your faith? If your faith has no evidence before
   the Lord, what will you do? Suppose you thought you had a faith and
   went on drinking. Suppose you did as I know some have done here, go
   straight from this place into the public house? Or suppose you joined
   the Christian church and remained a drunkard? Ay, and women have done
   that also as well as men. Suppose you professed to have faith in Christ
   and yet cheated in your weights and measures and common dealings? Do
   you think that God will never requite these things at your hands? Oh,
   sirs, if ye be no better than other men in your conduct, ye are no
   better than other men in your character, and ye will stand no better
   than other men in the judgment day. If your actions are not superior to
   theirs, you may profess what you will about your faith, but you are
   deceived, and, as deceivers, you will be discovered at the last great
   day. If grace does not make us differ from other men, it is not the
   grace which God gives his elect. We are not perfect, but all God's
   saints keep their eyes on the great standard of perfection, and, with
   strong desire, aim to walk worthy of their high calling of God and to
   bring forth works which prove that they love God; and if we have not
   these signs following faith, or if they are not put in as evidence for
   us, at the last great day we shall not be able to prove our faith. It
   will be proof positive that you hated God; for a man must hate God
   indeed who will spurn his counsels, give no heed to his reproof, scorn
   his grace, and dare the vengeance of him who points out the way of
   escape and the path that leadeth to life. He that will not be saved by
   God's mercy proves that he hates the God of mercy. If God gives his own
   Son to die and men will not trust in his Son, will not have him as
   their Saviour, that one sin, if they had no other, would at once prove
   that they were enemies of God and black at heart. But if thy faith be
   in Jesus, if thou lovest Jesus, if thy heart goes out to Jesus, if thy
   life be influenced by Jesus, if thou makest him thy example as well as
   thy Saviour, there will be evidence'thou canst not see it, but there
   will be evidence'in thy favour. For notice those gracious things, when
   the evidence was brought, and Christ said, 'I was an hungry, and ye
   gave me no meat, thirsty and ye gave me no drink,' they said, 'O Lord,
   we never knew this.' Should any man stand up here and say, 'I have
   plenty of evidence to prove my faith,' I should reply, 'Hold your
   tongue, sir! Hold your tongue! I am afraid you have no faith at all, or
   you would not be talking about your evidence.' But if you are saying,
   'Oh, I am afraid I have not the evidence that will stand me in good
   stead at the last,' yet if all the while you have been feeding the
   hungry, and clothing the naked, and doing all you can for Christ, I
   would tell you not to be afraid. The master will find witnesses to say,
   'That man relieved me when I was in poverty. He knew I was one of
   Christ's and he came and helped me.' And another will come and say
   (perhaps it will be an angel), 'I saw him when he was alone in his
   chamber and heard him pray for his enemies.' And the Lord will say, 'I
   read his heart when I saw how he put up with rebuke, and slander, and
   persecution, and would not make any answer for my sake. He did it all
   as evidence that my grace was in his heart.' You will not have to fetch
   up the witnesses: the judge will call them, for he knows all about your
   case; and as he calls up the witness, will be surprised to find how
   even the ungodly will be obliged to consent to the just salvation of
   the righteous. Oh, how the secret deeds and the true heart-sincerity of
   the righteous, when thus unveiled, will make devils bite their tongues
   in wrath to think that there was so much of grace given to the sons of
   men, with which to defeat persecution, to overcome temptation, and to
   follow on in obedience to the Lord. Oh yes, the deeds, the deeds, the
   deeds of men'not their prating, not their profession, not their talk,
   but their deeds (though nobody shall be saved by the merits of his
   deeds)'their deeds shall be the evidence of their grace, or their deeds
   shall be the evidence of their unbelief; and so, by their works shall
   they stand before the Lord, or by their world shall they be condemned
   as evidence and nothing more.

   IV. Now the last point is this: What is the object of this judgment?
   Will sentence of acquittal and condemnation be given, and then the
   whole thing be over? Far from it. The judgment is with a view to the
   thereafter''That every man may receive the things done in his body.'
   The Lord will grant unto his people an abundant reward for all that
   they have done. Not that they deserve any reward, but that God first
   gave them grace to do good works, then took their good works as
   evidence of a renewed heart, and then gave them a reward for what they
   had done. Oh, what a bliss it will be to hear it said, 'Well done, good
   and faithful servant,''and to find that you have worked for Christ when
   nobody knew it, to find that Christ took stock of it all,'to you that
   served the Lord under misrepresentation, to find that the Lord Jesus
   cleared the chaff away from the wheat, and knew that you were one of
   his precious ones. For him, then, to say, 'Enter into the joy of thy
   Lord,' oh, what a bliss will it be to you.

   But to the ungodly how terrible. They are to receive the things that
   they have done; that is to say, the punishment due,'not every man
   alike, but the greater sinner the greater doom; to the man who sinned
   against light a greater damnation than to the man who had not the same
   light,'Sodom and Gomorrah their place, Tyre and Sidon their place, and
   then to Capernaum and Bethsaida their place of more intolerable
   torment, because they had the Gospel and rejected it'so the Lord
   himself tells us. And the punishment will not only be meted out in
   proportion to the transgression, but it will be a development of the
   evil actions done in the evil consequences to be endured, as every man
   shall eat the fruit of his own ways. Sin, after the natural order,
   ripens into sorrow. This is not a blind fate, but it is the operation
   of a divine law, wise and invariable. Oh, how dreadful it will be for
   the malicious man to have for ever to gnaw his own envious heart, to
   find his malice come home to him, as birds come home to roost, to hoot
   for ever in his own soul; for the lustful man to feel lust burning in
   every vein, which he can never gratify;'for the drunkard to have a
   thirst, which not even a drop of water can allay;'for the glutton who
   has fared sumptuously every day, to be in hunger perpetually; and the
   soul that has been wrathful to be for ever wrathful, with the fire of
   wrath for ever burning like a volcano in his soul; and the rebel
   against God for ever a rebel, cursing God whom he cannot touch, and
   finding his curses come back upon himself.

   There is no punishment worse than for a man who is sinfully disposed to
   gratify his lusts, to satiate his bad propensities, and to multiply and
   fatten his vices. Only let men grow into what they would be, and then
   see what they would be like! Take away the policemen in some parts of
   London, and give the people plenty of money, and let their do just as
   they like. Last Saturday, it might be, there were half-a-dozen broken
   heads, and wives and children were in one general skirmish. Keep those
   people together: let their vigor continue unimpaired by age or decay,
   while they keep on developing their characters. Why, they would be
   worse than a herd of tigers! Let them give way to their rage and anger,
   with nothing to check their passions; let miserly, greedy people for
   ever go on with their greed. It makes them miserable here, but let
   these things be indulged in for ever, and what worse hell do you want?
   Oh, sin is hell and holiness is heaven. Men will receive the things
   done in their body. If God has made them to love him, they shall go on
   to love him; if God has made them trust him, they shall go on to trust
   in him; if God has made them to be like Christ, they shall go on to be
   like Christ, and they shall receive the things done in their body as a
   reward; but if a man has lived in sin, 'he that is filthy shall be
   filthy still'; he that has been unbelieving shall be unbelieving still.
   This, then, shall be the worm that never dieth, and the fire which
   never shall be quenched, to which shall be added the wrath of God
   forever and ever. Oh, that we may have grace every one of us to flee to
   Christ! There is our only safety. Simple faith in Jesus is the basis
   for the character which will evidence at last that you are chosen of
   God. A simple belief in the merit of the Lord Jesus, wrought in us by
   the Holy Spirit, is the rock foundation upon which shall he built up,
   by the same divine hands, the character which shall evidence that the
   kingdom was prepared for us from before the foundations of the world.
   God work in us such a character, for Christ's sake. Amen.

   PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON'Matthew 25.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Lord Blessing His Saints

   (No. 1077)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON THURSDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 26, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "You are blessed of the Lord [or of JEHOVAH] which made Heaven and
   earth." Psalm 115:15.

   WITHOUT any preface, (for where there is such a feast before us
   anything which detains us from the table will be out of place), let us
   come at once to the delightful words of our text and may the Holy
   Spirit lead us into their inner sense! Here is a blessing spoken of.
   The Lord that made Heaven and earth has been pleased to bless His
   people. And this blessing has several peculiarities about it of which
   we shall speak particularly. It will help us to reach the marrow and
   fatness of the text if we consider in detail the orthodox number of
   five points.

   First, it is a blessing belonging to a peculiar people. Secondly, it is
   a blessing coming from a peculiar quarter. Thirdly, a blessing with a
   peculiar date. Fourthly, a blessing with a peculiar certainty, and
   fifthly, a blessing involving a peculiar duty. Where there is so much
   country to survey we must travel swiftly and make but a short stay upon
   any single thought.

   I. First, we have before us A BLESSING BELONGING TO A PECULIAR PEOPLE.
   "You are blessed of the Lord." "You." Who are these distinguished
   persons? We would reply, first, that they are a people whom God has
   blessed because He willed to do so. He has given us no other reason as
   the first cause of their being blessed but the fact that He is good and
   that He is Sovereign in the distribution of His Grace. If you search to
   the very bottom of things you hear a voice proclaiming these words, "I
   will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
   on whom I will have compassion."

   If you go back to the first spring and wellhead of all blessing, you
   shall not find the merits of man as the guardian of the fountain, nor
   the will of man as the digger of the well--but you shall find there
   written, "Not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
   of man, but of God." The will of God, alone, is the source of the rich,
   eternal, saving blessing which abounds towards the Lord's elect! If you
   are blessed of the Lord who made Heaven and earth, you are not a people
   who claim to have deserved His favor--you abhor all boasting in self
   and you magnify Divine mercy. Free Grace is the Shibboleth of the true
   saints--those who cannot speak out upon that point may well question
   their lineage!

   If you talk of deserving, you belong to another race--you are of the
   seed of Hagar and belong to Sinai, in Arabia, and therefore you are
   under the Law and under the curse. No blessing comes to sinners by the
   way of the Law, but the very reverse. They only shall participate in
   this blessing who receive it by promise and by covenant, being the seed
   of Abraham by promise, even as Isaac was, who was born not after the
   flesh but after the Spirit. Glory, then, be to God at the very outset
   of our meditations, that He has been pleased to set apart unto Himself
   a people, elect according to His own eternal purpose in Christ Jesus!
   Of them and only of them has He said, "You are blessed of the Lord that
   made Heaven and earth." This is true doctrine according to the
   Scriptures and the regenerate feel the truth of it confirmed in their
   own experience.

   Furthermore, they are a people to whom this first will of God to bless
   them has been certified by countless acts of indisputable love. You who
   trust that you are blessed of the Lord remember how God's blessing has
   come to you already. It waited for you before you were born--yes, it
   waited for you before this world was fashioned--from everlasting you
   were ordained to this benediction! The Covenant of Grace was made on
   your behalf with all its sacred stipulations and its immutable seals,
   and immeasurable promises of love. What says the Apostle in the first
   chapter of Ephesians, verses three and four?--"Blessed be the God and
   Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
   blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as He has chosen us
   in Him before the foundation of the world."

   For you, in the fullness of time, Jesus came to tabernacle among men.
   Who shall doubt that you are blessed of the Lord that made Heaven and
   earth, since for you the Son of God laid aside His royalties to become
   the Son of Man? Union

   with you in your nature was clear evidence that the heart of Christ was
   with you. Gethsemane and Calvary speak volumes concerning the reality
   of the blessings which God has given to His chosen, for there they were
   loved to the death and redeemed by blood. An Incarnate God, a Mediator
   covered with bloody sweat, a Redeemer wounded and slain--what do you
   say about this? "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift," said the
   Apostle, and even so say we!

   Nor was the gift of Jesus Christ's dying, all, for Jesus' living is
   still ours! His resurrection teems with the blessings of life and
   immortality. We are one with Him and He is forever our Head. And in
   Him, by virtue of His ascension, we have received the gift of the Holy
   Spirit who dwells in us and will dwell in us forever. Through His
   indwelling we have "an unction from the Holy One," through which we
   "know all things," being taught of God and led into all Truth according
   to the office of the gracious Comforter.

   Meanwhile we are also raised up together and made to sit together in
   the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, while all things are ours and we
   are Christ's, and Christ is God's. But, indeed, I am not about to make
   a catalog of those gifts which have already come to us--time would fail
   and ability would also be lacking--suffice it to hint at them to you,
   to remind you that if through Grace you have received Christ, you are,
   indeed, "blessed of the Lord that made Heaven and earth," for 10,000
   times 10,000 of the choicest gifts have been the seals and testimonials
   of your heavenly Father's affection towards you.

   But, Beloved, the peculiar people to whom this blessing comes are,
   after their conversion, known by their character. In due time Divine
   Grace works in them marks of their election--signs of the inward and
   spiritual Grace which the Holy Spirit has implanted. One sign is
   mentioned in the connection of our text--"He shall bless them that fear
   the Lord, both small and great." So then, if you fear the Lord, "you
   are blessed of the Lord that made Heaven and earth." Now, to fear Him
   is not merely to tremble before Him, fearful lest He should destroy
   you. Such a fear as that has been found in the hearts of even the
   vilest of men! We suppose that neither Pharaoh nor Belshazzar was a
   stranger to that feeling.

   But this is another fear--the humble worship of God, the sincere
   reverence of God--the sacred awe which is found even among the angels
   of Heaven. This holy fear is the holy admiration which trembles at the
   infinite majesty of the Most High--not out of slavish dread, but out of
   a childlike sense of insignificance--this is the sign of inward Grace.
   "Blessed is the man that fears always." The fear of grieving One so
   loving, of doing anything that should dishonor the name of One so
   infinitely glorious--this is the correct fear. Have you that fear? Have
   you the fear that makes you confess your past sins--the fear that makes
   you dread going into such sin again--the fear that makes you mourn
   because you nailed the Savior to the tree? Do you have the fear that
   makes you tremble lest you should crucify the Lord afresh and put Him
   to an open shame?

   This is not the fear which perfect love casts out, or the fear which
   has torment, but a sweet fear, as we have said before, which may be
   felt, even in Heaven itself where they sing, "Who would not fear You, O
   Lord, and glorify Your name?" It was to such as these that a voice came
   out of the excellent Glory, saying, "Praise our God, all you His
   servants, and you that fear Him, both small and great" (Rev. 19:5).
   "Blessed is the man that fears the Lord, that delights greatly in His
   Commandments." And it is very sweet to notice that this benediction is
   common to all God-fearing persons-- "both small and great"--and the
   small are put first lest they should think they are forgotten.

   I see many little children here this evening. Oh, if you fear God, if
   you pray to God, if you trust in Jesus and if your young hearts have
   been taught to love God, small as you are, you are the blessed of the
   Lord that made Heaven and earth! Jesus loves to receive children to His
   bosom as much, now, as ever He did when He lived upon earth! Come to
   Him by faith and He will bless you! There are here many young enquirers
   who have only just begun to pray and who are between hope and fear like
   new-born children whose lives tremble in the balances. To them it must
   be cheering to observe that the Lord blesses the "small" as well as the
   "great." The Lord regards the contrite in spirit and He hears the
   groans of broken hearts--His delight is to bless the lowly in mind.
   Though Grace is small in you, yet He will not quench the smoking flax.
   "Fear not, little flock, it is your Father's good pleasure to give you
   the kingdom."

   And you poor in this world, you humble, you illiterate, you obscure,
   you sickly ones--you with little talent and slender opportunity for
   serving God--I pray you rejoice in the assurance of the text, for you
   are the blessed of the Lord if you walk before Him in holy fear! The
   eye that looks to God and trusts Him even when it cannot see Him, is a
   blessed eye. The heart that pines after God even when it cannot rejoice
   in Him is a blessed heart. And the hand that stretches itself out after
   God, saying, "Oh that I knew where I might find Him," is still a
   blessed hand, even though for the

   moment it cannot lay hold upon the Word of promise. If you sigh and cry
   after God with a true heart, looking to Him in His own way, through
   Christ His Son, you are numbered with those that fear the Lord, who are
   blessed of Him whether they are small or great!

   Now, all this is very sweet to those who fear God. To them it is
   peculiarly precious to know that they are blessed of the Lord because
   they know they deserve to have been cursed. A sense of wrath due to sin
   imparts a rare sweetness to the Divine favor. Did you ever hear the
   roar of Sinai's thunder in your ears? If so, you will never forget it
   to your dying day! And even in eternity it will impart an additional
   melody to the music of the Cross. I would to God that some Christians
   were plowed a little more before they were sown, for I notice that the
   flimsiness and superficiality of the religion which is common
   now-a-days arises mainly from the lack of deep self-knowledge and
   solemn personal conviction that they were themselves utterly lost and
   ruined.

   I fear many have made but poor students in the University of Theology
   because they were never well-grounded in the School of Repentance. I am
   astonished that we should live to hear from a Nonconformist pulpit that
   the Fall of man was a fiction! I boldly say that the religion of the
   man who could utter such a speech is a fiction beyond all question!
   What does he know about the things of God when he does not even know
   the things of man? Let him get back to his God in penitence and ask to
   be taught aright--for he who knows not the Fall of man does not know
   the uplifting by free Grace. If he knows not the disease, he is a
   wretched physician and is sure to mistake the remedy. He who has once
   known the curse, and smarted under it, loves the wine and oil of the
   blessing for by it his bleeding wounds were staunched.

   The blessing of the Lord is as dew to the mown grass and as showers to
   the parched soil. It is life itself and the essence of Heaven.
   Moreover, the child of God knows the sweetness of the blessing because
   the effect of the curse is, in a measure, still upon him--not the
   judicial curse, for that was laid upon Christ and has gone forever--but
   the plague of his own heart. The remains of sin within often make him
   feel that it is a dreadful thing to have been a sinner, even though he
   is now pardoned and "accepted in the Beloved." Oh, the Amalekites and
   Canaanites that still dwell in the land, what a nuisance they are! What
   "thorns in our eyes," as Joshua calls them!

   A strong expression indeed! They are worse than a thorn in the flesh.
   Sin is a thorn in the eye to the Believer. But to know that though I
   fight daily with corruptions and have to mourn an evil heart of
   unbelief, yet I am blessed of the Lord that made Heaven and earth, for
   all that--is not that bliss? Oh, the sweetness of that word to a heart
   which has been sorely tempted! Besides, the child of God, in addition
   to what he feels within, is often called to suffer the curses of the
   world and the curses of Satan. If you are of the world, the world will
   love its own--but if you are not of the world, the world will hate you.
   And though at times, under misrepresentations, slanders and cruel
   accusations you will feel that you are shamefully entreated, this Truth
   of God will gloriously sustain you--"You are blessed of the Lord that
   made Heaven and earth."

   The bitterness of persecution is gone when this is realized. Your
   faithful soul learns to say, "Let them curse on if they will, let Balak
   go from mountain to mountain and kill his bullocks and his rams, and
   call upon Balaam to curse the people of God--yet surely there is no
   enchantment against Jacob nor divination against Israel. They may cast
   their spells and invoke the demons as they will, but if the Lord has
   blessed the people, blessed they are!" Blessed be God, if we have once
   received this benediction from our Great Father's hand, all the
   maledictions of the Pope or the devil, or all the wicked men on earth
   shall not frighten our spirit! God's blessing shall silence all!

   Thus have I spoken upon the peculiar people chosen by Sovereign Grace
   receiving perpetual tokens of love; known by their character; all of
   them receiving the blessing, whether great or small, and all of them
   finding that blessing inexpressibly sweet.

   II. Now, secondly, this is A BLESSING FROM A PECULIAR QUARTER. "You are
   blessed of the Lord which made Heaven and earth." This is a blessing
   from one peculiarly related to us and therefore it is the more to be
   prized. We are glad to get a father's blessing--let no man think little
   of it. A father's curse might wither a man. If in any case it has been
   justly earned, I pity the poor wretch who wears it like the mark of
   Cain upon his soul--for him the sun has no smiling beams and the clouds
   no silver linings--the past no comfortable memories, the future no
   joyful prospects.

   A mother's blessing--how like the breath of cloudless morn--foretelling
   a day of peace! A brother's blessing--how bright with sacred dew like
   that which gemmed old Hermon's woods. The blessing of saintly men and
   holy women--who shall set a price upon it? Its merchandise is far above
   silver. In the olden times paternal benedictions were more thought

   of than they are now, and the change is not the fruit of greater
   wisdom. Verily, the blessing of a child of God I reckon to be a portion
   of my true wealth and I love you, Brothers and Sisters, for wishing me
   God-speed. Happy is the man whom good men love to bless!

   But, ah, Beloved, if you are blessed of the Lord you have a more Divine
   benediction--you have the blessing which makes rich, indeed, true and
   lasting, potent and effectual--the blessing of your Father who is in
   Heaven! All other blessings are only blessings in proportion as they
   contain the essence of this blessing. God's blessing is the sea and
   others are but drops. His is the sun and others are but sparks. The
   blessing spoken of comes not from an idol God. The Psalm leads us to
   make that observation. The gods of the heathen had mouths, but they
   spoke not. They had ears, but they heard not--any benediction from them
   would be a mockery! But the children of God are not blessed of Baal or
   Ashteroth, but of Jehovah, the self-existent Lord of All!

   They receive no benediction from the priest who ministers at the shrine
   of a dumb god of silver, or a dead god of flour and water. Compared
   with the benediction of the Lord who made Heaven and earth, what a
   paltry thing is the blessing of a priest! Indeed, he is utterly
   impotent to bless. If he has any power, it lies in the opposite
   direction. He can curse the victims of his false teaching but he cannot
   benefit them! His pax vobiscum is not worth the time spent in the
   speaking it! His "plenary indulgence" defiles the paper it is written
   on. A priest's blessing and a cockatrice's egg are of equal value.

   But to be blessed of Jehovah is a reality, as says the Psalmist,
   "Blessed is everyone that fears the Lord, that walks in His ways, for
   you shall eat the labor of your hands. Happy shall you be and it shall
   be well with you." The benediction mentioned in our text comes from the
   Omnipotent Creator "who made Heaven and earth." This intimates that the
   blessing is almighty in power. Have I the blessing of Him who said,
   "Let there be light," and there was light? Then He can speak into my
   darkness and cheer the gloom of my despair! Does the blessing of Him
   who brought order out of chaos rest upon me? Then He can speak to the
   confusion of my circumstances and the turmoil of my desponding mind and
   charm all things into harmony! The blessing of Him who clothed the
   earth with beauty, piled the hills and dug the channels of the sea must
   have in it a fullness unrivalled!

   A blessing from Him--how large it must be--how potent for all the
   purposes of Grace! A blessing from Him with whom there is no obstacle
   or difficulty--who shall be able to delay it or deprive me of it? The
   Lord who made Heaven and earth spoke, and it was done--He commanded and
   it stood fast! There was darkness but it fled before Him! There was
   confusion but it vanished at a glance of His eyes! And if God has
   blessed you, Christian, whatever stands in your way shall disappear
   before the benediction of your God. If He blesses, poverty cannot
   starve you, sickness cannot kill you, toil cannot wear you out, sorrow
   cannot consume you, life cannot allure you, death cannot slay you, Hell
   cannot enclose you!

   If He blesses, "neither things present, nor things to come, nor height
   nor depth, nor any other creature," can have power to harm you! If all
   the legions of Hell were armed and stood in your way and all were
   furious to destroy, yet in the name of God you could defy them, for His
   benediction would be both shield and spear to you! Because you have
   made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, your habitation
   there shall no evil befall you, neither shall any plague come near your
   dwelling. It is a blessing from the All-Wise One "who made Heaven and
   earth."

   Do not forget that the making of Heaven and earth is not merely a
   display of power, but of infinite wisdom! Think of all the skill which
   has guided the stars in their courses and of the wonderful wisdom which
   has created all things that are and has sustained them in their various
   spheres. Now, the Lord who blesses you, O heir of Heaven, is the
   infinitely Wise One! He knows the intricacies of your course and He
   will steer you through them. Though the channel of the river of your
   life flows close to yonder sandbar and then by the rock upon the other
   side; and though no earthly pilot can thread the mazes of that
   dangerous stream, yet He who knows all things has blessed you and with
   His hand upon the helm of your vessel He will bring you safe into the
   haven.

   Therefore do not fear. You are not blessed of an erring creature, nor
   of a man like yourself--you are blessed of the Lord that made Heaven
   and earth! Is there any searching of His understanding? Has He not
   balanced the clouds in judgment? Has He not in wisdom laid the
   cornerstone of the universe? Why then, do you say, "My circumstances
   have been overlooked by Him and the problem of my case will be too
   difficult for Him to solve"? Oh, rest in the Lord, and wait patiently
   for Him, for you are blessed of the Lord that made Heaven and earth,
   whose Infallible counsels shall

   conduct your affairs to a blessed issue! Let this console you--you are
   blessed of Him who made you, and therefore knows how to anoint every
   wheel of your inner workmanship with the sacred oil of His Grace.

   Take that thought into your spirit, too--He made Heaven and earth and
   therefore you are never out of His domain. We read of Him that He has a
   desire to the work of His own hands. He has made you and He will not
   leave you. Do you leave your children? Do you forget your offspring?
   Have you not heard that a woman may forget and may fail to have
   compassion upon the suckling of her own breast but God cannot and will
   not forget you? He will be mindful of you, for as man and especially as
   regenerated man, you are one of the noblest works of His hands. I know
   not how to speak upon so great a text as this, but I know how to drink
   its sweetness down into my very soul and to feel that, being blessed of
   God, all other things matter not!

   Sick and sorry, or well and rejoicing--there is not a pin to choose so
   long as we are blessed of the Lord that made Heaven and earth! Rich or
   poor, famous or despised, a throne or a martyr's stake, a palace or a
   dungeon--truly, there is not the turn of a hair between them if we are
   blessed of the Lord that made Heaven and earth! If this sweet blessing
   could fall upon a soul in Hell it would be a Heaven to it, and could
   the blessing of the Lord that made Heaven and earth be taken away from
   the saints in Heaven, Heaven would be a Hell to them! Our heart can
   sing with the Psalmist--

   "Let the ungodly race advance,

   And boast of all their store.

   The Lord is my inheritance,

   My soul can wish no more." The blessing of the Lord that made Heaven
   and earth is all in all.

   III. Let us turn to the third word, which is this--IT IS A BENEDICTION
   WITH A PECULIAR DATE for it is in

   the present tense. The preceding verses spoke of the past and the
   future. "The Lord has been mindful of us, He will bless us. He will
   bless the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron." These are
   blessed "wills." "He will bless them that fear Him, both small and
   great. The Lord shall increase you more and more, both you and your
   children." These are all in the future but you know the Proverb says a
   bird in the hand is worth two in the bush!

   Now, those future blessings, those birds in the bush--I know not what
   they are worth, for they are boundless in preciousness. But here is a
   bird in the hand, "You are blessed of the Lord." Oh, the value of that!
   You are at this moment blessed of the Lord that made Heaven and earth.
   This verb is in the present tense, and, indeed, it may be said to be in
   all the tenses put together--in a tense that is not a tense, a time
   that has no time but lasts on forevermore--till time shall be no more.
   This blessing embraces all circumstances! You are laid low and pining
   away with consumption but, "You are blessed of the Lord which made
   Heaven and earth."

   You are smitten down in the very heyday of your usefulness and laid
   aside but, "You are blessed of the Lord which made Heaven and earth."
   You had your oxen and your cattle seized and now you are, like Job, a
   penniless beggar, fit to sit on a dunghill, but, "You are blessed of
   the Lord." Your enemy has set his foot upon your neck and he swears
   that he will make a speedy end of you, but, "You are blessed of the
   Lord." Like Jeremiah, you are shut up in the dark dungeon and you sink
   in the mire, and there seems to be no helper but, "You are blessed of
   the Lord." Who shall say that John Bunyan in Bedford Jail was not
   "blessed of the Lord"? Who shall say that Rowland Taylor, when he went
   to be burnt on Hadleigh Heath, was not "blessed of the Lord" when his
   very face shone with sacred joy?

   Ah, let me tell you that the worst places on earth bear the best
   evidence of the goodness of God to His people. God's birds sing best in
   cages and like nightingales they sing best in the dark. And often,
   according to the old fable, their note is sweetest when the thorn
   pierces their breast. They are independent of outward circumstances
   except that the worse the circumstances, often the greater their joy!
   Glory be to God for this! They are "blessed of the Lord" that made
   Heaven and earth, let them be where they may and as they may. Though
   they seem cast out from God's Presence and all His waves and billows go
   over them, yet if they fear the Lord they are "blessed of the Lord,"
   even then! Oh, that your faith may lay hold of this when you are very
   sorely exercised, for happy is the man whom God corrects, and blessed
   is the man whom You chasten, O Lord!

   Observe that our text reaches to all time and beyond all time, because
   it runs thus--"You are blessed of the Lord that made Heaven and earth."
   While I am on earth, this shall console me--"I am blessed of the Lord
   that made the earth" and He Himself has said of His servants, "Blessed
   shall you be in the city and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed
   shall be the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground, and the
   fruit of your cattle, the increase of your

   cattle and the flocks of your sheep. Blessed shall be your basket and
   your store. Blessed shall you be when you come in and blessed shall you
   be when you go out."

   When I have to go out of this earth into another world, this shall
   console me--"I am blessed of the Lord that made Heaven." I shall still
   dwell in a place which my Father made. I am not going into a foreign
   country when I leave the warm precincts of this house of clay. I shall
   emigrate to the country where flowers never fade and winter never
   chills. This poor earth is little better than a penal settlement! It is
   a fair and beautiful and lovely earth to those who have eyes and taste
   with which to appreciate its scenery, but to a spiritual man it is just
   a smoke-dried tent of Kedar--a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, a casual
   ward for wayfarers, or very little better--a great morgue. "Woe's me
   that I in Mesech am a sojourner so long." We long to be away to our own
   fair country and see our Well-Beloved face to face!

   Yet, for all that, God made this world though man has spoilt it as much
   as ever he can. And the God who made this world has blessed us so that
   wherever we go about in the world we should feel that we have a
   blessing that is suitable for every position in it--suitable for that
   lowly cot on the moor, suitable for that scant room in the dark
   alley--suitable for the couch of ease and suitable for the hard bed
   where pain racks every bone. The Lord that made earth, and who has a
   hand in it still, has blessed us!

   And then it is the Lord that "made Heaven." Why, these two words are
   meant to encompass all creation! They are intended to take in the
   utmost bounds of the everlasting hills, the east and the west, the
   north and the south, the rising and the setting sun, the sea and the
   dry land, the heights and the depths--they are meant to encompass all.
   Here we have the true way of making the best of both worlds. God's
   blessing here and hereafter makes existence bliss! Oh be joyful! In
   whatever condition you are cast, you are blessed by God in that
   condition! And into whatever place you may come, you are blessed by God
   with mercies necessary for the place.

   The heathens used to be afraid that though they might have the blessing
   of the god of the hills, if they went into the valleys they would not
   have his blessing there, for their god might not be the god of the
   valleys. But our God is the God of every place, and every scene, and
   every circumstance--and we are blessed of Him--glory be to His holy
   name!

   IV. Now, fourthly and briefly, this is A BLESSING WITH A PECULIAR
   CERTAINTY. Scripture does not lie, or

   utter perhapses, and ifs, and buts. "You are blessed of the Lord which
   made Heaven and earth." Oh you that fear God, this is a matter
   offact--you daily and continually abide under a true and real blessing.
   Some blessings are vain words-- the person who utters them is a
   hypocrite. Other blessings are sincere, but the person pronouncing them
   has no power to fulfill them. Such blessings are wells without water or
   barren fig trees bearing leaves but no fruit.

   The Lord blesses not in word only, but in deed. His blessings are not
   futile wishes but Omnipotent acts. We may fail to obtain the
   benedictions which our friends invoke upon us, but God's blessings are
   sure to all the seed. Failure and miscarriage never occur to the Lord
   our God. Many are the slips between cups and lips at this world's
   banquet, but the chalice of Divine blessing shall surely reach the lip
   of the elect soul--

   "This is Your will, that in Your love

   We ever should abide

   And lo, we earth and Hell defy

   To make Your counsel void.

   Not one of all the chosen race

   But shall to Heaven attain;

   Partake on earth the purposed Grace,

   And then with Jesus reign."

   Now, Beloved, let us make sure of this blessing which is so sure. And
   how can we do so but by faith? We believe that God has blessed all
   those to whom He has given His dear Son--and He has given His dear Son
   to me if I believe in Jesus! As surely as I believe in Him, the
   blessing is mine. Grip it, Brothers and Sisters! Make sure of it. Let
   no man deceive you with vain words. In these times it is hard to find
   anybody who believes anything. Even the common history we learned at
   school is now suspected to be a myth. I do not think that you could,
   according to the modes of reasoning adopted in these skeptical days, be
   able to prove that you had either a father or a mother.

   Nothing is certain now-a-days--nothing at all. The floods of doubt have
   carried all away. We are taught from the pulpit to doubt. The old
   Gospel was, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." The new
   Gospel is, "He that doubts and is sprinkled shall be saved." A sorry
   comedown for both the words. But, Beloved, we have not so learned the

   Gospel we have learned to believe and hope, still, to live by faith.
   Our beliefs are grounded too firmly to be shaken by fashionable
   quibbling. Do get a fast hold, my Brothers and Sisters! You say, "How
   can I?" Why, you can do it by believing the veracity of your
   God--believing that surely He who speaks can fulfill what He has said!
   And you can get your faith strengthened by experience.

   Try your God--I mean, when He is trying you, trust Him and test His
   promise. Prove Him and see if He does not bless you. Fair-weather
   Christianity is all very well, but it is stormy-weather Christianity
   that proves a man to be truly a man of God. Can you trust God when the
   cupboard is bare? Can you rejoice in God when every nerve of your body
   is made to throb with pain? Can you stand beneath a burden that might
   have made Atlas bow down to the earth and feel that Divine strength is
   equal to all that and 10,000 times more? Could you fling yourself, like
   a Samson, unarmed, upon a thousand foes and strike them because the
   Lord was in you? If you can, you will have no trouble about this
   skepticism and these questions and doubts.

   You will know the Lord's Truth, for you have seen it. You will know His
   love, for you rejoice in it. You will know His faithfulness, for it is
   the pillow of your weary head. You will know His Immutability, for it
   is the anchor of your poor tempest-tossed boat. You will know that you
   are blessed of God that made Heaven and earth! May God grant us to know
   it by the witness of His Holy Spirit--to know it more and more by
   living more and more by faith, for only so shall we know it--to know it
   by despising everything else in comparison with it and relishing it and
   prizing it above all the delicacies that can be put upon the tables of
   worldlings. "Blessed of the Lord that made Heaven and earth"--may we be
   as assured of this as we are of our existence! Then shall we be "strong
   in the Lord and in the power of His might."

   V. The fifth point is THIS BLESSING INVOLVES A PECULIAR DUTY for, if
   God has blessed us, the succeeding duty is that we should bless Him.
   Note the 18th verse--"We will bless the Lord from this time forth and
   forevermore." Come, then, Beloved, if God has blessed us let us bless
   Him! Let us answer to His benediction as the Alpine echo to the horn. I
   am afraid we are not very abundant in blessing and glorifying God.

   What were you doing before you came here? What was your last word at
   home? Grumbling? Complaining? Very likely. Is this becoming in one whom
   God has blessed? What were your thoughts before you came here? Were you
   fully expecting something terrible to happen by-and-by? Mourning you
   know not why! Was that it? If so, is this a fit state of mind for one
   on whom the Divine benediction rests like a halo? What were your words
   on the road here? Let me guess again. Some silly chat? Some idle tale?
   Some frivolous joke? Is this worthy of your destiny? Is this worthy of
   an employment suitable for your rank?

   Brothers and Sisters, we have had enough of all this! If your murmuring
   in times past has not sufficed, I am greatly in error. If you have not
   frightened yourself enough about things that have never happened, I am
   indeed mistaken. And if you have not wasted enough breath in idle talk,
   I am bereft of judgment. Now, from this day forth let us see if we
   cannot bless the Lord continually! Speak to one another, you children
   of God--speak well of His dear name who has so richly endowed you. Let
   us tell one another what God has done for us, saying, "Come and hear,
   all you that fear God, and I will tell you what He has done for my
   soul."

   "I don't know what I can say," says somebody. Did God ever do anything
   for you? Then begin to pray for His blessing at once, for without it
   you are a miserable creature. But if He has been favorable to you, tell
   your fainting Brethren how He has restored you! Tell your sinking
   friend how you felt a solid bottom beneath your feet when you went
   through deeper rivers than those which he is passing through. Tell
   others what you have tasted and handled--not what you do not know--for
   borrowed experience is poor stuff and savors of imposition. The Psalm
   says, "Praise Him from this time forth." If the past has been marred by
   any other talk, now, "from this time," bless the Lord! Wash your mouth
   of all complaining! Take the cup of gratitude to sweeten your soul and
   bless His name from this time forth.

   What? Dumb till now? An heir of Heaven speechless? May a sight of God's
   blessing open your mouth! From this time forth begin to bless Him. 'Tis
   a good time in which to begin blessing God. This moment is a fair
   season for repentance. When was there a time that was unsuitable for
   adoring gratitude? And when was there an hour when it was not well to
   bless God? I beseech you, join me in praising Him!

   Then the Psalmist resolves to praise the Lord "forevermore." Our
   adoration of God is never to cease. As long as there is breath in our
   body let us praise Him who gives it to us. "Dum spiro spero," said the
   heathen, "While I breathe, I

   hope." But the Christian says, "Dum expiro spero"--"When I die, I will
   still hope in God." While we exist we will adore--

   "My God, I'll praise You while I live, And praise You when I die! And
   praise You when I rise again, And to eternity!"

   Repeat the joyous strain! Cease not day nor night! Nothing of worldly
   business deserves so much attention as to warrant our ceasing to bless
   and magnify the Lord in our hearts!

   Now, I pray God that some here who have never received the Divine
   blessing after the tenor of the text, may be led to seek it--and you
   know His word--"Seek you the Lord while He may be found: call you upon
   Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the
   unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him turn unto the Lord, and He
   will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for He will abundantly
   pardon."

   Oh, that gracious word, "abundantly pardon!" How it meets our abundant
   sin! Oh, for His attracting love to operate upon sinners' hearts! May
   He draw you to Himself for Christ's sake and bless you, even you who up
   to now have slighted His mercy! He delights to be gracious! He loves to
   call them Beloved, that were not beloved, and to make them a people
   that were not a people. Hear that word, you humble and contrite, and
   never rest till the Lord Himself smiles upon you. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Saints Blessing The Lord

   (No. 1078)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, OCTOBER 20, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Bless the Lord, O my Soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy
   name." Psalm 103:1.

   You see here a man talking to himself, a soul with all his soul talking
   to his soul. Every speaker should learn to soliloquize. His own soul is
   the first audience a good man ought to think of preaching to. Before we
   address ourselves to others we should lecture within the doors of our
   own heart. Indeed, if any man desires to excite the hearts of others in
   any given direction, he must first stir up himself upon the same
   matter. He who would make others grateful must begin by saying, "Bless
   the Lord, O my Soul."

   David had never risen to the height of saying, "Bless the Lord, you His
   angels," or, "Bless the Lord, all His works," if he had not first tuned
   his own voice to the gladsome music. No man is fit to be a conductor in
   the choirs of holy song until he has learned, himself, to sing the song
   of praise. "Bless the Lord, O my Soul," is the preacher's preparation
   in the study, without which he must fail in the pulpit. Self-evident as
   this is, many persons need to be reminded of it, for they are ready
   enough to admonish others, but forget that true gratitude to God must,
   like charity, begin at home. There is an old proverb which says, "The
   cobbler's wife goes barefoot," and I am afraid this is too often the
   case in morals and religion.

   Preachers ought especially to be jealous of themselves in this
   particular, lest, while they are crying aloud to other men to magnify
   the Lord, they should be shamefully silent themselves. I would this
   morning glow with the sacred flame of personal thankfulness while I
   call upon you to bless the holy name of Jehovah, our God. But what is
   true of preachers is true of all other workers. The tendency among men
   is, when they grow a little earnest, to expend their zeal upon other
   people and frequently in the way of fault-finding. It is wonderfully
   easy to wax indignant at the indolence, the divisions, the coldness or
   the errors of the Christian Church, and to issue our little bulls
   against her, declaring her to be weighed in our balances and found
   wanting, as if it mattered one halfpenny to the Church what the verdict
   of our imperfect scales might be!

   Why, instead of a tract upon the faults of the Church, at the present
   moment, it would be easy to write a folio volume and when it was
   written it would be wise to put it in the fire! Friend, mind those
   beams in your own eye and leave the Lord Jesus to clear the motes from
   the eyes of His Church. Begin at home--there is in-door work to be
   done. Instead of vainly pointing to the faults of others, pour forth
   your earnestness in praising God and say unto your own heart, "Bless
   the Lord, O my Soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name."

   You observe that this preacher, with an audience of one, has a very
   choice subject--he is exhorting himself to bless God. Now, in a certain
   sense it is not possible for us to bless God. He blesses us and in the
   same sense we cannot bless Him. He has all things--what can we give
   Him? When we have given our best we are compelled to confess, "Of Your
   own have we given unto You." But we bless Him by being thankful, by
   extolling Him for the gifts He has bestowed, by loving Him in
   consequence of His bounty towards us and by allowing these emotions of
   our mind to influence our life so that we speak well of His name, and
   act so as to glorify Him among our fellow men. In these ways we can
   bless God and we know that He accepts such attempts, poor and feeble
   though they are. God is pleased with our love and thankfulness, and so,
   speaking after the manner of men, He is blessed by His children's
   desires and praises.

   Note that the Psalmist stirred himself up to bless God's name, by which
   is meant His Character--though, indeed, we may take the word literally,
   for every name of God is a reason for thankfulness. We will praise
   Jehovah, the Self-Existent. We will praise El, the mighty God whose
   power is on our side. We will praise Him who gives Himself the Covenant
   name of Elohim and reveals therein the Trinity of His sacred unity. We
   will praise the Shaddai, the All-Sufficient God and

   magnify Him because out of His fullness have we all received. And
   whatever other name there is in Scripture, or combination of names,
   every one shall be exceedingly delightful to our hearts and we will
   bless the sacred name.

   We will bless the Father, from whose everlasting love we received our
   election unto eternal life--the Father who has begotten us again unto a
   lively hope by the resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ, from the
   dead. We bless the Father of our spirits, who has given to us an
   inheritance among all them that are set apart. And we bless the Son of
   God, Jesus our Savior, Christ--anointed to redeem. Our heart dances for
   joy at every remembrance of Him! There is not a name of Jesus Christ's
   Person, or offices, or relationships which we would forget to bless.
   Whether He is Immanuel, Jesus, or the Word. Whether He is Prophet,
   Priest or King--whether He is Brother, Husband or Friend--whatever name
   seems His beloved Person dear to us, we will bless Him under it.

   And the Holy Spirit, too--our Comforter, the Paraclete, the heavenly
   Dove who dwells within our hearts in infinite condescension, whom
   Heaven cannot contain but yet who finds a habitation within the bodies
   of His servants which are His temples--we will assuredly praise Him!
   Each one of His influences shall evoke from us grateful praise--if He
   is like the wind--we will be as Aeolian harps. If He is dew--we will
   bloom with flowers. If He is flame--we will glow with ardor. If He is
   oil--our faces shall shine. In whatever way He moves upon us we will be
   responsive to His voice and while He blesses us we will bless His holy
   name.

   But if the very name of God is thus blessed to us, certainly the
   Character which lies beneath the name shall be inexpressibly
   delightful. Select any attribute of God you will and it is a reason for
   our loving Him. Is He Immutable?-- blessed be His name, He loves
   everlastingly. Is He Infinite?--then glory be to Him, it is infinite
   affection which He has bestowed upon us. Is He Omnipotent?--then will
   He put forth all His power for His own beloved. Is He Wise?--then He
   will not err, nor fail to bring us safely to our promised rest. Is He
   Gracious?--then in that Grace we find our comfort and defense--whatever
   there is in God, known or unknown, we will bless.

   My God! I cannot apprehend You with my understanding, but I comprehend
   You with my affections, and so, if I cannot know You all in my mind, I
   love You altogether in my heart! My intellect is too narrow to contain
   You, but my heart expands herself to the infinity of Your Majesty and
   loves You, whatever You may be! You are unknown in great measure, but
   You are not unloved by my poor heart! Thus the Psalmist calls upon us
   to bless the Lord. I would like to dwell upon those emphatic words in
   his exhortation--"His holy name."

   Only a holy man can delight in holy things. Holiness is the terror of
   unholy men! They love sin and count it liberty, but holiness is to them
   a slavery. If we are saints we shall bless God for His holiness and be
   glad that in Him there is no spot nor flaw. He is without iniquity--He
   is just and right. Even to save His people He would not violate His
   Law. Even to deliver His own beloved from going down into the Pit, He
   would not turn away from the paths of equity. "Holy, holy, holy Lord
   God of Sabaoth," is the loftiest cry of cherubim and seraphim in their
   perfect bliss--it is a joyous song both to the saints on earth and
   those in Heaven. The pure in heart gaze on the Divine holiness with
   awe-struck joy!

   Having thus expounded the words briefly, we will now come to the main
   point of the exhortation. The Psalmist stirs us up to bless God with
   our whole being and I pray the Holy Spirit to bring us to that
   condition this morning. Upon that part of the exhortation we shall now
   dwell.

   I. And our first remark shall be that this exhortation is REMARKABLY
   COMPREHENSIVE. "Bless the Lord, O my Soul"--there is the unity of our
   nature. "And all that is within me"--there are the diverse powers and
   faculties which make up the variety of our nature. The unity and the
   diversity are both summoned to the delightful employment of magnifying
   God!

   First, the unity of our nature is here bid, in its concentration, to
   yield its whole self to the praise of God. "Bless the Lord, O my
   Soul"--he means thereby not his lips only, not his hands upon the harp
   strings, not his eyes uplifted towards Heaven, but his soul, his very
   self, his truest self. Never let me present to God the outward and
   superficial alone, but let me render to Him the inner and the sincere.
   Let me never bring before Him merely the outward senses which my soul
   uses, but the soul which uses these instrumental faculties. No
   whitewashed sepulchers will please the Lord--"Bless the Lord, O my
   Soul"--let the true ego praise Him, the essential I, the vital
   personality, the soul of my soul, the life of my life!

   Let me be true to the core to my God. Let that which is most truly my
   own vitality spend itself in blessing the Lord. The soul is our best
   self. We must not merely bless the Lord with our body, which will soon
   become worm's meat and is but dust at its best--but with our inner,
   ethereal nature which makes us akin to angels--yes, that which causes
   it to be

   said that in the image of God we were created. My spiritual nature, my
   loftiest powers must magnify God--not the voice which sings a
   hypocritical magnificat, but the heart which means it! Not the lips
   which cry Hosanna thoughtlessly--but the mind which considers and
   intelligently worships. Not only this little narrow walk of my body
   would I fill with song, but the infinite--through which my spirit soars
   on wings of boundless thought--I would make that shoreless region vocal
   with Jehovah's praise! My real self, my best self shall bless the Lord.

   But the soul is also our immortal self, that which will outlast time
   and, being redeemed by precious blood, shall pass through Judgment and
   enter into the worlds unknown forever to dwell at the right hand of God
   triumphant in His eternal love. My immortal Soul, what have you to do
   with spending your energies upon mortal things? Will you hunt for
   fleeting shadows while you are, yourself, most real and abiding? Will
   you heap up bubbles while you, yourself, will endure forever in a life
   coeval with the existence of God Himself, for He has given you eternal
   life in His Son Jesus? Bless the Lord, then--so noble a thing as you
   are should not be occupied with less worthy matters. Raise yourself on
   all your wings and like the six-winged cherubim adore your God!

