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        Title: Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 24: 1878
   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
     __________________________________________________________________

A Golden Prayer

   (No. 1391)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, DECEMBER 30, 1877,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Father, glorify Your name." John 12:28.

   IN the first part of my discourse this morning I shall strictly keep to
   my text, as the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and endeavor to show
   what it teaches us with regard to Him. These are His own words and it
   would be robbery to borrow them until first we have seen what they
   meant as they fell from His lips. Their most golden meaning must be
   seen in the light of His sacred Countenance. Then, in the second part
   of my sermon, I shall try to point out how the petition before us may
   be used by ourselves. I pray that Divine Grace may be given us that it
   may be engraved upon our hearts and that each one of us may be taught
   by the Holy Spirit daily to say for himself, "Father, glorify Your
   name."

   I would suggest that these words should be to all the Lord's people in
   this Church their slogan for another year and, indeed, their prayer
   throughout life. It will as well behoove the beginner in Grace as the
   ripe Believer. It will be proper both at the wicket gate of faith as at
   the portals of Glory. Like a lovely rainbow, let the prayer, "Father,
   glorify Your name," arch over the whole period of our life on earth. I
   cannot suggest a better petition for the present moment, nor, indeed,
   for any moment of our pilgrimage. Let us close the old year with it and
   open the door of the new to the same note.

   As for the past, "Father, glorify Your name in the present. Fulfill
   this desire unto Your servants and in the future do it yet more
   abundantly!"

   I. Let us look, then, at the words, first of all, IN RESPECT TO OUR
   LORD JESUS CHRIST. They occur in the following connection. He had
   worked a notable miracle in the raising of Lazarus from the dead. The
   fame of the miracle had attracted many to hear Him. Enthusiastic crowds
   had gathered and He had become so extremely popular that the Pharisees
   said, "the world has gone after Him." The people were willing to have
   made Him a king--and a great concourse met Him with branches of palm
   trees and cried, "Hosanna! Blessed is the King of Israel that comes in
   the name of the Lord."

   Our Lord passed in royal but humble pomp through the streets of
   Jerusalem, riding upon a colt, the foal of an ass. This public
   manifestation, the renown of the miracle and the general talk of the
   populace led to strangers hearing of Him and enquiring about Him. And
   certain intelligent Greeks of a very respectable order--for their mode
   of address to Philip shows their superior behavior--asked to be
   introduced to Him. They wished to "see Jesus," not, of course, merely
   see Him in the streets, for that they could do if they pleased without
   applying to Philip. No, they wanted an interview with Him. They wanted
   to learn more about His teaching and His claims.

   I suppose that the sight of these Greeks greatly gladdened the heart of
   the Savior, for He delighted to see men coming to the light. He seemed
   to say within Himself, "Behold the nations come to Me. The Gentiles
   arise and seek their Savior." He saw in those Greeks the advance guard
   of the Gentile world. He looked upon the strangers with delight,
   regarding them as representative men, the first of myriads who, from
   the ends of the earth and the islands of the sea, would come flocking
   to Him to behold the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Our Lord
   rejoiced in spirit! His heart was glad within Him and He began to
   address Himself to the people round about--and to the Greeks who
   mingled with the throng.

   At that very moment the thought flashed across the Savior's mind, "But
   these nations who are to be born unto Me and to be saved by Me, cannot
   be so born without birth-pangs, nor saved unless I endure unspeakable
   suffering as their Redeemer." This fact came vividly before our Lord's
   mind and it rushed over His spirit like a raging torrent. He saw that
   He could not become the seed corn of a great harvest unless, first of
   all, He should fall into the ground and die. He was the one grain of
   wheat upon whom all depended and He must lose comfort and life--and be
   buried in the earth--or else

   He would abide alone and bring forth no fruit. He saw the vicarious
   suffering which lay in His way and His soul was troubled.

   Do not imagine that our Savior dreaded death, in itself considered. He
   was far superior in sacred courage and strength of mind to any of His
   servants and yet many of them have welcomed death! And others of them,
   such as the martyrs, have endured it in its most terrible forms,
   without fear, even expressing a holy delight in glorifying the name of
   God by their mortal agony. Our Lord was not less brave than these in
   prospect of His departure. But never let it be forgotten that the death
   of Christ was a very peculiar one and, in fact, stands alone by itself!
   His death was the vindication of Justice. It was the death of the
   Sin-Bearer. It was a sacrificial, substitutionary, expiatory death--and
   this is very different from the death of a pardoned and justified
   Believer who passes out of the world resting on the Atonement and
   supported by a sense of having been reconciled to God by the great
   Sacrifice.

   Our Lord was called to bear the enormous load of man's
   transgressions--over His holy soul the dark shadow of human guilt must
   pass--and on His sensitive spirit must be made to meet the iniquity of
   us all. His saints' deaths are blessed in the sight of the Lord, but He
   must be made a curse for us that we might be blessed in Him! And as the
   mind of Christ clearly perceived this lying in the way of that triumph
   among the Gentiles which gave Him joy, there was a struggle in His
   soul--and that struggle was manifested before the assembled people. The
   Greeks desired to see Jesus and they did see Him in a very remarkable
   manner--so that they must have been astounded at the sight! If they
   expected to see a king, they did, indeed, behold a royal soul, but they
   saw Him in such grief as falls not to the lot of common men. If they
   wished to see somewhat of His greatness of spirit and power of mind,
   they did see it, but it was a power which did not transfigure His face
   with glory, but filled it with an agony marring all its beauty!

   I shall not be too bold if I say that Gethsemane was rehearsed in
   public upon the occasion before us. Our Lord says His soul was
   troubled. He felt a sort of foreshadowing of that midnight among the
   olives in which His soul was "exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death."
   It was out of that conflict that our text came--in fact, our text is to
   His suffering in the midst of the crowd what, "nevertheless not as I
   will, but as You will," was to the agony of Gethsemane, or what, "It is
   finished," was to the passion upon Calvary. It was the culminating
   point, the climax and the conquest of a great mental battle! And when
   He had thus spoken He seemed to shake Himself clear of the agony and to
   emerge from it with the memory of it still upon Him--but with His face
   set like a flint to go forward to the bitter and the glorious end--this
   being now His watchword, "Father, glorify Your name."

   I shall need to call your attention, dear Friends, briefly here, first,
   to the trouble of the Redeemer's soul. I always tremble within myself
   when I try to speak of the inner conflicts of our blessed Lord, for it
   is so easy to make a mistake and darken counsel by words without
   knowledge. His Person is complex and, therefore, we readily confuse.
   Yet He Himself is but one and it is equally dangerous to make over nice
   distinctions. Loving jealousy of our Lord's honor makes us feel that we
   scarcely know how to speak of Him! I remember an earnest admirer of the
   arts who, in pointing with his walking-stick to the beauties of a
   famous picture, pushed his cane through the canvas and ruined it. And
   it is possible that in our enthusiasm to point out the beauties and
   points of interest in the life and death of our Lord, we may spoil it
   all.

   I fear lest in my ignorance I should make sorrow for myself by
   dishonoring Him for whose honor I would gladly lay down and die. Help
   me, O Divine Spirit! This much is clear, that our Savior's heart was
   full of trouble. He who could still the sea and bid the storms retreat
   was tempest-tossed in His own soul and cast about Him for anchorage. He
   who could drive the fever from its lair, or send a legion of demons
   into the deep was, nevertheless, troubled in spirit and cried, "What
   shall I say?" Master of all worlds, supreme among the angels and adored
   at His Father's right hand, yet He confesses, "Now is My soul
   troubled."

   Lord of all, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.
   How near akin it makes Him to us! How human! How compassed with
   infirmity! We worship Him and rightly so, but still He is a Man and a
   mourner. We call Him Master and Lord, and we do well, yet He not only
   washed His disciples' feet, but His own feet trembled in the rough
   places of the way. He felt those same commotions of spirit which make
   our hearts sad within us and cause us to pour out our souls within us.
   Do not think of the Lord Jesus otherwise than as of a dear Brother born
   for adversity, or a faithful Husband sharing all our lot, being bone of
   our bone and flesh of our flesh. Did you cry out in anguish, "Now is my
   soul troubled"? Then remember that your Lord has used the same words!

   Are you half distracted? Are you tossed to and fro in your thoughts? Do
   you ever ask, "What shall I say?" Jesus understands by sympathy what it
   is you mean. Do you look around you and feel that you know not what to
   do and does your trembling heart suggest that you should pray, "Father,
   save me from this hour"? In all this you may see the Well-Beloved's
   footprints--you are not upon a new and strange track. He leads you
   through no darker rooms than He went through Himself. With the same
   afflictions He has been afflicted--there is nothing in them novel or
   surprising to His sympathetic heart! Beloved Friends, let me invite you
   to consider that not only did our Lord thus suffer, but it is joyful to
   reflect that He suffered all this without sin!

   Therefore it follows that mental conflict is not, in itself,
   sinful--even the shrinking back of the flesh from suffering is not
   necessarily evil. And the question, "What shall I say?" and the
   apparent distraction of the spirit, for the moment, as to what shall be
   its course, are not, in themselves, criminal. There could be no sin in
   the Lord Jesus and, consequently, there is not, of necessity, sin in
   our inward struggles, though I am very far from venturing to hope that
   in any one of them we are quite clear of fault. Our Lord's Nature was
   so pure that however much it was stirred, it remained clear. But in our
   case, though the stirring is not sinful, it sets in motion the sin
   which dwells in us and we are defiled.

   Yet I do not believe that all those depressions of spirit which come of
   sickness, or all those wanderings of mind in the heat of fever, or all
   the shrinking and drawing back from pain which are essential to our
   humanity are set down as sin by our heavenly Father--though sin is
   doubtless mixed with them. If they are sinful in themselves, yet surely
   they are blotted out as soon as written down, for "like as a father
   pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him." He pities
   rather than censures or condemns! You do not judge your children
   harshly for what they say when they are racked with pain or prostrated
   by weakness! You bear with their little fancies and temper and the
   like, and you never taunt them with their follies afterwards!

   Neither can I think that our heavenly Father would have us doubt our
   interest in Christ because, in our semi-delirium, we could not realize
   His love. Nor would He have us question the Divine Grace which is in us
   because our feverish thoughts were near akin to despair. When the true
   heart struggles to love and trust and obey, but the poor brain is
   tortured with dark thoughts, the conflict is not all sinful, nor any of
   it necessarily so. There may be an awful struggle in the soul and yet
   the Father may be glorified. The sin lies not in the conflict but in
   the defeat, if there is defeat. The guilt is not in the shrinking from
   pain, but in permitting that natural feeling to hinder us from duty or
   to lead us to rebel against chastisement. "If it is possible, let this
   cup pass from me," is not a sinful utterance if it is followed by,
   "nevertheless not as I will, but as You will."

   I feel so glad to think our Lord, when He was passing through this
   inward conflict, spoke out His feelings. It is instructive that He
   should have done so, for with His strength of mind He was quite capable
   of preserving a self-contained attitude and keeping His agony to
   Himself. Yet you notice that neither here, in which case He spoke so
   that others heard Him, nor at Gethsemane, in which case He took three
   of His disciples to be with Him and went to them again and again for
   sympathy--nor even on the Cross, in which case He cried aloud, "My God,
   My God, why have You forsaken Me?" did He endeavor to conceal His
   emotion from others.

   It may be that by this He intended to teach us wisdom. He would show us
   by His own example that it is well for us not to be too much shut up
   within ourselves. Smother not your sorrow, tell it out or it may gather
   an ungovernable heat! That is the worst of grief which cannot weep or
   moan. Draw up the sluices--give a vent to pent up feelings! Even though
   it is but a child who hears your tale, it will relieve your mind to
   tell it. Anything is better than banking up the fires and concentrating
   all the heat within the soul. Act not the stoic's part--be not ashamed
   to let it be known that you are a man--a man who can grieve and be
   troubled even as others!

   It may sometimes be well to follow the poet's advice who says--

   "Bear and still bear and silent be, Tell no man your misery,"

   but I question if the occasions are very frequent. At any rate, such is
   not the command of our Lord, nor does His example point in that
   direction. In speaking out, our Lord gives us a full permit to speak,
   too. We might have said, "No, I will not tell what is going on within,
   lest my weakness should seem to dishonor God." Now we know that our
   Lord did not dishonor the Father by saying, "Now is My soul troubled,"
   and by revealing the inward conflict of His soul! Neither will

   the fact of our speaking out our grief necessarily dishonor our God.
   Jesus wept and we may weep. Jesus told His sorrow to His friends and
   you may do the same.

   In thus speaking, our Lord affords us the best of help, for His
   fellow-feeling is a grand support. Did He say, "Now is My soul
   troubled"? and did He scarcely know what to ask? But did He, at the
   last, still triumph and resign Himself into His Father's hands? Then,
   girt about by the same power, we also will encounter the same sorrow
   after our measure and endure until we triumph as He did! Even though in
   the triumph there should be clear evidence of our personal weakness,
   yet we will not regret it since by that means our God shall be the more
   surely glorified by the more distinct revelation of His power. I will
   say no more about the trouble of our Redeemer because I would now ask
   you to fix your thoughts, for a minute, upon the firm resolve which the
   text sets forth.

   There is a battle, but from the very first moment to the last of it
   there is really no question in the Savior's mind about what He means to
   do--His purpose was settled beyond disturbance. The surface of His mind
   was ruffled, but deep down in His heart the current of the Redeemer's
   soul flowed on irresistibly in the ordained channel. He was always
   straitened till He had been baptized with the appointed Baptism.
   Observe the question raised and see how really it was answered in His
   heart before He asked it. "Now is My soul troubled, and what shall I
   say? 'Father, save Me from this hour?'" Must men be unsaved and Jesus
   be delivered from the lowering storm? If so, yonder Greeks need not ask
   to see Him, for there will be no "life look" at Him!

   The disciples round about need not cling to Him as their helper, for
   there is no help in Him unless He dies to redeem the sons of men! Shall
   men, then, be unredeemed? Shall the blood of Atonement not be spilled
   and no man be ransomed from going down to the Pit? Shall He remain
   alone, the grain of wheat unsown? If He does, He will be happy enough
   and glorious enough, for Heaven is all His own! Does He need men to
   make Him blessed? Does He require worms of the dust to make Him
   glorious? Should He remain alone, He will still be God and Lord!

   But, shall the death penalty be left to be borne by men, guilty men,
   who deserve to bear it? Shall there be no Cross, no Calvary, no open
   tomb, no Resurrection, no gates of Heaven set wide open for coming
   souls? There is the question and you see in the text how resolutely
   Jesus had settled it! He says in effect--"Father, glorify Your name by
   My death! For this purpose have I come to this hour, that by My agony
   and bloody sweat, by My Cross and passion, I may redeem the sons of
   men. Redeemed they must and shall be, cost Me what it may! I have
   resolved to bear the penalty and magnify Your Law and I will perform
   it, though Hell itself is let loose against Me and all its waves of
   fire dash over Me. I will endure the Cross and despise the shame to
   honor You, My Father."

   Observe right well that the text indicates the deep intent which
   steadied our Lord's resolve. Why is Christ resolved to die? Is it to
   save men? Yes, but not as the chief reason. His first prayer is not,
   "Father, save My people," but, "Father, glorify Your name." The Glory
   of God was the chief end and objective of our Savior's life and death.
   It is that the Father's name may be illustrious that Jesus would have
   souls redeemed! His passion had for its main intent the exhibition of
   the attributes of God. And, Brothers and Sisters, how completely He has
   glorified Jehovah's name! Upon the Cross we see the Divine Justice in
   the streaming wounds of the great Substitute--for the Son of God must
   die when sin is laid upon Him! There, also, you behold infinite Wisdom,
   for what but Infallible Wisdom could have devised the way whereby God
   might be just and yet the Justifier of him that believes?

   There, too, is love--rich, free, boundless love--never so conspicuous
   as in the death of man's Redeemer! To this day it still remains a
   question concerning the Atonement which of the letters is best
   written--the justice, the wisdom, or the love. In the Atonement the
   Divine attributes are all so perfectly glorified that no one crowds out
   the other--each one has its full display without, in the least degree,
   diminishing the glory of any other! Our blessed Lord, that the Father
   might be glorified, pushed on to the end which He had set before Him.
   Whatever conflict might be within His spirit, His heart was fixed upon
   bearing our load to the death and suffering our penalty to the end.

   Now, Brethren, I will detain you here with but one other thought--it is
   this--the grand result which came of it was that God was, in very deed,
   greatly glorified and to this fact special testimony was given. A Voice
   was heard out of Heaven saying, "I have both glorified it and will
   glorify it again." That Voice speaks of the past--the Incarnation of
   Christ had glorified the name of God. I am unable to describe to you
   how much luster the love of God receives from the fact of the Word
   being made flesh and dwelling among us! It is the mystery of mysteries,
   the marvel of all marvels that the Creator should espouse the nature of
   His creature and that He should be found in fashion as a man!

   Oh, Bethlehem, you have exceedingly magnified the condescension of God!
   Angels might well sing, "Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace,
   goodwill towards men." Nor Bethlehem, alone, but Nazareth and the 30
   years which our Lord spent on earth all illustrate the condescension,
   the pity, the long-suffering of God. Did God dwell among us 30 years?
   Did He abide in humility in the carpenter's shop for the best part of
   that time and did He afterwards come forth to be a poor Man, a Teacher
   of peasants, a Friend of sinners, a Man of Sorrows, despised and
   rejected of men? Could the Holy and the Just, the Infinite and the
   Glorious thus, as it were, compress infinity into so small a space and
   marry Deity to such poverty and shame? It was so! Then tune your harps
   anew, you seraphs, to tell the amazing love and condescension of
   "Immanuel, God with us."

   Well spoke that Voice--"I have glorified it." But listen yet again, for
   it adds--"and will glorify it again." To my mind that word, "again,"
   sounds like certain voices I have heard in the Alps. The horn is
   sounded and then follows an echo--no--twice, thrice and perhaps 50
   times the music is distinctly repeated! The voices follow each other in
   gradually melting strains. The metaphor is not complete, for in this
   case the echoes increase in volume. Instead of diminishing, they wax
   louder and louder. Lo, Jesus hangs upon the Cross and dies--and God is
   glorified, for Justice has his due. He lies in the grave till the third
   morning, but He bursts the bonds of Death! Lo, God's great name is
   glorified again, since the Divine power, truth and faithfulness are all
   seen in the Resurrection of Christ!

   Yet a few more days and He ascends into Heaven, the Man, the God--and a
   cloud hides Him from our sight--He has glorified the Father's name
   again by leading captivity captive! Then comes Pentecost and the
   preaching of the Gospel among the heathen. And then is the name of God
   glorified by the outpouring of the Spirit! Every conversion of a sinner
   and every sanctification of a Believer is a fresh glorifying of the
   name of the Father! And every reception of a perfected one into
   Heaven--and surely they are entering Heaven every day, troops of them
   climbing the celestial hills, drawn upward by almighty love--everyone,
   I say, in entering into Paradise glorifies Jehovah's name again!

   And, Brothers and Sisters, by-and-by, when the whole earth shall be
   filled with His Glory, then will the Father glorify His name again.
   When in His own time the Lord shall descend from Heaven with a shout
   with the trumpet of the archangel and the voice of God--and when He
   shall reign among His ancients gloriously--we shall hear the gladsome
   acclamation, "Hallelujah, hallelujah, the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!"
   And when comes the end and He shall have delivered up the kingdom to
   God, even the Father, and God shall be All in All--then shall the
   eternal echoes roll along the glories of the great Father God! The
   glorious name of the one Jehovah shall, through all space and all
   eternity, be magnified and the prayer of our once suffering but now
   exalted Savior shall be fully answered, "Father, glorify Your name."

   II. Now, Brothers and Sisters, we will use our text IN REFERENCE TO
   OURSELVES. May the Holy Spirit direct

   us in doing so. I pray that this text may be our prayer from this time
   forth, "Father, glorify Your name." Have you, dear Hearers, ever prayed
   this prayer? I trust I am addressing many to whom it is a very familiar
   desire and yet I question if any here have ever presented it so
   earnestly as those from whom it has been forced by suffering and grief.
   God's birds often sing best in cages--at any rate, when they have been
   loose a little while and their notes grow somewhat dull--He tunes their
   pipes again if He puts them away awhile and clips their wings.

   Now this text, as far as we are concerned, whenever we can use it,
   indicates conflict ended. Sometimes we are in such a condition that we
   do not know which way to turn. We are in great affliction. It may not
   be so much outward trouble as distress of mind which is worst of all.
   The water has leaked into the ship and that is worse than an ocean
   outside. The vessel begins to fill. You use the pumps, but cannot keep
   it afloat. At such times you cry, "What shall I do? What shall I say?
   Where can I look? I am oppressed and overwhelmed."

   But there is an end of the conflict when you turn round and cry,
   "Father! Father!" A child may have lost its way and it may be sobbing
   its heart out in its distress, but the moment it sees its father, it is
   lost no longer--it has found its way and is at rest. Though there may
   be no difference in your position, nor change in your circumstances,
   yet if you catch a sight of your heavenly Father, it is enough--you are
   a lost child no more. When you can pray, "Father, glorify Your name,"
   then there is no more question about, "What shall I say?" You have said
   the right thing and there let it end.

   Now, Brothers and Sisters, concerning this next year upon which we are
   entering, I hope it will be a year of happiness to you--I very
   emphatically wish you all a Happy New Year--but nobody can be confident
   that it will be a year free from trouble. On the contrary, you may be
   pretty confident that it will not be so, for man is born to trouble as

   the sparks fly upward! We have each, beloved Friends, some dear faces
   in which we rejoice--may they long smile upon us! But remember that
   each one of these may be an occasion of sorrow during the next year,
   for we have neither an immortal child, nor an immortal husband, nor an
   immortal wife, nor an immortal friend and, therefore, some of these may
   die within the year.

   Moreover the comforts with which we are surrounded may take to
   themselves wings before another year shall fulfill its months. Earthly
   joys are as if they were all made of snow--they melt even as the hoar
   frost and are gone before we conclude our thanksgiving for their
   coming. It may be you will have a year of drought and shortness of
   bread--years lean and ill-favored may be your portion. Yes, and yet
   more--perhaps during the year which has almost dawned, you may have to
   gather up your feet in the bed and die to meet your father's God. Well
   now, concerning this approaching year and its mournful possibilities,
   shall we grow gloomy and desponding? Shall we wish we had never been
   born or ask that we may die? By no means!

   Shall we, on the other hand, grow frivolous and laugh at all things?
   No, that were ill-becoming in heirs of God. What shall we do? We will
   breathe this prayer, "Father, glorify Your name." That is to say, if I
   must lose my property, glorify Your name by my poverty! If I must be
   bereaved, glorify Your name in my sorrows! If I must die, glorify Your
   name in my departure. Now, when you pray in that fashion, your conflict
   is over! No outward fright nor inward fear remains if that prayer rises
   from the heart! You have now cast aside all gloomy forebodings and you
   can thoughtfully and placidly pursue your way into the unknown
   tomorrow. Pass on, O caravan, into the trackless desert! Still proceed
   into the wilderness of the future which no mortal eye has seen, for
   yonder fiery cloudy pillar leads the way and all is well!

   "Father, glorify Your name," is our pillar of cloud and, protected by
   its shade, we shall not be struck by the heat of prosperity! "Father,
   glorify Your name," is our pillar of fire by night--nor shall the
   darkness of adversity destroy us, for the Lord shall be our light!
   March on, you pilgrims, without a moment's delay because of fear. Tarry
   not for a single instant, this being your banner and your watchword,
   "Father, glorify Your name." Torturing doubts and forebodings of the
   future all end when the glorious name is seen over all!

   Secondly, our text breathes a spirit which is the surrender of self.
   When a man can truly say, "Father, glorify Your name," he begins to
   understand that saying of our Savior concerning the corn of wheat
   falling into the ground and dying, for that prayer means, "Lord, do
   what You will with me. I will make no stipulations, but leave all to
   You. Remember that I am dust and deal tenderly with me, but still
   glorify Your name. Do not spare me, if thereby You would be less
   glorious. Act not according to my foolish wishes or childish desires,
   but glorify Your name in me by any means and by all means."

   The prayer means I am willing to be made nothing of so that God's will
   may be done. I am willing to be as one dead and buried, forgotten and
   unknown if God may be magnified. I am ready to be buried and sown
   because I believe that this is the way by which I shall grow and bring
   forth fruit to God's praise. This surrender includes obedient service,
   for our great Master goes on to say, "If any man serves Me, let him
   follow Me." True self-renunciation shows itself in the obedient
   imitation of Christ. "Father, glorify Your name" means waiting the
   Lord's bidding and running in His ways.

   If the petition is written out at length it runs thus--"Help me to copy
   my Savior's example. Help me to follow in His blessed footsteps! This
   is my desire--passively to honor my heavenly Father by bearing His will
   and actively to glorify Him by doing His will. Lord, help me to do both
   of these and never let me forget that I am not my own, but wholly my
   Lord's." The prayer appears to me to be most properly used when it is
   made a personal one--"Father, glorify Your name in me. I am the
   recipient of so much mercy, get some glory out of me, I pray You."

   Beloved, I think you must have noticed in this world that the man who
   really lives is the man who more than his fellows has learned to live
   for others and for God. You do not care for the preacher whose
   objective is to display his own powers. You go away dissatisfied after
   hearing his bravest orations! But if any man shall only desire your
   soul's good and God's Glory, you will put up with much eccentricity
   from him and bear with many infirmities because, instinctively, you
   love and trust the man who forgets himself.

   Now, what you see in preachers I beg you to try and consider in
   yourselves. If any of you are living for yourselves, you will not be
   loveable. If you even act that your ambition is to be loved, you will
   miss your mark. But if you will love for love's sake. If you will seek
   to be Christ-like. If you will lay yourselves out to glorify God, to
   increase His kingdom and to bless your fellow men, you will live in the
   highest and noblest sense! Seek not your own greatness, but labor to

   make Jesus great and you will live! Christians live by dying! Kill
   self, and Christ shall live in you and so shall you, yourself, most
   truly live!

   The way upward in true life and honor is to go downward in
   self-humiliation. Renounce all and you shall be rich! Have nothing and
   you shall have all things! Try to be something and you shall be
   nothing! Be nothing and you shall live! That is the great lesson which
   Jesus would teach us, but which we are slow to learn. "Father, glorify
   Your name" means let the corn of wheat be buried out of sight to lose
   itself in its outgrowth. O Self, you are a dead thing--may you be laid
   deep in the sepulcher! You rotten carcass, for such you have become
   since Jesus died for me--you are an offense to me! Away with you! Do
   not poison my life, mar my motives, spoil my intents, hinder my
   self-denials and defile the chastity of my heart! You prompt me to make
   provision for the flesh--away with you, away with you! "Father, glorify
   Your name."

   In our text, in the next place, a new care is paramount. The man has
   forgotten self and self is buried like a grain of wheat and now he
   begins to care for God's Glory. His cry is, "Father, glorify Your
   name." Oh, if you can get rid of self you will feel in your heart a
   daily intensified longing to have the name of God glorified! Do you not
   feel, sometimes, sick at heart as you gaze upon this present
   generation? My soul is often pained within me when I see how everything
   is out of joint. Everything is now denied which from our youth we have
   regarded as the sacred Truth of God! The Infallibility of Scripture is
   denied! The authenticity of one portion is challenged and the
   Inspiration of another called in question--and the good old Book is
   torn to pieces by blind critics!

   Eternal Truths of God, against which only blaspheming infidels used to
   speak, are now questioned by professed ministers of Christ! Doctrines
   which our sires never thought of doubting are now trailed in the mire
   and that by those who profess to be teachers of God's Word! "Father,
   glorify Your name" comes leaping to our lips because it is burning in
   our heart--burning there in holy wrath against the treachery of men!
   Indignation arises from our jealousy and our eager spirits cry, "Oh,
   that God would glorify His name!" To many of us this is our heaviest
   care. Brethren, we desire the Lord to glorify that name in ourselves by
   preventing our impatience in suffering and keeping us from faintness in
   labor. We beseech our heavenly Father to destroy our selfishness, to
   cast out our pride and to overcome every evil propensity which would
   prevent His getting glory out of us!

   Our soul is even as the clusters of the vine which belong to the owner
   of the vineyard--our whole nature is as the fruit for which the great
   Vinedresser waits. Here, fling me into the wine vat! Let every cluster
   and every grape be gathered and pressed! Great Lord, cast me into the
   wine vat of Your service and then squeeze out of me every drop of the
   essence of life! Let my whole soul flow forth to You! Let the ruddy
   juice burst forth on the right and on the left--and when the first rich
   liquid of my life is gone--then even to the utmost let me be pressed
   till the last drop of the living juice which may bring glory to You
   shall have come forth! Fling all away that will not turn into Your
   Glory, but use all that can be used--glorify Your name to the utmost!

   O great Father of my spirit, the desire of Your child is to glorify
   You, for if You are a father you should have honor from Your children.
   "Honor your father" is the first commandment with promise and it is
   precious in our eyes. From our inmost hearts we pray, "Our Father which
   are in Heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come." Now, see how
   that desire is divested of all sorrow by our casting it upon God. The
   prayer is not, "Father, help me to glorify Your name," but it is,
   "Father, glorify Your name." Your glory is too much for me to
   fathom--glorify Yourself! In Your Providence, so arrange my position
   and condition as to glorify Your name! By Your Grace, so sustain me and
   sanctify me that I may glorify You. I cannot do it, but You can and the
   desire which I was glad to feel, I am glad, also, to bring by faith to
   You. "Father, glorify Your name."

   And now, Brothers and Sisters, if you can pray in that fashion, your
   confidence will come back to you. If you have been greatly distracted,
   calm peace will visit you again, for now you will say, "I will bear the
   Lord's will and will be content. I cannot quarrel with my Master's
   dealings any more, for I have asked Him to glorify His name and as I
   know that He is doing it, I cannot murmur. How can I struggle against
   that which is really glorifying my Father?" Your heart will cease to
   question and to quake--and nestle down beneath the eternal wings in
   deep and happy peace! Filled with patience, you will take the cup which
   stood untasted and grasp it with willingness if not with eagerness. "It
   is to glorify God," you will say--"every drop of this cup is for His
   Glory"--and therefore you will put the chalice to your lips and drink
   straight on, and on, and on till you have drained the last drop and
   find that "It is finished."

   I know you will not fail to do this if your soul has really felt the
   power of this prayer--"Father, glorify Your name." Why, sometimes it
   seems to me that it were worth while to pray to be burned at a stake to
   the death, if by martyrdom we could glorify God! I do not desire such a
   death and yet, from one point of view, I have often envied martyrs
   those ruby crowns which they cast at the feet of their dear Lord. How
   honorable in them to have glorified God by so much suffering! Surely he
   is the grandest creature God has made who glorifies Him most. And who
   is he? Not the tall archangel of whom Milton sings, whose wand might
   make a mast for some great admiral, but the most insignificant nobody
   who has long laid upon her bed of weariness and there has praised the
   Lord by perfect patience!

   She, though apparently the least, may be the greatest glorifier of the
   Father! Perhaps the tiniest creature God has made will bring Him more
   glory than leviathan that makes the deep to be hoary and causes the
   waters to boil like in a pot. That which most thoroughly yields itself
   to God. That which most completely annihilates itself into the eternal
   All--is most glorifying to Him! May God in His infinite mercy bring us
   to this self-annihilation, this desire only for His Glory! Strive after
   it, Beloved, by the power of the Holy Spirit!

   One word to those of you who will have no sympathy with this sermon.
   You know that hymn in which the enquirer asks?--

   "Iff find Him, if I follow, What reward is here?"

   and the answer is--

   "Many a labor, Many a sorrow, Many a tear."

   Very discouraging this, is it not? You who look for mirth and selfish
   pleasure turn away in disgust. Yet the lines are very true. Jesus
   Himself said, "Except a man take up his cross and follow Me, he cannot
   be My disciple." But mark you, the day will come when those who were
   willing to suffer for Christ will be counted to be the only sane
   persons who ever lived! And when those who looked to the main chance
   and cared for self--and disregarded God, faith in Christ and love for
   their fellow men--will be regarded as having been mere idiots and
   drivellers!

   Listen to this parable! It is spring time and yonder is a farmer
   walking the furrows and sowing his seed. Those who know nothing of
   farming mock him for his wastefulness with his grain. He is far too
   wasteful of good food. He is the wise man, is he not, who locks his
   granary door and preserves his corn? Why should he go and fling it into
   the cold, thankless ground? Wait till the end of June when the bloom is
   on the wheat! Wait till July and August have brought the months of
   harvest and you shall see that he who gave his wheat to die shall,
   amidst the shouts of, "Harvest home!" be reckoned to have been wise and
   prudent!

   And he who kept the door of his granary bolted through his sluggishness
   and selfishness shall then be seen to be only fit for Bedlam, for he
   has no harvest except a mass of tangled weeds. Scatter, scatter your
   lives for others! Give yourselves up to Jesus! He who in this respect
   hates his life shall find it, but he that keeps it shall lose it!
   Still, O you ungodly, if you live to yourselves, God will yet have
   Glory and even Glory out of you! You shall not rob Him of His honor,
   nor tear a jewel from His throne! God will be glorified by you and in
   you in some form or other. Your everlasting lamentations, because of
   your great selfish mistakes, will vindicate the wisdom and the justice
   of God to all eternity!

   In a future state, though you gnaw the flesh of your right arms for
   very anguish and sorrow and passion, you will be obliged to acknowledge
   that the warnings of the Gospel were true and that God is just! Your
   well-deserved griefs shall help to make up the burden of that song
   which shall eternally celebrate the wisdom and goodness of God, for you
   will have to confess that Jesus was right and you were wrong! You will
   have to admit that to believe in Him and to be His disciple was the
   right thing--and that to despise Him and to live unto yourself was what
   He told you it would be-- destruction and ruin. God grant His blessing
   for Jesus' sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

A Catechism for the Proud

   (No. 1392)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JANUARY 6, 1878,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "For who makes you to differ from another? And what have you that you
   did not receive? Now if you did receive it, why do you glory, as if you
   had not received it?" 1 Corinthians 4:7.

   THE Corinthian Church was exceedingly gifted. Perhaps no other Church
   of the period had in it so many persons of education and talent. The
   Apostle says of them, "In everything you are enriched, in all utterance
   and in all knowledge, so that you come behind in no gift." Alas, its
   Divine Grace was not in proportion to its gifts and, consequently, a
   proud spirit was developed in the Church which manifested itself in
   divisions and contentions. Parties were formed. One said, "I am of
   Paul," and probably prided himself on the depth of his thought. "I am
   of Apollos," said another, and probably gloried in the brilliant
   eloquence of his language. "I am of Cephas," cried a third, and boasted
   in the plain, unvarnished practicality of Peter's teaching.

   "You are all wrong," exclaimed a fourth, "and I will have nothing to do
   with you. I am of no sect and no system, for I am of Christ and exclude
   you all because I wish to promote love and unity." Party leaders are
   sure to be found where there is a party spirit--and party spirit is a
   fungus which grows upon the dunghill of conceit! The Apostle grieved
   greatly to see that the brethren had no discipline, could not keep rank
   and were not content to work under anybody or with one another. He
   lamented that each man wanted to be foremost and he was so ashamed of
   them that he thanked God that he had baptized none of them!

   Probably the adherents of the various parties had only used their
   leaders' names to make a sect in order that they, themselves, might be
   made the more prominent. They gloried in men that other men might glory
   in them. From all this may we, as a Church, be preserved! May God grant
   that whatever gifts and talents we may have, we may always be filled by
   His good Spirit so abundantly that we may walk in all lowliness of
   spirit and abide in hearty, loving union with each other. Our Apostle
   displayed great wisdom in his rebuke of the Corinthians. He did not cry
   down their talents. He did not say that it was altogether a thing of no
   value to be able to argue, to be able to preach, to be able to discern
   spirits, or to be able to speak with tongues.

   This is a mode of procedure which suggests itself very readily, but it
   is not a good one. You very seldom lower a man's opinion of himself by
   undervaluing his gifts. He knows that you are treating him unfairly and
   he, naturally, resents the injustice and becomes more proud than ever.
   He remembers the fable of the fox and the sour grapes and is fully
   persuaded that you only decry his abilities because you do not possess
   them yourself! Pride is not to be cured by injustice! One devil will
   not drive out another! Pride often finds fuel for itself in that which
   was intended to dampen its flame. The man who is undervalued feels that
   if his gifts are despised by others. He knows their value, if nobody
   else does, and so he has another reason for considering himself to be a
   person of superior abilities.

   The Apostle follows a far more sensible course--he does not deny the
   talent, but asks where it comes from! He does not irritate, but cuts
   deep while he asks one or two questions which strike at the very root
   of self-esteem. In effect these questions were as follows, "If you are
   a superior person and a man fit to be a teacher of others, from where
   did you obtain this superiority? If you are different from the common
   people, who makes you to differ? If you are a person of remarkable
   gifts, how did you come to possess them? If all your distinguishing
   abilities are gifts from God, why do you boast? Why do you exalt
   yourself? What have you which you have not received? If you received
   everything as the gift of Divine charity, why do you glory as if you
   had not received it?"

   These questions may well hide pride from man and I pray that such may
   be the result upon our minds while at this time we pursue the train of
   thought suggested by the text. To this end we shall need the assistance
   of the Holy Spirit, for nothing is more difficult than to overcome our
   self-conceit. Pride takes a thousand forms and hides itself under
   number-

   less disguises. Many talk of lowliness, but humility still remains
   among the rarest of jewels! Many take pride in what they call having no
   pride about them--it is very easy to be proud of not being proud--and
   perhaps some Brothers and Sisters here are in that condition. Perhaps
   we, ourselves, have said, "No, we are not such fools as to boast." That
   is not boasting, I suppose?

   "I could not be vainglorious," says one. "I know too much of my
   unworthiness to give myself airs and ride the high horse," says
   another. Quite so, my Friends, and yet at the bottom of such a speech
   there may lie a world of self-confidence! In fact, your humble
   confessions may be only another form of blowing your own trumpets. It
   is easy to be proud while sneering at pride and to glorify self while
   denouncing all self-exultation. There was great truth in Plato's
   observation when Diogenes trampled on his valuable carpets and said, "I
   trample upon the pride of Plato?" "Yes," said Plato, "and with greater
   pride."

   There are some who are never more ostentatious than when they cry down
   all display and never more insolent than when opposing insolence. Pride
   is a subtle serpent-like vice--it will insinuate itself into the most
   secret chamber and hide in the most unlikely places! It will speak like
   an angel of light and cringe and fawn and display a mock modesty which
   might almost deceive the very elect! It will blush and be diffident and
   hesitating, while all the while Lucifer himself is not more puffed up!
   To deal blows at this vice of vanity we shall meditate upon our text
   and pray God to bless it to us.

   First, we shall note that the verse contains a great and comprehensive
   Truth of God. And secondly we shall observe, as God shall help us, the
   teaching which may be derived from it.

   I. Our text contains within itself A GREAT AND COMPREHENSIVE TRUTH OF
   GOD--namely, that whatever advantages any of us possess over our fellow
   men we have received from God. "Every good gift and every perfect gift
   is from above and comes down from the Father of Lights." "The living
   God gives us richly all things to enjoy." "He gives to all life, breath
   and all things." Everything that we are which is not sinful and
   everything that we have which is worth having, we owe to the bounty of
   our God.

   And this is true, first, as to all sorts of temporal advantages. Begin
   at the very lowest--we owe our physical strength and personal
   comeliness to the Lord. Some persons are born with a fine frame, well
   knit, healthy, vigorous, strong, fitly proportioned. And others exhibit
   a beauty of person and countenance which gives them great influence and
   wins much admiration. One of the most common vices in the world and one
   of the most silly, is the propensity to boast in mere animal force or
   physical beauty, whereas the man had no hand in making one single bone
   or muscle or sinew of his frame! Nor has the fairest daughter of Eve
   been the creator of her own loveliness! No credit is due to the strong
   man for his strength nor to the beautiful for their beauty. Strength
   and beauty are gifts, not virtues.

   There are some who consider the strongest man to be the best and
   measure themselves by their capacity to lift weights, or to inflict
   blows--forgetting that horses and elephants can bear greater loads--and
   lions and tigers can be fiercer in battle. Mere force belongs to beasts
   and to steam engines even more than to men! And a man of gigantic
   strength is outdone at every step by the most common machinery. As for
   beauty, one of its most potent charms lies in its modest
   unconsciousness--it is greatly marred when accompanied by vanity. It
   may seem natural that a peacock should expand its tail in
   self-admiration, for the bird knows no better. But for a man or woman
   possessed of reason to gaze in the glass and admire their own bright
   eyes, glossy hair and delicate features is contemptible vanity!

   Lovely is the modesty which does not even think of itself, but like the
   sweetly perfumed violet hides itself among the leaves to be sought out
   by those who have pleasure in lowly worth. O fine lady, why so haughty?
   Did you make yourself? Then be proud of yourself! O strong athletic
   man, why so arrogant? Are you your own creator? Did you, O man, or
   woman, give yourself strength or comeliness? Those legs of a man so
   swift for running--has the runner fashioned them himself? Those eyes of
   woman, so bright for fascination--did she kindle their wondrous light
   herself? No, these personal advantages are evidently gifts distributed
   at the Divine pleasure.

   The Lord has made one athletic while another is born a cripple--one is
   uncomely and another fair as beauty's self. We meet with persons who
   are born blind, or deaf and dumb, or deformed in limb, or weak in spine
   and, therefore, we see that our vigor of physical frame is the gift of
   Providence. To each favored one we may say, "What have you that you did
   not receive? Now if you did receive it, why do you glory, as if you had
   not received it?" Position, too, in this world is a thing very commonly
   boasted of. This man is born with a silver spoon in his mouth--another
   man comes into the

   world with nothing silvery about him. The first man boasts because he
   is a gentleman and has come from a wealthy fam-ily--but what had he to
   do with it?

   What determined the place of his birth? What but a Providential
   arrangement altogether apart from himself? And after all, in the matter
   of birth we are all pretty much upon a level if we trace our pedigrees
   to their common meeting-place in the father of all living. Among the
   numerous kinds of pride this is one of the most ridiculous--the boast
   of blood and vaunting of ancestry! What can there be of all inherited
   position and rank for which we can claim merit? However great the
   privilege, no credit is due to those who have it, for we may say to
   each one, "What have you which you have not received?"

   Some men are vainglorious because they claim to have made their own
   position--we have even heard them say that they made themselves! I
   observe that persons who boast of being self-made usually worship their
   supposed maker with great fervency and endeavor to lead others to pay
   the same homage. But I would ask such, "Who gave you the opportunity to
   become what you have become? From where did you get that natural talent
   and force of character which have brought you to the front?" The
   "self-made man" can only be so called in a very restricted sense, or
   else the speech is false and blasphemous.

   If a man has prospered, his prosperity has come of God's kind
   permission--"The Lord makes poor and makes rich." And if he has fought
   his way up from penury and obscurity to dignity and position among the
   sons of men, he owes it to the gentleness of God, who "raises up the
   poor out of the dust." Education, the gift of prudent parents,
   opportunity, the gift of Providence--these have all united to make the
   man prosperous--what has he that he has not received? Some glory in
   their talent and knowledge. But here again, if a man commits himself to
   the nobler pursuits of science and learning and renounces the more
   groveling ambitions of mere wealth and station. If he endeavors to
   search out the secrets of Nature so as to become useful to his fellow
   men--if he should succeed and rise to be numbered with great master
   minds--has he not received it all?

   From the beginning, were there not natural predilections and
   propensities and talents and capacities bestowed upon him which have
   been denied to others who have been equally industrious, but could not,
   in the nature of things, become equally eminent? From where, also, has
   come the health which has enabled the student to persevere in laborious
   research? Many have been slain by their devotion to their books. The
   brain is very sensitive and many, in burning the midnight oil, have
   consumed the oil of life at the same time! To whom, then, does the
   successful student owe his continued mental vigor? The greatest
   philosopher may wisely thank God that he is not a lunatic! It may be
   many a time, in the pursuit of knowledge, he has, in the straining of
   his faculties, come very near to the overstraining of them. "Great wits
   to madness often are allied" and frequently only the merciful
   interposition of Heaven has spared the deep student from the madman's
   fate. What has he that he has not received?

   As to wealth, where some are apt to indulge a vulgar vanity, what is
   there in it, after all? Certainly it is to a man's credit that he did
   not, in the commencement of his life, squander his money in wanton
   waste and self-indulgence. It is to a man's credit that he put his
   shoulder to the wheel and toiled on and did not consume his days in
   idleness, or fall into habits of drunkenness and dissipation which are
   the roots of nine-tenths of the poverty in the land. It is to his
   credit that he has been economical and so has kept the wolf from the
   door and risen to a competence. But still, what has he that he did not
   receive? These very habits and discretions may be traced to training,
   or to force of mind, or to happy example and they are, therefore,
   things received.

   As for the man's success--it is not only due to his industry, for
   sickness or accident might have made him unable to earn his bread, or
   lack of employment might have hampered him. An ill turn in trade would
   have swept away his little capital, or, trusting in others, he might
   have found himself robbed of all. Are there not many who are
   industrious and prudent and all that, and yet nothing seems to prosper
   with them, or if they do have a little season of prosperity it is soon
   over? They have not, perhaps, all the wit of some and, therefore,
   become the prey of hucksters--nor have they all the vigor of mind which
   is necessary in these days of competition. Alas, some have grown rich
   by wickedness and have heaped up curses for themselves--but as far as
   wealth is a blessing--no man possesses it apart from God's goodness.

   What do the Scriptures say? "You shall remember the Lord your God; for
   it is He that gives you power to get wealth." If any man will sit down
   and trace his progress in life, he will say of each of his mercies,
   "This, also, comes to me from the goodness of the Lord. It is He who
   has prospered me. I might have exerted myself as I have done, but
   unless the

   Lord had built the house, they who built it would have labored in vain.
   Unless the Lord had kept the city, the watchmen had wakened in vain.
   Even if I have labored as in the very fire and risen early and sat up
   late, yet all would have come to nothing unless His good hand had been
   with me."

   Let us remember this and never indulge the pride which robs God of His
   praise. It would be a sad thing if we were to become as besotted as
   ungrateful Israel, of whom the Lord said, "She did not know that I gave
   her corn and wine and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold." Nor is
   it only for the power to get that we are indebted to the Lord, for the
   retaining of our substance is equally of His favor. Riches take to
   themselves wings and fly away--and the rich man may be, all of a
   sudden, stripped of all his treasure. Houses are soon plucked down
   unless the Lord keeps them. For the continued supplies of our needs let
   us thank the Lord who daily loads us with benefits! O man of learning,
   it is the Lord that gives you power to acquire knowledge--otherwise all
   your efforts would be fruitless and your mind would prove to be a
   barren waste!

   All faculty, capacity, attainment and influence come from Him. It is He
   that gives you power, if you are a member of the Christian Church, to
   take a high position in it and to become a leader of others. If you
   have any experience by which you can comfort the afflicted. If you have
   any knowledge of His Word by which you can instruct the ignorant. If
   you have the Spirit of God resting upon your utterance to convince and
   awaken, to confirm and to edify--if in anything you are favored to
   bless the Church or the world--you owe this to the great Giver of all
   good. Bless Him, therefore, and boast not! If any man is prepared to
   deny our doctrine, we may leave him to his own ungrateful pride--but
   let him tremble lest, like Nebuchadnezzar, he should be stripped of all
   power and made, in his fall, to acknowledge the hand of the Lord.

   You shall always find that men upon their knees, if they are sincere,
   bless God for all they have. And the better a man grows and, I will
   venture to add, the more common sense he gains, the more ready is he to
   trace all that he has and is to the good hand of his God! Certainly the
   more Grace he has and the more he becomes like his God, the more
   earnestly does he refuse any credit for himself! And the more sweetly
   does he sing the Psalm, "Non nobis domine"--"Not unto us, not unto us,
   O Lord, but unto Your name give glory." Like Paul, he cries, "By the
   Grace of God I am what I am."

   We have thus set forth the great general Truth of God which holds good
   as to all temporal advantages. I believe it to be an equally sure Truth
   as to all gracious privileges. The Apostle says, "Who makes you to
   differ?" Now, my Brothers and Sisters, those of us who have been saved
   by Divine Grace do differ from others. We differ greatly from what we
   used to be! We differ sensibly from ourselves in our former state and
   we also differ greatly from others who are still unregener-ate, for if
   the Grace of God did not make our character to be different from that
   of the ungodly, where would its value be? The Lord has taught us what
   others do not know! He has quickened us with a life which others do not
   feel! He has given us a sorrow which the world has never felt and,
   blessed be His name, He has endowed us with a joy with which worldlings
   cannot intermeddle.

   There is a very great difference between him that fears God and him
   that fears Him not. "Now, who makes you to differ?" is the question to
   be thought of, this morning, by every saved one. I believe that the
   Doctrines of Grace would never be doubted if men would follow this
   question to its legitimate conclusions. Why am I different from other
   men if I am so? It has been by the hearing of the Gospel as the means,
   but I must ascribe it to Divine Grace and not to chance, that I was
   born where the Gospel was preached and not left under the influence of
   Popery or heathenism. There is distinguishing Sovereignty in the birth
   of one man in London and the birth of another in Timbuktu. Neither
   individual had anything to do with that most important item in his
   life.

   You might have been born in a kraal of the Hottentot instead of in the
   midst of a family of believers in Christ. The very privilege of hearing
   the Word of God, you must thankfully acknowledge to be a gift from the
   hand of God! Others even in your own country may not have been equally
   favored, for they may not have had such earnest parents, nor have heard
   so earnest a minister. You were placed where many have been
   converted--it may be in the country or in London you were early carried
   to listen to a man whose way of putting the Gospel was warm-hearted,
   affectionate and likely to be used of God. There, again, is the
   Sovereignty of God to be seen--that one should be found under a cold,
   dead ministry and another should hear a soul-saving preacher.

   Yet further, there were some who heard the same sermons as you did and
   were not converted and you were. How come? Will you take the glory for
   it? Were you better disposed? Was there something in your nature
   superior to that of others? It is true you paid more earnest attention,
   but why? What led you to do so? Was there some natural betterness

   about you? No, dear Friend, you will not dare to say so! At any rate,
   if you said so in the heat of controversy, you would not repeat it on
   your knees! No Christian will say, " Lord, I was better than other
   people and, therefore, I am saved and they are not." No, in prayer we
   are all Calvinists! In prayer we all agree to ascribe the whole of the
   praise to the Grace of God! "Who makes you to differ?" has but one
   answer from Christian people--it is the Grace of God that has done it.

   The Apostle next acknowledges that we possess many blessings, but
   declares that we have received all of them from God. Is that true? Let
   us enlarge upon the question. I speak only to professed Believers in
   Christ. You had, at first, conviction of sin--did that arise
   spontaneously or did the Spirit convict you of sin? Repentance towards
   God--was that worked in you by the Holy Spirit, or was it the outgrowth
   of your own free will? You have faith--I venture to ask you if that
   faith is the gift of God? If it is not, I advise you to get rid of it,
   for it will never save you! The faith which saves the soul is always
   spoken of in Scripture as the gift of God! Since your conversion you
   have exhibited some measure of holiness, but was that worked in you by
   the Spirit or is it the fruit of your natural excellence? Who is to
   have the praise for it? You have grown in knowledge--have you been
   taught of God, or did you teach yourself? If you were your own teacher,
   I know what kind of scholar you are! They say that when a man is his
   own lawyer, he has a fool for his client and it is very much the same
   when a man is his own teacher in Divine things.

   You have also gained experience. You have felt love to Christ. You have
   burned with zeal--were these good things the gifts of God to you--or do
   you claim credit for them as having sprung up in your heart as weeds
   grow in a garden without sowing or watering? Ah, dear Brothers and
   Sisters, I know there is no exception to this rule among the children
   of God--they all confess that their Divine Graces have been received of
   the Lord. Whatever their doctrinal views and sentiments, let them but
   speak with God in prayer or praise and they will all say, "It was all
   Your work as far as it was good! And unto You be all the honor of it
   from the first to the last. You have worked all our works in us."

   Friend, if your Grace did not come from God, it is worthless! But if it
   did come from the Lord, let Him have the glory for it and do not boast
   as though you had not received it! I need to call your attention to the
   way in which the text is worded. It is not said, "Who made you to
   differ?" but, "Who makes you to differ?" Who distinguishes you now? It
   was God who made you to differ at the first--that we all admit. Who
   makes you to differ now? Suppose you were left to yourself--could you
   continue in your state of Divine Grace? Suppose the Grace of God were
   gone--what would become of you? Is there one man among us who could
   keep his own soul alive as long as it takes for the eye to blink if
   God's upholding Spirit were withdrawn?

   Is there any folly, is there any fault, is there any crime into which
   the best saint here would not soon plunge if it were not for the
   restraining Grace of God? Who dares trust himself? What is it that
   makes us continue to differ from the very worst but the Grace of God?
   And who shall make us to differ in days to come? To whom do you look
   for your future preservation? Are you your own keepers? Do you hope
   that you yourselves, unaided, shall persevere in the road to Heaven?
   You are not, I trust, so presumptuous! Between this spot and yonder
   golden gates there will be battles in which we shall surely be slain
   unless Jehovah shall cover our heads! There are wilderness places into
   which we shall be sure to wander and lose ourselves forever unless the
   Shepherd of Israel shall lead us like a flock.

   We know that it is so from past experience and present consciousness.
   The longer I live--and I think it is so with most Christians--the more
   I feel that everything must be of Grace from first to the last if I am
   to be saved. Grace chose us and Grace redeemed us! Grace calls us!
   Grace renews us! Grace preserves us and Grace must perfect us, or else
   nothing will come of all our hopes and desires! Our religion will all
   be a flash in the pan, a disappointment at the last and a failure
   forever. Today I stand here to say that if I have served the Lord from
   my youth up, He led me into His ways. If I have preached His Gospel
   faithfully to the utmost of my knowledge, it has been because His grace
   has urged me to. If any souls have been won to Christ. If a Church has
   been built up. If young preachers have been encouraged. If the savor of
   the Gospel has been spread abroad--for these things and all else that
   has been done I disclaim even the shadow of credit!

   I loathe the thought! Unto God, alone, be the honor! He has worked in
   me to will and to do of His own good pleasure. When I bear this
   personal testimony I feel quite sure that every Brother and Sister
   here, according to his position and condition, will agree with me in
   his own case. If there is any virtue. If there is any praise. If there
   is anything that is honest or of good repute--unto the Lord and unto
   the Lord, alone, be the praise! If we are without these things the
   fault is our own--if we have no Grace, if we have not obtained mercy,
   if we are still unbelievers and disobedient--on our own heads must rest
   the responsibility and the sin!

   But this by no means contradicts the present Truth of God that if there
   is any goodness in us it is the workmanship of Him who began to save us
   and will not cease from His work till He has finished it. Thus I have
   spoken of the great general

   Truth.

   II. Now we come to ITS TEACHINGS. The first teaching of this great
   Truth of God is that which we have already enlarged upon. It is useful
   as a rebuke to pride. If any Brother is filled with vanity, let him
   answer the question, "Who makes you to differ?" True, you are no more a
   drunkard, but why should you boast of your sobriety? Is it not your
   duty? True, you are no more the companion of evildoers, but who was it
   that took you out of their company and gave you a new heart and a right
   spirit? What is it that keeps you out of the ways of the wicked at this
   moment?

   It is true you know something of the things of God, whereas others are
   blinded and the world lies in the Wicked One. But who opened your eyes?
   What do you say? You were born blind as they were--who opened your
   eyes? Did you bring light to your own soul? Think of what you used to
   be. Let any of us look back to our first estate and we shall surely be
   compelled to lay our finger on our mouth and silence every boast
   forever! Think of what we would be if Divine Grace were to leave
   us--how a hasty temper would soon ruin some of us, how natural levity
   would carry others of us off our feet--how depression of spirit would
   lead some to despair and carelessness would draw others to presume.
   Think of how in many ways our besetting sin would overthrow us if it
   were not for the preserving Grace of God!

   Brothers and Sisters, if we say, concerning anything in us that is
   good, "This is mine and I congratulate myself upon having produced it,"
   we are robbers and liars! Acknowledge that what you have is received
   from God! Admit that it belongs to the great Giver and that you,
   yourself, belong to Christ, and you may take the comfort of every good
   gift you have--but once say, "This is no gift, it is my own"--and you
   are uttering a lie and you are acting a knavish part in defrauding the
   great King of His lawful revenue of praise! Yes, and you are also
   acting the part of an idolater, making yourself into an idol and
   lavishing incense to please your own foolish vanity. God grant that
   from a sense of being beggars and nothing but beggars, daily receiving
   alms at the gate of Mercy, we may be led to behave ourselves in His
   Presence and among our fellow men with all lowliness of spirit. "Now if
   you did receive it, why do you glory, as if you had not received it?"

   Secondly, this great Truth becomes an excitement to gratitude. If all I
   possess I have received and if all I am is due to the distinguishing
   Grace of God, then let me bless the Lord in the depths of my soul!
   Silence is often the noblest form of worship. I delight to sit before
   the Lord and feel that unspeakable mercy can only be acknowledged by
   unspeakable thankfulness. O God, if You had left me where I was. If You
   had left me to go on in sin, what might I have been by now? What a
   servant of the devil! What a well-tutored tempter of others should I
   have grown to be! Into what shame and disgrace might I have fallen! By
   what frightful habits might I have been enthralled! Some of you, my
   dear Hearers, would have been dead long ago if it had not been for the
   Grace of God--for you were killing yourselves in sin!

   Some of you would have been damned long ago if Divine Grace had not
   stopped you, for you were riding headlong into Hell and did not go at a
   common prudent pace, as many do, along the broad road. Oh, I say again,
   what might not some of us have been by now if the Lord had not stepped
   in with His preventing and converting mercy! Let us, therefore, while
   we bless Him quietly in the deeps of our own soul, yet oftentimes
   overflow with praise, such as men may hear. Let our hearts flow over,
   for surely they are full! It is a good thing to spill a bowl of
   gratitude on an ungrateful man's floor--to make him feel that if he
   does not bless God, others will do so and will not be ashamed to do it
   to his face!

   This gratitude should take the shape of continual obedience. Nothing
   which Jesus bids us do should be too hard for us and nothing that He
   has bid should be forgotten. When we were in bondage under sin we
   thought if the Lord did but forgive us we should become the most
   warmhearted and loving servants in His employ. When I had the irons on
   my wrists and when I sat in sackcloth and ashes in the thick darkness
   of despair, if anyone had said to me, "The Lord will have mercy upon
   you and make a minister of you," I would have replied, "Then I will
   preach with all my heart and soul." I should have hoped to preach a
   hundred times better than I have ever done!

   If it had been put to any one of you, do you not think you would have
   said, "I will serve Him with my whole being. Redeemed by His blood,
   pressed to His bosom as a dear, returning child--clothed in the best
   robe, with a ring on my finger and shoes on my feet--I will live to my
   Father's praise, yes, live with such intensity that even Apostles and
   martyrs shall not excel me." You have not done so, my Friend, but the
   text calls you and me to do it and suggests to us a gratitude which
   shall manifest itself in effort and glow in every action of our daily
   life.

   Again, my text has another lesson. It is a reminder of
   responsibilities. God has made a great difference between you and
   others in many respects. He has given you a great many
   blessings--remember that where much is given, much will be required. If
   you have 10 talents, have you brought in the proportionate interest? If
   you possess five talents, have you brought in a five-fold return? It is
   to be deeply regretted that some of those who have the most ability to
   do good are doing the least. There are men with large wealth who do not
   give half as much as many with meager means. I know persons of great
   attainments in spiritual knowledge who do not teach one half as much as
   newly converted lads and girls who occupy their posts in the school
   right earnestly and teach what little they know.

   I regret to say that those who could fight best are often the last to
   go to battle--and those who could plow best most often leave the plow
   rust--while feebler hands are worn to the bone. Brother, I will not
   deny that you have much knowledge, nor question that you have much
   experience, nor debate with you your right to be our superior if you
   are so! But will you kindly be so good as to exceed us in consecration,
   in self-denial, in earnestness and in holiness? In estimating our
   personal character, let us not so much calculate what we could be, as
   what we are. Let us not so much consider what we might be if we could,
   but what we really are doing for the Lord, for that is the matter of
   most importance! You may be a well of water, but you will get no credit
   for it at the last--the reward comes for the cup of cold water that was
   given to a disciple in the name of a disciple!

   You may be a great bale of cloth, but you will get no honorable mention
   for it at the Last Great Day--the commendation will be to those of whom
   the Lord shall say, "I was naked, and you clothed Me." You may have a
   fat larder and a fine buttery, but the honor shall only come to you at
   the last if it can be said, "I was hungry and you gave Me meat. I was
   thirsty and you gave Me drink, sick and in prison and you visited Me."
   God grant we may all think of our responsibilities so that you who
   could take long strides may not be satisfied to walk like little
   children--and that you who could do a giant's work may not be satisfied
   with attempting that which might be credit enough to a dwarf--but is
   not at all worthy of your greater powers.

   Learn another lesson. The Truth of God before us is a suggestion of
   great tenderness in dealing with others! Allow me, for a minute, to
   press that consideration upon you. "Who makes you to differ?" Who but a
   gracious God has renewed your heart? Yet you met, the other day, with a
   man fast bound with bad habits and you said, "Nothing can be done with
   such a wreck of a man. I will not waste words upon him." Another day
   you heard of an effort made in the back slums, among the lowest of the
   low, and you said, "I do not think much can come of it." Now, my dear
   Friend, "Who makes you to differ? What have you that you did not
   receive?"

   It would be better to drink into the spirit of holy John Bradford,
   whose window looked upon the road to the gallows at Tyburn. As from day
   to day he saw poor condemned prisoners carried in the cart to die, he
   was known to say, "There goes John Bradford but for the Grace of God."
   If you feel so, let me ask you why cannot the Grace of God cause others
   to fear God as well as yourself? Cannot the Grace of God make other
   sinners to believe in Jesus as you do? I have never despaired of the
   salvation of any man since the Lord saved me. I know no heart that God
   cannot win if He could conquer mine! If you believe in your heart the
   precious Doctrines of Grace, you cannot be hopeless of any, but you
   must be ready to hope for those in whom there is nothing to encourage
   expectation! We ought never to look for desert in others, since the
   Lord did not look for desert in us. If Jesus loved us when there was no
   reason in us for that love, we ought just as freely to love our fellow
   men!

   The last lesson is not for the Christian. It is for any of you here who
   wish you were saved. The text is an encouragement for seekers. You have
   begun another year and you are yet unsaved? But still you desire, if it
   is possible, to become children of God. Now, do you know an eminent
   Christian? "Yes," you say, "I do." Perhaps it is your grandmother, or
   it may be some earnest Christian minister. You greatly admire those
   people, do you not? Now remember that there is nothing good in them but
   what they have received from God! The Lord can give the same Grace to
   you--and you can receive even as they have received. Do you believe
   that? It is true whether you believe it or not!

   The Lord, in His abundant mercy can give to you what He has given to
   the best of His saints, whoever you may be. "Then what have I to do?"
   one asks. What you have to do is, according to the text, to be a
   receiver. That is all--and that is the easiest thing in the world!
   Anybody here can be a receiver! When you go past the offering box for
   the College, perhaps some of you cannot be givers, however much you may
   wish to be. But if I were to put a man at the door with a shilling or a
   guinea for each one--anybody could receive it if he chose! Reception is
   a faculty which belongs to us however

   low we may sink. When a person is covered with rags, covered with
   filth, covered with disease, he can still become a receiver! And even
   if he cannot stretch out his hand, he can find ways and means for
   receiving.

   Receiving implies neither strength, nor merit, nor wisdom. It requires
   no power, no faculty, no virtue, no anything! The power to be a
   receiver dwells with the weakest of the weak and the worst of the
   worst. The emptier you are, the more room there is for reception! The
   blacker you are, the more room to receive washing! The more foul you
   are, the more reason to receive cleansing! The more sick and near to
   death, the more room to receive healing! Will you have the blessing
   which God in Christ Jesus is ready to give? If you will be saved,
   listen to the voice of God and live! If you are willing to accept His
   Son Jesus Christ as your Savior and, from this time forth put your
   whole trust in Him, you shall be saved! May He by His Grace lead you,
   now, to become a receiver, for it is written--"As many as received Him,
   to them gave He power to become the sons of God; even to them that
   believe on His name." Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Speak For Yourself--a Challenge!

   (No. 1393)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, DECEMBER 9, 1877,

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "He is of age; ask him: he shall speak for himself." John 9:21

   THOSE of you, dear Friends, who were present this morning, will
   remember that our subject was "Jesus Christ Himself." [No. 1888, Vol.
   23. "Jesus Christ Himself."] We dwelt upon His blessed Person. Our
   faith is fixed on Him, our affections are drawn to Him, our hopes all
   bend toward Him. Though everything He said or did is precious, yet
   Jesus Himself stands first in our judgment. To know Him, to believe
   Him, to love Him is the very essence of our Christianity. Tonight we
   change our theme. There is an "himself in our text this evening--an
   "himself," 'tis true of a much humbler order. How do we each stand for
   himself?

   Our individuality and the personal responsibilities which fall upon
   ourselves in reference to Christ must not be lost sight of. If, for
   instance, a spiritual miracle has been worked upon us and we are
   obliged to confess. No, if we are delighted to confess that He has
   opened our eyes--then we are bound, especially those of us who are of
   ripe understanding, who may be said to be of full age--we are bound to
   bear our own personal testimony for Him. The allegation and the appeal
   may alike apply to each one of us, "He is of age; ask him: he shall
   speak for himself." Jesus Christ Himself bore our sins, as we heard
   this morning. He gave Himself for us. He served us, not by proxy, but
   by personal consecration.

   He served us, not by alms doled out pitifully, but by His life
   surrendered as a Sacrifice to God cheerfully. If He has thus commended
   His love to us, what less can we do in return than bear our own brave,
   bold, personal testimony for Him? What a parallel there is between this
   man's case and our own. He had suffered from a grievous, personal evil.
   He was born blind! So we were born in sin--sin had cast its blindness
   over our faculties from our very birth! We shall never forget the
   midnight of our nature. We could not see even the beauties of Christ
   Himself, though resplendent as the sun at noonday, so blind were we!

   This man was personally delivered from his ailment and so have we been
   delivered, I trust. I know many here who can say that whereas they were
   blind, now they see! You have received, as the blind man did, a
   personal blessing, being endowed with sight. The blemish that blighted
   your life has been healed! It is not that somebody sees for you and
   tells you what he sees, but you see for yourself. It is not merely
   imputed to you that you see because you have been told what somebody
   else saw. No, you have no proxy in the matter, no sponsor in the
   business. You yourself are conscious that a work of Divine Grace has
   been worked upon you, whereas you were blind now you see--and you know
   it!

   The blind man was cured through personal obedience to Christ's command.
   He heard a special call addressed to him--"Go, wash in the pool." He
   went and came back seeing! And many here present have heard the voice
   which says, "Believe and live," and it has come to you, not as a
   general exhortation, but as a special direction. You have believed and
   you live! You have washed and you have come back seeing! Well now, all
   this is personal, therefore your Lord and Master has a right to expect
   a personal testimony from you of His power to save! You are of age.
   When any ask you, I trust you will speak for yourself. Speak up and
   speak out for your Master without hesitancy or fear!

   I. THERE ARE TIMES WHEN SAVED MEN ARE POSITIVELY COMPELLED TO SPEAK FOR
   THEMSELVES. They must of necessity bear their personal witness. What
   else can they do when friends desert them? Father and mother were quite
   willing to acknowledge this young man--that he was their son--quite
   willing to bear their witness that he was born blind. But they would
   not go any farther. They could have gone farther if they liked, but
   they were afraid of that sentence of excommunication which the Jews had
   already agreed upon--that if any man confessed that Jesus was the
   Christ he should be put out of the synagogue.

   So, feeling very little compunction in declining to take any
   responsibility themselves, for they had great and probably well-founded
   confidence in their son's power to take care of himself, they did, as
   it were, abandon him. They threw upon him the stress and burden of
   giving a plain answer which would have incurred such disgrace. They
   backed out of it. They had no wish whatever to become the subjects of
   persecution because their blind son had been blessed with sight. The
   young man who had been blind must, therefore, do battle, himself, for
   the good Lord who had bestowed so great a benefit on him. "Ask him,"
   said his parents, "he will speak for himself."

   There are times with many young people when their parents, if they do
   not frown upon their religion, at least turn the cold shoulder to them
   and show no sympathy with their faith or their feelings. Some of us are
   rejoiced when our sons are converted. We are not ashamed to stand by
   them and to defend them and to protect them whatever may come of it.
   But there are fathers and mothers who have no liking for the things of
   God and so their children, if they are converted, have a hard time of
   it. I have known even some who profess to be disciples of Christ hold
   back very suspiciously and leave others to champion the Master's cause
   when it has come to a hard push.

   In a conversation you expected to hear that old gentleman speak up
   bravely for the truth of the Gospel but he did not. You knew he was a
   member of a Christian Church, yet he very cautiously held his tongue
   for a long time and then quietly said something about not casting
   pearls before swine. Probably he had not any pearls, or possibly he was
   a swine himself. How else could you account for such awful cowardice?
   But some have known in youthful ardor what it is to be compelled to
   come out so defiantly as to risk the charge of presumption because
   everybody else seemed to be deserting the doctrine! It is their duty to
   defend!

   It is lamentable how many seem afraid of being compromised. "Ask him;
   ask him; he will speak for himself," is their puny pretext while they
   prudently retire behind the bushes out of rifle range, never coming
   forward unless, perhaps, you should win the victory--when they would
   most likely come up to share the spoils. Whenever a man is placed in
   such a condition that he finds himself deserted in the battle for
   Christ by those who ought to be at his back, then let him disdain
   retreat and say right gallantly, "I am of age: I will speak for myself.
   In the name of God I will bear my witness." Christian men, however
   reserved and backward their natural disposition may be, are compelled
   to speak out when they are very much pressed.

   These Pharisees took this man and questioned him rather closely. They
   put questions to him by way of examination and cross-examination. "What
   did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?" And so on. He does not
   appear to have been disturbed or disconcerted by the questions. He
   acquitted himself grandly. Self-contained, quiet, shrewd,
   immovable--his mind was made up and with a thorough mastery of the
   situation he was ready for them. He did not hesitate. Well now, I trust
   if ever you and I are brought to book and questions are put to us, even
   though it is with intent to entangle us, we shall never be "ashamed to
   acknowledge our Lord or to defend His cause." Surely we might expect to
   be struck dumb if we were ever ashamed to speak of Christ when we are
   commanded to do it!

   If it comes to a challenge, "On whose side am I?" shall I ever hesitate
   to say, "I am with Immanuel, the crucified Savior"? If ever they get us
   into a corner and say, "You, also, were with Jesus of Nazareth," oh may
   God give us Grace to be prompt and not think twice--"Of course I was,
   and of course I am still! He is my Friend, my Savior, my All in All--
   and by His Grace I will never blush to acknowledge His name!"
   Christians must come out and bear, each man for himself, a clear and
   distinct testimony. When others revile and slander our Lord Jesus
   Christ, it becomes imperative of us to commend and extol Him.

   They said to this man, "Give God the praise. We know that this Man is a
   sinner." Then he spoke right gratefully with a heart bubbling up with
   thankfulness. "He has opened my eyes! One thing I know, that, whereas I
   was blind, now I see." But when they went the length of saying, "As for
   this Fellow, we know not from where He is," he spoke up still more
   heroically. He turned upon his assailants and shamed them with their
   marvelous ignorance, "that you know not from where He is." And he
   fought for his Master so cuttingly that they were compelled to throw
   away the weapons of debate and take up stones of abuse with which to
   stone him! Oh, if they speak ill of Christ, shall we be quiet? Does the
   oath make our blood chill and shall we never have a word of rebuke for
   the blasphemer?

   Shall we hear the cause of Christ denounced in society and for fear of
   feeble man refrain our tongue or smooth the matter over? No, let us
   throw the gauntlet down for Christ and say at once, "I cannot and I
   will not refrain myself. Now the very stones might speak. When my dear
   Friend--my best of friends--is thus abused, I must and will proclaim
   the

   honors of His name." I think Christian people in this country do not
   take half the liberty they might. If we speak a word of religion or
   open our Bibles in a railway carriage or anything of that kind, they
   say, "cants!" They may play cards, I suppose, in a public conveyance
   with impunity. They may make night hideous with their howls. They may
   utter all sorts of profanities and sing lascivious songs at their sweet
   will, but we are cants if we take our turn!

   In the name of everything that is free we will have our turn! And every
   now and then I like to sing, to their annoyance, one of the songs of
   Zion, for they sing the songs of Babylon loud enough to annoy us. Let
   us tell them that while we live in a land of liberty and rejoice that
   Christ has made us free, we shall no more be ashamed of His testimonies
   than they are ashamed of their iniquities! When they begin to sin in
   private and blush to utter a lewd word, then maybe the time--no, and
   not even then--for us to keep our religion to ourselves. Thus you see
   there are times when men-- quiet, reserved men--must speak! They will
   be traitors if they do not!

   I do not think this blind man was at all talkative. The brevity of his
   replies seems to indicate that he was a cautious speaker, but they
   drove him to it. He was like the stag at bay. He must fight, however
   gently disposed. And I think there is scarcely a Christian man or woman
   that has been able to go all the way to Heaven and yet quietly hide
   himself and run from bush to bush, creeping into Glory. Christianity
   and cowardice? What a contradiction in terms! I think there must have
   been times when you have felt inclined to say to yourself, "Well now,
   cost what it may. I may become an outcast in society--I may be
   ridiculed by the rough and I may lose respect among the polite--but for
   Jesus Christ and for His Truth I must bear witness." Then has it come
   true of you, "He is of age; ask him: he shall speak for himself."

   II. We pass on to another remark. IT IS ALWAYS WELL TO BE PREPARED TO
   SPEAK FOR YOURSELF. This man was evidently ready to do so. When his
   parents said, "Ask him: he shall speak for himself," I think there was
   a little twinkle in the father's eye as he spoke--meaning to say, "You
   will catch a Tartar. He can speak for himself. We have known him a good
   many years while he has been blind and he has always had a pretty sharp
   reply for anybody that thought him a fool! If you imagine, now, that
   you will get much out of him by way of food for your mirth or fun, you
   are mightily mistaken. He will be more likely to spoil you than you to
   spoil him."

   And as they handed him over to the inquisitors, though they were
   unkind, I suppose they did not feel that he was a tender chicken that
   needed much of their care. They seemed to say, "He is of age, he has
   come to years of maturity; ask him. Only ask him. He will speak for
   himself, we guarantee you." And so, indeed, he did! Now I want to have
   a band of Christian people here much of that sort--who, when asked
   anything about their holy faith can so answer that they are not likely
   to be often the butts of ridicule and scorn because they shall prove
   more than a match for their adversaries! But how, you will ask, are we
   to be prepared to speak for ourselves?

   On the outset it is well to cultivate a general habit of
   open-heartedness and boldness. We have no need to intrude and push
   ourselves into people's way and so become a nuisance and a bore to
   them. Far from it! Let us walk through the world as those who have
   nothing to conceal, conscious of the integrity of our own motives and
   the rightness of our heart before God. We need not to wear armor and
   sleep in it like the knights of old, knowing rather that the Truth of
   God unarmed is the best apparel. Let us show that we have nothing to
   cloak or cover, nothing to disguise or hide--that the Gospel has worked
   in us such an honesty and frankness of spirit that nothing can make us
   blush, no foe can cause us fear.

   Let us tell what we believe as true because we can vouch for its
   truthfulness. Let us choke those who laugh at these things, not so much
   by our combat as by our character. Let us prove to them that we have a
   solid reason for our simple protest--that we have actually received the
   Divine Grace in which we earnestly believe! Our words will have weight
   when they see that the fruit of our piety accords with the flower of
   our profession. There is great power in this manner of answering the
   adversary. Take heed however, when you speak, to be sure of your
   ground.

   This man was. "Whether He is a sinner or not," he said, "I know not."
   So he offered no opinion on a subject of which he could not be
   positive. But where he had hard facts on his side there was nothing
   vague in his statement--"One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind,
   now I see." This is an argument which the most astute fool would find
   it difficult to answer! As the blind man looked them full in the face
   it was enough to bewilder them! And there are some of you in whom such
   a change of character has been worked that you could truthfully say, "I
   know I am not the man I used to be. My manner of life from my youth is
   well known to many, if they would testify. But now God, by the Gospel
   of His Son, has opened my eyes, renewed my heart, cleansed my leprosy
   and set my feet in the way of peace."

   Even those who scoff at the Gospel are, in the cases of many of us,
   unable to deny the remarkable and beneficial change it has worked!
   There is a moral uprightness, here, about which we need be very rigid.
   Put your foot down and say, "No, you cannot misjudge this. You may
   philosophize, if you like, but the old-fashioned simple Gospel of the
   children changed me and made me love that which before I hated, and
   hate that which before I loved. That is a thing you cannot deny. One
   thing I know." And it is well, like this man, to have the facts ready
   to recite. "A man named Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and sent
   me to the pool to wash. And I washed and I came seeing."

   Let them have the plan of salvation, as you first perceived it, very
   succinctly and plainly put before them. It is often the very best
   answer you can give to those who question in order to carp and discuss
   with a view to disparage. Let them have it with the gush you had it at
   the time. As the Lord has dealt with your soul, so tell them what He
   has done for you! He must be a hard-hearted man who can sneer at the
   simple statement of your own conversion. The change it has worked in
   you will be a fact which he cannot argue with. Though he should think
   you deluded and call you an enthusiast, there is nothing so difficult
   for him to grapple with as your candor and confidence. "He opened my
   eyes." There is the point! "He opened my eyes! And if He opened my
   eyes, then He was of God. God must have been in such a matter as that,
   for I was born blind."

   With meekness and fear give a reason for the hope that is in you to all
   those who oppose you! Christians should at all times, also, be as this
   man was--quite ready to bear abuse. "You were altogether born in sin."
   I do not suppose the blind man cared one atom what they had to assert
   or to insinuate on that score. Their scorn could not deprive him of his
   sight! He merely shook his head and said, "I can see. I can see. I was
   blind, but now I see. Pharisees may abuse me, but I can see. They may
   tell me I am this, that and the other, but I can see. My eyes are
   open!" So, child of God, you may often say to yourself, "I may be
   ridiculed. I may be ridiculed as Presbyterian, or Methodist, or
   Baptist, or Schismatic, or whatever they like--it does not matter--I am
   saved! I am a changed man. The Grace of God has renewed me! Let them
   call me what they like."

   Some people are very sensitive of satire. They shrink from and seem
   upset at a jest and what men call, "chaff," grates upon them. What a
   baby a man is who cannot brave a fool's laugh! Stand upright, young
   man, and when you go back to that drapery establishment show a bold
   front. You that go to work at some of the big factories and have been
   quizzed and bantered because of your religion, gather up your courage
   and say, "Here I am, five feet ten high, or six feet, or whatever else
   it may be, and shall I be ashamed to be laughed at for Christ?" Pooh!
   You are not worth the boots you stand upright in if you are put down by
   their play. I have no doubt many a soldier in the barracks finds it
   hard to keep up his spirits when comrades taunt him with scoff and
   scorn in their rough way. But after all, dear Friends, should not
   common manliness nerve us with fortitude?

   When we have got hold of a thing that we believe to be right, we should
   be greenhorns to let it go for fear of a giddy prank or a paltry
   grimace. Let them laugh! They will be tired of teasing us when they
   find out that our temper triumphs over their senseless tricks. Let them
   find merriment if they can, poor simpletons. I sometimes feel more
   inclined to smile than to be sad over the jokes that are coined at my
   expense. Their playful sallies may relieve some of the pitiful sorrows
   that light unawares on their lonely hours. Melancholy holds carnival in
   this mad world. Ghosts and goblins haunt the merriest brain! What if
   for once, now and then, they get a living object for their sport, and
   I, myself, become the butt of their buffoonery--there is no fear that
   it will harm me--the only danger is that it will hurt them. Be of that
   mind, dear Friends, and do not care for any of their silliness.

   This man born blind whose eyes were opened was prepared to meet the
   Pharisees and speak up for himself because he felt intense gratitude to
   Him who had bestowed on him the priceless gift of sight. You see all
   through the narrative that though he did not know much about Jesus, he
   felt consciously that He was his true Friend and he stuck to Him
   through thick and thin. Now, you and I may not know much about our
   Lord--not one tenth of what we hope to know--but He has opened our
   eyes! He has forgiven our sins! He has saved our souls! And, by His
   Grace, we will stick to Him, come what may.

   If your gratitude to Him is always at its full heat, I am not afraid
   but whenever you are taunted, whenever, at any time, you are put to the
   test, you will be faithful to your Friend and able to say with a sound
   conscience--

   "I'm not ashamed to own my Lord, Or to defend His cause

   Maintain the honor of His Word, The glory of His Cross."

   III. EVERY SAVED MAN AND WOMAN SHOULD WILLINGLY SPEAK FOR HIMSELF ABOUT
   CHRIST. I

   have said that you will be driven to it. I have also bid you to be
   prepared for it when you are driven to it. But now I have to urge that
   you ought willingly to do it. Are we not all debtors to Christ if,
   indeed, He has saved us? How can we acknowledge that debt if we are
   ashamed of Him? His testimony is--"He that believes and is baptized,
   shall be saved." Does the Baptism save us? No, verily, but he that
   believes is bound to be baptized that he may thus confess His Lord!
   Baptism is the answer of a good conscience towards God. It is the
   disciple's grateful response to his Master's gracious call. You know
   how it is put--"He that with his heart believes, and with his mouth
   makes confession of Him, shall be saved."

   I may not lawfully forbear to confess if I inwardly believe. Why should
   I? If I owe so much to Him shall I--can I-- think of not confessing
   Him? I am sure if there were a commandment issued that we were not to
   acknowledge our Lord, that we were to tell no man, that we must hide
   the secret from kinsfolk, friends and neighbors--to me it would be most
   distressing. But He does bid us acknowledge Him and bear our testimony
   to Him. We hail the command! We account it most seemly and fitting--and
   we cheerfully obey it. Is it not so? How ought we each, willingly, to
   speak up for Christ because we, each one of us, know most about what He
   has done for us! No one here knows all that He has done for me. I think
   I hear you say, "'Tis true, but then you do not know what He did for
   us."

   No, no--we are over head and ears debtors to Him. Oh, what mercy He has
   shown to some of us! If the world could know our state before
   conversion it might almost make our hair stand upon end to read the
   story of our lives. How the Grace of God has changed us! O what a
   change! What a change! Should ravens become doves and lions become
   lambs, your pretentious scholars might expound or mystify the
   phenomenon in a word or two of Greek terminology. But this conversion
   comes across us every day! And scientific men are silent, while
   scoffers meet it only to make mouths at it. The change is infinitely
   greater than when dry bones are raised and clothed with flesh! When
   stones begin to melt and run into streams, it is nothing in point of
   marvel to the regeneration we have experienced!

   We must talk about it! We know more about it than others and we are
   bound to be the honest narrators of the wondrous narrative. The more
   individual testimonies are borne to Christ, the more weight there is in
   the accumulated force of the great aggregate! If I, in the mass, bear
   witness for Christ in the name of you all, saying, "The Lord has done
   great things for us whereof we are glad," I hope there is some honor to
   Christ and some influence to take effect. But if 10, 20, 30, 50 were to
   rise one after the other and say, "The Lord has done great things for
   me," and each one were to tell his own tale, how much more conviction
   would be worked!

   I have heard of a lawyer in the United States who attended a
   testimonial meeting among his neighbors. He was a skeptic, if not a
   thorough unbeliever, when he entered the place. He sat with his pencil
   and paper and took notes of the statements of his neighbors. When he,
   afterwards, reviewed the evidence, he said to himself, "Now, if I had
   these 12 or 13 persons in the witness box on my side, I should feel
   quite sure of carrying my case. I live among them. They are not the
   most learned people I ever met with, but they are very honest,
   trustworthy people. They are plain spoken and though each one has told
   his tale, they all come to the same point and all bear witness to one
   fact--that there is such a thing as the Grace of God--and that it does
   change the heart. Well," he said, "I am bound to believe it after all
   this testimony."

   And he did believe, by God's Grace, and he became a Christian! Of this
   I am certain--that if Christian people were more often to tell their
   testimony to the power of Jesus Christ in their hearts, the cumulated
   witness would tell on many a thoughtless mind and multitudes would come
   to believe in Jesus! The Holy Spirit delights to acknowledge and bless
   such true stories as you can tell! Do I hear one and another of you
   say, "They can do without my story"? No, my Friend, I would answer we
   cannot dispense with your evidence because the diversities of their
   experience are as numerous as the individuals converted, although there
   is unity in the operation of the Holy Spirit.

   Our Lord opened the eyes of many blind men. He unstopped the ears of
   many deaf people. He loosed the tongues of many that were dumb and we
   cannot count how many lepers He cleansed. But each patient could tell
   you his own symptoms and the minute particulars of his own healing.
   Your story, too, has its special interest while it contributes to the
   general narrative. At least you would be sorry if it were not so. "The
   Lord shall count, when He writes up the people,

   that this man was born there." I know you would like your name to be
   mentioned, then, and I think it would be worth your while, now, to
   mention the mercies you have received in just the manner you received
   them.

   To speak for myself, I believe that God, in converting me, manifested a
   way of His own that exactly suited my need. My case was so like yours
   as to produce sympathy, but so unlike yours as to provoke special
   gratitude--and thus it was, doubtless, with each one of you. Your
   career, your character, your circumstances differed in each instance.
   As a great master seldom paints the same picture twice, so the Master
   Artist, God, seldom, (I think never), works precisely the same in any
   two hearts. There is a difference and in that difference there is an
   illustration of the manifold wisdom of God. Therefore we need your
   story. Besides, your testimony may touch the heart of somebody like
   yourself.

   Little Mary over yonder says, "Well, I am nobody, only a nurse-maid.
   The Lord Jesus Christ has cleansed me and made me His. 'Tis true, but
   you can do without my tale." No, Mary, we cannot. Perhaps your
   testimony will exactly suit another little lass like yourself. A little
   maid waited on Naaman's wife. Who but she could have told her mistress
   that there was healing for Naaman or that he could go to a Prophet in
   Israel and be made whole? Tell your story gently and quietly and at
   proper times, but let it be known. "Oh," says the old man, "but I am so
   feeble. You could dispense with my saying anything." No, father
   William, we cannot. You are just the man whose few words have full
   weight. You meet, every now and then, with choice opportunities of
   leading souls to the Savior.

   "I am too old to think about these things," says one. But you might
   tell how the Lord has dealt with you in your old age and maybe it will
   strike home. Why, you working men, if you were all to speak up for
   Christ, as I know many of you do, what an effect would be produced!
   What an influence you would have on others like you! Of course, when
   they hear us preach, they say, "Oh well, you know, he is a parson. He
   says it professionally. It is his business to say it." But when you
   tell of what the Lord has done for you, it becomes the talk--it is
   repeated over and over again! I know what Tom says when he gets home.
   He says to his wife Mary, "What do you think of that Jack that I have
   been working with?

   "Why, he has been talking to me about his soul and he says his sin is
   forgiven him. And he seems such a happy man. You know that he used to
   drink and swear the same as I do, but oh, he is a wonderfully different
   man now! And I should say, from what I see, there must be something in
   it. Well, he asked me home, the other night, and his place is so
   different from ours." "There, you hold your tongue," Mary will answer
   up pretty sharply! "If you brought your wages home to me regularly
   every week, I could lay them out for you better." "Ah," says he, "and
   that is what I have been thinking. It is just because he is a religious
   man that he brings his wages home, and I think there is something real
   about his conversion, do you know?

   "He does not drink as I do. He does not mix up with all manner of larks
   and follies. I should not have thought so much of it had the parson
   spoke to me. But now I really do think there is something good and
   genuine in the Grace of God he talks about. You and I had better go
   next Sunday evening to the Tabernacle, or somewhere else, and hear
   about it for ourselves." Ah, there are many, many souls brought to
   Christ in that way! We cannot do without your testimony then, Jack,
   because your conversation is suitable to your own class. And you, Your
   Ladyship, you say, "I love the Lord, but I do not think I possibly
   could say anything in my circle and walk of life." Couldn't you? Ah,
   but I am sure you will easily surmount this little difficulty if you
   attain a little more growth in Divine Grace!

   We had one among us whose rank entitled her to move in an upper sphere
   of "society," but her choice enabled her to prefer the humble
   companionship of the Church. Her silvery locks, some of you well
   remember. She has left us now. She has gone home to Glory. Among the
   aristocracy her lot was cast. Yet with gentle, quiet, bland simplicity
   she introduced the Gospel wherever she went. Many and many have come to
   these pews to listen to your minister, who had never been here but for
   her calm, beautiful, unobtrusive, holy life--and the nerve with which,
   anywhere, at any time, she could say--"Yes, I am a Christian. What is
   more, I am a Nonconformist. And what you will think worse, I am a
   Baptist. And what you will think worst of all, I am a member of the
   Tabernacle." She never blushed to acknowledge our blessed Redeemer's
   name, nor to acknowledge and befriend the lowliest of His disciples.
   Her faith you do well to follow! In whatever circle we move, let us
   strive to become centers of influence.

   Thus have I tried to show you, dear Friends, that each one has a
   witness to bear--a privilege to be prized no less than a duty to be
   discharged--because a gift you have received qualifies you for a
   service you are asked to render. Suppose that the soldier, when he
   marched to battle were to say, "I need not load my gun. I need not fire
   in the day of battle, seeing that on the right and on the left there
   are good marksmen picking off the enemy." Yes, but when you are in

   full musketry fire your bullet has got its billet and the billet for
   your bullet is not the billet for any other bullet! Therefore let it
   go, let it go! We must all fire, Brothers and Sisters! Not some, but
   all must fire and our charge must be this, "One thing I know, whereas I
   was blind, now I see. Therefore do I bear witness to my Lord. Let who
   will, deny it, He has opened my eyes."

   IV. Lastly, AS EVERY CHRISTIAN, BEING OF AGE, HAS TO SPEAK FOR HIMSELF,
   WE MEAN TO DO IT.

   WE MEAN TO DO IT. For my own part, I mean to do so. That which I
   believe to be true I have spoken to you from my youth up. I have
   offended a good many at times. I shall offend a good many more, I hope,
   because that is not a matter I have ever taken into consideration. Is
   this true? Is it a necessary truth? Is it essential that it be spoken
   plainly and published widely? Away it goes like a hand grenade flung
   into the midst of the crowd! May every minister of Christ-- and I trust
   the rightness of the thing will be more and more recognized--take
   courage to speak for his Master! Speak out, never with bated breath,
   but in the name of Him that sent him--in the name of God--with a
   courage that befits his commission!

   A trembling lip and a coward countenance in a minister show him to be
   unworthy of the office which he pretends to sustain. We must set our
   faces like a flint and bear testimony to the Truth of God--to the whole
   Truth of God--and nothing but the Truth as far as God shall teach it to
   us. And will not you, my fellow members, and you Christian people here
   of all sorts--will you not, also, take up this resolution--"We are of
   age and we mean to speak for ourselves"? You cannot all preach. I hope
   you will not all try. What a world of tumult and disorder we should
   have if every man and woman felt a call to preach! We would have a
   Church all mouth and then there would be a vacuum somewhere. There
   would be no hearers left if everybody turned preacher!

   No, it is not to seek precedence in public assemblies, but to exert
   influence in private society that you are called! By a good
   conversation, with a speech seasoned with salt, at home among friends,
   kinsfolk, or companions--to the dozen or to one--make known what love
   has done, what Grace has done, what Christ has done! Make it known!
   Make it known among your servants, among your children, among your
   trades people--wherever you go, make it known--make it known! Wear your
   regimentals wherever you go! I do not like to see a Christian soldier
   ashamed to show the scarlet. Oh, no, put it on! It is an honor to serve
   His Majesty. If there is anything in Christianity that you are ashamed
   of, get out of it!

   Do not pretend to believe if you are afraid of betraying your
   profession--but if you receive the Gospel and believe it as the
   Revelation of God--never blush to admit it, but be brave to avow it at
   all times and in all places. "Well," says one, "I am so retiring." I
   know you are, Brother. Come, then, drop a little of your modesty and
   distinguish yourself a little more for your manliness. Have I not,
   sometimes, told you of the soldier who was retiring in the day of
   battle, but they shot him for a coward? It will not do to be retiring
   when duty shall urge, or where danger shall summon you to the front. I
   have heard of a man with the face of a lion and the heart of a deer.
   Beware of a too retiring disposition. Disreputable things are sometimes
   disguised in polite words and so diffidence may be dastardly and
   caution may be cowardly.

   Be valiant for your Lord and Master! Play not the traitor's part by
   your silence as you would scorn to do it by your speech--

   "Ashamed of Jesus?! That dear Friend

   On whom my hopes of Heaven depend!

   No! When I blush, be this my shame,

   That I no more revere His name." Break the ice, then, and speak to
   somebody about this blessed message before you go to rest. Will you
   resolve to do so? Take care that you defer not till your heart grows
   cool and the words you purpose freeze on your lips. No, but do it and
   the thing will grow upon you. Presently you will greet the opportunity
   as much as you now shrink from the necessity. It will bless your life.
   I think it is Horatius Bonar who says--

   "He lives long who lives well!

   All else is being flung away.

   He lives longest who can tell

   Of true things truly done each day.

   Be what you seem. Live your creed.

   Hold up to earth the torch divine! Be what you pray to be made. Let the
   great Master's steps be yours. Fill up each hour with what will last.
   Buy up the moments as they go.

   The life above, when this is past, Is the ripe fruit of life below.

   Waste not your being! Give to Him

   Who freely gave it, freely give. Else is that being but a dream,

   'Tis but to be and not to live."

   Dear Friends, some of you who are Believers in Christ have never yet
   confessed Him! I hope that you will resolve from this night to declare
   yourselves His disciples and become His faithful followers. You are of
   age. "Yes," says one, "I am of rather full age, for I am over fifty."
   Others of you are older than that and though you are Believers in
   Christ you have never confessed Him! It will not do, Brothers and
   Sisters. It will not do. It will not do to die with. It does not do to
   think of now. When He comes, happy shall they be that were not ashamed
   of Him! But when He comes in His Glory with all His holy
   angels--trembling shall take hold on those that thought and said they
   loved Him but never dared to bear reproach for His name's sake or to
   suffer shame for the Gospel! I hope these reflections will make you
   very uneasy, and constrain you to say, "Please God, I will join a
   Christian Church before this week is over." If you are a Believer in
   Christ, I charge you not to trifle with the voice of conscience, but to
   pay your vows to the Most High!

   Alas! Alas! There are some that cannot speak for Christ in any way
   whatever, because they do not know Him! He never opened your eyes.
   Never try to talk of matters you do not understand, nor pretend to bear
   witness to mercies you have not experienced. Remember the Christ we
   preach is not only the Christ of history who was crucified, dead and
   buried, but He is a living Christ at this moment, still among us by His
   Spirit--changing our natures, turning and guiding the current of our
   thoughts and lives, purifying our wishes and motives, teaching us to
   love each other, admonishing us to be pure, entreating us to be gentle,
   giving us a heart to aspire after those things that are above instead
   of groveling among those things that are below!

   Now, if you have never met this Christ, you cannot bear witness to His
   power. But He is to be found! Trust in Him! He is Divine--He is the Son
   of God! His blood is the blood of the great Sacrifice of which Moses
   spoke and of which all the Prophets bore witness. He is the last great
   Sacrifice of God. Come and trust Him. And when you trust Him, that
   trust shall be like the woman's touching of the hem of His garment. No
   sooner had she touched Him than she was made whole, for virtue went out
   of Him. That virtue still goes out of His sacred Person whenever the
   simple touch of faith brings the sinner into contact with the Savior!
   May the Lord lead you to believe in Jesus and when you have believed
   through Divine Grace, come forward and confess His name! So shall you
   be numbered with His saints now and in Glory everlasting!
     __________________________________________________________________

The Day of Salvation

   (No. 1394)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JANUARY 13, 1878,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Behold, now is the day of salvation." 2 Corinthians 6:2.

   NONE can change the outward features of a day. The kings of the earth
   cannot command for themselves bright days nor inflict upon their
   enemies days of tempest. It belongs to a higher than they to command
   the morning and cause the daystar to know its place. It is little they
   can do in reference to the light, the sun, the clouds or the rain. They
   cannot bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades nor loose the bands of
   Orion. Still, rulers and governors and kings have accomplished much in
   shaping the social character of the days of their subjects. Sometimes,
   like the king of Nineveh, they have proclaimed days of fasting and
   their subjects have been clothed in sackcloth. On other occasions they
   have exercised the prerogative to ordain days of feasting, as Ahasuerus
   did at the palace of Shushan, when for 180 days, "He showed the riches
   of his glorious kingdom and the honor of his excellent majesty," by
   filling the capital with feasting.

   Kings of the older stamp were more able to affect the days of their
   people than they are now. In former times, when men had less wit and
   more faith in the fable of divine right than they have now, despots
   could cause a thick darkness over all the land, even darkness that
   might be felt. They made war according to their own fancy or
   frenzy--and what is that but moral midnight? What does war mean but
   crime, suffering, death, poverty? Is it not usually the sum of all
   villainies? Everything that is evil either marches with it or follows
   in its train! The very thought of war for our beloved country darkens
   our heavens. Alas, with what a light heart have despots drawn the sword
   and sought to wade through slaughter to imaginary glory, shutting the
   gates of Mercy on mankind that they might seize a province or avenge a
   jest.

   Kings can also brighten men's days when they have a mind to be
   quiet--they make peace and then the nations bask in the sun and earth
   covers her battlefields with verdure. Peace gives the poor world
   respite to bind up her gaping wounds and remedy a little of the
   mischief of the bloody fight. Hard labor and stern self-denial are not
   grudged by the suffering peasants if they may but have breathing time
   and the land may enjoy her Sabbaths. But why should such toil and
   suffering have been demanded? Simply because kings quarrel and their
   subjects must die to end the strife!

   Princes have also, on occasion, exercised their prerogative by
   proclaiming days of amnesty and oblivion--a long rebellion has been
   crushed out and there has been no fear of its return--and so the
   monarch has thought it best to refrain from undue severity and overlook
   the evil which he has subdued. Accordingly, he proclaims that the past
   shall be blotted out if, by a certain time, rebellious ones will
   surrender, yield up their arms and promise loyalty. Such days are calm
   and clear and bring light to despairing rebels who saw no end but the
   gallows tree. Thus, for humiliation or rejoicing, for war, for peace,
   or for pardon, monarchs can set their seal upon a day and mark it with
   their signature in history.

   If earthly monarchs can somewhat affect the days of men, what, then,
   can be done by the King of kings? The Creator of day and night can
   surely order all our lights and shades! The Ancient of Days is He who
   can give us "mornings without clouds" or make the day dark with gloom!
   How often has He made the sun of prosperity to gladden us and how
   suddenly has He shrouded us beneath the thick clouds of adversity! Our
   days are in His hands and He is Lord of all! You and I, looking back,
   may well bow before the power and majesty of the Eternal who has such
   infinite power over us that none of us can stop His hand nor say unto
   Him, "What are you doing?"

   The Lord has had His days of vengeance--are they not written in the
   book of the wars of the Lord? How terrible was the hour when He opened
   the sluices of the firmament that the rain might descend in torrents
   and bade the fountains of the great deep rise to meet the descending
   floods! How dreadful were the 40 days wherein the floods above the
   firmament, in tumultuous mirth, leaped downward to embrace their
   brethren of the ocean till the whole earth was covered with one
   all-devouring deluge and sea monsters whelped and stabled in the
   palaces of kings! That was the decree of Justice and the day of
   vengeance of our God.

   Such days have been at other times, as, for instance, when He poured
   Hell out of Heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah! When He overthrew Pharaoh
   and all his host in the midst of the Red Sea. And when His sword stayed
   not from blood till Hivite and Perizzite and all the Canaanites fell
   before the hand of Joshua because the iniquity of the people was full
   and the hour of execution had arrived. Those were the "dies irae," and
   there is another far more terrible yet to come, when Heaven and earth
   shall flee away before the face of Him that shall sit upon the Great
   White Throne. Blessed be God, we are not, at this time, living under
   the rod of vengeance, but our text tells us that "now is the day of
   salvation"!

   When it is a day of vengeance, the Lord does His strange but necessary
   work thoroughly, for it is written, "Vengeance is Mine; I will repay,
   says the Lord." The Prophet said of Him, "The Lord revenges and is
   furious." Well did Miriam sing, "The Lord is a man of war, Jehovah is
   His name." But when He puts on the silken robes of mercy and proclaims
   with a silver trumpet the day of salvation, "blessed are the people
   that know the joyful sound." I trust that we are among that happy
   company and have heard with the inner ear the note of Divine Grace! At
   any rate, the Lord has set a period of salvation, even from the
   Sacrifice of our Lord Jesus to this present hour. The day of salvation
   has not been suspended--it lasts on and it shall last till the Lord
   shall descend from Heaven with a shout--then shall come the judgment
   and strict Justice shall sit upon the throne.

   The Apostle, when he was writing this very wonderful sentence, dreaded
   lest men should not avail themselves of its great Truth. Read the first
   verse of the chapter--"We then, as workers together with Him, beseech
   you, also, that you receive not the Grace of God in vain." The day of
   salvation is a great favor from God and it would be a fearful thing if
   we should live in it and miss its privilege! Dear Hearers, it is only
   of Divine favor that we enjoy this day of amnesty, oblivion and
   forgiveness and, therefore, we beseech you not to let its golden hours
   pass over you in vain! This is the great anxiety of my heart at this
   time in addressing you. I have great fear lest some of you should live
   in the day of salvation and yet die without being saved!

   I fear some of you should live in the midst of light with blinded eyes,
   should dwell with deaf ears where the silver trumpet sounds and so the
   Kingdom of God should come very near to you and yet you should not
   enter it. It will be sad, indeed, if you should see strangers from afar
   brought into the Kingdom of Heaven and yourselves, who live on its
   borders, should be utterly thrust out! May the Holy Spirit bless the
   words which shall now be spoken so that the evil which we fear may not
   come upon you, but that you may receive this Grace or favor of God to
   your eternal good! That you may not receive this Grace in vain I shall
   try, first, to show the grand reason for this day of salvation.
   Secondly, I shall speak of the glorious day itself. And thirdly, for a
   minute or two I shall dwell upon the dark shade which may close that
   day if the Spirit does not lead us into salvation.

   I. First, then, THE GRAND REASON FOR THIS DAY--"Now is the day of
   salvation." Will you kindly read the context in order to understand why
   there is a present day of salvation? I will take you a little away from
   the text to the 20th verse of the preceding chapter and ask you to bear
   in mind that the division into chapters is purely arbitrary and we need
   take no notice of it whatever. The Apostle says, "Now, then, we are
   ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray
   you in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to God. For He has made Him,
   who knew no sin, to be sin for us that we might be made the
   righteousness of God in Him."

   Here, then, is the secret of the whole matter. This day is the day of
   salvation because, "He has made Him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us
   that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." There could
   have been no day of salvation if a Savior had not appeared! And if that
   Savior had not become our Substitute and Surety, salvation would have
   been denied us by the stern voice of Justice. But now Christ has come
   into the world and died for sin--and because He has finished all the
   works which He undertook, the Lord our God proclaims for us the day of
   salvation. Notice that, according to the context, this is the day of
   salvation because we may now be reconciled to God.

