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        Title: Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 26: 1880
   Creator(s): Spurgeon, Charles Haddon (1834-1892)
CCEL Subjects: All; Sermons;
   LC Call no: BV42
  LC Subjects:

               Practical theology

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

               Times and Seasons. The church year
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                       Questions Which Ought To Be Asked

   A Sermon

   (No. 1511)

   Delivered by

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   (This was followed by a farewell address from his son, Thomas
   Spurgeon.)

   But none saith, Where is God my Maker, who giveth songs in the night;
   who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser
   than the fowls of heaven?'Job 35:10-11.

   ELIHU PERCEIVED the great ones of the earth oppressing the needy, and
   he traced their domineering tyranny to their forgetfulness of God: None
   saith, Where is God my Maker?' Surely, had they thought of God they
   could not have acted so unjustly. Worse still, if I understand Elihu
   aright, he complained that even among the oppressed there was the same
   departure in heart from the Lord: they cried out by reason of the arm
   of the mighty, but unhappily they did not cry unto God their Maker,
   though he waits to be gracious unto all such, and executeth
   righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. Both with great
   and small, with oppressors and oppressed, there is one common fault in
   our nature, which is described by the apostle in the Romans, There is
   none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.' Until
   divine grace comes in and changes our nature there is none that saith,
   Where is God my Maker, who giveth songs in the night?' This is a very
   grave fault, about which we shall speak for a few minutes, and may the
   Holy Ghost bless the word.

   I. And first, LET US THINK OVER THESE NEGLECTED QUESTIONS, beginning
   with Where is God my Maker?' There are four questions in the text, each
   of which reminds us of the folly of forgetting it. First, Where is God?
   Above all things in the world we ought to think of him. Pope said, The
   proper study of mankind is man'; but it is far more true that the
   proper study of mankind is God. Let man study man in the second place,
   but God first. It is a sad thing that God is all in all, that we owe
   everything to him, and are under allegiance to him, and yet we neglect
   him. Some men think of every person but God. They have a place for
   everything else, but no place in their heart for God. They are most
   exact in the discharge of other relative duties, and yet they forget
   their God. They would count themselves mean indeed if they did not pay
   every man his own, and yet they rob God. They rob him of his honor, to
   which they never give a thought they rob him of obedience, for his law
   has no hold on them; they rob him of his praise, for they are receiving
   daily at his hands, and yet they yield no gratitude to their great
   Benefactor. None saith, Where is God?' My dear hearer, do you stand
   convicted of this? Have you been walking up and down in this great
   house, and never asked to see the King whose palace it is? Have you
   been rejoicing at this great feast, and have you never asked to see
   your Host? Have you gone abroad through the various fields of nature,
   and have you never wished to know him whose breath perfumes the
   flowers, whose pencil paints the clouds, whose smile makes sunlight,
   and whose frown is storm. Oh, it is a strange, sad fact'God so near us,
   and so necessary to us, and yet not sought for!

   The next point is, None saith, Where is God my Maker?' Oh! unthinking
   man, God made you. He fashioned your curious framework, and put every
   bone into its place. He, as with needlework, embroidered each nerve,
   and vein, and sinew. He made this curious harp of twice ten thousand
   strings: wonderful it is that it has kept in tune so long: but only he
   could have maintained its harmony. He is your Maker. You are a mass of
   dust, and you would crumble back to dust at this moment if he withdrew
   his preserving power: he but speaks, and you dissolve into the earth on
   which you tread. Do you never think of your Maker? Have you no thought
   for him without whom you could not think at all? Oh, strange perversity
   and insanity that a man should find himself thus curiously made, and
   bearing within his own body that which will make him either a madman or
   a worshipper; and yet for all that he lives as if he had nothing to do
   with his Creator'None saith, Where is God my Maker?'

   There is great force in the next sentence: Who giveth songs in the
   night.' That is to say, God is our Comforter. Beloved friends, you that
   know God, I am sure you will bear witness that, though you have had
   very severe trials, you have always been sustained in them when God has
   been near you. Some of us have been sick'nigh unto death, but we have
   almost loved our suffering chamber, and scarce wished to come out of
   it, so bright has the room become with the presence of God. Some of us
   here have known what it is to bury our dearest friends, and others have
   been short of bread, and forced to look up each morning for your daily
   manna; but when your heavenly Father has been with you'speak, ye
   children of God'have you not had joy and rejoicing, and light in your
   dwellings? When the night has been very dark, yet the fiery pillar has
   set the desert on a glow. No groans have made night hideous, but you
   have sung like nightingales amid the blackest shades when God has been
   with you. I can hardly tell you what joy, what confidence, what inward
   peace the presence of God gives to a man. It will make him bear and
   dare, rest and wrestle, yield and yet conquer, die and yet live. It
   will be very sad, therefore, if we poor sufferers forget our God, our
   Comforter, our song-giver.

   Two little boys were once speaking together about Elijah riding to
   heaven in the chariot of fire. One of them said, I think he had plenty
   of courage. I should have been afraid to ride in such a carriage as
   that.' Ah!' Ah!' said the other, but I would not mind if God drove it.'
   So do Christians say. They mind not if they are called to mount a
   chariot of fire if God drives it, We speak as honest men what we do
   know and feel, and we tell all our fellow-men that as long as God is
   present with us we have no choice of what happens to us, whether we
   sorrow or whether we rejoice. We have learned to glory in tribulations
   also when God's own presence cheers our souls, Why do not they also
   seek to know the Giver of songs?

   And then there is a fourth point. None saith, Where is God my Maker,
   who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and make/h us wiser
   than the fowls of heaven?' Here we are reminded that God is our
   Instructor. God has given us intellect; it is not by accident, but by
   his gift, that we are distinguished from the beasts and the fowls. Now,
   if animals do not turn to God we do not wonder, but shall man forget?
   Strange to say, there has been no rebellion against God among the
   beasts or the birds. The beasts obey their God, and bow their necks to
   man. There are no sin-loving cattle or apostate fowls, but there are
   fallen men. Think, O man, it may have been better for thee if thou
   hadst been made a frog or a toad than to have lived a man if thou
   shouldst live and die without making peace with thy Maker. Thou
   gloriest that thou art not a beast: take heed that the beast do not
   condemn thee. Thou thinkest thyself vastly better than the sparrow
   which lights upon thy dwelling: take heed that thou do better and rise
   to nobler things. Methinks if there were a choice in birds, and souls
   dwelt in them, their minstrelsy would be as pure as now it is: they
   would scorn to sing loose and frivolous songs, as men do, but they
   would carol everlastingly sweet psalms of praise to God. Methinks if
   there were souls in any of the creatures, they would devote themselves
   to God. as surely as angels do. Why then, O man, why is it that thou
   with thy superior endowments must needs be the sole rebel, the only
   creature of earthly mould that forgets the creating and instructing
   Lord?

   Four points are then before us. Man does not ask after his God, his
   Maker, his Comforter, his Instructor: is he not filled with a fourfold
   madness? How can he excuse himself?

   II. Supposing you do not ask these questions, let me remind you that
   THERE ARE QUESTIONS WHICH GOD WILL ASK OF YOU.

   When Adam had broken God's command he did not say, Where is God my
   Maker?' but the Lord did not therefore leave him alone. No, the Lord
   came out, and a voice, silvery with grace, but yet terrible with
   justice, rang through the trees, Adam, where art thou?' There will come
   such a voice to you who have neglected God. Your Judge will enquire,
   Where art thou?' Though you hide in the top of Carmel, or dive with the
   crooked serpent into the depths of the sea, you will hear that voice,
   and you will be constrained to answer it. Your dust long scattered to
   the wind will come together, and your soul will enter into your body,
   and you will be obliged to answer, Here am I, for thou didst call me.'

   Then you will hear the second question, Why didst thou live and die
   without me?' And such questions as these will come thick upon you, What
   did I do that thou shouldst slight me? Did I not give you innumerable
   mercies? Why did you never think of me? Did I not put salvation before
   you? Did I not plead with you? Did I not entreat you to turn unto me?
   Why did you refuse me? You will have no answer to those questions: and
   then there will come another question'ah! how I wish it would come to
   you while there is time to answer it'How shall we escape if we neglect
   so great salvation?' To-night I put it to you that you may propose a
   way of escape, if your imagination is equal to the task. You will be
   baffled even in trying to invent an escape now, and how much more when
   your time of judgment really comes! If you neglect the salvation of God
   in Christ you cannot be saved. In the next world, how will you answer
   that question'How shall we escape?' You will ask the rocks to hide you,
   but they will refuse you that dread indulgence. You will beseech them
   to crush you, that you may no longer see the terrible face of the King
   upon the throne, but even that shall be denied you. Oh, be wise, and
   ere you dare the wrath of the King eternal and dash upon the bosses of
   his buckler, turn and repent, for why will ye die?

   III. Now, if any seek an answer to the grave enquiries of the text, and
   do sincerely ask, Where is God my Maker?' let us GIVE THE ANSWERS.
   Where is God? He is everywhere. He is all around you now. If you want
   him, here he is. He waits to be gracious to you. Where is God your
   Maker? He is within eye-sight of you. You cannot see him, but he sees
   you. He reads each thought and every motion of your spirit, and records
   it too. He is within ear-shot of you. Speak, and he will hear you. Ay,
   whisper'nay, you need not even form the words with the lips, but let
   the thought be in the soul, and he is so near you'for in him you live
   and move and have your being'that he will know your heart before you
   know it yourself. Where is your Comforter? He is ready with his songs
   in the night.' Where is your Instructor? He waits to make you wise unto
   salvation.

   Where, then, may I meet him?' says one. You cannot meet him'you must
   not attempt it'except through the Mediator. There is one God and one
   Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.' If you come to
   Jesus you have come to God. God was in Christ reconciling the world
   unto himself; not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath
   committed unto us the word of reconciliation,' which word we preach.
   Believe in Jesus Christ, and your God is with you. Trust your soul with
   Jesus Christ, and you have found your Creator, and you shall never
   again have to say, Where is God my Maker?' for you shall live in him,
   and he shall live in you. You have found your Comforter and you shall
   joy in him, while he shall joy in you. You have also in Christ Jesus
   found your Instructor, who shall guide you through life, and bring you
   to perfection in yon bright world above.

   May the Holy Ghost use this little sermon as a short sword to slay your
   indifference; for Christ's sake.

   PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON'Psalms 42, 53.

   HYMNS FROM Our Own Hymn Book'550, 711, 606, 522.
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                               Loyal to the Core

   A Sermon

   (No. 1512)

   Delivered by

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   And Ittai answered the king, and said, As the Lord liveth, and as my
   lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be,
   whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be.'2 Samuel
   15:21.

   Although the courage of David appears to have failed him when he fled
   from his son Absalom, yet certain other noble characteristics came out
   in brilliant relief, and among the rest, his large-heartedness and his
   thoughtfulness for others. A man in such a desperate condition as he
   was must have earnestly coveted many friends and have been anxious to
   retain them all, but yet he would not exact their services if they were
   too costly to themselves, and so he said to Ittai, who appears to have
   been a Philistine'a proselyte to Israel, who had lately come to join
   himself to David'Wherefore I goest thou also with its? Thou hast newly
   come to me, and should I make thee wander with me in my sorrows? Return
   to thy place and abide with the new king, for thou art a stranger and
   an exile. May every blessing be upon thee. May mercy and truth be with
   thee.' He did not send him away because he doubted him, but because he
   felt that he had no claim to the great sacrifices which Ittai might
   have to make in attending his checkered fortunes. I do not know what
   may become of me,' he seems to say, but I do not want to drag you down
   with myself. Should my cause become desperate, I have no wish to
   involve you in it, and therefore with the best of motives I wish you
   farewell.' I admire this generosity of spirit. Some men have great
   expectations: they live upon their friends, and yet complain that
   charity is cold. These people expect more from their friends than they
   ought to give. A man's best friends on earth ought to be his own strong
   arms. Loafers are parasitical plants, they have no root of their own,
   but like the mistletoe they strike root into some other tree, and suck
   the very soul out of it for their own nourishment. Sad that men should
   ever degrade themselves to such despicable meanness! While you can help
   yourselves, do so and while you have a right to expect help in times of
   dire necessity, do not be everlastingly expecting everybody else to be
   waiting upon you. Feel as David did towards Ittai'that you would by no
   means wish for services to which you have no claim. Independence of
   spirit used to be characteristic of Englishmen. I hope it will always
   continue to be so; and especially among children of God.

   On the other hand, look at Ittai, perfectly free to go, but in order to
   end the controversy once for all, and to make David know that he does
   not mean to leave him, he takes a solemn oath before Jehovah his God,
   and he doubles it by swearing by the life of David that he will never
   leave him; in life, in death, he will be with him. He has cast in his
   lot with him for better and for worse, and he means to be faithful to
   the end. Old Master Trapp says, All faithful friends went on a
   pilgrimage years ago, and none of them have ever come back.' I scarcely
   credit that, but I am afraid that friends quite so faithful as Ittai
   are as scarce as two moons in the sky at once, and you might travel
   over the edge of the world before you found them. I think, however,
   that one reason why faithful Ittai have become so scarce may be because
   large-hearted Davids are so rare. When you tell a man that you expect a
   good deal of him, he does not see it. Why should you look for so much?
   He is not your debtor. You have closed at once the valves of his
   generosity. But when you tell him honestly that you do not expect more
   than is right, and that you do not wish to be a tax upon him, when he
   sees that you consult his welfare more than your own, that is the very
   reason why he feels attached to you, and counts it a pleasure to serve
   such a generous-hearted man. You will generally find that when two
   people fall out there are faults on both sides: if generous spirits be
   few, it may be because faithful friends are rare, and if faithful
   friends are scarce it may be because generous spirits are scarce too.
   Be it ours as Christians to live to serve rather than to be served,
   remembering that we are the followers of a Master who said, The Son of
   man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.' We are not to
   expect others to serve us, but our life is to be spent in endeavoring
   to serve them.

   I am going to use Ittai's language for a further purpose. If Ittai,
   charmed with David's person and character, though a foreigner and a
   stranger, felt that he could enlist beneath his banner for life'yea,
   and declared that he would do so there and then'how much more may you
   and 1, if we know what Christ has done for us, and who He is and what
   He deserves at our hands, at this good hour plight our troth to Him and
   vow, As the Lord liveth, surely in whatsoever place my Lord and Saviour
   shall be, whether in death or life, even there also shall His servant
   be.'

   And so, I shall begin by noticing first in what form this declaration
   was made, that we may learn from it how to make the same declaration.

   I. IN WHAT FORM AND MANNER WAS THIS DECLARATION MADE?

   It was made, first, at a time when David's fortunes were at their
   lowest ebb, and consequently it was made unselfishly, without the
   slightest idea of gain from it. David was now forsaken of everybody.
   His faithful bodyguard was all that he had on earth to depend upon, and
   then it was that Ittai cast in his lot with David. Now beloved, it is
   very easy to follow religion when she goes abroad in her silver
   slippers, but the true man follows her when she is in rags, and goes
   through the mire and the slough. To take up with Christ when everybody
   cries up his name is what a hypocrite would do, but to take up with
   Christ when they are shouting, Away with him! away with him!' is
   another matter. There are times in which the simple faith of Christ is
   at a great discount. At one time imposing ceremonies are all the rage,
   and everybody loves decorated worship, and the pure simplicity of the
   gospel is overloaded and encumbered with meretricious ornaments; it is
   such a season that we must stand out for God's more simple plan, and
   reject the symbolism which verges on idolatry and hides the simplicity
   of the gospel.

   At another time the gospel is assailed by learned criticisms and by
   insinuations against the authenticity and inspiration of the books of
   Scripture, while fundamental doctrines are undermined one by one, and
   he who keeps to the old faith is said to be behind the age, and so on.
   But happy is that man who takes up with Christ, and with the gospel,
   and with the truth when it is in its worst estate, crying, If this be
   foolery, I am a fool, for where Christ is there will I be; I love Him
   better at His worst than others at their best, and even if He be dead
   and buried in a sepulchre I will go with Mary and with Magdalene and
   sit over against the sepulchre and watch until He rise again, for rise
   again He will; but whether He live or die, where He is there shall his
   servant be.' Ho, then, brave spirits, will ye enlist for Christ when
   His banner is tattered? Will you enlist under Him when His armor is
   stained with blood? Will you rally to Him even when they report Him
   slain? Happy shall ye be! Your loyalty shall be proven to your own
   eternal glory. Ye are soldiers such as He loves to honor.

   Ittai gave himself up wholly to David when he was but newly come to
   him, David says, Whereas thou camest but yesterday, should I this day
   make thee go up and down with us? But Ittai does not care whether he
   came yesterday or twenty years ago, but he declares, Surely in what
   place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there
   also will thy servant be.' It is best to begin the Christian life with
   thorough consecration. Have any of you professed to be Christians, and
   have you never given yourselves entirely to Christ? It is time that you
   began again. This should be one of the earliest forms of our worship of
   our Master'this total resignation of ourselves to Him. According to His
   Word, the first announcement of our faith should be by baptism, and the
   meaning of baptism, or immersion in water, is death, burial, and
   resurrection. As far as this point is concerned, the avowal is just
   this. I am henceforth dead to all but Christ, whose servant I now am.
   Henceforth let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of
   the Lord Jesus. The watermark is on me from head to foot. I have been
   buried with Him in baptism unto death to show that henceforth I belong
   to Him.' Now, whether you have been baptized or not I leave to
   yourselves, but in any case this must be true'that henceforth you are
   dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. As soon as ever Christ
   is yours you ought to be Christ's. I am my Beloved's' should be linked
   with My Beloved is mine,' in the dawn of the day in which you yield to
   the Lord.

   Again, Ittai surrendered himself to David in the most voluntary manner.
   No one persuaded Ittai to do this; in fact, David seems to have
   persuaded him the other way. David tested and tried him, but he
   voluntarily out of the fullness of his heart said, Where, my lord, the
   king, is, there, also shall his servant be.' Now, dear young people, if
   you believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is yours, give yourselves up to
   Him by a distinct act and deed. Feel that one grand impulse without
   needing pressure or argument'The love of Christ constraineth me'; but
   do not wait to have your duty urged upon you, for the more free the
   dedication the more acceptable it will be. I am told that there is no
   wine so delicious as that which flows from the grape at the first
   gentle pressure. The longer you squeeze the harsher is the juice. We do
   not like that service which is pressed out of a man: and certainly the
   Lord of love will not accept forced labor. No; let your willinghood
   show itself. Say'

   Take myself, and I will be

   Ever, only, ALL for thee.

   My heart pants after the service after of her Lord. With the same
   spontaneity which Ittai displayed make a solemn consecration of
   yourselves to David's Lord.

   I used a word then which suggests another point, namely, that Ittai did
   this very solemnly. He took an oath which we Christians may not do, and
   may not wish to do, but still we should make the surrender with quite
   as much solemnity. In Dr. Doddridge's Rise and Progress of Religion in
   the Soul' there is a very solemn form of consecration, which he
   recommends voting men to sign when they give themselves to Christ. I
   cannot say that I can recommend it, though I practiced it, for I fear
   that there is something of legality about it, and that it may bring the
   soul into bondage. I have known some write out a deed of dedication to
   Christ and sign it with their blood. I will neither commend nor
   censure, but I will say that a complete dedication must be made in some
   manner, and that it should be done deliberately and with grave thought.
   You have been bought with a price, and you should, therefore, in a
   distinct manner own your Lord's property in you, and transfer to Him
   the title-deeds of your body, spirit, and soul.

   And this, I think, Ittai did publicly. At any rate, he so acted that
   everybody saw him when David said, Go over,' and march in front'the
   first man to pass the brook, Oh yes, dear friend, you must publicly own
   yourself a Christian. If you are a Christian you must not try to sneak
   to heaven round the back alleys, but march up the narrow way like a man
   and like your Master. He was never ashamed of you, though He might have
   been: how can you be ashamed of Him when there is nothing in Him to be
   ashamed of? Some Christians seem to think that they shall lead an
   easier life if they never make a profession. Like a rat behind the
   wainscot they come out after candlelight and get a crumb, and then slip
   back again. I would not lead such a life. Surely, there is nothing to
   be ashamed of. A Christian'let us glory in the name! A believer in the
   Lord Jesus Christ'let them write it on our door plates, if they will.
   Why should we blush at that? But,' says one, I would rather be a very
   quiet one.' I will now place a torpedo under this cowardly quietness.
   What saith the Lord Jesus? Whosoever shall deny me before net,, him
   will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven; but he that shall
   confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which
   is in heaven.' Take up your cross and follow Him, for with the heart
   man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
   unto salvation.' When our Master ascended up on high He told us to
   preach the gospel to every creature; and how did He put it? He that
   believeth and is baptized shall be saved.' There must be, therefore,
   the believing and the acknowledgment of believing. But cannot I be
   saved as a believer if I do not openly confess Christ?' Dear friend,
   you have no business to tamper with your Master's command, and then
   say, Will He not graciously forgive this omission?' Do not neglect one
   of the two commands, but obey all His will. If you have the spirit of
   Ittai you will say, Wheresoever my lord the king is, there also shall
   thy servant be.'

   I leave the matter with the consciences of those who may be like
   Nicodemus, coming to Jesus by night, or may be like Joseph of
   Arimathea, who was a disciple, but secretly, for fear of the Jews. May
   they come out and own their Master, believing that then He will own
   them.

   II.Secondly, WHAT DID THIS DECLARATION INVOLVE? As to Ittai, what did
   it involve?

   First, that he was henceforth to be David's servant. Of course, as his
   soldier, he was to fight for him, and to do his bidding. What sayest
   thou, man? Canst thou lift thy hand to Christ, and say, Henceforth I
   will live as thy servant, not doing my own will, but thy will. Thy
   command is henceforth my rule?' Canst thou say that? If not, do not
   mock Him, but stand back. May the Holy Ghost give thee grace thus to
   begin, thus to perservre, and thus to end.

   It involved, next, for Ittai that he was to do his utmost for David's
   cause, not to be his servant in name, but his soldier, ready for scars
   and wounds and death, if need be, on the king's behalf. That is what
   Ittai meant as, in tough soldier-tones, he took the solemn oath that it
   should be so. Now, if thou wouldst be Christ's disciple, determine
   henceforth by His grace that thou wilt defend His cause; that if there
   be rough fighting thou wilt be in it; and if there be a forlorn hope
   needed thou wilt lead it, and go through floods and flames if thy
   Master's cause shall call thee. Blessed is the man who will follow the
   Lamb whithersoever He goeth, giving himself wholly up to his Lord to
   serve Him with all His heart.

   But Ittai in his promise declared that he would give a personal
   attendance upon the person of his master. That was, indeed, the pith of
   it, In what place my lord, the king, shall be, even there also will thy
   servant be.' Brethren, let us make the same resolve in our hearts, that
   wherever Christ is, there we will be. Where is Christ? In heaven. We
   will be there by-and-by. Where is He here, spiritually? Answer: in His
   church. The church is a body of faithful men; and where these are met
   together, there is Jesus in the midst of them. Very well, then, we will
   join the church, for wherever our Lord, the King, is, there also shall
   His servants be. When the list of the redeemed is read we will be found
   in the register, for our Lord's name is there.

   Where else did Jesus go? In the commencement of His ministry He
   descended into the waters of baptism. Let us follow the Lamb
   whithersoever He goeth. At the close of His ministry He brake bread,
   and said, This do ye in remembrance of me.' Be often at His table, for
   if there is a place on the earth where He manifests Himself to His
   children it is where bread is broken in His name. Let me now tell a
   secret. Some of you may have heard it before, but you have forgotten
   it. Here it is'my Lord it generally here at prayer-meetings on Monday
   nights, and, indeed, whenever His people come together for prayer,
   there He is. So I will read you my text, and see ether you will come up
   to it'Surely in what place my Lord the King shall be, whether it be in
   a prayer-meeting or at a sermon, even there also will thy servant be.
   If you love your Lord, you know where His haunts are; take care that
   you follow hard after Him there.

   Where is the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, brethren, He is wherever the
   truth is, and I pray God that He may raise up a race of men and women
   in England who are determined to be wherever the truth of God is. We
   have a host of molluscous creatures about who will always be where the
   congregation is the most respectable: respectability being measured by
   clothes and cash. Time was in the church of God when they most esteemed
   the most pious men; has it come to this that gold takes precedence of
   grace? Our fathers considered whether a ministry was sound, but now the
   question is'Is the man clever? Words ire preferred to truth, and
   oratory takes the lead of the gospel. Shame on such an age. O you who
   have, not altogether sold your birthrights, I charge you keep out of
   this wretched declension.

   The man who loves Christ thoroughly will say, Wheresoever the Lord the
   King is, there also shall His servant be, if it be with half a dozen
   poor Baptists or Methodists, or among the most despised people in the
   town.' I charge you, beloved, in whatever town or country your lot is
   cast, be true to your colors, and never forsake your principles.
   Wherever the truth is, there go, and where there is anything contrary
   to truth, do not go, for there your Master is not to be found.

   What next? Well, our Master is to be found wherever there is anything
   to be done for the good of our fellow-men. The Lord Jesus Christ is to
   be found wherever there is work to be done in seeking after His lost
   sheep. Some people say that they have very little communion with
   Christ, and when I look at them, I do not wonder. Two persons cannot
   walk together if they will not walk at the same pace. Now, my Lord
   walks an earnest pace whenever He goes through the world, for the
   King's business requires haste; and if His disciples crawl after a
   snail's fashion they will lose His company. If some of our groaning
   brethren would go to the Sunday-school, and there begin to look after
   the little children, they would meet with their Lord who used to say,
   Suffer the little children to come unto me.' If others were to get
   together a little meeting, and teach the ignorant, they would there
   find Him who had compassion on the ignorant on those that are out of
   the way. Our Master is where there are fetters to be broken, burdens to
   be removed, and hearts to be comforted, and if you wish to keep with
   Him you must aid in such service.

   Where is our Master? Well, He is always on the side of truth and right.
   And, O, you Christian people, mind that in everything@politics,
   business, and everything you keep to that which is right, ]lot to that
   which is popular. Do not bow the knee to that which for a little day
   may be cried up, but stand fast in that which is consistent with
   rectitude, with humanity, with the cause and honor of God, and with the
   freedom and progress of men. It can never be wise to do wrong. It can
   never be foolish to be right. It can never be according to the mind of
   Christ to tyrannize and to oppress. Keep you ever to whatsoever things
   are pure and lovely and of good report, and you will so far keep with
   Christ. Temperance, purity, justice-these are favorites with Him; do
   your best to advance them for His sake.

   Above all, remember how Jesus loved secret prayer, and if you resolve
   to keep with Him you must be much at the throne of grace.

   I will not detain you over each of these points, but simply say that
   Ittai's declaration meant also this'that he intended to share David's
   condition. If David was great, Ittai would rejoice. If David was
   exiled, Ittai would attend his wanderings. Our point must be to resolve
   in God's strength to keep to Christ in all weathers and in all
   companies, and that whether in life or death. Ah that word death' makes
   it sweet, because then we reap the blessed result of having lived with
   Christ. We shall go upstairs for the last time and bid good-bye to all,
   and then we shall feel that in death He is still with us as in life we
   have been with Him. Though our good works can never be a ground of
   confidence when we are dying, yet if the Lord enables us to follow the
   Lamb whithersoever He goeth, and so to lead a decided, positive,
   downright, upright Christian life, our death pillow will not be stuffed
   with thorns of regret, but we shall have to bless God that we bore a
   faithful witness as far as were able to do so. In such a case we shall
   not when the dying wish to go back again to rectify the mistakes and
   insincerities of our lives. No, beloved, it will be very, very sweet to
   be alone with Jesus in death. He will make all our bed in our sickness;
   He will make our dying pillow soft, and our soul shall vanish, kissed
   away by His dear lips, and we shall be with Him forever and forever. Of
   those that are nearest to Him it is said, These are they that follow
   the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. They shall walk with him in white, for
   they are worthy.'

   I conclude with this observation. Will our Lord Jesus Christ accept at
   our hands tonight such a consecrating word? If we are trusting in Him
   for salvation will He permit us to say that we will keep with Him as
   long as we live?

   We reply, He will not permit us to say it in our own strength. There
   was a young man who said, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou
   goest,' but Christ gave him a cool reception: and there was an older
   man who said, Though all men shall forsake thee yet will not I,' and in
   reply his Master prayed for Him that his faith should not fail. Now,
   you must not promise as Peter did, or you will make a greater failure.
   But, beloved, this self-devotion is what Christ expects of us if we are
   His disciples. He will not have us love father or mother more than Him;
   we must be ready to give up all for His sake. This is not only what our
   Master expects from us, but what He deserves from us.