   But the words suggest yet another meaning--the soul is our active self,
   our vigor, our intensity. When we speak of a man's throwing his soul
   into a thing we mean that he does it with all his might. We say, "There
   is no soul in him," by which we do not mean that the man does not live,
   but that he has no vigor or force of character, no love, no zeal. My
   most intense nature shall bless the Lord. Not with bated breath and a
   straitened energy will I lisp forth His praises, but I will pour them
   forth vehemently and ardently in volumes of impassioned song. Never
   serve God with a hand loathe for labor which would gladly withdraw
   itself if it dared.

   If you do your own business in a lax fashion, yet do not God's business
   so. If you go to sleep over anything let it be over your money-making,
   or your buying and selling, but evermore be awake in your service of
   the Lord. "Bless the Lord, O my Soul!" If ever you are thoroughly
   awakened, awake now! If ever you were all life, all emotion, all
   energy, all enthusiasm, enter into the same condition again! Let every
   part be full of ardor, sensitive with emotion, nerved with impulse,
   borne upward by resolution, impelled by onward force! As Samson, when
   he smote the Philistines hip and thigh, used every muscle, sinew and
   bone of his body in crushing his adversaries, so you serve God with all
   and every force you have. "Bless the Lord, O my Soul!"

   O God, my hand, my tongue, my mind, my heart shall all adore You--

   "Every string shall have its attribute to sing." My united,
   concentrated, entire being shall bless You, You infinitely glorious
   Jehovah! I pray you, my Brothers and Sisters, either do not pretend to
   praise God at all, or praise Him with all your might. If you are
   Christian people, be out and out Christians or let Christianity alone.
   None hinder the glorious kingdom of Christ so much as these
   half-and-half men and women who blow hot and cold with the same breath!
   My Brethren, be thorough! Plunge into this stream of life as bathers do
   who dive to the very bottom and swim in the broad stream with intense
   delight. Do this, or else make no profession.

   But then, David speaks of the diverse faculties of our nature, and
   writes, "All that is within me bless His holy name." I think the Psalm
   itself, if we had time to comment upon it, might suggest in succession
   all our mental powers and passions. For instance, when he said, "Bless
   the Lord, O my Soul," he meant, of course, first of all let the heart
   bless Him, for that is often synonymous with the soul. The affections
   are to lead the way in the concert of praise. But the Psalmist
   intended, next, to stir up the memory, for he goes on to say, "forget
   not all His benefits."

   May I ask you, beloved Friends, to recollect what God has done for you?
   Thread the jewels of His Grace upon the thread of memory and hang them
   about the neck of praise. Can you count the leaves of the forest in
   autumn, or number the small dust of the threshing floor? Then, can you
   give the sum of His loving kindnesses? For mercies beyond count praise
   Him without stint. Then let your conscience praise Him, for the Psalm
   proceeds to say, "who forgives all your iniquities." Conscience once
   weighed your sins and condemned you--now let it weigh the Lord's pardon
   and magnify His Grace to you. Count the purple drops of Calvary and
   say, "Thus my sins were washed away."

   Let your conscience praise the Sin-Bearer who has caused it to flow
   with peace like a river and to abound in righteousness as the waves of
   the sea. Let your emotions join the sacred choir, for you have this
   day, if you are like the Psalmist, many feelings of delight. Bless Him
   "who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, and who
   satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed
   like the eagles." Is all within you peaceful today?

   Sing the 23rd Psalm. Let the calm of your spirit sound forth the
   praises of the Lord upon the pleasant harp and the psaltery.

   Do your days flow smoothly? Then consecrate the dulcimer to the Lord.
   Are you joyful this day? Do you feel the exhilaration of delight? Then
   praise the Lord with the timbrel and dance. On the other hand, is there
   a contention within? Does conflict disturb your mind? Then praise Him
   with the sound of the trumpet, for He will go forth with you to the
   battle. When you return from the battle and divide the spoil, then,
   "praise Him upon the loud cymbals: praise Him upon the high-sounding
   cymbals." Whatever emotional state your soul is found in, let it lead
   you to bless your Maker's holy name!

   Perhaps, however, just now your thoughts exceed your emotions for you
   have been considering the Providence of God as you have read the
   histories of nations and seen their rise and fall--and have watched the
   hand of God in men's lives. So also did David, and he sang, "The Lord
   executes righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed." Let
   your judgment praise the Judge of all the earth! Let every day's
   newspaper give you fresh matter for praise--for every Christian should
   so read the paper or not at all. God's praise is the true end of
   history! His Providence is the pith and marrow of all the stories of
   the empires of the past. To the man of understanding the centuries are
   stanzas of a Divine epic, whereof the great subject is the Lord of
   Hosts in His excellency.

   Do not forget to bring your knowledge to your aid in your song. You
   have the Scriptures and you have the Spirit to teach you their inner
   sense, therefore you can soar above David when he sang, "He made known
   His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel." He has made
   known His Son unto you and in you--therefore glorify Him! The harvests
   of the fields of knowledge should be stored in the garners of
   adoration. Even our human learning should be laid at the Lord's feet,
   for the vessels of the tabernacle were made of the gold which Israel
   brought out of the land of Egypt. We should make each rivulet of
   knowledge swell our gratitude. Believer, know not anything which you
   can not consecrate, or else loathe to know it. Whatever fruits, new or
   old, are stored in your memory, let them be all laid up for the Beloved
   and none else. Knowledge should supply the spices and love, the flame,
   and so the censer of worship should always smoke with fragrant perfume.

   Be sure, too, that your faculty of wonder is used in holy things--let
   your astonishment bless God. You cannot measure the distance from the
   east to the west--you are lost in the immensity before you--but oh,
   bless God with your wonder as you see your sins thus far removed from
   you! You cannot tell how high the heavens are above the earth, but let
   your astonishment at the greatness of Creation lead you to adoration,
   for so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him! Ah, and your very
   fears, let them bow low before the Lord. Do you fear because you are
   frail? He remembers that we are dust. Do you tremble at the thought of
   death? Then praise Him who spares you, though you are before Him as a
   flower of the field withered by the wind when it passes over you.
   Magnify from a sense of your insignificance the splendor of that
   condescending love which pities you, even "as a father pities his
   children."

   As for your hopes, sweet are their voices--let them not remain
   silent--as they peer into the future let them sing for, "The mercy of
   the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him."
   What more could hope desire to make her rouse her choicest minstrelsy?
   By-and-by we shall be where even the last verses of the Psalm will not
   be above our experience, for we shall see the Lord upon that Throne
   which He has prepared in the heavens. And then we will bid angels that
   excel in strength and all the heavenly ministry to bless the Lord!
   Happy are we as we anticipate the day, and, filled with expectation,
   cry aloud, "Bless the Lord, O my Soul!"

   I think you will now perceive that, if time permitted, we could bring
   out every single mental faculty and show that David has given it scope,
   as though this Psalm were the working out of a problem and practically
   showed how each particular power of the soul can praise God. Brothers
   and Sisters, we cannot longer tarry on this point. You know, each of
   you, what faculty you possess in the greatest strength. I pray you use
   it for God. You know which phase your soul is in just now--bless God
   while you are in that mood, whatever it is.

   "All that is within me," says the text--then let it be all. Some of us
   have a vein of humor and though we try to keep it under restraint it
   will peep out. What then? Why let us make it bear the Lord's yoke! This
   faculty is not necessarily common or unclean--let it be made a hewer of
   wood and a drawer of water for the Lord. On the other hand, some of you
   have a touch of despondency in your nature--take care to subdue it to
   the Lord's praise. You are the men to sing those

   grave melodies which in some respects are the pearls of song. A little
   pensiveness is good flavoring. The muse is at her best when she is
   pleasingly melancholy.

   Praise God, my Brethren, as you are. Larks must not refrain from
   singing because they are not nightingales, nor must the sparrow refuse
   to chirp because he cannot emulate the linnet. Let every tree of the
   Lord's planting praise the Lord! Clap your hands, you trees of the
   forests, while fruitful trees and all cedars join in His praise. Both
   young men and maidens, old men and children, praise the name of the
   Lord, each one in his peculiar note--for you are all necessary to the
   perfect harmony. The Lord would not have you borrow your brother's
   tones, but use "all that is within you," all that is peculiar to your
   own idiosyncrasy, for His glory!

   Spend all your strength, yes, every atom of it! Keep back nothing, but
   render all that is within you unto Him. If all that is within you is
   the Lord's, all that is outside of you, which is yours, will also be
   His. All your bodily faculties will praise Him and the outer life will
   be all for God. Let your house praise Him. Beneath its roof may there
   ever be an altar to the God of all the families of Israel. Let your
   table praise Him--learn to eat and drink to His glory. Let your bed
   praise Him--let the bells upon the horses be holiness unto the
   Lord--let the very garments that you wear, seeing they are the gifts of
   His charity, commend the Lord to your praise. Yes, let each breath you
   breathe inspire a new song unto the Preserver of men. Make your life a
   Psalm and be yourself a hymn--"all that is within me bless His holy
   name." The text is comprehensive.

   II. Secondly, the suggestion of the text is MOST REASONABLE, for,
   first, God has created all that is within us except the sin which mars
   us. Every faculty, susceptibility, power or passion, is of the Lords
   fashioning. It were not ours to feel, to think, to hope, to judge, to
   tear, to trust, to know, or to imagine if He had not granted us the
   power. Who should own the house but the builder? Who should have the
   harvest but the farmer? Who should receive the obedience of the child
   but the father? To whom, then, O my Soul, should you render the homage
   of your nature but to Him who made you all that you are?

   Moreover, the Lord has redeemed our entire manhood. When we had gone
   astray and all our faculties, like lost sheep, had taken, each one, its
   own several roads of sin, Christ came into the world and redeemed our
   entire nature-- spirit, soul, body--not a part of the man, but our
   complete humanity! Jesus Christ did not die for our souls only, but for
   our bodies, too. And though at this present, "the body is dead because
   of sin," and therefore we suffer pain and disease, yet the spirit is
   already life because of righteousness, and in its life we have a sure
   guarantee of the quickening of our mortal bodies in the day of the
   adoption, to wit the redemption of our body.

   We shall, at the coming of the Lord, be wholly restored in body and
   soul by the Lord's Divine power--therefore let body and soul praise Him
   who has redeemed both by His most precious blood! My Body, you are not
   mine to pamper you, you are my Lord's to serve Him, for His blood has
   paid your ransom price and secured your resurrection. My Soul, my
   Spirit, whatever faculty you have, Christ's blood is on all, therefore
   you are not your own. It would be sad, indeed, even to think of having
   an unredeemed will or an unredeemed judgment--but it is not so--every
   faculty is emancipated by a ransom. If the blood on the lintel has
   saved the house, then it has saved every room--and every chamber of
   ours should be consecrated to the Redeemer's praise.

   Brothers and Sisters, the Lord has given innumerable blessings to every
   part of our nature. We spoke of them just now, one by one, and it would
   be very easy to show that all our faculties are the recipients of
   blessing and therefore they should all bless God in return. Every pipe
   of the organ should yield its quota of sound. As in an eagle, every
   bone, muscle and feather is made with a view to flight, so is every
   part of a regenerate man created for praise. As all the rivers run into
   the sea, so all our powers should flow towards the Lord's praise. To
   prove that this is reasonable, let me ask one single question--if we do
   not devote all that is within us to the glory of God, which part is it
   that we should leave unconsecrated? And being less unconsecrated to
   God, what should we do with it? It would be impossible to give a proper
   answer to this question.

   An unconsecrated part in a Believer's manhood would become a nest of
   hornets, or, what if I say a den of devils out of which evils would
   come forth to prowl over our entire being? A faculty unsanctified would
   be a leprous spot, a valley of Gehennam, a Dead Sea, a lair of
   pestilence. To be sanctified--spirit, soul, and body--is essential to
   us and we must have it. It is but our reasonable service that within us
   must bless God's holy name--to withhold part of the price were
   robbery--to reserve part of our territory from our King would be
   treason!

   III. But I will not further insist that it is reasonable, for I have
   further to assert that it is NECESSARY. It is necessary that the whole
   nature bless God, for at its best, when all engaged in the service, it
   fails to compass the work and falls short of Jehovah's praise. All the
   man, with all his might--always occupied in all ways in blessing
   God--would still be no more than a whisper in comparison with the
   thunder of praise which the Lord deserves!

   One of our poets used a singular expression which the fact more than
   justifies. He said--

   "But ah, eternity's too short To utter all Your praise."

   It is so. The whole company of God's creatures would be incapable of
   reflecting the whole of the Divine Glory and such mercy and Grace does
   God show to us in the gift of His dear Son that the Church militant,
   and the Church triumphant, together, are not equal to well-deserved
   praise. Do not, therefore, let us insult the Lord with half when the
   whole is not enough! Let us not bring Him the tithe, when, if we had 10
   times as much, we could not magnify Him as we should.

   We must, moreover, give the Lord all because divided powers in every
   case lead to failure. The men who have succeeded in anything have
   almost always been men of one thing. He who is jack-of-all-trades is
   master of none. He who can do a little of this and a little of that
   never does much of any one thing. The fact is, there is only water
   enough in the brook of our manhood to drive one wheel, and if we divide
   it into many trickling runners we shall accomplish nothing. The right
   thing is to dam up all our forces and allow them to spend themselves in
   one direction and so pour them all forth upon the constantly revolving
   wheel of praise to God.

   How can we afford life to evaporate in trifles when one aim, only, is
   worthy of our immortal being? We who have been baptized upon profession
   of our faith were taught in that solemn ordinance to bless the Lord
   with our entire being, for we were not sprinkled here or there--but we
   were, in the outward sign--buried with the Lord Jesus in Baptism unto
   death. And we were immersed into the name of the Triune God. If our
   Baptism meant anything it declared that we were henceforth dead to the
   world and owned no life but that which came to us by the way of the
   resurrection of Jesus. Over our heads the liquid water flowed, for we
   resigned the brain with all its powers of thought to Jesus. Over the
   heart, the veins, the hands, the feet, the eyes, the ears, the mouth,
   the significant element poured itself--symbol of that universal
   consecration which deluges all the inward nature of every sanctified
   Believer. My baptized Brothers and Sisters, I charge you not belie your
   profession! Remember, Beloved, this one telling argument, that Jesus
   Christ will have all of us or nothing--and He will have us sincere,
   earnest and intense--or He will not have us at all.

   I see the Master at the table and His servants place before Him various
   meats that He may eat and be satisfied. He tastes the cold meats and He
   eats of the bread, hot from the oven. But as for tepid drinks and
   half-baked cakes He puts them away with disgust. He will look on you
   who are cold, and are mourning your coldness, and He will give you
   heat. And He will look on you who are hot and serve Him with the best
   you have. But of the middle-man, the lukewarm, He says, "I will spew
   you out of My mouth." Jesus cannot bear lukewarm religion! He is sick
   of it! The religion of this present time is, much of it, rather
   nauseating to the Savior than acceptable to Him.

   If Baal is God, serve him. But if God is God, serve Him truly. Let
   there be no mockery, but be true to the core. Be thorough--throw your
   soul into your religion! I charge you, stand back awhile and count the
   cost--for if you wish to give to Christ a little and to Baal a little,
   you shall be cast away and utterly rejected--the Lord of Heaven will
   have nothing to do with you! Bless the Lord, then, all that is within
   me, for only such sincere and undivided homage can be accepted of the
   Lord.

   IV. We must pass on, and ask your attention yet further to the next
   remark--whole-hearted praise is BENEFICIAL. It is beneficial to
   ourselves. To be whole-hearted in the praise of God is to elevate our
   faculties. There can be no doubt whatever that many a man's powers have
   been debased by the object which he has pursued. Poets who might have
   been great poets have missed the highest seats upon Parnassus because
   they have selected trivial topics or themes gross and impure, and,
   therefore, the best features of their poems have never been fully
   developed.

   "Bless the Lord, O my Soul," and you will be a man to the fullness of
   your capacity! This is the way to reach the loftiest peak of human
   attainment. Consecration is culture. To praise is to learn. To bless
   God is also of preventive usefulness to us--we cannot bless God and at
   the same time idolize ourselves. Praise preserves us from being envious
   of others, for by blessing God for all we have we learn to bless God
   for what other people have, too. I reckon it to be a great part of
   praise to be thankful to God for making better men than myself.

   If we are always blessing the Lord, this will save us from
   murmuring--the spirit of discontent will be ejected by the spirit of
   thankfulness. And this will also deliver us from indolence, for, if all
   our powers magnify the Most High, we shall scorn the soft couch of ease
   and seek the place of service that we may bring more honor to our
   Master. Nothing beautifies a man like praising God! There is a bath in
   Germany which enamels the bathers, and, if it does not make them
   beautiful forever, yet, at least beautiful for a while--but to plunge
   our whole nature in adoration is far more beautifying.

   I was told by one who watched the revivals in the north of Ireland
   years ago that he never saw the human face look so lovely as when it
   was lit up with the joy of the Holy Spirit during those times of
   refreshing. You know how pleasing landscapes appear when the sun shines
   upon them? The scenery has not half its charms till the sun, "of this
   great world, both eye and soul," enriches the view with his wealth of
   color and makes all things glow with God's Glory. Praise is the
   sunlight of life.

   Some of you conceal beneath a cloud of indifference all the beauty of
   your characters. You are like the lovely mountains of Cumberland, when
   they are enshrouded in mist--little or nothing attractive is visible in
   you. Pray that Divine Grace, like a heavenly wind, would drive off the
   fogs of our despondency and discontent and shed the sunlight of true
   praise all over our soul--then the beauty of our new-created man will
   be discerned! May we have many lovely praiseful Christians in this
   Church--and may they abound in other Churches, also.

   While whole-hearted praise is beneficial to ourselves, it is also
   useful to others. I am persuaded many souls are converted by the
   cheerful conversation of Christians and many already converted are
   greatly strengthened by the holy joy of their Brethren. You cannot do
   good more effectually than by a happy consecrated life spent in
   blessing God. Imagine not that pensiveness is the fairest flower of
   piety. There have been, in the French Church especially, eminent
   Christians who appear to have realized a likeness to Christ more in the
   sorrow which marred His visage, than in the joy which sustained His
   spirit. Jesus sorrowed that we might rejoice! We are no more to imitate
   Him in His griefs than in His five wounds!

   It is truly Christian-like to rejoice in the Lord at all times. We
   should seek to have Christ's joy fulfilled in ourselves. If there is
   anything that is cheerful, joyous, dewy, bright, full of Heaven--it is
   the life of a man who blesses God all his days. This is the way to win
   souls! We shall not catch these flies with vinegar--we must use honey.
   We shall not bring men into the Church by putting into the window of
   Christ's shops, coffins and crepe, and shrouds--and standing at the
   door like mutes. No, we must tell the Truth of God and show sinners the
   best robe, the wedding ring, and the silver sandals of joy and
   gladness. We must sing--

   "The men of Grace ha ve found Glory began below. Celestial truths on
   earthly ground From faith and hope do grow." I read in Thomas Cooper's,
   "Plain Talk," a story of a class leader who was in a sad state of mind
   and therefore gave out in the class the hymn--

   "Ah, where should I go, Burdened, and sick, and faint."

   To one seemed inclined to sing, therefore, the leader asked a certain
   Brother Martin to start a tune. "No, no," said Martin, "I'm neither
   burdened, nor sick nor faint, I'll start no tune, not I!" "Well, then,
   Brother Martin," said the leader, "Give out a verse yourself."
   Whereupon Martin, with all the power of his lungs, sang--

   "Oh for a thousand tongues to sing

   My great Redeemer's praise."

   Ah, that's the hymn, my Brothers and Sisters, keep to that! If you have
   not a thousand tongues, at least let the one you have continue to bless
   the Lord while you have any being.

   V. Lastly, all this is PREPARATORY. If we can attain to constant praise
   now, it will prepare us for all that awaits us. We do not know what
   will happen to us between this and Heaven, but we can easily
   prognosticate the aim and result of all that will occur. We are harps
   which will be tuned in all their strings for the concerts of the
   Blessed. The Tuner is putting us in order. He sweeps His hands along
   the strings--there is a jar from every note--so He begins, first, with
   one string and then goes to another. He continues at each string till
   He hears the exact note.

   The last time you were ill, one of your strings was tuned. The last
   time you had a bad debt, or trembled at declining business, another
   string was tuned. And so, between now and Heaven, you will have every
   string set in order and you will not enter Heaven till all are in tune!
   Did you ever go to a place where they make pianos and expect to hear
   sweet music? The tuning room is enough to drive a man mad--and in the
   factory you hear the screeching of saws and the noise of hammers--and
   you say, "I thought this was a place where they made pianos." Yes, so
   it is, but it is not the place where they play them.

   On earth is the place where God makes musical instruments and tunes
   them--and between now and Heaven He will put all that is within them
   into fit condition for blessing and praising His name eternally! In
   Heaven every part of the man will bless God without any difficulty. No
   need for a preacher there to exhort you! No need for you to talk to
   yourself and say, "Bless the Lord, O my Soul"--you will do it as
   naturally as now you breathe! You never take any consideration as to
   how often you shall breathe and you have no plan laid down as to when
   your blood shall circulate because these matters come naturally to you.

   And in Heaven it will be your nature to praise God! You will breathe
   praise! You will live in an atmosphere of adoration and like those
   angels who for many an age, day without night, have circled the Throne
   of Jehovah rejoicing, so will you! But I will not speak much on that,
   or you will be wanting to be flying away to our own dear country--

   "Where we shall see His face,

   And never, never sin;

   But from the rivers of His Grace

   Drink endless pleasures in."

   You must stay a little while longer in the tents of Kedar and mingle
   with the men of soul-distressing Mesech. But till the day breaks and
   the shadows flee away, say unto your soul, "Bless the Lord, O my Soul:
   and all that is within me, bless His holy name."

   I wish all my hearers could do this, but some of you cannot bless God
   at all and it would be idle for me to tell you to do it! You are dead
   in your sins. I read a story the other day of a woman convinced of her
   state by a singular dream. She dreamed she saw her minister standing in
   the midst of a number of flowerpots which he was watering and she
   thought that she was one of the flowerpots. But the minister passed her
   by and said, "It is no use watering that plant, for it is

   dead."

   This morning I must pass by the dead plants. Oh, Sinner, can you bear
   this? I do not invite you to sing the Believer's song of praise--can
   you bear to be left out? Though I pass you by, I pray the Lord to look
   upon you and say to you-- "Live!" And before I close I must tell you
   something else which is meant for dead sinners as well as living
   saints. It is this--"Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be
   saved." God grant to you that saving faith for Christ's sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Secret Food And The Public Name

   (No. 1079)

   A SERMON DELIVERED

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Your Words were found, and I did eat them; and Your Word was unto me
   the joy and rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by Your name, O Lord
   God of Hosts." Jeremiah 15:16.

   JEREMIAH had been greatly persecuted for his faithfulness in delivering
   the Word of God. He tells us the reason for his continuance in a work
   which brought him so sorrowful a reward. He makes us understand that he
   had been faithful in delivering God's Word because that Word had been
   overpoweringly precious to his own soul. He could not do otherwise than
   speak the Truth of God, because that Truth had been his own daily food.
   He had met with nothing but ill-treatment from those whom he addressed.
   They had vilified him in every way--he had been put into the most
   noisome dungeon. He had been denied even bread and water--everything
   short of actually putting him to death had been inflicted upon him by
   his ungrateful countrymen.

   But still he went on prophesying. He could not be silent. Though his
   prophesying brought him nothing but tears, yet he continued still to
   prophesy, for God's Word came with such sweetness to his own soul and
   filled his heart with such ravishing joy and delight that he could not
   do otherwise than go and tell his fellow men what had been so
   delightful to himself. I believe this to be the secret of every living
   ministry. The ministry that is fed upon flattery and flatters those who
   flatter it is a poor feeble counterfeit and God will never bless it.
   But the ministry which under great difficulties and fierce opposition
   is still sustained because the preacher cannot help continuing in it is
   that which God will bless.

   It was good advice of a venerable Divine to a young man who aspired to
   be a preacher, when he said to him, "Don't become a minister if you can
   help it." The man who could very easily be a tradesman or a merchant
   had better not be a minister! A preacher of the Gospel should always be
   a volunteer and yet he should always be a pressed man who serves his
   King because he is constrained to do so by God Himself. Only he is fit
   to preach who cannot avoid preaching--who feels that woe is upon him
   unless he preaches the Gospel--and that the very stones would cry out
   against him if he should hold his peace.

   I have said that Jeremiah lets us into a secret. His outer life,
   consisting in his perpetual faithful ministry, was to be accounted for
   by his inward love of the Word which he preached. Depend upon it, this
   secret reveals all true spiritual life. If ever you see anyone who
   walks in holiness, stands fast in temptation and is upheld under
   affliction, you may rest assured there is a something about him that is
   not perceived by every eye--there is a secret which the world knows not
   of--a hidden fountain which sustains the stream of his life. There is
   an invisible spring of vitality which keeps him vigorous even in the
   midst of surrounding death. Bunyan's metaphor was that he saw a fire
   which was burning under singular circumstances, for one stood before it
   who continually threw water upon it to quench it, and though he did so,
   yet the fire was not put out.

   Christian could not understand the marvel till the Interpreter took him
   behind the wall and there he saw one that cast oil upon the fire as
   perseveringly as the enemy cast the water, so that the fire, being
   secretly nourished, could not be extinguished. Every Christian's life
   is of that sort--there is abundance to destroy it, but, if it is
   sustained, there is a secret something which keeps that soul alive unto
   God and persevering to the end. We shall, then, tonight speak about the
   secret life of the Believer and afterwards upon his public life. His
   secret life is described in this way: "Your Words were found, and I did
   eat them; and Your Word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart."
   That was for himself alone. In the next sentence you have his public
   life, his manifestation before men--"For I am called by Your name O
   Jehovah, God of Hosts."

   I. Now observe that in the description of Jeremiah's SECRET LIFE which
   consists of his inward reception of the Word of God, (which description
   will answer for ourselves), we have three points--the finding of God's
   Word, the eating of it and the rejoicing in it with all his heart.
   First, you have the finding of it--"Your Words were found." Now

   we have not to find God's Word as Jeremiah had, by waiting until the
   Spirit of God reveals fresh Truths of God, for the Spirit of God now
   reveals no fresh Truth to us. He takes of the things of Christ--the
   things which are revealed in the Scriptures--and opens them and applies
   them to us.

   We are not to expect any addition to the sacred canon--the Book is
   finished and there shall be nothing added to it. We have not to find
   God's Word, therefore, in that respect. If any man comes to me and
   says, "I have God's Word for you"--if he speaks not according to this
   Book, you may know at once that he is a liar and that his utterance is
   a vain imagination. Yes, though he should come with pretended miracles
   and should boast proudly of his visions, yet is he to be rejected, for
   Holy Scripture is the mind of God and novelties are the fancies of men.
   And, therefore, when we use the term "finding" God's Word, we must use
   it rightly and our meaning will be mainly contained in the following
   senses--First, we read the Word. Here it is--God's Word is all here
   and, if we would find it, we must read it earnestly.

   Let me commend to you the frequent reading of the Word of God. Young
   people would do well to form the habit of reading a chapter every day,
   not as a form, but with a sincere desire to understand what they read.
   If they continue to do so till life's latest hour they will not regret
   it. The lack of habitual reading of Holy Scripture by professedly
   Christian people is very much to be regretted. If you trust yourself to
   read the Word only when it is convenient for you, it will very often
   happen that day after day will pass without a passage of Scripture
   having been read at all. But if you make it a point that such a time
   shall be set apart for the reading of a chapter and keep to it, it will
   be well for you.

   Of course the habit of setting apart any time is not binding. None of
   us may say to his Brother, "You ought at such an hour to read the
   Scriptures," for we are not under legal bondage, neither are we to
   judge our Brethren. But, though not binding, I believe it to be very
   profitable and as proper a thing as appointing regular times for meals.
   As the habit of having a time for prayer is good, so also is the habit
   of reading the Scriptures. Yet it is a mischievous practice to read a
   great deal of the Bible without time for thought--it flatters our
   conceit without benefiting our understanding.

   The practice of always reading the Bible in scraps is also to be
   deprecated. I recommend the student of Scripture to read through a
   whole book carefully. As with a poem, we could not get the spirit and
   sense of the poet by reading a stanza here and there, so you cannot
   effect to discover the drift of Bible teaching by taking a verse or two
   here and there. The Bible is divided into many books and I would
   recommend you all to read through a book, carefully and prayerfully,
   and get the general run and catch the drift of the Author and so
   endeavor to perceive the mind of God.

   But at the same time, remember that like every other valuable book, the
   Bible needs diligent and prayerful reading. Surface-skimming is of
   little use. Some go through the Bible just as a traveler may be whirled
   through a country in a railway carriage--he will know very little,
   indeed, about that country though he may traverse it from end to end.
   He only sees a little of it out of the window and the conclusions he
   may come to will be very poor ones and utterly unreliable. And to go
   whirling through a chapter of Scripture, as it were, at railway speed,
   is of little or no service to the mind. I recollect an Arminian Brother
   telling me once that he had read the Scriptures through a score or more
   times and could never find the doctrine of Election in them.

   He added he was sure he would have done so if it had been there, for he
   read them on his knees. I said to him, "I think you read them in a very
   uncomfortable posture and if you had read them in your easy chair you
   would have been more likely to understand them." Pray, by all means,
   and the more the better, but it is a piece of superstition to think
   there is anything in the posture in which a man puts himself in
   reading--and as to reading through the Bible 20 times without having
   found anything about the doctrine of Election, I said, "the wonder is
   that you found anything at all! You must have galloped through them at
   such a rate that you were not likely to have any intelligible idea of
   what the meaning of the Scriptures was at all."

   If but once in that man's life he had taken the Scriptures and really
   desired to know their meaning and had weighed them deliberately and
   studied them verse by verse and word by word, I think he would have
   been far more likely to find what was the true meaning of the words
   which the Holy Spirit has used. But, to come back to our subject--we
   need more Bible reading. I shall not, tonight, speak of those who waste
   their time in reading works of fiction though there are innumerable
   hordes of time-destroying volumes that come pouring forth from the
   press. I fear that even our religious literature, the best of it, has
   in some measure kept men from the Word of God itself. I should like to
   see all the good books themselves burnt, as well as the bad books of
   Ephesus, if they keep men from reading Holy Scripture for themselves!

   Here is the well of purest Gospel undefiled--it springs up in this
   precious volume with freshness and sweetness unequalled. We who write
   upon it hand out that same sweet water to you in our own cups and
   goblets, but to some extent all our vessels are defiled! There is, in
   the purest intellect, some measure of error and the living water which
   we hand out to the people must in some measure participate in our
   imperfection. Do not be content to drink from our small pots and our
   chalices, but come and put your lips right down to where the living
   water, with all the self-sufficient fullness of the deeps eternal,
   comes welling up from the very heart of God!

   This is the way to find the Word--to read it for yourselves, to read it
   from the Bible. If you can read it from the original books so much the
   better, but if you cannot, be thankful that you have so good a
   translation as that which is to be found in every Englishman's house.
   Be sure you read it until you can say, "Your Words were found." But we
   have not found God's Word when we have read it unless we add to it an
   understanding of the Word. The mere Words of Scripture are no better
   than any other words, only so far as they contain a holier and nobler
   sense. It is man's superstition to think a text is any more because it
   is in the Bible than anywhere else--I mean the words of the text--the
   mere sound. Yet I have known a great many who, when they have just
   repeated a text of Scripture or read a text of Scripture, think that
   something good is done.

   Why, dear Friend, you need to get the meaning--the inner sense. Nuts
   must be cracked, so must Scripture--you must get out the meaning, or
   you have got nothing! Marrow bones, who can feed on them? Split them,
   take out the marrow and then you have luscious food! Merely verbal
   utterances, even though they are the utterance of the Holy Spirit,
   cannot feed the soul. It is the inward meaning, the Truth that is
   revealed, which we should labor after. To often they stick in the
   letter and advance not to the soul of Divine Truth. Pray, dear Friends,
   as you read the Scriptures, that God may illuminate you. Ask that you
   may not read in the dark as many do, who therefore stumble at the Words
   in disobedience. The best interpreter of a book is generally the man
   who wrote it. The Holy Spirit wrote the Scriptures. Go to Him to get
   their meaning and you will not be misled. Oh, when shall the time come
   when every Christian shall say, "By the Grace of God I read the
   Scripture and I am enabled by the Holy Spirit to mark it, to learn it,
   and to understand it. I earnestly labor to know what God means by what
   He has said, as far as the human intellect can understand His meaning"?

   To find God's Word, however, means more than this. I think it means
   sometimes the discovery of select and appropriate words to suit our
   case. "Your Words were found." You know when you have lost your key and
   your cupboard or your drawer cannot be opened? What do you do? You send
   for a locksmith, and he comes in with a whole bunch of keys. First he
   tries one--that does not fit. Then he tries another--that will not do.
   And the good man perseveres, perhaps with 20 keys--it may be with
   fifty. At last he gets the proper key which springs the lock and he
   opens your treasure for you.

   Now Scripture to us is much of the same nature. We have many promises
   in the time of trouble and it is a great blessing to find the promise
   that suits our case. We turn them all over and say, "Well, that is a
   precious promise, but then I am not exactly in that condition. That is
   a choice Word, but then I do not think I can lay claim to it. And then
   again, this third passage is very cheering but it is evidently not
   spoken to a person in my position." At last you find one, and you say,
   "Ah, this is the Word spoken to a person of my character--in my
   condition of soul. My God, now apply this to my heart with power and
   make this Truth be to my soul comforting and cheering. Your Words are
   found. I have found the Divine utterance which emphatically pertains to
   me."

   And truly, dear Brothers and Sisters, if we desire to find a Word of
   God that would suit us we need never be long in searching if we seek
   sacred direction. We have come to a point, perhaps, in life, where two
   roads meet and neither of them seems to diverge from the straight path.
   And yet we feel solemnly that in a moment we may change the whole
   current of our life from peace to sorrow by making a mistake. Kneel
   down at the cross roads and cry, "Lord lead me," and then go to the
   Book and ask that the proper guidance for this condition may be
   indicated by the written Word and you shall often find a text leap out
   of Scripture to you, seizing your soul with loving violence and drawing
   you into the appointed path!

   I do not mean by this the idle and wicked practice of opening upon
   texts as a sort of lottery, but a far higher and more spiritual matter
   by far. The Holy Spirit still remains for us and is the Urim and
   Thummim of the Christian Church, even as Providence is the pillar of
   cloud and fire. "'Your Words were found'--I went to You and to Your
   Book for them that I might be guided and comforted by them. And I was
   guided to, and guided by the appropriate text for the

   occasion." At the same time, in opposition, or apposition to this
   remark, let me say it looks to me as if Jeremiah made no selection at
   all in another sense--"Your Words were found." They were Your words,
   all of them, and I did eat them. No matter what the Words were--were
   they bitter Words? I did eat them--they were my medicine.

   Were they sweet Words? I did eat them--they were my consolation. Were
   they Words of instruction? I did eat them--they were my daily bread. I
   did not find fault with doctrinal Truth for I found it among Your
   Words. On the other hand, were they Words of precept? I did not say, "I
   do not need to be legal. I hate the very word, 'duty.'" No, but when I
   found Your Words, if they were precept Words I did eat them. There were
   some of Your Words that, in the face of them, threatened me. They
   rebuked me, they humbled me, they spoiled my beauty--they laid me in
   the dust--but these very words I loved, because "I felt that faithful
   were the wounds of a friend." I laid bare my breast to these lances. I
   asked the Good Physician to use these sharp texts upon me.

   Now this ought to be our constant spirit--searching for the text
   appropriate to the occasion and yet willing that any Scripture and
   every Scripture should have its due effect upon our souls. Beware of
   picking and choosing in God's Word! It is a very dangerous symptom when
   there is any portion of Scripture that we are afraid to read. If there
   is one single chapter in the Book that I do not like, it must be
   because I feel it accuses and condemns me. My duty ought to be to face
   that chapter at once and answer its accusation and endeavor, as far as
   possible, to purify myself by God's help from that which the passage of
   Scripture condemns. Brethren, read that passage most which stings you
   most!

   When I go to visit the aged or the sick, I generally know whereabouts
   the Bible will be marked with dog's ears, and thumbed and rubbed. Of
   course one of the favorites is the chapter, "Let not your heart be
   troubled," and another--the 8th of Romans--"We know that all things
   work together for good to them that love God." And then, again, they
   are sure to read again and again the precious Book of Psalms. We are
   sure to find that the Saints have been there. And I cannot blame them.
   I think so many of the ripest saints would not have fallen into the
   habit if it had been a wrong one, but, at the same time, I pray you all
   to not be afraid to read, or hesitate to read, or be slow to read
   portions which are not comfortable--passages which are full of rebuke.

   We all need rebuke and need it continually, and as soon as we find the
   Word of God, whether we like it or not for the time, it is ours to
   receive it and feed upon it by God's gracious help. "Your Words were
   found," that is, I felt I had got a hold of them. I knew I had got
   them. I had discovered them--they were Your Words to my inmost soul. Do
   you know there is a habit springing up in these times, when a passage
   of Scripture is quoted, to put the name of the author at the bottom,
   as, for instance, Isaiah, Paul, Christ? Now I think the habit is a very
   absurd one, for the moment you read a verse of Scripture you do not
   need to know who wrote it--you feel quite sure it is a Scriptural text.

   When a man quotes a text of Scripture and puts the name of Christ at
   the bottom, you feel it to be a superfluity. You know Christ's
   words--there is a particular ring about them--there is a something
   golden in them that cannot be imitated by the utterances of other men.
   So it is with the whole of the Word of God--we perceive by instinct
   that the Words are the Lord's own. Perhaps we could not tell others why
   we know, but there is a peculiar majesty, a remarkable fullness, a
   singular potency, a Divine sweetness in any Word of God which is not
   discoverable, nor anything like it, in the word of man except that word
   of man is itself drawn directly from the Word of God.

   Now we hear of some who try to take away from us God's Word. "This book
   is not Inspired," they say, "And that particular book is not
   authentic--this chapter--there is a dispute about it." And, as for the
   whole of it, the gentry of these days tell us that there may be a sort
   of Inspiration in it, and so on. Well Sirs, the Bible shall be to you
   what you like. You shall treat it as you please and you shall look upon
   it as a mere commonplace book if you will. But know this, that to us it
   is God's Inspired teaching, Infallible and infinitely pure! We accept
   it as the very Word of the living God, every jot and tittle, not so
   much because there are external evidences which go to show its
   authenticity--a great many of us do not know anything about those
   evidences and probably never shall--but because we discern an inward
   evidence in the Words themselves.

   They have come to us with a power that no other words ever had in them
   and we cannot be argued out of our conviction of their superlative
   excellence and Divine authority! We have found the Words of our
   heavenly Father--we know we have, for children know their own Father's
   voice. When we speak God's Truth, we speak what we know, what we have
   tasted and handled and tested and proved! Dear Brothers and Sisters, I
   have been rather lengthy upon this first and most important matter of
   finding God's Word, and I will tell you why. I have dwelt thus fully
   upon it because it is

   just this which is the secret of the thorough Christian life in all its
   departments. Jeremiah would not have been so bold a preacher if he had
   not thus found God's Word. If you hold God's Word with a loose hand; if
   you are an inattentive reader; if you are a superficial Believer; if
   you have loose views about the authority of Divine Revelation, you will
   be lax in everything else--you will be loose in your obedience to the
   precept, in your love to the doctrine--and in your hope in the
   promises.

   It stands to reason if the Word of God is not God's Word to you, it
   will not comfort you to the same extent as it did Jeremiah and neither
   will you obey it with the same reverence or teach it with like
   perseverance. If you do not attach reverence and Divinity and
   Inspiration to the Word of God it will not yield to you the force and
   power which it ought to yield and your whole life will suffer. Thus
   much upon the finding of God's Word.

   A second view of the inner life must now be considered. "Your Word was
   found, and I did eat it." The surest way to preserve the Truth of God
   is to put it into the casket of the soul--to enclose it in one's inner
   man. "I did eat it." By that term is signified, first, the prizing of
   God's Word. When Jeremiah received a sentence which he knew came from
   God's mouth he prized it--he loved it so that he ate it. He could not
   lay it aside. He did not merely think of it--he loved it so that he put
   it into his very self! Oh, when we get God's Truth, do not let us love
   it so little as to shelve it by saying, "I accept it formally as
   belonging to the Articles of the Church of which I am a member." No!
   Let us prize it so that we may say, "I must carry it about me, no,
   better than that, I must carry it in me--it is meat and drink to me."
   "I did eat it."

   The term, eating, implies, moreover, that he derived nourishment from
   it. The food we eat, if it is fit for eating, nourishes and supports
   us. So when a man reads God's Word as he ought to do, he feeds upon it
   and finds in it a something that makes him a better man, a stronger
   man, more bold in holy service and more patient in submission to God's
   will. It is delightful to sit down and suck the soul out of a text, to
   take it and feel that not the letter, only, but the inner vitals of the
   text are our own and are to be received into the very nature of our
   spirit to become assimilated with it.

   Many foolish persons, when they come to the Lord's Table, imagine that
   in eating the bread and drinking the wine there is some eating of the
   flesh and drinking of the blood of Christ in a corporeal manner. But
   those who understand the mysteries know that eating the flesh of Christ
   signifies considering, meditating and feeding upon the Truth of God
   that Christ was Incarnate, was of our nature and is still partaker of
   the nature of man. The Humanity of Christ becomes food for our souls
   and that is the meaning of eating His flesh! So, when we drink the
   wine, the Atonement, the sufferings of Christ are thought upon, weighed
   and considered--and these become food for our faith, our gratitude, our
   love, our confidence and holiness.

   So, too, with every Truth of God--we are to feed upon it. We are not
   merely to accept the statement as being true, but we are to get out of
   it that abolishment for our inner man which God intended it should
   render. "Your Word was found, and I did eat it." It is a very different
   thing from saying, "Your Word was found, and I did admire it," or,
   "Your Word was found, and I did criticize it," or, "Your Word was
   found, and I did divide it and make a sermon of it." That is a
   minister's temptation. But, "Your Word was found, and I did eat it." I
   said to my soul, "Here is something to make you better, to make you
   more Christ-like, something to help you in your struggle against sin."
   Brothers and Sisters, let us use the Word for that purpose! By the help
   of God's blessed Spirit let us eat it as our everyday food, the bread
   and the salt, the wine and the water of our life.

   But the figure of eating means more. It sets forth an intimate union.
   That which a man eats gets intertwined with his own self, his own
   personality. The body is built up from the elements which are received
   in the form of food. So the man, the real man--the soul--is made up of
   the Truth which he lives upon. Some feed on error and their whole
   manhood, their hope, their confidence--everything is built up of error
   and their religion is deceitful throughout. But he that feeds upon
   God's Word gets God's Word to be a part of himself and his faith and
   hope are all based upon the Truth of God. I sometimes hear of a person
   giving up a certain doctrine. Well, I am certain if a man gives up any
   doctrine of God's Word he never knew it, for he who knows God's Truth
   knows that it has a clinging power and will not be separated from us!

   The diligent Believer, when he knows the Word, learns it so well that
   he assimilates it into his own being. Let me illustrate this by a fact
   which is notable, in a lower sense, in certain natural persuasions.
   When Galileo was convinced that the world moved, they put him in prison
   for it. In his weakness he recanted and said he believed it stood still
   and that the sun moved. But the moment he got away from his persecutors
   he stamped his foot and said, "But it does move."

   And so he who knows the Truth of God as it is in Jesus has even a
   higher persuasion than that which ruled Galileo. He cannot belie the
   Truth--he has got it so into himself that he cannot give it up.

   Sirs, if you can run from Christ you have not yet become His disciple.
   If you can leave Him, you never knew Him. If you can deny the Truth of
   God and utterly give it up, you have never known it savingly. But he
   that can say, "Your Word was found, and I did eat it," may confront the
   foe and when his enemy cries, "Give it up!" his reply will be, "How can
   I give it up? I have eaten it." You remember the faithful servant who
   was sent by his master with a very valuable diamond, and who, when he
   was attacked on the road swallowed the diamond? Well, but even then it
   might have been taken from him had the robbers killed him. But if the
   diamond had been of such a nature that the man, in eating it, could
   dissolve it and assimilate it into himself, all the thieves that ever
   attacked him could not take away from him that which he had eaten.

   And so, when a soul feeds upon the precious Truth of God, all the
   devils in Hell multiplied 50,000 times could not take the Truth away
   from him! It is most important for this very reason that we should get
   such a grip of the Truth of God that it should be, as it were, burnt
   into our souls--interwoven into the warp and woof of our very being to
   run like a silver thread right through our entire existence--so that
   you would tear that existence to pieces and destroy it before you could
   destroy the Truth that is inwrought in it. "Your Word was found, and I
   did eat it." See here, then, my Beloved, the secret power that will
   support a Christian's life--the eating of God's Word--the getting it
   thoroughly into one's soul. This is it which will make you speak and
   act as a Christian.

   There is a great deal of error in many Christians and a great deal of
   sin. And many try to correct the error and remove the sin, and they do
   well. But have you never heard a doctor say, when a person has been
   covered with some eruption, "I shall not deal with these eruptions at
   all. I shall apply no ointment. They are caused by the poorness of the
   patient's blood. I shall recommend to him a generous diet. I shall give
   him a strengthening medicine which will invigorate the system and these
   blotches will disappear as a natural consequence"? Depend upon it, very
   many of the faults which are to be condemned in Christians are the
   result of their not leaning upon God's Word--their not knowing the
   whole of it--especially the strong meaty parts of it as they ought to.
   And if they did come to find God's Word and to eat it, their spiritual
   constitution would be stronger and then they would throw off many of
   the ailments that are now such an injury to them--and they would become
   healthy, vigorous, mighty in the service of God.

   Notice, now, the third glimpse into the inner life. "Your Word was
   found, and I did eat it, and it was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my
   heart." Nothing makes a man so happy as the Word of God. Nothing makes
   him so full of delight and gives his soul such peace as feeding upon
   the Word of God. "The joy and rejoicing of my heart." I preached the
   Gospel on a certain occasion in a certain place of worship and I
   preached the doctrine of the Final Perseverance of the Saints and it
   was not believed in by the minister. However, many of his people who
   heard the doctrine, and never would have believed it if I had mentioned
   the words, "Final Perseverance," drank it in and it made them so very
   happy that the minister declared I had done a world of mischief by it,
   for he believed the good souls would never give up the doctrine!

   Truly, when God's Word comes with the power that makes you joy and
   rejoice in it, your inward delight becomes to your heart a main reason
   for holding it tenaciously! I would cheerfully give up many doctrines
   if I believed that they were only party watchwords and were merely
   employed for the maintenance of a sect--but those Doctrines of Grace,
   those precious Doctrines of Grace--against which so many contend, I
   could not renounce or hate a jot of them because they are the joy and
   rejoicing of my heart!

   When one is full of health and vigor and has everything going well, you
   might, perhaps, live on the elementary Truths of Christianity very
   comfortably. But in times of stern pressure of spirit when the soul is
   much cast down, you need the marrow and the fatness! In times of inward
   conflict, salvation must be all of Grace from first to last. Then it
   must not be according to the will of the flesh, but according to the
   will of God! Then you need an "Everlasting Covenant ordered in all
   things and sure." Then, "the sure mercies of David are precious" and
   then it is that you come to understand how those glorious Truths of God
   which have been called Calvinistic, but which are really the Truth of
   God's own Word, are so much prized by old and advanced Believers.

   Aged and tried saints, having had their senses exercised to discern
   good and evil, have also come to a period of life in which they need
   consolation--to a time in which deep experience calls for solid
   sustenance--and therefore they fall back on the eternal verities and
   rejoice in them. Beloved, may you know every Truth of God's Word by
   rejoicing in it! May

   you know its power to console you and uplift you in the time of
   distress, for, when you know the joy that flows from the Truth of God
   into the regenerate heart, you will say--

   "Should all the forms which men devise

   Assault my faith with treacherous art,

   I'll call then vanities and lies,

   And bind the Gospel to my heart." These three things are the secret of
   a strong spiritual life--to find, to eat, and to rejoice, in God's
   Word.