   "We pray you in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to God." The Lord
   would not set His ministers to pray men to be reconciled to Him if
   peace were out of the question. He would not send us upon an impossible
   errand! God is already reconciled to every sinner who has an interest
   in the blood of Jesus. Towards those the Lord is full of peace. Nothing
   is needed to reconcile God to the believing man. The great thing that
   is required is to bring men to believe in Jesus Christ that they may be
   reconciled to God! The feud between you and God, poor prodigal child,
   need not be continued! You

   quarreled with your Father and you went into the far country. And now
   you have spent your substance, but your Father sends you this message,
   "Be reconciled. Come home, a loving reception awaits you. Return at
   once."

   Because Jesus has died, the partition wall is broken down--the great
   gulf between a holy God and unholy man is bridged by the atoning blood!
   You may be reconciled. There is no reason why the terrible quarrel
   should continue and, therefore, because reconciliation is possible, it
   is a day of salvation! As long as a man remains an enemy to God he
   cannot, of course, be saved, for enmity to God is the very essence of
   his ruin and the sting of his condemnation. While a man lives in enmity
   to God he is and must be under the power of an evil spirit which curses
   him! Therefore reconciliation to God is absolutely necessary to the
   enjoyment of salvation. I repeat, because reconciliation is possible,
   this day of salvation has come!

   Next, lest anyone should exclaim, "But how is it and why is it that so
   great a gift is conferred? I cannot understand it and therefore I am
   plunged in doubt"--the plain statement of the 21st verse explains it
   all--"He has made Him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us." Here is the
   grand doctrine of Substitution! Oh Soul, if you believe in Christ Jesus
   you shall be saved because He stood in your place! He took your sin and
   the Lord made Him to be sin on your account and exacted at His hand
   satisfaction for your iniquity! He bruised Him and put Him to grief so
   that He was made a curse for us and bore in our place the wrath of
   Heaven. Now, therefore, the righteous God will not, cannot, need to
   vindicate His Law a second time! If He has made the Lord Jesus to be
   sin for us, then He need not visit us for sin nor punish the same
   offense a second time. No, it would be injustice to lay sin once upon
   the Substitute and afterwards upon the sinner--therefore well may there
   be a day of salvation proclaimed since Christ has finished
   transgression and made an end of sin!

   To help us to understand Mercy's great expedient, still better, the
   Holy Spirit tells us that the Divine design in Christ Jesus is to make
   us the "righteousness of God" in Christ. Wonderful expression! I shall
   not attempt to enter into its fullness, but I will content myself with
   saying that the two expressions of the verse set forth the imputation
   of sin to Christ and of righteousness to us--the substitution of Christ
   in our place and the standing of our souls in Christ's place--in terms
   so forcible that he must be determined not to believe the doctrine who
   does not see it in the words before us.

   Our Lord is not merely made a Sin Offering, but He is made SIN--and we
   are not merely made righteous in Christ, but we are made RIGHTEOUSNESS,
   itself--yes, and the righteousness of God, too--which is the very
   highest conceivable righteousness! I never wish to strain expressions,
   nor push them one inch beyond their proper meaning, but I think it is
   difficult to do here, since the language is so very forcible and
   explicit. If the doctrine which I have explained were intended to be
   taught, I do not see how it could be more clearly stated.

   Now, Soul, if you desire salvation, see how God can give it to you! As
   He takes your sin and lays it upon Christ, so He takes Christ's
   righteousness and lays it upon you! He looks at you as if you were as
   righteous as His Son who represents you! He treats you as if you had
   been obedient to all His Laws. He looks upon the model Man, Christ
   Jesus, the perfect humanity, and He sees in Christ all His people and
   treats them accordingly. He looks upon His people as if they,
   themselves, had magnified the Law and made it honorable by a sinless
   life. Wondrous doctrine, this, and he that believes it shall find rest
   in his soul! And it is because of it that we are authorized to come
   forth this day and declare the day of salvation! The guilt of the
   believing sinner is put away, for Christ has carried it--and now
   righteousness belongs to the sinner, for God imputes it to him without
   works--therefore this is the day of salvation!

   Still keeping to the context and illustrating the grand reason for the
   day of salvation in another way--will you kindly read the verse,
   itself, which contains our text? " 'For He says, I have heard you in a
   time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I helped you.' Behold,
   now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation." It is a
   quotation! Paul says, "He says." Where does God say that? We have no
   difficulty in discovering--it is in the 49th of Isaiah, which passage
   should be carefully read by you and heartily pondered. I wish to call
   your special attention to it as opening up the glorious reason for the
   famous proclamation of which we are preaching.

   That chapter, from the 6th to the 12th verse eminently applies to the
   Messiah, that is, to our Lord Jesus Christ. Of whom else could the
   Prophet have spoken as in the 7th verse, "Thus says the Lord, the
   Redeemer of Israel, and His Holy One, to Him whom man despises, to Him
   whom the nation abhors, to the Servant of rulers"? Who is this but our
   Lord as He stood before Herod and Pilate? To this very day He is
   abhorred of the Jews--they mention Him ordinarily by the

   name of, "the Crucified," and to them that term is the embodiment of
   the utmost scorn! We glory in that word, but to them it is the essence
   of contempt. "He is despised and rejected of men; a Man of Sorrows, and
   acquainted with grief."

   We are sure that Isaiah spoke concerning Him, the Crucified, whom we
   adore1 And our next enquiry is, what did he say of Him? Read the 5th
   and 6th verses: "And now, says the Lord who formed Me from the womb to
   be His Servant, to bring Jacob again to Him, though Israel is not
   gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and My God
   shall be My strength. And He said, It is a light thing that You should
   be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the
   preserved of Israel: I will also give You for a light to the Gentiles,
   that You may be My salvation unto the ends of the earth."

   Beloved, are you not glad to hear these words? If you are not curious
   to hear me, but eager to hear my Master's Truth of God, your heart will
   be rejoiced at this blessed news--that Christ has come to be the
   salvation of the Gentiles! We were out in the cold. We were the younger
   branch of the family and the heir despised us! We had not yet come into
   our portion--we were left in darkness and in sin! But now our turn has
   come and we are favored. From the day when Jesus said, "Go you into all
   the world and preach the Gospel to every creature," our privileges
   began! From the day when Paul said, "Seeing you put it from you, and
   judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the
   Gentiles," ours has been a day of favor and the portion which once
   belonged only to the seed of Abraham we have obtained! Only we have
   obtained it to a far larger extent and we see more clearly its deep
   spiritual meaning and wealth of blessing!

   What was veiled under types and shadows is evidently set forth before
   our eyes. Beloved, tell it all over the world that today salvation has
   come to the Gentiles and especially to the dwellers in the islands! How
   remarkable it is that islands are so often alluded to in the Scriptures
   and that they receive the Gospel so much more readily than any other
   parts of the world. As for the ends of the earth, surely we are
   intended by that term, for our forefathers dwelt where Phoenicians made
   distant and dangerous journeys to find tin and other metals--and our
   land was thought to be upon creation's verge, inhabited by a barbarous
   people of uncouth tongue and yet to us, even to us, has the Gospel
   come, and now--

   "The British islands are the Lord's, Here Abraham's God is known

   While powers and princes, shields and swords, Submit before His
   Throne."

   Jehovah, the God of the whole earth is our God at this day! In this let
   us exult, for it proves that to the Gentiles the day of salvation has
   come!

   Further, Isaiah goes on to say in the 8th verse, "Thus says the Lord,
   In an acceptable time have I heard You." Mark this well. God saves us
   because He heard the Lord Jesus! There is the secret of all the answers
   of Divine Grace to the prayers of penitents! He says, "I have heard You
   in an accepted time: behold, now is the day of salvation." In the
   lonely watches of the night our great Intercessor prayed for His own.
   He lived a life of supplication and He prayed not in vain, for He once
   said to the Father, "I know that You hear Me always," and indeed it was
   always so. His prayers may be said to have reached their highest point
   when He offered the marvelous intercession recorded in John 17 and
   followed it up by His strong cries and tears in the Garden when He
   poured out His soul in agony, where, while prostrate among the olives
   He sweat, as it were, great drops of blood falling to the ground.

   Mysterious was that bloody sweat! Oh you precious drops, you fell not
   by chance! What did you write on the soil of Gethsemane in crimson
   hieroglyphs? You wrote upon the earth the reversal of the curse which
   fell upon the ground and the ending of the day of wrath in the day of
   salvation! That sacred sweat bedewed a garden which henceforth yields
   the oil of joy, by which Believers may anoint their faces with
   gladness! Jesus was heard in that He feared and, therefore, to the
   chief of sinners it is a Gospel of good cheer! "In an acceptable time
   have I heard You." Is it not wonderful that Jesus made intercession for
   transgressors in the Garden who as yet had not learned to pray for
   themselves?

   I trust that among those who hear me there are persons unconverted as
   yet who, nevertheless, are special objects of the Redeemer's
   intercession and who shall find salvation because their great
   Substitute was heard on their account. We were all heard when our Great
   High Priest was heard! The Father's answer to Him was an answer of
   peace to all His people. It is added, "In the day of salvation have I
   helped You." Help came to the Man, Christ Jesus, in His hour of agony.
   The Father helped Him and there appeared unto Him an angel
   strengthening Him. How must that angel have

   marveled as he saw the face of the Incarnate God red with a sweat of
   blood! The whole scene is beyond conception--the prostrate Savior in
   agonizing pangs utters strong cries and is helped of His God--

   "His earnest prayer, His deepening groans,

   Were heard before angelic thrones!

   Amazement wrapped the sky--

   'Go, strengthen Christ!' The Father said!

   The astonished seraph bowed his head,

   And left the realms on high."

   The angel came to strengthen our Champion, not to join in the fight.
   None could share the conflict. Jesus must tread the winepress alone.
   But the angel was empowered to communicate strength to the Manhood of
   Christ and he did so. Then it was that being helped in His hour of
   need, our Master took the appointed cup full of woe and drank it to its
   utmost dregs and said, "It is finished!" 'Twas then that by one
   dreadful draught He pledged the Justice of God and gave this day of
   salvation to the sons of men! You see, then, that our present day of
   privilege has come to us through the Lord's hearing and helping our
   Daysman and Redeemer.

   But, Beloved, salvation comes to us, also, because according to the 8th
   verse it is written, "I will preserve You, and give You for a Covenant
   of the people, to establish the earth." Jesus is now God's Covenant
   with man and that Covenant is one of peace and favor. The Lord says to
   each believing man, "Your sins will I remember no more. A new heart
   also will I give you, and a right spirit will I put within you. You
   shall be Mine. I will sanctify you and glorify you with My Son. Behold,
   in token of My faithfulness I have given My Son to be the Seal, the
   Surety, and the sum of My Covenant. Behold, I have given Him for a
   Covenant to the people, a Leader and Commander for the people."
   Brothers and Sisters, you are not under the Covenant of Moses
   today--you are under the Covenant of Jesus! You are not under Law, but
   under Grace! And because of this, today is the day of salvation!

   I cannot at this time enlarge upon the other blessed verses which make
   up the 49th of Isaiah, but let me say it is because Christ is now
   anointed to give liberty to all captives and say to them, "Go forth."
   It is because He brings the darkened ones out of death-shade and says,
   "show yourselves," that, therefore, this is a day of salvation. And,
   furthermore, when we are delivered from bondage and darkness, then,
   because Christ is a Shepherd and leads His flock. And because He makes
   them to feed in the ways and finds pasture for them in high places.
   Because He protects them from hunger and thirst and gives them springs
   of water to drink of--it is because of all this that now is the day of
   salvation!

   I will not further enlarge, but only say as I now preach the day of
   salvation, as I have tried to do with the utmost boldness and fullness,
   if any of you enquire, "How is it? How is it? Why is Grace so free at
   this day?" I shall tell you that the cause is quite as marvelous as the
   fact--that the day of salvation is as surprising as salvation
   itself--and that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who has done and is
   doing it all, is the most wonderful of all! In His eyes I see the stars
   which can shine away the midnight of despair! In His hands I see the
   majestic might which can break the fetters of Satanic bondage! And in
   His face I see the sacred guidance which shall bring the sacramental
   host of His elect safely Home, in unbroken ranks, to the land of the
   tearless eyes!

   II. Now, kindly leave Isaiah and turn back to the text. Under the
   second head we have to speak upon THE GLORIOUS DAY ITSELF, for the day
   of salvation is rich with blessing. First, I would commend that day
   because of its fourfold excellence. Read again the verse in which our
   text stands. Although the words must be regarded as spoken, in the
   first place, to our Lord, the best expositors say that they are also
   addressed to His Church in Him. The word came to Him as the Head and
   Representative of His people and so to His chosen as one with Him.

   So then, Beloved, in this day of salvation our prayer will be heard--"I
   have heard You in a time accepted." Dear Hearer, if you will sincerely
   pray in the name of Jesus, you will be heard! Are you very guilty? Ask
   for mercy and you will be heard. "I have heard You in an accepted
   time." Have you condemned yourself? Have you written your own death
   warrant? Are you bowed down with a sense of guilt? Pray and pray, and
   pray again! Oh, Brothers and Sisters, pray, I beseech you! If you are
   between the jaws of Hell, still pray, for now is the day of
   salvation--and it is a day in which he that asks, receives, he that
   seeks, finds and to him that knocks it shall be opened!

   Secondly, we are further told that this day help will be given. What
   does it say? "In the day of salvation have I helped You." Are you
   helpless, are you hopeless? This is a day in which God will come to
   your relief! Do you need strength to break the chains of habit? Do you
   need power, even, to repent? Do you need help to feel your
   helplessness? Do you need

   anything and everything? "Behold," He says, "in the day of salvation
   have I helped You." He will help you, only ask Him, only trust Him.
   When there was a great straitness of business in the Manchester
   district during the American war, and many were out of work and
   starving, many instances occurred in which persons were found near to
   death's door, "clamming" as they called it, or dying of starvation.

   When they were kindly visited and asked why they did not apply for
   relief, they answered that they could not ask. British independence, as
   we call it. And a very noble spirit it is within proper bounds! It was
   strong within them and many a man said, "I could not bring myself to
   ask." I admire that spirit between man and man, but I do not admire it
   when it touches the matter of the soul and lies between a poor
   worthless sinner and the great and ever-blessed God! Do not be proud
   and say, "I cannot bring myself to ask," for behold, your prayer will
   be answered now and whatever help you require will be freely given you!
   Does not that one fact show that we live in the day of salvation?

   And then it is added, "Behold, now is the accepted time," so that the
   third blessing is that coming sinners will be accepted. If you will
   come to God, He will not reject you, whoever you may be! However poor
   your repentance and weak your faith, it is a gracious time and the Lord
   will freely accept your sincere desires for His Son's sake. Does not
   this fact encourage you to come? The door of Mercy is open and no man
   can shut it! The Lord Jesus has never yet rejected a coming sinner and
   He never will, for it is written, "Him that comes to Me I will in no
   wise cast out." It is a season of acceptance, not of rejection--come
   and partake in the blessing!

   And then the fourth excellence is that it is a time of salvation, of
   which we will speak at greater length. You need saving? Be glad, then,
   that it is salvation's own day. All that can be needed to secure the
   salvation of a sinner has been fully prepared by Christ and is now
   freely presented in the preaching of the Word of God to every soul that
   is willing to receive it. Jesus was born to save! He died to save! And
   He lives to save! Now, let me point out that this ought to be
   peculiarly pleasant news to those who are heavily laden with guilt. I
   have known the day when, if I had heard such words as these I try to
   speak, I think I should have leaped at them at once as a hungry dog
   does at a bone!

   Sinners, this is the day of salvation, not a day of justice! Come and
   confess your sin--you shall not be accused, condemned and punished--but
   freely forgiven! It is a day in which you may mourn to think you have
   sinned, but need not despair nor indulge a single unbelieving thought,
   for that would be unsuitable to the time which is a day of good
   tidings. From now till the day when you shall pass out of this mortal
   state it is one long and blessed day of Divine Grace! There was a week
   of creation and the Lord God performed great wonders of creating power
   and put not forth His left hand to destroy--so now there is a day of
   salvation and all around, angels of love are hovering, still
   singing--"Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, goodwill towards
   men."

   God is saving all that come to Him by Jesus Christ. Everything
   proclaims salvation! The air is full of gentle voices. In fact, your
   very existence, continued by long-suffering, is a message of Grace.
   Your being found in a house of prayer this morning has an eye towards
   your being saved! Your eager attention gives me hope it shall be so.
   Shall it not be accomplished now by your believing in Jesus? The
   fountain to wash your guilt away is filled! The "best robe" to cover
   you is prepared! The finger ring of everlasting love is ready to be put
   on your finger and the shoes of gladness and of peace are waiting you.
   Oh, poor Soul, today I have nothing to preach but salvation--salvation
   through the blood of Jesus Christ! "Go you into all the world and
   preach the Gospel," said our Lord Jesus. And that Gospel is salvation,
   free salvation to the sons of men!

   The Truth of our text should also be very encouraging to those who are
   fighting against inward sin. I know some who can trust Christ for
   pardon, but their chief difficulty is how they can be made holy. I
   greatly delight in seekers in whom this is the main thought--not so
   much to escape punishment as to avoid future sin. Well, if you are
   fighting against evil in the name of Jesus Christ, do not be
   discouraged--you will master it because it is the day of salvation and
   it is written, "They shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His
   people from their sins." Do I address a drunk? Has the intoxicating cup
   a strange fascination for you and have you gone back to drinking, after
   having often loathed yourself for it?

   You need not be a slave to it any longer, for this is the day of
   salvation from that sin! By faith in Christ you shall be delivered out
   of that deadly snare! Or have you been tempted to some other gross
   iniquity which holds you spellbound? Does a certain vice fix its
   serpent eyes upon you and enchant you till you can no longer restrain
   yourself? Rejoice, then, for this is the day of salvation from sin!
   Neither saint nor sinner need sit down under the power of any sin, for
   in Christ

   Jesus' name we can overcome the power of evil. Do not excuse yourselves
   by talking of besetting sins--you must thrust away all sin--you must
   overcome temptation, for if any sin shall totally vanquish you, you
   will be lost forever since it is only to "him that overcomes" that the
   crown is given.

   How, then, can you overcome? Why, only by the power of Christ, who bids
   us this day lay hold upon salvation from sin! Come to Him and trust
   Him--and He will destroy the works of the devil within you. While this
   is very encouraging to penitents and to those who are fighting with
   sin, it should be equally cheering to tried Believers. Beloved, are you
   in deep trouble just now? Is your spirit overwhelmed within you? Be of
   good cheer, for this is the day of salvation! It is not a time for
   saints to die in--it is not a day in which the enemy shall triumph over
   Believers--it is for us the day of salvation! Be glad, then, O you who
   are assailed by the enemy. Though your foe may put his foot upon your
   neck, yet he cannot crush your life out, but you may boldly cry,
   "Rejoice not over me, O my enemy: when I fall, I shall arise again!" It
   is the day in which Believers must be saved!

   Did not Christian, in "Pilgrim's Progress," find it so from the very
   day in which he left the City of Destruction to the time when he passed
   through the river and said, "I feel the bottom, and it is good"? He had
   days of conflict, days of weariness and days of deep distress of
   mind--but all along he was saved--saved from the lions, saved from
   Giant Despair, from the flatterer's net and saved from the last river
   with its chill floods. We also live in the day of salvation. "Ah," said
   a Popish bishop once to one of our martyrs, "You are a heretic and you
   will be damned." "My lord," said the heroic man, "there I am at a pass
   with you. I may be burned, but I never shall be damned." "Why so?" said
   his adversary. The man replied by quoting that passage in the old
   translation, "There is therefore now no damnation to them that are in
   Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit."

   Who shall condemn those for whom Christ has died? It is the day of
   salvation, not of accusation! It is the day of victory, not of defeat,
   not of captivity, much less the day of destruction to the true people
   of God! Let us, then, as is most right, hang out the streamers of joy
   and with glad music set our souls in fit trim to keep the feast of
   salvation! And do you not think this Truth of God should encourage all
   who are at work to win souls for Jesus? Brothers, if I had my pick of
   days, I should like to go forth and preach the Gospel when it was a day
   of salvation, wouldn't you? One likes to go down the river with the
   tide--and if you can have a fair wind, as well, it is grand sailing!
   But surely, now, whenever you seek souls you have wind and tide with
   you, for it is the day of salvation! God is saving men! It is His daily
   business and His crowning glory and He has set His heart on it!

   Just as I remarked that Ahasuerus ordained a season of feasting and
   banqueted the people and there is no doubt that they did feast at a
   royal rate, so when the infinite Jehovah proclaims a day of salvation
   the people shall be saved and there shall be no question about it!
   Thousands upon thousands of erring ones shall repent and believe and so
   shall be saved to the glory of His Grace. Do not tell me that London is
   very wicked--I know it is. But the Lord has many people in this city
   and He will redeem them from all iniquity. Our rural population may
   also be, in many places, perishing in gross darkness, but "the Lord
   knows them that are His." He has jewels in yonder cottages and He will
   make them to be His own. His chosen are hidden away in the dark mines
   of iniquity, but He will find out His gold and purify it. His
   everlasting purpose shall not fail and His infinite pity shall not be
   stopped!

   Glory be to His blessed name! He will accomplish all His purposes, for
   this is the day of salvation and His people shall be called to Him by
   some means, by any means, by every means! They shall be brought up out
   of the horrible pit, and out of the miry clay. And they shall know that
   the Lord saves not by might, nor by power, but by His Spirit! I think I
   have worked out this point sufficiently. "Now is the day of salvation."
   I wonder whether anybody misunderstands me? Dear Friends, you know we
   commonly call this year, 1878, a year of Divine Grace. We are quite
   right, for it is so. We say Anno Domini, the year of our Lord, and so
   it is--it is Jesus Christ's year!

   Any time between the first of January and the last of December in which
   you seek Him, He will be found of you. Suppose you try it now? There
   cannot be a better hour! Here, where many have found Him, consecrate
   that seat on which you sit. Dear Brothers and Sisters, may the Holy
   Spirit help you to do so by now saying, "I would be reconciled to You,
   my God, by the great Mediator. I would accept this salvation which you
   have freely set before me." I pray you do so!

   III. To some of you I have spoken these many years, getting, now, into
   the 25th year, and shall I speak in vain? Our

   last word was to be something about A DARK CLOUD WHICH MAY DARKEN THE
   CLOSE OF THIS DAY OF

   SALVATION. I pray it may not, yet I fear it. My dread is lest you
   receive this great favor in vain, lest you live in this day

   of salvation and yet are lost. That will be for me a calamity, for I
   shall lose my labor and more--there will be your mother's tears all
   lost, your father's prayers all lost--and your Sunday school teacher's
   earnest instructions all lost and other ministers' frequent invitations
   all gone for nothing!

   May it not be so, for that is unprofitable for you as well as for us.
   You will have lost all those Sabbaths, all those Bible readings, all
   those pricks of conscience. I know some of you are very attentive
   hearers and yet you have not found Grace in this day of salvation.
   Salvation is all round you, yet you have it not! You have wasted golden
   opportunities. Ah, there will come a day when you will wish for another
   Sabbath but it will be denied you! Your last sermon shall have been
   heard and your last warning shall have been received. Do not lose, I
   pray you, the privileges you enjoy of being born in a Christian land,
   of having an open Bible and of listening to an earnest ministry! Do not
   let those who never enjoyed such privileges have, in the eternal world,
   the advantage over you!

   Do not let Sodom and Gomorrah and Tyre and Sidon have to tell you that
   it is more tolerable for them in Hell than for you! The Lord Jesus
   assures us that it will be so if you have been hearers of the Gospel
   and lived in the day of salvation and refused this Divine Grace. The
   text says it is a day--and a day comes to an end! These are not words
   of mine, but the words of Scripture. Again, He limits a certain day,
   saying in David, "Today if you will hear His voice." Do you not see
   that the day of salvation, though it has lasted 1,800 years and more,
   is still a day and will surely end? The opportunity of mercy will not
   last forever--let none deceive you as to that matter! The hope of
   Divine Grace will end with the day of Divine Grace. Let not the
   smooth-tongued ministers of the devil who enter the pulpits of Christ
   now-a-days delude you as to any vain hope that another day of Grace
   will come!

   I have no such flattering message to speak to you, but I speak as this
   Book teaches. If you let this day of salvation pass and if you glide
   into another world unsaved, you are lost forever. I know no more, but I
   know that this Bible so declares it. "These shall go away into
   everlasting punishment and the righteous into life eternal." Do not
   indulge vain dreams! If the Lord speaks of a day, be sure that He has
   limited the day--and if He declares this to be the day of salvation,
   you are not authorized to expect that another such period will ever
   come. "If He that despised Moses' Law died without mercy under two or
   three witnesses" (listen to that!)--"of how much sorer punishment,
   suppose you, shall he be thought worthy, who has trod under foot the
   Son of God?"

   Oh, yield to the Lord Jesus! Accept His salvation and trust Him at
   once! I pray you, in Christ's place, be reconciled to God. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Family Reformation--or, Jacob's Second Visit to Bethel

   (No. 1395)

   DELIVERED BY

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there."
   Genesis 35:1.

   THERE are critical times in most families--times when much decision of
   character will be needed on the part of the father to guide things
   aright. They say there is a skeleton in every closet and, if so, I
   would add that occasionally the unquiet spirit takes to troubling the
   household and needs to be laid low. There are times when the evil in
   the hearts of the children and in the nature of the parents becomes
   especially energetic and brings about difficulties and perplexities, so
   that if a wrong turn were taken, the most fearful mischief would ensue.
   And yet, if there is Divine Grace in the hearts of some or all of the
   family, a strong and gracious hand at the helm of the ship may steer it
   right gallantly through the broken waters and bring it safely out of
   its dangers to pursue its journey much more happily in the future.

   Now, such a crisis had come to Jacob's family--things had reached a sad
   pass and something had to be done. Everything seemed out of gear and
   matters could not continue any longer as they were. All was out of
   order and threatened to become much worse. Even the heathen began to
   smell the ill savor of Jacob's disorganized family and the one
   alternative was mend or end. A stand must be taken by the head of the
   house. There must be reform in the household and a revival of religion
   throughout the whole family. If you notice, Jacob himself was in a bad
   way. His business was to remain in Canaan a mere sojourner, dwelling in
   tents, not one of the people, but moving about among them, testifying
   that he looked for "a city that has foundations, whose Builder and
   Maker is God."

   He expected to inherit the land, but, for the time being, he was to be
   a stranger and a sojourner as his fathers Abraham and Isaac had been.
   Yet at Succoth we read that he built booths--scarcely houses, I
   suppose--but more than tents. It was a compromise and a compromise is
   often worse than a direct and overt disobedience of a command. He dares
   not erect a house, but he builds a booth and thus shows his desire for
   a settled life. And though it is not ours to judge the purchase of land
   at Shechem, still, it looks in the same direction. Jacob is endeavoring
   to find a resting place where Abraham and Isaac had none. I will not
   speak too negatively, but the Patriarch's acts look as if he desired to
   find a house for himself where he might rest and be on familiar terms
   with the inhabitants of the land.

   Now the Lord his God would not have it so. The chosen family was
   intended, by the Divine purpose, to dwell alone and maintain a peculiar
   walk of separation. The seed of Abraham was ordained to be, in the
   highest sense, a Nonconformist tribe, a race of separatists! Their God
   meant them to be a distinct people, entirely severed from all the
   nations among whom they dwelt and so they must be. But the inclination
   to be like their neighbors was very manifest in Jacob's family. The
   spell of Esau's greatness had, no doubt, affected the clan of Jacob.
   They had, from the Patriarch, himself, down to the youngest child, made
   very willing obeisance before "my lord Esau," and the homage paid was
   not without its effect.

   That obeisance was an act which, from some points of view, we cannot
   condemn, but it was scarcely becoming in one who was a Prince with God
   and elect of the Most High--and its effect could not have been
   elevating. The sons seem to have taken very readily to paying homage to
   profane Esau, though they were not little children, but young men. They
   bowed before their noble-looking uncle with his grand band of warriors
   and were, perhaps, fascinated by the charms of so warlike a member of
   the family, whose sons were dukes and great ones in the land. It added
   importance to the shepherds to feel that they were related to a great
   captain!

   Now that they had come to Shechem and their father had purchased a
   piece of land there and had built booths, they felt themselves to be of
   some importance--and they must go visiting, for everybody loves
   society. And now comes the mischief of it. Jacob's only daughter must
   visit with the prince of the people. The daughter of Israel is invited
   to the dances and the assemblies of the upper circles of the land. It
   is winked at by the father, possibly, and the brothers aid and

   abet it. She is often away at the residence of Shechem, the fine young
   Hivite prince, a very respectable gentleman, indeed, with a mansion and
   estates. But there comes an evil matter of it not to be mentioned.

   Then her brothers, in their hot anger, run into a sin that was quite as
   evil as Shechem's crime, by way of making some amends for their
   sister's defilement. With dastardly treachery they slay the whole of
   the Shechemites and so bring the guilt of murder upon a family which
   ought to have been holiness unto the Lord! Children of God cannot mix
   with the world without mischief! The world does hurt to us and we to it
   when once we begin to be of the world and like it. It is an
   ill-assorted match. Fire and water were never meant to be blended. The
   seed of the woman must not mix with the seed of the serpent. It was
   when the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair, and
   took of them as they pleased, that the deluge came and swept away the
   population of the earth.

   Abundant evil comes of joining together what God has put asunder. The
   corpses of the Shechemites and the indignation of all who heard of the
   foul deed were the direct result of the attempt to blend Israel with
   Canaan! And now Jacob's household is filled with fear and the old man,
   himself--a grand man and a Believer, but a long way off from being
   perfect--cries out to his sons, in great distress, "You have troubled
   me to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the
   Canaanites and the Perizzites! And I, being few in number, they shall
   gather themselves together against me and slay me. And I shall be
   destroyed, I and my house." To this his sons only replied, "Should he
   deal with our sister as with an harlot?"--taking his rebuke in a rough
   fashion and by no means showing any sense of shame.

   They do not appear to have been the worst of his sons and yet their
   rage and cruelty were most terrible. And when they were charged with
   their crime they justified it. Wretched, indeed, was the condition of
   Jacob's household! That family was badly arranged from the very
   beginning. Polygamy needed not to be denounced in so many words in
   Scripture, because the specimens given of it are all so thoroughly bad
   that no one can doubt that the thing is radically vicious in its
   mildest form. It worked shockingly in the case of Jacob. His wife
   Rachel, whom he loved so well, had, I fear, been the cause of the
   introduction into the family of idolatry in the form of teraph, or
   symbol-worship. She had learned it from her father, Laban, and secretly
   practiced it. And if Jacob was aware of it, he did not like to say
   anything to her, his darling, the queen of his soul.

   Those bright eyes which had charmed him years ago--how could he dim
   them with tears? The children of Leah took up their mother's cause and
   the sons of the handmaids sided with each other--and this made trouble.
   The many mothers of the family created difficulties and complications
   of all sorts, so that the household was hard to arrange and keep in
   good order. It was not what a believing household should be and it is
   not amazing at all that affairs so thoroughly went awry that it
   appeared as if even the salt was losing its savor and the good seed was
   dying before it could be sown in the earth and made to bring forth
   fruit! A stand must be made. Something had to be done and Jacob must do
   it.

   The Lord comes and He speaks with Jacob. And since the good man's heart
   was sound towards God's statutes, the Lord had only to speak to him and
   he obeyed. He was pulled up short and made to look at things and set
   his house in order. And he did so with that resolution of character
   which comes out in Jacob when he is brought into a strait, but which at
   other times is not perceptible. We shall take up this incident at this
   time and may God grant that we may find practical teaching in it for
   ourselves and for our families, by the guidance of His gracious Spirit.

   Notice, first, God having appeared to Jacob--what was to be done?
   Secondly, what happened in the doing of it? And thirdly, what followed.

   I. First, then, WHAT WAS TO BE DONE? The first thing to do was to make
   a decided move. God said to Jacob, "Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell
   there." You must hasten away from Shechem, with its fertile plains, and
   make a mountain journey up to Bethel and dwell there. You have been
   long enough near these Shechemites. Mischief has come from your being
   so intimate with the world. You must cut a trench between yourselves
   and the associations you have formed and you must go up to Bethel and
   remain there.

   Every now and then, dear Brothers and Sisters, we shall find it
   necessary to say to ourselves and to our family, "We must come out from
   among worldlings. We must be separate. We are forming connections which
   are injurious to us and we must snap the deceitful bonds. We are being
   led into habits and customs in the management of the household which
   are not such as God would approve. We are doing this to secure favor of
   one and doing that to escape frowns from another--and we are not
   walking straight with the Lord--therefore, to bring us back to our
   moorings, we must come

   right out and go to Bethel, to the place where God met with us at the
   first. We must go to our first trysting place and meet with our Lord
   again, cost whatever the journey may.

   "Though some may feel it to be a cross, yet we must begin again and
   work upon the old lines. Back to our old Puritanism and precision we
   must go and renew our vows. Let us go right away from worldliness and
   get to the Bethel of separation and draw near to God again." Have you
   ever found, Beloved, when you have been very deep in business and very
   much in the world that you begin to feel heart-sick and cry, "It won't
   do, I must get out of this! I must retreat into a holy solitude and
   enjoy a little quiet communion with God"? Have you not sometimes felt,
   concerning your family, "We are not serving the Lord aright, nor
   becoming more holy or devoted. Everything appears to be going downhill.
   We must steer the other way. We must alter our present declining state,
   in the name of God, or else we cannot expect to have His blessing." I
   know that you have come to such a place and have resolved to take a
   decided step. May the Lord help all of us when we see clearly that
   something is to be done. May we have Grace to end sinful hesitation and
   set about amendment at all hazards.

   Now they must revive old memories. "Go up to Bethel and dwell there.
   And make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto you when you fled
   from the face of Esau, your brother." A revival of old memories is
   often most useful to us, especially to revive the memory of our
   conversion. The memory of the love of our espousals, when we went after
   the Lord into the wilderness and were quite satisfied to be denied and
   disowned of all--so long as we might but dwell near to Him--that memory
   is right good for us! It is well to recall that hallowed hour when we,
   for the first time, set up a family altar and with our dear ones bowed
   before the Lord! Then we felt that the separated place was a very sweet
   one and we were most glad to get right away from the world and to live
   with Christ and in Christ and for Christ and like Christ.

   We cannot help blushing as we remember those early days. We did not
   think that we should have fallen so far short of our ideal. Let the
   recollection of Bethel, then, come over us to make us remember the
   loving kindness of the Lord and mourn over our own spiritual
   declensions. Are you singing--

   "What peaceful hours I once enjoyed,

   How sweet their memory still,

   But they have left an aching void

   The world can never fill"?

   Then you must come back to your first hours of communion. Where you
   lost your joy you will find it, for it remains where you left it! If
   you have neglected your prayer closet. If you have ceased from the
   searching of the Word of God. If you have departed from a close walking
   with Christ and if you and your families have fallen into a very low
   state, so that strangers who look in would hardly know whether yours is
   a godly house or not--if it is so, then go back mourning and sighing to
   Bethel and pray that the old feelings may be revived in you. God grant
   they may!

   And may you, in addition, be led to cry, "How could I have departed so
   much from the living God? How could I have played the fool and gadded
   about so much when I might have rested still, in peace, if I had lived
   near to God?" This, then, was the work which was to be done by Jacob.
   He had to, first, make a decided move and, secondly, to revive old
   memories! Have you any call to the same course of action? If so, see
   you do it. But now, again, Jacob must keep an old vow. I do not quite
   remember how many years old that vow was, but I suppose some 30 or so.
   Yet he had not kept it. He was much younger when he knelt and said, "If
   You will be with me," and so on, "then this place shall be God's
   house."

   He has forgotten that vow, or at least he has not fulfilled it all
   these years. Be very slow to make vows, Brothers and Sisters--very
   slow. They should be but very seldom made because all that you can do
   for God you are bound to do as it is--and a vow is often a superfluity
   of superstition. But if the vow is made, let it not wait beyond its
   time and complain to your God. An old and forgotten vow will rot and
   breed most solemn discomfort to your heart. At first it will gnaw at
   your conscience. And if your conscience, at last, grows hardened to it,
   others of your powers will suffer the same petrifying process.
   Moreover, a forgotten vow will bring chastisement on you and perhaps
   the rod will fall upon your family.

   The connection between Jacob's not going to Bethel and the mischief
   that happened to his daughter, Dinah, and the sinning of his sons, Levi
   and Simeon, may not be distinctly traceable, but I feel persuaded that
   there was a connection-- the sin of omission in the father led on to
   sins of commission in the sons. With the sins of his children, the Lord
   chastened Jacob for his breach of promise. Note that the Lord does not
   remind Jacob of his wrong, nor chide him for it, but He

   puts him in a position in which he will remind himself of it. It is so
   gentle--I was going to say so courteous of our God-- He is so gentle,
   so tender, that He would rather His servant should remember the vow
   than be distinctly told of it in so many words. See, then, Jacob is
   bound to go and do according to his solemn pledge.

   Now, dear Friend, it may be that part of the business you and I have to
   do in order to set our families right is to remember something we said
   we would do years ago but which we have not done. We have had the
   ability for a long while, but the willingness has not been with us. Let
   us now bestir ourselves and clear our consciences in the matter. God
   alone knows of it--let not this secret thing lie festering in our
   hearts and grieving the Holy Spirit! I speak, I believe, very closely
   home to some of my hearers. Perhaps the message is sufficiently
   distinct and I had better say no more. Let your own hearts remember
   your neglected promises.

   It appeared to Jacob, next, that if he was to fulfill his vow, it was
   necessary to reform his whole house, for he could not serve the Lord
   and worship other gods. He said to all that were with him--to his sons
   first and then to his hired servants and the rest--"Put away the
   strange gods that are among you." Yes, it must come to that! If I am to
   get back to my old position with God I must break my idols--

   "The dearest idol I have known, Whatever that idol be, Help me to tear
   it from its throne, And worship only Thee."

   The idols of the family--the acts and deeds of the young folk which
   would grieve God, the doings of the elder ones which are inconsistent
   with a profession of faith in Jesus, the ill tempers that have been
   indulged, the divisions of heart which have come up in the family--all
   that is sinful and unlovely must go, if we are to get right again.
   There must be a general breaking and burying of idols, or we cannot
   worship the God of Bethel!

   And next Jacob said, "Be clean." There was to be, I suppose, a general
   washing indicative of purgation of character by going to God with
   repentance and seeking forgiveness. Jacob also said, "Change your
   garments." This was symbolic of an entire renewal of life, though I
   fear they were not all renewed. At any rate, this is what was
   symbolized by, "Change your garments." Alas, it is easier to say this
   to our families than it is to get them to do it! And do we wonder since
   it is so much easier for ourselves to say than it is for ourselves to
   do! Yet, Beloved, if your walk is to be close with God. If you are to
   commune with the God of Bethel, you must be cleansed. The Lord cannot
   commune with us while we wallow in sin. "What accord has Christ with
   Belial?"

   Sin must be put away! The best Believer that lives must wash his feet
   if he is to draw near to God as he has done before. All this Jacob was
   to undertake and to him, who had become so lax with his family, it was
   no small work to screw up his courage and say to Rachel and all of
   them--"Put away the strange gods that are among you and be clean. And
   change your garments." Well, then, the next and last thing which they
   were to do was to celebrate special worship. "Let us arise and go up to
   Bethel, and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the
   day of my distress and was with me in the way which I went."

   When we get wrong and feel that there must be a decided change, we must
   set apart special times of devotion. We must say to our soul, "Soul,
   Soul you have fed so little lately. This leanness of yours comes of
   neglecting spiritual feasting. Come, you must humble yourself! You must
   lay yourself low before God. You must approach the Lord with lowly
   reverence and beg to be refreshed with His Presence. You must set apart
   more time for feeding upon Christ and upon His Word. You must never be
   quiet till you become, again, full of Divine Grace and of the Holy
   Spirit." In families it is often well, when you see that things are
   wrong, just to call the household together and say, "We must draw near
   unto God with peculiar earnestness, for we are going astray. We have
   not given up family prayer, but we must now make it special and with
   double zeal draw near unto God."

   I am afraid that some of you neglect family prayer. If you do I am sure
   it will work evil in your households. The practice of family prayer is
   the castle of Protestantism. It is the grand defense against all
   attacks by a priestly caste who set up their temples and tell us to
   pray there and pray by their mediation. No, but our homes are temples
   and every man is a priest in his own house! This is a brazen wall of
   defense against superstition and priestcraft! Family prayer is the
   nutriment of family piety and woe to those who allow it to cease!

   I read the other day of parents who said they could not have family
   prayer. Someone asked this question, "If you knew that your children
   would be sick through the neglect of family prayer, would you not have
   it? If one child was

   smitten down with fever each morning that you neglected prayer, what
   then?" Oh, then they would have it. "And if there were a law that you
   should be fined five shillings if you did not meet for prayer, would
   you find time for it?" Yes. "And if there were five pounds given to all
   who had family prayer, would you not by some means arrange to have it?"
   Yes. And so the enquirer went on with many questions and wound up with
   this last one--"Then is it not just an idle excuse when you, who
   profess to be servants of God, say that you have no time or opportunity
   for family prayer?"

   Should idle excuses rob God of His worship and our families of a
   blessing? Begin to pray in your families and especially if things have
   gone wrong, get them right by drawing near to God more distinctly. Did
   I hear you say, "We do not want to be formalists." No, I am not afraid
   you would be! I am afraid of your neglecting anything that tends
   towards the good of your household and your own spiritual growth and,
   therefore, I pray you labor at once to acquaint yourselves with God and
   be at peace. Draw near the Lord, again, more thoroughly than you have
   done before, for it is the only way by which the backslidings of
   persons and families are at all likely to be corrected! God grant a
   blessing with these words by the power of His Holy Spirit.

   II. And now I come to my second point--WHAT HAPPENED IN THE DOING OF
   IT? Well, several things

   happened and one or two of those were rather surprising. The first was
   that all heartily entered into the reforming work. I am sure they did,
   because the 4th verse says, "They gave unto Jacob all the strange gods
   which were in their hands"--all of them--"and all their earrings which
   were in their ears." He had not said anything about their earrings. Was
   there any harm in their earrings? For a woman to wear an earring is not
   such a dreadful thing, is it? Perhaps not, but I suppose that these
   earrings were charms and that they were used in certain incantations
   and heathenish customs. It must have been a very sad discovery to
   Jacob, who himself could not have endured it, to find that wicked
   superstitions had come into his tents through his winking at the
   teraphs.

   The evil had gone on in secret and though suspected, was not actually
   under Jacob's eye. I dare say he was not quite sure that the teraphs
   were in the tent and did not want to be quite sure, because it was
   Rachel, you know, who had them, and she--well, she was Rachel--and she
   had been brought up so differently from Jacob that perhaps Jacob
   thought he must not press her too severely upon the point. Perhaps he
   said to himself, "When I talk with her she does not seem at all
   idolatrous. I believe she is a good woman and I must remember how she
   was brought up. And as she comes from a high-church family I must let
   her have her little symbols--I do not know for sure that she has a
   teraph--I have never absolutely seen it." But there it was and it was
   the nucleus of superstition! She and those around her had become
   corrupted with the superstitions of the heathen--and these earrings
   were the indication of their superstitious feeling, if not the
   instruments of divination!

   Now, as soon as Jacob speaks, they all give up their idols and their
   earrings. I like this. It is a blessed thing when a man of God takes a
   stand and speaks, and finds that his family are all ready to follow.
   Perhaps it was the fear that was upon them just then--the fear of the
   nations round about which made them so obedient. I am not sure it was a
   work of Divine Grace, but still, as far as outward appearances went,
   there was a willing giving up of all that could have grieved the Lord.
   And you will sometimes be pleased, Christian Friends, when things get
   wrong and you determine to set them right, to see how others will yield
   to your determination. You ought to take courage from this. Perhaps the
   very person of whom you are most afraid will be the most ready to yield
   and the most eager to help!

   You have been afraid of Rachel, but she has such love for you that she
   will do anything for you and give up her teraphs at once. The sons who
   were so rough in speaking to you when you spoke in your own name and
   spoke about yourself and said, "You have made me to stink," and so on,
   will answer very differently when you speak in God's name! There will
   be such a power going with God's Word that they will yield freely and
   heartily. They did so in Jacob's case. All of them gave up their idols
   and they buried them in the earth beneath the oak. Would God a day
   would come to old England when all the crucifixes and priestly
   vestments--and the whole ruck of the symbols and emblems of
   superstition--could be buried under some grand old Gospel oak, never to
   be disinterred again! If we do not see this in the nation we will at
   least secure it in our own houses.

   Another circumstance happened, namely, that protection was afforded
   him--immediate and complete. "They journeyed and the terror of God was
   upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue
   after the sons of Jacob." In their way were many cities and, as it
   were, hemmed them in and the people might have turned out and cut the
   little tribe of Israel to pieces. But a message had gone forth from the
   Lord of Hosts, saying, "Touch not My anointed,

   and do my Prophets no harm." And so they journeyed in safety. "When a
   man's ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace
   with him," and now that Jacob has determined to set things right, he
   walks unharmed!

   You do not know how much of personal trouble which you are now bearing
   will vanish as soon as you determine to stand up for God! You do not
   know how much of family difficulty that now covers you with dread will
   vanish when you, yourself, have feared the Lord and have come forth
   decidedly and determinedly to do the right thing. No danger shall
   befall the man who walks with God, for with such a Companion malaria
   breathes health and curses become blessings! But you know not where you
   are going and into what thick woods you plunge when you once forsake
   the Lord and walk contrary to His mind. The Lord your God is a jealous
   God and if you do not respect His jealousy and walk before Him with
   holy fear, you shall be made to feel His wrath! Since He has known you,
   only, of all the people of the earth, for that very reason He will
   chasten you for your iniquities. This plague of evils shall be stopped
   when you purge out your idols, but not till then!

   In the next place the vow was performed. They came to Bethel and I can
   almost picture the grateful delight of Jacob as he looked upon those
   great stones among which he had lain down to sleep, a lonely man.
   Perhaps he searched for the stone that had been his pillow. Probably it
   still stood erect as part of the pillar which he had reared in memory
   of the goodness of God and the vision he had seen. There were many
   regrets, many confessions, many thanksgivings at Bethel! "With my staff
   I came to this place, but now I am become two bands. Look, my sons!
   Look, Rachel! Look, all of you-- this is the spot where, when I fled
   from Esau with nothing but my staff and wallet, I laid down and the
   Lord appeared to me! And He has kept me all my life long! Come, help me
   as I put together the unhewn stones to make an altar. And this great
   stone, behold we will pour oil on the top of it and we will together
   sing the praises of El-Beth-el--the God of the House of God, the God
   who is a House for His people, the God who has a household of which we
   form a part--the God under whose wings we seek refuge."

   I have no doubt that Jacob and his house spent a very happy time at
   Bethel, where mourning softened thankfulness and joy sweetened
   penitence--where every sacred passion in the Patriarch's soul found
   vent and poured itself out before the Lord. He thought of the past,
   rejoiced in the present and hoped for the future, for now he had come
   to be with God and to draw near to Him. But what else happened? Why,
   now there came a death and a funeral. Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died.
   Her name means a bee. And we have had old nurses, ourselves, have we
   not, who have been like busy bees in our household? Dear old Deborah
   nursed our mother and nursed us and is still willing to nurse our
   children! We do not grow that sort of people, now, they tell me. I am
   afraid we do not grow the same kind of masters and mistresses that they
   used to have in years gone by, either!

   I am not sure about it, but I believe that if there were more Rebekahs
   there would be more Deborahs. Somehow I think we are generally about as
   well treated as we treat others and we get measured into our bosoms
   very much that which we ourselves measure out. There may be exceptions
   and there are, but that is the general rule. Well, dear old Deborah had
   left Laban's house and gone with Miss Rebekah when she went into the
   far country to be married. She had taken care of her mistress' two
   boys, Jacob and Esau, and had set her heart on the same boy that the
   mother loved so well and she had sorrowed with Rebekah when he, having
   grown up, had been compelled to save his life by fleeing from his
   father's household.

   I cannot tell when she came to live with Jacob. Perhaps Rebekah sent
   her to live with her favorite son because she thought there were so
   many in the family that somebody was needed to look after them all--a
   person old and discreet to come between Jacob and the perpetual jars of
   the household. No doubt Jacob often found it pleasant to make the good
   old soul a confidante in his troubles. And now she dies and they bury
   her under the oak which they call the oak of weeping--Allonbachuth. Is
   it not strange that when you are trying to get right, there comes a
   great sorrow? No, it is not strange, for you are trying to purge out
   the old leaven--and the Lord is going to help you. You are trying to
   set everything right with Him and He comes and takes away one of the
   best people in the house who helped you most of all--one of the
   staunchest old Christian people that you ever knew--whom you wanted to
   live forever!

   And He does it not to hinder but to help you in your labor. He knows
   best--a touch of the pruning knife was needed by the vine of Israel
   that it might bring forth more fruit. The good nurse died when they
   seemed to need her most, but it was better for her to die then, than
   that she should have departed when Dinah's shame and Simeon's crime had
   made the household dark. It was better that she should live to see them
   purged from idols and on the road to her old master Isaac,

   for then she would feel as if she could say, "Now let Your servant
   depart in peace, according to Your Word, for my eyes have seen Your
   salvation."

   The moral of the incident is that the Lord may heat the fire all the
   more when He sees the refining process going on and we must receive the
   further trial as a token of love and not of anger if He smites us
   heavily when we are honestly endeavoring to seek His face.

   III. This is what happened while they were doing it. Now we close with
   the third head, namely, WHAT FOLLOWED. All this putting away of idols
   and going to Bethel--did anything come of it? Yes. First, there was a
   new appearance of God. Read the 9th verse. "And God appeared unto Jacob
   again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed Him." This was a new
   appearance of God. Some of you will not understand what I say, but I
   leave it to those who know the Lord--there are times when God is very
   near to us. I wish it were always so, but some of us can mark out
   epochs in our spiritual history in which we were wonderfully conscious
   that God drew near to us. We felt His Presence and were glad. The Lord
   seemed to put us in the cleft of the rock and make His Glory pass
   before us.

   I have known such times. Would God I knew them more often! It is worth
   while to have been purged and cleansed and to have done anything to be
   favored with one of those Divine visits in which we almost cry with
   Paul, "Whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell: God
   knows." A clear view of God in Christ Jesus and a vivid sense of Jesus'
   love is a sweet reward for broken idols and Bethel reformations!

   The next thing that came of it was a confirmation to Jacob of his title
   of Prince which conferred a dignity on the whole family. For a father
   to be a prince ennobles all the clan. God now puts upon them another
   dignity and nobility which they had not known before, for a holy people
   are a noble people. You that live in God's Presence are in the peerage
   of the skies. "He raises up the poor out of the dust and lifts the
   needy out of the dunghill that He may set him with princes, even with
   the princes of His people." He first makes them princes and then, to
   crown it, He makes them princes of princes, because if all His people
   are princes, it follows that those who are princes among His people are
   princes among princes! The Lord has a way of conferring high spiritual
   dignities upon those who seek to order their households aright and to
   keep their hearts clean and chaste before Him. Such honor have all the
   saints who fully follow the Lord. God help us to keep close to Jesus
   and enjoy daily communion with Him.

   And then, next, there was given to Jacob and his family a vast promise
   which was, in some degree, an enlargement of a promise made to Isaac
   and to Abraham before. "I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A
   nation and a company of nations shall be of you and kings shall come
   out of your loins." I do not remember anything said to Abraham about a
   company of nations, or about kings coming out of his loins, but out of
   the loins of Israel, a prince, princes may come. God puts upon His
   promise a certain freshness of vastness and infinity now that Jacob has
   drawn near to Him. Brothers and Sisters, God will give us no new
   promise, but He will make the old promises look wondrously new! He will
   enlarge our vision so that we shall see what we never saw before!

   Have you ever had a painting which hung neglected in some back room?
   Did it, one day, strike you that you would have it framed and brought
   into a good light? When you saw it properly hung on the wall, did you
   not exclaim, "Dear me! I never noticed that picture before. How
   wonderfully it has come out"? And many and many a promise in God's Word
   will never be noticed by you till it is set in a new frame of
   experience. Then, when it is hung up before you, you will be lost in
   admiration of it! Sin makes the promises to be like old pictures coated
   over with dirt. There must be a cleansing of ourselves and then it will
   be like a careful cleaning of the picture, from which no tint suffers,
   but all receive a new bloom.

   God will make His Bible seem a new book to you. You will find joy in
   every page and your soul shall dance for joy as you see the great
   things which God has prepared for you, yes, and for your children,
   also, if they are walking in the truth, for, "the promise is unto us
   and to our children, even to as many as the Lord our God shall call."
   With Jacob, by the new appearing of the Lord, the inheritance was
   confirmed, for thus runs the Scripture--"The land which I gave Abraham
   and Isaac, to you I will give it and to your seed after you will I give
   the land." So, dear Friends, all the blessed Covenant of Grace with all
   the promises shall be made distinctly and clearly yours when you have
   gone to Bethel and, with holy decision, drawn near to the Lord your
   God!

   I will not detain you except to say that you may also expect very
   familiar communion. Notice the 13th verse, "God went up from him in the
   place where He talked with him." Talked with him! Talked with him! It
   is such a familiar word.

   God talking with man. We say "conversing" when we are speaking in a
   dignified manner, but, "talking!" Oh that blessed condescension of God
   when He speaks to us in the familiar tones of His great love in Christ
   Jesus! There is a way of conversation with God which no tongue can
   explain--they only know it who have enjoyed it! Brethren, there are
   fellowships with God to be enjoyed of which a large number of
   Christians have no idea. He who humbles Himself to behold the things
   that are in Heaven and earth dwells with lowly ones! Idols broken,
   garments changed, altars built and the soul kept near to God--and then
   "the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him and He will show
   them His Covenant." This is so inestimably precious a gift that I urge
   you to seek after it, urging myself most of all.

   The chapter closes with the death of Rachel and so, perhaps, when we
   get nearest to God there may come another trial. The old tradition was
   that no man could see God's face and live. It was not true, but it
   contained a truth, for scarcely can a man enter the secret place of
   thunder and have communion with God without special trial. Yes, it is
   even so, for "even our God is a consuming fire." He asks the question,
   "Who shall dwell with the everlasting burnings?" And the answer is, "He
   that has clean hands and a pure heart, that shuts his ears from hearing
   of blood" and so on. "He shall dwell on high."

   When we come to dwell with Him who is fire, the fire must burn and we
   must feel it. That hallowed flame will consume much that our unhallowed
   flesh would like to keep and there will not be a burning without our
   enduring sharp smarts and pain. God's furnace is in Zion and His fire
   is in Jerusalem. He will purify the sons of Levi as silver is purified.
   "Who shall abide the day of His coming? For He will be as a refiner's
   fire and like fuller's soap." Yet if we are in a right state, that is
   exactly what we need! O that our sinfulness were wholly burned up!
   Trial is welcomed if sin may but be conquered! Even Rachel may die if
   Jesus lives in us but the more!

   Lord, give us Grace and Your Presence--even if we pass through the
   furnace a thousand times in consequence thereof. Hear us, for Jesus'
   sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Reasons for Turning to the Lord

   (No. 1396)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JANUARY 13, 1878,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Come, and let us return unto the Lord. For He has torn, but He will
   heal us. He has struck us, but He will bind us up. After two days will
   He revive us. On the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live
   in His sight." Hosea 6:1,2.

   [Mr. Spurgeon was exceedingly unwell and his voice painfully weak,
   hence the pause in the middle of the sermon, during which the
   congregation sang part of a hymn to enable the preacher to gain
   strength enough to resume his discourse. This was the last sermon
   before Mr. Spurgeon's departure from home to obtain needed rest. It has
   been revised by Mr. Spurgeon at Mentone. The sermons are continued
   regularly every week.]

   IF man had never sinned, what delightful communion there would have
   been between him and God! A fairy vision rises before us of loving
   obedience and condescending fellowship, holy delight and boundless
   favor, lowly adoration and fatherly smile, perfect bliss and infinite
   complacency. Alas! Alas! It is no more than a vision! God would have
   treated man with familiarity and indulgence, lavishing favor and honor
   upon him. The Garden of Eden, fair as were its glades and lovely as
   were its flowers, was but a faint image of the things prepared for man
   had he continued in loyalty to God-- inconceivable delights would have
   filled up the days of our life on earth had not the serpent's trail
   come across our nature and slimed it over with sin.

   I shall not attempt any picture of man dwelling with God and God
   revealing Himself to man in new forms--always increasing man's
   knowledge and, at the same time, causing His bliss to overflow. Alas!
   That dream has never been realized. That dangerous fruit which hung
   upon the tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil has been plucked and
   eaten and we will not pause to rehearse the sad story of the foul
   iniquities and the countless ills which have come upon mankind and
   severed man from his God. Because of the Fall and man's depravity,
   Justice now comes in with his rod and sword and changes the complexion
   of our life.

   God deals very graciously with man, but not at all after the fashion in
   which He might have dealt with him--He cannot, now, perpetually smile,
   but is led, by His holiness, to look on him with wrathful countenance.
   The loving God, compelled by love, itself, frowns at sin. He threatens,
   He denounces. His justice and holiness lead Him to use rough words
   towards His erring creatures. He does more--in infinite love He
   chastens as well as rebukes. Instead of fatherly caresses, the great
   Lord wisely takes down the rod and lays it on the backs of those whom
   He most truly loves. "He scourges every son whom He receives."

   Those nearest to His heart and most approved of His soul among the sons
   of Adam have, nevertheless, to feel that "our God is a consuming fire."
   Placed in the crucible, they are thrust into the white heat of the
   furnace and there are they called to suffer that their dross may be
   removed. If thus the Lord is severe to His own people, what are His
   dealings with the ungodly? "God is angry with the wicked every day."
   The wise men of modern thought have made a new god of late--one of
   those gods newly come up that our fathers knew not and who is quite
   unknown to the Bible--as false a god as Apollo or Baal! The God of
   Abraham, Isaac and Jacob these deep thinkers cannot endure, but if you
   say that God is angry with the wicked every day, these modern
   god-makers tell you that He is too loving for that--that He cannot
   possibly be angry, but loves all, has redeemed all, and will, in the
   long run, save all--including Satan, himself!

   They adore a god made of putty or of wax--plastic, effeminate,
   molluscous--with no masculine faculty about him and no quality that
   entitles him to the respect of just and honest men. For a being who
   cannot be angry at wrong-doing is destitute of one of the essential
   virtues and a moral ruler who is not angry with the wicked--who refuses
   to punish

   crime--is not Divine. We find no such God as this modern saccharine
   idol when we come to search the Scriptures, for there the true God
   says, "If you walk contrary to Me, I will walk contrary to you." "To
   the froward He will show Himself froward." "Cursed is everyone that
   continues not in all things that are written in the Book of the Law to
   do them."

   He is revealed as a God who "will by no means spare the guilty," but
   declares that every transgression and iniquity shall have its just
   punishment of reward. Since evil obtained sway over the human race, God
   walks towards men, therefore, not at all as He might have done if men
   had never fallen. He speaks to them in the stern voice of a judge and
   handles them as one who sees the need of a rod. He treats men not so
   roughly as they deserve, for He is infinitely tender and gentle, but
   still with such severity as becomes necessary to show that He cannot
   smile on transgression. The conduct of God towards man is not like His
   dealing with the angels--not like His dealing with cherubim and
   seraphim but, according to our text--He tears, He strikes, He kills.

   It is of such a God as this that I have to speak, tonight, and of such
   acts as these I have to talk with you. My design is not that any may
   flee from the Lord, but that as the result of what we have to say, many
   may return to the Lord, who He has struck, but who He will heal. Who He
   has slain, but who He will restore. There are three things in my text
   which are, to my mind, very clear. The first is a smiting God. The
   second is a believing heart, for he who used such words as my text was
   no unbeliever. And, thirdly, a persuasive voice--the voice which so
   pleadingly cries, "Come, and let us return unto the Lord."

   May God the Holy Spirit teach me how to proclaim the name of the Lord
   and render the Word quick and powerful to the salvation of the
   blood-bought. How much I need His strength in my extreme weakness! Pray
   for me, you saints of God, that once again I may faithfully and
   effectively do duty as one of the Lord's ambassadors.

   I. First, then, I see plainly enough in the text A SMITING God--"He has
   torn, but He will heal us. He has struck us, but He will bind us up."
   Notice, first, that the person who wrote these words discerns the
   Presence of the Lord, for he is convinced that his trials come from
   God. Ungodly men set down their troubles to chance and sometimes they
   even trace them to the devil--as if they expected their father to have
   dealings with them! Frequently they lay their ills at the door of their
   fellow men and grow quarrelsome, malicious and revengeful. It is a
   happy day for a man when he knows in whose hand is the rod and learns
   to trace his troubles to God!

   Alas, there are even some children of God who greatly err in this
   matter when under affliction--they spend their time in bewailing second
   causes--and do not look at the First Cause! This is very brutish. If
   you strike a dog with a stick he will bite at the stick. Had he a
   little intelligence he would bite at you, knowing that the blow came
   not from the stick or stone, but from the hand that used these
   implements! So is it usually with unbelievers in trouble--they look at
   the secondary agent and they spend their anger or their thoughts
   entirely there. If, in the day of adversity they would consider, they
   would perceive that affliction springs not out of the ground, neither
   do distresses come by chance, but the hand of the Lord is in all these
   things.

   "Shall there be evil in a city and the Lord has not done it?" Whichever
   way the trial comes, it comes from Him. If the trouble was caused by a
   triumphant enemy or by a deceitful friend. If it comes as a loss in
   business or as a sickness of body--or if it wounded us through the
   arrows of death piercing the heart of our beloved--in either case it
   was the Lord. Learn that lesson! He has smitten or struck you! He has
   torn you! He has done it all! He has ordained our trials for judgment
   and established them for correction--let us not despise them by
   refusing to see His hand or by angrily rebelling against Him. We read
   that, "Aaron held his peace," when his two sons were slain with fire
   because it was the fire of the Lord that struck them--what could he
   say?

   If even Christian men too often forget the Lord's hand, we need not be
   at all surprised that unconverted men do so. Perhaps I am speaking to
   one who has been followed by a succession of disasters till he is now
   surrounded by a sea of affliction. You have scarcely escaped from one
   trouble before you have plunged into another! It seems to you as if
   your "bad luck," as you call it, were no more absent from you at any
   time than your shadow. You cannot get on at anything! Whatever you
   touch withers beneath your hands. You have been ill again and again.
   You have lost your best friend when you most needed him. You have lost
   your job and wherever you apply you get no favorable reply. It is true
   that you are not wise enough to trace some of these misfortunes to your
   own bad habits--your indolence or your drunkenness.

   I wish, however, you were even as wise as that, for then you might
   amend your ways. If you grow wiser, still, you would say, "It cannot be
   that I am to have stroke upon stroke and loss upon loss without there
   being some reason for it, for God does not afflict willingly nor grieve
   the children of men." I should not wonder, my Friend, that you are so
   sorely smitten because the Lord has some great design of love to your
   soul! Look at the prodigal son in the distant country. He had plenty of
   money and he spent it in riotous living. He was in fine health and
   lived in the fastest style. Wine and women soon took away his money and
   then he said that bad luck had befallen him.

   Of course it had and the young squire was obliged to swallow his
   dignity and independence and seek for a job! He looked in the daily
   paper and searched up and down among his dear friends who had drunk to
   his health with gallons of his rare old wines. But they knew of nothing
   for him and gave him the cold shoulder. No money-lender would grant him
   a loan and no man gave him any. He walked his shoes off his feet, but
   could find nothing to do. He had rags upon him and hunger within him.
   He was a broken down gentleman without a trade and without the physical
   strength to dig or plow. What could he do? He was "down on his luck,"
   as men of his kind are known to say--and nobody wanted his company.

   One person who had some sort of pity for the poor wretch found him
   employment and he commenced active life in the noble capacity of a pig
   feeder--"He joined himself to a citizen of that country and he sent him
   into his fields to feed swine." He was now at his lowest, for his
   occupation was filthy and degrading--and the wages were not enough to
   keep body and soul together--so that he often envied the hogs that
   could so readily fill themselves with husks. Yet in this deep distress
   there was mercy and hope--his way home was round by the swine trough!
   He might never have come to his father if he had not come, first, to
   those pigs and husks!

   Perhaps, O tried Sinner, the way to God for you is through your
   troubles. If the Lord had prospered you in that piece of betting, for
   instance, or if you had got on in that infamous business which you
   ought never to have touched, you might have been a rich man and have
   been damned! But you are not to be rich--God does not mean that you
   should be. He means to follow with stroke upon stroke and tearing upon
   tearing till at last you shall realize that He is saying to you,
   "Return to Me, for you will never rest until you do." You shall never
   know prosperity until you have come clean out and made your peace with
   God! Then shall your peace be as a river and your righteousness as the
   waves of the sea.

   I am certain that I speak as though I were a prophet to the soul of
   some who are in this house tonight and I pray God that if it is so,
   they may look on the series of trials through which they have passed as
   being really sent to them, not by chance or haphazard, nor by the
   conjunction of the stars, nor by anything of that atheistic foolery
   which men are so fond of inventing--but sent from God Himself with
   benign intent! He smites, He tears, He slays--but this is all the
   surgery of love! The person who uttered these words, then, had learned
   to trace his troubles to God.

   Now, notice that it is customary with God to smite His own according to
   His own Words, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten." I remember
   being severely called to account by a fastidious critic for using the
   following vulgar metaphor, which I will therefore use again. It may
   serve for another paragraph for some other superfine reviewer. I think
   I said that if you were going home and you saw a number of boys round a
   house breaking windows, it is 10 to one that you would not care much
   about what they did. BUT, if you saw your own boy doing it, he would be
   sure to get as sweet a box on the ears as you could manage to convey to
   him!

   Would that be because you loved him less than the rest of the boys? Not
   so, but because you loved him more! You had something to do with him
   and nothing to do with the rest--therefore he obtained the privilege of
   correction which the others missed. Now, oftentimes the sinner who
   falls into trouble, or the Christian who endures heavy trials, does not
   receive such severe treatment because the Lord is about to destroy him,
   but because He has a secret love to his soul. Thus says the Lord, "You
   only have I known of all the families of the earth. Therefore I will
   punish you for your iniquities." These chastisements and heavy blows
   which are compared in the text to tearing and to striking, often fall
   upon God's own beloved because they are His beloved and He cannot, in
   any better way, display His love to them.

   "I have seen the wicked in great power and spreading himself like a
   green bay tree"--no axe has come to his root and no blight to his
   leaf--God has left him alone to fill the earth with his branches. But
   why? Was it not that he might become fit for the fire when the axe of
   the woodsman would lay him low? But look at the vine which bears fruit
   and you shall see, every year at the proper season, the ruthless knife
   of the pruner cutting away what seems to be the liveliest

   shoots, removing the hopeful branches and leaving the poor vine to
   bleed, or to appear to be a mere dry stick! Yes, the vine is worth
   pruning--it belongs to the vinedresser's choice plants and he looks to
   it for rich clusters.

   As for the green bay tree--who cares to prune it? What profit would
   come of blunting the knife on a fruitless tree? Woe to you who are
   increasing your stores--you who never have aches or pains! Woe to you
   who say that no thought of sin will ever depress you! Woe to you who
   can drink your fill and eat abundantly without being sick or sorry. Lo,
   you are fattened like bullocks for the slaughter and there shall
   nothing happen to you till death's poleax lays you low! Count it to be
   one of the most fearful curses that can happen to you to be happy in
   your sins! "Moab has been at ease from his youth and he has settled on
   his lees and has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither has he
   gone into captivity. Therefore his taste remained in him and his scent
   is not changed. Therefore, behold, the days come, says the Lord, that I
   will send unto him wanderers that shall cause him to wander and shall
   empty his vessels and break their bottles."

   You who are tossed to and fro and are broken by sorrow need not start
   with dread because you are made to suffer, for the Lord lays heavy
   hands upon His own and reserves the ungodly for His wrath. The dealings
   of God with men will often appear to be very severe. Kindly read the
   14th verse of the 5th chapter--"I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and
   as a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear and go
   away." From this it is clear that our text, when it says, "He has
   torn," alludes to a lion rending his prey. The Lord seems, sometimes,
   to spring upon a man and suddenly to bring him down. And then by
   terrible trials He appears to lacerate him from head to foot. Fears,
   pains of body, awful suggestions within his mind, loss upon loss in
   business, grief upon grief, his home desolate, his heart broken, his
   hope gone--such things does the Lord lay upon men until they know what
   the Lord meant when He said by His Prophet, "I will be unto them as a
   lion; as a leopard by the way will I observe them."

   God does this with men and yet He means them no ill. The case of
   Hezekiah explains it all. Hear him cry in the bitterness of his soul,
   "I reckoned till morning, that, as a lion, so will He break all my
   bones: from day even to night will You make an end of me. Like a crane
   or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: my eyes fail
   with looking upward: O Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me. What
   shall I say?" But his own answer to his own question is, "O Lord, by
   these things men live and in all these things is the life of my spirit:
   so will You recover me, and make me to live?" The text says that the
   Lord smiles. He uses such force that He leaves bruises and welts, for,
   "by the blueness of the wound the heart is made better."

   He smites and He knows how to do it, for He is a wise corrector. "He
   that chastises the heathen, shall not He correct?" He can touch a man
   in His most tender place and make the stoutest heart to quail. He knows
   our frame and when He comes to deal with us in wrath, even though there
   is love behind it all, yet still He smites very sternly. David says,
   "All the day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning." And
   in another place he shows that this chastening is no child's play, for
   he says, "When You with rebukes do correct man for iniquity, You make
   his beauty to consume away like a moth." Yes, and according to the
   text, God may lay a man's soul so low that he may count himself to be
   as dead and he may continue like one in the grave by the space of two
   days--and yet on the third day He will raise him up!

   This, of course, is not to be taken literally, but represents a
   considerable period, though a period that has an end, during which
   heart and flesh utterly fail. God knows how long to make a man lie
   under the sentence of death. It will not be four days--that would be
   too long, for one said of old, "By this time he stinks, for he has been
   dead four days." There shall be three days wherein deadly despair shall
   rule--but destruction shall not actually take place--as Jesus came up
   out of the earth on the third day, so those who have felt the sentence
   of death in themselves shall come out into the joy of resurrection-life
   to praise and bless His name.

   I perceive that I almost startle you while I show you what God does
   with the sons of men. But there is one thing I ought to add. "He has
   not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our
   iniquities." A man who lies in the hospital half his time has still
   more mercy than he could have claimed. And he who shivers in this
   winter's cold and knows bitter penury, yet still has more mercy than he
   deserves. And he among us who sinks lowest in sorrow of soul--he who
   seems to go down into the dread abyss till all God's waves and billows
   go over him--he may still thank God that he is not in the torments of
   Hell! He who suffers most may be grateful that justice has not yet
   taken the plummet and the line and meted out righteous wrath!

   At our worst we are indulged with a fullness of mercy compared with
   what our transgressions deserve! And, oh, I want to show you that there
   is love in it all. I do not call him a loving father who sees his boy
   indulge bad habits and never chastens him. I do not call her a loving
   mother who, when she has seen her child showing ill-tempers and
   displaying self-will, has never chastened her. It is often a wicked
   self-indulgence which prevents parents from doing what should be done
   to drive out wickedness and train for a noble life. When a father, with
   tears in his eyes, has taken his boy alone and said, "I cannot be like
   Eli, upon whose house there came the curse because his sons made
   themselves vile and he restrained them not. I must chasten you at
   times. If you will thus break my commandments and grieve God and
   dishonor my family, I must make you smart for it, though every stroke
   is a pain to me."

   I say when a father acts in this way, he is both wise and kind. Many a
   young scoundrel, now in the streets of London, might have been a moral
   young man if his father had done his duty by him. And, mark you, God
   will never have this to be laid at His door--that He permits sin in His
   family and leaves His chosen unchastened! His own children must feel
   the rod and be brought under the bond of the Covenant. "Whom the Lord
   loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives."

   Here let me wait a minute to recover my voice and gather a little
   strength, for I am very feeble. Could you, do you think, ease me for a
   moment by singing a verse or two of the 605th hymn in "Our Own Hymn
   Book," to the tune

   "Farrant"?--

   "Come let us to the Lord our God

   With contrite hearts return.

   Our God is gracious, nor will leave

   The desolate to mourn.

   His voice commands the tempest forth

   And stills the stormy wave,

   And though His arm is strong to smite,

   'Tis also strong to save.

   Long has the night of sorrow reigned;

   The dawn shall bring us light:

   God shall appear, and we shall rise

   With gladness in His sight."

   Tremblingly I will now endeavor to go on to the next point. May the
   Holy Spirit guide my mind, and heart and tongue.

   II. Secondly, I see in the text A BELIEVING HEART--to my mind a
   remarkably believing heart because the man believes in the goodness of
   God even when he is smarting and suffering. Do notice it. He says,
   "Come, let us return to the Lord, for He has torn, but He will heal us.
   He has struck, but He will bind us up." It is wonderfully easy to
   believe in God when you have all you need and are free from trial. But
   such fair-weather faith as that is very often a mere sham. True faith
   believes in God when He is angry and trusts Him when the rod is in His
   hand--and to my mind, as I have said before--it is a very beautiful
   instance of faith which we have in this text.

   The man has been torn, yes, torn as a lion tears his victim--there are
   the gashes, bleeding and smarting--yet he cries, "Come, and let us
   return to the Lord." What, to the God who has torn us? Yes, yes! Let us
   go to Him, for He will receive us and will not cast us away, but, on
   the contrary, He will heal the wounds He made! You cannot think too
   well of God, nor expect too much mercy from Him! Beloved, if you
   believe that He will pardon your greatest sin for Jesus' sake. If you
   believe, tonight, that He will cheerfully receive you to His bosom
   because of His dear Son. If you believe that He can make you an heir of
   Heaven by faith in Christ--you will not believe too well of God! I
   shall challenge you to try and make your thoughts of the Lord too high
   and honorable! If you attempt the task, you will certainly be foiled in
   it.

   This believing heart in my text actually finds an argument in the blows
   of God why we should trust Him. Does He not say, "He has torn, but He
   will heal us. He has struck us, but He will bind us up"? Yes, and there
   is argument here. When a physician finds a man's bone badly set and
   breaks it again, what am I sure that he is going to do? Why, to set it,
   and set it right! When I see a physician using a very severe remedy in
   a very difficult case, say a blister, or some form of bleeding, or the
   like--I feel certain that he does not mean to leave his patient to
   bleed to death and that he does not wound without a purpose. If a
   spreader should be inserted in order that the wound may be kept open
   till the proud flesh is cut away, I know that the physician does not do
   that out of unkindness, but that he intends the good of his patient. He

   means to do something which, for the time, the patient cannot
   appreciate, but about which he must exercise faith. If I were at any
   time to be subject to the surgeon's knife, I should have no hesitation
   in feeling that if he wounded me he would see me through the operation
   and do his utmost for my restoration.

   Now, God is the great Surgeon of men's souls and sometimes He has to
   put man upon the table and cut--and cut to the very bone! But He never
   means to kill. He never takes the knife of discipline except with the
   intent to bind up every wound He makes and set the man upon his feet
   again, saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. "Though He
   causes grief, yet will He have compassion according to the multitude of
   His mercies." So, you see that he who wrote the text did well to argue
   from the tearing and the smiting that God must mean well to the
   afflicted soul. And, notice such is the faith of this text that the
   writer expects to be restored though he writes himself down among the
   dead. "After two days," he says, "will He revive us."

   I know--I wonder whether you know--what it is to feel as though utterly
   dead to all spiritual power, all natural hope, all claim on mercy and,
   sometimes, even to all possibility of salvation. I may be addressing
   one tonight who feels as though his death warrant had been signed and
   sealed. He has the sentence of death in himself. But, dear Brother or
   Sister, still have faith, for so the text has it--"We shall live in His
   sight." You know what Job said--to my mind it is the grandest thing a
   man ever said--he was not reigning on a throne, but sitting on a
   dunghill! He was covered with boils and scraping himself with a
   potsherd, yet he was more than royal.

   Glorious old Job bravely said, "Though He slay me yet will I trust in
   Him." This was grand! Can you imitate it? Though you feel as if you
   were slain. Though you sit in your pew tonight and say, "Well, it is of
   no use. I know I am undone," yet I charge you to trust the Lord, your
   Redeemer, over the head of it all! Trust the Covenant God in the teeth
   of everything! Believe God to be true and every fact and circumstance
   and thought and feeling to be a liar! Cling to the eternal mercy of God
   who casts out none that come to Him by Jesus Christ! Oh, it is a
   blessed thing to be empty and to believe that God can fill you--to be
   nothing and to believe that He can make you His child! It is a blessed
   thing to be lost and to believe that the Lord can save you--to feel
   condemned and yet to believe that Christ can justify you! Oh, to sink
   and sink and sink, even into the grave of all natural hope and yet to
   feel that you shall rise again when the third day has come! This is the
   faith of God's elect!

   Notice that the faith of my text looks for brighter things, for it
   says, "In the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His
   sight." You are afraid of God now, perhaps, but when He comes and lifts
   you up out of your state of spiritual death-gloom you will delight to
   see Him, to feel Him near, to know that He has quickened you and to
   spend your new life in delightful communion with Him! You shall live in
   His sight! What heavenly living that must be! Life under the eyes of
   the Lord! Life such as He calls life! Life which He can look upon with
   pleasure! In His Presence is fullness of joy and this, His wounded ones
   shall know when He has healed them! I wish I could say what I want to
   say, but I am very feeble and, therefore, not much at ease in speaking.
   Yet I do not know but what my broken words may, after all, be
   best--when voice will not answer to mind and we have to bring out our
   discourses piecemeal--the morsels may be all the sweeter to the
   afflicted.

   But this is what I want to say--I pray you never, never, never yield to
   that temptation of the devil which would lead you to cry, "God is
   dealing roughly with me! He will never save me!" No, expect quite the
   contrary! Because of these blows and strokes, because of your misery of
   heart, because of your troubled conscience, because of your inward
   distress you may all the more have hope! Nothing is more dreadful than
   to be without sensation--that is a token of death! But to be broken in
   pieces all asunder! To feel your thoughts to be like a case of knives
   cutting to the very center of your heart--this, at the very least,
   proves that life is still in you! Besides, remember that the path to
   joy is sorrow, the door to life is by death, the road to salvation is
   by condemnation in the conscience. The way to enjoy God's love is,
   first of all, to be troubled under God's wrath.

   That brings me to my third point, upon which I must be brief, but I
   would be earnest. Oh, Spirit of God, enable me!

   III. The text has in it A PERSUASIVE VOICE. Oh that I could say it in
   wooing tones! But though the music of love is in my heart, my voice is
   hoarse. Bear with me, however, while I cry, "Come! Come! Come, let us
   return unto the Lord." This persuasive voice is to be attentively
   regarded, in the first place, because it pleads for a right thing. Dear
   Friends, if we have wandered away from God and if God is angry with us,
   what ought to be our first step? Why, to get back to God!

   If I had offended any man or felt that I had done him an injustice, I
   hope I should not need much persuasion to go to him and confess my
   wrong and ask him to give me his hand. I trust it is the same with you.

   Now, since you have grieved the Lord, you ought to be the first to seek
   reconciliation. And if instead of it, He is first and comes to you with
   overtures of peace, surely you should not need much persuasion to end
   the quarrel! Come, poor erring child, you have acted sinfully towards
   your loving Father--does not your heart, itself, suggest to you the
   resolve--"I will arise and go unto my Father"? You have grieved Him and
   because you have grieved Him, He has struck you that you may know for
   yourself the evil of your actions! Let the first smiting suffice and
   yield at once to His reproofs. "Come, and let us return unto the Lord."

   A great part of the persuasiveness of the text lies not merely in the
   rightness of it, but in the speaker putting himself with the people
   whom he entreats to return. He says, "Come, and let us return unto the
   Lord." My dear Hearers, willingly enough, without any sort of mock
   humility, do I feel compelled to put myself among you. If you have
   never returned to the Lord, come, let us go together, for I know the
   way and have good cause to tread it over again. I went to Him, I almost
   forget how many years ago, but I was only a stripling of 15 years of
   age. Deeply conscious of my guilt, I sought the Lord God of my fathers
   in much brokenness of spirit.

   He had struck me. He had torn me. He had slain me by the Law of His
   mouth. Where could I go? I tried every helper, but I found all carnal
   hopes to be mockeries. I went trembling to my God and pleaded the
   precious blood of Jesus--and He healed me! He bound me up and He gave
   me to live in His sight! To this I bear my solemn and sure witness. But
   though I went to Him so many years ago, I have been many times since. I
   have felt sin upon the conscience. I have had my own inward depravity
   to mourn over. I have had to feel myself to be nothing, yes, and to be
   less than nothing! And I have been very heavy in soul and, therefore,
   driven by distress to my Lord.

   Yes, I have gone to Him a thousand times! And therefore I did not boast
   when I said I knew the way. Ah, poor helpless Soul, I know your
   downcastings and distractions, for I know the heart of a stranger by
   having felt, myself, to be an alien to my mother's children, unworthy
   to be numbered with the family of God. I have comforted God's people,
   but sometimes could not comfort myself! I have tried to fill others
   while mourning my own emptiness! But I bear witness that I never went
   to my Lord in vain. Come, give me your hand--one on this side, one on
   that--and let us return to the Lord! Come, let us make a ring all round
   the place and hand in hand let us return to the Lord!

   You who do not know the way will, perhaps, be helped by brotherly
   sympathy as we tell you how we resolved to return. You that think
   yourselves the biggest, blackest sinners--you do not think so badly of
   yourselves as I often think, and rightly think, of myself--but though
   of sinners the chief, and of saints, the least. "I know whom I have
   believed and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have
   committed unto Him until that day." And you, dear Friend, though up
   till now you have never sought Jesus, I hope that you will seek Him now
   and find abundant satisfaction in laying hold upon Him.

   Notice that this exhortation is put in the present tense. "Come, and
   let us return unto the Lord." It is not tomorrow. It is not next year.
   It is so written that it means--"Let us return to the Lord now." If at
   all, why not at once? The sooner a good thing is done, the better. As
   far as I am concerned, there is a very personal reason for pressing
   upon any unconverted person here that he should return to the Lord now.
   I reckon it to be a great privilege to be able to stand here and bid
   you come to the Lord, though the exercise of that privilege has worn me
   out and made me brain-weary and full of pain. That privilege I shall
   not enjoy for some little time and it would charm me if I might win you
   now.

   Oh that my Lord would make this last sermon of mine for a
   while--perhaps forever--to be a weight cast into the scale to decide a
   hesitating will for Christ! I see the balances--how evenly they are
   poised! I see them trembling--a decision is to be arrived at one way or
   the other. This side for God--shall it go down? Is there weight enough?
   Satan clings to the chains of that evil scale! He seeks to drag it
   down! He casts in new temptations. Who will win? With all my heart
   would I throw earnest entreaties into the scale of right that salvation
   may win the day! But which shall it be? Which shall it be? Perhaps the
   turn it takes tonight will be the turn it takes for eternity! God grant
   that it may be for God, for His Truth, for Christ, for Heaven--and not
   for the world, for sin, for self and eternal perdition! O Holy Spirit,
   work mightily to decide men aright!

   The pleading of my text--and with this I close--is rendered all the
   more powerful because it is full of pleasing expectancy. Imagine that
   you had to try to make up a quarrel and the offending person were to
   say to you, "Well,

   suppose I agree to end this dispute. Will the other party be
   satisfied?" Upon the answer to that question your hope of success would
   very greatly depend. It has sometimes been my lot to have some such
   work as that to do and I have not felt quite sure that I would succeed
   till I had crossed that bridge. The aggrieved individual has been in a
   very hot temper and I could not altogether wonder, for he had been
   shamefully treated. "Well," I have said to the offender, "I will try my
   best, you know, and it will greatly strengthen me if I can say that you
   bitterly feel that you were in the wrong and desire to offer an ample
   apology."

   My client has said, "I should not mind going a good way in apologizing,
   but it can only be on the condition that I shall be kindly met. If I am
   to be repulsed--well, I shall not say anything until I have some idea
   of the temper and spirit of my opponent." When I have been able to say,
   "The person whom you have offended is grieved for you as much as for
   himself. He is quite willing to receive you at any time and will give
   you every token of forgiveness. He hardly needs you to make any
   confession at all, he is so ready to forgive you--and nothing will give
   him greater pleasure than to have your friendship"--why then the other
   party has said, "What? Does he really say that? Does he speak kindly of
   me after what I did? Did he really say that he would be glad to see me
   at his house? Did he speak of me as still being his friend? Then be so
   good as to tell him that I am very sorry and I will be round to say it
   myself, directly."

   Now, my God, my gracious God, bids me say that He is a God ready to
   pardon! You have not to go and propitiate Him, make Him tender and
   plead with Him in prayer till you melt His heart. No! He waits to be
   gracious to you! He has come tonight, by His poor feeble servant, to
   entreat you to accept His love and Grace. Let my broken accents reach
   the ears of your hearts. Repent of sin! Believe in Jesus Christ and
   look to Him for mercy! May God help you to do so and to do it now! Do
   not let returning to the Lord be left to be talked of when you get
   outside--return before you rise from your seat! I dread that vain
   companion who waits for you at the door. I am afraid of that idle chat
   on the road home. Do not even allow the exhortation of the text to wait
   to be thought of when you get home, for perhaps it may then be
   forgotten--but NOW--upon that seat or standing where you are, may God
   help you to respond to the gracious invitation, "Come, and let us
   return unto the Lord. For He has torn, but He will heal us. On the
   third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight."

   God bless you, dear Friends. May His richest blessing rest upon every
   one of you. Other voices will be heard, here, for a few weeks, but none
   will speak more lovingly than mine all broken, cracked, hoarse and
   unmusical though it is. May those Brothers who speak to you have more
   strength than I have--and more Grace! If they shall be the means of
   bringing some to Jesus whom I have never reached, I shall be glad,
   indeed! I want you all, members of the Church, to be very, very
   diligent in helping in the February meetings by your efforts and your
   prayers. My dear Brothers Clarke and Smith are well fitted for their
   work. You ought to have this Tabernacle crowded every night of the
   week--that is what I want to hear!

   Each one of you must get to work to get the outside people into the
   house that they may hear and live! The evangelists will be here for the
   best part of the month and if you all work hard and earnestly to gather
   the crowds together when those two Brothers speak and sing, I do not
   doubt that a blessing will rest upon them like that which came upon our
   Brothers Moody and Sankey in years gone by.

   Pray for me, I beseech of you, and having done so, prove the sincerity
   of your prayers by helping in the Lord's work--this will be as medicine
   to your sick pastor's soul and body! I rely upon you, each one, to see
   these services made a success, God the Holy Spirit helping you.

   [A fortnight elapsed between the preaching of the above sermon and its
   being revised. Mr. Spurgeon is mending and begs for the prayers of his
   friends that he may, before long, be quite restored and may return to
   his work in full vigor.]
     __________________________________________________________________

The Peace of God

   (No. 1397)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JANUARY 6, 1878,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your
   hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:7.

   "PEACE" is a heavenly word. When at the advent of our Lord angels came
   to sing among men a midnight sonnet, their second note was "Peace on
   earth." Would God the shining ones would chant that song again till
   yonder Balkans heard the strain and shook off the sulfurous cloud which
   now hangs around them. Those who have ever seen war, or even come near
   the trail of its bloody march, will be thankful to God for peace. I am
   almost of his mind who said that the worst peace is preferable to the
   very best war that was ever waged--if best there can be where all is
   bad as bad can be. Peace is most pleasant when religion sits beneath
   its shade and offers her joyful vows to Heaven.

   How grateful we ought to be that we can meet together to worship God
   after that form which best satisfies our consciences without any fear
   of being hunted down by the authorities of the land. We have no
   watchman on the hilltops looking out for Claverhouse's dragoons. We put
   none at the front door of our conventicle to watch lest the constable
   should come to take off worshipper and minister, that they may suffer
   imprisonment or fine. We worship God in unlimited liberty and we ought
   to be exceedingly glad of the privilege and infinitely more grateful
   for it than we are. Do we not sit, every man under his own vine and fig
   tree, none making us afraid? Blessed is the land in which we dwell and
   blessed are the days in which we live, when in all peace and quietness
   we worship God in public and sing His high praises as loudly as we
   please. Great God of Peace, You have given us this peace, and in
   remembrance of our hunted forefathers we bless You with our whole
   hearts!

   We have met tonight for the purpose of hearing the Gospel of peace and
   many of us are afterwards coming to that sacred festival which
   celebrates peace and is to all time the memorial of the great
   peace-making between God and man. And yet it may be that even all
   Believers here are not quite at peace. Possibly you did not leave your
   family in peace this afternoon. Wars occur even among loving hearts.
   Alas, even Sabbaths are sometimes disturbed, for evil tempers cannot be
   bound over to keep the peace, but are riotous even on this sweet
   restful day! Do Christian men ever permit angry feelings to rise within
   them? If they do, I am sure that even in coming away from home to the
   House of God, they come with a disturbed mind.

   Ah, how insignificant a matter will mar our peace of mind--some little
   thing that happened in getting to your pew--some trifling incident even
   while you are in it waiting for worship to begin, may, like dust in
   your eye, cause you the greatest distress. Such poor creatures are we
   that we may lose our peace of mind even by a word or a look! Peace, in
   the form of perfect calm and serenity, is a very delicate and sensitive
   thing and needs more careful handling than a Venice glass. It is hard
   for the sea of our heart to remain long in a smooth and glassy
   state--it may be rippled and ruffled by an infant's breath. Perhaps,
   too, some of my Brothers and Sisters here have not been walking near to
   God--and if so, their peace will not be perfect.

   It may be, my Brother, that during the week you have backslidden
   somewhat from your true standing and, if so, your peace has fled. Your
   heart is troubled and though you are believing in Christ for salvation
   and are, therefore, safe, yet for all that your inward rest may be
   broken. Therefore would I turn the text into a prayer and pray for
   myself and for every Believer in Jesus Christ--that the peace of God
   which passes all understanding may now keep our hearts and minds
   through Christ Jesus. May you all know the text by experience. He who
   wrote it had felt it--may we who read it feel it, too. Paul had
   oftentimes enjoyed the brightness of peace in the darkness of a dungeon
   and he had felt living peace in prospect of a sudden and cruel death.
   He loved peace, preached peace, lived in peace, died in peace and,
   behold, he has entered into the fruition of peace and dwells in peace
   before the Throne of God!

   Looking at the text and thinking how we might handle it best to our
   profit, I thought we would notice, first of all, the unspeakable
   privilege--"the peace of God, which passes all understanding." Then,
   secondly, I thought that we might gather, from its connection, the
   method of coming at it, for the preceding sentences are linked to our
   text by the word, "and," which is not an incidental conjunction, but is
   placed there with a purpose. Paul means to say that if we do what he
   bids us do in the 4th, 5th and 6th verses, then the peace of God shall
   keep our hearts and minds. When we have looked at that matter for a few
   minutes, I shall need your careful attention, in the third place, to
   the power of its operation--for the peace of God "shall keep your
   hearts and minds."

   And then we shall close, in the fourth place, by noticing the sphere of
   its action, namely, "in Christ Jesus." The word should have been, "in,"
   rather than, "through"--"shall keep your hearts and minds in Christ
   Jesus." May the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of Peace, now lead us
   into the center and secrets of our text.

   I. First, then, here is AN UNSPEAKABLE PRIVILEGE--one which is very
   hard to speak of because it passes all understanding and, therefore,
   you may be sure it must pass all description! It is one of those things
   which can be more readily experienced than explained. Good Joseph
   Stennett was right when he spoke of those who--

   "Draw from Heaven that sweet repose Which none but he that feels it
   knows." We may talk about inward rest and dilate upon the peace of God.
   We may select the most choice expressions to declare the delicacy of
   its enjoyment, but we cannot convey to others the knowledge second
   hand--they must feel it or they cannot understand it. If I were
   speaking to little children, I would illustrate my point by the story
   of the boy at one of our mission stations who had a piece of sugar cube
   given him one day at school.

   He had never tasted such essence of sweetness and when he went home to
   his father, he told him that he had eaten something which was
   wonderfully sweet. His father said, "Was it as sweet as such-and-such a
   fruit?" "It was far sweeter than that." "Was it as sweet as
   such-and-such a food?" which he mentioned. "It was much sweeter than
   that. But Father," he said, "I cannot explain it." He rushed out of the
   house back to the mission house, begged a piece of sugar out of it and
   brought it back. He then said, "Father, taste and see, and then you
   will know how sweet it is." So I venture to use that simple
   illustration and say, "O taste and see that the peace of God is good,"
   for in very deed it surpasses all the tongues of men and of angels to
   set it forth!

   What is the peace of God? I would describe it, first, by saying it is,
   of course, peace with God. It is peace of conscience, actual peace with
   the Most High through the atoning Sacrifice. Reconciliation,
   forgiveness, restoration to favor there must be--and the soul must be
   aware of it--there can be no peace of God apart from justification
   through the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ received by faith.
   A man conscious of being guilty can never know the peace of God till he
   becomes equally conscious of being forgiven. When his consciousness of
   pardon shall become as strong and vivid as his consciousness of guilt
   had been, then will he enter into the enjoyment of the peace of God
   which passes all understanding!

   Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ--you that have believed in
   Jesus--there is perfect peace between you and God now--"Therefore being
   justified by faith, we have peace with God." Your sin was the ground of
   the quarrel, but it has gone. It has ceased to be! It is blotted out!
   It is cast into the depth of the sea! As far as the east is from the
   west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us! Our Divine
   Scapegoat has carried our iniquities into the wilderness. Our Lord and
   Master has finished transgression, made an end of sin. He has brought
   in everlasting righteousness. The cause of offense is gone and gone
   forever--Jesus has taken our guilt, has suffered in our place, has made
   full compensation to the injured Law and vindicated Justice to the very
   highest--and now there is nothing which can excite the anger of God
   towards us, for our sin is removed and our unrighteousness is covered.

   We are reconciled to God by Christ Jesus and accepted in the Beloved.
   Now this actual reconciliation brings to the heart a profound sense of
   peace. O that all of you possessed it! O that those who know it knew it
   more fully! Remember, O Soul, if Christ did, indeed, suffer in your
   place and was made a curse for you, Justice can never require at your
   hands the penalty which your Surety has discharged, for this would be
   to dishonor His Sacrifice by making it of no effect! If Jesus stood as
   your Substitute and bore what God required as the vindication of His
   Law, then you are clear, beyond all doubt clear forever, saved in the
   Lord with an everlasting salvation!

   If it were not so, why was there a Substitute permitted? Did God design
   to tantalize mankind by permitting an ineffectual substitution? What
   did He accomplish if He did not save those for whom He died? What
   meaning is there in the Gospel if it does not reveal an effectual
   Atonement? But truly the Lord Jesus was made sin for us and the
   chastisement of our peace was upon Him and by His stripes we are saved!
   Here the soul rests! At the foot of the Cross it finds a peace it never
   could have found elsewhere. I hope that many of you are now able to
   sing--

   "Jesus was punished in my stead,

   Outside the gate my Surety bled

   To expiate my stain.

   On earth the Godhead deigned to dwell,

   And made of Infinite avail

   The sufferings of the man.

   And was He for such rebels given?

   He was! The Incarnate King of Heaven

   Did for His foes expire!

   Amazed, O earth, the tidings hear

   He bore, that we might never bear

   His Father's righteous ire."

   There take your full of peace, for by this Sacrifice a Covenant of
   Peace is now established between you and your God-- and it is sealed by
   atoning blood.

   "The peace of God, which passes all understanding" also takes a second
   form, namely, that of a consequent peace in the little kingdom within.
   When we know that we are forgiven and that we are at peace with God,
   things within us come to a sudden and delightful change. By nature
   everything in our inner nature is at war with itself--it is a cage of
   evil beasts all tearing and devouring each other. Man is out of
   order--out of order with God, with the universe and with himself. The
   machinery of manhood has fallen into serious disorder--its cogs and
   wheels do not work in due harmony, but miss their touch and stroke. The
   passions, instead of being ruled by reason, often demand to hold the
   reins. Reason, instead of being guided by the knowledge which God
   communicates by His Word, chooses to obey a depraved imagination and
   demands to become a separate power and to judge God Himself!

   There is not a faculty of our nature which is not in rebellion against
   God and, consequently, in a state of confusion with regard to the rest
   of our system. A cruel internal war often rages among our mental
   powers, animal instincts and moral faculties causing distress, fear and
   unhappiness. There is no cure for this but restoring Grace. O Man, you
   cannot get your heart right! You cannot get your conscience right! You
   cannot get your understanding right! You cannot bring your various
   powers to their bearings and make them act in true harmony till first
   you are right with God! The King must occupy the throne and then the
   estate of Mansoul will be duly settled--but till the chief authority
   has due eminence--rebellion and riot will continue.

   When the Lord breathes peace into a man and the Holy Spirit descends
   like a dove to dwell within the soul, then is there quiet--where all
   was chaos, order appears, the man is created anew and becomes a new
   creature in Christ Jesus. And though rebellious lusts still try to get
   the mastery, yet there is now a ruling power which keeps the man in
   order so that within him there is "the peace of God, which passes all
   understanding." This leads on to peace in reference to all outward
   circumstances by reason of our confidence that God orders them all
   rightly and arranges them all for our good. The man who believes in
   Jesus and is reconciled to God has nothing outside of him that he needs
   to fear. Is he poor? He rejoices that Christ makes poor men rich! Does
   he prosper? He rejoices that there is Divine Grace to sanctify his
   prosperity lest it become intoxicating to him!

   Does there lie before him a great trouble? He thanks God for His
   promise that as his day his strength shall be. Does he apprehend the
   loss of friends? He prays that the trial may be averted, for he is
   permitted so to pray, even as David begged for the life of his child.
   But, having so done, he feels sure that God will not take away an
   earthly friend unless it is with kind intent to gather up our trust and
   confidence more fully to Himself. Does there lie before him the
   prospect of speedy death? The hope of resurrection gives peace to his
   dying pillow! He knows that his Redeemer lives and he is content to let
   his body sleep in the dust awhile. Is he reminded by Scripture of a Day
   of Judgment when all hearts shall be

   revealed? He has peace with regard to that dread mystery and all that
   surrounds it, for he knows whom he has believed and he knows that He
   will protect him in that day.

   Whatever may be suggested that might alarm or distress the Believer,
   deep down in his soul he cannot be disturbed because he sees his God at
   the helm of the vessel holding the rudder with a hand which defies the
   storm. This is peculiarly advantageous in days like these when all
   things wear a dreary aspect. The storm signals are flying, the clouds
   are gathering, flashes of lightning and sounds of distant thunder are
   all around us. If you read the papers, wars and rumors of wars are
   incessant! Your eyes light upon narratives of famine and drought. You
   see distress here, slackness of business there and poverty and
   starvation in many places--and the fear creeps over you that there are
   dark days yet to come and seasons in which faces will grow pale and
   hands hang heavy.

   Brothers and Sisters, it is for the Believer, in such a case, to feel
   no dismay, for our God is in the heavens and He does not forsake the
   Throne. His purposes will be fulfilled and good will come out of evil,
   for at this very moment God sits in the council chambers of kings and
   orders all things according to the counsel of His will. We are not
   children whose father has gone to sea and left us at home without a
   guardian. We read just now the words, "I will not leave you
   comfortless: I will come to you," and we believe that gracious Word of
   God! God is most near us and we are most safe. Though we cannot see the
   future and do not wish to pry between the folded leaves of the book of
   destiny, we are absolutely certain that nothing is written upon the
   unopened page of the future which can contradict the Divine
   faithfulness so conspicuous in the past. We are sure that all things
   work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the
   called according to His purpose--and therefore our soul, as to all
   external circumstances, casts anchor and enjoys the peace of God which
   passes all understanding.

   Nor is this all. God is pleased to give to His people peace in
   reference to all His commands. While the soul is unregenerate, it
   rebels against the mind and will of God. If God forbids, the unrenewed
   heart longs for the forbidden thing. If God commands, the natural mind,
   for that very reason, refuses to do it! But when the change takes place
   and we are reconciled to God by the death of His Son, then, Beloved, we
   drop into the same line with God and our deepest desire is to abide in
   full harmony with Him. His will becomes our delight and our only sorrow
   is that we cannot be perfectly conformed to it. There is no precept of
   God which is grievous to a gracious heart. His statutes are our songs
   in the house of our pilgrimage. We also feel perfect peace with regard
   to God's providential doings because we believe that they are helping
   us to arrive at conformity with Him--and that is just what we want.

   Oh that we could never have a thought or wish, from now on, that would
   be disagreeable to the Lord! We love Him, we love His ways, we love His
   people, we love His Word, we love His Day, we love His promises, we
   love His Laws--we are altogether agreed with Him through His rich
   Grace--and in this sense we have a peace towards God which passes all
   understanding. What a wonderful description that is of this peace--it
   "passes all understanding." It is not only beyond a common
   understanding, but it passes all understanding. Some have said it means
   that the ungodly man cannot understand it. That statement is true, but
   it is not a tenth of the whole meaning, for even he who enjoys it
   cannot understand it! It is deeper, it is broader, it is sweeter, it is
   more heavenly than the joyful saint, himself, can tell. He enjoys what
   he cannot understand! What a mercy that such a thing is possible, for
   otherwise our joys would be narrow, indeed! Reason has limits far more
   narrow than joy. Truly this peace is hid from the eyes of the ungodly
   and the unbelieving--it is far above, out of their sight.

   Now, there are kinds of peace in the world which the ungodly man can
   understand. There were the Stoics who schooled themselves to
   apathy--they would not feel and so they attained a senseless
   peace--their secret is easily discovered, it does not pass
   understanding. Many a Red Indian has been as stolid as the greatest
   Stoic and has, perhaps, surpassed him in hardening himself so that he
   would not groan if pierced with arrows or burned with fire. Some men
   have had such mastery over themselves that it has seemed a matter of
   perfect indifference whether they suffered pain or not.

   But Christianity does not teach us stoicism, nor does it point in that
   direction. It cultivates tenderness, not insensibility. Its influence
   tends to make us sensitive rather than callous and gives us a peace
   consistent with the utmost delicacy of feeling, yes, with a
   sensitiveness more intense than other men know since it makes our
   conscience more tender and causes the mind to be deeply distressed by
   the slightest frown of Heaven. Our peace is not the peace of apathy,
   but one of a far nobler sort. Others have aimed at the peace of levity,
   which the world can readily understand. They count it

   one of the wisest things to drive dull care away and whatever happens
   of ill they drown reflection of it in the flowing bowl and laugh over
   it--making mirth when misery devours their souls.

   Christians do not attempt to get rid of the trials of life in that
   fashion. The world, therefore, cannot understand the Believer's peace
   since he is neither apathetic nor frivolous. From where does this peace
   come? The jaunty answer of many a worldling is, "Oh, it comes from some
   fanatical delusion." But, indeed, we are not deluded. The grounds of a
   Christian's peace are rational, logical and well grounded. They are to
   be justified by common sense. A person who has been in debt and who is
   still in debt, ought not to be at peace. But suppose a man is found to
   be perfectly at his ease-- who can blame him if he can say, "I have a
   right to be so, for my debt is paid"? No one can challenge such an
   argument!