   Love so amazing, so divine,

   Demands my soul, my life, my all.

   This, also, is what the Lord will help us to do, for He will give us
   grace if we will but seek it at His hands: and this it is which He will
   graciously reward, and has already rewarded, in that choice word of His
   in the twelfth of John, where He says of His disciples in the
   twenty-sixth verse, If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I
   am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my
   Father honor.' Oh, to be honored of God in eternity when He shall say,
   Stand back, angels; make way, seraphim and cherubim; here comes a man
   that suffered for the sake, of my dear Son. Here comes one that was not
   ashamed of my Only-begotten when his face was smeared with the spittle.
   Here comes one that stood in the pillory with Jesus, and was called ill
   names for His sake. Stand back, ye angels, these have greater honor
   than you.' Surely the angels of heaven as they traverse the streets of
   gold and meet the martyrs will ask them about their sufferings, and
   say, You are more favored than we, for you have had the privilege of
   suffering and dying for the Lord.' O brothers and sisters, snatch at
   the privilege of living for Jesus; consecrate yourselves this day unto
   Him; live from this hour forward, not to enrich yourselves, nor to gain
   honor and esteem, but for Jesus, for Jesus alone. Oh, if I could set
   Him before you here; if I could cause Him to stand on this platform
   just as He came from Gethsemane with His bloody sweat about Him, or as
   He came down from the cross with wounds so bright with glory and so
   fresh with bleeding out our redemption, I think I should hear you say,
   each one of you, Lord Jesus, we are thine, and in what place Thou shalt
   be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servants be.' So
   may the Lord help us by His most gracious Spirit who hath wrought all
   our works in us, for Jesus' sake. Amen.

   PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON'2 SAMUEL 15:13-23; Matthew
   10:24-33.

   HYMNS FROM Our Own Hymn Book'670, 658, 666.

  LETTER FROM MR. SPURGEON.

   BELOVED FRIENDS,'The Lord has been graciously pleased to release his
   prisoner. I am weak, but the pain is gone, and in this land of bright
   sun and warm air I expect soon to recover strength. If my hopes are
   fulfilled, I shall have escaped this time with a lighter measure of
   chastening than for several previous years, and for this I feel doubly
   grateful. To all those by whose prayers I have been comforted and
   blessed I return hearty thanks.

   Special services are commencing at the Tabernacle, and I entreat
   friends at home to throw their whole souls into them. I also beg my
   readers to pray that my beloved work at home may not suffer through my
   absence, but that it may please God through these special services to
   revive nd increase the spiritual life of the church committed to my
   care. Then will all the agencies be quickened also, and great blessing
   will come to the people of God.

   Unto the Lord our God belong the issues from death, and he restoreth
   our soul. To Him be glory for ever.

   With love to all the saints, yours,

   C.H. Spurgeon

   Menton, Dec. 26, 1879.
     __________________________________________________________________

                             Cheer Up, My Comrades!

   A Sermon

   (No. 1513)

   Delivered by

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   And Josiah set the priests in their charges, and encouraged them to the
   service of the house of the Lord'2 Chronicles 35:2.

   JOSIAH, as you remember, in the early part of his reign set his face
   against the idolatries that prevailed, to root them out of the land. He
   then bent his thoughts upon repairing and beautifying the temple. After
   that it was his heart's aim to restore the sacred services, to observe
   the solemn feasts, and to revive the worship of God after the due
   order, according to the words of the book of the covenant that was
   found in the house of the Lord. Our text tells us something of the
   method with which he went to work; and it may well serve us as a model.

   The first thing is to get every man into his proper place; the next
   thing is for every man to have a good spirit in his present place, so
   as to occupy it worthily. I will suppose, dear friends, that in the
   providence of God you are in your place, and that by the direction of
   God's Spirit you have also sought and found the precise form of
   usefulness in which you ought to exercise yourself. To-night it shall
   not be my business to arrange you; but assuming that it is well for you
   to keep where you are, my object shall be to encourage you to do your
   work for your Lord without being cast down. I am hardly going to preach
   so much as to talk to different persons who are discouraged in the work
   of the Lord, that we may rouse them up, rally them round us, and
   encourage them to keep rank.

   I. And, first, I would speak a little to THOSE WHO THINK THAT THEY CAN
   DO NOTHING. They will tell me that in such a sermon not a sentence can
   concern them: if I am to encourage men to the service of the house of
   the Lord, it will be in vain for them, as they can do nothing at all.
   Well, dear friends, you must not take that for granted; you must make
   quite sure that you cannot do anything before I may venture to speak to
   you as if it were a matter of fact; for sometimes there is a want of
   way because there is a want of will. Though I do not go so far as to
   allege that this is your case, we know too well that cannot' often does
   mean will not,' and not to have triumphed may mean that you have not
   tried. You have been so discouraged that you have excused yourself for
   inaction, and your inaction has grown into indolence. If a man, under
   the notion that he could not lift his right hand, constantly kept it
   still, I should not wonder if, after weeks and months, it would become
   a matter of fact that he had not the power to use it. It might actually
   stiffen for no reason but because he had not moved it. Do you not think
   that, before your muscles get rigid, it would be well to exercise them
   by attempting some kind of service? Especially you younger folk, if you
   do not work for the Lord almost as soon as you are converted it will be
   very difficult afterwards to make you take to it. Aptitude, I have
   often noticed, comes with employment, and through negligence and sloth
   people become enervated and helpless. You say that you cannot move your
   arm, and so you do not move it; take heed, for by-and-by your pretence
   will become the parent of real powerlessness.

   But I will take what you have said as being true. You are ill; the
   vigour you felt in the bright days of health fails you now; you have to
   suffer pain, weariness, and exhaustion; you are often detained at home;
   and home seems now to you a gloomy hospital all the day long, rather
   than a genial hostelry when evening shadows fall. Little indeed,
   therefore, can you do; so little that you are apt to reckon it as
   nothing at all. The thought is a burden to you. You wish you could
   serve the Lord. How constantly you have dreamed of the pleasure since
   you have been denied the privilege! How willing your feet would be to
   run; how ready your hands would be to labour; how glad would your
   tongue be to testify! You envy those who are able, and you would fain
   emulate and excel them; not indeed that you harbour ill-will against
   them, but you devoutly wish that you could do some personal service in
   the cause of your Master.

   Now, I want to encourage you first by reminding you that the law of the
   Son of David is the same as the law of David himself; and you know the
   law of David about those that went to the battle. There were some that
   were lame, and some that were otherwise incapable of action, and he
   left them with the baggage. There,' he said, you are very weary and
   ill: stop in the camp: take care of the tents, and the ammunition,
   while we go and fight.' Now, it happened once on a time that the men
   that went to fight claimed all the spoil. They said, These people have
   done nothing: they have been lying in the trenches: they shall not
   carry off a share of the booty.' But King David there and then made a
   law that they should share and share equally'those that were in the
   trenches and those that engaged in the fray. As his part is that goeth
   down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff:
   they shall part alike. And it was so from that day forward, that he
   made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel.' Nor is the law of the
   Son of David less gracious. If by sickness you are detained at home,'if
   for any other reason, such as age or infirmity, you are not able to
   enter into actual service, yet if you are a true soldier and would
   fight if you could, and your heart is in it, you shall share even with
   the best and bravest of those who, clad in the panoply of God,
   encounter and grapple with the adversary.

   And, brethren, you have no reason to envy, though you may admire to
   your heart's content, all who are diligent and successful in the
   service of Christ. Let me remind you of a law of the kingdom of heaven
   with which you are all familiar'He that receiveth a prophet in the name
   of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward.' In truth, it is a
   splendid appointment to be a servant of the Lord. David thought so, for
   you often read at the commencement of his psalms'A prayer of David, the
   servant of God,' though you never read, A prayer of David, the king of
   Israel,' for he thought more of being enrolled a servant of God than of
   being entitled a king of Israel. Health and strength, ability and
   opportunity to fulfil a mission for the Master are much to be desired,
   but these are not always to be taken as reliable evidence of personal
   salvation. A man may preach admirably, and he may work marvels in the
   church, and yet himself not be a partaker of saving grace. Hence, when
   the disciples came back from preaching, and said, Lord, even the devils
   are subject to us through thy name,' the Lord said, Never the less, in
   this rejoice not, but rather rejoice because your names are written in
   heaven.' Judas was amongst them; Judas cast out devils; Judas preached
   the gospel; and yet Judas was a son of perdition, and is lost for ever.
   Because you cannot do much you must not infer that therefore you are
   not saved; for if you were to be among the chief of Christian workers
   it would not prove that you were certainly a child of God. Do not fret,
   then, because you are shut out from the cheerful activities in which
   others share; for, as long as your name is written in heaven, and your
   heart truly follows after the Lord, you shall have an abundant
   recompense at the last great day, even though here you are doomed to be
   a sufferer rather than a worker.

   But to me it seems more than possible that some of you, dear friends,
   whose minds are tinged with melancholy, have painted your own lot in
   deeper shades than the justice of the case deserves. Is your life
   indeed a dull routine, which, for lack of busy change and lively
   enterprise, leaves no record behind? Not so, methinks. The rich relics
   of a well-spent hour' do sometimes pour around your path a stream of
   light that cheers our eyes, though it may escape your notice. Are you
   patient under your sufferings? Do you try to keep the flesh in
   subjection, to govern your spirit, to refrain from murmuring, and to
   foster cheerfulness? That, my friend, is doing a great deal. I am sure
   that the holy serenity of a suffering child of God is one of the best
   sermons that can ever be preached in a family. A sick saint has often
   been more serviceable in a house than the most eloquent divine could
   have been. They see how sweetly you submit to the divine will, how
   patiently you can bear painful operations, how the Lord gives you songs
   in the night. Why, you are greatly useful. I have sometimes been called
   to visit bedridden persons who have been unable to rise for many, many
   years, and it has been within my knowledge that their influence has
   extended over whole parishes. They have been known as poor pious women
   or as experienced Christian men, and many have gone to visit them.
   Christian ministers have said that they derived more benefit from
   sitting half-an-hour talking to poor old Betsy than they did from all
   the books in their library, and yet Betsy said that she was doing
   nothing. Look at your case in that light, and you will see that you can
   praise God upon your bed, and make your chamber to be as vocal for God
   as this pulpit ever can be.

   Besides, dear friends, do you not think we frequently limit our
   estimate of serving God to the public exercises of the sanctuary, and
   forget the strong claims that our Lord has upon our private fidelity
   and obedience? You say, I cannot serve God,' when you cannot teach in
   the school or preach in the pulpit, when you are unable to sit on a
   committee or speak on a platform: as if these were the only forms of
   service to be taken into account. Do you not think that a mother
   nursing her baby is serving God? Do you not think that men and women
   going about their daily toil with patient industry discharging the
   duties of domestic life are serving God? If you think rightly you will
   understand that they are. The servant sweeping the room, the mistress
   preparing the meal, the workman driving a nail, the merchant casting up
   his ledger, ought to do all in the service of God. Though, of course,
   it is very desirable that we should each and all have some definitely
   religious work before us, yet it is much better that we should hallow
   our common handicraft, and make our ordinary work chime with the
   melodies of a soul attuned for heaven. Let true religion be our life,
   and then our life will be true religion. That is how it ought to be.
   Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all in the name of the
   Lord Jesus, giving thanks unto God and the Father by him.' So, then,
   let the stream of your common life as it flows on, obscure, unobserved,
   be holy and courageous; you will find that while they also serve who
   only stand and wait,' you shall not be neglected or overlooked who
   simply sit at Jesus' feet and listen to his words when you can do no
   more. This is service done for him which he can appreciate; complain
   who may.

   Know, too, my dear sister, that by thy sorrows the Lord has drawn out
   thy sympathies. Thou, my dear brother, know that by the discipline
   which has chastened thee, thou hast learned to be a comforter. Say you,
   then, that you cannot do anything? I know a few secrets about you that
   you forget. You do not reckon yourself up as we reckon you. Did you not
   try to cheer a poor neighbour the other day by telling of the Lord's
   goodness to you when you were very sick yourself? How started from your
   eye that tear most sacred shed for a fellow-creature's pain? Is it not
   your habit, poor sufferer as you are, to let drop just a few words for
   your Master to others in a like condition whenever you can? You tell me
   that you cannot do anything. Why, dear hearts, the refreshing of God's
   saints is one of the highest works in which anyone can be occupied. God
   will send prophets to his servants at times when they need to be
   rebuked; if he wants to comfort them he generally sends an angel to
   them, for that is angel's work. Jesus Christ himself, we read, had
   angels sent to minister to him. When? Was it not in the garden of
   Gethsemane, when he was bowed down with sorrow? Comforting is not
   ordinary work: it is a kind of angelic work. There appeared unto him an
   angel strengthening him.' A prophet was sent to warn the Israelites of
   their sin; but when a Gideon was to be encouraged to go and fight for
   his country, it was the angel of the Lord that came to him. So I gather
   that comforting work is angel's work. You, dear kind Christian men and
   women, who think that you are not able to do anything but to condole or
   to console with cheery words some souls cast down and sore dismayed,
   you are fulfilling a most blessed office, and doing work which many
   ministers find it difficult to perform. I have known some who have
   never known suffering or ill-health, and when they try to comfort God's
   weary people they are dreadfully awkward over it. They are like
   elephants picking up pins: they can do it, but it is with a wonderful
   effort. God's tried people comfort each other con amore; they take to
   the work as a fish to water. They understand the art of speaking a word
   in season to him that is weary, and when this is the case they may not
   complain that they are doing nothing.

   And yet, beloved, you who thought that you did nothing, and now
   perceive that you are really useful, will, I hope, perceive that there
   is still a wider region into which you may advance. Breathe to-night
   the prayer of Jabez, who was more honourable than his brethren, because
   he was the child of his mother's sorrow; and this was the prayer'Oh
   that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast'! Ask God to
   open up to you a larger region of usefulness, and he will do it.

   II. Now let me address a few words to another class of workers WHO
   THINK THAT THEY ARE LAID ASIDE.

   Dear sir,' says one, I wish you would encourage me. I used to be useful
   once; at least, I was recognized as one of a band of men who worked
   together right heartily, but since I have changed my residence I am
   unknown in the neighborhood where I am living, and I seem to have
   dropped out of the ranks. I have done little or nothing lately, and I
   feel uneasy about it. I wish that I could get to work.' My dear
   brother, I hope you will; but do not waste five minutes in thinking it
   over. These times need so much Christian effort that when a man asks
   me, How shall I do work for Christ'? I am accustomed to say, Go and do
   it.' But what is the way to do it'? Start at once. Get at it, my
   brother. Do not be out of harness a minute. But suppose that you are
   obliged to desist awhile, do not let your interest in the cause of our
   Lord and Master decline. Some of the best of God's workers have been
   laid aside for long periods. Moses was forty years in the desert, doing
   nothing. A greater than he, our blessed Saviour himself, was thirty
   years,'I will not say doing nothing, but certainly doing no public
   work. When you are in a retired and inactive position, be preparing for
   the time when God brings you out again. If you are put away on the
   shelf, do not rust there, but pray the Master to brighten you up so
   that when he comes to use you again you may be fully fitted for the
   work which he has in hand for you.

   While you must be laid aside, I want you to do this,'pray for others
   that are at work. Help them; encourage them. Do not get into that
   peevish, miserable frame of mind which grudges and undervalues other
   men's works. Be not like the dog in the manger. Some people, when they
   cannot do anything themselves, do not like anybody else to be diligent
   and laborious. Say, If I cannot help, I will never hinder, but I will
   cheer my brethren.'

   Spend your time in prayer that you may be fit for the Master's use,
   and, meanwhile, be prompt in helping others. You remember that, at the
   siege of Gibraltar, when the fleet surrounded it and determined to
   storm the old rock, the governor fired red-hot shot down upon the men
   of war. The enemy did not at all admire the governor's warm reception.
   Think how it was done. Here were gunners on the ramparts firing away,
   and every man in the garrison would have liked to do the same. What did
   those do who could not serve a gun? Why, they heated the shot; and that
   is what you must do. I am master gunner here generally: heat my shot
   for me, if you will. Keep the furnace going, so that when we do fire
   off a sermon it may be red-hot, through your earnest prayers. When you
   see your friends sitting in the Sunday-school, or standing out in the
   street working for God, if you cannot join them yet say, Never mind: I
   will heat the shot for them. My prayers shall not be wanting, if I can
   contribute nothing else.' That is counsel for you who are for awhile
   laid on the shelf.

   III. Others there are who are much discouraged because THEY HAVE BUT
   SMALL TALENT. Oh,' they say, I wish I could serve Jesus Christ like
   Paul, or like Whitefield'that I could range the country through
   proclaiming his dear name and winning thousands of converts. But I am
   slow of speech and dull of thought, and what I attempt produces little
   or no effect.' Well, brother, mind that you do what you can. Do you not
   recollect the parable of the men who had talents entrusted to them? I
   do not want to lay undue stress upon the fact that it was the man who
   had one talent who buried it. Yet why is he represented as doing so? I
   think it was not because the men of two and five talents do not
   sometimes bury theirs, but because the temptation lies most with the
   one talent people. They say, What can I do? What is the use of me? I
   may be excused.' That is the temptation. Brother, do not be entangled
   in that snare. If your Lord has only given you one talent he does not
   expect you to make the same interest upon it as the man does with five;
   but still he does expect his interest, and therefore do not wrap your
   talent in a napkin. It is but with strength imparted that any of us can
   serve him. We have nothing to consecrate to him but the gift we have
   first received from him. You are weak. You feel it; but what says your
   God to you? Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the
   Lord.' He can make you useful though you have no extraordinary
   endowments. Grape-shot may do great execution, though it cannot compare
   with grenade or bomb-shell. A sinner may be brought to Christ by the
   simple earnestness of a peasant or an artisan, without calling in the
   aid of a professor's learning or a preacher's eloquence. God can bless
   you far above what you think to be your capacity, for it is not a
   question of your ability but of his aid. You have no self-reliance, you
   tell me. Then take refuge in God, I entreat you, for you evidently want
   more of the divine succor. Go and get it; it is to be had. He girds the
   weak with strength. The young men shall faint and be weary, but they
   that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.' Why, I think you
   are more likely to do good than if you had five talents, for now you
   will pray more and you will depend more upon God than you would have
   done if you had possessed strength of your own.

   One other word. As you are not enriched with many talents, mind you
   economize those you have. Do you know how merchants and tradesmen who
   have only a small capital in business manage to compete with those who
   have larger means? They try to turn their money over every day. The
   costermonger cannot afford to deal out his goods to gentlemen who will
   pay him in three months. Not he. He must get his ready money at the
   door, and then go and buy another stock to-morrow morning, and turn it
   over, or else he could not pick up his living with so small a capital.
   If you have only ninepence, make it nimble,' and you will get as much
   profit out of a nimble ninepence as another out of a lazy crown.
   Activity often makes up for lack of ability. If you cannot get force by
   the weight of the ball, get it by the velocity with which it travels. A
   little man with one talent all ablaze may become a perfect nuisance to
   the devil, and a champion for Christ. As for that great divine with his
   five talents, who marches on so sleepily, Satan can always overmatch
   him and win the day. If you can but turn over your one talent again and
   again, in the name of God, you may achieve great wonders. So I would
   encourage you in the work of the Lord.

   IV. With workers WHO ARE UNDER GREAT DIFFICULTIES I would now have a
   word. I have known the day when perplexities pleased me, dilemmas
   afforded me delight, and instead of declining a difficult task I rather
   like it. Even now I enjoy puzzling over a problem, and attempting what
   others decline. Nothing good in this world can be effected without
   difficulty. The biggest diamonds lie under heavy stones which sluggards
   cannot turn over. That which is easy to do is hardly worth doing. In
   the face of difficulty the man of ardent, persevering spirit braces up
   his nerves, sharpens his wits, and brings all his powers into play to
   achieve an object that will reward his efforts. Have you great
   difficulties dear friend? You are not the first worker for God who has
   had difficulties to encounter. Let us go back to Moses again. He was to
   bring Israel out of Egypt; but his path did not appear very plain. He
   must go before Pharaoh and issue God's command. Pharaoh looked him
   through when he said, Let my people go.' The haughty monarch was
   greatly surprised to hear anybody, especially a Hebrew, talk like that;
   and so he bade him begone. But Moses returns with, Thus saith the Lord,
   Let my people go'; and his courage was not even then crowned with
   immediate success. There must be plague upon plague, plague upon
   plague, till at last proud Pharaoh's heart was broken, the Israelites
   were saved from the hand of him that hated them; and Egypt was glad
   when they departed. This, however, was but the beginning of the mission
   of Moses. His was a life of difficulty'the meekest man, but the most
   provoked; and until he got to the top of Pisgah, and his gracious
   Master kissed away his soul, the prophet of Horeb had never done with
   difficulties. Any good thing, I say, especially any good thing done for
   God, must be surrounded with difficulties, and resisted by adversaries.
   Look at Nehemiah, and Ezra, and Zerubbabel, and those that built
   Jerusalem, the second time. These good men wrought zealously, but
   Sanballat and Tobiah were jeering and jesting, and trying to throw down
   the wall. If you build a city without difficulty, it is not Jerusalem.
   Be sure of that. As soon as ever you begin working for God you will
   find a great power working against you. If you encounter opposition,
   take it as a good sign. When our young men go to a provincial town to
   preach, and I want to know how they are getting on, after listening to
   their story, I ask, Has somebody slandered you yet? Do the newspapers
   denounce you as a fool'? If they say No,' I conclude that they are not
   getting on much. If Christ's cause is prospering the world will
   reproach the soul-winner; if you do damage to the devil's kingdom he
   will roar at you. Should your course be smooth, it is because he says,
   There is nothing to disturb me in that man's monotonous talk. I need
   not let fly the fiery dart of calumny at him: he is a chip in the
   porridge, I will let him alone.' Such a man generally goes through life
   very comfortably. People say, He is a quiet, inoffensive sort of man.'
   We do not want such soldiers in the service of Christ. What a
   disagreeable person'! said a king once of an officer whose sword
   rattled on the floor. That sword of his is most offensive.' Sire,' said
   the officer, that is exactly what your majesty's enemies think.' When
   ungodly persons say that we are troublesome, we are not broken-hearted
   at being out of their good looks. If the king's enemies think us
   troublesome, we reckon it to be high praise. When you, my dear brother,
   meet with opposition, encounter it with prayer. Exercise more faith.
   Antagonists ought never to hinder your going forward in the cause of
   Christ. Diamond must cut diamond. There is nothing so hard in this
   world but you can cut it with something harder. If you ask God to steel
   your soul up to the conquering point, and to make your resolution like
   an adamant stone, you can cut your way through an alp of diamond in the
   service of your Lord and Master.

   Let me inspirit you in the face of assailants. The forces ranged
   against you might be stumbling-blocks to fools, but they shall only
   prove a stimulus to men. One day your honour shall be the greater and
   your reward shall be the higher because of these adverse elements.
   Therefore, be brave and fear not, but advance in the strength of God.

   V. Fain would I now speak a passing word of comfort to another class of
   workers'THOSE THAT ARE NOT APPRECIATED. I am not going to say much,
   because I have not much sympathy with them. Yet I know that the
   smallest slight chafes those who are over sensitive. They murmur, I do
   my best, and nobody thanks me.' You think yourself a martyr, and
   complain that you are mis-represented. Be it so, dear friend; that was
   your Master's lot, and it is the lot of all his servants. This is a
   cross we must all carry, or we shall never wear the crown. Do you fancy
   that this is a new experience? Look at Joseph. His brethren could not
   bear him, and yet it was he that saved the family and fed them in time
   of famine. Look at David. His brothers asked why he had left the charge
   of the sheep to come down to the battle, suspecting that the pride of
   his heart had brought him among the soldiers and the standards. Yet
   nobody could bring back Goliath's head but that young David. Take a
   lesson from the ruddy hero; take no notice of what your brethren say
   about you. Go and bring back the giant's head. A good adventure is the
   best answer to evil accusations. If you are serving the Master let
   their scandal stir you up to more self-consecration. If they cry out
   against you as too forward, serve the Lord with more vigour, and you
   will antidote the venom of their tongues. Did you enter into Christ's
   work in order to be honoured among men? Then retire from it, for you
   came with a bad motive. But if you enlisted purely to bring honour to
   Him, and to win his smile, what more do you want? What more do you
   want? Be not therefore disheartened because you are not applauded. Be
   certain of this, that to be kept in the rear rank is often necessary to
   future eminence. If you take a man and put him in front, and pat him on
   the back and say, What a great man he is'! he will make a false step
   before long, and there will be an end of your hero; but when a man is
   brought forward by God, he is often one whom everybody criticizes,
   finds fault with, and declaims as an impostor, but the banter he is
   exposed to serves as ballast for his mind. When he comes off with
   success he will not be spoiled with conceit, for the grace of God will
   make him bow with gratitude. The sword that is meant for a princely
   hand, to split through skull and backbone in the day of battle, must be
   annealed in the furnace again and again; it cannot be fit for such
   desperate work until it has passed through the fire full many a time.
   Do not ask to be appreciated. Never be so mean as that. Appreciate
   yourself in the serenity of conscience, and leave your honour with your
   God.

   VI. I must speak now, in the last place, a little more at length to
   THOSE WHO ARE DISCOURAGED BECAUSE THEY HAVE HAD SO LITTLE SUCCESS.

   It was my great delight a few evenings ago to meet a splendid band of
   men and women who are the Sunday-school teachers of this church. You
   will think it strange that I did not till then thoroughly estimate the
   extent of their work, as I had never added up the total of the various
   schools; but when I did so, and found that they mounted up to six
   thousand children, I felt full of joy. I shall run over with delight if
   they increase to twelve thousand in another twelve months. For so large
   a district this would not be too many, but still our present number is
   most encouraging. Now, I know that some of our teachers are working
   away in back streets, in rooms not connected with any place but this,
   and we hardly knew of them, because they were pursuing their simple,
   unobtrusive labours so quietly. Are there any of you who fear that you
   have toiled in vain and spent your strength for nought? I would entreat
   you, dear friends, not to be satisfied with casting in the seed unless
   you reap some good results; yet do not be so faint-hearted as to give
   up because of a little disappointment. Though you cannot be satisfied
   without fruit, yet do not cease to sow because one season proves a
   failure. I would not have our friends the farmers abandon agriculture
   because this year they have a bad crop: if they were to measure their
   future prospects by the present failure, it would be a great pity. If
   you have preached or taught, or done work for Christ with little
   success until now, do not infer that you will always be unsuccessful.
   Regret the lack of prosperity but do not relinquish the labour of
   seeking it. You may reasonably be sorrowful, but you have no right to
   despair. Non-success is a trial of faith which has been endured by many
   a trusty servant who has been triumphant in the issue. Did not the
   disciples toil all night, and catch nothing? Did we not read just now
   of some who cast the net, and yet took no fish? Did not our Lord say
   that some seed would fall on stony ground, and some among the thorns,
   and that from these there would be no harvest? What good did Jeremiah
   do? I have no doubt he laboured, and God blessed him, but the result of
   his preaching was that he said, The bellows are burned in the fire.' He
   had blown up the fire till he had burnt the bellows, but no man's heart
   was melted. Woe is me'! said he. Oh that my head were waters, and mine
   eyes a fountain of tears'! I do not know what was the result of Noah's
   ministry, but I do know that he was a preacher of righteousness for a
   hundred and twenty years, and yet he never brought a soul into the ark
   except his own family. Poor preaching we may count it judging by the
   influence it exerted: and yet we know that it was grand preaching, such
   as God commended. Do not, then, grudge the time, or the strength, you
   lay out in the service of our great Lord because you do not see your
   efforts thrive, for better men than you have wept over failure.