   II. Now, very briefly, we shall describe THE CHRISTIAN IN HIS OUTWARD
   LIFE, as he is mentioned here--"I

   am called by Your name, O Lord God of Hosts." Now I think these words
   may be used in three ways. First, the condition of Jeremiah was one
   which he had attained by his conduct. He was so continually preaching
   about Jehovah, so constantly insisting upon Jehovah's will and going
   upon Jehovah's errands, that they came to call him, "Jehovah's Man,"
   and he was known by Jehovah's name.

   Now the man who loves God's Word and feeds on it, and rejoices in it,
   will so act that he will come to be called a Christian. He will not
   only be so, but he will be called so. Men will take knowledge of him
   that he has been with Jesus. If they do not give him the name in the
   sense of honoring him, they will give it him as a nickname, but they
   will be sure to call him, in their hearts, at least, by such a title.
   An esteemed city missionary who for years frequented public houses to
   preach the Gospel there, was known as, "The Man with the Book," because
   he always carried his Bible with him. Oh, I wish many of us were known
   as, "The Man with the Book." Among the heathen it has frequently
   happened that earnest missionaries have been known as, "Jesus Christ's
   Men," or the heathen have said, "Here comes God's Man."

   We don't expect them to give us that title by word of mouth, but I
   could earnestly pray that every one of us may have it in some shape or
   other. You know generally the world will pick out some religious leader
   and then they will abuse those who listen to him by calling them by his
   name. They need not blush at that, since it is often only the world's
   way of owning that they are Christians--their acknowledging that they
   are the followers of that which is right and true. Years ago, when a
   man spoke of the things of God with great emotion so that he quaked
   with holy trembling, they called him a "Quaker." It was but
   acknowledging that a power was influencing the man which the world did
   not understand.

   And when other persons were methodical and precise in their lives, they
   called them "Methodists"--persons who lived by method and rule. They
   needed not to be ashamed of that and they were not. It was only another
   way of the world's pointing them out and saying, "These are God's
   people." They thought it a sneer and meant it for a sneer, but it was
   an honor! To be called, "Jehovah's Man," was an honor to Jeremiah. And
   to be called by any of these nicknames which signify that we belong to
   God is an honor to aspire after and not to be regretted. May we all win
   some opprobrious name and wear it as our title of holy chivalry!

   But this is a name, in the second place, which is involved in the
   profession of every Christian. "I am called by Your name, O Jehovah,
   God of Hosts." Of course you are so called, if your profession is true!
   You were baptized into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
   the Holy Spirit, and you then and there accepted that name. You are a
   Believer in Christ and therefore you are rightly called a
   Christian--you cannot escape from it. By being a believer in Christ's
   name, you have Christ's name named upon you.

   Oh, Friend, consider what your obligations are! There was a soldier in
   the Macedonian army who was named Alexander--a coward. And he was
   called before the king, and asked, "What is your name?" He said,
   "Alexander." "Then," said the king, "You must give up your name, or you
   must cease to be a coward." So we call before us those who are
   Christians and we say, "What is your name? You are named with the name
   of Christ, therefore you must give up being covetous. You must give up
   being bad-tempered, worldly, slothful, lustful--or else you must give
   up Christ's name--for we cannot have Christ's name dishonored any more
   than Alexander would have his name dishonored." You were spitting fire
   just now against that person who had irritated you. Suppose I had
   stepped in at that moment, and said, "You are called by the name of
   Christ!" What a color would have risen in your face!

   Perhaps today you were talking idle stuff with vain persons and
   supposing someone whom you honored and loved had laid his hand on you
   and whispered, "What? You, a Christian, and talk like that?" How would
   you have felt? Oh, that we remembered always that we are Christians and
   therefore must always act up to the name that is named upon us! God
   grant you, Friends, that in the power of the eating of God's Word you
   may be constrained to always act as becomes those upon whom the name of
   Christ is named!

   Once more--this word may be used in the sense which arises out of the
   Gospel itself. "I am called by Your name, O Lord God of Hosts: I belong
   to You. When they gather up the nations and they say, 'This man belongs
   to Babylon, and that man to Assyria, and that man to Egypt,' I belong
   to You and am called by Your name, O Lord God of Hosts." What a comfort
   this is--we who believe in Christ belong to God! We are His portion and
   He will never lose us. "They shall be Mine," says the Lord, "when I
   make up My jewels." We see the broad arrow put here and there upon
   royal property-- upon government property--let us remember that we have
   the broad arrow of the King of Kings set upon us as Believers in
   Christ!

   The Lord will take care of us because His name is named upon us and we
   belong to Him. "You are not your own: you are bought with a price."
   "All things are yours and you are Christ's and Christ is God's." You
   are poor but you are Christ's. Does not that mitigate your poverty? You
   are sick but you are God's. Does not that comfort you? The poor lamb
   lies in the cold field but if it belongs to a good shepherd, it shall
   not die. The sheep is sick, or it has wandered, but, if it belongs to
   an Omnipotent Shepherd, it shall be healed and it shall be brought
   back! The name of Christ being named upon us is the guarantee of our
   present comfort and of our future security.

   Oh, Brothers and Sisters, I come back to the point I began with--find
   God's Word, eat God's Word, rejoice in God's Word, and then go and live
   as those who are alive from the dead, who wear not the name of the
   first Adam, but the name of the second Adam--who are not known any
   longer as the servants of sin, but known as the servants--the sons-- of
   God, forever and ever! God bless you and if you have not believed, may
   you be led to trust in Jesus crucified this very night that you may be
   called by His name. We pray it for His name's sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Our Gifts and How To Use Them

   (No. 1080)

   DELIVERED

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Therefore I remind you to you stir up the gift of God which is in you
   by the laying on of my hands." 2 Timothy 1:6.

   I SUPPOSE that Timothy was a somewhat retiring youth and that from the
   gentleness of his nature he needed to be exhorted to the exercise of
   the bolder virtues. He is bid not to be ashamed of the testimony of our
   Lord and to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. He is
   called to the front, though his modesty would have kept him in the
   rear, and he is exhorted to command and teach, suffering no man to
   despise his youth. Perhaps, also, he was not a man of very vigorous
   action and needed, every now and then, a little touch of the spur to
   induce him to put forth all his dormant energy and keep himself and his
   Church thoroughly up to the mark in labor for Christ.

   His was a choice spirit and therefore it was desirable to see it
   strong, brave and energetic. No one would wish to arouse a bad man, for
   like a viper he is all the worse for being awake. But in proportion to
   the excellence of the character is the desirability of its being full
   of force. The Apostle Paul tells Timothy, in his first Epistle, not to
   neglect the gift that is in him. And in the text before us he bids him
   stir up that gift--in each case he is sounding the trumpet in his ear
   and summoning him to intense action. He speaks of the gift that was
   conferred by the laying on of hands, and in the former Epistle he
   connects that with the hands of the presbytery.

   Now it was no doubt the custom to lay on hands at the ordination of
   Christian ministers by the Apostles and there was an excellent reason
   for it--for gifts were thereby conveyed to the ordained. And when we
   can find anybody who can thereby confer some spiritual gift upon us, we
   shall be glad to have their hands laid on our heads. But we care not
   for empty hands. Rites cease when their meaning ceases. If practiced
   any longer they gender to superstition and are fit instruments of
   priestcraft. The upholding of the hands of the eldership, when they
   give their vote to elect a man to the pastorate, is a sensible
   proceeding, and is, I suspect, all the Apostle means when he speaks of
   the presbytery. But empty hands, it seems to me, are fitly laid on
   empty heads--and to submit to an empty ceremony is the most idle of all
   idle waste of time!

   If Paul were here and could confer a gift, we should rejoice to receive
   it. Yes, and if the meanest man in Christendom, or woman, for that
   matter, could confer the smallest drachma of Divine Grace by the
   putting on of their hands, we would bow our head in the most humble
   manner. Till then we shall beg to decline submitting to the imposition,
   or assisting in it. For this reason, and others, we cannot use the text
   exactly as it stands in addressing this congregation. But leaving out
   the reference to laying on of hands, we may honestly, without violation
   of the current of Inspiration, proceed to exhort each one of you to
   stir up the gift that is in you!

   There are many kinds of gifts. All Christians have some gift. Some may
   have but one talent, but all have one at the least. The Great
   Householder has apportioned to every servant a talent. No single part
   of a vital body is without its office. True, there are some parts of
   the body whose office has not been discovered--even the physician and
   the anatomist have not been able to tell why certain organs are in the
   human frame, or what office they serve--but as even these are found to
   be necessary, we are quite sure that they fulfill some useful purpose.
   Truly, there are some Christians who might be put in that category--it
   might puzzle anybody to know what they are capable of--and yet it is
   certain they have some charge committed to them to keep, and, if true
   Believers, they are essential parts of the body of Christ.

   As every beast, bird, fish and insect has its own place in Nature, so
   has every Christian a fit position in the economy of Grace. No tree, no
   plant, no weed could be dispensed with without injury to Nature's
   perfection. Neither can any sort of gift or Grace be lost to the Church
   without injury to her completeness. Every living saint has his charge
   to keep--his talent over which he is a steward. A measure of gift is in
   all of us, needing to be stirred up. Some have gifts outside of them
   rather than within them--gifts, for instance, of worldly position,
   estate and substance. These ought to be well

   used, and considering that in these times we have a starving world to
   deal with, and that one of the great impediments to the spread of the
   Gospel is, with some of us, the lack of means for the maintenance of
   those who should preach the Word, it does seem a strange thing that
   professors should store up God's money and use it as if it were their
   own.

   When for our orphans, our students, our tract distributors and our
   missionaries we need funds, how can men love the Lord with all their
   hearts and yet keep their thousands cankering at their bankers, or
   their tens resting in their purses? They have not learned to provide
   for themselves bags that wax not old. They do not understand that to
   keep their money they must give it away--that truly to preserve it they
   must dedicate it to God--that which is kept by the miserly for
   themselves is not really preserved, but wasted. That which is expended
   in the Master's service is laid up in Heaven where neither moth nor
   rust can corrupt.

   But I am not going to speak about that. I have not much reason to speak
   upon that subject to those who are immediately connected with me, for I
   have rather to praise you than to upbraid. Most of our dear friends
   here serve the Lord with the gifts that are outside of them--not all as
   we should, but many with more than ordinary liberality and some up to
   the full measure of their means, if not beyond them. There are,
   however, exceptions to all rules and there are a few who attend this
   place who need more than a gentle hint to excite anything like
   generosity in them. But we must go at once to the point in hand--"the
   gift that is in you," we have now to speak of. First, the gift that may
   be in each one of us. And then, secondly, how we are to stir this gift
   up. And in conclusion, we will give reasons for the stirring of it.

   I. First, then, WHAT GIFT IS THERE IN US? In some here present there
   are gifts of mind which are accompanied with gifts of utterance. It is
   no mean thing to be able to read the Scriptures and to see their inner
   meaning--to be able to compare spiritual things with spiritual and to
   be so taught in other matters so that we are able to see the hand of
   God in history and can, upon all such subjects, speak to edification.
   It is not everyone who has a mind who has also the gift of utterance,
   but where God is pleased to give to any man mind and mouth, he
   possesses a gift which he ought abundantly to use.

   Many a man is mighty in the Scriptures but not eloquent. When the two
   things meet, as in Apollos, and are combined with a fervent spirit, a
   man of God has power, indeed! May I suggest that every Christian man
   here who is possessed of the faculty of eloquent discourse is bound to
   use it for Jesus Christ? Some young men spend their evenings in
   Debating Societies and the like, and I have not a word to say against
   that, but I have this to say--whatever you may do with this talent in
   other directions, the Lord, who has bought you with His blood, if you
   are a Christian man--has the first claim upon you and you are bound to
   use your powers of utterance in His cause.

   "But I am not a minister!" What do you mean by that? Do you find
   anything in Scripture about clergy and laity? If so, you have read it
   with different eyes from mine! There were men called especially to the
   oversight of the Church and the preaching of the Word, but everyone,
   according to his gift, also had a call--and there is no man in the
   Church of God who has ability to speak who has any license to be
   silent. Not only the golden-mouthed orators, but the silver-tongued
   speakers--men of the second as well as of the first order--should serve
   in the Gospel of the Son of God. I shall not ask any young man whether
   he ought to preach, but whether he can prove that he ought not.

   Every man is bound to tell another who is in danger, to escape from
   that danger. Everyone who has recovered from a dreadful disease is
   bound to tell others what remedy was made effectual in his case.
   Nothing can excuse us from, in some way or other, spreading abroad the
   Gospel of Jesus Christ! And if we have the ability to speak, it will go
   hard at last with us if we have been silent with our fellow men. The
   stones in the street might surely cry out against some religious
   professors who make the Houses of Parliament, the Council Chamber, the
   Courts of Justice, the Athenaeum, or the Mechanics' Hall ring with
   their voices, and yet preach not Jesus--who can argue points of
   politics and the like, but not speak a word for Christ--eloquent for
   the world, but dumb for Jesus?

   From this may God deliver us! If you have any gift, young man, come out
   and use it--or old man, also, if you have laid it by till late in the
   day. In these straitened times when the harvest is ripe and the
   laborers are few, let every man that has his sickle come forth into the
   field. Let no man say, "I pray you have me excused," but by the blood
   that bought you, if you have tasted of the Water of Life, cry aloud and
   spare not, and be this your message--"Whoever will, let him take the
   Water of Life freely."

   There are numbers of Believers who have not the gift of utterance with
   the tongue, who nevertheless can speak very fluently and admirably with
   the pen. If, then, you have the gift of the pen, are you using it for
   Christ as you ought? I need

   to stir up the gift that is in you. Letters have often been blessed to
   conversion! Are you accustomed to write with that view? Perhaps you are
   a great contributor to the postal revenue. Let me ask you what sort of
   matter it is with which you burden her Majesty's mails? Do you write
   letters to your children and friends full of loving testimony to what
   the Grace of God has done for you? If you have not done so, dear
   Friends, try at once! Jesus wants consecrated pens and in His name I
   claim your service!

   The writing of tracts and the dissemination of holy Truth by means of
   the press are most important--any person who has any gifts in that
   direction should be sure to use them. Why are writers upon religion
   often so dull, while the world commands talent and vivacity? Many
   thousands of pens are running every day upon the most idle nonsense and
   mailing booksellers' shelves groan with the literature of fiction! Are
   there none who, with splendor of diction or in humbler guise, could
   write interestingly of the Gospel and tell of its power among the sons
   of men? If there is, in the tribe of Zebulon, any that handle the pen
   of the ready writer, let them not keep back from the help of the
   Lord--the help of the Lord against the mighty!

   Another form of gift that belongs to us is influence. We have all of us
   influence of some sort--some more, some less. What an influence the
   parent has! To a great extent you mold your children's lives. Some of
   us owe what we never can repay to our mothers. What they have done for
   us shall make us grateful to them even when they shall slumber in the
   dust. The nurse girl who has the care of little children should be very
   careful, for a remark she may make without intention may shape the
   character--yes, mar or bless the child's character throughout eternity!
   And you who associate daily with working men--is there enough among
   Christian masters of earnest zeal to use a holy and affectionate
   influence among the employed?

   If classes are alienated, one from the other, as it is to be feared
   they are, is it not because we meet each other just as a matter of
   business and that there is little of anything like Christian affection
   and communion between the one and the other? Indeed some laugh off the
   idea as ridiculous and tell me I know very little of the world to dream
   of such a thing! I will leave that question to the day which shall
   reveal all things, and I think I know who will prove to be right. Let
   every one of us reckon up what influence he has, and having done so,
   let us ask God's Grace that we may use it aright. I shall not go into
   details here. You are all affecting those round about you for good or
   evil. As Christian men you are either leading others to Christ even
   unconsciously, or else you are deadening their consciences and leading
   them to think there is not much in religion after all--and surely you
   would not wish to do that! If you have the gift of influence, I would
   stir you up to use it.

   Many of the elder members of the Church have another gift, namely,
   experience. Certainly, experience cannot be purchased nor taught. It is
   given us of the Lord who teaches us to profit. It is a peculiar
   treasure each man wins for himself as he is led through the wilderness.
   An experienced Christian is put in the Church on purpose that he may
   guide the inexperienced--that he may help those who are distressed with
   a word of comfort derived from his own experience of God's helping hand
   in time of trouble--that he may warn the heedless by the mischiefs he
   himself has suffered through carelessness. Now, when an experienced
   Christian merely uses his experience for his own comfort, or as a
   standard by which to judge his fellow Christians, or makes use of it
   for self-exaltation as though he were infinitely superior to the most
   zealous young men--such a man mars his talent, does mischief with
   it--and makes himself heavily responsible.

   Dear Brothers and Sisters, I, who am so young in years compared with
   many of you, beseech you who have long walked in the ways of godliness
   to use your experience continually in your visitation of the sick, in
   your conversations with the poor, in your meetings with young beginners
   and in your dealings with backsliders! Let your paths drop fatness! Let
   the anointing God has given you fall upon those who are round about
   you! May you be of such a sort as a certain clergyman I heard of the
   other day. I asked a poor woman "What sort of man is he?" She said, "He
   is such a sort of man, Sir, that if he comes to see you, you know he
   has been there." I understood what she meant--he left behind him some
   godly saying, weighty advice, holy consolation, or devout reflection
   which she could remember after he had left her cottage door. May our
   venerable friends always have this said of them!

   Another gift which many have is the gift of prayer--of prayer with
   power--in private for the Church and with sinners. There are some who
   have learned by long practice how to knock at Heaven's door so as to
   get a readier opening of the door than others. Numbers of these have
   coupled with this the gift of utterance in public prayer. Such dear
   friends ought not to be absent from the Prayer Meeting except when
   absolutely necessary. They should not only be content with

   coming to Prayer Meetings that are established, but they should stir up
   the gift that is in them and try to establish others in neglected
   places. There was never a period when the Church had too much prayer.
   "The Sacraments," as they are called, may have been unduly exalted but
   who has ever unduly exalted prayer? Bible-readings may degenerate into
   mere discussion, and even preaching into a show of oratory--but prayer
   has vital elements about it which survive many an injury.

   Alas! Alas for Churches that have given up Prayer Meetings! You shall
   judge of the Presence of God by the Prayer Meeting as accurately as you
   shall judge the temperature of the air by the thermometer. It is one of
   the truest signs that God is with the people when they pray--and it is
   one of the darkest signs that He has departed when prayer is lacking.
   You who have sweet communion with God in private, look upon your
   prevalence on the knee not only as a blessing for yourselves, but as a
   gift that is bestowed upon you for the good of others. There is another
   gift which is a very admirable one. It is the gift of conversation, not
   a readiness for chit chat and gossip--(he who has that wretched
   propensity may bury it in the earth and never dig it up again)--but the
   gift of leading conversation, of being what George Herbert called the
   "master-gunner."

   When we have that, we should most conscientiously use it for God. There
   lived, some 50 years or so ago, a set of great table-talkers who were
   asked out to dine because of their lively conversational powers. Now if
   this is in any of you, never waste it in mere pleasantries, but say
   something worth saying and aim at the highest results. Remember Jesus
   was a mighty table-talker, as the Evangelists take care to note. I wish
   I could, with discreet adroitness, break in upon a conversation in a
   railway carriage and turn it round to the Savior--turn it round to
   something worth speaking of. I often envy those of my Brethren who can
   go up to individuals and talk to them with freedom. I do not always
   find myself able to do so, though when I have been Divinely aided I
   have had a large reward.

   When a Christian man can get hold of a man and talk to him, it is like
   one of the old men of war laying alongside a French ship and giving her
   a broadside, making every timber shiver and at last sending her to the
   bottom. How many a soul has been brought to Christ by the loving
   personal exhortations of Christian people who know how to do it? To be
   able, like Elijah, to stretch yourselves upon the dead child--to put
   your hands upon his hands, your feet upon his feet and breathe the life
   by God's help into the dead--oh, some of you can do this better,
   perhaps, than those who are called to speak to hundreds and thousands!
   Do use it if you have the ability, and try to get the ability if you
   have it not.

   Perhaps you possess it and have not found it out. No unconverted person
   should come to this place without your speaking to him. And as to a
   person attending the Tabernacle three Sundays without being spoken to
   by some Christian, it ought to be an impossibility and would be if all
   were in a right warm-hearted state, earnestly desiring the salvation of
   others! May God teach us, if we can converse personally with
   individuals, to furbish up the gift, keep it in good condition and
   continually use it. My inventory of the gifts which are in us is not
   complete, nor is it intended to be. Each person may have a separate
   gift. Even the gift to be able to lie still and suffer is not a small
   one. The gift of being able to be poor and content is not to be
   despised. The gift of nursing the sick or of interesting children
   should be lovingly employed. Neither ought any talent to be wrapped in
   a napkin. But, whatever it is, the word is, "Stir up the gift which is
   in you."

   II. And this brings us, secondly, to the consideration of HOW WE ARE TO
   STIR UP OUR GIFTS. First, we should do it by examination to see what
   gifts we really have. There should be an overhauling of all our stores
   to see what we have of capital entrusted to our stewardship. May I ask
   you for a minute to sit quietly and take stock of all God has given
   you? Remember you shall assess yourself, for I am sure your manhood,
   not to say your self-esteem, will not let you put yourself down as
   utterly without gifts.

   If somebody were to speak of you depreciatingly, you would very soon
   defend yourself and argue for your own capacity in many departments. I
   would put you on your mettle and bring you to acknowledge your
   capabilities. Now think of all the abilities you have, dear Brother,
   dear Sister. What has God trusted you with? Add up each item and
   compute the total sum. What trading-money have you of your Lord's? To
   whom much is given, of him much will be required. What, then, has been
   given to you? Such an enquiry will help you to stir up the gift that is
   in you. The self-examination of every mental faculty, every spiritual
   attainment, every form of characteristic force or individual influence
   will be an excellent commencement for a more vigorous course of action.

   Enquire what you can do, what more you could do, what more you might
   learn to do, what more you ought at least to attempt. Diminish nothing
   from the just amount of your possibilities and it will greatly tend to
   stir you up, if you then

   enquire, "How far have I done what I could do? How far have I used all
   that has been committed to me? How much of my life has been allowed to
   rust and how much has been made bright by wear and tear in the service
   of my Master?" It is not a pleasant duty to which I have invited you.
   You would be much more gratified if I asked you to consider some
   precious promise of the Covenant and certainly I should find it more
   consolatory to myself, but this is necessary. Sweet things are
   pleasant, but sharp things are often the more beneficial. Pillows for
   our heads are not our main desire--we wish, as soldiers of the
   Cross--to be found faithful, first of all and above all! We shall have
   to give an account before God. Oh, let us give an account before
   ourselves, now, in the forum of our own conscience and so stir up the
   gift that is in us!

   The next mode of stirring up our gift is to consider to what use we
   could put the talents we possess. To what use could I put my talents in
   my family? Am I doing all I could for the children? Have I labored all
   I ought for my wife's conversion--my husband's conversion? Then about
   the neighborhood--is there nothing more that I could do for the
   salvation of my poor godless neighbors? Perhaps I see them drunk,
   profane, unchaste, irreligious, full of all manner of disobedience to
   God--can I not, by God's Grace, uplift them? They never come to a place
   of worship--have I done all I could to get them there? I was not placed
   in that neighborhood without an object. If it is a dark part of London,
   I am put there to be a lamp if I am a Christian. Am I shining, then?

   Some people prefer to live where there is light and for themselves the
   choice is wise, but I think, for usefulness, loving hearts might prefer
   to live in bad districts that they might do good. Are you doing all you
   can for Jesus? Come, answer like an honest man! Having done so, I have
   more for your self-inspection. Will you examine yourself in every
   relation in which you stand? As a master, stir up your gift in
   reference to those you employ. As a servant, stir up the gift towards
   your fellow servants. As a trader, stir up your gift in reference to
   those with whom you come in contact. Are you a sailor? Have you stepped
   in here tonight? What an opportunity you have, my Friend, in landing on
   many shores and doing something for Christ here, and there and
   everywhere!

   Are you a commercial traveler and do you go to many places? Surely you
   might travel for our Lord with Gospel wares to be distributed without
   money and without price and yet attend to your own calling, none the
   less. If our Churches were in a right state of spiritual health, men
   would not first say, "What can I do to make money?" but, "What can I do
   to serve Christ, for I will take up a trade subserviently to that." But
   if we cannot bring men to that point, we must at least say, (to all of
   you who profess to be Christians, at any rate), in whatever condition
   you are placed, high or low, rich or poor, you should live unto Christ!
   You should each enquire, "What can I do for the Lord in my present
   condition? What peculiar service does my position involve?" In this
   way, dear Friends, stir up the gift that is in you.

   But, next, stir it up not merely by consideration and examination, but
   by actually using it. We talk much of working, but working is better
   than talking about working. To get really at it and to do something for
   soul-winning and spreading abroad the Glory of God is infinitely better
   than planning and holding committees. Away with windbags! Let us get to
   acts and deeds. None of us know what we can do till we try. The
   sportsman will tell you that there may be many birds in a field, but
   you know not how many till you walk through and then you discover them
   and see them on the wing. When the wheel turns you will be able to see
   the force of the current. You will see the speed of the horse when you
   put him to his best. Work, work and the tool that is blunt will get an
   edge by being used! Shine, and the light you have shall grow in the
   very act of shining!

   He who has done one thing will find himself capable of doing two, and
   doing two will be able to accomplish four-- and having achieved the
   four will soon go on to 12 and from 12 to fifty! And so, by growing
   multiples he will enlarge his power to serve God by using the ability
   he has. Does this tire you? Does my subject seem too much like
   salvation by works? Nothing is further from my thoughts! I am not, now,
   speaking upon salvation at all! Neither am I addressing those who are
   seeking after salvation. I am speaking to you who have been saved
   already by the Grace of God! You are saved, and on that point all is
   done. You are resting in the finished work of Christ. Should it ever
   seem hard to you to be stirred up to serve Him? Let the vision of His
   tearful face come up to you.

   Behold His crown of thorns! Let Him turn His back to you, and count the
   gashes the Roman scourges made! Look at Him--a spectacle of blood and
   love! And is it possible that any service for Him can, by you, be
   considered difficult? To burn at a stake! If we could do it a thousand
   times, He well deserves that we should make the sacrifice! To give Him
   every pulse and every drop of blood and every breath we breathe--He
   well deserves it, glory be to His name! He merits all our

   love a thousand times over. I shall not fear to press upon you again
   and again and again that you use the gifts which are in you by actual
   service of so precious a Master.

   And then, dear Friends, in addition to using our gift, every one of us
   should try to improve it. We have for years endeavored to stir up the
   young Christians of this congregation to educate themselves. By our
   evening classes it is intended that young men who preach in the street
   may get education in order to better preach the Gospel of Christ. And
   out of this congregation have gone hundreds whom God has owned as
   ministers of Christ and many such are being trained now. I would have
   every man put himself in training. I think every man ought to feel, "I
   have been Christ's man with a talent; I will be Christ's man with 10 if
   I can. If now I do not thoroughly understand the doctrines of His
   Gospel, I will try to understand them. I will read and search, and
   learn."

   We need an intelligent race of Christians, not an affected race of
   boasters of culture--mental fops who pretend to know a great deal and
   know nothing--but we need hard students of the Word, adept in theology
   like the Puritans of old. Romanism will never do much with people who
   know the doctrines of the Word of God--it is a bat and hates sunlight.
   Every one of us ought to be students and learners, trying to get more
   ability for usefulness as well as to be built up ourselves in our most
   holy faith. To the younger members of our Churches, especially, we
   speak this. Give yourselves to reading, study and prayer. Grow mentally
   and spiritually. You teach in the class--you do well--but could not you
   do better if you knew more? And if you address children in the Sunday
   schools we are glad of it--but would you not do that better if you
   studied more perfectly the Truth of God?

   Apollos was not ashamed to be taught, nor need the most successful
   laborer be ashamed to learn! Improve your gift, for that is one way of
   stirring it up. And then pray over your gifts--that is a blessed way of
   stirring them up--to go before God and spread out your responsibilities
   before Him. In my own case I have often to cry, "Lord, You have given
   me this Congregation, and O it is hard to be clear of the blood of them
   all, and to speak with affection and prudence, and courage to all so as
   not to leave one unwarned, unhelped, untaught. Help me, my Lord, that I
   may leave no one without his portion of meat in due season. Who is
   sufficient for these things? Only Your Grace is sufficient for me."

   It stirs one up to preach with all his might when he has laid before
   God in prayer his weakness. And the ability which God has given him,
   too, and asked that the weakness may be consecrated to God's Glory and
   the ability accepted to the Lord's praise. Should we not do just the
   same, whatever our calling is--take it to the Lord and say, "Assist me,
   great God, to live to You. If Your Grace in me is only as a handful of
   meal and a little oil, make it hold out--make it hold out! It is not
   much I can do, my Master. Help me to do it well and to continue
   steadfast and unwearied in it"? Pray over yourself, as it were.

   Put your whole self upon the altar and then let the drink-offering be
   the pouring out of your tears before God in prayer that He would be
   pleased to accept you, to qualify you, to anoint you, to direct you and
   bless you in all that you do. This would be the most excellent manner
   of stirring up the gift that is in you. O Spirit of the living God,
   lead all Your people to downright, earnest and actual service of the
   Redeemer, and especially work in us to that end!

   III. I will not linger longer there, but close with the third
   observation--WHY IS IT THAT WE SHOULD STIR UP THE GIFT THAT IS IN US?
   There are many replies to this. One or two will answer our purpose. We
   should stir up the gift that is in us because all we shall do, when we
   have stirred ourselves to the utmost and when the Spirit of God has
   strengthened us to the highest degree, will still fall far short of
   what our dear Lord and Master deserves at our hands! Ah, what must
   Jesus think of us when He remembers His own love? Was there ever such a
   contrast between His furnace seven times hotter and our iceberg
   spirits?

   He spared not Himself but we are always sparing ourselves. He gives us
   everything to the last rag and hangs naked on the Cross. We keep almost
   all to ourselves and count self-sacrifice to be difficult. He labors,
   is weary and yet ceases not. We are a little weary and straightway we
   faint. He continued to preach on, notwithstanding all the ill return
   men made. We take offense and throw up our work because we are not
   appreciated as we should be. Oh, the little things which put some
   workers out of temper and out of heart! Oh, the looks or the not-looks!
   The words, or the silence that will make some spirits give up any place
   and any service and any work!

   "Forbearing one another" seems to have gone out of fashion with many
   people. "Forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake has
   forgiven you," is forgotten. Brothers and Sisters, if being doormats
   for Christ for all the Church to wipe their feet upon would honor Him,
   we ought to think it a great glory to be so used! Among genuine
   Christians the

   contention is for the lowest place--among sham Christians the
   controversy is for the higher positions. Some will ask the question
   now-a-days--"Which is the higher office--that of elder or deacon," and
   so on. Oh, what triviality!

   When the Master was going up to Jerusalem to die, there was a
   contention among the disciples which of them should be the
   greatest--and so it is with us. At times when Grace is low, our opinion
   of ourselves is very high, and then our love to Christ is so little
   that we soon take affront and are quick to resent any little insults,
   as we think them to be, where perhaps nothing of the kind was meant.
   Beloved, may we be saved from all this littleness of soul! And remember
   what obligations we are under to our Master--how we should have been
   dead in trespasses and sins but for Him--how we should have been in
   Hell but for Him--how our expectations tonight would have been "a
   fearful looking for of judgment and of fiery indignation" but for Him.
   But we are washed and cleansed and on the way to Heaven--and we owe it
   all to Him. Therefore let us stir up the gift that is in us and serve
   Him with all our might.

   Another reason is that these are stirring times. If we are not
   stirring, everybody else is. The Church of God, it seems to me, is
   traveling along the road to Heaven in a broad-wheel wagon and all the
   world is going its own way by express speed. If men become at all
   earnest in the cause of God, worldly critics shout out, "Fanaticism!
   Excitement!" Did you ever stand on the Paris Bourse--ever hear the
   raving, raging excitement of those stock-jobbers as they are trying to
   buy various forms of scrip! Nobody says, "Look at these men! See how
   fanatical they are!" No, they expect to see excitement on the Bourse.
   But if we were half as excited for God and His Gospel, there would be a
   hue and cry all over the country, "Here's a set of madmen! Here's a set
   of fanatics let loose."

   Of good Mr. Rowland Hill they said, "The dear old gentleman's too
   earnest." "Why," said he, "When I was at Wotton-Under-Edge I saw a
   piece of a gravel pit fall in upon two or three men when I was walking
   by, so I went into Wotton as fast as my aged legs could carry me and I
   shouted with all my might, 'Help! Help! Help!' and nobody said, 'the
   dear old man's too earnest.'" Oh, no, you may be as earnest as you like
   about saving people's lives, but if their souls awaken your sympathy,
   some lukewarm professor or other is sure to be ready with a wet blanket
   to cool your ardor. And yet were there ever times in which the wheels
   of life revolved so swiftly as now? The world marches with giant
   strides! Everybody is up and awake, but the Church is asleep to a great
   extent.

   For other things men labor, and tug, and toil and make sacrifices--for
   an idea they slaughter their fellow creatures! For the unity of a race
   they fatten fields with blood and make rivers run with gore. But to
   preach Christ and snatch sinners from the jaws of Hell they require of
   us to be chilled--and insist that we must not be too earnest--we must
   not go too fast. We must be prudent! We must be cool! From "prudence"
   and "coolness" good Lord, deliver us! From "decorum" and "propriety,"
   (wherein they stand in the way of our winning souls), good Lord deliver
   us! And from every conventionality and every idol that has been set up
   among us which prevents our being thoroughly useful and grandly
   serviceable to the cause of God, good Lord deliver us! Because these
   are stirring times, we ought to stir up the gift that is in us.

   And then, again, we must stir up our gift because it needs stirring.
   The gifts and Graces of Christian men are like a coal fire which
   frequently requires stirring as well as feeding with fuel. You must not
   stir it up too much--the poker does not give heat, and stirring up a
   man of itself does not make him better--indeed, it is as injurious to a
   weak man to stir him up as it would be to an expiring fire in the
   grate. But yet there must be stirring and fires go out sometimes for
   the lack of it. There are times with us when we become dull and heavy,
   doing little or nothing--restless, indifferent-- and then it is that we
   require rebuking. If there is a solid bottom of real Grace in us, we
   only need the poker that we be stirred up and straightway the fire
   begins to burn.

   How I like to stir up some of you! I remember a dear Brother dropping
   in one Thursday night to hear the Word preached--an excellent
   Christian, but sluggish--but the Lord touched his heart with the spoken
   Word and he began to preach in the streets of the city where he
   resides! He has now one of the largest houses of prayer and God has
   given him hundreds of souls! He only needed stirring up! Is there no
   other Brother here, who, hearing this earnest word shall find it like a
   live coal from off the altar, touching his lips and moving him to go
   forth and preach the Word and serve his Master according to his
   ability? We must, then, dear Friends, stir ourselves up because if we
   do not, we may lose the faculty and rob ourselves of the power of
   usefulness! The knife which is not used loses its edge and the man who
   does not work for God loses much of his ability to do so in the future.

   I shall give you another reason, and that is this. If we will but stir
   ourselves, Beloved, or rather, if God's Holy Spirit will but stir us,
   we, as a Church may expect very great things! I can hardly tell you how
   comforted I felt last Monday evening. I said on Sunday, "The Elders and
   Deacons will meet to pray, and those of you who love souls and are
   concerned about them will kindly come, too, at six o'clock." I was glad
   to see many of you who I know love the Lord fervently, and through that
   warm Prayer Meeting which we had before our more public gathering, we
   felt that we had laid hold upon our God. I know there is a blessing
   coming! I am sure of it! I hear "a sound of a going in the tops of the
   mulberry trees." The Lord is with us! He never made His people agonize
   in secret and join together publicly in deep soul earnestness without
   intending to bless them!

   We might as well fear, when the months are warm, that there will be no
   ripening of the wheat as to say when Christian's hearts are warm
   towards God that there will be no conversions. It can't be! Enquiring
   saints always make enquiring sinners. If we enquire of God for sinners,
   sinners will soon enquire for themselves. Up, therefore! Up, therefore,
   Beloved! Stir yourselves, for God is stirring us! And remember, there
   will be a great stir by-and-bye. Business will all end, politics will
   be done with and all the matters in which you are concerned will be
   eternally closed. What a stir there will be in that day! Fallen we
   shall stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ to give an account of
   the deeds done in the body!

   What a stir about ourselves! What a stir about others! Where will they
   be? Will they be on the right hand, or on the left? Shall I see my boys
   in Heaven, or will they be cast out? What a stir there will be about
   your husband or your wife! What a stir there will be about your
   neighbors! Think of it! Think of it, I say, and be stirred now! If they
   die as they are, they will be damned--they must be. They must sink into
   Hell! There is no hope of their escape if they die unsaved.

   What a stir there will be throughout all the nations in that day! And,
   surely, if we look at it in the light of eternity--in the light of that
   tremendous day when Christ, with clouds, shall come--we shall feel that
   there is nothing worth living for but serving God! We shall surely feel
   that the very core and center of all life is to bring glory to God by
   bringing sinners to Jesus Christ! God grant you may live as if you
   expected to die! We ought always to preach as though we should go out
   of the pulpit into Heaven and we should always to pray in that way. And
   we should always spend every day as if we had not another day to spend.
   For this we need much of the Holy Spirit's power.

   And He rests upon His people! May He come and rest upon us, now, for
   Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

A Visit to the Tomb

   (No. 1081)

   DELIVERED

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "He is not here: for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where
   the Lord lay." Matthew 28:6.

   THE holy women, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, came to the
   sepulcher hoping to find there the body of their Lord which they
   intended to embalm. Their intention was good and their will was
   accepted before God, but, for all that, their desire was not gratified
   for the simple reason that it was contrary to God's design. It was at
   variance with even what Christ had foretold and plainly declared to
   them. "He is not here: for He is risen, as He said."

   I gather from this that there may be good desires in our hearts as
   Believers and we may earnestly try to carry them out, yet we may never
   succeed in them because through our ignorance we have not understood,
   or through our obliviousness we have happened to forget some Word of
   Christ that stands in our way. I have known this to be the case in
   prayer. We have prayed and we have not received because we had no
   warrant in the Word of God to ask for the thing we

   did.

   Perhaps there was some prohibition in the Scriptures which ought to
   have restrained us from offering the prayer. We have thought in our
   daily life, amidst the pursuits of business, that if we could gain
   such-and-such a position, then we should honor God--and though we have
   sought it vigorously and prayed about it earnestly, we have never
   gained it. God had never intended that we should and, had we succeeded
   in compassing our own project, it might have been evil rather than
   advantageous--an entail of trouble instead of a heritage of joy. We
   were seeking great things for ourselves! We forgot that expostulation
   of the Lord, "Do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not." Do
   not, therefore, expect to realize all those desires which seem to you
   to be pure and proper. They may not happen to run in the right channel.
   It may be that there is a Word from the Lord that forbids your ever
   seeing them brought to pass.

   These good women found that they had lost the Presence of Him who had
   been their greatest delight. "He is not here," must have sounded like a
   funeral knell to them. They expected to find Him but He was gone. But
   then the grief must have been taken out of their hearts when it was
   added, "He is risen." I gather from this that if God takes away from me
   any one good thing, He will be sure to justify Himself in having done
   so and that very frequently He will magnify His Grace by giving me
   something infinitely better.

   Did Mary think it would be a good thing to find the dead body of her
   Lord? Perhaps it would have given her a kind of melancholy
   satisfaction--or so she thought according to her poor judgment. The
   Lord took that good thing away. But then Christ was risen and now to
   hear of Him, then presently to see Him--was not that an infinitely
   better thing? Have you lost anything of late around which your heart
   had intertwisted all its tendrils? You shall find that there is good
   cause for the loss! The Lord never takes away a silver blessing without
   intending to confer on us a golden gain! Depend upon it--for wood He
   will give iron and for iron He will give brass--and for brass He will
   give silver and for silver He will give gold!

   All His taking is but preliminary to a larger giving. Have you lost
   your child? What if you find your Lord more dear than ever? One smile
   of your Lord will be better to you than all the cheerful frolics of
   your child. Is He not better to you than 10 sons? Have you lost the
   familiar companion who once cheered you along the valley of life? You
   shall now, by that loss, be driven closer to your Savior! His promises
   shall be more sweet to you and the Blessed Spirit shall reveal His
   Truth more clearly to you. You shall be a gainer by your loss.

   There is many a plant that has been protected by a great tree whose
   spreading branches covered it from the drenching rain and the downfall
   of hail. But the tree has been cut down by the cruel woodman's axe. At
   the fall of that tree the little plant has been ready to cry out for
   fear. Henceforth it will remain unprotected. Not so--these sad bodings
   quickly vanish--for now the sun has come upon it as it never came
   before and the dews have fallen more plenteously, and

   the rain has penetrated to its roots! And the little tender plant
   springs up to a stature it could never otherwise have known, seeing it
   was dwarfed by the comfort it enjoyed.

   You shall find that full many of the comforts taken from you were
   drawbacks to your high culture and in the absence of them you shall get
   an abundant compensation, a tenfold blessing. "He is not here"--that is
   sorrowful. But, "He is risen"--this is gladsome! Christ, the dead One,
   you cannot see. You cannot tenderly embalm that blessed body. But
   Christ, the living One, you shall see! And at His feet you shall be
   able to prostrate yourself! And from His lips you shall hear the
   gladsome words, "Go, tell My Brethren that I am risen from the dead"!
   That lesson may be worth your remembering! If God applies it to your
   soul it may yield you rich comfort.

   Should the Lord take away one joy from you, He will give you another
   and a better one. "He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the
   children of men." You never deny your children any pure gratification,
   I am sure, without intending their real good. How many of you have a
   way, when you put your child into a little self-denial, of making it up
   to him again so that he is no loser by it? And your heavenly Father
   will deal quite as gently and tenderly with you, His children.

   With these two preliminary remarks, we proceed to our text itself. And
   it may be well to say that some of us have been, this afternoon, to the
   funeral of a dear friend and deacon of this Church--and as such, the
   thoughts that stir in our breasts and the words that will flow from our
   lips this evening would be more appropriate if the open grave were
   before us. Let us stand there in imagination and conceive, if you will,
   even yonder bell--though it often hinders our devotions so that I
   wonder why any Christian people need annoy other Christian people with
   it--to be a funeral knell for us.

   Let it help to bear us on the wings of sound to the grave so that we
   may the better realize the position in which these meditations will be
   congruous to the occasion. The text contains, first of all, an
   assurance! And secondly, an invitation. First, an assurance--"He is not
   here, for He is risen." Secondly, an invitation--"Come, see the place
   where the Lord

   lay."

   I. The assurance--"He is not here, for He is risen." Jesus Christ has
   really RISEN FROM THE DEAD. Though superficial scholars have tried to
   prove that this well-attested fact is but a fabulous myth, there is not
   one doctrine of Holy Writ which has not been, in like manner, spirited
   away. At first they denied out and out that such things ever happened
   and said that they were a pure invention. But afterwards, when abundant
   evidence was brought to prove a resurrection, this gross incredulity
   gave place to a more refined skepticism.

   Yet beyond a doubt it can be shown that there is as much evidence for
   the resurrection of Christ as for any fact in history. There is
   probably no fact in history which is so fully proven and corroborated
   as the fact that Jesus of Nazareth, who was nailed to the Cross and
   died and was buried, did rise again! As we believe the histories of
   Julius Caesar--as we accept the statements of Tacitus--we are bound on
   the same grounds, even as historical documents, to accept the testimony
   of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John--and of those persons who were
   eye-witnesses of His death and who saw Him after He had risen from the
   dead.

   That Jesus Christ rose from the dead is not an allegory and a symbol
   but a reality! There He lay dead--friend or foe to witness--a corpse
   fit to be committed to the grave. Handle Him and see. It is the very
   Christ you knew in life. It is the very same! Look into those eyes.
   Were there ever such eyes in any other human form? Behold Him! You can
   see the impress of sorrow on His face. Was there ever any visage so
   marred as His, any sorrow so real in its effects? That is the Emperor
   of Misery, the Prince of all mourners, the King of Sorrow! There He
   lies, unmistakably the same.

   Now, mark the nail prints. There went the iron through those blessed
   hands and there His feet were pierced. And there is the gash that found
   out the pericardium and divided the heart--and brought forth the
   marvelous blood and water from His side! It is He, the same Christ! And
   the holy women lifted limb by limb and wrapped Him in linen and put the
   spices about Him, such as they had brought in their haste. And they lay
   Him down in that place--in that new tomb.

   Now, let it be known and understood that our faith is that those very
   limbs that lay stiff and cold in death became warm with life
   again--that the very body with its bones and blood and flesh which lay
   there became again instinct with life and came forth into a glorious
   existence! Those hands broke the piece of honeycomb and the fish in the
   presence of the disciples--and those lips partook of the same. And He
   held out those wounds and said, "Reach here your finger and put it into
   the print of the nails." And He bared His side, the same side, and
   said, "Reach here your hand, and thrust it into My side and be not
   faithless, but believing."

   He was no phantom, no spectra! As He Himself said, "A spirit has not
   flesh and bones as you see I have." He was a real Man as much after the
   resurrection as He had been before! And He is real Man in Glory now
   even as He was when here below. He has gone up--the cloud has received
   Him out of our sight. The same Christ who asked Peter, "Do you love
   Me?"--the same Jesus who said to all His disciples, "Come and dine"--a
   real Man has really risen from a real death into a real life!

   Now we always need to have that doctrine stated to us plainly, for
   though we believe it, we do not always realize it and even if we have
   realized it, it is good to hear it again so as to let our minds be
   confirmed about it. The Resurrection is as literal a fact as any other
   fact stated in history and is so to be believed among us. "He is not
   here: for He has risen." Pursue the narrative, Beloved, and you will
   see that when our Lord Jesus Christ had risen on that occasion, being
   quickened from the slumbers of death, it was not only true that He had
   really risen from the sepulcher, but He had risen in order to His being
   further raised up in His ascension into the Glory which He now
   possesses at the right hand of the Father.

   When He had burst the iron bonds of the grave, the disciples had this
   for their consolation--that He was now beyond the reach of His enemies.
   During the few days that our Lord lingered, none of His enemies
   attempted to do Him hurt. Against Him not a dog dare move his tongue.
   We can scarcely tell why, but so it was. There seemed to be a
   remarkable acquiescence in the minds of all His foes during the time in
   which He sojourned among His people below. He was beyond the reach of
   His enemies. They could hurt Him no more. And it is so now!

   He is not here, in another sense, and He is now beyond the reach of all
   His malignant adversaries. Does not this cheer you? It does me. No
   Judas can betray the Master now to be seized by Roman guards. No Pilate
   can now take Him and bribe justice and give Him over to be crucified
   though he knows Him to be innocent. No Herod can now mock Him with his
   men of war. No soldiers can now spit in His dear face. Now none can
   buffet Him, or blindfold Him and say to Him, "Prophesy who it is that
   struck You."

   The head, the dear majestic head of Jesus can never be crowned with
   thorns again and the busy feet that ran on errands of mercy can never
   be pierced by the nails any more! Men shall no longer strip Him naked
   and stand and exult over His agonies. He is gone beyond their reach.
   Now they may rail and seek to spite Him through His people who are the
   members of His body. Now they may rage, but God has set Him at His own
   right hand and He is inaccessible to their malice! It comforts me, just
   as I think it would comfort the soldier in the day of battle when he
   saw the fight going very hard, to feel that the commander whom he loved
   was out of bullets' range.

   "There," he would say, "You may strike us as you will. The bullets may
   rain red death through our ranks but our commander-in-chief, upon whom
   all the conflict hangs, is safe." Oh, blessed are those words and
   blessed was the pen that wrote them--and blessed was the Spirit who
   dictated them--"Wherefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him
   a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee
   should bow, of things in Heaven, and things in earth, and things under
   the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus is Lord to
   the glory of God the

   Father"!