   He who believes that Christ Jesus suffered in his place that which was
   due to God's justice has a rational argument for being at peace which
   he may plead anywhere he pleases. God has forgiven, for Christ's sake,
   all his iniquity--why should he not be at peace? And if it is, indeed,
   so--that the Christian has become the child of God--ought he not to be
   at peace? If God his Father rules all things for his good, ought he not
   to be at peace? If for him there remains no danger of eternal death--if
   for him there is prepared a glorious resurrection--and if he is
   ultimately to shine with Christ in eternal Glory, why should not the
   man have peace? It is far more difficult, I should think, to rationally
   blame him for his happiness than it would be to justify him if he were
   in alarm. We are not victims of delusion but speak the words of the
   Truth of God and soberness when we claim to be the most favored of
   mankind! The folly and the fanaticism lie with those who neglect God,
   eternity and make a mockery of sin. And so the worldling does not
   understand our peace and frequently sneers at it because he is puzzled
   by it.

   Even the Christian is sometimes surprised at his own peacefulness. I
   know what it is to suffer from terrible depression of spirit at times,
   yet at the very moment when it has seemed to me that life was not worth
   one single bronze coin, I have been perfectly peaceful with regard to
   all the greater things. There is a possibility of having the surface of
   the mind lashed into storm while yet down deep in the caverns of one's
   inmost consciousness all is still--I know this by experience. There are
   earthquakes upon this earth and yet our globe pursues the even tenor of
   its way and the same is true in the little world of a Believer's
   nature. Why, sometimes a Christian will feel himself to be so flooded
   with a delicious peace that he could not express his rapture! He is
   almost afraid to sing, lest even the sound of his voice should break
   the spell. But he says to himself--

   "Come, then, expressive silence, muse His praise." Satan has breathed a
   whisper into the mind--"It is too good to be true," but the spirit,
   firmly believing in the truthfulness of God, has repelled the
   insinuation and rested in the faithfulness of God, in the Eternal
   Covenant, in the finished work of Christ, in the love of God manifested
   towards His people in Christ Jesus. This is the peace of God. "So He
   gives His beloved sleep." It is a rest with an emphasis--rest in Jesus'
   sense when He said--"Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy
   laden, and I will give you rest." His rest in the most golden sense
   that we can ever give to the word and much more! It passes
   understanding, but it does not surpass experience! Do you know it? I
   pray you will answer the question, each one for himself, for I must
   come back to where I started from. It is not to be described--it must
   be tested to be known.

   II. Now, I must, in the second place, with very much brevity, indicate,
   beloved Friends, HOW THIS PEACE IS TO BE OBTAINED. Now, mark you, the
   Apostle was addressing himself only to Believers in the Lord Jesus and
   I must beg you to take heed to the limitation. I am not addressing
   myself to the ungodly--I speak only to Christians. You are always at
   peace with God though you do not always enjoy the sense of it. If you
   wish to realize it, how are you to do so? The connection tells you. In
   the 4th verse Paul says, "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say,
   Rejoice." If you want to have peace of mind, make God your Joy and
   place all your joy in God!

   You cannot rejoice in yourself, but you ought to rejoice in God. You
   cannot always rejoice in your circumstances, for they greatly vary, but
   the Lord never changes. "Rejoice in the Lord always." If you have
   rejoicing in earthly things you must indulge it moderately. But
   rejoicing in the Lord may be used without the possibility of excess,
   for the Apostle adds, "Again I say, Rejoice"--rejoice and rejoice
   again! Delight yourselves in the Lord. Who has such a God as you have?
   "Their rock is not as our Rock, our enemies themselves being judges."
   Who has such a Friend, such a Father, such a Savior, such a Comforter
   as you have in the Lord your God? To think of God as our exceeding Joy
   is to find "the peace of God which passes all understanding."

   Go on to the 5th Verse, where the Apostle says, "Let your moderation be
   known unto all men." That is to say, While all your joy is in God, deal
   with all earthly things on the principle of caution. If any man praises
   you, do not exult. If, on the contrary, you are censured, do not let
   your spirit sink. If you have prosperity, thank God for it, but do not
   be assured that it will continue. If property is yours, use it, but do
   not let it become your treasure or the chief consideration of your
   mind. Do you suffer adversity? Pray God to help you, but do not be so
   cast down as to despair. Drink of earthly cups by sips--do not be
   foolish like the fly which drowns itself in sweets. Use the things of
   time as not abusing them. Do not wade far out into the dangerous sea of
   this world's comfort. Take the good that God provides you, but say of
   it, "It passes away," for, indeed, it is but a temporary supply for a
   temporary need. Never suffer your goods to become your god. Rejoice
   only in God and as for all else, come or go, rise or fall, let it
   neither distress you nor make you exult. Take matters quietly and
   calmly and if you do that you will have peace. If you idolize any
   earthly good, your peace will depart. Keep the world under your feet
   and the peace of God shall keep your heart and mind.

   Three rules are then added by the Apostle which you will be sure to
   remember. He tells us to be careful for nothing, to be prayerful for
   everything and to be thankful for anything. Anyone who can keep these
   three rules, with the other two, will be quite sure to have a peaceful
   mind. "Be careful for nothing." That is, leave your care with God.
   Having done your best to provide things honest in the sight of all men,
   take no distressing, disturbing, anxious thought about anything, but
   cast your burden on the Lord. Then pray about everything, little, as
   well as great--joyous, as well as sad. "In everything by prayer and
   supplication let your requests be made known unto God." That which you
   pray over will have the sting taken out of it if it is evil and the
   sweetness of it will be sanctified if it is good. The tribulation which
   you pray over will become bearable even if it is not changed into a
   subject for rejoicing. A trouble prayed over is a dead lion with honey
   in the carcass!

   And then we are bid to be thankful for anything, for the Apostle says,
   "In everything, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto
   God." Thankfulness is the great promoter of peace--it is the mother and
   nurse of restfulness. Doubtless our peace is often broken because we
   receive mercies from God without acknowledging them-- neglected praises
   sour into unquiet forebodings. If we render to the Lord the fragrant
   incense of holy gratitude we shall find our soul perfumed with the
   sweet peace of God. Take those five things, then, as the connection
   sets them before you. Pile up all your joy into the sacred storehouse
   of your God and be glad in the Lord.

   Next, leave, as much as you can, the things of this world alone--touch
   them with a light finger--"Let your moderation be known unto all men."
   And then pray much, care for nothing and bless God from morning to
   night! In such an atmosphere shall peace grow as rare flowers and
   fruits bloom beneath sunny skies in well-watered gardens. May the Holy
   Spirit work these things in us and cause us to rest.

   III. This brings me to the third point of our subject tonight, which is
   THE OPERATION OF THIS BLESSED PRIVILEGE UPON OUR HEARTS. It is said
   that the peace of God will keep our hearts and minds. The Greek word is
   phroureo, which signifies keeping guard, keeping as with a garrison so
   completely and so effectually does the peace of God keep our hearts and
   minds. Look, then--our hearts need keeping, keeping from sinking, for
   our poor spirits are very apt to faint, even under small trials. They
   also need keeping from wandering, for how soon are they beguiled! What
   feeble charms are able to attract us away from the altogether lovely
   One! Our hearts need keeping up and keeping right.

   The way to keep the heart, according to the text, is to let it be
   filled with the peace of God which passes all understanding. A quiet
   spirit--calm, restful, happy--is one that will neither sink nor
   wander--how can it? If the peace of God is in you, what can cause you
   distress? You will be like those great buoys moored out at sea which
   cannot sink. It matters not what storms may be raging, they always rise
   above all. Our souls, moored fast and rendered buoyant with peace, will
   be as fixed marks whereby others may know their way. Moreover, a man
   who has his heart full of peace is not likely to wander, for he says to
   himself, "Why should I wander? Where can such sweetness be found as I
   have tasted in my Lord? Why should I seek elsewhere?" The best way to
   keep a person in your service is to make it worth his while to stay and
   if he is so happy and so content that he feels he could not better
   himself, you are likely to retain him for many a long day.

   Now, our Lord and Master has made His service such that we could not
   better ourselves. When He said to some of His servants, "Will you,
   also, go away?" They said, "To whom shall we go?" Ah, indeed! To whom
   could we go? Eyes, will you leave the light for the thick darkness?
   Ears, will you turn away from the music of Jesus' voice? Heart, will
   you

   leave a faithful lover for a deceiver? Understanding, will you go
   abroad after novelties when you have found the old, sure, satisfactory
   Truth of God? Conscience, will you burden yourself, again, with your
   former load? When you are so perfectly satisfied with the work and
   Person of Christ, will you not stay where you are? Oh yes, the heart is
   held with bands as strong as they are tender when it is full of the
   peace of God which passes understanding!

   You young people get tempted, I know, and who among us does not? And
   the world has many charms for you. I recommend you, therefore, pray to
   the Lord to maintain your happiness in Christ, your joy in the Lord. If
   you get out of heart with regard to your Lord and Master, it may be the
   devil may catch you when you are bad tempered and cross-grained towards
   your great Lord--and entice you away from your allegiance. But if your
   heart is always peaceful, you will have a strength about you with which
   to resist the suggestions of the Evil One. Rivets of peace are good
   fasteners for Christian loyalty. It is a very serious thing for a
   Christian to be in an uncomfortable state, for he is then weak in an
   important point. "Comfort you, comfort you, My people," are God's words
   to His Prophets, because He knows that when we lose comfort, or lose
   peace, we lose one of the most valuable pieces of armor of which our
   panoply is composed. But the text also adds that this will keep our
   mind as well as our heart.

   Now in all ages we find that the minds of Christians have been apt to
   be disturbed and vexed upon vital Truths of God. I think, sometimes,
   that this is the worst age for error which has ever darkened the world.
   I get distressed and bowed to the earth as I see the treachery of
   ministers, professed ministers of Christ, who deny the Inspiration of
   Scripture and lay the axe at the very root of all the doctrines which
   we hold dear while they continue to occupy Christian pulpits. But when
   I look back all through history I find it was always so. From the days
   of Judas Iscariot until now there have been traitors and there have
   been men of ready speech and of quick thought who have used both fair
   speech and subtle thought to turn away simple minds from the Gospel, in
   that they would deceive, if it were possible, the very elect!

   But why are not the elect deceived? As a rule it is because they find
   such peace--such perfect peace--in the Truths of God which they have
   received, that deceivers vainly attempt to entice them away from it.
   "Ah," cries the restful Believer, "I cannot give up the Gospel. It is
   my life, my strength, my solace, my all! It was the comfort of my dying
   mother and it remains the mainstay of my aged father. It was that which
   brought me to a Savior's feet and gives me Grace to remain there. It
   has helped me in the hour of trial again and again. I feel I need its
   consolations and, therefore, I can never part with it." And so he grows
   indignant with the man who casts a doubt, especially if he is of the
   clerical order and a pretender to the Christian ministry. Brothers and
   Sisters, we cannot move one single inch from the Truth which we have
   been taught by the Holy Spirit in our soul--and it is only such Truth
   as that which can bring into the heart the peace of God which passes
   understanding!

   When the Lord has brought His own Truth into our minds by His own power
   and made the sweet savor of it to pervade our frame--and when He has
   given us to drink thereof till we have been filled with joy and peace
   unutterable-- we cannot, then, depart from it! Truth taught us by man
   we may forget, but that which the Holy Spirit engraves upon the inmost
   heart we cannot depart from. So help us God, we must stand to it even
   if we die for it! And what are the inventions they offer us instead of
   the choice things of the Covenant of Peace? They are trifles light as
   air! If they were true they would not be worth propagating--they might
   be left among the minor matters which are of no practical value to the
   sons of men.

   They bring us no new grounds of solid peace or fresh discovered
   arguments for holy joy. The negative theology promises no blessings to
   mankind. It is an empty-handed plunderer, robbing us of every solace
   and offering nothing in return. If modern thought could be proved to be
   true, the next thing that ought to be done would be to hang the world
   in sackcloth because such vanity of vanities has taken the place of the
   delightful Truth of God which once gladdened the hearts of men! It
   would be the saddest of all facts if we were assured that the Doctrines
   of Grace are, after all, a fiction. But they are not so. They cannot
   be! They bear their own witness within themselves. Some of us can speak
   about them as Christian replied to Atheist, when Atheist said, "Go
   back! Go back!" Christian's reply was, "We are seeking the Celestial
   City." "Oh," said Atheist, "but I have gone farther than any of you and
   I tell you that there is no such place. I have met with many learned
   men who have studied the whole matter and it is all a delusion. Go
   back! Bo back!"

   Then Christian said, "What? No Celestial City? Did we not see it from
   the top of Mount Clear, when we were with the shepherds and looked
   through the telescopic glass?" So we say--No Atonement? Have we not
   felt the peace with which it soothes the conscience? No regeneration?
   Are we not, ourselves, the living evidence that men are made new

   creatures in Christ Jesus? No answers to prayer? Surely, then, we are
   not sane men at all and our senses have failed us! No final
   perseverance? What, then, has kept us to this day? No work of the Holy
   Spirit? What? Are we asleep? Is even our existence a delusion? No, as
   we rub our eyes, we feel that we have not been dreaming! We feel sure
   that some other people are dozing and doting--and we pray that God, in
   mercy, may end their dream and bring them to know those glorious and
   substantial Truths which fill us with the peace of God which passes all
   understanding!

   We are bound to the Cross forever! We are nailed to the wood with
   Christ forever! The blood-red colors of the Atonement are fastened to
   our masthead, to fly there till our vessel sinks, if sink it must, but
   never to be struck by man or devil, priest or philosopher! We dare not
   change, but stand faithful to that which Jesus has taught us, at whose
   feet we sat in our youth and who still continues to teach us! His peace
   keeps our heart and mind and, therefore, we will, with heart and mind,
   keep His Truth, come what may.

   IV. Lastly, let us observe THE SPHERE OF ITS ACTION. The text says, "In
   Christ Jesus." Now, Beloved, I beg you to note this with interest. The
   Apostle never mentions the name of Jesus too often. You cannot say that
   he drags it in, but he mentions it as often as he can, for he delights
   in the sound of it. "In Christ Jesus." These words touch every point of
   our text all the way through. Are we speaking of ourselves? We are in
   Christ Jesus! Our faith has realized our union with His sacred Person.
   He is our Head and we are His members. He is the Cornerstone and we are
   built upon Him. There is nothing about ourselves worth thinking of
   apart from Him--and it will be well if we dismiss the thought.

   Then if we dwell upon the peace of God, we still think of our Lord
   Jesus, for it is all in Him. No peace is to be found out of Christ! No
   peace can warm our heart while we forget Christ! "He is our peace."
   Never go, dear Brothers and Sisters, for your peace to the Law or to
   your own experience--to your own past achievements, or even to your own
   faith! All your peace is in Jesus. And then our hearts and our minds,
   mentioned in the text, must all be in Jesus--the heart loving Him and
   loved of Him. The mind believing Him, resting in Him, using its
   faculties for Him--all in Him! If I leave that last thought with you it
   will be the best ending for my sermon, namely, that to get peace and to
   get your hearts and minds kept, the grand necessity is to be in
   Christ--in your dying, risen, reigning Lord! Let Him be upon your
   thoughts now and always! His table is now spread, come here to commune
   with Him. Come here with your Master, to see your Master and to eat His
   flesh and drink His blood, after a spiritual fashion, at His own table!

   A word to you who do not know our Lord. How I wish you did know Him!
   You can never possess peace till you possess Christ! What a blessed
   beginning of Sabbaths it would be to your souls if you were to seek
   Christ tonight. You have not far to go to find Him. He is not far from
   any of us. Cover your eyes and breathe a prayer to Him. Stand behind
   one of the columns outside or get into the street and let your heart
   say, "Savior, I need peace, and peace I can never have till I have
   found You. Behold, I trust You. Manifest Yourself to me at this moment
   and say unto my soul, 'I am your salvation.'" God grant you may so
   pray!

   It seems to me very amazing that we should need to persuade men to
   think of their own interests and to care for their own selves! In other
   things they are always sharp enough to look after what they call,
   "Number One," but when it comes to the most solemn concern--the
   greatest blessing and the purest happiness that can be had--they are so
   foolish as to let all other things attract them more than the Lord
   Jesus! The Lord save you all for His infinite mercy's sake! Amen.

   [EARNEST prayer is desired for the special services now being held at
   the Tabernacle and also for Mr. SPURGEON, that he may be fully restored
   and may return to his people in the fullness of the blessing of the
   Gospel of peace. He is, by God's Grace, already greatly improved in
   health.]
     __________________________________________________________________

Offended Because of Christ?

   (No. 1398)

   DELIVERED BY

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me." Matthew 11:6.

   THE connection of the passage assists us in feeling its force. John had
   sent his disciples to ask the Master whether He was, indeed, the
   Messiah. The Savior, after giving abundant proof that He was the Sent
   One who had long been promised, then adds, "And blessed is he who is
   not offended because of Me." Had John begun to suspect a stumbling
   block in reference to the Nazarene? Did he question if so lowly a
   Person could, indeed, be the promised Christ? Had he expected Messiah
   to be a glorious prince with an earthly kingdom? Was he staggered to
   find himself in prison under Herod's power? Was John, himself in doubt
   and did the Savior, therefore, say, "Blessed is he who is not made to
   stumble concerning anything about Me"?

   There have been many suggestions as to why John sent his disciples and,
   perhaps, we shall never know why. And we need not wish to know, seeing
   it did not please God to leave it on record. Some have said he sent the
   messengers for his own sake, for he was then under a fainting fit of
   unbelief. I hardly think so and yet, it is possible, for John was an
   Elijahlike man--a man of stern iron mold--and such men are apt to have
   occasional sinking of a terrible sort. With most of the children of
   God, their weakness is most seen where their strength lies. Elijah
   failed in courage though he was one of the most courageous of men!
   After he had slain the priests of Baal, he was afraid of a
   woman--afraid of Jezebel--and fled to hide himself. He said, "Let me
   die! I am no better than my fathers."

   It seems to be a law of Nature that the strongest men should have the
   worst fits of weakness. Martin Luther's life is remarkable as
   illustrating this. He fainted as few men ever fainted--his despair, on
   some occasions, was almost equal to his confidence at other times! So
   it is possible that John, being of that class of men, after having
   boldly confronted Herod and declaring, "It is not lawful for you to
   have your brother's wife," may have fainted in spirit when he found
   himself shut up in prison with no known and manifest token of Messiah's
   kingdom coming. Prison may have been a severe trial to the Baptist--we
   are all affected by the atmosphere in which we dwell.

   Today has been a very heavy day to many a spirit because the atmosphere
   has been loaded with damp and smoke. I believe that there is more than
   a little truth in the rhyme--

   "Hea viest the heart is In a heavy air, Every wind that rises Blows
   away despair."

   Now John the Baptist, after living in the wilderness in the open air by
   the riverside, must have felt a strange difference when he was shut up
   in the close, oppressive dungeon of Herod--and the body may have helped
   to act upon the soul. And so the mind, after its extraordinary tension
   in the great service to which John was called, may have been dragged
   down by the half-stifled body till faith began to tremble. And so it
   may be that John, for his own satisfaction, found it necessary to ask,
   "Are You He that should come, or do we look for another?" If so, the
   Savior well said, "Blessed is he that is not offended because of Me,"
   for, after all, notwithstanding his severe trial and deep depression,
   John was not really offended because of Christ. He was not actually
   scandalized because of the Lord whose forerunner he had been, but he
   held on to his testimony and sealed it with his death. Blessed is his
   memory as that of one who was not offended because of Christ!

   Others, however, think that John sent these disciples not at all for
   his own sake, but for theirs. That strikes me as being the more
   probable. He wished to transfer them from himself to his Lord and he,
   therefore, bade them go and enquire for themselves. He felt that the
   answer which Jesus would be sure to give would be the best means of
   convincing them that they ought to follow the servant no longer, but
   cast in their lot with his Master. Our Lord, after showing that

   He was, indeed, the Messiah, by working miracles in their presence and
   preaching the Gospel, then said to them, "And blessed is he who is not
   offended because of Me. You see Me here despised and rejected of men,
   notwithstanding that I work miracles. You see that I am called
   Beelzebub and treated with the utmost scorn. You shall be blessed if,
   believing Me to be the Christ of God, you follow Me without being
   staggered at anything you see, or annoyed at anything you are called to
   bear for My sake."

   Whatever may have been John's motive, the text will, I trust, serve us
   for a useful purpose. May we be among the number of those who are
   blessed because we are not offended because of Christ. And let us now
   look at various characters that we may know to which class we belong.
   First, there are some who are so offended because of Christ that they
   never accept Him as their Savior at all. Secondly, there is another
   class of persons who, after professing to accept Him and apparently
   casting in their lot with Him, are, after all, scandalized. They find
   stumbling blocks and go back and forsake the way which they professed
   to tread. But then, thirdly, there are others who, by the Grace of God,
   take Christ as He is with all their hearts and are not offended because
   of Him. These are they that are blessed in very deed and shall enter
   into eternal blessedness in Heaven!

   I. First, then, I shall try to speak and God help me to speak
   effectually, TO SOME WHO ARE SO OFFENDED BECAUSE OF CHRIST THAT THEY
   NEVER TRUST HIM AT ALL, OR ACCEPT HIM AS THEIR SAVIOR. Let us tell the
   reasons why some men do not receive Christ and are offended because of
   Him. O that the Spirit of God may drive these unreasonable reasons from
   their souls and lead them to Jesus! Some in His own day were offended
   with Him because of the humbleness of His appearance. They said, "He is
   the son of a carpenter. His father and His mother we know and His
   brothers, are they not all with us? When Messiah comes, we know not
   from where He is, but as for this Man, we know from where He is."

   He came among them as a mere peasant. He wore the ordinary raiment of
   the people. A garment without seam, woven from the top throughout,
   served His purpose. No soft raiment and gorgeous apparel decorated and
   distinguished Him. He did not affect any dignity. He came with no
   chariot and horses and pomp of a prince. He was meek and lowly. Even in
   the grandest day of His triumph, He rode upon a colt, the foal of an
   ass and, therefore, they said, "Is this the Son of David? Is this the
   King, the glorious One of whom Prophets spoke in ages long gone by?"
   And so they were scandalized and offended because of Him because there
   was a lack of that earthly glory and splendor for which they had
   looked.

   Men feel the same today. There are some who would be Christians, but
   then Christianity must be a very respectable thing--and if the Truth of
   God is to be found among poor people, well, then, the Truth of God may
   be for them, but they will not go with them to hear a plain preacher
   and mix with common people! If the Truth of God walks the streets in
   silver slippers, then they do not mind acknowledging it and walking
   with it--but if it toils in rags through the back streets and by miry
   pathways--then they say, "I pray you have me excused." The religion of
   Jesus Christ never was, nor ever can be, the religion of this present
   evil world. He has chosen a people out of the world who believe it, but
   the world itself has always hated it. Did not our Lord tell us (John
   14:17), concerning the Spirit of Truth, that the world cannot receive
   Him because it sees Him not, neither knows Him? Whenever you find a
   religion which unites itself with pomp, show and worldly power, if
   there is any truth in it at all, it has, at any rate, deteriorated from
   the standard of its purity and is not according to the mind of Christ.

   But there are some who are so fond of everything that is
   fashionable--everything that is great and famous--that, if the Lord
   Jesus Christ is despised and rejected of men, they despise and reject
   Him, too. Ah, but I hope that I address some to whom the Lord has given
   a nobler spirit! I hope some men and women are here, tonight, who will
   never reject the Truth because it is unfashionable, or refuse to follow
   Christ because He is despised. No, but the noble spirit says, "Is it
   right? Then I will espouse it. Is it true? Then I will believe it in
   the name of God. Though it may mean poverty and shame, yet that is the
   side on which I will enlist." There is a nobler chivalry than all the
   chivalry of war--it is the chivalry of the heart that dares be nailed
   to the Cross with Christ sooner than turn aside to seek flowery
   pathways and follow the trail of the serpent. Many reject Christ
   because of the humbleness of His exterior. Who is on the Lord's side
   and will dare declare it before a scoffing world?

   Again, there are others who reject Him because of the fewness of His
   followers. They like to go where many go and they say, "Well, but there
   are so few that go that way, I do not wish to be singular." Yet every
   honest heart must admit

   that truth could never yet be decided by votes, for, as a rule, it has
   been in the minority. If we are to count heads we must go to the Pope,
   or the Sultan, or the Brahmin. For my part I think that a minority of
   one with Christ is stronger than a majority of fifty millions against
   Him, for Christ, the Son of God, in His own Person, sums up a total
   greater than all the multitudes that ever can be against Him! There are
   some who quite forget that our Lord has said, "Broad is the way that
   leads to destruction and many there are which go in that way." And
   again, "Strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leads unto life,
   and few there are that find it."

   The way that leads to eternal life, though it is the King's highway, is
   often as little frequented as a country lane. If you must be on the
   side of the majority, then you will certainly be on the side of deadly
   error unless there should come some happier times when the Lord has
   more greatly increased the number of His people than at the present!
   May you be spared to see such days, but those days have not come as
   yet--and if you will not go with the Lord until the multitudes are with
   Him--you will perish in your sin! Do not, I pray, stumble at Him
   because of this. Some are offended with Christ for quite another
   reason, namely, because of the grandeur of His claims. He claims to be
   God over all, blessed forever. He counted it not robbery to be equal
   with God, though He made Himself of no reputation and took upon Him the
   form of a Servant.

   Now some spirits quibble greatly at this. They did so in His own day.
   They took up stones to stone Him because He made Himself equal with
   God. Proud, carnally wise minds cannot endure the doctrine that the
   Redeemer is co-equal and co-eternal with the Father, very God of very
   God! To my mind it is a reason why I accept Him! If He were not God,
   how could He save me? The weight of my sins would stagger all the
   angels and cherubim and seraphim if they should try to lift it! I must
   have a God to save me, or saved I can never be! And to me it is the
   greatest consolation possible that He who was the son of Mary is also
   the Son of God--that though human, even as we are human, sin
   excepted--He was altogether Divine. Oh do not--do not be offended with
   Him because of this, but rather rejoice in Immanuel, God With Us--and
   trust your soul into His hands!

   A certain number of unconverted men are grievously offended with our
   Lord because of His Atonement. This which to us is the very center of
   all His excellence--that He saves us by standing in our place and
   bearing the wrath of God on our behalf--this is dreadfully kicked at by
   some. And I have heard these fastidious people finding fault with
   ministers for talking too much of the blood. They cannot endure the
   term, "the precious blood of Christ." We shall never listen to their
   fastidiousness, not for a single moment! And if we knew such to be
   present, we would go out of our way, on purpose, to shock them because
   we think that no respect should be shown to such a wicked taste! If the
   doctrine of the Atonement is kicked at, the answer of Christ's minister
   should be to preach the Atonement again and again and again in the
   plainest possible terms--and declare with even greater vigor and
   frequency the glorious substitutionary Sacrifice of our Lord Jesus
   Christ in the place of His people!

   This is the very heart of the Gospel and should be preached in your
   hearing at least every Lord's Day! Leave that out? You have left out
   the life of the Gospel, for "the blood is the life thereof." Without
   shedding of blood there is no remission and, therefore, as remission is
   the great privilege of the Gospel, we have no salvation to declare and
   we have no remission to preach unless the blood--

   "From His riven side which flowed" is continually set forth before you
   Oh, why should men quibble at that which is their salvation? If they
   ever are redeemed, it must be, "not with corruptible things as silver
   and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ." If they ever are
   cleansed from all sin, it must be because of that Divine declaration,
   "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin." May we
   never stumble at Christ because of His Cross, for that were to reject
   our only hope! That were to quarrel with our life! That were to insist
   upon shutting the gates of mercy upon our own souls! That were to
   become enemies to our best Friend and to ourselves! God save us from
   such an infatuation as that!

   We have found a good many, also, who are offended because of Christ for
   a different reason altogether, namely, because of the graciousness of
   the Gospel. It has too much free Grace in it for them. They would like
   a mingle-mangle of Grace and works. You will constantly hear it said
   that the doctrine of Justification by Faith is very dangerous and ought
   to be preached with great caution. Occasionally our secular papers,
   which, as you know, understand a great deal about religion, will
   instruct us as to what we should preach. The moral virtues ought to be
   our main theme and Justification by Faith should be so qualified as to
   be virtually denied. It is very wrong, they say, to sing that hymn--

   "Nothing, either great or small, Nothing, Sinner, no! Jesus did it, did
   it all, Long, long ago."

   And to tell the sinner that until he believes in Jesus Christ--

   "Doing is a deadly thing: Doing ends in death,"

   is regarded as a crime so manifest that it needs only to be mentioned
   and every reader of the paper will be dreadfully shocked! And yet the
   editor of the paper, or the writer, probably calls himself a
   Protestant, and Justification by Faith is the one doctrine upon which
   all Protestantism turns! Very likely the writer of the stinging article
   calls himself a churchman and yet even the doctrine of the Church of
   England about that matter is as plain as words could possibly make it.

   Yes, and then they suppose us to be some modern sect of revivalists
   that have newly sprung up, although we are preaching that which is and
   always was the Gospel--the doctrine by which you may test whether a
   Church stands or falls--salvation, not by the works of the Law--but
   according to the Grace of God! Crowds of people cannot endure Grace!
   And as to the term, "free Grace," they say that it is a tautological
   expression! It may be so, but it is a very expressive term and because
   they do not like it, I always intend to use it! It will do them good to
   be made to know that we mean it and, therefore, use doubly strong
   language. It shall not only be, "gratis," which is free, but, "free
   gratis!" And we will, one of these days, put something else on to make
   it plainer still, if possible, and say, "free, gratis, for nothing!"

   Salvation through eternal love, salvation through mercy
   alone--salvation, not of merit, salvation, not of the will of man, nor
   of blood, nor of the flesh--but salvation by the eternal purpose of
   Divine Sovereignty! Salvation by the will of God, who has said, "I will
   have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on
   whom I will have compassion"--this we will, by the Grace of God, always
   preach! Grace free as the air, spontaneous, undeserved, but given of
   God because He delights in mercy! Yes, they kick against this but, if
   they knew themselves, they would know that nothing else will ever suit
   the sinner but this!

   He who has broken the Divine Law is never in a right state of heart
   till he feels salvation by himself to be hopeless! When he is shut up
   in the condemned cell and hears the sentence read against him
   condemning him to die and knows that nothing he can do, can, by any
   possible means, reverse that sentence--and then sees Jesus interposing
   in all the freeness of His love and saying, "Now you have nothing to
   pay. I frankly forgive you all"--then, I say, he realizes that Free
   Grace is the glory of the Gospel! Do not be offended with it, I pray
   you, or you will be offended with your own life!

   Then, on the other hand, there is another class of persons who are
   offended with our blessed Lord and Master because of the holiness of
   His precepts. Alas that there should be traitors in the camp who can
   get on very well with Grace and Free Grace, but then, alas, they turn
   it into licentiousness and take liberty to sin because of the freeness
   of Divine Mercy. If you begin to declare that, "Without holiness no man
   shall see the Lord." If you preach, as Jesus did, that he who forgives
   not his brother abides in death. If you tell them that the omission of
   these outward virtues will prove that the inward life is absent. If you
   declare that the axe is laid to the root of the trees and every tree
   that brings not forth good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire. If
   you go on to insist upon it that there must be the outward marks and
   evidences of saintship or else the pretense of experience is a mere
   lie--then, by-and-by, they are offended and exhibit a bitter spirit!

   Oh that none of us may act so. The highest holiness is the delight of
   the true Believer. If he could be absolutely perfect, he would rejoice
   above measure! It will be his Heaven to be perfect--and the one thing
   he strives after here below is to get the mastery over all sin--not
   that he hopes to be saved by that, but because he is saved and, being
   saved, out of love to Jesus Christ he desires to adorn the doctrine of
   God His Savior in all things! May we never be offended by the purity
   and perfection of our Lord and His teaching! I might continue this long
   list of things by which men have been offended with Christ--some
   because the Gospel is so mysterious, they say, and others because it is
   so very simple that it is not deep enough for such great intellects as
   theirs. Men, if they want to be offended because of Christ, will be
   sure to find something or other to quarrel with. They stumble at this
   stumbling stone, "Whereunto also," says the Lord very solemnly, "they
   were appointed." They put this stumbling block in their own way and God
   appoints that they shall fall. They fall upon it now and are
   broken--and one of these days that stone will fall on them and grind
   them to powder!

   My dear Hearers, I cannot stay longer on this subject, but if there are
   any of you that are offended because of Christ, I pray the Lord will
   make you feel your extreme folly and wickedness. Offended with the
   Redeemer? What madness! May you go and confess this insult to your
   Savior and accept Him at this very moment as your All in All!

   II. Now I want to speak to professing Christians. THERE ARE SOME WHO
   JOIN THE CHURCH OF JESUS

   CHRIST WHO, AFTER A TIME, ARE OFFENDED. Now, why is it that some who
   profess to know Him are offended because of Christ? Well, with some it
   is because the novelty wears off. Very earnest services were held and
   they were greatly affected. They thought that they repented and
   believed, so they joined the Church. Now the good men who held the
   services are gone and everything seems rather flat after such
   excitement. And so they have gone back again. They jumped into religion
   like a man into a bath--and they have jumped out again, put on their
   clothes--and gone back to the world and to what they were before!

   Persons of this sort are very plentiful just now. If they were ever
   born again they were born with a fever upon them. And if you do not
   keep up the heat and let them live in an oven, they will die. We know
   that such hothouse plants will never pay for the fuel used in forcing
   them--we are grieved that it is so, but we have seen it so often that
   we do not wonder at it so much as we used to do! Hot weather breeds
   flies and warm showers bring out reptiles. There are not a few who
   professed to become Christians and who thought that they were always
   going to be happy. The evidence that they gave of being Christians was
   "that they felt so happy." I do not know that mere happiness is any
   evidence of being a Christian at all, for many are living far from God
   and yet account themselves very happy--while some of those who live
   near to God are groaning because they cannot get nearer still!

   Yet a joyful feeling is regarded by many as conclusive evidence of
   salvation! And they add to this the notion that as soon as ever they
   believed in Jesus Christ the conflict was all over and there remained
   nothing more to be done in the way of resisting sin and denying the
   lusts of the flesh. They dreamed that they had only to start on
   pilgrimage and get to the Celestial City in a very short period of
   time--they thought they only had to draw the sword from the scabbard
   and all Canaan was conquered in an hour! Very soon they find that it is
   not so. Their old corruptions are alive. The flesh begins to pull a
   different way from that which they profess to have chosen. The devil
   tempts them and they are so disappointed by their new discovery that
   they become offended with Christ altogether! A sudden victory would
   suit them--but to carry a cross before winning a crown is not to their
   mind.

   Others of them have met an opposition they did not expect from their
   adversaries, while from their friends they have not met with all the
   respect that they think they ought to have. Their friends and
   acquaintances have laughed at them! Their workmates in the shop have
   jeered at them! They did not count on this--they never counted the
   cost--and so they are offended because of Christ. Is it not a strange
   thing that we who begin our religion at the Cross, if we begin aright,
   should ever be astonished that the Cross keeps close to us, or should
   be surprised that the world treats us with disdain? But so it is.
   Persecution arises and many are offended.

   It is not that the world burns them to death or puts them in prison.
   No, no--they only make a joke or two--or they give them the cold
   shoulder and shut them out of society. But the poor creatures are so
   thin-skinned that they cannot endure even these light afflictions and
   so they are offended and miss the blessing. When they joined the
   Christian Church everybody was so glad to see them at first, as we
   always are when there is a new-born child. But many more new converts
   have come since then--and the former ones feel that they are not
   pampered so much as they were--and so they become annoyed and under one
   pretense or another slink away. Because Christ's people do not carry
   them about as wonders and cry, "Hosanna," over them all their days,
   they are ready to go back to the world and complain that they have been
   disappointed with religion and with Christians!

   Oh, but this is evil! This is a wrong spirit which must by no means be
   displayed! Yet I fear it is to be seen in many places. This is an
   offense which ought never to arise. We have known some who have become
   offended because of Christ, or were in great danger of it because they
   began to find that religion entailed more self-denial than they had
   reckoned upon. The precepts of our blessed Master come very close home
   to their consciences and gall them somewhat. He told them that the yoke
   was easy and that the burden was light--and so it is to the meek and
   lowly in heart--but they are not changed in heart and, therefore, they
   find the burden heavy and the yoke galling. I do not wonder that it is
   so, for that which is the delight of the renewed heart is bondage to
   the unregenerate spirit, and self-denials, which really are no

   denials at all to the man who is born again, are an iron bondage to
   those who still remain in their unregenerate state-- they get offended
   and they go away from the Master whom they professed to serve.

   I have known some good souls almost offended at the Master through the
   hard speeches of those who ought to have encouraged them. I was
   speaking not long ago with a young lady who had, for some, time been
   devoting herself very earnestly to the cause of Christ. I do not know
   one who had done more than she had done in her own sphere, but she was
   in great distress because the person with whom she had worked for many
   months had spoken very bitterly of her. Though she had been his best
   helper, he seemed to regard her as his worst enemy! And as she told me
   what he had said, I was very sorry, but the worst part about it was the
   temptation which the devil put in her way. The Evil One whispered,
   "Never take a prominent place again! Give up your work. You are said to
   be eager to help--now be quiet and do nothing."

   Now, it will happen to all of us, more or less, that if we try to be
   zealous in the Master's cause we shall be misunderstood. Wet blanket
   factories are pretty numerous and some benevolent Brother is sure to
   bring one of these articles for our use. He thinks that it will do us
   good, but it is mischievous to our spirits. Blessed is he who cannot be
   offended in that way. It may encourage you to know that, generally,
   those whom God largely blesses have to go through a great fight at
   first, from their own brothers and sisters. Look at David. He was to
   bring home giant Goliath's head, but those elder brothers of his all
   said, "Because of the pride and the naughtiness of your heart, you are
   come to see the

   battle."

   They recommended him to stay at home with his sheep, even as they told
   us to keep clear of a pulpit--but God did not mean that he should
   remain hidden. If the Lord means to bless you, some of His very dear
   people will be for putting you back among the sheep--but do not be
   scandalized at Christ on that account! Stand firm as you have done.
   Press forward! Be not disgusted or discouraged, but, on the contrary,
   remember that opposition is very often the sign of coming success.
   Press forward, for, "Blessed is he that is not offended because of Me."
   Moreover, many young Christians are greatly staggered by the ill
   conduct of professors. I think that there is no worse trial to a babe
   in Christ than to see elderly Christians walking inconsistently and
   living in a lukewarm state--and even speaking as if they were
   antagonistic to all earnest attempts to spread the kingdom of Christ.
   If you are one of God's children you will not die at their hands any
   more than Joseph at the hands of his brothers! If the Lord has, indeed,
   quickened you with spiritual life, you will press on and work for the
   Master and not be ashamed.

   It has frequently occurred to me to deplore that some professors fall
   back through trials of Providence. We occasionally miss members of the
   Church because they were pretty well-to-do when they joined with us,
   but things have gone badly with them and they feel as if they could not
   show themselves. They will even say that they have not any clothes fit
   to worship in. I have often told you that any clothes are fit to
   worship in as long as you have paid for them! Clothing, be it fine or
   threadbare, is nothing to me! As far as I am concerned, I really do not
   know what people wear. It never strikes my eye--I am too busy looking
   at your faces, when I can see you--to even notice what you may happen
   to wear. Come, oh come, to the House of God, my suffering Brothers and
   Sisters! Never let the devil prevail upon you to stay away!

   If your shoe leaks. If there is a hole in the elbow of your coat. So
   what? The Lord does not look at that, nor do we! You come along. We
   shall be glad to see you, the most of us, and if there are some who
   will not be glad, they are nobodies--do not take any notice of them!
   But never stay away from the House of God because of your shabbiness.
   What can it matter? When you begin to get low in circumstances do not
   be proud and say, "I can't dress as I once did, or make such a dash as
   I did and so I shall not go." Why, you are still the same person--a man
   is a man notwithstanding the little or the much which he possesses--and
   when earthly comforts are going, you ought to seek heavenly comforts
   all the more! And the poorer you get in substance, the richer you ought
   to seek to be in Divine Grace! "The poor have the Gospel preached unto
   them."

   But I know that this is a temptation. I have heard it said that in
   Jamaica in the Negro churches, when wages are low, attendance at the
   means of Grace begins to decline. I know that it is so, but so it ought
   not to be. Do not be offended with Christ! If He chooses to let you be
   poor, be satisfied to be poor! Yes, if you get to be as low as Job who
   sat on a dunghill, scraping himself with a piece of an old pot, yet
   learn to say with the heroic Patriarch, "Though He slay me, yet will I
   trust in Him." If He is not ashamed of me, I will not be ashamed of
   Him, or ashamed to follow, even in rags, the

   standard of Him who hung upon the cross and triumphed there for me!
   "They parted His garments among them, and for His vesture did they cast
   lots." I cannot be worse clad than He! Be not ashamed of Him, then.

   III. The last head is that THERE ARE SOME WHO ARE NOT OFFENDED BECAUSE
   OF CHRIST AND THEY

   ARE DECLARED TO BE BLESSED. They are so because if God had not blessed
   them they would not be found clinging to their Lord, but would have
   gone back like others. Apart from anything else, it is a blessed thing
   to have Grace enough given you to hold fast to Christ under all
   circumstances. If you were not one of those whom He has chosen from
   before the foundations of the world. If you were not one of those whom
   Christ specially redeemed with His blood. If you were not one of those
   in whom the Holy Spirit has placed a new heart and a right spirit you
   would go back. But if you hold out to the end, you have in that the
   evidence that the Lord has loved you with an everlasting love!

   Oh, you that are on and off with Jesus, what a poor hope yours must be!
   You that can run with the hare and hold with the hounds. You that try
   to serve God and Mammon--you have no marks of being God's children! But
   those of you who put your foot down for Christ and cannot be moved--you
   who have said unto your souls, "By His Grace I will not depart from
   following the Lord"--you have, in that very fact, the evidence of being
   blessed! And then you shall find a blessedness growing out of your
   fidelity. I believe that persecuted ones have more blessedness than any
   other saints. There were never such sweet revelations of the love of
   Christ in Scotland as when the Covenanters met in the mosses and on the
   hillside.

   No sermons ever seemed to be so sweet as those which were preached when
   Claverhouse's dragoons were out and the minister read his text by the
   lightning's flash! The saints never sang so sweetly as when they let
   loose those wild bird notes among the heather. The flock of
   slaughter--the people of God that were hunted down by the foe--these
   were they who saw the Lord! I guarantee you that in Lambeth Palace
   there were happier hearts in the Lollards' dungeon than there were in
   the Archbishop's Hall! Down there where men have lain to rot, as did
   Bunyan in Bedford Jail, there have been more dreams of Heaven and more
   visions of celestial things than in the courts of princes! The Lord
   Jesus loves to reveal Himself to those of His saints who dare take the
   bleak side of the hill with Him. If you are willing to follow Him when
   the wind blows in your teeth and the snow flakes come thickly till you
   are almost blinded, and if you can say--

   "Through floods and flames, if Jesus lead, I'll follow where He goes,"

   you shall have such unveilings of His love to your soul as shall make
   you forget the sneers of men and the sufferings of the flesh! God shall
   make you triumphant in all places!

   You know this already by experience, do you not? You that are His
   people must know that whenever you have had to suffer for Christ it has
   been a blessed thing for you. Whenever anybody jeered at you and you
   have felt it for the time, yet, if you have been able to bear it well,
   it has brought many a sweet reflection afterwards. Somebody pushed good
   Mr. Kilpin into the gutter and slapped him at the same time and said,
   "Take that, John Bunyan!" Whereupon the good man took off his hat and
   said, "I would take 50 times as much as that to have the honor to be
   called John Bunyan." Learn to look upon insults for Christ in the same
   light and when they call you by an ill name reply, "I could bear a
   thousand times as much as that for the pleasure of being associated
   with Christ in the world's derision."

   But what blessedness awaits you if you are not offended because of
   Jesus! You are blessed while you are waiting for Him, but your best
   reward is to come! In that hereafter, when the morning breaks on the
   everlasting shore, how will they be ashamed and disgusted with
   themselves who sought their own honor and esteem and denied their Lord
   and Master! Where will Demas be then, who chose the present world and
   forsook his Lord? Where will that son of perdition be who chose the 30
   pieces of silver and sold the Prince of Life? What shame will seize
   upon the coward, the fearful, the unbelieving, the people who checked
   conscience and stifled conviction because a fool's laugh was too much
   for them! Then they will have to bear the Savior's scorn and the
   everlasting contempt of all holy beings.

   But the men who stood meekly forward to confess their Lord--who were
   willing to be set in the pillory of scorn for Christ, ready to be spit
   upon for Him, ready to be called ill names for His sake, ready to lose
   their character, their substance, their liberty and their lives for
   Him--oh how calmly will they await the Great Assize when loyalty shall
   receive honor from the great King! How bright will be their faces when
   He that sits on the Throne will say, "They confessed Me before men, and
   now will I confess them before My Father which is in Heaven. These are
   Mine, My Father," He will say, "they are Mine. They clung unto Me and
   now I acknowledge them as My jewels."

   These are they that followed the Lamb where ever He went. They read the
   Word and what they found there they believed! They saw their Lord's
   will in the Scriptures and they labored to do it. They were faithful to
   conscience and to conviction--and the Spirit dwelt in them and guided
   their lives. They shall be the Redeemer's crown and the beloved of His
   Father. They were the poor of this world--they were considered to be
   mere idiots by some--and were thought to have gone mad by others. But
   they are the Lord's own elect! Jesus will say, "They were with Me in My
   tribulation. They were with Me in the midst of a crooked and perverse
   generation and now they are Mine, and they shall be with Me on My
   Throne. Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared
   for you from before the foundations of the

   world."

   Oh, you are happy, you people of God who lose good situations because
   you cannot do dishonest things! You who cannot break the Sabbath and
   therefore shut the shop and lose a large part of your incomes! You who,
   for Christ's sake, dare to be singular and are not ashamed to be called
   "puritanical" and to be pointed out as hypocrites! You who bravely
   refuse to indulge in the intoxicating cup and utterly turn aside from
   evil companions! You who will not be found in the haunts of vice which
   men call pleasure! You, who, though you may think a thing to be lawful
   will, nevertheless, deny yourselves because it is not expedient and
   will avoid the appearance of evil! You who try to put your feet down in
   the footprints of Christ and follow Him in all things--you are and
   shall be truly blessed!! With all your faults and imperfections which
   you mourn over, your Lord is not ashamed of you and He will confess you
   at the last!

   Oh, may you all be true adherents of Jesus! I set up a standard tonight
   and will try to act as recruiting officer. Who will be enlisted into
   the army of Christ tonight? Is any young man ready to say, "I will"?
   Yes, but count the cost! Are you prepared to be ridiculed? Are you
   prepared to suffer? Are you willing to put up with the hatred of your
   own family sooner than forsake God and His Christ and the Truth? We
   will not have you if you won't! Christ will not acknowledge you if you
   won't! It must be a thorough coming to Him. "Come you out from among
   them and be you separate, says the Lord, and 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."

   Who is on the Lord's side?--Who? Let your hearts answer, for there
   shall come a day when that same word shall thunder over all the earth,
   "Who is on the Lord's side? Who?" Many then will rue the day in which
   they were ashamed to confess a persecuted Christ! May we be on His side
   tonight--first trusting Him, relying upon Him, alone, for
   salvation--and then surrendering ourselves to Him to be His forever.
   Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Am I My Brother's Keeper?

   (No. 1399)

   DELIVERED BY

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Am I my brother's keeper?" Genesis 4:9.

   To what a shameful pitch of presumptuous impudence had Cain arrived
   when he could thus insult the Lord God! If it had not been on record in
   the pages of Inspiration, we might almost have doubted whether a man
   could speak so impudently when actually conscious that God Himself was
   addressing Him. Men blaspheme frightfully, but it is usually because
   they forget God and ignore His Presence. But Cain was conscious that
   God was speaking to him. He heard Him say, "Where is Abel your
   brother?" and yet he dared, with the coolest impertinence, to reply to
   God, "I know not. Am I my brother's keeper?" As much as to say--"Do You
   think that I have to keep him as he keeps his sheep? Am I also a
   shepherd as he was and am I to take as much care of him as he did of a
   lame lamb?"

   The cool impudence of Cain is an indication of the state of heart which
   led up to his murdering his brother and it was also a part of the
   result of his having committed that terrible crime. He would not have
   proceeded to the cruel deed of bloodshed if he had not, first, cast off
   the fear of God and been ready to defy his Maker. Having committed
   murder, the hardening influence of sin upon Cain's mind must have been
   intense and so, at last, he was able to speak out to God's face what he
   felt within his heart and ask, "Am I my brother's keeper?"

   This goes a long way to explain what has puzzled some persons, namely,
   the amazing calmness with which great criminals will appear in the
   dock. I remember to have heard it said of one who had undoubtedly
   committed a very foul murder, that he looked like an innocent man. He
   stood up before his accusers as calmly and quietly, they said, as an
   innocent man would do. I remember feeling, at the time, that an
   innocent man would probably not have been calm! The distress of mind
   occasioned to an innocent man by being under such a charge would have
   prevented his having the coolness which was displayed by the guilty
   individual. Instead of its being any evidence of innocence that a man
   wears a brazen front when charged with a great crime, it should, by
   wise men, be considered to be evidence against him.

   Well may he seem dispassionate and unmoved who has already been so
   unfeeling as to dip his hand in blood. If he were so hardened as to do
   the deed, it is not likely he will display much softness when the deed
   is brought home to him. Oh, dear Friends, let us shun sin, if it is
   only for the evil effect which it has upon our minds! It is poison to
   the heart! It stupefies the conscience, drugs it, sends it to sleep! It
   intoxicates the judgment and puts all the faculties, as it were, into a
   state of drunkenness, so that we become capable of monstrous bravery
   and blind impertinence which makes us mad enough to dare insult God to
   His face! Save us, O God, from having our hearts hammered to the
   hardness of steel by sin! Daily keep us, by Your Grace, sensible and
   tender before You, trembling at Your Word.

   Now, let us note, here, that while we are thus heavily censuring Cain,
   we must mind that we are not guilty ourselves! If we look at it without
   prejudice, every kind of excuse that we make to God is a very high
   piece of presumption. When we are charged with any form of guilt, if we
   begin denying or extenuating, we are guilty of the sin of Cain as to
   impudence before God. And when there is any duty to be performed and we
   begin to shirk it, or try to make an apology for disobedience, are we
   not forgetting in whose Presence we stand? Does He charge me with what
   I have committed and shall I be so wicked as to attempt a denial? Does
   He bid me perform a duty and do I begin to hesitate, question and ask
   myself, "Shall I, or shall I not?" Oh, bold rebellion! The essence of
   treason lurks in every hesitancy to obey and dwells in every attempt to
   extenuate our fault when we have already disobeyed.

   You think Cain a monster that he should dare to face it out with God?
   Yet God is everywhere present and every sin is perpetrated while He is
   watching! Against Him do we sin and in His Presence we do evil! And
   when we begin to make excuses for wrong done or hesitate concerning
   duty commanded, we are disobeying in the immediate Presence of the Lord
   our God. Since we have, doubtless, been guilty of this, let us humbly
   confess it and ask the Lord to give us great tenderness of conscience
   that from now on we may fear the Lord and never dare to stand up to
   question what He has to

   say. The very same thing, no doubt, lies at the bottom of objections to
   Bible Truths. There are some who do not go to Scripture to take out of
   it what is there, but seeing what is clearly revealed they then begin
   to question and judge and come to conclusions according to their
   notions of what ought to have been there.

   No, but O Man, who are you that replies against God? If He says it, it
   is so! Believe it! Can you not understand it? Who are you that you
   should understand? Can you hold the sea in the hollow of your hand, or
   grasp the winds in your fist? Worm of the dust, the Infinite must
   always be beyond you! There must always be about the glorious Lord
   something that is incomprehensible and it is not for you to doubt
   because you cannot understand, but rather humbly to bow before His
   Presence who has made you and in whose hand your breath is. God save us
   from the presumption which dares to say with Pharaoh, "Who is the Lord
   that I should obey His voice?" and from the profane arrogance which
   replies to the Lord in the spirit of Cain!

   Now, let us look quietly at what Cain said. He said to the Lord, "Am I
   my brother's keeper?" May the Holy Spirit guide us in considering this
   question.

   I. First it is to be noted that MAN IS NOT HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER IN SOME
   SENSES. There is some little weight in what Cain says. Generally some
   amount of truth clings to every lie and even in the greatest possible
   profanity there is, usually, something or other of truth, though it is
   grievously twisted and distorted. In this atrocious question of Cain
   there is some little measure of reason. In some sense no man is his
   brother's keeper. For instance, every man must bear his own
   responsibility for his own acts before Almighty God. It is not possible
   for a man to shift from his own shoulders to those of another his
   obligations to the Most High.

   Obedience to the Law of God must be personally rendered or a man
   becomes guilty. No matter how holy his father, or how righteous his
   mother, he, himself will have to stand upon his own feet and answer for
   himself before the judgment seat of God. Each man who hears the Gospel
   is responsible for the hearing of it. No one else can believe the
   Gospel for him, or repent for him, or be born again for him, or become
   a Christian for him. He must, himself, personally, repent of sin,
   personally believe in Jesus Christ, personally be converted and
   personally live to the service and Glory of God. Every tub must stand
   on its own bottom. There have been idle attempts to shift the
   responsibility to a certain order of men called priests, or clergymen,
   or ministers--according as the case may be--but it cannot be done.

   Each man must seek the Lord himself--he must, himself, lay his load of
   sin at the foot of the Cross and he, himself, accept a personal Savior
   for himself. You cannot do with the matters of your soul as you do with
   the business of your estate and employ a priest in the same way as you
   engage a solicitor to represent you. There is one Substitute and
   Advocate who can plead for us, but no earthly sponsor can help you with
   Heaven. God demands the heart and with the heart man must believe unto
   righteousness--his own heart--for none can take his place. Personal
   service is required by the great King and must be rendered on pain of
   eternal destruction! No man can be his brother's keeper in the sense of
   taking upon himself another man's responsibilities.

   And again, no one can positively secure the salvation of another, no,
   he cannot even have a hope of the salvation of his friend, so long as
   the other remains unbelieving. O unconverted people, we can pray for
   you, we can ask the Lord to renew you by His Spirit, but we can do
   nothing with you, ourselves! And neither will our prayers be answered
   until you, yourselves, make a confession of your sin and fly to Christ
   for salvation! It is, no doubt, a very great blessing to have friends
   who bear your names upon their hearts before God, but, oh, do not have
   any confidence in other people's prayers while you are prayerless! We
   ought to be very thankful that other people can pray believingly for
   us, but we shall never be saved if we remain unbelieving! Now, since we
   cannot convert other people, we are not responsible to do what we
   cannot do and, therefore, we are not our brother's keeper so fully as
   to be responsible for his acceptance or reception of Jesus.

   And here let me say, in the next place, that those do very wrongly who
   enter into any vows or promises for others in this matter when they are
   quite powerless. To me it always remains a riddle, which I cannot
   explain except by the utter heartlessness and godlessness of this age,
   that men and women are to be found to come forward to solemnly promise
   concerning a little child, as yet unconscious, that it shall keep all
   God's holy commandments and walk in the same all the days of its life
   and shall renounce all the pomps and vanities of this present evil
   world! I dare not stop short of saying that you lie most frightfully if
   you make any such promise! You go farther than that--you are guilty of
   perjury before almighty God!

   With what wrath He must look down upon persons, who, in an edifice
   which they think to be sacred to His honor and in the presence of those
   who wear vestments which are supposed to mark them out as peculiarly
   the messengers of God, dare to say that they will do that which is
   quite out of their power! You cannot do it and you know it! You have,
   perhaps, not renounced the pomps and vanities of the world for
   yourselves! Certainly YOU have not kept all God's holy commandments!
   How, then, can you do it for another? If you stood up there and
   promised before God that the child should grow eight feet high, that
   its hair should be of a yellow color and that its eyes should be green,
   you would be quite as much justified in making such a vow as in
   promising that which is prescribed in the Prayer Book--only there would
   be a touch of the ludicrous about that--but in this there is nothing
   that I can see to smile about, but everything to mourn over!

   It is sad that the human mind should be capable of such a use of words
   that it should dare to pronounce a lie as an act of worship and then go
   calmly and quietly home as though everything had been done to please
   God! No, you cannot be other people's keepers. Do not, therefore, put
   yourselves into the awful position of promising that you will be. It is
   proper, here, to say that the most earnest minister of Christ must not
   so push the idea of his own personal responsibility to such an extreme
   as to make himself unfit for his work through a morbid view of his
   position. If he has faithfully preached the Gospel and his message is
   rejected, let him persevere in hope and not condemn himself.

   I remember years ago, when I labored to feel the responsibility of
   men's souls upon me, I became very depressed in spirit and the
   temptation arose out of it to give up the work in despair. I believe
   that responsibility should be duly felt, neither do I wish to say a
   word to excuse any who are unfaithful, but in my own case I saw that I
   could harp on one chord of my nature till I destroyed my power to do
   good, for I became so unhappy that the elasticity of my spirit departed
   from me. Then I remembered that if I had put the Gospel faithfully
   before you and pressed it upon you--if you refused it I had nothing
   more to do with the matter except to pray over it--if I earnestly
   entreated the Lord to send a blessing and tried again and again to
   plead and urge with your consciences that you should be reconciled to
   God, and if I failed, I remembered that I should not be held
   responsible for not doing what I could not do, namely, turn hearts of
   stone to flesh and quicken dead sinners into life!

   Our responsibility is heavy enough without our exaggerating it! We are
   not men's sponsors and if they reject our Savior whom we faithfully
   preach, their blood must be upon their own heads. Our Lord did not
   always weep over Jerusalem--He sometimes rejoiced in spirit! No one
   thought must exclusively occupy our minds or we shall be good for
   nothing in practical life. We are not the keepers of other men's souls
   in a boundless sense--there is a limit to our responsibility and it is
   foolish to allow an excessive sensitiveness to burden us into
   semi-lunacy. There is, however, a sense in which we are our brother's
   keeper and of that I am now going to speak. You will bear my warning in
   mind and it will not weaken the force of what I say, but it will
   increase its weight, because you will feel that I have looked at the
   subject all round.

   II. So now, secondly, IN A HIGH DEGREE WE ARE, EACH ONE OF US, OUR
   BROTHER'S KEEPER. We

   ought to regard ourselves in that light and it is a Cainish spirit
   which prompts us to think otherwise and to wrap ourselves up in
   hardheartedness and say, "It is no concern of mine how others fare. Am
   I my brother's keeper?" Let us be far from that spirit! For, first,
   common feelings of humanity should lead every Christian man to feel an
   interest in the soul of every unsaved man. I say, "common humanity,"
   for we use the word, "humanity," to signify kindness.

   Such-and-such a man, we say, has no human feeling. I am not quite
   certain whether human feeling is always so humane as the words would
   seem to imply. Humanity over yonder, at any rate, in Russia and Turkey,
   does not seem to be a flower worth cultivating--but we might pray to be
   delivered from such humanity! The most horrible beast in those regions
   appears to be a man. Humanity in Bulgaria? God save us from such
   humanity!

   Yet I trust among us the expression may be used that common humanity
   leads us to desire the salvation of others. I am sure, my dear Friends,
   if you saw a man perishing for lack of bread, you would wish to share
   your crust with him. Will you let souls perish for lack of the Bread of
   Life without pitying and helping them? If we saw a poor wretch
   shivering in the winter's cold, we should be ready to divide our
   raiment that we might clothe him. Shall we see sinners without the Robe
   of Righteousness and not be anxious to speak to them of Him who can
   clothe them in fair white linen?

   When a person is in jeopardy through accident, we rush anywhere and use
   every exertion if by any means we may rescue him and yet this life is
   trivial compared with eternal life and for us to be indifferent when
   men are perishing--

   indifferent to the dreadful woes which come upon impenitent sinners
   throughout eternity--is to act as if all brotherly compassion had fled
   our bosoms! Christians, I charge you, even upon so base a motive as
   this--because you are men and men are all your brothers, born of the
   same stock and dwelling beneath the arched roof of the one eternal
   Father-- therefore care for the souls of others and be, each one of
   you, his brother's keeper!

   A second argument is drawn from the fact that we have, all of us,
   especially those of us who are Christians, the power to do good to
   others. We have not all the same ability, for we have not all the same
   gifts, or the same position, but as the little maid that waited on
   Naaman's wife had opportunity to tell of the Prophet who could heal her
   master, so there is not a young Christian here but what has some power
   to do good to others. Converted children can lisp the name of Jesus to
   their sires and bless them! We have all some capacity for doing good.
   Now, take it as an axiom that power to do good involves the duty of
   doing good. Wherever you are placed, if you can bless a man, you are
   bound to do it. To have the power and not to use it is a sin!

   In withholding your hand from that which you are able to do for the
   good of your fellow man you have broken the law of love. You do not
   need a special call to tell a sinner about Jesus. You need no special
   call to take a little child and tell it of the Savior's love. You need
   no revelation by angels from Heaven to tell you that what has benefited
   yourself will benefit your fellow men. All your knowledge, all your
   experience, all that you possess that Divine Grace has given you
   demands a return in the form of service rendered to others! The Jews
   were God's elect nation--elect to keep the oracles of God for all the
   nations--but they failed because they never cared for the bearing of
   those great Truths of God upon the Gentiles. They fancied that they had
   received them for their own special benefit. The selfish spirit so grew
   upon them that when God's Grace to the heathen was mentioned it made
   them mad with rage!

   And, you saved ones, you owe much to God--but do not think that you are
   saved only for your own special benefit. It is a great benefit to you,
   but Grace is bestowed upon you like light that you may give it to
   others who are in darkness! It is bestowed upon you as the bread that
   was given by our Lord to His disciples in the desert that they might
   break it among the multitude--that all might eat and be filled! Think
   about this--that the power to do good involves the responsibility to do
   it wherever that power exists--and so, as far as you have any ability,
   you are by that very fact constituted your brother's keeper.

   Another argument is very plainly drawn from our Lord's version of the
   Moral Law. What is the Second and great Commandment according to Him?
   "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Now, since we have loved
   ourselves so well that through God's Grace we have sought and found
   forgiveness of our sin, should we not love our neighbor so well as to
   desire him to know his sin and to seek forgiveness? It was right of us
   to secure our highest interests by laying hold upon eternal life--but
   if we are to love our neighbor as ourselves, should we give ourselves
   any rest while multitudes are despising Christ and refusing salvation?
   No, Brothers and Sisters, we have never yet come up to the
   standard--but in proportion as we begin to love our neighbor as
   ourselves we shall certainly feel that God has made us in a measure to
   be our brother's keeper.

   And again, without looking to other men's souls we cannot keep the
   First of the two great Commandments in which our Lord has summarized
   the Moral Law. It runs thus--"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." But this we cannot possibly do unless we have a
   love towards our brother's soul, for well does the Apostle ask--"If a
   man loves not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he
   has not seen?" It is all very fine to stand up and sing about your love
   to God and let the missionary box go by while your eyes are gazing into
   Heaven--but if you do not care for the heathens' souls, how can you
   care for God? It is all very pretty to be enamored of Christ and to
   have a sweet experience, or to think you have, and yet poor wretches in
   London are dying without the knowledge of the Savior and you can let
   them die and let them sink into Hell without emotion.

   May God save us from such piety! It is very pretty to look at, like the
   gilt on the gingerbread in the old fairs, but there is no gold about it
   at all. A loveless religion is good for nothing! He who does not love
   his fellow man enough to desire his salvation and aim at it with all
   his might, gives no proof that he loves God at all! Think of these
   things and weigh my arguments with candor.

   Once more. To the Christian man, perhaps the most forcible reason will
   be that the whole example of Jesus Christ, whom we call Master and
   Lord, lies in the direction of our being the keeper of our brother, for
   what was Jesus' life but

   entire unselfishness? What was said of Him at His death but that, "He
   saved others: Himself He could not save"? The very fact that there is a
   Christ at all means that there was One who cared for others! That our
   Lord became a Man means that He loved His enemies and came here to
   rescue those who rebelled against His authority!

   If we are selfish--if we make our own going to Heaven to be the one end
   of life--we are not Christians! We may call whom we please, Master, but
   we are not following Jesus Christ! Do you shed tears? But do you weep
   over Jerusalem? Tears for yourselves are poor things if there are never
   any for others. You pray and agonize--but is your grief ever caused by
   bearing the burden of other men's souls? Are you like He with whose
   name Gethsemane must ever be connected in our memories? Oh, though we
   gave our bodies to be burned, yet if we have not love for mankind it
   profits us nothing! We may go a long way and apparently all the way in
   the externals of the Christian religion, but if the heart is never warm
   with a desire to benefit mankind, we are still aliens to the
   commonwealth of which Jesus is the great Head. I am sure it is so! I
   speak not my own mind, but the mind of Christ. If He were here, what
   would He say to anyone who called himself His disciple and yet never
   lifted his hand or moved his tongue to snatch the firebrand from the
   flame or save the sinner from the error of his ways? It must be so,
   then--we must be our brothers' keepers.

   Let the next thought rise in our minds that we are certainly ordained
   to the office of brother-keeper because we shall be called to account
   about it. Cain was called to account. "Where is Abel your brother?" I
   would to God, dear Friends, and especially you, the young men of the
   College, who asked me to speak about missions, tonight, that you could
   now hear the Lord speaking to you and saying, "Where is Abel your
   brother?" Take first those who are united to us by the ties of the
   flesh, who come under the term, "brothers," because they are born of
   the same parents, or are near of kin. Where is John? Where is Thomas?
   Where is Henry, your brother? Unsaved? Without God? What have you ever
   done for him? How much have you prayed for him? How often have you
   spoken to him seriously about his state? What means have you used for
   his instruction, persuasion, conviction?

   Dear Sisters, I must not let you off. Where is your brother? You
   sisters have very great power over brothers--more power than brothers
   have. Where, dear Mother--let me put the question very tenderly to
   you--where is your child, your son, your daughter? Not all that you
   could wish, you say? But can you say, if your dear child were to
   perish, that you are clear of his blood? Father, the boy grieves
   you--are you quite clear that you did not help to sow in him the sins
   which are now your trial? Come, have you done all that could be done?
   If, in a week's time, you had to follow in mournful procession, your
   son's body to the grave, are you quite clear? Quite clear? Relatives, I
   put you all together-- are you quite clear of the blood of relatives?
   The day will come when the question will have to be put very plainly,
   "Where is Abel your brother?"

   You cannot help it, I know, that such a one lives in sin and has become
   an unbeliever or a scoundrel. You cannot absolutely help it, but still,
   have you done all that you could have done towards the preventing of
   the sin by leading that soul into the way of life and peace? I pause
   for a moment to let that solemn enquiry go home to everyone. The
   proverb says, "Charity must begin at home," and certainly Christian
   love ought to begin there. Are our own houses swept? Our own children,
   servants, brothers and sisters--have we as much as lies in us sought to
   win them to Christ? For my part, I abhor the spirit which takes a
   Christian mother from her children to be doing good everywhere except
   at home! I dread the zeal of those who can run to many services but
   whose households are not cared for--yet sometimes such is the case.

   I have known people very interested in the seven trumpets and the seven
   seals who have not been quite so particular about the seven dear
   children that God has entrusted to them! Leave somebody else to open up
   the Revelation and look to your own boys! Mind where they are in the
   evenings! And see to your girls, that they know, at least, the Gospel,
   for, indeed, there are some households where there is ignorance of the
   plan of salvation, albeit that the parents are professedly Christians!
   Such things ought not to be! Where is Abel your brother? Your son?
   Where is your daughter, your sister, your father, your cousin? See to
   this, that you begin at once, earnestly seeking the salvation of
   relatives!

   But, Beloved, we must never end there, because brotherhood extends to
   all ranks, races and conditions. And according to each man's ability,
   he will be held responsible about the souls of others whom he never
   saw. Where is Abel your brother? Down in a back street in London? He is
   just going into the public house. He is half drunk already! Have you
   done anything, Friend, towards the reclaiming of the drunk? Where is
   your sister? Your sister who frequents the midnight streets? You shrink
   back and say, "She is no sister of mine!" Yes, but God may require her
   blood at your hands if you leave her to perish! Have you ever done
   anything towards reclaiming her? She has a tender heart despite her
   sin.

   Alas, many a Christian woman, many a Christian man who comes across the
   path of such will draw themselves up with a kind of Phariseeism, shake
   the dust off their feet and feel as if they were contaminated by their
   very presence!

   Yet Christians ought to love the erring and the sinful--and if we do
   not, we shall be called to account for it. If we have an opportunity of
   doing good, even to the vilest, and do not use it, we shall not be
   guiltless! Some of you who get rich in London go and live out in the
   suburbs and I cannot blame you. Why should you not? But if you leave
   the heart of London, where the working people are without any means of
   Divine Grace--if you are content to hear the Gospel yourselves and
   withdraw your wealth from struggling Churches among the poor, God will
   one day say to you, "Where is Abel your brother?"

   City merchant, where are the poor men that earned your wealth? Where
   are they who, after all, were the bone and sinew that made you
   rich--from whom you fled as though they were struck with the plague and
   whom you left to die in utter ignorance? Oh, see to this, you rich men,
   you persons in responsible positions--lest the blood of the poor of
   London be demanded of your souls at the great Day of Account! Yes, but
   London is not everywhere, nor is this little isle of England
   everything. Look, if you can, across sea and land to India where your
   fellow subjects live and, alas, die at this hour of famine. The day
   will come when God will say to English Christians, "Where is the Hindu,
   your brother? Where is the Brahmin your brother? Where is the Soodra
   your brother?"

   And what answer will be given by the men who ought to be there and have
   the ability to be there? What answer will be given by rich men who
   ought to help to send missionaries there, but suffer the millions to
   perish without a knowledge of Christ, not lifting their hand to help?
   And further still lies China! That does not bear thinking of, with its
   teeming millions--millions who have never even heard the sound of
   Jesus' name! Their destiny we leave with God, but still, we know that
   to be ignorant of God and of His Christ is a frightful thing--and every
   man who has light, unless his duty lies at home, should gird up his
   loins and say in God's name--"I will not have the blood of India
   streaming down my gory clothes, nor the blood of China pouring a curse
   upon my head." The Lord grant to all Christians to see their relation
   to mankind and to act a brother's part to all races!

   One thing more upon this calling to account. The more needy, the more
   destitute people are, the greater is their claim upon us, for,
   according to the Account Book--need I turn to the chapter? I think you
   remember it--they are the persons for whom we shall have mainly to give
   an account--"I was hungry and you gave Me no meat. I was thirsty and
   you gave Me no drink. I was sick and in prison and you visited Me not;
   naked and you clothed Me not." These objects of charity were the most
   destitute and poor of all--and the great question at the Last Day is
   about what was done for them! So if there is a nation more ignorant
   than another, our call is there first. And if there is a people more
   sunken and degraded than others, it is concerning them that we shall
   have to give a special account!

   Now, I close this second head about our really being our brother's
   keeper by saying this--there are some of us who are our brother's
   keeper voluntarily, but yet most solemnly, by the office that we hold.
   We are ministers. O brother ministers, we are our brother's keepers!
   "If the watchman warns them not, they shall perish." That is an awful
   sentence to me--"They shall perish." The next is not so awful,
   sometimes, to my heart, but it is very dreadful--"But their blood will
   I require at the watchman's hands." You cannot enter the Christian
   ministry without standing where you will need almighty Grace to keep
   you clear of the blood of souls! Yes, and you Sunday school teachers,
   when you undertake to teach that class of children, you enter under the
   most solemn responsibilities!

   I may add that all of you who name the name of Jesus, by that very
   fact, come into your measure of responsibility, for Christ has said,
   not of ministers, nor of Sunday school teachers only, but of all, "You
   are the light of the world." If you give no light what shall be said of
   you? "You are the salt of the earth." If there is no savor in you what
   will become of you but to be cast out and trod under foot of men?

   III. My time quite fails me. I need much more, but if I leave those
   thoughts with you I shall be well content. However, I must occupy a
   little longer space while I speak on the third head, namely, that IT
   WILL BE HIGH PRESUMPTION

   ON OUR PART IF, FROM THIS NIGHT FORWARD, WE SHIRK THE DUTY OF BEING OUR
   BROTHER'S

   KEEPER. I will set it very briefly in a strong light. It will be
   denying the right of God to make a Law and to call upon us to obey it
   if we refuse to do as we are told. God has so organized society that
   every man receiving light is bound to spread it--and if you decline the
   blessed service you will practically deny the right of God to require
   such service of you! You will be judging your Judge and lording it over
   your God. High treason lies in that!

   Notice, next, that you will be denying all claims on your part to
   Divine Mercy because if you will not render mercy to others, and if you
   altogether deny your responsibility to others, you put yourself into
   the position of saying, "I need nothing from another"--consequently,
   nothing from God! Such mercy as you show, such mercy shall you have.
   The question is not what will become of the heathen if you do not teach
   them--the great question is what will become of you if you do not do
   it? If you let sinners die, what will become of you? That is the point.
   You put yourself out of the reach of mercy because you refuse to render
   it. When you bow your knee in prayer you curse yourself, for you ask
   God to forgive your debts as you forgive your debtors and, in effect,
   you ask Him to deal with you as you are dealing with others. What
   mercy, then, can you expect?

   Indeed, there is this about it, too--that your act is something like
   throwing the blame of your own sin upon God if you leave men to perish.
   When Cain said, "Am I my brother's keeper?" He meant, probably, "You
   are the Preserver of men. Why did You not preserve Abel? I am not his
   keeper." Some throw on the Sovereignty of God the weight which lies on
   their own indolence! If one soul perishes without being taught the
   Gospel, you cannot fling the weight of that fact upon Divine
   Sovereignty until the Christian Church has done her utmost to make the
   Gospel known! If we had all done all that could be done--I mean all of
   us who are Believers--and yet souls perished, the blame would lie with
   men themselves. But where we fall short--to that degree we are our
   brother's keeper--and we must not accuse the Lord.

   And again, there is, to my mind, an utter ignoring of the whole plan of
   salvation in that man who says, "I am not going to have any
   responsibility about others," because the whole plan of salvation is
   based on substitution--on the care of Another for us--on the Sacrifice
   of Another for us. And the whole spirit of it is self-sacrifice and
   love to others. If you say, "I will not love"--well, the whole system
   goes together and you renounce it all if you will not love--you cannot
   have love's benediction. If you will not love, you cannot be saved by
   love. And if you fancy that the Christian faith leaves you unloving and
   selfish and yet takes you to Heaven, you have made a grievous mistake!
   There is no such religion propagated by the Word of God, for the
   religion of Jesus teaches that since Christ has so loved us we are,
   therefore, to love one another and to love the ungodly so as to
   endeavor to bring them to the feet of the Savior. God grant that these
   words may have a salutary effect by the Spirit of God applying them to
   your souls!

   Last of all, it may turn out--it may turn out--that if we are not our
   brother's keeper we may be our brother's murderer! Have any of us been
   so already? When were you converted? Will you kindly look back to your
   sins before conversion? He must be a very happy man who did not, before
   conversion, commit sins which injured others! But there are some
   persons whose lives, before they turned to Christ, were frightfully
   blended with the careers of others whom they have left to perish in the
   gall of bitterness! I have seen bitter tears shed by men who lived evil
   lives, when they have remembered others with whom they sinned. "I am
   forgiven. I am saved," one has said to me. "But what about that poor
   girl? Ah me! Ah me!"

   One man had been an infidel and he led others into infidelity. He has
   been saved, himself, but he cannot bring those back, again, whom he
   tutored in atheism. Before conversion you may have committed many a
   soul-murder. Ought not this to stir you up to seek now, if possible, as
   much as lies in you, to bring those to Christ whom once you led away
   and to teach the Living Word since once you taught the deadly word
   which ruined souls? Much solemn thought ought to arise out of this.
   Pray for the power of the Holy Spirit to work by you to the salvation
   of those whom your evil influence drew towards the Pit.

   But what shall be said of our conduct since we have been converted? May
   we not have helped to murder souls since then? I tell you a
   cold-hearted Christian makes worldlings think that Christianity is a
   lie. Inconsistent Christians--and there are such--woe, woe that it
   should be so! Bad-tempered, covetous, cross-grained, sardonic, snarling
   persons who we hope may be the Lord's people--what shall we say of
   these? How little they are like their Master! They are the propagators
   of death! I believe that nobody is more mischievous than a professor
   who is barely a Christian, or almost a Christian and continually shows
   his bad side to the world while yet he boasts of his piety! He disgusts
   the world with the name of Jesus!

   Perhaps some of you have backslidden since your conversion and you have
   committed acts which have made the enemy to blaspheme the name of
   Christ. I charge you, by the love of God, repent of this iniquity! Look
   at what you have done! Look at how you have led others astray! Oh see
   to it at once! You know that when David had sinned with Bathsheba he
   repented and was forgiven, but he could never make poor murdered Uriah
   live again. He was dead. You

   may have gone astray and damaged a soul eternally--you cannot undo the
   deed. Still, if you cannot revive the slain, you can mourn over the
   crime! Awake, arise, you sluggish Christians, and ask the Holy Spirit
   to help you to be, from now on, your brother's keepers to the utmost of
   your power!

   And do you not think that we may have been seriously injurious to
   others by denying them the Gospel? If you want to murder a man, you
   need not stab him--starve him! If you want to destroy a man, you need
   not teach him to drink or swear--keep back the Gospel from him! Be in
   his company and never say a word for Christ! Be where you ought to
   speak and be sinfully silent and who knows how much blood will be laid
   to your door? Do you not think that to deny a cup of cold water to a
   man and let him die of thirst is murder? To deny the Gospel--to have no
   word to say for Jesus--is not this soul-murder? God accounts it so.
   "Well," some say, "I could not speak or preach." No, but do you pray
   for the conversion of others? Some people also have money entrusted to
   them--they cannot go to India or China, which I have been speaking of,
   but many other men are ready to go--and they ought to assist in sending
   them!

   I have men in the College ready to go, but I have no power to send
   them! The Missionary Society is in debt. They cannot send out all they
   would like to and yet here are people in England with thousands of
   pounds that they will never need! And yet the heathen may die and be
   lost before they will part with their gold! Is there no crime in all
   this? Does not the voice of your brother's blood cry unto God from the
   ground? I believe it does. You are not to do what you cannot do, but
   what you can do. And surely there cannot be any question about such a
   matter as this! If you were once to see persons in peril--if you stood
   on the beach and saw a good ship breaking up--if you were able to hold
   an oar you would want to be in the lifeboat.

   There is not a woman among you but would be willing to spare her
   husband for such a task, or lend her own hand to push the boat down
   over the shingle till it was launched upon the wave. For life--for the
   precious life of our fellow men--we would do anything! But if we
   believe, as we do, that there is a world to come and a terrible
   Hell--and that there is no way of salvation except by Jesus Christ--we
   ought to feel tenfold more for the rescue of the souls of men from the
   wrath to come!

   If some shall be stirred by these words, my heart will greatly rejoice.
   But if you are awakened, do not promise to make an effort in your own
   strength--pray to God about it. Commit yourself to God and ask the
   Divine Spirit to lead you into ways of usefulness, that before you go
   from here you may have brought some souls to Jesus. And to His name
   shall be the Glory, forever and ever. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

With the King for His Work!

   (No. 1400)

   DELIVERED ON THURSDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 1, 1877,

   BY C.H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "These were the potters, and those that dwelt among plants and hedges:
   there they dwelt with the king for his work." 1 Chronicles 4:23.

   (A slogan for Sunday school teachers).

   ALL labor is honorable. No man ever needs to be ashamed of an honest
   calling. Whether a potter or a gardener, or whatever else his
   occupation may be, the workman need never blush at the craft or toil by
   which he earns his honest wage. "In the sweat of your face shall you
   eat bread," belongs to us all. The sluggard may well be ashamed of his
   sloth, but not the diligent man of his industry. It is quite certain
   that the Word of God does not disparage the most humble calling. I
   suppose that there is scarcely a trade or occupation which is not
   mentioned in sacred Scripture. The rough hand and the rugged face of
   the peasant are to be preferred before the dainty finger and the sleek
   form of the Pharisee.

   And the election of Divine Grace has comprised men of all
   sorts--herdsman and fisherman, brick maker and tent maker--those who
   plowed the soil and those who plowed the sea. From all ranks and
   classes and conditions of men God has been pleased to call forth His
   own and He has loved them, none the less, because they have had to soil
   their hands with potter's clay, or bend their backs to till the field.
   Wretched is the clown who sits in the shade while his comrades work in
   the sun! There is an honor, then, and a dignity, too, in humble honest
   toil. The Bible itself does not disdain to record the humble
   craftsman's name.

   To serve a king always was and still is deemed a thing to be desired.
   Those who do such duties claim some deference from their fellows. Work
   done well, however common, is accounted worthy of its wage, but work
   done for royalty generally has some special attraction to commend it.
   Such a man is privileged by appointment to be purveyor of this or that
   to Her Majesty, the Queen, and he takes good care to let us know it. It
   is published in his shop window. It is painted over his door. It is
   printed on his cards. It is pointed out on his invoices--he is, "By
   appointment to the Queen." Royalty seems to dignify him.

   But, Beloved, there is a King whom it is a real honor to serve--an
   honor which angels appreciate--which archangels delight in! That King
   is the King of kings and of Him we shall speak tonight--and of His
   service. Earthly kings have many servants and so has the King Eternal.
   I trust that many of us count it to be the very joy of our life that we
   call Jesus Christ our Lord and Master and that, to us, it is the
   highest pleasure to serve Him--to render to Him all that our strength
   can possibly yield because we feel that we are debtors to Him and are
   bound, from here on, in bonds of love to His Divine service forever and
   for evermore!

   Looking at my text, I see three or four observations springing from it.

   I. The first is this. Since we have mention, here, of potters and those
   that dwelt among the plants and hedges with the king for his work, we
   infer that OUR KING HAS MANY KINDS OF SERVANTS. Other kings have
   servants of different sorts and it would be the extreme of folly if one
   royal servant should say to another, "You are a nobody. You are of no
   use because you cannot perform the offices which I am called to
   discharge." No brother must exult over his neighbor. He that is
   appointed to one office must fill it and he ought to sympathize with
   the friend who fulfils any other office, but he should never exalt
   himself above him. The king has many kinds of servants.

   Look at any one of our kings and you find that they have soldiers.
   Until the halcyon days of peace shall arrive--may God speedily send
   them--I suppose there will always be standing armies and regiments of
   soldiers. Certainly, our great King, the King of kings, has many
   soldiers! It is their duty to contend earnestly for the faith once
   delivered to the saints. They have to put on the panoply of God and to
   contend, not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
   against

   powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world--and against
   spiritual wickedness in high places! Full often they have to draw the
   sharp sword of controversy against doctrinal errors which might come in
   to destroy the city of our

   God.

   Do not find fault with the Christian because he has soldierly
   qualities. There has been no time since Christ went to Heaven in which
   soldiers of Christ were not needed. Until the last enemy shall have
   laid down his weapons and infidelity and superstition shall be chased
   out of the world, we shall need these fighting men, who, with sword and
   shield, go forth to the conflict. They are your Master's servants. Pray
   for them. But a king has his watchmen, too, who do not go forth to
   fight, but stay at home and move about the city, especially by night.
   And do you know, I think the Lord's watchmen are mostly found among the
   sick. During the day, I suppose, there is little fear lest the incense
   of prayer should cease to rise up to the Throne of Heaven. But were we
   all in good health we might be all asleep and no prayer might be
   ascending.

   From this island, at a certain hour of the night, if all were locked in
   slumber, there would be no petitions going up! And so it seems to me
   that as a part of heavenly ordinance, that every hour shall be
   sanctified by prayer--as well the dead of night as the blaze of
   noon--so He keeps some of His watchmen awake. They must pray. Their
   pains, their sleeplessness, keep them devout. They lift up their hearts
   to the Most High. And so with a blessed cordon of prayer the night
   watches are surrounded and the Lord keeps His flock safe from the wolf.
   I like to think of those who cannot come out to the assembly and cannot
   take part in any of the active exercises of evangelism, can, on their
   beds, keep watch for the Lord. "You that make mention of the Lord keep
   not silence and give Him no rest until He establishes and makes
   Jerusalem a praise in the earth." These are His remembrancers--these
   consumptives, these sick folk--who in the gloomy hours of night keep
   awake and pour out their heart like water before the Lord!

   Now, let not the soldier despise her that tarries at home, for she
   divides the spoil. Let not Barak exult over feeble Jael who keeps the
   tent, for it may be that her prayer shall drive the nail through the
   adversary's brow and it shall not fall to Barak to be honored, but unto
   the humble stay-at-home. Oh, watch, you watchers! Plead much, you
   intercessors! You are the Lord's servants! Active and passive duties
   are, alike, valuable, and God accepts them! Let no one, therefore,
   exalt over another.

   There are some of my Master's servants that are His heralds. You know
   that great kings have their trumpeters to go and proclaim for them.
   This is an honorable office and one to which I trust many a young man
   here will aspire--to be a herald of the Cross to publish salvation. Get
   up to the high mountains and lift up your voice! Lift them up. Lift
   them up with strength. Say unto the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!"
   And in every court there are scribes as well as heralds-- the king's
   registrars that have to keep the chronicles and the records. So our
   great King has His scribes--the men of Isachar that can handle the
   pen--they whose hearts indite the good matter, for they speak of the
   things which they have made touching the king as the pen moves across
   the page.

   Well, whether it is by the spoken utterance of the tongue, or by the
   silent but vigorous expression of facts, thoughts and feelings--we must
   be equally grateful for every opportunity to do anything for Jesus! And
   instead of beginning to question, "Which is the more valuable?" let
   each one seek to make his own department of the Master's service as
   complete and efficient as he can. Our King, too, has His musicians, as
   other monarchs have, who play before them to make a goodly sound upon
   an instrument. And I delight in those of my Master's servants who can
   dedicate musical talents to Him and give us, first of all, the sweet
   poetry with which we adore Him in Psalm and song. And after that the
   sweet tunes which help us with united voice to magnify the Lord.

   Then there are sweet voices which help us of gruffer note in some way
   to keep harmony and so together to praise God. God be thanked for the
   Brothers and Sisters who have voices of melody! Let them consecrate it
   to their Lord and train it and use it always with discretion, not
   perhaps too loudly, and yet sometimes not too softly, either. Still, in
   a king's house they do not all sing. They cannot. There are some that
   make no melody. Servants are there in the royal palace that make no
   music unless it is with the brush and the broom, or whose music
   consists of the motion of their willing feet as they wait at the table,
   or as they go from chamber to chamber upon the royal errand.

   Now, let not those who can sing His praises exalt themselves above
   those who can only perform the lowest service for the Lord. And let not
   those who are performing the real service of life think that there is
   something about their labor that is more acceptable than the singing of
   Jehovah's praise, for it is not so. Each one in his own order, all
   acting with

   the right motive, all helping to take their part in the right
   spirit--all shall be equally acceptable with God through Jesus Christ
   our Lord.

   Here is a great variety of servants. I cannot stop to go through them
   all, but you see the text mentions some of them called potters. I do
   not know but they may supply a very good example for Sunday school
   teachers. Let them not be ashamed of the metaphor, for I cheerfully put
   myself with them, as I hope the minister may have some claim to be
   classed among the King's potters. What do the potters do but take the
   clay while it is yet pliable and soft--and put it on the wheel and make
   the wheel revolve--and then with thumb and finger fashion the clay as
   it revolves before them, to make a vessel fit for royal use? Well, dear
   Sunday school teachers, if ever at any time the human mind is pliable,
   it is while a child is young! We would, all of us, find it hard to
   learn who never had studious habits till we reached the age of 30 years
   or upward!

   Many a man is willing enough to be a student, but he has not the
   faculty for it. His skull has become set and hard and tight--and he
   cannot make his brain work as he could have done if he had begun
   earlier! But with the younger folk--oh what an opportunity there is to
   do a world with them! We cannot fashion them unless the hand of the
   Lord is with our hands--unless God makes their hearts soft--unless He
   puts them on the wheel for us! But if He does that, oh how a mother's
   hands can mold her boy! How a teacher's heart can mold the boy or girl
   committed to him or her and how throughout life the men and women of
   the future will bear about them the marks of the teachers of today! You
   are the King's potters! May He help you to do the work aright.

   And then there is another class of workers mentioned, and those, I
   think, are like Sunday school teachers, too-- those that dwell among
   plants and hedges. These were the king's gardeners. They dwelt in
   sheltered places--in enclosures that were protected by hedges to keep
   off the wind and so retain the heat. They lived in pleasant retreats
   where rare plants could grow. Now this is just what the Sunday school
   teacher should be. He tries to get the plants out from the wild waste
   and bring them into the--

   "Garden walled around, Chosen and made peculiar ground. The little spot
   enclosed by Grace, Out of the world's wide wilderness." He knows the
   Church is the garden of the Lord and he longs to plant many little
   slips in it. And I bless God that there are some teachers that my eyes
   rest upon who have planted many little slips that have been growing
   well. I thanked God when I saw them first take root! I bless the Lord
   when it is my business to water them as it is mine, now, and still that
   of their teachers. And I hope it will be the business of the teacher
   and the pastor, too, to gather much fruit from these little plants that
   we dwell among, that we plant, that we water and we tend.

   Dear Friends, if you are engaged in this service, it is a right
   honorable one. The first man was a gardener and the Second Man--the
   Lord from Heaven--was supposed to be a gardener and the supposition was
   not untrue, for never was there such a garden as He planted! It is He
   who makes the wilderness to rejoice and blossom as the rose. Because of
   His own excellency and because of the plants that He has nurtured, the
   Church is a garden of unparalleled renown! Thus there are many servants
   of our great Master and I will only say this much more concerning
   them--how blessed it is to be included in the number! Oh, one does not
   mind what department he takes so long as he may but serve Christ! I
   have often prayed by myself a prayer like this--"Lord make me the
   doormat of the Church. Let everybody wipe his boots upon me. Let me
   bear the mud and the mire so long as my Master's temple may be kept
   clean by me."

   And I think any Christian man will wish to take the lowest and most
   menial place so that he may be accounted of by our Lord as among "His
   servants who serve Him." The dishwashers in Christ's kitchen are more
   honorable than the counselors of an imperial court! They that have to
   do the worst and blackest work, if such there is to be done for the
   great Master, have a higher esteem in the judgment of perfect spirits
   than those that rule empires, conduct armies, but know not the fear of
   God!

   II. I proceed to our second observation--ALL WHO LIVE WITH OUR KING
   MUST WORK. Read the text.

   "There were the potters, and those that dwelt among plants and hedges:
   there they dwelt with the king for his work." They did not live on the
   king's bounty and dwell on the king's country estates to do
   nothing--they dwelt there for his work. I do not know whether all that
   call my Master, "Lord," have caught this idea. I have thought that some
   of our

   Church members imagine that the cause of Christ was a coach and that
   they were to ride in it--and that they would prefer the box seat--or
   else a very comfortable seat in the center.

   Nor do they wish to be crowded by too many fellow travelers--they do
   not like to be pressed for room even in the pews--they would rather sit
   at ease, solace themselves with their own dignity and ride to Heaven in
   a quiet, respectable, comfortable sort of way. In fact, it would appear
   to me as if some of our friends imagined that when a man becomes a
   Believer he may repose on a silken couch and be carried to Glory in a
   palanquin, never needing to do anything afterwards, but simply to dream
   himself into everlasting happiness! They get a nice creed that drugs
   their conscience. They settle down in some snug corner where they defy
   anybody to disturb their security. They select a sound minister who
   runs on one line that he never leaves. They listen sometimes, not often
   too earnestly, to the plan and promises of the Gospel and when they
   have listened they say they are fed.

   And if they ask about a minister, the question is, "Are you fed?" When
   it has got as far as the feeding their interest is exhausted. With the
   work of faith and the labor of love they never meddle. But let me
   assure you, as a matter of fact, that they that live with our King must
   work! They do not work that they may live with Him, but they work
   because they live with Him. Because His Grace has admitted them into
   His courts, therefore from that time they begin to work with all
   diligence. And why is this? What motive prompts them? Well, first,
   because He works. Jesus said, "My Father works to this day and I work."
   The most wonderful Worker in the universe is God Himself--and His dear
   Son, when He was here--never had an idle hour. "He went about doing
   good."

   He began life as a carpenter and, I do not doubt, worked hard at it.
   Then as a Savior He surveyed on the outset His great charge, "to
   fulfill all righteousness." With untiring zeal He pursued His arduous
   mission to the end and He finished His work. Until He said, "It is
   finished," He did not relax His ardor or lay down His toil. Brothers
   and Sisters, we cannot dwell with the great working God and yet be
   sluggards! He will not put up with it! He will not have communion with
   us unless we are agreed with Him. "How can two walk together unless
   they are agreed?" Are you an active-minded person and have you had a
   servant that you could not stir or hasten or make her move with
   agility? Or have you had a workman who took one step today and another
   tomorrow?

   Why, it gives you the fidgets! It makes your flesh creep! You do not
   know what to do. You cannot bear it. You take hold of the broom, or
   whatever else he is pretending to handle, and start using it--for you
   would sooner do the work yourself! Your patience is exhausted. Now, a
   glorious and active-minded God will not walk with sluggards! He cannot
   endure them. If you are to dwell with God you must be His servant. You
   must have something to do in His name. In whatever occupation it may
   be, you must lay yourself out, for His Glory is essential and
   imperative.

   The next reason why those that dwell with Him must work is that His
   company always inspires us with the desire to do something for Him. You
   never spent a happy hour alone in private prayer holding privileged
   communion with God when you did not feel constrained to say, "Lord,
   show me what You would have me do." You never enjoyed full assurance of
   faith without the question coming to you, "What shall I render to the
   Lord for all His benefits to me?" You cannot look at Him, bleeding on
   the Cross, pouring out His soul unto death for us, without feeling that
   the couch of inglorious ease would ill befit a faithful disciple's
   favored fellowship with Him. You crave that your hands should find
   something to do and that your tongue should have something to say. You
   yearn for some opportunity of sounding forth His dear praises!

   You may go where you will if you want to be idle, but you cannot go to
   the Cross and come away a sluggard. The nails of it prick us into
   sacred industry. They are the spurs of Christian duty. The agonies of
   our self-sacrificing Lord inspire us with such ardor that we feel we
   must serve Him and take it as a favor, not as a tax. It is a delight
   rather than a duty to lay ourselves out for Him! When you get into
   Christ's courts, there is so much to do that you cannot help doing
   something! If you are a member of an active Church, you find yourself
   called upon this way and that way to spend and to be spent for Christ.
   In such a hive, drones are despicable! If you live where there are
   young converts, where there are tried Believers, where there are
   backsliders, where there are hopeful penitents--as these come under
   your notice you perceive that your Master's house is full of
   service--you cannot refrain from taking some share in it and taking it
   eagerly, anxiously and cheerfully.

   No, a true Christian cannot stroll outside his Master's house without
   feeling calls to service! Can you walk these streets and have your ears
   assailed, as I grieve to say you must, with the filthiest language from
   working men--who

   seem, to my mind, to have become more coarse in their talk the last 10
   years than they used to be--can you, I ask, go down a street and have
   your blood curdle at the frequent oaths without feeling that you must
   be up and doing? Can you see these streets swarming with children and
   not come forward to help the Sunday school? Can you watch the
   multitudes of boys and girls streaming out of the Board School and not
   say to yourself "What is done with these on the Lord's Day? Others must
   be hard at work with them, why am I not doing something?"

   Everywhere, on all hands, work is suggested and especially by the
   activity of our adversaries. See how they compass sea and land to make
   one proselyte! See how the devil incessantly goes about seeking whom he
   may devour! He appears to have lost his eyelids! He never sleeps! He is
   intent upon devouring the souls of men and all the incidents and
   accidents we meet with say to us, "Are you Christians? Then bestir
   yourselves! Are you the King's servants? Then be up and doing, for
   there are thousands of things that must be done at once, if done at
   all, without waiting to discuss the best way of doing them." At any
   rate, of this thing you may be quite certain--the professor of true
   religion who is negligent in his Lord's service must and will lose the
   comforts of his Lord's Presence.

   I speak not, of course, of those who are sick, infirm, or helpless--for
   as I have already explained--by their patience and resignation and
   intercession they are exercising a very important part of the work of
   the Lord's Kingdom. But I speak of those of you who might be actively
   engaged and I regard it as a rule without exception that sluggish
   Christians become uncomfortable. When you meet with a Brother or Sister
   in Christ who is always grievous, complaining of doubts and fears,
   sighing and groaning, crying and moaning over an experience that
   puzzles, rather than profits, you need not ask many questions, for you
   may safely interpret all the symptoms. That person does not teach in
   the Sunday school. That person does not go out preaching in the
   villages. That person is very likely doing nothing!

   An earnest worker may be occasionally beset with temptations, but he
   will not be perpetually bewildered with these throes of anxiety. If
   that is the regular, habitual condition of the man, it looks as if he
   had a need of something to do. There are many flies, moths, spiders and
   cobwebs in the chambers of the lazy! Surely they would be brushed away
   if there were more activity for Christ. I think any minister will tell
   you it is the people who do nothing, themselves, in a Church that find
   fault with those who do the work. With great discernment they can
   always discover flaws in the policy and practice of the earnest
   Brothers and Sisters who take the pains and do the drudge of office.
   Bless their hearts, why do they not do it better themselves? No, not
   they! They seem to think that their department in the sacred household
   is to find fault with their Master's servants.

   Now 1 have looked all over His house, for I have been in it for years,
   occupying an official position. I have pried over my Master's books and
   I have been into His record office, but do you know I have not found
   anywhere that He has ever issued appointments to any ladies or
   gentlemen to be the supervisors and censurers of His servants? I
   believe they act without commission and that they will probably go
   without any wages. Or if all service rendered meets with an equitable
   retribution and the wages of sin is death--their carping will bring
   them no comfort and their reviling will be requited with bitter
   remorse. O Brothers and Sisters, there is no excuse for your culpable
   inactivity! Christ walks at a quick pace. If you want to walk with Him
   you must not loiter! He is no friend to the sluggard!

   I cannot always tell you where fellowship with Him may be found, but I
   can tell you where it can never be enjoyed. He is not where idlers
   lounge and congregate to gossip with gibe and jeer, with slur and
   sneer, railing at the very men whose conduct proves their conscience so
   pure that they would blight their own interests to bless the Lord's
   cause. He is with His people who are diligently devoted to His service
   and seek Him for strength to do that service well. Those that live with
   our King must work.

   III. Now, thirdly, THOSE THAT WORK FOR OUR KING OUGHT TO LIVE WITH HIM.
   That is the other side of the coin, for these potters and these
   gardeners dwelt with the king for his work. I offer to the Sunday
   school teachers of the south side of London a slogan which may last
   them for life--"With the King for His work!" Put that up, now, over
   your mantelpieces. "With the King for His work!" Work, by all means,
   because you are with the King! But get with the King, by all means,
   because you want to do His work!

   Oh, how important it is that every good servant of our heavenly Master
   should be with Him! Why? Do you ask me, why? Because you cannot know
   His will if you do not live with Him! He that lives with Christ gets
   his orders every day and oftentimes from moment to moment! He gets
   guidance from his great Lord's eyes. He says, "You shall guide me with
   Your eyes." You know how a servant in the house watches her mistress.
   The mistress does not always need to speak.

   Perhaps it is at a dinner. There is a number of guests. She does not
   keep calling, "Mary," and instructing her in measured sentences to
   attend to the various requirements, but by a simple movement of her
   head, or a quiet glance of her eyes, Mary can understand all her
   mistress wishes.

   Now, those who live with Jesus Christ have a sort of secret alphabet
   between themselves and Him. Oftentimes when a Christian man does the
   right thing, you read as a story, or as an anecdote that enlivens a
   book, how strangely wise he was--how he dropped the right word at the
   fitting moment--how he had a knack of giving the right answer to one
   who wrongly assailed him. Do you know why he had that knack? He lived
   with his Master, so he knew what you knew not! He knew the meaning of
   his Master's eyes and it guided him! Oh, I believe if Sunday school
   teachers and ministers live with their Lord they will be made wise to
   win souls! Oftentimes things they never thought of saying, they will
   say exactly at the right time to the right persons--and so surprising
   will it be to the persons addressed that they will almost think that
   you must have been told about them! Keep close to your Master and then
   you will know your Master's will.

   Why should workers live with the Lord but that they may gather
   strength? Every hour of communion with Christ is an hour of increased
   vigor. In the old fable, when Hercules fought with the giant, he could
   not kill him. He flung him down with all his might and Hercules could
   fling a fellow about. He thought he had dashed him to pieces, but every
   time he got up, he was stronger than before! So down he flung him
   again. "Surely," he thought, "if I have destroyed the hydra and the
   lion, I can kill this man--this giant." But up the giant sprang again
   because the old fable said that the earth was his mother--and every
   time that he fell, he touched his mother and got new life from her.

   So every time a Christian falls on his knees and draws near to his God,
   he gets a touch of his great Father and he gets new strength! When the
   devil throws a Christian to his knees--throws him down with such force,
   too, that he thinks, "I will crush him," he gets up again and is
   stronger than the devil! Over he goes again. He trips him up, flings
   him down, but every time the Christian falls to praying, he rises from
   before the Mercy Seat like a giant against the foe! Oh, then, dwell
   near the Lord, for that is the source of your strength as well as your
   knowledge! Why should workers dwell with the King? Surely it is to keep
   up their enthusiasm! Humanly speaking, the very soul of Christianity is
   enthusiasm. Cold religion--well, there are some cold things that give
   one a chill to think of. Cold religion? It is the most ghastly
   spectacle on which a pure and fervent heart can look! Cold religion?
   Ugh! It is nauseous!

   There is only one thing worse and that is a cool, listless profession,
   for Jesus Christ tells us that the lukewarm made Him outright sick. To
   the Laodicean said the faithful and true Witness, "I would you were
   cold or hot." "So then because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor
   hot, I will spit you out of My mouth." Let your faith be at furnace
   heat! Religion cannot long be lukewarm--it will either die out or it
   will kindle and set you all on fire. If it consume a man, then it only
   reaches the heat at which Jesus Christ lived. Somebody has very
   properly said, "Blood heat is the healthy heat for a Christian's soul."
   So it is. But what is the blood heat? The heat of our great atoning
   Sacrifice--the blood heat of our blessed Redeemer when He sweat great
   drops of blood and gave Himself for us! Would God we were filled with
   such flaming zeal. But ah, you never can attain unto it unless you live
   with Him! The world is cold and ice-bound and the Church is chill and
   pierced with the east wind. Would you get into the tropics where
   luxuriant fruits grow? Live near Christ! Then you will become
   enthusiastic and pursue your work with a fervor all Divine!

   We must live with our King, too, that we may be inspired with courage.
   I suppose some teachers are timid. I know some preachers are haunted
   with strange fears. The way to quicken courage is to look the King in
   the face. When you see how patiently He endured reproach and how
   resolutely He proceeded with His ministry of love, even to die for us,
   you will not be afraid of the faces of men, nor will you shrink from
   duty because nervous friends warn you of danger. And you need to live
   with the King if you would cultivate the soft Grace of patience. Sunday
   school work is very trying. It often vexes the soul and you get weary.
   But when you go and look at Him and see how He failed not, neither was
   discouraged, but went through with the work which He undertook till He
   could say, "It is finished," you will chide your soul for all its
   futile excitement and feverish unrest. By your patience and
   perseverance you will approve yourselves as children of God and
   followers of Christ.

   In short, dear Friends, I do not know that a person can do anything for
   our Lord Jesus Christ aright without living in communion with Him. I am
   persuaded that Martha got into trouble about that dinner of hers
   because she did not mix with her serving, the sitting at the Savior's
   feet with Mary. I am sure that we can attempt too much and accomplish
   too little, for we can apparently do a great deal, but because we have
   not had power with God, very little may come of it.