   Remember, too, that if you really do serve the Lord thoroughly and
   heartily, he will accept you and acknowledge your service, even though
   no good should come of it. It is your business to cast the bread on the
   waters: if you do not find it after many days, that is not your
   business. It is your business to scatter the seed; but no farmer says
   to his servant, John, you have not served me well, for there is no
   harvest.' The man would say, Could I make a harvest, sir? I have
   ploughed, and I have sowed. What more could I do'? Even so our good
   Lord is not austere, nor does he demand of us more than we can do. If
   you have ploughed and if you have sowed, although there should be no
   harvest, you are clear and accepted. Did it never strike you that you
   may be now employed in breaking up ground and preparing the soil from
   which other labourers who come after you will reap very plentifully.
   Perhaps your Master knows what a capital ploughman you are. He has a
   large farm, and he never means to let you become a reaper because you
   do the ploughing so well. Your Master does not intend you to take part
   in the harvest because you are such a good hand at sowing; and as he
   has crops that need sowing all the year round he keeps you at that
   work. He knows you better than you know yourself. Perchance if he were
   once to let you get on the top of a loaded wagon of your own sheaves,
   you would turn dizzy and make a fall of it; so he says, You keep to
   your ploughing and your sowing, and somebody else shall do the
   reaping.' Peradventure when your course is run you will see from
   heaven, where it will be safe for you to see it, that you did not
   labour in vain nor spend your strength for nought. One soweth and
   another reapeth.' This is the divine economy. I think that every man
   that loves his Master will say, So long as there does but come a
   harvest, I will not stipulate about who reaps it. Give me faith enough
   to be assured that the reaping will come, and I will be content.' Look
   at William Carey going to India, his prayer being India for Christ.'
   What did Carey live to see? Well, he saw good-speed enough to rejoice
   his heart: but certainly he did not see the fulfillment of all his
   prayer. Successive missionaries have since gone and spent their life on
   that vast field of enterprise. With what result? A result amply
   sufficient to justify all their toil, but, as compared with the
   millions that sit in heathendom, utterly inadequate to the craving of
   the church, much less to the crown of Christ. It does not much matter
   how any one man fares. The mighty empire will revert to the world's
   Redeemer, and I can almost trace in the records of the future the
   writing of These be the names of the mighty men whom David had,' as the
   valiant deeds of his heroes are chronicled by our Lord. When old St.
   Paul's cathedral had to be taken down in order to make room for the
   present noble edifice, some of the walls were immensely strong and
   stood like rocks. Sir Christopher Wren determined to throw them down by
   the old Roman battering-ram. The battering-ram began to work, and the
   men worked at it for hours and hours, day after day, without apparent
   effect. Blow after blow came on the wall; tremendous thuds that made
   the bystanders tremble. The wall continued to stand till they thought
   it was a useless operation. But the architect knew. He continued
   working his battering-ram till every particle of the wall felt the
   motion, and at last over it went in one tremendous ruin. Did anybody
   commend those workmen who caused the final crash, or ascribe all the
   success to them? Not a bit of it. It was the whole of them together.
   Those who had gone away to their meals, those who had begun days
   before, had as much honour in the matter as those who struck the last
   blow. And it is so in the work of Christ. We must keep on battering,
   battering, battering, and at last'though it may not be for another
   thousand years'the Lord will triumph. Though Christ cometh quickly he
   may not come for another ten thousand years, but in any case idolatry
   must die, and truth must reign. The accumulated prayers and energies of
   ages shall do the deed, and God shall be glorified. Only let us
   persevere in holy effort, and the end is sure. When a certain American
   general was fighting they said, What are you doing'? He said, I am not
   doing much, but I keep pegging away.' That is what we must do. We
   cannot do much at any one time, but we must keep on. We must keep on
   pegging away at the enemy, and something will come of it by-and-by.

   Possibly, dear friends, some of you who think you have had slender
   success may have had a great deal more than you know of. Others there
   may be whose want of success should suggest to them to try somewhere
   else, or else to try some other method. If we cannot do good in one way
   we must do it in another. Bring the matter before God in prayer. Cry
   mightily to him, for he will help you yet to do it, and his shall be
   the glory. When he has laid you low, when he has taught you how
   inefficient you are, when he has driven you in despair to rely
   implicitly upon himself, then it may be that he will give you more
   trophies and triumphs than you ever dreamed of. Anyhow, whether I
   prosper in life or not is not my question. To bring souls to Christ is
   my main endeavour, but it is not the ultimate proof of my ministry. My
   business is to live for God, to lay aside self, and give myself up
   wholly to him, and if I do that I shall be accepted whatever else may
   happen. I wish we had the spirit of that brave old man who was
   condemned to the stake. They were going to burn him. He knew that the
   sentence was to be carried out the next morning, but with a soul full
   of courage, and with a merry heart, he sat the last thing at night
   talking with his friends'faggots and fire to face in the morning,
   recollect'and he said to one of them, I am an old tree in my Master's
   orchard. When I was young I bore a little fruit by his grace. It was
   unripe and sour, but he bore with it: and I have grown mellow in my
   older days and brought forth some fruit for him by his grace. Now the
   tree has grown so old that my Master is going to cut it down and burn
   the old log. Well, it will warm the hearts of some of his family while
   I am burning'; and he even smiled for joy to think that he might be put
   to so good a purpose. I want you to have that spirit, and to say, I
   will live for Christ while I am young: I will die for him, and warm the
   hearts of my brethren. You know that the persecutions of those martyr
   days begat such heroism and gallantry among disciples as prudent people
   in peaceful times can scarcely credit. It is said of the old Baptist
   church over in the City that the members went to Smithfield early one
   morning to see their pastor burnt, and when some one asked the young
   people what they went there for, they said that they went to learn the
   way. That is splendid! They went to learn the way. Oh, go to the
   Master's cross to learn the way to live and die! See how he spent
   himself for you, and then sally forth and spend yourselves for him.
   Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall ye be glorious in the sight of
   the Lord.' Though you may think that you do not succeed, your
   whole-hearted consecration shall be your honour in the day of the Lord.
   By your hallowed life, and your humble service, you shall bring glory
   to his name. O Lord, set us in our charges, and encourage us in the
   service of thy house! Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us;
   establish thou the work of our hands: yea, the work of our hands
   establish thou it.' May the blessing of our covenant God rest upon you,
   my brethren, for Jesus' sake. Amen.

   PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON'John 21.

   HYMNS FROM OUR OWN HYMN BOOK'245, 674, 694.

  LETTER FROM MR. SPURGEON.

   BELOVED FRIENDS,'On this first day of a New Year I salute you with
   hearty good wishes, and pray that every blessing may attend your future
   steps. I beg also on my own behalf your prayers that through another
   year my ministry may be more edifying to the saints, more persuasive
   with sinners, and more acceptable to the Lord. I thank the great Healer
   that this day smiles upon me, and sees me free from pain, reviving in
   strength, and restored in spirit. I shall hope soon to be at work
   again. Oh for an anointing with fresh oil.

   Yours to serve in hearty earnest,

   C.H. Spurgeon

   Menton, Jan. 1, 1880.
     __________________________________________________________________

                        The Key-Note of a Choice Sonnet

   A Sermon

   (No. 1514)

   Delivered by

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   My soul doth magnify the Lord.'Luke 1:46.

   MARY HAD RECEIVED a wonderful intimation from heaven of which she
   herself scarcely understood the full length and breadth. Her faith had
   apprehended a great promise, which as yet her mind hardly comprehended.
   Her prayer, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to
   thy word,' showed her joyful submission and childlike confidence, and
   this made her blessed with the blessedness of patient hope. Under
   divine guidance she made a speedy journey into the hill country to see
   her cousin Elisabeth, and from her she received a confirmation of the
   wonderful tidings which the angel had brought to her. Elizabeth herself
   had been favored from above, for the Lord had looked upon her, and
   taken away from her the reproach of barrenness. Amongst other choice
   words, Elizabeth said to her, Blessed is she that believed: for there
   shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the
   Lord.' When Mary had thus been comforted by her friend, and her spirit
   had been elevated, and her confidence confirmed, she began to sing unto
   the Lord most sweetly, saying, My soul doth magnify the Lord.' Now, if
   it is a good time with any of you'if in communion with some older
   believer your confidence has been strengthened, make sure that the Lord
   has a return for it. When your own heart is lifted up, then lift up the
   name of the Lord. Exalt him when he exalts you. You will perhaps tell
   me that the Virgin had very especial reason for magnifying the Lord,
   and I answer, Assuredly she had. Blessed is she among women,' and we
   are not backward to own the eminent honor which was put upon her.
   Blessed indeed she was, and highly favored. But yet, is there any true
   believer who has not also received special favor of the Lord? Sitting
   down quietly in our chamber, can we not each one say that the Lord has
   favored him or her with some special token of divine love? I think
   there is something about each believer's case which renders it special.
   We are none of us exactly like our brethren, for the manifestations of
   divine grace are very various; and there are some bright lines about
   your case, brother, which will be seen nowhere else, and some peculiar
   manifestations about your happiness, my sister, of which no one else
   can tell. I might not be straining words if I were to say to many a
   sister in Christ here, Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is
   with thee: blessed art thou among women.' And I might say the same to
   many a brother here: Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is
   with thee: blessed art thou among men. The Lord hath done great things
   for thee, and let thy spirit be glad.' True, there is one point in
   which we cannot be compared to Mary literally. She was to be the mother
   of the human nature of our Lord; but there is a parallel case in each
   one of us in which a higher mystery'a more spiritual mystery'gives us a
   like privilege, for, behold, the Holy Ghost dwells in each believer. He
   lives within us as within a temple, and reigns within us as in a
   palace. If we be partakers of the Holy Ghost, what more can we desire
   by way of favor from God, and what greater honor can be bestowed upon
   us? It was by her that the Word became incarnate, but so also is it by
   us, for we can make God's Word stand out visibly in our lives. It is
   ours to turn into actual, palpable existence among the sons of men the
   glorious Spirit of grace and truth which we find in the Word of God.
   Truly did our Lord speak when he said to his disciples, These are my
   mother, and sister, and brother.' We bear as close a relationship to
   Christ as did the Virgin mother, and we in some sense take the same
   position spiritually which she took up corporeally in reference to him.
   May he be formed in us the hope of glory, and may it be ours to tend
   his infant cause in the world, and watch over it as a nurse does over a
   child, and spend our life and strength in endeavoring to bring that
   infant cause to maturity, even though a sword should pass through our
   own heart while we cherish the babe.

   But now, having introduced to you her magnificat, we will dwell upon
   these words, My soul doth magnify the Lord,' and I do earnestly hope
   that many of us can adopt the language without being guilty of
   falsehood: we can as truly say as Mary did, My soul doth magnify the
   Lord.' If there are any of you present to-night who cannot say it, get
   to your chambers, fall upon your knees, and cry to the Lord to help you
   to do so; for as long as a man cannot magnify God he is not fit for
   heaven, where the praises of God are the eternal occupation of all the
   blessed spirits. If you cannot magnify God, it probably is because you
   are magnifying yourself. May the Lord cut self down and make nothing of
   you, and then you will make everything of him. When you sink in your
   own estimation, then will God rise in your esteem. May God the Holy
   Ghost make it so.

   I. Touching these words, I notice that, first, our text suggests to us
   AN OCCUPATION FOR ALL GRACIOUS PEOPLE: My soul doth magnify the Lord.'
   Here is an occupation for all of us who know the Lord, and have been
   born into his family.

   Observe, it is an occupation which may be followed by all sorts of
   people. This humble woman speaks of her low estate, and yet she could
   magnify the Lord. All believers, of every rank and condition, can
   attend to this work. There are some things that you cannot do, but this
   one thing every gracious heart can do, and should delight to do,
   namely, to magnify the Lord.

   This is an occupation which can be followed in all places. You need not
   go up to the meeting-house to magnify the Lord, you can do it at home:
   you need not step out of your own quiet little room, for you may sit
   still, and all alone you may magnify the Lord. You may be tossed about
   upon the sea in a storm, but you may trust his name, and be calm, and
   so magnify him. Or, you may be no traveler, and never go a hundred
   yards out of the village in which you were born, but you may magnify
   the Lord just as well for all that.

   Where'er we seek him he is found,

   And every place is hallowed ground';

   and in every place this hallowed occupation may be carried out, and we
   may always say'at least the place will not prevent our saying, My soul
   doth magnify the Lord.'

   This is not an occupation which requires a crowded congregation, it can
   be fitly performed in solitude. I suppose that this sonnet of the
   Virgin was sung with only one to hear it, her cousin Elisabeth. There
   is a quorum for God's praise even where there is only one; but, where
   there are two that agree to praise God, then is the praise exceeding
   sweet. Ah, my dear sisters, you will never stand up to speak to
   thousands, and many of my brethren now present would be very timid if
   they had to praise the Lord before a score. Never mind about that.
   Praise does not require even two or three, but in the quiet of the
   night, or in the loneliness of the wood far away from the haunts of
   men, your soul may pursue this blessed task, and daily, hourly,
   constantly sing' My soul doth magnify the Lord.'

   This is an occupation also, dear friends, which requires no money. Mary
   was a poor maiden. She had no gold or silver, and yet did she sweetly
   say, My soul doth magnify the Lord.' It is an honorable thing to be
   entrusted with this world's treasure to lay it out for Jesus. The
   church has its temporal needs, and happy is that man who is privileged
   to supply them: but this kind of work can be followed by the child who
   has no money, and by the workwoman who scarcely knows how to find
   herself in bread. It may be followed by the poor man reduced to the
   workhouse; and by the poor woman who lies in the infirmary breathing
   out her life. My soul doth magnify the Lord,' is as fit for paupers as
   for peers. Oh! these are golden notes, and those that use them have
   golden mouths, as golden as Chrysostom of old, even though they have to
   say, Silver and gold have I none.'

   And this is an occupation, dear friends, which I commend to all here
   present, because it does not require great talent. A simpleton may sing
   My soul doth magnify the Lord.' We have each one a soul, and when that
   soul has been renewed by grace it can follow this blessed pursuit of
   magnifying the Lord, Perhaps you have not the abilities of Mary, for
   she was, doubtless, a woman of considerable culture, like Hannah who
   preceded her, whose song she partly borrowed. Hannah seems to me to be
   one of the most gifted women of the Old Testament, and to be worthy of
   more notice than is generally given to her. But if you could not write
   a hymn, if you could not compose a verse, if you have no ability that
   way, ay, and if you cannot sing'and there are some of us that have such
   cracked voices that we never shall, and there are one or two brethren
   here who have such bad ears for time that I generally hear them a note
   behind everybody else, as I did to-night'well, never mind about that,
   our souls can magnify the Lord. It is an occupation that does not
   depend upon the voice, or upon any kind of talent whatever. Those who
   sing worst to the ear of man may, perhaps, sing best to the ear of God;
   and those who have the least apparent ability may, from the warmth of
   their heart and the ardor of their devotion, really have the greatest
   capacity in God's judgment for magnifying his name.

   My soul doth magnify the Lord.' I would invite all my brothers and
   sisters here to take this for their occupation as long as they live,
   and never to cease from it. Nay, even should death for a moment suspend
   it, let them so praise God that it shall be no new work for them to
   begin again and praise him for ever in heaven.

   Dear friends, albeit that this magnifying of the Lord is an occupation
   to be taken up by all Christians, do not let us think little of it. To
   magnify the Lord seems to me the grandest thing we mortals do, for, as
   I have already said, it is the occupation of heaven. When the saints of
   the Most High pass into their glorified state they have nothing else to
   do but to magnify the Lord. The word signifies, to put it in a Saxon
   form instead of a Latin one, to greaten God.' We cannot make him really
   greater, but we can show forth his greatness. We can make him appear
   greater. We can make others have greater thoughts of him, and that we
   do when we are praising him. We can ourselves try to have greater and
   yet greater thoughts of him'make him to our apprehension a greater God
   than we once knew him to be; and this, I say, is no mean occupation,
   because it is followed in heaven by all redeemed and perfected spirits.
   Even here, it is the end of everything. Praying is the end of
   preaching, for preaching and hearing are nothing in themselves except
   men be brought to Christ and led to prayer. But then praying is not the
   end: praising is the end of praying. Prayer is the stalk of the wheat,
   but praise is the ear of the wheat: it is the harvest itself. When God
   is praised, we have come to the ultimatum. This is the thing for which
   all other things are designed. We are to be saved for this end, To the
   praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in
   the Beloved.' We are not saved for our own sakes. How often does the
   Scripture tell us this in sense, and sometimes in words, Not for your
   sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you; be ashamed
   and be confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel.' The glory of
   God is to my mind the highest conceivable end'it certainly is the chief
   end of my being. So, my dear brother, if you cannot go out to preach'if
   after looking over all your condition you feel that your sickness and
   other circumstances may excuse you from active service, and even if you
   are compelled to keep your bed, do not suppose that you are useless as
   to the highest end of your being. You may still serve it by lying upon
   the couch of pain and magnifying the Lord by patience. Have you ever
   looked at those lovely lilies which adorn our gardens with their golden
   petals and their milk-white leaves? How they praise God! And yet they
   never sing. You do not even hear a rustle, but they stand still and
   praise God by existing'by just, as it were, enjoying the sun and the
   dew, and showing what God can do. A genuine Christian shut up under
   pain and sickness may glorify God by being his beloved child, by
   receiving the love of God, by showing in his common-place daily
   character, which is only noticeable from its holiness, what the grace
   of God can do. Oh may this be the occupation of us all since it is so
   noble a pursuit! My soul doth magnify the Lord.' Come, what are you
   doing to-night? Have you been during this day murmuring and complaining
   and grumbling? End that, and begin praising. Some of you are farmers,
   and I have no doubt you have grumbled because of the weather. I do not
   wonder, but I hope that you will not do it any more, but rather believe
   that God knows better about skies and clods and clouds and crops than
   you do. If we had the management of the weather, I have no doubt we
   think we should do it very splendidly, but I question whether we should
   not ruin all creation. Our great Lord and Master knows how to manage
   everything. Let us cease from all criticism of what he does, and say,
   My soul does not grumble. My soul does not complain; I have taken up a
   better business than that. My soul doth magnify the Lord.' That is her
   one engagement from which she will never cease.'

   II. Secondly, if you look at the text from another point of view, it
   provides for us A REMEDY FOR SELF-CONGRATULATION.

   If any one of us had been favored, as the Virgin was, with the promise
   that we should become the parent of the Savior, do you not think that
   we should have felt exceedingly lifted up? It was natural that she
   should be proud, but it was gracious on her part that she was humble.
   Instead of magnifying herself she magnified the Lord. It was a great
   thing, and somebody must be magnified for it. Nature would have said,
   Mary, magnify thyself'; but grace said, Mary, magnify the Lord.' If the
   Lord has been very gracious to any one of us, our only way to escape
   from vain-glorious pride, which will be exceedingly wicked if we
   indulge in it, is by giving vent to our feelings in quite another
   direction. Do you notice how she sets off the greatness of God by her
   own insignificance? He that is mighty hath done to me great things.' To
   me,' she says. They are great things, and he is mighty, but they are to
   me. He hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden.' Over against
   the greatness of God's goodness to you be sure to set in contrast your
   own meanness and unworthiness. Has the Lord redeemed you, called you,
   justified you, sanctified you, set you in his church, and given you a
   name and a place among his people? When you are inclined to run up the
   topgallants, and to hang out all the flags, and to glory in your flesh,
   recollect who you are and what you are, and the hole of the pit whence
   you were drawn, and the rock out of which you were hewn, and say, Why
   me, Lord? Why me?' Begin to magnify the name of the Lord, and that will
   be a death-blow to the temptation to pride.

   Mary had a specialty: no one else should be the mother of our Lord: but
   so have we. Electing love has pitched on us. Many have been passed by,
   but the Lord has loved us with a special love; yet we cannot rejoice in
   it so as to glory in ourselves, for this election is according to his
   sovereign will, and not of ourselves. It is all of grace and free
   favor, and not according to merit. Hence my soul doth magnify the Lord
   for everlasting love and special redemption. Whence is this to me? What
   am I, and what is my father's house, that thou, O Lord, shouldst choose
   me?

   Mary knew also that she was to be famous. All generations shall call me
   blessed.' But do notice how she balances her fame with another fame.
   She says, Holy is his name, and his mercy is on them that fear him.'
   She magnifies the name of the Lord. If he has given her a measure of
   honor, she lays it at his feet. Mind you do the same. Be not so vain as
   to be lifted up with a little success. We have all passed through this
   test of character, and in the fining-pot how few of us have borne the
   fire without loss! Perhaps you have preached a sermon and God has
   blessed it; the congregation is increased, and crowds are gathering;
   the probability is that the devil whispers, You are a capital preacher.
   Well done! You put your point admirably: God is blessing you. There
   must be something admirable in your character and abilities.' Away,
   away, thou fiend of the pit! This is ruinous pride! But suppose, dear
   brother, that the fiend will not go away while he finds you musing upon
   your success, what are you to do? Try him with this'My soul doth
   magnify the Lord.' Praise the name of the Lord that ever he should make
   use of such a poor, unsuitable instrument as yourself. Give him all the
   honor and all the glory, if honor and glory there be, and see if the
   arch-enemy does not take to flight, for God's praises are abhorrent to
   the devil.

   In whatever capacity you are serving the Lord, if he puts any honor
   upon you, mind you give it all back to him. Sedulously and carefully
   endeavor to do this, for robbery here will be fatal; he will not give
   his glory to another. If we begin to pilfer even a little of the
   praise, we shall find that our Master will reckon us to be unfaithful
   stewards, and give us a discharge. If we glory in our strength, we may
   have to go out and shake ourselves like Samson when his hair was lost,
   because the Lord has taken our strength away from us. A heart that is
   lifted up with self-esteem will soon be cast down in the mire. Mary
   knew that God's favors are given to us, not that we may congratulate
   ourselves, but that we may worship him; and she acted accordingly. If
   grace be come to thee, my brother, it is a wanton waste of it to pride
   thyself upon it. Like the manna in the Israelite's house when kept till
   the morning, it will breed worms and stink: no worm ever brought
   swifter decay than pride. Bear the shield of thine honor as an
   armor-bearer for thy Lord, Know that thou hast nothing but what belongs
   to him. Use all for him, and glorify him for all, and in all; and so
   wilt thou do well. I recommend the text, then, as a cure for pride: My
   soul doth magnify the Lord.'

   III. Thirdly, and I will be brief on each point, the text is A FRUITFUL
   UTTERANCE FOR HOLY FEELINGS. My soul doth magnify the Lord,' is
   evidently the overflow of a full soul.

   There must have been great mixture of feeling in the heart of this holy
   woman; but these few words furnished expression for every variety of
   her emotions. Those feelings were of an opposite character, and yet
   they all spoke by this one sentence. It is clear that she was filled
   with wonder. Her thoughtful spirit asked, how can so great a thing be
   true to me? Shall the Son of the Highest be born of Mary, the village
   maiden? Oh, miracle of condescension! With the amazement there was
   mingled, not the unbelief which too often comes of wonder, but an
   expectation of the promised marvel. She believed that the things which
   were spoken to her would be performed by the Lord, and she looked that
   God should keep his word to her. How sweetly those two feelings, wonder
   and expectation, are blended, hidden away and yet expressed, in these
   few words, My soul doth magnify the Lord'! It is as though she had
   said, I cannot understand the favor promised me. How glorious in his
   grace is the Lord my God! But I expect the blessing: I am sure of it,
   for the Lord is true! So I praise him concerning it.' The sentence is
   tinged with two fair colors, the vermilion of wonder and the azure of
   hope, and they meet harmoniously upon the same ground. The words are
   wonderful on that account.

   Now take two other mental states. The first would be her believing. She
   was not like Zacharias, who needed to be struck dumb because he doubted
   the word of the Lord. Mary had faith, and yet, at the same time she
   must have been awe-stricken by the revelation. That she should give
   birth to the Son of the Highest must have utterly abashed and
   overwhelmed her. Now both these states of mind are here'faith and awe.
   Faith says, I know that the angel's message is true, and therefore my
   soul doth magnify the Lord.' Awe says, What a solemn thing it is that
   God should come to dwell in my breast! My soul doth magnify the Lord.'
   Thus in these words confidence and reverence have met together,
   assurance and adoration have kissed each other. Here is faith with its
   familiarity, and devotion with its godly fear.

   Here, also, you very clearly perceive two other holy emotions. Her
   humility is apparent, and in the text it seems to ask the question, How
   can this happen to me? How can it be that such a poor woman, affianced
   to a humble carpenter, should be the mother of my Lord?' Humility sheds
   its perfume here, like a violet hidden away. She seems to say, Not unto
   me, not unto me be the glory! My soul doth magnify the Lord.' But that
   humility is not of the cringing and crouching kind which draws back
   from God, for it is clearly mixed with love. I rejoice in my gracious
   Lord,' she seems to say, I bless him: I love him: I praise him. My soul
   doth magnify the Lord. I am not worthy of his promised visitation, but
   it will be mine, and infinite condescension will do this thing unto me.
   Therefore do I love my God, and I draw near to him. My soul doth
   magnify the Lord.'

   Brothers and sisters, you will often find the language of my text the
   most expressive of utterances for all that is good in your minds. Many
   sweet passions, like little birds, may fold their wings, and dwell
   together in this one well-compacted nest,'My soul doth magnify the
   Lord,' Holy emotions may fly hither in swarms, and make the text like a
   hive of bees, stored with honey. As I turn and think it over, it sheds
   abroad its own spirit within me, as spices breathe out their own
   perfume, and I cry, My soul doth magnify him.'

   I think I perceive in these words a singular mixture of admiration and
   calm thought: a wonder in which there is no surprise. The blessed
   Virgin is evidently, as I have said before, wonder-struck that such a
   thing should come to her, and yet there is about that wonder no
   startling of amazement, but a marvelling which is the result of
   previous careful thought. She had considered the prophecies and
   promises, and saw them about to be fulfilled in her seed. She sang in
   the fifty-fourth and fifty-fifth verses, He hath holpen his servant
   Israel, in remembrance of his mercy; as he spake to our fathers, to
   Abraham, and to his seed for ever.' She had turned over the subject in
   her mind, and she came to the conclusion, He has said he will do this.
   It is as he spake.' So, oftentimes, when you get a mercy given to you,
   you will be surprised at it at first, but afterwards you will say, This
   is even as the Lord promised to me. He doeth no new thing to his
   servant. It is only my forgetfulness that has made me to be astonished.
   Did he not promise that he would help me'that he would deliver me'that
   he would give me all that I needed? And inasmuch as he has done it in
   this surprising way, my soul doth magnify him twice over for the
   wonderful mercy, and for the faithfulness of his covenant love which
   kept the ancient promise which he made to be yea and amen in Christ
   Jesus.' Again, I say, I commend the text as an expression of your
   feelings. How sweet are the words, My soul doth magnify the Lord'! They
   are full, many-sided, and natural, and yet most spiritual.

   IV. Fourthly, I think my text may be used as A REASON FOR HOPEFULNESS.

   It would be well to be wrapped up in this spirit with regard to
   everything. The mood which bids us sing My soul doth magnify the Lord'
   is full of a hope which will be useful in a thousand ways. For
   instance, concerning our own providential condition, let us magnify the
   Lord. Surrounded with difficulties, let us walk on with confidence,
   because our great God is equal to every emergency, and can both level
   the mountains and fill up the valleys. Burdened with labors and
   stripped by necessities, let us maintain an unchanging cheerfulness,
   because we magnify the might and the bounty of the eternal Jehovah,
   whose name is God All-sufficient. When danger is magnified by fear, let
   God be magnified by faith. When the troubles of our heart are enlarged,
   let our expectations from the Lord be enlarged also.

   The same God-magnifying spirit should attend our glances into futurity,
   if we indulge in any, and we are all too apt to do so. Ah! we would
   like to know, some of us, what is going to happen to us. Fain would we
   steal a glance behind the screen, and each one see

   What gloomy lines are writ for me,

   Or what dark scenes arise'

   There is a desire in most persons' minds to draw away the curtain which
   God has so wisely placed over the future. This is very wrong of us, and
   yet it is as common as it is blamable. We all turn prophets every now
   and then, and when we do we prophesy evil, and therefore it would be
   well if we could catch the spirit of Mary with regard to our forecasts
   of the future, and say, My soul doth magnify the Lord.' Why do we set
   our blear-eyed anxieties to watch the signs of heaven? If we must pry,
   and guess, and speculate, why not employ our brighter powers, and let
   blue-eyed hope scan the ensigns of the sky? When we meddle with the
   future how dare we foretell that which would dishonor the Lord? If we
   must needs write bitter things against ourselves, yet we ought not to
   write untruthful things against him. When we do forecast the future at
   all, let us do it in the spirit wherewith we sing, My soul doth magnify
   the Lord.' Let us be certain that we shall find him to be a great God
   in the future, greatly good, wondrously gracious, magnifying his mercy.
   We shall have troubles, but our soul doth magnify the Lord, for she
   foresees that we shall ride out all storms with Jesus at the helm, and
   come safe into port. Our anxious eye foresees necessities, but our soul
   doth magnify the Lord, for she sees him with a golden key opening the
   treasures of David, and supplying all her wants. Our troubled car can
   hear the wolf, but our soul doth magnify the Lord, for she sings, The
   Lord is my Shepherd, and he will preserve me.' In this spirit you may
   look forward to the swellings of Jordan, magnifying the living God
   while you yourself lie down to die. If you faint and begin to say, Ah!
   I shall never be able to die triumphantly,' you are minimizing, and not
   magnifying, the Lord. You are making him little, and not great. Try and
   say, How marvellously will he show his grace to me, a dying worm! Oh,
   how wondrous he will be in the eyes of angels that will crowd the banks
   to' hear a poor trembling soul like me go singing through the stream!
   My God will be great in that day; then will he lay bare his arm, and
   therefore will I fear no evil, for he will be with me; his rod and his
   staff will comfort me.' Think great things of God. Greaten God. Magnify
   his name whenever you look forward to the future. Chase from your mind
   any imagination or foreboding which would detract from the greatness or
   the goodness of your God.