   It matters not, dear Brothers and Sisters, what becomes of us poor
   common soldiers. We feel as if our being slandered, our being
   disgraced, our being persecuted, our being put to death would not
   matter the turn of a straw in view of the momentous issues, so long as
   our beloved Master that once was crowned with thorns is crowned now
   with glory! And so long as He who stood at Pilate's bar to be condemned
   now sits on His Father's Throne, waiting till He shall come to judge
   the princes and kings of the earth, it matters not what we suffer for
   Him! With regard to our Lord's not being here, but having risen, it
   should console us to think that He is now beyond all pain as well as
   beyond all personal attack.

   I comforted myself in thus reflecting of our friend who is lately
   deceased. He was struck, as many of you know, with sudden paralysis and
   he had lain so some six weeks. If it had pleased God, he might have
   lain six years or 16 years and it would have been a very painful thing
   to see him with life still in the body but with a mind sorely darkened.
   We are thankful--I feel personally grateful to God--that our friend has
   fallen asleep--that he has escaped from the miseries of this present
   evil life.

   But how much more grateful ought we to be concerning our dear Lord,
   whom our soul loves! Oh, can you bear to think of Him, that He had not
   where to lay His head? Who among us would not have left his couch to
   give Him a night's

   rest? Yes, and have forsworn the bed forever if we might have given Him
   soft repose. Would we not, ourselves, have fallen to the hillside and
   been there all night till our head was wet with dew, if we might have
   gained rest for Him? He is worth 10,000 of us--and did it not seem as
   if it were too much for Him to have to suffer--to be homeless and
   houseless? He was hungry, Brothers and Sisters! He was thirsty! He was
   weary! He was faint!

   He suffered our sicknesses--we are told that He took them upon Himself.
   Often had He heartache. He knew what "cold mountains and the midnight
   air" were to chill the body. And He knew what the bleak atmosphere and
   bitter privation were to freeze the soul. He passed through innumerable
   griefs and woes. From the first blood-shedding at His birth, down to
   the last blood-shedding at His death, it seemed as if sorrow had marked
   Him as her peculiar child. Always was He troubled, tempted, vexed,
   assailed, assaulted, molested by Satan, by wicked men and by the evils
   that are without!

   Now there is no more of that for Him--and we are glad that He is not
   here for that reason. He is no child of poverty now! There is no
   carpenter's shop for Him now! No longer for Him is the smock frock of
   the peasant, woven from the top throughout. No longer the mountainside
   and heather for His resting place. No more jeering crowds around Him,
   now! No stones to stone Him, now! No sitting on the well, weary and
   saying, "Give Me a drink." There is no longer a need that He should be
   supplied with food when He is hungry.

   No more, Brothers and Sisters, scourging and flagellations. No more
   will He give "His back to the smiters and His cheeks to them that
   plucked off the hair." No piercing His hands and His feet, now! No
   burning thirst upon the bloody tree--no cry of, "Eloi, Eloi, lame
   Sabacthani." God's waves and billows went over Him once, but no more
   can they assail Him! He was brought into the dust of death and His Soul
   was once exceedingly sorrowful--He is beyond all that. The sea is
   passed and He has come to the Fair Havens where no storms can beat upon
   Him. He has reached His joy! He has entered into His rest and He has
   received His reward!

   Brothers and Sisters, let us be glad about this! Let us enter into the
   joy of our Lord! Let us be glad because He is glad--happy because He is
   happy! Oh that we might feel our hearts leaping within us though we,
   for a little while longer are on the field of battle, because He is
   clean gone from it and now is acknowledged and adored King of kings and
   Lord of lords! The fact that our Lord has risen has not only these
   consoling elements about it with reference to Him, but we must remember
   that it is the guarantee to every one of us who believe in Him, of our
   own resurrection!

   The Apostle, in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, makes the whole
   argument for the resurrection of the body hinge upon this one
   question--did Christ rise from the dead? If He did then all His people
   must rise with Him! He was a representative Man, and as the Lord our
   Savior rose, so all His followers must. Settle the question that Christ
   rose and you have settled the question that all who are in Him and
   conformed to His image must rise, too! As for ourselves, it is certain
   that we, as believers in Jesus, if we shall die and be put into the
   grave, will be fed upon by the worms--will go back to mother earth and
   mold.

   For my part, I would never wrap the body in lead or do it up in any way
   that would keep it from melting back speedily to the earth from which
   it came. It seems fittest and holiest to let it speedily mold back to
   its native dust. But here is the appointed issue--no matter what
   becomes of that dust and through what transitions it may pass--the
   roots of trees may drink it up in this form. It is true it may turn to
   grass and flowers to be fed upon by beasts! The winds may waft it
   thousands of miles away, atom from atom--bone may be scattered from its
   bone. But, as surely as the Savior rose, we shall rise, too!

   We say not that each actual particle of this flesh shall rise--it is
   not necessary for the identity of the body that it should be so--but
   still, the body shall be identical and the same body that is sown in
   the earth shall rise again from the earth in a beauty and a glory of
   which we know but little as yet--be assured of it! That body of the
   dear child of God to which you bade farewell some years ago shall rise
   again! Those eyes that you closed--those very eyes--shall see the King
   in His beauty in the land that is very far off. Those ears that could
   not hear you when you spoke the last tender word-- those ears shall
   hear the eternal melodies! That heart that grew stone cold and still
   when Death laid his cold hand upon the bosom shall beat again with
   newness of life and leap with joy amidst the festivities of the
   home-bringing, when Christ the Bridegroom shall be married to His
   Church, the bride!

   That same body!--Was it not the temple of the Holy Spirit? Was it not
   redeemed with blood? Surely it shall rise at the trumpet of the
   archangel and at the voice of God! Be you sure of this! Be you sure of
   it--sure for your friend and sure for yourself! And fear not death!
   What is it? The grave is but a bath wherein our body, like Esther,
   buries itself in spices

   to make it sweet and fresh for the embrace of the glorious King in
   immortality! It is but the wardrobe where we lay aside the garment for
   a while. It shall come forth cleansed and purified with many a golden
   spangle on it which was not there before. It was a work garment when we
   put it off--it will be a Sabbath robe when we put it on and it will be
   fit for Sabbath wear! We may even long for evening to undress, if there
   is to be such a waking and such a putting on of garments in the
   Presence of the King.

   Further--not to linger too long on any one thought--let us remember
   that our Lord's not being here, but having risen, has in it this
   consolatory thought that He has gone where He can best protect our
   interests. He is an Advocate for us. Where should the Advocate be but
   in the King's court? He is preparing a place for us. Where should He be
   who is preparing a place but there--making it ready? We have a very
   active adversary who is busy accusing us. Is it not well that we have
   One who can meet him face to face and put the accuser of the Brethren
   to silence?

   I think, if Christ were here at this very moment in proper Person, we
   should be inclined to say to Him, "Good Master, You can serve us well
   here. Your going about to heal the sick and teach the ignorant is very
   blessed. And we love to see You. The vision of Your face makes earth
   Heaven to us. But still, our great interests demand Your absence, for,
   good Lord, our prayers need someone to present them at the Throne. As
   one by one our prayers go up to Heaven, we would not have You here and
   send them away to a place where You are not. Besides, where the enemy
   goes to accuse, we need You there to defend--and since our best
   heritage is up above we need a Keeper who shall preserve it for us.
   Good Master, it is expedient that You go away."

   We have not to say that to Him, for He is gone and if ever the one
   Christ was of double value if ever the advantage of His position
   enhanced the value of His services--it is now that He is in Heaven. He
   would be precious here, but He is more precious there! He is doing more
   for us in Heaven than it could have been possible for Him to do for us
   here below, as far as our finite intelligence can judge and as truly as
   His infinite wisdom can pronounce. Meanwhile His absence is
   well-compensated by the Presence of His own Spirit. And His Presence
   there is well consecrated by His personal administration of sacred
   service for our sake.

   All is well in Heaven, for Jesus is there! The crown is safe and the
   harp is secure and the blessed heritage of each tribe of Israel all
   secure, for Christ is keeping it. He is, to the Glory of God, the
   Representative and Preserver of His saints. And does not this Truth of
   God, that Christ is not here, but is gone, fall upon our ears with a
   sweet force as it constrains us to feel that this is the reason why our
   heart should not be here? "He is not here." Then our heart should not
   be here! When this text, "He is not here," was first spoken, it meant
   that He was not in the grave. He was somewhere on earth. But now He is
   not here at all. Suppose you are very rich and Satan whispers to you,
   "These are delightful gardens. This is a noble mansion, take your
   ease"? Reply to him, "But He is not here. He is not here. He is risen,
   therefore I dare not put my heart where my Lord is not."

   Or, suppose your family makes you very happy and, as the little ones
   cluster around you and sit around the fireside, your heart is very
   glad--and though you have not much of this world's goods, yet you have
   enough--and you have a contented mind. Well, if Satan should say to
   you, "Be well content and make your rest here." Say to him, "No, He is
   not here and I cannot feel that this is to be my abiding place. Only
   where Jesus is can my spirit rest." And have you lately begun in life?
   Has the marriage day scarcely passed over? Are you just now beginning
   the merry days of youth, the sweet enchantment of this life's purest
   joy?

   Well, delight yourself, but still remember that He is not here and
   therefore you have no right to say, "Soul, take your ease!" Nowhere on
   earth is Christ and therefore nowhere on earth may our heart build her
   nest. Nowhere--no, not in the high places or in the quiet resting
   places! Not in the garden of nuts, or in the beds of spices. Not in the
   tents of Kedar or between Solomon's curtains. Not even at His
   sacramental table, nor yet among the means of Grace is Christ bodily,
   actually, present.

   So we will take the sweetness of all and the spiritual good there may
   be in all outward means--but still they shall all point us upward--they
   shall all draw us away. As the sun exhales the dew and attracts it
   upward towards Heaven, so shall Christ magnetize and draw our hearts
   away and our thoughts up--and our longings up and our whole spirits
   up-- towards Himself! "He is not here." Then why should I be here? Oh,
   get up, my Soul! Get up and let all your sweetest incense go towards
   Him who "is not here, for He is risen."

   II. I must leave that point and come, with a few words, to speak upon
   the second point which is AN INVITATION. "Come, see the place where the
   Lord lay." Not, Beloved, that I am going to take you to Joseph of
   Arimathea's tomb. About that I shall not speak much. But I think any
   tomb might suffice to point the same sacred moral. I felt this
   afternoon, while I stood by the open grave in Norwood Cemetery, as
   though I heard a voice saying, "Come, see the place where the Lord
   lay." It does not matter much to us about the precise spot. He lay in
   the grave--that is the prominent fact that preaches to us a pithy
   sermon.

   Any grave may well suit our purpose. In the little town of Campodolcino
   I once realized the tomb of Christ very vividly in an affair which had
   been built for Catholic pilgrims. I was upon the hillside and I saw
   written upon a wall, these words, "And there was a garden." It was
   written in Latin. I pushed open the door of this garden. It was like
   any other garden, but the moment I entered, there was a sign with the
   words, "And in the garden there was a new tomb." Then I saw a tomb
   which had been newly painted and when I came up to it I read on it, "A
   new tomb wherein never man

   lay."

   I then stooped down to look inside the tomb and I read in Latin the
   inscription, "Stooping down, he looked, yet went he not in." But there
   were the words written, "Come, see the place where the Lord lay." I
   went in and I saw there, engraved in stone, the napkin and the linen
   clothes laid by themselves. I was all alone and I read the words, "He
   is not here, for He is risen," engraved on the floor of the tomb.
   Though I dread anything scenic and histrionic and popish, yet certainly
   I realized very much the reality of the scene--as I have this afternoon
   in standing before the open tomb.

   I felt that Jesus Christ was really buried, really laid in the earth
   and has really gone out of it. And it is good for us to come and see
   the place where Jesus lay. Why should we see it? Well, first, that we
   may see how condescending He was that ever He should lay in the grave.
   He that made Heaven and earth lay in the grave! He who gave light to
   angels' eyes lay in the darkness three days! He slept in the darkness
   there. He, without whom was not anything made that was made, was given
   up to death and lay a Victim of death there! Oh, wonder of wonders!
   Marvel of marvels! He who had immortality and life within Himself,
   yields Himself up to the place of death!

   "Come, see the place where the Lord lay," in the next place, to see how
   we ought to weep over the sin that laid Him there. Did I make the
   Savior lie in the grave? Was it necessary that before my sin could be
   put away, my sweet Prince, whose beauties enchant all Heaven, must be
   chill and cold in death and actually be laid in the tomb? Must it be
   so? O you murderous sins! You murderous sins! You cruel and cursed
   sins! Did you slay my Savior? Did you tear apart that tender heart?
   Could you never be content until you had led Him to His death and laid
   Him there? Oh, come and weep as you see the place where the Lord lay!

   "Come, see the place where the Lord lay," that you may see where you
   will have to lie unless the Lord should come on a sudden. You may take
   the measure of that tomb, for that is where you will have to repose. It
   does us good to remember, if we have great estates, that six feet of
   earth is all that will ever be our permanent freehold. We shall have to
   come to it--that solitary mound with two spears' length of level
   ground--

   "Princes, this clay must be your bed,

   In spite of all your towers.

   The tall, the wise, the reverent head

   Must lie as low as ours."

   There is no discharge in this war. To the dust we must return. So,
   "Come, see the place where the Lord lay" to see that you must lie
   there, too.

   But then, "Come, see the place where the Lord lay," to see what good
   company you will have there! That is where Jesus lay--doesn't that
   comfort you?--

   "Why should the Christian fear the day That lands him in the tomb?
   There the dear flesh of Jesus lay, And left a long perfume."

   What more appropriate chamber for a Prince's son to go to sleep in than
   the Prince's own tomb? There slept Emmanuel! There, my Body, you may be
   well content to sleep, too! What more royal couch can you desire than
   the bosom of that same mother earth where the Savior was laid to rest
   awhile? Think, Beloved, of the ten thousands of saints that have gone
   that way to Heaven! Who shall dread to go where all the flock have
   gone?

   You one poor timid sheep, if you, alone, had to go through this dark
   valley, you might well be afraid! But, oh, in addition to your Shepherd
   who marches at the head of all the flock, listen to the footsteps of
   the innumerable sheep that follow Him! And some were very dear to you
   and fed in the same pasture with you. Do you dread to go where they
   have gone? No, see the place where Jesus lay to see what good company
   is to be had though it may seem to be in a dark chamber.

   "Come, see the place where the Lord lay," to see that you cannot lie
   there long. It is not the place where Jesus is. He is gone and you are
   to be with Him where He is! Come and look at this tomb. There is no
   door to it. There was one--it was a huge rock, a monstrous stone--and
   none could move it. It was sealed. Can you see how they have set the
   stamp of the Sanhedrim, the stamp of the Law, upon the seal to make it
   sure that none should move it? But now, if you will go to the place
   where Jesus lay, the seal is broken, the guards are fled, the stone is
   gone! Such will your tomb be. It is true they will cover you up and lay
   on the sods of green turf. If you are wise you will prefer these things
   to the heavy slabs of stone they sometimes lay upon the dead.

   That sweet mound, with here and there a daisy like the eye of earth
   looking up to Heaven asking mercy, or smiling in joy of
   expectation--there, there will you sleep! But just as in the morning
   you do but open your eyes and the curtains are opened and you come
   forth, none standing in your way, to do the labor of the day, so, when
   the trumpet of the Resurrection sounds, you will rise out of your bed
   in perfect liberty, none hindering you, to see the light of the day
   that shall go no down more forever! You have nothing to confine you!
   Bolt and bar there are none! Guard and watchman none! Stone and seal
   none! "Come, see the place where Jesus lay."

   I would not care to go to bed in a prison where there stood a turnkey
   with his iron key to fasten me in. But I am not afraid to go to sleep
   in the chamber out of which I can come at the morning's call a
   perfectly free man! And such are you, Beloved, if you be a Believer.
   You come to lie in a place that is open and free--a fit slumbering
   place for the Lord's free men!

   "Come, see the place where the Lord lay," in order to celebrate the
   triumph over death. If Miriam sang at the Red Sea, we also may sing at
   Jesus' tomb. If she said, "Sing unto the Lord, for He has triumphed
   gloriously," shall not we say the same? If all the hosts of Israel went
   out with her--the women with dances--and the strong men with their
   voices in the song, so let all Israel go forth this day and bless and
   praise the Lord, saying, "O Death, where is your sting? O Grave, where
   is your victory?" The place where Jesus lay has told us that--

   "Vain the watch, the stone, the seal! Christ has burst the gates of
   Hell.'" Now let us sing unto Him and give Him all the praise.

   I was thinking to say to you, Beloved, let us come and see the place
   where Jesus lay to weep there for our sins. Let us come and see the
   place where Jesus lay to die there to our sins. Let us come and see the
   place where Jesus lay to be buried there with Him. Let us come and see
   the place where Jesus lay to rise from that place to newness of life
   and find our way through resurrection-life into the ascension-life in
   which we shall sit in the heavenly places and look down upon the things
   of earth with joyous contempt, knowing that He has lifted us up far
   above them and made us to be partakers of brighter bliss than this
   earth can ever know.

   But I will forbear. I have done. I would to God that all here present
   had some share in this! You all have a share in dying. There is a tree
   growing out of which your coffin will be made, or perhaps it is already
   cut down and seasoning against the time when it shall make you a timber
   suit--the last suit that you shall ever need. There is a spot of earth
   that must be shoveled out for you to be laid into to fill up the
   vacuum. But your soul shall live--your soul shall never die! Let not
   those who tell you of annihilation be believed for a moment! It must
   exist. Put it to yourself whether it shall be with the worm that never
   dies and the fire that never shall be quenched or with Christ who lives
   in His Glory and who shall come a second time to give Glory to His
   people and raise their bodies like His own!

   Oh, it will all hinge on this--"Do you believe in Jesus?" If you do,
   you may welcome life and welcome death and welcome resurrection and
   welcome immortality! But if you believe not, then a blast has come upon
   you and to you it is terrible to die! It is terrible, even, to
   live--but more terrible to die! It will be terrible to rise again! It
   will be terrible to be damned and that forever! God save you from it,
   for Christ's sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Life, Walk and Triumph of Faith

   (No. 1082)

   DELIVERED

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "And when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram,
   and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before Me, and be you
   perfect. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will
   multiply you exceedingly." Genesis 17:1,2.

   BELOVED, all Scripture is the Word of God but some Scripture is
   expressly so. Much of its teaching comes through inspired men but some
   of it was spoken by God's own mouth, directly and without
   instrumentality. Such are the Words now before us which were of old
   spoken to Abram by the Almighty God. These sentences ought for this
   reason to be regarded with peculiar reverence and considered with
   double attention. The glow of Divinity is fresh upon the lines-- bend,
   then, your souls to the understanding of them.

   If a letter were written to you when you were far from home, you would
   value every line of it. If your fond mother had asked a friend to write
   it in her name and had dictated the expressions which he should
   employ--and if there were inserted in the body of the letter several
   sentences with this preface, "and your mother expressly says"--then you
   would treasure up the exact words and repeat them to yourself again and
   again, would you not? All God's Words in Scripture are pearls, but this
   is one of the fairest of them! They are all diamonds, but such Words as
   God speaks from His own mouth I may call the crown jewels of Scripture!

   Look, then, at the text. We will read it again: "When Abram was
   ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I
   am the Almighty God; walk before Me, and be you perfect. And I will
   make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you
   exceedingly." Happy was Abram to have such intimate communion with God!
   These sacred visits were the grand events of his life. But we need not
   envy him, for God has appeared unto us in a yet more glorious manner
   and the appearance is abiding. Behold, in the Person of the Lord Jesus
   Christ the tabernacle of God is among men and He does dwell among them!

   And, in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit the Believer has obtained an
   intimacy with God which none of the older dispensation attained. The
   Lord was to the former saints as a wayfaring man who tarried but for a
   night--but it is our privilege to pray, "Abide with us," and our joy to
   know that wherever two or three are met together in the name of our
   Lord, He is there and will manifest Himself unto them. Permit me,
   therefore, to encourage you to pray that the Words of the Lord to Abram
   may be Words for you, pressed home upon your own spirit and sounded in
   your souls with power, as from the lips of the Lord Himself!

   Then shall our meditations be sweet, indeed, and we shall be blessed
   with faithful Abraham. O, Spirit Divine, make it so, we entreat You!

   I. The first thing we shall speak about, upon this occasion, is SURE
   RELIANCE. The foundation of it is laid before us in the text. True
   confidence leans alone upon God who declares Himself to be Almighty
   God, or God All-Sufficient-- for such is an equally correct rendering
   of the passage. All true faith hangs upon God, as the vessel upon the
   nail. Strong faith realizes the all-sufficiency of God and that is the
   secret of its strength, the hidden manna on which it feeds and becomes
   vigorous.

   The Lord is all-sufficient in power to accomplish His own purposes. He
   is all-sufficient in wisdom to find His own way through difficulties
   which to us may appear to be like a maze, but which to Him are plain
   enough. And He is all-sufficient in love so that He will never fail us
   for lack of mercy in His heart or pity in His bosom. God is God
   All-Sufficient! Simple as that Truth is for us to speak and for you to
   hear, it is a deep, unfathomable mystery and did we really grasp its
   Truth and dwell upon it, it would have a very wonderful effect upon our
   whole conduct.

   Remember that Abram was 99 years old and as yet had no child by his
   wife Sarah--yet he had received a promise from God that there should be
   a seed which should spring out of his loins. He was long past the
   natural term of life in which it was likely that he would be the father
   of a son. So, also, was it with his wife Sarah. Abram, for a while
   overcome by unbelief, thought it best to take to himself, at the
   suggestion of his wife Sarah, her handmaid Hagar. And now, for some few
   years, Abram had possessed a son named Ishmael and it is probable that
   he thought that this son would answer God's promise and that somehow or
   other the blessing would come through him.

   But the Lord had not so determined. He took no pleasure in the carnal
   policy which led to Ishmael's birth. The Lord meant the language before
   us to be a gentle but unmistakable rebuke for Abram, for He said in
   effect, "I am God All-Sufficient--quite sufficient to fulfill My own
   purposes without your help--quite able to achieve My own denials
   without such a questionable expedient as that of Hagar and her son
   Ishmael." That is, no doubt, the Divine intent in the declaration of
   all-sufficiency. Hear, then, these words if you, also, have been at any
   time distrustful--and let them sink into your souls--"I am God
   All-Sufficient."

   If any of you are tempted, at this time, to do what is questionable
   because you cannot see how God's promise to you will be effected
   without it, the Lord tells you He needs no help of yours to achieve His
   own designs! "I am God Almighty," He says. "Is anything too hard for
   Me? Do you think I need your wisdom to set Me right, or your puny arm
   to strengthen Me? Do I need help to achieve My purposes which stand
   fast as My eternal Throne?" It was a tender rebuke of Abram's very
   gross mistake and it is to us a hint that we are never to put forth our
   hand unto iniquity, or to do anything that is doubtful in any shape or
   form under the notion that we are thus effecting the purposes of God.

   Look at Rebekah. She little understood the all-sufficiency of God. God
   had promised her that Jacob should have the covenant-blessing, but she
   seems to think that God cannot keep His Word and cause Jacob to inherit
   the promises unless she has a finger in it! Father Isaac has sent Esau
   out to hunt--to bring home savory meat--and has promised that he will
   give Esau the blessing when he returns. And now Rebekah thinks God will
   be defeated! The anxious mother imagines the Most High to be in a
   dilemma and His purposes to be likely to fail unless her inherited
   craftiness can devise a stratagem to eke out the Divine Wisdom.

   Rebekah must tell lies and Jacob must tell lies, too! And poor old
   Isaac must be deceived, or else God's purposes will not be
   accomplished! O foolish Rebekah! But before we speak and condemn that
   gracious woman, let us make sure that we confess and condemn the same
   tendency in ourselves! Have we not also dreamed that we might do evil
   that good might come? Have we not followed policy where we ought to
   have sternly adhered to principle and all this because we thought it
   necessary and feared that otherwise evil would triumph? Has not our
   judgment been bewildered by strange Providences and been led to
   sanction irregular procedures, or at least to think less severely of
   them?

   Under the influence of blind unbelief have we not been ready, like
   Uzzah, to lay our hand upon the Ark of the Lord to steady it, for fear
   it should fall--as if God's Ark could not take care of itself without
   our sinful hand being laid on it? That lesson learned by Israel at the
   Red Sea is still a hard one for us--we cannot stand still and see the
   salvation of God! Because we do not believe in the Almighty God we are
   eager to make haste! We hurry, worry, fret, fuss and sin! Fear drives
   us and self-sufficiency draws us--and the noble quietude of faith in
   God is lost. O could we but rest in Omniscient Love! Could we but know
   the Lord and wait patiently for Him--how much sin and sorrow we should
   be spared!--

   "With feeble light and half obscure, Poor mortals Your arrangements
   view! Not knowing that the least are sure, And the mysterious just and
   true. My favored soul shall meekly learn To lay her reason at Your
   Throne. Too weak Your secrets to discern, I'll trust You for my Guide
   alone."

   Here is the fit place to set in contrast the conduct of David. He knew
   that in God's decree it was ordained that he should be king over Israel
   yet he took no means to secure the crown. He would not lift his hand to
   strike Saul. No, he spared him when he was entirely in his power. He
   did not unbelievingly interfere to make a Providence for himself, but
   left the course of events in the Lord's hands--and in consequence, when
   he came to the throne he had an easy conscience and no innocent blood
   upon his hands. May our faith teach us the same patient waiting and
   confident repose of soul. May

   we believe, to see the Glory of the Lord. The Lord All-Sufficient will,
   in the end, clear the darkest Providences from all question and our
   souls shall know how happy are those who put their trust in the Lord
   alone!

   This blessed text, "I am God All-Sufficient," may apply to us in times
   when we are inclined to shirk any service for God. Have you ever felt,
   in certain seasons, that God's choice of you for a special labor could
   not be a wise one for you were so unfit for it? Have you ever felt in
   your own hearts--"I cannot do that. I think the Lord would have me do
   it, but I cannot. I have not the qualifications. I believe I am called
   to it but it is too difficult for me. I shall not be able to achieve

   it"?

   Have you ever had the disposition, like Jonah, to flee to Tarshish, or
   somewhere else and to escape from Nineveh and its trials? Have you
   never pleaded, like Jeremiah, "But I am a child"? Have you never cried,
   like Moses, "I am slow of speech! Send whomever You will send, but not
   me"? Now, at such a time the Lord may well remind us, "I am God
   All-Sufficient, cannot I strengthen you? Weak as you are, cannot I make
   you strong? Worm of the dust, cannot I make you thresh the mountains?
   Why do you fear? You are feeble, but I am not. You are foolish, but I
   am wise. Give yourself up to My guidance. Trust yourself in My hands
   and you shall achieve marvels! And exceedingly great wonders shall you
   accomplish by My power and Grace."

   It will be sadly sinful if we arrogate to ourselves the right to
   arrange our own place and alter Heaven's appointments. We are not where
   we are by chance, or by a freak of fate--as God's servants our work is
   allotted us wisely and authoritatively. Dare we be wiser than the Lord?
   Are we also of Jehovah's council? His choice of instruments is wise
   even when He chooses the weak things of the world to work His purposes.
   Their insufficiency is of no consequence, for their sufficiency is of
   God! For them to attempt to shun their duty because of conscious
   feebleness would be a daring sin against the prerogatives of the King
   of kings--an impious censure upon the infallible appointments of
   Infinite Wisdom!

   May not this be a word in season to some Brother or Sister here who may
   happen to be under that temptation? If it is, may the Lord speak it
   home by His Spirit and a blessing will come of it! Work on, dear
   Friends, and wait on, for it is no business of yours to correct your
   Maker's arrangements. He who placed you where you now are knew what He
   was doing! Look at your infirmities with another eye. No longer allow
   them to distress you, but the rather glory in them because they afford
   room and space for the Divine power to rest in you and work by you.
   Listen no more to the wailings of your trembling flesh, which cries,
   "Alas, I am weak," but hear the voice of Him who says, "I am God
   Almighty."

   This word may also be useful to those who are trembling under some
   present temporal trial and affliction. They are dreading what may yet
   happen. Forebodings of what may soon come are upon them. Sometimes we
   have before us a gloomy prospect--we know the trial must come and we
   are afraid of it--and though we have the promise, "In six troubles I
   will be with you, and in seven there shall no evil touch you," yet we
   stand trembling. "I am God All-Sufficient"--will not that brace your
   nerves and enable you to press on, though through a valley as dark as
   death-shade

   itself?

   Is it poverty? God is All-Sufficient to supply your needs. Is it
   physical pain?--and some of us dread that beyond anything else--the
   All-Sufficient God can put under your aching head such a peace-creating
   pillow that in the sweetness of celestial love you shall forget the
   smarts of the flesh and your soul shall be comforted when your body is
   full of agony! Why, what is it that you fear, O child of God? There can
   be no lack which He cannot supply; no enemy that He cannot subdue!
   Slander's cruel tooth, does that dismay you? Is not the Lord sufficient
   for this, also?

   "No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper." Have you not His
   own word for it? "Every tongue that rises against you in judgment you
   shall condemn." Has not He declared it? And does not He know how to
   accomplish His own purpose? Therefore, I say again, cast your doubts
   and your fears to the wind, for God as surely says to you, O trembling
   Believer, as ever He did to His servant Abram, "I am God, Almighty
   God." O rest in the Lord and be not troubled! He shall, He must
   appear--only put not forth your hand unto iniquity and do nothing
   before the time. You have no feeble Deity to trust in--be not a coward,
   but play the man!

   The same may also be applied to each of us when we are under spiritual
   depressions. Inward tribulations are frequently more severe than
   temporal trials. The man of God knows this full well. We look within
   and we see Divine Grace to be at a low ebb with us--at least we think
   so. Our corruptions and our natural depravity--these we see clearly
   enough and we are troubled with the sight. Neglect of duty, omissions
   of devotion, forgotten opportunities of usefulness

   all come up and accuse us--and then we are ready to doubt whether we
   ever knew the Lord at all! And, perhaps Satan assails us at the same
   time and we fall under his foot for a while.

   O, let us not, even in such terrible times, ever doubt our God, for He
   is All-Sufficient still! If our salvation depended upon ourselves, it
   would soon be all over with us. But since it depends upon that arm, the
   sinews of which can never break--since it depends upon that heart which
   can never change and never cease to beat with Omnipotent Love--why
   should we be discouraged? "I am God Almighty," says the Lord,
   "Therefore say you unto the enemy, 'Rejoice not over me, for though I
   fall yet shall I rise again.'"

   And suppose, Beloved, you should have temporal troubles and spiritual
   distresses at the same time? This meeting of two seas is very apt to
   make the mariner expect immediate shipwreck. But, behold, walking on
   the waters comes your God to you, saying, "I am God All-Sufficient even
   for you." Was there ever a storm that was not of His brewing? Therefore
   cannot He control it? Was there ever spirit that came up out of the
   deeps of Hell that was not of His loosing?--and can He not hold him in
   as with a chain and restrain his malignant power? Behold, Jehovah rides
   upon the wings of the wind and the storm-cloud is His car! Fear not,
   therefore, the rattling of the wheels on which your heavenly Father
   rides!

   In the midst of the tempest He reigns supreme! Fear not the darkness
   which is His canopy, or the lightning which is but the glance of His
   eyes. Trust Him as all times and let no fear cast you down or hurry you
   into an unbelieving and restless course of action which would defile
   you and bring dishonor upon His blessed name. Yes, if there are signs
   about you of approaching departure--if your body, weakened by long
   disease, is like a house that is ready to fall about the tenant's
   ears--yet God, who is All-Sufficient here, will be All-Sufficient on
   yonder dying bed! He who has been almighty in life will be almighty in
   death!

   Fear not that solemn flight through tracks unknown, or the awful
   appearance at the eternal Throne. The God of Grace is All-Sufficient
   for all the mysteries of eternity. He is All-Sufficient for the
   thunders of judgment, the terrors of vengeance and the dread of Hell.
   Fear not the crash of worlds when He shall bid them all dissolve! The
   Ever-Living Redeemer, able to save unto the uttermost, is
   All-Sufficient to support your spirit when all created things shall
   pass away and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. There exists
   not a conceivable ground of fear to the man who puts his trust in God
   Almighty!

   O Beloved, set this as a seal upon your arm to strengthen you and roll
   it as a stone upon the sepulcher of your doubts. Never let them rise
   again. If you trusted a puny man, you might doubt. But resting upon
   God, how can you be disquieted? If you relied upon changing
   humanity--if you placed your confidence in a creature that might love
   today and hate tomorrow--then, indeed, you could be unhappy! But His
   love is everlasting and His power endures forever! Why, then, are you
   cast down? You have built your soul's hope upon the immoveable rock of
   All-Sufficiency and you shall prove the truth of that inspired
   assurance--"Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore will I
   deliver him: I will set him on high because he has known My name. He
   shall call upon Me and I will answer him: I will be with him in
   trouble: I will deliver him and honor him."

   Why are you cast down, O my Soul? And why are you disquieted in me?
   Hope in God and cease from trusting man whose breath is in his
   nostrils. Then shall your light shine forth as the morning and a dew
   from Heaven shall cause you to bud and blossom with joy and rejoicing.
   Be glad in the Lord you righteous, and shout for joy all you that are
   upright in heart, for unto you has He spoken and given this for the
   rock of your confidence--"I am the Almighty God."

   II. Secondly, our text goes on to speak of our RIGHT POSITION. The Lord
   says, "I am Almighty God," and then He adds, "Walk before Me." It is
   much easier for me to talk about this than it will be to practice it.
   The meaning is simple--Divine Grace alone can work in us the actual
   obedience. Come, gracious Spirit, and teach us to walk before the Lord
   in the land of the living. God is an All-Sufficient God--then,
   Believer, never go away from Him--but abide in Him forevermore.

   There is a sense in which we always walk before God, for, "in Him we
   live, and move, and have our being." And He sees us altogether. But
   that is not what is intended here. It means this--Abide, O Believer, in
   a constant sense of God's Presence. "Walk before Me, the All-Sufficient
   God." Do not wander into paths where you will be made to feel, "I have
   left my God." Have your Friend at hand--

   "Be still, my Heart, near my God,

   And my God, still near my heart."

   Remember, He is a very present help in time of trouble and strive to
   realize this as a daily fact. You have not to send for your God in an
   emergency, but you are to walk before your God believing Him to be
   always near you.

   Hagar once felt the power of that word, "You God see me," but Believers
   ought to feel it every moment. "Seeing Him who is invisible," is not a
   thing for now and then, but an hourly exercise! It should be the
   general tenor of the Believer's life to live always under the great
   Father's inspection. A poet puts it--"live as ever under the great
   TaskMaster's eyes." But I confess I do not like the word, Task-Master.

   To live always as under my Father's eyes has all the force of the
   poet's line, but has much more of sweetness. He is near me whether I
   journey or abide at home, whether I sorrow or rejoice. If I wake, His
   eyes pour sunlight on my face! If I sleep, He draws the curtains and
   His Presence shades me from all ill. If I rest, I sit at His feet in
   contemplation. If I labor, I work in His vineyard in His name and for
   His sake, expecting a gracious reward from Him. "Walk before Me." Not
   merely, "think before Me," and, "pray before Me," but, "walk before
   Me." I know many find it easy to cultivate a sense of God's Presence in
   their study, or in the room where they are accustomed to pray, but the
   point is this--to feel it in business and in the details of everyday
   life!

   God's eyes are upon me when I am weighing out or measuring the goods.
   When I am engrossed with transactions with my fellow merchants, or when
   I, as a servant, am sweeping up the hearth or minding the household
   duties, He is there! This you should distinctly recognize and act upon.
   You are to live in the little things of life knowing that God is always
   with you and always looking at you--you are to do your work just as
   will please Him. Oh, how we smart ourselves up if there is somebody
   calling to see us! How we adjust our dress in the presence of those
   whom we admire! I have sometimes thought I have seen working men
   proceeding very slowly, indeed, at their tables when alone, but when
   the master comes by they quicken their pace wonderfully!

   That is all wrong. It is eye-service--the custom of a man-pleaser--not
   the habit of one who would please the Lord! We should feel, "God is
   always looking at me." There are many words we would not say if we
   remembered that He would hear them and many an act we dare not do if we
   remembered that He would record it! Yes, there is the Believer's true
   place--my God is God Almighty and I am always in His Presence. A person
   might do 50 things in a certain place which he would not think of doing
   if he were at court and had just presented a petition to the Queen.
   There is a certain manner of action which we all observe when we are in
   such conditions and, therefore, the reasoning is valid when I ask you
   what manner of persons we ought to be before the King of kings!

   We are always in Jehovah's courts and under His royal gaze--"Walk
   before Me." Live ever as in the court, for remember, O Believer, you
   are not like an ordinary person. If an ordinary person sins, it is only
   a common subject of the King, but you--why, you are a courtier, a
   favored courtier! You are one that He has chosen to tread His courts!
   No, more--the Prince Imperial has espoused you to Himself! You are the
   bride of the Ever-Blessed Bridegroom, the spouse of Immanuel and there
   is always jealousy where there is much love! "The Lord your God is a
   jealous God." Whatever He may be to others, He is very jealous of those
   on whom He has set His everlasting love. "Our God is a consuming fire."
   Walk before a jealous God, then, with scrupulous regard to His honor
   and His holiness.

   Oh, it is a great word this--"walk before Me." Its brevity is not so
   notable as its fullness. Surely it means realize My Presence, and then,
   in general life and ordinary conversation continue under a sense of it,
   serious, devout, holy, earnest, trustful, consecrated, Christ-like. But
   He meant more than that. "Walk before Me." That is, "Delight in My
   company." True Believers find their choicest joy in communion with
   God--and if we always walked before God in a sense of communing with
   Him, our peace would be like a river and our righteousness like the
   waves of the sea!

   Would it be possible for us to feel any distress of heart if we always
   enjoyed the Savior's love? I think there are no bitters known that
   would be able to affect our palate if we always had in our mouth the
   love of the Savior in its ineffable, all-conquering sweetness. "Walk
   before Me." Do not interfere with God's purposes. Do not, unbelieving,
   try to help Omnipotence and supplement Omniscience, but rejoice in the
   Lord and find satisfaction in Him only. Be filled with His fullness and
   satiated with His favor. Go and do your part, which is to obey and to
   commune, and leave God's work to God. Walk before Him and attend to
   that, only. Do not doubt God's power to fulfill His own decrees. Do not
   doubt that He will keep His Word to the letter and to the minute, but
   cultivate fellowship with God for this will ennoble you and

   help you to give glory to His name. "Walk before Me." Does not it mean
   just this, in a word--"Do not act as seeing anybody else except Me.
   Walk before Me"?

   Now, Abram had walked before Sarah. He had listened to her and much
   mischief had come of his doing so at different times. The dearest
   friends we have are often those who will lead us most astray when we
   take counsel with flesh and blood. She was peculiarly qualified from
   her fiery excellence of character to influence Abram and, in her
   unbelieving moods, to lead him away from the glorious absoluteness of
   his faith. She meant well enough but she was too political in her
   suggestion as to her handmaid. In the present case the Lord seems to
   say to him, "Do not suffer Sarah to affect you in these things. Walk
   before Me." Beloved, mind you keep clear of the unbelieving advice of
   good people and then you will have less to fear from bad ones!

   And there was Hagar--Abram had been a great deal distressed about
   her--and it was but right that he should feel much interest in her
   welfare. And there was her son, Ishmael, whom he loved and whom he
   would have to send away from the household, in the future, with deep
   regret. God says to Abram, "Do not allow your course to be shaped by
   regarding Hagar, or regarding Ishmael, or regarding Sarah or anybody
   else. Walk before Me." I am persuaded that a regard for God, a sense of
   duty and a straight-forward following out of convictions is the only
   true style of living! For if you begin to notice the whims and wishes
   of one, then you will have to do the same with another--and if your
   course of conduct is to be shaped to please men you will become man's
   slave and nothing better--and no child of God ought to come into that
   condition.

   If I felt I came into this pulpit to please any of you, I should feel
   mean, utterly mean and unfit to preach to you. And you would soon know
   it and find out that God was not blessing me to your souls. And if any
   of you, in your course of business, are always trying to catch the eye
   of this person or cringing and fawning to this other nobleman, or
   squire, or gentleman, why, you are mean, too! But the man who says, "I
   try to do right in God's sight. I have not swerved from a sense of
   conscious rectitude as before the living God"--why, Sir, you have got
   all the freedom of soul that you can desire this side of Heaven! To
   walk before God, that is the point! To fear the Lord and no one
   else--that is the state of mind to aim at! Make this the master passion
   of your soul, "For me to live is Christ." Make the honor of God your
   chief motive and the Law of God your rule. Walk before the Lord in the
   land of the living.

   III. But we must pass on, for there is another point. And that is, as
   we have considered our sure reliance and our right position, we notice
   next OUR GLORIOUS AIM--"Be you perfect." Now, the connection shows us
   that the only way to be perfect is to walk before the Lord. If any man
   desires holiness he must get it through communion. The way to be
   transformed into the likeness of God is to live in the company of God!
   That which you look upon you will soon be like and if your eyes look on
   God, your character will become like God.

   Hence the order of our text is highly suggestive and should be
   earnestly noted and practically carried out. First, God must be known
   as All-Sufficient--thus He helps and enables His servant to walk before
   Him, and then, as a consequence, that favored servant labors to obey
   the word of command--"BE YOU PERFECT." There could be no walking before
   the Lord if All-Sufficient Grace did not work it in us. And the
   command, "Be you perfect," would be mere mockery if Almighty Love did
   not stand engaged to work all our works in us. To a man who has learned
   to rest in Almighty faithfulness, the perfect Law is delightful--and
   with confidence in the energy of the Holy Spirit he is not staggered by
   its commands.

   I desire you to note this for the order of Holy Scripture is always
   full of reason and weight. Whatever ill-taught divines may do, the Holy
   Spirit never puts the fruit before the root and never places the
   pinnacle where the foundation should be. Begin with God's
   All-Sufficiency. Go on to the holy fellowship and obedience and then
   aim at Scriptural perfection and so you will take everything in due
   sequence.

   But we must pass on. As you are aware, our margin reads the text thus,
   "Be you sincere," or, "Be you upright," and either translation would
   not be incorrect. Now, child of God, you have been saying, "I do not
   see how God is to fulfill His promise to me." What have you to do with
   that? Walk before God and be sincere. He will attend to the due
   performance of all that He has promised. Remember--

   "Though dark is your way since He is your Guide, 'Tis yours to obey
   'tis His to provide."

   In all things be transparently sincere. Never pray a formalistic prayer
   or sing a heartless hymn, or prattle out an experience you never felt.
   Shun first and foremost the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy!
   Be what you would seem to be. Be down-right, intensely real,
   thorough--and if you are that you shall never find God less thorough
   than you are, nor the Lord less true to His Word than you shall be. If
   you are wavering and double-minded, you must not expect anything of the
   Lord. But if you are single-hearted He will abundantly care for you.

   Mind this, I pray you, every day you live. This is the era of plausible
   sham, the era of superficiality--therefore be unmistakably true before
   the God of Truth. The margin translates the passage by the word
   "upright," and it comes to just this. You are fretting about how the
   Lord will deal with you. Brother, that is no concern of yours. Your
   concern is that you be upright in business. "My trade falls off," says
   one. Be upright, Brother! Whatever you do, be upright. "But I have
   drifted into such difficulties, I am afraid I shall be ruined." Be
   upright, Brother! Whatever you do, be upright. "Could not I get away a
   few of my goods, for instance, which ought to be my creditors'?"
   Brother, be upright! Be upright.

   "Ah, but then, surely, I shall hardly have a rag left." Be upright,
   Brother, be upright! "Oh, but I must consider my children." "Walk
   before Me," says the Lord, "and be you upright." "Oh, but a man must
   take care of himself and his family." Be upright, Brother! That is the
   main thing to take care about. It will not matter how poor you are if
   you do not lose your character. Lose everything else and you may yet be
   happy. But if you lose your peace of mind who can comfort you? If the
   worldling can point at you and say, "There is a professor who wronged
   his creditors," that will be worse than all! No court is so much to be
   dreaded as the court of conscience--keep all things clear there. Better
   an honest pauper than a rich rogue.

   I am sure your fellow Christians will respect you none the less,
   however low you come, if you come there fairly. All those whose love is
   worth the having will cling to you in hearty sympathy and only false
   friends, the parasites of the hour, will desert you and a good riddance
   will their departure turn out to be! But avoid, I implore you, those
   tricks so common among traders nowadays--those rash speculations, those
   deceptive accommodations, the lying and duping of others which men fly
   to as a drowning man catches at a straw--a straw that he ought never to
   touch. Not losing, but cheating is the mischief--and the Lord says to
   you, "I am God All-Sufficient: I can take care of you: I can bring you
   through all this. Do not touch forbidden things in order to escape from
   trial, or your trials will multiply and crush you. Walk before Me, as
   under My eye; and be you upright."

   But our version says, "Be you perfect," and for my part, I like it as
   it stands--"Be you perfect." "Oh," says one, "but how can we be
   perfect!" I will ask you a question--Would you have God command you to
   be less than perfect? If so, He would be the Author of an imperfect
   Law! "The Law of the Lord is perfect." How could it be otherwise? I do
   not find that He bids us partly keep His Law, but wholly keep it. And
   so the Lord holds up this as the standard of a Christian-- "Be you
   perfect."

   And does it not mean let us be perfect in desiring to have all the
   rounds of Divine Grace? Suppose a man should have faith and should have
   love but no hope? He would not be perfect. He would be like a child
   that had two arms but only one foot. It would not be a perfect child.
   You must have all the Graces if you are to be a perfect man. I think I
   have known some Christians who have had all the Graces except patience
   and they could never be patient. "Walk before Me," says the Lord, "and
   be you perfect in patience." I have known some others who seemed to
   have almost every Grace except the Grace of forgiveness. They could not
   very readily forget any injury that had been done to them.

   Dear Brothers and Sisters, get that Grace, the Grace of forgiveness,
   and walk before the Lord with that or you will remain a mutilated
   character! A Christian's character is spoilt by the omission of any one
   virtue. And you must labor in the Presence of God to have all these
   things that they be in you and abound. Be you in this sense perfect.
   And as we have all the Graces, so we should seek to have in our lives
   exhibited all the virtues in the fulfillment of all our duties. It is a
   very sad thing when you hear of a Christian man that he is a very
   excellent deacon, that he is a very admirable local preacher or Sunday
   school teacher, but that he is a very unkind father. That "but" spoils
   it all. A saint abroad is no saint if he is a devil at home.

   We have known men of whom it has been said that out of doors they were
   all that could be desired, but they were bad husbands. That "but"--how
   it mars the tale! It is the dead fly which has got into a very good pot
   of ointment and made the whole of it stink. Keep the dead flies out,
   Brethren! By God's Grace may your character be full-orbed! May God

   grant you Grace to be at home and to be abroad--to be in the shop and
   in the chamber and to be in every department of life--just that which a
   man should be who walks before the All-Sufficient God.

   Now, I think I hear somebody saying, "How shall we ever reach such a
   height?" My dear Brother, you never will do so except you remember the
   first part of the text--"I am the Almighty God." He can help you! If
   there is any sin that you cannot overcome yourself, He can overcome it
   for you. If there is any virtue you have not yet reached, He can lead
   you up to it. Never despair of the highest degree of Divine Grace. What
   the best of men have been, you also may be. There is no reason why you
   should not yet be elevated beyond all the sin into which you may have
   fallen from inadvertence or temptation.