   Steeped seed is the best for Sunday school teachers. It is always well
   to take care that the good seed you bring to the little plots--your
   children's little minds--has been soaked the night before in earnest
   prayer. It is wonderful how quickly it sprouts and what a deal of
   vitality it manifests if you soak it! The dry seed--dry teaching
   without any praying-- without any communion with God may be productive,
   but it is a long time in coming up and yielding a reward for your
   labor.

   Believe me, my dear Brothers and Sisters, that to abide near to Jesus
   is the very life of Christian service! I would have you feel and speak
   like this, "I am engaged in the service of the King. Fifty little
   children I have under my charge--all infants--and I am trying to teach
   them something, but they are all full of fun and I cannot get anything
   into their little heads! But it would never do to think of giving it up
   because I am doing it for Jesus! I would not do it for anybody else."
   Or, "I have got half-a-dozen unruly boys in the ragged school. I would
   not undertake the work of this school for the biggest salary that could
   be offered me, but I can do it for Jesus Christ and I will do it for
   the love and gratitude I feel to Him. In fact, I am happy in doing it
   because I know that He is looking on--that He sees all that I do--if
   nobody else appreciates my service, He does. And He will accept me and
   I know with His help some blessed result will come of it, so I will tax
   all my energies to the task as the workman wakes up when there is a
   king watching.

   With what care and diligence he will exercise his highest skill! So let
   your task be performed with all your might, for if done for Him it
   ought to be done well. Nothing should be slurred over in a slovenly
   fashion that is done for Jesus! This thought, that I am with the King,
   is animating and helpful to me. I can assure you beyond any description
   of its influence that I can convey to you.

   IV. Now to our last point, upon which only a few words. That which
   should encourage us to live in any place is that we may work for the
   King in it. And that which should encourage us to any work is that WE
   ARE WORKING FOR THE KING. "These were the potters that dwelt among
   plants and hedges: there they dwelt with the king for his work." In any
   place where you dwell you can dwell with the King! These pottery men
   and gardeners were on the king's estate. You need not live next door to
   a church. You need not live with a pious family to have God with you.
   Oh, bless the Lord, I have met with my Lord and Master by the bedsides
   of the sick in Kent street many a time! My friend Mr. McCree has met
   the Lord many a time in a cellar in St. Giles's--and He is often to be
   found in Bethnalgreen and Shoreditch--in the very worst habitations
   that ever human beings dwelt in!

   Dwell wherever you may--on the land or on the sea, in the hospital or
   in the workhouse--you may still dwell there with the King! He does not
   need any carpets. He does not care about rich furniture. In fact, He
   does not often come where the floors are covered with Oriental carpets.
   I think the scarcest place for Christ is with the rich--they seldom
   have much to say about Him. I speak not of them all, but of very many.
   If for my part I need half an hour's real talk about Jesus Christ, I
   must visit the poor man. I do not know how others find it, but it is
   so, it is sadly so in my experience. Well, wherever you dwell and
   whatever your rank, you may have the Lord dwelling with you and this
   ought to encourage you to dwell anywhere if you can serve the Lord.

   I always find that when men are converted, if they live in a very bad
   neighborhood, they try and get out of it. That is right enough. I think
   if I were living in some neighborhoods, the sooner I could change my
   residence the better pleased I should be. At the same time, in a bad
   locality a good man is a great gift. Where is a bright lamp more needed
   than down in a dark alley? Where is the pure light most needed? Is it
   not among the depraved and profligate? Sometimes I almost fear that the
   repugnance with which Christian people fly away from a bad district is
   a misfortune for the population, especially for the young who are left
   behind. Of the sympathy that might be felt and the good that might be
   done by their being there, the inhabitants are henceforth bereft.

   My dear Brother, if you are placed in the very midst of ribald
   wickedness, an opportunity to serve the Lord where Satan's seat is
   might induce you to stop there awhile with the self-denial of a
   missionary among the heathen. It may be that it is cowardly to run
   away. Rather should it become you to say, "I am put into this fort in
   the midst of the enemy and I mean to stay--my fixed purpose is to hoist
   the flag of Christ on the top of it! Instead of deserting the post, I
   will strive incessantly to win souls for Him." At any rate, if you are
   compelled to live in neighborhoods that you do not like, it ought to be
   some comfort to you that the King will live there with you and that
   perhaps He has placed you there to try your faith, to honor His name
   and to bless the outcasts.

   Go, Beloved, wherever you reside and realize that your abode is a
   station you are appointed to occupy for His work. Let the nurse girl in
   the family, with the little ones about her, live for Christ and lose no
   opportunity of letting her light shine. Let the artisan, thrown into
   the large workshop where there are none like himself, be encouraged
   that he is put there for the King's work. The tradesman, dealing with
   many who like to have a word across the counter, should order his
   conversation for the glory of Christ. The merchant who will be sure to
   make many friends in business, should not forget his Lord, but bear a
   faithful testimony as often as he can. The employer of many hands
   should take care that he seeks the welfare of their souls and consider
   by what manifold agencies he can promote the King's work. You that have
   leisure, dear Friends, should feel that your spare time is a sacred
   trust never to be squandered, but to be consecrated always to the
   King's work.

   You that have talents should feel the same imperative obligation--yes,
   and especially you that have only one talent! It was the man of one
   talent that buried it. So it commonly is. You have not much talent, you
   think--nothing brilliant. Then the temptation is to go and bury your
   bit of bronze because you cannot display any glittering gold. Your
   conscious weakness produces a wicked conceit. Do not withhold your mite
   from the treasury because you have not a million to contribute. Still
   live with the King for His work.

   Doubtless I have been addressing some who have never served the King,
   who do not know Him, who do not love Him. I am not going to ask you to
   work for Him. No, no. My Lord needs none to work for Him who do not
   believe in Him. "Come and trust Him." Our soldier friends over there, a
   sprinkling of whom I am pleased to see and proud to salute, know how to
   enlist in the service. How does a man first become a soldier? Well, he
   receives a shilling. He receives and then he is a soldier. He that will
   receive Christ is made a soldier of Christ! It is receiving you have to
   begin with. And after you have received Christ, then you shall go forth
   and serve Him! Put out an empty hand and receive Christ into it by a
   little faith and then go and serve Him--and may the Lord bless you from
   that time and forever. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Jacob Worshipping on His Staff

   (No. 1401)

   DELIVERED BY

   C.H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph,
   and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff." Hebrews 11:21.

   "When he was dying." Death is a thorough test of faith. Beneath the
   touch of the skeleton finger shams dissolve into thin air and only
   truth remains unless, indeed, a strong delusion has been given--and
   then the spectacle of a presumptuous sinner passing away in his
   iniquities is one which might make angels weep. It is hard, very hard,
   to maintain a lie in the presence of the last solemnities. The end of
   life is usually the close of self-deception. There is a mimic faith, a
   false assurance, which lasts under all ordinary heats of trial, but
   this evaporates when the fires of death surround it.

   Certain men are at peace and quiet in their conscience. They stifle
   convictions, refuse to allow such a thing as self-examination--they
   count an honest self-suspicion to be a temptation of the devil and
   boast of their unbroken tranquility of mind. They go on from day to day
   with perfect confidence, but we would not be of their order. Their eyes
   are closed, their ears are dull of hearing and their heart has grossly
   waxen. A siren song forever enchants them with delight, but also
   entices them to destruction! Terrible will be their awakening when they
   lie dying--as a dream, their false peace will vanish and real terrors
   will come upon them.

   That expression, "When he was dying," reminds me of many deathbeds, but
   I shall not speak of them now, for I desire each one of you to rehearse
   the scene of your own departure, for soon a tale will be told of
   everyone commencing with, "When he was dying." I want each one to
   project his mind a little forward to the time when he must gather up
   his feet in the bed, pronounce his last farewell and yield up the
   ghost. Before your actual departure, probably, there may be allotted to
   you, unless you are carried away with a sudden stroke, a little time in
   which it shall be said, "He was dying." Perhaps it is a desirable thing
   to occupy some weeks in departure, till the mind seems to have passed
   through the gate and to be already in Glory, while yet the body lingers
   here. But as we have had no experience, we are scarcely able to form a
   judgment.

   The text tells us that the Patriarch's faith was firm while he was
   dying, so that he poured forth no complaints, but plentiful
   benedictions as he blessed both the sons of Joseph. May your faith and
   mine, also, be such that whenever we shall be dying it will perform
   some illustrious exploit that the Grace of God may be admired in us.
   Paul does not say anything about Jacob's life, but selects the death
   scene. There were many instances of faith in Jacob's life story, but
   you remember that in the Epistle to the Hebrews Paul is walking through
   the histories and plucking a flower here and a flower there. He even
   complains that time fails him in doing that, so fertile is the garden
   of faith!

   I do not doubt, however, that he gathered the best out of each
   biography and, perhaps, the finest thing in Jacob's life was the close
   of it. He was more royal between the curtains of his bed than at the
   door of his tent--greater in the hour of his weakness than in the day
   of his power. The old man of 147 might have been willing to depart
   through infirmities of age, but yet he had much to keep him below and
   make him wish to live as long as possible. After a very troublous life
   he had enjoyed 17 years of remarkable comfort, so much so, that had it
   been ourselves, we should probably have begun to strike our roots into
   the soil of Goshen and dread the bare thought of removal.

   Yet there sits the venerable Patriarch with his hands on his staff,
   ready to go, seeking no delay, but rather waiting for the salvation of
   God. After all his tossing to and fro, when he had been so long a
   pilgrim, it must have been a pleasant thing for him to have settled
   down in a fat land with his sons and grandsons--and
   great-grandsons--all around him! They were all comfortably provided for
   with Joseph at the head of the whole country--prime minister of Egypt--
   reflecting honor upon his old father and taking care that none of the
   family needed anything. The last course of Jacob's feast of life was by
   far the sweetest and the old man might have been loathe to retire from
   so dainty a table!

   The children of Israel were a sort of foreign aristocracy in the land
   and against them a dog would not dare to move its tongue lest the
   renowned Joseph should put forth his hand. That 17 years must have been
   bright and full of rest for the old man. But sense has not killed his
   faith! Luxury has not destroyed his spirituality! His heart is still in
   the tents where he had dwelt as a sojourner with God. You can see that
   not even one single rootlet of his soul has taken hold upon Egypt--his
   first anxiety is to take care that not even his bones shall lie in
   Goshen--but that his body shall be taken out of the country as a
   reminder to his family that they are not Egyptians and cannot be made
   into subjects of Pharaoh--and that Canaan is their possession to which
   they must go.

   By his dying charge to bury him in Machpelah, he practically teaches
   his descendants that they must set loose of all the good land which
   they possessed in Goshen, for their inheritance did not lie on the
   banks of the Nile, but on the other side of the desert in Canaan--and
   they must be on tiptoe to journey there. The blessing which he gave to
   the sons of Joseph was but an utterance of his firm faith in the
   Covenant which gave the land to him and to his seed. It was confirmed
   by that faith of his which let go the present and grasped the future,
   renounced the temporal and seized the eternal, refusing the treasures
   of Egypt and clinging to the Covenant of God.

   First, then, his blessing. He blessed the two sons of Joseph. Will you
   have patience with me while I try to show that his blessing the sons of
   Joseph was an act of faith? First, only by faith could the old man
   really give a blessing to anyone. Look at him. He is too feeble to
   leave his bed. When he sits up, supported by pillows, at what is called
   the bed-head, he calls for his trusty staff that he may lean upon it
   while he raises himself up a little to be in a position to stretch out
   his hands and to use his voice. He has no strength and his eyes are dim
   so that he cannot see which is Ephraim and which is Manasseh.

   He is failing in most of his faculties--in every way you can see that
   he is a worn-out old man who can do nothing for the children whom he
   loves. If he is able to bestow a blessing, it cannot be by the power of
   nature--and yet he can and does bless them--and therefore we feel sure
   that there must be an inner man within that feeble old Jacob! There
   must be a spiritual Israel hidden away in him, an Israel who, by
   prevailing with God as a prince, has obtained a blessing and is able to
   dispense it to others. And so there is--and at half a glance we see it!
   He rises to the dignity of a king, a Prophet and a priest when he
   begins to pronounce a blessing upon his two grandchildren!

   He believed that God spoke by him and he believed that God would
   justify every word that he was uttering. He believed in the God that
   hears prayer. His benediction was a prayer and as he pronounced
   blessings upon his grandsons he felt that every word he was speaking
   was a petition which the Lord was answering. They were blessed and they
   should be blessed--and he discerned it by faith. Thus we see he was
   manifesting his faith in offering believing prayer and in uttering a
   confident benediction. Whether we live, or whether we die, let us have
   faith in God! Whenever we preach or teach the Gospel, let us have
   faith, for without faith we shall labor in vain. Whenever you
   distribute religious books or visit the sick, do so in faith, for faith
   is the lifeblood of all our service!

   If only by faith can a dying Jacob bless his descendants, so only by
   faith can we bless the sons of men. Have faith in God and the
   instruction which you give shall really edify--the prayers you offer
   shall bring down showers of mercy-- and your endeavors for your sons
   and daughters shall be prospered. God will bless what is done in faith!
   But if we believe not, our work will not be established. Faith is the
   backbone and marrow of the Christian's power to do good. We are weak as
   water till we enter into union with God by faith--and then we are
   omnipotent! We can do nothing for our fellow men by way of promoting
   their spiritual and eternal interests if we walk according to the sight
   of our eyes. But when we get into the power of God and grasp His
   promise by a daring confidence, then it is that we obtain the power to
   bless!

   You will notice, also, that not only the power to bless came to him by
   faith, but the blessings which he allotted to his grandsons were his
   upon the same tenure. His legacies were all blessings which he
   possessed only by faith. He gave to Ephraim and Manasseh a portion
   each--but where and what? Did he fetch out a bag from an iron safe and
   say, "Here, young men, I give you the same portion of ready money as I
   give my sons"? No, there does not seem to have been a solitary shekel
   in the case. Did he call for the map of the family estates and say, "I
   give over to you, my boys, my freehold lands in such-and-such parish
   and my farms in such-and-such a manor"? No, no, he gave them no portion
   in Goshen, but each had a lot in Canaan.

   Did that belong to him? Yes, in one sense, but not in another. God had
   promised it to him, but he had not yet a foot of land in it. The
   Canaanites were swarming in the land. They were dwelling in cities
   walled up to Heaven and held the country by the right of possession
   which is nine points of the law. But the good old man talks about
   Canaan as if it were all his own and he foresees the tribes growing
   into nations as much as if they were already in actual possession of
   the country! He had, as a matter of fact, neither house nor ground in
   Palestine and yet he counts it all his own since a faithful God had
   promised it to his fathers! God had said to Abraham, "Lift up, now,
   your eyes and behold to the east and to the west, to the north and to
   the south. All this will I give you."

   And Jacob realizes that gift of God as being a charter and title-deed
   of possession! And he acts upon it while he says, "This is for Ephraim.
   This is for Manasseh." The sneering infidel standing by would have
   said, "Hear how the old man dotes and maunders, giving away what he has
   not!" Faith is the substance of things hoped for and she deals
   seriously and in a business manner with that which she makes real to
   herself! Blind Reason may ridicule, but Faith is justified of all her
   children. Beloved, in this manner Believers bless the sons of men,
   namely, by faith. We pray for them and we tell them of good things yet
   to come, not to be seen of the eyes, or to be perceived by the senses,
   but inconceivably good things laid up by God for them that love
   Him--which shall be the portion of our children and our friends if they
   believe in the living

   God.

   By faith we believe in things not as yet seen. We confess that, like
   Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, we are strangers here and we are journeying
   towards a place of which God has spoken of to us--"A city which has
   foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God." We have learned to talk
   about the crown which the Lord has laid up for us and not for us, only,
   but for all them that love His appearing! And we delight to tell others
   how to win this crown. We point them to the narrow gate and to the
   narrow way--neither of which they can see--and to the end of that
   narrow road, even to the hilltops crowned with the Celestial City where
   the pilgrims of the Lord shall dwell forever and enjoy an eternal
   reward!

   Faith is needed to enable us to point men to the invisible and eternal!
   And if we cannot do this, how can we bless them? We must believe for
   those we love and have hope for them--and thus shall we have power with
   God for them-- and shall bless them. Oh, you worldly fathers, you may
   give your sons what heritage you can and divide among your daughters
   what wealth you please, but as for us, our longing is to see our
   children and our children's children blessed with the riches which come
   from above! If they win a share in the land on the other side of
   Jordan, as yet unseen, and have a portion now in Christ Jesus, we shall
   be glad--infinitely more glad than if they were the richest among
   mankind! Our legacies to our sons are the blessings of Divine Grace and
   our dowries to our daughters are the promises of the Lord.

   It is well worthy of our notice that the venerable Patriarch Jacob, in
   his benediction, particularly mentioned the Covenant. His faith, like
   the faith of most of God's people, made the Covenant its pavilion of
   delightful abode, its tower of defense and its armory for war! No
   sweeter word was on his tongue than the Covenant and no richer
   consolation sustained his heart. He said to Joseph, "God Almighty
   appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me. He said to
   me, Behold I will make you fruitful and multiply you." His confidence
   rested in the promise of the Lord and in the Divine fidelity--that was
   the fountain Truth of God from which he drew the inspiration which led
   him to bless his grandchildren.

   And, also, notice how he dwells upon the name of his father Abraham and
   of his father Isaac with whom the Covenant had been established--the
   memories of covenant love are precious and every confirmatory token is
   treasured up and dwelt upon. Dying men do not talk nonsense. They get
   to something solid and the Everlasting Covenant made with their fathers
   and confirmed in their own persons has been one of the grand things
   about which dying saints have been known to deliver their souls.
   Remember how David said, "Although my house is not so with God, yet has
   He made with me an Everlasting Covenant, ordered in all things and
   sure." While we are sitting here we can talk about the matter coolly.
   But when death dew lies cold upon our brow, the pulse is failing and
   the throat is gradually choking up, it will be blessed to fix our eyes
   upon the faithful Promiser and to feel a calm within our soul which
   even death pangs cannot disturb! We can then exclaim, "I know whom I
   have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I
   have committed to Him until that day."

   I want to call your attention to one point which I think
   extraordinarily illustrates the faith of Jacob. In distributing to
   these two grandchildren his blessings as to the future, he takes them
   right away from Joseph and says, "As Simeon and Reuben, shall they be
   mine." Do you know who those two young gentlemen were? Think awhile and
   you will see that

   they were very different in rank, station, parentage and prospects from
   any of the sons of Jacob! Jacob's sons had been brought up as laboring
   men without knowledge of polite society or learned arts. They were
   country men, mere Bedouins--wandering shepherds and nothing else!

   But these two young gentlemen were descended from a princess and had,
   no doubt, been liberally educated. Pharaoh had given to Joseph a
   daughter of Potipherah, priest of On, and the priests of Egypt were the
   highest class of all--the nobility of the land! Joseph himself was
   Prime Minister and these were partakers of his lofty rank. The sons of
   Reuben and Simeon were nobodies in the polite circles of Egypt--very
   good, decent people--farmers and grazers, but not at all of the high
   class of the Right Honorable Lord Manasseh and the Honorable Ephraim!
   Indeed, every shepherd was an abomination to the Egyptians and,
   therefore, inadmissible to Egypt's nobility! Manasseh and Ephraim were
   of a superior caste and gentlemen of position and fortune.

   But Jacob showed his faith by ignoring worldly advantages for his
   grandsons. He says to Joseph, "They are not to be yours. I do not know
   them as Egyptians--I forget all about their mother's rank and family.
   The boys have attractive prospects before them. They can be made
   priests of the idol temple and rise to high dignity among the
   Egyptians. But all that glitter we reject for them and, in token
   thereof, I adopt them as my own sons. They are mine--as Simeon and
   Reuben they shall be mine. For all the gold of Egypt you would not have
   one of them serve an idol, for I know that you are true to your
   father's God and your father's faith." And so He takes the boys right
   away, you see, from all their brilliant opportunities, and bestows upon
   them that which, to the carnal mind, appears to be an estate in
   dreamland, a chateau in Spain--something intangible and unmarketable!

   This was a deed of faith and blessed are they who can imitate it,
   choosing rather the reproach of Christ for their sons than all the
   treasures of Egypt! The joy of it is that these lads accepted the
   exchange and let the golden possessions of Egypt go, like Moses after
   them. May our heirs and successors be of the same mind and may the Lord
   say of them, "Out of Egypt have I called My Son." And again, "When
   Ephraim was a child then I loved him and called My Son out of Egypt."
   This is how faith leads Believers to bless their children. We are of
   the same mind as Jacob in this matter. We would sooner bury our little
   ones than that they should live to become among the richest and most
   famous of men--and yet not know or serve their father's God! Better
   that we laid them quietly in such ground as our Christian Brethren
   permit us to use as a sepulcher for our unbaptized babes. Better that
   they were safely housed at God's right hand than that they should grow
   up to plunge into dissipation or to follow false doctrine and perish
   out of Christ!

   We have not done yet, for we notice that Jacob showed his faith by
   blessing Joseph's sons in God's order. He placed Ephraim before
   Manasseh. It was not according to the rule of nature, but he felt the
   impulse upon him and his faith would not resist the Divine guidance.
   Blind as he was, he would not yield to the dictation of his son, but
   crossed his hands to obey the Divine monition. Faith resolves to do the
   right thing in the right way. Some persons' faith leads them to do the
   right thing the wrong way, but mature faith follows the order which God
   prescribes. If God will have Ephraim first, faith does not quarrel with
   His decree. We may wish to see a favorite child blessed more than
   another, but Nature must forego her choice, for the Lord must do what
   seems good to Him. Faith prefers Divine Grace to talent and piety to
   cleverness. She lays her right hand where God lays it and not where
   beauty of person or quickness of intellect would suggest. Our best
   child is that which God calls best--Faith corrects Reason and accepts
   the Divine verdict.

   Notice that he manifested his faith by his distinct reference to
   redemption. He alone who has faith will pray for the redemption of his
   children, especially when they exhibit no signs of being in bondage but
   are hopeful and amiable. The good old man prayed, "The Angel which
   redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads." Let your faith bring down
   upon your children a share in redemption's blessings, for they need to
   be redeemed even as others. If they are washed in the blood of Jesus.
   If they are reconciled to God by the blood of His Son. If they have
   access to God by the blood of Atonement, you may die well satisfied--
   for what is to harm them when once the Angel that redeemed you has also
   redeemed them? From sin, from Satan, from death, from Hell, from
   self--"from all evil"--does our Redeemer set us free! And this is the
   greatest of all benedictions which we can pronounce upon our dearest
   children.

   Jacob showed his faith by his assurance that God would be present with
   his seed. How cheering is the old man's dying expression, made not only
   to his boys, but concerning all his family! He said, "Now I die, but
   God will be with you." It is very different from the complaints of
   certain good old ministers when they are dying. They seem to say, "When
   I die, the light of Israel will be quenched! I shall die and the people
   will desert the Truth of God. When I am gone, the standard-bearer will
   have fallen and the watchman on the walls will be dead." Many, in
   dying, are afraid for the chariot of Israel and the horsemen

   thereof and, sometimes, we who are in good health talk very much in the
   same fashion as though we were wonderfully essential to the progress of
   God's cause!

   I have known some of our Church members speak in that manner and
   inquire--"What should we do if Mr. So-and-So were dead? If our pastor
   were gone, what would the Church do?" I will tell you what you will do
   without us--I will put the case as though I were myself to die--"Now I
   die, but God will be with you." Whoever passes away, the Lord will
   abide with His people and the Church will be secure. The grand old
   cause does not depend on one or two of us! God forbid! The Truth of God
   was mighty in the land before the best man living was born--and the
   Truth of God will not be buried with him, but in its own immortal youth
   will still be powerful! Yes, and fresh advocates will arise more full
   of life and vigor than we are! And greater victories will be won! It is
   grand to say with Jacob, "Now I die, but God will be with you." Such
   language honors God and bespeaks a mind greatly trustful and completely
   delivered from the self-conceit which dreams itself important, if not
   necessary, to the cause of God.

   We are told, next, that the old man "worshiped"--worshiped by faith.
   Very briefly let me tell you what worship I think he rendered. First,
   while he was dying he offered the worship of gratitude. How pleasing is
   the incident recorded in the 10th and 11th verses--"Now the eyes of
   Israel were dim for age, so that he could not see. And Joseph brought
   his two sons near unto him and he kissed them and embraced them. And
   Israel said unto Joseph, I had not thought to see your face and, lo,
   God has showed me, also, your seed." Ah, yes, we shall often have to
   say, "O Lord, I had not thought that You would do as much as this, but
   you have gone far beyond what I asked or even thought."

   I hope that this will be among our dying speeches and confessions--that
   the half was never told us, that our good Lord kept the best wine till
   the last and that the end of the feast on earth--being but the
   beginning of the eternal feast in Heaven was the crown of all! Let us
   declare concerning our Lord that we found Him better and better and
   better and better, even till we entered into His rest! He has been, at
   first, better than our fears, then better than our hopes and finally
   better than our desires! Did Jacob not also offer the worship of
   testimony when he acknowledged God's goodness to him all his life? He
   says, "The God that fed me all my life long," thus acknowledging that
   he had been always dependent but always supplied.

   He had been a shepherd and he uses a word, here, which means, "the God
   that shepherded me--who was a Shepherd to me all my life long." It was
   a testimony to the care and tenderness of Jehovah. Yes, and I hope we,
   also, shall finish life by magnifying the goodness of the Lord. Be this
   our witness, "He fed me all my life long. I was in straits, sometimes,
   and I wondered from where the next bit of bread would come--but if He
   did not send a raven, or if He did not find a widow woman to provide
   for me--yet somehow or other He did feed me all my life long. He worked
   in His own wise ways so that I never lacked, for the Lord was my
   Shepherd all my life long."

   Notice, too, how reverently He worships the Covenant Messenger with the
   adoration of reverent love. He speaks of "the Angel who redeemed me
   from all evil." He thinks of the Angel that wrestled with him and the
   Angel that appeared to him when he fell asleep at Bethel. This is the
   Angel, not an ordinary angel, but the true Archangel--Jesus Christ--the
   Messenger of the Covenant whom we delight in. It is He that has
   delivered us from all evil by His redeeming blood, for no other being
   could have accomplished a redemption so complete. Do you remember when
   He came to you, personally, and wrestled with you and tore away your
   self-righteousness and made you limp on your thigh? This, it may be,
   was your first introduction to Him. You saw Him by night and thought
   Him, at the first, to be your enemy rather than your friend.

   Do you remember when He took your strength away from you and then at
   last saved you, because in utter weakness you were about to fall to the
   ground? You laid hold of Him and said, "I will not let You go unless
   You bless me," and so you won a blessing from Him. You had thought,
   before that time, that you had strength in yourself. But now you
   realize that you were weakness, itself, and that only as you became
   consciously weak would you become actually strong. You learned to look
   out of self to Him and do you not bless Him for having taught you such
   a lesson? Will you not, when you come to die, bless Him for what He did
   for you, then, and all your life? O my Brothers and Sisters, we owe all
   things to the redeeming Angel of the Covenant! The evils which He has
   warded off from us were terrible beyond conception! And the blessings
   He has brought us are rich beyond imagination! Thus you have had a
   picture of the old man blessing, by faith, and worshiping by
   faith--faith was the mainspring of the two actions--their essence,
   their spirit and their crown.

   The last matter for us to speak upon is his attitude. He "worshiped
   leaning upon the top of his staff." The Romanists have made fine
   mischief out of this text, for they have read it, "He worshiped the top
   ofhis staff." Their notion has been, I suppose, that there was a pretty
   little god carved on the top--an image of a saint or a cross, or some
   other symbol--and that he held up that symbol and so worshiped the top
   of his staff! We know that he did no such thing, for there is no trace
   in Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob of anything like the worship of images!
   Though teraph worship lingered in their families, it was not with their

   consent. They were not perfect men, but they were perfectly clear from
   idolatry and never worshiped an image. No, no, no-- they worshiped only
   God! Jacob worshiped on the top of his staff--leaning on it--supporting
   himself upon it.

   In Genesis you read that he "bowed himself upon the bed's head." It is
   a very curious thing that the word for bed and the word for staff in
   the Hebrew are so exceedingly like each other that unless the little
   points had been used, which I suppose were not used at all in the olden
   times, it would be difficult to tell whether the word is, "bed," or
   "staff." I do not, however, think either Moses or Paul can be wrong!
   Jacob strengthened himself and sat upon the bed and he leaned upon his
   staff, too. It is very easy to realize a position in which both
   descriptions would be equally true. He could sit upon the bed and lean
   on the top of his staff at the same time. But why did he lean on his
   staff? I think besides the natural need which he had of it, because of
   his being old, he did it emblematically. Do you not remember his
   saying, "With my staff I crossed this Jordan"?

   I believe he kept that staff throughout life as a memorial. It was a
   favorite staff of his which he took with him on his first journey and
   he leaned upon it as he took his last. "With my staff I crossed this
   Jordan," he had said before, and now with that same staff in hand he
   crosses the spiritual Jordan! That staff was his life companion, the
   witness with himself of the goodness of the Lord, even as some of us
   may have an old Bible, or a knife, or a chair which are connected with
   memorable events of our lives. But what did that staff indicate? Let us
   hear what Jacob said at another time. When he stood before Pharaoh he
   exclaimed, "Few and evil have been the days of my pilgrimage." What
   made him use that word "pilgrimage"? Why, because upon his mind there
   was always the idea of his being a pilgrim! He had been literally so
   during the early part of his life, wandering here and there.

   And now, though he has been 17 years in Goshen, he keeps the old staff
   and he leans on it to show that he had always been a pilgrim and a
   sojourner like his fathers and that he still was! While he leans on
   that staff, he talks to Joseph and he says, "Do not let my bones lie
   here. I have come here in the Providence of God, but I do not belong
   here. This staff indicates that I am only a sojourner and need to be
   gone. I am in Egypt, but I am not of it. Take my bones away. Do not let
   them lie here, for if they do, my sons and daughters will mingle with
   the Egyptians and that must not be, for we are a distinct nation. God
   has chosen us for Himself and we must keep separate. To make my
   children see this, lo, here I die with my pilgrim staff in my

   hand."

   Now, Christian Brothers and Sisters, I want you to live in the same
   spirit, feeling that this is not your rest nor your native country.
   There is nothing here that is worthy of you. Your home is yonder, on
   the other side the desert, where God has mapped out your portion.
   Christ has gone to prepare your place and it would ill become you to
   have no desires for it. The longer you live, the more let this thought
   grow upon you--"Give me my staff. I must be gone. Poor world, you are
   no rest for me. I am not of your children. I am an alien and a
   stranger. My citizenship is in Heaven. I take my share in Egypt's
   politics and Egypt's labor, yes, and in Egypt's griefs, but I am no
   Egyptian, I am a stranger bound for another land." Worship on the top
   of your staff and sing--

   "A scrip on my back, and a staff in my hand, I march on in haste
   through an enemy's land. There is nothing on earth which can tempt me
   to stay, My staff is the emblem of 'up and away.'" Singular enough is
   it that each descendant of Jacob came to worship on the top of his
   staff at last, for on the paschal supper night, when the blood was
   sprinkled on the lintel and the side posts, they each one ate the lamb
   with their loins girt and with a staff in his hand! The supper was a
   festival of worship and they ate it, each one leaning on his staff, as
   those that were in haste to leave home for a pilgrimage through the
   wilderness! My dear Hearers, this advice does not apply to all of you,
   for you are not all Jacobs, nor do you belong to the believing seed. I
   cannot bid you take your staff, for if you were to take your staff and
   start off, where would you go? You have no portion in the next world,
   no promised land, no Canaan flowing with milk and honey.

   Where will you go? You must be banished from the Presence of the Lord
   and from the glory of His power! Alas for you! You cannot worship, for
   you know not God! You cannot bless others, for you have not been
   blessed yourselves! May the Lord bring you to His dear Son, Jesus
   Christ, and lead you to put your trust in Him--and then I shall hope
   that being saved you will by faith imitate Jacob and both bless men,
   worship God and wait with your staff in your hand, ready to journey to
   the eternal rest!
     __________________________________________________________________

"Lead Us Not Into Temptation"

   (No. 1402)

   DELIVERED BY

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Lead us not into temptation." Matthew 6:13.

   LOOKING over a book of addresses to young people the other day, I met
   with the outline of a discourse which struck me as being a perfect gem.
   I will give it to you. The text is the Lord's prayer and the exposition
   is divided into most instructive heads. "Our Father which are in
   Heaven"--a child away from home. "Hallowed be Your name"--a worshipper.
   "Your kingdom come"--a subject. "Your will be done in earth, as it is
   in Heaven"--a servant. "Give us this day our daily bread"--a beggar.
   "And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors"--a sinner. "And
   lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil"-- a sinner in
   danger of being a still greater sinner.

   The titles are, in every case, most appropriate and truthfully condense
   the petition. Now if you will remember the outline you will notice that
   the prayer is like a ladder. The petitions begin at the top and go
   downward. "Our Father which are in Heaven"--a child, a child of the
   heavenly Father. Now to be a child of God is the highest possible
   position of man. "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed
   upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." This is what Christ
   is--the Son of God--and "Our Father" is but a plural form of the very
   term which He uses in addressing God, for Jesus says, "Father." It is a
   very high, gracious, exalted position which, by faith, we dare to
   occupy when we intelligently say, "Our Father which are in Heaven."

   It is a step down to the next--"Hallowed be Your name." Here we have a
   worshipper adoring with lowly reverence the thrice holy God. A
   worshipper's place is a high one, but it attains not to the excellence
   of the child's position. Angels come as high as being worshippers,
   their incessant song hallows the name of God--but they cannot say, "Our
   Father," "for unto which of the angels has He said, 'you are My son'?"
   They must be content to be within one step of the highest, but they
   cannot reach the summit, for neither by adoption, regeneration, nor by
   union to Christ are they the children of God. "Abba, Father," is for
   men, not for angels and, therefore, the worshipping sentence of the
   prayer is one step lower than the opening, "Our Father."

   The next petition is for us as subjects, "Your kingdom come." The
   subject comes lower than the worshipper, for worship is an elevated
   engagement wherein man exercises a priesthood and is seen in lowly but
   honorable estate. The child worships and then confesses the Great
   Father's royalty. Descending still, the next position is that of a
   servant, "Your will be done in earth, as it is in Heaven." That is
   another step lower than a subject, for Her Majesty the Queen has many
   subjects who are not her servants. They are not bound to wait upon her
   in the palace with personal service though they acknowledge her as
   their honored sovereign. Dukes and such like are her subjects, but not
   her servants. The servant is a grade below the subject.

   Everyone will admit that the next petition is lower by far, for it is
   that of a beggar--"Give us this day our daily bread." A beggar for
   bread--an everyday beggar--one who has continually to appeal to
   charity, even for his livelihood. This is a fit place for us to occupy
   who owe our all to the charity of Heaven. But there is a step lower
   than the beggar's and that is the sinner's place. "Forgive" is lower
   than, "give." "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." Here,
   too, we may, each one, take up his position, for no word better befits
   our unworthy lips than the prayer, "Forgive." As long as we live and
   sin we ought to weep and cry, "Have mercy on us, O Lord."

   And now, at the very bottom of the ladder stands a sinner afraid of yet
   greater sin. He is in extreme danger and in conscious weakness,
   sensible of past sin and fearful of it for the future. Hear him, as
   with trembling lip he cries in the words of our text, "Lead us not into
   temptation, but deliver us from evil." And yet, dear Friends, though I
   have thus described the prayer as a going downward--downward is, in
   matters of Divine Grace, much the same as upward--as we could readily
   show if time permitted. At any rate the going down process of the
   prayer might equally well illustrate the advance of the Divine life in
   the soul.

   The last clause of the prayer contains in it a deeper inward experience
   than the earlier part of it. Every Believer is a child of God, a
   worshipper, a subject, a servant, a beggar and a sinner. But it is not
   every man who perceives the allurements which beset him, or his own
   tendency to yield to them. It is not every child of God, even when
   advanced in years, who knows the full meaning of being led into
   temptation--for some follow an easy path and are seldom buffeted--while
   others are such tender babes that they hardly know their own
   corruptions. To fully understand our text a man should have had sharp
   brushes in the wars and have done battle against the enemy within his
   soul for many a day.

   He who has escaped as by the skin of his teeth offers this prayer with
   an emphasis of meaning. The man who has felt the fowler's net about
   him--the man who has been seized by the adversary and almost
   destroyed--he prays with hot eagerness, "Lead us not into temptation."
   I purpose at this time, in trying to commend this prayer to you, to
   notice, first of all, the spirit which suggests such a petition.
   Secondly, the trials which such a prayer deprecates. And then, thirdly,
   the lessons which it teaches.

   I. WHAT SUGGESTS SUCH A PRAYER AS THIS?--"Lead us not into temptation."
   First, from the position of the clause, I gather, by a slight reasoning
   process, that it is suggested by watchfulness. This petition follows
   after the sentence, "Forgive us our debts." I will suppose the petition
   to have been answered and the man's sin is forgiven. What then? If you
   will look back upon your own lives, you will soon perceive what
   generally happens to a pardoned man, for "As in water face answers to
   face, so the heart of man to man." One believing man's inner experience
   is like another's and your own feelings are the same as his.

   Very speedily after the penitent has received forgiveness and has the
   sense of it in his soul, he is tempted of the devil, for Satan cannot
   bear to lose his subjects--and when he sees them cross the border and
   escape out of his hand, he gathers up all his forces and exercises all
   his cunning if, perhaps, he may slay them at once. To meet this special
   assault the Lord makes the heart watchful. Perceiving the ferocity and
   subtlety of Satan's temptations, the new-born Believer, rejoicing in
   the perfect pardon he has received, cries to God, "Lead us not into
   temptation." It is the fear of losing the joy of pardoned sin which
   thus cries out to the good Lord--"Our Father, do not suffer us to lose
   the salvation we have so lately obtained. Do not even subject it to
   jeopardy! Do not permit Satan to break our newfound peace. We have but
   newly escaped--do not plunge us in the deeps again!

   "Swimming to shore, some on boards and some on broken pieces of the
   ship, we have come safely to land--do not let us tempt the boisterous
   main again. Cast us not upon the rough billows any more. O God we see
   the enemy advancing-- he is ready, if he can, to sift us as wheat! Do
   not allow us to be put into his sieve, but deliver us, we pray You." It
   is a prayer of watchfulness and mark you, though we have spoken of
   watchfulness as necessary at the commencement of the Christian life, it
   is equally needful even to the close! There is no hour in which a
   Believer can afford to slumber. Watch, I pray you, when you are alone,
   for temptation, like a creeping assassin, has its dagger for solitary
   hearts! You must bolt and bar the door well if you would keep out the
   devil.

   Watch yourself in public, for temptations in troops cause their arrows
   to fly by day. The choicest companions you can select will not be
   without some evil influence upon you unless you are on your guard.
   Remember our blessed Master's words, "What I say unto you I say unto
   all, Watch," and as you watch, this prayer will often rise from your
   inmost heart--

   "From dark temptation's power, From Satan's wiles defend. Deliver in
   the evil hour, And guide me to the end."

   It is the prayer of watchfulness.

   Next, it seems to me to be the natural prayer of holy horror at the
   very thought of falling into sin again. I remember the story of a
   pitman who, having been a gross blasphemer--a man of licentious life
   and everything that was bad--when converted by Divine Grace, was
   terribly afraid lest his old companions should lead him back again. He
   knew himself to be a man of strong passions and very apt to be led
   astray by others and, therefore, in his dread of being drawn into his
   old sins, he prayed most vehemently that sooner than ever he should go
   back to his old ways, he might die. He did die then and there. Perhaps
   it was the best answer to the best prayer that the poor man could have
   offered.

   I am sure any man who has once lived an evil life, if the wondrous
   Grace of God has snatched him from it, will agree that the pitman's
   prayer was not one whit too enthusiastic. It were better for us to die
   at once than to live on and return

   to our first estate and bring dishonor upon the name of Jesus Christ
   our Lord! The prayer before us springs from the shrinking of the soul
   at the first approach of the tempter. The footstep of the fiend falls
   on the startled ear of the timid penitent--he quivers like an aspen
   leaf and cries out--"What? Is he coming again? And is it possible that
   I may fall again? And may I once more defile these garments with that
   loathsome murderous sin which slew my Lord? O my God," the prayer seems
   to say, "keep me from so dire an evil. Lead me, I pray You, where You
   will--yes, even through Death's dark valley, but do not lead me into
   temptation, lest I fall and dishonor You." The burnt child dreads the
   fire. He who has once been caught in the steel trap carries the scars
   in his flesh and is horribly afraid of being held, again, by its cruel
   teeth.

   The third feeling, also, is very apparent, namely, overconfident
   personal strength. The man who feels himself strong enough for anything
   is daring and even invites the battle which will prove his power. "Oh,"
   he says, "I don't care. They may gather about me who will--I am quite
   able to take care of myself and hold my own against any number." He is
   ready to be led into conflict. He courts the fray! Not so the man who
   has been taught of God and has learned his own weakness! He does not
   want to be tried, but seeks quiet places where he may be out of harm's
   way. Put him into the battle and he will play the man. Let him be
   tempted and you will see how steadfast he will be--but he does not ask
   for conflict, as, I think, few soldiers will, who know what fighting
   means. Surely it is only those who have never smelt gunpowder, or seen
   corpses heaped in bloody masses on each other, that are so eager for
   the shot and shell--but your veteran would rather enjoy the piping
   times of peace.

   No experienced Believer ever desires spiritual conflict, though,
   perhaps, some raw recruits may challenge it. In the Christian a
   recollection of his previous weakness--his broken resolutions, his
   unkept promises--makes him pray that he may not be severely tested in
   the future. He does not dare to trust himself. He wants no fight with
   Satan or with the world--he asks that, if possible, he may be kept from
   those severe encounters. His prayer is, "Lead us not into temptation."
   The wise Believer shows a sacred fear--no, I think I may say an utter
   despair of himself--and even though he knows that the power of God is
   strong enough for anything, yet is the sense of his weakness so heavy
   upon him that he begs to be spared too much trial. Hence the cry, "Lead
   us not into temptation."

   Nor have I quite exhausted, I think, the phases of the spirit which
   suggests this prayer, for it seems to me to arise somewhat out of
   charity. "Charity?" you say. "How so?" Well, the connection is always
   to be observed, and by reading the preceding sentence in connection
   with it, we get the words, "as we forgive our debtors, and lead us not
   into temptation." We should not be too severe with those persons who
   have done wrong and have offended us, but pray, "Lord, lead us not into
   temptation." Your maid servant, poor girl, did take a trifle from your
   property. I make no excuse for her theft, but I beseech you, pause
   awhile before you quite ruin her character for life. Ask yourself,
   "Might not I have done the same had I been in her position? Lord, lead
   me not into temptation."

   It is true, it was very wrong of that young man to deal so dishonestly
   with your goods. Still, you know, he was under great pressure from a
   strong hand and only yielded from compulsion. Do not be too severe. Do
   not say, "I will push the matter through--I will call the law on him."
   No, but wait awhile. Let Pity speak! Let Mercy's silver voice plead
   with you. Remember yourself, lest you, also, be tempted, and pray,
   "Lead us not into temptation." I am afraid that badly as some behave
   under temptation, others of us might have done worse if we had been
   there. I like, if I can, to form a kind judgment of the erring--and it
   helps me to do so when I imagine myself to have been subject to their
   trials and to have looked at things from their point of view--and to
   have been in their circumstances and to have nothing of the Grace of
   God to help me.

   Would not I have fallen as badly as they have done, or even gone beyond
   them in evil? May not the day come, to you who show no mercy, in which
   you may have to ask mercy for yourselves? Did I say, may it not come to
   you? No, it must come to you. When leaving all below you will have to
   take a retrospective view of your life and see much to mourn over. To
   what can you appeal, then, but to the mercy of God? And what if He
   should answer you, "An appeal was made to your mercy and you had none.
   As you rendered unto others, so will I render unto you." What answer
   would you have if God were to treat you so? Would not such an answer be
   just and right? Should not every man be paid in his own coin when he
   stands at the Judgment Seat? So I think that this prayer, "Lead us not
   into temptation," should often spring up from the heart through a
   charitable feeling towards others who have erred--who are of the same
   flesh and blood as ourselves.

   Now, whenever you see the drunkard reel through the streets, do not
   glory over him, but say, "Lead us not into temptation." When you take
   down the papers and read that men of position have betrayed their trust
   for gold-- condemn their conduct if you will, but do not exult in your
   own steadfastness--rather cry in all humility, "Lead us not into
   temptation." When the poor girl seduced from the paths of virtue comes
   across your way, look not on her with the scorn that would give her up
   to destruction, but say, "Lead us not into temptation." It would teach
   us milder and gentler ways with sinful men and women if this prayer
   were as often in our hearts as it is upon our lips.

   Once more, do you not think that this prayer breathes the spirit of
   confidence--confidence in God? "Why," says one, "I do not see that." To
   me--I know not whether I shall be able to convey my thought--to me
   there is a degree of very tender familiarity and sacred boldness in
   this expression. Of course God will lead me, now that I am His child.
   Moreover, now that He has forgiven me, I know that He will not lead me
   where I can come to any harm. This my faith ought to know and
   believe--and yet for several reasons there rises to my mind a fear lest
   His Providence should conduct me where I shall be tempted.

   Is that fear right or wrong? It burdens my mind. May I go with it to my
   God? May I express in prayer this misgiving of my soul? May I pour out
   this anxiety before the great, wise, loving God? Will it not be
   impertinent? No, it will not, for Jesus puts the words into my mouth
   and says, "After this manner pray." You are afraid that He may lead you
   into temptation, but He will not do so. Or should He see fit to try
   you, He will also afford you strength to hold out to the end. He will
   be pleased in His infinite mercy, to preserve you. Where He leads it
   will be perfectly safe for you to follow, for His Presence will make
   the deadliest air to become healthful! But since instinctively you have
   a dread lest you should be conducted where the fight will be too stern
   and the way too rough, tell it to your heavenly Father without reserve.

   You know at home, if a child has any little complaint against his
   father, it is always better for him to tell it. If he thinks that his
   father overlooked him the other day, or half thinks that the task his
   father has given him is too severe, or fancies that his father is
   expecting too much of him--if he does not say anything at all about it,
   he may sulk and lose much of the loving tenderness which a child's
   heart should always feel. But when the child frankly says, "Father, I
   do not want you to think that I do not love you or that I cannot trust
   you, but I have a troublous thought in my mind and I will tell it right
   straight out"--that is the wisest course to follow and shows a filial
   trust.

   That is the way to keep up love and confidence. So if you have a
   suspicion in your soul that perhaps your Father might put you into
   temptation too strong for you, tell Him! Tell Him though it seems
   taking a great liberty. Though the fear may be the fruit of unbelief,
   yet make it known to your Lord and do not harbor it sullenly. Remember,
   the Lord's prayer was not made for Him, but for you and, therefore, it
   reads matters from your standpoint and not from His. Our Lord's prayer
   is not for our Lord--it is for us, His children--and children say to
   their fathers ever so many things which it is quite proper for them to
   say, but which are not wise and accurate after the measure of their
   parents' knowledge. Their father knows what their hearts mean and yet
   there may be a good deal in what they say which is foolish or mistaken.
   So I look upon this prayer as exhibiting that blessed childlike
   confidence which tells its father a fear which grieves it whether that
   fear is altogether correct or not.

   Beloved, we need not debate here the question whether God does lead
   into temptation or not, or whether we can fall from Grace or not. It is
   enough that we have a fear and are permitted to tell our Father in
   Heaven about it. Whenever you have a fear of any kind, hurry off with
   it to Him who loves His little ones and, like a father, pities them and
   soothes even their needless alarms. Thus have I shown that the spirit
   which suggests this prayer is that of watchfulness, of holy horror at
   the very thought of sin, of overconfidence of our own strength, of
   charity towards others and of confidence in

   God.

   II. Secondly, let us ask, WHAT ARE THESE TEMPTATIONS WHICH THE PRAYER
   DEPRECATES? Or rather,

   what are these trials which are so much feared? I do not think the
   prayer is intended at all to ask God to spare us from being afflicted
   for our good, or to save us from being made to suffer as a
   chastisement. Of course we should be glad to escape those things, but
   the prayer aims at another form of trial and may be paraphrased
   thus--"Save me, O Lord, from such trials and sufferings as may lead me
   into sin. Spare me from too great trials, lest I fall by their
   overcoming my patience, my faith, or my steadfastness."

   Now, as briefly as I can, I will show you how men may be led into
   temptation by the hand of God. And the first is by the withdrawal of
   Divine Grace. Suppose for a moment--it is only a supposition--suppose
   the Lord were to leave us

   altogether? We would perish speedily. But suppose--and this is not a
   barren supposition--that He were in some measure to take away His
   strength from us--should we not be in an evil case? Suppose He did not
   support our faith-- what unbelief we would exhibit! Suppose He refused
   to support us in the time of trial so that we no longer maintained our
   integrity, what would become of us? Ah, the most upright man would not
   be upright long, nor the most holy, holy any more. Suppose, dear
   Friends--you who walk in the light of God's Countenance and bear life's
   yoke so easily because He sustains you--suppose His Presence were
   withdrawn from you--what would your portion be?

   We are all so like Samson in this matter that I must bring him in as
   the illustration, though he has often been used for that purpose by
   others. So long as the locks of our head are unshorn we can do anything
   and everything--we can tear lions apart, carry gates of Gaza and smite
   the armies of the alien. It is by the Divine consecrating mark that we
   are strong in the power of His might. But if the Lord is once withdrawn
   and we attempt the work alone, then are we weak as the tiniest insect!
   When the Lord has departed from you, O Samson, what are you more than
   another man? Then the cry, "the Philistines are upon you, Samson," is
   the end of all your glory. You do vainly shake those lusty limbs of
   yours! Now you will have your eyes put out and the Philistines will
   make sport of you.

   In view of a like catastrophe we may well be in an agony of
   supplication. Pray then, "Lord, leave me not and lead me not into
   temptation by taking your Spirit from me."--

   "Keep us, Lord, oh keep us ever, Vain our hope if left by Thee!

   We are yours, oh leave us never,

   Tillyour face in Heaven we see.

   There to praise you

   Through a bright eternity.

   All our strength at once would fail us,

   If deserted, Lord, by Thee.

   Nothing then could anything avail us,

   Certain our defeat would be.

   Those who hate us

   From then on their desire would see." Another set of temptations will
   be found in providential conditions. The words of Agur, the son of
   Jakeh, shall be my illustration here. "Remove far from me vanity and
   lies; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient
   for me; lest I be full and deny You, and say, Who is the Lord? Or lest
   I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain."

   Some of us have never known what actual need means, but have, from our
   youth up, lived in social comfort. Ah, dear Friends, when we see what
   extreme poverty has made some men do, how do we know that we would not
   have behaved even worse if we had been as sorely pressed as they? We
   may well shudder and say, "Lord, when I see poor families crowded
   together in one little room where there is scarcely space to observe
   common decency. When I see hardly bread enough to keep the children
   from crying for hunger. When I see the man's garments wearing out upon
   his back and by far too thin to keep out the cold, I pray You subject
   me not to such trial, lest if I were in such a case I might put forth
   my hand and steal. Lead me not into the temptation of pining need."

   And, on the other hand, look at the temptations of money when men have
   more to spend than they can possibly need and there is, around them, a
   society which tempts them into racing, gambling, whoredom and all
   manner of iniquities. The young man who has a fortune before he reaches
   years of discretion and is surrounded by flatterers and tempters all
   eager to plunder him--do you wonder that he is led into vice and
   becomes a ruined man morally? Like a rich galleon waylaid by pirates,
   he is never out of danger! Is it a marvel that he never reaches the
   port of safety? Women tempt him, men flatter him, vile messengers of
   the devil fawn upon him and the young simpleton goes after them like an
   ox to the slaughter, or as a bird hastens to the snare and knows not
   that it is for his life!

   You may very well thank Heaven you never knew the temptation, for if it
   were put in your way you would also be in sore peril. If riches and
   honor allure you, follow not eagerly after them, but pray, "Lead us not
   into temptation." Providential positions often try men. There is a man
   very much pushed for ready money in business--how shall he meet that
   heavy bill? If he does not meet it, there will be desolation in his
   family--the mercantile concern from which he now

   draws his living will be broken up--everybody will be ashamed of him.
   His children will be outcasts and he will be ruined. He has only to use
   a sum of trust money--he has no right to risk a penny of it, for it is
   not his--but still, by its temporary use he may, perhaps, tide over the
   difficulty. The devil tells him he can put it back in a week! If he
   touches that money it will be a roguish action, but then he says,
   "Nobody will be hurt by it and it will be a wonderful accommodation,"
   and so on. If he yields to the suggestion and the thing goes right,
   there are some who would say, "Well, after all, there was not much harm
   in it and it was a prudent step, for it saved him from ruin."

   But if it goes wrong and he is found out, then everybody says, "It was
   a shameful robbery. The man ought to be put in prison!" But, Brothers
   and Sisters, the action was wrong in itself and the consequences
   neither make it better nor worse! Do not bitterly condemn, but pray
   again and again, "Lead us not into temptation. Lead us not into
   temptation." You see, God does put men into such positions in
   Providence at times that they are severely tried. It is for their good
   that they are tried--and when they can stand the trial they magnify His
   Grace--and they become stronger men. The test has beneficial uses when
   it can be borne and God, therefore, does not always screen His children
   from it. Our heavenly Father has never meant to cuddle us up and keep
   us out of temptation, for that is no part of the system which He has
   wisely arranged for our education.

   He does not mean us to be babies in carriages all our lives. He made
   Adam and Eve in the garden and He did not put an iron fence round the
   Tree of Knowledge and say, "You cannot get at it." No, He warned them
   not to touch the fruit, but they could reach the tree if they would. He
   meant that they should have the possibility of attaining the dignity of
   voluntary fidelity if they remained steadfast. But they lost it by
   their sin and God means, in His new creation, not to shield His people
   from every kind of test and trial, for that were to breed hypocrites
   and to keep even the faithful weak and dwarfish! The Lord does,
   sometimes, put the chosen where they are tried, and we do right to
   pray, "Lead us not into temptation."

   And there are temptations arising out of physical conditions. There are
   some men who are very moral in character because they are in good
   health. And there are other men who are very bad, who, I do not doubt,
   if we knew all about them, should have some little leniency shown them
   because of the unhappy conformation of their constitution. Why, there
   are many people to whom to be cheerful and to be generous is no effort
   whatever, while there are others who need to labor hard to keep
   themselves from despair and misanthropy. Diseased livers, palpitating
   hearts and injured brains are hard things to struggle against! Does
   that poor old lady complain? She has only had rheumatism 30 years and
   yet she now and then murmurs! How would you be if you felt her pains
   for 30 minutes?

   I have heard of a man who complained of everybody. When He came to die
   and the doctors opened his skull they found a close fitting brain-box
   and that the man suffered from an irritable brain. Did not that account
   for a great many of his hard speeches? I do not mention these matters
   to excuse sin, but to make you and myself treat such people as gently
   as we can, and pray, "Lord, do not give me such a brain-box and do not
   let me have such rheumatisms or such pains, because upon such a rack I
   may be much worse than they. Lead us not into temptation."

   So, again, mental conditions often furnish great temptations. When a
   man becomes depressed he becomes tempted. Those among us who rejoice
   much, often sink about as much as we rise. And when everything looks
   dark around us, Satan is sure to seize the occasion to suggest
   despondency. God forbid that we should excuse ourselves, but, dear
   Brother, pray that you are not led into this temptation. Perhaps if you
   were as much a subject of nervousness and sinking of spirit as the
   friend you blame for melancholy, you might be more blameworthy than he.
   Therefore pity rather than condemn. And, on the other hand, when the
   spirits are exhilarated and the heart is ready to dance for joy, it is
   very easy for levity to step in and for words to be spoken amiss. Pray
   the Lord not to let you rise so high nor sink so low as to be led into
   evil. "Lead us not into temptation," must be our hourly prayer.

   Further than this, there are temptations arising out of personal
   associations which are formed for us in the order of Providence. We are
   bound to shun evil company, but there are cases in which, without fault
   on their part, persons are made to associate with bad characters. I may
   bring up the pious child whose father is a swearer. And the godly
   woman, lately converted, whose husband remains a swearer and blasphemes
   the name of Christ. It is the same with workmen who have to labor in
   workshops where lewd fellows at every half-dozen words let fall an oath
   and pour forth that filthy language which shocks us each day more and
   more.

   I think that in London our working people talk more filthily than they
   ever did--at least, I hear more of it as I pass along or pause in the
   street. Well, if persons are obliged to work in such shops, or to live
   in such families, there may come times when under the lash of jest and
   sneer and sarcasm the heart may be a little dismayed and the tongue may
   refuse to speak for Christ. Such a silence and cowardice are not to be
   excused, yet do not censure your Brother, but say, "Lord, lead me not
   into temptation." How do you know that you would be more bold? Peter
   quailed before a talkative maid, and you may be cowed by a woman's
   tongue! The worst temptation that I know of, for a young Christian, is
   to live with a hypocrite--a man so sanctified and demure that the young
   heart, deceived by appearances, fully trusts him while the wretch is
   false at heart and rotten in life.

   And such wretches there are who, with the pretense and affectation of
   sanctimoniousness, will do deeds at which we might weep tears of blood!
   Young people are frightfully staggered and many of them become deformed
   for life in their spiritual characteristics through associating with
   such beings as these. When you see faults caused by such common but
   horrible causes, say to yourself, "Lord, lead me not into temptation. I
   thank You for godly parents and for Christian associations and for
   godly examples. But what might I have been if I had been subjected to
   the very reverse? If evil influences had touched me when, like a vessel
   I was upon the wheel, I might have exhibited even grosser failings than
   those which I now see in others."

   Thus I might continue to urge you to pray, dear Friends, against
   various temptations. But let me say the Lord has, for some men, very
   special tests such as may be seen in the case of Abraham. He gives him
   a son in his old age and then says to him, "Take now your son, your
   only son, Isaac, whom you love, and offer him for a burnt-offering."
   You will do right to pray, "Lord, lead me not into such a temptation as
   that. I am not worthy to be so tried. Oh do not so test me." I have
   known some Christians sit down and calculate whether they could have
   acted as the Patriarch did. It is very foolish, dear Brothers and
   Sisters. When you are called upon to do it, you will be enabled to make
   the same sacrifice, by the Grace of God! But if you are not called upon
   to do it, why should the power be given? Shall God's Grace be left
   unused? Your strength shall be equal to your day, but it shall not
   exceed it. I would have you ask to be spared the sterner tests.

   Another instance is to be seen in Job. God gave Job over to Satan
   within limits and you know how Satan tormented him and tried to
   overwhelm him. If any man were to pray, "Lord, try me like Job," it
   would be a very unwise prayer. "Oh, but I could be as patient as he,"
   you say. You are the very man who would yield to bitterness and curse
   your God! The man who could best exhibit the patience of Job will be
   the first, according to his Lord's bidding, fervently to pray, "Lead us
   not into temptation." Dear Friends, we are to be prepared for trial if
   God wills it, but we are not to court it, but are rather to pray
   against it even as our Lord Jesus, though ready to drink the bitter
   cup, yet in agony, exclaimed, "If it is possible, let this cup pass
   from Me."

   Trials sought after are not such as the Lord has promised to bless. No
   true child asks for the rod. To put my meaning in a way in which it
   will be clearly seen, let me tell an old story. I have read in history
   that two men were condemned to die as martyrs in the burning days of
   Queen Mary. One of them boasted very loudly to his companion of his
   confidence that he should play the man at the stake. He did not mind
   the suffering! He was so grounded in the Gospel that he knew he should
   never deny it. He said that he longed for the fatal morning even as a
   bride for the wedding. His companion in prison in the same chamber was
   a poor trembling soul who could not and would not deny his Master, but,
   he told his companion, he was very much afraid of the fire.

   He said he had always been very sensitive of suffering and he was in
   great dread that when he began to burn, the pain might cause him to
   deny his Master. He begged his friend to pray for him and he spent his
   time very much in weeping over his weakness and crying to God for
   strength. The other continually rebuked him and chided him for being so
   unbelieving and weak. When they both came to the stake, he who had been
   so bold recanted at the sight of the fire and went back, ignominiously,
   to an apostate's life--while the poor trembling man whose prayer had
   been, "Lead me not into temptation," stood firm as a rock, praising and
   magnifying God as he was burnt to a cinder!

   Weakness is our strength and our strength is weakness! Cry unto God
   that He try you not beyond your strength and in the shrinking
   tenderness of your conscious weakness, breathe out the prayer, "Lead us
   not into temptation." Then if He does lead you into the conflict, His
   Holy Spirit will strengthen you and you will be brave as a lion before
   the adversary! Though trembling and shrinking within yourself before
   the Throne of God, you could confront the very devil and all the hosts
   of Hell without one ounce of fear! It may seem strange, but so is the
   case.

   III. And now I conclude with the last head--THE LESSONS WHICH THIS
   PRAYER TEACHES. I have not time to enlarge. I will just throw them out
   in the rough. The first lesson from the prayer, "Lead us not into
   temptation," is this--never boast of your own strength. Never say, "Oh,
   I shall never fall into such follies and sins. They may try me, but
   they will find more than a match in me." Let not him that puts on his
   harness boast as though he were taking it off! Never indulge one
   thought of congratulation as to your strength. You have no power of
   your own. You are as weak as water. The devil has only to touch you in
   the right place and you will run according to his will. Only let a
   loose stone or two be moved and you will soon see that the feeble
   building of your own natural virtue will come down at a run. Never
   court temptation by boasting your own capacity.

   The next thing is, never desire trial. Does anybody ever do that? Yes.
   I heard one say, the other day, that God had so prospered him for years
   that he was afraid he was not a child of God, for he found that God's
   children were chastised and, therefore, he almost wished to be
   afflicted. Dear Brothers and Sisters, do not wish for that! You will
   meet with trouble soon enough. If I were a little boy at home, I do not
   think I should say to my brother, because he had been whipped, "I am
   afraid I am not my father's child, and fear that he does not love me
   because I am not smarting under the rod. I wish he would whip me just
   to let me know his love." No, no child would ever be so stupid! We must
   not for any reason desire to be afflicted or tried, but must pray,
   "Lead us not into temptation."

   The next thought is, never go into temptation. The man who prays "Lead
   us not into temptation," and then goes into it, is a liar before God!
   What a hypocrite a man must be who utters this prayer and then goes off
   to the theater! How false is he who offers this prayer and then stands
   at the bar and drinks and talks with depraved men and bedizened women!
   "Lead us not into temptation," is shameful profanity when it comes from
   the lips of men who resort to places of amusement whose moral tone is
   bad. "Oh," you say, "you should not tell us of such things." Why not?
   Some of you do them and I am bold to rebuke evil wherever it is found
   and shall do so while this tongue can move! There is a world of cant
   about.

   People go to Church and say, "Lead us not into temptation," and then
   they know where temptation is to be found and they go straight to it!
   You need not ask the Lord not to lead you there--He has nothing to do
   with you! The devil and you, between you, will go far enough without
   mocking God with your hypocritical prayers! The man who goes into sin
   willfully with his eyes open and then bends his knees and says
   half-a-dozen times over in his Church on Sunday morning "Lead us not
   into temptation," is a hypocrite without a mask! Let him take that home
   to himself and believe that I mean to be personal with him and to such
   barefaced hypocrites as he!

   The last word is, if you pray God not to lead you into temptation, do
   not lead others there. Some seem to be singularly forgetful of the
   effect of their example, for they will do evil things in the presence
   of their children and those who look up to them. Now I pray you
   consider that by ill example you destroy others as well as yourself. Do
   nothing, my dear Brothers and Sisters, of which you have need to be
   ashamed, or which you would not wish others to imitate. Do the right
   thing at all times and do not let Satan make a "cat's paw" of you to
   destroy the souls of others!

   Do you pray, "Lead us not into temptation"? Then do not lead your
   children there. They are invited, during the festive season, to
   such-and-such a family party where there will be everything but what
   will benefit their spiritual growth or even their good morals--do not
   allow them to go. Put your foot down. Be steadfast about it. Having
   once prayed, "Lead us not into temptation," be not the hypocrite by
   allowing your children to go into it.

   God bless these words to us. May they sink into our souls and if any
   feel that they have sinned, oh that they may now ask forgiveness
   through the precious blood of Christ and find it by faith in Him! When
   they have obtained mercy, let their next desire be that they may be
   kept in the future from sinning as they did before and, therefore, let
   them pray, "Lead us not into temptation." God bless you.
     __________________________________________________________________

God's Advocates Breaking Silence

   (No. 1403)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MARCH 17, 1878,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Suffer me a little and I will show you that I have yet to speak on
   God's behalf." Job 36:2.

   ELIHU was sufficiently severe with Job, but as this arose from his
   honest conviction that Job had spoken amiss, we cannot blame him. The
   style of his address is, in some points, highly commendable. We admire
   the courtesy which moved him to say, "Suffer me a little." It shows
   some little consideration for his audience. It is to be feared that
   under our preaching our people suffer greatly and we do not sympathize
   with their sense of weariness--otherwise we might often apologize in
   the terms of Elihu, saying, "Suffer me a little." I admire Elihu's
   attempt at brevity. I call it an attempt, for I am not quite sure that
   he succeeded, for he filled two more chapters! Yet he said, "Suffer me
   a little" and thereby promised to make his oration as short as he
   could.

   Some lengthy Divines, with their many divisions, their, "Finallies,"
   and "Lastlies," and concluding observations, spin and spin and cause
   their congregations to suffer--and that not a little, but exceedingly
   much. It is well, when we have anything good to say, to use as few
   words as possible, for if brevity is not the garment of Divine Grace,
   it is the soul of wit, and all our wits should be set to work to put
   Gospel teaching into such a form that it will be the better received.
   Assuredly, short and pointed addresses are more likely to reach the
   heart than long and dreary sermons. If our preaching is so poor that
   the people suffer, it is better that they suffer little rather than
   much! And if our ministry is very rich and satisfying, it is better to
   send the people home longing than loathing.

   We may also admire the prudence of Elihu in dividing his discourse into
   four or five portions. If you turn to the book of Job you will see that
   he has been speaking ever since the 32nd chapter and he has made at
   least three pauses. It may be that these filled up considerable
   intervals. His talk would have reached an unbearable length had he
   continued to speak on and on without a parenthesis of silence. But he
   stopped and gave his hearers space to breathe. Doubtless four
   sermonettes were better than one long discourse. Teachers and all those
   who seek to win the hearts of others, should imitate Elihu in this and
   not say too much at one time, for the spirit of the hearer may be
   willing, but his flesh is weak. Be wise and do not attempt to say
   everything at once!

   Remember that there is such a thing as undoing by overdoing. Many of
   those whom we try to teach are like bottles with narrow necks--we must
   pour gently with a slender stream or we shall spill the Truth of God
   rather than convey it. Hungry children cannot eat a whole field of
   wheat! We must prepare the food and give them a loaf and even that will
   often be better if it is cut into slices and handed out a little at a
   time. Little and often in spiritual feeding is far better than much at
   long intervals. "Precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little
   and there a little" is the way in which Wisdom teaches her disciples.
   Often let the preacher or teacher pause, as Elihu did, and say to
   himself, if not to his hearers, "I have many things to say to you, but
   you cannot bear them now."

   It is admirable in Elihu, also, that he knew what he was doing when he
   spoke. He says, "I have yet to speak on God's behalf." He has a
   definite objective before him! His subject has been considered and his
   drift has been determined. "I have yet to speak on God's behalf." Elihu
   felt the necessity of doing so. He had kept silent for a while, but
   after what he had heard spoken by the Patriarch's three friends, he
   came to the conclusion that, "Great men are not always wise: neither do
   the aged understand judgment." The speeches of Job also had stirred his
   soul, for in his judgment, Job drank up scorning like water (Job 34:7).
   He felt that he must speak.

   His swelling heart impelled him--woe was upon him if he kept silent
   and, therefore, he burst forth with the exclamation, "I am full of
   matter, the spirit within me compels me. Behold, my belly is as wine
   which has no vent! It is ready to burst like new bottles." He was
   forced to speak. Duty called him and impulse compelled him. There is
   nothing like emptying out your heart when it is full. It is wretched
   work to hear the noise of an empty barrel. It is good speaking

   when you say what must be said and give forth utterances which you
   cannot restrain. He who speaks from conscious necessity will speak with
   earnestness, readiness and power.

   I suppose, too, that Elihu felt that he must continue to speak because
   he had once begun. "I have yet to speak," says he, "on God's behalf."
   He had started and could not come to a standstill all of a sudden. The
   theme which he had chosen, when once adopted, keeps its grip upon the
   soul--it holds the speaker spell-bound. Forgive us if we sometimes
   transgress the usual limits of time, for when we reach the height of
   our great argument we long to linger and are drawn on and drawn out
   beyond our first intentions, feeling that we have yet to speak on God's
   behalf. He who once begins to speak concerning his God feels that his
   heart intends a good matter and his tongue is as the pen of a ready
   writer. On such a theme, "Naphtali is a hind let loose--he gives goodly
   words."

   Thus you see that Elihu spoke because he felt laid under a necessity to
   do so and I believe that the same necessity is laid upon many of us.
   While we muse, the fire burns--and we must speak with our tongue. It is
   evident that Elihu felt great responsibility in speaking on behalf of
   God, as who would not? It is no light thing to be called to advocate
   the cause of the King of kings! Therefore he was very thoughtful as to
   his speech and he says, "I will fetch my knowledge from afar and will
   ascribe righteousness to my Maker." It is not every sort of talk that
   is good enough to be used in pleading for the Lord our God--the best of
   the best is not so good as such a cause demands! Words should be fitly
   chosen and statements should be carefully weighed when we are pleading
   on behalf of God.

   It may well be a matter of prayer with us that all who speak for Jesus
   may feel the weight of their engagement and go about it in the deepest
   solemnity of spirit. Feeling how awesome is their work and calling, let
   us not fail to pray for them that they may be divinely helped and
   prospered! Let us speak unto the Lord on their behalf and say to our
   great Father--

   "We plead for those who plead for Thee, Successful pleaders may they
   be." Elihu surely felt it to be a high honor to be an advocate for God.
   What greater dignity can be bestowed upon us? He must have felt it an
   honor, for he spoke in tones of courage and confidence. He cried,
   "Behold, I am according to your wish in God's stead." No flattering
   speeches were on his tongue. How can any man flatter his fellows when
   he is called to speak in the name of God? He might fear that in so
   doing his Maker would take him away. Ill would it become an ambassador
   for Christ to demean his office by stooping to flatter the king's
   enemies! His business is to reflect honor upon the Prince who has
   bestowed honor upon him.

   We know, also, that Elihu felt it to be a great privilege to speak on
   the behalf of God, for he declares, "I will speak, that I may be
   refreshed." O Beloved, when the Lord teaches you much of His love, you
   feel compelled to tell of it! That is a secret which is hard to keep
   and, blessed be the name of the Lord, we are both permitted and
   commanded to divulge it! Has He not said, whom we call Master and Lord,
   "That which you have spoken in the ear in closets, shall be proclaimed
   upon the housetops"? It is a delight to the renewed soul to speak
   concerning Christ as much as it is to a bird to sing! The faculty is
   given, the impulse is bestowed and we must exercise and indulge them
   both!

   That I have yet to speak personally on God's behalf is to me a great
   joy. It is a delight in which few of you can fully sympathize because
   you may not have spoken so much as I have done, nor have been so long
   and dolorously silent. Glory be unto the Lord my God, once more my
   tongue is loosed and the opportunity to speak is given! I say it with
   unfeigned joy and perhaps with more joy than Elihu ever knew, "I have
   yet to speak on God's behalf." [Brother Spurgeon had been ill and away
   from the Tabernacle, recuperating, for some time. See sermon #1396 in
   this volume, Reasons for Turning to the Lord.]

   I hope, however, that all of you whose lives are spared, whose spheres
   of usefulness are enlarged, or who see new doors of utterance open to
   you, will, with joy, say, "I have yet to speak on God's behalf," and
   that you will not hesitate to avail yourselves of the privilege to the
   fullest possible extent. What a host will go forth to publish the
   Gospel if you all feel that you must speak on God's behalf! How will
   Satan's kingdom be moved if you all do it with power from on high, the
   power of the Holy Spirit! In our text we have a duty set before us.
   First, let us think of it. Secondly, let us consider how to perform it.
   And thirdly, let us do it at once.

   I. We have before us a privilege and a duty--"I have yet to speak on
   God's behalf." LET US THINK OF IT. Speech is the high prerogative of
   man. It is given to him, alone, of all earthly creatures. He is the one
   sole articulate voice for this

   lower world. Birds and beasts, fishes and creeping things, mountains
   and seas exhibit the praises of God, but they cannot express them. Man
   is the world's tongue--it were well if that tongue were always
   sanctified to the Divine service, for otherwise it misrepresents the
   universe for which it should be the interpreter. Of our text we note
   that the subject is sublime. "I have yet to speak on God's behalf."

   Is it not a high calling and an exalted theme? The cause of God and
   Truth deserves seraphic eloquence. At first sight it seems as if it
   were needless to speak on behalf of God. He is so great that human
   opinion can be of no consequence to Him! He is so good that He doe not
   need defense. His claims are so clear--does He need that they should be
   pleaded? Alas, my Brothers and Sisters, pleaders for God and advocates
   of His cause have always been needed since that evil day when He was
   slandered in Paradise and our first parents lifted disobedient hands to
   pluck the forbidden fruit. Though no voice is so sweet as the Divine,
   man is hardened against his God and it is the office of the whole
   Church with a thousand voices to be continually crying in the world's
   dull ears and speaking on the behalf of God. There is need, and growing
   need, that we should lift up our voices for our God and His Gospel!

   Yet may we tremble as we enter upon the enterprise! Who shall fitly
   commend perfection? Who shall vindicate spotless purity? Who shall
   rightly tell of insulted justice, or who shall declare boundless love?
   The theme will exhaust every faculty when elevated to the highest
   degree and strengthened to its utmost possibility. To speak on God's
   behalf-- this is a lofty argument, indeed, and yet we will not flinch
   from it, for it is natural that we should speak for Him to whom we owe
   everything! If we have a tongue at all, we ought to speak here--if
   silent upon all other themes, yet never should we be unwilling to speak
   for our God! The stones themselves might speak if we should hold our
   speech in such a cause. The theme might make slow speaking Moses wax as
   eloquent as his brother Aaron!

   A God so good, so good to us, so good beyond all imagination deserves
   that we shake off our cowardice and speak out for Him manfully!
   Reflect, my Brothers who are called to speak on the behalf of God, that
   since He has provided an Advocate for you, you are bound to become
   advocates for Him! What a pleader has He set apart for you! It is
   Christ of whom we read, "Never man spoke like this Man." Our glorious
   Mediator stands forever pleading the causes of our souls and it is but
   natural and right, therefore, that His redeemed should, with all their
   hearts, plead His cause before the sons of men!

   And yet there are few who speak on behalf of God. I mean more than
   perhaps you think. There are few who vindicate the honor of Jehovah and
   view matters from His Throne. Their eyes look elsewhere and not to the
   sacred Majesty of the Supreme Being. Many are the preachers of the
   Gospel, but still, I note but few who preach the Gospel on behalf of
   God. There are two aspects of the Gospel--the one which looks towards
   man and the other which looks towards God--he who preaches the Gospel
   only from its manward side is apt to forget its major part. He regards
   man with a pity and sympathy most fitting and proper, but, alas, too
   often he fails in sympathy with God and in distinct recognition of the
   claims and rights of the great Sovereign.

   How seldom is Divine sovereignty spoken of! Man is looked upon as
   though he were a deserving creature and had a right to salvation. One
   would think, to hear some preachers, that God was under obligation to
   man, or, at least, that He had no will of His own, but had left man's
   will to be supreme! The Truth of God is that if all the race had been
   condemned, God would have been infinitely just! And if He spares one
   and not another, none can say to Him, "What are You doing?" His
   declaration is, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will
   have compassion on whom I will have compassion." I sympathize with man,
   but I have in my very soul an infinitely deeper sympathy with God. I am
   bound to love my neighbor as myself, but the still higher Law calls on
   me to love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength!

   Speaking on behalf of man may be carried so far that you come, at
   length, to look upon man's sin as his misfortune rather than his fault
   and to view the fact that sin is punished at all as a matter to be
   deplored. In some professed Christians their pity for the criminal has
   overcome their horror at the crime! Eternal punishment is denied, not
   because the Scriptures are not plain enough on that point, but because
   man has become the god of man and everything must be toned down to suit
   the tender feelings of an age which excuses sin but denounces its
   penalties--which has no condemnation for the offense and spends its
   denunciations upon the Judge and His righteous sentence. By all means,
   have sympathies manward, but at the same time show some tenderness
   towards the dishonored Law and the insulted Lord!

   Is justice a figment? Is there no necessity for Divine anger? Has
   mercy, itself, become a debt due to mankind? Do you see nothing
   horrible in sin? Is there no guilt in rejecting Christ and trampling on
   His blood? And is there none in closing the eyes even to the feebler
   light which streams from the visible works of God and reveals His power
   and Godhead? Few, I say, look at the matter in this light, and yet it
   should be the main business of every Believer "to speak on God's
   behalf." It becomes, therefore, all the more necessary that those who
   have been led to side with God and who feel their hearts drawn to adore
   and magnify and vindicate their glorious Lord, that they should count
   it a privilege to be spared to speak on the behalf of God.

   I would silence no voice that speaks for man so far as it speaks
   truthfully, but oh for more voices to speak for God and maintain His
   crown rights! It seems that we vindicate His Law and the terrors of it,
   His Gospel and the sovereignty of it, His Nature and the completeness
   of it, His Providence and the wisdom of it, His redemption and the
   efficacy of it, His eternal purpose and the accomplishment of it. May
   this theme, though long silent, be sounded forth till its voice is
   heard in every street of Zion! Not the exaggeration of Divine Truth,
   but that Truth, itself, we desire to hear, and God grant we may live to
   hear it! May many a man of God be compelled to say, "I have yet to
   speak on God's behalf." Let others plead what cause they will, it is
   ours with the greatest of poets, "To justify the ways of God to men."

   While thinking over the work described in the text we would further
   remark that the call is personal--"I have yet to speak on God's
   behalf." Do we not, as Believers in Jesus, recognize ourselves in that
   little word, I? "I have yet to speak," though to now, a listener, as
   Elihu was while the elders gave, each one, his opinion. I, though
   silenced for a while, blessed be His name, have yet to speak on God's
   behalf! The harp has hung awhile upon the wall and pined in
   silence--but now the Chief Musician takes it down again and almost
   before He sweeps the chords, every string begins to thrill with delight
   at the thought that He will make them resound again! The cobweb and the
   dust suit not the lyre which for so many years has welcomed the sacred
   touch!

   Have you been laid aside awhile, Brother or Sister? Then rejoice in the
   day of your restoration and say, "I have yet to speak on God's behalf."
   I, again, though not the wisest nor the best, have my testimony to bear
   even as Elihu did, who had, to then, given place to those whom he
   thought to be wiser than he. His words were, "I am young and you are
   very old. Therefore I was afraid and dared not show you my opinion. I
   said, Days should speak and multitude of years should teach wisdom. But
   there is a spirit in man and the Inspiration of the Almighty gives them
   understanding." And so, though esteeming himself to be least and,
   therefore, fitly coming last, he rose in his place and faithfully
   delivered his soul.

   you that are not eloquent, whose tongues will scarcely respond to your
   thoughts--nevertheless you have to speak in the name of the Lord in
   ways as forcible as uttered language! Take care that you do so and make
   no long delays, but look forward eagerly for times when you shall speak
   on God's behalf after your own manner. The smallest bell in the steeple
   is needed to complete the chime and the tiniest bird in the forest
   would be missed if its notes were hushed! Therefore come forth, O least
   of all the brotherhood, for without your presence the Father's family
   is not complete! All voices are needed! No child of God may be silent!

   You, too, who are conscious of great weakness and unworthiness, I
   invite you to say, "I have yet to speak on God's behalf," for this man,
   Elihu, was a trembler like yourselves. In the 37th chapter he says, "At
   this, also, my heart trembles, and is moved out of his place." Nor did
   he feel that his abilities were equal to his subject, for in the 19th
   verse of the same chapter he breathed this prayer, "Teach us what we
   shall say unto Him; for we cannot order our speech by reason of
   darkness." And yet, though conscious of his inability to handle the
   theme, and trembling under its power, he nevertheless rejoiced to feel
   that he must speak something--and he opened his mouth boldly in the
   name of the Lord!

   Brother, work for God, whether you can or not! Power will increase as
   you use the little you possess. You will learn to speak more graciously
   as you proceed, if not more fluently and accurately. Therefore plunge
   into the middle of the matter, saying, "I have yet to speak on God's
   behalf." Glory be to God, the devil himself cannot silence the man
   whose mouth the Lord has opened and whose heart He has quickened by His
   Truth! He may be laid aside for many a day and it may seem to his
   fellow men that he is useless and worthless, but the hour will need the
   man and the man will seize the hour and speak so as to be heard! Only
   let your heart be ready and your spirit watchful and waiting--the time
   shall surely come when, though you are now a poor prattling babe, you
   shall speak like a man on God's behalf!

   1 think, dear Friends, I may now make a third remark, namely, that in
   the text the reminder is seasonable and may be addressed most rightly
   to many of us, "I have yet to speak on God's behalf." Does not this
   awaken you, O silent and

   sluggish soul? Have you been hidden among stuff all these days? Are you
   on the Lord's side but of a faint heart? Have you never found a tongue?
   Wake up, my Brother, and say, "I have yet to speak on God's behalf." Is
   it not written, "Then shall the lame man leap as an hart and the tongue
   of the dumb sing"? How can you bear a life-long silence when, to me,
   even a few weeks become irksome? Our children need no encouragement to
   talk! Should the children of God be tongue-

   tied?

   I have thought, lately, a great deal about Zacharias who was struck
   dumb, on account of his unbelief, while sacrificing in the temple, but
   was assured that in a few months he should speak again. How I watched,
   those weary weeks, until the day should come when my tongue should once
   more express my thoughts! How glad I was as the day drew near! Have you
   been shut up, Brother, so that you could not come forth? Then cheer
   yourself and look for the day when you will say, "I have yet to speak
   on God's behalf." This thought may justly occur to us after times of
   great deliverance. David had been seized by the Philistines and taken
   before king Abimelech--and had only escaped by feigning madness. No
   sooner was he safe than he said, "I will bless the Lord at all times.
   His praise shall continually be in my mouth"

   (Psa.34:1).

   Among the verses of that grateful song you read the following, "Come,
   you children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord."
   He felt bound to tell the Lord's goodness both to old and young! When
   we are raised from deep distress we should never fail to say, "I have
   yet to speak on God's behalf." The same is true if you have been
   conscious of a grave fault and have received forgiveness. Then, too,
   you have yet to speak on God's behalf and you may be very glad of it,
   for it will serve as a pledge of your forgiveness! Poor Peter might
   very naturally have remained quiet throughout the rest of his life
   after having denied his Master, but it must have cheered him to
   remember that the Lord had said beforehand, "When you are converted,
   strengthen your brethren." Moreover, he felt the certainty of his
   Lord's forgiving love when, by the sea of Galilee, in loving tones He
   said, "Feed My sheep." Do you wonder that on the day of Pentecost Peter
   felt a joy not to be expressed as he said to himself, "I have yet to
   speak on God's behalf. Even I, who once denied Him, am yet allowed to
   be His advocate and to proclaim His Grace"?

   Beloved Friends, if any of you have been disappointed in your Christian
   work and are therefore cast down, I want you to take my text as a
   slogan. Have you fallen into the condition of the Prophet Jeremiah, of
   whom we read, "Then I said I will not make mention of Him, nor speak
   any more in His name"? Have you been despised and defamed, laughed at
   and rejected? And do you fear that you have done no good and that you
   are altogether unfit for the service? Do you therefore cry, "I will
   speak no more in the name of the Lord"? Mark, my Brother, you will not
   easily abide in silence, for your experience will soon be like that of
   the Prophet--"But His Word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in
   my bones and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay." You
   will be obliged to speak! Yes, again and again you will be compelled to
   say, "I have yet to speak in the name of the Lord."

   Perhaps you have been foolish like Jonah and have run away from the
   Lord's service--and now you have just escaped from the deeps with the
   sea slime upon you--and the tokens of the whale's belly about you. What
   then? Why, the first thing you have to do, almost before you brush your
   clothes, is to hasten to Nineveh and deliver your Lord's message, for
   you have yet to speak on God's behalf! Though you have once refused,
   you will be brought to do it and it will be well to yield at once and
   go boldly with this doctrine in your heart, "Salvation is of the Lord!"
   And with this message upon your tongue, "Repent and seek the Lord." If
   you go at once, your voice shall ring through the streets of Nineveh
   and the man with the salt-sea smell upon him shall be more revered in
   the streets of Nineveh than if he had come there perfumed from the
   courts of kings!

   Take the text home as coming seasonably to many characters here. I
   cannot tell the exact condition of each Brother's and Sister's heart,
   and yet I think if I could read your inmost souls I should see the
   strongest reasons why this should be the soliloquy of each one, "I have
   yet to speak on God's behalf." Furthermore, while thinking this matter
   over, let us remark that this duty is a very solemn and difficult one.
   And, consequently, it deserves our best possible preparations. When a
   young barrister was chosen years ago, almost within the recollection of
   our older folks, to advocate the cause of a queen whose character had
   been questioned, I can imagine him sitting up late and rising early
   that he might study his brief and get the whole matter well into his
   mind and choose out good words with which to urge her suit.

   I can conceive the trepidation with which he stood up in the Hall at
   Westminster to plead for one whom many in the nation regarded as an
   injured queen. But all that feeling of responsibility should be far
   outdone by everyone who has to

   speak for God! To rush from your bed to the pulpit to speak what first
   comes to hand seems to me to be next door to profanity! Even to talk to
   little children about Jesus without the slightest anxiety beforehand
   cannot be excused. We should not offer unto God that which costs us
   nothing! And if we stand up to plead for Him, surely it should not be
   said that the first time we saw our brief was when we appeared in
   court!

   No, fetch your words from far. Let them be gained by diving into the
   deeps of your own soul and into the depths of the Divine Word. Say to
   yourself, "I have yet to speak on God's behalf and I would do it with
   my utmost ability. O you powers of mind, be ready! But, above all, O
   power Divine, rest on me, for he that speaks for God should speak by
   God, or else he speaks in vain." If we have to speak for God we should
   certainly do it with all zeal and earnestness. A cold advocacy of the
   cause of God is next door to an attack upon it! To speak for God with
   careless air, with bated breath, or with affected tone is gravely
   unbecoming in a case where faith and fire should be the main attributes
   of the speaker. Let us throw ourselves into every word we utter for God
   even though we speak only to one poor ragged child.

   At the same time, let us cultivate a constant promptness in this work.
   We should be ready to give an answer to him that asks us. We should be
   eager to seize opportunities! We should be on the watch for openings
   for advancing the great suit. Be always in trim for this great
   business! When you leave home, say to yourself, "I may have to speak
   for God in the omnibus, or in the workshop, in the parlor, or in the
   kitchen. I may have to speak on the behalf of God when least I expect
   it--let me have my heart in order for it." May the Holy Spirit enable
   you to do so. The mercy of the Lord to us never fails--so let our zeal
   to honor Him never cease!

   Thus we have thought upon the subject and I trust are prepared to
   enquire into the way in which we can show our practical interest in it.
   I can only give brief hints and there is no need of more, for the work
   itself will open before you when you once get at it.

   II. "I have yet to speak on God's behalf." Let us now consider HOW IT
   IS TO BE DONE. A great number of Christians will do it best by
   manifesting holiness in their daily lives, by their common conversation
   being seasoned with salt and by taking such opportunities as the
   Providence of God puts in their way of speaking to their Redeemer's
   praise. "I have yet to speak on God's behalf as the master of a family
   to my children and to my servants, as a mistress to my domestics, as a
   servant by my life, as a merchant in my trade. I have so to speak on
   God's behalf that those about me may see what religion is by watching
   my life.

   Whatever my lot, condition, or occupation, I have a witness to bear,
   for those who never read the Bible may read me and those who never
   think of Christ may at least think of one of His disciples and see, in
   some degree, what the Master is by what the servant is. Let this
   objective tone and tune your lives, my Brothers and Sisters, and let
   the members of this Church, especially, bear in mind that they are
   bound, from morning to night, in all that they are and all that they do
   to be speaking on the behalf of God!

   But, further, we are bound to do this by giving instruction. All of you
   who have been taught should also teach and I am sure there is a great
   need of instruction in this age--instruction, I mean, upon the things
   of God. We have probably more present need of instruction than of
   exhortation. We have many who exhort, but few who edify. Do, dear
   Friends, whether you teach in the Sunday school, or stand up at the
   corner of the street, or talk with friends and comrades, try to make
   known the name and Nature and attributes of God! Tell of His claims,
   the perfect righteousness demanded by His Law and the penalties due to
   disobedience. Speak on God's behalf of His Gospel's freeness, fullness
   and sureness. Speak on God's behalf concerning the doctrine of His
   Providence and the great Truths of His Grace and Sovereignty.

   Do not let those around you die for lack of knowledge! Make the name of
   the Lord to be known as much as lies in you. All themes, if rightly
   regarded, point to God and are best seen when He is our Standard. There
   is a great need that we should be continually putting Gospel Truths in
   the sunlight of God, giving clear instruction to the sons of men in
   reference to the Character, the work, the purposes, the will, the
   supremacy of God in Christ Jesus--for the Lord, He is God, even He is
   God, alone, and the whole earth shall yet know this. For this end we
   have yet to speak on God's behalf.

   Thirdly, there is another way of doing this, namely, by bearing
   personal testimony to what you have known and felt and experienced of
   the good things of God. This is a very powerful way of speaking on
   God's behalf. Tell of your own sense of sin worked in you by the Holy
   Spirit. Tell of your own delight in the pardoning blood. Tell of the
   power of prayer as proved by yourself. Tell of the reality of faith and
   the fidelity of God to His promises and illustrate these by your own
   history. Perhaps you are not doing this from alarm lest you should be
   thought egotistical. If Paul had never

   spoken of himself in his Epistles, we should have been great losers and
   I do not suppose that Paul would have been any the humbler for his
   silence.

   It is a mock humility, it is a detestable humility, which robs God of
   His Glory because we are afraid somebody will criticize us if we spoke
   to His praise! Such a motive is sheer selfishness--it is base pride
   when a man, to make himself the better thought of, dares not say, "My
   God did this and that for me, this and that by me and unto Him be
   praise." Bear your testimony in your homes and tell your friends what
   great things God has done for you. Say among the heathen, "The Lord has
   done great things for us whereof we are glad." Be witnesses for the
   Lord in all companies!

   Sometimes, too, we may have to bear our testimony by way of
   controversy. We are to contend earnestly for the faith. Have you not
   heard it said, "Why cannot a man preach his own views and let other
   people alone?" Yes, why didn't Luther do so? Why didn't he take the
   advice of Staupnitz when he said, "Go to your cell and pray and leave
   these matters to God and hold your tongue"? Where had been the
   Reformation if he had followed that sage advice? Could not Calvin have
   done so and studied the decrees of God by himself and have made no war
   on Rome? Where would have been the Church of the present day?

   It is an easy way to save your skin, to believe what you believe and
   let other people alone. Martyrs at the stake and confessors in prison
   were fools on the hypothesis that controversy is wrong! No, it is a
   part of our religion to let no error alone, to draw the sword and fight
   the good fight, warring against the many false spirits which have come
   into the world! If you ever hear severe criticisms upon bold and strong
   speeches which assail error, do not join in those criticisms. If you
   do, I do not know that those who are the victims of your remarks will
   care much about it, but you will be fighting on the wrong side--and
   that is an important point for you to think of. If you are wise, you
   will let the Christian soldier war his warfare and, at the very least,
   not oppose.

   Surely, if error is to have liberty, the Truth of God ought not to be
   bound! Our "modern thought" men are the least liberal of all
   professors. Their bigotry outbigots all that has gone before! They have
   a warm side for every error, but the old-fashioned orthodox Gospel is
   sneered at, run down and caricatured. Well, here is the end of the
   matter--by God's Grace we have believed and what we have believed we
   hold fast--and this day, again, we lift up a banner because of the
   Truth of God and rejoice that we have yet to speak on God's behalf!

   There is another way of speaking on God's behalf and that is by
   pleading with sinners, setting forth God's claims, urging them to
   accept God's gracious way of mercy, reminding them of God's right to
   our obedience and of the demand of His justice that sin should be
   punished. It is setting before them the Sovereignty of God so that they
   shall admit that they have no claims upon His goodness and urging them
   to yield to Him and accept the Grace which He so spontaneously gives.

   You can all do something of this--I pray you do a great deal more.
   During the late special services many of you have been diligent in
   speaking to strangers in the pews--keep up the custom, Brothers and
   Sisters! You used to do it years ago--renew the habit. Your hearts are
   warm and your tongues have come into practice! Go on, I pray you, as
   you have begun. Say, each one, "I have permitted many to go in and out
   of the pew without a word for Christ, but it shall not be so again, for
   I have yet to speak on God's behalf."

   III. My third head is, LET US DO IT, but I have no time to attempt it
   except in the briefest fashion. I have to speak on behalf of God to
   those among you who are utterly careless about Divine claims. How long
   will you provoke the Majesty of Heaven? Hear, O heavens, and give ear O
   earth! The Lord has nourished and brought up children and they have
   rebelled against Him! "The ox knows his owner and the ass his master's
   crib, but you do not know Him and do not consider." Are you honest
   towards everybody but God? Will you consider everyone but your Maker?
   Do you cast an eye of love on all except the great Being who is Love
   itself?

   Some of you have lived half a century and yet have neglected all the
   claims of your God. I beseech you remember that the time will come when
   He will reckon with you and call you to account. The talents committed
   to you have all been buried as yet--what will you say in that day when
   He shall call you to His bar? Oh, for God's sake, even if you leave out
   all considerations of your own eternal condition, by the common honesty
   which suggests that each one should have his own, I pray you turn your
   eyes to God and think upon His Christ!

   I speak, again, on God's behalf to many who are undecided and this is
   my message--How long will you linger between two opinions? If God is
   God, serve Him! If Baal is God, serve him! It is time that you should
   put an end to these

   hesitations--that the equivocal life which you are now leading should
   close in one way or the other! You said years ago that you were almost
   persuaded! You are no better today--you are worse and will grow worse,
   still--and in the end you will perish in your sins unless you come to a
   dead halt, consider your ways, acquaint yourself with God and be at
   peace. Oh, I pray you hear the voice which cries to you to cease your
   wandering and return to your God!

   I would speak to you new converts on the behalf of God just these few
   sentences. See to it that your conversion is true. Have no superficial
   religion. Pray God to plow you deep that there may be a sure harvest.
   Remember, if you get healed before you are wounded, it will serve no
   useful purpose. Many a surgeon has filmed a wound and found that he has
   done more hurt than good. You must be killed before you can be made
   alive! You must be stripped before you can be clothed. See to it that
   you repent as well as believe the Gospel, for a dry-eyed faith is not
   the faith of God's elect and will not save you. Repent and be
   converted! Let sin be abhorred, lamented and forsaken! Then, with the
   precious blood of Christ to make you clean, go on your way rejoicing!

   O you new converts who are to be brought into the Church, I speak on
   God's behalf to you! I hope you will be better than your fathers,
   better far than some of us who have been a stiff-necked generation! I
   hope you will come in among us as plastic material which the Lord Jesus
   will mold according to His will. I trust you will come into the Church
   like firebrands, like coals of juniper which have a most vehement
   flame--that all of us may anew be set on fire! There are some of us--I
   will not say who--but each one may judge for himself, who are quite
   cold. O that their arctic hearts may become a torrid region! May the
   Lord warm the mass right through that we may praise and bless His name.

   And now, to you Christians, I have yet to speak on the behalf of God.
   Is it necessary I should? Do you love the Lord? Do you really love Him?
   "Simon, son of Jonas, do you love Me?" Mary, Hannah, do you, indeed,
   love your Lord? Then what manner of persons ought we to be? What lives
   should love prompt us to lead? Come, let us gird our garments about us
   and give ourselves up, once again, to His service, by whom we are
   brought near unto God. May the Holy Spirit come upon us in a sevenfold
   measure from this day forward, to the praise of the Glory of His name
   who gives us the great privilege of saying, "I have yet to speak on
   God's behalf."
     __________________________________________________________________

Over Against the Sepulcher

   (No. 1404)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MARCH 24, 1878,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Sitting over against the sepulcher." Matthew 27:61.

   MARY MAGDALENE and the other Mary were last at the Savior's grave. They
   had associated themselves with Joseph and Nicodemus in the sad but
   loving task of placing the body of their Lord in the silent tomb. After
   the holy men had gone home they lingered near the grave. Sitting down,
   perhaps upon some seat in the garden, or on some projection of the
   rock, they waited in mournful solitude. They had seen where and how the
   body was laid and so had done their utmost, but yet they still sat
   watching--love has never done enough, it is hungry to render service.
   They could scarcely take their eyes away from the spot which held their
   most precious Treasure, nor leave, till they were compelled to do so,
   the sacred relics of their Best Beloved.

   The Virgin Mary had been taken by John to his home. She had sustained
   too great a shock to remain at the tomb, for in her were fulfilled the
   words, "Yes, a sword shall pierce through your own heart also." She was
   wise to leave to others those sorrowful offices which were beyond her
   own power--exceedingly wise, also, from that hour to her life's end, to
   remain in the shade, modestly bearing the honor which made her blessed
   among women. The mother of Zebedee's children, who also lingered late
   at the tomb, was gone home, too, for as she was the mother of John it
   is exceedingly probable that John resided with her and had taken the
   Virgin to her home. She was needed at home to act as hostess and assist
   her son and thus she would be obeying the last wish of her dying Lord
   when He said, "Son, behold your mother," and explained His meaning by a
   look.

   All having thus departed, the two Marys were the sole watchers at the
   tomb of Christ at the time of the going down of the sun. They had work
   yet to do for His burial and this called them away. But they stayed as
   long as they could--last to go and first to return. This morning we
   shall, with the women, take up the somewhat unusual post of "sitting
   over against the sepulcher." I call it unusual, for as none remained
   except these two women, few have preached upon our Redeemer's burial.
   Thousands of sermons have been delivered upon His death and
   Resurrection and in this I greatly rejoice, only wishing that there
   were thousands more. But still, the burial of our Lord deserves a
   larger share of consideration than it generally obtains.

   "He was crucified, dead, and buried," says the creed and, therefore
   those who wrote that summary must have thought His burial an important
   Truth of God and so, indeed, it is. It was the natural sequence and
   seal of His death and so was related to that which went before. It was
   the fit and suitable preparation for His rising again and so stood in
   connection with that which followed after. Come, then, let us take our
   seat with the holy women "over against the sepulcher" and sing--

   "Rest, glorious Son of God:

   Your work is done,

   And all your burdens borne.

   Rest on that stone

   Till the third sun has brought

   Your everlasting morn.

   How calmly in that tomb You lie now,

   Your rest how still and deep!

   O'er You in love the Father rests:

   He gives to His Beloved sleep.

   On Bethel pillow now Your head is laid,

   In Joseph's rock-hewn cell;

   Your watchers are the angels of Your God They guard Your slumbers
   well."

   I. Supposing ourselves to be sitting in the garden with our eyes fixed
   upon the great stone which formed the door of the tomb, we first of all
   ADMIRE THAT HE HAD A GRAVE AT ALL. We wonder how that stone could hide
   Him who is the brightness of His Father's Glory--how the Life of all
   could lie among the dead--how He who holds creation in His strong right
   hand could even, for an hour, be entombed! Admiring this, we would
   calmly reflect, first, upon the testimony of His grave that He was
   really dead. Those tender women could not have been mistaken, their
   eyes were too quick to suffer Him to be buried alive, even if anyone
   had wished to do so.

   Of our Lord's actual death we have many proofs connected with His
   burial. When Joseph of Arimathea went to Pilate and begged for the
   body, the Roman ruler would not give it up till he was certain of His
   death. The centurion, a man under authority, careful in all that he
   did, certified that Jesus was dead. The soldier who served under the
   centurion had by a very conclusive test established the fact of His
   death beyond all doubt, for with a spear he pierced His side and there
   came out forthwith blood and water. Pilate, who would not have given up
   the body of a condemned person unless he was sure that execution had
   taken place, registered the death and commanded the body to be
   delivered to Joseph.

   Both Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus and all the friends who aided in
   the interment were beyond all question convinced that He was dead. They
   handled the lifeless frame. They wrapped it in the bands of fine linen.
   They placed the spices about the sacred flesh which they loved so
   well--they were sadly assured that their Lord was dead. Even His
   enemies were quite certain that they had slain Him. They never had a
   suspicion that possibly a little life remained in Him and that it could
   be revived, for their stern hate allowed no doubt to remain upon that
   point--they knew even to the satisfaction of their mistrustful malice
   that Jesus of Nazareth had died.

   Even when in their anxiety they went to Pilate, it was not that they
   might obtain stronger proofs of death, but to prevent the disciples
   from stealing His dead body and saying that He had risen from the dead!
   Yes, Jesus died, literally and actually died, and His body of flesh and
   bones was really laid in Joseph's grave. It was no phantom that was
   crucified, as certain heretics dreamed of old. We have not to look to a
   spectral atonement or to a visionary sacrifice, though some in our own
   times would reduce redemption to something shadowy and unsubstantial.
   Jesus was a real Man and truly tasted the bitter pangs of death. And,
   therefore, He in very deed lay in the sepulcher, motionless as the rock
   out of which it was hewn, shrouded in His winding-sheet.

   Remember, as you think of your Lord's death, that the day will come,
   unless the Second Advent should intervene, in which you and I shall lie
   low among the dead as once our Master did. Soon, to this heart there
   will be left no pulsing life. To these eyes no glance of observation,
   to this tongue no voice, to these ears no sensibility of sound. We
   naturally start from this, yet must it be. We shall certainly mingle
   with the dust we tread upon and feed the worms. But as we gaze on
   Jesus' tomb and assure ourselves that our great Lord and Master died,
   each thought of dread is gone and we no longer shudder--we feel that we
   can safely go where Christ has gone before!

   Sitting down over against the sepulcher, after one has pondered upon
   the wondrous fact that He who is only immortality was numbered with the
   dead, the next subject which suggests itself is the testimony of the
   grave to His union with us. He had His grave hard by the city and not
   on some lone mountain peak where foot of man could never tread. His
   grave was where it could be seen! It was a family grave which Joseph
   had, no doubt, prepared for himself and his household. Jesus was laid
   in a family vault where another had expected to lie. Where was Moses
   buried? No man knows of his sepulcher to this day. But where Jesus was
   buried was well known to His friends. He was not caught away in a
   chariot of fire, nor was it said of Him that God took Him, but He was
   laid in the grave, "as the manner of the Jews is to bury."

   Jesus found His grave among the men He had redeemed! Hard by the common
   place of execution there was a garden and in that garden they laid Him
   in a tomb which was meant for others. So that our Lord's sepulcher
   stands, as it were, among our homes and gardens and is one tomb among
   many. Before me rises a picture. I see the cemetery, or sleeping place,
   of the saints, where each one rests on his lowly bed. They lie not
   alone, but like soldiers sleeping around their captain's pavilion where
   he, also, spent the night, though he is up before them. The sepulcher
   of Jesus is the central grave of God's acre. It is empty now, but His
   saints lie buried all around that cave in the rock, gathered in ranks
   around their dear Redeemer's resting place. Surely it robs the grave of
   its ancient terror when we think that Jesus slept in one of the
   chambers of the great dormitory of the sons of men!