   Judge in the same manner with regard to the salvation of your
   fellow-men. Never say, It is of no use inducing such a man to attend
   the means of grace. He is a blaspheming wretch. All that he would do if
   he heard a sermon would be to make sport of it for the next week. I
   have no faith in taking such a man to hear a ministry which he would be
   sure to ridicule.' Such unbelieving talk is making little of God. Is it
   not so? Is it not dishonoring God to think that his gospel cannot reach
   the most depraved hearts? Why, if I knew that a man had seven thousand
   devils in him, I believe the gospel could drive them all out. Get the
   sinners under the sound of the word, and the worse they are,
   oftentimes, the more does God love to display the greatness of his
   grace in casting down the power of their sin. Believe great things of
   God. I can honestly say this'that since God saved me I never doubted
   his power to save anybody. All things are possible now that he has
   brought me to his feet, and kept me these years as his loving child. I
   must think great things of God who has done such great things for so
   great a sinner as I am. Greaten God, my brethren; greaten God. Believe
   great things of him. Believe that China can be made into a province of
   the celestial kingdom. Believe that India will cast her riches at
   Jesus' feet. Believe that the round world will yet be a pearl on
   Christ's finger-ring. Do not go in for the dispiriting, despairing,
   unmanly, un-Christly ideas of those who say, The world is not to be
   converted. It is a poor wreck that will go to pieces, and we are to
   fish off here and there one from the water-logged hulk.' Brethren,
   never believe that we are to stand by and see the eternal defeat of
   God. Deem not that our God is unable to win upon the old lines, and
   must needs shift the plan of the campaign. It shall never be said that
   God could not save the world by the preaching of the gospel, and by the
   work of the Holy Spirit, and therefore must needs bring in the advent
   of the Lord to do it. I believe in the coming of the Lord, but, blessed
   be his name, I believe also that the battle which he has begun in the
   Spirit he will fight out in the old style, and finish with a victory in
   the very manner in which he opened the conflict. It pleases him by the
   foolishness of preaching to save them that believe, and it will please
   him to continue to do so till the whole round earth shall ring with
   hallelujahs of praise to the grace of God, who by the feeblest of his
   creatures shall have defeated sin, and death, and hell. Do not get into
   a desponding state of mind, and rush into half-insane theories of
   prophecy in order to excuse your unbelief and idleness. Never throw
   down your weapons, and pretend that the victory is to be won by doting
   and dreaming: we are to fight to the end with the same weapons, and in
   the same name. We will drive the devil out of the world yet, by the
   grace of God, by the old, efficient weapons of the Word of God and the
   Spirit of God. Greaten God, and magnify his name, by believing in the
   success of the gospel of his dear Son.

   As to the nearer future, never believe any human prophecy that does not
   glorify God. Expect great things of God, and if you hear any prediction
   that is not to the glory of God, conclude that it is a blunder. Oh!'
   said one to me, this country will go back to Romanism: the gospel light
   will be quenched in England.' Ah, dear me! Some brethren are mightily
   fond of this prognostication. But, my dear friend, there is one thing
   that always comforts me, namely, that God is not dead: and he is not
   going to be defeated by the pope of Rome, or fifty popes of Rome. He
   will win the victory yet. Always have courage, for it is God's cause,
   and it is in God's hands, and, being in God's hands, it is safe enough.
   See what you do:'because you cannot trust God's hand you trust your
   own! You thrust out your sacrilegious arm to interfere with God's
   peculiar work. What are you at? You are about to defile God's ark.
   Recollect the story of Uzzah. Pluck your hand back, and leave the ark
   alone. The Lord will help you to do such work as he gives you to do,
   but he has not made you Lord of empires, nor director of providence.
   Leave to his sovereign sway the purposes of his eternal grace, and
   depend upon it he will bring the world to Jesus' feet. Christ himself
   shall come: be you looking for him every day, but be constant in his
   service, working for him every hour. Believe, too, that he shall reign
   amongst his ancients gloriously, and where amidst Judea's glades Christ
   has been dishonored and the false prophet has ruled, there too shall he
   reign, and Jew and Gentile shall worship and adore his ever-blessed
   name. I say again, magnify the Lord with all your souls. Greaten God.
   Expect great things in the future, and with the cheery note of
   confidence go forward to battle for him whose is the victory for ever
   and ever.

   V. Once more, and I have done. Our text should be used as a GUIDE IN
   OUR THEOLOGY. We will finish with that. Here is a very useful test for
   young disciples who are beginning to study God's word. My soul doth
   magnify the Lord.' If you will carry this with you it will often save
   you from error, and guide you into truth. There is certain teaching
   which makes a great deal of man: it talks much of man's free-will,
   ability, capacity, and natural dignity. It evidently makes man the
   center and end of all things, and God is placed in a position of
   service to his creature. As for the Fall: father Adam slipped and broke
   his little finger, or something of the kind, but this theology sees no
   great ruin as the result of the fall. As for salvation: it is a slight
   cure for a small ill, and by no means the infinite grace which we
   consider it to be. Dear brethren, let those have this theology who like
   it, but do not you touch it even with a pair of tongs. It is of no use
   to man, for it mistakes his position, and only ministers to his pride.
   Man's place is not on the throne, but at the foot of the cross. Listen
   to another theology, in which the sinner is laid low, his sinfulness is
   exposed, his corruption is unfolded, Christ's redemption is magnified,
   free grace is extolled, and the Holy Ghost is adored. That is the
   theology for you, believe it: that is the theology of the Scriptures,
   accept it. I do not think that you will often be led wrong if this be
   your mode of judgment: that which glorifies God is true, and that which
   does not glorify God is false.

   Sometimes you will meet with an undoubted teaching of God's word which
   you do not understand. You know that the doctrine is taught in the
   word, but you cannot make it coincide with some other truth, and you
   cannot quite see, perhaps, how it glorifies God. Then, dear brother,
   dear sister, glorify God by believing it. To believe a doctrine which
   you see to be true by mere reason is nothing very wonderful. There is
   no very great glory to God in believing what is as clear as the sun in
   the heavens; but to believe a truth when it staggers you'oh, gracious
   faith! oh, blessed faith! You will perhaps remember an illustration
   taken from Mr. Gough, where the little boy says, If mother says it is
   so, it is so if it is not so.' That is the kind of believing for a
   child towards its mother, and that is the sort of believing we ought to
   exercise towards God. I do not see the fact, and I cannot quite
   apprehend it, but God says it is so, and I believe him. If all the
   philosophers in the world should contradict the Scriptures, so much the
   worse for the philosophers; their contradiction makes no difference to
   our faith. Half a grain of God's word weighs more with us than a
   thousand tons of words or thoughts of all the modern theologians,
   philosophers, and scientists that exist on the face of the earth; for
   God knows more about his own works than they do. They do but think, but
   the Lord knows. With regard to truths which philosophers ought not to
   meddle with, because they have not specially turned their thoughts that
   way, they are not more qualified to judge than the poorest man in the
   church of God, nay, nor one-half so much. Inasmuch as the most learned
   unregenerate men are dead in sin, what do they know about the living
   things of the children of Cod? Instead of setting them to judge we will
   sooner trust our boys and girls that are just converted, for they do
   know something of divine things, but carnal philosophers know nothing
   of them. Do not be staggered, brothers and sisters, but honor God,
   glorify God, and magnify him by believing great things and
   unsearchable'past your finding out'which you know to be true because he
   declares them to be so. Let the ipse dixit of God stand to you in the
   place of all reason, being indeed the highest and purest reason, for
   God, the Infallible, speaks what must be true.

   So, then, I come back to where I started. Let us go forth and
   practically try to magnify the name of the Lord. Go home and speak well
   of his name: gather your children together and tell them what a good
   and great God he has been. Some of you who have a swarm of youngsters
   could not do better than spend half an hour in telling them of his
   goodness to you in all your times of trouble. Leave to your children
   the heirloom of gratitude. Tell them how good the Lord was to their
   father, and how good he will be to his children: tell your servants,
   tell your work-people, tell anybody with whom you come in contact what
   a blessed God the Lord is. For my part, I never can speak well enough
   of his adorable name. He is the best of masters, his service is
   delight; he is the best of fathers, his commands are pleasure. Was
   there ever such a god as our God, our enemies themselves being judges?

   Magnify his name by the brightness of your countenances. Rejoice and be
   glad in him. When you are in sorrow and must needs fast, yet appear not
   unto men to fast, but anoint your faces and still wear a smile. Let not
   the world think that the servants of a king go mourning all their days.
   Make the world feel what a great God you serve, and what a blessed
   Savior Christ is, and thus evermore let your soul magnify the Lord. God
   grant you grace to do so, for Jesus' sake. Amen.

   PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON'Psalm 34.

   HYMNS FROM Our Own Hymn Book'174, 775.

  LETTER FROM MR. SPURGEON.

   Dear Friends,'Your continued prayers are sought for the special
   services at the tabernacle, that by their success any injury occurring
   through the pastor's enforced absence may be remedied. It would be an
   affliction indeed if our life-work should suffer through painful
   sickness, which in itself is a heavy cross to bear. By your prayers
   this will be averted, and the trial will be turned into a blessing.

   Right thankful am I to report rapid, and I trust real, progress in my
   own case. Living in an unbroken series of summer days, where no cold
   mists are dreamed of, it is no great marvel that rheumatic pains fly
   away, and depression of spirit departs. The healing Lord has breathed a
   restoring influence over land, and sea, and sky, and I am feeling it to
   my great joy. Hoping soon to be among my own people, and to issue
   sermons newly preached, I am, to my many hearty friends, their grateful
   servant.

   C.H. Spurgeon

   Menton, Jan. 8, 1880.
     __________________________________________________________________

A Woman of a Sorrowful Spirit

   (No. 1515)

   DELIVERED BY

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful
   spirit." 1 Samuel 1:15.

   The special cause of Hannah's sorrow arose from the institution of
   polygamy, which, although it was tolerated under the old Law, is always
   exhibited to us in practical action as a most fruitful source of sorrow
   and sin. In no one recorded instance in Holy Scripture is it set forth
   as admirable. In most cases the proofs of its evil effects lie open to
   the sun. We ought to be grateful that under the Christian religion that
   abomination has been wiped away, for even with such husbands as
   Abraham, Jacob, David and Solomon, it did not work towards happiness or
   righteousness. The husband found the system a heavy burden, grievous to
   be borne, for he soon found out the truth of the wise man's advice to
   the Sultan, "First learn to live with two tigresses and then expect to
   live happily with two wives."

   The wife must, in nearly every case, have felt the wretchedness of
   sharing a love which ought to be all her own. What miseries Eastern
   women have suffered in the harem, none can tell, or perhaps imagine. In
   the case before us, Elkanah had trouble, enough, through wearing the
   double chain, but still the heaviest burden fell upon his beloved
   Hannah, the better of his two wives. The worse the woman, the better
   she could get on with the system of many wives, but the good woman, the
   true woman, was sure to smart under it.

   Though dearly loved by her husband, the jealousy of the rival wife
   embittered Hannah's life and made her "a woman of a sorrowful spirit."
   We thank God that no longer is the altar of God covered with tears,
   with weeping and with crying out of those wives of youth who find their
   husbands' hearts estranged and divided by other wives. Because of the
   hardness of their hearts, the evil was tolerated for a while, but the
   many evils which sprang of it should suffice to put a ban upon it among
   all who seek the welfare of our race.

   In the beginning the Lord made for man but one wife. And why only one?
   For He had the residue of the Spirit and could have breathed into as
   many as He pleased. Malachi answers, "That He might seek a godly Seed."
   As if it was quite clear that the children of polygamy would be ungodly
   and only in the house of one man and one wife would godliness be found.
   This witness is of the Lord and is true. But enough sources of grief
   remain--more than enough--and there is not in any household, I suppose,
   however joyous, the utter absence of the cross. The worldling says,
   "There is a skeleton in every house." I know little about such dead
   things, but I know that a cross of some sort or other must be borne by
   every child of God.

   All the true-born heirs of Heaven must pass under the rod of the
   Covenant. What son is there whom the Father chastens not? The smoking
   furnace is part of the insignia of the heavenly family, without which a
   man may well question whether he stands in Covenant relationship to God
   at all. Probably some Hannah is now before me, smarting under the
   chastening hand of God; some child of Light walking in darkness; some
   daughter of Abraham bowed down by Satan and it may not be amiss to
   remind her that she is not the first of her kind, but that in years
   gone by there stood at the door of God's house one like she is, who
   said of herself, "No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit." May
   the ever-blessed Comforter, whose work lies mainly with the sorrowful,
   fill our meditation with consolation at this time.

   In speaking of this, "woman of a sorrowful spirit," we shall make this
   first remark--much that is precious may be connected with a sorrowful
   spirit but, in itself, a sorrowful spirit is not to be desired. Give us
   the bright eye, the cheerful smile, the vivacious manner, the genial
   tone. If we do not desire mirth and merriment, yet give us, at least,
   that calm peace, that quiet composure, that restful happiness which
   makes home happy wherever it pervades the atmosphere. There are wives,
   mothers and daughters who should exhibit more of these cheerful graces
   than they now do and they are very blamable for being petulant, unkind
   and irritable.

   But there are others, I doubt not, who labor to their utmost to be all
   that is delightful and yet fail in the attempt, because, like Hannah,
   they are of a sorrowful spirit and cannot shake off the grief which
   burdens their heart. Now, it is

   idle to tell the night that it should be brilliant as the day, or bid
   the winter put on the flowers of summer! And equally vain is it to
   chide the broken heart. The bird of night cannot sing at Heaven's gate,
   nor can the crushed worm leap like a hart up on the mountains. It is of
   little use exhorting the willow whose branches weep by the river to
   lift up its head like the palm, or spread its branches like the
   cedar--everything must act according to its kind--each nature has its
   own appropriate ways, nor can it escape the bonds of its fashioning.
   There are circumstances of constitution, education and surroundings
   which render it difficult for some very excellent persons to be
   cheerful--they are predestined to be known by such a name as this--"A
   woman of a sorrowful spirit."

   Note well the precious things which went in Hannah's case with a
   sorrowful spirit. The first was true godliness. She was a godly woman.
   As we read the chapter, we are thoroughly convinced that her heart was
   right with God. We cannot raise any question about the sincerity of her
   prayer, or the prevalence of it. We do not doubt, for a moment, the
   truthfulness of her consecration. She was one that feared God above
   many, an eminently gracious woman and yet, "a woman of a sorrowful
   spirit." Never draw the inference from sorrow that the subject of it is
   not beloved of God. You might more safely reason in the opposite way,
   though it would not be always safe to do so, for outward circumstances
   are poor tests of a man's spiritual state.

   Certainly Dives, in his scarlet and fine linen, was not beloved of God,
   while Lazarus, with the dogs licking his sores, was a favorite of
   Heaven. And yet it is not every rich man that is cast away, or every
   beggar that will be borne aloft by angels. Outward condition can lead
   us to no determination one way or the other. Hearts must be judged,
   conduct and action must be weighed and a verdict given otherwise than
   by the outward appearance. Many persons feel very happy, but they must
   not, therefore, infer that God loves them! And while certain others are
   sadly depressed, it would be most cruel to suggest to them that God is
   angry with them. It is never said, "whom the Lord loves He enriches,"
   but it is said, "whom the Lord loves He chastens."

   Affliction and suffering are not proofs of sonship, for "many sorrows
   shall be to the wicked" and yet, where there are great tribulations, it
   often happens that there are great manifestations of the Divine favor.
   There is a sorrow of the world that works death--a sorrow which springs
   from self-will and is nurtured in rebellion and is, therefore, an evil
   thing because it is opposed to the Divine will. There is a sorrow which
   eats as does a canker and breeds yet greater sorrows, so that such
   mourners descend with their sorrowful spirits down to the place where
   sorrow reigns supreme and hope shall never come. Think of this, but
   never doubt the fact that a sorrowful spirit is in perfect consistency
   with the love of God and the possession of true godliness.

   It is freely admitted that godliness ought to cheer many a sorrowful
   spirit more than it does. It is also admitted that much of the
   experience of Christians is not Christian experience, but a mournful
   departure from what true Believers ought to be and feel. There is very
   much of Christians' experience which they never ought to experience.
   Half the troubles of life are homemade and utterly unnecessary. We
   afflict ourselves, perhaps, 10 times more than God afflicts us! We add
   many thongs to God's whip--when there would be but one--we must make
   nine! God sends one cloud by His Providence and we raise a score by our
   unbelief!

   But taking all that off and making the still further abatement that the
   Gospel commands us to rejoice in the Lord always and that it would
   never bid us do so if there were not abundant causes and arguments for
   it, yet, for all that, a sorrowful spirit may be possessed by one who
   most truly and deeply fears the Lord. Never judge those whom you see
   sad and write them down as under Divine anger, for you might err most
   grievously and most cruelly in making so rash a judgment! Fools despise
   the afflicted, but wise men prize them! Many of the sweetest flowers in
   the garden of Grace grow in the shade and flourish in the damp.

   I am persuaded that He "who feeds among the lilies" has rare plants in
   His garden, fair and fragrant, choice and comely, which are more at
   home in the damps of mourning than in the glaring sun of joy. I have
   known such who have been a living lesson to us all from their
   broken-hearted penitence, their solemn earnestness, their jealous
   watchfulness, their sweet humility and their gentle love. These are
   lilies of the valley bearing a wealth of beauty, pleasant even to the
   King Himself! Feeble as to assurance and to be pitied for their
   timidity, yet have they been lovely in their despondencies and graceful
   in their holy anxieties.

   Hannah, then, possessed godliness despite her sorrow. In connection
   with this sorrowful spirit of hers Hannah was a lovable woman. Her
   husband greatly delighted in her. That she had no children was to him
   no depreciation of her value.

   He said, "Am I not better to you than 10 sons?" He evidently felt that
   he would do anything in his power to lift up the gloom from her spirit.
   This fact is worth noting, for it does so happen that many sorrowful
   people are far from being lovable people. In too many instances their
   griefs have soured them. Their affliction has generated acid in their
   hearts and with that acid they bite into everything they touch--their
   temper has more of the oil of vitriol in it than of the oil of
   brotherly love. Nobody ever had any trouble except themselves! They
   declare no rival in the realm of suffering, but persecute their fellow
   sufferers with a kind of jealousy, as if they, alone, were the brides
   of suffering and others were mere intruders.

   They think every other person's sorrow is a mere fancy or make-believe
   compared with theirs. They sit alone and keep silent. When they speak,
   their silence would have been preferable. It is a pity it should be so
   and yet so it is that men and women of a sorrowful spirit are
   frequently to be met with those who are unloving and unlovable. The
   more heartily, therefore, do I admire in true Christian people the
   Grace which sweetens them so that the more they suffer, the more gentle
   and patient they become with other sufferers and the more ready to bear
   whatever trouble may be involved in the necessities of compassion.
   Beloved, if you are much tried and troubled and if you are much
   depressed in spirit, entreat the Lord to prevent your becoming a
   killjoy to others. Remember your Master's rule, "And you, when you
   fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that you appear not unto men
   to fast."

   I say not that our Lord spoke the word with the exact meaning I am now
   giving to it, but it is a kindred sense. Be cheerful even when your
   heart is sad. It is not necessary that every heart should be heavy
   because I am burdened--of what use would that be to me or to anyone
   else? No, let us try to be cheerful that we may be lovable, even if we
   still remain of a sorrowful spirit. Self and our own personal woes must
   not be our life psalm, nor our daily discourse. Others must be thought
   of and in their joys we must try to sympathize. In Hannah's case, too,
   the woman of a sorrowful spirit was a very gentle woman. Peninnah, with
   her harsh, haughty and arrogant speech, sorely vexed her to make her
   fret, but we do not find that she answered her.

   At the annual festival, when Peninnah had provoked her the most, she
   stole away to the sanctuary to weep alone, for she was very tender and
   submissive. When Eli said, "How long will you be drunken? Put away your
   wine from you," she did not answer him tartly, as she might well have
   done. Her answer to the aged priest is a model of submissiveness. Her
   answer to the aged priest is a model of gentleness. She most
   effectually cleared herself and plainly refuted the harsh imputation,
   but she made no retort and murmured no charge of injustice. She did not
   tell him that he was ungenerous in having thought so harshly, nor was
   there anger in her grief. She excused his mistake. He was an old man.
   It was his duty to see that worship was fitly conducted and, if he
   judged her to be in a wrong state, it was but faithfulness on his part
   to make the remark. And she took it, therefore, in the spirit in which
   she thought he offered it. At any rate, she bore the rebuke without
   resentment or repining.

   Now, some sad people are very tart, very sharp, very severe and, if you
   misjudge them at all, they inveigh against your cruelty with the utmost
   bitterness. You are the unkindest of men if you think them less than
   perfect! With what an air and tone of injured innocence will they
   vindicate themselves! You have committed worse than blasphemy if you
   have ventured to hint a fault. I am not about to blame them, for we
   might be as ungentle as they if we were to be too severe in our
   criticism on the sharpness which springs of sorrow. But it is very
   beautiful when the afflicted are full of sweetness and light and, like
   the sycamore figs, are ripened by their bruising. When their own
   bleeding wound makes them tender of wounding others and their own hurt
   makes them more ready to bear what hurt may come through the mistakes
   of others, then have we a lovely proof that "sweet are the uses of
   adversity."

   Look at your Lord. Oh that we all would look at Him, who, when He was
   reviled, reviled not again and who, when they mocked Him, had not a
   word of upbraiding, but answered by His prayers, saying, "Father,
   forgive them, for they know not what they do." Don't you see much that
   is precious may go with a sorrowful spirit? There was more, however,
   than I have shown you, for Hannah was a thoughtful woman. Her sorrow
   drove her, first, within herself and next into much communion with her
   God. That she was a highly thoughtful woman appears in everything she
   says. She does not pour out that which first comes to hand. The product
   of her mind is evidently that which only a cultivated soil could yield.

   I will not, just now, speak of her son further than to say that for
   loftiness of majesty and fullness of true poetry it is equal to
   anything from the pen of that sweet Psalmist of Israel, David himself.
   The Virgin Mary evidently followed in the

   wake of this great poetess, this mistress of the lyric are. Remember,
   also, that though she was a woman of a sorrowful spirit, she was a
   blessed woman. I might fitly say of her, "Hail, you that are highly
   favored! The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women." The
   daughters of Belial could laugh and make merry and regard her as the
   dust beneath their feet, but yet she had, with her sorrowful spirit,
   found Grace in the sight of the Lord! There was Peninnah, with her
   quiver full of children, exulting over the barren mourner, yet Peninnah
   was not blessed, while Hannah, with all her griefs, was dear unto the
   Lord.

   She seems to be somewhat like he of another age, of whom we read that
   Jabez was more honorable than his brethren because his mother bore him
   with sorrow. Sorrow brings a wealth of blessing with it when the Lord
   consecrates it. And if one had to take his position with the merry or
   with the mournful, he would do well to take counsel of Solomon, who
   said, "It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of
   feasting." A present flash is seen in the mirth of the world, but there
   is vastly more true light to be found in the griefs of Christians. When
   you see how the Lord sustains and sanctifies His people by their
   afflictions, the darkness glows into noonday!

   We come now to a second remark which is that much that is precious may
   come out of a sorrowful spirit--it is not only to be found with it--but
   may even grow out of it. Observe, first, that through her sorrowful
   spirit Hannah had learned to pray. I will not say but what she prayed
   before this great sorrow struck her, but this I know, she prayed with
   more intensity than before when she heard her rival talk so exceeding
   proudly and saw herself to be utterly despised. Oh, Brothers and
   Sisters, if you have a secret grief, learn where to carry it and delay
   not to take it there! Learn from Hannah! Her appeal was to the Lord.
   She poured not out the secret of her soul into mortal ears, but spread
   her grief before God in His own house and in His own appointed manner!

   She was in bitterness of soul and prayed to the Lord! Bitterness of
   soul should always be thus sweetened. Many are in bitterness of soul,
   but they do not pray and, therefore, the taste of the wormwood remains.
   O that they were wise and looked upon their sorrows as the Divine call
   for prayer, the cloud which brings a shower of supplication! Our
   troubles should be steeds upon which we ride to God--rough winds which
   hurry our boat into the haven of all-prayer! When the heart is merry we
   may sing Psalms, but concerning the afflicted it is written, "Let him
   pray." Thus, bitterness of spirit may be an index of our need of prayer
   and an incentive to that holy exercise. O daughter of sorrow, if in
   your darkened chamber you shall learn the are of prevailing with the
   Well-Beloved, yon bright-eyed maidens, down whose cheeks no tears have
   ever rushed, may well envy you, for to be proficient in the are and
   mystery of prayer is to be as a prince with God! May God grant that if
   we are of a sorrowful spirit, we may in the same proportion be of a
   prayerful spirit and we need scarcely desire a change.

   In the next place, Hannah had learned self-denial. This is clear since
   the very prayer by which she hoped to escape out of her great grief was
   a self-denying one. She desired a son, that her reproach might be
   removed. But if her eyes might be blessed with such a sight she would
   cheerfully resign her darling to be the Lord's as long as he lived!
   Mothers wish to keep their children about them. It is natural that they
   should wish to see them often. But Hannah, when most eager for a
   man-child, asking but for one and that one as the special gift of God,
   yet does not seek him for herself, but for her God! She has it on her
   heart that as soon as she has weaned him, she will take him up to the
   house of God and leave him there as a dedicated child whom she can only
   see at certain festivals.

   Read her own words--"O Lord of Hosts, if You will, indeed, look on the
   affliction of Your handmaid and remember me and not forget Your
   handmaid, but will give unto Your handmaid a man-child, then I will
   give him unto the Lord all the days of his life and there shall no
   razor come upon his head." Her heart longs not to see her boy at home--
   his father's daily pride and her own hourly solace--but to see him
   serving as a Levite in the house of the Lord! She thus proved that she
   had learned self-denial. Brothers and Sisters, this is one of our
   hardest lessons--to learn to give up what we most prize at the command
   of God and to do so cheerfully. This is real self-denial when we,
   ourselves, make the proposition and offer the sacrifice freely as she
   did.

   To desire a blessing that we may have the opportunity of parting with
   it--this is self-conquest--have we reached it? O you of a sorrowful
   spirit, if you have learned to crucify the flesh; if you have learned
   to keep under the body; if you have learned to cast all your desires
   and wills at His feet, you have gained what a thousand times repays you
   for all the losses and crosses you have suffered! Personally, I bless
   God for joy. I think I could sometimes do with a little more of it, but
   I fear, when I take stock of my whole life, that I have very seldom
   made any real growth in Grace except as the result

   of being dug about and fed by the stern husbandry of pain. My leaf is
   greenest in showery weather. My fruit is sweetest when it has been
   frosted by a winter's night.

   Another precious thing had come to this woman and that was she had
   learned faith. She had become proficient in believing promises. It is
   very beautiful to note how, at one moment she was in bitterness, but as
   soon as Eli had said, "Go in peace and the God of Israel grant you your
   petition that you have asked of Him," "the woman went her way and did
   eat and her countenance was no more sad." She had not yet obtained the
   blessing, but she was persuaded of the promise and embraced it--after
   that Christly fashion which our Lord taught us when He said, "Believe
   that you have the petitions which you have asked and you shall have
   them." She wiped her tears and smoothed the wrinkles from her brow
   knowing that she was heard! By faith she held a man-child in her arms
   and presented it to the Lord.