   Have hope, my Brothers and Sisters! Have hope for a higher platform of
   character. Have hope yet to be conformed unto the image of God's dear
   Son. Aim at nothing less than perfection. But I will not detain you
   longer except to notice that last word. It is a very sweet word--"I
   will make My covenant between Me and you." How run the words? "I will
   make My covenant between Me and you." Oh, it is the man that knows an
   All-Sufficient God and that lives in the Presence of God and that
   endeavor to be perfect in his life--it is that man that enjoys
   communion with God such as no one else knows, for, "The secret of the
   Lord is with them that fear Him."

   "There shall be a covenant between Me and you." It sounds so sweet to
   me--as if He had said, "I will say nothing to the outside world.
   Neither will you tell them. It shall be with you and Me. We will strike
   hands together. Abram, you shall be My friend and I will be your Friend
   forever. You will say, 'My Father,' and I will say, 'My son.' You will
   put yourself into My hands and I will carry you. You will ask to see My
   Glory and I will make My Glory pass before you.

   "I will tell you what I mean to do. If I am going to destroy Sodom, I
   will come and tell Abram my friend. I will let you speak to Me and I
   will hear you. Time after time I will stay while you do plead for 50,
   and for 45, and 30, 20, and ten. 'There shall be a covenant between Me
   and you.' And I will make it. It shall not be such a one as your
   timorous faith would make. I will make it after the manner of My
   bounty, My eternity and My All-Sufficiency." When the Lord makes a
   covenant, it will stand! It will be sure! It will be rich! It will be
   full! And, O, I pray that every one of you may know that covenant and
   live upon its incomparable blessings! "The secret of the Lord is with
   them that fear Him," and He will show them His covenant.

   But many a child of God walks obstinately and the Lord will not fully
   reveal the covenant to such. Some of His Peters follow afar off and
   they get into trouble--they do not enjoy the sweets of Divine
   fellowship and peculiar manifestation. But this careful walking, this
   close walking, this keeping near to an All-Sufficient God, this resting
   solely in Him--O, this it is that brings the sweetness and the joy
   which are the foretaste of Heaven--which are, indeed, a young Heaven
   begun this side the tomb!

   I pray the Lord will bring my dear friends all into holy fellowship
   with Himself! And if any of you have not come to the border of the
   happy land, I pray you may be led there at once. The way of salvation
   is, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ." Faith is both the road to the
   highest happiness and the way to the first safety--faith is both the
   highest round of the ladder and its first step--"Believe in the Lord
   Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." Have done with self-righteous
   works and come to the trusting. Have done with seeking to save self and
   accept Jesus alone as your Redeemer! The Lord grant you Grace to do so
   and His shall be the praise forever and ever! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Living Temples for the Living God

   (No. 1083)

   DELIVERED

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Thus says the Lord, Hea ven is My throne and earth is My footstool.
   Where is the house that you build unto Me? And where is the place of My
   rest? For all those things has My hand made, and all those things have
   been, says the Lord; but to this man will I look, even to him that is
   poor and of a contrite spirit and trembles at My Word." Isaiah 66:1,2.

   THAT is an excellent answer which was given by a poor man to a skeptic
   who attempted to ridicule his faith. The scoffer said, "Pray Sir, is
   your God a great God or a little God?" The poor man replied, "Sir, my
   God is so great that the Heaven of heavens cannot contain Him and yet
   He condescends to be so little that He dwells in broken and contrite
   hearts." Oh, the greatness of God and the condescension of God! I hope
   we shall be led to think of both this evening while we meditate upon
   the Words of the text. We have no time nor need of a preface. The text
   first of all teaches us that God rejects all material temples as the
   places of His abode. But, secondly, it informs us that God has made a
   choice of spiritual temples where He will dwell.

   I. First of all, then, let us think a little of GOD'S REJECTION OF ALL
   MATERIAL TEMPLES. There was a time when it could be said that there was
   a House of God on earth. That was a time of symbols, when as yet the
   Church of God was in her childhood. She was being taught her A B Cs,
   reading her picture books, for she could not as yet read the Word of
   God, as it were, in letters. She had need to have pictures put before
   her, patterns of the heavenly things. Then, even then, the enlightened
   among the Jews knew right well that God did not dwell between curtains
   and that it was not possible that He could be encompassed in the Most
   Holy place within the veil--it was only a symbol of His Presence.

   The fiery cloudy pillar was merely an indication that He was there in
   that Tabernacle where He was pleased to say that He peculiarly revealed
   Himself. But the time of symbols is now passed altogether. In that
   moment when the Savior bowed His head and said, "It is finished!" the
   veil of the Temple was torn in two so that the mysteries were laid
   open. The most august of types I might consider the veil of the Temple
   to be, but the dying hands of the Savior grasped that veil and tore it
   in two from top to bottom--and then the secrets within, which were all
   the more secret because they were symbols--were made bare to the
   gazer's eyes and no longer did God deign to have a place on earth that
   should be called His House, nor any symbols of His Presence whatever
   among the sons of men!

   And now it is sheer legality, a defunct ceremony, Judaism, carnality
   and idolatry to go about and say of this place, "This is the House of
   God," or of such a chapel, or such a stone erection, "This is the Altar
   of God," or of any man who chooses to put on certain tag rags and
   ribbons, "This is a Man of God," a priest of the Most High! This is all
   done away with and put away forever. Now, as the Church has attained
   her maturity, she lays aside these childish things. Those orders of
   Divine service which were symbols and nothing more, having answered
   their ends, are abolished and superseded and God pours contempt upon
   the superstitious veneration of their relics.

   By the mouth of His servant Paul, in Hebrews, He bids us look not to
   the shadows but to the substances, not to the symbols but to the great
   realities. So, Brothers and Sisters, one reason why God says He dwells
   not in temples made with hands is because He would have us know that
   the symbolic worship is ended and the reign of the spiritual worship
   inaugurated at this day. As our Lord said to the Samaritan woman at the
   well, "The hour comes, when you shall neither in this mountain, nor yet
   at Jerusalem, worship the Father. But the hour comes, and now is, when
   the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth:
   for the Father seeks such to worship Him."

   But our text gives, from God's own mouth, reasons why there can be no
   house at the present time in which God can dwell and, indeed, there
   never was any house of the kind in reality--only in symbol. For, say
   now, where is the place to build God a house? Look abroad, you
   ambitious architects that would erect God a house! Where will you place
   it? Will

   you place it in Heaven? It is only His Throne, not His house! Even all
   the majesty of Heaven is but the seat on which He sits. Where will you
   place the house, then? On His seat? Build a temple on His Throne! It
   cannot be! Do you say you will erect it here, on earth?

   What? On His footstool? This whole globe is but His footstool! Will you
   put it where He shall put His foot upon it and crush it? A house for
   God upon His footstool? The very notion contradicts itself and men may
   forever forego the idea of building a house where God shall dwell, or a
   place where He shall rest. Fly through infinite space and you shall not
   find in any place that God is not there. Time cannot contain Him though
   it range along its millenniums! Space cannot hold Him for He that made
   all things is greater than all the things that He has made! Yes, all
   the things that are do not encompass Him. He is without bound or
   measure--beyond all that He has already made--even though the
   astronomers tell us that so grand is the scale of the visible universe
   opened up by the telescope that the scenes suffice to baffle the
   imagination and overwhelm the reason!

   All that God has made is but a drop in a bucket compared with what He
   could make. Though it might take us endless ages to enumerate the
   worlds He has created, one single breath from His lips could create
   10,000 times as many, for He is the infinite God. Who, then, shall
   imagine that in Heaven, which is His throne, or on earth, which is His
   footstool, a house shall be built for Him?

   But then, the Lord seems to put it--What kind of a house, (supposing we
   had a site on which to erect it), would we build for God? Sons of men,
   of what material would you make a dwelling place for the Eternal and
   the Pure? Would you build of alabaster? The heavens are not clean in
   His sight and He charged His angels with folly! Would you build of
   gold? Behold, the streets of His metropolitan city are paved with
   gold--not, indeed, the dusky gold of earth--but transparent gold, like
   clear glass! And what were gold to Deity? Men may crave it and adore
   it, but what cares He for it? Whereas that city, wherein the Church
   shall dwell forever has foundations of chrysolite and sapphire and
   jasper and all manner of precious stones, will you think to rival that?

   Ah, your wealth can never equal such costliness though all the royal
   treasuries were at your disposal. Find diamonds as massive as the
   stones which Solomon built his house on Zion and then lay on rubies and
   jaspers--pile up a house, all of which shall be most precious--what
   were that to Him? God is a Spirit. He abhors your materialism! How can
   you encompass the infinite mind within your walls, for they are
   tangible substances at the very best? And yet men think, forsooth, when
   they have put up their Gothic or their Grecian structures, "This is
   God's house." Take me to imperial Russia and point me to the meanest
   hovel of the meanest serf and tell me it is the imperial palace--I
   might believe it possible. But take me to the most gorgeous pile that
   human skill has ever reared, and tell me that is God's house!--
   Impossible!

   I hold up a snail's shell and say, "This is as much the angel Gabriel's
   house as that is the house of the living God." They know not what they
   speak. They are brainless or they would not think so of Him who fills
   all things! And then the Lord shows that the earth and the heavens,
   themselves, which may be compared to a temple, are the works of His
   hand. How often I have felt as if I were compassed with the solemn
   grandeur of a temple in the midst of the pine forest, or on the
   heathery hill, or out at night with the bright stars looking down
   through the deep heavens, or listening to the thunder, peal on peal, or
   gazing at the lightning as it lit up the sky! Then one feels as if he
   were in the Temple of God!

   Afar out on the blue sea, where the ship is rocking up and down on the
   waves' foam--then it seems as if you were somewhere near to God--amidst
   the sublimities of Nature. But what then? All these objects of Nature
   He has made and they are not a house for Him! He spoke and they were
   created. "Earth be," said He, and up sprang the round globe in all her
   comeliness! He had but to say it and she was decked in her green
   mantle. He had but to speak it and sun and moon shone forth in all
   their glory. Who, then, shall think of building a house for God when
   even the heavens are but His Throne and the earth is but His footstool?

   The notion, Brothers and Sisters, that there are some places peculiarly
   sacred will, however, cling to people's minds. Even those who call
   themselves Christians are prone thereto and yet I verily believe it is
   a most wicked notion and full of mischief. I am sometimes up on the
   Alps amidst the glories of Nature, with the glacier and snow-clad
   peaks. I am in the open and I breathe the fresh air that comes from the
   ancient hills. But you tell me that I am on "unholy ground!" Stands
   there, hard by, a little place painted in all gaudy colors, in honor of
   a woman--blessed among women--it is true. I step

   inside, look round and behold the place is full of dolls and toys! Am I
   to be told that this is God's house inside and that outside it is not
   God's house? It seems monstrous!

   How can any rational man credit it? Look into a little shell, full of
   "holy water." Go outside--and see the foaming waters sparkling in the
   cascade or coming down from the clouds and they say, "There is no
   holiness in that!" It's a wicked notion--wicked, I say--to think that
   your four walls make that place holy and your incantations and I know
   not what, consecrate it. But, where God is, outside there, with the
   storm and the thunder, the rain and wind--it is not holy. Oh, Sirs, I
   think the outside is the holier of the two! For my part, I can worship
   best there and love God and think of Him as being nearer to me there
   than I can within.

   The superstitious notion which makes people think that if they go at
   particular times to these places and go through certain actions, they
   have done service to God leads them to forget, if not altogether to
   disclaim, God at ordinary times and in common circumstances! Their god
   is a local god and his worship is local. So we see men, when they have
   gone through the ritual, go back to revel in their vanities and to
   repeat their sins. A change of heart they do not care about-- they were
   regenerated in baptism! To be taught the way of God more
   perfectly--what does that matter? Were they not confirmed? To live upon
   Christ and feed upon His flesh and blood in spirit and in truth--that
   is nothing. They have had the bread and wine at the communion--will not
   that suffice? The whole thing generates formalism and eats out the soul
   of true piety.

   However, the religion of Jesus teaches me that I am always to
   worship--that family prayer is as good and as much accepted as the
   prayer in the great congregation! True religion teaches me that I may
   pray in private--that every hour and not merely at some canonical hour,
   I ought to pray. It teaches me that--

   "Wherever I seek Him He is found, And everyplace is hallowed ground"
   --that the Lord will bless and accept me and press me to His heart as
   His own dear child wherever I am, for in my Father's house are many
   mansions and God's Grace is not here or there, but everywhere that the
   true heart seeks it. I need you all to feel this because somehow or
   other the Church does not appear to have learned it.

   God was with the Covenanters amidst their glens as gloriously as ever
   He manifested Himself in cathedrals! God has been as earnestly sought
   and as verily found in humble cottages where two or three have met to
   pray as ever He has been in the largest tabernacle! The sailor's
   service read on the sea has been as acceptable to God as worship on
   land and the gatherings of humble Romans in the Catacombs, or of the
   hunted fathers in the secluded dells of our counties were as much the
   gatherings of the true Church of God as any well-appointed assemblies
   can be in these peaceable times!

   Thus says the Lord, "Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool.
   Where is the house that you build unto Me? And where is the place of My
   rest?" Let us shake ourselves clear of all the idolatry and materialism
   that is so common in this age.

   II. Now, secondly, let us muse awhile upon GOD'S CHOICE OF SPIRITUAL
   TEMPLES. "To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a
   contrite spirit, and trembles at My Word." Observe, Beloved, that God
   chooses to dwell in men's hearts. He is a Spirit and He takes our
   spirits to be the resting place of His Spirit. Will you note carefully
   as respects the choice of hearts in which God would dwell, what is not
   said. It is not said, "I will dwell with men that are of elevated
   rank."

   I never find a single Scripture that gives any special privileges to
   dignity, nobility, or royalty--no, not a syllable throughout all
   Scripture that gives any peculiar Gospel promise to the great and the
   rich of this world. Indeed, "not many great men after the flesh, not
   many mighty are chosen." Nor do I read here anything about a peculiar
   office. It is not said, "To that man will I look who is ordained and
   set apart and made specially to be a vessel of Grace." No, nothing of
   the sort--nothing about monks, or priests, or clergy, or ministers--no
   special class set apart for the reception of the blessing. Far
   otherwise.

   Neither do I notice any singular genius necessary. It is not said,
   "With that man of poetic mind will I dwell," or, "With that person of
   refined spirit," or, "With the man that has an eye to the beauties of
   color," or, "An ear to the harmonies of sound"--not a word of it. Some
   men think that genius makes men good and all who happen to excel are
   set down as the excellent of the earth. With God it is not so and it is
   not said so here. Neither is it written that God will dwell with
   persons of any special education. It is well to be educated, but a
   knowledge of Latin and Greek and Hebrew

   will not inscribe our names in the Book of Life. A man may be most
   illiterate and yet come under the description here given, for there is
   not a syllable about the learned and highly educated being the temples
   of God!

   Neither is there a syllable here said about outward religiousness. It
   does not say, "I will dwell with that man that attends a place of
   worship twice on Sunday, joins the Church, is baptized and receives the
   Lord's Supper." Nothing of the sort. The description of the spiritual
   temple runs not so. And then, I need you to notice, next, that the
   points which are selected as descriptive of God's temple are just such
   as are frequently despised. "Oh," the world says, "who wants to be
   poor?" "Poor in spirit," we reply. "Ah," says the world, "we don't need
   any of your poor-spirited creatures--we like a man full of courage and
   confidence--the self-made, self-reliant men. Poor in spirit, indeed!

   "And," says the world, "We find the contrite very dull company.
   Broken-hearted people are not the sort we love to associate with." Oh,
   no--what in their account can be the value of contrition? And as for
   trembling at God's Word, why you know it was because the Society of
   Friends were accustomed to speak much of this and say that they
   trembled at God's Words that they called them Quakers, thus turning
   their good confession into a term of derision and reproach! And
   nowadays if a man is very reverent towards the Word of God and very
   desirous to obey the Lord's commands in everything, people say, "He is
   very precise," and they shun him. Or, with still more acrimony they
   say, "He is very bigoted. He is not a man of liberal spirit." And so
   they cast out his name as evil.

   Bigotry, in modern parlance, you know, means giving heed to old truths
   in preference to novel theories. And a liberal spirit, nowadays, means
   being liberal with everything except your own money--liberal with God's
   Law, liberal with God's doctrine, liberal to believe that a lie is a
   truth, that black is white and that white may occasionally be black.
   That is liberal sentiment in religion--the Broad Church school--from
   which may God continually deliver us, for there is something true in
   the world, after all, and we shall get wrong in heart and rotten at the
   core if we think there is not! Only God is pleased to say that the man
   who trembles at His Word, the man of broken heart, the man who is poor
   in spirit is such an one as He will look--these are His temples--these,
   and these only, the men in whom He will dwell!

   And I am so thankful for this, beloved Friends, because this is a state
   which, through God's Grace, is attainable by all here whom the Lord
   shall call. Oh, if the Lord said He dwelt in the hearts of the great,
   there would not be much hope for some of us! Or if He said He dwelt
   with the refined and well-instructed we might never have received a
   visit from Him! But if it is with the poor, happy is it for us, as you
   see it is easier to grow poor than rich--and God, by His Grace, can
   soon make us poor in spirit!

   If He dwells with the contrite, why should not I be among the contrite?
   And if He dwells with those that tremble at His Word--well, that is not
   a very high degree of Grace--surely through His love I may get to that
   and God may come and dwell with me and make me to rejoice in His
   company. For, Beloved, these evidences which are here put down are such
   as belong to the very least of the saints. If the Lord had said He
   dwelt with those that had full assurance, it would shut many of us out.
   If the Lord said He dwelt with those who had attained to the higher
   life and walked habitually with Him, that might shut us out, too. But,
   oh, how condescendingly He has put it--with the poor, the contrite and
   those that tremble at His Word!

   Here is God's architecture! Here is His cathedral! Here are His
   tabernacles in which He dwells--the poor, the contrite, and the
   trembling heart! Let us thank God that these three marks are what they
   are. It is consoling to our spirits that they do not shut us out of
   hope. Note these three marks one by one. God will look to the poor,
   that is, those who are destitute of all merit--who have no good works,
   who have spent the last rusty birthing of their boasted merit--who have
   nothing to rely upon of their own.

   Dear Brother, are you emptied clean out of everything you could rely
   upon? You are the man with whom God would dwell! Devoid of all
   strength, as well as of all merit, do you feel, "I cannot do what I
   ought to do in the future any more than I did in the past"? Do you feel
   that even your repentance must be God's gift and faith must come from
   Him? Do you feel that you lie like a dead man at His feet and, if
   saved, salvation must be all of Grace from first to last? Oh, dear
   Brother, give me your hand, for you are one of those in whose hearts
   God will dwell! And are you now emptied of all wisdom? Once you did
   account yourself to know everything, but now you are willing to sit on
   the lowest form in God's school, to be taught as a little child
   everything by the great Master.

   Oh, what a mercy it is to be made to feel one's self a fool, an utter
   fool--weak, feeble, dead, hopeless, helpless and lost! Oh, if the Lord
   has brought you there, dear Friends, sorrowful as your condition may
   seem to yourself, it is full of

   the brightest hope, for God has said He will look to him that is poor!
   Now, why does God come to the poor? Why, because there is room for Him
   there! Other hearts are full. These hearts are empty and God comes in.
   God will never come to a heart that is full of self-righteousness--or,
   if He comes, it will be to empty that heart--and make it poor in
   spirit. But when He once has made the heart empty and waste and
   desolate, then He comes and makes the wilderness to rejoice and the
   desert to blossom as a rose! I trust that some of you who are poor in
   spirit are picking up crumbs of comfort from this precious text.

   The next word is, "the contrite"--"of a contrite spirit"--that is, the
   man that feels his sin and hates it, that mourns that he should have
   rebelled against God and desires to find mercy. Now, God will come to
   such because there is purity in that heart. "Oh," says the contrite
   spirit, "I do not see any purity in my heart." No, but what do you see,
   then? "Oh, I see all manner of sin and evil and I hate myself because
   it is so." There is purity in that hatred! At any rate there is a
   something that God loves in that hatred, in your soul, of the sin that
   is within and He will come to you, for there is something there that is
   akin to His own holiness--He has put it there.

   You have begun to appeal for mercy. Oh, then, God's mercy will come,
   for mercy delights to visit misery! Mercy is always at home where there
   is a sinner confessing sin--

   "Mercy is welcome news, indeed,

   To those that guilty stand.

   Wretches, that feel what help they need,

   Will bless the helping hand.

   We all have sinned against our God,

   Exception none can boast.

   But he that feels the heaviest load

   Will prize forgiveness most."

   Besides, I know what will happen to you if you are of a broken
   spirit--you will value the society of Jesus. None love Christ so well
   as those that hate themselves for their sin. He that strips himself of
   all pretensions of his own will admires much and longs most
   passionately for the robe of righteousness which Christ provides.

   Beloved, because Christ is in you, a contrite soul--and you prize
   Him--this is one reason why God will come and dwell in you, for He
   needs no better company than Christ, His Son. Besides, your contrition
   of heart is the work of the Holy Spirit and where the Holy Spirit is at
   work, there God the Father loves to be! Don't you see that your
   contrition comes from the Spirit and your hope comes from the Son?
   Should not the Father come and dwell where His Spirit and where His Son
   already are? Be of good cheer, you cast down spirit, though every hope
   is broken and all your joy is dead--though you are brought very low,
   even to the extreme of doubting and fear--yet God has said it and He
   will keep His Word! He will come and dwell with those that are of a
   contrite spirit.

   The third word describes the temples yet more graphically--God will
   dwell with those that tremble at His Word. The man who is in a right
   state for God to dwell in trembles at God's Word because he believes it
   to be all true. If you doubt God's Word, between God and you there is a
   disagreement, a rupture, a quarrel--and God never will dwell in your
   soul. The trembler believes it to be all true and therefore he
   trembles. As he reads the Law, he says, "Your holy Law condemns me." He
   trembles at the threats of that Law for he feels he deserves them to be
   fulfilled on him. And when the Gospel comes and he receives it and
   rejoices in it he trembles at it--trembles at the love that looked upon
   him from all eternity--trembles that he should have nailed the Savior
   to the Cross!

   He trembles lest, after all, he should not be washed in the precious
   blood and he trembles after he is washed, lest he should not walk as
   blood-washed spirits should! These things are so high and sublime that
   he trembles beneath the burden of the Glory that he should receive! He
   trembles at the promise. "O Lord," he says, "let that sweet promise be
   mine," and he trembles lest he should miss it. He trembles at a precept
   lest he should misunderstand it, or not carry it out in a proper
   spirit. He is not like some, who say of certain precepts, "These are
   non-essential." "No," says the man of God, "I tremble at what you call
   a non-essential precept." If there is an ordinance ordained of God in
   Scripture and others slight it and say it is trivial, the man of God,
   says, "No, to me it is not trivial or unimportant. Anything that is in
   the Word of God and has the stamp of His approval, I tremble at."

   Someone once said to an old Puritan, "Some have made such tears in
   their conscience that you might make a little nick in yours. There is
   no reason why you should be so precise." But the other replied, "I
   serve a precise God." The God

   of Israel is a jealous God and His people know it. Moses was not
   permitted to enter Canaan for such a sin that you can hardly tell what
   it was--it seemed such a little one--yet he was shut out from the land
   of promise for it. God is more particular with those that are near to
   Him than with others. He is jealous with those that are at Court and he
   that leans his head on His bosom must expect the great Savior to be
   stricter with him than with any of those that are outside.

   Oh, Beloved, we must tremble at God's Word! We know we shall enter
   Heaven if we are Believers in Jesus, but we should tremble lest by any
   means we should mar our evidence of being inheritors of that goodly
   land. We know the love of God will never cast us away. We know the
   eternal love will never reject those it has chosen. But we should
   tremble lest we abuse that Grace. The more gracious the doctrines we
   hear and believe, the more we should tremble lest we sin against such a
   gracious God. We go through the world trembling and rejoicing. Now, if
   this is our condition, God says He will dwell with us!

   Oh, there are some of you dear hearts here that could not lay hold on
   this text anywhere except on this particular point. You can say, "Oh,
   Sir, I do tremble under God's Word. How often under a sermon you make
   me quiver from head to foot. And, when I am reading the Bible alone, I
   am melted into tears with it." Dear Brothers and Sisters, I am glad of
   that, I am glad of that--for a holy trembling is a sign of life! If you
   can quiver before the eternal majesty of God's voice, you are not
   altogether like the sticks and stones--not altogether dead in
   trespasses and sins. See, then, (for I will say no more upon it), what
   a blessed thing it is to be of this character, that God will dwell with
   us.

   III. I will close with this--Those that are of this character secure A
   GREAT BLESSING. God says He will look to them. That means several
   things. It means consideration. Whoever and whatever God may overlook,
   He will look upon a broken heart. This means approbation. Though God
   does not approve of the most costly building that is meant to be His
   house, He approves everyone that trembles at His Word. It means
   acceptance. Though God will accept no materialism in His worship, He
   will accept the sighs and cries of a poor broken spirit. It means
   affection. Be they who they may that do not receive God's help,
   contrite spirits shall have it. And it means benediction. "To this man
   will I look."

   I was reading the other day in an old author the following reflection
   as near as I can remember it. He said, "There may be a child in the
   family that is very weak and sickly. There are several others that are
   also out of health, but this one is sorely ill. And the mother says to
   the nurse, 'You shall see after the rest, but to this one I will
   look--even to this one that is so sorely sick and so exceedingly
   weak.'" So God does not say to His angels, "You shall look after the
   poor and the contrite, I have other things to do," but He says, "Go you
   about, you spirits, be you ministering spirits to those that are strong
   and bear them up in your hands lest they dash themselves against a
   stone.

   "But here is a poor soul that is very poor--I will look after him
   Myself. Here is a poor spirit that is very broken--I will bind that one
   up Myself. Here is a heart that trembles very much at My Word--I will
   comfort that heart Myself." And so He that knows the number of the
   stars and calls them all by name--He heals the broken in heart--He
   binds up their wounds. Out of special love to them He will do it
   Himself.

   I should like to be the means of comfort to some contrite spirit
   tonight. Very likely the Lord will say, "No, I will not make you the
   means of it." Very well, Master--be it as You will--You will do it
   Yourself. When we write books and tracts, we wish that we might comfort
   the desponding. Very likely the Lord will say, "No, no." What should we
   reply to this? "Lord, You can do it better than we can. There are some
   sores we cannot reach, some diseases that laugh at our medicines, but,
   good Lord, You can do it." And the Lord will come to you, poor
   broken-down in heart--He will come! Don't despair! Though the devil
   says you will never be saved, don't believe it! And above all, turn
   your eyes, full of tears, to Christ on the Cross and trust Him.

   There is salvation in no other, but there is salvation in the crucified
   Redeemer--

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

   There is life at this moment for you!

   Then look, Sinner--look unto Him and be sa ved!

   Look unto Him who was nailed to the tree.

   It is not your tears of repentance or prayers,

   But the blood that atones for the soul.

   On Him, then, who shed it-- believing, at once,

   Your weight of iniquities roll.

   His anguish of soul on the Cross have you seen?

   His cry of distress have you heard?

   Then why, if the terrors of wrath He endured,

   Should pardon, to you, be deferred?

   We are healed by His stripes--

   Would you add to the word?

   And He is our righteousness made:

   The best robe of Heaven He bids you put on!

   Oh, could you be better arrayed?

   Then doubt not your welcome, since God has declared,

   There remains no more to be done!

   That once in the end of the world He appeared

   And completed the work He begun." Look to Jesus, and rest your soul at
   the foot of His cross and if you don't get life today, or tomorrow, you
   will get it! And if you have not joy and peace in believing for many a
   day, it will come--it must come--for God will sooner or later look to
   him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and that trembles at His
   Word.

   Now, many will go away and laugh, and say, "Well, I understand nothing
   about that." Poor heart! The more's the pity! If you live and die not
   knowing this, your lot will be worse than if you had never been born!
   The Lord have mercy on you! Though your pocket is lined with gold and
   your back covered with the finest clothes and though your house is full
   of splendid furniture and children on your knee, God have mercy on you
   if you have never known what a contrite spirit means! For, as the Lord
   lives, a terrible end will be yours--an end without end, forever and
   forever!

   But, and if I speak to the poorest of the poor who came in here though
   they thought their clothes were not fit for decent company and though
   they have not a home to go to tonight--and though they have not any
   comfort of conscience by reason of sin. Or, if I speak to such as have
   many creature comforts, but no comfort in spirit because you are
   pressed down by guilt--bless the Lord as you listen to the proclamation
   of His tender mindfulness of your low estate--for the message has come
   and Jesus is come to set free the captive, to open blind eyes and
   recover the lost!

   "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
   Jesus came into the world to save sinners." May you find salvation in
   Him, for His love's sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Thorn in the Flesh

   (No. 1084)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, DECEMBER 8, 1872

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of
   the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the
   messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above
   measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might
   depart from me. And He said unto me, My Grace is sufficient for you:
   for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore,
   will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may
   rest upon me." 2 Corinthians 12:7,8,9.

   MANY persons have a morbid desire to roll up the curtain and gaze upon
   the secret lives of eminent personages. Paragraphs detailing the
   private habits of public men are delicacies for such minds. Books
   stuffed with idle gossip and mere trash are sure of a wide circulation
   if they tell how princes ate, how warriors drank, how philosophers
   slept, or how senators arranged their hair. And now we are able to
   gratify curiosity and yet minister to edification--for we have unveiled
   before us a portion of the secret life of Paul, the great Apostle of
   the Gentiles.

   We may not only see his bed-chamber, but learn the Apostle's visions!
   We may not only see his private infirmities, but learn the cause of
   them. Let us not, however, be actuated by so low a motive as mere
   curiosity while we gaze upon the open secret. Let us remember that the
   Apostle never intended to amuse the curious when he penned these words,
   but he wrote them for a practical purpose. Let us read them with a
   desire to be instructed by them and may the Holy Spirit teach us to
   profit.

   This record was not sent to us merely that we should know that this
   eminent servant of Christ had abundant revelations or that he suffered
   a thorn in the flesh--it was written for our profit. One excellent end
   that may be answered by this narrative lies upon the very surface. We
   are plainly taught how mistaken we are when we set the eminent saints
   of the olden times upon a platform by themselves, as though they were a
   class of super-human beings. Because we fall so far short of them we
   excuse our indolence by conceiving them to be of a superior nature to
   ourselves so that we cannot be expected to attain to their degree of
   Divine Grace. We elevate them upon a niche out of the way so that they
   may not rebuke us, thus rendering them a homage which they never sought
   and denying them a usefulness which they always coveted.

   As we never try to fly because we have no angelic wings, so we do not
   aspire to supreme holiness because we imagine that we have not
   Apostolic advantages. Indeed, this is a very injurious idea and must
   not be tolerated. What the ancient saints were, we may be! They were
   men of like passions with ourselves and therefore are most fit and
   practical examples for us. The Spirit of God which was in them is in
   all Believers and He is by no means straitened! Their Savior is our
   Savior--His fullness is the fullness out of which all of us have
   received. Let us put far away from us every notion of separating the
   holy men of former days from ourselves, as if they were a saintly caste
   to be admired at a distance but not associated with as comrades.

   They fought the common fight and won by the strength available to all
   Believers--let us esteem them as our Brethren--and with them pursue the
   sacred conflict in the name of the common Leader. Let us fix our eyes
   upon these companions of our warfare and, regarding them as a
   sympathetic cloud of witnesses, let us run as they ran that we may win
   as they won and may glorify God in our day and generation as they did
   in theirs!

   Paul, my Brothers and Sisters, doubtless enjoyed more revelations than
   we have done but then he had a corresponding thorn in the flesh. He
   rises above us, but he sinks with us, also, and so encourages us to
   emulate his rising. He was a good man but he was only a man! He was a
   saint, but he had the infirmities of sinners! He is our Brother Paul,

   though he is "not a whit behind the very chief of the Apostles." And as
   we read his experience this morning, I hope we shall be made to feel a
   fellowship with him and so be spurred on to imitate him.

   I. Our text suggests to us, first of all, A DANGER to which the Apostle
   was exposed--"Lest I should be exalted above measure." Upon that let us
   speak first. Here is a peril to which we are all exposed, more or less,
   but the Apostle Paul was especially liable to it because of his
   peculiar circumstances. He had been caught up into the third Heaven--
   secret things which had not been seen before were laid bare before his
   gaze. Nor were his eyes, alone, filled--his ears, also, were satisfied
   for he heard words which it was not possible for him to repeat and
   which, could he have repeated, it would not have been expedient for him
   even to whisper in the unpurified ears of mankind.

   He had been taken into the innermost part of the third Heaven--into
   that secret Paradise where Christ dwells with His perfected saints! He
   had entered into the nearest communion with God possible to a man while
   yet in this life. Should he not feel somewhat exalted? Surely
   exultation must fill that man's bosom who has been brought within the
   veil to see his God and to hear the unutterable harmonies! It was
   natural that he should be exalted and it was not unnatural that he
   should stand in danger of being exalted above measure! Devout
   exaltation very rapidly degenerates into self-exaltation. When God
   lifts us up, there is only one step further--namely our lifting up
   ourselves--and then we fall into serious mischief, indeed.

   I wonder how many among us could bear to receive such revelations as
   Paul had? O God, You may well, in Your kindness, spare us such perilous
   favors! We have neither head nor heart to sustain so vast a load of
   blessing. Our little plant needs not a river to water its root--the
   gentle dew suffices--the flood might wash it away. How many has God
   blessed in the ministry for a little while, or, if not in the ministry,
   in some other form of service? But, alas, how soon have they swollen
   with conceit and have become too big for the world to hold them! Puffed
   up with vanity, the honor put upon them has turned their brain and they
   have gone astray into gross folly, sheer vanity, or defiling sin.

   Much branch and little root has brought down the tree! Wing without
   weight has made the bird the sport of the hurricane. Even Paul's boat,
   when it enjoyed so mighty a wind of Divine Revelation, was nearly upset
   and would have been totally wrecked had it not been for the Lord's
   casting in the sacred ballast of which we shall have to speak
   by-and-by, when we consider the preventative sorrow which saved Paul
   from being exalted above measure.

   Now, observe, if Paul was in this danger, we cannot hope to be free
   from it for he was eminently a holy man, eminently a humble man,
   eminently a wise man, eminently an experienced man. Though specially
   favored, he was one to whom the highest privileges were not such
   novelties as to intoxicate him with vanity. He had enjoyed earthly
   honors--he had once been a highly esteemed Rabbi among his fellow
   countrymen and this did not elevate him with pride. He counted all his
   honors but loss for Christ's sake. He afterwards became a well-beloved
   Apostle of Jesus and the narrative of his works and sufferings, which
   you have in the preceding chapter is far too long for us to give you
   even a digest of, yet he does not seem to have been exalted thereby.

   He achieved a thousand marvels of heroism and left them all behind him,
   pressing forward as though he had to the point done nothing! And when
   he had done all, he counted himself to be less than the least of all
   saints and the very chief of sinners! He was a man by no means childish
   and vain, but a man of great mind, deep comprehension and profound
   knowledge. He was not readily carried away by approbation or puffed up
   with self-esteem. If he knew much, yet he knew also that he knew only
   in part--and if his judgment was very acute, as it certainly was, yet
   he often cried, "Oh, the depths!" His was a splendid, well-balanced
   intellect sanctified by the Grace of God. Yet, for all that he was in
   danger of being exalted above measure--how much more likely, then, are
   we who have not his judgment, who have not his knowledge, have never
   occupied so lofty a station--and have never performed such mighty
   deeds? If so massive a pillar trembles, what peril surrounds poor reeds
   shaken of the wind?

   Observe that in Paul's case the favor which threatened to intoxicate
   him with pride was one which did not operate in the common coarse way
   in which temptations to vanity usually assail mankind. The most of men
   who are exalted above measure are puffed up with the approbation of
   their fellow men--they love flattery, they court esteem--and admiring
   words are the very food of their souls! But Paul's gifts from Heaven
   were not things which were likely to excite the high esteem of his
   fellow men. It is probable that had he spoken to his fellow disciples
   and said, "I have enjoyed revelations," they would have doubted his
   statement or have attached but small importance to it. And had he
   spoken to the outside mass of Jews and heathens upon the subject, he
   would have become more than ever the subject of their ridicule.

   What would have excited more the laughter of the Greek, or the sneer of
   the Roman, or the wrath of the Jew than to hear that Paul, the tent
   maker, had entered the invisible world and heard words which it was not
   lawful for him to utter? Brothers and Sisters, you thus see that our
   Apostle was not tempted with the common, vulgar temptation of adulation
   and flattery. His soul would easily have risen superior to so gross an
   assault and he would have trod down the evil like the mire in the
   streets. No, the temptation was more subtle and more adapted to the
   noble caliber of the man. He was eminently a self-contained man, a man
   who had learned to think for himself and speak for himself and act for
   himself.

   And now the temptation was that he should say within his own soul, "I
   have seen for myself and with these eyes as others have not. I am a
   seeing man among blind dotards. What do these grovelers know? What are
   they, compared with me? I am the favorite of Heaven. I have been
   indulged by the Eternal with an admission into His secret audience
   chamber! I am something more than the rest of the sons of men." Paul
   cared nothing either for the frown or the smile of men. He was superior
   to all that, but his temptation lay within himself and hence it was the
   more difficult to grapple with.

   It may be, Brethren, that some of you, not having revelations, may
   possess a something within yourselves--a deep experience, a secret
   penetration into the marrow of the Divine Word--an intimate knowledge
   of some portion of Divine Truth. And though you would not care about
   the esteem of your fellow men, or be puffed up by praise, yet this
   personal consciousness that you have a something that others have
   not--this sense of superiority to them in some things may be to you a
   daily stumbling block--and create in you an overweening self-esteem.

   Now, let us observe that although in Paul's particular form of it, this
   temptation to exaltation above measure may not be very common nowadays,
   yet, in some shape or other, it waylays the best of Christians. The
   common run of Christians--and they are very numerous--may not be
   tempted in this way. But the choice spirits, the elect out of the
   elect, the elite of the saints of God are most likely to be molested by
   this tendency to be exalted above measure through the abundance of
   gracious revelations.

   Some real Christians have a constitutional tendency towards inordinate
   self-esteem. They never err through timidity, but they are very easily
   led into self-confidence. Every man loves the commendation of his
   fellow men--no man living is indifferent to it--

   "The proud to gain it toils on toils endure;

   The modest shun it but to make it sure." It is vain for us to boast of
   not caring about it. We do care about it and our duty is to keep that
   propensity in check. He who thinks he is humble is probably the
   proudest man in the place. But there are some men in whom
   self-consciousness is so uppermost and so evidently powerful that you
   can see it in almost everything they do. It is their struggle, if they
   are Christians, to keep it down--but it will come up in the form of
   being very easily annoyed because they are overlooked in some good
   work--or in being easily irritated because they fancy that somebody is
   opposing them when that somebody never thought of them.

   The too great prominence of the ego is the fault of many and the danger
   of all. Not a few have to battle with this all their lives and I should
   not wonder if they should be the persons who all their lives also will
   endure a thorn in the flesh. But there are others to whom the
   temptation comes in a more refined fashion. They have more knowledge
   than those among whom they dwell. I mean more Scriptural knowledge,
   more real spiritual knowledge and a deeper inward experience. And when
   they hear the prattle of young beginners, or listen to the fearful
   blunders of many would-be great saints, they cannot help smiling to
   themselves and, almost as naturally, they cannot help saying, "Thank
   God I know better than that."

   The temptation to be exalted above measure, in such a case, is near at
   hand. They have probably also enjoyed some success in sacred work while
   they have seen others idle, indifferent and consequently unsuccessful.
   Now, if God gives any man success in winning souls, I am certain that
   he will be lifted up to his own perdition unless a corresponding source
   of humiliation is opened at the same time. We must rejoice in spiritual
   success--it would be ungrateful not to do so--but we must be on our
   guard against boastfulness of spirit.

   My dear Friend, if the Lord shall make you the spiritual parent of a
   score of souls, will you feel no exultation within your spirit as you
   shall see these arrows in the hands of a mighty man--these spiritual
   children of your youth? Will you feel no elevation of joy? Shall the
   father's heart never leap at the sight of his offspring? We must and
   will rejoice, none shall hinder us of this sacred gladness! But, mark
   well that here will be our danger! Among the flowers of gratitude will

   grow the hemlock of pride! While our thoughts of thankfulness, like
   angels, adore the Lord, the Satan of self-exaltation will come in among
   them.

   It is most noteworthy that all the things of which we have spoken are,
   none of them, justifiable grounds for boasting, if such grounds can
   ever be. What if a Believer should have received more Divine
   illuminations than his fellow? Did not the Lord give them to him? Why
   should he boast as if he had not received the favors? Have his own
   reason, wit and effort worked these things? There are two beggars in
   the street. I give one a shilling and the other a penny--shall the man
   who obtains the shilling be proud and glory over his companion? If I
   give him the larger alms, irrespective of any consideration of merit
   but simply because I choose to do what I will with my own, shall he
   boast?

   Yet thus foolish are we! Generally the fondest boasting in this world
   is excited by accidental circumstances. If there is a boy in the school
   who is conceited, it is not the lad who has worked hard and long at his
   studies and so obtained a distinguished position--no, the young boaster
   is generally a youthful genius who has great readiness at his tasks and
   is as lazy as he is gifted! You will not often find a man assume great
   airs who has achieved a great invention and blessed his fellow men by a
   valuable discovery. But lofty is the carriage of the brainless
   aristocrat who owes his position to the accident of his birth! If we
   must glory, let us wait till we can do so legitimately--the bounties of
   Sovereign Grace are prostituted when they become the subjects of pride.
   Shall Jesus, who had all things in Himself, be lowly and shall we, who
   owe all to His charity, be lifted up? God forbid.

   Beloved, above all things it is dangerous for a Christian to be exalted
   above measure, for if he is he will rob God of His Glory and this is a
   high crime! The Lord has said, "I will not give My Glory to another."
   To give God's Glory to graven images is bad, but to usurp it for
   ourselves is by no means better. I see no difference between the
   worship of a god of stone and the worship of a god of flesh. Self is as
   degrading an idol as Juggernaut or Kalee. God will not honor that man
   who retains honor for himself. The meek He will exalt, the proud He
   will abase. Self-exaltation is equally evil to the Church with which
   the man associates and the more prominent he is, the more pestilent is
   his sin.

   Suppose Paul to have been lifted up--he would have been of small use to
   the Gentile Church afterwards. He would have sought himself and not the
   things of Christ! And very soon Paul would have become an object of
   parties and the leader of a sect--the cry of, "I am of Paul," would
   have been sweet music to him and he would in all ways have encouraged
   those who adopted it--and a schism would have been the result. Had he
   been exalted above measure, he might have become a rival rather than a
   servant of Jesus. He might have disdained his lowly office and have
   aspired to lord it over God's heritage. We might have heard of him as a
   right reverend father in God rather than as the servant of Jesus Christ
   and His Church.

   It would have been bad for ungodly sinners, too, for a proud Paul would
   never have gone from city to city to be persecuted for preaching the
   Gospel. Proud preachers win not men's hearts. He who is exalted in
   himself will never exalt the Savior and he who does not exalt the
   Savior will never win the souls of men. It would have been worst of all
   for the Apostle, himself, for pride goes before destruction and a
   haughty spirit before a fall. We should have had in Paul's history an
   awful instance of how men may be like Lucifer, Son of the Morning, for
   brightness and yet may fall like Lucifer, into the blackness of
   darkness forever.

   If God had not taken Paul in hand, the danger with which he was
   surrounded would have been fatal to him. To God's Glory, to himself, to
   sinners, to the Gospel, to his own salvation it would have been a
   danger, indeed. Thus have I spoken upon the peril.

   II. Now, secondly, let us consider THE PREVENTATIVE. Paul says, "There
   was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet
   me, lest I should be exalted above measure." Now, note every word here.
   First, he says, "There was given to me." He reckoned his great trial to
   be a gift. It is well put. He does not say, "There was inflicted upon
   me a thorn in the flesh," but, "There was given to me." This is holy
   reckoning.

   O child of God, among all the goods of your house, you have not one
   single article that is a better touch of Divine Love to you than your
   daily cross. You would gladly be rid of it, but you would lose your
   choicest treasure if it were withdrawn. Blessed be God for the crucible
   and the furnace! "There was given to me a thorn in the flesh," Rich
   Grace bestowed the blessing. At first the Apostle may not have seen his
   thorn to be a gift, but afterwards, when experience had taught him
   patience, he came to look at that sharp, pricking, festering torment as
   a gift from his heavenly Father.

   You, O tried one, will come to do the same one of these days. When the
   vessel first was launched upon the river and was about to cross the
   sea, it felt itself light and airy and ready to bound over the waves.
   It longed for a voyage across the Atlantic that it might fly like a sea
   bird over the crest of the billows. But suddenly, to her sorrow, the
   gallant ship was stopped in her career and moored close by a bank of
   sand and shingle and men began to cast stones and earth into her. Then
   the boat murmured, "What? Am I to be weighed down and sunk low in the
   water with a cargo of mire and dirt? What a hindrance to my speed! I
   thought I could fly just now like a sea bird--am I to be weighted till
   I am like a log?"

   It was even so, for had not the vessel been thus ballasted, she had
   soon been wrecked and had never reached the desired haven. That ballast
   was a gift, a gift as much as if it had been bars of gold or ingots of
   silver. So your trials, your troubles and your infirmities are gifts to
   you, O Believers, and you must regard them as such.

   The Apostle says, "There was given to me a thorn." Note that--"a
   thorn." If the English word expresses the exact meaning--and I think it
   is pretty near it--you need not be at a loss to understand the simile.
   A thorn is but a little thing and indicates a painful, but not a
   killing trial--not a huge, crushing, overwhelming affliction, but a
   common matter-- none the less painful, however, because common and
   insignificant. A thorn is a sharp thing which pricks, pierces,
   irritates, lacerates, festers and causes endless pain and
   inconvenience. And yet it is almost a secret thing--not very apparent
   to anyone but the sufferer.

   Paul had a secret grief somewhere, I know not where, but near his
   heart, continually wherever he might be, irritating him--perpetually
   vexing him and wounding him. A thorn, a commonplace thing such as might
   grow in any field and fall to any man's lot. Thorns are plentiful
   enough and have been since Father Adam scattered the first handful of
   the seed. A thorn--nothing to make a man unbearable or give him the
   dignity of unusual sorrow. Some men boast about their great trials and
   there is something in feeling that you are a man greatly afflicted. But
   a thorn could not drive even this wretched satisfaction. It was not a
   sword in the bones, or a galling arrow in the loins, but only a thorn,
   about which little could be said.

   Everyone knows, however, that a thorn is one of the most wretched
   intruders that can molest our foot or hand. Those pains which are
   despised because they are seldom fatal, are frequently the source of
   the most intense anguish-- toothache, headache, earache--what greater
   miseries are known to mortals? And so with a thorn. It sounds like a
   nothing--"it can be easily removed with a needle"--so those say who
   feel it not and yet how it will fester! And if it remains in the flesh
   it will generate inconceivable torture. Such was Paul's trial--a secret
   smarting, incessantly irritating, something--we do not know what.

   It was a thorn "in the flesh"--in the flesh. He was not tempted in the
   spirit--it was in the flesh. I suppose the evil had an intimate
   connection with his body. Many as the leaves of autumn have been the
   guesses of learned men as to what Paul's thorn in the flesh was. Almost
   every disease has had its advocates. I was particularly pleased to find
   that Rosenmuller thought it to be the gout [Brother Spurgeon suffered
   from severe gout]--but then other critics think it to be weak eyesight,
   stammering, or a hypochondriac tendency. Richard Baxter, who suffered
   from a very painful disorder which I need not mention, thought that the
   Apostle was his fellow sufferer. One Divine is of the opinion that Paul
   endured the earache and I generally find that each expositor has
   selected that particular thorn which had pierced his own bosom.