   Very much might be said about the tomb in which Jesus lay. It was a new
   tomb wherein no remains had been previously laid. And thus if He came
   forth from it there would be no suspicion that another had arisen, nor
   could it be imagined that He rose through touching some old Prophet's
   bones, as he did who was laid in Elisha's grave. As He was born of a
   virgin mother, so was He buried in a virgin tomb wherein never man had
   lain. It was a rocky tomb and, therefore, nobody could dig into it by
   night, or tunnel through the earth. It was a borrowed tomb--so poor was
   Jesus that He owed a grave to charity. But that tomb was spontaneously
   offered, so rich was He in the love of hearts which He had won.

   That tomb He returned to Joseph, honored unspeakably by His temporary
   sojourn therein. I know not whether Joseph ever used it for any of his
   house, but I see no reason why he should not have done so. Certainly,
   our Lord, when He borrows, always makes prompt repayment and gives a
   bonus! He filled Simon's boat with fish when He used it for a pulpit!
   And He sanctified the rocky cell wherein He had lodged and left it
   perfumed for the next who should sleep there. We, too, expect, unless
   special circumstances should intervene, that these bodies of ours will
   lie in their narrow beds beneath the greensward and slumber till the
   resurrection. Nor need we be afraid of the tomb, for Jesus has been
   there. Sitting over against His sepulcher we grow brave and are ready,
   like knights of the holy sepulcher, to hurl defiance at death! At times
   we almost long for evening to undress that we may rest with God in the
   chamber where He gives sleep to His Beloved.

   Now, note that our Lord's tomb was in a garden, for this is typically
   the testimony of His grave to the hope of better things. Just a little
   beyond the garden wall you would see a little knoll of grim name and
   character--the Tyburn of Jerusalem. Golgotha, the place of a skull. And
   there stood the Cross. That rising ground was given up to horror and
   barrenness--but around the actual tomb of our Savior there grew herbs
   and plants and flowers. A spiritual garden still blooms around His
   tomb. The wilderness and the solitary place are glad for Him and the
   desert rejoices and blossoms as the rose. He has made another Paradise
   for us and He Himself is the sweetest flower there! The first Adam
   sinned in a garden and spoiled our nature--the Second Adam slept in a
   garden and restored our loss!

   The Savior buried in the earth has removed the curse from the
   soil--from now on blessed is the ground for His sake. He died for us
   that we, ourselves, might become in heart and life fruitful gardens of
   the Lord! Let but His tomb and all the facts which surround it have due
   influence upon the minds of men and this poor blighted earth shall
   again yield her increase! Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir
   tree and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree--and it
   shall be to the Lord for a name.

   Sitting over against the sepulcher, perhaps the best thought of all is
   that now it is empty and so bears testimony to our resurrection! It
   must have made the two Marys weep, when before they left the grave they
   saw it filled with so beloved a Treasure, so surely dead. They ought to
   have rejoiced to find it empty when they returned, but they knew not,
   as yet, the angel's message--"He is not here, for He is risen." Our
   Christ is not dead! He lives forever to make intercession for us! He
   could not be held by the bands of death! There was nothing corruptible
   about Him and, therefore, His body has left the abode of decay to live
   in newness of life! The sepulcher is spoiled and the Spoiler has gone
   up to Glory, leading captivity captive!

   As you sit over against the sepulcher let your hearts be comforted
   concerning death, whose sting is gone forever. There shall be a
   resurrection! You can be sure of this, for if the dead rise not, then
   is Christ not risen! But the Lord is risen, indeed, and His rising
   necessitates that all who are in Him should rise as He has done! Yet
   another thought comes to me--Can I follow Christ as fully as these two
   women did? That is to say, can I still cling to Him though to sense and
   reason His cause should seem dead and laid in a rocky sepulcher? Can I,
   like Joseph and Magdalene, be a disciple of a dead Christ? Could I
   follow Him even at His lowest point?

   I want to apply this practically. Times have come upon the Christian
   Church when the Truth of God seems to be fallen in the streets and the
   kingdom of Christ is in apparent peril. Just now the Lord Jesus is
   betrayed by not a few of His professed ministers. He is being crucified
   afresh in the perpetual attacks of skepticism against His blessed
   Gospel--and it may be that things may wax worse and worse. This is not
   the first occasion when it has been so, for at various times in the
   history of the Church of God His enemies have exulted and cried out
   that the Gospel of past ages was exploded and might be reckoned as dead
   and buried.

   For one, I mean to sit over against the very sepulcher of Truth. I am a
   disciple of the old-fashioned doctrine as much when it is covered with
   disgrace and rebuke as when it shall again display its power, as it
   surely shall. Skeptics may seem to take the Truth of God and bind it,
   scourge it, crucify it and say that it is dead. And they may endeavor
   to bury it in scorn, but the Lord has many a Joseph and a Nicodemus who
   will see honor done even to the body of Truth and will wrap the
   despised creed in sweet spices and hide it away in their hearts. They
   may, perhaps, be half afraid that it is really dead, as the wise men
   assert, yet it is precious to their souls and they will come forth
   right gladly to espouse its cause and to confess that they are its
   disciples.

   We will sit down in sorrow but not in despair and watch until the stone
   is rolled away and Christ in His Truth shall live again and be openly
   triumphant! We shall see a Divine interposition and shall cease to
   fear--while they who stand armed to prevent the resurrection of the
   grand old doctrines shall quake and become as dead men--because the
   Gospel's everlasting life has been vindicated! And they will be made to
   quail before the brightness of its glory! This, then, is our first
   meditation--we admire that Jesus ever had a grave and we sit in wonder
   over against the sepulcher.

   II. Secondly, sitting here, WE REJOICE IN THE HONORS OF HIS BURIAL. The
   burial of Christ was, under some aspects of it, the lowest step of His
   humiliation--He must not merely, for a moment die, but He must be
   buried awhile in the heart of the earth. On the other hand, under other
   aspects our Lord's burial was the first step of His Glory--it was a
   turning point in His great career as we shall hope to show you. Our
   Lord's body was given up by Pilate to Joseph who went with authority to
   receive it from those who were appointed to see him take it down.

   Yesterday I had a glimpse at a work of art by one of our own Lembeth
   neighbors, exhibited by Mr. Doulton. It is a fine piece of work in
   terra-cotta, representing the taking down of Christ from the Cross. I
   could have wished to have studied it more at leisure, but a mere
   glimpse has charmed me. The artist represents a Roman soldier at the
   top of the Cross taking down the parchment upon which the accusation
   was written. He is rolling it up to put it away forever. I thought of
   the taking away of the handwriting which was against Him, even as He
   had taken away that which was against us. The Roman soldier, by
   authority, is thus represented as removing the charge which was once
   nailed over the ever blessed head. There is no accusation against Him
   now--He died and the Law is satisfied--it can no longer accuse the man
   who has endured its penalty.

   Another soldier is represented with a pair of pincers drawing out one
   of the big nails from the hands. The sacred body is now free. Law has
   no further claims upon it and withdraws its nails. A disciple, not a
   soldier, has mounted a ladder on the other side and, with a pair of
   scissors, is cutting away the crown of thorns. I think the artist did
   well to represent his doing so, for from now on it is our delight to
   remove all shame from the name of Jesus and to crown Him in another
   fashion. Then the artist has represented certain of His disciples as
   gently taking hold of the body as it is gradually being unloosed by the
   soldiers. And Joseph of Arimathea stands there with his long linen
   sheet ready to receive

   Him.

   Jars of precious myrrh and spices are standing there and the women
   ready to open the lids and to place the spices around the holy flesh.
   Every part of the design is significant and instructive--and the artist
   deserves great praise for it. It brought before my mind the descent
   from the Cross with greater vividness than any painting I have ever
   seen. The nails are all extracted. He is held no longer to the Cross.
   The body is taken down, no longer to be spit upon, despised and
   rejected, but tenderly handled by His friends. All and everything that
   has to do with shame, suffering and paying of penalty is ended once and
   for all.

   What became of the Cross? You find in Scripture no further mention of
   it. The legends concerning it are all false upon the face of them. The
   Cross is gone forever--neither it, nor nail, nor spear, nor crown of
   thorns can be found-- there is no further use for them. Jesus our Lord
   has gone to His Glory! By His one Sacrifice He has secured the
   salvation of His own.

   But now as to His burial. Beloved, there were many honorable
   circumstances about it. Its first effect was the development of timid
   minds. Joseph of Arimathea occupied a high post as an honorable
   counselor, but he was a secret disciple. Nicodemus, too, was a ruler of
   the Jews, and though he had spoken a word for the Master now and then,
   as probably Joseph had done (for we are told that he had not consented
   to their counsel and deed), yet he had never come out boldly till now.
   He came to Jesus by night, before, but he now came by daylight! At the
   worst estate of the Savior's cause we should have thought that these
   two men would remain concealed, but they did not. Now that the case
   seemed

   desperate, they show their faith in Jesus and pluck up courage to honor
   their Lord. Lambs become lions when the Lamb is slain.

   Joseph went boldly to Pilate and begged for the body of Jesus. For a
   dead Christ he risks his position and even his life, for he is asking
   for the body of a reputed traitor and may, himself, be put to death by
   Pilate. Or the members of the Sanhedrin may be enraged at him and bind
   themselves with an oath that they will slay him for paying honor to the
   Nazarene, whom they called, "that deceiver." Joseph ventures everything
   for Jesus, even though he knows Him to be dead. Equally brave is
   Nicodemus, for publicly, at the foot of the Cross, he stands with his
   hundred pounds of spices, caring nothing for any who may report the
   deed.

   I cheerfully hope, dear Brothers and Sisters, that one result of the
   ferocious attacks made upon the Gospel at this time will be that a
   great number of quiet and retiring spirits will be awakened to energy
   and courage. Such works of evil might move the very stones to cry out.
   I pray while, perhaps, some who have spoken well in other days and have
   usually done the battling may be downcast and quiet, those who have
   kept in the rear rank and have, only in secret, followed Jesus, will be
   brought to the front and we shall see men of substance and of position
   acknowledging their Lord.

   Joseph and Nicodemus both illustrate the dreadful Truth of God that it
   is hard for them that have riches to enter into the kingdom of God. But
   they also show us that when they do enter they frequently excel. If
   they come last, they remain to the last. If cowards when others are
   heroes, they can also be heroes when even Apostles are cowards. Each
   man has his turn and, so, while the fishermen-Apostles were hiding, the
   wealthy non-committal Brethren came to the front! Though bred in
   luxury, they bore the brunt of the storm and avowed the cause whose
   Leader lay dead. Brave are the hearts which stand up for Jesus in His
   burial.

   "Sitting over against the sepulcher," we draw comfort from the sight of
   the friends who honored the Lord in His death. I like to remember that
   the burial of the Lord displayed the union of loving hearts. The tomb
   became the meeting place of the old disciples and the new--of those who
   had long followed the Master and those who had but newly acknowledged
   Him. Magdalene and Mary had been with the Lord for years and had
   ministered to Him of their substance. But Joseph of Arimathea, as far
   as his public avowal of Christ is concerned, was, like Nicodemus, a new
   disciple. Old and new followers united in the deed of love and laid
   their Master in the tomb.

   A common sorrow and a common love unite us wondrously. When our great
   Master's cause is under a cloud and His name blasphemed it is pleasant
   to see the young men battling with the foe and aiding their fathers in
   the stern struggle. Magdalene, with her penitent love and Mary, with
   her deep attachment to her Lord, join with the rabbi and the counselor
   who now begin to prove that they intensely love the Man of Nazareth.
   That small society, that little working meeting which gathered around
   our Master's body, was a type of the whole Christian Church. When once
   awakened, Believers forget all differences and degrees of spiritual
   condition and each one is eager to do his part to honor his Lord.

   Mark, too, that the Savior's death brought out abundant liberality. The
   spices, one hundred pounds in weight, and the fine linen were furnished
   by the men. And then the holy women prepared the liquid spices with
   which to carry out what they might have called His great funeral when
   they would more completely wrap the body in odoriferous spices as was
   the manner of the Jews to bury. There was much of honor intended by all
   that they brought. A very thoughtful writer observes that the clothes
   in which our Lord was wrapped are not called grave clothes, but linen
   clothes and that the emphasis would seem to be put upon their being
   linen. And he reminds us that when we read of the garments of the
   priests in the Book of the Law we find that every garment must be of
   linen.

   Our Lord's Priesthood is, therefore, suggested by the use of linen for
   His death robes. The Apostle and High Priest of our profession in His
   tomb slept in pure white linen, even as today He represents Himself to
   His servants as clothed with a garment down to His feet. Even after
   death He acted as a priest and poured out a libation of blood and
   water-- and it was, therefore, right that in the grave He should still
   wear priestly garments. "He made His grave with the wicked"--there was
   His shame. "But with the rich in His death"--there was His honor. He
   was put to death by rough soldiers, but He was laid in His grave by
   tender women.

   Persons of honorable estate helped gently to receive and reverentially
   to place in its position His dear and sacred frame. And then, as if to
   do Him honor, though they meant it not, His tomb must not be left
   unguarded--and Caesar lends his guards to watch the couch of the Prince
   of Peace! Like a king He slumbers until, as the King of kings, He wakes

   at daybreak. To my mind it is very pleasant to see all this honor come
   to our Lord when He is in His worst estate--dead and buried. Will we
   not, also, honor our Lord when others despise Him? Will we not cleave
   to Him come what may?

   If the Church were all but destroyed. If every voice should go over to
   the enemy. If a great stone of philosophic reasoning were rolled at the
   door of Truth and it should seem no longer possible for argument to
   remove it--yet would we wait till the Gospel should rise again to
   confuse its foes! We will not be afraid, but keep our position! We will
   stand still and see the salvation of God, or "sitting over against the
   sepulcher," we will watch for the Lord's coming! Let the worst come to
   the worst we would sooner serve Christ while He is conceived to be dead
   than all the philosophers that ever lived when in their prime! Even if
   fools should dance over the grave of Christianity, there shall remain
   at least a few who will weep over it--and brushing away their tears
   from their eyes expect to see it revive and put forth all its ancient
   strength!

   III. I must now pass to a third point. While sitting over against the
   sepulcher WE OBSERVE THAT HIS ENEMIES WERE NOT AT REST. They had their
   way, but they were not content. They had taken the Savior and with
   wicked hands they had crucified and slain Him, but they were not
   satisfied. They were the most uneasy people in the world, though they
   had gained their point. It was their Sabbath and it was a high day,
   that Sabbath of Sabbaths, the Sabbath of the Passover. They kept a
   preparation for it and had been very careful not to go into the place
   called The Pavement, lest they should defile themselves--sweet
   creatures!

   And now have they not gained all they wanted? They have killed Jesus
   and buried Him--are they not happy? No. And what is more, their
   humiliation had begun--they were doomed to belie their own favorite
   profession. What was that profession? Their boast of rigid
   Sabbath-keeping was its chief point and they were perpetually charging
   our blessed Lord with Sabbath-breaking for healing the sick and even
   because His disciples rubbed a few ears of wheat between their hands
   when they were hungry on the Sabbath.

   Brothers and Sisters, look at these men and laugh at their hypocrisy!
   It is the Sabbath and they come to Pilate--they are holding counsel on
   the Sabbath with a heathen! They tell him that they are afraid that
   Jesus' body will be spirited away and he says, "You have a watch. Go
   your way, make it as secure as you can." And they go and seal the stone
   on the Sabbath! O you hypocritical Pharisees, here was an awful
   breaking of your Sabbath! According to their superstitious tradition,
   the rubbing ears of wheat between the hands was a kind of threshing
   and, therefore, it was a breach of the Law!

   Surely, by the same reasoning, the burning of a candle to melt the wax
   must have been similar to the lighting of a furnace! And the melting of
   wax must have been a kind of foundry work, like that of the blacksmith
   who pours metal into a mold, for in such a ridiculous fashion their
   rabbis interpreted the smallest acts. But they had to seal the stone
   and break their own absurd laws to satisfy their restless malice! One
   is pleased to see either Pharisees or Sadducees made to overturn their
   own professions and lay bare their hypocrisy! Modern-thought gentlemen
   will, before long, be forced to the same humiliation.

   Next, they had to retract their own accusation against our Lord. They
   charged Jesus with having said, "Destroy this temple and I will build
   it in three days," pretending that He referred to the temple upon Zion.
   Now they come to Pilate and tell him, "This deceiver said after three
   days I will rise again." Oh, you knaves, that is your new version, is
   it? You put the man to death for quite another rendering! Now you
   understand the dark saying? Yes, you deceivers, and you understood it
   before! But now you must eat your leek and swallow your own words!
   Truly, He scorns the scorners and pours contempt upon His enemies!

   And now see how these killers of Christ betray their own fears! He is
   dead, but they are afraid of Him! He is dead, but they cannot shake off
   the dread that He will yet vanquish them! They are full of agitation
   and alarm. Nor was this all, they were to be made witnesses for God--to
   sign certificates of the death and Resurrection of His Anointed. In
   order that there might be no doubt about the Resurrection at all, there
   must be a seal--and they must go and set it. There must be a guard--and
   they must see it mustered. The disciples need not trouble about
   certifying that Jesus is in the grave--these Jews will do it and set
   their own great seal to the evidence! These proud ones are sent to do
   the work of drudges in Christ's kitchen--to wait upon a dead Christ and
   to protect the body which they had slain!

   The lie which they told afterwards crowned their shame--they bribed the
   soldiers to say that His disciples stole Him away while they slept!
   This was a transparent lie, for if the soldiers were asleep, how could
   they know what was done? We

   cannot conceive of an instance in which men were more completely made
   to contradict and convict themselves! That Sabbath was a high day, but
   it was no Sabbath to them, nor would the overthrow of the Gospel be any
   rest of soul to its opponents. If ever we should live to see the Truth
   of God pushed into a corner and the blessed cause of Christ fastened up
   as with rationalistic nails. If we should live to see its very heart
   pierced by a critic's spear, yet, mark you, even in the darkest night
   that can ever try our faith, the adversaries of the Gospel will still
   be in alarm lest it should rise again! The old Truth has a wonderful
   habit of leaping up from every fall as strong as ever!

   In Dr. Doddridge's days men had pretty nearly buried the Gospel.
   Socinianism was taught in many, if not most dissenting pulpits, and the
   same was true of the Church of England. The liberal thinkers dreamed
   that they had won the victory and extinguished evangelical teaching.
   But their shouts came a little too soon. They said, "We shall hear no
   more of this miserable justification by faith and regeneration by the
   Holy Spirit." They laid the Gospel in a tomb cut out in the cold rock
   of Unitarianism and they set the seal of their learning upon the great
   stone of doubt which shut in the Gospel. There it was to lie
   forever--but God meant otherwise.

   But there was a pot-boy over in Gloucester called George Whitefield,
   And there was a young student who had lately gone to Oxford called John
   Wesley. And these two passed by the grave of the Gospel and beheld a
   strange sight, which they began to tell. And as they told it, the sods
   of unbelief and the stones of learned criticism began to move--and the
   Truth of God, which had been buried, started up with Pentecostal power!
   Aha, you adversaries, how greatly had you deceived yourselves! Within a
   few months, all over England the work of the devil and his ministers
   was broken to pieces, as when a tower is split by lightning, or the
   thick darkness scattered by the rising sun! The weight of ignorance and
   unbelief fled before the bright day of the Gospel, though that Gospel
   was, for the most part, proclaimed by unlettered men!

   The thing which has been is the thing which shall be. History repeats
   itself. O generation of modern thinkers, you will have to eat your own
   words and disprove your own assertions! You will have to confute each
   other and yourselves, even as the Moabites and Elamites slew each
   other. It may even happen that your infidelities will work themselves
   out into practical evil of which you will be the victims. You may bring
   about a repetition of the French Revolution of 1789, with more than all
   its bloodshed--and who will wonder?

   You, some of you, calling yourselves ministers of God with your
   insinuations of doubt, your denials of future punishment, your insults
   of the Gospel, your ingenious speeches against the Bible--are shaking
   the very foundation of society! I impeach you as the worst enemies of
   mankind! In effect, you proclaim to men that they may sin as they like,
   for there is no Hell, or if there is, it is but a little one. Thus you
   publish a Gospel of licentiousness and you may, one day, rue the
   result. You may live to see a reign of terror of your own creating, but
   even if you do, the Gospel of Jesus will come forth from all the filth
   you have heaped upon it, for the holy Gospel will live as Christ lives
   and its enemies shall never cease to be in fear!

   Your harsh speeches against those who preach the Gospel, your
   bitterness and your sneers of contempt, all show that you know better
   than you say and are afraid of the very Christ whom you wish to kill!
   We who cleave to the glorious Gospel will abide in peace, come what
   may, but you will not!

   IV. And now our last thought is that while these enemies of Christ were
   in fear and trembling WE NOTE THAT HIS FOLLOWERS WERE RESTING. It was
   the seventh day and, therefore, they ceased from labor. The Marys
   waited and Joseph and Nicodemus refrained from visiting the tomb. They
   obediently observed the Sabbath rest. I am not sure that they had faith
   enough to feel very happy, but they evidently did expect something and
   anxiously awaited the third day. They had enough of the comfort of hope
   to remain quiet on the seventh day.

   Now, Beloved, sitting over against the sepulcher while Christ lies in
   it, my first thought about it is, I will rest, for He rests. What a
   wonderful stillness there was about our Lord in that rocky grave. He
   had been daily thronged by thousands--even when He ate bread they
   disturbed Him. He scarcely could have a moment's stillness in life. But
   now, how quiet is His bed! Not a sound is heard. The great stone shuts
   out all noise and the body is at peace. Well, if He rests, I may! If
   for a while the Lord seems to suspend His energies, His servants may
   cry unto Him but they may not fret. He knows best when to sleep and
   when to wake.

   As I see the Christ resting in the grave, my next thought is, He has
   the power to come forth again. Some few months ago I tried to show you
   that when the disciples were alarmed because Jesus was asleep, they
   were in error, for His sleep

   was the token of their security. When I see a captain on board ship
   pacing anxiously up and down the deck, I may fear that danger is
   suspected--but when the captain turns into his cabin, then I may be
   sure that all is right and there is no reason why I should not turn in,
   too. So if our blessed Lord should ever suffer His cause to droop and
   if He should give no marvelous manifestations of His power, we need not
   doubt His power--let us keep our Sabbath, pray to Him and work for Him,
   for these are duties of the holy day of rest. But do not let us fret
   and worry, for His time to work will come.

   The rest of the Christian lies in believing in Christ under all
   circumstances. Go in for this, Beloved. Believe in Him in the manger,
   when His cause is young and weak. Believe in Him in the streets, when
   the populace applaud Him, for He deserves their loudest acclamations.
   Believe in Him when they take Him to the brow of the hill to cast Him
   headlong-- He is just as worthy as when they cry, "Hosanna." Believe in
   Him when He is in an agony and believe in Him when He is on the Cross.
   And if ever it should seem to you that His cause might die out, still
   believe in Him! Christ's Gospel in any circumstances deserves our
   fullest trust. That Gospel which has saved your souls--that Gospel
   which you have received and which has been sealed upon your hearts by
   the Holy Spirit--stand fast in it, come what may--and through faith
   peace and quiet shall pervade your souls.

   Once more, it will be well if we can obtain peace by having fellowship
   with our Lord in His burial. Die with Him and be buried with Him! There
   is nothing like it. I desire for my soul, while she lives in the Lord,
   that as to the world and all its wisdom, I may be as a dead man. When
   accused of having no power of thought and no originality of teaching, I
   am content to accept the charge, for my soul desires to be dead to all
   but that which is revealed and taught by the Lord Jesus. I would lie in
   the rocky tomb of the everlasting Truth of God, not creating thought,
   but giving myself up to God's thoughts.

   But, Brothers and Sisters, if we are always to lie in that tomb, we
   must be wrapped about with the fine linen of holiness--these are the
   shrouds of a man who is dead to sin. All about us must be the spices,
   the myrrh and aloes of preserving Grace, that being dead with Christ we
   may see no corruption, but may show that death to be only another form
   of the new life which we have received in Him. When the world goes by,
   let it know, concerning our heart's desire and ambition, that they are
   all buried with Christ! And let it be written on the memorial of our
   spiritual grave, "Here he lies." As far as this world's sin, pleasure,
   self-seeking and wisdom are concerned, "Here he lies buried with his
   Master."

   Know, you who are not converted, that the way of salvation is by
   believing in Christ, or trusting in Him! And if you so trust, you shall
   never be confounded, world without end, for he that trusts Christ and
   believes in Him even as a little child, the same shall enter into His
   kingdom. And he that will follow Him, even down to His grave, shall be
   with Him in His Glory--and shall see His triumphs forever and ever.
   Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

A Distinction with a Difference

   (No. 1405)

   DELIVERED BY

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "And Zacharias said unto the angel, How shall I know this?" Luke 1:18.

   "Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be?" Luke 1:34.

   ZACHARIAS and the Virgin Mary were both very dear to God and,
   therefore, highly honored and greatly favored. The points of likeness
   between them are many. They were both persons of eminent character, for
   Zacharias walked blameless in all the ordinances and commandments of
   the Lord and Mary was equally gracious and devout. They were both
   visited by an angel and were both favored with the prediction of a
   marvelous birth. Their answers to the angel are our two texts and, at
   first sight, they seem to be alike. One does not see much less of faith
   or of unbelief in the one than in the other at first reading them and,
   yet, Zacharias was blamed and chastened by being made dumb for a
   season. On the other hand, the Virgin was indulged with an explanation
   and was afterwards praised by the Holy Spirit who spoke through her
   cousin Elizabeth and said, "Blessed is she that believed: for there
   shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the
   Lord."

   It appears very clear, then, that God can see differences where we see
   none. Though two persons may act very much alike and from their lips
   may fall similar expressions, yet their temper and spirit may be widely
   different Where you and I would put them together and say, "They are
   alike," God sees a difference. While we judge sights and sounds, the
   Lord weighs the spirits. You must have noticed this in other parts of
   God's Word. I will give you two instances in the life of Abraham. Lot
   was commanded not to look towards Sodom, but his wife, after looking to
   Sodom, was turned into a pillar of salt. And yet that morning Abraham
   got up early to the place where he was known to meet with the Lord and
   it is recorded that he looked toward Sodom.

   The very thing which Lot must not do, Abraham may do. It is the same
   action but, if you think a moment, you can clearly see that the looking
   back of Lot would mean a lingering desire to return, but the look of
   Abraham had nothing of that kind in it and could have no evil
   significance. He was simply looking to the burning cities and admiring
   with solemn awe the justice of the Most High as he saw the heavens
   ruddy with flame and afterwards dark with dense clouds, while the smoke
   went up like the smoke of a furnace. The action was the same
   externally, but widely different in reality. The Lord God does not so
   much regard our outward acts as the motives which direct them and the
   spirit in which they are performed.

   Perhaps a more remarkable instance is that of Abraham and his wife
   Sarah. When they each received a distinct promise of the birth of
   Isaac, it is said that Abraham fell upon his face and laughed. And then
   we read a little farther on, "Sarah laughed within herself." We never
   find that Abraham was censured for laughing. He laughed rightly. It was
   the natural expression of a wondering and amazed delight. It was holy
   laughter and he was not censured nor called to account for it. But the
   Lord said unto him, "Why did Sarah laugh?" Sarah was censured for doing
   the very thing which in Abraham was quite right and did not need to be
   corrected!

   They both laughed--the one was right, but the other was wrong. Why?
   Because there was a vital difference between them. Sarah's was the
   laugh of unbelief--she thought it could not be that at her age she
   should bear a child, her lord also being old. She laughed at the very
   idea! It seemed altogether too absurd. The mere notion struck her as
   being perfectly ridiculous and, though a devout woman, she somewhat
   forgot the reverence due to Him who gave the promise and she laughed,
   though in a subdued and quiet way, "within herself."

   Abraham believed that the Divine promise would be performed and his was
   the laugh of joy to think that he should see a son born to his beloved
   Sarah who should be his heir and the inheritor of the Covenant. His
   soul danced within him

   with delight because he believed what the Lord had spoken. Yet the two
   actions outwardly are so exactly similar that if you condemn one, you
   think you must condemn the other! But God does not, since He sees not
   as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at
   the heart. We may apply this great Truth of God to ourselves. We all
   sang the same hymn just now to the same tune--and yet from one it may
   have been to God's ear music and from another mockery. We closed our
   eyes just now and bowed our heads in prayer--anyone looking upon us
   might have supposed us to be all equally accepted--but the Lord knows
   in whose case the heart was wandering upon the mountains of vanity and
   in whose case the soul, with all its powers, was crying out unto the
   living God.

   Judge yourselves, Beloved, but never judge yourselves according to the
   sight of the eyes! And never be satisfied with yourselves because
   externally everything is correct--because you have passed through the
   routine of religion and attended to the machinery of the outward form.
   Do not be content with postures, sounds and looks--the soul is the soul
   of the matter! Look at the heart and cry to God, also, that He would
   search you and make you clean in the secret parts-- and in the hidden
   parts make you to know wisdom. Otherwise you may stand as God's people
   do and go in and out of the House of Prayer even as the brightest of
   the saints do and never be separated from them until the trumpet rings
   out the Great Tremendous Day and you are sent to the left with the
   goats to be withered by a curse--while His people on His right hand
   shall receive the blessing forever!

   Let us all remember that there may be an external similarity in
   apparent right or wrong and yet there may be an inward and a real
   dissimilarity. It is the inward that is the real, not the outward--and
   the great Judge will search and try and separate between the precious
   and the vile--though the vile may seem to be more beautiful than the
   precious genuine diamond. But now, leaving the general principle, I
   invite you, dear Friends, to come back to my texts and accompany me in
   looking at these two persons to see whether there is not a difference
   perceptible by ourselves. And I think we shall find a great deal more
   diversity than we had expected. I cannot work out the whole matter in
   one sermon, but some prominent points will, I hope, interest and profit
   you.

   I. First let us take the case of ZACHARIAS who said, "HOW SHALL I KNOW
   THIS?" And notice, to begin with, that supposing the two expressions of
   Zacharias and Mary had been identical, and supposing that they had
   conveyed the same thoughts, yet if they had both been wrong, Zacharias
   would have been the more faulty of the two, for he was a priest--a man
   set apart by office to study the Word of God and to draw peculiarly
   near to God on his own account and for the people. Mary was simply a
   humble village maid. Mary, it is true, was of royal descent, but her
   family had fallen into obscurity. She was a person of superior mind,
   but she held no office that could distinguish her from others.

   Zacharias, being a priest, was bound to act with a higher degree of
   faith than Mary, the lowly maiden. The priest's lips should keep
   knowledge and teach many. Were not the priests set apart to be
   instructors of the people, helpers of those that are weak and guides of
   those who are ignorant and out of the way? They should, therefore, in
   all things set an example. If Mary had been unbelieving and Zacharias
   unbelieving--and both unbelieving to the same extent--yet in Zacharias
   it would have been much worse because his very office called upon him
   to display greater Grace than the humble maiden.

   Brothers and Sisters, may I not apply this to myself and to you?
   Brother ministers, if we are unbelieving, we, in our unbelief, do not
   sin so cheaply as our people! We have more time to study the Word of
   God and, therefore, we have, or ought to have, more acquaintance with
   it. We are more familiar with Divine things and ought to be more richly
   filled with their faith-creating spirit. If the Lord has been pleased
   to make us under-shepherds over His people, we are bound to be examples
   to the flock. Our high position demands of us the exhibition of a
   greater degree of Divine Grace than we can expect from common
   Believers, who are God's dear people, but are not set apart to be
   leaders.

   The same line of argument will apply in due proportion to each servant
   of our Lord Jesus. According to their measure of Grace, more is
   expected of some than of others. You, dear Sisters, who teach young
   people should remember that they watch you and they expect to see in
   you a bright example. And, what is more, God, who has placed you in the
   position of teachers, or of mothers, intends that there should be in
   you, by His Grace, something that others may look up to, that the young
   beginners may learn from you. Take heed that they never learn unbelief
   from your doubting! Let them never see in you that worry, that anxiety,
   that fretfulness which denotes the absence of a calm reliance upon God,
   but let them, whatever they gather from you, learn that which is worth
   knowing.

   And what can be a better lesson than that of faith in God? You who are
   in the Church, dear Friends, preachers, elders, deacons and instructors
   of others, see to it that your lives and words do not breed unbelief!
   Especially do I speak to myself upon this point, for, being much
   exercised in spirit, I tremble lest I should suggest to any of you
   doubts and fears, or encourage you in them. Let those of us who are
   guides of others see to it that we do not dishonor God by mistrust and
   questioning, for unbelief in us is a glaring fault and God will surely
   visit it upon us, even if He winks at it in the weak ones of the flock.

   Again, in Zacharias' case it was not merely his office that
   distinguished him, but he was a man of years. We read that both he and
   his wife were "well stricken in years." Now, a man who has had a long
   experience of the things of God--a man of prayer who has had many
   answers--a man of trouble who has had many deliverances. A man who has
   seen the hand of God with him in a long journey through the wilderness
   of life is expected, by God, to exhibit a far stronger faith than the
   young people who have but lately learned His name. I speak to many here
   who are by far my seniors, of whom I may say that they were in Christ
   before me and they must pardon my saying that they should have more
   faith than I by reason of their years of constant experience of the
   Lord's faithfulness.

   And I, too, who have known the Lord, now, for a considerable number of
   years, must never put myself down with those who were converted during
   the last few months and say that I am to have no more faith than they.
   Shame upon every one of us if every day does not bring us fresh motives
   for believing in our Lord! Every hour, indeed, should be filled with
   arguments for a more complete childlike trust in Him. What? Dear
   Sister, did the Lord help you in such-and-such a strait? And do you not
   remember that you said, "I shall never doubt Him again"? And yet you
   have done so! Ah, how grievous must those doubts be to your gracious
   Lord!

   I know at one time you thought you would never be delivered, but you
   were mercifully lifted up from the depths-- out of six troubles you
   have been rescued and in seven no evil has touched you! And now that a
   fresh trial is come, will you not believe your God? Well, if you do
   not, you will certainly incur very grievous sin and vex the Holy Spirit
   of God much more than your poor little sister, Mary, would do, if,
   having only lately known the Savior, she should distrust Him in her
   first conflicts. Babes in Grace should not doubt, but if they do, their
   unbelief is not so willful as that of fathers in Israel. If standard
   bearers faint, it is a sad calamity, and the faintness of poor wounded
   common soldiers is far less to be deplored.

   When aged Zacharias errs in this matter he is more to be blamed than
   youthful Mary. Those two points are pretty clear, are they not?
   Furthermore, let us observe that Zacharias had made the birth of a
   child a subject of prayer, which, I suppose, had not so much as been
   thought of by Mary. Beyond the fact that it was the usual desire of all
   Hebrew women that they might be the mother of the Messiah, the Virgin
   had probably never cast a single thought in the direction in which the
   angel's salutation conducted her. Assuredly she had never made it a
   subject ofprayer, but Zacharias had rightly done so. Read the 13th
   verse, "The angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias, for your prayer
   is heard, and your wife Elizabeth shall bear you a son." And yet,
   though the promise came as a distinct and manifest answer to his
   prayers, Zacharias asked, "How shall I know this?"

   Now, this was wrong! It was very wrong. He had been praying for it and
   when it came, he did not believe it! Ah, Zacharias, you are verily
   guilty here. If it had come as a surprise altogether, as it did to
   Mary, there would be some excuse for your doubt. But when it is a reply
   to your own entreaties--a gracious yielding to intense requests--your
   unbelieving question is a grievous fault! If, when taken by surprise,
   Mary had doubted, it would have appeared natural, but for you,
   Zacharias--for you to whom the angel said, "Your prayer is heard"--how
   do you doubt it? Astonishment at answered prayers is amazement at
   Divine truthfulness! And what is that but a low idea of the Lord
   unintentionally discovering

   itself?

   Yet I have sometimes thought that if the Lord wished to surprise His
   own servants, all He would have to do would be to answer their prayers!
   He does answer them continually and in consequence you hear one and
   another say, "Is it not surprising? You see, we met and had a prayer
   meeting for a certain blessing and the Lord has answered our
   supplications. How marvelous!" And yet if you sit down in a friend's
   house, do his children try to astonish you by mentioning cases in which
   their father kept his word? Do they dwell with amazement upon his
   having spoken the truth? I could wish that the Lord's children would
   even get as far as that! Alas, they even overlook the majority of the
   facts which prove His veracity, and slight His faithfulness!

   When His people are in a better frame than usual they admit His
   faithfulness and mention as a great wonder that He heard prayer and
   fulfilled His Word! Should this be so? Has it come to pass that it is a
   wonder for God to hear prayer? Have we fallen into such a low state of
   heart that we think His truthfulness to be a surprising thing? It were
   far better if we were of the same mind as a good old lady who, when
   someone said, "Is it not wonderful?" replied, "Well, it is in one way,
   but it is not in another, for it is just like Him--just like Him." We
   may well be surprised at the tenderness of His great mercy, but not as
   though it were a novelty for God to do good and to keep His promise by
   regarding His people's cries!

   Dear Brothers and Sisters, we ought to be surprised if the Lord did not
   hear us, seeing that He is the true and faithful, prayer-hearing God.
   When you and I have had a matter heavily laid upon our hearts and have
   been before God with it again and again, as doubtless Zacharias had, we
   should be looking for our Lord's gracious reply. Do we not expect
   answers to letters which we write to our friends? Why do we not, in
   like fashion, expect replies to prayer? If God answers us, are we to be
   so doubtful in mind as even to question the truthfulness of the
   blessing? If so, we shall be manifestly guilty. If the Lord sends us a
   mercy in reply to our requests and we do not believe it, but say, "How
   shall I know this?" then our unbelief has a peculiar degree of
   provocation in it and we may expect to be chastened for it. This was
   the case with Zacharias.

   The next point about Zacharias is that he doubted the fact which was
   announced by the angel in the name of the Lord. He said, "How shall I
   know this?" Mary did not doubt the fact--she wished to know how it
   could be, but she believed it would be. She believed, for it was said
   of her, "Blessed is she that believed." But this good man did not
   believe, for the angel said to Him, "You believe not my words which
   shall be fulfilled in their season." Now, Beloved, when it comes to
   this, that we dare to doubt the promise of God, is it not a very
   grievous crime? If your child--your own child whom you have loved so
   long and treated so tenderly--if he should fall into a state of mind in
   which he did not believe you, his own father--would you not feel it to
   be peculiarly grievous?

   If you were conscious of nothing but love for him. If you were sure
   that throughout his life you had never broken a promise to him, but had
   always been as good as your word. If you had repeated your promise
   again and again and he still said, "Father, I wish I could believe
   you," would you not be cut to the heart by such a declaration? The more
   earnestly he expressed regret at his inability to believe you, the more
   intense would be your pain. What an awful speech for a son to address
   to a father--"I wish I could believe you"!

   You would grieve in spirit and say inwardly, "What does my boy think of
   me? What has come over my child that he cannot believe me? It was not
   an enemy, then I could have borne it--but it is my child whom I love
   who says not only that he does not believe me, but that he would do so
   if he could and finds himself unable to think me true. He speaks in
   deep earnest and thus I see how thoroughly the cruel feeling possesses
   him and how desperate is the evil which leads him to mistrust my love."

   Ah, Beloved, I leave your own thoughts, as I must just now leave mine,
   to peer into the depths of sin which must lie in what we sometimes talk
   of so flippantly, namely, doubts and fears! They are not the trifles
   which some men dream them to be--they are hideous profanities of the
   sacred Truth of God! They are revolting libels upon immaculate
   goodness! They are horrid blasphemies of infinite love! Shall the good
   God be thus assailed? Shall His own children thus abuse Him? Your child
   might doubt you and it might be a trifle to him, but it would be death
   to you, his father or mother. You would feel it keenly and so you may
   think that doubts and fears are trifles, but your heavenly Father does
   not think so--unbelief wounds Him and grieves His Spirit!

   Hear what the Lord says--"How long will it be before they believe Me?"
   Forget not the Apostle's warning in the third chapter of the Hebrews.
   "With whom was He grieved 40 years? And to whom swore He that they
   should not enter into His rest, but to them that believed not?"
   Zacharias did not believe and he had to smart for it, as you and I
   shall if we, when we see a promise written clearly in God's Word and
   evidently quite adapted to our case, nevertheless say, "How shall I
   know this?"

   Yet further. The good man Zacharias--for, remember, I am not doubting
   his Grace, but, on the contrary, I began by saying that he was a very
   gracious and eminently godly man. He was probably much better than any
   of us and possibly, in some respects, even more gracious than Mary
   herself, having a deeper experience, a fuller knowledge, greater
   courage and many other superior gifts and Graces--although in this
   point he failed--he doubted his Lord and showed

   his unbelief by asking for a sign, "How shall I know this?" He needed a
   sign or a token that what the angel spoke was true.

   This was not the case with Mary, who sought an explanation but not a
   token. Is it wrong, then, to ask for a token? Assuredly not in all
   cases, for it may even be sinful not to ask for one, as in the case of
   Ahaz, of whom we read, "Moreover the Lord spoke again unto Ahaz,
   saying, Ask for a sign of the Lord your God; ask it either in the
   depth, or in the height above. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither
   will I tempt the Lord. And He said, Hear you now, O house of David. Is
   it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary God, also?"
   In the case of Ahaz it was sinful to refuse and in that of Zacharias
   sinful to request.

   Here again I must come back to the remark I started with and remind you
   that the same thing may be right in one man and wrong in another,
   according to the motive. It is very curious that Abraham used almost
   identical words with Zacharias, when he said, "How shall I know that I
   shall inherit this land?" He distinctly asked the Lord for a sign, nor
   was the request at all grievous to the Lord, for He knew that His
   servant Abraham asked that sign in all humility and childlike faith.
   Let me show you at once the difference between Abraham and Zacharias.
   Zacharias will not believe without a sign--Abraham has already believed
   and waited long for the fulfillment of the promise--and feels that a
   sign would be comforting to him.

   It could in no sense have been said to the great father of the
   faithful, "Except you see signs and wonders you will not believe," but
   some such rebuke might have been directed towards Zacharias. There was
   conspicuous faith in Abraham and the desire for a token was natural
   rather than sinful. So was it with Gideon who asked for many signs. You
   see at the very first that Gideon believes and he acts upon his faith.
   But he trembles because his faith is weak and he asks for signs to
   strengthen his confidence. Indeed, he did not distrust the Lord at all,
   but only questioned whether it was the Lord who spoke. Gideon said, "If
   now I have found grace in Your sight, then show me a sign that You talk
   with me."

   The question, you see, was not the truthfulness of God, but whether,
   indeed, if the Lord had spoken! Zacharias, however, asks an altogether
   unbelieving question, "How shall I know this?" He wants a sign as the
   condition of his believing. You may very rightly pray, "Lord, show me a
   token for good," but you must believe before you get the token and you
   must not let your believing depend upon that token. There is a
   difference--a wide difference between believing first and then asking
   for some cheering evidence--and that unbelieving obstinacy which
   demands signs and wonders and declares, "I will not believe unless I
   see a token."

   Thomas is an instance of this error when he says, "Except I see in His
   hand the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the
   nails, I will not believe." His Master bent to his weakness, but He
   said, and very significant are the words, "Thomas, because you have
   seen Me you have believed. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet
   have believed." The chief blessing belongs to you who, whether you have
   evidences or not, are content to believe your God, taking this Word of
   God as quite sufficient ground for your confidence without any delights
   of heart or ecstasies of spiritual visitations! Our God is true even if
   no wonder is worked and no sign is given. Let us settle this in our
   hearts and never allow a doubt to intervene. O Holy Spirit, help us in
   this!

   All this together shows that the error of Zacharias was unbelief and
   his chastisement which he received for it is worthy of our earnest
   attention. He was chastened for his unbelief because the Lord loved
   him. His affliction was sent not so much in anger as in love. He had
   asked for a sign and by a sign was he chastened. God often makes us
   gather the twigs from which He makes the rod with which He scourges us.
   Our own sins are the thorns which cause us to smart. Zacharias asked
   for a sign and he gets this sign--"You shall be dumb, and not able to
   speak until the day that these things shall be performed, because you
   believe not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season."

   For months he shall not be able to speak a single word! But while his
   mouth is closed to others, it shall be open to himself--that dumb mouth
   of his shall be preaching to him and saying, "You did not believe what
   was spoken to you of the Lord, and now you are unable to repeat it to
   others, for the Lord will not employ an unbelieving messenger. If you
   will not believe when God's angel speaks, you shall not speak,
   yourself." Many a dumb Christian, I am afraid, has had his mouth sealed
   through unbelief. The Lord saves him and gives him much enjoyment, but
   He denies him utterance because he has such slender faith.

   I have no doubt Zacharias was very happy in the prospect of the birth
   of his child and looked earnestly onward to the day when John, the
   Prophet of the Highest, should be born, and he should recover speech.
   But still, it must have been

   very painful to remain for so long a time in utter silence. How he must
   have longed to speak or sing! But I have no doubt that many a man is
   put aside from bearing his testimony through unbelief which he calls
   diffidence and delicacy. The Lord says, "I shall never use you as a
   preacher. I shall not make use of you in addressing your fellow men. I
   shall not help you to bring men to Christ in private conversation
   because you have so little faith. You have doubted Me and now you must
   be dumb for a season." I hope that, if this is the case with any, your
   silence will soon end. Lord, open their lips and their mouths shall
   show forth Your praise!

   Dear Friend, I hope the Lord will unloose your tongue by-and-by, for if
   you are in a right state of heart it will be a very painful thing to
   you not to be able to declare what the Lord has done for your soul. But
   it is so with some--they are dumb because they believe not. Moreover,
   Zacharias had the further affliction of being deaf at the same time.
   How do I know that he was deaf? That is pretty clear, because when his
   child was born, it is recorded in the 62nd verse that "they made signs
   to his father how he would have him called." And, of course, if he had
   been able to hear there would have been no need to use signs. But he
   could not hear any more than he could speak--he suffered the double
   affliction of being deaf and dumb--no small cross to one who had such
   gifts of utterance as he showed in his song of praise!

   It is remarkable that he could not hear anything, but it is also
   instructive. I have known Christians who, when they would not believe
   the promise, have become very deaf, spiritually. You say, "What do you
   mean? How are they deaf?" Listen and you will hear them say, "I cannot
   hear Mr. So-and-So." It is the same minister whom they used to hear
   with pleasure--the same man--and God blesses him to others as much as
   before. How is this? Others are drinking in the Word, but these poor
   deaf people say, "We do not know how it is, but we cannot hear our
   pastor." No, you did not believe and, therefore, you cannot hear. You
   did not receive his message. You did not rejoice in it and now you
   cannot hear it.

   That is a dreadful sort of deafness! If you suffer from a physical
   deafness you can buy a horn, or you can go to some skillful aorist who,
   perhaps, may help you. Moreover, you can read if you cannot hear. But
   if you get a spiritual deafness, I do not know a worse chastisement
   that can come upon you, nor one that will make you more mischievous to
   others. O Beloved, believe the good Word of the Lord! With meekness
   receive the engrafted Word and do not question it and provoke the Lord,
   lest, haply, because you did not accept the Word as the Word of God,
   the time shall come when you will not be able to hear it and your
   profiting will utterly depart! And the very voice that once was music
   to you will have no charms at all and the blessed Truth of God which
   once made your heart leap for joy will cease to have the slightest
   influence upon you.

   Mary was not sentenced either to be silent or to be deaf, for she
   believed the Word of the Lord which was spoken to her by the angel. O
   that we, also, by a full obedience of faith may escape the penalties
   which surely attach themselves to unbelief! We must sorrow, but there
   can be no reason for increasing it by our own fault--and we may readily
   do so. While on the other hand, faith brings rest and peace. So much
   concerning Zacharias.

   II. Now let us turn our eyes to MARY. Mary used much the same language
   and yet she spoke not after the same fashion. She asked of the angel,
   "HOW SHALL THIS BE?" In looking at her, first, it is to be noticed that
   she believed what the angel said. It was not "How shall I know this?"
   but, in effect, her language was, "I believe it. How shall it be?"
   There is no unbelief in the question. Of that we are sure, because not
   long after she is praised by her intelligent cousin, Elizabeth, who
   declares that, "blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a
   performance of those things which were told her from the Lord."

   She notably believed. She asked for no sign. She sought no token
   whatever. The angel's voice sufficed her. The still small voice of
   Divine love within her soul was enough. She believed and only asked to
   be instructed in the matter--she needed no sign and seal. She was
   willing, also, to accept all hazards. I would speak with great
   delicacy, but to the Virgin, remember, it was a very serious thing to
   be the mother of our Lord. To this very day the base tongues of
   infidels have dared to insinuate gross criminality against her who was
   blessed among women! And she must have known that it was not likely
   that all would believe what she should and many a hard speech would be
   uttered concerning her.

   Indeed, she might have had fear concerning her espoused husband,
   himself, who would have put her away had not the Lord shielded her.
   Joseph behaved nobly, like a believer of the first order, and he
   deserves to be ranked among the truest of the saints as does the
   Virgin, herself, who well deserves to be exceedingly commended by all
   who can appreciate pure, delicate and yet heroic faith. Whatever there
   might be of hazard, so great was the honor that was put upon the

   Virgin that she does not appear to have felt the slightest hesitation,
   but said, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it unto me according to
   your word."

   I think her question may be attributed, in part, to surprise--to
   inevitable amazement! And what we say to the Lord when we are naturally
   surprised under the greatness of His mercy will not be weighed by Him
   letter by letter, nor shall we be judged for it, though if very closely
   examined it might appear like unbelief. The Lord knows His children's
   frame and remembers that we are dust. I hope that many a word which
   drops from the child of God when he is in pain, when he is distressed
   as Job was on the dunghill, is allowed to blow away with the breath
   which utters it. How very little did the Lord say to Job about the
   naughty words which, in his petulance, he had allowed to escape, for,
   after all, he was grandly patient.

   And so, even if there had been something of unbelief in these words of
   Mary, which there was not, yet they would have been viewed by the Lord
   as the fruit of surprise at the marvelous and unexpected mercy for
   which she had not even prayed. There was no unbelief in her language,
   but there was great wonder, surprise and admiration at so great a gift.
   How should this come to her? How should she be so highly favored? Her
   soul seemed to say, "Why this to me? That I, so humble and obscure--a
   maiden whose rank and race have been altogether forgotten--should be
   the mother of the Savior after the flesh, the mother of His humanity by
   whom humanity is to be redeemed?" She was full of wonder and then she
   began to enquire.

   There is the point. She wanted to know how it would be. There was no
   wrong in that desire. There was no unbelief worthy of rebuke. She
   believed the surpassing promise and only wished to know how it could be
   performed. There might readily enough be unbelief in such an enquiry,
   but not necessarily so. You and I may say, as the Israelites did in the
   wilderness when God had promised to give them flesh to eat, "Shall the
   flocks and herds be slain?" That was unbelievingly asking how it should
   be. But yet you may ask how a promise shall be fulfilled without any
   mistrust at all. No, your very faith may raise the enquiry! I know my
   soul asks again and again many questions of my Lord which He answers to
   my soul. He would not have answered had they been sinful questions.

   We ought to enquire about a great many things--we should be sacredly
   inquisitive. We should say, How is it He has chosen us? For our Lord
   replies, "Even so Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight." But,
   still, why me? Why me? You may ask that question, for holy gratitude
   dictates it. And how is it that He could redeem us with the blood of
   His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ our Lord? And how is it that He
   renews us? And how will it be that He will perfect us? And how can it
   be that we shall have a mansion in Heaven and shall become like our
   Lord? And how is it that we shall be raised up? With what body shall we
   come? Many a question we may ask, which if not asked in unbelief, will
   have an answer, or will serve to increase our reverent gratitude.

   But now notice, concerning Mary, that while Zacharias was the doubter
   and was treated as such, Mary was the enquirer and was so dealt with of
   the Lord. See the difference in the treatment of the two. For first,
   Mary did not ask for a sign but she got one--and it was one of the most
   pleasant that could possibly come to her, for it was her cousin
   Elizabeth! She was to be her sign. Behold, she that had been barren
   shall come to meet her and comfort her. Brothers and Sisters, the Lord
   knows how to give you signs if you do not wish for them! And I believe
   that those have the most tokens for good who do not ask for them but
   are content to take their Father's Word without any confirmatory sign.

   And then, there was another thing with regard to her. She was
   graciously instructed. Zacharias asked for a sign and he had it. She
   asked for instruction and she had it. The angel paused awhile and said
   to her, "The Holy Spirit shall come upon you and the power of the
   Highest shall overshadow you. Therefore, also, that holy Thing which
   shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God." If you will
   meekly and believingly ask of your Lord to be taught concerning Divine
   things, He will give you His Spirit who shall lead you into all Truth
   and instruct you and make you wise unto salvation.

   Now, the conclusion is this--first of all, let us not do as Zacharias
   did. Dear Friend, are you, at this moment, questioning any promise? Are
   you saying, "How shall I know this?" Cease from doubting the Infallible
   Word and rest in the Lord, His Holy Spirit enabling you to believe! On
   the other hand, are you a seeking sinner and does Christ declare that
   whoever looks to Him shall be saved, and that whoever believes in Him
   is not condemned? Do not ask for any sign, but believe Him! He,
   Himself, is sign enough! He is God and yet Man--the bleeding Lamb, the
   Sacrifice for sin. Believe Him! Believe Him! Believe Him and you shall
   have the blessing!

   And you, dear child of God, if you have a text of Scripture, a promise
   which evidently suits your case--which meets your trouble--do not say,
   "How shall I know this?" When the Spirit says it, it is enough that it
   is in the Word. Whatever the Scripture states, be sure of it, for if
   all the wise men in the world were to prove it, it would not be proven
   one bit more! And if they were all to disprove it, it would be none the
   less sure! If I were to see a thing to be true which God had declared
   in His Word, I would not believe my eyes so well as I would believe His
   Word--at least, I ought not to do so. This is where we ought to
   stand--all the world may deceive, but God cannot! Let God be true and
   every man a liar.

   If you will come and trust Him in this way you shall be like a tree
   planted by the rivers of water. Your leaf shall not wither and you
   shall not know when drought comes. If your walk through life is the
   walk of faith, as Abraham's and Enoch's were, you shall have a grand
   life--grandly full, eternal and Christly--but if you doubt Him you
   shall not be established. The unbeliever shall be as the rolling thing
   before the whirlwind, as the sear leaf that falls from the tree and as
   the heath of the desert that knows not when good comes. May the Holy
   Spirit save us, Brothers and Sisters, from unbelief, and give us rest
   in the promise of God!

   And now, secondly, let us with all our hearts imitate Mary in being
   enquirers--often asking, desiring to know and looking deep and
   searching--for into the promises of God we cannot look too closely,
   since "these things the angels desire to look into." You ought to
   realize the promise as to be sure that it means what it says and then
   you will naturally begin to ask how it will come to pass. Only strive
   to keep out all unbelief from your enquiry and say, "I know in my heart
   how it can be, for nothing is impossible with God."

   There is our answer to all questions--"With God all things are
   possible." If I enquire, "How can He deliver me?" Nothing is impossible
   with God. "How can He keep me to the end?" Nothing is impossible with
   God. "How can He preserve me amid persecution? How can He keep me from
   temptation and preserve me from the world, the flesh and the devil?"
   Nothing is impossible with God! Fling yourself upon Omnipotence and you
   shall be strong! May the Holy Spirit help you to do this for Christ's
   sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Remember!

   (No. 1406)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MARCH 31, 1878,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "You shall remember that you were a bondman in the land of Egypt, and
   the Lord your God redeemed you." Deuteronomy 15:15.

   IN an autobiography of William Jay we read that on one occasion he
   called to see the famous Mr. John Newton, at Olney, and he observed
   that over the desk at which he was accustomed to compose his sermons,
   he had written up in very large letters the following words--"Remember
   that you were a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God
   redeemed you." To my mind this story invests the text with considerable
   interest--it was most fitting that such a remarkable convert as he
   should dwell upon such a theme and place such a text conspicuously
   before his eyes. Might it not with great propriety be placed in a
   similar position by each one of us?

   Mr. Newton lived and acted under the influence of the memory which the
   text commands, as was seen that very morning in his conversation with
   Mr. Jay. "Sir," said Mr. Newton, "I am glad to see you, for I have a
   letter just come from Bath and you can, perhaps, assist me in the
   answer to it. Do you know anything of So-and-So (mentioning the name)?"
   Mr. Jay replied that the man was an awful character, had once been a
   hearer of the Gospel, but had become a leader in every vice. "But,
   Sir," said Mr. Newton, "He writes very penitently and who can tell?
   Perhaps a change may have come over him." "Well," said Mr. Jay, "I can
   only say that if ever he should be converted, I should despair of no
   one." "And I," said Mr. Newton, "have never despaired of anybody since
   I was, myself, converted."

   So, you see, as he thought of this poor sinner at Bath, he was
   remembering that he, also, was a bondman in the land of Egypt and the
   Lord his God had redeemed him. And why should not the same redemption
   reach even to this notorious transgressor and save him? The memory of
   his own gracious change of heart and life gave him tenderness in
   dealing with the erring and hope with regard to their restoration. May
   some such good effect be produced in our minds--we are not all called
   to be preachers of the Gospel, but in any capacity a holy, beneficial,
   sanctifying effect will be produced upon a right mind by remembering
   that we were bondmen, but the Lord our God redeemed us. May the Holy
   Spirit, at this hour, bring the amazing Grace of God to our remembrance
   with melting power!

   As to the particular fact of the redemption of Israel out of Egypt,
   great care was taken that it should be remembered. The month upon which
   they came out was made the commencement of the year. "This month shall
   be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the
   year to you" (Exo. 12:2). A special injunction was issued, "Observe the
   month of Abib and keep the Passover unto the Lord your God: for in the
   month of Abib the Lord your God brought you forth out of Egypt by
   night." An ordinance was established on purpose that the deliverance
   might be commemorated--and the eating of the Passover lamb was made
   binding upon the whole of the people--so that they should not forget
   the sprinkling of the blood.

   The Word of the Lord ordained, saying, "And this day shall be unto you
   for a memorial; and you shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout
   your generations; you shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever."
   They were enjoined, also, to instruct their children concerning it, so
   that in addition to a ceremonial there was an oral tradition to be
   handed from father to son. "And when your son asks you in time to come,
   saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments,
   which the Lord our God has commanded you? Then you shall say unto your
   son, We were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt and the Lord brought us out of
   Egypt with a mighty hand" (Deut. 6:20, 21).

   Their law of the Ten Commandments commenced with a reminder of that
   remarkable fact--"I am the Lord your God, which have brought you out of
   the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage: you shall have no other
   gods before Me." All through the book of Deuteronomy you will observe
   that this is the one weighty and oft repeated argument for obedience
   and faithfulness--"Remember that you were a bondman in Egypt and the
   Lord your God redeemed you."

   Now, Beloved, if the Jew was so carefully instructed to remember his
   deliverance out of Egypt, should not we, also, take heed to ourselves
   that we by no means forget, or cast into the background, our yet
   greater redemption through the precious blood of Christ by which we
   were set free from the yoke and bondage of sin? See how Paul, in
   Ephesians 2:11, 12, 13, speaks to us who have been called by Grace from
   the ends of the earth--"Why remember, that you being in time past
   Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is
   called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time
   you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,
   and strangers from the covenant of promise, having no hope, and without
   God in the world: but now in Christ Jesus you who sometimes were far
   off are made near by the blood of Christ."

   He puts the same thought into other words in Romans 6:17, 18, when he
   says--"God be thanked, that you were the servants of sin, but you have
   obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
   Being then made free from sin, you became the servants of
   righteousness." Paul would have us remember our redemption. And God the
   Holy Spirit who spoke by Paul would have us remember it! Will we not
   give earnest heed to such solemn counsels? The blessed effects that
   will flow from such a memory urge us to remember it and because of this
   our discourse of this morning is intended to be a humble assistance
   towards such a memory.

   O my Brothers and Sisters, forget all else, just now, and give your
   heart to the work before you and, "remember that you were a bondman in
   the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you." First, then,
   let us consider our bondage. Secondly, our redemption. And thirdly, the
   influence of the memory of the two facts. I shall not try to say
   anything fresh or new--it would be out of place to attempt it, for my
   present duty is to awaken your memories as to former days. I have only
   to stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. He who is only a
   remembrancer for the past must not look about for novelties. We speak
   what you know and ask you to testify to what you have felt.

   I. First let us consider OUR BONDAGE. It was exceedingly like the
   bondage of the children of Israel in Egypt. There are many points in
   which a parallel might be drawn. We will indicate them in a few words.
   First, when we were unregenerate and sold under sin, we were enslaved
   to a mighty power against which we could not contend. It would have
   been of no use for the Israelites to have commenced an insurrection
   against Pharaoh--he was too firmly established upon the throne and his
   soldiers by far too strong for poor, feeble, shepherd tribes to be able
   to resist. They scarcely dared to think of such a thing and, Brethren,
   if fallen man single-handedly had the heart to contend with sin and
   Satan, he would certainly be unable to achieve a victory.

   The Fall has left us "without strength." The Law, with all its force,
   is "weak through the flesh." Alas, man has no heart for spiritual
   liberty, otherwise the Lord would lend him power. But apart from Divine
   power, what man can break loose from his sin? Shall the Ethiopian
   change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then shall he that is
   accustomed to do evil learn to do well, unassisted by Divine strength!
   No, Brothers and Sisters, the fetters which enchain the mind of the
   carnal man are much too strong for him to snap them. He may resolve to
   do so, as in moments of reflection some men do, but, alas, he is soon
   weary of the struggle for liberty and resigns himself to his prison.

   If man had been capable of his own redemption, there would never have
   descended from Heaven the Divine Redeemer, but because the bondage was
   all too dire for man to set himself free, therefore the eternal Son of
   God came here that He might save His people from their sins. Our
   natural bondage was caused and maintained by a power tremendous in
   energy and craft. The Prince of the power of the air, the spirit that
   now works in the children of disobedience, held us beneath his iron
   sway and sin exercised a tyrannical dominion over us from which we
   could not break.

   Worse still, we were like the Israelites in another respect. Our
   slavery had so degraded us that we had no heart to desire an escape!
   One of the worst points of slavery is that it frequently degrades men
   into contentment with their condition. That would be thought by some to
   be a benefit, but it is a giant evil, for a man has no right to be
   satisfied in slavery. Such contentment is an ensign of debased manhood.
   Freedom is the right of every human being and he is not truly a man if
   he can be happy in bondage.

   The Israelites were so trampled down that they crouched at their
   oppressors' feet and made themselves as content as they could in their
   enslaved condition. As they were turned into beasts of burden, so were
   their minds brutalized until their chief joy lay in the onions and the
   cucumbers with which they refreshed themselves--and the fish of which
   they later spoke so longingly. They declined from a thoughtful family
   into a clan of groveling laborers without heart or hope, so

   that when Moses went to them, the first time, he was not received. And
   when he was sent of God with his brother, Aaron, the people at the
   first hour of conflict shrank into their former cowardice and would
   willingly have remained slaves sooner than excite Pharaoh's wrath.

   They had been ground down so terribly with their hard labor in mortar
   and in brick that they scarcely dared to think of freedom--and that was
   just your case and mine, beloved Friends--we, too, were willing slaves
   of death and sin. If we are free this morning it was not because when
   left to ourselves we fought for liberty and refused to wear a fetter.
   No, our bonds were on our hearts and we chose our own degradation. The
   slave from the south, of old, watched the northern star and followed it
   through brake, swamp and forest to obtain his liberty, but our eyes
   refused to look to Jesus, who is the Star of Freedom. We boasted that
   we were born free and were never in bondage to any man and so we most
   effectually proved our bondage under our own pride.

   We, perhaps, called ourselves freethinkers and, at any rate we meant to
   be free actors, yet, all the while we were in bondage and did not care
   to seek true liberty. Can you not remember when you hugged your chains
   and kissed your bonds--and like a madman who crowns himself with a wisp
   of straw and calls himself a king--embraced the foolish pleasures of
   this world and thought yourselves supremely blessed in such base
   enjoyments? Remember again, dear Brothers and Sisters, that you were in
   a bondage similar to that of Egypt, for while in that condition you
   toiled hard and found that all the service wherein Satan made you to
   serve was with rigor.

   The Israelites built treasure cities for Pharaoh and they are supposed
   to have erected some of the pyramids. But their wage was very small and
   their taskmasters were brutal. Laborers engaged upon royal works
   received no wages, but were simply served with sufficient bread to keep
   them alive. The Israelites were called upon to make an enormous
   quantity of bricks and, at last, the chopped straw, which was necessary
   to make the clay bind together, which had been given out of the royal
   granaries, was refused them and they were bid to go over all the land
   to hunt up what they could of stubble instead of straw--thus their
   labor was increased beyond all bearing.

   Could not many a sinner tell of horrible nights and woeful mornings
   when under the power of his passions? Who has woe? Who has redness of
   the eyes? Who is filled with dread of death? Who flees when no man
   pursues? Of all tyrants sin and Satan are the most cruel! How are men
   worn out in the devil's destructive service! What an expense does sin
   entail! It is a costly thing for many, to obey their own vices! They
   are impoverished by their passions. Those who complain if they are
   pressed for subscriptions to holy causes should consider how much more
   they would have spent in the pleasures of the world. Why, men squander
   fortunes upon their frivolities or upon their lusts--and encumber
   future generations to indulge a vice which ruins their health, destroys
   their reputation and sends them to an early grave!

   If you will have your own way, that way will be the hardest you can
   choose. It does not matter in what position a man may be, whether rich
   or poor, illiterate and fond of the more vulgar pleasures, or tutored
   and educated and prone to more fashionable vices--sin leads on to hard
   service everywhere--and its exactions increase from day to day. If men
   were but in their senses, drunkenness, gambling, gluttony, wantonness
   and many other vices would be punishments rather than pleasures--and
   yet they live in them! There was a time, dear Brethren, when, in
   addition to our hard toil, our bondage brought us misery.

   Do you remember when you dared not think a day's conduct over for the
   life of you? When if you had been compelled to sit down and review your
   own character it would have been an intolerable task? I recollect,
   also, when a sense of sin came over me and then, indeed, my life was
   made bitter with hard bondage. I labored to set up a righteousness of
   my own, for I could not yield to the righteousness of Christ. That was
   laboring as in the very fire! I strove by my own good works to
   accomplish my own salvation and tried by prayers and tears to pay the
   debt I owed to God, but all in vain. I was sinning all the while by
   refusing Christ and endeavoring to rival my Savior.

   So far I speak for myself, but I know that you have done the same. Do
   you remember, Brothers and Sisters, when your pleasures ceased to be
   pleasures? When all the amusements of the world lost their flavor and
   became flat, stale, nauseous and you turned away and asked in vain for
   something that would content you? Do you remember when at last you saw
   yourself in your true condition and bewailed yourself before the living
   God as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn? Ah, then you felt
   like Israel in Egypt when they sighed and cried by reason of the
   bondage!

   And, blessed be God, the parallel runs further, for in your case, also,
   God heard the groaning and remembered His covenant (Exo. 2:24). All
   this while our enemy was aiming at our destruction! This was what
   Pharaoh was driving at

   with Israel--he intended to cut off the nation by severe tasks, or at
   least to reduce its strength. As his first policy did not succeed, he
   set about to destroy the male children. And even so, Satan, when he has
   men under his power, labors by all means to utterly destroy them, for
   nothing short of this will satisfy him! Every hopeful thought he would
   drown in the river of despair, lest by any means the man should shake
   off his yoke. The total overthrow of the soul of man is the aim of the
   great enemy. What a mercy to have been redeemed out of the hand of the
   enemy!

   And like Israel in Egypt, we were in the hands of a power that would
   not let us go. There came a voice by Moses which said to Pharaoh, "Thus
   says the Lord, Let My people go," but Pharaoh's answer was, "I know not
   the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." And such was the language of
   our corruptions! Such the language of the devil who had dominion over
   us. "I will not let you go," said the fierce Prince of Darkness and,
   like a strong armed man, he kept his goods in peace. You remember that
   telling sermon which thrilled you and awoke in you desires for liberty?
   You recollect how there seemed to ring in the halls of your nature the
   resounding voice, "Let my people go"?

   But you did not go, for that slavish will of yours held you in bondage.
   Your sins captivated you! Then came the reading of the Scriptures, or a
   mother's exhortation, or another earnest sermon and again the voice was
   heard, "Thus says the Lord, Let My people go." You began to feel uneasy
   in your condition and to venture somewhat into the border country, but
   you could not escape--the iron had entered into your soul--your heart
   was captive. Blessed was the day when the strong armed man that kept
   you as a man keeps his house was overcome by a stronger than he and
   cast out forever! Then Jesus took possession of your nature, never to
   leave it, but to hold His tenancy world without end! Glory be to God,
   we were bondmen in Egypt, but the Lord our God redeemed us--let His
   name be praised!

   I would assist you still further to remember that bondage. It cannot be
   hard for some of you to do so, for you are "from Egypt lately come."
   Some of you have been set free, now, these 20 years, some perhaps these
   50 years! But it cannot be difficult for you to remember what must be
   so indelibly impressed upon you. I can imagine, 30 years after coming
   out of Egypt, some of the gray fathers who had crossed the Red Sea
   telling their sons the sad story of the bondage in Egypt. "I, your
   father," one of them would say, "was beaten with rods by the taskmaster
   because when I had made up my full tale of bricks I was required to
   make twice as many. I toiled far into the night at brick-making, but I
   could not accomplish the task--and I remember how the blows descended
   upon my back like burning hail. Look here, my son," he would say, as he
   stripped himself to show the scars, "these are the memorials of
   Egyptian bondage."

   Ah, glory be to God, we are free! No more do we carry clanking chains
   upon our souls--but we still bear the old scars about us. Sometimes the
   old temper rises, or the old lusts flame up. When a man has had a bone
   broken, it may have been well set and he has, for the most part,
   forgotten the problem, yet, in bad weather I have heard it said, "The
   old bone talks a bit." And, alas, the bones we broke by our sins will
   talk a bit at times--and their talk is a sad reminder of our former
   state. Snatches of ill songs, recollections of old lusts and I know not
   what besides, are scars which remind us that we were bondmen in Egypt!

   Many a mother that came out of Egypt when she looked at her boy would
   say, "And I might have been the joyful mother of seven sons, but they
   were one after another snatched from my bosom by the remorseless
   servant of the Egyptian tyrant and put to death." With her joy for what
   was left her would be mingled sorrow for what she had lost. Yes, and in
   your families it may be your younger children have been brought under
   religious influences, but your older sons are as irreligious as you
   were when they were lads at home. Many are led to think of their own
   evil example in former years as they see their wayward sons persevering
   in sin.

   As you think of them you may say, "I see my bondage in my son. I see my
   sin repeated in my child." These are mournful memorials of our carnal
   state. But, indeed, I need not thus remind you, for everything may
   refresh your memories as to your former bondage. Is it not so? The task
   set before you in the text is an easy one and I charge you, therefore,
   remember that you were once bondmen in Egypt.

   II. In the second place, we have to think of the blessed fact of OUR
   REDEMPTION--"The Lord your God

   redeemed you." Here again there is a parallel. He redeemed us first by
   price. Israel in Egypt was an unransomed nation. God claimed that
   nation to be His firstborn. As it is written, "Sanctify unto Me all the
   firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both
   of man and of beast: it is Mine." That portion had been His claim from
   the first. And the Law was afterwards carried out by the setting apart
   of the Levitical tribe to take the place of the firstborn--but Israel
   in Egypt had never set apart its firstborn at all--and was, therefore
   an unredeemed people.

   How was all that indebtedness to be made up? The nation must be
   redeemed by a price and that price was set forth by the symbol of a
   lamb which was killed, roasted and eaten, while the blood was smeared
   upon the lintel and the two side posts. Beloved, you and I have been
   redeemed with blood! Blessed Lord Jesus, "You were slain and have
   redeemed us unto God by Your blood." "You were not redeemed with
   corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of
   Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." You cannot, you
   must not, you shall not forget this. You were bondmen, but Jesus your
   Lord redeemed you. He took your nature and was thus next of kin to
   you--and it became His right to redeem you, which right He has
   exercised to His own cost but to your eternal gain.

   The price by which you were set free He counted down in a wondrous
   coinage, minted from His own heart. The ransom is paid and the Jubilee
   trumpet proclaims that you and your heavenly possessions are now
   delivered from all mortgage and encumbrance through the blood of Jesus
   Christ. Remember that with a great price you have obtained this
   freedom. The Lord says, "I gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and
   Seba for you." But there would not have been a coming out of Egypt
   unless there had been a display of power as well as a payment of
   price--for with a high hand and an outstretched arm the Lord brought
   forth His people.

   There are always two redemptions to every man who is saved--redemption
   by price and redemption by power. You know what power God put forth in
   the land of Egypt when He worked all His plagues in the field of Zoan.
   But that was nothing compared with the power of Christ when He broke
   the head of the old dragon! When He utterly destroyed the kingdom of
   sin and led our captivity captive! Greater than Moses' rod were
   Christ's pierced hands! He has done it! He has done it! Our tyrant has
   no more power to hold us in chains, for Christ has vanquished him
   forever!

   Another form of redemption was also seen by Israel, namely, in the
   power exerted over themselves. I think sufficient stress has never been
   laid upon this. That they should have been willing to come out of Egypt
   was no small thing-- universally willing so that not a single person
   remained behind--so unanimous and so eager were they to come out of
   Egypt, though almost rooted to the soil, that a number of Egyptians
   came up with them. According to the word of Moses, "Not a hoof shall be
   left behind," they all left the land and neither sheep, nor goat, nor
   ox--much less man, woman, or child--remained.

   Israel was glad to come out and even Egypt was glad when they departed.
   It is wonderful that they were all able to come out of Egypt. There was
   never an army, yet, but what had some sick in it--the ambulance and the
   hospital are always needed--but of this grand army we are told, "He
   brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one
   feeble person among their tribes." Marvelous display of power was this!
   And so, Beloved, we will tell it to the praise of God this day that He
   made us willing to come out of the Egypt of our sin to which we were
   rooted! And making us willing He made us able, too! The power of the
   Spirit came upon us and the might of His Grace overshadowed us and we
   did arise and come to our Father. Let Grace have all the glory!

   Shall I need to press upon you, then, to let your minds fly back to the
   time when you realized your redemption and came up out of the land of
   Egypt? It was a Divine interposition. "The Lord your God redeemed you."
   And it was personally experienced, for, "The Lord your God redeemed
   you." It was a matter of clear consciousness to your own soul. You were
   a bondman--you knew it and felt it--the Lord your God redeemed you and
   you know it and feel that, also! You know it as much as a galley slave
   would know it if he no more tugged the oar! As much as the captive who
   has pined away in the dungeon through weary years would know it when
   once more he breathed the air and felt that he was free!

   "You were a bondman, and the Lord your God redeemed you." There can be
   no doubt about it! Satan himself could not make some of us doubt it!
   The chains were so real and the liberty so delightful! It was a mental
   phenomenon for which there can be no accounting except upon this
   belief--that the Lord our God, Himself, came and set us free!

   III. Thus, Brothers and Sisters, I have set before you the subject for
   your memory. I shall now try to show you THE

   INFLUENCE WHICH THIS DOUBLE MEMORY OUGHT TO HAVE UPON YOU. We should
   naturally conclude,

   without any reference to Scripture, that if a Christian man kept always
   in mind his former and his present state, it would render him humble.
   You have been preaching and God has blessed you to the conversion of
   many--do you feel elated? "Remember that you were a bondman in the land
   of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you."

   You are getting on in knowledge and your character is evidently much
   improved. Your inner life is full of peace and comfort. Do you feel as
   if you were some great one? Do not play the fool! You are less than
   nothing! Remember that you were a poor miserable slave--brown,
   sun-dried, smoke-tinged--and that not long ago! You would have been in
   Hell if

   it had not been for Sovereign Grace! Or if not there, perhaps you would
   have been among drunkards and swearers, and lewd men and women, or at
   least among the proud, self-righteous Pharisees. When you are honored
   of the Lord and happy in the full assurance of faith, remember that you
   were a bondman--walk humbly with your God.

   In the next place, be grateful. If you have not all the temporal
   mercies that you would desire, yet you have received the choicest of
   all mercies--liberty through Jesus Christ--therefore be cheerful, happy
   and thankful. Remember that you were a bondman and if you have but
   little of this world's goods, be thankful for the great spiritual
   blessing you have received in being set free from the galling yoke. Do
   not receive such a liberty as this without blessing those dear, pierced
   hands which was nailed to the tree that you might be delivered! Let
   gratitude abound, as you remember the wormwood and the gall.

   Being grateful, be patient, too. If you are suffering or ailing, or if
   sometimes your spirits are cast down, or if you are poor and despised,
   yet say to yourself, "Why should I complain? My lot may seem difficult,
   yet it is nothing in comparison with what it would have been if I had
   been left a prisoner in the land of Egypt! Thank God I am no longer in
   bondage to my sins." The slave of the sad times in America would leap
   on the Canadian shore! And though he came there with all his earthly
   goods wrapped up in his handkerchief and knew not where his next meal
   would come from, yet he would spring upon the shore, dance for joy and
   say, "Thank God, I am free! I am penniless, but free!" How much more,
   then, may you, whatever your suffering or sorrow may be, exclaim,
   "Thank God! I was a bondman, but the Lord my God has redeemed me, and I
   will be patient, whatever I am called to bear."

   Next, be hopeful. What may you not yet become? "It does not yet appear
   what we shall be." You were a bondman, but Divine Grace has set you
   free! Who knows what the Lord may yet make of you? Is there anything
   that He cannot, will not do for one whom He has already redeemed by His
   blood? He has set you free from sin! Oh, then, He will keep you from
   falling and preserve you to the end. "For 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." Are you thus hopeful? Then
   be zealous! Here earnestness should find both fire and fuel--we were
   bondmen, but the Lord has redeemed us. What, then, can be too hard for
   us to undertake for His sake? We must give all to Him who has purchased
   us to Himself and we must continue to do so as long as we live.

   John Newton persisted in preaching even when he was really incapable of
   it, for he said "What? Shall the old African blasphemer leave off
   preaching Jesus Christ while there is breath in his body? No, never!"
   He felt that he must continue to bear testimony, for our text was
   always before him, "Remember that you were a bondman in the land of
   Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you."

   But now kindly follow me while I, as briefly as I can, show you the
   Lord's own use of this remembrance. And the first text I shall quote
   will be found in Deuteronomy 5:14. This is what He says--"The seventh
   day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God: in it you shall not do any
   work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor
   your maidservant, nor your ox, nor your ass, nor any of your cattle,
   nor your stranger that is within your gates; that your manservant and
   your maidservant may rest as well as you. And remember that you were a
   servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord your God brought you
   out of there through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm:
   therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day."

   You were a bondman. What would you have given for rest? Now that the
   Lord has given you this hallowed day of rest, guard it sacredly. When
   you were a bondman you knew the heart of a servant and you sighed
   because your toil was heavy. Now that you are set free, if you have
   servants, think of them and so order your household that they may, as
   much as possible, enjoy their Sabbath. Certain household duties must be
   performed, but plot and plan to make these as light as possible, "that
   your manservant and your maidservant may rest as well as you." If you
   meet with any that are in bondage of soul and cannot rest, obey the
   text in its spiritual teaching.

   Rest in the Lord Jesus yourself, but endeavor to bring all your family
   into the same peace, "that your manservant and your maidservant may
   rest as well as you." Surely if you have been set free from the iron
   bondage you ought not to need urging to keep, with all sacredness, this
   holy day which the mercy of God has hedged about! Nor should you need
   exhorting to rest in the Lord and to endeavor to lead others into His
   rest.

   In Deuteronomy 7 we have another use of this remembrance. Here the
   chosen people are commanded to keep separate from the nations. They
   were not to intermarry with the Canaanites nor make alliances with
   them. Israel was to be

   separated, even as Moses said, "you are a holy people unto the Lord
   your God." And the reason he gives in the 8th verse is this--"The Lord
   redeemed you out of the house of bondmen." Ah, Brothers and Sisters, if
   we are redeemed from among men. If there is a special and particular
   redemption, as we believe, by which Christ loved His Church and gave
   Himself for it, then as the specially blood-bought ones, we are under
   solemn obligations to come out from the world and to be separate from
   it. Did not Jesus say of His redeemed, "They are not of the world, even
   as I am not of the world"? Therefore come you out from among them and
   be you separate.

   In the 8th chapter, redemption is used as an argument for obedience,
   and they are exhorted not to forget the laws and statutes of the Lord.
   And above all they are warned, lest in the midst of prosperity their
   heart should be lifted up so as to forget the Lord their God who
   brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
   The same argument runs through the 11th chapter and it is a very clear
   one. We ought to render glad obedience to Him who has worked us so
   great a deliverance! We find in the 13th chapter that the redemption
   from bondage is used as an argument for loyal attachment to the one and
   only God.

   The tendency of the nation was to idolatry, since all the countries
   round about had many gods and lords--but the Lord commanded His people
   to put to death all prophets and dreamers of dreams who might seek to
   lead them away from the worship of Jehovah. "You shall stone him with
   stones that he dies," says the 10th verse, "because he has sought to
   thrust you away from the Lord your God who brought you out of the land
   of Egypt, from the house of bondage." You must not have another God,
   for no other God delivered you--worship Him to whom you owe your all.

   Our own text is set in the following connection. If a man entered into
   forced servitude, or came under any bonds to his fellow man among the
   Jews, he could only be held for six years. In the seventh he was to go
   free. "And when you send him out free from you, you shall not let him
   go away empty: you shall furnish him liberally out of your flock and
   out of your flour, and out of your winepress: of that which the Lord
   your God has blessed you, you shall give unto him. And you shall
   remember that you were a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord
   your God redeemed you."

   The Lord's people should be considerate of those who are in their
   employment. The recollection of their own bondage should make them
   tender and kind to those who are in subservience to them and never
   should a Christian man be ungenerous, illiberal, severe, churlish with
   his servants, or with any who are dependent upon him. Be large-hearted!
   Do not be angry at every little fault, nor swift to observe every
   slight mistake. And be not forever standing on your exact rights,
   litigious, sticking out for the last half-farthing as some do.

   I am almost sorry if a mean, stingy man gets converted, for I am afraid
   he will be no credit to Christianity. There should be in a man redeemed
   with the blood of Christ something like nobility of soul and
   benevolence to his fellow men. Even this stern Book of the Law teaches
   us this. I have no time except to remind you that they were bound to
   keep the Passover because of their deliverance from Egypt as we find in
   the 16th chapter at the 1st verse. "Observe the month of Abib and keep
   the Passover unto the Lord your God: for in the month of Abib the Lord
   your God brought you forth out of Egypt by night."

   So let us, also, take heed unto ourselves that we keep all the statutes
   and ordinances of the Lord blamelessly. Let us keep the ordinances as
   they were delivered unto us and neither alter nor misplace them. Hold
   fast the Truth of God and be not moved from it by the cunning
   craftiness of men. Walk according to the teaching of Scripture in all
   things, keeping the good old way, because the Lord our God redeemed us
   and His Truth is unchangeable. Again, in the 16th chapter, verses 10 to
   12, you have the great redemption used as an argument for liberality
   towards the cause of God. They were to give unto the Lord rejoicingly
   of that which the Lord had given to them. "Every man shall give as he
   is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has
   given you."

   And that because of the 12th verse, "You shall remember that you were a
   bondman in Egypt: and you shall observe and do these statutes." In the
   26th chapter the same teaching is reduced to a set form, for they were
   there commanded to bring each one a basket of first fruits and offer it
   unto the Lord, saying--"The Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a
   mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness,
   and with signs, and with wonders. And He has brought us into this
   place, and has given us this land, even a land that flows with milk and
   honey. And now, behold, I have brought the first fruits of the land,
   which You, O Lord, have given me."

   Need I, even for a moment, impress this duty upon you? Last of all, in
   the 24th chapter there remains one more lesson. We are there exhorted
   to be careful concerning the fatherless and the widow (Deut. 24:17). A
   generous spirit was to be

   exhibited towards the poor. They were not to fetch in all their sheaves
   from the field if any were forgotten, nor to scrape up every single ear
   of corn from among the stubble, as some do these days, nor to beat
   their olive trees twice, nor to gather the grapes of their vineyard a
   second time. Rather, they were to leave something for the poor! This
   was the argument--When you were in Egypt, when you had to make bricks
   without straw, how glad you were to turn your children in among the
   stubble to gather a few ears to make a loaf of bread. And now the Lord
   has given you a better land, therefore deal well with the poor.

   Brethren, let the needy never be forgotten by you! Do not be miserly.
   Do not imitate those farmers who would comb their fields with a
   small-toothed comb if they could--sooner than the poor should
   glean--raking it and raking it again and again! No, the ransomed
   Israelites were not even to pick all their fruit, for the argument was,
   "Would not you, when in Egypt, have given anything for a bunch of those
   grapes which grew in the gardens of the rich?" Think, therefore, of the
   poor and deal kindly with them, even as you would wish others to deal
   with you.

   With this I close. Be thoughtful of all your fellow men. You that have
   been redeemed with price, be you tenderhearted, full of compassion,
   merciful. In spiritual things take care that you never rake the corners
   of your fields. Do not rob the Gospel of its sweetness. There is a
   class of preaching out of which the last ear of wheat has been taken.
   Their Gospel is criticized into nothing. The skeptical commentators
   come in and pick nearly every bunch of grapes and then the
   modern-thought gentry devour the rest!

   The preaching of modern times is as an olive tree beaten till not a
   trace of fruit remains. Let it not be so with us, but let the preacher
   say, "I was a bondman and therefore I will drop handfuls on purpose for
   poor souls in trouble." Brothers and Sisters, be very considerate to
   seekers. Look them up. Talk to them after the sermon. Say a word to
   those sitting in your pew which may encourage their poor trembling
   hearts to lay hold on Jesus Christ.

   Remember that you were a bondman--the smell of the brick kiln is upon
   you now, my Brother, my Sister--you have not yet cleansed all the clay
   from your hands with which you did work in mortar and in brick. Then do
   not become selfish, unloving, unkind, but in all things love your
   neighbor as yourself and so prove that you love the Lord your God with
   all your heart. God bless you. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Compassion on the Ignorant

   (No. 1407)

   DELIVERED BY

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Who can ha ve compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of
   the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity." Hebrews
   5:2.

   THIS is a part of the necessary qualification of a priest. Under the
   old Law there were priests who were taken from among men in order that
   they might speak to God for men and might speak to men for God. They
   were taken from among men, not from among angels, and they were taken
   from men compassed with infirmity--not from absolutely perfect men like
   those in Heaven--in order that they might be familiar with sinful and
   suffering men and on a level with them. When the people of Israel came
   to them they saw that they were speaking to persons who knew and
   understood their weaknesses and sorrows--not to exalted beings who
   would look down upon them with serene indifference.

   They felt that they could approach their priest without the awe which
   creates a freezing distance, as though a deep crevasse opened between
   them. And when they spoke to their friend, the minister of God, they
   felt that they could tell him their trials and troubles, for he had
   felt the same and, therefore, was able to console and comfort them.
   Many a kindly word the good man spoke, before he sent them back to
   their houses, which he never could have spoken unless he had been a
   man, himself, "compassed with infirmity."

   Loving them and being such as they were, he was able to have patience
   with the many strange cases which came before him. He was not soon
   vexed by their stupidity, but listened carefully to what they had to
   say, trying to solve their difficulties and to meet their cases. He
   knew that he, too, was weakness and folly, itself, before his God. And
   his own afflictions and trembling made him feel that he must be gentle
   to others since the Lord had been tender to him. It was, in the
   all-wise Providence of God, ordained that the sons of Aaron should be
   men compassed with infirmity that they might compass others with
   sympathy.

   Men admire an iron duke for war, but who could bear an iron priest in
   the hour of trouble? A bronze wall is good for a defense, but we need a
   breast of flesh and blood for consolation. Give me, for a spiritual
   comforter and guide, not an infallible pontiff, nor a thrice-crowned
   spiritual lord, but a brother of my own condition, a friend possessed
   of a nature like my own! After mentioning this fact, which is stated in
   the text, I would bring forth two remarks which will constitute the
   essence of our discourse.

   The first is that compassion and forbearance are two great
   qualifications for doing good to our fellow men. And, secondly--and
   upon this I shall dwell at length--that both of these are found
   pre-eminently in our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, we may with
   boldness come to Him. May the great Spirit whose teaching is our only
   means of profiting bless our meditation!

   I. First, then, COMPASSION AND FORBEARANCE ARE TWO THINGS WHICH ANY MAN
   WHO WOULD DO GOOD TO HIS FELLOW MEN OUGHT TO POSSESS TO A VERY LARGE
   DEGREE. You will have plenty of use for all the compassion and all the
   tenderness that you can possibly command, for this will help to draw
   around you those who are ignorant and out of the way. Men will not
   gather to some individuals--they are too hard, too cold, too stern.
   They seem cut out of stone--they have no feeling. Or else they are dry
   and leathery and have none of the juice of humanity in them--no warm
   blood--no milk of human kindness and you are not attracted to them.

   Who loves a bag of old nails, or a sack of sawdust? And yet some men
   and women are almost as hard and dry! If you want to draw people around
   you, you must have sympathy with them. Compassion magnetizes a man and
   makes him attract as the loadstone fascinates the needle. A big heart
   is one of the main essentials to great usefulness. Try and cultivate
   it. Do not let another man's sorrow fall upon a deaf ear as far as you
   are concerned, but sorrow with the sorrowful and have compassion upon
   the ignorant and those that are out of the way. They will soon perceive
   it and they will do to you as they did to your Master, of whom we read,
   "Then drew near unto Him all the publicans and sinners."

   Men will cluster around you like bees around their queen! They will not
   be able to help it. They will not wish to help it. Love is the queen
   bee and where she is, you will find the center of the hive.

   By this same spell you will hold those whom you gather, for men will
   not long remain with an unloving leader. Even little children in our
   classes will not long listen to an unsympathetic teacher. Great armies
   of soldiers must be led by a great soldier--and children must be held
   in hand by child-like instructors. When human beings surround an
   uncompassionate person, they soon find it out and fly away at a tangent
   as if by instinct. You may collect people for a time by some extraneous
   means, but unless they perceive that you love them and that your heart
   goes out with desires for their good, they will soon weary of you.

   The multitude still clung to the skirts of Jesus, even to the last,
   whenever He preached, because they saw that He really desired their
   good. You, dear Friend, must have compassion if you are to keep up the
   attention of those whom you address. The earth is held together by the
   force of attraction and to the men upon it that same power is exercised
   by love and compassion. Compassion in your heart will also be greatly
   useful in moving sinners to care for themselves. I believe there are
   some people who will never feel about their own souls until they are
   driven to it by seeing that other people feel for them.

   If I remember the story correctly, Mr. Knill at one time was
   distributing tracts at Chester and went out where there was a company
   of soldiers. Many received the tracts, but one man tore a little book
   in pieces before the good man's eyes! And on another occasion the same
   individual said to the soldiers, "Now make a ring round him." The men
   stood round the preacher and then the wicked fellow cursed him in such
   a frightful manner that Mr. Knill burst into tears to hear such awful
   sounds. The sight of Knill's tears broke the heart of the
   blasphemer--nothing else could have touched him--he could not bear to
   see a strong man who was at least his equal, and, probably, his
   superior, weeping over him. Years later he came forward to acknowledge
   that the tender emotion displayed by Mr. Knill had touched his inmost
   soul and led him to repentance.

   Now, if you have compassion on other people, they will wonder why you
   should be so much concerned for them. "Why do you care for me?" said a
   reprobate to an earnest Christian who tried to win him. "Ah," said
   another, who looked at it from the opposite side, "no one cares for my
   soul. I have nobody to pray for me, nobody to care for me, or I might
   have some hope." It is clear, beloved Brothers and Sisters, that if you
   feel moved of God to seek the good of your fellow men, as I trust you
   do, the first things you need are compassion, forbearance, patience,
   sympathy--and without these you will no more touch the hearts of those
   to whom you speak than would a parrot or a talking robot.

   You also need great compassion to insure your own perseverance, for if
   you do not love the children of your class, if you do not love the
   people whom you try to benefit as you go from house to house, if you
   have no compassion for the dying sinners around you, you will soon give
   up your mission or go about it in a merely formal manner. You will not
   find the conquest of the human heart to be an easy thing. Indeed, it is
   the most difficult of all enterprises! Unless you so love men that you
   will bear a thousand rebuffs and disappointments and will still press
   on with the blessed news of mercy--unless, I say, you have a compassion
   as enduring as your own life, you will fail and be discouraged and cast
   away the sacred nets with which you fish for men and the seed basket
   from which you scatter the heavenly Seed.

   You may, perhaps, continue to sow a handful here and there, but you
   will never reap a large harvest unless the heart moves the hand.
   Besides, only compassion of the heart can teach you how to speak to
   others. I have often been pleased to see how young converts manage to
   tell of the love of Christ to people much older than themselves and do
   it very effectively, too. You cannot take a man into college and teach
   him how to preach to sinners rightly by giving him books, or lectures,
   or rules. No, that must be learned by a kind of instinct of the new
   nature which teaches the man who is ordained to do it.

   Nobody, I suppose, teaches the young mother how to manage her first
   child and yet, somehow or other, it is done because she loves it. It is
   wonderful, to me, how a widow with quite a swarm of children somehow
   provides for them. I cannot tell how, but the love she bears them leads
   her to make exertions which would seem impossible to anyone else and
   the little ones are somehow or other housed and fed and clothed! If you
   have love enough, you can, by God's Grace, win any man to Jesus. If his
   heart is as hard as a diamond, why, then, you must have a purpose twice
   as hard as a diamond and you will yet cut him to his heart!

   If you are resolved that you will move Heaven and earth that some soul
   shall feel the power of the Gospel and if you will go with mighty
   prayer and invoke the aid of the Divine Spirit, I do not see that you
   can fail. You must do good if you have but love enough and heart
   enough! These are the main qualifications, I believe, for a minister of
   the Gospel, for the teacher of a Sunday school class, or for any other
   sort of Christian worker--plenteous compassion and unfailing
   forbearance.

   If you possess these two things, dear Friends, you will find that they
   will be very much tried and exercised. It will not be long, young
   worker, if you plunge into the midst of Christian service, before you
   will meet with open opposition. Scoffers will rail at you. Fools will
   laugh at you. It may be profane persons will swear at you. This is no
   uncommon thing. Now, if you can look upon an open opposer with
   compassion, you will not lose your temper, neither will you be at all
   distressed except for his sake. The surest way of putting down your
   opponents is to feel that they cannot make you angry or drive you from
   your purpose.

   You must feel that you love them all the more because you see how
   greatly they need the Gospel--and then the more they sin the more will
   you be certain that theirs is a case of great necessity requiring you
   to be in sevenfold earnest. I do not think, however, that all workers
   are so much put about by open opposition as they are by those persons
   who never oppose, but who, at the same time, never yield. I do not
   know, sometimes, how to get on with certain people with whom I speak
   about Christ. They say, "Yes, Sir. Yes, Sir. Yes, Sir." You say, "But,
   my dear Friend, there is a necessity for a new heart." They answer,
   "Yes, Sir, yes." "And you know there is no salvation except by faith in
   Christ." "Yes, Sir. Yes,

   Sir."

   I have spoken to one person several times who always thanks me for
   doing so and declares that it is very kind of me to speak to him. He
   says he is very much obliged to me and, "Yes, Sir. Yes, Sir." That is
   all I can get out of him! I do not wish he would swear at me, but if he
   would but say something or other rather outrageous, so that I might go
   at him hammer and tongs, I should really feel a little hopeful about
   him! But he never does this and I cannot, therefore, get at him. He
   will come and hear a sermon and he will not make many remarks about it,
   but he will say, "It was very nice and very clever and quite a treat,"
   and that is all.

   You cannot entice these Pliables any farther--they conquer you by
   yielding--even as the bulrush vanquishes the north wind by bowing
   before it. These people disquiet earnest laborers and make heavy
   demands upon their compassion. We must get much love into our hearts
   and have pity upon these poor India rubber-souled people, or we shall
   become wearied and leave them to their fate. Have pity upon them and
   still go on with your holy endeavors, bearing and forbearing, even
   though they seem to frustrate you!

   You will, also, often meet with very deceitful, hopeful persons, who
   encourage you much but disappoint you more. You say, "I saw a tear in
   that man's eye when I was preaching." Yes, he has a watery eye--perhaps
   he has been drunk and it is easy to weep, then! You lose your man,
   after all. You say, "That woman is so attentive and earnest. I really
   think there is an impression made upon her." But by-and-by you discover
   that there was a motive for the apparent attention and it was all
   pretense. Now is the time to have your compassion in full exercise--the
   more often you are disappointed the more compassion must you feel. And
   the more must you resolve, God helping you, never to give up anyone
   until the funeral knell shall toll and the soul shall have passed
   beyond the region of your influence.

   Alas, there is another and still more wearisome trial of faith and
   patience, for out of those who profess to be converted there are many
   who cause us grief of heart! Even when the wheat is come to the ear we
   may yet lose our harvest, even as the farmer, by smut and mildew, may
   see his fields blasted before his eyes. There are to be found persons
   who come forward and declare themselves to be upon the Lord's side, but
   very soon grow cold, fall into sin and turn aside from the narrow way.
   "They went out from us, but they were not of us," says John, "for if
   they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us."

   These are heart-breakers, thorns in our side and swords in our bones,
   causing us sharp sorrows and doing grievous mischief. Like Judas, they
   sell Christ for money and betray their Master and so prove themselves
   to be the children of Hell, though, for a while, numbered with Christ's
   disciples. Even these we must not cast off utterly, but pity them and
   seek after the straying sheep. Do, my dear Brothers and Sisters, shun
   everything that would make your heart callous towards the most
   provoking and deceitful--it is true their conduct tends to petrify the
   heart--but yield not to the wretched influence or you will suffer loss.

   Living in a city like this, where you get imposed upon very often, it
   is recommended to some people to get a little hard-hearted, but I
   cannot sanction such advice. I fear you will find the process acting
   upon you without your seeking it and I urge you to strive against it.
   Better to be often deceived than to become unfeeling. I would sooner be
   a dupe than a brute, though there is no need to be either the one or
   the other. Try to be tenderhearted, pitying and full of compassion.
   Labor with all your might to be as the text says--"A man who can have
   compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way."

   Now, there are many reasons why we should have a great deal of
   compassion and forbearance. God has a great deal with us. You say that
   such a person grieves you. Alas, he has grieved God much more than you!
   Oh, but you have had patience with him and tried to bring him to
   Christ, now, these 10 years. Remember that the Lord has had patience
   with him, perhaps, these 50 years! Do you reply, "But you do not know
   how badly he treats me"? No, but you forget how badly he treats your
   Lord, Jesus. Has not man always provoked God? Have not the people
   grieved His Holy Spirit these thousands of years? It is a thought that
   ought to lay us in the dust--the innumerable provocations which
   surround the Most High and arise, even, from one man!

   But what must be the provocations caused by the four millions of this
   great city? What must they be from all the millions of the known world?
   Idols are worshipped and blocks of wood and stone set up and called
   gods while the true God is neglected! False doctrine is taught. A man
   claims to be infallible! Christ is forgotten, men trust in their own
   works and glory in their own pretended righteousness--is not the Lord
   angered by all this? What with open blasphemy, Sabbath-breaking and a
   thousand forms of sin, God is terribly provoked! And yet He bears with
   it from day to day and does not suffer His fierce auger to smoke
   against His guilty creatures. Is not the Divine forbearance the miracle
   of miracles?

   When I stood, for a few minutes at the bottom of Pilate's Staircase in
   Rome and saw the poor creatures crawling up and down it on their
   knees--and the priests looking on--I thought that if I had the loan of
   a thunderbolt or two I would have cleared out all the impostors and
   their trumpery in the twinkling of an eye! And then I remembered that
   they were dealing with God and not with man. He looks down on
   Antichrist and all its blasphemies and still stays His hand! He sees in
   this city of London sins which I dare not mention--yet does His thunder
   sleep. He hears man curse Him and even defy Him to His face--and still
   His compassions go forth and He bears with them! Wonderful, wonderful
   is the Omnipotent long-suffering of the Lord! Oh, then, my Brethren, we
   ought surely to have patience with the trifling affronts which we have
   to put up with in the service of God! And we ought never to grow weary
   in well-doing!

   Here is another point which will touch some of you more closely. Think,
   my dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, what patience God had with you
   all those years before your conversion and multitudes of times since!
   He has not cast you off nor grown weary of you despite your ill
   manners. And if He has had patience with you, should not you have
   patience with your fellow sinner even to the end? There is one
   reflection which may help you. Remember that these poor souls who sin
   as they do should be looked upon by you as persons who are deranged,
   for sin is madness. That prodigal who spent his money riotously was out
   of his mind, for we read that when he repented, "he came to himself."

   Look at sinful men as mad and you will pity them and bear with them. If
   you have a poor daughter at home whose mind is gradually failing, you
   say, "Do not take much notice of what she says. Her poor mind wanders.
   Her faculties are out of order." These poor souls are out of order,
   too. Their minds have wandered from God. Do not take much notice of
   their ravings--go on and do them all the good you can--in spite of
   their idle talk and petulant complaining. View them as sick and when
   people are ill, you know, they will be very touchy and very soon
   irritated. And, perhaps, they will say naughty things, but you must say
   to yourselves, "It is the fever or the pain which makes them rattle on
   in that bewildered manner. Never mind them."

   You are very tender with the ailing ones, are you not? A man tells you
   that when he spoke a cross word to you the other night he had a
   wretched toothache at the moment, and you reply, "I beg you not to
   mention it. I quite understand you now." Look on sinners in that light
   and say of them, "Poor souls, this malady of sin has so laid hold upon
   them that I must not regard them as in their senses, but must pity
   them." Such a view of human nature will greatly help you to have
   compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way. And do
   remember this--if you do not have compassion you cannot do them good.
   If you become weary of them and speak sharply, you cannot bless them
   and, perhaps, if you are not the means of blessing them, nobody else
   may be.

   Ah, is it your own husband? Wife, win him! Win him! Do not drive him
   from bad to worse by scolding him. Sister, is it your brother? Woo him
   and win him to Christ! Do not vex him by becoming acid and sour. I am
   afraid that sharpness of speech and quickness of temper may have much
   to answer for, since in a moment it may cut the cords with which men
   were being drawn in the right direction. Have compassion! Have
   compassion on obstinate ignorance and willful rebellion! Remember, the
   more trouble it costs you to bring a soul to Christ, the greater will
   be your reward. In your own conscience you will feel a sweet recompense
   when you will, in later days, be able to say, "I travailed in birth for
   that

   soul."

   You will love it all the more because of the anguish of your spirit
   during its birth. I am sure it is so--that which costs us most we value
   most. Jabez was more honorable than his brethren because his mother
   bore him with sorrow. Jacob gave one portion to Joseph above his
   brothers because the archers had sorely shot at him and wounded him.
   And that portion was the more precious because the Patriarch took it
   out of the hand of the Amorite with his sword and with his bow. If
   there is a soul that you have, as it were, brought to Christ by severe
   fighting, taking it out of the hand of the Amorite with your sword and
   with your bow, that soul will be more precious to you than any other!