   This is no small virtue to attain. When a sorrowful spirit has learned
   to believe God, to roll its burden upon Him and to bravely expect
   succor and help from Him, it has learned by its losses how to make its
   best gains--by its griefs how to unfold its richest joys. Hannah is one
   of the honored band who, through faith, "received promises," therefore,
   O you who are of a sorrowful spirit, there is no reason why you should
   not, also, be of a believing spirit, even as she was! Still more of
   preciousness this woman of a sorrowful spirit found growing out of her
   sorrow, but with one invaluable item I shall close the list--she had
   evidently learned much of God. Driven from common family joys she had
   been drawn near to God and, in that heavenly fellowship, she had
   remained a humble waiter and watcher.

   In seasons of sacred nearness to the Lord she had made many heavenly
   discoveries of His name and Nature, as her son makes us perceive.
   First, she now knew that the heart's truest joy is not in children, nor
   even in mercies given in answer to prayer, for she began to sing, "My
   heart rejoices in the Lord"--not, "in Samuel"--but in Jehovah her chief
   delight was found. "My horn is exalted in the Lord"--not, "in that
   little one whom I have so gladly brought up to the sanctuary." No. She
   says in the first verse, "I rejoice in Your salvation," and it was even
   so. God was her exceeding joy and His salvation her delight. Oh, it is
   a great thing to be taught to put earthly things in their proper places
   and when they make you glad, yet to feel, "My gladness is in God; not
   in corn and wine and oil, but in the Lord Himself; all my fresh springs
   are in Him."

   Next, she had also discovered the Lord's glorious holiness, for she
   sang, "There is none holy as the Lord." The wholeness of His perfect
   Character charmed and impressed her and she sang of Him as far above
   all others in His goodness. She had perceived His all-sufficiency. She
   saw that He is All in All, for she sang, "There is none beside You;
   neither is there any rock like our God." She had found out God's method
   in Providence, for how sweetly she sings, "The bows of the mighty men
   are broken and they that stumbled are girded with strength." She knew
   that this was always God's way--to overturn those who are strong in
   self and to set up those who are weak. It is God's way to unite the
   strong with weakness and to bless the weak with strength. It is God's
   peculiar way and He abides by it. The full He empties and the empty He
   fills. Those who boast of the power to live, He slays and those who
   faint before Him as dead, He makes alive.

   She had also been taught the way and method of His Grace as well as of
   His Providence, for never did a woman show more acquaintance with the
   wonders of Divine Grace than she did when she sang, "He raises up the
   poor out of the dust and lifts up the beggar from the dunghill, to set
   them among princes and to make them inherit the Throne of Glory." This,
   too, is another of those ways of the Lord which are only understood by
   His people. She had also seen the Lord's faithfulness to His people.
   Some Christians, even in these Gospel days, do not believe in the
   doctrine of the Final Perseverance of the Saints, but she did! She
   sang, "He will keep the feet of His saints" and, Beloved, so He will,
   or none of them will ever stand! She had foreseen, also, somewhat of
   His kingdom and of the Glory of it. Her prophetic eyes, made brighter
   and clearer by her holy tears, enabled her to look into the future and
   looking, her joyful heart made her sing, "He shall give strength unto
   His King and exalt the horn of His Anointed."

   And now, lastly, much that is precious will yet be given to those who
   are truly the Lord's, even though they have a sorrowful spirit. For,
   first, Hannah had her prayers answered. Ah, little could she have
   imagined, when Eli was rebuking her for drunkenness, that within a
   short time she should be there and the same priest would look at her
   with deep respect and delight because the Lord had favored her. And
   you, my dear Friend of a sorrowful spirit, would not weep so much,
   tonight, if you knew what is in store for you. You would not weep at
   all if you guessed how soon all will change and, like Sarah, you will
   laugh for very joy! You are very poor; you scarcely know where you will
   place your head tonight; but if you knew in how short a time you will
   be among the angels, your penury would not cause you much distress!

   You are sickening and pining away and will soon go to your last Home.
   You would not be so depressed if you remembered how bright, around your
   head, will shine the starry diadem and how sweetly your tongue shall
   pour forth heavenly sonnets such as none can sing but those who, like
   you, have tasted of the bitter waters of grief! It is better than
   before! It is better than before! Let these things cheer you if you are
   of a sorrowful spirit. There shall be a fulfillment of the things which
   God has promised to you. Eye has not seen, nor ear heard the things He
   has laid up for you, but His Spirit reveals them to you at this hour!

   Not only did there come to Hannah, after her sorrow, an answered
   prayer, but Grace to use that answer. I do not think that Hannah would
   have been a fit mother for Samuel if she had not, first of all, been of
   a sorrowful spirit. It is not everybody that can be trusted to educate
   a young Prophet. Many a fool of a woman has made a fool of her child.
   He was so much her "duck" that he grew up to be a goose! It needs a
   wise woman to train up a wise son and, therefore, I regard Samuel's
   eminent character and career as largely the fruit of his mother's
   sorrow and as a reward for her griefs. Hannah was a thoughtful mother
   which was something and her thought induced diligence. She had slender
   space in which to educate her boy, for he left her early to wear the
   little coat and minister before the Lord. But in that space her work
   was effectually done, for the child Samuel worshiped the very day she
   took him up to the Temple.

   In many of our homes we have a well-drawn picture of a child at prayer
   and such, I doubt not, was the very image of the youthful Samuel. I
   like to think of him with that little coat on--that linen ephod--coming
   forth in solemn style, as a child-servant of God to help in the
   services of the Temple. Hannah had acquired another blessing and that
   was the power to magnify the Lord. Those sweet songs of hers,
   especially that precious one which we have been reading--where did she
   get it from? I will tell you! You have picked up a shell, have you not,
   by the seaside and you have put it to your ear and heard it sing of the
   wild waves? Where did it learn this music? In the deeps! It had been
   tossed to and fro in the rough sea until it learned to talk with a
   deep, soft meaning of mysterious things which only the salt sea caves
   can communicate. Hannah's poetry was born of her sorrow and if everyone
   here that is of a sorrowful spirit can but learn to tune his harp as
   sweetly as she tuned hers, he may be right glad to have passed through
   such griefs as she endured.

   Moreover, her sorrow prepared her to receive further blessings, for
   after the birth of Samuel she had three more sons and two
   daughters--God thus giving her five for the one that she had dedicated
   to Him! This was grand interest for her loan--500 percent! Parting with
   Samuel was the necessary preface to the reception of other little ones.
   God cannot bless some of us till, first of all, He has tried us. Many
   of us are not fit to receive a great blessing till we have gone through
   the fire. Half the men that have been ruined by popularity have been so
   ruined because they did not undergo a preparatory course of opprobrium
   and shame! Half the men who perish by riches do so because they had not
   toiled to earn them but made a lucky hit and became wealthy in an hour.

   Passing through the fire anneals the weapon which afterwards is to be
   used in the conflict! And Hannah gained Divine Grace to be greatly
   favored by being greatly sorrowing. Her name stands among the
   highly-favored women because she was deeply sorrowing. Last of all, it
   was by suffering in patience that she became so brave a witness for the
   Lord and could so sweetly sing, "There is none holy as the Lord,
   neither is there any rock like our God." We cannot bear testimony
   unless we test the promise and, therefore, happy is the man whom the
   Lord tests and qualifies to leave a testimony to the world that God is
   true. To that witness I would set my own personal seal.
     __________________________________________________________________

                         Salvation by Knowing the Truth

   A Sermon

   (No. 1516)

   Delivered by

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   God our Savior; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the
   knowledge of the truth.'1 Timothy 2:3, 4.

   MAY GOD THE HOLY GHOST guide our meditations to the best practical
   result this evening, that sinners may be saved and saints stirred up to
   diligence. I do not intend to treat my text controversially. It is like
   the stone which makes the corner of a building, and it looks towards a
   different side of the gospel from that which is mostly before us. Two
   sides of the building of truth meet here. In many a village there is a
   corner where the idle and the quarrelsome gather together; and theology
   has such corners. It would be very easy indeed to set ourselves in
   battle array, and during the next half-hour to carry on a very fierce
   attack against those who differ from us in opinion upon points which
   could be raised from this text. I do not see that any good would come
   of it, and, as we have very little time to spare, and life is short, we
   had better spend it upon something that may better tend to our
   edification. May the good Spirit preserve us from a contentious spirit,
   and help us really to profit by his word.

   It is quite certain that when we read that God will have all men to be
   saved it does not mean that he wills it with the force of a decree or a
   divine purpose, for, if he did, then all men would be saved. He willed
   to make the world, and the world was made: he does not so will the
   salvation of all men, for we know that all men will not be saved.
   Terrible as the truth is, yet is it certain from holy writ that there
   are men who, in consequence of their sin and their rejection of the
   Savior, will go away into everlasting punishment, where shall be
   weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. There will at the last be
   goats upon the left hand as well as sheep on the right, tares to be
   burned as well as wheat to be garnered, chaff to be blown away as well
   as corn to be preserved. There will be a dreadful hell as well as a
   glorious heaven, and there is no decree to the contrary.

   What then? Shall we try to put another meaning into the text than that
   which it fairly bears? I trow not. You must, most of you, be acquainted
   with the general method in which our older Calvinistic friends deal
   with this text. All men,' say they,'that is, some men': as if the Holy
   Ghost could not have said some men' if he had meant some men. All men,'
   say they; that is, some of all sorts of men': as if the Lord could not
   have said all sorts of men' if he had meant that. The Holy Ghost by the
   apostle has written all men,' and unquestionably he means all men. I
   know how to get rid of the force of the alls' according to that
   critical method which some time ago was very current, but I do not see
   how it can be applied here with due regard to truth. I was reading just
   now the exposition of a very able doctor who explains the text so as to
   explain it away; he applies grammatical gunpowder to it, and explodes
   it by way of expounding it. I thought when I read his exposition that
   it would have been a very capital comment upon the text if it had read,
   Who will not have all men to be saved, nor come to a knowledge of the
   truth.' Had such been the inspired language every remark of the learned
   doctor would have been exactly in keeping, but as it happens to say,
   Who will have all men to be saved,' his observations are more than a
   little out of place. My love of consistency with my own doctrinal views
   is not great enough to allow me knowingly to alter a single text of
   Scripture. I have great respect for orthodoxy, but my reverence for
   inspiration is far greater. I would sooner a hundred times over appear
   to be inconsistent with myself than be inconsistent with the word of
   God. I never thought it to be any very great crime to seem to be
   inconsistent with myself; for who am I that I should everlastingly be
   consistent? But I do think it a great crime to be so inconsistent with
   the word of God that I should want to lop away a bough or even a twig
   from so much as a single tree of the forest of Scripture. God forbid
   that I should cut or shape, even in the least degree, any divine
   expression. So runs the text, and so we must read it, God our Savior;
   who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of
   the truth.'

   Does not the text mean that it is the wish of God that men should be
   saved? The word wish' gives as much force to the original as it really
   requires, and the passage should run thus'whose wish it is that all men
   should be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.' As it is my wish
   that it should be so, as it is your wish that it might be so, so it is
   God's wish that all men should be saved; for, assuredly, he is not less
   benevolent than we are. Then comes the question, But if he wishes it to
   be so, why does he not make it so? Beloved friend, have you never heard
   that a fool may ask a question which a wise man cannot answer, and, if
   that be so, I am sure a wise person, like yourself, can ask me a great
   many questions which, fool as I am, I am yet not foolish enough to try
   to answer. Your question is only one form of the great debate of all
   the ages,'If God be infinitely good and powerful, why does not his
   power carry out to the full all his beneficence?' It is God's wish that
   the oppressed should go free, yet there are many oppressed who are not
   free. It is God's wish that the sick should not suffer. Do you doubt
   it? Is it not your own wish? And yet the Lord does not work a miracle
   to heal every sick person. It is God's wish that his creatures should
   be happy. Do you deny that? He does not interpose by any miraculous
   agency to make us all happy, and yet it would be wicked to suppose that
   he does not wish the happiness of all the creatures that he has made.
   He has an infinite benevolence which, nevertheless, is not in all
   points worked out by his infinite omnipotence; and if anybody asked me
   why it is not, I cannot tell. I have never set up to be an explainer of
   all difficulties, and I have no desire to do so. It is the same old
   question as that of the negro who said, Sare, you say the devil makes
   sin in the world.' Yes, the devil makes a deal of sin.' And you say
   that God hates sin.' Yes.' Then why does not he kill the devil and put
   an end to it?' Just so. Why does he not? Ah, my black friend, you will
   grow white before that question is answered. I cannot tell you why God
   permits moral evil, neither can the ablest philosopher on earth, nor
   the highest angel in heaven.

   This is one of those things which we do not need to know. Have you
   never noticed that some people who are ill and are ordered to take
   pills are foolish enough to chew them? That is a very nauseous thing to
   do, though I have done it myself. The right way to take medicine of
   such a kind is to swallow it at once. In the same way there are some
   things in the Word of God which are undoubtedly true which must be
   swallowed at once by an effort of faith, and must not be chewed by
   perpetual questioning. You will soon have I know not what of doubt and
   difficulty and bitterness upon your soul if you must needs know the
   unknowable, and have reasons and explanations for the sublime and the
   mysterious. Let the difficult doctrines go down whole into your very
   soul, by a grand exercise of confidence in God.

   I thank God for a thousand things I cannot understand. When I cannot
   get to know the reason why, I say to myself, Why should I know the
   reason why? Who am I, and what am I, that I should demand explanations
   of my God?' I am a most unreasonable being when I am most reasonable,
   and when my judgment is most accurate I dare not trust it. I had rather
   trust my God. I am a poor silly child at my very best: my Father must
   know better than I. An old parable-maker tells us that he shut himself
   up in his study because he had to work out a difficult problem. His
   little child came knocking at the door, and he said Go away, John: you
   cannot understand what father is doing; let father alone.' Master
   Johnny for that very reason felt that he must get in and see what
   father was doing'a true symbol of our proud intellects; we must pry
   into forbidden things, and uncover that which is concealed. In a little
   time upon the sill, outside the window, stood Master Johnny, looking in
   through the window at his father; and if his father had not with the
   very tenderest care just taken him away from that very dangerous
   position, there would have been no Master Johnny left on the face of
   the earth to exercise his curiosity in dangerous elevations. Now, God
   sometimes shuts the door, and says, My child, it is so: be content to
   believe.' But,' we foolishly cry. Lord, why is it so?' It is so, my
   child,' he says. But why, Father, is it so?' It is so, my child,
   believe me.' Then we go speculating, climbing the ladders of reasoning,
   guessing, speculating, to reach the lofty windows of eternal truth.
   Once up there we do not know where we are, our heads reel, and we are
   in all kinds of uncertainty and spiritual peril. If we mind things too
   high for us we shall run great risks. I do not intend meddling with
   such lofty matters. There stands the text, and I believe that it is my
   Father's wish that all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge
   of the truth.' But I know, also, that he does not will it, so that he
   will save any one of them, unless they believe in his dear Son; for he
   has told us over and over that he will not. He will not save any man
   except he forsakes his sins, and turns to him with full purpose of
   heart: that I also know. And I know, also, that he has a people whom he
   will save, whom by his eternal love he has chosen, and whom by his
   eternal power he will deliver. I do not know how that squares with
   this; that is another of the things I do not know. If I go on telling
   you of all that I do not know, and of all that I do know, I will
   warrant you that the things that I do not know will be a hundred to one
   of the things that I do know. And so we will say no more about the
   matter, but just go on to the more practical part of the text. God's
   wish about man's salvation is this,'that men should be saved and come
   to the knowledge of the truth.

   Men are saved, and the same men that are saved come to a knowledge of
   the truth. The two things happen together, and the two facts very much
   depend upon each other. God's way of saving men is not by leaving them
   in ignorance. It is by a knowledge of the truth that men are saved;
   this will make the main body of our discourse, and in closing we shall
   see how this truth gives instruction to those who wish to be saved, and
   also to those who desire to save others. May the Holy Spirit make these
   closing inferences to be practically useful.

   Here is our proposition: IT IS BY A KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH THAT MEN ARE
   SAVED.

   Observe that stress is laid upon the article: it is the truth, and not
   every truth. Though it is a good thing to know the truth about
   anything, and we ought not to be satisfied to take up with a falsehood
   upon any point, yet it is not every truth that will save us. We are not
   saved by knowing any one theological truth we may choose to think of,
   for there are some theological truths which are comparatively of
   inferior value. They are not vital or essential, and a man may know
   them, and yet may not be saved. It is the truth which saves. Jesus
   Christ is the truth: the whole testimony of God about Christ is the
   truth. The work of the Holy Ghost in the heart is to work in us the
   truth. The knowledge of the truth is a large knowledge. It is not
   always so at the first: it may begin with but a little knowledge, but
   it is a large knowledge when it is further developed, and the soul is
   fully instructed in the whole range of the truth.

   This knowledge of the grand facts which are here called the truth saves
   men, and we will notice its mode of operation. Very often it begins its
   work in a man by arousing him, and thus it saves him from carelessness.
   He did not know anything about the truth which God has revealed, and so
   he lived like a brute beast. If he had enough to eat and to drink he
   was satisfied. If he laid by a little money he was delighted. So long
   as the days passed pretty merrily, and he was free from aches and
   pains, he was satisfied. He heard about religion, but he thought it did
   not concern him. He supposed that there were some people who might be
   the better for thinking about it, but as far as he was concerned, he
   thought no more about God or godliness than the ox of the stall or the
   ostrich of the desert. Well, the truth came to him, and he received a
   knowledge of it. He knew only a part, and that a very dark and gloomy
   part of it, but it stirred him out of his carelessness, for he suddenly
   discovered that he was under the wrath of God. Perhaps he heard a
   sermon, or read a tract, or had a practical word addressed to him by
   some Christian friend, and he found out enough to know that he that
   believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed on the
   Son of God.' That startled him. God is angry with the wicked every
   day:'that amazed him. He had not thought of it, perhaps had not known
   it, but when he did know it, he could rest no longer. Then he came to a
   knowledge of this farther truth, that after death there would be a
   judgment, that he would rise again, and that, being risen, he would
   have to stand before the judgment-seat of God to give an account of the
   things which he had done in the body. This came home very strikingly to
   him. Perhaps, also, such a text as this flamed forth before him,'For
   every idle word that man shall speak he must give an account in the day
   of judgment.' His mind began to foresee that last tremendous day, when
   on the clouds of heaven Christ will conic and summon quick and dead, to
   answer at his judgment-seat for the whole of their lives. He did not
   know that before, but, knowing it, it startled and aroused him. I have
   known men, when first they have come to a knowledge of this truth,
   become unable to sleep. They have started up in the night. They have
   asked those who were with them to help them to pray. The next day they
   have been scarcely able to mind their business, for a dreadful sound
   has been in their ears. They feared lest they should stumble into the
   grave and into hell. Thus they were saved from carelessness. They could
   not go back to be the mere brute beasts they were before. Their eyes
   had been opened to futurity and eternity. Their spirits had been
   quickened'at least so much that they could not rest in that doltish,
   dull, dead carelessness in which they had formerly been found. They
   were shaken out of their deadly lethargy by a knowledge of the truth.

   The truth is useful to a man in another way: it saves him from
   prejudice. Often when men are awakened to know something about the
   wrath of God they begin to plunge about to discover divers methods by
   which they may escape from that wrath. Consulting, first of all, with
   themselves, they think that, if they can reform'give up their grosser
   sins, and if they can join with religious people, they will make it all
   right. And there are some who go and listen to a kind of religious
   teacher, who says, You must do good works. You must earn a good
   character. You must add to all this the ceremonies of our church. You
   must be particular and precise in receiving blessing only through the
   appointed channel of the apostolical succession.' Of the aforesaid
   mystical succession this teacher has the effrontery to assure his dupe
   that he is a legitimate instrument; and that sacraments received at his
   hands are means of grace. Under such untruthful notions we have known
   people who were somewhat aroused sit down again in a false peace. They
   have done all that they judged right and attended to all that they were
   told. Suddenly, by God's grace, they come to a knowledge of another
   truth, and that is that by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be
   justified in the sight of God. They discover that salvation is not by
   works of the law or by ceremonies, and that if any man he under the law
   he is also under the curse. Such a text as the following conies home,
   Not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but
   of God'; and such another text as this, Ye must be born again,' and
   then this at the back of it'that which is born of the flesh is flesh,
   and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.' When they also find
   out that there is necessary a righteousness better than their own'a
   perfect righteousness to justify them before God, and when they
   discover that they must be made new creatures in Christ Jesus, or else
   they must utterly perish, then they are saved from false confidences,
   saved from crying, Peace, peace,' when there is no peace. It is a grand
   thing when a knowledge of the truth stops us from trusting in a lie. I
   am addressing some who remember when they were saved in that way. What
   an opening of the eyes it was to you! You had a great prejudice against
   the gospel of grace and the plan of salvation by faith; but when the
   Lord took you in hand and made you see your beautiful righteousness to
   be a moth-eaten mass of rags, and when the gold that you had
   accumulated suddenly turned into so much brass, cankered, and good for
   nothing,'when you stood stripped naked before God, and the poor cobwebs
   of ceremonies suddenly dropped from off you, oh, then the Lord was
   working his salvation in your soul, and you were being saved from false
   confidences by a knowledge of the truth.

   Moreover, it often happens that a knowledge of the truth stands a man
   in good stead for another purpose; it saves him from despair. Unable to
   be careless, and unable to find comfort in false confidences, some poor
   agitated minds are driven into a wide and stormy sea without rudder or
   compass, with nothing but wreck before them. There is no hope for me,'
   says the man. I perceive I cannot save myself. I see that I am lost. I
   am dead in trespasses and sins, and cannot stir hand or foot. Surely
   now I may as well go on in sin, and even multiply my transgressions.
   The gate of mercy is shut against me; what is the use of fear where
   there is no room for hope?' At such a time, if the Lord leads the man
   to a knowledge of the truth, he perceives that though his sins be as
   scarlet they shalt be as wool, and though they be red like crimson they
   shall be as white as snow. That precious doctrine of substitution comes
   in'that Christ stood in the stead of the sinner, that the transgression
   of his people was laid upon him, and that God, by thus avenging sin in
   the person of his dear Son, and honoring his law by the suffering of
   the Savior, is now able to declare pardon to the penitent and grace to
   the believing. Now, when the soul comes to know that sin is put away by
   the atoning blood; when the heart discovers that it is not our life
   that saves us, but the life of God that comes to dwell in us; that we
   are not to be regenerated by our own actions, but are regenerated by
   the Holy Ghost who comes to us through the precious death of Jesus,
   then despair flies away, and the soul cries exultingly, There is hope.
   There is hope. Christ died for sinners: why should I not have a part in
   that precious death? He came like a physician to heal the sick: why
   should he not heal me? Now I perceive that he does not want my
   goodness, but my badness; he does not need my righteousness, but my
   unrighteousness: for he came to save the ungodly and to redeem his
   people from their sins. I say, when the heart comes to a knowledge of
   this truth, then it is saved from despair; and this is no small part of
   the salvation of Jesus Christ.

   A saving knowledge of the truth, to take another line of things, works
   in this way. A knowledge of the truth shows a man his personal need of
   being saved. O you that are not saved, and who dream you do not need to
   be, you only require to know the truth, and you will perceive that you
   must he saved or lost for ever.

   A knowledge of the truth reveals the atonement by which we are saved: a
   knowledge of the truth shows us what that faith is by which the
   atonement becomes available for us: a knowledge of the truth teaches us
   that faith is the simple act of trusting, that it is not an action of
   which man may boast; it is not an action of the nature of a work, so as
   to he a fruit of the law; but faith is a self-denying grace which finds
   all its strength in him upon whom it lives, and lays all its honor upon
   him. Faith is not self in action but self forsaken, self abhorred, self
   put away that the soul may trust in Christ, and trust in Christ alone.
   There are persons now present who are puzzled about what faith is. We
   have tried to explain it a great many times to you, hut we have
   explained it so that you did not understand it any the better; and yet
   the same explanation has savingly instructed others. May God the Holy
   Ghost open your understandings that you may practically know what faith
   is, and at once exercise it. I suppose that it is a very hard thing to
   understand because it is so plain. When a man wishes the way of
   salvation to be difficult he naturally kicks at it because it is easy;
   and, when his pride wants it to be hard to be understood, he is pretty
   sure to say that he does not understand it because it is so plain. Do
   not you know that the unlettered often receive Christ when philosophers
   refuse him, and that he who has not called ninny of the great, and many
   of the mighty, has chosen poor, foolish, and despised things? That is
   because poor foolish men, you know, are willing to believe a plain
   thing, but men wise in their own conceits desire to be, if they can, a
   little confounded and puzzled that they may please themselves with the
   idea that their own superior intellect has made a discovery; and,
   because the way of salvation is just so easy that almost an idiot boy
   may lay hold of it, therefore they pretend that they do not understand
   it. Some people cannot see a thing because it is too high up; but there
   are others who cannot see it because it is too low down. Now, it so
   happens that the way of salvation by faith is so simple that it seems
   beneath the dignity of exceedingly clever men. May God bring them to a
   knowledge of this truth: may they see that they cannot be saved except
   by giving up all idea of saving themselves; that they cannot be saved
   except they step right into Christ, for, until they get to the end of
   the creature, they will never get to the beginning of the Creator. Till
   they empty out their pockets of every mouldy crust, and have not a
   crumb left; they cannot come and take the rich mercy which is stored up
   in Christ Jesus for every empty, needy sinner. May the Lord be pleased
   to give you that knowledge of the truth!

   When a man comes in very deed to a knowledge of the truth about faith
   in Christ, he trusts Christ, and he is there and then saved from the
   guilt of sin; and he begins to be saved altogether from sin. God cuts
   the root of the power of sin that very day; hut yet it has such life
   within itself that at the scent of water it will bud again. Sin in our
   members struggles to live. It has as many lives as a cat: there is no
   killing it. Now, when we conic to a knowledge of the truth, we begin to
   learn how sin is to be killed in us'how the same Christ that justifies,
   sanctifies, and works in us according to his working who worketh in us
   mightily, that we may he conformed to the image of Christ, and made
   meet to dwell with perfect saints above. Beloved, many of you that are
   saved from the guilt of sin, have a very hard struggle with the power
   of sin, and have much more conflict, perhaps, than yon need to have,
   because you have not come to a knowledge of all the truth about
   indwelling sin. I therefore beg you to study much the word of God upon
   that point, and especially to see the adaptation of Christ to rule over
   your nature, and to conquer all your corrupt desires, and learn how by
   faith to bring each sin before him that, like Agag, it may be hewed in
   pieces before his eyes. You will never overcome sin except by the blood
   of the Lamb. There is no sanctification except by faith. The same
   instrument which destroys sin as to its guilt must slay sin as to its
   power. They overcame by the blood of the Lamb,' and so must you. Learn
   this truth well, so shall you find salvation wrought in you from day to
   day.

   Now, I think I hear somebody say, I think I know all about this.' Yes,
   you may think you know it, and may not know anything at all about it.
   Oh, but,' says one, I do know it. I learned the Assembly's Catechism'
   when I was a child. I have read the Bible ever since, and I am well
   acquainted with all the commonplaces of orthodoxy.' That may be, dear
   friend, and yet you may not know the truth. I have heard of a man who
   knew how to swim, but, as he had never been in the water, I do not
   think much of his knowledge of swimming: in fact, he did not really
   know the art. I have heard of a botanist who understood all about
   flowers, but as he lived in London, and scarcely ever saw above one
   poor withered thing in a flowerpot, I do not think much of his botany.
   I have heard of a man who was a very great astronomer, but he had not a
   telescope, and I never thought much of his astronomy. So there are many
   persons who think they know and yet do not know because they have never
   had any personal acquaintance with the thing. A mere notional knowledge
   or a dry doctrinal knowledge is of no avail. We must know the truth in
   a very different way from that.

   How are we to know it, then? Well, we are to know it, first, by a
   believing knowledge. You do not know a thing unless you believe it to
   be really so. If you doubt it, you do not know it. If you say, I really
   am not sure it is true,' then you cannot say that you know it. That
   which the Lord has revealed in holy Scripture you must devoutly believe
   to be true. In addition to this, your knowledge, if it becomes
   believing knowledge, must be personal knowledgea persuasion that it is
   true in reference to yourself. It is true about your neighbor, about
   your brother, but you must believe it about yourself, or your knowledge
   is vain'for instance, you must know that you are lost'that you are in
   danger of eternal destruction from the presence of God'that for you
   there is no hope but in Christ'that for you there is hope if you rest
   in Christ'that resting in Christ you are saved. Yes, you. You must know
   that because you have trusted in Christ you are saved, and that now you
   are free from condemnation, and that now in you the new life has begun,
   which will fight against the old life of sin, until it overcome, and
   you, even you, are safely landed on the golden shore. There must be a
   personal appropriation of what you believe to be true. That is the kind
   of knowledge which saves the soul.