   Now I believe that the Apostle did not tell us what his peculiar
   affliction was, that we may everyone feel that he had sympathy with
   us--that we may everyone believe that ours is no new grief. It was a
   trial mainly of the body and from the use of the term, "flesh," rather
   than, "body," it would seem that it excited in the sufferer some
   fleshly temptation. It may not be so, but still, the writer is so
   accustomed to associate with, "the flesh," the idea of sin, that I
   think it no idle conjecture that some temptation which the good man
   considered he had effectually overcome, fell upon him by reason of his
   bodily ailment. It became, therefore, to him not merely a thorn in his
   flesh, but, "a messenger of Satan," tempting him to an evil which he
   abhorred and which for many a day had been so trampled down by his
   nobler nature that he almost thought such a propensity extinct within
   him.

   Then he adds, "The messenger of Satan." Not Satan--it was not a great
   enough temptation for that. It was a "messenger of Satan"--one of
   Satan's errand boys, nothing better--a suggestion from an inferior evil
   spirit. He does not set it down to the Great Master Spirit, but to a
   mere messenger of the Prince of Darkness. It was not intended by God
   that Satan should, on this occasion, come forth against Paul, for such
   an encounter might not have humbled him. It

   is a grand thing to fight Satan face to face and foot to foot--a stern
   joy fills a brave man's heart when he feels that before him stands a
   foeman worthy of his steel!

   A combat with the arch-enemy might not, therefore, have humbled Paul.
   But to be beset by a mean, sneaking devil--not a great, grand fiend,
   but a mere lackey of Hell and to be troubled and tormented by so mean
   an adversary-- this was galling and humiliating to the last degree! It
   was, therefore, all the better for the purpose for which it was sent,
   namely to prevent his being lifted up. "What?" Paul seemed to say, "Am
   I to fight with such a contemptible temptation as this? Am I, who have
   built up the Church and seen the Lord and been caught up into the third
   Heaven--am I to do battle with this miserable, base, despicable
   propensity which I thought I had done with these 14 years ago?"

   Yes, so it was, the Lord had sent "a messenger of Satan" to buffet him.
   And that word, "buffet." Note that--to cuff him. That is it. Not to
   fight with him with the sword--that is manly, soldierly work--but to
   buffet him as masters used to cuff their slaves, or as schoolteachers
   box the ears of boys. Paul seems to feel the degradation of being
   buffeted. "I that would do battle with Satan and put on the helmet of
   hope, the breastplate of confidence and go forth against all the powers
   of Hell--am I to be cuffed as though I were a slave and chastened as
   though I were a boy? Must I be smitten by these vain and wretched
   temptations which even in my spiritual youth I was able to subdue?"

   Every part of the process tended to lower him and it was intended to do
   so, lest he should be exalted above measure. You see, Brothers and
   Sisters, that this preventative was well adapted to work out its
   design, for assuredly it would recall the Apostle from ecstasies and
   excitements and make him feel that he was in the body after all. He
   said once, "Whether in the body, or whether out of the body, I cannot
   tell," but when the thorn in the flesh was tearing him he soon settled
   that question! This made him feel he was a man, even as others. He had
   dreamed, perhaps, that he was growing very angelic, but now he feels
   intensely human. This made him feel he was only a man--though he was
   filled so full with God, still he was only a man--and could be filled
   as full with the devil, too, if deserted by Divine Grace.

   This made him feel that he was a weak man, for he had to do battle with
   base temptations--temptations that seemed not worth fighting with. He
   had to be cuffed and buffeted in a small way, like a babe in Grace.
   This made him know that he was a man in danger and needed to fly to God
   for refuge--for here he was, ready to be exalted above measure even by
   Divine blessings--and ready to be provoked into sin by the mere
   buffetings of an evil spirit! From all this I gather that the worst
   trial a man may have may be the best possession he has in this
   world--that the messenger of Satan may be as good to him as his
   guardian angel!

   It may be that it is well for us to be buffeted of Satan as ever it was
   to be caressed of the Lord Himself! It may be essential to our soul's
   salvation that we should do business not only on deep waters, but on
   waters that cast up mire and dirt. The worst form of trial may,
   nevertheless, be our best present portion. I perceive, also, that the
   worst and deepest experience may only be the necessary complement of
   the highest and the noblest. I mean it may be necessary that if we are
   lifted up we should be cast down. It may only be part and parcel of the
   cry, "Nearer my God to You, nearer to You" that we should have to groan
   out, also, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the
   body of this death?" The two fit into each other like the pieces of a
   puzzle--they rise and fall like the scales of a balance--and without
   its fellow, either of them might be ruinous to us.

   Learn, also, that we must never envy other saints. If we hear Paul
   speak of his visions, let us recollect his thorn in the flesh. If we
   meet with a Brother who rejoices abundantly and whom God owns and
   blesses, let us not conclude that his pathway is all smooth. His roses
   have their thorns, his bees their stings. As for ourselves, let us
   never wish to be without our daily cross. The kite broke away from its
   string and instead of mounting to the stars it descended into the mire.
   The river grew weary of its restraining banks and longed to burst them,
   that it might rush on in the wild joy of freedom-- down went the
   embankments, the river became a flood--and carried destruction and
   desolation wherever it rushed.

   Unleash the coursers of the sun, and, lo, the earth is burned! Unbind
   the girdle of the elements and chaos reigns! Let us never desire to be
   rid of those restraints which God has seen fit to lay upon us--they are
   more necessary than we have ever dreamed of. Remember how the vine,
   when bound to the stake which upheld it, judged itself a martyr and
   longed to be free--but when it saw the wild vine at its feet, rotting
   in the dampness and pining amidst the heats and producing no fruit--it
   felt how necessary were its bonds if its clusters were ever to ripen.
   Be content, dear Brothers and Sisters, to keep the thorn in the flesh
   if it saves you from being exalted above measure!

   III. THE IMMEDIATE EFFECT OF THIS THORN UPON PAUL. First--it drove him
   to his knees. "For this

   thing I besought the Lord thrice." Anything is a blessing which makes
   us pray. This thorn compelled Paul to cry unto God and, having
   commenced to pray, he resorted to prayer again and again. "I besought
   the Lord thrice." It may be that this was the exact number of his
   special prayers on that point--it may, however, only intimate that he
   often cried to God for deliverance from this trouble. Yes, we may be
   lax in prayer when all things flow with even current, but we multiply
   prayers when trials increase.

   In this way Paul was kept from being proud. The revelations now seemed
   forgotten, for the thorn in the flesh was the more prominent thing of
   the two. Now he would not speak about visions and could not, for, when
   his tongue was tempted to move upon that subject, the thorn began to
   prick his side again. A man does not need to tell pretty stories when
   his head is aching or when sharp pains are goading him. Paul was not
   allowed to dazzle himself with the brightness which God had set before
   him. His thoughts were turned in another direction, yes, blessedly
   turned to the Mercy Seat, where he could get no evil but must derive
   much profit.

   He continued to pray till at last he received for an answer not the
   removal of the thorn, but the assurance, "My Grace is sufficient for
   you." God will always honor our prayers. He will either pay us in
   silver or in gold--and sometimes it is a golden answer to prayer to
   deny us our request and give us the very opposite of what we seek! If
   you were to tell your child that you would grant him anything he asked
   for, you would not intend by that that you would give him a poisonous
   drug if someone should delude him into the idea that it would be useful
   to him. You would mean that you would give your child all that was
   really good for him.

   God, therefore, knowing that this thorn in the flesh was a sacred
   medicine to Paul, would not take it away, even though most urgently
   requested to do so. Well does Ralph Erskine say of prayer--

   "I'm heard when answered soon or late, Yes, heard when I no answer get.
   Most kindly answered when refused And treated well when harshly used."
   So, though refused, Paul was answered for he got something better than
   the taking away of the thorn in the flesh--the result was that the
   Grace given him enabled him to bear the thorn and lifted him right
   above it--till he even rejoiced and gloried to think that he was
   permitted so to suffer. "Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in
   my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

   This is a grand thing! Suppose any person here is very poor and he has
   prayed to the Lord many a time to raise him above need and at last God
   has said, "My Grace is sufficient for you"? What more can he need? My
   dear Brother, my dear Sister, rejoice in poverty and thank God that you
   are poor! If the Lord is the better glorified thereby, be grateful for
   your low estate and say, "I have the honor to be permitted to glorify
   God in poverty." Perhaps it may be you are the subject of a painful
   bodily infirmity and you have prayed to have it removed--yet the Lord
   knows that your infirmity is for His glory and your good. Well, when He
   says, "My Grace is sufficient for you," accept and bear the trial not
   only with resignation but with acquiescence! Wish not to change your
   estate. Your heavenly Father knows best!

   IV. Now lastly, THE PERMANENT RESULT of this preventative upon Paul.
   For the present you see it kept him from being exalted, by making him
   pray and by leading him to receive more Grace--but permanently the
   remedy was very successful, for through the power of the Holy Spirit it
   kept him always humble. This thorn in the flesh made him humble in
   reference to his visions, for he became silent about them. Fourteen
   long years rolled away and the Apostle never told anybody that he had
   been caught up into the third Heaven.

   I gather from the way in which he puts it here that he never mentioned
   it to a soul. This was singular. Why, if I were caught up into the
   third Heaven I should tell you of it the first time I had the chance of
   addressing you! And I guarantee that most here would not be long before
   they would impart to their friends the blessed secret. The thorn in the
   flesh must have had a powerful effect upon the Apostle's mind when it
   led him to wrap up his treasure in his bosom and go through the world,
   nobody being any the wiser for all that he had seen. He was a humble
   man, indeed.

   When he did tell it, it was dragged out of him. He told it for a
   purpose. It was only because the Corinthians had denied his
   Apostleship, and said, "What does he know concerning Divine things?"
   that he felt bound to vindicate his character--otherwise he would not
   have told it. Notice how modestly he speaks of it--in such a way that
   it does not leave the impression on your mind that he was an eminently
   honored man through receiving the revelation. The

   impression received, rather, is how weak it was of Paul to be exalted
   above measure and how gracious it was of God to give him the thorn in
   the flesh to keep him where he should be!

   Observe that his way of telling the story is modest in its very form
   but it is especially humble in its spirit, for he takes us off from the
   idea of how gloriously God revealed Himself to Paul and makes us rather
   look at the weakness of the recipient of the revelation than at the
   great honor conferred by the revelation itself. It is no small matter
   when God sends a thorn in the flesh and it answers its end, for in some
   cases it does not. Without the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit
   thorns produce evil rather than good.

   In many people their thorn in the flesh does not appear to have
   fulfilled any admirable design at all--it has created another vice
   instead of removing a temptation. We have known some whose poverty has
   made them envious. We have known others whose sickness has rendered
   them impatient and petulant and others, again, whose personal infirmity
   has rendered them perpetually fretful and rebellious against God. O,
   dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus, let us labor against this
   with all our might and if God has been pleased to put a fetter upon us
   in any shape or fashion, let us ask Him not to allow us to make this
   the occasion for fresh folly, but, on the contrary, to bear the rod and
   learn its lessons! Pray that when we are afflicted we may grow in Grace
   and in likeness to our Lord Jesus and so bring more honor to His name.

   Does not this teach us all the solemn duty of being content whatever
   our lot may be--content without the revelation if we are without the
   thorn--content with the thorn if we have the revelation--content
   without either revelation or thorn so long as we may but have a humble
   hope in Jesus Christ our Savior? O, Beloved, what a happy people God's
   people are and ought to be when everything turns for their good--when
   even the thorn that was a curse becomes to them a blessing--and out of
   the lion comes forth honey!

   If the thorn is a blessing, what must the blessing itself, be? If the
   smarts of earth heal us, what will the joys of Heaven do for us? Let us
   be glad! Ours is a happy portion! Let us go on our way rejoicing that
   we are favored to possess Divine life and shoulder our cross
   cheerfully, for we shall soon, (ah, how soon!), wear our crown.

   The last thought of all is, what a sad thing it must be not to be a
   Believer in Jesus Christ because thorns we shall have if we are not in
   Christ, but those thorns will not be blessings to us. I understand
   drinking bitter medicine if it is to make me well. But who would drink
   wormwood and gall with no good result to follow? I can understand
   toiling if a wage is in prospect, but I cannot see the sense of toiling
   when there is no reward for it. Now, you who love not God, your lives
   are not all flowers and sunshine. It is not all music and dancing with
   you now. I know you have your cares and troubles. You have your thorns
   in the flesh and perhaps a great many of them--and you have no Savior
   to run to.

   You are like a ship in a storm and there is no harbor for you. You are
   as birds driven before the wind and you have no nests in which to
   shelter but must be driven forever before the blast of Jehovah's wrath.
   Consider this, I pray you-- meditate upon your condition and prospects
   and when you have done so, may your heart cry out--"I would gladly have
   God to be my Friend!" Remember that He who sent Paul thorns for his
   good once wore a crown of thorns Himself for the salvation of sinners!

   And if you will come and bow before Him as He wears that diadem and
   trust Him as the Son of God made flesh for sinners and bleeding and
   dying for them, you shall be saved this morning! Your sins, which are
   many, shall be forgiven you! And though I cannot promise you that you
   shall be without thorns as you live, I can promise you that your thorns
   shall be removed--they shall become to you a rich blessing which will
   be better, still. There is one thorn you shall never have if you
   believe in Jesus--the thorn of unforgiven sin--the fear of the wrath to
   come! You shall have the peace of God which passes understanding which
   shall keep your heart and mind by Christ Jesus. O, that some would
   trust in Jesus this morning! Go, Brothers and Sisters, and pray it may
   be so. The Lord grant it, for Christ's sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Dwell Deep, O Dedan!

   (No. 1085)

   DELIVERED

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Dwell deep, O inhabitants of Dedan." Jeremiah 49:8.

   WE do not quite know who these inhabitants of Dedan were, but in all
   probability they were some Arabian tribe or tribes. Perhaps they were
   descendants of Keturah. This Arabian tribe probably dwelt in the rock
   city of Petra and were mingled with the Edomites. The Prophet warned
   them that God was about to destroy the Edomites--"For I have sworn by
   Myself, says the Lord, that Bozrah shall become a desolation, a
   reproach, a waste and a curse; and all the cities thereof shall be
   perpetual wastes."

   And the text intends one of two things--either to inform these
   inhabitants of Dedan that, however deep in the cavernous rocks they
   should hide themselves, they would certainly be destroyed, or else it
   was a gracious warning to remove themselves from Edom, strike their
   tents, retreat into the depths of the wilderness and so escape from the
   invaders. I find the marginal reference of my Comprehensive Bible says,
   "This is an allusion to the custom of the Arabs who, when attacked by a
   powerful foe, withdrew into the wilderness. Always on their guard
   against tyranny, on the least discontent that is given them they pack
   up their tents, load their camels with them, ravage the country and,
   laden with plunder, they retire into the burning sands where none can
   pursue them, and so "dwell deep."

   We will take our text in the two senses I have indicated. "Dwell deep,
   O inhabitants of Dedan." This may be understood sarcastically and
   instructively--let us pray that to us, in both senses, it may be
   instructive. From ancient warnings let us gather present benefit.

   I. Let us take it SARCASTICALLY. It is as though the Prophet said to
   these Edomites and those that dwelt with them--"You think you never can
   be destroyed for your city is situated in a rocky region where a
   handful of men can hold the pass. You suppose that the mightiest armies
   will fail to conquer you and therefore you are very proud. But your
   pride is vain." "Your terribleness has deceived you and the pride of
   your heart, O you that dwell in the clefts of the rock, that hold the
   height of the hill: though you should make your nest as high as the
   eagle, I will bring you down from there, says the Lord."

   That Word has been terribly fulfilled, for the ancient rock city stands
   as a wonder to all travelers and when they ride through it, which is
   not often, for it is with great difficulty that you reach the place at
   all, they find the city standing, but the houses desolate and without
   inhabitants. Edom is a perpetual desolation because of her sins. Though
   they carved their houses into solid rock and their city seemed out of
   the spoiler's reach, God has laid His hands upon it and its life, as
   well as its beauty, is gone forever.

   Thus said the Lord and so it has come to pass, "also Edom shall be a
   desolation: everyone that goes by it shall be astonished and shall hiss
   at all the plagues thereof. As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah
   and the neighbor cities thereof, says the Lord, no man shall abide
   there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it." From the text I hear a
   cry, like the stern voice of Elijah, to every profane sinner who thinks
   that he will ultimately escape the wrath of God! You may dwell deep, O
   Transgressor, but God shall find you out. You say, "How shall He reach
   me?" The hand of Death has only to be stretched out and you are his
   captive at once!

   And a little thing will do it--the wind has but to pass over you and
   you are gone. A drop of blood may go the wrong way, a valve may refuse
   to open, a vessel may burst, a band may snap and there you lie, beneath
   God's avenging hands like a stag struck by the hunter. You are dust and
   a breath will scatter you to the four winds. Your spirit will be
   equally unable to escape from God. When it leaves this body, where will
   it fly? It finds itself naked--disembodied and straight before it is
   the Throne of God and the seat made ready for judgment!

   Devils shall drag the guilty spirit down to Hell and bind it with links
   of infinite despair. And when the Day of Judgment shall have fully come
   and the body shall have risen and the entire man shall stand before
   God, there will be no

   escape for the sinner! The eyes of Christ will look into the face of
   every man of woman born that shall stand upon the earth and upon the
   sea in the dread day of wrath--and that will ensure the eternal
   condemnation of all the unbelieving. No one will be in so far off a
   country that the Judge will not see him, nor will he be able to find a
   cavern or deep mine where he shall be able to conceal himself from the
   face of Him that sits upon the Throne.

   Then will the ungodly bitterly desire to dwell deep--they will call to
   the rocks to hide them and to the hills to fall upon them, but all in
   vain, for thus says the Lord--"Though they climb up to Heaven, there
   will I bring them down. And though they hide themselves in the top of
   Carmel, I will search and take them out from there. And though they are
   hid from My sight in the bottom of the sea, there will I command the
   serpent and he shall bite them." Darkness will not be able to conceal
   you! The glance of the Judge's eyes shall shrivel up the vesture of
   night and lay all things bare. O, guilty, Christless Soul, there is no
   escape from God! Though you dwell deep as Hell--even there would He
   find you!

   In the days of the old Roman empire the whole world was so completely
   under the Imperial sway that if a man once transgressed against Caesar
   he was imprisoned already, for all the nations were but one great Roman
   prison. If a man fled to the uttermost ends of the earth he would still
   find the Roman legionary to arrest and the Roman lictor to punish him.
   Behold the universe is thus surrounded by Jehovah's Imperial forces!
   Earth, Hell and Heaven are the Lord's! To where, then, can you flee? Do
   what you will, you are always before His eyes and always within reach
   of His hands. "Dwell deep, O inhabitants of Dedan," but in vain shall
   be all your craft and cunning concealments, for God will assuredly find
   you out.

   The same solemn warning may be applied to those who are self-righteous
   and who think that they are forming a hiding place for themselves. I
   would turn to them and say, "You think that you will save yourselves by
   your works. Ah, labor mightily, for hard must be your toil if you think
   to finish a righteousness of your own! In the very fire must you labor.
   You would make a dwelling for yourself as secure as the Rock of Ages?
   You had need build anxiously. I do not wonder that you are ill at ease.
   I wonder you have any peace, for the labors which you propose are more
   stupendous than those of Hercules! You would work miracles without the
   God of miracles! Vanity of vanities, all is vanity! Like Babel's tower,
   self-righteous efforts will end in failure and abide only as a monument
   of folly."

   I could gladly, if I were in that humor, speak to the self-righteous
   with bitter irony, as did Elijah to the false prophets when he said of
   Baal, "Cry aloud, for he is a god!" If, indeed, there is salvation by
   works, wear your fingers to the bone and your bodies to skeletons! Weep
   out your eyes with penances and furrow your backs with chastisements!
   You plow the desert sand and sow the salt sea. Plow on, sow on you
   fools and dotards! Rest in your sacraments and your priests! Be
   born-again in sprinkling! Be confirmed by Episcopal hands and then eat
   your bread god! Get up at the daily tinkling of your bell to adore the
   flour and water which you both worship and swallow!

   Get on your knees and repeat your Paternosters and your Ave Marias--and
   count your beads! Fast not only on Fridays, but on all days of the week
   and put on your hair shirts and wear a girdle of spikes. You had need
   do many such things, for no little matters will quiet conscience and
   give the soul peace. To fill a bottomless tub with water is nothing to
   the labor of self-salvation! To build a house with bubbles, twist a
   rope of sand or weld an anchor of spray were easier, by far. Fools! Can
   sinners keep a perfect Law? Can finite effort satisfy Infinite Justice?
   Can a bankrupt, without a penny, put his creditor under obligations?
   Can a vile worm deserve anything at the hands of the thrice Holy God?

   But, ah, 'tis folly altogether! "By the works of the Law there shall no
   flesh be justified." "By the Law is the knowledge of sin," and nothing
   more. All the efforts that a man can make to earn Heaven must end in
   disappointment and despair. "You must be born-again." You must believe
   in Christ Jesus! You must be saved through His great salvation. There
   is no hope for you, O you who are dwelling deep in your own works! It
   is a sorry, sorry dwelling. I will not use the text to you
   sarcastically, as I might, but I will rather say, flee from your good
   works as you would flee from your sins! Have no more confidence in your
   goodness than in your badness, for if you rely on what you do that is
   good, you will be as surely lost as if you had depended upon your sins.
   Whether the sand is white or red is small consequence-- in either case
   it is a bad foundation. You need a better basis, even that which was
   laid of old by God in the Covenant of Grace, even Christ Jesus, the
   Rock of our salvation!

   The same text, in the same way, might be applied to those who are
   hypocrites and are practicing secret sins while they yet wear the name
   of Christ and are numbered among His people. They maintain a creditable
   position in the Church and yet indulge privately in evil habits. This
   class is the great trial of the ministry and in every Church there are
   some of

   them. They profess to love the Lord Jesus but they are traitors in the
   camp. They are fair apples, but rotten at the core! Gilded cheats,
   painted shams, counterfeits, impostors! O, it is a horrible thing to
   find a man coming to the communion table who worships the bottle and
   goes to bed intoxicated. He talks about the love of Christ and yet he
   is a drunk! He partakes of the cup of the Lord and dotes upon the cup
   of devils!

   And there is another who is, perhaps, temperate in diet and liberal to
   the Church but, at the same time he is dishonest in his transactions
   abroad. He can never be trusted--he pays no one except by compulsion.
   He has no sense of honor and yet he has an uppermost seat in the
   synagogue. Nor is this all, for, alas, we have known some who could
   talk very loudly about what they knew of personal religion and Divine
   Grace, who at the same time were raking in the very lowest kennels of
   vice. How can I bear to think of such beings! O, Paul! I do not wonder
   at you, when I hear you say, "I now tell you, even weeping, that they
   are the enemies of the Cross of Christ."

   Such base deceivers are the enemies of the Cross of Christ above all
   others! The Trojans were safe inside and the legions of the Greeks
   could do them but little harm so long as they were outside the walls.
   But when the wooden horse was brought in with the Greeks concealed
   inside, the city was taken. The enemies inside the Church do her the
   most serious damage--she suffers most from those fearfully presumptuous
   sinners who are not satisfied with sinning in the King's kingdom but
   must sin in the King's palace--who dare to bring their filthinesses
   even to His own table and pollute it. If any of you who are hypocrites
   hope to escape, you need dwell deep, indeed!

   Where are the deep places which can afford refuge for religious
   pretenders? Where shall liars conceal themselves? O, Hypocrite! It may
   be you have planned your sin so cleverly that the wife of your bosom
   does not know it--your scheme is so admirably cunning that you carry
   two faces and yet no Christian sees other than that Christian mask of
   yours. Ah, Sir, you are a greater fool than I take you for if you think
   you can deceive your God! Your own conscience must be very uneasy.
   Hypocrites are the devil's martyrs--they endure a life-long martyrdom
   of constraint and fear.

   I have seen, when I was a boy, a juggler in the street throw up
   half-a-dozen balls, or knives and plates and continue catching and
   throwing them, and to me it seemed marvelous. But the religious juggler
   beats all others hands down! He has to keep up Christianity and
   worldliness at the same time and catch two sets of balls at once! To be
   a freeman of Christ and a slave of the world at the same time must need
   fine acting. One of these days you, Sir Juggler, will make a slip with
   one of the balls and your game will be over. A man cannot always keep
   it up and play the game so cleverly at all hours-- sooner or later he
   fails and then he is made a hissing and a by-word and becomes ashamed,
   if any shame is left in him.

   O, "dwell deep, you inhabitants of Dedan" if you think to escape from
   God's eyes and from the revealing power of His Providence. Better were
   it for you to come right out and throw away your cloaks and be
   deceivers no longer. Cast off your double-mindedness. "Cease to do
   evil, learn to do well," for it is time to seek the Lord and may God
   grant you His effectual Grace that you may do so at once--before He
   condemns you to the lowest Hell.

   II. But now we will use the text INSTRUCTIVELY, in which view the first
   and natural sense would be that the Prophet warns the tribe of Dedan,
   who had come to live among the Edomites, to go away from them and dwell
   in the depths of the wilderness so that when the destroyer came they
   might not participate in Edom's doom. It was the warning voice of
   mercy, separating its chosen from among the multitude of the condemned.

   Now this suggests to me one observation--The people of God, like the
   tribes of Dedan, to some extent dwell in Edom. Your business, your
   duty, is to come out from among them. "Be you separate and touch not
   the unclean thing." I often marvel how some who really love the Lord
   and believe His Truth, can put up with the errors of the Churches with
   which they are connected. There are Churches which preach doctrine that
   is far other than the Gospel of Christ--such, for instance, as the
   doctrine that unconscious infants are made members of Christ and
   children of God by the sprinkling of a little water!

   God will plague such a Church as surely as He is God! Come out of her,
   my people, that you be not partakers of her plagues! I love the saints
   in the Church of England but I marvel at their abiding in such company!
   It is our duty to flee as far from error as possible and enter into no
   confederacy with falsehood. There are Nonconformist Churches where the
   Gospel is not preached and intellect is put in the place of faith. I
   charge you, separate yourselves from such! What fellowship has light
   with darkness? How can you love the Lord and be in league with those
   who despise His Word? While some cry out for unity, I would say a word
   for the Truth of God. Unity, indeed! What have we to do with that while

   Ritualism and Rationalism with their abominations defile the land? I
   dare no more be a member of a Church which does not hold the pure Truth
   of God in the love of it, than I dare join a band of pirates!

   Our Lord entered into no covenant with Scribe and Pharisee, Sadducee or
   Herodian, but remained "holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from
   sinners." Better go to Heaven alone than to Hell in company! Better be
   true to God, with Abdiel, "faithful among the faithless found," than
   win the applause of the crowd by great liberality and equal
   inconsistency. More important still, however, is the separation of
   every Christian from worldly habits, customs and ways. Wherever you
   are, dear Friend, though you must be in the world, take care that you
   are not of it. "Come you out from among them: be you separate, says the
   Lord, touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you, and will be a
   Father unto you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord
   Almighty."

   It is only in the lonely path of the true disciple of Christ who
   follows the Lamb where ever He goes, that you can realize your adoption
   and cry, "Abba, Father." Come out from the world--confess yourself to
   be on the Lord's side and then your fellowship with God shall be sweet
   beyond degree! Range yourself under the Divine banner and by God's
   Grace remain a separatist from the world until life's latest hour. So
   shall you, like Abraham, be a sojourner with God. "Dwell deep, O
   inhabitants of Dedan." Get away from the world's customs and sins and
   above all from its selfish spirit and groveling aims! Dwell deep in the
   solitudes where Jesus dwelt--in the lonely holiness which was fostered
   on the cold mountain's side and then shone resplendent amid temptation
   and persecution!

   Commit yourself unto no man! Call no man master! Lean on no arm of
   flesh! Walk before the Lord in the land of the living and so dwell
   deep, as did your Lord. But I do not wish to enlarge upon that point.
   The practical matter I am aiming at lies in another direction. My
   earnest desire is that every saved soul among you may dwell deep, that
   is to say, that none of you may be superficial Christians but that you
   may be deep Believers, well rooted plants of Grace, thorough,
   downright, out-and-out Christians--that you may not only dwell in the
   Rock of Ages, but dwell deep in it. To this let me call your attention.

   It is highly important, Beloved, that every one of us should have a
   deep sense of sin and a profound horror of it. Those who have but
   slight convictions, if those convictions bring them to the Savior, are
   safe, but such persons should pray the Lord to deepen in them their
   sense of the evil of sin. Slight thoughts of sin lead to slight
   thoughts of Grace! And what can be worse? Nothing is more to be dreaded
   than a flimsy religion, frail as the spider's web, unsubstantial as the
   air. Lord, give me deep repentance! Teach me to know my sin and all the
   evils which lurk in it. Make me to shudder at it and dread it as a
   burnt child dreads the fire.

   Do not, dear Friends, be like those people who jauntily confess, "yes,
   we are sinners," but who merely intend thereby to chime in with a
   general form of speech. Such false speeches are a mockery of God. Thank
   God if you have been laid low under the Law. Bless God for deep subsoil
   plowing and trenching. I desire to feel, every day, that sin is an
   exceedingly bitter thing, a deadly evil, a moral poison--the essence of
   Hell! O, to loathe iniquity and see with self-abhorrence its heinous
   character--for so shall we prize the salvation of the Lord Jesus
   Christ, the love which thought it, the blood which bought it--and the
   Grace which worked it out!

   Should your convictions of sin be already deep, then seek to dwell deep
   as to your faith in Jesus Christ. Much of the faith which passes
   current in the world is not faith--it is mere talk. We say we believe,
   but do we believe? We say "Yes, I trust," but do we trust? Is it a real
   trust? Is it such a trust as will stand the test of the dying hour? Are
   we really divorced from our self-confidences and in very deed married
   to our Lord Jesus Christ as our only confidence? O, to have solid
   faith--the faith which will survive the removal of all things and
   outlive the general fire! O, Brothers and Sisters, ask the Lord to
   deepen your faith, to confirm, establish and perfect it!

   And you who are now coming forward to confess your faith in Jesus--if
   you have only a grain of mustard seed of faith, it will save you,
   blessed be God! But I exhort you to seek for larger degrees of it. O
   you who in these regions profess to abide in the Lord, may you dwell
   deep in Christ! When you get upon the Rock of Christ Jesus you are
   safe, but when you get into the Rock then you are happy! A man on the
   Rock will be subject to the wind and to the rain, to the damp of dews
   and to the heat of the sun. But, O, a man in the Rock--it does not
   matter to him what weather it is--whether it blows or shines, he is
   sheltered! O, to get fully into Christ--to have a deep experience of
   our union with Him and a solemn conviction deepening into a full
   assurance of our exaltation in Him!

   Beloved, this is, indeed, to dwell in the Goshen of Christianity! This
   is to drink the choice wines of the kingdom. The nearer to Jesus the
   more perfect our peace. The innermost place of the sanctuary is the
   most Divine. So would I have you, beloved Friends, dwell deep in the
   matter of Christian study. He who knows himself a sinner and Christ a
   Savior, is certainly justified, but we desire to be something more than
   saved. The babe in Grace is the Lord's child, but we do not wish to be
   always infants--there is a time when we should be children no more.
   Christ's babes should grow up to be men in Christ Jesus and my earnest
   entreaty to all professors, both young and old, is, "Let us seek deeply
   to study the Word of God that by feeding upon it we may grow."

   An instructed Christian is a more useful vessel of honor for the Master
   than an ignorant Believer. I do not say that instruction is all--far
   from it. There is much in zeal and, with but slender knowledge, a man
   full of zeal may do a great deal. But if the zealous man has knowledge
   in proportion, how much more will he achieve? Dig deep in your research
   into the Scriptures, beloved Friends! I am always afraid lest any of
   you should take your doctrinal views from me and believe doctrines
   merely because I have taught you to do so. I charge you, if I preach
   anything that is not according to the Lord's Word, away with it!--and
   though we, or an angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel than the
   Gospel of Jesus Christ, away with it!--do not regard our persons for a
   moment in comparison with Divine authority!

   Study the Character of Christ. Do not merely know that He is Christ,
   but who He is--whose Son He is and what He is and what He did and what
   was meant by what He did. Know what He is doing and what He will do and
   all the glorious hopes which cluster around His first and His second
   advent--all the precious Truths of the Covenant of Grace and the
   glorious attribute of eternal love. Do not be afraid of what are called
   the "deep things of God." I do not mean that you young beginners are to
   give your thoughts to them to the exclusion of the simplicities of the
   Gospel--but at the same time, when you know the Lord savingly, go on to
   know yet more and more!

   Comprehend with all saints what are the depths and heights. Entrench
   yourselves in the precious Truths of God's Word--no bulwarks are so
   strong. Above all things and beyond all things would I earnestly
   impress upon my beloved friends the need of deep living unto God. There
   is such a thing as flimsy living in which you pray and pray--yes, but
   it is a superficial, routine exercise. O, how I bless God when I can
   pray deep dwelling prayers--when my heart groans unto God and pours out
   her very self into His bosom! And how delightful it is to sing one of
   the deep songs when the innermost heart praises and magnifies God! And
   how delightful to get into deep fellowship with Jesus Christ till the
   Lord, Himself, is revealed in you and you eat His flesh, drink His
   blood and have His life in you!

   Dwell deep, Beloved! Those who dwell upon the preacher do not dwell
   deep--but those who feed upon the Master, Himself, are strong and
   joyous. Those who live only upon outward ordinances and do not practice
   private devotion and are not abundantly with God in secret
   communion--those do not dwell deep. Get to the roots of things. The
   gold mines of Scripture are not in the top soil--you must open a
   shaft--the precious diamonds of experience are not picked up in the
   roadway, their secret places are far down. Get down into the vitality,
   the solidity, the veracity, the Divinity of the Word of God and seek to
   possess with it all the inward work of the blessed Spirit. It is of
   small use to learn a doctrine unless, in the most emphatic sense, you
   learn it by heart.

   John Bunyan intended this when he said that the Truths of God which he
   learned were burnt into him. No man in very deed knows a Truth of God
   till it has forced its way into him and permanently impressed its image
   upon him. You may have a doctrine hammered into your head by argument
   till you are quite convinced and yet no practical result will follow.
   But, O, if it is stamped into your heart with Divine energy the
   consequences will be very different. I am not a Calvinist by choice but
   because I cannot help it! The Truths of God I preach are in me, part
   and parcel of myself! I do not carry my creed, but my creed carries me!
   It should be so with us as to all we know of Divine Truth. This deep
   knowing, deep feeling, deep living--this it is that makes sound work
   and lasting work for eternity!

   In one word, as the Lord is bringing in many recruits into this
   Church--and we are glad to receive the rawest among you--my anxious
   desire is that they may be trained to be good soldiers of Christ, able
   to endure hardness in years to come. We need you new plants to have a
   good foothold so that you may grow up into Christ in later years and
   bring forth fruit to His name. We are anxious that you should make a
   sound beginning, for, if a man is about to build a house, if he is
   unused to building he may think he is doing well if he sets to work
   upon the ground as it is and runs up several courses of bricks. But
   every man who is an experienced builder knows that instead of doing
   well he is wasting his time, since every brick must come down again.

   If there is no foundation, all he builds will be worthless and the
   higher he goes the greater his loss. O, for a good foundation!--to be
   emptied right out by repentance and dug deep by conviction and the
   rubbish of self thrown out of you--this is a great blessing, for the
   deeper the foundation the higher the tower can be carried and the
   deeper our sense of sinfulness and nothingness the greater is the
   possibility of our being built up into the fullness, strength and
   perfection of Jesus Christ our Lord!

   If any enquire what are our reasons for bringing forward at this time
   such an exhortation as this, I will briefly answer them. Brethren, it
   is well for us to dwell deep, because trials will surely come. Do you
   presume, O young Beginner, that your warfare is finished now that you
   have enlisted? Ah, simple Child, "let not him that puts on his armor
   boast as though he put it off." You have come up to the starting point
   and you already think the prize is your own! O Beloved, you have but
   commenced running and your life is the length of the race! You will
   have to run and run till you shall lay down your race with your
   body--you will never have finished till then.

   "What? But when I am saved, surely I shall have no more fights."
   Hearken! The moment you are saved the battles will begin. "But shall I
   feel an evil heart after I am born-again?" Yes, and more than ever, for
   the new life that is in you will hate the old nature and the old Adam
   will hate the new Adam. There will be a conflict in your soul such as
   you never knew before and it will be perpetual! Do not think that
   Christ has come to send peace into your soul of the sort you look
   for--He makes no peace with evil, but draws the sword! There will be
   fights and wars within your spirit until you die!

   Now, you must have deep work or else these inward trials will offend
   you. You remember John Bunyan's wise picture, in "Pilgrim's Progress,"
   of Christian and Pliable? Christian read his Bible and told Pliable of
   a beautiful city to which he was going where there were streets of gold
   and harps of the richest music. "And," said Pliable, "I will go with
   you: I would gladly be there." When he told him all about how
   Evangelist had instructed him and when he read to him the roll, "Oh,"
   said Pliable, "this is very pleasant. The hearing of this is enough to
   ravish one's heart. Come on, let us mend our pace."

   But, as they went on, the road became very muddy and by-and-by their
   feet began to slip and after awhile they were both up to their necks in
   a slough. "Oh," says Pliable, "is this that happiness you have told me
   of? If we have such ill speed at our first setting out, what may we
   expect between this and our journey's end? May I get out again with my
   life, you shall possess the brave country alone for me!" And with that
   he gave a desperate struggle or two and got out of the mire on that
   side of the slough which was next to his own house and Christian saw
   him no more. O, if it is not a work of Grace when you get a little soul
   trouble you will say, "Ah, I will have none of this. I thought it was
   going to be all 'hallelujahs' and 'bless the Lord!' I did not look for
   depressions and bewilderments."

   Now, when I hold up my Master's colors and invite recruits, I am by no
   means eager to enlist cowards! I need those who for God's sake and by
   His Spirit will go through the Slough of Despond resolved to escape
   from the City of Destruction. You must "dwell deep," then, or inward
   trials will send you back to the world again. There will be outward
   trials, too--for when a man puts on the name of Christ the world soon
   raises a hue and cry against him and they say, "Here is another of your
   Methodists," or, "another of your Presbyterians," and they straightway
   bring forth some of their old stock epithets, hoping that to give a dog
   an ill name may go a long way towards hanging him.

   They have a fine name for some of you who belong to this Church and
   they daub you over with it as plentifully as Noah pitched his ark. If
   the work of Grace is not deep in the heart of a ridiculed professor, he
   will say, "I don't see why I should be laughed at. I wish to be
   respectable and cannot afford to be lowered for religion's sake." Ah,
   yours is a poor religion if a set of grinning sinners can laugh you out
   of it! Only a plant in stony soil will be dried up by the heat of
   persecution--if you are grounded and settled, no trials of cruel
   mocking or any other assaults of the enemy will overturn you!

   Again, there is a necessity that you should dwell deep, Beloved, for in
   these days many errors have gone abroad in the world--and many teachers
   of heresy and infidelity--and if you do not dwell deep they will shake
   you terribly. When a soul is once established in Christ and has eaten
   bread with Him and seen the things of the kingdom as they are revealed
   in Him, why, if all the infidels in the world were to come to such a
   person and object and object, and object--their efforts would not be
   worth a farthing--for they would not turn him the breadth of a hair!

   Even though such a man may be in other respects ignorant and weak, yet,
   if he has been with Jesus, he will be wise and strong! Communion with
   Christ braces up the spirit! He who has been plunged into the sea of
   Divine fellowship is

   invulnerable. A certain skeptic had often troubled an aged Christian
   woman about many things and upon many points he had ridiculed her. At
   last she ended the fight by a declaration of faith which cleared all
   the ground at once. He said to her, "Why, you are not such a fool as to
   believe that a great fish swallowed Jonah! You cannot believe such a
   monstrous

   fable."

   "Man," she said, "God's Word says it and if the Lord had said that
   Jonah swallowed the whale, I would have believed Him." Her faith in the
   veracity of God explained all difficulties and as she was forever
   settled upon that matter--there was no use in arguing against her. Men
   call this blind faith but I call it faith with her eyes open looking
   alone to God! When faith dwells thus deep, the heaviest shells that our
   foes can hurl from the Krupp guns of their logic are no more injurious
   to the fortifications of our comfort than so many paper pellets thrown
   by a schoolboy! No--

   "Should all the forms that men devise Assail my soul with treacherous
   art, I'll call them vanity and lies, And bind the Gospel to my heart."

   But you must dwell deep to be able to do that, otherwise arguments with
   skeptics and papists will be your terror and your danger--and
   difficulties will arise which will greatly mar your peace. May you have
   Grace to dwell so near to God that it shall be impossible for evil
   insinuations to enter into your spirit! Dwell deep, dear Friends, for
   there are seasons coming when all your Grace will be needed. I have
   never heard of a man coming to mischief through having too much Grace.
   I never heard, yet, of any person falling into danger through living
   too near to God. Nor do I think most men suffer through being too
   careful in self-examination or too anxious to be right.

   Presumption brings a thousand evils, but holy carefulness brings very
   few, if any. You will have to die, Beloved, soon. And though you may
   rejoice in the prospect of being with Christ, death, after all, is no
   child's play. He who would die triumphantly will need God's arm to bear
   him up. The river is in itself a deep and chilling river and if the
   Lord, who is Immortality and Life, is not with us it will be a drowning
   river. But if we have solid faith we shall pass over safely. But, mark
   you, no sham faith will help you, then.

   What do those poor souls do who have dreamed of Heaven and discover
   when they are dying that their hope is a mere dream? O, what will false
   Church members do? What will the hypocritical deacon do? Above all,
   what will the unfaithful minister do, who, when he comes to die, finds
   that he has preached to others and has no part nor lot in this matter
   himself? What will he do when it is too late to take to another
   ship--to have all shipwrecked forever? What horror this must be! God
   grant it may not be so with any of you, and, therefore, Beloved, in
   fair weather look to your vessel.

   It was a shameful thing, say what anyone will, to send the ship to sea
   we have been reading of lately, that was all worm-eaten and her iron,
   even her iron, quite rusted through. It would have been infinitely
   better to have had her well examined and not to have sent an unworthy
   ship out at all. But you see they ran on a beach and happily saved all
   the crew. But if you go to sea spiritually in a leaky ship like that
   there is no saving you--you are lost and lost forever!

   O, if you have got into this professional boat which is rotten, get out
   of her though you lose all your comfort and see all your experience go
   down! Let it go down if it is a lie! It is better that a man be a
   beggar and be free than be a prince and be a liar. What care I for the
   gewgaw tinsel crown that men put on who strut upon the boards of a
   theater? Shall I esteem the mimic sovereigns and bow down to them as if
   they were true kings and princes? No! The poorest man who is himself is
   better than the grandest man who is a sham! God grant that we may stand
   the test of dying.

   But there is a still more terrible test than dying, for some sleep
   quietly through death, but, oh, the judgment! I see two ponderous
   scales huge as hemispheres of this great globe and there I see the
   weights--the standard weights of Eternal Justice. Into yonder scales
   every one of us must go and what if there should be heard the dreadful
   sound, "Mene, mene, Tekel"? "You are weighed in the balances and found
   wanting!" There will be no hope, then, of making up the short weight or
   of coming up to the standard. Lost then, we shall be cast away forever!
   O, if you only get an inch towards Heaven, let it be a safe inch--for a
   safe inch is better than a counterfeit yard, and one drachma of Grace
   is better than a million tons of profession! One genuine tear is better
   than a sea full of washing your hands in outward ceremonies! Let your
   religion be real, dear Friends. "Dwell deep."

   And I will give this other reason--dwell deep because those who live
   near to God and are substantial in godliness, are the happiest of
   people. The top of the cup of religion may be bitter, but it grows
   sweeter the deeper down you drink. The cup at Satan's banquet is sweet
   upon the brim where the bubbles glow like rainbows, but, ah, the horrid
   dregs of it!

   The cup that Christ gives has no dregs--it has at its bottom the
   sweetness of the wines on the lees, well refined. And, , the
   inexpressible sweetness when you get to the bottom of all--where there
   is no bottom indeed--when you get a drink of eternal joys and
   never-ending blessings!

   While deep living gives a man more happiness, it also endows him with
   more strength. Some single Christians of my acquaintance are worth 20
   ordinary ones because they enter into the very marrow of religion and
   then impress others with the reality of it. I know at this moment
   Christian women who are worth 50 ordinary professing women. I would not
   say the others are not very good, too, in their way, but they are
   superficial compared with these deep-taught daughters of Zion. God, if
   the Church is to be strong it must be through those that dwell deep!
   And so, Beloved, let me close by saying, dwell deep, for you will
   glorify God the most. The nearer you get to the sun, the brighter you
   will be. The nearer you live to Christ, the more like He you will be.

   Dwell deep, Beloved! Beware of levity in godliness! Beware of
   superficiality! Beware of skimming! Seek to enjoy the deep, the
   blessed, the true reality! The Lord grant it to you for His name's
   sake. But still, let me say to any who have not begun the Divine life,
   this is not for you just now. I talked to you last night and the night
   before and you know I bade you come to Christ just as you were. And so
   I do now, for saving work is coming and touching even the hem of the
   Redeemer's garment. If you have touched the hem of His garment, do not
   be satisfied with that! Go on to know Him more and long, like Simeon,
   to take Him up in your arms, and say, "This Christ is mine--the blessed
   Christ--mine forever and forever!" God bless you, beloved Friends!
     __________________________________________________________________

Jesus, The King of Truth

   (No. 1086)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON THURSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 19, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Pilate therefore said unto Him, Are You a king, then? Jesus answered,
   You say that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause
   came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.
   Everyone that is of the truth hears My voice." John 18:37.

   THE season is almost arrived when by the custom of our fellow citizens
   we are led to remember the birth of the holy child Jesus who was born
   "king of the Jews." I shall not, however, conduct you to Bethlehem, but
   to the foot of Calvary. There we shall learn, from the Lord's own lips,
   something concerning the kingdom over which He rules and thus we shall
   be led to prize more highly the joyous event of His nativity. We are
   told by the Apostle Paul that our Lord Jesus Christ before Pontius
   Pilate witnessed a good confession. It was a good confession as to the
   manner of it, for our Lord was truthful, gentle, prudent, patient, meek
   and yet uncompromising and courageous.

   His spirit was not cowed by Pilate's power nor exasperated by his
   sneers. In His patience He possessed His soul and remained the model
   witness for the Truth of God--both in His silence and in His speech. He
   witnessed a good confession, also, as to the matter of it, for though
   He said but little, that little was all that was necessary. He claimed
   His crown rights and, at the same time declared that His kingdom was
   not of this world, nor to be sustained by force. He vindicated both the
   spirituality and the essential truthfulness of His Sovereignty.

   If ever we should be placed in like circumstances may we be able to
   witness a good confession, too! We may never, like Paul, be made to
   plead before Nero but, if we should, may the Lord stand by us and help
   us to play the man before the lion! In our families or among our
   business acquaintances we may have to meet some little Nero and answer
   to some petty Pilate--may we be true witnesses! O that we may have
   Grace to be prudently silent or meekly outspoken as the matter may
   require, but in either case be faithful to our conscience and our God!

   May the sorrowful visage of Jesus, the faithful and true Witness, the
   Prince of the kings of the earth, be often before our eyes to check the
   first sign of flinching and to inspire us with dauntless courage! We
   have before us, in the words of the text, a part of our Savior's good
   confession touching His kingdom.

   I. Note, first of all, that OUR LORD CLAIMED TO BE A KING. Pilate said,
   "Are You a king, then?" asking the question with a sneering surprise
   that so poor a being should put forth a claim to royalty. Do you wonder
   that he should have marveled greatly to find kingly claims associated
   with such a sorrowful condition? The Savior answered, in effect, "It is
   even as you say, I am a king." The question was but half earnest--the
   answer was altogether solemn--"I am a king." Nothing was ever uttered
   by our Lord with greater certainty and earnestness.