   So, Beloved, I pray the Holy Spirit to overshadow the company of
   Christian workers here present and all that are throughout the whole
   earth, that they may have "compassion on the ignorant, and on them that
   are out of the way; for that they themselves also are compassed with
   infirmity."

   II. But now for the second part of our subject, which may the eternal
   Spirit greatly bless. COMPASSION AND

   FORBEARANCE PREEMINENTLY DWELL IN JESUS CHRIST. Though He was not
   compassed with any sinful

   infirmity, for in Him is no sin, yet physical infirmity He did take and
   He is, to the highest possible degree, the Lord of tenderness--

   "His heart is made of tenderness, His heart melts with love."

   First--for I will keep to my text, and not be very long--first, He has
   compassion on the ignorant. That is to say, sins of ignorance Jesus
   readily puts away. Some of you did not know better while you lived in
   unregeneracy. You had been trusting in your good works, but though you
   might well have suspected, you did not know that they were a faulty
   foundation for your hope.

   Some of you were very diligent in outward forms and ceremonies. You had
   a zeal for God, but it was not according to knowledge--you did not know
   that salvation is to be found only in Jesus. There are many who, if
   they had known, would not have crucified the Lord of Glory year by year
   as they have done. They may say, as Paul did, "But I did it ignorantly
   in unbelief." Well, dear Hearts, if you have been living in sin, not
   knowing what you were doing. If you have rejected the Savior whom you
   would not have rejected if you had known Him better, the Lord Jesus,
   our great High Priest, readily blots out such sins! Come to Him! Say,
   "What I know not, teach me. Cleanse me from secret faults," and though
   you cannot now, in looking back, discover all the evil of your conduct
   and the sin of your life, yet, nevertheless, let Him see what is in
   your heart--lay it bare before Him and He will have compassion on your
   ignorance and put away your sin forever!

   But the text does not refer only to sins resulting from ignorance, but
   to ignorance itself. Very many persons are willfully ignorant of
   Christ. They might have known about Him if they would. Possibly some
   have come to this place, this evening, who very seldom attend a place
   of worship though there is one on the street in which they live. Any
   man in London who does not know the Gospel has nobody to blame for it
   but himself. It would be well worth while for you to walk a hundred
   miles to hear Jesus Christ preached, but I thank God few of you need to
   walk one mile to hear the Gospel. You may hear it if you will--and if
   you Londoners perish, you perish with the opportunity of life brought
   to your very doors.

   I believe, no doubt, there are many now living in utter ignorance of
   Christ and yet they have the Bible in their houses and have Christian
   neighbors who would be glad enough to explain it to them--and they
   might go and hear the Gospel if they would. It is as if the sun is
   shining and they shut their eyes--the thunder is pealing and they close
   their ears. Is not this enough to move the Lord to anger? And yet His
   patience continues! Still will the Lord Jesus have compassion upon you
   who have been cruel to yourselves as well as contemptuous to Him! Come
   to Him just as you are and confess your willful blindness and He will
   put it away and enable you to understand the things which make for your
   peace.

   Some are ignorant, however, because they have been cast where they
   could not well know. They were born in an ungodly family, or thrown
   among godless people, or, what is much the same, among those who have
   only a mere formal religion. They do not know the Truth of God, but
   they can scarcely be blamed for it. Well, dear Hearts, Christ is able
   to teach you! Come and sit at His feet, for He will have compassion on
   your ignorance! Some are very young and, therefore, do not understand
   much. Dear young people, there are some of you here--Jesus is quite
   ready to have compassion on the ignorance of little children and save
   them! They may know but very little, but if they know Christ Jesus to
   be the Savior of sinners, He will have compassion on their ignorance.

   Alas, others are getting very old, but they are so dull that we cannot
   get much knowledge into their heads and their ears are dull of hearing.
   I sometimes have such an enquirer to talk to and I try to show great
   compassion to such. I have long, long ago given up estimating character
   by the amount of intelligence, for I sometimes find that the most
   intelligent are the best able to deceive me. How often in daily life we
   find that the most knowing are the most cunning--and the greatest
   scholars are the biggest rogues! We see plenty of instances in the
   newspapers.

   On the other hand, many a poor soul who cannot get two ideas into his
   head has got the right idea, the grand Gospel idea, and that fills his
   head and heart! He knows that Christ came into the world to save
   sinners and he hangs on to that. Some of the most simple-hearted people
   are quick of understanding in the fear of the Lord. The Lord will have
   compassion on such ignorance readily enough. There are many, alas, who
   are ignorant, not from lack of capacity or lack of faculty, but because
   sin has made them so brutish that they cannot understand. Like salt
   cast on the soil, it has made the mind barren.

   This is a frightful state of heart! There are, in this city of ours,
   many who have so soaked themselves in the most gross vices that they
   appear to be incapable of knowing purity, delicacy, truth, holiness, or
   any Divine excellence. They have so indulged themselves in drunkenness
   and chambering wantonness that you really cannot get a spiritual idea
   into them! They have developed backward into a mere animal and, like
   the swine, they feed on husks and have no idea above the mire they
   wallow in. Our City Missionaries can tell us the brutal power of sin if
   we have never seen it for ourselves! As Divine Grace makes fools wise,
   so sin makes wise men fools! As Grace turns stone to flesh, so sin
   turns flesh to stone! As Grace lifts man to the angels, so sin sinks
   him to the devils!

   Sin is a murky cloud which buries the human mind in sevenfold night,
   which, it seems impossible to pierce with a beam of day. Yet when a
   flash of light from God the Holy Spirit penetrates the thick Egyptian
   darkness of such a soul, Jesus manifests His compassion on the ignorant
   and proves His saving power! Oh, my Brothers and Sisters, what a mercy
   it is that the Lord Jesus Christ saves people who know very little
   about Him! The poor woman who touched the hem of His garment made a
   mistake, I suppose, in imagining that power must necessarily dwell in
   His clothes, but, nevertheless, the Lord went with her mistake and let
   the virtue go even out of His robe as well as out of Himself.

   He will meet you, dear Friend--meet you where you are and grasp the
   hand of even your blind and lame faith and save you! However deeply
   ignorant you may be, He will have compassion on your ignorance by
   sending forth His light and His salvation--and you shall know Him and
   rejoice in Him! When He was here, you know, He picked up a few
   fishermen and tax gatherers and such--and He set to work to teach
   them--and how beautifully He did it! He taught them with parables and
   little easy words, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little
   and there a little.

   Look at that Gospel of John. Look at any of the sermons of Christ. How
   very different they are from the very magnificent discourses which we
   get from the learned and thoughtful divines of the present period! They
   preach over people's heads, but Christ preached into people's hearts!
   He taught so plainly and simply that anybody could understand Him! But
   these great doctors of today preach so that they do not even understand
   themselves! All this makes us see that our Lord had compassion on the
   ignorant.

   I would repeat the thought that He did not teach those disciples too
   much at once. He gave them one idea at a time and He did not drive that
   out with another. He said, "I have many things to say to you, but you
   cannot bear them now." What He did teach was mainly simple and He left
   it till the Holy Spirit was given for Paul to elaborate the Gospel and
   tell us in plain language some of the more doctrinal Truths. He was
   bent on teaching His disciples as much as they could receive and so He
   did--but He taught them no more lest they should be overfed and become
   unable to digest what they had received.

   And then how very little chiding there was in all our Lord's
   conversation with His pupils. He did say, "Have I been so long a time
   with you and yet have you not known Me, Philip?" He did have, now and
   then, to upbraid because of the hardness of their hearts, but still,
   what gentleness there was about such rebukes and how seldom did they
   occur! And He never turned one of them out of class for being stupid.
   If He had done that, perhaps some friend here might suppose He would
   turn him or her out--but out of all the 12 there was not one to whom He
   said, "Now, I really never shall make much of you! Your intellect is
   too weak." Not at all. He taught each one as much as he could receive
   and then said, "Go and tell it to others!"

   And while they told it to others they were learning it better,
   themselves, for one of the best ways of learning a thing is trying to
   teach it. "What I tell you in secret that tell you upon the housetops."
   He was the wisest of teachers because He was the most compassionate.
   And I may add here that we know this to be the case with some of us,
   because He has been very tender in teaching us. Some of our teachers
   wanted us to learn the big doctrines, first. They did not like it
   because we could not at once see all the sublime truths of election and
   predestination. Certain of the old standards who are very orthodox--16,
   if not 18 ounces to the pound--expect all new-born babes to eat meat at
   once! As soon as ever a person is converted they would have him know
   all about the sublapsarian and supralapsarian schemes. And if he does
   not, they say, "He is a doubtful character. He is not sound."

   Ah, but that is not the manner of our Lord who is tender over us as a
   nurse with a child! He begins by working into our experience a few
   elementary Truths of God and then, when we get farther on, we find out
   something more. And as we are able to bear it, He reveals to us His
   Truths. He does not teach us experimentally all at once any more than
   He taught the Apostles all at once! By degrees He illuminates our
   minds. Our poor blind eyes could not bear sunlight at first and,
   therefore, He gives us just a little starlight, then moonlight, then
   twilight. Then afterwards He brings us into the high unclouded noon of
   the clear revelation of His love which is to be our portion in Heaven!
   Our sight through a glass darkly is purposely made dim to suit our
   feeble vision for He has compassion on the ignorant.

   I speak, then, to everyone here who feels himself to be theologically
   backward and doesn't know much about the things of God's Word. Never
   mind, dear Brother. Never mind, dear Sister. Come to Jesus Christ and
   trust Him--and He will teach you as well as save you! And if you are
   now untaught and unlearned, do not hold back because of that, but come
   forward with all hopefulness. If you do not know one letter in the
   alphabet from another and if you do not know one doctrine of the Word
   of God except that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners,
   yet come and welcome to your great High Priest, for He will have
   compassion on the ignorant!

   My time is almost gone and I want to speak a word upon the last point,
   which is that He will have compassion upon those that are out of the
   way. "Out of the way"--out of the right way, the narrow way, the happy
   way, the ONLY way! Who are these people? Some are out of the way
   because they never were in it and never knew it. They have heard of it,
   perhaps, a little, but they have never tried it by setting one foot in
   it. You are not church-goers or chapel-goers, for you are altogether
   out of the way. You are not hearers of the Gospel, not people who even
   practice a form of prayer. You are avowedly out of the way.

   Listen then, while I tell you that Jesus can have compassion on those
   that are out of the way! Many are in a very emphatic sense,
   out-of-the-way sinners! They have gone to such extravagances that they
   are out of the way of common morality and quite startle their careless
   comrades. Even those who have no religion yet say, "Well, now, you go
   beyond me! You are an out-of-the-way fellow." "I drink sometimes," says
   one man, "but as for you, you are an out-of-the-way drinker." "I," says
   another--"well, I make no pretensions to be very precise, but still I
   draw a line somewhere. As for you, you go beyond all bounds and are an
   out-of-the-way fellow altogether."

   Well, I have to say tonight that my Lord Jesus will have compassion on
   you out-of-the-way sinners! However far you have gone, only turn to
   Him--for pardon is freely published. Forsake your sin, tonight, and
   come to Jesus' feet and cast yourself there and say, "I will not go
   till You renew me and deliver me from the guilt and bondage of my sin."
   He can do it, yes He WILL do it, for He has compassion on
   out-of-the-way sinners! Perhaps I am addressing some who were once
   nominally in the way. You were members of a Church years ago. Where are
   you now? The Church may well disown you and you may well disown the
   Church, for you are a disgrace to it.

   What have you been doing this morning? How do you spend your Sabbaths?
   What is your conduct during the week? I would speak personally to those
   of you who were once professors and are now prodigals. You were with
   the Methodists,

   were you not, when you were in the country? You have nothing to do with
   them now. Ah, yes, before you entered the army you had some idea of
   religion and loved, in some respects, the service of your mother's God.
   But you have forgotten it since you have been in the barracks. I know
   how it is with many--they are very willing to go with Christ when He
   wears His golden vest and His starry crown and walks out on sunshiny
   days--but to bear a cross and follow Him through the mocking mob is
   quite another matter! And, therefore, they go out of the way.

   Backslider, do not despair, the great High Priest of our profession
   will have compassion on you--only return to Him! He still has the
   greatest pity for the greatest wanderer. He rejoices more over one lost
   sheep that He has found than over 99 that went not astray. And oh, dear
   child of God, here is a word for you, for it may be you feel, tonight,
   as if you were out of the way. You are not enjoying religion as you
   once did. When the hymn is sung, your heart does not make music, and
   when prayer is offered you feel as if you could not pray. Despair not,
   for He can have compassion on you. You are ignorant, for who among us
   is there that is not ignorant?

   He who knows most of Christ knows very little. We are all ignorant and
   He has compassion on us all. And we are all out of the way in some
   measure--the best child of God on earth is not perfect. I did hear from
   a Brother that he was perfect, but I did not believe him nor think any
   the better of him for his being so conceited. I thought, when he said
   he was perfect, that I could see an imperfection in his eyesight and,
   if I had looked a little closer, I should probably have found another
   in his tongue. Better, far, to pray, "I have gone astray like a lost
   sheep. Seek Your servant, for I do not forget Your commandments." The
   Good Shepherd will have compassion upon us, bind up our wounds and bear
   with our weaknesses and follies--therefore let us come to Him anew and
   trust Him more and more.

   Let us come to Him as He is now, enthroned in the highest heavens, and
   say, "Jesus, we have heard that You have compassion on the ignorant and
   those that are out of the way, and such are we. Behold, we trust
   ourselves with You." Trembling Believer, be not slow to draw near, for
   His loving heart is unable to refuse you! If you will trust yourselves
   with the Savior, He cannot betray or deceive your trust. Only do that
   and your faith will have power over the sacred heart of the Crucified
   One!

   You know if a child trusts you--if it is only to buy a penny toy--you
   do not like to go home without doing it. You City men, if your little
   daughter trusted you to buy her something, you would not like to
   disappoint her. Well, and God, our blessed Savior, cannot, will not
   disappoint His trusting children! If we can trust Him with our souls we
   have a hold upon Him which He will not shake off, but He will bless
   us--yes, He will bless us eternally! God help you to trust Him now, for
   Jesus' sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Reason Why Many Cannot Find Peace

   (No. 1408)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, APRIL 7, 1878,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee
   fromyou. Drawnear to God, and He will drawnear to you. Cleanse your
   hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be
   afflicted, and mourn, and weep! Let your laughter be turned to
   mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of
   the Lord, and He shall lift you up." James 4:7-10.

   WE frequently meet with persons who tell us that they cannot find peace
   with God. They have been bidden to believe in the Lord Jesus, but they
   misunderstand the command and, while they think they are obeying it,
   they are really unbelievers and, therefore, they miss the way of peace.
   They attempt to pray, but their petitions are not answered and their
   supplications yield them no comfort whatever, for neither their faith
   nor their prayer is accepted of the Lord. Such persons are described by
   James in the 3rd verse of the chapter now open before us--"You ask, and
   receive not, because you ask amiss." We cannot be content to see
   seekers in this wretchedness and, therefore, we endeavor to comfort
   them, instructing them, again and again, in the great Gospel precept,
   "Believe and live."

   Yet as a rule they get no further, but linger in an unsatisfactory
   condition. They assure us that they believe in Jesus, but we see none
   of the fruits of faith in them, neither can they, themselves, say that
   they derive any spiritual benefit from the faith which they profess.
   Now I fear that comfort is misplaced in these cases. When we have
   endeavored to cheer such people, I fear we may have been filming over a
   wound which needs a sharp knife rather than a soft bandage--a keen
   lancet rather than a healing liniment.

   We shall try at this time to show certain uneasy souls why they do not
   obtain peace and what they must be brought to by the Holy Spirit before
   they can rightly claim that they are saved. Though our words may be
   somewhat caustic, they will be uttered in loving faithfulness and may
   the Lord our God make them effectual to the ending of the inner strife
   and the establishment of settled peace. I fear that many who profess to
   be Christians are in a very questionable condition-- they have no joy
   of their faith and no success in their prayers. Whether they are
   Christians or not is a moot point and the practical James does not
   waste time in discussing the doubtful question, but speaks to them from
   both sides of their apparent condition.

   In his previous chapters he calls them, "my brethren," and even, "my
   beloved brethren." He draws no line of demarcation when he, afterwards,
   addresses them as, "sinners," whose hands must be cleansed and, as,
   "double-minded" persons, whose hearts must be purified. They were both
   of these--they were professedly Brothers and Sisters, but they were at
   heart unchaste to Christ--they indulged in grievous sins of contention
   and malice--and their hearts were divided between the love of sin and
   the hope of salvation. We will not, therefore, raise personal
   questions, or try to discriminate where certainty is hard to reach, but
   we will speak to suspicious characters without determining whether they
   are truly Believers or not.

   If such persons claim to be called Brothers and Sisters, we will
   address them as such, but it will be in a sentence like this, "My
   Brothers and Sisters, such things ought not to be." On the other hand,
   we will use no condemnatory title, but leave the question between God
   and each man's own conscience. We will go to the root of the matter and
   set forth the reason for the lack of peace and salvation of which some
   complain. May the sacred Spirit help us to point out the fatal failure
   which keeps the soul from rest. If any man is not sure that he is in
   Christ, he ought not to be easy one moment more until he is so.

   Dear Friend, without the fullest confidence as to your saved condition,
   you have no right to be at ease and I pray you may never be so! This is
   a matter too important to be left undecided. Instantly should every man
   of prudence make

   2 The Reason Why Many Cannot Find Peace Sermon #1408

   assurance doubly sure and bind all things fast that he may find them
   fast for eternity--for eternity I say--for thus says the Lord. Never
   risk your souls, for your souls are yourselves, your real selves and
   nothing can make up for their loss. If you lose your souls, it will be
   no recompense to have gained the whole world! Be careful, then! Leave
   nothing insecure. Carefully measure and weigh every important step.
   Consider and examine, lest being so near to the kingdom, any of you
   should seem to come short of it.

   To help you to a settled peace, let me, first of all, urge upon you to
   obey the comprehensive command of our text-- "Submit yourselves
   therefore to God." And then, secondly, let me further press upon you to
   practice the other precepts which follow, such as, "Resist the devil."
   "Draw near to God." "Cleanse your hands." "Purify your hearts." "Be
   afflicted, and mourn, and weep." And, "Humble yourselves in the sight
   of the Lord."

   First listen to THE COMPREHENSIVE COMMAND--"Submit yourselves therefore
   to God." According to the connection, the lighting spirit within many
   men shows that they have not submitted themselves to God--lusting,
   envy, strife, contention, jealousy, anger--all these things declare
   that the heart is not submissive but remains violently self-willed and
   rebellious. Those who are still wrathful, proud, contentious and
   selfish are evidently unsubdued. There are some men to whom the very
   idea of submission is distasteful--they will be subjective to no one,
   but wish to be their own gods and a law unto themselves. "Submit" is a
   galling word to them. They say in their hearts, "Who is the Lord that I
   should obey His voice?"

   They are willing, enough, to accept His favors, willing enough, after
   their fashion, to say, "Thank God," but as to submission, they will
   have none of it--it suits not their high mightiness! They strive for
   the mastery. They push for the front place, aiming to advance their own
   interests and make the great I to be lord above all. The Apostle
   quietly indicates in the words of our text that many Christian
   professors need to submit, for at present their unhumbled nature leads
   them to lusting and striving--and effectually prevents their asking so
   as to receive at the Lord's hands. A lack of submission is no new or
   rare fault in mankind. Ever since the Fall it has been the root of all
   sin. When the heart submits to God in sincerity, the work of Grace is
   begun. And when it submits perfectly, the work is complete. But for
   this, Divine Grace must display its power, for the heart is obstinate
   and rebellious.

   From the moment when our mother Eve stretched out her hand to pluck the
   forbidden fruit and her husband joined her in setting up the human will
   against the Divine, the sons of men have universally been guilty of a
   lack of conformity to the will of God. They choose their own way and
   will not submit their wills. They think their own thoughts and will not
   submit their understanding. They love earthly things and will not
   submit their affections. Man wants to be his own law and his own
   master. This is abominable, since we are not our own makers, for, "it
   is He that has made us and not we ourselves."

   The Lord should have supremacy over us, for our existence depends on
   His will. I have heard much of the rights of man, but it were well also
   to consider the rights of God, which are the first, highest, surest and
   most solemn rights in the universe and lie at the base of all other
   rights! The Lord has an absolute right to the beings whom He has
   fashioned and it is shameful that the great mass of men seem never even
   to remember that He exists, much less to ask themselves what is due to
   Him. Alas, great God, how are You a stranger even in the world which
   You have, Yourself, made! Your creatures, who could not see if You had
   not given them eyes, look everywhere except to You. Creatures who could
   not think if You had not given them minds, think of all things except
   You! And beings who could not live if You did not keep them in being,
   forget You utterly, or, if they remember Your existence and see Your
   power, are foolhardy enough to become Your foes!

   The hemlock of sin grows in the furrows of opposition to God. When the
   Lord is pleased to turn the hearts of opposers to the obedience of His
   Truth, it is an evident token of salvation. In fact, it is the dawn of
   salvation itself! To submit to God is to find rest! The rule of God is
   so beneficial that He ought readily to be obeyed. He never commands us
   to do that which, in the long run, can be injurious to us, nor does He
   forbid us anything which can be to our real advantage. Our God is so
   kind, so wise, so full of loving forethought, that it is always be to
   our best interest to follow His lead. Even if we could be left to
   choose our own way and were under no bonds of duty, it would be wise
   and prudent to choose the way of the Lord, for it is the path of
   pleasantness and safety.

   Beloved, the Lord is far too great to have any need to deal unjustly,
   or unkindly with His creatures. Indeed, He is so great that He cannot
   desire any personal advantage from His government, but He condescends
   to govern us because

   without His rule and guidance we would be utterly undone. It is for our
   good that like a father in a family He commands us this or forbids us
   the other. It is wanton cruelty to ourselves when we break away from
   the liberty with which Jesus makes us free, to place ourselves under
   the tyranny of selfishness and the baser passions of the mind. It is
   madness to forsake the honorable service of the great King to become
   the slave of Satan. O that men would submit themselves unto God and be
   willing to be blessed!

   All resistance against God is, from the necessity of the case, be
   futile. Common sense teaches that rebellion against Omnipotence is both
   insanity and blasphemy. The Lord's purpose must stand and His pleasure
   must be done! His power will assuredly crush all opposition and it is
   idle to raise it. Why, then, should a man contend against his Master?
   Wisdom as well as righteousness call upon him to submit to God. And
   then let it always be known that submission to God is absolutely
   necessary to salvation. A man is not saved until he bows before the
   supreme majesty of God. He may say, "I believe in Jesus," but if he
   goes on to follow out his own desires and to gratify his own passions,
   he is a mere pretender, a wolf in sheep's clothing.

   Dead faith will save no man! It is not even as good as the faith of
   devils, for they "believe and tremble," and these men believe in a
   fashion which makes them brazen in their iniquity. No, salvation means
   being saved from the domination of self and sin! Salvation means being
   made to long after likeness to God, being helped by Divine Grace to
   reach to that likeness and living after the mind and will of the Most
   High. Submission to God is the salvation which we preach, not a mere
   deliverance from eternal burning, but deliverance from present
   rebellion, deliverance from the sin which is the fuel of those
   unquenchable flames. There must be conformity to the eternal Laws of
   the universe and according to these God must be first and man must bow
   to Him--nothing can be right till this is done. Submit is a command
   which in every case must be obeyed--or no peace or salvation will be
   found.

   Now, it is generally, in this matter of submission, that the stumbling
   block lies in the way of souls when seeking peace with God. It keeps
   them unsaved and, as I have already said, necessarily so, because a man
   who is not submissive to God is not saved. He is not saved from
   rebellion. He is not saved from pride. He is still evidently an unsaved
   man, no matter what he may think of himself. Perhaps by a few personal
   remarks I may hit upon the reason why certain of my hearers cannot get
   the peace which the Gospel so freely sets before them. There is a lack
   of submission in some point or other. In the saved man there is and
   must be a full and unconditional submission to the Law of God. He must
   consent unto the Law that it is good.

   If your mind has up to now quibbled against the Law, you must end the
   fight, for it is impossible that you should be right while you quarrel
   with the Law of Righteousness! If you set yourself up to be a judge of
   the Law, you judge the Lawgiver Himself, and what is this but the
   blackest presumption? Traced to its real meaning, the thought of
   judging the Law is treason and would dethrone God and reign in His
   place! How sad to see a sinful mortal criticizing the perfect Law of
   his Maker! Dare you do this? If you say in your heart, "He is too
   strict in marking sin and too severe in punishing it," what is this but
   condemning your Judge? If you say, "He calls me to account for idle
   words and even for sins of ignorance and this is hard," what is this
   but to call your Lord unjust?

   Should the Law be amended to suit your desires? Should its requirements
   be accommodated to ease your indolence? If you ask for this you are not
   saved, for a saved person delights in the Law of God after the inward
   man. He says of it, "the Law is holy," though he weeps as he adds, "but
   I am carnal, sold under sin." He honors the Law as he bows before it
   and confesses his shortcomings. Yes, and before a man can have peace
   with God he must submit himself to the sentence of the Law. Though that
   Law in its severity searches the thoughts and tries the heart, arraigns
   us before the bar of God and pronounces sentence upon us, we must
   acknowledge it to be just!

   Grace working in the heart brings the penitent to plead guilty to the
   sin and to admit that the penalty is deserved. In my own case I
   unreservedly acknowledge that when the Law in my conscience condemned
   me to Hell, I dared not lift a finger nor even think a thought by way
   of disputing the sentence. The conscience is not Divinely quickened,
   nor the soul renewed, nor the man saved, unless he cries, "I
   acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is always before me. Against
   You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight, that
   You might be justified when You speak and be clear when You judge."

   You must submit yourselves to the righteousness and severity of God or
   He will resist you as He does all the proud. There can be no pardon for
   a man unless he will honor the Law by hearty submission. If your plea
   is, "not guilty," you

   will be committed for trial according to justice--and then you cannot
   be forgiven by mercy! You are in a hopeless position! God Himself
   cannot meet you upon that ground, for He cannot admit that the Law is
   unrighteous and its penalty too severe. The Lord cannot be at peace
   with you while you defy His Law! He declares that you are guilty and
   you dispute this declaration, therefore between you and Himself there
   is a quarrel which never can be ended till you admit your error and beg
   for pardon.

   He can deal with you in mercy when you once stand where mercy can meet
   with you, namely, in the sinner's place. But if you say "I am not
   guilty," and begin to vindicate or excuse yourself, you are on a ground
   which the Lord cannot recognize. If you are professedly righteous, how
   can the Lord deal with you except in justice? And if He deals with you
   in justice He will readily enough summon His witnesses and prove you
   guilty and condemn you to Hell. Submit, then, unto God, and say,
   "Guilty, Lord. I throw down the weapons of my rebellion and acknowledge
   that I stand condemned before You. And if I am saved at all it must be
   by Your free forgiveness, by Your unmerited mercy, by Your boundless
   love."

   A man must next submit himself to the plan of salvation by Grace alone.
   God meets the sinner on the footing of Grace. "I cannot exonerate you,"
   He seems to say, "but I can forgive you. I cannot tolerate your denial
   of guilt, but if you confess your sin, I am faithful and just to
   forgive you your sin and to save you from all unrighteousness." Now,
   are you willing, my dear Hearer--are you sure that you are willing to
   be saved by Grace, alone, and to owe your deliverance from sin and its
   punishment entirely to the free favor of God? Will you yield to that? I
   trust you will.

   But there are some who will not, for they go about to establish their
   own righteousness and do not submit themselves to the righteousness of
   God. They think that so much Chapel-going, Church-going,
   sermon-hearing, Prayer Meeting-attending, Bible reading and so on, will
   certainly work up something like a claim upon God! O, Sirs, have done
   with claims! If you come with anything like a claim, the Lord will not
   touch the case at all, for you have no claim and the pretense of one
   would be an insult to God! If you fancy you have demands upon God, go
   into the court of Justice and plead them, but the sentence is certain
   to be against you, for by the deeds of the Law no flesh can be
   justified.

   Try the other way! Come to God with no claim and appeal to His pity,
   saying, "Lord, I cry for mercy. Gladly will I accept Your free Grace if
   You will but give it to me." You will be accepted on that footing, for
   the Lord is gracious and casts out none who come to Him confessing
   their sins. You must also submit yourselves to God's way of saving you
   through an atoning Sacrifice and by means of your personal faith in
   that Sacrifice. You must receive His Son as Divine and you must believe
   in that atoning blood which was shed for many for the remission of
   sins. Surely there should be no difficulty about surrendering the mind
   to this! Salvation by the great Mediator is such a delightful way of
   salvation, so just to God, so safe to man, that we ought to clap our
   hands for very joy to think that such a royal road to Heaven is opened
   for us!

   What do you say, dear Hearers? Does the Holy Spirit incline you to
   trust in the blood of Jesus? And then there must be a full submission
   to God in the matter of giving up every sin. Numbers of persons pray
   for mercy, but they continue in their sins. Such men cannot be saved
   because salvation is salvation from sin--not in sin. How can we be
   saved from sin if we are its slaves? If you come to God and cry, "Lord,
   deliver me and have mercy upon me," and yet you practice private
   drinking and tipple yourselves into semi-drunkenness, how can you be
   saved? If you keep on cheating in business, or telling lies, or indulge
   a malicious or angry temper in the family, or are proud and unkind,
   selfish and miserly, how can you be saved?

   I warn you, Friends, that faith itself cannot save you while these
   things are so, for if your faith were a saving faith it would rescue
   you from these evils! This, indeed, is salvation, namely, deliverance
   from the power and habit of sin! Many prayers are
   semi-hypocritical--there is a kind of sincerity about them, but there
   is no whole-hearted desire after holiness and, therefore, they will
   never gain a comfortable answer from God. O Seeker, are you willing to
   give up every sin? Come, drunkard, you pray to be forgiven, but are you
   willing to leave the intoxicating cup once and for all? You, my Friend,
   ask to be pardoned--it is well, but are you, at the same time, desirous
   to cease from your transgressions?

   Yes or no? Are you anxious to search out every false way and abandon it
   as soon as it is discovered? Do you wish to have a holy, truthful,
   godly tongue? Do you long to be saved from every lust and secret vice?
   If so, believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are already saved! Your
   sigh to be delivered from evil is the commencement of the work of
   sanctification! But if you say, "I would be saved from every wrong way
   except my one indulgence, my one secret iniquity," then you are in the
   gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity! Your prayers will come
   back to your bosom

   unanswered and your pretended faith in Christ will condemn you! Your
   fancied faith cannot save you, seeing you love your sin.

   A certain man has been accustomed to eat of a certain dish which is bad
   for his health and when he calls in a physician, their talk is after
   this fashion--"If you trust me," says the doctor, "I can cure you."
   "Yes," replies the patient, "I do trust you heartily." The doctor
   proceeds, "That dainty of yours must be given up, for it is the cause
   of your disease and so long as you eat it, you must suffer the
   consequence." "Well, doctor," he says, "I trust you, but I cannot give
   up my favorite food." Is it not apparent to everybody that he does not
   trust the physician at all? Even so, when a man declares, "I trust in
   Christ to save me from sin," and then continues in his wickedness, he
   mocks the Good Physician and is in danger of sudden destruction! Either
   you must cast sin out of your heart or it will keep you out of Heaven!

   This point must be insisted on--receiving Christ is impossible without,
   at the same time, renouncing sin! If we would be saved there must be
   submission to the Lord as to all His teachings. A very necessary point
   in this age, for a multitude of persons who appear to be religious,
   judge the Scriptures instead of allowing the Scriptures to judge them.
   Hear, O you wise men, "Except you be converted and become as little
   children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven." Submission
   to the Infallible authority of the Inspired Word is absolutely required
   of every disciple of Jesus, but this age delights in the opposite
   spirit!

   Even some of those who call themselves ministers of the Gospel
   persistently indulge a spirit which is precisely the reverse of the
   childlike faith which saves the soul. They industriously endeavor to
   excite rebellion against the teachings of Christ and cry it up under
   the name of, "honest doubt." They do not wish men to believe, but to
   think--and their Gospel, practically, is--"Doubt, and do not be
   baptized, and you shall be saved." Shame on them! Our Gospel is, "He
   that believes and is baptized, shall be saved!" And we are content to
   teach what Jesus Christ, our Lord, told His disciples to preach to all
   nations!

   If I will never yield my reason. If I will never believe what I cannot
   understand. If I will carry an open knife about with me to cut and hack
   at texts of Scripture. If I will not sit at Jesus' feet with Mary, but
   want Him to sit at my feet that I may tell Him what His religion ought
   to be and what He ought to have said, how can I be saved? If, after
   all, we are personally infallible and are to spend all our days in
   selecting our opinions, how can we know Christ? If instead of yielding
   my judgment to the plain teachings of my Lord, I revise His doctrines,
   how can I be saved? If I have not submitted my intellect to God, what
   peace can there be? Mark this well, you wise young men who know so much
   more than your fathers and are too intellectual to reverence your
   fathers' God!

   And, now, I must ask another question of you who desire peace and
   cannot find it. Have you submitted yourselves to the Providential
   arrangements of God? I know persons who often sit in this House of
   Prayer who have a quarrel with God. He took away a beloved object and
   they not only thought Him unkind and cruel at the time, but they still
   think so! Like a child in a fit of the sulks, they cast an evil eye
   upon the great Father! They are not at peace and never will be till
   they have acknowledged the Lord's supremacy and ceased from their
   rebellious thoughts. If they were in a right state of heart they would
   thank the Lord for their sharp trials and consent to His will as being
   assuredly right.

   I fear that unsubmission on this point affects a great number of
   persons. They cannot succeed in business and, therefore, they are out
   of temper with God. He knows very well that they are not fit to be made
   rich and could not be trusted with a large business and, therefore, He
   does not grant their suicidal desires. Some men would never win the
   race of life if they had an ounce of gold to carry! The only hope for
   their running at all lies in keeping them unencumbered. We know, also,
   thoughtful young men who cannot pursue their studies because of failing
   health. They want to be famous, but they are not strong enough to
   continue their work for the examination and so they are vexed with the
   Lord. Or, it may be they have less talent than ambition and they rebel
   because their Maker has not given them intellects as capacious as that
   of Solomon. Let them be satisfied to use the talent they have and cease
   from contending with their Creator!

   Many men have a sort of private resentment with Providence and sit down
   like Jonah under their withered gourd and mutter, "We do well to be
   angry even unto death." Now, if such is the case with any before me, I
   would say to them--leave off quarrelling with your God! What can be the
   use of it? The very best and wisest thing for you is to make friends
   with Him and let His will be your will. After all, He deals well with
   you, if you would but see it. Depend upon it, there is something to be
   made out of the position you occupy--gain will come to you out of all
   those losses--profit will

   arise even from those sad bereavements if you will stand still and see
   the salvation of God. Acquaint yourselves with God and be at peace, for
   thereby good shall come unto you--for unless you do this you may say,
   "I believe," but you have no

   faith in God!

   How can a man believe in God when he charges God with treating him
   wrongly? Faith begets resignation and submission--where there is strife
   and enmity--unbelief is still supreme. Until you submit yourselves to
   God it cannot be well with your souls, for He resists the proud but
   gives Grace to the humble. This is the long and the short of it--you
   must, as a guilty sinner, cast yourself at God's feet and say, "Have
   mercy upon me, O Lord, and have mercy upon me in Your own way. I
   dictate not to You, but I implore Your Grace! I humbly beg forgiveness.
   Be pleased to pity me. I yield up myself to You, asking You to make me
   holy. I do from my very heart give up the love of sin. I fear I shall
   sin, help me to loathe myself when I do so! Make me what You will have
   me to be and then deal as You will with me. I make no terms nor
   conditions. Mine is an unconditional surrender. Only for Your mercy's
   sake renew me. Make me Your child and save me. As You bid me trust Your
   Son, I trust Him. Lord, I believe! Help you my unbelief."

   You will have peace when your heart is brought to this point. At
   present your wound does not heal because it needs washing, for the grit
   of pride has fallen into it and is causing a wretched irritation. When
   pride is gone and you are fully submissive, then shall the wound heal
   and your broken bones shall rejoice! I am not asking you to submit to a
   priest! I am not asking you to submit to a mere man! But I speak very
   earnestly when I say, "Submit yourselves to God"--it is natural, it is
   right--it is good in itself and filled with the highest good to you.

   Submission is essential to salvation, therefore bow before the Lord at
   once! May the Lord bend that stubborn will and conquer that wayward
   heart. Yield yourselves to God and pray to be delivered from future
   rebellion. If you have submitted, do so yet more completely, for so
   shall you be known to be Christians when you submit yourselves to God.
   If you will not submit, your faith is a lie, your hope is a delusion,
   your prayer is an insult, your peace is presumption and your end will
   be despair! Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is
   as iniquity and idolatry. "But God shall wound the head of His enemies
   and the hairy scalp of such an one as goes on still in his trespasses."

   II. But now, secondly, having thus spoken upon the great duty of
   submission, let us consider the other and FOLLOWING PRECEPTS. I think I
   am not suspicious without reason when I express a fear that the
   preaching which has lately been very common and, in some respects very
   useful, of, "only believe and you shall be saved," has sometimes been
   altogether mistaken by those who have heard it. Cases occur in which
   young persons go on living light, frivolous, giddy, and even wicked
   lives--and yet they claim that they believe in Jesus Christ. When you
   come to examine them a little, you find that their belief in Christ
   means that they believe that He has saved them, although everybody who
   knows their character can clearly see that they are not saved at all!

   Now, what is their faith but the belief of a lie? They are living just
   as they did live and, therefore, it is clear that they are not saved
   from their former foolish conversation, nor from their bad tempers, nor
   from their old sins. And yet they try to persuade themselves that they
   are saved! Now, true faith never believes lies! Presumption lives upon
   lies, but faith will only feed on the Truth of God! My faith does not
   teach me to believe I am saved when straight before my very eyes I have
   the evidence that I am not saved, since I am living in the very sin I
   pretend to be saved from! Though we would not, for a moment, cast a
   doubt upon the doctrine of Justification by Faith and Free Salvation,
   we must also preach more and more that parallel Truth of God--"You must
   be born again."

   We must bring to the front the grand old word which has been thrown
   into the background by some evangelists, namely, "Repent." Repentance
   is as essential to salvation as faith. Indeed, there is no faith
   without repentance except the faith which needs to be repented of. A
   dry-eyed faith will never see the kingdom of God! A holy loathing for
   sin always attends upon a childlike faith in the Sin-Bearer. Where the
   root Grace of faith is found, other Graces will grow from it. Now
   notice how the Spirit of God, after having bidden us submit, goes on to
   show what else is to be done. He calls for a brave resistance of the
   devil. "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

   The business of salvation is not all passive--the soul must be awakened
   to active warfare! I am to fall into the arms of Christ, that He may
   save me--I must trust Him completely. And when I depend upon Him I
   receive life--and the very first effort of that life is to strike with
   all its might the adversary of Christ and of my own soul. I am not only
   to contend with sin, but with the spirit which foments and suggests
   sin! I am to resist the secret spirit of evil as well as its outward
   acts.

   "But oh," says one, "I cannot give up an inveterate habit." Sir, you
   must give it up! You must resist the devil or perish. "But I have been
   so long in it," cries the man. Yes, but if you truly trust Christ, your
   first effort will be to fight against the evil habit. And if it is not
   merely a habit, nor an impulse, but if your danger lies in the
   existence of a cunning spirit who is armed at all points and both
   strong and subtle, yet you must not yield, but resolve to resist to the
   death, cheered by the gracious promise that he will flee from you! You
   shall, in the name of Jesus overcome temptation, master evil habits and
   escape from bondage! Only strike for freedom and disdain the chain of
   sin. If you are to have peace with God there must be war with Satan!
   You cannot rest in your spirit and know the peace which faith gives
   unless you wage war to the knife against every evil and against the
   patron and Prince of Evil, even Satan. Are you ready for this? You
   cannot have peace unless you are!

   Next the Apostle writes, "Draw near to God and He will draw near to
   you." He who sincerely believes in Christ will be much in prayer. Yet
   there are some who say, "We want to be saved," but they neglect prayer!
   They cannot make out how it is that they have no enjoyment of religion.
   But why need they be puzzled? Ask your neglected closet! Ask your own
   heart how you can be happy and prosperous and blessed in Divine things
   if you do not pray! Remember that the mere saying of prayers is not
   praying. The essence of prayer lies in the heart drawing near to
   God--and it can do that without words. Prayer is the feeling that God
   is present and the desire of the soul to come near to Him so as to know
   His influence, to know His love, to feel His power and to be conformed
   to His will.

   This kind of praying can be continued by the power of God's Holy Spirit
   all day long. We must know something of this. "Behold he prays" is one
   of the first marks of a saved soul and if you think that by some
   momentary act of faith which you suppose you exercised you are
   therefore saved--while your heart remains at a distance from God,
   prayerless and careless--you are fatally deceived! Such is not the
   teaching of Scripture and there is no guarantee for it in the promises
   of God. If prayer is utterly neglected, the soul is dead!

   The next precept is, "Cleanse your hands, you sinners." What? Does the
   Word of God tell sinners to cleanse their hands and purify their
   hearts? Yes, it does. Some Brother whispers, "Ah, that is Arminianism."
   Who are you that reply against God's Word? If such teaching is in this
   Inspired Book, how dare we question it? It comes with a, "thus says the
   Lord"--"Cleanse your hands, you sinners." When a man comes to God and
   says, "I am willing and anxious to be saved and I trust Christ to save
   me," and yet he keeps his dirty black hands exercised in filthy actions
   doing what he knows is wrong, does he expect God to hear him? Do I need
   spend even so many as a half-dozen words to show that this man does not
   believe and is not really honest before the Most High? "Cleanse your
   hands, you sinners."

   Can you ask God to be at peace with you while your hands grasp your
   sins with loving embrace and are full of bribes, or are foul with
   lusts, or are smiting with the fist of anger and wrath? If you do the
   devil's work with your hands, do not expect the Lord to fill them with
   His blessings! It cannot be! You must break off your sins by
   righteousness and, as Paul shook off the viper from His hand into the
   fire, so must you. By the power of faith, if it is a real faith, you
   will be able to purge your outward life. Why, when men talk about being
   spiritual and are not even decently moral, it makes us sick to hear
   them! How dare they talk about being Christians when they do not live
   as well as Muslims or heathens? Oh you dogs, howling out your shame,
   what portion have you among the children so long as you bite and devour
   and love your filthiness? It is idle to talk about salvation while sin
   is hugged to the heart with both hands. Away with such hypocrisy!

   Then it is added, "Purify your hearts, you double-minded." Can they do
   this? Assuredly not by themselves, but still, in order to have peace
   with God there must be so much purification of the heart that it shall
   no longer be double-minded. He who would have salvation must seek it
   with all his heart--must so seek it that he is resolved to give up
   anything and to endure anything so that he may but be rescued from sin.
   "Purify your hearts, you double-minded." Get rid of that leering eye of
   yours towards uncleanness and that cross eye which squints towards
   worldly gain--for till your whole heart cries after the Most High, He
   will not hear you!

   When you can say with David, "My heart and my flesh cry out for the
   living God," you shall find the Lord! When you cease trying to serve
   two masters and submit yourselves unto God, He will bless you, but not
   till then! I believe that this touches the center of the mischief in
   many of those hearts which fail to reach peace--they have not given up
   sin-- they are not whole-hearted after salvation. Then the Lord bids us
   "be afflicted, and mourn, and weep! Let your laughter be turned to
   mourning, and your joy to heaviness."

   I grieve to say that I have met with persons who say, "I cannot find
   peace, I cannot get salvation," and talk very prettily in that way. But
   yet, outside the door they are giggling one with another, as if it were
   matter of amusement. The Sabbath is spent in vain, idle, frivolous
   conversation--seriousness they do not seem even to have felt. The whole
   matter appears to be a mere sport. Some converts seem to jump into
   religion as people do into a bath--they jump out, again, about as fast.
   They never weigh the matter. They have no thought, no sorrow for sin,
   no humiliation before God. Stop that laughter if you are an unsaved
   soul--for decency's sake, stop that laughter!

   For you to laugh while in danger of being lost sounds to me as ghastly
   and as grim as if the fiends of Hell were to set up a theater and
   perform a comedy in the Pit. What right have you with laughter while
   sin is unforgiven, while God is angry with you? No, go to Him in fitter
   form and fashion or He will refuse your prayers. Be serious! Begin to
   think of death, judgment, the wrath to come. These are not trifles,
   Friends, nor things to make sport about. Neither is true religion a
   thing that is to be attended to as easily as when one snaps his finger
   and says, "Heigh presto! Quick. It's done!" By no means! If you are
   saved, your mind is solemnly impressed by eternal realities and you are
   serious about matters of life and death. The very thought of sin pains
   you--and since you meet with it in your daily life, you have cause for
   daily humbling and are afflicted because of it. Many, I fear, fail to
   get peace because it is not a solemn matter at all for them. They
   trifle with it as if it were a game for boys and girls to play and not
   for the heart and spirit to enter upon with deep concern.

   Then the Lord sums up His precepts by saying, "Humble yourselves in the
   sight of God." With that I close. There must be a deep and lowly
   prostration of the spirit before God. If you happen to have a boy who
   shows a high rebellious spirit against you and you have chastened him
   for it, but yet he continues in his rebellion, you tell him that there
   must be a humbling of himself before you can forgive him. If he is a
   wise child and wishes to escape your anger, he makes a dutiful
   confession, acknowledges that he was wrong and appeals to your
   love--and you freely pardon him. But in many who pretend to come to God
   there is no humbling. They do not admit that they ever did anything
   particularly wrong and they do not care if they did! Still, they hear
   there is such a thing as believing in Jesus and they profess to
   believe, not because there is any need for it, as they think, but for
   fashion's sake.

   Ah, Friends, Jesus Christ did not come to heal the whole, but the sick!
   Neither did He die to bind up those who are not broken, nor to make
   alive those who were never killed. There must be in you--and may God
   give it to you--a brokenness of spirit! A broken and a contrite heart
   He will not despise! If your heart has never been broken, how can He
   bind it up? If it were never wounded, how can He heal it? These are
   weighty matters and I speak them weightily lest anyone among you should
   be deceived. God help you to cry, "Search me, O God, and know my heart:
   try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there is any wicked way in me
   and lead me in the way everlasting."

   This is the way of salvation--that you believe in Jesus Christ whom God
   has sent! But remember that He saves us FROM our sins, not IN our sins!
   Faith in Jesus Christ saves and will save all who have it--but it is by
   purging out sin. It assures us that we are pardoned and thus it makes
   us love the Christ by whom we are forgiven. This love leads us to abhor
   ourselves for our sins and we endeavor to purify ourselves from them by
   His Spirit. Faith without works is dead, being alone, and though a man
   is justified by faith and not by works--and by faith alone--not even in
   part by his works!

   Yet the faith which saves is a faith which produces good works and
   leads into the way of holiness. He who does not seek after
   righteousness and true holiness, let him pretend what he may, he is
   dead while he lives! The Lord have mercy upon you, for Christ's sake.
   Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

                        The Shortest of the Seven Cries

   A Sermon

   (No. 1409)

   Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, April 14th, 1878, by

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   "After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that
   the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst."--John 19:28.

   IT was most fitting that every word of our Lord upon the cross should
   be gathered up and preserved. As not a bone of him shall be broken, so
   not a word shall be lost. The Holy Spirit took special care that each
   of the sacred utterances should be fittingly recorded. There were, as
   you know, seven of those last words, and seven is the number of
   perfection and fulness; the number which blends the three of the
   infinite God with the four of complete creation. Our Lord in his
   death-cries, as in all else, was perfection itself. There is a fulness
   of meaning in each utterance which no man shall be able fully to bring
   forth, and when combined they make up a vast deep of thought, which no
   human line can fathom. Here, as everywhere else, we are constrained to
   say of our Lord, "Never man spake like this man." Amid all the anguish
   of his spirit his last words prove him to have remained fully
   self-possessed, true to his forgiving nature, true to his kingly
   office, true to his filial relationship, true to his God, true to his
   love of the written word, true to his glorious work, and true to his
   faith in his Father.

   As these seven sayings were so faithfully recorded, we do not wonder
   that they have frequently been the subject of devout meditation.
   Fathers and confessors, preachers and divines have delighted to dwell
   upon every syllable of these matchless cries. These solemn sentences
   have shone like the seven golden candlesticks or the seven stars of the
   Apocalypse, and have lighted multitudes of men to him who spake them.
   Thoughtful men have drawn a wealth of meaning from them, and in so
   doing have arranged them into different groups, and placed them under
   several heads. I cannot give you more than a mere taste of this rich
   subject, but I have been most struck with two ways of regarding our
   Lord's last words. First, they teach and confirm many of the doctrines
   of our holy faith. "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they
   do" is the first. Here is the forgiveness of sin--free forgiveness in
   answer to the Saviour's plea. "To-day shalt thou be with me in
   paradise." Here is the safety of the believer in the hour of his
   departure, and his instant admission into the presence of his Lord. It
   is a blow at the fable of purgatory which strikes it to the heart.
   "Women, behold thy son!" This very plainly sets forth the true and
   proper humanity of Christ, who to the end recognised his human
   relationship to Mary, of whom he was born. Yet his language teaches us
   not to worship her, for he calls her "woman," but to honor him in whom
   his direst agony thought of her needs and griefs, as he also thinks of
   all his people, for these are his mother and sister and brother. "Eloi,
   Eloi, lama sabachthani?" is the fourth cry, and it illustrates the
   penalty endured by our Substitute when he bore our sins, and so was
   forsaken of his God. The sharpness of that sentence no exposition can
   fully disclose to us: it is keen as the very edge and point of the
   sword which pierced his heart. "I thirst" is the fifth cry, and its
   utterance teaches us the truth of Scripture, for all things were
   accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, and therefore our
   Lord said, "I thirst." Holy Scripture remains the basis of our faith,
   established by every word and act of our Redeemer. The last word but
   one, "It is finished." There is the complete justification of the
   believer, since the work by which he is accepted is fully accomplished.
   The last of his last words is also taken from the Scriptures, and shows
   where his mind was feeding. He cried, ere he bowed the head which he
   had held erect amid all his conflict, as one who never yielded,
   "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." In that cry there is
   reconciliation to God. He who stood in our stead has finished all his
   work, and now his spirit comes back to the Father, and he brings us
   with him. Every word, therefore, you see teaches us some grand
   fundamental doctrine of our blessed faith. "He that hath ears to hear,
   let him hear."

   A second mode of treating these seven cries is to view them as setting
   forth the person and offices of our Lord who uttered them. "Father,
   forgive them; for they know not what they do"--here we see the Mediator
   interceding: Jesus standing before the Father pleading for the guilty.
   "Verily I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with me in
   paradise"--this is the Lord Jesus in kingly power, opening with the key
   of David a door which none can shut, admitting into the gates of heaven
   the poor soul who had confessed him on the tree. Hail, everlasting King
   in heaven, thou dost admit to thy paradise whomsoever thou wilt! Nor
   dost thou set a time for waiting, but instantly thou dost set wide the
   gate of pearl; thou hast all power in heaven as well as upon earth.
   Then came, "Women, behold thy son!" wherein we see the Son of man in
   the gentleness of a son caring for his bereaved mother. In the former
   cry, as he opened Paradise, you saw the Son of God; now you see him who
   was verily and truly born of a women, made under the law; and under the
   law you see him still, for he honours his mother and cares for her in
   the last article of death. Then comes the "My God, my God, why hast
   thou forsaken me?" Here we behold his human soul in anguish, his inmost
   heart overwhelmed by the withdrawing of Jehovah's face, and made to cry
   out as if in perplexity and amazement. "I thirst," is his human body
   tormented by grievous pain. Here you see how the mortal flesh had to
   share in the agony of the inward spirit. "It is finished" is the last
   word but one, and there you see the perfected Saviour, the Captain of
   our salvation, who has completed the undertaking upon which he had
   entered, finished transgression, made an end of sin, and brought in
   ever lasting righteousness. The last expiring word in which he
   commended his spirit to his Father, is the note of acceptance for
   himself and for us all. As he commends his spirit into the Father's
   hand, so does he bring all believers nigh to God, and henceforth we are
   in the hand of the Father, who is greater than all, and none shall
   pluck us thence. Is not this a fertile field of thought? May the Holy
   Spirit often lead us to glean therein.

   There are many other ways in which these words might be read, and they
   would be found to be all full of instruction. Like the steps of a
   ladder or the links of a golden chain, there is a mutual dependence and
   interlinking of each of the cries, so that one leads to another and
   that to a third. Separately or in connection our Master's words
   overflow with instruction to thoughtful minds: but of all save one I
   must say, "Of which we cannot now speak particularly."

   Our text is the shortest of all the words of Calvary; it stands as two
   words in our language--"I thirst," but in the Greek it is only one. I
   cannot say that it is short and sweet, for, alas, it was bitterness
   itself to our Lord Jesus; and yet out of its bitterness I trust there
   will come great sweetness to us. Though bitter to him in the speaking
   it will be sweet to us in the hearing,--so sweet that all the
   bitterness of our trials shall be forgotten as we remember the vinegar
   and gall of which he drank.

   We shall by the assistance of the Holy Spirit try to regard these words
   of our Saviour in a five-fold light. First, we shall look upon them as
   THE ENSIGN OF HIS TRUE HUMANITY. Jesus said, "I thirst," and this is
   the complaint of a man. Our Lord is the Maker of the ocean and the
   waters that are above the firmament: it is his hand that stays or opens
   the bottles of heaven, and sendeth rain upon the evil and upon the
   good. "The sea is his, and he made it," and all fountains and springs
   are of his digging. He poureth out the streams that run among the
   hills, the torrents which rush adown the mountains, and the flowing
   rivers which enrich the plains. One would have said, If he were thirsty
   he would not tell us, for all the clouds and rains would be glad to
   refresh his brow, and the brooks and streams would joyously flow at his
   feet. And yet, though he was Lord of all he had so fully taken upon
   himself the form of a servant and was so perfectly made in the likeness
   of sinful flesh, that he cried with fainting voice, "I thirst." How
   truly man he is; he is, indeed, "bone of our bone and flesh of our
   flesh," for he bears our infirmities. I invite you to meditate upon the
   true humanity of our Lord very reverently, and very lovingly. Jesus was
   proved to be really man, because he suffered the pains which belong to
   manhood. Angels cannot suffer thirst. A phantom, as some have called
   him, could not suffer in his fashion: but Jesus really suffered, not
   only the more refined pains of delicate and sensitive minds, but the
   rougher and commoner pangs of flesh and blood. Thirst is a common-place
   misery, such as may happen to peasants or beggars; it is a real pain,
   and not a thing of a fancy or a nightmare of dreamland. Thirst is no
   royal grief, but an evil of universal manhood; Jesus is brother to the
   poorest and most humble of our race. Our Lord, however, endured thirst
   to an extreme degree, for it was the thirst of death which was upon
   him, and more, it was the thirst of one whose death was not a common
   one, for "he tasted death for every man." That thirst was caused,
   perhaps, in part by the loss of blood, and by the fever created by the
   irritation caused by his four grievous wounds. The nails were fastened
   in the most sensitive parts of the body, and the wounds were widened as
   the weight of his body dragged the nails through his blessed flesh, and
   tore his tender nerves. The extreme tension produced a burning
   feverishness. It was pain that dried his mouth and made it like an
   oven, till he declared, in the language of the twenty-second psalm, "My
   tongue cleaveth to my jaws." It was a thirst such as none of us have
   ever known, for not yet has the death dew condensed upon our brows. We
   shall perhaps know it in our measure in our dying hour, but not yet,
   nor ever so terribly as he did. Our Lord felt that grievous drought of
   dissolution by which all moisture seems dried up, and the flesh returns
   to the dust of death: this those know who have commenced to tread the
   valley of the shadow of death. Jesus, being a man, escaped none of the
   ills which are allotted to man in death. He is indeed "Immanuel, God
   with us" everywhere.

   Believing this, let us tenderly feel how very near akin to us our Lord
   Jesus has become. You have been ill, and you have been parched with
   fever as he was, and then you too have gasped out "I thirst." Your path
   runs hard by that of your Master. He said, "I thirst," in order that
   one might bring him drink, even as you have wished to have a cooling
   draught handed to you when you could not help yourself. Can you help
   feeling how very near Jesus is to us when his lips must be moistened
   with a sponge, and he must be so dependent upon others as to ask drink
   from their hand? Next time your fevered lips murmur "I am very
   thirsty," you may say to yourself, "Those are sacred words, for my Lord
   spake in that fashion." The words, "I thirst," are a common voice in
   death chambers. We can never forget the painful scenes of which we have
   been witness, when we have watched the dissolving of the human frame.
   Some of those whom we loved very dearly we have seen quite unable to
   help themselves; the death sweat has been upon them, and this has been
   one of the marks of their approaching dissolution, that they have been
   parched with thirst, and could only mutter between their half-closed
   lips, "Give me to drink." Ah, beloved, our Lord was so truly man that
   all our griefs remind us of him: the next time we are thirsty we may
   gaze upon him; and whenever we see a friend faint and thirsting while
   dying we may behold our Lord dimly, but truly, mirrored in his members.
   How near akin the thirsty Saviour is to us; let us love him more and
   more.

   How great the love which led him to such a condescension as this! Do
   not let us forget the infinite distance between the Lord of glory on
   his throne and the Crucified dried up with thirst. A river of the water
   of life, pure as crystal, proceedeth to-day out of the throne of God
   and of the Lamb, and yet once he condescended to say, "I thirst,"
   before his angelic guards, they would surely have emulated the courage
   of the men of David when they cut their way to the well of Bethlehem
   that was within the gate, and drew water in jeopardy of their lives.
   Who among us would not willingly pour out his soul unto death if he
   might but give refreshment to the Lord? And yet he placed himself for
   our sakes into a position of shame and suffering where none would wait
   upon him, but when he cried, "I thirst," they gave him vinegar to
   drink. Glorious stoop of our exalted Head! O Lord Jesus, we love thee
   and we worship thee! We would fain lift thy name on high in grateful
   remembrance of the depths to which thou didst descend!

   While thus we admire his condescension let our thoughts also turn with
   delight to his sure sympathy: for if Jesus said, "I thirst," then he
   knows all our frailties and woes. The next time we are in pain or are
   suffering depression of spirit we will remember that our Lord
   understands it all, for he has had practical, personal experience of
   it. Neither in torture of body nor in sadness of heart are we deserted
   by our Lord; his line is parallel with ours. The arrow which has lately
   pierced thee, my brother, was first stained with his blood. The cup of
   which thou art made to drink, though it be very bitter, bears the mark
   of his lips about its brim. He hath traversed the mournful way before
   thee, and every footprint thou leavest in the sodden soil is stamped
   side by side with his footmarks. Let the sympathy of Christ, then, be
   fully believed in and deeply appreciated, since he said, "I thirst."

   Henceforth, also, let us cultivate the spirit of resignation, for we
   may well rejoice to carry a cross which his shoulders have borne before
   us. Beloved, if our Master said, "I thirst," do we expect every day to
   drink of streams from Lebanon? He was innocent, and yet he thirsted;
   shall we marvel if guilty ones are now and then chastened? If he was so
   poor that his garments were stripped from him, and he was hung up upon
   the tree, penniless and friendless, hungering and thirsting, will you
   henceforth groan and murmur because you bear the yoke of poverty and
   want? There is bread upon your table to-day, and there will be at least
   a cup of cold water to refresh you. You are not, therefore, so poor as
   he. Complain not, then. Shall the servant be above his Master, or the
   disciple above his Lord? Let patience have her perfect work. You do
   suffer. Perhaps, dear sister, you carry about with you a gnawing
   disease which eats at your heart, but Jesus took our sicknesses, and
   his cup was more bitter than yours. In your chamber let the gasp of
   your Lord as he said, "I thirst," go through your ears, and as you hear
   it let it touch your heart and cause you to gird up yourself and say,
   "Doth he say, I thirst'? Then I will thirst with him and not complain,
   I will suffer with him and not murmur." The Redeemer's cry of "I
   thirst" is a solemn lesson of patience to his afflicted.

   Once again, as we think of this "I thirst," which proves our Lord's
   humanity, let us resolve to shun no denials, but rather court them that
   we may be conformed to his image. May we not be half ashamed of our
   pleasures when he says, "I thirst"? May we not despise our loaded table
   while he is neglected? Shall it ever be a hardship to be denied the
   satisfying draught when he said, "I thirst." Shall carnal appetites be
   indulged and bodies pampered when Jesus cried :I thirst"? What if the
   bread be dry, what if the medicine be nauseous; yet for his thirst
   there was no relief but gall and vinegar, and dare we complain? For his
   sake we may rejoice in self-denials, and accept Christ and a crust as
   all we desire between here and heaven. A Christian living to indulge
   the base appetites of a brute beast, to eat and to drink almost to
   gluttony and drunkenness, is utterly unworthy of the name. The conquest
   of the appetites, the entire subjugation of the flesh, must be
   achieved, for before our great Exemplar said, "It is finished," wherein
   methinks he reached the greatest height of all, he stood as only upon
   the next lower step to that elevation, and said, "I thirst." The power
   to suffer for another, the capacity to be self-denying even to an
   extreme to accomplish some great work for God--this is a thing to be
   sought after, and must be gained before our work is done, and in this
   Jesus is before us our example and our strength.

   Thus have I tried to spy out a measure of teaching, by using that one
   glass for the soul's eye, through which we look upon "I thirst" as the
   ensign of his true humanity.

   II. Secondly, we shall regard these words, "I thirst," as THE TOKEN OF
   HIS SUFFERING SUBSTITUTION. The great Surety says, "I thirst," because
   he is placed in the sinner's stead, and he must therefore undergo the
   penalty of sin for the ungodly. "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
   me?" points to the anguish of his soul; "I thirst" expresses in part
   the torture of his body; and they were both needful, because it is
   written of the God of justice that he is "able to destroy both soul and
   body in hell," and the pangs that are due to law are of both kinds,
   touching both heart and flesh. See, brethren, where sin begins, and
   mark that there it ends. It began with the mouth of appetite, when it
   was sinfully gratified, and it ends when a kindred appetite is
   graciously denied. Our first parents plucked forbidden fruit, and by
   eating slew the race. Appetite was the door of sin, and therefore in
   that point our Lord was put to pain. With "I thirst" the evil is
   destroyed and receives its expiation. I saw the other day the emblem of
   a serpent with its tail in its mouth, and if I carry it a little beyond
   the artist's intention the symbol may set forth appetite swallowing up
   itself. A carnal appetite of the body, the satisfaction of the desire
   for food, first brought us down under the first Adam, and now the pang
   of thirst, the denial of what the body craved for, restores us to our
   place.

   Nor is this all. We know from experience that the present effect of sin
   in every man who indulges in it is thirst of soul. The mind of man is
   like the daughters of the horseleech, which cry for ever, "Give, give."
   Metaphorically understood, thirst is dissatisfaction, the craving of
   the mind for something which it has not, but which it pines for. Our
   Lord says, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink," that
   thirst being the result of sin in every ungodly man at this moment. Now
   Christ standing in the stead of the ungodly suffers thirst as a type of
   his enduring the result of sin. More solemn still is the reflection
   that according to our Lord's own teaching, thirst will also be the
   eternal result of sin, for he says concerning the rich glutton, "In
   hell he lift up his eyes, being in torment," and his prayer, which was
   denied him, was, "Father Abraham, send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip
   of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this
   flame." Now recollect, if Jesus had not thirsted, every one of us would
   have thirsted for ever afar off from God, with an impassable gulf
   between us and heaven. Our sinful tongues, blistered by the fever of
   passion, must have burned for ever had not his tongue been tormented
   with thirst in our stead. I suppose that the "I thirst" was uttered
   softly, so that perhaps only one and another who stood near the cross
   heard it at all; in contrast with the louder cry of "Lama sabachthani"
   and the triumphant shout of "It is finished": but that soft, expiring
   sigh, "I thirst," has ended for us the thirst which else, insatiably
   fierce, had preyed upon us throughout eternity. Oh, wondrous
   substitution of the just for the unjust, of God for man, of the perfect
   Christ for us guilty, hell-deserving rebels. Let us magnify and bless
   our Redeemer's name.

   It seems to me very wonderful that this "I thirst" should be, as it
   were, the clearance of it all. He had no sooner said "I thirst," and
   sipped the vinegar, than he shouted, "It is finished"; and all was
   over: the battle was fought and the victory won for ever, and our great
   Deliverer's thirst was the sign of his having smitten the last foe. The
   flood of his grief has passed the high-water mark, and began to be
   assuaged. The "I thirst" was the bearing of the last pang; what if I
   say it was the expression of the fact that his pangs had at last begun
   to cease, and their fury had spent itself, and left him able to note
   his lessor pains? The excitement of a great struggle makes men forget
   thirst and faintness; it is only when all is over that they come back
   to themselves and note the spending of their strength. The great agony
   of being forsaken by God was over, and he felt faint when the strain
   was withdrawn. I like to think of our Lord's saying, "It is finished,"
   directly after he had exclaimed, "I thirst"; for these two voices come
   so naturally together. Our glorious Samson had been fighting our foes;
   heaps upon heaps he had slain his thousands, and now like Samson he was
   sore athirst. He sipped of the vinegar, and he was refreshed, and no
   sooner has he thrown off the thirst than he shouted like a conqueror,
   "It is finished," and quitted the field, covered with renown. Let us
   exult as we see our Substitute going through with his work even to the
   bitter end, and then with a "Consummatum est" returning to his Father,
   God. O souls, burdened with sin, rest ye here, and resting live.

   III. We will now take the text in a third way, and may the Spirit of
   God instruct us once again. The utterance of "I thirst" brought out A
   TYPE OF MAN'S TREATMENT OF HIS LORD. It was a confirmation of the
   Scripture testimony with regard to man's natural enmity to God.
   According to modern thought man is a very fine and noble creature,
   struggling to become better. He is greatly to be commended and admired,
   for his sin is said to be seeking after God, and his superstition is a
   struggling after light. Great and worshipful being that he is, truth is
   to be altered for him, the gospel is to be modulated to suit the tone
   of his various generations, and all the arrangements of the universe
   are to be rendered subservient to his interests. Justice must fly the
   field lest it be severe to so deserving a being; as for punishment, it
   must not be whispered to his ears polite. In fact, the tendency is to
   exalt man above God and give him the highest place. But such is not the
   truthful estimate of man according to the Scriptures: there man is a
   fallen creature, with a carnal mind which cannot be reconciled to God;
   a worse than brutish creature, rendering evil for good, and treating
   his God with vile ingratitude. Alas, man is the slave and the dupe of
   Satan, and a black-hearted traitor to his God. Did not the prophecies
   say that man would give to his incarnate God gall to eat and vinegar to
   drink? It is done. He came to save, and man denied him hospitality: at
   the first there was no room for him at the inn, and at the last there
   was not one cool cup of water for him to drink; but when he thirsted
   they gave him vinegar to drink. This is man's treatment of his Saviour.
   Universal manhood, left to itself, rejects, crucifies, and mocks the
   Christ of God. This was the act too of man at his best, when he is
   moved to pity; for it seems clear that he who lifted up the wet sponge
   to the Redeemer's lips, did it in compassion. I think that Roman
   soldier meant well, at least well for a rough warrior with his little
   light and knowledge. He ran and filled a sponge with vinegar: it was
   the best way he knew of putting a few drops of moisture to the lips of
   one who was suffering so much; but though he felt a degree of pity, it
   was such as one might show to a dog; he felt no reverence, but mocked
   as he relieved. We read, "The soldiers also mocked him, offering him
   vinegar." When our Lord cried, "Eloi, Eloi," and afterwards said, "I
   thirst," the persons around the cross said, "Let be, let us see whether
   Elias will come to save him," mocking him; and, according to Mark, he
   who gave the vinegar uttered much the same words. He pitied the
   sufferer, but he thought so little of him that he joined in the voice
   of scorn. Even when man compassionates the sufferings of Christ, and
   man would have ceased to be human if he did not, still he scorns him;
   the very cup which man gives to Jesus is at once scorn and pity, for
   "the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel." See how man at his best
   mingles admiration of the Saviour's person with scorn of his claims;
   writing books to hold him up as an example and at the same moment
   rejecting his deity; admitting that he was a wonderful man, but denying
   his most sacred mission; extolling his ethical teaching and then
   trampling on his blood: thus giving him drink, but that drink vinegar.
   O my hearers, beware of praising Jesus and denying his atoning
   sacrifice. Beware of rendering him homage and dishonouring his name at
   the same time.

   Alas, my brethren, I cannot say much on the score of man's cruelty to
   our Lord without touching myself and you. Have we not often given him
   vinegar to drink? Did we not do so years ago before we knew him? We
   used to melt when we heard about his sufferings, but we did not turn
   from our sins. We gave him our tears and then grieved him with our
   sins. We thought sometimes that we loved him as we heard the story of
   his death, but we did not change our lives for his sake, nor put our
   trust in him, and so we gave him vinegar to drink. Nor does the grief
   end here, for have not the best works we have ever done, and the best
   feelings we ever felt, and the best prayers we have ever offered, been
   tart and sour with sin? Can they be compared to generous wine? are they
   not more like sharp vinegar? I wonder he has ever received them, as one
   marvels why he received this vinegar; and yet he has received them, and
   smiled upon us for presenting them. He knew once how to turn water into
   wine, and in matchless love he has often turned our sour
   drink-offerings into something sweet to himself, though in themselves,
   methinks, they have been the juice of sour grapes, sharp enough to set
   his teeth on edge. We may therefore come before him, with all the rest
   of our race, when God subdues them to repentance by his love, and look
   on him whom we have pierced, and mourn for him as one that is in
   bitterness for his firstborn. We may well remember our faults this day,

   "We, whose proneness to forget

   Thy dear love, on Olivet

   Bathed thy brow with bloody sweat;

   "We whose sins, with awful power,

   Like a cloud did o'er thee lower,

   In that God-excluding hour;

   "We, who still, in thought and dead,

   Often hold the bitter reed

   To thee, in thy time of need."

   I have touched that point very lightly because I want a little more
   time to dwell upon a fourth view of this scene. May the Holy Ghost help
   us to hear a fourth tuning of the dolorous music, "I thirst."

   IV. I think, beloved friends, that the cry of "I thirst" was THE
   MYSTICAL EXPRESSION OF THE DESIRE OF HIS HEART--"I thirst." I cannot
   think that natural thirst was all he felt. He thirsted for water
   doubtless, but his soul was thirsty in a higher sense; indeed, he seems
   only to have spoken that the Scriptures might be fulfilled as to the
   offering him vinegar. Always was he in harmony with himself, and his
   own body was always expressive of his soul's cravings as well as of its
   own longings. "I thirst" meant that his heart was thirsting to save
   men. This thirst had been on him from the earliest of his earthly days.
   "Wist ye not," said he, while yet a boy, "that I must be about my
   Father's business?" Did he not tell his disciples, "I have a baptism to
   be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished?" He
   thirsted to pluck us from between the jaws of hell, to pay our
   redemption price, and set us free from the eternal condemnation which
   hung over us; and when on the cross the work was almost done his thirst
   was not assuaged, and could not be till he could say, "It is finished."
   It is almost done, thou Christ of God; thou hast almost saved thy
   people; there remaineth but one thing more, that thou shouldst actually
   die, and hence thy strong desire to come to the end and complete thy
   labour. Thou wast still straightened till the last pang was felt and
   the last word spoken to complete to full redemption, and hence thy cry,
   "I thirst."

   Beloved, there is now upon our Master, and there always has been, a
   thirst after the love of his people. Do you not remember how that
   thirst of his was strong in the old days of the prophet? Call to mind
   his complaint in the fifth chapter of Isaiah, "Now will I sing to my
   wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved
   hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: and he fenced it, and gathered
   out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and
   built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein."
   What was he looking for from his vineyard and its winepress? What but
   for the juice of the vine that he might be refreshed? "And he looked
   that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild
   grapes,"--vinegar, and not wine; sourness, and not sweetness. So he was
   thirsting then. According to the sacred canticle of love, in the fifth
   chapter of the Song of Songs, we learn that when he drank in those
   olden times it was in the garden of his church that he was refreshed.
   What doth he say? "I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I
   have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my
   honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk; eat, O friends; drink, yea,
   drink abundantly, O beloved." In the same song he speaks of his church,
   and says, "The roof of thy mouth is as the best wine for my beloved,
   that goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep to
   speak." And yet again in the eighth chapter the bride saith, "I would
   cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate."
   Yes, he loves to be with his people; they are the garden where he walks
   for refreshment, and their love, their graces, are the milk and wine
   which he delights to drink. Christ was always thirsty to save men, and
   to be loved of men; and we see a type of his life-long desire when,
   being weary, he sat thus on the well and said to the woman of Samaria,
   "Give me to drink." There was a deeper meaning in his words than she
   dreamed of, as a verse further down fully proves, when he said to his
   disciples, "I have meat to eat that ye know not of." He derived
   spiritual refreshment from the winning of that women's heart to
   himself.

   And now, brethren, our blessed Lord has at this time a thirst for
   communion with each one of you who are his people, not because you can
   do him good, but because he can do you good. He thirsts to bless you
   and to receive your grateful love in return; he thirsts to see you
   looking with believing eye to his fulness, and holding out your
   emptiness that he may supply it. He saith, "Behold, I stand at the door
   and knock." What knocks he for? It is that he may eat and drink with
   you, for he promises that if we open to him he will enter in and sup
   with us and we with him. He is thirsty still, you see, for our poor
   love, and surely we cannot deny it to him. Come let us pour out full
   flagons, until his joy is fulfilled in us. And what makes him love us
   so? Ah, that I cannot tell, except his own great love. He must love, it
   is his nature. He must love his chosen whom he has once begun to love,
   for he is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. His great love
   makes him thirst to have us much nearer than we are; he will never be
   satisfied till all his redeemed are beyond gunshot of thee enemy. I
   will give you one of his thirsty prayers--"Father, I will that they
   also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may
   behold my glory." He wants you brother, he wants you, dear sister, he
   longs to have you wholly to himself. Come to him in prayer, come to him
   in fellowship, come to him by perfect consecration, come to him by
   surrendering your whole being to the sweet mysterious influences of his
   Spirit. Sit at his feet with Mary, lean on his breast with John; yea,
   come with the spouse in the song and say, "Let him kiss me with the
   kisses of his mouth, for his love is better than wine." He calls for
   that: will you not give it to him? Are you so frozen at heart that not
   a cup of cold water can be melted for Jesus? Are you lukewarm? O
   brother, if he says, "I thirst" and you bring him a lukewarm heart,
   that is worse than vinegar, for he has said, "I will spue thee out of
   my mouth." He can receive vinegar, but not lukewarm love. Come, bring
   him your warm heart, and let him drink from that purified chalice as
   much as he wills. Let all your love be his. I know he loves to receive
   from you, because he delights even in a cup of cold water that you give
   to one of his disciples; how much more will he delight in the giving of
   your whole self to him? Therefore while he thirsts give him to drink
   this day.

   V. Lastly, the cry of "I thirst" is to us THE PATTERN OF OUR DEATH WITH
   HIM. Know ye not, beloved,--for I speak to those who know the
   Lord,--that ye are crucified together with Christ? Well, then, what
   means this cry, "I thirst," but this, that we should thirst too? We do
   not thirst after the old manner wherein we were bitterly afflicted, for
   he hath said, "He that drinketh of this water shall never thirst:" but
   now we covet a new thirst. A refined and heavenly appetite, a craving
   for our Lord. O thou blessed Master, if we are indeed nailed up to the
   tree with thee, give us a thirst after thee with a thirst which only
   the cup of "the new covenant in thy blood" can ever satisfy. Certain
   philosophers have said that they love the pursuit of truth even better
   than the knowledge of truth. I differ from them greatly, but I will say
   this, that next to the actual enjoyment of my Lord's presence I love to
   hunger and to thirst after him. Rutherford used words somewhat to this
   effect, "I thirst for my Lord and this is joy; a joy which no man
   taketh from me. Even if I may not come at him, yet shall I be full of
   consolation, for it is heaven to thirst after him, and surely he will
   never deny a poor soul liberty to admire him, and adore him, and thirst
   after him." As for myself, I would grow more and more insatiable after
   my divine Lord, and when I have much of him I would still cry for more;
   and then for more, and still for more. My heart shall not be content
   till he is all in all to me, and I am altogether lost in him. O to be
   enlarged in soul so as to take deeper draughts of his sweet love, for
   our heart cannot have enough. One would wish to be as a spouse, who,
   when she had already been feasting in the banqueting-house, and had
   found his fruit sweet to her taste, so that she was overjoyed, yet
   cried out, "Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples, for I am sick
   of love." She craved full flagons of love though she was already
   overpowered by it. This is a kind of sweet whereof if a man hath much
   he must have more, and when he hath more he is under a still greater
   necessity to receive more, and so on, his appetite for ever growing by
   that which it feeds upon, till he is filled with all the fulness of
   God. "I thirst,"--ay, this is my soul's word with her Lord. Borrowed
   from his lips it well suiteth my mouth.

   "I thirst, but not as once I did,

   The vain delights of earth to share;

   Thy wounds, Emmanuel, all forbid

   That I should seek my pleasures there.

   Dear fountain of delight unknown!

   No longer sink below the brim;

   But overflow, and pour me down

   A living and life-giving stream."

   Jesus thirsted, then let us thirst in this dry and thirsty land where
   no water is. Even as the hart panteth after the water brooks, our souls
   would thirst after thee, O God.

   Beloved, let us thirst for the souls of our fellow-men. I have already
   told you that such was our Lord's mystical desire; let it be ours also.
   Brother, thirst to have your children save. Brother, thirst I pray you
   to have your workpeople saved. Sister, thirst for the salvation of your
   class, thirst for the redemption of your family, thirst for the
   conversion of your husband. We ought all to have a longing for
   conversions. It is so with each one of you? If not, bestir yourselves
   at once. Fix your hearts upon some unsaved one, and thirst until he is
   saved. It is the way whereby many shall be brought to Christ, when this
   blessed soul-thirst of true Christian charity shall be upon those who
   are themselves saved. Remember how Paul said, "I say the truth in
   Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy
   Ghost that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For
   I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my
   kinsmen according to the flesh." He would have sacrificed himself to
   save his countrymen, so heartily did he desire their eternal welfare.
   Let this mind be in you also.

   As for yourselves, thirst after perfection. Hunger and thirst after
   righteousness, for you shall be filled. Hate sin, and heartily loathe
   it; but thirst to be holy as God is holy, thirst to be like Christ,
   thirst to bring glory to his sacred name by complete conformity to his
   will.

   May the Holy Ghost work in you the complete pattern of Christ
   crucified, and to him shall be praise for ever and ever. Amen.

   PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON--Mark 15:15-37; Psalm 69:1-21.
     __________________________________________________________________

Believers Free from the Dominion of Sin

   (No. 1410)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, APRIL 21, 1878,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the
   Law, but under Grace." Romans 6:14.

   OUR constant hearers will remember that a Sabbath or so ago we spoke
   upon, "Submit yourselves unto God." [#1408, The Reason Why Many Cannot
   Find Peace.] It is both the way to peace and the way of peace to submit
   one's whole self unto God. Nor is it an irksome task to a true
   Believer, but the desire of his heart, the pleasure of his life. He
   shudders at the idea of yielding his members as instruments of
   unrighteousness unto sin, but according to the language of the verse
   which precedes our text, he yields himself unto God as one who has been
   made alive from the dead and his members as instruments of
   righteousness unto God. Complete consecration of every faculty of mind
   and body unto the Lord is our soul's deepest wish. We can sing most
   sincerely that sweet consecration hymn--

   "Take my hands and let them move,

   At the impulse of Your love.

   Take my feet and let them be,

   Swift and beautiful for Thee.

   Take my voice and let me sing,

   Always, only for my King!

   Take my lips and let them be,

   Filled with messages from Thee.

   Take my will and make it Thine,

   It shall be no longer mine.

   Take my intellect, and use

   Every power as You shall choose.

   So that all my powers combine,

   To adore Your Grace Divine,

   Heart and soul a living flame,

   Glorifying Your great name."

   But, Beloved, we find another law in our members warring against the
   law of our mind. To the full yielding up of all our members we find a
   hindrance in the sin which dwells in us--that sin which finds its haunt
   and hiding place in our mortal body--in the desires, passions and
   appetites of our animal nature. These within proper limits are right
   enough-- it is right that we eat and drink, and so forth, but our
   natural instincts are apt to demand indulgence and so to become lusts.
   Our mortal body, in its natural desires, affords dens for the foxes of
   sin. The carnal mind, also, readily leans to the indulgence of the body
   and thus there is presented a powerful opposition to the work of Divine
   Grace. Every true child of God must be conscious of the presence of the
   rebellious power and principle of sin within him.

   We strive to keep it under, to subdue and conquer it, and we hope to
   see it utterly exterminated at the last, for our case is like that of
   Israel with the Canaanites and we long for the day when, "There shall
   no more be the Canaanite in the house of the land." Sin is a
   domineering force. A man cannot sin up to a fixed point and then say to
   sin, "Up to here shall you come, but no farther." It is an imperious
   power and where it dwells it is hungry for the mastery. Just as our
   Lord, when He enters the soul, will never be content with a divided
   dominion, so is it with sin--it labors to bring our entire manhood
   under subjection.

   Therefore we are compelled to strive daily against this ambitious
   principle--according to the working of the Spirit of God in us we
   wrestle against sin that it may not have dominion over us. It has
   unquestioned dominion over multitudes of human hearts and in some it
   has set up its horrid throne on high and keeps its seat with force of
   arms so that its empire

   is undisturbed. In others the throne is disputed, for conscience
   mutinies, but yet the tyrant is not dethroned. Over the whole world sin
   exercises a dreadful tyranny. It would hold us in the same bondage were
   it not for One who is stronger than sin, who has undertaken to deliver
   us out of its hand and will certainly perform the redeeming work! Here
   is the charter of our liberty, the security of our safety--"Sin shall
   not have dominion over you." It reigns over those who abide in
   unbelief, but it shall not have dominion over you, "because greater is
   He that is in you, than he that is in the world."

   The whole world lies in the Wicked One, but, "you are not of the world"
   and, therefore, "sin shall not have dominion over you." If we are
   distressed by the fear that sin will ultimately get the mastery over
   us, let us be comforted by our text. Holy jealousy leads us to fear
   that though we have for many years been enabled to maintain a spotless
   character before men, we may in some unguarded hour make shipwreck of
   faith and end our life voyage as castaways upon the rocks of shame. The
   flesh is frail and our strength is perfect weakness and, therefore, we
   dread lest we should make some terrible fall and bring dishonor upon
   the holy name by which we are called. Under such feelings we may fly
   for comfort to the rich assurance of the text, "Sin shall not have
   dominion over you."

   Three things will demand our consideration and afford us consolation
   this morning. The first is the peculiar position of Believers--"You are
   not under the Law, but under Grace." Secondly, the special assurance
   made to them, "Sin shall not have dominion over you." And thirdly, the
   remarkable reason given for this statement, "Sin shall not have
   dominion over you: for you are not under the Law, but under Grace."

   First, then, here is A PECULIAR POSITION--"You are not under the Law."
   All men are under the Law by nature and, consequently, they are
   condemned by it because they have broken its commandments and apart
   from our Lord Jesus men are only reprieved criminals, respited from day
   to day, but still under sentence and waiting for the appointed hour
   when the warrant shall be solemnly executed upon them. But Believers
   are regarded as having died in Christ and, by that death, they have
   escaped from under the Law--they are clean delivered from the Law by
   the fact that their Redeemer endured the penalty of the Law on their
   behalf and, at the same time, He honored the Law by rendering perfect
   obedience to it. Thus in a two-fold manner, He met all the Law's
   requirements so that it has no more demands upon His people.

   "Not under the Law," being interpreted, means that we are not trying to
   be saved by obedience to the Law. We do not pretend to earn eternal
   life by merit, nor hope to claim anything of the Lord as due to us for
   good works. The principle which rules our life is not mercenary. We do
   not expect to earn a reward, neither are we flogged to duty by dread of
   punishment. We are under Grace--that is to say, we are treated on the
   principle of mercy and love, and not on that of justice and desert.
   Freely, of His own undeserved favor, God has forgiven us for Christ's
   sake! He has regarded us with favor, not because we deserved it, but
   simply because He willed to do so, according to that ancient
   declaration, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will
   have compassion on whom I will have compassion."

   The Lord did not choose us because of any goodness in us, but He has
   saved us and called us according to the purpose of His own will.
   Moreover, our continuance in a state of salvation depends upon the same
   Divine Grace which first placed us there. We do not stand or fall
   according to our personal merit, but because Jesus lives, we live.
   Because Jesus is accepted, we are accepted. Because Jesus is beloved,
   we are beloved. In a word, our standing is not based upon merit, but
   upon mercy--not upon our changeable character, but upon the immutable
   mercy of God. Grace is the tenure upon which we hold our position
   before the Lord. "For by Grace are you saved through faith; and that
   not of yourselves: it is the gift of God."

   "But that no man is justified by the Law in the sight of God, it is
   evident: for the just shall live by faith. And the Law is not of faith:
   but, the man that does them shall live in them." Let us endeavor to
   recount the privileges of this position by mentioning the evils from
   which it releases us. First, we no longer dread the curse of the Law.
   Those who are under the Law may well be horribly afraid because of the
   penalties which are due through their many failures and transgressions.
   They have broken the Law and are, therefore, in constant danger of
   judgment and condemnation. The careless try to shake off the thought as
   much as possible by putting off the evil day, by forgetting death and
   by pretending to disbelieve in judgment and eternal wrath. But still,
   more or less, this thought disturbs them--a dreadful sound is in their
   ears.

   When men are once awakened, the dread of punishment for sin haunts them
   day and night and fills them with terror! And well it may, for they are
   under the Law and the Law will soon cast them into its prison from
   which they will never

   escape. Every transgression and disobedience must receive a just
   recompense of reward. Now, Believers have no fear as to the punishment
   of their sin, for our sin was by the Lord, Himself, laid upon Jesus and
   the penalty was borne by Him-- "The chastisement of our peace was upon
   Him and with His stripes we are healed." "Christ has redeemed us from
   the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us: as it is written,
   Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree."

   Substitution clears the Christian from all debt to justice and he dares
   to challenge the Law itself with the question-- Who is he that
   condemns, since Christ has died? Yes, He goes further and challenges an
   accusation--Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect, since
   God has justified? No penalty do we dread, for we are forgiven and God
   will not pardon and then punish! "As far as the east is from the west,
   so far has He removed our transgressions from us." Will God punish
   those from whom He has removed transgression, or cast those into Hell
   whose sins He has cast behind His back? Impossible!

   Therefore, when we see the stern array of the Judgment Seat and hear
   the threats of vengeance, we who are Believers rejoice to feel that
   these terrors have nothing to do with us. The Great Surety has secured
   His people from all risk of wrath. The undying worm is not for them!
   The unquenchable fire is not for them! Neither shall the Pit shut her
   mouth upon them, for they are not under the Law! Then the Believer no
   longer drudges in unwilling obedience, seeking to reach a certain point
   of merit. The man under the Law who is awakened and awakened very
   frequently, tries to keep the commands in order to attain, at any rate,
   a fair measure of goodness. For this He labors very hard, as men who
   tug at the oar to escape from a tempest.

   If he could but reach a certain degree of virtue he would feel safe. If
   he were equal to such an one he would be at rest. Alas, he has no power
   to attain even to his own ideal! He finds his resolutions written in
   water and his goodness vanishes like the morning mist. His servile
   works are ill done and fail to yield him peace of mind. The Believer is
   under no such drudgery--Christ has fulfilled the Law for him and he
   rests in that finished work. He does not aim at high attainments in
   order to win the favor of God--he has that favor--it has come to him
   freely and undeserved and he rejoices in it! A high ambition moves him,
   but it is not that of saving himself by his own works.

   He obeys out of love. He delights in the Law after the inner man and
   confesses with Paul, "the Law is holy, and just, and good." He wishes
   that he could live without sin, but he never dreams that even then he
   could make an atonement for the past, nor does he fancy that by his own
   merit he is to obtain salvation for the future. The work through which
   he is saved is complete--it is not his own work, but the work of
   Jesus--and, therefore, when he sees his own shortcomings and
   iniquities, he does not doubt his salvation, but continues to rest in
   Jesus. He is no longer a slave, flogged with the whip of fear and made
   to labor for his very life and gather nothing for his pains. He is free
   from the principle of the Law and works from a principle of love--not
   to secure Divine favor--but because that favor has been freely
   manifested towards him.

   The Christian man is now no longer uncertain as to the continuance of
   Divine Love. Under the Law, no man's standing can be secure, since by a
   single sin he may forfeit his position. If a legalist should be able to
   persuade himself that he has reached a sufficient point of merit and is
   safe, yet he cannot be sure of continuing in his exalted position, for
   like the flower of the grass all human comeliness withers away. However
   meritorious a man may conceive himself to be, yet he may fall short of
   the standard even now. And if not, in the future he may spoil it all!
   The learned Bellarmine, one of the great antagonists of Martin Luther,
   once gave utterance to language which I cannot verbally remember, but
   which was to the following effect.

   Of course, being a Papist, he believed in justification by works, but
   yet he observed that, "nevertheless, seeing that even in the best of
   men good works are usually marred by sin, and seeing that no man can
   know when he has performed quite enough good works to save him, it is
   upon the whole, safest to trust only in the merits of Jesus Christ." We
   agree with the cardinal and accept the safest way as good enough for
   us! Safest, indeed, it is to us, for it is the only way which we can
   tread, since all the good works we have ever done are defiled and
   polluted either in motive beforehand, or in the spirit in which they
   were done, or by proud reflections afterwards! We dare not trust even
   in our prayers and devotions and almsgivings, or repentances--but must
   rest only upon the merits of Christ.

   The merits of Christ are always a constant and abiding quantity. If,
   therefore, we rest thereon, our foundation is as secure at one time as
   at another. The merits of Jesus will be throughout eternity sweet
   before God on our behalf. Is He not "the same yesterday, today, and
   forever"? Therefore the confidence of the Believer rests upon a
   foundation which will

   no more be shaken in the future than it is today. Glory be to God, He
   does not cast away His people whom He did foreknow! He does not love
   today and hate tomorrow--nor favor with His Grace the child whom He has
   adopted and afterwards disown him. "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."

   We are free from the bondage of the Law since we are no longer under
   the Covenant of Works, but have come under the Covenant of Grace which
   is founded upon promises which nothing can disannul. In consequence of
   this, the Believer is no longer afraid of the Last Great Day. Shall all
   our sins be read and published before an assembled universe? "If so,"
   says the man who is under the Law, "it will go hard with me." Judgment
   is a terrible word to those who are hoping to save themselves, for if
   their doings are to be put into the balances, they will surely be found
   wanting. But judgment has no terror in it to a Believer! He can sing
   with our poet--

   "Bold shall I stand in that great day, For who anything to my charge
   shall lay? While through Your blood absolved I am From sin's tremendous
   curse and shame."

   Will the sins of Believers be published at the last day? If it is to
   the glory of forgiving love, let them be! Who among us need be afraid
   since at the end of the whole list there shall be written, "and all
   these were blotted out for Jesus Christ's sake." And if not published
   at all because all our sins were cast behind Jehovah's back--and if,
   instead thereof, the Judge shall only proclaim the good works of His
   people and say, "I was hungry and you gave Me meat, I was thirsty and
   you gave Me drink; and inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the
   least of these, My brethren, you have done it unto Me," then we may
   well welcome the last assize and cry, "Welcome, welcome, Son of God."

   When the Book of Record shall be opened which might justly condemn us,
   yet it is written, "And another book was opened, which was the Book of
   Life." If our names are there we have nothing to fear! One word may be
   added here, namely, that the Believer, being no longer under the Law,
   has no slavish dread of God. As long as I am at enmity with God, guilty
   of breaking His Law and liable to His righteous wrath, I dread His name
   and shrink from His Presence. The soul under the Law stands as the
   Israelites did--far off from the mountain--with a barrier set between
   themselves and the Glory of God. Distance and separation are the
   natural condition of all who are under the Law.

   "Run," cries the heart of man when it beholds God touching the hills so
   that they smoke! And when it hears the voice of God like a trumpet,
   waxing exceedingly loud and long, it pleads that it may not hear such
   words any more. Not so the Believer, for his heart and his flesh cry
   out for the Lord and he pants to come and appear before God! We have
   access with boldness to the Throne of the heavenly Grace and we delight
   to avail ourselves of it. Through the Mediator we have fellowship with
   the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ! The Holy Spirit has made us
   long to be brought nearer and nearer to our Divine Father. Our God is a
   consuming fire, but that consuming fire has no terror for us since it
   will only melt the alloy from the gold and remove the dross from the
   silver.

   The Law could only say to us, "Depart, you cursed," but Grace says,
   "Come, you blessed." The Law said, "Draw not near here: put off your
   shoes from off your feet," but Grace cries with a voice of pity,
   "Whoever is thirsty, come and whoever will, let him come." We have
   accepted the call of Grace and now we know the Lord and love Him.
   Perfect love has cast out fear, for fear has torment. We are not under
   the Law, but we have "known and believed the love that God has to us."

   Now I speak to you Christian people, even to you who believe in Christ,
   and I beg you to understand this freedom from the Law and then to hold
   it fast. There are some of you who return, in a measure, to the legal
   yoke, whereas the Apostle says, "Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty
   wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the
   yoke of bondage." Do you feel helpless, cold and heavy? Do you,
   therefore, conclude that you are not saved? Are you not coming under
   the Law and measuring the power of the Grace of God by your own merits
   or excellencies? If you judge your standing before God by anything
   except your faith in His promise, you will bring yourself into bondage!

   You can walk by faith, but you will stumble if you try any other way.
   There is but one deliverance for me when I question my own state--and
   that is to fly to simple faith in Jesus. When Satan says, "You are no
   saint," do not argue with him, for he is too subtle for a poor soul
   like you. Yield the point and say, "It may be I am no saint, nor are
   you either." "No," he says, "you are deceived, you are a hypocrite."
   Reply to him, "If I am not a saint, I am a sinner. And being a sinner,
   I find it written that Christ Jesus came into the world to save
   sinners. I put myself in that list, O Satan,

   and even you cannot deny that I am such! I believe in Jesus and,
   believing in Him I am justified before God by the righteousness of my
   Lord--and I have peace with God through Jesus Christ."

   Beloved, this is safe standing. If we are, indeed, saved by the
   righteousness of Another, why do we question the power of that
   righteousness to save us because of our own conscious feebleness? We
   are not saved by our own strength or feebleness, but by the power of
   the Lord Jesus! If we are standing with one foot on the rock of
   Christ's finished work and the other upon the sand of our own doings,
   then we may well stand or totter according to which foot we are
   trusting at the moment! But if we set both feet upon the Rock, then we
   may stand fast though the sea roars and the floods sweep the sand away!

   Mind you, do not try the double foundation, for it will never hold!
   Partly Christ and partly self will soon come to a failure. No, our
   great Redeemer cried, "It is finished," and it is finished! And those
   who rest on Him have a finished salvation, for they are not under the
   Law, but under Grace.

   II. Now, secondly, we come to THE SPECIAL ASSURANCE of the text--"Sin
   shall not have dominion over you." This is a very necessary assurance,
   especially at times. Sin is a great working power and all around us we
   see its hideous operations--it is an evil as incessant in its activity
   as it is deadly in its results. As we look at its forcible work, we cry
   in alarm, "It will surely drag me down one of these days!" But the
   dread fear is removed by the cheering voice of the Holy Spirit who
   assures us, "Sin shall not have dominion over you."

   Alas, we not only see the evil working in others, but it assails
   ourselves--our eyes are drawn aside to look on vanity, our ears hearken
   to evil talk and our heart, itself, at times grows cold or wanders.
   Then we are apt to be cast down and to doubt. Here the sweet assurance
   cheers us--though you are tempted you shall not be led astray, for "sin
   shall not have dominion over you." "Resist the devil and he will flee
   from you." Stand in the strength of faith and in the power of the
   precious blood and though you are beset with evil suggestions a
   thousand times a day, and every sense is assailed by the witcheries of
   evil, yet, "sin shall not have dominion over you."

   Cheered by such a word as this we remain on our watchtower and are not
   overcome with evil. Sometimes sin forces its way into our souls and
   rouses our inward evil to an awful degree so that the imagination sets
   fire to our lusts and the smoke of the conflagration blows in the eyes
   of the affections, almost choking the understanding. Yes, sin may
   invade your soul and, for a while, find a lodgment there, so as to be
   your plague and torment. It may even crush you down, rob you of your
   comfort, injure your Graces and create war to the detriment of your
   peace, but it shall not have dominion over you!

   Those of you who are acquainted with John Bunyan's, "Holy War," will
   remember how wonderfully the glorious dreamer describes Diabolus
   besieging the town of Mansoul after it had been occupied by the Prince
   Immanuel. After many battles and cunning plots, the enemy entered into
   the city, filled all the streets with the yells of his followers and
   polluted the whole place with the presence of his hosts. But yet he
   could not take the castle in the center of the town, which held out for
   Immanuel. That castle was the heart and he could, by no means, secure a
   footing in it. He beat his big Hell drum almost day and night around
   the walls, so that those who had fled to the castle had a very terrible
   time of it. And he set all his huge machinery to work to batter down
   the walls, but he could not enter.

   No, sin may, for a while, seem to prevail in the Believer till he has
   no rest and is sorely beset, hearing nothing but the devil's tattoo
   sounding in his ears--"Sin, sin, sin"--but nevertheless sin shall not
   have dominion over him! Sin may haunt your bed and board and follow you
   down the streets in your walks. It may enter the very room into which
   you withdraw to pray--but your inmost self shall still cry out against
   it, for, "sin shall not have dominion over you." Sin may vex you and
   thrust itself upon you, but it cannot become your lord! The devil has
   great wrath and rages horribly for a while, knowing that his time is
   short, but he shall be subdued and expelled, for the Lord our God gives
   us the victory through Jesus Christ.

   Sometimes, alas, sin not only enters us, but prevails over us and we
   are forced, in deep anguish, to confess that we have fallen beneath its
   power. It is terrible that it should be so, even for a moment, and yet
   it would be idle to deny the mournful fact. Who among us can say, "I am
   clean, I have not sinned"? Still, a temporary defeat is not sufficient
   to effect a total subjugation. Sin shall not have dominion over the
   Believer, for though he falls he shall rise again. The child of God,
   when he falls into the mire, is like the sheep which gets up and
   escapes from the ditch as quickly as possible. It is not his nature to
   lie there. The ungodly man is like the hog which rolls in the filth and
   wallows in it with delight. The mire

   has dominion over the swine, but it has none over the sheep! With many
   bleatings and outcries the sheep seeks the shepherd again, but not so
   the swine.

   Every child of God weeps, mourns and bemoans his sin and he hates it
   even when, for a while, he has been overtaken by it--and this is proof
   that sin has not dominion over him. It has an awful power, but it has
   not dominion--it casts us down, but it cannot make us take delight in
   its evil. There are times when the Believer greatly feels his danger.
   His feet have almost gone, his steps have well near slipped! Then how
   sweetly does this assurance come to the soul, "Sin shall not have
   dominion over you." The Lord is able to keep you from falling and you
   shall be preserved even to the end! This assurance secures us from a
   very great danger--from the danger of being under the absolute sway of
   sin.

   What is meant by sin having dominion? Look and see. There are men who
   live in sin and yet they do not appear to know it. Sin has dominion
   over them by spreading a veil over their hearts, so that their
   conscience is deadened. They are so enslaved as to be content in
   bondage. You shall not be so--you shall be enlightened and instructed
   so that when you sin you shall be well aware of it. Self-excuse shall
   be impossible for you. Many men live in gross sin and are not ashamed.
   They are at ease in it and all is quiet. But it shall not be so with
   you, in whom the life of God has been implanted. If you do wrong, you
   shall smart for it and your nest shall be stuffed with thorns.

   God has so changed your nature by His Grace that when you sin you shall
   be like a fish on dry land. You shall be out of your element and long
   to get into a right state again. You cannot sin, for you love God! The
   sinner may drink sin down as the ox drinks down water, but to you it
   shall be as the brine of the sea. You may become so foolish as to try
   the pleasures of the world, but they shall be no pleasures to you--you
   shall cry out with Solomon, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." That
   marvelous man tried the world at its best and was disappointed! And you
   may be quite sure that where he failed, you will not succeed.

   If the Lord loves you, sin will never yield you satisfaction. In
   worldly company you shall be all the while like a man who sits upon
   thorns, or walks amid vipers and cobras. And in worldly amusement you
   shall feel as if the house would fall upon you. An ungodly man under
   the dominion of sin loves sin, but that you shall never do. He wishes
   he could sin more, for he has upon him the thirst of intoxication! But
   as for you, you shall never be made happy by evil, but shall groan
   under it if you ever yield to its power. You shall hate yourself to
   think you ever consented to its solicitations! You shall be wretched
   and unhappy and shall find no rest till you return to your Lord. Your
   nature has been so changed that you cannot give a moment's
   entertainment to sin without feeling like one who carries burning coals
   in his bosom, or thrusts thorns into his flesh.

   No, Beloved, if you are, indeed, a Believer in Christ, you must fight
   with sin till you die! And, what is more, you must conquer it in the
   name of the Lord. You are sometimes afraid that it will vanquish you,
   but if you are of the true seed it cannot prevail. Like Samson, you
   shall break all its bands. You shall rise superior to habits which now
   enthrall you! You shall even forget those strong impulses which now
   sweep you before them. Your inward Graces shall gather force, while the
   Holy Spirit shall help your infirmities and you shall be changed from
   glory to glory as by the Presence of the Lord. This assurance is
   confirmed by the context--"Sin shall not have dominion over you,"
   because you are dead to it by virtue of your union to Christ.

   You died with Christ and you have been buried with Christ--how, then,
   shall sin have dominion over you? Besides, you live in Christ in
   newness of life by reason of His living in you! How can the new nature
   live in sin? How can that which is born of God live like that which is
   born of the devil? No, no, it cannot be! Christ has undertaken to save
   you from your sins and He will do it--He will keep you watchful,
   prayerful, vigilant--He will instruct you in His Word. He will help you
   by His Spirit. He will perfect you in Himself. You are bound for
   victory and you shall have it! Thanks be unto God who gives it to you
   through Jesus Christ our Lord. "Sin shall not have dominion over you."

   III. Now I come to my last head, which is THE REMARKABLE REASON that is
   given for sin's never having dominion: "For you are not under the Law,
   but under Grace." "There, there," says many an unconverted man, "did
   you ever hear such doctrine as he has been preaching to us this
   morning? Not under the Law?! Well, then, we may sin as we like." That
   is your logic. That is the way in which an evil heart sours the sweet
   milk of the Word of God. But it is not the argument of a child of God.

   Mark how Paul puts it--"What then? Shall we sin, because we are not
   under the Law, but under Grace? God forbid!" He flings away the
   inference with horror and detestation, crying, "God forbid!" Let me
   just show you why

   being under the Law is not helpful to holiness, while being under Grace
   is the great means of it. Those who are under the Law will always be
   under the dominion of sin and it cannot be otherwise. First, because
   the Law puts a man under the dominion of sin by pronouncing sentence of
   condemnation upon him as soon as he has transgressed.