   But this must be a powerful knowledge, by which I mean that it must
   operate in and upon your mind. A man is told that his house is on fire.
   I will suppose that standing here I held up a telegram, and said, My
   friend, is your name so-and-so?' Yes.' Well, your house is on fire.' He
   knows the fact, does he not? Yes, but he sits quite still. Now, my
   impression is about that good brother, that he does not know, for he
   does not believe it. He cannot believe it, surely he may believe that
   somebody's house is on fire, but not his own. If it is his house which
   is burning, and he knows it, what does he do? Why he gets up and goes
   off to see what he can do towards saving his goods. That is the kind of
   knowledge which saves the soul'when a man knows the truth about
   himself, and therefore his whole nature is moved and affected by the
   knowledge. Do I know that I am in danger of hell fire? And am I in my
   senses? Then I shall never rest till I have escaped from that danger.
   Do I know that there is salvation for me in Christ? Then I never shall
   be content until I have obtained that salvation by the faith to which
   that salvation is promised: that is to say, if I really am in my
   senses, and if my sin has not made me beside myself as sin does, for
   sin works a moral madness upon the mind of man, so that he puts bitter
   for sweet and sweet for bitter, and dances on the jaws of hell, and
   sits down and scoffs at Almighty mercy, despises the precious blood of
   Christ and will have none of it, although there and there only is his
   salvation to be found.

   This knowledge when it comes really to save the soul is what we call
   experimental knowledgeknowledge acquired according to the exhortation
   of the psalmist, Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good'acquired by
   tasting. Now, at this present moment, I, speaking for myself, know that
   I am origin ally lost by nature. Do I believe it? Believe it? I am as
   sure of it as I am of my own existence. I know that I am lost by
   nature. It would not be possible for anybody to make me doubt that: I
   have felt it. How many weary days I spent under the pressure of that
   knowledge! Does a soldier know that there is such a thing as a cat when
   he has had a hundred lashes? It would take a deal of argument to make
   him believe there is not such a thing, or that backs do not smart when
   they feel the lash. Oh, how my soul smarted under the lash of
   conscience when I suffered under a sense of sin! Do I know that I could
   not save myself? Know it? Why, my poor, struggling heart labored this
   way and that, even as in the very fire with bitter disappointment, for
   I labored to climb to the stars on a treadwheel, and I was trying and
   trying and trying with all my might, but never rose an inch higher. I
   tried to fill a bottomless tub with leaking buckets, and worked on and
   toiled and slaved, but never accomplished even the beginning of my
   unhappy task. I know, for I have tried it, that salvation is not in
   man, or in all the feelings, and weepings, and prayings, and Bible
   readings, and church goings, and chapel goings which zeal could crowd
   together. Nothing whatsoever that man does can avail him towards his
   own salvation. This I know by sad trial of it, and failure in it.

   But I do know that there is real salvation by believing in Christ. Know
   it? I have never preached to you concerning that subject what I do not
   know by experience. In a moment, when I believed in Christ I leaped
   from despair to fullness of delight. Since I have believed in Jesus I
   have found myself totally new'changed altogether from what I was; and I
   find now that, in proportion as I trust in Jesus, I love God and try to
   serve him; but if at any time I begin to trust in myself, I forget my
   God, and I become selfish and sinful. Just as I keep on being nothing
   and taking Christ to be everything, so am I led in the paths of
   righteousness. I am merely talking of myself, because a man cannot bear
   witness about other people so thoroughly us he can about himself. I am
   sure that all of you who have tried my Master can bear the same
   witness. You have been saved, and you have come to a knowledge of the
   truth experimentally; and every soul here that would be saved must in
   the same way believe the truth, appropriate the truth, act upon the
   truth, and experimentally know the truth, which is summed up in few
   words:'Man lost: Christ his Savior. Man nothing: God all in all. The
   heart depraved: the Spirit working the new life by faith.' The Lord
   grant that these truths may come home to your hearts with power.

   I am now going to draw two inferences which are to be practical. The
   first one is this: in regard TO YOU THAT ARE SEEKING SALVATION. Does
   not the text show you that it is very possible that the reason why you
   have not found salvation is because you do not know the truth? Hence, I
   do most earnestly entreat the many of you young people who cannot get
   rest to be very diligent searchers of your Bibles. The first thing and
   the main thing is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, but if you say,'
   I do not understand it,' or I cannot believe,' or if there be any such
   doubt rising in your mind, then it may be because you have not gained
   complete knowledge of the truth. It is very possible that somebody will
   say to you, Believe, believe, believe.' I would say the same to you,
   but I should like you to act upon the common-sense principle of knowing
   what is to be believed and in whom you are to believe. I explained this
   to one who came to me a few evenings ago. She said that she could not
   believe. Well,' I said, now suppose as you sit in that chair I say to
   you, Young friend, I cannot believe in you': you would say to me, I
   think you should.' Suppose I then replied, I wish I could.' What would
   you bid me do? Should I sit still and look at you till I said, I think
   I can believe in you'? That would be ridiculous. No, I should go and
   enquire, Who is this young person? What kind of character does she
   bear? What are her connections?' and when I knew all about you, then I
   have no doubt that I should say, I have made examination into this
   young woman's character, and I cannot help believing in her.' Now, it
   is just so with Jesus Christ. If you say, I cannot believe in him,'
   read those four blessed testimonies of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
   and especially linger much over those parts where they tell you of his
   death. Do you know that many, while they have been sitting, as it were,
   at the foot of the cross, viewing the Son of God dying for men, have
   cried out, I cannot help believing. I cannot help believing. When I see
   my sin, it seems too great; hut when I see my Savior my iniquity
   vanishes away.' I think I have put it to you sometimes like this: if
   you take a ride through London, from end to end, it will take you many
   days to get an idea of its vastness; for probably none of us know the
   size of London. After your long ride of inspection you will say,' I
   wonder how those people can all be fed. I cannot make it out. Where
   does all the bread come from, and all the butter, and all the cheese,
   and all the meat, and everything else? Why, these people will be
   starved. It is not possible that Lebanon with all its beasts, and the
   vast plains of Europe and America should ever supply food sufficient
   for all this multitude.' That is your feeling. And then, to-morrow
   morning you get up, and you go to Covent Garden, you go to the great
   meat-markets, and to other sources of supply, and when you come home
   you say, I feel quite different now, for now 1 cannot make out where
   all the people come from to eat all this provision: I never saw such
   store of food in all my life. Why, if there were two Londons, surely
   there is enough here to feed them.' Just so'when you think about your
   sins and your wants you get saying, How can I be saved?' Now, turn your
   thoughts the other way; think that Christ is the Son of God: think of
   what the merit must be of the incarnate God's hearing human guilt; and
   instead of saying, My sin is too great,' you will almost think the
   atoning sacrifice too great. Therefore I do urge you to try and know
   more of Christ; and I am only giving you the advice of Isaiah, Incline
   your ear, and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall live.' Know,
   hear, read, and believe more about these precious things, always with
   this wish'I am not hearing for hearing's sake, and I am not wishing to
   know for knowing's sake, but I am wanting to hear and to know that I
   may be saved.' I want you to be like the woman that lost her piece of
   silver. She did not light a candle and then say, Bravo, I have lit a
   candle, this is enough.' She did not take her broom and then sit down
   content, crying, What a splendid broom.' When she raised a dust she did
   not exclaim, What a dust I am making! I am surely making progress now.'
   Some poor sinners, when they have been seeking, get into a dust of
   soul-trouble, and think it to be a comfortable sign. No, I'll warrant
   you, the woman wanted her groat: she did not mind the broom, or the
   dust, or the candle; she looked for the silver. So it must be with you.
   Never content yourself with the reading, the hearing, or the feeling.
   It is Christ you want. It is the precious piece of money that you must
   find; and you must sweep until you find it. Why, there it is! There is
   Jesus! Take him! Take him! Believe him now, even now, and you are
   saved.

   The last inference is for YOU WHO DESIRE TO SAVE SINNERS. You must,
   dear friends, bring the truth before them when you want to bring them
   to Jesus Christ. I believe that exciting meetings do good to some. Men
   are so dead and careless that almost anything is to be tolerated that
   wakes them up; but for real solid soul-work before God' telling men the
   truth is the main thing. What truth? It is gospel truth, truth about
   Christ that they want. Tell it in a loving, earnest, affectionate
   manner, for God wills that they should be saved, not in any other way,
   but in this way'by a knowledge of the truth. He wills that all men
   should be saved in this way'not by keeping them in ignorance, but by
   bringing the truth before them. That is God's way of saving them. Have
   your Bible handy when you are reasoning with a soul. Just say, Let me
   call your attention to this passage.' It has a wonderful power over a
   poor staggering soul to point to the Book itself. Say, Did you notice
   this promise, my dear friend? And have you seen that passage?' Have the
   Scriptures handy. There is a dear brother of mine here whom God blesses
   to many souls, and I have seen him talking to some, and turning to the
   texts very handily. I wondered how he did it so quickly, till I looked
   in his Bible, and found that he hind the choice texts printed on two
   leaves and inserted into the book, so that he could always open upon
   them. That is a capital plan, to get the cheering words ready to hand,
   the very ones that you know have comforted you and have comforted
   others. It sometimes happens that one single verse of God's word will
   make the light to break into a soul, when fifty days of reasoning would
   not do it. I notice that when souls are saved it is by our texts rather
   than by our sermons. God the Holy Ghost loves to use his own sword. It
   is God's word, not man's comment on God's word, that God usually
   blesses. Therefore, stick to the quotation of the Scripture itself, and
   rely upon the truth. If a man could be saved by a lie it would be a
   lying salvation. Truth alone can work results that are true. Therefore,
   keep on teaching the truth. God help you to proclaim the precious truth
   about the bleeding, dying, risen, exalted, coming Savior; and God will
   bless it.

   PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON'1 Timothy 2.

   HYMNS FROM Our Own Hymn Book'551, 546, 556.

  LETTER FROM MR. SPURGEON.

   DEAR FRIENDS,'Accept again my heartiest salutations. I hope soon to
   issue sermons preached at home on the previous Sabbaths, for I purpose,
   if the Lord will, to leave this shelter on February 2, or thereabouts.
   Six weeks of continuous fine weather have by God's blessing delivered
   me from my pains, and enabled me to regain a large measure of strength;
   and the daily good tidings from home has also helped to quiet my mind
   and revive my spirit. O that I may be the better for this affliction.
   As after heavy showers the fountains and brooks run with new force and
   fullness, so may it be with these sermons now that with me the rain is
   over and gone.' If you, dear readers, are the more refreshed I shall
   count pain and weakness to be a small cost for so blessed a result.

   Yours most heartily

   C.H. Spurgeon

   Menton, January 16, 1880.
     __________________________________________________________________

                         For the Candid and Thoughtful

   A Sermon

   (No. 1517)

   Delivered by

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   And when Jesus saw' ['saw him,' so it should be] that he answered
   discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of
   God.'Mark 12:34.

   THIS MAN BEGAN with Christ as a foe, and he ended as a friend. It does
   not quite appear from Mark, but it is plainly stated by Matthew, that
   the scribe asked a question of the Savior tempting him.' He was,
   therefore, an enemy. Put the mildest sense you like on the word tempt'
   and it will retain the idea of an unfriendly testing; yet nothing could
   be more hearty in the end than the verdict with which he commended our
   Lord's answer, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth.' Our Lord Jesus
   Christ has an almighty power over men's minds; he possesses
   irresistible charms by which he turns adversaries into advocates. He
   has a secret key which fits the wards of human hearts, and he can open
   that which seems to be the most securely closed against him. Never man
   spake like this man,' for in his voice, even in his humiliation, there
   were traces of the eternal fiat which of old spake the primeval
   midnight into noon.

   It strikes me that this scribe was half-hearted in the work of tempting
   our Lord, even at the first. I should imagine him to have been a very
   superior man amongst his fellows, a man of greater light and
   discernment than the rest, and of greater ability in statement and
   discussion. Possibly for this cause his brother scribes selected him,
   and put him forward to ask the testing questions. Now, it will
   sometimes happen that a man is thrust forward by others to do what he
   would never have thought of doing of his own accord, and quite
   unwillingly he acts as the mouthpiece of a set of people whom he half
   despises. Our Lord Jesus Christ is a ready reader of human hearts, and
   he very soon discovers whether what a man does is being done of himself
   or whether he is acted upon by a power behind. He discerns the
   difference between the malicious adversary and the less guilty victim
   of circumstances. These words of mine may be reaching persons who have
   opposed a religious movement, or fought against a gracious truth, not
   because they themselves would have done so if they had been left alone,
   but others have egged them on and made use of them, and thus they have
   been drawn or driven into a false position. The people whom they have
   been accustomed to lead have led them: it is too often the fate of
   leaders. The circle of which they have been the center and the head has
   imprisoned its own apparent master, and made him captive, so that he
   fights against that which in his heart he half suspects to be right.
   If, even now, he could be set free from his surroundings he would side
   with the right. Friend, my blessed Master can read your heart, and
   understand the pressure under which you are acting. I pray that as he
   reads your inmost soul he may see what of good there remaineth among
   the evil, and deliver you out of the false and dangerous position into
   which you have drifted. Jesus can set you right, my friend'can take you
   away from the entanglements of your surroundings, sever you from those
   who are making a tool of you, but who are at the same time sinking you
   down to their own level: can bring you to be his own friend, and lift
   you up to his own standard, so that you too shall be the champion of
   everything that is good and true, and shall go forward with him as your
   Master, bearing his cross, and looking to wear his crown.

   Although the scribe in the narrative before us appeared first under the
   aspect of an antagonist, and tried to tempt our Lord, yet before long
   the great Teacher had put him into such a mental condition that he said
   of him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.' At this time I shall
   first notice the commendation which is here expressed; and then, in the
   second place, I shall dwell for a little while upon the question which
   is here suggestedsuggested, I think, by no idle curiosity, but very
   naturally suggested: Did this man, who was so near to the kingdom,
   actually enter it, or did he not?

   I. May the Holy Spirit instruct and impress us while, first, we
   consider the COMMENDATION EXPRESSED:'THOU art not far from the kingdom
   of God.' I am not going to use this text after the usual fashion. It
   has been made the heading of a catalogue of characters who are supposed
   to be not far from the kingdom of God. It is a very proper thing to
   address hopeful persons, and to give descriptions of conditions about
   which there is much that is cheering, and yet much to create anxiety;
   but the text itself does not deal with many cases, but with one whom
   Jesus judged to be not far from the kingdom of God, of whom it gives us
   such information that we see why he was thus spoken of. It speaks of
   one particular individual: Thou art not far from the kingdom of God';
   and it tells us that Jesus said this because he saw that he answered
   discreetly. We may infer without fear of mistake that any man who would
   answer as this man answered is not far from the kingdom of God. Let us
   read his answer: Master, thou hast said the truth; for there is one
   God, and there is none other but he; and to love him with all the
   heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with
   all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself, is more than all
   whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices.'

   With care let us investigate this reply, and see how far it might be
   our own language. The first point in which our Savior saw that the
   scribe was not far from the kingdom of God was this, that he possessed
   candour, and possessed so much of it that he rose superior to party
   considerations. He was a scribe, and naturally he took the side of the
   scribes and pharisees, but still he was not so much a scribe and
   pharisee that he would follow them against the truth. He kept himself
   open to conviction, and as soon as the Savior had given a fitting
   answer to the question, he did not, as other pharisees would have done,
   sneer at him, and continue still to pick fresh holes in his coat, but,
   like a candid man, he said, Well, master, thou hast answered rightly';
   and thus he did, as it were, separate himself from the unjust and
   bigoted party for whom he had been the temporary spokesman. He did not
   avow himself to be a disciple of Christ, yet he gave the great Teacher
   his due, and said of him what he felt bound to say, namely, that he had
   answered rightly. Now, my brethren, there is always some hope of a man
   who is candid, and there is more hope still of one who, being placed by
   circumstances amongst the bigoted and prejudiced, nevertheless breaks
   away from bondage, keeps a conscience, preserves his eye from total
   blindness, is willing to see light if light is to be had, and is
   anxious to know the truth if the truth can be brought before him. It
   gives me great delight to meet with such persons, even though they
   confess that they are of a sceptical turn of mind, when it is clear
   that they are ready to yield to evidence, and are not mere cavillers.
   Time is wasted upon men who have made up their minds, or who have no
   minds to make up, but enquirers are worth trouble, and those who will
   admit right and truth when they see it are among the most hopeful of
   hearers. We do not wish people to open their mouths and shut their eyes
   and swallow everything that we may like to give them, yet the mouth
   ought to be open, or at least willing to be opened, as well as the eye,
   or oar service at the gospel feast will be a weary task. When hearers
   are willing to receive the truth as well as to examine what they hear,
   they are in a good state. They will not only prove all things,' which a
   great many will do, but they are ready also to hold fast that which is
   good,' which some will not do: among such persons was the scribe.

   I will suppose that I am addressing one who has been brought up under a
   system which makes little of Christ. Perhaps your form of religion
   makes much of the priest, and of sacraments, but it does not say much
   of the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are faiths which make
   more of human things than of our divine Savior, the blessed Redeemer of
   sinners, and it may be that you profess one of these. Or you may have
   hitherto lived under a religion which makes much of your good works,
   and doings, and feelings, and so on. It may be that the Lord will
   enable you to rise superior to the influence of creeds, of education,
   and of association, and to say, I only wish to know God's way of
   salvation. My desire is to be guided by what the Lord has revealed. I
   am prepared to accept whatever is plainly taught in the Word of God,
   even should it reverse all my former beliefs, and deprive me of my most
   cherished consolations. With sincere heart I ask enlightenment from the
   divine Spirit.' Now, when we meet with a man of that kind, and see him
   hearing the gospel, we may say of him, Thou art not far from the
   kingdom of God.' These are the kind of people who feel the force of
   truth, and are converted to the faith of Jesus, these straightforward
   people, these hearty lovers of that which is good. The Savior called
   some men, honest and good ground,' and they were such even before the
   seed of the word fell upon them. Of course, even this natural openness
   and sincerity of character is God's gift, but assuredly these are the
   people upon whom the heavenly work takes most effect. Your tricksters,
   shufflers, players, make-believes, and men without principle or heart,
   are seldom converted. I speak from wide observation. I have seen scores
   of blustering blasphemers, who were downright in their profanity,
   brought to Jesus' feet, but I do not remember seeing a deceitful person
   brought there. Your deeply lying character'I will not say that it is
   beyond the power of grace to save him, but I will say this, it is the
   rarest thing under heaven for a man who has long been a liar ever to be
   converted. I will say nothing in the praise of human nature, nor give
   any reason for the absolutely free election of grace, but still I
   notice that for the most part there is a sort of honest openness and
   freedom from trickery about those whom the Lord calls to himself. I
   notice that characteristic in the first fishermen apostles, who were no
   doubt ignorant and weak, but they were as transparent as glass, and as
   free from guile as Nathanael. Even in their follies, and their sins,
   and their blunders they were always open-hearted, and so, in general,
   are those upon whom the Lord looks with an eye of love. Tricksters come
   in like Judas, but they go out again, for they are not of us. They
   experience no change from their association with godliness, or from
   their knowledge of truth, but would pick the purse of Christ himself,
   and sell their Redeemer for pieces of silver. Far otherwise is it with
   a man of candid and thorough spirit, for he is glad to receive the
   gospel, and it soon displays its gracious power in him. We may say of
   the candid man as Christ did of this scribe, Thou art not far from the
   kingdom of God.'

   A second point is, perhaps, even more clear. This man also possessed
   spiritual knowledge. It is a great error to suppose that ignorance can
   do anybody any good. There is a religion which prefers to have ignorant
   people to deal with, but we have learned the truth of what Solomon
   said: That the soul be without knowledge, it is not good.' To be
   ignorant of the law of God is to be far off from the kingdom; and to be
   ignorant of the gospel is also to be in a measure far off from the
   kingdom: but this man knew the law, and knew it well. He had a
   spiritual appreciation of its range, meaning, and spirituality. Notice
   how he puts it: he puts it well. He says, To love God with all the
   heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with
   all the strength,'this is the first commandment.' Here we see, first,
   that he mentions sincere love, in the words to love him with all the
   heart.' God is to be loved, not in name, not with lip language, not
   with mere pretense, but with the heart. God requireth by his law the
   hearty obedience of his creatures. Next, the scribe puts it, With all
   thy understanding ; that is, God deserves and demands the intelligent
   love of his creatures. He does not ask blind love of them: he desires
   them to know something of him, and of his works, and of his claims upon
   them, so as to love him because he deserves their affection. The
   understanding must justify and impel the affections. Then, he puts it,
   with all thy soul ; that is, with the emotional nature. Love God with
   feeling'not coolly, but with the whole force of your feeling. Love him
   with your soul, for soul love is the soul of love. And then he adds,
   and with all thy strength ; that is to say, intensity is to be thrown
   into our love to God. We are to serve him with our might, and throw all
   our whole energy into his worship. Thus he gives us, under four heads,
   a description of the kind of love which the law of God requires of
   us'sincere'with all thy heart'; intelligent'with all thy
   understanding'; emotional'with all thy soul'; intense and
   energetic'with all thy strength.' This the scribe knew, and it was most
   valuable knowledge. Beloved, when a man begins intelligently to grasp
   the doctrines of the law and the gospel, when we perceive that he is no
   stranger to divine things, but that he can give a reason for his
   beliefs, and can state them to others, although we dare not conclude
   because of this knowledge that such a man is actually in the kingdom of
   God, we may safely conclude that he is not far from it. Give us candor,
   and let that candour be attended with enlightenment, and we are sure
   that the possessor of these things is not far from the kingdom of God.

   A third point is more remarkable still, because it is to be feared that
   hundreds of professed Christians are nothing like so near to the
   kingdom of heaven as this man was. This scribe knew the superiority of
   an inward religion over that which is external, for he declares, To
   love him with all thy heart is more than whole burnt offerings and
   sacrifices.' Thousands at this hour are publicly teaching us that the
   principal point of religion is that you shall be duly and properly
   baptized and confirmed, and shall reverently and properly receive the
   sacrament. They lay stress upon your receiving before you have your
   breakfast, and upon the breaker of the sacred bread having been duly
   touched on the head by a bishop, and I do not know what else of mere
   outward circumstance. Books have been written about how the service is
   to be performed, and how it is not to be performed, and a great noise
   has been made about a piece of bread which was brought before a court
   of law. I believe a very great dignitary has been so weak as to certify
   that this baked dough has been reverently consumed': and yet this is
   not a heathen country, nor are we worshippers of fetishes! Great
   importance is attached to the style of garment, which should be worn by
   priests on Holy Monday, or Good Friday. Colours vary according to the
   almanack, and the age of the moon. I must confess I need all my gravity
   when I think of copes, and girdles, and surplices, and gowns being
   matters of serious discussion. Surely these poor dupes of superstition
   are far, very far, from the kingdom of God, which is not meat and
   drink, nor clothing, nor posture, but righteousness and peace and joy
   in the Holy Ghost. Their whole line of thought is alien to the mind of
   God, who is a spirit, and must be worshipped in spirit and in truth. In
   the whole business of exhibitional religion what is there to content
   the soul? What can there be in it to please God? If our God were a
   royal puppet I could conceive of his being pleased with ceremonial; or
   if he were like the heathens' idiotic deities I could understand that
   mummeries, masquerades, postures, processions, robes, and round-robins
   might please him; but seeing that he is God, the only wise, be it far
   from me to dream of such a thing. Such child's play can scarce be borne
   with by full-grown men, but for that glorious mind that filleth all
   immensity to be thought to be particular about the cut and color of a
   vestment seems to me to be little short of blasphemy. When the thing
   was typical of truth yet to be revealed, it was important; but now that
   the true light has risen, and the shadows have departed, no such
   explanation is possible. Can it really be true that courts of law and
   assemblies of the church discuss the question of men's turning to the
   east or to the west when they pray? Is it thought to be of some
   consequence how men shall turn, and twist, and bend? What god is this
   that they serve? What being is this that they adore? Certainly not
   Jehovah, the God of heaven, whom we worship, for he dwelleth not in
   temples made with hands,' that is to say, of this building; and he hath
   abolished all rubrics save this:'they that worship him must worship him
   in spirit and in truth.' Only spiritual worship is worship, and only as
   the heart adores does God accept the homage which is offered to him.
   This scribe knew that even whole burnt offerings, though God had
   ordained them, and they were therefore right, and sacrifices, though
   the law had settled them, and they were therefore due, were nothing
   when compared with loving God with all the heart and with all the soul.
   He expresses this most plainly that to love God with all the heart is
   more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.' And see how
   broadly he puts it'All whole burnt offerings and sacrifices' put
   together. If they could slay all the bullocks upon a thousand hills,
   and set Lebanon's self on fire, making it one huge altar upon which the
   holocaust should smoke, and even if they should pour out rivers of oil,
   and side by side with it ran streams of blood of fat beasts, yet all
   would be nothing. Who hath required this at their hands? The Lord's
   demands are not of this sort. Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest
   not.' What God asks is that we should love him first of all, and our
   neighbor as ourselves. Now, a man who has come so far as to shake off
   the superstition of confidence in external worship is not far from the
   kingdom of God. He who knows that if saved it will be by a spiritual
   change, and not by going to a place of worship, not by repeating
   prayers, not by joining a church, not by being baptized, not by taking
   the sacrament, knows more than many; and he who also knows that loving
   God with all his heart is an absolutely needful evidence of his being a
   child of God, and longs to feel that love, is not far from the kingdom.
   A sense of the value and necessity of spiritual religion is a most
   hopeful sign. I do not say that it is a sure sign of saving grace; but
   I am sure it is a token of being very near the kingdom. Oh that the man
   would take the one step which is now needed by turning his knowledge
   into practice! Oh that he would believe with all his heart, and live!

   Another point is manifest in this man's confession; he saw very plainly
   the supremacy of God over the whole of our manhood. It was clear to him
   that there was but one God, and that man was made on purpose to be one
   and undivided in his service. He perceived that man should love, honor,
   and serve that one God with all his heart, with all his heart, with all
   his understanding, with all his soul, and with all his strength. Do you
   know that, dear friend? Come now, if you are not a saved man, I will
   ask you'do you recognize this to be true, that it is your bounden duty
   to serve your God with all your heart and understanding, and soul, and
   strength? Do you admit this? If you do, and if you are an honest man,
   you are not far from the kingdom of God, because honest men earnestly
   endeavor to pay their debts, and when they find that they cannot, they
   are distressed. If you are in distress of mind because you cannot meet
   your obligations to God, then you are not far from the kingdom. I
   rejoice in your discovery of shortcoming, failure, and inability, for
   these lie near that hearty penitence which is the sister of saving
   faith, and the sure herald of joy and peace. When a man feels his own
   inability to do as he ought, when he trembles before the law which,
   nevertheless, he honors and admits to be just and right, then he is not
   far from self-renunciation, and from accepting that matchless
   righteousness which Jesus Christ has come to bring. A consciousness of
   the supremacy of the sovereignty of God over us, so that he ought to
   have every thought, every breath, every pulse, is the work of the
   Spirit, who thereby convinces us of sin, and it is a sweet sign of dawn
   in the once darkened soul. Admit that God ought to be heartily loved,
   and you are not far from loving him; feel that you are guilty for not
   loving, and the seeds of love are in your heart.

   Once more only. Although this hopeful scribe recognized the value of
   spiritual religion, and the need of heart-work, and of the heart being
   wholly given to God, yet he did not despise outward religion so far as
   it was commanded of God. He says that to love God is better than whole
   burnt offerings and sacrifices; which was an admission that these
   things were good in their places. He was no rejecter of ceremonies
   which are commanded, because of the superstition of will-worshippers
   who invent ceremonies. We are not to give up the baptism of believers
   because of the unscriptural rite of infant sprinkling, nor to forsake
   the Lord's Supper because of the popish mass. Ordinances of God are
   good in their places, and what is to be dreaded is the perversion of
   them by thrusting them into the place of better and more important
   matters. Thus the scribe showed a well-balanced mind all round, and
   proved himself not far from the kingdom of God.