   Now, notice that our Lord's claim to be a king was made without the
   slightest ostentation or desire to be advantaged thereby. There were
   other times when, if He had said, "I am a king," He might have been
   carried upon the shoulders of the people and crowned amid general
   acclamations. His fanatical fellow countrymen would gladly have made
   Him their leader. At one time we read that they would have "taken Him
   by force and made Him a king." At such times He said but little about
   His kingdom and what He did say was uttered in parables and explained
   only to His disciples when they were alone.

   Little enough did He say in His preaching concerning His birthright as
   the Son of David and a scion of the royal house of Judah, for He shrank
   from worldly honors and disdained the vain glories of a temporal
   diadem. He who came in love to redeem men had no ambition for the
   gewgaws of human sovereignty. But now, when He is betrayed by His
   disciple, accused by His countrymen and in the hands of an unjust
   ruler--when no good can come of it to Himself--

   when it will bring Him derision rather than honor, He speaks out
   plainly and replies to His interrogator, "You say that I am a king."

   Note well the clearness of our Lord's avowal! There was no mistaking
   His words--"I am a king." When the time has come for the truth to be
   spoken, our Lord is not backward in declaring it. Truth has her times
   most meet for speech and her seasons for silence. We are not to cast
   our pearls before swine, but when the hour has come for speech we must
   not hesitate but speak as with the voice of a trumpet, giving forth a
   certain sound that no man may mistake us. So, though a prisoner given
   up to die, the Lord boldly declares His royalty though Pilate would
   pour derision upon Him in consequence thereof. O, for the Master's
   prudence to speak the Truth at the right time and for the Master's
   courage to speak it when the right time has come!

   Soldiers of the Cross, learn of your Captain! Our Lord's claim to
   royalty must have sounded very singular in Pilate's ear. Jesus was,
   doubtless, very much careworn, sad and emaciated in appearance. He had
   spent the first part of the night in the garden in an agony. In the
   midnight hours he had been dragged from Annas to Caiaphas and from
   Caiaphas to Herod. Neither at daybreak had He been permitted to rest,
   so that from sheer weariness He must have looked very unlike a king. If
   you had taken some poor ragged creature in the street and said to him,
   "Are you a king, then?" the question could scarcely have been more
   sarcastic.

   Pilate, in his heart, despised the Jews as such, but here was a poor
   Jew persecuted by His own people, helpless and friendless. It sounded
   like mockery to talk of a kingdom in connection with Him. Yet never
   earth saw a truer king! None of the line of Pharaoh, the family of
   Nimrod, or the race of the Caesars was so intrinsically imperial in
   Himself as He, or so deservedly reckoned a king among men by virtue of
   His descent, His achievements or His superior character. The carnal eye
   could not see this, but to the spiritual eye it was clear as noonday.

   To this day, pure Christianity, in its outward appearance, is an
   equally unattractive object and wears upon its surface few royal
   tokens. It is without form or comeliness and when men see it there is
   no beauty that they should desire it. True, there is a nominal
   Christianity which is accepted and approved of men--but the pure Gospel
   is still despised and rejected. The real Christ of today among men is
   unknown and unrecognized as much as He was among His own nation 1,800
   years ago! Evangelical doctrine is at a discount, holy living is
   censured and spiritual-mindedness is derided.

   "What?" they say, "This evangelical doctrine, do you call it the royal
   truth? Who believes it nowadays? Science has exploded it! There is
   nothing great about it! It may afford comfort to old women and to those
   who have not capacity enough for free thought, but its reign is over,
   never to return." As to living in separation from the world, it is
   called Puritanism or worse. Christ in doctrine. Christ in spirit.
   Christ in life--the world cannot endure as King!

   Christ chanted in cathedrals. Christ personified in lordly prelates.
   Christ surrounded by such as are in king's houses He is well
   enough--but Christ honestly obeyed, followed and worshipped in
   simplicity, without pomp or form--they will not allow to reign over
   them. Few nowadays will side with the Truth of God their fathers bled
   for. The day for covenanting to follow Jesus through evil report and
   shame appears to have gone by. Yet, though men turn round upon us and
   say, "Do you call your Gospel, Divine? Are you so preposterous as to
   believe that your religion comes from God and is to subdue the
   world?"--we boldly answer--"Yes!"

   Even as beneath the peasant's garb and the pale visage of the Son of
   Mary we can discern the Wonderful, the Counselor, the Mighty God, the
   Everlasting Father, so beneath the simple form of a despised Gospel we
   perceive the royal lineaments of Divine Truth! We care nothing about
   the outward apparel or the external housing of the Truth of God--we
   love it for its own sake. To us the marble halls and the alabaster
   columns are nothing--we see more in the manger and the Cross. We are
   satisfied that Christ is the King, still, where He was likely to be
   king--and that is not among the great ones of the earth, nor among the
   mighty and the learned--but among the base things of the world and the
   things which are not, which shall bring to nothing the things that are,
   for these has God from the beginning chosen to be His own.

   Let us add that our Lord's claim to be a king shall be acknowledged one
   day by all mankind! When Christ said to Pilate, according to our
   version, "You say that I am a king," He virtually prophesied the future
   confession of all men. Some, taught by His Grace, shall in this life
   rejoice in Him as their altogether lovely King. Blessed be God, the
   Lord Jesus might look into the eyes of many of us and say, "You say
   that I am a king," and we would reply, "We do say it joyfully!" But the
   day shall come when He shall sit upon His Great White Throne and then,
   when the multitudes shall

   tremble in the Presence of His awful majesty, even such as Pontius
   Pilate and Herod and the chief priests shall own that He is a king!
   Then to each of His astounded and overwhelmingly convinced enemies He
   might say, "Now, O Despiser, you say that I am a king," for to Him
   every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that He is Lord!

   Let us remember, here, that when our Lord said to Pilate, "You say that
   I am king" He was not referring to His Divine dominion. Pilate was not
   thinking of that at all, nor did our Lord, I think, refer to it. Yet,
   forget not that, as Divine, He is the King of kings and Lord of lords.
   We must never forget that, though He died in weakness as Man, yet He
   ever lives and rules as God. Nor do I think He referred to His
   mediatorial sovereignty which He possesses over the earth for His
   people's sake--for the Lord has all power committed unto Him in Heaven
   and in earth--and the Father has given Him power over all flesh that He
   may give eternal life to as many as are given Him. Pilate was not
   alluding to that, nor our Lord, either, in the first place.

   But He was speaking of that rule which He personally exercises over the
   minds of the faithful by means of the Truth. You remember Napoleon's
   saying, "I have founded an empire by force and it has melted away.
   Jesus Christ established His kingdom by love and it stands to this day
   and will stand." That is the kingdom to which our Lord's word refers--
   the kingdom of spiritual Truth in which Jesus reigns as Lord over those
   who are of the Truth. He claimed to be a king and the Truth which He
   revealed and of which He was the personification, is, therefore, the
   scepter of His empire. He rules by the force of the Truth of God over
   those hearts which feel the power of right and Truth and therefore
   willingly yield themselves to His guidance, believe His Word and are
   governed by His will.

   It is as a spiritual Lord that Christ claims sovereignty among men! He
   is King over minds that love Him, trust Him and obey Him because they
   see in Him the Truth which their souls pine for. Other kings rule our
   bodies, but Christ our souls! Other kings govern by force, but He by
   the attractions of righteousness--theirs is, to a great extent, a
   fictitious royalty, but His is true and finds its force in the Truth of
   God. So much, then, upon Christ's claims to be a king.

   II. Now, observe secondly that OUR LORD DECLARED THIS KINGDOM TO BE HIS
   MAIN OBJECT IN LIFE.

   "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world." To
   set up His kingdom was the reason why He was born of the virgin. To be
   king of men it was necessary for Him to be born. He was always the Lord
   of All--He needed not to be born to be a king in that sense--but to be
   king through the power of Truth it was essential that He should be born
   in our nature.

   Why so? I answer, first, because it seems unnatural that a ruler should
   be alien in nature to the people over whom he rules. An angelic king of
   men would be unsuitable. There could not exist the sympathy which is
   the cement of a spiritual empire. Jesus, that He might govern by force
   of love and truth alone, became of one Nature with mankind--He was a
   Man among men, a real Man--but a right noble and kingly man and so a
   King of men. But, again, the Lord was born that He might be able to
   save His people. Subjects are essential to a kingdom--a king cannot be
   a king if there are none to govern.

   All men must have perished through sin had not Christ come into the
   world and been born to save. His birth was a necessary step to His
   redeeming death--His Incarnation was necessary to the Atonement.
   Moreover, truth never exerts such power as when it is embodied. Truth
   spoken may be defeated, but Truth acted out in the life of a man is
   Omnipotent through the Spirit of God. Now Christ did not merely speak
   the Truth--He was Truth. Had He been truth embodied in an angelic form,
   He would have possessed little power over our hearts and lives. But
   perfect Truth in a human form has royal power over renewed humanity.
   Truth embodied in flesh and blood has power over flesh and blood and
   therefore, for this purpose was He born.

   So when you hear the bells ringing out at Christmas, think of the
   reason why Jesus was born! Dream not that He came to load your tables
   and fill your cups--in your mirth look higher than all earth-born
   things. When you hear that in certain Churches there are pompous
   celebrations and ecclesiastical displays, think not that Jesus was born
   for this purpose. No, but look within your hearts and say, "For this
   purpose was He born--that He might be a King--that He might rule
   through the Truth in the souls of a people who are, by Grace, made to
   love the Truth of God.

   And then He added, "For this cause came I into the world." That is, He
   came out of the bosom of the Father that He might set up His kingdom by
   unveiling the mysteries which were hid from the foundation of the
   world. No man can reveal the Counsel of God but One who has been with
   God! And the Son who has come forth of the ivory palaces of gladness
   announces to us tidings of great joy! For this cause He also came into
   the world from the obscure retirement of

   Joseph's workshop, where, for many years He was hidden like a pearl in
   its shell. It was necessary that He should be made known and that the
   Truth to which He witnessed should be sounded in the ears of the crowd.

   Since He was to be a King, He must leave seclusion and come forth to do
   battle for His Throne. He must address the multitudes on the hillside.
   He must speak by the seashore. He must gather disciples and send them
   forth by two and two to publish on the housetops the secrets of the
   mighty Truth of God! He came not forth because He loved to be seen of
   men or courted popularity--but for this purpose--that the Truth being
   published, He might set up His kingdom. It was necessary that He should
   come out into the world and teach, or the Truth of God would not be
   known and consequently could not operate.

   The sun must come forth like a bridegroom out of his chamber or the
   kingdom of light will never be established. The breath must come forth
   from the hiding place of the winds or life will never reign in the
   valley of dry bones. During three years our Lord lived conspicuously
   and emphatically "came into the world." He was seen of men so closely
   as to be beheld, looked upon, touched and handled. He was intended to
   be a pattern and therefore it was necessary that He should be seen. The
   life of a man who lives in absolute retirement may be admirable for
   himself and acceptable with God, but it cannot be exemplary to men. For
   this cause the Lord came forth into the world--that all He did might
   influence mankind.

   His enemies were permitted to watch His every action and to endeavor to
   entrap Him in His speech. By way of test His friends saw Him in privacy
   and knew what He did in solitude, thus His whole life was reported. He
   was observed on the cold mountainside at midnight as well as in the
   midst of the great congregation. This was permitted to make the Truth
   known, for every action of His life was Truth and tended to set up the
   kingdom of Truth in the world. Let us pause here. Christ is a King. A
   King by force of Truth in a spiritual kingdom. For this purpose was He
   born. For this cause He came into the world.

   Beloved, ask yourself this question--Has this purpose of Christ's birth
   and life been answered in you? If not, what is Christmas to you? The
   choristers will sing, "Unto us a Child is born; Unto us a Son is
   given." Is that true to you? How can it be unless Jesus reigns in you
   and is your Savior and your Lord? Those who can in truth rejoice in His
   birth are those who know Him as their bosom Lord, ruling their
   understanding by the Truth of His doctrine. He rules their admiration
   by the Truth of His life. He rules their affections by the Truth of His
   Person. To such He is not a personage to be portrayed with a crown of
   gold and a robe of purple like the common theatrical kings of men.

   He is one brighter and more heavenly, whose crown is real, whose
   dominion is unquestionable, who rules by Truth and love! Do we know
   this King? This question may well come home to us, for, Beloved, there
   are many who say, "Christ is my King," who know not what they say for
   they do not obey Him. He is the servant of Christ who trusts in Christ,
   who walks according to Christ's mind and loves the Truths of God which
   Jesus has revealed--all others are mere pretenders.

   III. But now I must pass on. Our Lord, in the third place, REVEALED THE
   NATURE OF HIS ROYAL POWER. I have already spoken on that, but I must do
   so again. We should have thought the text would have run thus--"You say
   that I am a king; to this end was I born, and for this cause came I
   into the world, that I should establish My kingdom." It is not so in
   words, but so it must mean, for Jesus was not incoherent in His speech.
   We conclude that the words employed have the same meaning as that which
   the context suggests, only it is differently expressed.

   If our Lord had said, "That I might establish a kingdom," He might have
   misled Pilate. But when He availed Himself of the spiritual explanation
   and said that His kingdom was Truth and that the establishment of His
   kingdom was by bearing witness to the Truth of God, then, though Pilate
   did not understand Him--for it was far above his comprehension--yet, at
   any rate, he was not misled. Our Lord, in effect, tells us that the
   Truth of God is the preeminent Characteristic of His kingdom and that
   His royal power over men's hearts is through the Truth of God.

   Now, the witness of our Lord among men was emphatically upon real and
   vital matters. He dealt not with fiction, but with facts--not with
   trifles, but with infinite realities. He speaks not of opinions, views,
   or speculations but of infallible verities. How many preachers waste
   time over what may be or may not be! Our Lord's testimony was
   preeminently practical and matter-of-fact. It was full of verities and
   certainties.

   I have sometimes, when hearing sermons, wished the preacher would come
   to the point and would deal with something that really concerned our
   soul's welfare. What concern have dying men with the thousand trivial
   questions which are flitting around us? We have Heaven or Hell before
   us and death within a stone's throw--for God's sake do not

   trifle with us, but tell us the Truth at once! Jesus is king in His
   people's souls because His preaching has blessed us in the grandest and
   most real manner and set us at rest upon points of boundless
   importance. He has not given us well-chiseled stones, but real bread!
   There are a thousand things which you may not know and you shall be
   very little the worse for not knowing them--but O, if you do not know
   that which Jesus has taught--it shall go ill with you!

   If you are taught of the Lord Jesus you shall have rest for your cares,
   balm for your sorrows and satisfaction for your desires. Jesus gives
   sinners who believe in Him the Truths of God which they need to
   know--the assurance of sin forgiven through His blood, favor ensured by
   His righteousness--and Heaven secured by His eternal life. Moreover,
   Jesus has power over His people because He testifies not to symbols but
   to the very substance of the Truth of God. The Scribes and Pharisees
   were very fluent upon sacrifices, offerings, oblations, tithes, fasting
   and the like--but what influence could all that exert over aching
   hearts?

   Jesus has imperial power over contrite spirits because He tells them of
   His one real Sacrifice and of the perfection which He has secured for
   all Believers. The priests lost their power over the people because
   they went no further than the shadow--and sooner or later all will do
   so who rest in the symbol. The Lord Jesus retains His power over His
   saints because He reveals the substance, for Grace and Truth are by
   Jesus Christ. What a loss of time it is to debate upon the fashion of a
   cape, or the manner of celebrating communion, or the color suitable for
   the clergyman's robes in Advent, or the precise date of Easter! Vanity
   of vanities, all is vanity! Such trifles will never aid in setting up
   an everlasting kingdom in men's hearts!

   Let us take care lest we also set great store on externals and miss the
   essential spiritual life of our holy faith. Christ's kingdom is not
   meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit!
   The power of King Jesus in the hearts of His people lies much in the
   fact that He brings forth the unalloyed Truth of God without mixture of
   error. He has delivered to us pure light and no darkness. His teaching
   is no combination of God's Word and man's inventions! It is no mixture
   of Inspiration and philosophy--silver without dross is the wealth which
   He gives His servants. Men taught of His Holy Spirit to love the Truth
   of God recognize this fact and surrender their souls to the royal sway
   of the Lord's Truth--and it makes them free and sanctifies them--nor
   can anything make them disown such a Sovereign, for as the Truth lives
   and abides in their hearts, so Jesus, who is the Truth, abides also.

   If you know what Truth is, you will as naturally submit yourselves to
   the teachings of Christ as ever children yield to a father's rule. The
   Lord Jesus taught that worship must be true, spiritual and of the heart
   or else it would be worthless. He would not take sides with the temple
   at Gerizim or that on Zion--He declared that the time was come when
   those who worshipped God would worship Him in spirit and in truth.
   Regenerate hearts feel the power of this and rejoice that it
   emancipates them from the beggarly elements of carnal ritualism. They
   accept gladly the Truth of God that pious words of prayer or praise are
   vanity unless the heart has living worship within it. In the great
   truth of spiritual worship Believers possess a Magna Charta dear as
   life itself. We refuse to be again subject to the yoke of bondage and
   we cleave to our emancipating King.

   Our Lord taught, also, that all false living was base and loathsome. He
   poured contempt on the phylacteries of hypocrites and the broad borders
   of the garments of oppressors of the poor. With Him ostentatious alms,
   long prayers, frequent fasts and the tithe of mint and cumin were all
   nothing when practiced by those who devoured widows' houses. He cared
   nothing for white-washed sepulchers and platters with outsides made
   clean--He judged the thoughts and intents of the heart. What woes were
   those which He denounced upon the formalists of His day! It must have
   been a grand sight to have seen the lowly Jesus roused to indignation
   thundering forth peal on peal His denunciations of hypocrisy!

   Elijah never called fire from Heaven half so grandly. "Woe unto you
   Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites," is the loudest roll of Heaven's
   artillery! See how like another Samson Jesus slays the shams of His age
   and piles them heaps upon heaps to rot forever! Shall not He who
   teaches us true living be King of all the sons of Truth? Let us even
   now salute Him as Lord and King. Besides, Beloved, our Lord came not
   only to teach us the Truth of God but a mysterious power goes forth
   from Him through that Spirit which rests on Him without measure--which
   subdues chosen hearts to truthfulness and then guides truthful hearts
   into fullness of peace and joy.

   Have you never felt, when you have been with Jesus, that a sense of His
   purity has made you yearn to be purged of all hypocrisy and every false
   way? Have you not been ashamed of yourself when you have come forth
   from hearing His Word, from watching His life and, above all, from
   enjoying His fellowship--quite ashamed that you have not been more
   real,

   more sincere, more true, more upright and so a more loyal subject of
   the truthful King? I know you have! Nothing about Jesus is false or
   even dubious. He is transparent--from head to foot He is Truth in
   public, Truth in private, Truth in word and Truth in deed. Hence it is
   that He has a kingdom over the pure in heart and is vehemently extolled
   by all those whose hearts are set upon righteousness.

   IV. And now, in the fourth place, our Lord DISCLOSED THE METHOD OF HIS
   CONQUEST. "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the
   world, that I should bear witness for the truth." Christ never yet set
   up His kingdom by force of arms. Mohammed drew the sword and converted
   men by giving them the choice of death or conversion. But Christ said
   to Peter, "Put up your sword into its sheath." No compulsion ought to
   be used with any man to lead him to receive any opinion, much less to
   induce him to espouse the Truth of God. Falsehood requires the rack of
   the Inquisition, but Truth needs not such unworthy aid. Her own beauty
   and the Spirit of God are her strength.

   Moreover, Jesus used no arts of priestcraft or tricks of superstition.
   The foolish are persuaded of a dogma by the fact that it is promulgated
   by a learned doctor of high degree, but our Rabboni wears no sounding
   titles of honor. The vulgar imagine that a statement must be correct if
   it emanates from a person who wears lawn sleeves, or from a place where
   the banners are of costly workmanship and the music of the sweetest
   kind--these things are arguments with those who are amenable to no
   other.

   But Jesus owes nothing to His apparel and influences none by artistic
   arrangements. None can say that He reigns over men by the glitter of
   pomp or the fascination of sensuous ceremonies. His battle-ax is the
   Truth of God! Truth is both His arrow and His bow, His sword and His
   buckler. Believe me, no kingdom is worthy of the Lord Jesus but that
   which has its foundations laid in indisputable verities--Jesus would
   scorn to reign by the help of a lie! True Christianity was never
   promoted by policy or guile, by doing a wrong thing, or saying a false
   thing. Even to exaggerate truth is to beget error and so to pull down
   the Truth we would set up.

   There are some who say, "Bring out one line of teaching and nothing
   else, lest you should seem inconsistent." What have I to do with that?
   If it is God's Truth, I am bound to deliver it all and to keep back
   none of it! Politics in religion, like a sailing vessel dependent on
   the wind, tacks about here and there--but the true man like a vessel
   having its motive power within, goes straight onward in the very teeth
   of the hurricane. When God puts Truth into men's souls, He teaches them
   never to tack or trim but to hold to the Truth of God at all hazards.
   This is what Jesus always did. He bore witness to the Truth and there
   left the matter being guileless as a lamb.

   Here it will be fit to answer the question, "What Truth did He witness
   to?" Ah, my Brothers and Sisters, what Truth did He not witness to? Did
   He not mirror all Truth in His life? See how clearly He set forth the
   Truth that God is love. How melodious, how like a peal of Christmas
   bells was His witness to the Truth that "God so loved the world that He
   gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him might not
   perish but have everlasting life." He also bore witness that God is
   just. How solemnly He proclaimed that fact! His flowing wounds, His
   dying agonies rang out that solemn Truth as with a knell which even the
   dead might hear!

   He bore witness to God's demand for truth in the inward parts--for He
   often dissected men and laid them bare and opened up their secret
   thoughts and revealed them--and made them see that only sincerity could
   bear the eyes of God. Did He not bear witness to the Truth that God had
   resolved to make for Himself a new people and a true people? Was He not
   always telling of His sheep who heard His voice? Of the wheat which
   would be gathered into the garner and of the precious things which
   would be treasured up when the bad would be thrown away? Therein He was
   bearing witness that the false must die, that the unreal must be
   consumed, that the lie must rust and rot--but that the true, the
   sincere, the gracious, the vital shall stand every test and outlast the
   sun. In an age of shams He was always sweeping away pretences and
   establishing Truth and right by His witness.

   And now, Beloved, this is the way in which Christ's kingdom is to be
   set up in the world. For this cause was the Church born and for this
   end came she into the world, that she might set up Christ's kingdom by
   bearing witness to the Truth. I long, my Beloved, to see you all
   witness bearers. If you love the Lord, bear witness to the Truth! You
   must do it personally. You must also do it collectively. Never join any
   Church whose creed you do not entirely and unfeignedly believe, for if
   you do, you act a lie and are, moreover, a partaker in the error of
   other men's testimonies. I would not for a moment say anything to
   retard Christian unity, but there is something before unity and that
   is, "Truth in the inward parts" and honesty before God.

   I dare not be a member of a Church whose teaching I knew to be false in
   vital points. I would sooner go to Heaven alone than belie my
   conscience for the sake of company. You may say, "But I protest against
   the error of my Church." Dear Friends, how can you consistently protest
   against it when you profess to agree with it by being a member of the
   Church which avows it? If you are a minister of a Church, you do in
   effect say before the world, "I believe and teach the doctrines of this
   Church," And if you go into the pulpit and say you do not believe them,
   what will people conclude? I leave you to judge that.

   I saw a Church tower the other day, with a clock upon it, which
   startled me by pointing to half-past ten when I thought it was only
   nine. I was, however, quite relieved when I saw that another face of
   the clock indicated a quarter past eight. "Well," I thought, "Whatever
   time it may be, that clock is wrong for it contradicts itself." So if I
   hear a man say one thing by his Church membership and another by his
   private protest, why, whatever may be right he certainly is not
   consistent with himself! Let us bear witness to the Truth of God since
   there is great need of doing so just now, for witnessing is in ill
   repute.

   The age extols no virtue so much as "liberality," and condemns no vice
   so fiercely as bigotry--alas--honesty. If you believe anything and hold
   it firmly, all the dogs will bark at you. Let them bark! They will have
   done when they are tired! You are responsible to God and not to mortal
   men. Christ came into the world to bear witness to the Truth and He has
   sent you to do the same--take care that you do it, offend or
   please--for it is only by this process that the kingdom of Christ is to
   be set up in the world.

   V. Now, the last thing is this. Our Savior, having spoken of His
   kingdom and the way of establishing it, DESCRIBED HIS
   SUBJECTS--"Everyone that is of the truth hears My voice." That is to
   say wherever the Holy Spirit has made a man a lover of the Truth of God
   he always recognizes Christ's voice and yields to it. Where are the
   people who love the Truth? Well, we need not enquire long. We need not
   Diogenes' lantern to find them--they will come to the light--and where
   is light but in Jesus?

   Where are those that would not seem to be what they are not? Where are
   the men who desire to be true in secret and before the Lord? They may
   be discovered where Christ's people are discovered--they will be found
   listening to those who bear witness to the Truth of God. Those who love
   pure Truth and know what Christ is, will be sure to fall in love with
   Him and hear His voice. Judge you, then, this day, Brothers and
   Sisters, whether you are of the Truth or not--for if you love the
   Truth, you know and obey the voice which calls you away from your old
   sins, from false refuges, from evil habits--from everything which is
   not after the Lord's mind. You have heard Him in your conscience
   rebuking you for that of the false which remains in you. You have heard
   Him encouraging you for that of the true which is struggling there.

   I have done when I have urged on you one or two reflections. The first
   is, Beloved, dare we avow ourselves on the side of Truth at this hour
   of its humiliation? Do we own the royalty of Christ's Truth when we see
   it every day dishonored? If Gospel Truth were honored everywhere, it
   would be an easy thing to say "I believe it." But now, in these days,
   when it has no honor among men, dare we cleave to it at all costs? Are
   you willing to walk with the Truth through the mire and through the
   slough? Have you the courage to profess unfashionable Truth? Are you
   willing to believe the Truth against which science, falsely so-called,
   has vented her spleen? Are you willing to accept the Truth although it
   is said that only the poor and uneducated will receive it? Are you
   willing to be the disciple of the Galilean whose Apostles were
   fishermen? Verily, verily, I say unto you, in that day in which the
   Truth in the Person of Christ shall come forth in all its glory, it
   shall go ill with those who were ashamed to own it and its Master!

   In the next place, if we have heard Christ's voice, do we recognize our
   life-object? Do we feel, "For this end were we born and for this cause
   came we into the world, that we might bear witness to the Truth of
   God?" I do not believe that you, my dear Brother, came into the world
   to be a linen draper, or an auctioneer and nothing else! I do not
   believe that God created you, my Sister, to be merely and only a
   seamstress, a nurse, or a housekeeper! Immortal souls were not created
   for merely mortal ends. For this purpose was I born, that, with my
   voice in this place and everywhere else, I might bear witness to the
   Truth of God! You acknowledge that--then I beg you, each one, to
   acknowledge that you have a similar mission. "I could not occupy the
   pulpit," says one. Never mind that--bear witness for the Truth of God
   where you are and in your own sphere. O waste no time or energy, but at
   once testify for Jesus!

   And now, last of all, do you own Christ's superlative dignity, Beloved?
   Do you see what a King, Christ is? Is He such a King to you as none
   other could be? It was but yesterday a prince entered one of our great
   towns and they crowded all their streets to welcome him--yet he was but
   a mortal man! And then at night they illuminated their city and made
   the heavens glow as though the sun had risen before his appointed hour.
   Yet what had this prince done for them? Loyal subjects they were and
   that was the reason of their joy. But O, Beloved, we need not ask,
   "What has Christ done for us?"--we will ask, "What has He not done for
   us?"

   Emmanuel, we owe all to You! You are our new Creator, our Redeemer from
   the lowest pit of Hell! In Yourself resplendent and altogether lovely,
   Your beauties command our adoration! You have lived for us. You have
   bled for us. You have died for us! And You are preparing a kingdom for
   us. And You are coming again to take us to be with You where You are!
   All this commands our love. All hail! All hail! You are our King and we
   worship You with all our soul! Beloved, I beseech you, love Christ and
   live for Him while you can. Work while opportunity serves.

   While I have been laid aside and able to do nothing, the great sorrow
   of my heart has been my inability to do Him service. I heard my
   Brothers shouting in the battlefield and I saw my comrades marching to
   the fight--and I lay like a wounded soldier in the ditch and could not
   stir--except that I breathed a prayer that you might all be strong in
   the Lord and in the power of His might.

   This was my thought--"Oh, that I had preached better while I could
   preach and lived more for the Master while I could serve Him!" Don't
   incur such regrets in the future by present sluggishness, but live now
   for Him who died for you! If any present in this assembly have never
   obeyed our King, may they come to trust in Him tonight, for He is a
   tender Savior and is willing to receive the biggest and filthiest
   sinner who will come to Him! Whoever trusts in Him will never find Him
   fail for He will save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him!

   May He bring you to His feet and reign over you in love. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Hexapla Of Mystery

   (No. 1087)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, DECEMBER 22, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was
   manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels,
   preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into
   glory." 1 Timothy 3:16.

   THE Apostle tells us in the preceding verse that the Lord has a double
   design in maintaining His Church in the world. The first is that it may
   be the place of His abode, for the Church of the living God is "the
   house of God," the home wherein He reveals Himself unto His own
   children, the resting place of His love which He has of old appointed.
   Jehovah still inhabits the praises of Israel and still He fulfills His
   promise to His chosen, "I will dwell in them and walk in them." (2 Cor.
   6:16). Blessed is the Church which has realized this first design of
   God and so has continued to enjoy the Lord's Presence and power. May we
   in this place be a building fitly framed together and grow unto a holy
   temple in the Lord, for a habitation of God through the Spirit.

   God's next purpose in sustaining a Church in the world is that it may
   preserve and uphold His Truth among men, for the Church of the living
   God is "the pillar and ground of the Truth." The Gospel must be
   believed, practiced and proclaimed by men of God or it will not have
   power. God does not trust the conservation of His Truth to books, or to
   the most accurately written creeds, or to some one person supposed to
   be infallible--He puts the incorruptible Seed into the hearts of His
   chosen and in such good soil its vitality and its growth secure its
   preservation. Even the inspired Word, as a letter, has small power till
   it gains a lodging place for the Truth in a warm heart--and then it
   grows and yields fruit till its boughs spread far and wide and its
   seeds are wafted on the wings of every wind to spring up on the hills
   and among the valleys where none had looked for them.

   As long as one copy of the Holy Scriptures remains in the world we
   shall have the pure Truth of God among us, but it will be like an
   unplanted seed. For the propagation of the Gospel, human voices are
   required--for the establishment and confirmation of it among men, human
   lives are needed. And God intends that His Gospel shall be set forth
   and held up, published, defended, maintained and supported in the world
   by His Church--not alone by His ministers, nor by a hierarchical
   establishment--but by the entire company of faithful men and women! To
   the sacramental host of His elect has He committed the banner of the
   Truth which they are always to unfold and carry on by the power of His
   Spirit, from victory to victory. In this sense, the Church of the
   living God is and ever must be, "the pillar and ground of the Truth."
   Let us take care, in our measure, to make her so.

   While dealing with this question, it was most fitting for the Apostle
   to tell us what the Truth is and now is the most proper time for each
   one of us to learn what are the vital and essential Truths which the
   Church of God is forever to maintain. Our text is, for this reason,
   deeply interesting. It deals not with questionable and debatable
   topics, but with things verily and, indeed, received among us. Its
   testimony is short but weighty. We cannot spare a single word from it
   and it would be a crime to add anything to it.

   The Apostle calls it a "mystery," and so, indeed, it is for exceeding
   greatness of meaning, but not for obscurity of language, for it is as
   plain as it is full. Neither is it a mystery because it speaks of
   recondite opinions or philosophical theories, for it deals only with
   facts and is an historical summary of actual occurrences. Observe that
   the comprehensive summary of the Gospel here given is contained in six
   little sentences which run with such regularity of measure in the
   original Greek that some have supposed them to be an ancient hymn. And
   it is possible that they may have been used as such in the early
   Church.

   There is a poetic form about the six sentences. You are aware, of
   course, that the Orientals do not consider it essential to sacred
   Psalms and hymns that they should resound with jingling rhymes--we are
   the slaves of mere sound in

   that respect, but they are free. Their fashion of verse-making has more
   respect to the sense than ours and lies, as a rule, very much in
   introducing pleasant parallels and contrasts. These you have here,
   whether the six paragraphs are verses of a hymn or not. Note that
   "manifest in the flesh" is contrasted with "justified in the spirit."
   "Seen of angels," who are nearest to the Throne of God, is fitly set by
   the side of "preached unto the Gentiles," who stand at the opposite
   pole and are far off. And then the third duplicate is made up of the
   evident opposites, "believed on in the world," "received up into
   glory." Thus, all through, the lights and shades are set over against
   each other by evident design.

   Moreover, you will perceive an equally plain parallelism if you will
   read attentively. The first two stanzas deal with the revealing of the
   Lord Jesus--He is manifest in the flesh and He is yet more fully made
   manifest by being justified in the Spirit. Then follows a making known
   of the Lord by sight to angels and by hearing to the Gentiles. And in
   the third pair of lines there is a twofold reception--the one by Grace
   among men who believe and the other into His actual glory in Heaven.
   Add to all this that pairs are also discernable in the first and last,
   the second and fourth and the two middle lines.

   Just for an instant notice that the first clause of the series deals
   with Christ's descent and the last with His ascent. The second and the
   fifth are both intensely spiritual and the third and fourth have to do
   with the senses only. Thus you find another set of parallels whose
   existence can hardly be a mere accident. Note this, for it teaches us
   that our memories need to be helped and strengthened in every way and
   so it is well to have condensed Truth to carry about with us and
   exceedingly advantageous to us to have it arranged in such a shape that
   we are likely to recollect it. The Apostle has been led by the Spirit
   to give us goodly words helping our infirmities--of this help we should
   gratefully avail ourselves to the utmost.

   If we are somewhat instructed in the Word we have here an example of
   practical usefulness. We may for ourselves and for others, especially
   for the young, try to put the Truth of God into forms which will help
   it to retain its hold upon the memory. I shall call my text a hexapla
   of essential Truth, a six-fold mystery of godliness. You have six great
   points clearly set forth before you and these constitute the main, the
   essential elements of our holy faith which the Church of God is forever
   to set forth and uphold to the end of time. The Apostle has said,
   "without controversy great is the mystery of godliness." When he says
   "without controversy," I suppose he means that there ought to be no
   controversy about these facts though controversies have arisen
   concerning them and always will, since the most self-evident Truth of
   God will always find self-evident fools to contradict it!

   He means that in the Church of God, at any rate, there is no question
   about these fundamentals. Outside of the Church these statements are
   denied, but inside the house of God no one ever questions them for a
   moment--and he who does so is by that very act proven to have no part
   nor lot in the matter. Without controversy all Christians agree that
   these are Truths of God and also that they are no trifles, but involve
   a mystery--a great mystery--that is to say they were things hidden in
   themselves and so concealed that reason could not have found them out.
   And even now, though they are revealed, they concern matters so vast
   and so profound that none of us comprehend them fully--and the best
   instructed scribe in the kingdom recognizes in them infinite deeps
   which he cannot hope fully to explore.

   The facts are unquestioned by the Church of God and are without dispute
   among the faithful, regarded as containing in their inner depths a
   world of weighty meaning, even the great mystery of godliness. Have you
   ever noticed that there are six New Testament mysteries? There may be
   more, but these six are the chief. The first is the mystery of the
   Incarnation, which is now before us--"Great is the mystery of
   godliness, God was manifest in the flesh." The next is the mystery of
   the union of Christ with His Church, of which we read, in Ephesians
   5:31, 32, "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and
   shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is
   a great mystery: but

   1 speak concerning Christ and the Church." Thrice blessed union with
   Jesus, may our souls find their Heaven in Your holy mystery--

   "Oh teach us, Lord, to know and own This wondrous mystery, That You
   with us are truly ONE, And we are ONE with You!"

   The third mystery is the mystery of the calling of the Gentiles, to
   which Paul refers in Ephesians 3:4-6, where he says, "Whereby, when you
   read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ; 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; that the

   Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of
   His promise in Christ by the Gospel." Herein we have a joyful portion
   for which we can never be too grateful.

   The fourth mystery concerns the Jews and deals with the restoration of
   Israel, whom we ought to remember with abounding sympathy and brotherly
   love. Of this you will read in Romans 11:25, 26: "For I would not,
   brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should
   be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to
   Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles is come in. And so all
   Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion
   the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob."

   For a fifth mystery I would bid you remember the doctrine of the
   removal of corruption from the body and of its resurrection as spoken
   of in the famous passage, "Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not
   all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling
   of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead
   shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." And then,
   alas, to close the list, there is that mystery of iniquity which began
   to work so soon and works yet more and more of evil.

   Our text, then, is one of six mysteries, but it has this preeminence
   that it is a great mystery. It is called, "the mystery of godliness,"
   because it most intimately concerns a godly life. Those who receive it
   in their hearts become thereby godly men and, moreover, it builds up
   Believers in godliness and is to them a grand motive for the reverent
   love and holy fear of the Lord their God. Let so much as we have
   already spoken stand for our preface, and let us now, by the Holy
   Spirit's aid, consider one by one the six branches of the mystery which
   is now before us.

   I. The first sentence is, "GOD WAS MANIFEST IN THE FLESH." I believe
   that our version is the correct one, but the most fierce battles have
   been held over this sentence. It is asserted that the word Theos is a
   corruption for "Os" so that, instead of reading, "God was manifest in
   the flesh," we should read, "who was manifest in the flesh." There is
   very little occasion for fighting about this matter, for if the text
   does not say, "God was manifest in the flesh," who does it say was
   manifest in the flesh?

   Either a man, or an angel, or a devil. Does it tell us that a man was
   manifest in the flesh? Assuredly that cannot be its teachings, for
   every man is manifest in the flesh and there is no sense whatever in
   making such a statement concerning any mere man and then calling it a
   mystery! Was it an angel, then? But what angel was ever manifest in the
   flesh? And if he were, would it be at all a mystery that he should be
   "seen of angels?" Is it a wonder for an angel to see an angel? Can it
   be that the devil was manifest in the flesh? If so, he has been
   "received up into glory," which, let us hope, is not the case.

   Well, if it was neither a man, nor an angel, nor a devil--who was
   manifest in the flesh? Surely He must have been God! And so, if the
   word is not there, the sense must be there or else nonsense. We believe
   that if criticism should grind the text in a mill, it would get out of
   it no more and no less than the sense expressed by our grand old
   version. God Himself was manifest in the flesh! What a mystery is this!
   A mystery of mysteries! God the Invisible was manifest! God the
   Spiritual dwelt in flesh! God the Infinite, uncontained, boundless, was
   manifest in the flesh!

   What infinite leagues our thought must traverse between Godhead
   self-existent and, therefore, full of power and self-sufficiency,
   before we have descended to the far-down level of poor flesh which is
   as grass at its best and dust in its essence! Where can we find a
   greater contrast than between God and flesh? And yet the two are
   blended in the Incarnation of the Savior! God was manifest in the
   flesh. Truly God, not God humanized, but God as God! He was manifest in
   real flesh. Not in manhood deified and made superhuman, but in actual
   flesh--

   "Oh joy! There sits in our death,

   Upon a throne of light,

   One of a human mother born,

   In perfect Godhead bright!

   Forever God, forever Man,

   My Jesus shall endure;

   And fixed on Him,

   My hope remains

   Eternally secure."

   Matchless Truth of God! Let the Church never fail to set it forth, for
   it is essential to the world's salvation that this doctrine of the
   Incarnation be fully known. O my Brothers and Sisters, since it is,
   "without controversy," let us not controvert but sit down and feed upon
   it! What a miracle of condescension is here, that God should manifest
   Himself in

   flesh! It needs not so much to be preached upon as to be pondered in
   the heart. It needs that you sit down in quiet and consider how He who
   made you became like you--He who is your God became your brother Man.
   He who is adored of angels once lay in a manger! He who feeds all
   living things hungered and was thirsty. He who oversees all worlds as
   God, was, as a Man, made to sleep, to suffer and to die like
   yourselves!

   This is a statement not easily to be believed. If He had not been
   beheld by many witnesses, so that men handled Him, looked upon Him and
   heard Him speak, it were a thing not readily to be accepted that so
   Divine a Person should be manifest in flesh. It is a wonder of
   condescension! And it is a marvel, too, of benediction, for God's
   manifestation in human flesh conveys a thousand blessings to us.
   Bethlehem's star is the morning star of hope to Believers. Now man is
   nearest to God. Never was God manifest in angel nature, but He is
   manifest in flesh. Now, between poor puny man that is born of a woman
   and the infinite God, there is a bond of union of the most wonderful
   kind. God and Man in one Person is the Lord Jesus Christ!

   This brings our manhood near to God and by so doing it ennobles our
   nature--it lifts us up from the dunghill and sets us among
   princes--while at the same time it enriches us by endowing our manhood
   with all the glory of Christ Jesus in whom dwells all the fullness of
   the Godhead bodily! Lift up your eyes, you down-trodden sons of man! If
   you are men you have a brotherhood with Christ, and Christ is God! O
   you who have begun to despise yourselves and think that you are merely
   sent to be drudges upon and slaves of sin, lift up your heads and look
   for redemption in the Son of Man who has broken the captives' bonds!

   If you are Believers in the Christ of God, then you are also the
   children of God and if children then heirs--heirs of God, joint heirs
   with Jesus Christ! What a fullness of consolation there is in this
   Truth, as well as of benediction, for if the Son of God is Man, then He
   understands me and will have a fellow feeling for me. He knows my
   unfitness to worship sometimes--He knows my tendencies to grow weary
   and dull--He knows my pains, my trials and my griefs--

   "He knows what fierce temptations mean, For He has felt the same."

   Man, truly Man, yet sitting at the right hand of the Father, You, O
   Savior, are the delight of my soul! Is there not the richest comfort in
   this for you, the people of God? And, besides, there is instruction,
   too, for God was manifest in the flesh. And if you desire to see God,
   you must see Him in Christ Jesus.

   It does not say God was veiled in the flesh, though under certain
   aspects that might be true, but God was "manifest in the flesh." The
   brightness of the sun might put out our eyes if we gazed upon it and we
   must look through dark glasses and then the sun is manifested to us. So
   the excessive glory of the infinite Godhead cannot be borne by our
   mind's eyes till it comes into communication and union with the nature
   of man and then God is manifest to us. My Soul, never try to gaze upon
   an absolute God--the brightness will blind your eyes--even our God is a
   consuming fire! Ask not to see God in fire in the bush, nor God in
   lightning upon Mount Sinai--be satisfied to see God in the Man Christ
   Jesus, for there God is manifested!

   Not all the glory of the sky and of the sea, nor the wonders of
   Creation or Providence can set forth the Deity as does the Son of Mary,
   who from the manger went to the Cross and from the Cross to the
   tomb--and from the tomb to His Eternal Throne. Behold, now, the Lamb of
   God, for God is manifest in Him! People of God, look nowhere else for
   God! I shall leave the point when I have asked a personal question.
   Have we, each one of us, seen God in Christ Jesus? Remember, this is
   essential to salvation! We speak not now that which is harsh or
   severe--we only speak that which is honest and true. If you rebel
   against it we can still say no less. You cannot be right anywhere
   unless you are right about the Person of the Lord Jesus!

   If you do not accept Him as the Son of God He cannot be a Savior to
   you. And without Him for a Savior you are as surely lost as you are
   born, whatever profession you may make. I trust we can say, many of us,
   "Yes, Jesus Christ is to us Lord, to the glory of God the Father and we
   worship Him and obey Him, putting all our trust in Him and rendering
   our adoration to Him." If you are not now His worshippers, may the
   blessed Spirit bring you to Jesus and not suffer you to attempt to go
   to the Father first, for the Lord Jesus has told us, "no man comes unto
   the Father but by Me." May you go to the Throne of God by the way of
   the Cross, for that is the only way--and may you go by that road at
   once.

   II. The second clause concerns our Lord's vindication by the Spirit. He
   who was "manifest in the flesh" was also "JUSTIFIED IN THE SPIRIT."
   When our Lord came in human flesh and declared to be the Son of God
   there were many

   reasons why His statement would be doubted, for He came in such
   poverty, weakness and disrepute. In any case, the appearance of God in
   flesh would need great proof, but the circumstances which surrounded
   our Savior were such as to cast, especially in carnal minds, great
   doubt upon His pretensions.

   Our Lord, however the flesh might seem to cloud His claims, was
   "justified in the Spirit," which may mean, and perhaps does, that His
   spiritual Nature as Man was so elevated by His Godhead that it
   abundantly justified His claim to be the Son of God. What a spirit was
   His for purity and dignity! What nobility ever came near to His? What a
   mind was His! What wisdom dwelt in Him! Even as a Child He baffled
   Rabbis and as a Man He confounded all who would entrap Him in His
   speech. Was there ever such teaching as His? Listen to Him and you feel
   that the spirit which flashes from those eyes and distils from those
   lips justifies His claim to be the Son of the Highest.

   Hearken, also, to His words of command when His Godhead glows through
   His Humanity and proves Him Divine. He speaks and it is done. He
   commands and it stands fast. At His bidding waves sleep and winds
   rest--pain flees, strength returns, health smiles--and death lives! Has
   not His spiritual Nature, by deeds so astounding, fully justified Him?
   And see, dear Friends, how He was justified--not only by His own
   spirit, which worked beyond the reach and compass of all other
   spirits--but He was justified by the Holy Spirit which rested upon Him
   without measure and made His human spirit strong.

   It was this anointing which made Him the chief of all Prophets,
   teachers and revealers of the mind of God. All who heard Him confessed
   His unrivalled power, even when they resisted it. The Spirit of God
   bore witness in Him--His words were full of unction. The Spirit of God
   bore witness with Him--His words went to men's hearts. The Spirit of
   God bore witness to Christ and justified all His claims at the time of
   His Baptism, when out of the excellent Glory there appeared the form of
   a dove and a voice cried out of Heaven, "This is My beloved Son." That
   same Spirit justified Him audibly again in His Transfiguration. But
   silently and yet more evidently the seal of God was always on Him--the
   Spirit witnessed to Him everywhere. Only blind eyes, blinded by hate,
   refused to see the Divine light which hung about His every word and
   act, as radiance enrobes a star!

   Above all, our Lord's claims were justified by the Spirit in His
   Resurrection, when He was "declared to be the Son of God with power,
   according to the Spirit of holiness by His resurrection from the dead."
   Nor less so when, after 40 days, He was received up into Glory and the
   Spirit of God justified all that Christ had said by coming down like a
   rushing mighty wind and cloven tongues of fire and resting upon His
   disciples. If Christ had not risen from the dead He would have been a
   convicted impostor. And after His rising from the dead, if the Spirit
   of God had not been given, His claim would still have remained under a
   cloud!

   But now it is clear that, "He has ascended on high and received gifts
   for men, yes, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell
   among them," for the scattering of the Spirit of God among men was that
   promised largess which our mighty Conqueror distributed among His
   people when He entered upon the possession of His crown. The Holy
   Spirit has justified Christ! This is a part of the testimony of the
   Church--that Christ's claims are to be justified by the spirit of His
   teaching and also by the Holy Spirit whose supernatural power will
   accompany the proclamation of the Gospel.

   Now, let the Church always stand to this. I am afraid we are on wrong
   ground when we begin to defend the Gospel by mere reason. The true
   defense of the Gospel is the Spirit of Christ--Jesus is justified in
   the Spirit--and needs no other justification. O, Brethren, if we
   exhibit the Spirit of Christ we shall answer ridiculers and if the
   Spirit of God rests on the ministry of the Church, ridiculers will
   cease to ridicule! They will see her glory and they will be ashamed.