   What does the Law say to him? "From this point on you are guilty and I
   condemn you. He that offends in one point is guilty of all." Thus the
   Law shuts a man up to being a sinner and offers him no space for
   repentance. It accuses, condemns and sentences--but affords no hope and
   offers no encouragement. It is not so with those who are under Grace!
   To them Grace says, "You are sinners, but you are freely forgiven. Your
   iniquity is pardoned, your transgression is put away! Go, and sin no
   more." Thus relieved, the penitent lifts up his head and cries, "Enable
   me to praise You and grant that I may be upheld by Grace in the way of
   uprightness." The amazing love of God, when shed abroad in the heart,
   creates a desire for better things and what the Law could not do, Grace
   accomplishes.

   A man under the Law is, by the Law, driven to despair. "What?" he asks,
   "Am I to keep this Law in order to be saved? Alas, I have already
   broken it and if I had not, it is too high and holy for me to rise to
   its full height." Therefore he resolves that he will not attempt the
   task and he sinks into indifference or, in some cases, he thinks of the
   old proverb that you may as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb and he
   resolves that he will take his fill of sin. Because there is no hope,
   he will plunge into iniquity. He vows that if Hell must be his portion
   forever, he might as well enjoy the sweetness there is in sin while he
   may. So the Law, because of the evil heart it has to deal with, excites
   such a condition of heart that sin is confirmed in its dominion. Being
   threatened, the rebellious heart hardens itself and defies the Lord.
   And then, concluding that peace is impossible, it continues more and
   more to fight against the Lord.

   Not so the child of God! He says, "God, for Christ's sake, has cast my
   sins behind His back and I am saved. Now, for the love I bear His name,
   I will serve Him with all my might, because of all that He has done for
   me." Thus the Grace of our Lord Jesus, by its freeness and richness,
   breaks the dominion of sin which the Law only served to establish and
   confirm. Not that the Law is evil--God forbid! But because we are evil
   and rebel against the holy Law! A man under the Law does not escape
   from the dominion of sin because the Law wakes the opposition of the
   human heart. There are a great many things which people never wish to
   do, nor think of doing till they are forbidden.

   Lock up a closet in your house and say to your wife and children, "You
   must never enter that closet, nor even look into the keyhole." Perhaps
   they have never wanted to look into the dingy old corner before, but
   now they pine to inspect it! A number of bylaws have lately been posted
   up as to the use of Clapham-Common and I am half afraid to read them
   for fear I should want to break them. I dare say that many things which
   I never desired to do are now strictly prohibited and I shall feel
   vexed with the commissioners for lessening my liberty! I should not
   wonder but what numbers of persons who never visited the Common, will
   now become sinners against the new laws.

   Law, by reason of our unruly nature, excites opposition and creates
   sin, for what a man may not do he immediately wants to do. He who is
   under the Law will never escape from the dominion of sin, for sin comes
   by the Law by reason of the iniquity of our hearts. But when we are not
   under the Law, but under Grace, we love God for His love to us and
   labor to please Him in all things. The Law, moreover. affords a man no
   actual help. All it does is to say, "You shall," and, "You shall not."
   It can do no more. But Grace gives us what the Law requires of us. The
   Law says, "make a new heart." Grace replies, "A new heart, also, will I
   give you, and a right spirit will I put within you." The Law says,
   "Keep My Commandments." And Grace answers, "You shall keep My
   Commandments and do them."

   Grace brings the Holy Spirit into the soul to work in us holy
   affections and a hatred of sin and, therefore, what the Law could not
   do, in that it was weak through the flesh, Grace accomplishes for us by
   its own almighty power! Further, the Law inspires no sentiment of love
   and love, after all, is the fulfilling of the Law. If you are told you
   shall and you shall not, there is nothing in this to inspire love to
   the Lawgiver--Law is hard and cold, like the two tables of Moses. Law
   does not change the heart or remove enmity--it tends, rather, the other
   way. Law never excites enthusiasm for that which is right--it is too
   stern and chill to touch the heart.

   Mere Law does not even raise in a man's heart a high ideal of what he
   ought to be! Look at the legalist, the man who hopes for salvation by
   the Law--he looks upon religion as a task in which he has no delight.
   He is a bond slave and nothing more. He does as much or as little as he
   is forced to do, but his heart is not in it. The men who think they
   have kept the Law of God are evidently very far from understanding its
   meaning--they have a very poor idea of the mind of

   God or they would not have thought that they had fulfilled the will of
   God with such a poor, miserable, hypocritical righteousness as theirs!

   The Pharisee thought he had kept the Law, for he fasted twice a week
   and paid tithes of all he possessed. And yet the same man could go and
   swallow a widow's house behind the door and do all sorts of abominable
   things! It is clear that he had formed a shockingly low notion of true
   holiness. In fact, he had degraded the Law into a mere external
   ordinance which took note of the outside of the cup and platter and
   left the inside full of filthiness. But see what Grace does--it fires a
   man with enthusiasm and sets before him a lofty idea of excellence. It
   causes him to love the Lord and then it gives him a high idea of purity
   and holiness.

   Though he rises many grades beyond the Pharisee, yet the Believer
   cries, "I am not what I should be!" And if he becomes the most zealous,
   consecrated man that ever lived, the Law is still beyond him and he
   still asks that he may be able to rise to greater heights of holiness
   and virtue. This Divine Grace does, but this the Law can never do. The
   most pleasing service in the world is that which is done from motives
   of affection and not for wages. The servant who only does his work for
   his pay is not valued like the old attached domestic who nursed you
   when you were a boy and waited on your father before you. No money can
   purchase such service as he renders--it is so thoroughly hearty and
   prompt. If you could not afford to pay his wages, he would still stay
   with you. And if anything goes awry, he puts up with it because he
   loves you. You prize such a man above rubies!

   So it is with the child of God. The mere legalist does what he ought,
   or at least thinks he ought to do--but as for heartiness and zeal, he
   knows nothing of such things. The child of God, with all his feebleness
   and his blunders, is far more accepted, for he does all he can out of
   pure love and then cries, "I am an unprofitable servant! I have done no
   more than was my duty to have done! Lord, help me to do more." God
   accepts heart service, but heart service the Law never did produce and
   never will. The only true heart service in the world comes from those
   who are not under the Law, but under Grace and, therefore, sin shall
   not have dominion over those who are not under the Law.

   The spirit of the world is legal and its wise men tell us that we must
   preach to people that they must be virtuous or they will go to Hell.
   They tell us that we must hold out Heaven as the reward of morality.
   They believe in the principle of chain and whip. But what comes of such
   doctrine? The more you preach it, the less virtue, the less obedience
   there is in the world! But when you preach love, the effect is very
   different--"Come," says God, "I forgive you freely. Trust My Son and I
   will save you outright, though in you there is nothing to merit My
   esteem. Accept My free favor and I will receive you graciously and love
   you freely."

   This looks, at first sight, as if it gave a license to sin, but how
   does it turn out? Why, this wondrous Grace taking possession of the
   human heart breeds love in return, which love becomes the fountain of
   purity and holiness--and such as receive it endeavor to perfect
   holiness in the fear of God! Beloved, do not get under the Law! Do not
   yield to legal threats or legal hopes, but live under the Free Grace
   Gospel. Let the note that peals on your ears be no longer the thunder
   of Sinai, "Do and live," but let it be the sweet song of free Grace and
   dying love!

   Ah, ring those charming bells from morn till eve! Let us hear their
   liquid music again and again! Live and do! Not do and live--not work
   for salvation, but being saved, work! Being already delivered, go forth
   and prove, by your grateful affections and zealous actions, what the
   Grace of God has done for you! "Whoever believes in Jesus Christ has
   everlasting life." "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved,
   but he that believes not shall be damned." Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Under Constraint

   (No. 1411)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, APRIL 28, 1878,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "For the love of Christ constrains us; because we thus judge, that if
   One died for all, then were all dead." 2 Corinthians 5:14.

   THE Apostle and his brethren were unselfish in all that they did. He
   could say of himself and of his brethren that when they varied their
   modes of action they always had the same objective in view--they lived
   only to promote the cause of Christ and to bless the souls of men. He
   says, "Whether we are beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we are
   sober, it is for your cause." Some may have said that Paul was too
   excitable and expressed himself too strongly. "Well," he said, "if it
   is so, it is to God." Others may have noticed the reasoning faculty to
   be exceedingly strong in Paul and may, perhaps, have thought him to be
   too coolly argumentative. "But," said Paul, "if we are sober, it is for
   your cause." Viewed from some points the Apostle and his co-laborers
   must have appeared to be raving fanatics, engaged upon a Quixotic
   enterprise and almost, if not quite, out of their minds.

   One who had heard the Apostle tell the story of his conversion
   exclaimed, "Paul, you are beside yourself; much learning does make you
   mad," and no doubt many who saw the singular change in his conduct and
   knew what he had given up and what he endured for his new faith had
   come to the same conclusion. Paul would not be at all offended by this
   judgment, for he would remember that his Lord and Master had been
   charged with madness and that even our Lord's relatives had said, "He
   is beside Himself." To Festus he had replied, "I am not mad, most noble
   Festus; but speak forth the words of truth and soberness."

   And to Corinthian objectors he gave a still fuller reply. Blessed are
   they who are charged with being out of their mind through zeal for the
   cause of Jesus! They have a more than sufficient answer when they can
   say, "If we are beside ourselves, it is to God." It is no unusual thing
   for madmen to think others mad and no strange thing for a mad world to
   accuse the only morally sane among men of being fools and lunatics! But
   Wisdom is justified of her children. If others assailed the Apostle
   with another charge and insinuated that there was a method in his
   madness--that his being all things to all men showed an excess of
   prudence--and was no doubt a means to an end, which end it is possible
   they hinted at was a desire for power, he could reply most
   conclusively, "If we are sober, it is for your cause."

   Paul had acted so unselfishly that he could appeal to the Corinthian
   Church and ask them to bear him witness that he sought not theirs but
   them. And that if he had judged their disorders with great sobriety it
   was for their cause. Whatever he did, or felt, or suffered, or spoke,
   he had but one design in it--the Glory of God in the perfecting of
   Believers and the salvation of sinners. Every Christian minister ought
   to be able to use the Apostle's words without the slightest reserve.
   Yes, and every Christian should be able to say the same--"If I am
   excited, it is in defense of the Truth of God. If I am sober, it is for
   the maintenance of holiness. If I seem extravagant, it is because the
   name of Jesus stirs my inmost soul-- and if I am moderate in spirit and
   thoughtful in mood--it is that I may in the wisest manner subserve the
   interests of my Redeemer's kingdom."

   God grant that weeping or singing, anxious or hopeful, victorious or
   defeated, increasing or decreasing, elevated or depressed we may still
   follow our one design and devote ourselves to the holy cause! May we
   live to see Churches made up of people who are all set on one thing and
   may those Churches have ministers who are fit to lead such a people
   because they, also, are mastered by the same sacred purpose. May the
   fire which fell of old on Carmel fall on our altar, whereon lies the
   sacrifice, wetted a second and a third time from the salt sea of the
   world, until it shall consume the burnt sacrifice and the wood, the
   stones and the dust--and lick up the water that is in the trench. Then
   will all the people see it and fall upon their faces, and cry, "The
   Lord! He is God! The Lord, He is God!"

   The Apostle now goes on to tell us why it was that the whole conduct of
   himself and his co-laborers tended to one end and objective. He says,
   "The love of Christ constrains us, because we thus judge, that if One
   died for all, then the all died." I give you here as exact a
   translation as I can. Two things I shall note in the text--first, under
   constraint. Secondly, under constraint which his understanding
   justified.

   I. Our main point will come under the head, "UNDER CONSTRAINT. Here is
   the Apostle, a man who was born free, a man who beyond all others
   enjoyed the greatest spiritual liberty--glorying that he is under
   constraint! He was under constraint because a great force held him
   under its power. "The love of Christ constrains us." I suppose,
   "constrains us," is about the best rendering of the passage that could
   be given, but it might be translated, "restrains." The love of Christ
   restrains true Believers from self-seeking and forbids them to pursue
   any objective but the highest. Whether they were beside themselves or
   sober, the early saints yielded to Divine restraint, even as a good
   ship answers to her helm or as a horse obeys the rein.

   They were not without a restraining force to prevent the slightest
   subjection to impure motives. The love of Christ controlled them and
   held them under its power. But the word, "restrained," only expresses a
   part of the sense, for it means that he was, "coerced or pressed," and
   so impelled forward as one carried along by pressure. All around him
   the love of Christ pressed upon him as the water in a river presses
   upon a swimmer and bears him onward with its stream. Bengel, who is a
   great authority, reads it, "Keeps us employed," for we are led to
   diligence, urged to zeal, maintained in perseverance and carried
   forward and onward by the love of Jesus Christ. The Apostles labored
   much, but all their labor sprang from the impulse of the love of Jesus
   Christ.

   Just as Jacob toiled for Rachel solely out of love to her, so do true
   saints serve the Lord Jesus under the Omnipotent constraint of love.
   One eminent expositor reads the word, "constrains us," as though it
   signified that the Lord's servants were kept together and held as a
   band under a banner or standard. And he very appropriately refers to
   the words of the Church in the Song of Songs, "His banner over me was
   love." As soldiers are held together by rallying to the standard, so
   are the saints kept to the work and service of their Lord by the love
   of Christ which constrains them to endure all things for the elect's
   sake and for the Glory of God--and like an ensign--is lifted high as
   the center and loadstone of all their energies. In our Lord's love we
   have the best motive for loyalty, the best reason for energy and the
   best argument for perseverance!

   The word may also signify, "compressed," and then it would mean that
   all their energies were pressed into one channel and made to move by
   the love of Christ. Can I put restraint and constraint, and all the
   rest, into one by grouping them in a figure? I think I can. When a
   flood is spread over an expanse of meadow land and stands in shallow
   pools, men restrain it by damming it up--and they constrain it to keep
   to one channel by banking it in! Thus compressed it becomes a stream
   and moves with force in one direction. See how it quickens its pace!
   See what strength it gathers! It turns yonder wheel of the mill, makes
   a sheep wash, leaps as a waterfall, runs laughing through a village as
   a brook where the cattle stand in the summer's sun. Growing all the
   while, it develops into a river, bearing boats and little ships! And
   this done, it still increases and stays not till it flows with mighty
   flood into the great sea.

   The love of Christ had pressed Paul's energies into one force, turned
   them into one channel and then driven them forward with a wonderful
   force till he and his fellows had become a mighty power for
   good--always active and energetic. "The love of Christ," he says,
   "constrains us." All great lives have been under the constraint of some
   mastering principle. A man who is everything by turns and nothing long,
   is a nobody! A man who wastes life on whims and fancies, leisure and
   pleasures, never achieves anything! He flits over the surface of life
   and leaves no more trace upon his age than a bird upon the sky. But a
   man, even for mischief, becomes great when he becomes concentrated.

   What made the young prince of Macedon, Alexander the Great, but the
   absorption of his whole mind in the desire for conquest? The man was
   never happy when he was at ease and in peace. His best days were spent
   on the battlefield or on the march. Let him rush to the front of the
   battle and make the common soldier grow into a hero by observing the
   desperate valor of his king--and then you see the greatness of the man!
   He could never have been the conqueror of the world if the insatiable
   greed of conquest had not constrained him. From this come your Caesars
   and your Napoleons-- they are whole men in their ambition, subject to
   the lust of dominion.

   When you carry this thought into a better and holier sphere, the same
   fact is clear. Howard could never have been the great philanthropist if
   he had not been strangely under the witchery of love to prisoners. He
   was more happy in a

   hospital or in a prison than he would have been at Court or on the sofa
   of the drawing room. The man could not help visiting jails--he was a
   captive to his sympathy for men in bondage--and so he spent his life in
   seeking their good. Look at such a man as Whitfield or his associate,
   Wesley. Those men had but one thought and that was to win souls for
   Christ--their whole being ran into the one riverbed of zeal for God and
   made them full and strong as the rushing Rhone. It was their rest to
   labor for Christ! It was their honor to be pelted while preaching and
   to be maligned for the name of Jesus! A bishopric and a seat in the
   House of Lords would have been the death of them! Even a throne would
   have been a rack if they must have ceased hunting for souls.

   The men were under the dominion of a passion which they could not
   withstand and did not wish to weaken. They could sing--

   "The lo ve of Christ does me constrain To seek the wandering souls of
   men! With cries, entreaties, tears, to save, To snatch them from the
   fiery wave." Their whole life, being, thought, faculty, spirit, soul
   and body became one and indivisible in purpose. And their sanctified
   manhood was driven forward irresistibly so that they might be likened
   to thunderbolts flung from the eternal hand which must go forward till
   their end is reached. They could no more cease to preach than the sun
   could cease shining or reverse his course in the heavens!

   This kind of constraint implies no compulsion and involves no bondage.
   It is the highest order of freedom, for when a man does exactly what he
   likes to do, if he wants to express the enthusiastic joy and delight
   with which he follows his pursuit, he generally uses language similar
   to that of my text. "Why," he says, "I am engrossed by my favorite
   study. It quite enthralls me. I cannot resist its charms, it holds me
   beneath its spell." Is the man any the less free? If a man gives
   himself up to a science, or to some other pursuit, though he is
   perfectly free to leave it whenever he likes, he will commonly declare
   that he cannot leave it--it has such a hold upon him that he addicts
   himself to it!

   You must not think, therefore, that when we speak of being under
   constraint from the love of Christ we mean, by it, that we have ceased
   to exercise our wills, or to be voluntary agents in our service. Far
   from it! In fact, we acknowledge that we are never so free as when we
   are under bonds to Christ! No, our God does not constrain us by
   physical force. His cords are those of love and His bands are those of
   a man. The constraint is that which we are glad to feel--we give a full
   assent to its pressure--and therein lies its power. We rejoice to admit
   that, "The love of Christ constrains us!" We only wish the constraint
   would increase every day.

   We have seen that Paul had a great force holding him--we advance a step
   further and note that the constraining force was the love of Christ. He
   does not speak of his love to Christ--that was a great power, too,
   though secondary to the first. But he is content to mention the
   greater, for it includes the less--"The love of Christ constrains us,"
   that is, Christ's love to us is the master force! And O, Brothers and
   Sisters, this is a power to which it is joy to submit! This is a force
   worthy to command the greatest minds! "The love of Christ." Who shall
   measure this Omnipotent force? That love, according to our text, is
   strongest when seen in His dying for men. Mark the context, "because we
   thus judge, that if One died for all." The peculiar display of the love
   of Christ which had supreme sway over Paul was the love revealed in His
   substitutionary death!

   Think of it a moment. Christ the Ever-Blessed, to whom no pain, nor
   suffering, nor shame could come, loved men! O singularity of love! He
   loves guilty men, yes, loves His enemies! Loving poor fallen men, He
   took their nature and became a Man. Marvelous condescension! The Son of
   God is also Son of Mary and, being found in fashion as a Man, He
   humbles Himself and is made of no reputation. See Him taken before
   human judges and unjustly condemned! Seized by Roman lictors and lashed
   with the scourge! Gazing a little longer, you see Him nailed to a
   cross, hung up for a felon, left amid jeer and jibe and cruel glance
   and malicious speech to bleed away His life till He is actually dead
   and laid in the grave!

   At the back of all this there is the mystery that He was not only
   dying, but dying in the place of others, bearing almighty wrath,
   enduring that dread sentence of death which is attached to human sin.
   Herein is love, indeed, that the infinitely Pure should suffer for the
   sinful, the Just for the unjust, to bring us to God! Love did never
   climb to so sublime a height as when it brought Jesus to the bloody
   tree to bear the dread sentence of inexorable Law! Think of this love,
   Beloved, till you feel its constraining influence!

   It was love eternal, for long before the earth was fashioned, the
   eternal Word had set His eyes upon His people and their names were
   engraved on His heart. It was love unselfish, for He had nothing to
   gain from His redeemed--there were harps enough in Heaven and songs
   enough in the celestial city without their music! It was love most free
   and spontaneous, for no man sought it or so much as dreamed of it! It
   was love most persevering, for when man was born into the world and
   sinned and rejected Christ--and He came to His own and His own received
   Him not--He loved them still, loved them even to the end. It was
   love--what shall I say of it? If I were to multiply words I might
   rather sink your thoughts than raise them!

   It was love infinite, immeasurable, inconceivable! It surpasses the
   love of women, though the love of mothers is strong as death and
   jealousy is cruel as the grave. It passes the love of martyrs, though
   that love has triumphed over the fury of the flame. All other lights of
   love pale in their ineffectual brightness before this blazing sun of
   love, whose warmth a man may feel but upon whose utmost light no eye
   can gaze! He loved us like a God! It was nothing less than God's own
   love which burned within that breast which was bared to the spear that
   it might redeem us from going down into the Pit! It is this force,
   then, which has taken possession of the Christian's mind and, as Paul
   says, "constrains us."

   Now we may advance another step and say that the love of Christ
   operates upon us by begetting in us love to Him. Brothers and Sisters,
   I know you love our Lord Jesus Christ, for all His people love Him. "We
   love Him because He first loved us." But what shall I say? There are
   scarcely any themes upon which I feel less able to speak than these
   two--the love of Christ to us and our love to Him--because somehow love
   needs a tongue elsewhere than this which dwells in the mouth. This
   tongue is in the head and it can therefore tell out our thoughts--but
   we need a tongue in the heart to tell out our emotions which have now
   to borrow utterance from the brain's defective orator.

   There is a long space between the cool brain and the blazing heart--and
   matters cool on the road to the tongue, so that the burning heart grows
   weary of chill words. But oh, we love Jesus! Brothers and Sisters, we
   truly love Him! His name is sweet as the honeycomb and His Word is
   precious as the gold of Ophir. His Person is very dear to us--from His
   head to His feet He is altogether lovely. When we get near Him and see
   Him at the last, I think we shall swoon away with excess of joy at the
   sight of Him and I, for one, ask no Heaven beyond a sight of Him and a
   sense of His love! I do not doubt that we shall enjoy all the
   harmonies, all the honors and all the fellowships of Heaven, but if
   they were all blotted out, I do not know that they would make any
   considerable difference to us if we may but see our Lord upon His
   throne, and have His own prayer fulfilled, "Father, I will that they,
   also, whom You have given Me be with Me where I am, that they may
   behold My Glory." He is happiness to us, yes, He is All in All!

   Do you not feel that the sweetest sermons you ever hear are those which
   are fullest of Him? When I can sometimes hear a sermon, it sickens me
   to listen to fine attempts to philosophize away the Gospel, or to
   pretty essays which are best described as a jingle of elegant words.
   But I can hear with rapture the most illiterate and blundering Brother
   if his heart burns within him and he heartily speaks of my Lord, the
   Well-Beloved of my soul! We are glad to be in the place of assembly
   when Jesus is within, for whether on Tabor with two or three, or in the
   congregation of the faithful--when Jesus is present it is good to be
   there.

   This joyful feeling, when you hear about Jesus, shows that you love Him
   and your endeavors to spread the Gospel show that you love His cause.
   The love of Christ to you has moved you to desire the coming of His
   kingdom and you feel that you could give your life to extend the
   borders of His dominions! He is a glorious King and all the world
   should know it! Oh that we could see all the nations bowing before His
   scepter of peace! We love Him so much that till the whole earth smiles
   in the light of His throne, we can never rest. As to His Truth, a very
   great part of our love to Christ will show itself by attachment to the
   pure Gospel. I have not much patience with a certain class of
   Christians, nowadays, who will hear anybody preach so long as they can
   say, "He is very clever, a fine preacher, a man of genius, a born
   orator."

   Is cleverness to make false doctrine palatable? Why, Sirs, to me the
   ability of a man who preaches error is my sorrow rather than my
   admiration! I cannot endure false doctrine, however neatly it may be
   put before me. Would you have me eat poisoned meat because the dish is
   of the choicest ware? It makes me indignant when I hear another gospel
   put before the people with enticing words by men who would gladly make
   merchandise of souls! And I marvel at those who have soft words for
   such deceivers.

   "That is your bigotry," says one. Call it so if you like, but it is the
   bigotry of the loving John who wrote--"If there come any unto you and
   bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid
   him God speed: for he that

   bids him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds." I would to God we
   had all more of such decision, for the lack of it is depriving our
   religious life of its backbone and substituting for honest manliness a
   mass of the tremulous jelly of mutual flattery. He who does not hate
   the false does not love the true! And he to whom it is all the same
   whether it is God's Word or man's, is himself unrenewed at heart! Oh,
   if some of you were like your fathers, you would not have tolerated in
   this age the wagon loads of trash under which the Gospel has been of
   late buried by ministers of your own choosing! You would have hurled
   out of your pulpits the men who are enemies to the fundamental
   doctrines of your Churches and yet are crafty enough to become your
   pastors and undermine the faith of a fickle and superficial generation!
   These men steal the pulpits of once orthodox Churches because otherwise
   they would have none at all!

   Their powerless theology cannot, of itself, arouse sufficient
   enthusiasm to enable them to build a mousetrap at the expense of their
   admirers and, therefore, they profane the houses which your fathers
   have built for the preaching of the Gospel and turn aside the
   organizations of once orthodox communities to help their infidelity! I
   call it by that name in plain English, for "modern thought" is not one
   whit better--and of the two evils I give infidelity the palm, for it is
   less deceptive. I beg the Lord to give back to the Churches such a love
   to His Truth that they may discern the spirits and cast out those which
   are not of God.

   I feel sometimes like John, of whom it is said that though the most
   loving of all spirits, yet he was the most decided of all men for the
   Truth of God. Once when he went to the bath and found that the heretic,
   Cerinthus, was there, he hurried out of the building and would not
   tarry in the same place with him! There are some with whom we should
   have no fellowship! No, not so much as to eat bread! And though this
   conduct looks stern and hard, it is after the mind of Christ, for the
   Apostle spoke by Inspiration when he said, "If we, or an angel from
   Heaven preach to you any other Gospel than that which you have
   received, let him be accursed." According to modern efficiency he ought
   to have said, "Let him be kindly spoken with in private, but pray make
   no stir! No doubt the thought was original and we must not question his
   liberty. Doubtless, he believes the same as we do, only there is some
   little difference as to terms."

   This is treason to Christ, treachery to the Truth of God and cruelty to
   souls! If we love our Lord we shall keep His Words and stand fast in
   the faith, coming out from among the false teachers! Nor is this
   inconsistent with charity, for the truest love to those who err is not
   to fraternize with them in their error, but to be faithful to Jesus in
   all things! The love of Jesus Christ creates in men a deep attachment
   to the Gospel, especially to the doctrines which cluster around the
   Person of our Lord. And I think more especially to that doctrine which
   is the cornerstone of all, namely, that Christ died in the place of
   men. He who touches the doctrine of Substitution, touches the apple of
   our eye! He who denies it, robs our soul of her only hope, for there we
   gather all our consolation for the present and our expectation for days
   to come. A great force, then, held the Apostle--that force was the love
   of Christ--and it worked in Him love to Christ in return!

   Now, this force acts proportionately in Believers. It acts in every
   Christian more or less, but it differs in degree. We are all of us,
   alive, but the vigor of life differs greatly in the consumptive and the
   athletic--and so the love of Jesus acts upon all regenerate men, but
   not to the same extent. When a man is perfectly swayed by the love of
   Christ, he will be a perfect Christian. When a man is growingly under
   its influence, he is a growing Christian. When a man is sincerely
   affected by the love of Christ, he is a sincere Christian. But he in
   whom the love of Christ has no power whatever is not a Christian at
   all. "I thought," says one, "that believing was the main point." True,
   but faith works by love and if your faith does not work by love it is
   not the faith which will save the soul.

   Love never fails to bloom where faith has taken root. Beloved, you will
   feel the power of the love of Christ in your soul in proportion to the
   following points. In proportion as you know it. Study, then, the love
   of Christ--search deep and learn its secrets. Angels desire to look
   into it. Observe its eternity--without beginning. Its
   immutability--without change. Its infinity--without measure. Its
   eternity--without end. Think much of the love of Christ, till you
   comprehend with all saints what are its breadths and lengths. And as
   you know it, you will begin to feel its power. Its power will also be
   in proportion to your sense of it. Do you feel the love of God shed
   abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit? Knowing is well, but enjoyment
   as the result of believing is better! Does it not sometimes force the
   tears from your eyes to think that Jesus loved you and gave Himself for
   you?

   On the other hand, does it not at times make you feel as if, like
   David, you could dance before the ark of the Lord, to think that the
   love of God should ever have been set on you--that Christ should die
   for you? Ah, think and think again--for you the bloody sweat, for you
   the crown of thorns, for you the nails, the spear, the wounds, the
   broken

   heart--all, all for love of you who were His enemy! In proportion as
   your heart is tender and is sensitive to this love, it will become a
   constraining influence in your whole life. The force of this influence
   will also depend very much upon the Divine Grace which dwells within
   you. You may measure your Grace by the power which the love of Christ
   has over you. Those who dwell near their Lord are so conscious of His
   power over them that the very glances of His eyes fill them with holy
   ardor. If you have much Grace you will be greatly moved by the love
   which gave you that Grace and made you wondrously sensitive to it. But
   he who has little Grace, as is the case with not a few, can read the
   story of the Cross without emotion, and can contemplate Jesus' death
   without feeling. God deliver us from a cold and hard marble heart!

   Character also has much to do with the measure in which we feel the
   constraint of Jesus' love. The more Christ-like the more
   Christ-constrained. You must become, dear Brothers and Sisters, by
   prayer through the Holy Spirit, to be like Jesus Christ. And when you
   do, His love will take fuller possession of you than it does at this
   moment and you will be more manifestly under its constraining power.
   Our last point upon this head is that wherever its energy is felt it
   will operate after its kind. Forces work according to their nature--the
   force of love creates love--and the love of Christ begets a kindred
   love. He who feels Christ's love acts as Christ acted. If you really
   feel the love of Christ in making a sacrifice of Himself you will make
   a sacrifice of yourself. "Hereby perceive we the love of God, because
   He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for
   the brethren."

   We shall, for our Lord's sake, count all things but dross for the
   excellency of His knowledge. O Soul, you will have no choice left after
   you have once known and chosen your Lord! If that road leads to wealth,
   but if it does not glorify Christ, you will at once say, "Farewell
   wealth." That road leads to honor--you will be famous if you will take
   that path. But if it will bring no glory to Christ, if you feel the
   power of His love in your soul, you will say, "Farewell honor! I will
   embrace shame for Christ, for my one thought is to sacrifice myself for
   Him who sacrificed Himself for me." If the love of Christ constrains
   you, it will make you love others, for His was love to others, love to
   those who could do Him no service, who deserved nothing at His hands.
   If the love of Christ constrains you, you will specially love those who
   have no apparent claim upon you and cannot justly expect anything from
   you, but on the contrary deserve your censure. You will say, "I love
   them because the love of Christ constrains me."

   Dirty little creatures in the gutter. Filthy women polluting the
   streets. Base men who come out of jail merely to repeat their
   crimes--these are the fallen humanities whom we learn to love when the
   love of Christ constrains us! I do not know how else we could care for
   some poor creatures, if it were not that Jesus teaches us to despise
   none and despair of none. Those ungrateful creatures, those malicious
   creatures, those abominably blasphemous and profane creatures whom you
   sometimes meet with and shrink from--you are to love them because
   Christ loved the very chief of sinners! His love to you must be
   reflected in your love to the lowest and vilest. He is your Sun--be you
   as the moon to the world's night.

   The love of Jesus Christ was a practical love. He did not love in
   thought, only, and in word, but in deed and in truth--and if the love
   of Christ constrains us--we shall throw our souls into the work and
   service of love. We shall be really at work for men, giving alms of our
   substance, enduring our measure of suffering and making it clear that
   our Christianity is not mere talk, but downright work! We shall be like
   the bullock of the burnt offering, laid upon the altar to be wholly
   consumed. We shall consider nothing but how we can most completely be
   eaten up with the zeal of God's House, how without the reserve of one
   single faculty we may be entirely consumed in the service of our Lord
   and Master. May the Lord bring us to this!

   II. THE CONSTRAINT OF WHICH WE HAVE SPOKEN WAS JUSTIFIED BY THE
   APOSTLE'S

   UNDERSTANDING. "The love of Christ constrains us; because we thus
   judge." Love is blind. A man may say that in the affairs of love he
   exercises a calm discretion, but I take leave to doubt it. In love to
   Christ, however, you may be carried right away and be as blind as you
   like and yet you shall act according to the most sound judgment. The
   Apostle says warmly, "The love of Christ constrains us," and yet he
   adds with all coolness, "because we thus judge." When understanding is
   the basis of affection, then a man's heart is fixed and his conduct
   becomes in a high degree exemplary. So it is here.

   There is a firm basis of judgment--the man has weighed and judged the
   matter as much as if the heart were out of the question--but the
   logical conclusion is one of all-absorbing emotion and mastering
   affection as much as if the understanding had been left out of the
   question. His judgment was as the bronze altar, cold and hard, but on
   it he laid the coals of burning affection, vehement enough in their
   flame to consume everything. So it ought to be with us. Religion

   should be with a man a matter of intellect as well as of affection--and
   his understanding should always be able to justify the strongest
   possible passion of his soul, as the Apostle says it did in the case of
   himself and his brethren.

   They had reasons for all that they did. For, first, he recognized
   Substitution--"We thus judge, that if One died for all." O Brothers and
   Sisters, this is the very sinew of Christian effort--Christ died in the
   sinner's place! Christ is the Surety, the Sacrifice, the Substitute for
   men! If you take the doctrine of vicarious Sacrifice out of the
   Christian religion I protest that nothing is left worth calling a
   revelation! It is the heart, the head, the soul, the essence of our
   holy faith-- that the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all and
   with His stripes we are healed! The Apostle firmly believed this to be
   a matter of fact and then, out of his belief, there grew an intense
   love to Jesus, as well there might. Did Jesus stand in my place? Oh,
   how I love Him! Did He die for me? Then His love has mastered me and
   will always hold me as its willing captive! O sacred Substitute, I am
   Yours and all that I have!

   In the next place, he recognized union to Christ, for, he said, "If One
   died for all, then the all died," for so it runs, that is to say, the
   all for whom Christ died, died in His death. His dying in their place
   was their dying! He dies for them, they die in Him. He rises, they rise
   in Him. He lives, they live in Him. Now if it is really so, that you
   and I who have believed in Christ are one with Christ and members of
   His body, that Truth of God may be stated coolly, but like the flint,
   it conceals a fire within it! For if we died in Jesus, we are dead to
   the world, to self--to everything but our Lord! O Holy Spirit, work in
   us this death even to the fullest! The Apostle recognizes the natural
   consequence of union with the dying Lord and resolves to carry it out.

   Brothers and Sisters, when Adam sinned, we sinned. And we have felt the
   result of that fact--we were constituted sinners by the act of our
   first representative and every day we see it to be so. Every little
   child that is carried to the grave bears witness that death passes upon
   all men, for that all have sinned in Adam, even though they have not
   personally sinned after the similitude of his transgression. Now, just
   as our sin in Adam effectively operates upon us for evil, so must our
   death with Christ effectively operate upon our lives for good. It ought
   to do so. How can I live for myself? I died more than 18 centuries ago!
   I died and was buried! How can I live to the world? Eighteen hundred
   years ago and more the world hung me up as a malefactor--yes, and in my
   heart of hearts I have also crucified the world--and regard it as a
   dead malefactor. How shall I fall in love with a crucified world, or
   follow after its delights? We thus died with Christ.

   "Now," says the Apostle, "the love of Christ constrains us; because we
   thus judge, that if One died for all, then the all died." All who were
   in Christ, for whom He died, died when He died. And what follows from
   it but that they should not live unto themselves, but unto Him that
   died for them and rose again? We are one with Christ and what He did
   for us we did in Him and, therefore, we are dead because He died!
   Therefore we ought no longer to live in the old selfish way, but should
   live only to the Lord. This is the basis upon which the intellect rests
   and then the affections yield themselves to the sacred force of Jesus'
   dying love.

   I close with the following reflections, putting them very briefly. The
   first reflection is--how different is the inference of the Apostle from
   that of many professors. They say, "If Christ died once for all and so
   finished the work of my salvation, then I am saved and may sit down in
   comfort and enjoy myself, for there is no need for effort or thought."
   Ah, what a mercy to feel that you are saved and then to go to sleep in
   the corner of your pew! A converted man and, therefore, curled up upon
   the bed of sloth! A pretty sight, surely, but a very common one! Such
   people have but little or no feeling for others who remain unconverted.
   "The Lord will save His own," they say and they little care whether He
   does so or not. They appear to be dreadfully afraid of doing God's
   work, though there is not the slightest need for such a fear, since
   they will not even do their own work!

   These are presumptuous persons, strangers to the Grace of God, who know
   not that the main part of salvation lies in our being saved from
   selfishness and hardness of heart! It is the devil's inference that
   because Christ did so much for me I am now to do nothing for Him! I
   must even beg the devil's pardon, for I scarcely think that even he is
   base enough to draw such an inference from the Grace of God. Assuredly
   he has never been in a position to attempt so detestable a crime. It is
   to the last degree unutterably contemptible that a man who is indebted
   to the Lord Jesus Christ for so much should then make the only
   consequence of his indebtedness to be a selfish indolence! Never will a
   true child of God say, "Soul, take your ease. You are all
   right--nothing else matters!"

   Oh no! "The love of Christ constrains us." How much more ennobling,
   again, is such conduct as that of the Apostle than that of many
   professed Christians? I am not about to judge anyone, but I would beg
   you to judge yourselves. There

   are some and I would try to hope that they may be Christians--the Lord
   knows them that are His--who give to the cause of God, who serve God,
   after a fashion. But still, the main thought of their life is not
   Christ nor His service, but the gaining of wealth! That is their chief
   objective and towards it all their faculties are bent. There are other
   Church members--God forbid we should judge them--whose great thought is
   success in their profession. I am not condemning their having such a
   thought, but the chief ambition of the Apostle and of those like he was
   not this, but something higher! The chief aim of all of us should be
   nothing of self, but serving Christ! We are to be dead to everything
   but our Lord's Glory, living with this mark before us--this prize to be
   strained after--that Christ shall be glorified in our mortal bodies!

   In our business, in our studies, in everything, our slogan must be,
   Christ, Christ, Christ! Is it not a far more noble thing for a man to
   have lived wholly unto Christ than for mammon, or honor, or for himself
   in any shape or form? I speak as to wise men--judge what I say! Do you
   not think, also, that such a pursuit as this is much more peace-giving
   to the spirit? People will judge our conduct and they are sure to judge
   as severely as they can. If they see us zealous and self-denying they
   will say of us, "Why, the man is beside himself." This will not matter
   much to us if we can reply, "It is for God." Or if they say, "Oh, you
   old sober sides, how grave you are," we shall not be offended if we can
   reply, "Ah, but it is for the good of others that I am sober."

   You will be very little distressed by sharp criticisms if you know that
   your motive is wholly unselfish. If you live for Christ and for Christ,
   alone, all the carping of men or devils will never cast you down. Do
   you not think that a life spent for Jesus only is far more worth
   looking back upon at the last than any other? If you call yourselves
   Christians, how will you judge a life spent in making money? It cannot
   be very much longer before you must gather up your feet in the bed and
   resign your soul to God. Now, suppose yourself sitting in your chamber
   all alone, making out the final balance-sheet of your stewardship--how
   will it look if you have to confess, "I have been a Christian
   professor. My conduct has been outwardly decent and respectable, but my
   chief purpose was not my Master's Glory. I have lived with the view of
   scraping together so many thousands and I have done it."

   Would you like to fall asleep and die with that as the consummation of
   your life? Or shall it be, "I have lived to hold up my head in society
   and pay my way and leave a little for my family"? Will that satisfy you
   as your last reflection? Brothers and Sisters, we are not saved by our
   works, but I am speaking, now, upon the consolation which a man can
   derive from looking back upon his life. Suppose he shall have felt the
   power of my text and shall be able to say, "I have been enabled, by the
   Grace of God, to which I give all the glory, to consecrate my entire
   being to the entire glorification of my Lord and Master. And whatever
   my mistakes, and they are many--and my wanderings and failures, and
   they are countless--yet the love of Christ has constrained me, for I
   judged myself to have died in Him, and I have lived to Him. I have
   fought a good fight. I have kept the faith"?

   Why, I think it were worth while so to die! To be constrained by the
   love of Christ creates an heroic life, exalted, illustrious--no, I must
   come down from such lofty words--it is such a life as every Christian
   ought to live! It is such a life as every Christian must live if he is
   really constrained by the love of Christ, for the text does not say the
   love of Christ ought to constrain us--it declares that it does
   constrain us. Brothers and Sisters, if it does not constrain you, judge
   yourselves that you be not judged and found wanting at the last! God
   grant we may feel the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
   Spirit. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Where True Prayer is Found

   (No. 1412)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 5, 1878,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Therefore has Your servant found in his heart to pray this prayer to
   You." 2 Samuel 7:27.

   DAVID had first found it in his heart to build a house for God. Sitting
   in his house of cedar, he resolved that the Ark of God should no longer
   abide under curtains, but should be more suitably housed. The Lord,
   however, did not design that David should build His Temple, though He
   accepted his pious intentions and declared that it was well that it was
   in his heart. From which we may learn that our intentions to serve the
   Lord in a certain manner may be thoroughly good and acceptable and yet
   we may not be permitted to carry them out. We may have the will but not
   the power--the aspiration but not the qualification. We may have to
   stand aside and see another do the task which we had chosen for
   ourselves--and yet we may be none the less pleasing to the Lord who, in
   His great love, accepts the will for the deed.

   It is a holy self-denial which in such cases rejoices to see the Lord
   glorified by others and at the Captain's bidding cheerfully stands back
   in the rear when zeal had urged it to rush to the front. It is as true
   service not to do as to do when the Lord's Word prescribes it. The
   reason why David was not to build the house is not stated here, but you
   will find it in 1 Chronicles 28:2, 3. "Then David the king stood up
   upon his feet, and said, Hear me, my brethren, and my people: for me, I
   had in my heart to build an house of rest for the Ark of the Covenant
   of the Lord, and for the footstool of our God, and had made ready for
   the building: but God said unto me, You shall not build an house for My
   name, because you have been a man of war, and have shed blood."

   David's wars had been necessary and justifiable and by them the people
   of the Lord had been delivered. But the Ever Merciful One did not
   delight in them and would not use for building His Temple an instrument
   which had been stained with blood. The great Prince of Peace would not
   have a warrior's hand to pile the palace of His worship, choosing
   rather that a man whose mind had exercised itself in quieter pursuits
   should be the founder of the place of rest for the Ark of His Covenant
   of Peace. He is not so short of instruments as to use a sword for a
   trowel, or a spear for a measuring rod, especially when these have been
   dyed in the blood of His creatures.

   In your own household affairs you do not use the same implement or
   utensil for opposite purposes. If David, therefore, is used to smite
   Philistines, he is not to be employed in erecting a Temple. Solomon,
   his son, a man of peace, is called to do that holy work. I have
   sometimes trembled on behalf of our own nation and especially just now,
   lest its warlike propensities should disqualify it for what has, up to
   now, appeared its highest destiny. If it should resolve to pick a
   quarrel and wantonly plunge itself into a bloody war, it may come to
   pass that our God may judge it to be unfit for the accomplishment of
   His purposes of Grace. Even if it were granted that the war would be
   most just and right, yet should it be undertaken with solemn
   reluctance, lest it should deprive our nation of the capacity to be the
   preacher of righteousness and the herald of the Cross.

   With what face can we preach the Gospel of Peace among the heathen if
   we, ourselves, provoke war? Little wonder would it be if the Lord
   should say of the English people, "You shall not convert the nations
   nor build up a Church for My name, because you delight in war and have
   needlessly shed blood." God grant that all things may be so ordered
   according to His infinite wisdom that this land may be the true Solomon
   among the nations and build a Temple for God which shall enclose the
   whole earth, wherein every language and every nation shall be heard
   praising and magnifying the Lord! Labor, I pray you, O you servants of
   the loving Savior, to promote peace if the temporary rage of the
   multitude may be appeased without carnage!

   To return to personal cases--it may happen to any one of you to be
   called to pass through business or domestic trials in which you may be
   altogether blameless--and yet you may, at the close of them, find
   yourself disqualified for certain prominent positions of usefulness, at
   least for a time. Therefore you may not hope to accomplish certain high
   and noble

   purposes which once were laid upon your heart. God may have to say to
   you afterwards, "Your use lies elsewhere. I will not employ you for
   this, but, still, I accept you and it was well that it was in your
   heart." And if He should so see fit, do not repine, but, like David, do
   all you can towards the work that the man who is to perform it may find
   materials ready to his hand. David gathered much of the treasure to
   meet the cost and did it, none the less earnestly, even though another
   name would outshine his own in connection with the Temple.

   Beloved Friends, there is a very sweet consolation in my text for those
   who may be placed in circumstances similar to those of David. If by any
   means a man of God becomes disqualified for any form of desirable
   service which was upon his heart, yet nothing can disqualify him from
   prayer. If he finds it in his heart to pray, he may boldly draw near to
   God through the sacrifice of Christ. He may still use the way of access
   which the dying body of our Lord has opened! And he may win his suit at
   the Throne of Grace. It was well for David that when the building of
   the Temple was in his heart it could not be, yet when a prayer was in
   his heart it might be presented with the certainty of acceptance! If
   you, my Brother or my Sister, are denied the privilege of doing what
   your heart is set upon, be not angry with God, but set your heart
   towards Him in prayer. Ask what you will and He will give you the
   desire of your heart.

   By my text three thoughts are suggested. The first is it is well to
   find prayer in our heart--"therefore has Your servant found in his
   heart to pray this prayer to You." Secondly, it is pleasant to be able
   to see how the prayer came there--I shall trace the rise and progress
   of the prayer of David. And, thirdly, it is most profitable to use a
   prayer when we find it in our heart, for David solemnly prayed the
   prayer which he discovered in his soul.

   I. First, then, IT IS WELL TO FIND PRAYER IN OUR HEARTS. In no other
   place can true prayer be found. Prayer with the lips, prayer with
   bended knee and uplifted hand is worth nothing if the heart is absent.
   Prayer as a mere matter of form and routine is but the husk--heart-work
   is the kernel! Words are the oyster shell--the desire of the heart is
   the pearl. Do not imagine that the Lord looks down with any pleasure
   upon the tens of thousands of forms of prayer, whether liturgical or
   extempore, which are presented to Him without heart--such forms rather
   weary Him than worship Him! They are not adoration, but provocation.
   The God of Truth can never accept an untruthful devotion. Our prayers
   must flow from our heart or they will never reach the heart of God.

   But prayer is not found in every man's heart. Alas, many of our fellow
   men never pray! And many who think they pray are yet strangers to that
   sacred exercise. If an angel were now suddenly to announce that he
   would mark every man and woman here who has never prayed, I fear that
   many of you would be in a great fright for fear the mark should be on
   you! If suddenly the complexion could change and each prayerless
   person's face should gather blackness, I wonder how many there would be
   among us whom we should gaze upon with intense surprise! There shall be
   no such Cain-like mark set upon any of you, but will you set some sort
   of seal upon your own conscience if you are compelled to confess, "I am
   one of those who have never prayed"?

   What an acknowledgment for a rational being to make! Twenty years of
   life without a prayer to the Creator of its being! Be astonished, O
   heavens, and amazed O earth! Perhaps you deny that you are guilty, for
   you have always said a prayer and would not have gone to sleep at night
   if you had not done so. Then I pray you remember that you may have
   repeated holy words from your youth up and yet may have never prayed a
   prayer with your heart! To pray as the Holy Spirit teaches is a very
   different thing from the repetition of the choicest words that the best
   of writers may have composed, or the utterance of random words without
   thought. Have we prayed with our hearts or not? Remember, a prayerless
   soul is a Christless soul--and a Christless soul is a lost soul--and
   will soon be cast away forever!

   The verses were meant for children, but I cannot help quoting them
   here, for they, in simple language, express my meaning--

   "I often say my prayers

   But do I ever pray?

   And do the wishes of my heart

   Go with the words I say? I may as well kneel down And worship gods of
   stone, As offer to the living God A prayer of words alone. For words
   without the heart

   The Lord will never hear. Nor will He to those lips attend Whose
   prayers are not sincere." Further, let me observe that the spirit of
   prayer, though it is always present in every regenerated heart, is not
   always alike active. It is not, perhaps, today nor tomorrow that every
   Christian will be able to say, "I find in my heart to pray this one
   particular prayer to God." It may for the present be beyond our
   standard of Grace and we may therefore be unable to grasp the blessing.
   In some respects we are not masters of our supplications. You cannot
   always pray the prayer of faith in reference to any one thing--that
   prayer is often the distinct gift of God for an occasion. Others may
   ask your prayers and, sometimes, you may plead very prevalently for
   them, but at another time that power is absent. You may, at that time,
   feel no liberty to offer a certain petition, but on the contrary feel
   held back in the matter. Well, be guided by this inward direction and
   follow, rather than press forward, in such a case.

   There are times with us when we find it in our heart to pray a prayer
   and then we do so with eagerness and assurance. But we cannot command
   such seasons at our pleasure. How freely, then, does prayer come from
   us as the leaping water from the fountain? There is no need to say, "I
   long to pray," we do pray, we cannot help praying, we have become a
   mass of prayer! We are walking the streets and cannot pray aloud, but
   our heart pleads as fast as it beats! We enter our house and attend to
   family business and, still, the heart keeps pleading as constantly as
   the lungs are heaving! We go to bed and our last thought is
   supplication. If we wake in the night, our soul is still making
   intercession before God and so it continues while the visitation
   remains. O that it were always so!

   Now it is a very happy thing when the Christian finds it in his heart
   to pray with marked and special fervor unto God. Then he puts no
   pressure upon himself, nor thinks of supplication as a matter of
   duty--it has become a pleasant necessity, a sacred passion of the
   inward life--a holy breathing of the soul not to be restrained. So it
   should always be, but, alas, most of us have to mourn that in the
   matter of prayer we are the subjects of many changeful moods. O that we
   had learned more perfectly how to be praying always in the Holy Spirit!
   The presence of living prayer in the heart indicates seven things about
   that heart upon which we will speak with great brevity. First, prayer
   in the heart proves that the heart is renewed. True prayer dwells not
   in a dead, corrupt, stony heart!

   If you find in your heart to pray a prayer unto God you have assuredly
   been born again! "Behold he prays," is one of the first and one of the
   surest marks of the new birth. The faintest movement of the pulse
   proves that life still remains in a drowning man and though prayer is
   weak, feeble, fragmentary, yet if it is there at all the soul lives
   unto God! Though to your apprehension your prayer is so poor and broken
   and unworthy that it cannot be accepted, yet the desire of the soul
   towards God is an index of spiritual life most hopeful and instructive.
   Have hope, Brothers and Sisters, as long as you can pray, for none who
   pray believingly, in the name of Jesus, can ever be cast into Hell! He,
   whom faith in Jesus has taught to cry to God, shall never hear Him say,
   "Depart, you cursed," for has not the Lord said, "Whoever calls upon
   the name of the Lord shall be saved"? Be glad, therefore, if you find
   it in your heart to pray, for it proves that the root of the matter is
   in you.

   To find prayer in the heart proves, next, a reconciled heart. David
   might have been upset with God and have said, "If I cannot build a
   Temple I will do nothing, for I have set my heart upon it and I have
   already laid up treasure for it. It is a laudable project and it has
   had the sanction of the Prophet and I am hardly used to having my
   designs rejected." There are some professors who would do a great thing
   if they might, but if they are not permitted to act a shining part in
   it, they sulk and get angry with their God. David, when his proposal
   was set aside, found it in his heart not to murmur, but to pray! Job
   asks concerning the hypocrite, "Will he always call upon God?" and he
   meant to say that only true and loyal hearts will continue to pray when
   things go hard with them. Let this be a test for you and for me. Can
   you pray, Brothers and Sisters, now that the delight of your eyes has
   been cut off by death? Can you pray now that your substance is
   diminished and your bodily health is failing? Then I take it as a sign
   that you have submitted yourself unto God and are at peace with Him,
   being reconciled to Him by His Grace. To cease from complaining and to
   give the heart to prayer is the sign of a soul renewed and reconciled.

   Prayer is also the index of a spiritual heart. David sat in his house
   of cedar--it was costly and carved with great art--but it did not draw
   his mind away from God. It has too often happened that prospering
   professors have become proud professors and have forgotten God. When
   they were poor they associated with Christian Brethren whom they felt

   pleasure in recognizing. But now that they have gotten a large estate
   they no longer know the poor people of God and they spend their
   Sabbaths where they can meet with a little "society," and move among
   their "equals," as they call them--they, being so very much superior to
   the holy men and women whom once they held in honor! Such folks become
   high and mighty like Nebuchadnezzar--and as they walk their grounds or
   sit in their painted chambers they say, "Behold this great Babylon
   which I have built." A "self-made man," risen from the ranks, comes to
   have a name like the name of the great men that are upon the face of
   the earth--is not this something?

   Oftentimes has it happened that these things have turned away the
   hearts of professors from the God who loaded them with benefits. It was
   not so with David! In his cedar palace he found it in his heart to
   pray. The more he had, the more he loved his God. The more he received,
   the more he desired to give thanks to the Lord for his benefits.
   Plants, when they are root-bound in their pots, become poor weak things
   and so do men's hearts when they are earth-bound, doting upon their
   riches! As a traveler finds it difficult to move when his feet stick in
   the mud of a miry way, so do some men make small progress heavenward
   because they are hindered by their own wealth. Happy is that man who
   has riches but does not suffer riches to have him--who uses wealth and
   does not abuse it by idolizing it--but seasons all with the Word of God
   and prayer.

   Prayer in the heart also proves an enlightened heart. A man who does
   not pray is in the dark. He knows not his own needs, otherwise he would
   make supplication. If he understood his own danger--the temptations
   which surround him-- and the corruptions which are within him, he would
   be incessantly in prayer! He who has left off praying has surely lost
   his wits. If the Holy Spirit has taught us anything, He has taught us
   this--we must pray without ceasing. David prayed, too, as an
   enlightened man because he felt that devotion was due to God. Since the
   Lord had done so much for him, he must worship and adore. "Therefore
   has Your servant," he says, "found in his heart to pray this prayer to
   You." He who is well taught by the Spirit of God knows his position to
   be that of a humble dependent who is bound to reverence his God with
   all his heart and, therefore, he daily sings, "Your vows are upon me, O
   God, I will render praise unto You."

   The heart in which prayer is found constantly welling up is, also, a
   lively heart. We do not all possess lively hearts, nor do we all keep
   them when we get them. Some men appear to have fatty degeneration of
   the heart after a spiritual manner since their heart acts very feebly
   in prayer. They are lethargic and lifeless in devotion. Do we not all
   find ourselves, at times, in a cold state in reference to prayer?
   Brothers and Sisters, I believe that when we cannot pray, it is time
   that we prayed more than ever. And if you answer, "But how can that
   be?" I would say--pray to pray, pray for prayer--pray for the spirit of
   supplication. Do not be content to say, "I would pray if I could." No,
   but if you cannot pray, pray till you can! He who can row down stream
   with a flowing tide and a fair wind is but a poor oarsman compared with
   the man who can pull against wind and tide and still make headway. This
   our soul must endeavor to do.

   But, Beloved, how wonderful it is when you can pray and cannot
   stop--when your heart pours forth devotion as the roses shed their
   perfume, or the sun gives his light! I love to feel my soul on the wing
   like the birds in spring, which are always singing and flitting from
   bough to bough, full of life and vigor. Oh to have the soul mounting on
   eagle's wings and no longer groping in the earth like a mole! To be
   instant, constant, eager at prayer--this is health, vigor and delight!
   To feel the heart in prayer like the chariots of Amminadib outstripping
   the wind--this is a joy worth worlds! Beloved, this finding in the
   heart to pray proves, in the sixth place, that the heart is in
   communion with God, for what is prayer but the breath of God in man
   returning from where it came?

   Prayer is a telephone by which God speaks in man. His Heaven is far
   away but His voice sounds in our soul! Prayer is a phonograph--God
   speaks into our soul and then our soul speaks out, again, what the Lord
   has spoken! Conversation must always be two-sided. God speaks to us in
   this Book--we must reply to Him in prayer and praise. If you do not
   pray, my Brothers and Sisters, why, then, you have shut the gates of
   Heaven against yourself and there is neither coming in nor going out
   between you and your Lord! Prayer keeps up a heavenly commerce
   acceptable to God and enriching to your own souls. Do you find yourself
   mightily moved to pray? Then the Lord is very near to you! The Beloved
   has come into His garden to eat His pleasant fruits--take care to feast
   Him with your love!

   Prayer in the heart is the echo of the footsteps of the Bridegroom of
   our souls who is seeking communion with us! Open wide the doors of your
   soul and let Him in and then detain Him and constrain Him, saying,
   "Abide with us." When we find prayer in the heart, we may know that our
   heart is accepted of God and the prayer is, too. Brothers and Sisters,
   when a desire comes to you again and again and again, take it as a
   favorable omen regarding your supplication. If the

   Lord should especially prompt you to any one desire--laying your child,
   perhaps, more than usual upon your heart, or causing the name of a
   friend constantly to occur to you so that you find yourself frequently
   praying for him--take this as a token from the Lord that He would have
   you turn your thoughts in that direction and that a blessing is in
   store for you. If a certain Church which seems to need revival is laid
   upon your soul, or a township or a district, mark well the fact.

   Suppose you find your heart going out towards a special country or
   city, bearing your mind there and working to pray with tears and
   entreaties--grieving because of its sin and entreating that God would
   remember and forgive--be sure that this is a prophecy of good to that
   place and redouble your petitions! When the gale blows, the navigator
   spreads his sails to catch the wind! And when the Spirit, who blows
   where He wills, comes upon you, influencing you to this or that, be
   sure to spread all sails! Reckon that the inclination to pray is the
   foretaste of the coming blessing! As coming events cast their shadows
   before them, your desire is the shadow of the mercy which God is
   sending down to you. He moves you to pray for it because He, Himself,
   is about to give it! Thus I have shown that it is well when we find it
   in our hearts to pray a prayer, for it proves the heart to be, in many
   respects, in a healthy condition.

   II. Now, secondly, IT IS PLEASANT TO BE ABLE TO SEE HOW THE PRAYER CAME
   INTO THE HEART. "I

   find it in my heart," says David. Well, David, how did it come there? I
   answer as he did not, that any true prayer which is found in the human
   heart comes there by the Holy Spirit! If there is anything excellent in
   us, even if it is only a desire to pray acceptably, it is of the Holy
   Spirit's creation and unto Him be all the praise! But the modus
   operandi, the way in which the Spirit operates upon us is somewhat in
   this fashion.

   First of all, He puts the promise into the Word of God. David tells us
   very plainly that it was because God had revealed such-and-such
   promises that, therefore, he says, "Has Your servant found in his heart
   to pray this prayer unto You." The Lord gives the promise and that
   becomes the parent of our prayer. For first there are some mercies we
   should never have thought of praying for if He had not promised them.
   They would never have suggested themselves to us and we would not have
   known our need of them unless the supply had taught us and the promise
   of God, itself, incited us to the desire. There are other mercies for
   which we should not have dared to pray if the promise had not
   encouraged us.

   We could not have had the heart to ask such great things if the Lord
   had not promised them to us. So that the Word of God suggests the
   desire and then encourages us to hope that the desire will certainly be
   fulfilled. Moreover when promise comes very close home to a man, as it
   did to David when it was spoken personally to him by the Prophet, it
   vivifies the soul, causes the mind to realize the blessing and both
   intensifies desire and gives grasp and grip to faith. We should not
   have felt the gift to be real had it not been placed before us in plain
   words. Brothers and Sisters, this is how our prayers come into our
   heart!

   The Word of God suggests them, encourages us to seek them and then
   gives us a realizing power so that we plead with eagerness and believe
   with force. In saying, "therefore," David means not only that the Word
   of God had put the prayer into his mind but that his whole meditation
   had led him to the finding of this prayer in his heart. Had he not been
   sitting before the Lord in quiet thought, he might never have noticed
   the work of the Spirit upon his soul. But inward searching brought the
   right prayer to light. Will you kindly look through the chapter while I
   very briefly sum up its contents and show that each item excited David
   to pray? When the king sat before the Lord and spoke out his heart, his
   first word was about the Lord's past goodness to him and his own
   insignificance--"Who am I, O Lord God? And what is my house, that You
   have brought me here?"

   Brethren, who are we that God should have been so good to us? But
   inasmuch as His Grace to us has been amazing, do we not find it in our
   heart to pray a prayer to Him that He would bless us still more? Can
   you not enquire of the Lord in the words of the hymn which we sang just
   now--

   "After so much mercy past Can You let me sink at last?"

   He has been mindful of us, He will bless us. Let our memory of His past
   loving kindness excite us to prayer for present and future favors.
   David then passed on to speak of the greatness of the promise--"This
   was yet a small thing in Your sight, O Lord God; but You have spoken
   also of Your servant's house for a great while to come." We also have
   received exceedingly great and precious promises. And since God has
   promised so much, will we not be much in prayer? Shall He be large in
   promising and shall we be narrow in asking? Shall He stand before us
   and say, "Whatever you shall ask in

   prayer, believing, you shall receive," and will we be content with
   slender, starved petitions? Beggars seldom need pressing to beg and
   when a promise is given them, they usually put the widest possible
   construction upon it and urge it with great zeal! Will it not be well
   to take a leaf out of their book? Come, Brothers and Sisters, the
   argument is strong with those who have spiritual sense--the greatness
   of the promise encourages us to find many a prayer in our heart!

   Then he speaks of the surprising "manner" of God. "Is this the manner
   of man, O Lord God?" He saw that God acted far more graciously than the
   most generous human beings act towards their fellows. He perceived that
   "as high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are God's ways
   above our ways, and His thoughts above our thoughts," and therefore he
   opened his mouth wide in prayer. Was he not right in doing so? And are
   we right, my Brothers and Sisters, if we do not imitate his example? We
   are advised by the wise man not to go into our brother's house in the
   day of our calamity. And the same wisdom would move us not to ask too
   much from friends and neighbors. But no such prudence is necessary
   towards our Friend above! To Him we may come at all hours and to Him we
   may plead the largest requests!

   Since the Lord deals not as men deal, but gives liberally and upbraids
   not. Since He opens the windows of the treasury of Heaven and is
   pleased to make no stint whatever in the showers of His liberality, let
   us wait upon Him continually. His unspeakable love should encourage us
   to abound in prayer. Then the king goes on to speak of God's free
   Grace, which was another argument to pray. "For Your Word's sake, and
   according to Your own heart, have You done all these great things to
   make Your servant know them." The Lord had entered into covenant with
   him, not because David had merited so great an honor, but entirely for
   His own mercy's sake. David recognizes the freeness and Sovereignty of
   the Grace and seems to say, "Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in
   Your sight. If You have loved me so, then am I bold to ask great things
   of You. If You wait not for the merit of man, nor for human merit, then
   will I ask You still further to bless me, unworthy though I am, to the
   praise of the glory of Your name."

   Pray mightily, my Brothers and Sisters, since God sits on a Throne of
   Grace! When the choicest treasures are to be had for the asking, who
   can refuse to pray? Then He proceeded to mention the greatness of God,
   "Why You are great, O Lord God: for there is none like You, neither is
   there any God beside You." Surely, to a great God we should bring great
   prayers! We dishonor Him by the fewness of our petitions and the
   littleness of our desires. My Soul, enlarge your desires! Be hungry, be
   thirsty, be greedy after Divine Grace, for whatever you desire you
   shall have, provided it is, indeed, for your good. Your desire to
   obtain shall be the test of your capacity to receive! Brethren, we have
   not because we ask not, or because we ask amiss. "Up to now have you
   asked nothing in My name," said the Lord Jesus to His disciples.

   And He might say the same to us, for all we have ever asked comes to
   next to nothing compared with what He is prepared to give, compared
   with what He will give when once He has tutored us into something like
   largeness of heart in prayer like that of Solomon, of whom we read,
   "God gave him largeness of heart even as the sand which is on the sea
   shore." We need to be delivered from narrow conceptions of God and
   limited desires in prayer, that we may ask of infinity with suitable
   capacity of soul, and so may receive Grace upon Grace and be filled
   with all the fullness of God! David closed his meditation by speaking
   of God's love to His people, saying, "And what one nation in the earth
   is like Your people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for a
   people to Himself, and to make Him a name, and to do for You great
   things and terrible, for Your land, before Your people, which You
   redeemed to You from Egypt, from the nations and their gods? For You
   have confirmed to Yourself Your people Israel to be a people unto You
   forever: and You, Lord, are become their God."

   Well, since the Lord loves His people so intensely, we may well be
   encouraged to ask great things for ourselves and especially to seek
   great things for the Church. We are no strangers to God--His chosen are
   neither aliens nor foreigners--they are His children, dear to His
   heart! And if we, being evil, know how to give good gifts to our
   children, how much more sure is it that our heavenly Father will give
   good gifts to them that ask Him? When you pray for Zion, plead for
   great prosperity and speak with boldness, for you are asking blessings
   upon those whom God delights to bless, asking prosperity for that
   Church which is as the apple of His eye!

   I will sum up this point as to the pleasure of seeing how prayer comes
   to be in our heart, by briefly tracing the line of beauty along which
   it runs. First of all the thought and purpose of blessing arises in the
   heart of God--David perceived that to be the case, for in the 21st
   verse he says, "For Your Word's sake, and according to Your own heart,
   have You done all these great things." Prayer owes its origin to the
   heart of God! The next stage is reached when it is revealed by
   Inspiration--the Lord sent Nathan to tell David of His gracious intent
   towards him. The thought has passed, you see,

   from God's secret purpose into God's revealed Word, and now it filters
   into the heart of David and David sends it back to God in prayer!
   Prayer, like our Lord Jesus, comes forth from God and returns to God!
   That is the pedigree and history of all true supplication. It is like
   the mist which you see in the early morning, rising from the plains
   towards Heaven in the form of clouds. It is like incense from an altar.

   How did it get there? First of all, the moisture was in the heavens, in
   the secret treasuries of God. Then came a day when it fell in drops of
   rain and did not return void, but watered the earth. Afterwards, when
   the blessed sun shone forth, it steamed up again, to return to the
   place from where it came. The clouds are like the Divine Decree--who
   shall enter into the secret place where Jehovah hides His purposes? The
   rain is like the Word of God with its sparkling drops of precious
   promises--the outcome of the mysterious purposes of God. These revealed
   blessings we see standing in pools in the Scriptures. Turn to the Book
   or listen to the Lord's servants whom He helps to speak and you shall
   hear a sound of abundance of rain!

   This rain waters the soul of man and when the warm love of God comes
   shining on the saturated heart it rises up in earnest petitions. Prayer
   is never lost, for though the mist which rises in yonder valley may
   never fall again into the same place, it drops somewhere! And so, true
   prayer, though it comes not back into the offerer's own bosom, is
   fruitful in good in some way or other. The result of honest hearty
   prayer may not be distinctly this or that according to your mind or
   mine, but it is always good. Supplication is never wasted, it is
   preserved in the Divine reservoir and in time its influence visits the
   earth and waters it with "the river of God, which is full of water."

   When you find a rare flower by the roadside and wonder how it came
   there, for it is no indigenous weed but a fair stranger from another
   clime, it is pleasant to trace out its way to the place it beautifies.
   And even so, when you find a prayer in your heart, it is gladsome to
   see how it comes forth from the heart of God, by the Word of God, to
   blossom in the garden ofyour soul!

   III. In the third place IT IS VERY PROFITABLE TO USE A PRAYER WHEN WE
   FIND IT IN OUR HEART.

   Notice the phraseology of my text. He says, "Your servant has found in
   his heart to pray this prayer unto You." Not to say this prayer, but to
   pray this prayer. There is great force in the expression. Some prayers
   are never prayed, but are like arrows which are never shot from the
   bow. Scarcely may I call them prayers, for they are such as to form,
   matter and verbiage, but they are said, not prayed. The praying of
   prayer is the main matter. Sometimes, Beloved, we may have a prayer in
   our hearts and may neglect the voice of the Lord within our soul--and
   if so, we are great losers.

   What does praying a prayer mean? It means, first, that you present it
   to God with fervency. Pray as if you meant it. Throw your whole soul
   into the petition. Entreat the Lord with tears and cries. If you do not
   prevail at first, yet come to Him importunately again and again with
   the resolve that since He has written the prayer in your heart, you
   will not take "no" for an answer. Heat your prayers red hot! In naval
   warfare, in the old days, our men of war fired red hot shot--try that
   system, for nothing is so powerful in prayer as fervency and
   importunity. Pray spiritually, also, for the text says, "I have found
   it in my heart to pray this prayer to Fou."

   It is of no use pray to yourself or to the four walls of your room.
   Some persons even pray to those who are around them, like the preacher
   of whose prayer the remark was made that, "it was one of the finest
   prayers that ever was presented to a Boston audience." I am afraid many
   prayers are presented to audiences rather than to God. This should not
   be. Moreover, when you find a prayer in your heart, do not talk it over
   nor say to another, "I feel such-and-such a desire"--but go and pour it
   out before God! Speak it into the Divine ear! Realize that God is there
   as distinctly as if you could see Him, for that is the way to make a
   proper use of the prayer which is in your heart.

   Pray with specialty. The text indicates that--"I have found it in my
   heart to pray this prayer." Know what you pray. Prayer is not putting
   your hand into a bag and pulling out what comes first. Oh, no! There
   must be definite desires and specific requests. Think carefully about
   it and ask for what you need and for nothing else but what you need.
   Pray this prayer. David had a promise about his house and his prayer
   was about his house--that God would bless and establish it. Much of
   what we think to be prayer is really playing at praying. The archers in
   the English armies of old, with their arrows a cloth-yard long, when
   they met the foe, took steady aim and they sorely galled the foe! Give
   your little boy his bow and arrow and what does he do? He shoots at
   random and sends his arrows all over the place--he plays at archery.

   A good deal of praying is of that sort. There is no steadily taking aim
   at the white and drawing the bow with strength--and watching the arrow
   with anxiety. Lord, teach us to pray! We ought to pray, too, dear
   Friends, when we find prayer in our hearts, with much boldness. He
   says, "I found in my heart to pray," that is, he had the heart to pray,
   the courage to pray! The promise influenced him to be bold with God.
   Some men fail in reverence for God, but far more fail in holy boldness
   towards God! Men who are mighty for God are generally famous for
   courage with Him. Look at Luther! They say it was wonderful to hear him
   preach, but a hundred times more so to hear him pray! There was an
   awful reverence about that heroic man, but there was also such a
   childlike simplicity of daring that he seemed as though he did really
   lay hold of God.

   That is the way--try it in your chamber this afternoon. Be bold with
   God! Find it in your heart to pray this prayer unto Him. And do so
   promptly. Let promptness mark your prayer as it did that of David. He
   did not wait a week or two after he had obtained the promise--he went
   straight away and sat down before the Lord and began to plead the
   Divine Word. He said, "Do as You have said." He found the petition in
   his heart and before it could lose its way, again, he brought it before
   God! He was studying his soul and as he observed its movements, he saw
   a prayer lift up its head. "Ah," he said, "I will seize it." And he
   held it fast and presented it before God--and so obtained a blessing. I
   suggest, dear Friends, to those whose hearts feel touched in the
   matter, that we should today make special supplication to God as to the
   peace of nations, now so miserably endangered.

   You will meet as teachers in the school. You will meet in the classes.
   And others of you will be at home in meditation this afternoon. But you
   can all, in various ways, help in the common intercession. At this
   moment it is upon my heart very heavily to pray this prayer to God and
   I wish you would all make a point of joining in it--"Send us peace in
   our days, good Lord." Not as politicians, but as followers of Christ we
   are bound to entreat our Lord to prevent the cruel war which is now
   threatened. A curse will surely fall upon all who are causing the
   strife, but blessed are the peacemakers! I believe that if all
   Christians would join in pleading with God, they would do much more
   than all the public meetings and all the petitions to the Houses of
   Parliament or to the Queen will ever accomplish. O Lord, prevent war,
   we pray

   You!

   Another thing. During this week the various societies are holding their
   public meetings and I suggest, if you find it in your hearts, that you
   spend a little extra time in praying to God to bless His Church and its
   mission work. There will, also, be meetings held of great importance,
   this week, in connection with certain religious bodies. There are
   denominations which are sadly diseased with skepticism. But a healthy
   love for the Truth of God remains with many and, therefore, there will
   come a struggle between the evangelical and the philosophical parties.
   This week will witness such a struggle. Pray God to send the conquest
   to the right, to strengthen hesitating Brethren and to give decision to
   those who have long been too timorous in their actions. Pray that power
   and guidance from on high may be given to those who hold the orthodox
   faith. I find it in my heart to pray so and shall be glad to know that
   others are agreeing with me.

   Find it in your hearts, too, at this time, to pray for the work of
   this, our own Church, and I call special attention to the work of our
   tract distributors. We have, now, nearly 90 Brothers going from village
   to village, from house to house, distributing the Word of God and
   preaching it to those who in the hamlets might otherwise be left
   without the Gospel. Find it in your hearts to invoke a blessing upon
   them! And, if there is anything that is more upon your heart than
   another, be wise enough to hedge in a quarter of an hour in order to
   pray the prayer unto the Lord. Shut yourself up and say, "I have
   business to do with the Master. I feel a call within my heart to speak
   with the King."

   Beloved Brothers and Sisters, when such a season comes upon you, I
   would most humbly but most affectionately ask those of you who are
   benefited by my ministry to whisper my name into the King's ear, for I
   have much need of His Grace and help. May the Lord accept your
   petitions, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Underneath

   (No. 1413)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 12, 1878,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Underneath are the everlasting arms." Deuteronomy 33:27.

   GOD surrounds His children on all sides--they dwell in Him. The passage
   before us shows that the Lord is above, for we read, "There is none
   like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rides upon the Heaven to help you,
   and in His excellency on the sky." Assuredly He is around them, for,
   "The eternal God is your refuge." And He is before them, for, "He shall
   thrust out the enemy from before you; and shall say, Destroy them."
   Here, according to the text, the Lord is also under His saints, for,
   "Underneath are the everlasting arms." "Lord, You have been our
   dwelling place in all generations," and by You we are surrounded
   everywhere, as the earth is by the atmosphere--

   "Within Your circling power I stand. On every side I find Your hand.
   Awake, asleep, at home, abroad, I am surrounded still with God."

   The verse which contains our text should be interpreted somewhat after
   this fashion--"The eternal God is your dwelling place, or your rest,
   and underneath are the everlasting arms." The parallel passage is that
   verse in the Song wherein the bride exclaims, "His left hand is under
   my head, and His right hand does embrace me." The soul has come to its
   resting place in God and feels itself to be supported by the Divine
   strength. The heart has learned to abide in Christ Jesus to go no more
   out, but to lean on His bosom both day and night. It is somewhat in the
   condition of Noah's dove which, when weary, was about to drop into the
   destroying waters, but Noah put out his hand and plucked her to him
   into the ark. And when she was all safe, in the hollow of his hands,
   held by her preserver with a firm but tender grasp, she found in that
   place a refuge which surrounded her and upheld her from below. The
   hands covered her on all sides and came beneath her, too. Even thus,
   the hand of God sustains all those who dwell in the secret place of the
   Most High and abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

   I am going, however, to take the words just as they stand in our own
   authorized version and to consider them apart from the context. I ask
   your most careful consideration of them, for they must be very full of
   meaning and very emphatic in their force. The words are placed at the
   end of Moses' song and they are its crown and climax. He had wound
   himself up to the highest pitch of poetic excitement and spiritual
   fervor--and this passage is the result. He had spoken grandly, before,
   concerning the separate tribes and the words which fell from his lips
   are unspeakably rich. But now he is about to close and, therefore, he
   pours forth his loftiest strains and utters full and deep meanings--the
   ripest and choicest fruit of a lifetime of communion with God! As our
   Lord ascended to Heaven blessing His disciples, so did His servant
   Moses, before climbing to Pisgah, pour out a torrent of benedictions,
   full and deep, inspired by the Holy Spirit.

   It is not possible, therefore, that the language can be too greatly
   prized. The words mean all that we can make them mean! The nectar of
   their consolation is altogether inexhaustible! May God the Holy Spirit
   help us to weigh and measure them and then distil their inner sense and
   drink of the spiced wine of His pomegranate. "Underneath are the
   everlasting arms." I shall handle the text in this fashion. Where?
   "Underneath." What? "The everlasting arms." When? They are underneath
   us now and always and if it is so, what then?

   I. First let us attend to the question--WHERE? "Underneath." Now,
   "underneath," is a region into which we cannot see. We glance down and
   the dead cold earth stops our gaze. When we are heavy in spirit we fix
   our eyes upon the ground and look, and look, and look--but even an
   eagle's glance cannot see far below. We scarcely can peer beneath the
   thin green sod--the bottom of a grave is well near the full range of
   mortal vision. The underworld is mysterious. We associate the
   subterranean with all that is dark and hidden and, because of this, it
   is often regarded as terrible. A man

   scarcely ever fears that which he can see in proportion to his dread of
   what he cannot see. Therefore, our alarm at the "underneath."

   What may be underneath us when we leave this sunlit region for the
   grave's overshadowing vault? What will happen to us in eternity? Life
   will soon end--what is death? What is the immediate result of death?
   What shall we feel when we are traversing those unknown tracks and
   finding our way to the Judgment Seat of God? Not knowing except that
   little which has been revealed to us, we are all too apt to conjecture
   terrors and invent horrors--and so to begin trembling concerning that
   which we do not understand! What a comfort it is to be told by the
   Voice of Inspiration that, "Underneath are the everlasting arms!"

   Poets have usually been in a gloomy humor when picturing the
   underworld. Imagination is very apt to spin a black and tangled thread.
   You have read of dark caverns where the bodies of men are fast
   detained, of which caverns Death has the key. Of this the grim
   Anglo-Saxon poet wailed the warning note--

   "Loathsome is that earth-house, And grim within to dwell! There you
   shall dwell, And worms shall divide you!"

   You have heard of gloomy ruins where the night raven forever sits and
   croaks. You have heard of corridors where prisoners incessantly rattle
   their chains to the dolorous music of sullen groans and hollow moans.
   We have been afraid of death because of the horrors with which our
   ignorance has surrounded it! And we have been dismayed at the future
   because of the mysteries which darken it.

   Be comforted! Our text, like a lamp, reveals the abyss of death and
   lifts up the veil of the future! Follow its gleam and you will see how
   it dispels the darkness! If you are a child of God, you may descend
   without fear into the lowest depths-- even if, like Jonah, you had to
   cry, "I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her
   bars was about me forever," yet you need not be dismayed--for,
   "Underneath are the everlasting arms." If you were called to take some
   such awful journey as Virgil and Dante have fabled in their poems, when
   their heroes descended into the dread Avernus, you need not tremble,
   though it were said of you as of them--

   "Along the illuminated shade Darkening and lone their way they made."
   If, I say, you were bound to traverse the sepulchral vaults and all the
   gloomy dungeons of Hades, yet you need not fear, for, "Underneath are
   the everlasting arms."

   Mystery of mysteries! Death, you are no longer terrible to us because
   the Light of lights is shining upon you! Depths unfathomable, we no
   longer fear to pass through you, for there is One whose love is deeper
   than the depths beneath as it is higher than the heights above! And He
   has said, "I will bring again from Bashan, I will bring them up from
   the depths of the sea." We gladly take our journey downward at the call
   of God! And without fear we pass through the gates of the tomb and
   enter the doors of the shadow of death, for, "Underneath are the
   everlasting arms." "Underneath"--the word awakens thought and enquiry.
   Everything ought to be sound, solid and substantial there. "Underneath"
   must be firm, for if that fails we fail, indeed!

   We have been building and our eyes have been gladdened with the rising
   walk and with the towering pinnacles. But what if something should be
   rotten "underneath?" Great will be the fall then, if we have built as
   high as Heaven, if sand lies underneath, yielding and shifting in the
   day of flood. "Underneath" is the great matter to which the architect,
   if he is wise, will give his best attention. And truly, Brothers and
   Sisters, when you and I begin to examine our Graces and our
   professions, that word, "underneath," suggests many a testing question.
   Is it all right with us as to the root of the matter--"underneath?" If
   not, the fair flower above ground will wither very speedily. The seed
   has sprung up hastily, but how is the soil underneath? For if there is
   no depth of earth, the scorching sun will soon dry up the superficial
   harvest.

   "Underneath," though it is mysterious, is also intensely important and,
   therefore, the great joy of being able to say by faith, "Yes,
   'underneath' is well secured, we have trusted in God and we shall not
   be confused. We have relied upon the eternal promises and they cannot
   fail. We have rested on the infinite merits of the atoning Sacrifice of
   God's dear Son and we shall never be ashamed of our hope." Happy is he
   who rests upon the Everlasting Covenant ordered in all things

   and sure, for with him all is safe underneath! And, though the earth is
   removed and the mountains are carried into the midst of the sea, he
   need not fear, but may patiently hope and quietly wait for the
   salvation of God.

   For a period we may be content with superficial pleasures, but there
   are times of trial when we have to fall back upon something deeper and
   more reliable--earthly props give way, in their season, and we need
   superior sustaining power. The carnal mind meets with an hour when "the
   proud helpers do stoop under him" and Believers, too, in proportion as
   they foolishly lean upon an arm of flesh, find their confidences
   departing. Then it is that we feel the value of Divine upholding and
   rejoice that "Underneath are the everlasting arms."

   Let us look more closely into this most important matter. "Underneath
   are the everlasting arms." That is, first, as the foundation of
   everything. If you go down, down, to discover the basement upon which
   all things rest, you come, before long, to "the everlasting arms." The
   things which are seen are held up by the invisible God! This outward
   visible universe has no power to stand for a single instant if He does
   not keep it in being. By Him all things exist. There are no forces
   apart from God's power! No existences apart from His will! He bears up
   the pillars of the universe. He, only, spreads out the heavens and
   treads upon the waves of the sea. He makes Arcturus, Orion, the
   Pleiades and the chambers of the south. Foolish are those philosophers
   who think that they can reach the essence and soul from which visible
   things were evolved unless they bow before the invisible God! He is the
   foundation of creation, the fountain and source of being, the root and
   basement of existence. "Underneath" everything "are the everlasting
   arms."

   Most true is this with regard to His Church. He chose her and redeemed
   her to Himself--the very idea of a Church is from the Lord alone. As a
   temple He devised her architecture, saying, "I will lay your
   foundations with sapphires." And He has built up her every stone by His
   own power. He sustains her walls against her enemies so that the gates
   of Hell cannot prevail against her, for the foundation of God stands
   sure. The foundation of every true Church is the Lord Himself, the
   Highest, Himself, establishes her. God is in the midst of her--she
   shall not be moved. "Underneath are the everlasting arms." Blessed be
   God, what is true of the Church as a corporate body is true of every
   member of the Church! There abides no spiritual life in the world which
   is not founded upon the everlasting arms.

   Beloved, if the life of God is in you, if you search deep and go to the
   basis of it, you will find that your life is staying itself and drawing
   its constant nurture, yes, deriving its very existence from the life of
   the eternal God. Jesus says, "Because I live, you shall live also."
   Your life is the life of God in you, for the Divine seed is the
   foundation of all spiritual life. Beware, then, of harboring in your
   heart anything which has not underneath it the everlasting arms. If
   there is any hope, let it be founded on the Everlasting Covenant of
   God. If there is any joy, let it well up from the everlasting love of
   God. If there is any confidence, let it be stayed upon the everlasting
   strength of Jehovah. If there is any service rendered, let it be
   according to the everlasting commandment.

   If in your soul there is any Divine Grace. If there is any virtue. If
   there is any praise, suffer none of these matters to be superficial or
   pretentious--the creation of your own native strength--but let them all
   be founded upon the work of the Holy Spirit in your soul. In fact, let
   it be said of each of them, "Underneath are the everlasting arms."
   Nothing will serve our turn in the trials of life, the terrors of
   death, or the solemnities of the Last Great Day, except that which has
   underneath it the everlasting arms! See how the nations reel when God
   no longer sustains them--"He removes the mountains and they know not,
   He overturns them in His anger." See how those Churches fly into
   apostasy which have not underneath them the everlasting arms--they are
   quenched as the fire of thorns and only a smoke remains!

   Did not Jesus say, "Every plant that my Father has not planted shall be
   rooted up"? See how hypocritical professors disappear like the morning
   mist when the sun rises! Nothing will abide the day of the Lord's
   coming unless its foundation is laid in the eternal God. The Lord help
   us to know what this means so that we may be like the wise man who dug
   deep and built his house upon a rock. Again, we may read the words,
   "Underneath are the everlasting arms," in the sense of being the bottom
   and end and object of everything. If in faith you search into Divine
   Providence, however dark and trying it may appear, you will soon find
   that underneath it are the everlasting arms.

   Satan may be mining, but God is undermining! Even under the deep
   devices of Hell the everlasting arms are to be found. Satan's craft is
   deep to us, but it is very shallow to the Lord, whose wisdom goes far
   deeper than all the cunning of the Prince of Darkness. The evils and
   errors which are in the world should not cause us to despair of the
   ultimate victory of the Truth of God, for beneath them there is still
   the immutable decree of the Ever-living and the Ever-blessed--and

   that decree shall be accomplished, whoever may oppose it! Has He not
   said, "I have sworn by Myself, the word is gone out of My mouth in
   righteousness, and shall not return. That unto Me every knee shall bow,
   every tongue shall swear"?

   His purpose shall stand. He will do all His pleasure. He works all
   things according to the counsel of His own will. Trace your present
   trials below their surface--trace them to the deeps, instead of
   groaning over their outward appearance--and you will find that
   underneath each trouble there is a faithful purpose and a kind intent.
   Yes, beneath the utmost depths of distress and grief, God is still at
   work in love to your soul! From seeming evil still educing good and,
   better still--and better still in infinite progression--underneath the
   best events are the arms of love to make them good and underneath the
   worst that can happen are the same everlasting arms to moderate and
   overrule them! As the design and object of all, "underneath are the
   everlasting arms."

   I take the text, "Underneath are the everlasting arms," to mean, next,
   that the arms of God are there as the preservation of His people. His
   people sometimes appear to themselves to be in very great danger, but
   it is written, "He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you
   in all your ways. They shall bear you up in their hands, lest you dash
   your foot against a stone." Certain of the saints are set in very high
   places and their brain might well be turned so that they would fall.
   But they shall not slip with their feet, for God upholds the righteous.
   If under deep depression of spirit and sore travail of heart their feet
   should be almost gone, what a blessing it is to think that "underneath
   are the everlasting arms."

   Sometimes faith walks upon a very slender thread high up above the ways
   of common men. Poising her balancing pole of experience, she tries to
   keep her feet--but her satisfaction is that even if she should slip for
   a while and her joy should fail, yet there is a net beneath her which
   will receive her in her fall so that she shall not be utterly dashed in
   pieces. "I have prayed for you that your faith fail not" is the
   gracious safeguard of those who fall, as Peter did, when Satan has them
   in his sieve. The people of God must and shall be safe! Satan may cast
   them down, but God shall save them before they fall into Hell. Let us
   walk carefully, none the less, because of this. Let us watch well our
   footsteps as much as if our preservation entirely depended upon
   ourselves--but let us always look only to our Lord--knowing that He,
   alone, keeps the feet of His saints.

   Holiness, strength of faith and ultimate perfection are the things
   which we must daily aim at, but it is a blessed consolation that when,
   through infirmity or carelessness, we do not fully maintain our
   consecrated walk, we are not, therefore, cast away forever, for it is
   written, "Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the
   Lord upholds him with His hand." "Underneath are the everlasting arms."
   That leads me to read my text in the fourth sense as teaching us that
   the everlasting arms are the rest of His people. If these everlasting
   arms are always outstretched to preserve me lest I totter in weakness
   and fall into destruction, then on those arms let me lean my whole
   weight for time and for eternity! That is the practical lesson of this
   choice word.

   Keep yourselves, Beloved, in those arms which even now are embracing
   you! Why vex your heart when you may be free from care? Underneath
   everything, your Father's arms are placed--what, then, can fret you?
   Why are you disquieted when you might dwell at ease and inherit the
   earth? Are you afraid to rest where the universe rests? Are not your
   Father's arms a sufficient pillow for you? Do you think that it is not
   safe to be at peace when the love and might of God, like two strong
   arms, are stretched out to hold you up and the Divine Voice whispers to
   you "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him"? His own Word to His
   Prophets is, "Comfort you, comfort you My people, says your God. Speak
   you comfortably to Jerusalem." Will you not accept the comfort which He
   sends by His Spirit and bids His servants impart to you?

   When God Himself does rest in His love will you not rest in it and
   shall it not, again, be proven that, "we that have believed do enter
   into rest"? Is not the Lord Jesus our peace? Why, then, are we
   troubled? Well may you lie down to sleep in peace when underneath you
   are the everlasting arms! Well may your spirit be filled with composure
   and become indifferent to outward trials when you are thus held up!
   Blow, you winds and toss, you waves, the boat cannot sink, or if it did
   sink it could not sink to our destruction--we should only drop into the
   great Father's hands--for underneath even the sinking vessel are the
   everlasting arms! Now, let the earth reel with earthquakes or open wide
   her mouth to swallow us up quickly--we need not fear to descend into
   her dreariest gulf--since underneath us would still be the everlasting
   arms! What a fullness of rest this secures to the believing people of
   God!

   I will fetch from the text one more meaning while I am speaking upon
   the position of these arms. The text seems to give us a promise of
   exaltation and uplifting. We may be very low and greatly cast down, but
   "underneath are the everlasting arms." The merciful God is great at a
   dead lift. "He raises up the poor out of the dust, and lifts the needy
   out of the dunghill that He may set him with princes, even with the
   princes of His people." Who can tell how high a man may be lifted
   up--to what sublime elevations he may safely ascend when the Lord makes
   his feet like hind's feet that he may stand upon His high places? If
   still underneath him are the everlasting arms he may safely obey the
   word, "Get up into the high mountains." He may outsoar the eagle,
   mounting higher and higher till he has left the sun like a speck
   beneath his feet and still underneath him shall be the everlasting
   arms. Therefore higher and yet higher may we hourly ascend in thought,
   in joy, in holiness, in likeness to our God!

   This is meant to encourage us to rise, since there can be no danger
   while the arms of God are underneath. This, then, my Brothers and
   Sisters, is where we may expect to find the strength and power of
   God--it is underneath us, bearing us up! We may not always see it, for
   the underneath is hidden from our sight, but surely as in secret the
   Lord upholds the huge columns of the universe so He bears up all His
   own servants and their concerns! "Underneath are the everlasting arms."

   II. Secondly let us meditate upon WHAT it is which is beneath us. The
   everlasting arms. What is meant by this? I hope the gentlemen who are
   so ingenious in toning down the word "everlasting" will not meddle with
   my text. A new way of reading the Bible has been invented in these
   highly enlightened days. I used to get on exceedingly well with the
   Book years ago, for it seemed clear and plain enough, but modern
   interpreters would puzzle us out of our wits and out of our souls, if
   they could, by their vile habit of giving new meanings to plain words!
   Thank God I keep to the old simple way--but I am informed that the
   inventors of the new minimizing glasses manage to read the big words
   small--and they have even read down the word, "everlasting," into a
   little space of time! Everlasting may be six weeks or six months
   according to them. I use no such glasses! My eyes remain the same and
   "everlasting" is "everlasting" to me whether I read of everlasting life
   or everlasting punishment. If I clip the word in one place, I must do
   so in another. And it will never do to have a terminable Heaven. I
   cannot afford to give it up here when its meaning is joyous to the
   saint and, therefore, not there when its sound is terrible to the
   sinner!

   What, then, are "the everlasting arms?" They are arms which always were
   and always will be. They are arms which always were strong and will
   never grow faint or weary. They are arms which, once outstretched, will
   never be drawn back again. They are arms which, once engaged for the
   defense of the chosen people, shall never cease to work for their good,
   world without end! Not failing arms, nor dying arms, but everlasting
   arms are underneath the saints of God! I understand the words to mean,
   first, the arms of everlasting purpose, "according to the eternal
   purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." His purpose may be
   called His arms, by which He stretches out His hands to do His work and
   these can never fail, for, "The Lord of Hosts has purposed and who
   shall disannul it? And His hand is stretched out and who shall turn it
   back?" "The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the thoughts of His
   heart to all generations." "He is in one mind, and who can turn Him?
   And what His soul desires, even that He does."

   We have to deal with One whose gifts and calling are without
   repentance. In the Book of His purpose it is written and His Providence
   and Grace shall tally with the secret decree, "He will have mercy on
   whom He will have mercy, and He will have compassion on whom He will
   have compassion," and the everlasting purpose of Sovereign Grace shall
   be carried out to the end. O my Soul, when your poor purposes shift and
   vanish and you have to change them 20 times a day, what a blessing it
   is to think that the purpose of your God stands fast, and He, Himself,
   is without the shadow of a turning! He has declared that He that
   believes in Christ shall be saved and so you shall be, though all Hell
   assail you! Come what may, the eternal purpose lies at the bottom of
   all, and will be the end and result of all, and so all Israel shall be
   saved, for, "underneath are the everlasting arms" of unchanging
   purpose.

   But next we see here the everlasting arms of love. I do no violence to
   Scripture when I compare love to arms, for is it not written, "I have
   loved you with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have
   I drawn you"? Love has hands and arms with which it draws us and these
   are, at this moment underlying all the dealings of God with us. This
   love is everlasting love--without beginning, without variation, without
   end. Underneath you, child of God, is the infinite affection of the
   Omnipotent God--what, then, can harm you?

   Your love? Ah, how it flames forth at times and then how dull it
   becomes! But your safety comes from a love which never varies, which
   many waters cannot quench and which the floods cannot drown. Look
   beneath you and you may see a depth of love, fathomless and eternal,
   which may well remind you of what Moses said when he spoke of "the deep
   which lies under." The strength of love which abides in God, who is
   Love itself, no mind can conceive! All this is placed under you, O
   Believer, for your succor, support and security. Immovable arches of
   immortal Love sustain your soul from fear of ruin. Rest there and sing
   unto the Lord your song upon your stringed instrument as long as you
   have any being.

   But next, these arms may be described as the arms of power. And what
   says Isaiah the Prophet? "Trust you in the Lord forever, for in the
   Lord Jehovah there is everlasting strength." What said Jeremiah? "Ah
   Lord God! Behold, You have made the Heaven and the earth by Your great
   power and stretched out arm and there is nothing too hard for You."
   Strength is needed to uphold the people of God lest they fall to their
   confusion and that strength is always ready, no, it is always in
   exercise! Believer, you have been able to stand because the arm of
   Divine strength has never been withdrawn. He is able to keep you from
   falling and to present you faultless and He will do it. "O bless our
   God, you people, and make the voice of His praise to be heard: which
   holds our soul in life, and suffers not our feet to be moved." These
   are the arms of Immutability, for God abides forever the same. "I am
   God; I change not: therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed."

   He saved His people "with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, for
   His mercy endures forever." They are the arms of everlasting blessing,
   for God has determined to make His people happy and happy they shall
   be. "Surely," He says, "in blessing I will bless you." "Your blessing
   is upon Your people." He gives liberally unto them and that liberality
   is never diminished, nor can it be stopped. Underneath you, Believer,
   are the everlasting arms, forever carrying you as a nurse carries her
   child, forever gathering up for you innumerable blessings and carrying
   them for your provision. He shall gather the lambs with His arms and
   with those same arms will He show strength unto His people. How blest
   are they who have such arms beneath them!

   I heard of a man who was spending a great deal of money, living in
   grand style and launching out in business. Certain of his fellow
   tradesmen told me that they could not see a reason for his cutting such
   a figure. But said one, "There is somebody at his back, we are quite
   sure of that." And so it is with us--we may well be strong, we may well
   be happy--for there is an unseen power which is at our back--the
   everlasting arms are underneath us--and we cannot fail! Let us be
   joyous, confident and praise the right hand of the Lord! Yes, though
   our conflicts should multiply, let us not fear, but let us sing unto
   the Lord, "Your right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power. The
   right hand of the Lord is exalted. The right hand of the Lord does
   valiantly." For this right hand upholds the cause of His servants.

   III. Now, in the third place, let us consider WHEN the everlasting arms
   are underneath us. The only answer is now and for evermore. Now, at
   this moment, Beloved, the everlasting arms are underneath us! The life
   of a Christian is described as walking by faith and to my mind, walking
   by faith is the most extraordinary miracle ever beheld beneath the sun!
   Walking on the waves, as Peter did, is a type of the life of every
   Christian. I have sometimes likened it to ascending an invisible
   staircase far up into the clouds. You cannot see an inch in front of
   you, but you wind up towards the Light. When you look down, all is
   dark, and before you lies nothing visible but clouds. Beneath you yawns
   a fathomless abyss.

   Yet we have climbed, some of us, for years up this perpetually
   ascending stairway, never seeing an inch before us. We have often
   paused almost in horror and asked in wonder, "What next? What next?"
   Yet what we thought was cloud has proved to be solid rock! Darkness has
   been light before us and slippery places have been safe. Every now and
   then, when the darkness has been denser than usual--a darkness which
   might be felt, when all the past behind us has vanished and nothing has
   been seen but the one step we stood on--we have said, "How did I get
   here? What a strange, mysterious life mine has been!" We have almost
   wished ourselves down on the level among the worldlings who can always
   see their way and know what is underneath them. But faith has come to
   our help, again--we have believed--and believing we have seen the
   invisible and grasped the eternal! And then we have gone on, have put
   our foot down again and soon have run up, with joy, the shining way!

   What an ascent we have sometimes made upon that ladder of light so that
   we have companied with angels and left the world far down beneath our
   feet! Now and then we have enjoyed a glimpse through the thick darkness
   of the jeweled walls of the Eternal City which needs no candle, neither
   light of the sun. We have seen, I say, its brightness and determined,
   still, to climb the mysterious way. Well, Believer, at this moment,
   though you cannot see your way, yet since

   you are walking by faith, "underneath are the everlasting arms." It is
   so, though at this moment you fear that you are going down into a
   gloomy glen. You have lost a great deal of money lately and the friend
   who so kindly helped you is taken away, so that you are going down in
   the world--yes, but underneath are the everlasting arms.

   You are getting nearer to those arms now. Friends and wealth came
   between you and the almighty arms--but now you must lean only on them.
   The creature fails and you must rest on the Creator! You will have
   sweeter fellowship, now, than you ever had, since there is nothing to
   come between you and your Lord. "Ah," says one, "but I am sinking in
   spirit. I am greatly depressed." Still underneath are the everlasting
   arms. Your soul is sinking, like Peter in the waves, but a hand is
   outstretched to save you--you cannot sink while your heavenly Father's
   hands are near. Go on sinking, if the Lord so wills it. Sometimes the
   greatest sweetness in life is found and intense bitterness. I never
   have in my soul a more solid and real joy than when I have been cast
   into the dust with fearful depression of spirit. I stay myself upon my
   God and Him, only, and then I touch the confines of bliss, though
   trembling all the while. I hardly know how to express the unrivalled
   sweetness of resting upon only the Lord!

   When you are flung altogether upon God, then does your soul enter into
   the most Divine peace! The natural spirits have gone, everything that
   sprang from the vigor of youth and the natural elasticity of the mind
   has departed--now you come right upon God and lie naked in His hands.
   And then there is cast into your cup a foretaste of Heaven which the
   soul sits down and humbly sips to herself, for the secret she can never
   tell--no ear would understand her if she did. "Underneath are the
   everlasting arms." And so, dear Friends, if you should sink both in
   circumstances and in spirits and your experience should happen to be a
   very downcast one, it will still be well. If now you have to discover
   the corruption of your nature, which you knew little of before. If now
   your experience, instead of being that of the Brethren of the higher
   life, should be one of humiliation, of prostration of spirit, of deep
   self-loathing--still, underneath you are the everlasting arms. If you
   are not to climb to Pisgah with Moses, but must dive to the bottom of
   the mountains like Jonah, still underneath are the everlasting
   arms--even at the lowest point of your going down! So it shall be
   forever and forever, for the arms are everlasting in their position as
   well as their power.

   Now you have come to die. You have gathered up your feet in the bed.
   The death sweat stands upon your brow. You are sinking, so far as this
   life is concerned, among the sons of men, but underneath you shall then
   be the everlasting arms! Beautifully has Bunyan described confidence in
   death, when he pictures the pilgrims passing the river. Christian cried
   out to young Hopeful, "I sink in deep waters! The billows go over my
   head! All His waves go over me." Then said Hopeful, "Be of good cheer,
   my Brother, I feel the bottom and it is good." Thus, Beloved, shall it
   be with you! You shall feel the bottom of death's chill river, but you
   shall say, "It is good," for underneath are the everlasting arms!

   Then comes the last plunge and we shall be as when a man stands on the
   edge of a precipice and leaps over into the clouds below him. You need
   not fear to take your last farewell and drop into your Father's arms,
   for underneath you shall be the everlasting arms! And oh, how sweetly
   shall you be caught up together with the Lord in the air, pressed to
   the bosom of the great Father and borne upward into the Heaven of
   heavens where you shall behold the face of the Well-Beloved and find
   yourselves entranced in His company forever and forever! O heir of
   Glory, underneath you there is no Hell! Underneath you there is no
   annihilation! Underneath you are the everlasting arms--therefore commit
   your spirit unto your faithful Creator and then welcome life or death,
   for all is well with you!

   IV. Lastly, let us reply to the query, WHAT THEN? If underneath us are
   the everlasting arms, what then? First, let us look underneath. My
   Brothers and Sisters, you have been going on with great discomfort,
   sighing and crying because your way is rough and because sometimes you
   think it dangerous and fear that you will slip into a chasm and perish.
   Now, instead of complaining after this fashion, and fearing the road,
   stop a little and begin to examine--"What is underneath me? What is the
   bottom of my hope?"

   You hypocrites dare not examine! You formalists dare not search! You
   are afraid to ask questions and to open your eyes lest you should see
   too much. But those who are honest and sincere in the way of our Lord
   are not afraid to be tested. You who are under any anxiety will do well
   to pull right up and say, "I have been troubled with doubts and fears
   and I will no longer endure it. I will know the end of this! I will
   search myself and know my ways and pray the Lord to let me see the
   worst of my case, for I long to know what there is underneath." If you
   are believing in Jesus Christ with a sincere heart and resting in the
   atoning Sacrifice and the Covenant of which His blood is the seal, you
   can afford to search underneath--for you will find all things solid and
   eternal!

   It is well to look underneath an outward Providence when it frowns
   darkly upon you, for it conceals the eternal purpose of love. The
   sorrows which you see are but, as it were, a napkin hiding the precious
   treasure of eternal Grace and, therefore, you can say to yourself in
   all ill weathers, "All is well, for all is well underneath! The eternal
   purpose is working out my lasting good." Do not be afraid to search
   underneath, my trembling Brothers and Sisters. but when you do so and
   find the everlasting arms to be there, then sing unto the Lord with all
   your might!

   The next inference is, if underneath us are the everlasting arms, let
   us lean heavily. We are afraid to lean too hard on God. To be careful
   not to encroach on a friend is a very proper disposition. Do not spoil
   a generous friend by drawing upon him so heavily that he will dread to
   see you again. I wish some people had a little more of that
   disposition, as far as I am concerned, but this is not a right feeling
   when you have to deal with the Lord! Never fear that you will weary
   your God! Never say to yourself, "I will ask as little as I can." Why,
   He says, "Open your mouth wide and I will fill it!" Never say, "I will
   trust Him a little. I will take Him a part of my cares and rest a
   portion of my trials upon Him." No, lean with your whole weight!