   My dear friend, are you prepared to lay hold of truth wherever you find
   it? Are you prepared to break away from party ties and family
   prejudices? Are you prepared to believe that the inward and spiritual
   part of religion is infinitely superior to the external part of it, be
   it right or be it wrong? Do you also admit the divine supremacy of God,
   and his right to you in all respects? And are you willing to take
   ordinances, such as he has ordained, in their place, and not out of it?
   Then, if all these things be in you, your character resembles that of
   this scribe of whom Jesus said, Thou art not far from the kingdom of
   God.' I am right glad to meet with you, for you are not far from
   submitting to the divine authority, since you are already found
   admitting its right to you. I trust you are not far from entering into
   the realm of spiritual religion, for you already value it. You are not
   far from the privilege of being wholly renewed in heart, since you see
   the need of it. How glad I am that you should be now listening to the
   gospel! Happier still shall I be if God shall help me to say the right
   word to you at this good hour. The Lord send it!

   II. Our second point is THE QUESTION SUGGESTED'this man came so near to
   the kingdom: did he ever enter it? We do not know. If anybody were to
   assert that he did not I should be ready to question his statement. If
   anybody were to declare that he did I should at once demand his
   authority for the assertion. We receive no information from the
   Scriptures, and it is always better where the word of God is silent to
   be silent ourselves. We should also observe another very good rule if
   you have to judge of a man's state, and know but little of it, always
   judge it favourably. Judges usually give a prisoner the benefit of the
   doubt; and when a man is not a prisoner, when he has come so far
   towards grace as this scribe, let us at any rate hope that he did enter
   into the kingdom.

   I see no reason why he should not have done so; and that is my first
   answer to the question. He should have done so. Having come so far
   there were many doors by which, God's Spirit being with him, he might
   have entered into the kingdom; I mean doors of thought, by which the
   Holy Spirit would readily have led his candid mind into the faith of
   Christ. I will show you one. There was in after years another scribe, a
   rabbi'you will recollect his name'who said, I consent unto the law,
   that it is good; but I see another law in my members, warring against
   the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin
   which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me
   from the body of this death? I thank God, through Jesus Christ our
   Lord.' You see the process of thought. It is a very simple one. This
   scribe sees the law of God to be a spiritual law, demanding the
   obedience of his heart, his understanding, his soul, and his strength.
   If he had thought awhile he would, as a candid man, have said, I have
   not kept this law. What is more, I cannot keep it. If I try to keep it
   I find a something within me against which I struggle, but which,
   nevertheless, brings me into captivity to another law'a law of
   selfishness, a law of sin.' Then, as a man anxious to be right, he
   would have said, How can I be delivered? Oh that I might be set free to
   keep the law of God! I cannot abide in this bondage. I ought to keep
   this law, I shall never be happy till I do love God with all my heart,
   for he ought to be so loved, and I perceive that there can be no heaven
   to a heart which does not love God intensely, for this is one of the
   essentials of peace and rest. How can I get at it?' In such a condition
   as that, if he had heard the sweet invitation of our Lord, Come unto
   me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,'
   would he not have leaped at the sound? Do you not see the simple
   doorway for such a man as that to become a Christian? He had come so
   far that surely he should come a little farther. Let us trust that he
   did. At any rate, if any of you have come so far, may God's sweet
   Spirit lead you to take those other steps, and to enter into the
   kingdom, submitting to the sweet sovereignty of the Prince Immanuel,
   whose scepter is of silver, and whose servitude is an honor and a
   delight to all his subjects.

   That is one door; now follow with me another track. Suppose this man
   had really loved God with all his heart, and understanding, and soul,
   and strength'I will not say perfectly, for that would be supposing an
   impossibility, but supposing that he had truly and sincerely loved God,
   he could not have been an hour in the company of the Lord Jesus without
   feeling the deepest union of heart to him. Would he not have exclaimed,
   This man, too, loves God with all his heart'? He must have perceived
   it, for the zeal which Christ had for the Father was immeasurable; it
   flashed in every gleam of his eye, it tinctured every word that fell
   from his lips. Jesus lived for God, and glorified the Father with all
   his heart and soul, and any person who truly loved God would soon have
   perceived that fact. Ah!' he would have exclaimed, here is one who
   loves God better than I do; here is one who honors God more than I do;
   here is one who is more consecrated, more devoted, more godlike than I
   am.' By that door he would have been led to admiration of Jesus, to
   communion with him, and ultimately to belief in him as the Messiah. Let
   us hope that the scribe was so led, for the way is plain enough. At any
   rate, if God in his grace has led any man here to love the Father, I am
   persuaded that he will love the Son; for he that loveth him that begat,
   loveth him also that is begotten of him. My hearer, thou art certainly
   not far from the kingdom of God if thou hast come so far as to love
   God, even though thou knowest little as yet of his only begotten Son.
   God help you to take that one other step.

   Here is another door. You notice that he said that to love God was more
   than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. Now, suppose that with that in
   his mind, he had sat down, and said, This loving God is the main thing;
   why, then, is the law encumbered with burnt offerings and sacrifices?
   If they really are inferior to the moral precepts, and especially to
   the spiritual precepts, why are they there at all?' Then methinks he
   would have seen that they must be there for a spiritual purpose. And
   suppose he had begun to try and read the meaning of the paschal lamb,
   or of the daily lamb, or of the sin-offering, why, methinks, if he
   turned to that blessed fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, and began to read
   it in order to understand the sacrifices of the old law, it would have
   happened to him as it did to the eunuch when Philip opened to him the
   Scriptures'he would have seen Jesus in them all. He must have seen him.
   And if you, dear friend, have come to see the right place of gospel
   ordinances through candidly searching out their meaning, you have seen
   that their whole teaching is Christ Jesus, the sacrifice for sin. There
   is nothing in the two great gospel ordinances but Christ. Christ's
   sufferings, death, burial, and resurrection set forth in baptism:
   Christ's death set forth until he come at the communion table'life
   given us by our Savior's death, and life sustained by the same means.
   Jesus is the body of the ordinances of the Old Testament, and the soul
   of those of the New. If you are but candid enough to desire to push
   through the veil, and get at the real meaning of every outward
   ordinance, you will see Jesus ere long.

   There is another road by which the scribe might have been led to the
   Savior. Think again. Suppose that he had continued to glow and burn
   with love to God. As that love grew the understanding would also become
   enlightened with it, and the soul would rise towards God. You know why
   that would be. It must be because the Holy Spirit was in the man, for
   no man loveth God or striveth to love God, with all his heart, and
   understanding, and soul, and strength, without there being in secret
   and unknown to him a divine power at the back impelling him in that
   direction. Now, do you think that the Holy Spirit would thus work in
   the man and not reveal Christ to him for his salvation? I cannot
   believe it. I am persuaded that, coming as that man did under the
   gospel of Christ, he would be by his candour, by his love of God, by
   the influence of the divine Spirit, in such a state of mind that, as
   when sparks fall upon dry tinder they ignite at once, so would the
   words of Jesus fall upon a mind prepared of the Spirit of God. That
   scribe was, therefore, not far from the kingdom of God. I do hope that
   there are some such hearts present at this hour. Some of you, I trust,
   can say, Oh that I had Christ! I would give my eyes for him.' If you
   mean that, why do you not have him? He is to be had for nothing. Oh,'
   says another, I would die if I might have him and be saved.' Why not
   live, and be saved? Oh, but I would give anything.' Why not leave off
   the idea of giving, and take freely what Jesus presents to you? But yet
   that very desire of yours'that longing of yours'proves that you are not
   far from the kingdom of God. My heart's desire is that as you have come
   so far you may now yield yourselves up to Jesus. That is the way of
   salvation: have done with self-salvation and let Jesus save you. When a
   man is in the water, if he kicks and struggles he will drown, but if he
   lies still he will float. When another comes to help, if he will be
   passive he will be saved, but all that he can do will hinder his
   deliverance. Be passive in the hands of Christ till he gives you life
   to be active with. Be nothing, and let him be everything. Trust him
   wholly and alone. Drop into his arms, and let him bear the weight of
   your sins and sorrows, and it shall not be said of you any longer that
   you are not far from the kingdom of God, but it shall be sung on earth
   and in heaven'He has returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of souls,
   glory be to God!'

   Still, as I have said, there is the dark supposition that perhaps the
   scribe never did enter the kingdom. He may have been so near to the
   kingdom, and yet he may have lacked the one thing needful. If it were
   so, it was a grievous fact; and all we can now do is to profit by it.
   What could have been the reason why he did not enter the kingdom? I
   cannot tell, we know so little of him; but if we might infer from the
   little we do know, I should suppose that if he did not enter it was
   from the unworthy motive of being swayed by his fellow-men. We judged
   that when he came to Christ to put the question, he came not of his own
   mind and motion. We began by thinking that he seemed half-hearted in
   his opposition, and that so he the more readily turned from a
   questioner into a candid admirer. It is, however, just possible that,
   being the spokesman for others, he had grown fond of taking the lead;
   and if he did not really enter the kingdom, it may have been because he
   would have lost his place in the front rank of scribe and pharisee, and
   this was too great a price to pay for truth and righteousness. I have
   known a man deeply impressed with religious things, and feeling his way
   aright; but a little company of half a dozen whom he met in the
   evening, of whom he was the leading spirit, have sufficed to hold him
   in bondage. They invite him to come again; they miss his genial
   society, his jest, his song, his merry talk. He cannot face it out, and
   tell them that he has a call elsewhere, a call to nobler things. He has
   not the resolute will to lead them in another direction, and dreads
   even to make the attempt. He wants to be the leading man; and so he
   gives up what his conscience suggests to him rather than not be the
   leader of men whom in his heart he must know to be unworthy of such a
   homage. In his own mind he thinks them fools; but, still, he is afraid
   that they should think him so, and therefore he becomes a greater and
   more guilty fool than they. Oh. that fear of men, that fear of men! You
   may meet with here and there a man of the better sort who begins to
   feel, Yes, there is the light there: light worth having.' He breaks
   away from his party, and its surroundings, and for a while is eager for
   the truth, which he has half discovered; but he fears the cold shoulder
   which society would give him, dreads the jeer of Sir John,' and the
   sneer of My Lord.' The half-opened eye is closed with saddest
   determination from fear ot other children of darkness, who would mock
   at its better sight. This is a sight which might make an angel weep.
   Jesus is sold, but not for so much as clinked in the hand of Judas; he
   is bartered for a fool's smile, and for the company of the vain and
   frivolous. Ah me, that ever the sun should behold so dread a sight!
   Multitudes who know the truth, and are not far from the kingdom of God,
   nevertheless, never enter it, because of the fear of man, the love of
   approbation, the horror of being laughed at and jested at. With such
   vile fetters immortal souls are bound for execution, and held back from
   everlasting blessedness. There is something very beautiful about many a
   young man of enquiring mind, and if you could transplant him, and set
   him in another soil, you might make something of him; but not in that
   shop, where all his fellows would make him the butt of their mirth if
   he were really a Christian, not in that work-room, where all the
   artisans would swear and chaff if he were but to avow his half-formed
   convictions. Want of courage, want of self-denial, is that fatal flaw
   which ruins what else had been a gem in the Redeemer's crown. All brave
   hearts mournfully pronounce that he is justly lost who is not bold
   enough to own his Savior, and the truth.

   I had as lief not be, as live to be

   In awe of such a thing as I myself.'

   Afraid of another man! Am I then myself a man? Or am I but the mere
   mockery of manhood? Oh, sirs, let your manhood come to the rescue. God
   grant you grace to say, What can it matter to me what men say as long
   as I am right?' They cannot break bones with their jests; and if they
   did, there have been Christians who have not only suffered the breaking
   of their bones, but the burning of their whole bodies for Christ's sake
   sooner than deny his sacred claims. What did Jesus say? He that loseth
   his life for my sake shall find it.' He who, to gain the whole world,
   would keep back a solitary truth, is a huge loser for his pains. He is
   mean and base, and not worthy to be numbered amongst those who follow
   the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. Oh! if I speak to one who hesitates,
   let me remind him that, however it may look to-night to be a daring
   step to be decided for Christ, it will look very differently soon when
   the great trumpet shall sound, and ring o'er earth and sea, and the
   dead shall rise, and the judgment-seat shall be set, and the great
   white throne shall be unveiled. Then it will be seen to be a far more
   desperate daring to deny the Lord even to save life itself. What will
   the cowards do in that day who, to please men, forsook their Lord? What
   will they do who suppressed truth and stifled conscience when the
   Shepherd begins to divide the goats and the sheep from each other? Ay,
   what will they do who find themselves driven with the goats, though
   once they half decided to be numbered with the sheep? They were near
   the fold, but never entered. What will they feel when he shall say,
   Depart! Depart! I know you not. You knew not me in the day of my
   humiliation. You were ashamed of me in the world. You blushed at. my
   name. You covered up what was in your conscience in order to avoid
   man's laughter and rebuke. You knew not me, and now I know not you.
   Depart! Depart!' In proportion to the light against which you have shut
   your eyes will be your horror when that light shall blind you into
   eternal night. In proportion to the violence which you have done to
   your consciences will be the terror which your awakened consciences
   will work in you. In proportion to the nearness of the kingdom within
   which you came shall be the dreadful distance to which you will be
   driven.

   I was thinking that, if the Lord were to pay men in their own coin,
   what an awful thing it would be if those who are now not far from the
   kingdom were told by the Lord, You shall stay there for ever. You, who
   heard the gospel, and did not accept it, must stop where you are.'
   Halt, sir! not a step more! Close to the gates of heaven'you stop
   there! To hear its music for ever, and to gnash your teeth for ever,
   because you cannot join in it! To hear the songs of the righteous,
   while you wail for ever! To know the brightness of bliss, but to be
   yourself in the black darkness for ever! To be within an inch of
   heaven, and yet in hell! The living water flowing at your feet, and yet
   your tongue for ever parched! The bread of life nigh at hand, and yet
   you cannot eat! Oh, think of it! Eternally not far from the kingdom! If
   you would not wish to be so, oh, be not out of Christ another minute!
   May God's Spirit enable you to leap right away from your undecided
   condition into living faith and loving obedience to Christ.

   So near to the Kingdom! yet what dost thou lack?

   So near to the Kingdom! what keepeth thee back?

   Renounce every idol, tho' dear it may be,

   And come to the Savior now pleading with thee.'

  LETTER FROM MR. SPURGEON.

   DEAR FRIENDS,'Nothing remains to report to you but my hope of being in
   my own pulpit on Feb. 8. I beg you to join with me in thanks to the
   healing Lord for this restoration. The Lord bringeth down to the grave
   and raiseth up again, and to him be praise for ever.

   It would be a great favor to me personally, and a means of good to
   many, if the readers of the sermons would aid in increasing their
   circulation. They are already very widely scattered, but if twice the
   number could be sent abroad we might look for double fruit. After
   standing the test of twenty-five years the Metropolitan Tabernacle
   Pulpit may be pardoned if it asks those who profit by the sermons to
   introduce them to others.

   May future discourses be more full of unction and power, and so may
   you, dear readers, reap a harvest from my pains and sicknesses.

   Yours ever heartily,

   C.H. Spurgeon

   Menton, January 22, 1879.
     __________________________________________________________________

                           Beloved, and yet Afflicted

   Notes of a Sermon

   (No. 1518)

   PREACHED BEFORE AN AUDIENCE OF INVALID LADIES AT MENTONE, BY

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick.'John 11:3.

   THAT DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED is not at all backward to record that
   Jesus loved Lazarus too: there are no jealousies among those who are
   chosen by the Well-beloved. Jesus loved Mary, and Martha, and Lazarus:
   it is a happy thing where a whole family live in the love of Jesus.
   They were a favoured trio, and yet, as the serpent came into Paradise,
   so did sorrow enter their quiet household at Bethany. Lazarus was sick.
   They all felt that if Jesus were there disease would flee at his
   presence; what then should they do but let him know of their trial?
   Lazarus was near to death's door, and so his tender sisters at once
   reported the fact to Jesus, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest
   is sick.' Many a time since then has that same message been sent to our
   Lord, for in full many a case he has chosen his people in the furnace
   of affliction. Of the Master it is said, himself took our infirmities,
   and bare our sicknesses,' and it is, therefore, no extraordinary thing
   for the members to be in this matter conformed to their Head.

   I. Notice, first, A FACT mentioned in the text: Lord, behold, he whom
   thou lovest is sick.' The sisters were somewhat astonished that it
   should be so, for the word behold' implies a measure of surprise. We
   love him, and would make him well directly: thou lovest him, and yet he
   remains sick. Thou canst heal him with a word, why then is thy loved
   one sick?' Have not you, dear sick friend, often wondered how your
   painful or lingering disease could be consistent with your being
   chosen, and called, and made one with Christ? I dare say this has
   greatly perplexed you, and yet in very truth it is by no means strange,
   but a thing to be expected.

   We need not be astonished that the man whom the Lord loves is sick, for
   he is only a man. The love of Jesus does not separate us from the
   common necessities and infirmities of human life. Men of God are still
   men. The covenant of grace is not a charter of exemption from
   consumption, or rheumatism, or asthma. The bodily ills, which come upon
   us because of our flesh, will attend us to the tomb, for Paul saith, we
   that are in this body do groan.'

   Those whom the Lord loves are the more likely to be sick, since they
   are under a peculiar discipline. It is written, Whom the Lord loveth he
   chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.' Affliction of
   some sort is one of the marks of the true-born child of God, and it
   frequently happens that the trial takes the form of illness. Shall we
   therefore wonder that we have to take our turn in the sick chamber? If
   Job, and David, and Hezekiah must each one smart, who are we that we
   should be amazed because we are in ill-health?

   Nor is it remarkable that we are sick if we reflect upon the great
   benefit which often flows from it to ourselves. I do not know what
   peculiar improvement may have been wrought in Lazarus, but many a
   disciple of Jesus would have been of small use if he had not been
   afflicted. Strong men are apt to be harsh, imperious, and
   unsympathetic, and therefore they need to be put into the furnace, and
   melted down. I have known Christian women who would never have been so
   gentle, tender, wise, experienced, and holy if they had not been
   mellowed by physical pain. There are fruits in God's garden as well as
   in man's which never ripen till they are bruised. Young women who are
   apt to be volatile, conceited, or talkative, are often trained to be
   full of sweetness and light by sickness after sickness, by which they
   are taught to sit at Jesus' feet. Many have been able to say with the
   psalmist, It is good for me to have been afflicted, that I might learn
   thy statutes.' For this reason even such as are highly favoured and
   blessed among women may feel a sword piercing through their hearts.

   Oftentimes this sickness of the Lord's loved ones is for the good of
   others. Lazarus was permitted to be sick and to die, that by his death
   and resurrection the apostles might be benefited. His sickness was for
   the glory of God.' Throughout these nineteen hundred years which have
   succeeded Lazarus' sickness all believers have been getting good out of
   it, and this afternoon we are all the better because he languished and
   died. The church and the world may derive immense advantage through the
   sorrows of good men: the careless may be awakened, the doubting may be
   convinced, the ungodly may be converted, the mourner may be comforted
   through our testimony in sickness; and if so, would we wish to avoid
   pain and weakness? Are we not quite willing that our friends should say
   of us also Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick'?

   II. Our text, however, not only records a fact, but mentions A REPORT
   of that fact: the sisters sent and told Jesus. Let us keep up a
   constant correspondence with our Lord about everything.

   Sing a hymn to Jesus, when thy heart is faint;

   Tell it all to Jesus, comfort or complaint.'

   Jesus knows all about us, but it is a great relief to pour out our
   hearts before him. When John the Baptist's broken-hearted disciples saw
   their leader beheaded, they took up the body, and went and told Jesus.'
   They could not have done better. In all trouble send a message to
   Jesus, and do not keep your misery to yourself. In his case there is no
   need of reserve, there is no fear of his treating you with cold pride,
   or heartless indifference, or cruel treachery. He is a confident who
   never can betray us, a friend who never will refuse us.

   There is this fair hope about telling Jesus, that he is sure to support
   us under it. If you go to Jesus, and ask, Most gracious Lord, why am I
   sick? I thought I was useful while in health, and now I can do nothing;
   why is this?' He may be pleased to show you why, or, if not, he will
   make you willing to bear his will with patience without knowing why. He
   can bring his truth to your mind to cheer you, or strengthen your heart
   by his presence, or send you unexpected comforts, and give you to glory
   in your afflictions. Ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is
   a refuge for us.' Not in vain did Mary and Martha send to tell Jesus,
   and not in vain do any seek his face.

   Remember, too, that Jesus may give healing. It would not be wise to
   live by a supposed faith, and cast off the physician and his medicines,
   any more than to discharge the butcher, and the tailor, and expect to
   be fed and clothed by faith; but this would be far better than
   forgetting the Lord altogether, and trusting to man only. Healing for
   both body and soul must be sought from God. We make use of medicines,
   but these can do nothing apart from the Lord, who healeth all our
   diseases.' We may tell Jesus about our aches and pains, and gradual
   declinings, and hacking coughs. Some persons are afraid to go to God
   about their health: they pray for the pardon of sin, but dare not ask
   the Lord to remove a headache: and, yet, surely, if the hairs outside
   our head are all numbered by God it is not much more of a condescension
   for him to relieve throbs and pressures inside the head. Our big things
   must be very little to the great God, and our little things cannot be
   much less. It is a proof of the greatness of the mind of God that while
   ruling the heavens and the earth, he is not so absorbed by these great
   concerns as to be forgetful of the least pain or want of any one of his
   poor children. We may go to him about our failing breath, for he first
   gave us lungs and life. We may tell him about the eye which grows dim,
   and the ear which loses hearing, for he made them both. We may mention
   the swollen knee, and the gathering finger, the stiff neck, and the
   sprained foot, for he made all these our members, redeemed them all,
   and will raise them all from the grave. Go at once, and say, Lord,
   behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.'

   III. Thirdly, let us notice in the case of Lazarus A RESULT which we
   should not have expected. No doubt when Mary and Martha sent to tell
   Jesus they looked to see Lazarus recover as soon as the messenger
   reached the Master; but they were not gratified. For two days the Lord
   remained in the same place, and not till he knew that Lazarus was dead
   did he speak of going to Judea. This teaches us that Jesus may be
   informed of our trouble, and yet may act as if he were indifferent to
   it. We must not expect in every case that prayer for recovery will be
   answered, for if so, nobody would die who had chick or child, friend or
   acquaintance to pray for him. In our prayers for the lives of beloved
   children of God we must not forget that there is one prayer which may
   be crossing ours, for Jesus prays, Father, I will that they also, whom
   thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my
   glory.' We pray that they may remain with us, but when we recognize
   that Jesus wants them above, what can we do but admit his larger claim
   and say, Not as I will, but as thou wilt'? In our own case, we may pray
   the Lord to raise us up, and yet though he loves us he may permit us to
   grow worse and worse, and at last to die. Hezekiah had fifteen years
   added to his life, but we may not gain the reprieve of a single day.
   Never set such store by the life of any one dear to you, or even by
   your own life, as to be rebellious against the Lord. If you hold the
   life of any dear one with too tight a hand, you are making a rod for
   your own back; and if you love your own earthly life too well, you are
   making a thorny pillow for your dying bed. Children are often idols,
   and in such cases their too ardent lovers are idolaters. We might as
   well make a god of clay, and worship it, as the Hindus are said to do,
   as worship our fellow-creatures, for what are they but clay? Shall dust
   be so dear to us that we quarrel with our God about it? If our Lord
   leaves us to suffer, let us not repine. He must do that for us which is
   kindest and best, for he loves us better than we love ourselves.

   Did I hear you say, Yes, Jesus allowed Lazarus to die, but he raised
   him up again'? I answer, he is the resurrection and the life to us
   also. Be comforted concerning the departed, Thy brother shall rise
   again,' and all of us whose hope is in Jesus shall partake in our
   Lord's resurrection. Not only shall our souls live, but our bodies,
   too, shall be raised incorruptible. The grave will serve as a refining
   pot, and this vile body shall come forth vile no longer. Some
   Christians are greatly cheered by the thought of living till the Lord
   comes, and so escaping death. I confess that I think this no great
   gain, for so far from having any preference over them that are asleep,
   those who are alive and remain at his coming will miss one point of
   fellowship, in not dying and rising like their Lord. Beloved, all
   things are yours, and death is expressly mentioned in the list,
   therefore do not dread it, but rather long for evening to undress, that
   you may rest with God.'

   IV. I will close with A QUESTION'Jesus loved Martha, and her sister,
   and Lazarus'does Jesus in a special sense love you? Alas, many sick
   ones have no evidence of any special love of Jesus towards them, for
   they have never sought his face, nor trusted in him. Jesus might say to
   them I never knew you,' for they have turned their backs upon his blood
   and his cross. Answer, dear friend, to your own heart this question, Do
   you love Jesus?' If so, you love him because he first loved you. Are
   you trusting him? If so, that faith of yours is the proof that he has
   loved you from before the foundation of the world, for faith is the
   token by which he plights his troth to his beloved.

   If Jesus loves you, and you are sick, let all the world see how you
   glorify God in your sickness. Let friends and nurses see how the
   beloved of the Lord are cheered and comforted by him. Let your holy
   resignation astonish them, and set them admiring your Beloved, who is
   so gracious to you that he makes you happy in pain, and joyful at the
   gates of the grave. If your religion is worth anything it ought to
   support you now, and it will compel unbelievers to see that he whom the
   Lord loveth is in better case when he is sick than the ungodly when
   full of health and vigour.

   If you do not know that Jesus loves you, you lack the brightest star
   that can cheer the night of sickness. I hope you will not die as you
   now are, and pass into another world without enjoying the love of
   Jesus: that would be a terrible calamity indeed. Seek his face at once,
   and it may be that your present sickness is a part of the way of love
   by which Jesus would bring you to himself. Lord, heal all these sick
   ones in soul and in body. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

At School

   (No. 1519)

   DELIVERED BY

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Teach me to do Your will; for You are my God." Psalm 143:10.

   THIS is a prayer about doing, but it is perfectly free from legal
   taint. The man who offered it had no idea of being saved by his doings,
   for in the second verse of the Psalm he had said, "Enter not into
   judgment with Your servant: for in Your sight shall no man living be
   justified." This is not the prayer of a sinner seeking salvation, for
   salvation is not by doing the will of God but by believing in Christ.
   It is the prayer of the man who is already saved and who, being saved,
   devotes himself to the service of God and wishes to be taught in the
   fear of the Lord. "Teach me to do Your will, O God." The connection
   leads us to make the remark that David looked upon the doing of God's
   will as his best escape from his enemies.

   He speaks of his cruel persecutors. He declares that though he looked
   all around he could find none who would help him. Then he prays, "Teach
   me to do Your will; for You are my God." And depend upon it, the surest
   way to escape from harm is to do no ill. If you are surrounded by those
   who would slander you, your best defense is a blameless life! If many
   are watching for your halting and maliciously desiring your fall, your
   safety lies in holiness! The very best prayer you can pray for your own
   protection is, "Teach me to do Your will." If you do right, none can
   harm you. This prayer was suggested by the perplexity of the Psalmist's
   mind. He was overwhelmed and did not know what to do and, therefore, he
   cried, "Teach me to do Your will, O God,"

   He had come to a place where many roads met and he did not know which
   path to take and so he prayed God to guide him in the way appointed. I
   commend this prayer to all who may be sorely puzzled and anxious. You
   have exercised your own judgment and you have, perhaps, consulted too
   much with friends and yet your way seems entirely blocked up--resort to
   God with this as your heart's prayer, "Teach me to do Your will; for
   You are my God." May the Spirit of God now bless us while we open up
   this short prayer that we may be helped to understand it and use it.
   First, we will speak upon the prayer. And then, secondly, upon its
   answer.

   I. And, first, THE PRAYER ITSELF--let us notice its character. It is a
   holy prayer. "Teach me to do Your will." The man who utters this
   language desires to be free from sin, for sin can never be God's will.
   Under no circumstances, whatever, may I do wrong and fancy that I am
   doing God's will! I have read of an extremely poor man who needed fuel
   for the fire for his children and the text came to his mind, "All
   things are yours." Armed with this text, he thought he would take a
   little wood from his neighbor's woodpile but, very happily there came
   to his mind another text, "You shall not steal." He was quite clear
   about its meaning and so he left the wood alone. And he remembered,
   afterward, how that text had saved him from a great transgression.