   The Holy Spirit is our strength, our glory, the abiding witness that
   our great Leader is Lord and God. Brethren, has the Holy Spirit ever
   justified Christ in your soul? He has come to save--has the Holy Spirit
   revealed Him as your Savior? He has come to blot out sin--has the Holy
   Spirit ever revealed Him in all His power to pardon you? This is the
   sure vindication of Christ--your own personal experience of His
   preciousness and His power! If the Holy Spirit has given you that, none
   can confuse you! But if you have it not you lack the one thing
   necessary. God grant you may not lack it long!

   III. The third clause of our hexapla is, "SEEN OF ANGELS." This is an
   important point, for angels had waited to see the Lord, patiently
   gazing on the Mercy Seat. There had been rumors in Heaven of this
   mystery of the manifold wisdom of God but they had not understood it.
   And it is now in Christ that the mystery of Incarnate God has been
   revealed to them. If I may say so, the brightness of the Godhead had
   confused even the angels. They were not able to see God, but when God
   came and manifested Himself in the flesh, then God was seen of angels.

   The Godhead was seen in Christ by angels as they had never seen it
   before. They had beheld the attribute of justice. They had seen the
   attribute of power. They had marked the attribute of wisdom and seen
   the prerogative of sovereignty. But never had angels seen love,
   condescension, tenderness and pity in God as they saw these things
   resplendent in the Person and the life of Christ! They were astounded
   to think that God was such a One. They knew Him to be thrice holy, for
   they had chanted, "Holy, holy, holy," in their perpetual song. But they
   did not know Him to be Love--essential Love--as they knew it when they
   saw that, "He spared not His own Son, but freely delivered Him up for
   us all."

   The angels, seeing God thus manifest in flesh, ministered to Him. They
   watched around the manger. They were messengers to His foster parent to
   warn him of intended evil to the Child. And they waited on the Redeemer
   in the desert of His temptation. One of their number strengthened Him
   in the garden. Another rolled away the stone from His grave, while
   others sat at the head and foot of the sepulcher where Jesus had lain.
   I doubt not it is true as we sang just now--

   "They brought His chariot from above, To bear Him to His Throne;
   Clapped their triumphant wings, and cried, 'The glorious work is
   done.'"

   Jesus was alone seen of angels and this is one reason why they sing so
   sweetly of Him--why they tune their notes so heartily to the song,
   "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain," for they saw Him live and
   die--they saw Him labor and suffer and therefore is their song so vivid
   and so full of adoration. "You were slain," they sing, though they
   cannot add, "and have redeemed us unto God by Your blood."

   Now the joy of this truth lies here--it brings the angel host near to
   us, for they saw Jesus and waited on Him and we see Him and therefore
   our eyes and the angels' eyes meet upon the Person of Christ. We have
   one common love, one common Lord--and now the ministering spirits that
   waited upon Him are ready to wait upon us. They love the members for
   the sake of the Head. Beloved, we rejoice this day to know that Christ
   is Head of angels and principalities and powers, as well as Head of His
   Church! And so, in Him broken unity is restored and the household of
   God is one in Him. Angelic eyes beheld and loved--they still love and
   wonder. Fair spirits, charmed with the beauty of our Bridegroom, you
   rejoice with us and make it your delight to swell His train!

   One question and we leave this point. Have you ever seen Jesus? He was
   seen of angels. Have your eyes ever seen Him--your inner, spiritual
   eyes? If not, the Lord help you this morning to look unto Him and be
   saved! It is nothing that He was seen of angels unless He is seen of me
   also, even as of one born out of due time. O, to see Him as my Savior,
   my All and rest in Him! This is the main business. May God grant us
   that gladness!

   IV. Briefly, the fourth part of the great mystery does not look, at
   first sight, to be at all mysterious. There is much of mystery in the
   facts that God was "manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, and
   seen of angels." But the next appears very commonplace--"PREACHED UNTO
   THE GENTILES." Yet it is not without a marvel. Those who reflect will
   see a great mystery of Grace in it. Until Christ came, nothing was
   "preached to the Gentiles." They were accounted dogs, and few were the
   crumbs that fell to them from the Master's table! But after our Lord
   had ascended on high He was proclaimed to the Gentiles.

   To a Jew, especially, this would seem a very strange thing. The Jew
   thought that if the Gentile perished it was but a matter of course--but
   for the Gentiles to be visited with the Gospel was strange, indeed!
   That God should work effectually in Peter to the Apostleship of the
   circumcision was to them readily a matter of faith. But that the same
   should be equally mighty in Paul towards the Gentiles was incredible!
   Well, blessed be God, you and I are partakers in this mystery, for we
   have heard and believed the love which God has toward us! We are
   Gentiles, also, but unto us has the Gospel been preached as well as
   unto the ancient people! Yes, and we have been more highly favored than
   they, for at this day more are the children of the desolate than the
   children of the married wife.

   God has multiplied the seed of Abraham after the Spirit among the
   Gentiles, whereas the seed of Abraham after the flesh have, in these
   times, rejected the Savior. Rejoice then, in the mystery that Christ is
   preached among the Gentiles! Mark you, preached! For He is to be set
   forth in that manner. The Church is ever to maintain this great,
   incontrovertible mystery that the setting forth of Christ to the
   Gentiles is to be by preaching and not by any other means of man's
   devising. Suppose I could take my pencil, now, and draw the Savior with
   such matchless skill that a Raffaelle or a Titian could not rival me?
   God has never ordained that Christ should so be set forth to the
   Gentiles.

   Or, suppose I should perform the ceremony of the "mass" with all the
   exactness and with all the gorgeousness which the church of Rome would
   require? Such a setting forth of Christ among the Gentiles would not be
   according to the Divine mystery. Christ is to be preached among the
   Gentiles! The appointed way of manifesting the Incarnate God to the
   sons of men is by preaching--the Church must always maintain this! The
   strongest castle of the walls of Zion for offense and defense must
   always be the pulpit. God is pleased by the foolishness of preaching to
   save them that believe!

   I hate to see, as I do sometimes in certain modern buildings, the
   pulpit stuck in the corner and the altar in the most conspicuous place.
   The altar of sacrifice, indeed! The place of defilement and remembrance
   of sin--how come is that in the holy place at all? God has never
   ordained it to be there! Where in Holy Scripture have we mention of a
   material altar in the assemblies of Believers? Our only altar is the
   spiritual Altar of our Lord's Person, whereof they have no right to eat
   that serve the tabernacle of outward forms of rites and ceremonies.
   Altars belong to Jews and heathens and even they never bow before them!
   None but your Popish idolaters have fallen so low as that!

   The most prominent agency in the Church of God is the preaching of
   Christ--this is the trumpet of Heaven and the battering ram of Hell! By
   this door salvation comes, for faith comes by hearing, and hearing by
   the Word of God--and how shall they hear without a preacher? God's way
   of creating faith in men's hearts is not by pictures, music, or
   symbols, but by the hearing of the Word of God! This may seem a strange
   thing--but strange let it seem, for it is a mystery--and a great
   mystery, but a fact beyond all controversy! Let the Church forever
   maintain that Christ is to be preached unto the Gentiles!

   A part of the greatness of the mystery lies in the persons who preached
   the Gospel. It was a strange thing that Jesus should be preached unto
   the Gentiles by unlearned and ignorant men. One of the Apostles, it is
   true, was of another class, but he declares that he never preached with
   excellency of speech. He declared that in all simplicity he laid bare
   the mystery of God in plain language. It was wonderful that Christ
   should be preached unto the Gentiles so rapidly. It was but the other
   day the 120 were in the upper room and within a few years there was no
   part of the civilized globe which had not heard the name of Jesus! They
   had penetrated Scythia. They had subdued the barbarians--their only
   weapon being the Cross!

   They had triumphed at Athens, in the stronghold of classic learning.
   They had passed into Rome and set up the Cross amidst the luxurious
   vices of the capital. No place was untrodden by the Christian
   missionary and no place was unaffected by the power of the Gospel which
   he preached. This is a great mystery--may the Lord repeat the mystery
   again and again! O that preaching might once again be recognized to be
   God's power unto salvation and used everywhere--in the Church, in the
   lecture hall, in the street--in foreign lands and at home! The voice of
   the Truth of God in the preaching of Jesus is the great power of God!

   One question here, and we leave it--Have you reverently heard the
   Gospel? For there goes with the declaration that God saves through
   preaching, the warning, "Take heed how you hear." If God waits to bless
   by hearing, woe unto the men who hear inattentively and
   disrespectfully! Woe unto the hearers who are not doers of the Word! A
   responsibility goes with hearing and God grant that you may be obedient
   hearers so that we who preach may give a good account of you at the
   last--that our ministry may not have been in vain--but may have been to
   you the voice of God to your salvation.

   V. And now the fifth part of the mystery is a very remarkable one. Like
   that which preceded, it does not appear to be mysterious on the
   surface, but it is so--"BELIEVED ON IN THE WORLD." This is the most
   glorious of all the six points, this wonderful fact that Jesus is
   "believed on in the world." Why, when the humble preachers first went
   out to tell of Jesus, their story was so strange you could not imagine
   that any would believe it! And then the doctrines that they taught were
   so contrary to all the prejudices of flesh and blood, so humbling to
   human pride, so insulting to all our self-esteem that it was not
   probable that men would accept them!

   And the world, too, what a world it was! It was steeped up to its
   throat in cruelty, in vice, in luxury, in sins infamous and
   unmentionable--and was it likely that a pure Savior with a perfect
   doctrine like His would find followers? But He did--He was "believed on
   in the world." Why, I think the first preachers must have been ready to
   leap for joy when they found that men believed them! If I had been
   Peter, I should scarcely have slept for joy for many a night if I had
   found 3,000 willing to believe my testimony and willing to be baptized
   into Christ! And Paul--oh, I thinks with all his sorrows, he must have
   been a very happy man--must have been struck with wonder to see that
   though he went into

   idolatrous lands to tell this new, strange and incredible story, yet in
   every place there were found men or women who received it joyfully!

   Hark well that the Church is bound to maintain this mystery--that it is
   by believing in Christ that the efficacy of His Sacrifice comes to men.
   The mystery is not that Christ is served in the world, that is not put
   here--nor that Christ is worshipped in the world, that is not the first
   point--those things will be sure to follow. But the vital mystery is
   that Christ is "believed on in the world," that is to say, trusted as
   the Savior! Men leave all other trusts and trust in Him! They give up
   their self-righteousness. They leave their vaunted sacraments. They
   forsake all ways and modes of self-salvation and come and trust in
   Christ--this is the great mystery!

   "Well," says one, "I do not see that there is a mystery in it." Have
   you ever believed in Jesus yourself, beloved Friend? If you have, you
   will say, "this is the finger of God." Belief in Jesus is as great a
   work of Divine power as the making of this globe. One of the visitors
   to this place lately said, "I am willing to be a Believer if the
   preacher can persuade me." Very likely, but no preacher can create true
   faith--it needs a mightier power than the preacher's, even the power of
   the Holy Spirit! God gives to His elect the blessing of faith and
   others willfully remain in unbelief. Faith, simple as it is, is
   supernatural, Divine and not to be attained by human aid, nor human
   eloquence. They who have it know that it is a blessed mystery, this
   believing on Jesus Christ in the world. Have you this faith? Do you
   believe in Jesus? Everything else in my text leads up to this.

   If He is manifest in the flesh, what is that unless I believe in Him?
   What if He is justified in the Spirit? What is that unless faith in Him
   justifies me? What if He is seen of angels, how does that help me
   unless I see Him, too? And even if He is preached among the Gentiles,
   that does but involve greater guilt upon my soul if, after hearing, I
   have not believed in Him. O dear Hearers, I may not speak to you much
   longer and every time that I am kept away from addressing you I feel a
   deep anxiety that by some means my preaching may be made effectual to
   your salvation. Many of you have believed in my Lord--this is my
   comfort--but, on the other hand, how many there are who still hear, and
   hear, and hear, and that is all? How long will you wait? How long will
   you cause me to labor for nothing? No one is so worth trusting as the
   Savior is and nothing is so true as that He came to save sinners!

   VI. The last point of the Church's witness is that Jesus was "RECEIVED
   UP INTO GLORY." Only this word about it--He was so received because His
   work is finished. He would never have gone into His Glory if He had not
   finished all His toil. He would have accepted no reward had He not
   fully earned it. My Soul, do you believe that Christ is received up
   into Glory? That will let you know that you are resting in a finished
   work, an Atonement which has put away all sin, a satisfaction which has
   made all Believers accepted in the Beloved. He has gone into Glory,
   thus He is personally rewarded.

   And moreover, He has thus representatively taken possession of all that
   He has purchased. Is Christ in Glory? Then the Believer is in
   Glory--not literally but in his Covenant Head. What Christ takes
   possession of He claims in our name--"I go to prepare a place for you."
   O you who sorrow over the present, rejoice also, for even now at this
   moment Heaven is yours--your Jesus has taken possession in your name!
   And oh, it is joyous to know that our great Lord is eternally exalted!
   If He were not exalted what comfort could we have? He is received up
   into Glory!

   Men say He is not God--they cannot hurt Him, for He is received up into
   Glory! They revile His Gospel--they cannot dim the luster of His crown,
   He is received up into Glory! They would gladly slay His people if they
   could, but He is received up into Glory! They struggle and they strive
   against His cause and would gladly overthrow it--but O, what does it
   matter? He is everlastingly exalted and He will shortly come--that same
   Jesus who was received into Glory shall so come, in like manner as He
   was seen to go up into Heaven!

   Here are great wells of comfort! He has gone to His Glory and has taken
   to Himself His great power! But every hour is bringing nearer the time
   when He shall lay bare His sword in the midst of His foes and shall
   unveil His face in the midst of His friends! Let us rejoice in Him this
   day and go our way to bear with all the Church of the living God the
   six-fold testimony of our text concerning our precious Savior. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Essence of Simplicity

   (No. 1088)

   A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, DECEMBER 29, 1872,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He
   said unto him, Do you believe on the Son of God? He answered and said,
   Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him?" John 9:35,36.

   THIS text is from the story of the blind man to whom Jesus had given
   sight. His narrative of the cure provoked the anger of the Jews and
   their rulers. And, as the man could not be convinced by them that one
   who had opened his eyes could also be a bad man, they cast him out of
   their assembly--and by that act signified to him that he would be, or
   already was, cast out of the Jewish Church--set aside from the
   Synagogue and made the victim of the greater excommunication. This was
   one of the most fearful calamities that could befall a Jew and I do not
   doubt but what the man considered it to be so.

   Now, it is not at all likely that any person here is feeling the same
   trouble, but many may be suffering from something similar. It may be
   that you have excommunicated yourselves. Within the court of your own
   bosom, conscience has held a solemn court and pronounced upon you a
   sentence which continually rings in your ears. You scarcely dare mingle
   with those who assemble in the house of God for you feel yourselves
   unworthy to be among them. Up till lately you were upon the best of
   terms with yourselves and reckoned that all was right with God. You
   hoped that you stood on as good a footing, at any rate, as other men
   and perhaps were somewhat better than many around you.

   But now a process of enlightenment has come over your mind--practices
   have been seen to be seriously evil which before were regarded as
   trifles and sin itself has worn another aspect than any which it bore
   in former times. Does such a person stand here this morning? Then let
   me assure him that his state of mind is well known to me, for I knew
   its horrors by the space of many months together. I, too, felt that I
   was cut off from the congregation of the hopeful and must not hope for
   mercy from God. I dared not lift so much as my eyes towards Heaven, but
   complained to the Lord as Jonah did--"I am shut out of Your sight."

   Therefore with brotherly sympathy I speak to any man who reckons
   himself a castaway, shut out from the house of the Lord. The man in the
   narrative, most happily for him, at the time when the sentence began to
   cast its gloom over him, was met by the Lord Jesus Christ who at once
   proceeded to afford him the necessary cordial. Christ has come as the
   consolation of Israel and where He finds that men are burdened in
   spirit He commences His gracious work. But, observe, He brings but one
   cordial and prescribes but one way by which its efficacy can be
   realized. He spoke to the oppressed man concerning the Son of God and
   personal faith in Him--for this is the master consolation for broken
   hearts--this is the surest and best means of bringing joy to souls
   which sit in the dungeons of despondency.

   Our Lord began by saying to the cast-out one, "Do you believe on the
   Son of God?" Now, if any here present are in the state which I have
   thus hurriedly sketched, feeling themselves guilty before God with
   spirits ill at ease, with hearts alarmed at coming and deserved
   judgment--I come in Christ's name to them this morning with words of
   comfort! But they will be no other than those which Jesus uttered of
   old. I have nothing to speak to you by way of comfort but concerning
   the Son of God and concerning Him only, by demanding that you believe
   on Him, for only as you receive Him by faith will He be to you a relief
   from sorrow. He that believes on the Lord Jesus shall not be
   ashamed--but without faith you are without salvation!

   We shall this morning labor to bring you all to the point in hand.
   There shall be between the doctrine of the Gospel and your soul this
   morning, O you who are not yet a Believer, a direct encounter. You
   shall come up this morning and face the Gospel whether you spurn it or
   accept it. You shall know, if the plainest words can tell it to you,
   that if you believe in Christ Jesus you shall be saved. And it shall be
   put to you whether you will do this or not and you shall either

   believe on the Son of God or incur anew the sin of putting from you the
   only name given under Heaven among men whereby you can be saved!

   I say you shall be brought to this if words can bring you to it--and
   then I must leave the work of your deciding in the hands of God the
   Holy Spirit. I entreat you who love the Lord and have prevalence in
   prayer to aid me with your supplications. Pray that the result of
   bringing the sinner face to face with the Gospel may be that he may
   decide to believe in Jesus! Pray that faith may be given him! Pray that
   the Son of God may become the object of his soul's confidence and that
   in no case the hearer may be left to continue in unbelief and to reject
   the Son of God!

   You have seen at the mouth of the coal pits how the full wagons, as
   they run down the incline draw the empty ones up to the pit's mouth
   that they also may be filled--I would to God that you who have Grace
   may exert the power God has given you with Himself--and so by prevalent
   intercession you may draw others to the Savior. While we are preaching
   you be praying and God will work by us both!

   Look upon the unsaved around you with an eye of pity--then look to
   Christ, your exalted Savior, with the eyes of faith and say to
   Him--"Jesus, You who have redeemed myriads by Your blood, now work by
   Your eternal Spirit and redeem also by power. Let the Spirit that
   rested on Your own ministry, the Spirit that was with Your servants at
   Pentecost, the Spirit that has converted us also to your Truth, work
   mightily among the congregation this morning, that all these may be led
   to obey You. When your Cross is lifted high, let it bring life to the
   dead throughout the camp and be to the awakened a lighthouse of safety
   and to the despairing a pillar of hope."

   I. The run of our discourse this morning being solemnly practical, we
   shall, in the most distinct manner, lay down and define THE MATTER IN
   HAND. With you, my anxious Friend, the greatest and weightiest business
   that can concern you is that you find salvation. You have it not at
   present, your conscience tells you that--and though you are well aware
   that you must obtain it or be forever lost--you have as yet but small
   prospect of ever finding it. You have sinned and punishment awaits you
   and neither can you escape!

   The point above all points with you is that you be saved. And if you
   are really awakened you desire to be saved from sin as well as from its
   punishment. You would not only escape from the consequences of doing
   wrong, but from the propensity to do wrong--from the constant power and
   defilement of past sin--and from the tendency to sin again. You desire,
   also, to be forgiven and by forgiveness to be set clear from the anger
   of a justly offended God. And you desire to be rendered acceptable to
   the Most High--and if you are in your right mind you desire that all
   this should be done really and truly--not in pretence or fiction, but
   in deed and in truth.

   God forbid that you should ever be content with the name of being
   saved--with an external and professional salvation of outward rites and
   ceremonies--while your heart remains unpurified and your nature
   uncleansed! In some other departments we may be deceived and not be
   very great losers, but in soul matters we must make all things sure.
   For if we are deceived there, it is all over with us, indeed. Let me be
   cheated with base metal instead of gold if you will, but not with
   falsehoods in the place of the saving Truth of God, or deceptive
   notions in lieu of gracious operations. Let me be deceived as to the
   food I eat and find every morsel of it adulterated, if so it must
   be--but not in the eternal life-bread, which my soul craves after. Be
   true to my soul, if all else is a lie!

   Do you, my Hearer, desire salvation from the power and guilt of sin?
   And do you desire it to be thorough and real? Do you not also long for
   it now? If God has at all quickened you, you long to be saved at once!
   You tremble at the idea of delay. Sin is bitter to you now; it is a
   present plague. The matter before us now is present salvation, personal
   salvation to be realized for yourself. If there is such a thing as
   looking up to the smiling face of a reconciled Father in Heaven, you
   desire to enjoy it now! If it is possible for the load of sin to be
   rolled from off a mortal's shoulders forever, you desire to be rid of
   that burden at this instant! If there is, indeed, a fountain in which,
   if a man is washed, every stain shall disappear, you long to plunge
   beneath its cleansing flood at once and be made whiter than the driven
   snow.

   If your soul is so far awakened I bless God, indeed, for there is
   nothing beneath the sun--and, indeed, there is nothing above it--that
   can rival in importance your soul's salvation. Now the matter which I
   must press upon you is this. If you are ever to be saved, God has
   declared that salvation must come to you as a gift of His Grace, as an
   act of His free favor and can only be received by you through your
   believing in His Son. As Christ consoled the man in the temple by
   saying to him, "Do you believe on the Son of God?" so today there is no
   consolation, much less salvation for you except through believing in
   God's own Son.

   A hundred times have you heard the story of God's only begotten Son who
   is the lover of men's souls. But we must tell it to you yet again. God
   will not save men on the ground of their merits. Indeed, if they have
   any merits they do not require saving. If God owes you anything,
   produce the account and you shall have it! If there are obligations on
   God's part towards you, say what they are and if they can be proved to
   exist God will never give you less than you can justly claim. Alas, my
   Friend, if you are lodged where you deserve to be, where will it be but
   in the pit of Hell? It were well for you, then, to have done with all
   claims and demands! God will only save you as a guilty person who
   deserves to be destroyed, but whom He saves because He chooses to save
   you--because He resolves to manifest in you the abundance of His mercy.

   "By Grace are you saved," is the immutable purpose of Heaven! And it is
   further decreed that this Grace shall be received by men through the
   channel offaith, and by that channel only! God will save only those who
   trust in His Son. Jesus Christ the Lord came into this world and took
   upon Himself our Nature, as we taught you last Sunday, [THE HEXAPLA OF
   MYSTERY, Sermon #1087] and being found in fashion as a Man, He took the
   transgressor's place. The sins of His people were numbered upon Him,
   imputed to Him, charged to His account and He suffered for them as if
   they had been His own sins. He was scourged, tormented, crucified and
   slain--the stripes He bore were the chastisements due to human sin--and
   the death He endured was the death threatened to transgressors.

   And now, whoever will trust in Jesus shall participate in the result of
   all the Redeemer's substitutionary agonies and the case shall stand
   thus--the sufferings of Christ shall be instead of the Believers'
   suffering and the merits of Christ shall be instead of the obedience
   which man ought to have rendered. Faith in Jesus makes us righteous
   through the righteousness of another--it causes us to be accepted in
   the Beloved, perfect in Christ Jesus! As by the first Adam we fell, so
   by the second Adam we rise again.

   Now the way to partake in the benefits of the death of the Lord Jesus
   is simply by believing in Him. Here let it be understood that believing
   in Jesus is not a mysterious and complex action. It does not require a
   week to explain what faith is. Faith believes what God has revealed
   concerning Christ and it therefore trusts in Christ as the
   Divinely-appointed Savior. I believe that Jesus was God's Son. I
   believe that God sent Him into the world to save sinners. I believe
   that to do so He became a Substitute to justice for all those who trust
   Him and, as I trust Him, I know that He was my Substitute and that I am
   clear before God.

   Since Jesus died for me, God's justice cannot put me to eternal death
   for whom Jesus, my Substitute has died. God's Truth cannot demand a
   second time the debt which has already been fully paid on my behalf.
   The rationale of the whole thing is as plain as possible and whoever in
   this world, old or young, Jew or Gentile, literate or illiterate, rich
   or poor, debauched or moral will trust in Jesus shall be saved--he is
   saved the moment he does so! But whoever of women born refuses to trust
   in Jesus--he is condemned already because he has not believed on the
   Son of God. Let a man's character be what it may, if in that character
   there is no faith, he is a lost soul! But on the other hand, let that
   character have been what it may, if now he comes to the Cross and
   believes in Jesus, he begins from that moment a new life--God will give
   to him all the Graces and excellencies of character which will adorn
   his faith and his faith shall save him!

   Trusting in Jesus, believing in Jesus--that is the matter. I need to
   bring my hammer down upon this anvil at every stroke. And if the Lord
   will be pleased to place before me some heart that He has melted in the
   furnace of conviction, the strokes will count if the Eternal God will
   lay to His almighty arm and strike with Divine energy. If any soul is
   but brought to faith in Jesus, the work is done! To believe in the Son
   of God is the point, and nothing else.

   II. This being the matter in hand, we will make an advance, in the
   second place, to notice that there is A QUESTION IN OUR TEXT WHICH
   INVOLVES THE WHOLE BASIS OF FAITH. The man said to Jesus, "Who is He,
   Lord, that I might believe on Him?" This man all through the narrative
   proves himself to be a very shrewd fellow. I do not know that holy
   Scripture gives us an instance of a more commonsense man than this man
   whose eyes were opened. And so, when he is told that he must believe in
   the Son of God, he comes to the point at once and says, "Who is He,
   Lord, that I might believe on Him?" as if that was all he wanted to
   know--"Who is He?"--and then the faith would surely come.

   When a soul is seeking faith, this question is the main point. The
   hinge of the whole matter lies there. This man did not say, "Lord, who
   am I that I should believe?"--not at all. That would have been wide of
   the point. If I read a story in the newspapers about the truthfulness
   of which there is a question, I do not begin asking what my own
   character is, as though that had anything to do with it! But I ask who
   the authority for the story may be. I do not look within, but I

   look to the person claiming belief. The story is true or not, whatever
   I may be. My character does not concern the truth or falsehood of the
   statement. I must enquire into the statement itself. So this man did
   not make any remarks about what he might have been or might still be,
   but he hung the issue on this nail--"Who is He, Lord, that I might
   believe on Him?"

   So now, dear Hearer, all the arguments for your faith lie within the
   compass of that question, "Who is He, Lord, that I should believe on
   Him?" You need not say, "Who am I that I should believe? I have lived a
   life that has been defiled with sin. I have gone from one transgression
   to another. I have resisted conscience. I have stood out against the
   Gospel. I have defiled myself by sins against light and knowledge." It
   matters not. There you stand with all your defilement taken for granted
   and God says to you, "Whoever believes on the Lord Jesus Christ has
   everlasting life." That is the saving matter--that, and nothing more
   nor less!

   Will you believe in the Lord Jesus or not? What you are is nothing to
   the point. If God's witness is true, it is true whether you are black
   or white, whether you are a big sinner or a little sinner! And if it is
   false it will not be any the truer whether you are good or bad, worthy
   or unworthy! If Jesus is able to save He ought to be trusted. And if He
   is not able, none ought to rely upon Him--the whole question turns on
   that. Neither raise any quibbles as to your present condition. You say,
   "But I at this moment feel myself so hard of heart! I cannot weep as
   some can. Repentance is hid from my eyes. Prayer is heavy, groaning
   work with me. Even while I am listening to the Gospel this morning my
   attention is not riveted as it ought to be upon the Truth of God which
   I know to be vital! I am destitute of every good point. I am empty of
   everything that can recommend me to mercy."

   I answer, so what? Suppose I tell a man that the sum of 10,000 pounds
   has been left him in a will--is it anything to the point if he shows me
   his raps, his empty cupboard and his wretched bed? Does his poverty
   make me a liar? Why does the man introduce such extraneous matter into
   the good news? Either it is true or it is not! His condition has
   nothing to do with the truth or falsehood of my declaration. If the man
   were wrapped in scarlet and fine linen, that would not make my
   statement any truer. And if the dogs lick him as they did Lazarus, that
   does not give him a right to deny my truthfulness when I tell him a
   fact.

   So, O Sinner, your condition has nothing to do with the question
   whether Jesus is to be trusted or not. "God so loved the world that He
   grave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not
   perish, but have everlasting life." Will you believe in Him? Will you
   trust the Lord Jesus? If you desire to trust Him the subject for
   enquiry is, "Is He worth trusting?" But it is a question far away from
   the point to say, "I am this," or, "I am that." Is not this so? I
   appeal to your own common sense! "But still, as to the future," says
   one. "I might go back to my old sins. I cannot trust myself--I have
   made some reformations before and they have been but poor ventures--my
   ship has gone out to sea and foundered in the first gale. I cannot
   expect with such temptations as will await me, that I shall bear up and
   enter Heaven."

   Now, what has the question of believing in Jesus to do with your good
   resolutions or your miserable failures? Whoever trusts Christ shall be
   saved. If you are lost trusting Him in the future, God's Word will not
   be true. The question is, Can you trust Christ? And that turns on that
   other, "Is He worthy to be trusted?" No other question can be admitted
   for a single moment. The case is something like that of a man in yonder
   sea. His ship is wrecked--she is breaking to pieces--her decks have
   been swept. He barely retains his hold on a floating spar. Look! The
   lifeboat comes up close to his side and is ready to take him on board.

   Now, if there is a question in that man's mind about getting into that
   lifeboat in order to be saved, the only rational one that I can
   conceive is, "Will the boat carry me to shore? Is she seaworthy? Will
   she outlive the breakers? Can she reach the land safely?" You cannot
   conceive the poor fellow's saying, "I quiver too much with chills to be
   rescued by that boat," or, "The sea has washed the last rag from off my
   back, the boat will not suit me," or, "Another time I may be wrecked on
   the coast of Africa and there may be a lifeboat." No, no! Man alive,
   there is the boat! Is she seaworthy? That is the question! If so, get
   into her! If Christ is not worth trusting, do not trust Him but if He
   is worthy of all confidence, then have done with idle questions and
   cast yourself upon Him.

   "If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for
   this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son. He that
   believes on the Son of God has the witness in himself: he that believes
   not God has made Him a liar

   because he believes not the record that God gave of His Son. And this
   is the record, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is
   in His Son. He that has the Son has life and he that has not the Son of
   God has not life" (1 John 5:9-12).

   Still, we will keep to this point--Jesus is worth trusting, worthy of
   the sinner's unwavering faith. He is worth trusting, O Sinner, because
   first of all He on whom you are bid to rely this day by the command of
   the Gospel is God Himself! You have offended God and it is God who came
   into the world to save sinners. Against Christ your sins were launched
   as arrows from a bow, but He against whom those bolts were shot has
   come in the fullness of His power and the infinity of His mercy to save
   them that believe. Can you not trust yourself in almighty
   hands--almighty to save? Is anything impossible with God?

   An angel could not save you, but surely God Himself can! How can you
   limit the Holy one of Israel? How can you set bounds to boundless love,
   or limits to limitless Grace? If Jesus were man and not God, unbelief
   would have good excuse! But if the Savior is Divine, where can distrust
   find a cloak for itself? I feel this morning as if I could not help
   believing in Christ now that I know Him to be Divine. Faith has grown
   to be a necessary act of my mind. Save me? Who shall persuade me that
   He cannot? Come forth, you devils with your arguments, and plead with
   me, and you cannot inject a doubt into my soul while I know Him to be
   God! He can shake the heavens when He pleases and make the earth to
   tremble! He bears up the universe upon His shoulders--cannot He save my
   poor soul? Yes, that He can. "Who is He that I might believe on Him?"
   He is Divine and therefore I believe.

   But next, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom the sinner is bid to trust, is
   commissioned by God to save. He came into the world as a Savior, not
   alone on His own account, but as Messiah sent of God. He has the full
   concurrence of the sacred Trinity. It is the will of the Father; it is
   the will of the Holy Spirit as well as the will of the Son that whoever
   believes in Jesus will be saved. He was anointed of the Lord for His
   peculiar work. Now, I feel as if this were a special ground for trust
   in Him. If Christ were an amateur Savior who had taken up the trade of
   saving on His own account, there might be a question. But if God has
   divinely commissioned Him to save, O Soul, why can you doubt any more?
   Warranted of God, authorized of the Eternal--O Heart, rest in Him!

   Then, mark, the Lord Jesus Christ has actually done all that is
   necessary for Him to do for the salvation of all who trust Him. Years
   ago, before Jesus Christ came into the world, if I had been sent to
   preach the Gospel, I must have cried "Jesus will take upon Him the sins
   of Believers and lay down His life for His Church!" But now I have a
   more encouraging message--Jesus has carried His people's sins away
   forever! He has suffered on their behalf all that was required to make
   an end of their transgressions. Whatever was demanded by the justice of
   God as a recompense for the injured honor of the Law He has rendered!
   The equivalent for all the sufferings of all the elect in Hell forever,
   Christ has suffered to the utmost--everything that was necessary that
   God might be just and yet the Justifier of him that believes, Christ
   has endured! The cup of vengeance is not full and to be drained--it is
   empty and turned bottom upwards--Jesus has drank it dry!

   The labors necessary for our redemption, superlatively greater than the
   labors of Hercules, have all been accomplished! Christ has gone into
   the grave, has gone out of the grave and gone up to His Glory. He has
   entered Heaven because His work is done--and now He sits down at the
   right hand of the Father in the posture of rest and honor because He
   has perfected forever all those who put their trust in Him! Now, Soul,
   how can you refuse to believe in Jesus? To me the argument seems
   impossible to be resisted. If it is so, that Christ has died, the Just
   for the unjust and that all who trust Him shall be saved, I will also
   trust Him and I shall find peace through His blood.

   Moreover, Soul, the point, we trust God's Grace is bringing you to is
   this--Jesus deserves to be trusted and trust Him we will. He is full of
   power to save for He is now upon the Throne of God and all power is
   given Him in Heaven and in earth. He is full of power to save, we know,
   because He is saving souls every day. Some of us are the living
   witnesses that He can forgive sin, for we are pardoned, accepted and
   renewed in heart! And the only way in which we obtained those gifts was
   this--we trusted Him--we did nothing else but trust Him!

   If any soul here that believes in Jesus should perish, I must perish
   with him. I sail in that boat and if it sinks I have no other to flee
   to. I avow before you all that I have no other confidence. I have not
   so much as the shred of a reliance in any sacrament I have undergone or
   enjoyed, in any sermon I have ever preached, in any prayer I have ever
   prayed, in any communion with God I have ever known. My hope dies in
   the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ! And I shake off into the
   fire as though it were a viper, as a deadly thing only fit to be
   burned, all pretence of relying on anything I may

   be, or can be, or ever shall be, or do. "None but Jesus"--this is the
   settled pillar upon which we must build! It will bear us up, but
   nothing else can.

   Now, since by the authority of Infallible Scripture we know that Jesus
   has this power, why is it that souls seeking rest do not obey the
   command and rest themselves freely upon Him? This is the climax of
   human depravity--that it rejects the witness of God, Himself, and
   chooses to perish in unbelief! Moreover, remember, also, that Jesus
   Christ this morning is by no means unwilling to save sinners, but on
   the contrary He delights to do it! You have never to drag mercy out of
   Christ as money from a miser--it flows freely from Him like the stream
   from the fountain, or the sunlight from the sun. If He can be happier,
   He is made happier by giving His mercy to the undeserving. When a poor
   wretch who only deserves Hell comes to Him and He says, "I have blotted
   out your sins," it is joy to Christ's heart to do it.

   When a poor blasphemer bows his knee and says, "Lord, be merciful to me
   a sinner," it makes Christ's heart glad to say, "Your blasphemies are
   forgiven. I suffered for them on the Cross." When a poor little child,
   by her bedside, cries, "Gentle Jesus, teach a little child to pray and
   forgive the sins which I have done," the Savior loves to say, "Suffer
   these little children to come to Me, for this, also, is a part of My
   recompense for the wounds I endured in My hands, My feet and My side."
   When any of you come to Him and confess your transgressions and trust
   yourselves in His hands, it will be a new Heaven to Him--it will put
   new stars into His ever bright and lustrous crown! It will make Him see
   of the travail of His soul and give Him satisfaction!

   Have we not here, also, arguments to prove that Jesus is worthy to be
   trusted?

   III. This leads us in the third place to say by all these answers to
   the question--"Who is He?" EVERY SINNER IN

   THIS TABERNACLE IS SHUT UP THIS MORNING TO THE ALTERNATIVE OF FAITH OR
   UNBELIEF. You are

   shut up either to trust in Christ, in whom God commands you to trust,
   or to refuse to trust Him. I am not sent to preach to some of you this
   morning, but to everyone who has ears to hear. I have never learned to
   preach a restricted Gospel to a part of a congregation--the commission
   received by every true minister of Christ is, "Go you into all the
   world and preach the Gospel to every creature: he that believes and is
   baptized shall be saved; he that believes not shall be damned."

   As you are all creatures, the Gospel is hereby preached to all of
   you--sensible or insensible, spiritually dead or spiritually alive, so
   long as you are able to hear the Gospel, one message comes to you all
   out of the excellent glory-- "Whoever will, let him come and take of
   the water of life freely." "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you
   shall be saved." But I know what will be your course of action unless
   the Spirit of God prevents it. Many of you will try to decline the
   alternative between believing and not believing which I have put so
   nakedly before you. You will not like to say, "I will not trust
   Christ," and yet you will not trust in Him!

   What, then, will you do? Why, you will ring the changes on the old
   bells, "But I am such a sinner. I am so unworthy!" I have already shown
   that the plea is not relevant and ought not to be thrust into the
   business. The question is one and indivisible--"Will you believe on the
   Son of God?" Why, then, do you raise another question about yourself
   which has nothing to do with it? Yet I will take you on your own
   grounds and answer you. Granted that you are a special and abominable
   sinner--then of all men in the world you are the man who should trust
   Christ, because it is written, "This is a faithful saying and worthy of
   all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save
   sinners."

   You have been a drunk, a fornicator, an adulterer, a thief--in fact--a
   devil of a man. Well, then, you have been a sinner--that is all it
   comes to and Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.
   Therefore, instead of being shut out by your character, you are shut in
   by it. You are the sort of man that Christ came to save! You cannot run
   away and say, "He did not come to save me because I am not a sinner."
   You dare not do that! Very likely you will turn round upon me and say,
   "My reason for unbelief is that I do not feel as I should."

   I again say the plea ought never to be urged. Because I feel a pain in
   my foot this morning, is that a reason why I should not trust in an
   honest man or believe a statement which comes to me upon good
   authority? I will, however, urge objections on behalf of the slaves. No
   black man came forward to say that the Blacks were unworthy and
   undeserving-- neither did the slaves propose that a part of the money
   should be paid by themselves. O no, it is not in human nature to
   request others to encumber their free gifts in that fashion!

   Yet here we are so false to all that is reasonable that we need to
   encumber Sovereign Grace! When God says, "I will blot out your
   transgressions now and save you once and for all--only trust My dear
   Son"--it is strange, 'tis passing strange, 'tis madness at its
   consummation that men should invent objections and plead for a Gospel
   with conditions and

   hard terms! Now, what will men do if driven out of this? I have often
   seen the sinner in the next place turn to downright falsehood and say,
   "It is too late," though he knows right well it never can be too late,
   for the Gospel says, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved."

   It does not say, if he believes when he is 25 years of age, or 35, or
   55, or 105, but it stands the same for all ages! It is never too late
   to believe a Truth of God and that is the point--"Will you believe on
   the Son of God?" Then the sinner will say that he feels within himself
   that there is no hope and so, because he happens to believe a lie, he
   will make out that God's Truth also is a lie and refuse to believe that
   which God solemnly declares, namely, that there is salvation in Jesus
   Christ! But I cannot stay to mention all these falsehoods, nor, indeed,
   to run into all the subterfuges of men who seek to escape from their
   own mercies.

   I saw in Pompeii, on a shop door, the motto, "Eme et Habe bis"--"Buy
   and you shall have"--and I could not but think that if I were walking
   the streets of the New Jerusalem, I should have seen a very different
   device, "Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." Now
   if there could be a shop opened in London in which all the goods were
   to be had without money and without price, would you quarrel with the
   shopkeeper and petition for an Act of Parliament to shut his shop up
   and say it was wicked because you would rather go on the old terms and
   pay for all you have? Of course not!

   Yet why is it you stand out against free Grace's golden motto, "Trust
   in Christ and you shall have." Here is instantaneous pardon, perfect
   pardon, everlasting pardon, sonship through Christ, safety on earth,
   glory in Heaven and all for nothing, all for nothing--the free gift of
   a gracious God to undeserving sinners who trust in Jesus! Never angel
   had a more gracious, more God-like message of mercy than I have! How I
   wish I could glow with a seraph's zeal and cry with a cherub's voice
   while proclaiming it! Would God that men would leave their foolish
   reasonings and believe in Jesus Christ!

   IV. Lastly, on this alternative, this day may hang EVERLASTING THINGS
   TO MANY OF YOU. I remember well, for the anniversary of the season has
   almost come round, when I was placed in a similar condition to many now
   present, when I knew myself to be ruined and undone and heard, for the
   first time truly to understand it, that word, "Look unto Me, and be you
   saved, all you ends of the earth."

   I know how it stood that morning. I was like Naaman by the Jordan's
   brink. There flowed the flood. The old nature said, "Are not Abana and
   Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? May
   I not wash in them and be clean?" Human nature said, "I need to feel
   something: I need to have John Bunyan's experience. I need to have my
   mother's experience. I need to feel a broken heart. I need to groan
   more bitterly. I need to be kept awake so many more nights and all that
   sort of thing."

   Suppose I had resisted still? If God's Grace had not come in and made
   all that wicked pride of mine give way, I might have been at this hour
   I know not where, if still living among men. I might have been in Hell,
   gnawing my tongue to think I should ever have heard a plain Gospel
   sermon and should have put far from me the Gospel when it was
   proclaimed--and all because I would not believe what is indisputably
   true--and would not trust in Him whom no one ever trusted in vain.

   This morning I know there are some here in my past condition, in whom
   the good Spirit will say, "Wash and be clean," and the soul will sigh,
   "It seems too good to be true." But the good Spirit will reply, "Are
   not My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts?"
   Unbelief will say, "Your sins are many." But the good Spirit will
   answer, "Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as
   snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Then
   the heart will suggest, "But I have rebelled against You, O God, so
   long." And the sweet Spirit of God will whisper, "I have blotted out
   your sins like a cloud, and like a thick cloud your iniquities: Return
   unto Me, for I am married unto you, says the Lord."

   And I do trust that now, at this very moment, many a heart will say, "I
   will, then, simply rest my soul's salvation upon Christ the Son of God
   who is the only Savior of the lost--I will never from this day on hope
   to be a self-saved man, nor look to anything but to Him who on the
   bloody tree endured the wrath of God on the behalf of as many as
   believe on Him." Soul, if you do so trust Jesus, as surely as you live
   you are saved! Go in peace. Not only do I speak these words this
   morning from these poor lips of clay, but He who was nailed on the
   tree, whom all Heaven adores, speaks this morning

   through me--and He says to one, "Daughter, be of good cheer, your sins
   are forgiven you." And to another, my Master says, "Son, your sins are
   forgiven you: take up your bed and walk."

   O forgiven ones, I charge you do it! And as you got out of this house
   this morning, saved, and full of joy, tell others about it! Never leave
   off telling about it and live to love Him who has saved you! I saw the
   other day a picture by Rubens, in which he has painted Mary Magdalene
   kissing the feet of Christ while still they are gushing with founts of
   blood on the Cross. It was a strange picture, but I felt if I had been
   there I would have kissed them, too, though they had been crimson with
   His gore.

   O blessed feet! O blessed Savior! O blessed Father who gave His Son to
   be so blessed a Savior! O blessed Spirit of the blessed God that led
   our wicked, proud hearts into obedience and trust in Jesus! Yes,
   blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has begotten
   us unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
   dead. The Lord bless you. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

                                    Indexes
     __________________________________________________________________

Index of Scripture References

   Genesis

   [1]17:1   [2]17:2

   Leviticus

   [3]4:27-31

   Joshua

   [4]3:4

   1 Kings

   [5]18:40

   Psalms

   [6]22:27   [7]72:12   [8]103:1   [9]115:15   [10]116:15   [11]119:37
   [12]141:5

   Song of Solomon

   [13]3   [14]3:4-5

   Isaiah

   [15]1:3   [16]48:9-11   [17]51:1   [18]53:2   [19]53:5   [20]66:1
   [21]66:2

   Jeremiah

   [22]15:16   [23]28:13   [24]49:8

   Ezekiel

   [25]36:26   [26]36:27

   Hosea

   [27]13:14

   Micah

   [28]4:1-3

   Habakkuk

   [29]2:14

   Matthew

   [30]5:47   [31]21:5   [32]28:6

   Mark

   [33]9:24

   Luke

   [34]3:16   [35]4:39

   John

   [36]1:11   [37]1:36   [38]4:39-42   [39]5:28   [40]9:32   [41]9:35
   [42]9:36   [43]10:14-15   [44]10:28   [45]11:39   [46]11:44
   [47]14:15   [48]14:15-16   [49]14:16   [50]16:10   [51]18:37

   Acts

   [52]26:8   [53]27:20

   Romans

   [54]3   [55]5:11   [56]7:22   [57]7:23   [58]8:29   [59]10:17
   [60]11:2   [61]11:25   [62]11:26

   1 Corinthians

   [63]15:39-58

   2 Corinthians

   [64]5:10   [65]6:16   [66]12:7   [67]12:8   [68]12:9

   Galatians

   [69]4:23

   Ephesians

   [70]2:8   [71]3:4-6   [72]5:31   [73]5:32

   1 Thessalonians

   [74]5:17

   1 Timothy

   [75]3:16

   2 Timothy

   [76]1:6   [77]2:19

   Hebrews

   [78]3:14   [79]10:11-14   [80]11:15-16   [81]11:24   [82]11:25
   [83]11:26   [84]11:31   [85]12:3

   James

   [86]2:25

   1 John

   [87]5:9-12

   Revelation

   [88]1   [89]1:17-18   [90]2:3   [91]5:8   [92]7:9-17   [93]7:13-14
   [94]19:5   [95]20:5   [96]20:6
     __________________________________________________________________

Index of Scripture Commentary

   Genesis

   [97]17:1-2

   Leviticus

   [98]4:27-31

   Joshua

   [99]3:4

   1 Kings

   [100]18:40

   Psalms

   [101]22:27   [102]72:12   [103]103:1   [104]115:15   [105]116:15
   [106]119:37   [107]141:5

   Song of Solomon

   [108]3:4-5   [109]7:11-13

   Isaiah

   [110]1:3   [111]48:9-11   [112]51:1   [113]53:2   [114]53:5
   [115]66:1-2

   Jeremiah

   [116]15:16   [117]28:13   [118]49:8

   Ezekiel

   [119]36:26-27

   Matthew

   [120]5:47   [121]21:5   [122]28:6

   Mark

   [123]9:24

   Luke

   [124]3:16   [125]4:39

   John

   [126]1:11   [127]1:36   [128]4:39-42   [129]9:32   [130]9:35-36
   [131]10:28   [132]11:39   [133]14:16   [134]18:37

   Acts

   [135]26:8   [136]27:20

   Romans

   [137]5:11   [138]7:22-23   [139]8:29   [140]10:17

   2 Corinthians

   [141]5:10   [142]12:7-9

   Ephesians

   [143]2:8

   1 Thessalonians

   [144]5:17

   1 Timothy

   [145]3:16

   2 Timothy

   [146]1:6

   Hebrews

   [147]3:14   [148]10:11-14   [149]11:15-16   [150]11:24-26
   [151]11:31   [152]12:3

   Revelation

   [153]1:17-18   [154]2:3   [155]5:8   [156]7:13-14
     __________________________________________________________________

            This document is from the Christian Classics Ethereal
               Library at Calvin College, http://www.ccel.org,
                   generated on demand from ThML source.

References

   1. file:///ccel/s/spurgeon/sermons18/cache/sermons18.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=17&scrV=1#lv-p6.1
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