   Do not keep a spare ounce for your own carrying--that will break your
   back! Bring all the tons and the pounds and the ounces and the
   pennyweights and cast them all on God! He loves His children to treat
   Him with entire confidence. All your weight will not trouble Him. You
   know Aesop's fable of the polite little gnat which apologized to the ox
   for burdening him when he lighted on his horn, and the ox replied that
   he really did not know he was there. Your God will not tell you that,
   for He counts the very hairs of your head, but He will tell you that
   your load is no burden to Him. Why, if you had 50 kingdoms burdening
   your brain and if you carried the politics of a hundred nations in your
   mind, or were loaded with all the cares of a thousand worlds, you might
   safely leave them with the Wonderful Counselor and go your way
   rejoicing! Lean hard, Brothers and Sisters! For underneath you are the
   everlasting arms!

   The next thing is, then, let us rise confidently. Do not be afraid of
   ascending to heights of love. Do not be afraid of having a high
   ambition for a wholly consecrated life. Be not afraid of high
   doctrines, or high enjoyments, or high attainments in holiness. Go as
   high as you like, for underneath you are the everlasting arms! It would
   be dangerous to speculate, but it is safe to believe. Some men are
   always going downward, turning diamonds into gas and hallelujahs into
   howls! They are trying to get rid of precious Truths of God and to
   substitute some new theories for them. Let us be brave in the other
   direction and seek to comprehend with all saints what are the heights
   and depths, and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge. You
   may climb, my dear young Brothers and Sisters, nor fear to fall even if
   you reach the masthead of Truth, for underneath are the everlasting
   arms!

   Once more, let us dare unhesitatingly and be very courageous for the
   Lord our God--

   "Through floods or flames, if Jesus leads, I'll follow where He goes"

   for underneath are the everlasting arms! Are you called upon to lose
   everything for Christ? Go on and leap like Curtius into the gulf for
   your Lord Jesus, for underneath you are the everlasting arms! Does your
   Master call you to an enterprise which seems impossible? Nevertheless,
   if God has called you to it, attempt it, for He renders to every man
   according to his work. Remember what the Negro said--"If Massa Jesus
   say to me, 'Sam, you jump through that brick wall,' I jump. It is Sam's
   business to jump--it is Massa's work to make me go through the wall."
   So it is with you. It is yours to leap forward when the Captain gives
   the watchword--and in confidence to attempt what mere nature cannot
   achieve--for the supernatural is with us!

   The best of all is, God is with us! Underneath us are the everlasting
   arms! Less reliance upon self and more reliance upon God! Less counting
   of the barley loaves and fishes--and a greater readiness to bring them
   to His hands who can multiply them till they shall feed the
   thousands--this is what we need! God grant us Grace to trust in His
   almighty power and sing from now on and forever, "underneath are the
   everlasting arms!"
     __________________________________________________________________

No Difference

   (No. 1414)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MAY 12, 1878,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "He makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on
   thejust and on the unjust." Matthew 5:45.

   [On this night the Tabernacle was free to all comers, the regular
   congregation having vacated their seats.]

   You see our Lord Jesus Christ's philosophy of Nature. He believed in
   the immediate Presence and working of God. As the great Son of God, He
   had a very sensitive perception of the Presence of His Father in all
   the scenes around Him and, therefore, He calls the sun, God's sun--"He
   makes His sun to rise." He does not speak of the daybreak as a thing
   which happens of itself as a matter of course, but He traces the
   morning light to His Father and declares, "He makes His sun to rise."
   As for the rain, our great Lord and Master does not speak of the laws
   of condensation causing the vapor to become fluid and fall to the earth
   in a beneficial shower, but He says of His Father, "He sends rain upon
   the just and upon the unjust."

   Jesus knew far better than any of us all the laws by which the great
   Creator governs the world of matter and yet He never speaks of these
   laws as though they operated without the Divine power making them to be
   effective. In Christ's philosophy, the Lord God Himself was everywhere
   present, working all things--yes, even numbering the hairs upon the
   heads of His chosen--and marking the falling of a sparrow to the
   ground. Let such be your philosophy and mine, for it is the true one!
   Dr. Watts taught us to sing when we were children--

   "My God, who makes the sun to know

   His proper hour to rise,

   And to give light to all below,

   Does send him round the skies." So our mothers taught us and they
   taught us the truth. But the very wise men of this proudly enlightened
   age seem to be spinning all sorts of theories to get rid of God, to
   turn our Benefactor out of His own world and put man's best Friend as
   far away as possible.

   I am sometimes reminded by these schools of philosophy and science of
   Tom Hood's, "I remember, I remember." Here is a verse of it--

   "I remember, I remember, The fir trees dark and high I used to think
   their slender tops Were close against the sky. It was a childish
   ignorance, But now 'tis little joy To know I'm farther off from Hea ven
   Than when I was a boy."

   It were a good thing for our skeptical teachers who have banished God
   out of His own universe if they could go back to their mothers' knees
   and learn to talk simply and naturally after the fashion of the wisest
   man that ever lived, namely, our Lord and Master. Then would they also
   confess that our heavenly Father "makes His sun to rise and He sends
   the rain," for so it is. Laws of Nature can do nothing without a power
   at the back of the laws. What is Nature, about which many infidels
   speak so very plentifully? Ask them to tell you what Nature is and they
   will reply, "Why, it is Nature." Well, but what is that? And they can
   only say, "Why Nature, you know, you know, you know, Nature is Nature."

   Some such sensible reply was given to certain of our friends on
   Kennington Common by one who was there reviling his Maker. Now, if men
   did but understand Nature, they would know that Nature is simply God's
   creation, workshop, laboratory, storehouse and banqueting hall. In
   Nature, what God has made and what God is doing are made visible before
   our eyes. God is among us still, blessed be His name! Believing this,
   we at once perceive that the Lord has been talking with us during the
   last few days very sweetly and delightfully. The merciful Father speaks
   to us with charming eloquence on such a day as this, of which George
   Herbert would have said--

   "Sweet day so cool, so calm, so bright, The bridal of the earth and
   sky." Coming just in the middle of this fair season of hope and
   promise, concerning which he sang--

   "Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses, A box where sweets
   compacted lie," it has a still small voice which all should wish to
   hear.

   What a blessing to have enjoyed such a May day as this has been! We
   have had God speaking to us according to the exact style of our
   text--He has made His sun to shine, and He has us sent rain. Our days,
   for some little time, have been made up of sunshine and shower with,
   every now and then, that wondrous masterpiece of glory in the sky which
   we call the rainbow, of which God has said, "I, even I, do set My bow
   in the cloud," "whose warp is the raindrop of earth and whose woof is
   the sunbeam of Heaven!" Glorious symbol of His Grace and faithfulness,
   who hung it in the clouds! Now what does God say to us in the sunshine
   and the shower which come, the one after the other, in such pleasant
   alternation, making the grass so green and causing flowers to deck both
   tree and herb? What does He say in all this?

   There is a voice full of the music of love, to which we shall do well
   to listen. There is one instruction in it and only one that I shall be
   able to expound tonight. It is the fact brought out in the text, "He
   makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on
   the just and on the unjust." One of the most considerable heights
   anywhere near London is Leith Hill, near Dorking. And if you have ever
   stood there, as I often have done with delight, you may, perhaps, have
   thought over our text. You see far around the distant lands, pasture,
   parks, woods, with here and there the laughing water. And beyond the
   blue hills the distant sea. Up comes a gleam of sunlight, where all was
   cloud before. By-and-by the sun bursts out in full beauty.

   Do you notice how impartial it is? Men have mapped out the country--so
   far is allotted to this squire, so far to that--with here and there an
   insignificant patch pilfered from the wayside or the common which may
   belong to some industrious peasant. But the sun shines on all, glances
   into the halls, peeps into the cottages, gleams from the white spires
   of the churches and flashes from the tavern signboards swinging in the
   breeze. It shines on the wayside and floods the green with its golden
   light where the children are at play--it sweeps over all, in fact. Now
   that farm over yonder belongs to a fool who is sure to rake his stubble
   after the harvest, lest the poor should glean an ear or two--a man who
   fights and quarrels with his neighbors, yet the sun shines on his
   selfish heritage!

   Yonder farm belongs to one who would, if he could, rob the orphan and
   fatherless and the widow--a heartless wretch unworthy to gather a sour
   apple from the sharpest crab--yet the sun shines on his wheat and
   barley just the same as on that portion of land which belongs to the
   generous-hearted and the free, to the gracious and the godly. There is
   no distinction made between the meadows of the righteous and the
   pastures of the wicked! As you see the sunlight bathe the whole of the
   scene before you, the entire landscape smiles with universal joy. While
   you are watching, that cloud which all day long you had suspected would
   turn to a shower, comes rushing up with the wind--the Great Father
   blowing with His breath this traveling fountain of the sky!

   Then it begins to pour. We seek the shelter of the lofty tower of Leith
   without a murmur, for we know that the rain is seasonable. The land
   needs it. It has been dry and parched for weeks. Down comes the blessed
   shower that shall fill our barns with plenty. Yes, yes, the Lord is
   pouring forth a shower of food-creating moisture and, look, it is
   raining on the fool's piece of land just as much as on his liberal
   neighbor's! It is watering the farm of the man who would rob the
   fatherless of his shoes if the law permitted him. It is making his
   broad acres teem with plenty just as surely as it is fattening the poor
   man's patch, or falling upon the widow's scanty plot, or on the farm of
   the gracious godly man.

   As though He did not regard human character at all, God bids His sun
   shine on good and bad. As though He did not know that any men were
   vile, He bids the shower descend on just and unjust. Yet He does know,
   for He is no blind God! He does know and He knows when His sun shines
   on yonder miser's acres that it is bringing forth a harvest for a fool.
   He

   does it deliberately. When the rain is falling upon yonder oppressor's
   crops, He knows that the oppressor will be the richer for it and means
   that He should be. He is doing nothing by mistake and nothing without a
   purpose. It is of His own will that He thus scatters sunlight with both
   His hands and pours the bounteous shower on all things that grow. He
   knows what He is doing, blessed be His name! He sends forth, on
   purpose, sunshine and shower on the evil and on the good--and that is
   the one lesson we want to bring out tonight.

   What is the meaning of this boundless generosity? Why this impartial
   bounty, this indiscriminate liberality? What does God say to us when He
   acts thus? I believe that He says this--"This is the day of free Grace.
   This is the time of mercy." The hour for judgment is not yet, when He
   will separate between the good and the bad, when He will mount the
   Judgment Seat and award different portions to the righteous and to the
   wicked. Sheep and goats, as yet, feed together and He gives to them all
   their fodder. Wheat and tares grow in the same field and He ripens both
   for the harvest. This is not the Day of Justice, but the period of
   mercy--free, rich mercy--mercy to the undeserving, Divine Grace to the
   worthless, sunlight of love for the evil and showers of blessings for
   the unjust!

   That is the teaching of the great Father to us tonight and, in trying
   to bring it out, I shall first show how forcible it is made to appear
   by its being placed as an example. Secondly, I shall dwell upon the
   act, itself, drawing inferences from the impartiality of sunshine and
   shower to encourage all who long to receive Grace at the great Father's
   hand. And, lastly, I shall let the plants and grass and trees talk to
   you a little.

   I. First, then, this which is spoken concerning God's causing His
   sunshine to fall on the evil as well as on the good is set before us as
   AN EXAMPLE AND HENCE THE EMPHASIS OF ITS MEANING. We are, according to
   the verses which precede our text, to love our enemies, to bless them
   that curse us, to do good to them that hate us, to pray for them which
   despitefully use us and persecute us because, if we do, we shall be
   like our Father in Heaven who blesses with sunshine and showers the bad
   as well as the good. It must mean, then, that He, in causing His sun to
   shine upon the bad, is rendering good for evil, is wishing well to
   those who treat Him ill, is intending favor to those that despitefully
   use Him and persecute His cause.

   That is what the text means. God would not command us to do what He
   will not do, Himself, if placed in similar circumstances! He bids us
   forgive because His sunshine and showers teach us that He is ready to
   forgive. He bids us do good to those who do us ill, because in sunshine
   and showers He is doing good to those who hate Him and despitefully use
   Him. Now suppose, my Brethren, that we were all enabled, by Divine
   Grace, to follow out the precept which is set before us? Our conduct
   would be regarded by most men as being very extraordinary--for most
   people say, "Well, I will do good to a man if he is a deserving
   character, but you cannot expect me to help the undeserving. I will
   cheerfully render a measure of assistance to a person who is grateful,
   but to the ungrateful and the evil you do not expect me to be kind?
   Yes, I will be kind to my neighbor, but that man who the other day was
   so contemptuous in his behavior as to treat me worse than a dog and
   seemed as if he would tread me under his feet like dirt--would you have
   me do him kindness?"

   Now, suppose that you are able to rise to the example which is put
   before you and that you persistently do good and only good even to the
   worst of men? And when you are treated with evil, let us suppose you
   are able to do only more good and thus heap coals of fire upon the
   offender's head by being more generous to him than ever--that will be
   very extraordinary conduct, don't you think? You think so, I know, for
   you feel the proposal to be too hard for flesh and blood to carry out
   and so, indeed, it is! And if you are enabled to rise to so great a
   height, you will astonish all around you and become a wonder to many!
   Admire, then, with all your hearts, the marvelous conduct of your God!

   He is prepared to put away all the offenses of the past and He is ready
   to forgive and to do good to those who have been doing ill all their
   days. Yes, to take into His very heart of love and make into His
   children the very persons who have hated Him and spoken evil against
   Him! Will it not be extraordinary if He does that to you, dear Friend,
   if such has been your character? Know, then, that the Lord loves to do
   extraordinary things! "Who is a God like unto You, passing by
   transgression, iniquity, and sin?" "As high as the heavens are above
   the earth, so high are His ways above our ways, and His thoughts above
   our thoughts." God is prepared to save extraordinary sinners by an
   extraordinary act of love, wiping out the past and causing them to
   begin a new life in which they shall be enriched with His favor and
   preserved by His love.

   Again, if a man should carry out what I have tried to set forth--the
   continuous rendering of good to the undeserving--he would be regarded
   by all thinking persons whose judgment is worth taking, to be very
   noble. When a

   man has been abused, misrepresented and slandered, and he simply smiles
   and says, "If you knew me better you would not treat me so." And, if
   the first time he finds an opportunity, he helps the man who injured
   him and still gets no gratitude, but, on the contrary, worse treatment
   than before, and he is still able to persevere in doing good--most of
   you would say, "What a noble fellow he is!" Even the man who does not
   praise him is obliged to feel his greatness. There is about such a man
   a superiority which covers him with honor in the consciences of those
   who observe his gentle spirit!

   Now, listen, you that are conscious of great sin against God! If the
   Lord were, tonight, to put all your sins behind His back and would take
   you into His family, as He took the poor returning prodigal and make a
   great feast for you as He did when His son that was lost was found,
   would it not be noble of Him? Would you not feel that His thoughts are
   far above your thoughts? Of course you would! Yes, but my God does
   noble deeds such as make the harps of Heaven ring with ecstatic music
   as the cherubim and seraphim behold His Grace. O thrice noble God,
   there is none like You, so ready to pardon and to receive each
   returning penitent and restore him to Your favor! To pardon you, my
   sinful Brother, would be extraordinary and honorable to the last
   degree, but God is prepared to act after that noble fashion! Will you
   not accept such boundless love and be at peace with such a Lord?

   Do you not all feel that if you could act in so noble a style it would
   be very pleasurable to you? No doubt there is some pleasure in knocking
   a fellow down who insults you, but it cannot last long. When the fire
   of passion goes out, a man begins to think whether it was a good thing
   to do, after all--but not to do it, to turn the other cheek when you
   have been struck, to do good instead of evil--have you ever tried that?
   If you have done so, you have heard music in your heart at midnight at
   the remembrance of your forbearance! When you have been lying awake,
   you have thought it over and you have said to yourself, "It makes me
   happy to think that I did not reply to that angry man in an angry
   tone--to think that I did not, after all, give him a smart blow when he
   gave me one--but that I showed patience and good temper and endured ill
   treatment for Christ's sake." It is a pleasure as deep as it is noble!
   To be Christ-like is to enjoy a Heaven within your breast!

   And even so, it is a pleasure to God to have mercy upon sinners. He
   delights in mercy! Nothing gives God greater delight than to save those
   who have offended Him. He is always ready for a gracious deed and
   freely, of His own will, He meets those who seek His face. He does not
   want you to melt His heart with tears in order to win His love and He
   does not require the laceration of your body by penance, nor a long
   period of agonizing doubt before He grants full and effectual pardon.
   It is His joy to pardon! He meets returning sinners when they are yet a
   great way off and kisses them. So rejoiced is He to receive them that
   if they are glad to be received, yet He is the more glad of the two!
   Joyous is the great Father's heart when He presses His Ephraims to His
   bosom!

   Did I hear somebody say, "But this that you are talking about is not
   justice"? Listen--it is not unjust. Look at the conduct which our Lord
   commands us and see if that would be unjust. If a man has insulted me
   and I forgive him, am I unjust? If a man has slandered me and I
   overlook it, am I unjust? If a man has done me an injury and I refuse
   to take any revenge except that of doing good to him, am I unjust?
   Certainly I am not acting according to the laws of justice, but then I
   am not the judge--and not being the judge--why should I undertake an
   office to which I am not called? God is the Judge of all by necessity
   of His Nature, but He will not fully display that Character till the
   day when in the Person of His Son He shall come with all His holy
   angels to summon men to His bar. For the present He does not deal with
   living men after the rule of justice, but He deals with them according
   to His Grace.

   If anyone should question why He should give His Grace to the
   undeserving, here is a sufficient answer for them-- "May I not do as I
   will with My own? Is your eye evil because Mine is good?" If you choose
   to show kindness to those who do not deserve it, who shall say to you,
   "no"? May not a man be as generous and forbearing as he pleases? What
   Law, human or Divine, forbids him? And if God, with infinite
   sovereignty of mercy, chooses to dispense His favors even to those who
   deserve nothing at His hands, let Him be adored forever, but let Him
   not be questioned for so doing! At any rate, it ill becomes the
   undeserving, themselves, to raise such a question--rather let them
   eagerly accept the bounty of the pardoning God!

   And then note this thought--that to do good to the evil is, after all,
   promotive of righteousness. To be good to the unjust is to help on the
   cause of right, for goodness to the evil is one of the most wooing
   things in the world, wooing them, I mean, to repent and do good in
   return! Let me give you an anecdote. There was a farmer who lived in
   one of the new settlements of America. We will call him Mr. Wrath, for
   he was a man of a horrible temper and everybody who lived

   near him was made to know it. He had an excellent Christian man living
   near him--a gentle, good, easy-tempered soul--and on one occasion this
   good man's hogs strayed into the bad man's wheat and caused damage. Mr.
   Wrath came down in a tearing rage and said what he would do and what he
   would not do.

   The other offered to pay for the damage and said that he was very sorry
   for his neglect and would do his best that it should not happen again.
   However, it did happen again, and the owner of the wheat was in a great
   passion. He caught the swine and killed them all, put their bodies on a
   cart and took them back to his neighbor. "Your hogs," he said, "got
   into my wheat--here they are." And sure enough there they were, all
   dead. Of course, the owner of the hogs might have gone to the
   authorities against Mr. Wrath and obtained damages at more or less the
   cost of trouble and temper, but he merely said that he was exceedingly
   sorry that his hogs had transgressed again and there ended the matter.

   Some time after, it came to pass that Mr. Wrath's pigs went astray, as
   pigs will do, and they damaged the Christian's wheat. What did he do?
   He had not sought a legal remedy against his adversary--would not it
   have been fair and straightforward to butcher Mr. Wrath's hogs on the
   principle of tit for tat, as the proverb puts it? Of course it would
   have been, but a Christian does not act upon that worn-out legal
   principle! Instead of killing the creatures, he caught them all, tied
   their legs, put them on a cart, drove up to the door and said, "Friend
   Wrath, your hogs got into my wheat. I have brought them to you. Here
   they are"--the very words that Mr. Wrath had used to him.

   Mr. Wrath went to the cart, of course expecting to find his swine all
   dead. But there they were, all right enough, grunting in proof of their
   continued existence. "There," the neighbor said, "hogs are always
   troublesome. I dare say you could not help their getting into my
   wheat." Mr. Wrath's temper was changed from that very day. How could he
   behave badly to such a neighbor who had vanquished him by forgiving him
   the injury that he had done him? Now, just as men can win upon men by
   their kindness, so does God win upon the hearts of men by His love when
   the Holy Spirit leads them to see and feel that He acts graciously
   towards them. There is no power to win a man like the power of love! If
   you have ever been converted, dear Friends, I think that you have felt
   that you could say--

   "I yield, by Sovereign Love subdued-- Who can resist its charms?"

   The thunderbolts of God might have broken you down, but they could not
   have forced love into your terrified soul! Yet, when Jesus came in love
   and mercy, you were compelled to yield and that most gladly and
   heartily!

   So God's goodness to the unjust is aiding and assisting the cause of
   righteousness and justice and who, therefore, shall say a word against
   it? "Ah," says somebody, "but it is very liable to be abused. If you go
   and help the bad and benefit the unjust, you will find that they will
   take your charity and spend it wrongly, or perhaps they will turn,
   again, and harm you." This is very true, but still, the Master says,
   "Love your enemies and pray for them that despitefully use you." He
   does not insert a clause to the effect that we are only to do this
   where we are sure that it will not be abused. No, it is absolute! If
   they make bad use of it, that is no business of ours. Your heavenly
   Father knows that the fool, when he reaps his harvest, will simply
   spend it on himself, yet He sends him the sunlight and the shower. He
   knows that yonder oppressive wretch will, with his wealth, go on to
   grind the poor, but He sends his crops the warm, genial sun and the
   refreshing rain, notwithstanding it.

   But, dear Friends, there is this thing to be said about Divine Grace,
   that if God gives it to you, you cannot misuse it, for Grace will
   change your heart and renew your nature! And if He is so ready to give
   to men those benefits which they can and do abuse, much more will He
   bestow that Grace which is liable to no such ill usage. Let me add,
   however, if anybody does abuse God's mercy, just as if any man abuses
   your practical kindness, it involves him in great guilt. Men cannot do
   despite to goodness without becoming exceedingly vile. You will soon
   see this if I mention one anecdote. In Holland, in the days when the
   Baptists were persecuted, it happened that the canals were frozen over
   and one poor despised Baptist escaped from a person who was seeking to
   drag him before the magistrates to get blood money for his head. He ran
   across the river, which was wide and frozen. The ice was strong enough
   to bear him and he got safely to the other shore.

   The person who was seeking his life was a heavier man and he slipped
   through the ice and went into the water. And what did this poor hunted
   Christian man do? He turned round and at the peril of his own life he
   helped his persecutor out and landed him on the bank. And what did the
   wretch do but seize him and drag him before the magistrates--and he was
   burnt as the result of his own act of generosity! There is not a man in
   the world who does not feel that the wretch

   deserves universal condemnation! Everybody denounces him at once. So
   if, after God's mercy to the unjust and the bad, they still go on to
   sin against Him I will leave the universal conscience of mankind to cry
   them down!

   I heard, the other day, an instance of a dog's returning good for evil
   and this places the matter in an equally strong light. A man had taken
   a dog with the intention of drowning him--a large Newfoundland dog. He
   went into a boat with a big stone intending to throw the dog out of the
   boat into the stream with the stone about his neck. Somehow or other,
   before he had securely tied the stone, the dog had become free and in
   some little scuffle between them the boat was upset and dog and man
   were both in the water. The man sank and was nearly drowned, but the
   dog, noble creature, swam up and seized hold of the man and drew him
   safely to shore.

   Now suppose he had drowned the dog after that! Did I hear some
   indignant person say, "Let him be drowned himself? He would not deserve
   to live, surely. I would take such a dog as that home and say, "While I
   have a crust, there shall be a bit for you, good dog who saved my life
   when I was destroying yours." Now, if even a dog, when it renders good
   for evil, gets a claim upon us, what shall I say of the great God who,
   with generous liberality, continues to feed and keep in life and health
   the undeserving sons of men? And who, more than this, has given His own
   Son to die and sent a message of amazing love to mankind, in which He
   says, "Come to Me: I am ready to forgive you. Come and accept My love
   and mercy. Let us be friends, for I delight to forgive sin"? Is it not
   clear that to abuse such love is black-hearted baseness? I beseech you,
   be not guilty of it!

   II. Now, secondly, we may gather fresh hope and encouragement from THE
   FACT ITSELF. When the sunlight comes upon a wicked man's field and the
   rain descends upon the farm of a blaspheming atheist, the man has done
   nothing to deserve either shower or sun, but yet they favor him. And,
   blessed be God, He gives His Grace to those who have done nothing to
   deserve it! If all your life long you cannot think of one good action
   you have ever performed, nevertheless the Grace of God is free to you
   if you will have it. "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be
   saved" is preached to you--deserving and merit are out of the question!
   God gives freely even to the evil and the unjust!

   Showers and sunlight from Heaven come to those who have not sought them
   at the Lord's hands. That fool, there, never prayed for the sunlight.
   He does not believe in praying--not he! And that oppressor over yonder,
   that we spoke of, never asked God to send the rain--he said it was a
   matter of chance and he did not see the good of praying about it. Yet
   it came. And oh, what a wonder it is that God is often found of them
   that sought Him not! Persons have come into this Tabernacle and the
   last thing they thought of was that they would be saved that night--and
   yet they have been! God's infinite mercy sometimes comes to those who
   do not ask for it, according to the text, "I am found of them that
   sought Me

   not."

   Look at Colonel Gardiner. He had made a commitment and was about to
   perpetrate a gross act of vice, but the person whom he expected to meet
   had not come and, therefore, he had to wait an hour or two. While he
   waited he saw or thought he saw, a vision of the Savior who said to
   him, "I did all this for you, what have you done for Me?" That
   question, with the sight of the Lord Jesus Christ, by Divine Grace,
   changed his heart! He never kept that appointment but, as most of you
   know, he became one of the most devout Christians in the world! Oh,
   tell it the wide world over that as the rain tarries not for man, nor
   waits for the sons of men, but comes according to the good favor of
   God, so often does His Grace visit those who knew not God and sought
   not after Him! Let Him be praised and extolled forever and ever because
   of this.

   Now, if Grace sometimes comes to those who have not asked, do you not
   think that it will come to you who are asking for it? Oh you that are
   groaning for it, sighing for it and longing for it--do you think it
   will be denied to you? God forbid! He will be sure to bless you.
   Believe in the Lord Jesus and it is yours at once! The rain comes to
   those who do not even acknowledge the existence of God. It waters the
   atheist's fields and refreshes the pastures of the fool who says in his
   heart, "There is no God." Even so, I have known the Grace of God
   descend on those who have loudly denied His very existence. In our
   Church there is one, at least, who not long ago was a loud spokesman
   against God, but upon his dropping into this house, the Word came with
   power to his soul and again, and again, and again it described his
   case, till at last he said, "There is a God, for He has found me out.
   The preacher seems to know my case and character." Every time he came,
   something was said which so accurately described himself that he could
   not understand and interpret it in any other way than that God had
   spoken to his soul!

   Now, if God calls by His effectual Grace some that even doubt His
   existence, how much more will He look on you who have been made to
   tremble before Him and who desire to be reconciled to Him? Surely He
   will hear the cry of the humble and grant your penitent request! The
   Lord sends the rain to some that never thank Him for it. "A heavy
   shower, William," says the fool. "Yes, Sir," says his pious servant,
   "God be thanked for it." "I do not know much about that, William. I
   dare say the wind had a good deal to do with it. I knew it would come,
   for the glass was down." So he ends that talk. Yes, but, dear Friend,
   if God sends temporal blessings to those who do not thank Him, will He
   not give His Grace to those of you who feel that you would bless Him
   forever if He would but save you?

   A good woman said, when she sought the Lord, "If He saves me He shall
   never hear the last of it, for I will praise Him as long as ever I live
   and then to all eternity." Well, now, you may reckon quite surely that
   when a soul feels after that manner the Lord will not deny it the sun
   of His love, or the rain of His Grace! He gives rain even to those whom
   He knows will remain thankless--will He not give His Spirit to those
   who will become His grateful children? Remember, too, dear Friends,
   that God gives this rain and this sunshine year after year! If I were
   very kind to a man and he treated me unthankfully I should think that I
   had a good deal of Grace if I kept on being kind to him for a year. And
   supposing I kept on seven years, I fancy that I should think that I had
   endured a long enough trial of him and should get a little tired of
   being grieved by him--wouldn't you?

   Yet, look, God has sent sunshine and showers upon the fields of the
   wicked all their lives long! He has continued to be kind to them and He
   has not grown weary. Perhaps some of you are 50 years old and yet have
   never yielded to the love of God. Ah, you have been hearing sermons
   these 50 years. Perhaps you are getting on for 70 now. Why, you have
   heard tender words of love that went further than your ears and touched
   your conscience--but you have still held out against God! Oh, the
   patience of God to have borne with you from day to day! Now, if He has
   suffered you so long, and if tonight you turn to Him with purpose of
   heart and say, "I have had enough of this rebellion. Lord, I would be
   at peace with You," do you think that He will refuse you? Far from it!
   For His mercy endures forever!

   One more remark on this. The sunshine which you saw today, I do not
   doubt, was as bright a sunlight as that which Joshua saw when he bade
   the sun stand still. And the showers that fell the other day,
   especially as it fell in these quarters and at Brixton, I should say
   were quite as plentiful as any downpour which our grandsires can
   remember. It is evident that the sun's fire is not burnt out and that
   the clouds are not exhausted. Well, it is so in heavenly things, for
   there the eternal fullness dwells! God has as much love as ever and as
   much Grace as ever--and as a thousand years ago He poured forth His
   Grace to convert the bad and the unjust--He is just as able to pour
   them out now upon the most guilty and the most worthless.

   His Grace in conversion, pardon, adoption and preservation is as large
   as ever! Glory be to His blessed name, He still rains His bounties on
   the unjust! And that Christ who, when we were dead in sins, died for
   us, and who, while we were yet sinners, manifested His great love to
   us--that Christ who came into the world to save sinners--still abounds
   in power to save and bless! And if you will go to Him (and oh, may His
   Grace make you) you shall find it to is so!

   III. Lest I should weary you, I will finish with the last head, under
   which I should like to MAKE THE EARTH, THE

   FLOWERS AND THE TREES WHICH HAVE BEEN WATERED AND WARMED, SPEAK TO YOU
   A LITTLE.

   And, first, I will suppose, dear Friend, that you are here tonight and
   feel that you cannot pray--feel as if you could not come to God, could
   not do anything. The flowers say, "We are cheered by the sun and
   refreshed by the rain. We do nothing to deserve these blessings, but we
   do long for them." The little flowers say, "We do long for the rain."
   Look at them--they droop their heads during a long drought. See the
   grass, how brown it gets! See the leaves, how dry they are! See the
   earth, how chapped it is after a dry season.

   Now, Soul, do you long for the mercy of God? Do you pine for it, sigh
   for it, cry for it? God help you to do that! To be forgiven, to get the
   love of God shed abroad in your hearts--is not that worth having? Do
   pant for it, I say, as the flowers sigh for the rain and the sun! And
   next, the flowers seem to say, "Do turn to it." If you keep a plant in
   your window, see how it grows the way the sun comes! Notice the trees,
   how they put out their branches sunward. See the sunflower how it turns
   its head in the direction of the sun. The flowers love the sun! If you
   cannot do anything to get Divine Grace, at least turn your head that
   way! Look that way! Long that way! Grow that way! You will receive
   it--it will not be denied. It will come to you. It has already come to
   you if you have begun to turn to it with longing gaze!

   And then the flowers seem to say, "Drink it in when it does come." In
   January there was the crocus just peeping up from the soil and the sun
   shone on it and in gratitude it brought up from the deeps--from its
   cellar somewhere--a gold cup and set it out to catch the sunbeams till
   the sun smiled and graciously filled it to the brim! And have you
   noticed when the soft April showers fall, how the flowers seem, each,
   to have a cup to hold a share of Heaven's bounty? And certainly beneath
   the soil each flower has its little traveling rootlets sucking up each
   drop of moisture they can find. Now, dear Hearers, when Grace comes
   specially near to you, drink it in! Is the sermon blest to you? Do not
   go away and lose its influence! Do you feel some tender movements in
   your conscience? Yield to them! Is there an invitation? Accept it! Is
   there a threat? Tremble at it! Open your bosom and say, "Come in, my
   Savior, come in and reign and save my soul from the wrath to come."

   But then the flowers say, once more, "Do thank God for it." The last
   two or three days I have seemed to live in a temple! When I go into my
   garden I have a choir around me in the trees. They do not wear
   surplices, for their song is not artificial and official. Some of them
   are clothed in glossy black, but they sing like little angels! They
   sing the sun up and wake me at break of day. And they warble on till
   the last red ray of the sun has departed, still singing out from bush
   and tree the praises of their God! And all the flowers--the primroses
   that are almost gone--these bring into my heart deep meanings
   concerning God till the last one shuts his eyes. And now the
   forget-me-nots and the wallflowers and the lilacs and the guilder roses
   and a host of sweet beauties are pouring out their incense of perfume,
   as if they said, "Thank the God that made us! Blessed be His name! The
   earth is full of His goodness!"

   Now, dear Hearers, if you get the Lord's Grace, thank Him for it. Grow
   by it, blossom with it, be fragrant with it. If you only receive a
   little Grace, be very grateful for it, for a little Grace is worth a
   great deal. If God gives you Grace enough to be called starlight, thank
   Him for it and He will give you moonlight! And when you get moonlight
   Grace, thank Him for it and He will give you sunlight! And when you
   have obtained sunlight Grace, thank Him for it and He will give you the
   light of Heaven which is as the light of seven days!

   Lastly--and this the flowers cannot teach you, because the flowers
   cannot do it--pray for Grace. It will come. It will come! Do you
   remember George Herbert's pretty verse. With that I will finish. He
   says--

   "The dew does every morning fall-- And shall the dew outstrip Your
   Dove? The dew for which grass cannot call-- Drops from above."

   See his point? The dew comes every morning. The grass cannot ask for
   it, but it comes. And shall the dew be more free and swift than the
   Holy Spirit? No, says the poet--I can pray for that holy Dove--will He
   not come to me, who prays, since the dew comes to the grass which
   cannot call for it? Behold He visits the earth and waters it with the
   river of God which is full of water and flings back the curtains of the
   sky and bids the sun shine out with genial face upon the poor dead
   soil! And if He does all this for the fields that cannot pray and for
   flowers that cannot speak, how much more will He do it for you who seek
   His face through Jesus Christ?!

   Come, then, to Him! He will gladly welcome you. Come and trust His Son.
   Come and rest in the merit of Jesus' blood and you shall find eternal
   life! May God bless you all, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Great Difference

   (No. 1415)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 19, 1878,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Where is the God of Judgment?" Malachi 2:17.

   "Then shall you return, and discern between the righteous and the
   wicked, between him that serves God and him that serves Him not."
   Malachi 3:18.

   You were not here, I am thankful to say, last Lord's-Day evening, for
   it was your duty and privilege to stay away to give others an
   opportunity of hearing. My subject, then, [Sermon #1414, No Difference]
   was our heavenly Father who makes His sun to rise upon the evil and
   upon the good and sends rain upon the just and upon the unjust. Then I
   set forth the universal benevolence of God and the way in which He
   stays the operations of Justice to give space for forbearance and
   long-suffering. Now this fact, this gracious fact, which ought to lead
   man to repentance, has, through the perversity of human nature, been
   used for quite another purpose. Men have said, "He blesses the evil as
   well as the good. The sun shines on all alike. The rain
   indiscriminately enriches the field of the tyrant and the pasture of
   the generous heart-- where is the God of Judgment? Is there such a God?
   Is it not one and the same whether we fear Him or disregard Him?"

   Side by side with this has run another circumstance perhaps even more
   readily misunderstood. God is, in this life, preparing His people for a
   better world and part of that process is effected by trial and
   affliction so that it frequently happens that the godly are in
   adversity while the wicked are in prosperity. Having no such designs
   toward them as toward His people, the Lord permits the wicked to enjoy
   themselves while they may, so that oftentimes they are as bullocks
   fattened in rich pastures--but they forget that they are fattened for
   the slaughter! The righteous, brought very low, are often in poverty,
   frequently in sickness and not seldom in despondency of spirit--but all
   to prepare them for Glory! From the trials of the godly, which are all
   sent in wisdom and in love, shortsighted man has inferred that God has
   no regard to human character and even treats those worst who serve Him
   best.

   In Malachi's days the blaspheming crew even said that God takes sides
   with the wicked and they wearied God by saying--"Everyone that does
   evil is good in the sight of the Lord and He delights in them." Then
   again they uttered the old rude but plain-spoken question, "Where is
   the God of Judgment?" Truly Brothers and Sisters, in looking with these
   poor eyes upon the affairs around us, they do appear to be a great
   tangle and snarl, a mixed medley of strange happenings. We see the true
   princes of the earth walking in the dust and beggars riding upon
   horses! We mourn as we see servants of God and heirs of Heaven lying,
   like Lazarus, sick at the gate of the ungodly miser, while the vicious
   libertine is rioting in luxury and drinking full bowls of pleasure!

   Until we perceive the clue, Providence is a labyrinth into whose center
   we can never penetrate. But there is a clue which opens all its
   secrets! There is a God of Judgment, not sitting in Heaven in blind
   indifference, but looking down upon the sons of men and working out
   purposes of righteousness at all times. At this time I propose to speak
   upon the fact that God does put a difference between the righteous and
   the wicked and makes no mistake between Egypt and Israel. The Lord
   knows them that are His and in His dealings, which we cannot always
   understand, He has not confused His people with the world, nor does the
   rod of the wicked rest upon the lot of the righteous. He has a right
   hand of acceptance for them that fear Him and He has a left hand of
   punishment for those that fear Him not.

   This distinction is not so apparent, yet, as it shall be, but we shall
   now trace the gradual widening of the division between the two classes
   and show that still there is a God of Judgment and that, by-and-by,
   even the blindest eye shall be able to discern between the righteous
   and the wicked, between him that serves God and him that serves Him
   not.

   I. First, then, THERE ARE SIGNS OF SEPARATION between the righteous and
   the wicked. The first sign is seen in the evident difference of
   character. "They that feared the Lord" are spoken of. That is to say,
   there are still some on the face of the earth who believe that there is
   a God, who believe in the Revelation which He has given, who accept the
   Atonement which He has provided and who delight to be obedient to the
   will which He has declared. How came they to fear the Lord? The answer
   is, it is a gift of His Grace and a work of His Spirit wherever it is
   found. It makes a distinction very deep, very vital and, consequently,
   very lasting, for it shall continue throughout eternity!

   Let us bless God that in the worst times He still has a remnant
   according to the election of Grace! And when blasphemers grow bold in
   sin and say, "Where is the God of Judgment?" there are at least a few
   hidden ones who nevertheless look up and behold the Lord exalted above
   the rage of His foes. There will always be a band who bow the knee and
   worship the Most High because their hearts stand in awe of Him. God is
   beginning to separate His chosen from the world when He gives them an
   inward sense of His Presence and a consequent holy fear and sacred awe
   of Him. The dividing work begins here--in the bent and current of the
   heart.

   This difference in real character soon shows itself in a remarkable
   change of thought and meditation. According to the passage before us,
   those who are said to, "fear the Lord," are also described as those
   who, "thought upon His name." Their thoughts are not always towards the
   transient things of this world, but they are much engaged with the
   eternal God and His truth--they are not always groveling after the
   creature, but soaring towards the Creator. The Hebrew word has the idea
   of "counting"--they reckon the Lord as the chief consideration when
   they count up their arguments for action. Others do not take Him into
   the reckoning, they act as if there were no God at all. But the
   righteous make much of Him and account Him to be the greatest factor in
   all their calculations--they fall back upon God in trouble-- and joy
   most of all in Him when they are glad.

   They reckon not without the Lord of Hosts. They say, "The best of all
   is, God is with us." And concerning any action, if it is contrary to
   His mind, they reject it. If it is according to His will they think
   upon Him and they delight to carry it out. This makes a great
   difference in their course of life and also in their happiness. Dear
   Hearers, I trust there are many among you who can truly say that your
   meditation of God has been very sweet and you have been glad in the
   Lord. This, then, is working out a distinction between you and the
   wicked who forget God. You fear the Lord and you take delight in
   meditating upon Him in secret, but this, the worldling cannot
   understand. This makes a distinction between you and the careless which
   does not long exist without operating in a further direction--you grow
   weary of their frivolous conversation and they cannot endure your
   serious observations! And so two parties are formed, as of old there
   were two lines--the sons of God and the children of Cain.

   You will soon see Ishmael and Isaac, Esau and Jacob living over again
   if you watch the thoughtless worldling and the pious Christian and mark
   how much they differ. Therefore there grows out of this difference of
   thought and feeling a separation as to society. "Then they that feared
   the Lord spoke often one to another," which shows that they often met
   and that they delighted in one another's company. Each man felt himself
   feeble in the midst of the ungodly and, therefore, he sought out a
   Brother that he might be strengthened by association. Each man felt
   himself to be like a sheep in the midst of wolves, but knowing the
   nature of sheep to be gregarious, each one sought his fellow, that they
   might make up a flock, hoping that, as a flock, they might gather round
   the Good Shepherd. Yes, and in the ungodliest times there are not only
   gracious people here and there, but these chosen souls, by some means
   or other, make mutual discoveries and come together and so form the
   visible Church of the living God!

   In Rome, in the days of the Caesars, when to be a Christian meant to be
   condemned to die without mercy, if Believers could not meet in their
   houses, they would meet in the abodes of the dead--in the
   Catacombs--but they must meet. It is the nature of God's children that
   they do not like going to Heaven alone, but prefer to go up to the
   temple in bands and companies--and the more the merrier, as the proverb
   has it--for they delight to go with the multitude that keep Holy Day
   and they rejoice to fly in flocks like doves to their windows. There is
   a Divine sweetness in Christian communion and every true saint delights
   in it! The essence of our religion is love and he that loves not the
   Brethren, loves not God and lacks an essential point of the Christian
   character.

   By the exercise of holy Brotherhood the Lord continues to call out His
   own people and thus to create a manifest separation. Likeness of
   character and thought produce a mutual affection and so a corporate
   body is formed and the solitary secret ones become manifest in the
   mass. The chosen stones are quarried and are built into the similitude
   of a

   palace--what if I say that they come together bone to His bone to
   fashion the spiritual body of the Lord Jesus Christ? This distinct
   association leads on to a peculiar occupation--for, "they that feared
   the Lord spoke often one to another." They heard others speak against
   the Lord and they resolved to speak, too. Of others the Lord
   complained, "your words have been stout against Me, says the Lord," and
   these men felt that it would be a shame if they were silent. They did
   not cast their pearls before swine, yet they wore their pearls where
   those who were not swine, but saints, could see them! In society where
   the Truth of God would be appreciated, they were not backward to
   declare it--"they spoke often one to another."

   It was a time of noise and tumult. It was a time of speaking very
   bitterly against the Lord. Therefore when they met together they spoke
   for the Lord and each one opened his mouth that the Lord might not lack
   for witnesses. I take it that the expression means that they renewed
   and repeated their testimony. "They spoke often one to another." They
   said, "Ah, we can answer what the ungodly are saying! Our experience
   testifies that they speak not aright. It is not a vain thing to serve
   God. How do you find it, Brother?" Then the Brother would say, "I find
   it exceedingly comforting and cheering to my soul. They have said, What
   profit is it that we have kept His ordinances? But I have found it
   exceedingly profitable, for in keeping His commandments there is great
   reward." Then a third would say, "It has enriched our souls to walk
   according to the mind of God and in the blessed ordinances of His house
   our souls have been fed and exceedingly nourished."

   A fourth would add, "The ungodly say it is in vain that we have walked
   mournfully before the Lord of Hosts--do you find it so, Brother?" The
   reply would be, "No, my mournful days have often been most profitable,
   like the days of shower and cloud which have most to do with the
   harvest." "Besides," said another, "we do not walk mournfully before
   the Lord as a rule, for we rejoice before Him, yes, in His name we do
   exceedingly rejoice!" Thus, you see, by their testimony, the one to the
   other, they supported each other's minds against the popular
   infidelities of the time. They set their thoughtful experience against
   the vicious falsehoods of unbelieving men and so they both honored God
   and benefited each other.

   When they "spoke often one to another" I have no doubt they expressed
   their affection, one for the other. They said, "Let us not marvel if
   the world hates us! Did not our Master say, 'It hated Me before it
   hated you'? Did He not tell us to beware of man? Did He not remind us
   that our worst enemies should be those of our own household." "Yes,
   Brothers and Sisters," they would say, one to another, "let us love one
   another, for love is of God." The elders would speak like John the
   Divine and say, "Little children, love one another." And the younger
   ones would respond by acts and words of loving respect to the older
   saints. Their mutual expressions of love would increase love! As when
   we lay live coals together, they burn the better, so loving
   intercommunications increase the heat of affection till it glows like
   coals of juniper which have a most vehement flame!

   No doubt, for we know by what we see, this speaking, one to another,
   assisted each other's faith. One might be weak, but they were not all
   weak at once! One and another would be strong just then. We all have
   our ups and downs, but the mercy is that when one is sinking, another
   is rising! It will frequently happen that if the sun does not shine on
   my side of the hedge, it is shining on yours, and you can tell me that
   the sun is not snuffed out but that it will shine on me, too,
   by-and-by. Commerce makes nations rich and Christian communion makes
   Believers grow in Grace. Speaking often, one to another, with the view
   of helping the weak hands and confirming the feeble knees is a means of
   great blessing to the souls of Christians!

   When they met, one would tell what he knew which his Brother or Sister
   might not know, and a third would say, "I can confirm that statement
   and add something more," and so the first speaker would learn as well
   as teach. Then a fourth Brother would say, "But there is yet another
   Truth which stands in relation to that which you have stated, do not
   overlook it." Thus by communion in experience and each one expressing
   what the Lord had written upon his heart, the whole would be edified in
   righteousness. Now, Beloved, it is in proportion as the children of God
   speak often, one to another, in this way that the Church is brought out
   into a visible condition. A silent Church might grope through the world
   unobserved, but a speaking Church--speaking often within itself--is of
   necessity soon heard beyond the doors of the house in which it dwells!

   Soon does the sound of Gospel music steal over hill and dale. "Their
   sound has gone forth throughout all the earth and their words unto the
   end of the world." The speaking together of assembled saints at
   Pentecost led to the gift of

   tongues and then they spoke so that every man in His own language heard
   the wonderful works of the Lord! An increase of private communion among
   the saints would lead to a fuller public communication to the outside
   and the world would receive a blessing. Thus I have shown you that the
   Lord thus gradually begins to separate a people to Himself. The fear of
   the Lord in the heart and the thought of God in the mind lead to
   association in persons of similar mold--hence arises the Church. Then
   the interchange of expression between the godly makes them zealous and
   this leads to public testimony and the people of God are revealed!

   You will say that this does not prove that God is dealing differently
   with them from other men. "Where is the God of Judgment?" is the
   question, and how is it to be answered? My reply is, in all this the
   Lord is putting a difference. To work His fear in the heart is an act
   of Sovereign Grace, but to enable the soul to find deep enjoyment in
   meditating upon Divine things is a reward as well as a gift of
   Grace--and a reward more valuable than if He gave the God-fearing man
   wealth and fame! Christian society is also no small token of the Divine
   favor and is another reward of the God-fearing. I do not know how you
   find it, but I can truly assert that my choicest delights are with the
   people of God. What a great deal some of us owe to Christian
   fellowship! People whom we should never have known and never have
   thought of speaking to are now our choicest friends and have been and
   are incalculably helpful to us. Christian love has enlarged our family
   circle wonderfully! We have come to be intertwisted, the one with the
   other, and the separate threads have ceased to be such for they have
   become a threefold cord which cannot be broken! And this is no small
   gift of Divine Grace.

   Moreover, the communications which have arisen out of this society in
   which we have edified one another, have they not been very precious to
   us? Can you not say you had rather dwell for a day in the courts of the
   Lord than reign in the tents of wickedness for ages? Is it not so that
   when we are able to rejoice together and tell our experiences, we find
   a pleasure which makes the wilderness and the solitary place to be
   glad? Best of all, it is in the midst of these communications where
   holy society yields us gracious fellowship, that God Himself is found!
   This is the grand distinction in God's relation to the universe at this
   present time--that He is with His people and they know it--while He is
   far from the wicked. The Lord listened and heard of old and He still
   listens and hears--and the Lord answers the prayers of His children out
   of His holy place--and sends tokens of acceptance to those who praise
   and magnify His name.

   "The Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge." Oh
   come, let us exult before Him, for He is not far away, nor has He
   hidden His face from us, but He dwells between the cherubim and shines
   forth among His saints in the Person of His dear Son and manifests
   Himself to us as He does not to the world! Even now, Israel in Egypt is
   not Egypt, for God is pitying the sighs and cries of His people! Israel
   in the Arabian desert is not Arabian, for, lo, the fiery cloudy pillar,
   like an lifted up standard, gathers around it a separated people. Lo,
   "The people shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the
   nations." Even now the faithful, in going out from the world and being
   separate, find the promise fulfilled--"I will dwell in them and walk in
   them. And I will be their God and they shall be My people." There is
   the first answer to the question, "Where is the God of Judgment?" The
   separation is already beginning--there are signs of it now!

   II. Secondly, THERE ARE PREPARATIONS FOR A FINAL SEPARATION and these
   are, at this moment,

   proceeding. What these preparations are we learn from the 16th
   verse--"The Lord listened and heard it and a book of remembrance was
   written before Him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon
   His name." There is a day coming in which He will separate the two
   sorts of men, the one from the other, as a shepherd divides the sheep
   from the goats. The great net is now dragging the sea bottom--the day
   is coming when the net shall be hauled in and drawn to shore. What a
   medley it contains of good and bad fish, of creeping things, weeds,
   shells and stones--this mass must be separated! Then will come the
   putting of the good into vessels and the casting of the bad away.

   When that is done it will be executed with great solemnity and care.
   There will be great discrimination used in the dividing of the
   righteous from the wicked and, as at a trial, everything proceeds upon
   evidence, the separating work is being prepared for us every day
   because the evidence is being collected and recorded. The evidence in
   favor of the righteous might be forgotten if it were not duly preserved
   in order that in the day when the separation shall be consummated there
   may be no mistake and nobody may be able to challenge the decision of
   the great Judge. Remember this, dear Friends, that evidence is being
   written down in a book--evidence of fidelity to God in evil times. When
   others were thinking against God and speaking against God, there were
   some who spoke on His behalf because they feared Him and thought upon
   His name--and their conduct was reported upon and chronicled!

   God's gracious eyes never overlooks one single act of decision for Him
   in the midst of blasphemy and rebuke. If the timid girl in the midst of
   a Christless family still patiently endures reproach and holds on to
   her Master's Truth--though she cannot speak eloquently--behold, it is
   written in the book! Though her tears may often be her strongest
   expressions, they are in the book, also, and shall not be forgotten!
   When the workman in the shop speaks a word against filthy language, a
   word for the sacredness of the Sabbath, a word for his Lord, it is all
   written in the Book of Remembrance! A commission is instituted for the
   collection of evidence as to those that fear the Lord and think upon
   His name.

   Are you, dear Friends, furnishing evidence, do you think, evidence
   which will prove that you are truly godly? Do you clearly stand out
   from among your fellows and are you manifestly separate, so that even
   Satan himself at the Last Great Day will not be able to challenge the
   evidence that will be given, that you did, indeed, fear the Lord when
   others reviled Him? This evidence is being taken by the Lord Himself!
   There is much consolation in this, because others might be prejudiced
   and give an unfavorable view of what we do. But when the Lord Himself
   bears witness, the truth will be manifested. "The Lord listened and
   heard." It is a very strong expression! He not only "listened," as one
   trying to hear, but He did actually hear all that was said! What a
   witness God will be in favor of His saints! If we really fear Him and
   think upon His name He will set our holy fear, our godly thought and
   our gracious talk in evidence on our behalf.

   He reads our motives and these are a deep and vital part of character.
   Others might err, but He cannot--what He hears is accurately heard and
   correctly understood. Evidence is being collected, then, by a Witness
   who is Truth itself! This evidence is before God's eyes at all times.
   If you notice, "the book of remembrance was written before Him," as if
   while every item was being put down, the book lay open before His gaze.
   From Him the record is no more concealed than the act itself--past
   deeds of virtue are present to His eyes. Every recorded act of Grace is
   especially noticed by the Lord. Every separate word of faithfulness and
   act of true God-fearing life is noted, weighed, estimated, valued and
   safely preserved in memory to justify the verdict of the last grand
   dividing day!

   Think of it, then, Beloved Brothers and Sisters--all that Divine Grace
   is working in you of humble faithfulness to God is being recorded! No
   annual report will proclaim it. It will never be printed in a magazine,
   nor advertised through the newspapers so as to bring you renown. But a
   Book of Remembrance is written before the Lord Himself! There it lies
   before Him whose single approval is more than fame! There, read a
   page--"Such an one thought upon My name. So-and-So spoke to his brother
   concerning Me and helped to the mutual edification of the body and to
   the bearing of powerful testimony for My Truth against the assaults of
   error."

   This evidence, moreover, dear Friends, is of a spiritual kind and this
   is one reason why it is taken down by God and by no one else, for it is
   evidence concerning the state of the heart in reference to God! And who
   is to form that estimate but the Lord who searches the heart? Who is to
   know the thoughts of the mind, save God alone? There is an ear that
   hears thought. Though it is not indicated by a sound so loud as the
   tick of a clock, nor so audible as the chirping of a little bird, yet
   every thought is vocal to the mind of the Most High and it is written
   down in the Remembrance Book! Certain great actions which every man
   applauds may never go into that book because they were done from
   motives of ostentation, but the thought which nobody could have known
   and which must otherwise have remained in oblivion is recorded by the
   Lord and shall be published at the last assize!

   Perhaps it ran thus, "What can I do for Jesus? How can I help His poor
   people? How can I cheer such-and-such a languishing spirit? How can I
   defeat error? How can I win a wandering soul for my Master?" Such
   thoughts as these are reckoned worthy of record and they are supplying
   evidence which, in His gracious love, the Lord is collecting that the
   sentence of His great tribunal may be justified to all. That evidence
   concerns apparently little things, for it mentions that "they spoke one
   to another." Of course people will gossip when they get together--what
   is there in talk? Oh, but what sort of gossip was it? That is the
   question! For a holy theme turns gossip into heavenly fellowship! It is
   written, they "thought upon His name." Surely it is not much to think?
   Ah Brethren, thinking and speaking are two very powerful forces in the
   world and out of them the greatest actions are hatched. Thoughts and
   words are the seeds of far-reaching deeds and God takes care of these
   embryos and germs--men do not even know of them and if they did know,
   would not esteem them--but they are put down in the Book of Remembrance
   which lies always open before the Most High!

   Now, all this is going on every day and every night as certainly as
   time's sands drop through the hour-glass. Letter after letter, stroke
   by stroke, the story is being written in the Book of Remembrance and
   though men see it not, the evidence is being gathered up to be used in
   that dread solemnity in which, amidst the pomp of angels, the great
   Infallible

   shall separate the blessed of His Father from those who are accursed!
   Thus every day the God of Judgment is working towards the time when
   even the most careless shall discern between the righteous and the
   wicked.

   III. This brings us to the third point that IN THAT SEPARATION GREAT
   PRINCIPLES WILL BE

   MANIFESTED. I shall only have time to mention them rapidly. First, the
   principle of election will be displayed. God will have a people who are
   more His than other men can be. "They shall be Mine, says the Lord of
   Hosts, in that day." "All souls are Mine," says God, and His witness is
   true, but He rejects some souls because of sin and says, "You are not
   My people." As for His chosen, they are His portion, His peculiar
   treasure, His regalia, His crown jewels and they shall be His forever.
   Then will special love and peculiar choice be manifest, for in the day
   of the separation it shall be seen that the Lord knows them that are
   His and while He counts others to be as mere stones of the field, He
   has set His heart upon the saints who are the gems of His crown.

   And then will come, as the next principle, the fact of essential
   value--namely, that the Lord's people are not only His but they are His
   jewels. There is something in them which Grace has put there, which
   makes them to be more precious than other men. "The righteous is more
   excellent than his neighbor." God's Grace makes His children to be
   purer, holier, heavenlier than the rest of mankind--and they are
   rightly divided from the impure and worthless mass. They will at the
   last, by evidence, be proved to have been jewels among men and nobody
   shall be able to question their worth. They shall be confessed by all
   men to have been precious stones and pebbles, gold and dross.

   Then will come up the next principle of open acknowledgment. They were
   the Lord's and they shall be acknowledged as such. "They shall be Mine,
   says the Lord of Hosts, in that day." He Himself will declare the fact,
   for it is written, "He is not ashamed to call them Brethren," and in
   that day the Lord Jesus will say, "Here am I, and the children that You
   have given Me." Oh, what a joy it will be to be thus openly confessed
   by Jesus Himself! Now we are unknown if we are God's people, for the
   world knows us not because it knew not our Master Himself. We are dead
   and our life is hid with Christ in God. But when He who is our Life
   shall appear, then shall we, also, appear with Him in Glory! "Then
   shall your righteousness shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their
   Father." Then shall be carried out the principle that there is nothing
   hid which shall not be known and those who were secretly servants of
   the Lord shall have evidence of that fact read aloud before assembled
   worlds--and God, the judge of all--shall not be ashamed to declare,
   "They are Mine, they are My peculiar treasure."

   But even in their case the principle of mercy will be conspicuous. I
   want you to notice very specially. "When I make up My jewels they shall
   be Mine, and I will spare them." Sparing applies to those who, under
   another mode ofjudgment, would not escape. Had it been a question of
   merit as under Law, they would have been doomed as well as others, but
   the Lord says, "I will spare them." O God, even though You have made
   Your chosen to be Your treasure, yet You do spare them, for the
   evidence does not prove them meritorious, but shows that they were
   saved in Christ Jesus and, therefore, taught to fear You. When the
   Apostle had received great kindness from a friend whom he had valued,
   he offered a prayer for him which you may be sure would be a very
   earnest and comprehensive one, but it was this--"The Lord have mercy
   upon him in that Day."

   That is all we can expect and, blessed be God, it is all we need! The
   matter of justice is settled by our Great Substitute and to us mercy
   comes freely! The brightest saint that ever reflected the image of
   Christ on earth will have to be saved by mercy from first to last! "I
   will spare them," He says, for He might have dealt otherwise with them
   had He taken them on grounds of Law and judged them apart from the
   mercy which flows through the atoning Sacrifice! True, they were jewels
   and they were the Lord's own treasure. But if He had laid up their sins
   as evidence, instead of their marks of Grace--if that Book of
   Remembrance which is written before Him had contained an account of
   their shortcomings and their transgressions as the basis of
   judgment--it would have gone otherwise with them. But now He calls to
   remembrance their godly fear, their sacred thoughts and their holy
   conversation and He spares them!

   They will be dealt with on the principle of relationship, also. "I will
   spare them as a man spares his own that serves him." You spare your son
   when you know he is doing his best to serve you. He has made a blunder
   and if he had been a mere hired servant you might have been angry, but
   you say, "Ah, I know my boy was doing all he could and he will do
   better, soon, and therefore I cannot be severe. I see that he is
   imperfect, but I see equally well that he loves me and acts like a
   loving son." The word here used signifies pity or compassion, "Like as
   a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him."
   He will at the last look upon us with a love which has pity mingled
   with it, for we shall need

   it in that Day. He will "remember that we are dust" and will accept us,
   though cognizant of all the faults there were and of all the
   infirmities that there had been.

   He still will accept us because we are His own sons in Christ Jesus
   and, by His Grace, desire to serve Him. We do not serve Him to become
   sons, but because we are sons. It is a sweet name for a child of God--a
   son-servant--one who is a servant to his father and, therefore, because
   he is his son, serves not for wage, nor of compulsion, but out of love.
   Such service is mentioned as evidence of sonship and not as a
   claim--and we shall be saved through Grace, our holy service of sonship
   being the proof of that Grace..

   Beloved, on these principles will God make the final division. He will
   say, "You are Mine--I chose you. You are My saints and there is a
   gracious excellence in you. I acknowledge you as Mine and I am not
   ashamed to do so, for you bear My Nature. I chose you in mercy and, in
   consequence of My having chosen you, I have made you to be My
   son-servants and so I accept your holy conversation as the token of
   your sincere love to Me and I receive you into My Glory to be Mine
   forever and ever.

   IV. And now, lastly, comes the sure truth that THE SEPARATION, ITSELF,
   WILL BE CLEAR TO ALL. Then

   shall you mourn, you sorcerers and adulterers, you that oppress the
   hireling and turn aside the stranger from his right, you false swearers
   and enemies of God! You now can go on your way and say, "God cares
   nothing about righteous or wicked, He deals with all alike, or even
   smites His children worst of all." But you shall look another way,
   by-and-by. Compelled to turn your heads in another direction from that
   of this poor fleeting world, you shall see something that will astound
   you! For though you wish it not, even you and much more the godly shall
   then "discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that
   serves God and him that serves Him not." The division will be sharp and
   decisive!

   Wherever you read in the Bible you find only two classes. You never
   read of three--you find the righteous and the wicked--him that fears
   God and him that fears Him not. A certain order of persons puzzle us in
   making division here below because we do not know to which party they
   belong. But when the Book of Remembrance is finished and shall be
   opened, there will be no sort of difficulty in knowing them--the two
   classes shall roll apart like the two portions of the Red Sea when
   Moses lifted up his rod--and there shall be a space between. On which
   side, my dear Hearer, you that are hesitating between two opinions--on
   which side will you be?

   There will be no border land, no space for non-committal and
   neutrality--you will, then, be among the fearers of God or among those
   that fear not His name! Who may abide the day of His coming? That
   coming may be very speedy, for none of us knows the day nor the hour
   when the Son of Man shall appear. The separation will be sharp and
   decisive. There will be no undecided ones left. And it will obliterate
   a host of pretensions, for the day comes that shall burn as an oven and
   all the proud shall be as stubble. The Pharisee who thought he took his
   place among those that were the jewels of creation will find that the
   coming of the Lord will burn up his phylacteries and his broad
   hems--and utterly consume all his boasts as to fasting thrice in the
   week and taking mint and anise and cumin--for these things were never
   written in the Book, nor worth recording there.

   What was put there was fearing the Lord and thinking upon His name and
   speaking one to another. Ceremonials and niceties of observance are not
   thought worth a stroke of the recording pen! There is nothing in the
   Book to act as evidence for the proud, but everything to condemn him!
   Therefore the Day shall burn him up and utterly consume him and his
   hopes! That division will be universal, for all they that do wickedly
   shall be as stubble, not one of them escaping. Though they hid their
   wickedness and bore a good name. Though they concealed their sin even
   from those who watched them. Though they entered the Church and gained
   honors in it as Judas did in the college of the Apostles, yet that Day
   shall discover all that do wickedly! Talk how they may and speak as
   they please, their outward conduct will be the index of their inner
   alienation from God--and in the hour of their judgment the fire shall
   consume them from off the earth!

   Then shall both classes perceive that the distinction involves two very
   different fates. Once the righteous were in the fire and, according to
   the third chapter and the third verse, the Lord sat as a refiner and
   purified them in a furnace like silver! But now the tables are turned
   and the proud--and they that do wickedly--are in a more terrible fire!
   The Day shall burn as an oven! The righteous were profited by their
   fire, for they were good metal--and to part with the dross was no loss!
   But the wicked are such base metal that they shall utterly fail in the
   testing fire. The tables will be turned,

   again, for the righteous were under the feet of the wicked--they
   ridiculed and mocked them and called them "cants and hypocrites."

   But then the ungodly shall be laid low and the righteous shall tread
   them as ashes under their feet. The cause of evil will be a worn-out
   thing--it will be burnt up and there will be nothing left of it upon
   the earth but memories of its former power and of the fire by which it
   perished. That Day comes and let the mighty ones among the sons of men
   who rebel against God know it! They shall no more be able to resist the
   terror of His Presence than the stubble is able to stand against the
   blazing fire. When they pine forever in the place where their worm dies
   not and their fire is not quenched, they will know the God of Judgment
   and see how utterly He consumed them out of the land!

   Look at the lot of the righteous. When Christ, the Sun of
   Righteousness, shall arise upon the earth and gild it with His own
   light, there shall be a new Heaven and a new earth--and the righteous
   shall go forth and leap for joy like cattle which, before, had been
   penned in the stall! No works of the ungodly shall be left. As far as
   this world is concerned, they shall be utterly and altogether gone.
   There shall then be no tavern songs or ale-house ribaldry. There shall
   be no village profligate around whom shall gather the youth of the
   hamlet to be led away by his libidinous and blasphemous words. There
   shall then be no shameless reviler who shall provide a hall where
   blasphemers may congregate to try which can utter the blackest
   profanities against the Lord of Hosts. There shall be no shrine of
   virgin, or of saint, or idol, or image, or crucifix. Superstition shall
   be swept away!

   There shall be no congregations where pretended preachers of the Gospel
   shall deal out new philosophies and suggest newly invented skepticisms,
   or which at least they hoped men would accept as new, though they were
   the old errors of the past picked off the dunghill upon which they had
   been thrown by disgusted ages! Sin shall all be gone and not a trace of
   it shall be left! But here shall dwell righteousness and peace! The
   meek shall inherit the earth and the saints shall stand, each one in
   his lot, for the Lord Himself shall reign gloriously among His
   ancients! From every hill and every vale shall come up the one song of
   Glory unto the Most High and every heart that beats shall magnify His
   name, who at last has answered the question, "Where is the God of
   Judgment?"

   Then, cast into the nethermost Hell, in the place appointed for the
   devil and his angels, the ungodly shall never ask again, "Where is the
   God of Judgment?" And saints, triumphant in their Lord, with whom they
   shall reign forever in eternity, shall also perceive that He, "discerns
   between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serves God and
   him that serves Him not." Beloved Hearer, where? O where will you be?
   Where shall I be in that Day?
     __________________________________________________________________

The Faithful Saying

   (No. 1416)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 26, 1878,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
   Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief." 1
   Timothy 1:15.

   IT is worthy of notice that Paul, in the passage before us, as, indeed,
   in all his writings, exhibits great sensitiveness with regard to sin.
   The sin which he had, himself, committed against the Lord Jesus, looked
   at from some points of view, might have been greatly extenuated on
   account of the honest, although mistaken, motive which lay at the
   bottom of it. But Paul, after allowing for his ignorance, declares that
   of sinners he had been chief and that he obtained mercy that in him,
   first, Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering for a pattern
   to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting. He
   describes himself as having been "a blasphemer, a persecutor and
   injurious" and, he is evidently lost in grateful astonishment that he
   should have been saved.

   This godly sensitiveness with regard to sin was associated in the
   Apostle's mind with an equally vivid sense of the freeness and richness
   of Divine Grace. That Christ died, not for the righteous, but for the
   guilty, is the great thought which is upon his mind and he has no
   hesitancy whatever in declaring it--and in speaking most boldly
   concerning the exceedingly abundant Grace of God in forgiving sin. The
   union of these two feelings in Paul is, by no means, an unusual
   occurrence among human minds, for you will generally find that the
   preacher who is most clear in his witness that salvation is by Grace,
   is also the man to whom sin is exceedingly sinful! Indeed, all those
   who prize Grace most are men who feel most sorrow concerning their
   transgressions.

   All systems of theology, except that which is founded upon Free Grace,
   in some way or other take off the edge of guilt. If they try to
   compromise the business and make salvation to be partly a matter of
   human effort and human merit--and partly a work of Divine Grace--they
   are sure, in the process, to conceal the exceeding iniquity of sin. Man
   is made out to be a poor, weak creature victimized by a Law too rigid
   for his frailty. It is represented that he has a right to mercy and a
   great uproar is made if we deny him any such right! And much anger is
   felt if we declare that mercy is the Sovereign prerogative of God which
   may be exercised at His own absolute discretion.

   Rebellion against Divine Election is often founded on the idea that the
   sinner has a sort of right to be saved and this is to deny the full
   guilt of sin. You will find that he who sets forth Free Grace as the
   only fountain and source of human salvation--and declares that sin is
   pardoned and put away freely by the mercy of God in Christ Jesus--is
   most plain and severe in denouncing sin with all his might and most
   tender in sorrowing over his own personal iniquities. I shall preach
   Grace to the chief of sinners at this time without reserve and without
   guarding my words in any respect whatever! I shall fling the big net of
   the Gospel right into the sea, let it go where it may! But do not,
   therefore, conclude that we think little of sin. Far from it! It is to
   us the sum of all abominations and the fire of Hell! And this, I trust,
   shall be apparent all along, though for the present we shall confine
   our thoughts to the greatness of the Grace of God, since to that
   subject our text summons us.

   The Apostle Paul had been describing himself and his sin. He confessed
   that he was, before, a blasphemer and a persecutor, "But," he says, "I
   obtained mercy." His was an instance of a sinner saved and he now
   declares that his case was a type of all others, for Christ Jesus came
   into the world to save sinners! The tendency is to set up the Apostle
   as an exceptional convert, but he corrects the idea by asserting the
   grand doctrine that the Savior's errand was to those who are guilty and
   undeserving--among whom he counted himself to be the chief. This coming
   of Christ to save sinners as sinners he regards as a Truth of God so
   well known in the Christian Church that it had come to be a saying,
   "familiar in their mouths as household words." It had become a sort of
   proverb with Christians that Christ Jesus came to save sinners and

   Paul says that it might justly be received as a proverb among all
   nations, for it was worthy of universal acceptance from the weight of
   its meaning, the importance of its subject and the Divine authority
   with which it was sealed.

   Moreover, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners is so
   true that it is not merely a saying, but a faithful saying, worthy of
   all confidence, being as sure as the Truth of God, Himself! Pass it
   round, you Christians! Repeat it among yourselves without the slightest
   hesitancy or question! Let it be a proverb among you, an undoubted
   fact, an unquestionable Truth of God-- Jesus came into the world for
   the salvation of sinners! He contemplated the saving of no other sort
   of persons but those who are sinful.

   I. Our first observation from this statement will be THAT SINNERS ARE
   IN AN AWFUL CONDITION. A man who needs saving is evidently in a very
   undesirable state. Now, every man and woman among you this day who has
   not been saved by Christ Jesus needs saving. You have kept the Law, you
   say, from your youth up, so what do you lack? My answer is that you
   need saving, notwithstanding your fine ideas about yourselves. But you
   have also been religious from your earliest recollection and you do not
   know that you have ever committed anything very wrong, you say!

   Dear Friend, despite your morality and outward religiousness, we are
   compelled to tell you that you need saving just as surely as the
   unchaste or the profane! Despite all that you say in your own favor,
   you have broken the Law of God and you are a sinner. And as a sinner
   you are in a terrible position from which nothing can save you but the
   hand of God. For, first, it is a grave peril to be a sinner. You have
   broken your Maker's commandments--is not that a calamity? You have
   neglected His will, which is holy and just and good--is not that a
   crying evil? To have a heart which does not choose the right, but which
   leans to evil--is not that ruinous? To have a mind which does not love
   God, but cares for itself more than for its Maker and Lord--is not that
   to be in a diseased state of soul? The polluting influence of sin upon
   the soul is the direst of all mischief, the worst of all
   destructions--it is spiritual death! From the defiling presence of sin
   every man needs to be saved.

   Moreover, the thrice holy God hates sin with a hatred scarcely to be
   conceived by any of us since we have lost the sensitiveness of perfect
   purity. Whatever things are impure, unchaste, untrue, unloving,
   unrighteous, God loathes with all the infinity of His perfect Nature.
   Doubtless, sin is a grief to godly men, but it is far more obnoxious to
   the Lord our God. "The wicked and him that loves violence, His soul
   hates." "The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination unto the Lord."
   The Lord has fierce indignation against everything that is evil--this
   is no arbitrary trait of His Character-- He does not choose to be angry
   with this or angry with that without a cause! No, from the very
   necessity of His Divine Nature He must delight in everything that is
   good and He must abhor everything that is evil.

   O Sinner, what a plight you are in since there is in you and upon you
   the sin which God cannot endure! What must your position be, for it is
   written concerning the Lord, "You hate all workers of iniquity," and
   such are you! Can you bear the thought? Furthermore, you are condemned
   and before long this will be made evident to all intelligent beings.
   There comes upon the swift wings of time a Day in which the Judge of
   all the earth will lay judgment to the line and righteousness to the
   plummet--and every transgression and iniquity shall receive its just
   recompense of reward. It is not possible that it should be otherwise,
   for there must come a reaping to every sowing! Idle thoughts, idle
   words and evil deeds must bear their fruit and, therefore, every sinner
   is in danger of eternal fire! As surely as the righteous through Christ
   shall go into everlasting happiness, so shall the ungodly depart into
   everlasting punishment where there shall be weeping and wailing and
   gnashing of teeth!

   And this may happen to any unpardoned sinner before he has heard the
   next word which I am about to utter! He may find himself shut out from
   all hope, eternally shut out from God before yonder clock shall strike!
   This is a perilous condition for an immortal soul! Yet every sinner not
   saved by Christ is in this condition! To this may be added the further
   reflection that the sinner is quite unable, of himself, to escape
   either from sin itself, or from the wrath which he has awakened, or
   from the punishment which is appointed for his transgressions. What can
   you do, O Ethiopian, to change your skin? O leopard, how can you remove
   your spots? And if, being evil, you could learn to do good, how could
   you put away the sin of the past? By what process could you take out
   the stains offormer years? Do not the sins of your youth lie in your
   bones even to this day? And they must be there forever unless the
   strong hand of Christ shall take them away.

   One of old cried, "O generation of vipers, how shall you escape the
   damnation of Hell?" And the question may well be asked of the most
   cunning and crafty of sinners. If you neglect the great salvation,
   which it shall be our joy to preach

   to you today, how shall you escape from the wrath to come? Chained up,
   then, as within a wall of fire, with that fire already burning within
   his soul in the form of evil lusts and drawing nearer to him from
   without every day he lives, the sinner is in a terrible position,
   indeed! O unforgiven Sinner, what do you think of this? Perhaps that
   position may be all the better defined if I remind you of the way by
   which a sinner has to be rescued from it. There is no hope for any
   sinner unless the Son of God, Himself, saves Him!

   You may safely measure the depth of the danger by the Glory of the
   Person who undertook to deliver us from it. It is the Son of God whom
   angels worship who has come to save sinners! It must be a deep
   destruction from which only God Himself can rescue man. And though He
   were the Son of God, yet when He came, observe how He had to be
   equipped. And from His equipment learn the sternness of the task. He
   must be Jesus--a Savior and then He must also be Christ-- anointed for
   the work! He must come with a commission from God with Divine
   authority--and the Spirit of God must rest upon Him to qualify Him for
   the great undertaking. For the text says not that Jesus came into the
   world, but Christ Jesus, the anointed Savior, came that He might save.
   If this equipment was needed, then surely the state of man was a
   grievous one.

   Note also that even Christ Jesus could not save men had He stayed in
   Heaven. He came into the world to save sinners. The Fall was so
   grievous that He must come right down into the place of our ruin! He
   must come to the dunghill that He might lift us out of it! God sat in
   Heaven and said, "Let there be light," and the darkness fled before
   Him. But He could not sit in Heaven and save sinners--He must needs
   come into the world to do so--down into this polluted creation the
   eternal Creator must, Himself, descend! Look, there in Bethlehem's
   manger He sleeps and on a woman's breast He hangs! He cannot save
   sinners, so great is their ruin, unless He becomes Incarnate and takes
   upon Himself our nature! And being here, think how dreadful must be the
   ruin when we see that He cannot return, saying, "It is finished,"
   until, first of all, He dies!

   That sacred head must be crowned with thorns! Those eyes must be closed
   in the darkness of the tomb! That body must be pierced even to its
   heart and then must lie a chill, cold corpse in the grave before man
   can be redeemed! And all that shame, suffering and death were but the
   outer shell of what the Savior suffered, for He passed under Divine
   wrath and bore a load such as would have crushed the whole race of men
   had they been left to bear it! O Sinner, you are awfully lost, you are
   infinitely lost, since it needs an infinite Savior to present the
   Atonement of His own body in order to save sinners from their sin! This
   is the first Truth of God, then, which is included in this faithful
   saying--may the Holy Spirit write it on our hearts.

   II. The second observation which clearly contains the very heart of the
   text is THAT CHRIST JESUS CAME TO SAVE MEN AS SINNERS. His salvation is
   meant for men who are sinners and for none else. Somebody says, "But is
   not that a plain matter of fact?" It is, but it is a fact scarcely
   realized--indeed, its real meaning is not known until God the Holy
   Spirit reveals it! A great many persons have a notion that Christ Jesus
   came into the world to save respectable people who, if they have done
   any wrong, have repented of it and have made things square. He came,
   according to them, to save persons who do their very best by attendance
   at worship, taking the sacrament, giving to the poor, paying their way
   and saying their prayers.

   These are doing all they can to get right and keep right--and surely
   they will be saved--so men talk. Their theory of salvation is very
   mixed, but it comes to this--the Gospel is for good people. They do not
   quite do without Jesus Christ--He comes in somewhere or other. But
   their religion is a kind of mingle-mangle--partly they save themselves
   and partly Christ saves them--and between the two they are not saved at
   all! Their vain fancy is that though they cannot do quite as much as
   they ought, Jesus comes in as an excellent make-weight and turns the
   scale in their favor. That is the notion of the bulk of mankind and in
   many places of worship you may hear something very much like it. Too
   much of the preaching of the present day mingles the Old Covenant with
   the New--you do not know whether, after all, you are going to be saved
   by merit or mercy, whether Christ came to save sinners or the
   righteous.

   The trumpet gives an uncertain sound. It is far too generally supposed
   that there must be something to recommend the sinner to God and that
   God could not send His Son to save men whom He views in the base and
   horrible character of sinners. "Surely," say the enemies of Free Grace,
   "He must have regard to their repentance or to something which He
   either sees or foresees in them." That He should see man to be evil and
   only evil and yet visit Him in mercy for mercy's sake seems hard for
   the carnal heart to believe! Therefore, lest we should be
   misunderstood, we lay down this straight line

   that Christ did not come into the world to save anybody but
   SINNERS--and He viewed those sinners as sinners and nothing more! He
   did not view them as repenting sinners, nor as believing sinners, nor
   as humble sinners, nor as sanctified sinners, nor anything else but
   sinners--and under that character He contemplated their salvation!

   The text says nothing more and nothing less than this, "Jesus Christ
   came into the world to save sinners." There is not a qualifying word.
   It is clear that only sinners are the objects of salvation, for none
   but sinners need saving! And if there had been no sinners there would
   certainly have been no saving and no Savior. Who needs saving but a
   lost man? Who needs a Savior but a man who, through his sin, has ruined
   himself? The very term, "Savior," and the very name, "Jesus," imply
   that salvation work is for sinners. We have some sinecure offices in
   our Government--I have heard of a Master of the Buckhounds who never
   mastered a buckhound in his life--but my Lord Jesus holds no sinecure
   in His office of Savior, for there are plenty of sinners and He is
   always saving them!

   If sinners are not contemplated by the plan of Grace, then the office
   of Savior is obsolete! But this can never be, since He is Jesus Christ,
   the anointed Savior, the same yesterday, today and forever! Nor would
   the Gospel be required for any but sinners, since none but the guilty
   need glad tidings of pardon and Grace. If man can be secure under the
   Law, let him stay under the Law. If the Law can justify, let the Law
   justify. What need of a second system to take away the first unless
   through the weakness of man the first system shall be found to be of no
   effect? No, verily the Law is glorious! Mount Sinai shines
   resplendently and verily perfection would have been by the Law if it
   could have been kept by mankind! No need for another glory or
   excellence, for the first would have sufficed if men had not been
   sinners--for the Law is holy, just and good!

   The very sound of that word, "Gospel," is lost and its sweetness
   dissipated in the midnight air unless there are sinners, for they,
   above all men, need glad tidings of a Savior born among men! Salvation
   must be for sinners, for to them, only, can mercy ever come. If I am
   brought before a court of justice and I plead, "Not guilty," and the
   magistrate replies that he will have mercy upon me, I repel his
   observation with indignation--I need no mercy of him--I am innocent.
   Let him give me justice--that is all I ask! It is an insult to the
   innocent to offer him mercy and, therefore, unless man is guilty God
   cannot show him mercy! Mercy has no room to bestow her blessings of
   amnesty and pardon till, first of all, guilt is admitted. To the
   sinner, forgiveness can come, but to none else!

   Moreover, the characters whom Jesus came to save are always so
   described that they must be sinners. Sometimes we read of them as
   being, "dead in trespasses and sins." And it is written, "And you has
   He quickened." Sometimes they are represented as enemies--"If when we
   were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son." They
   are called aliens, strangers, wandering sheep, prodigal sons and so
   forth--and all these imply distance from God by sin. Sometimes they are
   represented as debtors--and when they have nothing to pay, He freely
   forgives them all their debt. All the descriptions of persons for whom
   the mercy of God is intended bear upon their forefront the notion of
   their being sinners and our Lord, Himself, says, "I came not to call
   the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

   The coming of Christ has no bearing towards the 99 that went not
   astray, except that they are left where they were. The Good Shepherd
   comes after the lost sheep and only after the lost sheep and if you can
   prove that you are not a lost sheep, then you have proved that Christ
   never came to save you. The whole of His errand looks this way--He came
   to save sinners and only sinners. Look now at what He did when He was
   here. I will only ask you to consider the crowning act of His work when
   He hung upon the Cross. What do those bruises from the scourge mean?
   What do those deep furrows on His blessed back mean? What do those
   pierced hands and feet mean? They mean this, that He is suffering on
   account of human sin! "The chastisement of our peace was upon Him and
   with His stripes we are healed." "All we like sheep have gone astray;
   we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him
   the iniquity of us all."

   Self-righteous men and women, what has the Cross to do with you? You
   carry it on your bosoms and make an ornament and a plaything of it, but
   that is all it is to you! None but the guilty can know the true meaning
   of the Cross and derive benefit from it. For them the dreadful tree
   bears the precious fruit of substitutionary Sacrifice and peace and
   pardon through the atoning blood! But to those who are not sinners the
   Cross is a barren tree! O Christ of God, only a sinner can know Your
   worth! A saint may admire You in Your Glory, but a sinner trusts You in
   Your shameful death, for You are meant for sinners! "He gave Himself
   for our sins"--for what else could He give Himself and yield Himself
   unto death?

   Besides that, where is Jesus gone, now, but to Heaven? And what is He
   doing? When He went to Heaven He received gifts for men and, listen to
   this Word of God--"Yes, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God
   might dwell among them." He pleads today, but for whom is He an
   Advocate? He makes intercession for the transgressors! Prove that you
   are not rebellious nor transgressors and there are neither gifts nor
   pleadings for you, for the whole drift of what He is now doing is
   towards the sinful! Look, Sirs, at the legacy which our Lord has left
   us! He has left us the Holy Spirit and what for? The Holy Spirit is
   here to convict of sin! Of what use would He be to those who have no
   sin? He is here to regenerate, but of what use would He be to those who
   are so good by nature that they do not need a change of heart? He is
   here that He may work in us repentance and faith, but of what use would
   those be to persons who have no sin to repent of and no need to believe
   in a Savior?

   The whole plan and scheme of redemption contains in it marks and
   evidences clear and palpable that it is meant for sinners, for guilty
   men, for such and such alone! All else that there is in man beside his
   sinnership is not truly his. If I were to preach, today, to sinners
   with some qualification, I should not be preaching the Gospel in its
   fullest reach. If, for instance, I were to say that Christ Jesus came
   into the world to save humble sinners, that would be a clipping of the
   truth--for if any sinner is humble, that humility is not natural to
   him, but already the work of salvation commenced in his being has made
   him humble! Jesus Christ died to give humility to sinners as well as to
   save them when they are humble. But surely we must believe in Christ?
   Yes, and there is salvation for believing sinners--but no man believes
   in Christ until that faith is given to Him from above--and Christ came
   not to save sinners who make themselves believe, but to save sinners by
   giving them faith.

   He not only saves sinners when they repent but He goes lower down, for
   He is exalted on high to give repentance as well as remission of sins.
   But did He not die for penitent sinners? Assuredly! But He died for
   them when they were impenitent and, therefore, that is why they come to
   repentance! He who would come to Jesus must come as a sinner and never
   think of pleading any sort of goodness or qualification, for, "this is
   a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came
   into the world to save sinners." SINNERS--write that in capitals and
   set it by itself, for it is the whole of the description and no one may
   dare to add to it! Away with your human addition of sensible sinners
   and so on--the text is not cumbered and spoiled by any such qualifying
   words!

   III. This leads me, in the third place, to say THAT UPON THIS POINT
   SPECIAL CLEARNESS IS REQUIRED. That Jesus Christ came into the world to
   save sinners as sinners must always be kept clearly before the human
   mind because, as I have said, man does not like the notion and if you
   put it baldly and boldly he cavils at it and waxes wrathful. Hear him
   mutter about immoral doctrine and encouraging sin! Hear it and marvel
   at the audacity which makes a guilty rebel express anxiety about the
   morals of his God! A set of criminals are shut up in a condemned cell
   to be hanged and a message comes that the king freely forgives
   them--and they exclaim that they will not accept mercy because it might
   encourage immorality!

   Morality! What have these lawbreakers to do with that? Surely they are
   repeating the devil's hypocrisy when he rebuked sin! They are living in
   sin and yet pretend to be the guardians of universal justice! Vile
   hypocrisy! When I have known the pens which have written against the
   Gospel under the pretense of advancing morality, I have pitied the
   paper which they defiled with their black words. Pleaders for morality!
   Why, men known to be debauched and drunken are often the very loudest
   talkers against Free Grace and the greatest sticklers for morality! Let
   them go and wash in Jordan seven times and be clean, themselves, before
   coming out in that fashion. It is for you and me, being guilty, to get
   mercy, first, and then talk of what we will do in the matter of
   morality!

   Know you not that the man who believes not in Christ is condemned
   already? Shall a condemned man cavil at mercy's freeness? On your
   knees, Sir, and plead guilty before the Most High, for only so shall
   you find Grace! How often are we told in sermons that we are in a state
   of probation--as if we had to do something by which we should prove our
   worthiness and were still in a position in which we might or might not
   be condemned? My Hearers, you are NOT in a state of probation! No, not
   one of you! If you are saved, you are saved--and if you are not saved
   you are lost! You are forgiven, or else you are "condemned already!"
   And, unless Jesus Christ saves you, you will abide in condemnation
   forever and ever! The die is cast and cast against you! You are
   condemned and in the Book of God so it stands. Christ Jesus came to
   save the condemned--and blessed shall you be if you are willing to take
   up the condemned position at this moment and accept the Grace which He
   has brought for sinners.

   I say, then, let the Truth of God be made clear, because man will
   muddle it if he can. Mark you, if this doctrine is not made clear, you
   will not lead sinners to look to Christ. If I preach that Jesus Christ
   died to save men of tender heart, what will be the result of the
   sermon? Every thoughtful hearer will look to see whether he has a
   tender heart. Is that a desirable result?--

   "There is life for a look at the Crucified One," but there is no life
   by looking into our own hearts! Suppose I preach certain marks and
   evidences as tokens of the men whom Christ came to save? Then each man
   will look to see whether he has those tokens within himself--and that
   is precisely the thing which we do not want men to do, for we desire
   them to look right away from themselves to Christ alone! If they should
   imagine that they find some good thing within themselves, they will
   make it the basis of their hope and that will be an error of the
   gravest kind. Sinner, all the hope you can ever have lies in Him who
   died upon the tree! As for yourself, settle it in your mind that you
   are as bad as bad can be. Give over all hope from your own doings,
   willings, feelings and resolves!

   Do not expect to obtain comfort from your own nature any more than to
   find fire in the midst of a rock of ice! Look right away from self to
   Christ, and Christ alone, for this is the way of salvation! When a man
   comes to Christ as a sinner, he has taken the safest way. If I say to
   myself, "Jesus came to save me because I am a believing sinner, or a
   repenting sinner, or a humbled sinner," then I have to ask the
   question, "How about my repentance, my humility--are they genuine?" My
   foundation shakes and my trust fails me because it rests on myself! But
   when I trust in Jesus because He is the sinner's Savior and because I
   am a sinner, then I am beyond doubtful questions. This, also, is a
   constant ground to go upon. Imagine a man who is deeply in debt saying
   to his creditors, "I am in a terrible fix, but I can promise you 10
   shillings in the pound." Very well. They accept it.

   Is he not at ease? Let me whisper in your ear--he is not worth two
   pence in all the world! Is he clear? Oh no. He tries a little trading
   and puts off the hour of payment, but again he has to call his
   creditors together and confess--"I am sorry. I cannot manage the 10
   shillings, but I will try to scrape together two-and-sixpence--will you
   take that?" Yes, they will take the half-crown. Is he out of his
   difficulties, now? No, he is not one inch nearer, for he is not worth a
   penny! Again he summons his creditors and tells them that he has made
   another mistake, but he could arrange to pay sixpence. Is he at rest
   now? Not a bit, because he has not a penny and he can no more pay
   sixpence in the pound than the whole 20 shillings! He is absolutely a
   pauper.

   What is the best thing for him to do? Why, to admit the truth and say,
   "Here I am. I have no assets whatever. I am in debt over head and ears
   and I have not a single penny to pay with. Do whatever you like with
   me. Put me in prison if you like. Sell these bones and the rags which
   cover them, but there is the truth, you cannot get anything out of me
   because I have nothing." Now, if the creditors give him a clear
   discharge, he is safe and at rest--which he never was while he had even
   a sixpence to pay! Now, you needy sinners, be wise and go to the Lord
   in that penniless style and you shall have your debt forgiven. Remember
   the parable of the two debtors and the Truth of God which it teaches--

   "But let our debts be what they may, However great or small, As soon as
   we have nothing to pay, Our Lord forgives us all." Assuredly, there is
   nothing like going to the bottom of a thing and knowing the worst of
   your case.

   I have a friend who had a bad knee. Something ailed it, he could not
   tell what. The doctors blistered, applied poultices and did a great
   deal to it--and showed their skill by making bad, worse, but they
   assured him that the knee was not out of joint but would come all right
   by outward applications. Under such professional treatment the patient
   became quite lame. At last he went to a renowned bone-setter and as
   soon as he saw the joint, he said, "I tell you, Sir, your bone is out."
   "Impossible," he said, "the doctors have never hinted at that." "Yes,
   it is, or if it is not so, we will make it so, and then set it right."
   With a terrible pull the operator seemed to drag the bone out of its
   place and then it flew back, again, into its socket and my friend felt
   that all was right.

   "Now," said the bone-setter, "walk across the room." And he did so at
   once. There is nothing like knowing that the bone is out, for then it
   can be set. But while we understate the mischief, we shall not find an
   effectual cure. Reckon on the worst and you will not be deceived! If
   there is something good about you and you begin trusting in it, that
   something good will grow less and less, like the 20 shillings which
   came down to sixpence and ended with nothing! But if you throw

   up all legal hope and say, "I am a sinner. If I am saved it must be
   entirely through the mercy of God in Jesus Christ. I accept Christ to
   save me as a sinner"--that is a sure and constant foundation to rest
   upon! Beware of the slippery belief that Christ died for you as long as
   you are humble, or as long as you are this or that, for, if you talk in
   that fashion, instead of trusting in Christ you are trusting in your
   own humility, your own feelings--and there is no soundness in your
   faith.

   Often, Beloved, I feel that this way of coming to Christ, as a sinner,
   is the only available one for me. I have preached the Gospel, not
   without zeal for the Truth of God and have tried to consecrate my whole
   being to my Lord's service, but times out of mind I would not give a
   brass farthing for all that I have done or felt or been! I am glad to
   sink the whole in oblivion and come to Christ and say, "Save me, for I
   have sinned." What I rejoice to do, I feel sure that my Brethren have
   to do, also, and it will be your safety to be so doing continually.
   Why, Brothers and Sisters, this doctrine must be true because it
   glorifies Christ! If Christ comes to save men who meet Him half way
   with their prayers and tears and beliefs and doings--and He only saves
   them because of these things--then salvation is half of man and half of
   Christ! But if it is that Jesus comes to save sinners and begins a work
   in them when they are in their nakedness and filthiness and spiritual
   death, oh, then, Free Grace does the more abound and the crown sits
   securely on the royal head of Him who is anointed to be both a Prince
   and a Savior--to give repentance as well as remission of sins!

   I need to say, also, that the recognition of the Truth that Christ came
   into the world to save men as sinners is essential to salvation. You
   ask me, "How so?" I reply, "When a man comes before God simply as a
   sinner, he is then upon the line of truth." All the while he was
   claiming to be this and that, which was good, he was on a false tack.
   But when he says, "Lord, I have broken Your Law. I have done the things
   I ought not to have done and have left undone the things that I ought
   to have done. And if I am saved it must be by your Grace alone"--he is
   now speaking according to truth. It is something to bring a sinner
   round to the truth. When he has come to that, he will go further in the
   right direction. Do you not see that line is doing homage to the Law of
   God, for he confesses that he has broken it and deserves punishment?
   Thus the man is already honoring the Law of God in his heart--his
   salvation has begun!

   Now he does honor to God, Himself, for he bows before the Most High and
   begs for mercy. He is already saved from presumption! God must be King
   and the man is willing that He should be, even though he, himself,
   should be condemned! And now he reads that God's salvation "comes to
   the guilty," and he cries, "I am guilty! I accept Your mercy." That
   done, he loves the Lord God for mercy received. Why, the man is being
   saved before our eyes! He was the enemy of God, before, but now a sense
   of free mercy causes him to love and fear the Lord! The next thing he
   says is, "Have I been so freely forgiven all my transgressions, not
   because of anything I was or felt or did, but out of free mercy? Then,
   Lord, I will strive to avoid every sin if You will help me."

   See, his mind is becoming pure and by the operation of the same blessed
   Truth of God upon him, he will ultimately be perfected and stand
   complete before the Truth of God--and what do you think will be his
   song? He will join with all the saints and sing, "We have washed our
   robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." There is nothing
   like Free Grace to change the human heart! You may tell a man what he
   is and what he ought to be, and he will remain unmoved. But tell him
   that God meets him as a lost, guilty and condemned sinner and that
   simply because He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, He blots
   out all His sins and transgressions and accepts Him through Christ
   Jesus-- why, that makes the man's heart leap within him for joy! And
   then he begins to say, "Cleanse me, O God, from this hateful sin, for I
   love You because of Your wondrous love to me."

   Thus Jesus Christ's coming to save sinners makes the point of our being
   sinners a very essential one in the matter of our being saved from the
   power of sin.

   IV. I close by saying, let us, dear Friends, feel THAT IT WILL BE WISE
   TO ACCEPT AT ONCE THE TEACHING

   OF THE TEXT. Let us, on the spot, confess we are sinners! Whether you
   have been saved or not, come over, again, to Jesus. Take with you words
   and say unto Him, "We have sinned." Confess your sinnership! Does it
   trouble you to do so? Have not you abundant evidence of it? Do not
   confess it with your mouth, only, but with your heart. Let me say
   sinners are very rare things--you cannot find them dead or alive. If
   you go into a cemetery with an intelligent child, the first question it
   will ask will be, "Papa, where do they bury the sinners? These are all
   good people who are buried here."

   Living sinners are equally scarce. We are all surprisingly good and
   though we say we are sinners, that is a part of our goodness, for it
   shows how very humble we are. If we come to details and are questioned
   as to our sins, how many turn

   out to be no more sinners than the beggars in the street are really
   lame, or blind, or sick, or sore? Many who say, "Lord, have mercy upon
   us miserable sinners," do but sham their sinnership before God! Now,
   mark, there is nothing but sham salvation for sham sinners! But you
   real sinners, you who have broken God's Law and know it! You who are
   ready to stand upon the drop of confession beneath the fatal tree of
   Justice feeling that you could not say a word against Divine Justice if
   you were now executed--come and welcome, for Jesus Christ came to save
   such as you are! Confess your sins and when you have done so, rest on
   the salvation provided in Christ Jesus!

   At this moment I think I speak the language of every child of God when
   I say the top and bottom, the beginning and the ending of all my hope
   lies in this--that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. I
   trust myself as a sinner with Him. The devil often tells me, "You are
   not this, and you are not that," and I feel bound to acknowledge that
   the accuser of the Brethren makes terrible work with my spiritual
   finery so that I have to abandon one ground of glorying after another.
   But I never knew the devil, himself, dare to say, "You are not a
   sinner." He knows I am and I know it, too! And as in due time Christ
   died for the ungodly, I rest in Him and I am saved! If I can perish
   resting in Christ I must do so. But I will tell it throughout the
   realms of Hell that I did trust in Christ and was lost. I will publish
   it in the infernal dens that I trusted in Jesus with all my soul and
   was confounded.

   Will it ever be? No, never! For He has said, "Him that comes unto Me I
   will in no wise cast out." Poor Sinner, whoever you may be, surely this
   is a very simple matter! But do not reject it because it is so simple.
   It is your life! You shall find it your life at this very instant if
   you will trust my Lord. Have you any doubt about your being a sinner?
   Then bid farewell to hope, for Christ did not come to save you! But if
   you know you are a sinner, cast yourself on Jesus right now, even now,
   just as you are! "Will He save me?" Try it, Brother! Try it, Sister!
   Sink or swim, fling yourself upon Christ! Are you still holding to your
   prayers or your tears, or somewhat of your own? You will perish if you
   do! You must be disconnected with all grounds of self-hope and
   self-trust or they will prove your ruin!

   Now cut the cable! Let every rope go! Break the last thread and commit
   yourself to the tide of Free Grace. You will never be a wreck if you do
   so. Well does Dr. Watts put it--

   "A guilty, weak, and helpless worm, On Christ's kind arms I fall! Be
   You my strength and righteousness, My Jesus and my All."

   "You have taken away from us, Sir, every hope we ever had, and you make
   us out to be nothing but sinners." Yes, that is what I want to do! I
   long to make all things rock and reel under you till you feel that you
   have no place for the sole of your feet--and so fall before my Master's
   Cross! This old house of yours which you have been patching up so often
   will fall upon you before long. Its walls bulge, its roof drops, its
   timbers are rotten! However much you try to prop it up, it will come
   down and destroy you!

   I, as an architect, advise you to tear it all down! Clear every wall
   away, stick and stone. Yes, and take out the very foundations, for
   every stone is ruinous! Clear the ground of the whole concern. You
   complain that there is a deep and ugly trench where the foundations
   used to be and I am glad of it, for, behold, the Lord lays in Zion, for
   a foundation, a stone, elect, precious, even Christ Jesus! And he that
   believes in Him shall never be confounded. You must remove all the
   wood, hay and stubble, and build with precious stones! None but Jesus,
   none but Jesus! Neither beam, nor stone, nor pin, nor nail must be our
   own. We may not take from a thread to a shoelace of self, but Christ
   must be first, last, midst and everywhere!

   What do you say, fellow Sinners? Will you and I have Christ? I will,
   whether you will or not! Come along. Do not draw back. Take what God
   freely presents to you and from this day trust Jesus to be your Savior
   and we will meet in Heaven! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

"Your Salvation"

   (No. 1417)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JUNE 2, 1878,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Then took he Him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now
   let Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word: for my eyes
   have seen Your salvation." Luke 2:28-30.

   LAST Lord's-day morning [No. 1416, The Faithful Saying] we used the
   broad axe to clear the forest of self-righteousness--one after another
   human hopes were made to fall, for the axe was laid at the root of the
   trees. Now let us cultivate the clearing and sow the good seed! We
   might have had for our slogan, then, "The Lord of Hosts has purposed
   it, to stain the pride of all glory and to bring into contempt all the
   honorable of the earth." We tried to sweep away every vestige of
   anything like self-trust as we showed that Christ Jesus came to save
   men as sinners and that only as sinners could they have any part or lot
   in Him. Our Lord gave Himself for our sins, but He never gave Himself
   for our righteousness! We bore witness that human goodness is a mere
   fiction and that it is rather a hindrance than a help to the work of
   salvation, since it opposes itself to the grand principle of Grace by
   which, alone, men can be saved. So far our work has been to root out,
   to pull down, to destroy and to throw down. And we hope it has been
   done very thoroughly.

   But there is a time to build up as well as a time to break down. And as
   we showed on the former occasion where salvation is not and cannot be,
   so today let us, by the help of God's Spirit, endeavor to point out
   where salvation really is--so that those who have learned to look away
   from themselves may now be taught to look to Christ! May the Holy
   Spirit grant us this desire of our heart and may thousands, by this
   sermon, find salvation!

   Observe that Simeon found Christ in the Temple, being conducted there
   by the Holy Spirit. There was an ancient promise, "The Lord whom You
   seek shall suddenly come to His Temple," and this probably drew the
   holy man to the courts of the Lord. But the Lord might have come and
   Simeon might not have been there. Or the good old man might have been
   occupied in some other court of the holy place. But, being led of the
   Spirit, he came to the appointed spot at the very time when the mother
   of Christ was bringing the Baby in her arms to do for Him according to
   the Law. In this, Simeon is an instance of the Truth of God that they
   find Christ who are led by the Spirit and they, alone. No man ever
   comes to Christ by his own wit and wisdom, nor by his own unprompted
   will--he, only, who is drawn of the Spirit comes unto Christ.

   We must submit ourselves to Divine teaching and Divine drawing, or else
   Christ may come in His Temple, but we shall not perceive Him. I,
   therefore, would earnestly remark at the outset of this discourse, how
   necessary it is that we should submit ourselves to the movements of the
   Holy Spirit upon our souls. Let me rather say what a privilege it is to
   be moved by the Spirit and how gladly we should welcome His Divine
   influences. Beloved Hearer, as you love your soul, be very tender
   towards the Holy Spirit and prize even the least spark of His Divine
   fire. Quench not the Spirit, neither grieve Him. Prize the love of the
   Spirit and pray to feel His power. When He comes upon you to convict
   you of sin, be plastic in His hand! Yield to His teaching and humbly
   confess the faults and follies of which He convicts you.

   When He comes to lead you gently to the Savior, be not as the horse or
   as the mule which have no understanding, but gladly follow where He
   draws, according to the prayer of the spouse in the song, "Draw me, we
   will run after You." All your hope of finding Christ, dear seeking
   Friend, lies in the Spirit of God illuminating your understanding,
   constraining your will and quickening your affections--therefore never
   vex Him, but be ever ready to obey His faintest monition. The wind
   blows where it wills and when you feel its breath, be glad to spread
   your wings that you may be borne upward by its power.

   Simeon, being thus led of the Spirit, came where Christ was, but mark
   how quick the old man's eyes were to see Him! How should He know that
   this Baby in swaddling clothes was the Lord's Christ? Doubtless there
   were many others in the temple who saw Joseph and Mary and the priest,
   but they thought that nothing was to be seen but a young peasant

   woman and her husband bringing their poor offering to redeem their
   first-born child. The frequenters of the Temple passed to and fro and
   felt no interest in so common a scene--but the watching eyes of Simeon
   had no sooner lighted upon the infant Person of our Divine Lord than at
   once they were held spellbound and filled with tears ofjoy! The aged
   saint went immediately to the mother, took up the Baby in his arms and
   without hesitation said, "Mine eyes have seen Your salvation."

   Those who have been looking and longing for Christ are usually the
   first to perceive Him! This man had been waiting for the consolation of
   Israel and in the process he had gained discernment so that when Jesus
   appeared he knew Him at once. O Soul, if you are longing for Christ,
   you will know when He is near you, even as the thirsting harts of the
   desert scent the waters from afar. If you have an intense hunger after
   the Lord Jesus, you will not need to be told whi