   Depend upon it, whatever circumstances or impressions may seem to say,
   it is never God's will that you should do wrong! There are devil's
   Providences as well as God's Providences. When Jonah wanted to go to
   Tarshish, he found a ship going there and I dare say he said, "How
   Providential!" Yes, but no Providence can ever be an excuse for sinning
   against God! We are to do right and, therefore, we pray, "Teach me to
   do Your will." It is a humble prayer--the prayer of a man of deep
   experience and yet, for all that and, perhaps, because of that, a man
   who felt that he needed teaching as to every step he should take. When
   you do not need teaching, Brothers and Sisters, it is because you are
   too stupid to learn--you may depend upon that.

   It is only a very young lady fresh from a boarding school who has
   "finished her education." And it is only a great fool of a man who
   thinks that he can learn no more. Those who know themselves best and
   know the world best and know God best always have the lowest thoughts
   of themselves. They have no wisdom of their own except this--that they
   are wise enough to flee from their own wisdom and say to the Lord,
   "Teach me to do Your will." This is a holy prayer and a humble prayer
   and commends itself to every holy and humble heart.

   It is, dear Friends, a docile prayer--the prayer of a teachable man.
   "Teach me to do Your will." It is not merely, you see, "Teach me your
   will," but, "Teach me to do it." The person is so ignorant that he
   needs to be taught how to do anything and everything. You may tell a
   child how to walk, but it will not walk, for all that! You must teach
   it to walk. You must take it by the arms as God did Ephraim. He says,
   "I taught Ephraim, also, to go, taking them by their arms," just as a
   nurse teaches her little ones. "Teach me to do." Lord, it is not enough
   that You teach my head and teach my heart, but teach my hands and my
   feet. "Teach me to do Your will."

   Such a suppliant is docile and ready to learn. It is an acquiescent
   prayer, also, which is a great thing in its favor. "Teach me to do Your
   will--not mine. I will put my will to the side." He does not say,
   "Lord, teach me to do part of Your will--that part which pleases me,"
   but all Your will. If there is any part of Your will which I am not
   pleased with, for that very reason teach it to me until my whole soul
   shall be conformed to Your mind and I shall love Your will, not because
   it happens to be pleasing, but because it is Your will. It is a prayer
   of resignation and self-abnegation and is, perhaps, one of the highest
   that the Christian can pray, though it may well befit the learner who
   stands for the first time at Wisdom's door.

   And then notice that it is a believing prayer--"Teach me to do Your
   will; for You are my God." There is faith in God in this claim. "You
   are my God"--and there is faith in God's condescension that He will act
   as a Teacher. Brothers and Sisters, we have two faults. We do not think
   God to be as great as He is and we do not think God can be so little as
   He can be. We err on both sides and neither know His height of Glory
   nor His depth of Grace. We practically say, "This trial is too menial.
   I will bear it without Him." We forget that the same God who rules the
   stars condescends to be a Teacher and teaches us to do His will! We
   heard, once, of a president of a great nation who, nevertheless, taught
   in a Sunday school--it was thought to be great condescension--but what
   shall I say of Him who, while He sits amid the choirs of angels and
   accepts their praises, comes down to His little children and teaches
   them to do His will? The prayer before us is very precious, for it is
   holy, humble, docile, acquiescent and believing.

   Let us now notice what the actual request is. In so many words it says,
   "Teach me to do Your will." So, Brothers and Sisters, it is a practical
   prayer. He does not say merely, "Teach me to know Your will"--a very
   excellent prayer, that-- but there are a great many who stick fast in
   the knowing and do not go on to the doing! These are forgetful hearers
   deceiving themselves. An ounce of doing is worth a ton of knowing! The
   most orthodox faith in the world, if it is accompanied by an unholy
   life, will only increase a man's damnation. There must be the yielding
   up of the members and of the mind unto God in obedience, or else the
   more we know, the greater will be our condemnation!

   The Psalmist does not say, "Lord, help me to talk about Your will,"
   though it is a very proper thing to talk about and a very profitable
   thing to hear about. But still doing is better than talking. If t's
   were w's there would be more saints in the world than there are. That
   is to say, if those who talk uprightly would also walk uprightly, it
   would be well. But with many, the talk is better than the walk. Better
   a silent tongue than an unclean life! Practical godliness is preferable
   to the sweetest eloquence. The prayer is, "Teach me to do Your will."

   There are some who long to be taught in all mysteries and, truly, to
   understand a mystery aright is a great privilege, but their main
   thought seems to be to know the deep doctrines, the mysterious points.
   Many go into prophecy and a nice muddle they make when they get there.
   We have had I do not know how many theories of prophecy, each one of
   them more absurd than the rest and so it will be, I fear, to the
   world's end. Truly, it would be a good thing to understand the
   prophecies and all knowledge, "and yet show I unto you a more excellent
   way"--and that excellent way is to live a life of humble, godly
   dependence and faith and to show forth in your life the love that was
   in Christ Jesus! Lord, I chiefly long to know Your will to do it--teach
   me that and I am content.

   I have already said that this prayer asks that we may do God's will,
   not our own. Oh, how naturally our heart prays, "Lord, let me have my
   own way." That is the first prayer of human nature when it is left
   alone--"Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice? Let me have my
   own way!" That desire will sometimes enter the Christian's heart,
   though I hope it will not long remain there! We may be praying, "Lord,
   not my will, but Yours be done," and yet the wicked, rebellious heart
   may be saying inside, "But let it be my will, Lord! Let it be my will."
   Still do we cling to self! May the Lord deliver us from Lord
   Will-He-Will who is a terrible tyrant wherever he rules! And may this
   be our prayer, "Teach me to do Your will."

   We are not to ask to do other people's will, though some persons are
   always slaves to the wills of others. Whatever their company is, that
   is what they are. In Rome they do as Rome does--they try to accommodate
   themselves to their family--they cannot take a stand, or be decided.
   They are ruled and governed, poor slaves that they are, by their
   connections. They fear the frown of man! Oh that they would rise to
   something nobler and pray, "Lord, teach me to do Your will, whether it
   is the will of the great ones of the earth, or the will of my
   influential friends, or the will of my loud talking neighbors or not!
   Help me to do Your will, to take my stand and say, 'As for me and my
   house, we will serve the

   Lord.'"

   It is a blessed prayer. The more we look at it the more we see in it.
   What does he mean by doing God's will? Does he not mean, "Help me to do
   as Your Word bids me"? For the will of God is put before us very
   plainly in His Law and, especially, in that Law as viewed in the hands
   of Christ. "This is the will of God, even our sanctification." To serve
   Him devoutly and to love our neighbor as ourselves--this is the will of
   God. May His Spirit help us. "Teach me to do Your will, O God." That
   will also takes the form of Providence. Out of two courses equally
   right, we sometimes have to ask the question, "Lord, what is Your will
   here?" There is nothing immoral in either the one or the other and,
   therefore, our difficulty. And so we go to the Lord and say, "Here is a
   case in which Your Law does not guide me, otherwise I should decide at
   once, but will You now show me what You will have me to do?"

   In another case the will of God may be suggested by opportunity. Dear
   Friend, the will of God is that you should speak to that friend sitting
   near you about soul matters. The will of God is that your unconverted
   servant should have your prayers and your instruction. God puts men in
   our way on purpose that we may do them good. I have no doubt whatever
   that many a Christian is made to go where he would not choose to go and
   to associate with persons that he would not wish to associate with on
   purpose--that he may be the means of taking light into dark places and
   of carrying life from God to dead souls. So if you pray this prayer,
   "Teach me to do Your will," and carry it out, you will watch for
   opportunities of serving the Lord.

   The prayer seems, to me, to have all that compass and much more. But I
   would answer another enquiry. What is the intention of the prayer as to
   manner? It does not say, "Lord, enable me to do Your will," but, "Teach
   me to do Your will," as if there were some peculiar way of doing it
   that had to be taught. As when a young man goes apprentice to acquire a
   trade. Lord, I would put myself under indenture to Your Grace that You
   may teach me the art and mystery of doing Your will. How, then, ought
   God's will to be done? It should be done thoughtfully. A great many
   Christians are not half as considerate as they should be. We should go
   through life not flippantly like the butterfly that flits from flower
   to flower, but like the bee that stays and sucks honey and gathers
   sweet store for the hive.

   We should be seriously in earnest and one point of earnestness should
   be--

   "With holy trembling, holy fear, To make my calling sure, Your utmost
   counsel to fulfill, And suffer all Your righteous will, And to the end
   endure."

   Lord, help me to do Your will, seriously bending all my soul to the
   doing of it, not trifling in Your courts, nor making life a play, but
   loving You with all my understanding! The Lord's will should be done
   immediately. As soon as a command is known, it should be obeyed. Lord,
   suffer me not to consult with flesh and blood. Make me prompt and quick
   of understanding in the fear of God. Teach me to do Your will as angels
   do, who no sooner hear Your word than they fly like flames of fire to
   fulfill Your wishes!

   His will should by done cheerfully. Jehovah seeks not slaves to grace
   His Throne. He would have us delight to do His will, yes, His Law
   should be in our heart. Oh, Brothers and Sisters, you need to pray
   this--"Teach me to do Your will," or else you will miss the mark. Teach
   me to do it constantly. Let me not sometimes be Your servant and then
   run away from You. Keep me to it. Let me never weary. When the morning
   wakes me, may it find me ready and when the evening bids me rest, may I
   be serving You until I fall asleep. Teach me to do it also, Lord,
   universally, not some part of it, but all of it--not one of Your
   commands being neglected--nor one single part of my daily task being
   left undone. I am Your servant.

   Make me to be what a good servant is to her mistress, neglecting none
   of the cares of the household. May I be watchful in all points. Teach
   me to do Your will spiritually, not making the outside of cups and
   platters clean, but obeying

   You within my soul. May what I do be done with all my heart. If I pray,
   help me to pray in the Spirit. If I sing, let my heart make music unto
   You. When I am talking to others about Your name and trying to spread
   the savor of Jesus, let me not do it in my own strength, or in a wrong
   spirit, but may the Holy Spirit be upon me. Teach me to do Your will
   intensely. Let the zeal of Your house eat me up. Oh that I might throw
   my whole self into it! This little prayer grows, does it not? Pray it,
   Brothers and Sisters and may the Lord answer you.

   Once again, there are necessary qualities which we must seek if we
   would sincerely pray this prayer, "Teach me to do Your will." You must
   have decision of character, for some never do God's will though they
   wish they did and they regret, they say, that they cannot--they resolve
   that they will and there it ends. O you spongy souls! Some of you are
   sadly squeezable! Whatever hand grips you can shape you. Decision is
   needed, for you cannot do God's will unless you know how to say, "No,"
   and to put your foot down and declare that whatever may happen, you
   will not turn aside from the service of your God! If the Lord shall
   teach you to do His will, you will also need courage. The prayer
   virtually says, "When my enemies ridicule me, teach me to do Your will.
   When they threaten me, teach me to do Your will. When they tempt me,
   teach me to do Your will. When they slander me, teach me to do Your
   will--to be brave with the bravery which resolves to do the right and
   leaves the issues with God." "Teach me to do Your will."

   It means--Give me resignation, kill in me my self-hood. Put down, I
   pray You, my pride. Make me willing to be anything or to do anything
   You will. It is a prayer that necessitates humility. No man can pray it
   unless he is willing to stoop and wash the saints' feet. "Teach me to
   do Your will." Let me be a dishwasher in Your kitchen if so I may
   glorify You. I have no choice but that You be All in All. It is a
   prayer, too, for spiritual life and much of it, for a dead man cannot
   do God's will. Shall the dead praise Him? Shall they that go down to
   the Pit give Him thanks? Oh, no, Brothers and Sisters! You must be full
   of life if you are to do God's will!

   Some professors are not quickened one-third of the way yet. I hope they
   have a measure of quickening, but it does not seem to have reached the
   extremities. There may be a little quickening in the heart, but it has
   not quickened the tongue to confess Christ, nor quickened the hands to
   give to Christ, or to work for Christ. They seem to be half-dead. O
   Lord, fill me with life from the sole of my feet to the crown of my
   head, for how can I do Your will unless Your Spirit saturates me
   through and through, till every pulse is consecrated? I would be wholly
   Yours. "Teach me to do Your will."

   II. I will not detain you many minutes over the second part of our
   sermon in which we are to say a little upon ITS ANSWER. There is the
   prayer, "Teach me to do Your will." Will it get an answer? Yes,
   Brothers and Sisters, it will assuredly obtain an answer of peace. For,
   first, there is a reason for expecting it. "You are my God." Oh, yes,
   if we were asking this of someone else, we might fear, but, "You are my
   God" is a blessed argument because the greater supposes the less! If
   God has given us Himself, He will give us teaching!

   It is also God's way to teach--"Good and upright is the Lord, therefore
   will He teach transgressors in the way." It is a quality of a good man
   to wish to make others good. It is supremely the quality of the good
   God to make others good. When I think of what the Lord is, I am certain
   that He will be willing to teach me to do His will. Moreover, He has
   promised to do it. "I will instruct you and teach you in the way that
   you shall go. I will guide you with My eyes." And, again, He is
   glorified by so doing, for it brings Glory to God when His people do
   His will. Therefore I may expect, for all these reasons, that He will
   teach me to do His will.

   Again, dear Friends, it needs to be answered. "Teach me to do Your
   will. Lord, there is nobody who can ever teach me Your will unless You
   do it. I shall never learn it by myself. This scholarship I shall never
   pick up by chance. Lord, unless You hold me fast and teach me with Your
   supreme art, I shall never learn to do Your will as I desire to learn
   it." You see, he turns away from every other teacher to his God. He
   puts himself to school with God alone. And there is the prayer, "Teach
   me to do Your will; for You are my God." Brothers and Sisters, you must
   have this teaching, or else you will never do God's will. No strength
   of nature, no wit of nature can ever suffice to serve the Lord
   aright--you must be taught from above!

   There are many ways in which God gives His answer to this prayer,
   "Teach me to do Your will." We have received one wonderful answer to it
   already. He has given Jesus Christ to be our Example. There is no
   teaching like actual example! If you want to know the will of God,
   study the life of Christ! The Lord is pleased to give us fainter copies
   of that same will of His in His saints. Read the sacred biographies of
   the Scriptures. Watch the holy lives of those who are among you, who
   live near to God, and follow them so far as they follow Christ. They
   are not complete copies--there are blots

   and blunders--still, the Lord does teach young people by the godly
   lives of their parents and He instructs all of us by the biographies of
   devoted men and women.

   Again, the Lord teaches us by every line of His Word and oftentimes
   when that Word is heard, or carefully read, it comes home with great
   power to the soul and guides us in the way of life. Moreover the Lord
   has a way of teaching us by His own Spirit. The Holy Spirit speaks in
   secret whispers to those who are able to hear Him. It is not every
   professing Christian that has the visitations of the Spirit of God in
   personal monitions, but there are saints who hear a voice behind them
   saying, "This is the way, walk in it." God guides us with His eyes as
   well as by His Word. Opened eyes can see, in a moment, what the Lord
   means. He has gentle means. His daily dealings in loving tenderness are
   guides to us. Every mercy is a star to pilot us to Heaven.

   When we are not willing to be guided so easily, He will teach us by
   rough means. The Lord has a bit and a whip for those who need them. He
   will restrain us by affliction and infirmity and sometimes chasten us
   very sorely with losses, bereavements, depression of spirit and the
   like--in some way or other He will hear the prayer for teaching, for it
   is a Covenant promise--"All your children shall be taught of the Lord."
   Blessed are they to whom the teaching comes sweetly and softly! It can
   be so if we are willing to have it so, but surely if we will not be
   tenderly guided, God will make us do His will as men compel the bullock
   to do their will when it is rebellions under the yoke and must be
   broken in. The Lord will hear our prayer for instruction, but it may
   not be quite in the way we would have chosen.

   One thing more. I trust we have, all of us who know the Lord, prayed
   the prayer, "Teach me to do Your will; for You are my God." Now mind,
   my dear Friends, mind that you do it sincerely and know what you are
   doing because after offering such a petition as this, you dare not go
   into sin! You cannot say, "Teach me to do Your will," and then go off
   to frivolous amusements, or spend your evenings in vain and giddy
   society. That would be an insolent mockery of God! "Teach me to do Your
   will," you say, and then get up and do what you know to be clean
   contrary to His mind and will--what defiant profanity is this! Again,
   do not offer this prayer with a reserve. Do not say, or mean, "Teach me
   to do Your will in all points but one. There is a point in which I pray
   You have me excused."

   I am afraid that certain Believers do not want to learn too much. I
   have known them not like to read special passages of Scripture. Perhaps
   they trouble them doctrinally, or as to the ordinances of the Christian
   faith, or as to matters of Church discipline. If they do not paste
   those pages together to hide the obnoxious passage, yet they do not
   like them opened too much. They would rather read a verse which looks
   more to their mind. But, Brothers and Sisters, if you and a text have a
   quarrel, make up with it at once! You must not alter the text--alter
   your creed, alter your life, alter your thought, God the Holy Spirit
   helping you--for the text is right and you are in the wrong!

   "Teach me to do Your will," means, if we pray it honestly, "I will
   search God's Word to know what His mind is." Why, there are numbers of
   you who join the Church you were brought up in, whatever it is! You do
   not take the trouble to examine as to whether your Church is Scriptural
   or not. This is a blind way of acting! This is not obeying the will of
   God. Know what God's Book teaches. Search the Scriptures! Many
   Christians believe what their minister preaches because he preaches it.
   Do not believe a word of what I preach unless you can find it in the
   Word of God. "To the Law and to the Testimony! If we speak not
   according to this Word it is because there is no light in us." We are
   all fallible and though we teach as best we can and hope that God
   teaches you much by us, yet we are not inspired and do not pretend to

   be!

   Search the Book of God on your own account and abide by what you find
   there and by nothing else. Where the Bible leads, you are bound to
   follow and following its guidance you shall not walk in darkness. Seek
   to know the will of God and when you know it, carry it out and pray the
   Holy Spirit to take away the dearest idol you have known--the thought
   that pleases you best--out of your mind if it is contrary to the
   supreme will of the eternal God! The Lord grant we may thus pray and
   thus be heard.

   Alas, unconverted people cannot pray after the fashion of my text. They
   have, first of all, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ before they can
   do the will of the Lord. May you all be led to believe in the Savior
   and when you have done so, then may the Holy Spirit lead you to pray,
   "Teach me to do Your will; for You are may God." The Lord bless you,
   for Christ's sake. Amen.

   LETTER FROM MR. SPURGEON

   DEAR FRIENDS--I had joyfully expected to set out for home next Monday,
   but flights of letters have come to warn me against returning while an
   Arctic temperature freezes our native land. Many matters make me
   anxious to see my dear home and Church, but I submit to the loving
   advice of my Deacons, which has just reached me by telegram, and I
   shall abide in this warm retreat for another week, hoping for a change
   of weather.

   Yours heartily,

   C. H. SPURGEON

   Mentone, January 31, 1880
     __________________________________________________________________

Pressing Questions of an Awakened Mind

   (No. 1520)

   DELIVERED BY

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Who are You, Lord?...What will You have me to do?" Acts 9:5, 6.

   PAUL fell to the ground overcome by the brightness of the light which
   outshone the midday sun and as he lay there he cried, "Who are You,
   Lord?" After receiving an answer to his first question, he humbly asked
   another, "Lord, what will You have me to do?" This morning I spent all
   my strength and I scarcely have any remaining for this evening, but the
   subject was well worthy of the greatest exhaustion. I tried to show
   that we must receive the kingdom of Heaven as little children, or else
   we could not in any way enter into it. I wanted, if I could, to add a
   sort of practical tailpiece to that subject, something that would
   enable me, yet more fully, to explain the childlike spirit which comes
   at conversion and which is absolutely necessary as one of the first
   marks and consequences of the work of the Spirit of God upon the heart.
   I cannot find a better illustration of the childlike spirit than this
   which is now before us.

   Paul was a great man and, on the way to Damascus, I have no doubt he
   rode a very high horse. He verily thought that he was doing God
   service. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees and had a very high
   estimate of his own character and, now that he had letters from the
   High Priest upon his person, he felt himself to be armed with great
   power and to be no mean man. He would let those poor Christians in
   Damascus know! He would worry them out of their fanaticism. He would
   take care to let them see that Saul of Tarsus was greater than Jesus of
   Nazareth. But a few seconds sufficed for the Lord to alter the man! How
   soon He brought Paul down! The manifestation of Jesus Christ, Himself,
   from Heaven soon subdued the great man into a little child, for the two
   questions which are now before us are exceedingly childlike.

   He enquires with sacred curiosity, "Who are You, Lord?" and then he
   surrenders at discretion, crying, "What will You have me to do?" He
   seems to cry, "I give up my weapons! I submit, receiving the kingdom of
   God as a little child to be Your servant! I only ask to be taught what
   I am to do and I am ready to do it. You have conquered me. Behold, at
   Your feet I lie--only raise me up and give me something to do in Your
   service, for I will gladly undertake it." To this spirit we must all
   come if we are to be saved! We must come to think of Jesus so as to
   desire to know Him. And then we must reverence Jesus so as to be
   willing to obey His will in all things.

   Upon these two points I am going to speak with a measure of brevity
   tonight. Our first object of thought will be the earnest enquirer
   seeking to know his Lord. The second will be the obedient disciple
   requesting directions.

   I. First, then, if any one of us would be saved he must be brought, by
   Divine Grace, to be AN EARNEST ENQUIRER AFTER THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST.
   He must ask the question, "Who are You, Lord?" Notice that he is
   willing to be taught. He lies there with the Christ above him and he
   asks Him a question. He is not only willing to learn, but he is eager
   to be taught. "Who are You, Lord?" is the utterance of his inmost soul.
   He wants to know. And do not you want to know, my Hearer? There is but
   one name given under Heaven whereby you must be saved! Do you not wish
   to know something about Him whose name it is? Are you indifferent to
   your soul's affairs, careless about what shall become of your immortal
   soul?

   Did Jesus die and is it nothing to you? Do you pass by His Cross as
   though it were the market cross of a village? Do you hear of His death
   as though it were some commonplace event in history to be once read and
   then forgotten? I pray it may not be so with you. But since you must
   either be lost or saved eternally, come and ask with deep anxiety, "Who
   are You, Lord? Who are You by whom I am to be saved? What right--what
   power have You to save? What claim have You upon my faith? Oh, tell me,
   for I long to know." Lack of thought ruins half of mankind! If men were
   but anxious to understand the Truth of God, they would soon learn it
   and receive it. If like the Bereans they would search the Scriptures to
   find the Truth, or if like Lydia their hearts were opened to receive
   it, they would soon know the Lord! Like Paul, we must be willing to
   learn.

   And, next, observe the subject that he wished to be instructed upon.
   "Who are Fou, Lord?" You have heard that Christ is the Savior--let your
   ambition be to know all about Him. I will tell you one thing--saints on
   earth and even saints in Heaven are always wanting to have this
   question more fully answered to them--"Who are You, Lord?" Those who
   know Him best will tell you that there is a something about Him which
   still surpasses all their knowledge! And I suppose that even when we
   see Him face to face there will remain a mystery in His matchless love
   and a depth unsearchable in His Divine Person into which even then we
   shall not be able to dive.

   "Who are You, Lord?" may well be the question of a soul that is seeking
   salvation, since it is still the question of those who have found it.
   "Who are You, Lord?" What is Your Person? What is Your Nature? How is
   it that You are able to save? Learn well that He is Divine, yet
   human--the Son of Mary and yet the Son of God. He is Man, your Brother,
   touched with the feeling of your infirmities, yet He is God eternal,
   infinite, full of all power and majesty, assuredly Divine! Learn this
   if you would be saved and regard the Lord Jesus as God over all,
   blessed forever, yet clothed in the form of a Servant and made in the
   likeness of sinful flesh. Learn that.

   "Who are You, Lord?" What are Your offices? If my eyes could see You I
   would ask You, what titles do You bear? What offices do You sustain? He
   is a Prophet--you must be instructed by Him and believe His teaching.
   He is a Priest-- you must be washed by His blood and He must offer
   sacrifice for you, no, rather, He has offered it and you must accept it
   as being for you and on your behalf! He is a King, too, and if you will
   be saved by Him you must let Him govern you. You must yield yourself to
   Him and be His subject and take up His Cross and bear His easy yoke
   which is no burden to the neck. Prophet, Priest, King and a thousand
   other offices does He sustain! Ask, you craving sinner, ask, "Who are
   You, Lord?" till you shall discover something about Him that exactly
   suits you and then your faith shall light upon it and your heart shall
   cry, "He is all my salvation and all my desire!"

   "Who are You, Lord?" It is a question you may ask about His
   relationships. Who is He? The Son of the Highest and yet the Brother of
   the lowest! Who is He? King of angels and King of kings and yet the
   Friend of sinners and the Helper of the humblest that will come to Him!
   He stands as the Head over all things to the Church--He is His Church's
   Husband and the world's Ruler--Master of Providence, Sovereign of
   Heaven, Conqueror of Hell itself! All power is in His hands. The Father
   has committed it unto Him and now He stands in such relationship to us
   that if we believe in Him, He gives us eternal life and guards us from
   all ill, for He has said, "I give unto My sheep eternal life and they
   shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of My hands."

   O beloved Hearer, if you would be saved, study deeply that question,
   "Who are You, Lord?" and be not satisfied till you know Christ and are
   known of Him--till there is a mutual knowledge between you and
   Himself--for it is only so that you can be saved. An unknown Christ is
   no Christ to you! A Savior whom you do not know is a Savior who will
   not know you in the day of His appearing! "Who are You, Lord?" Now,
   that question, as I have said, concerning Christ should be asked by all
   of us, but it is not at all a speculative question. It is a question of
   the utmost practical importance to every man, woman and child and in
   proportion as a man knows the answer to that question he will receive
   its practical result.

   Listen and understand this. "Who are You, Lord?" What will be the first
   result of having this question answered? Why, when Paul knew that He
   whose face had shone upon Him brighter than the sun was Jesus of
   Nazareth, He was seized with the deepest possible contrition. "What?"
   he seemed to say, "Have I persecuted the Lord? When I was hunting down
   those poor people, was I hunting down the Messiah? Was I fighting
   against the Christ of God?" He had not known that before, but when he
   knew who the Lord was, then his heart was broken within him with a deep
   sense of sin. Now, come here, some of you! You have been living for
   years refusing true religion and despising it, but have you ever
   thought that you were refusing Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and
   despising the Beloved of God who condescended to come into the world to
   suffer for love's sake?

   When they put Jesus to death He was, as our sweet poet puts it--"Found
   guilty of excess of love." It was all that could be laid to His dear
   charge and for excess of love He died. And you have refused Him! You
   have now, these 20 years and more, refused that thorn-crowned head,
   that brow so marred, those wounded hands, that gashed and wounded side!
   You have refused the matchless Savior without whom you are undone
   forever! Have you known this? Have you done it willfully? I hope you
   can reply, "But I did it ignorantly in unbelief." Therefore He winks at
   your ill manners and He bids you, now, come to Him and He will gladly
   receive you! He will in no wise cast you out! To know Christ, then, is
   a practi-

   cal knowledge, because it leads to repentance. When Christ is unknown,
   we can go on refusing and even persecuting Him. But when we clearly
   perceive that it is the Son of God and the bleeding Lamb whom we have
   refused and persecuted, then our hearts melt--we beg His forgiveness
   and cast ourselves at His feet.

   A second practical result is that then our hope is encouraged, for
   though Paul, at the sight of the Lord Jesus must have been full of
   bitter anguish, it was by that same sight that he was afterwards
   cheered and comforted. What? Are You in Heaven brighter than the sun?
   Are You the Man of Nazareth whom I have persecuted? Are You He who was
   rejected and despised? O You bright and shining One, are You that same
   Christ to whom the publicans and harlots drew near? Are You He who came
   to seek and to save that which was lost? Are You exalted on high to
   give repentance unto Israel and remission of sins? Then there is hope
   for me! It is the sinner's Christ that is in Heaven, the same that took
   the little children and said, "Suffer them to come to Me." Oh, then, I
   will trust Him! I feel I may, I can, I must! I yield myself to Him
   because I now know Him. I did not before. How practical is this
   knowledge!

   And it had another effect upon Paul. It led him to complete submission.
   He said, "Is this Christ whom I have rejected, Lord of All? Then it is,
   indeed, hard for me to kick against the pricks. I will not do so any
   longer. Resist Him? That I dare not do! If all power is in His hands,
   then to oppose Him is as hopeless as it is wicked! Behold, I surrender
   at discretion. O Lord Jesus, be my king. Accept me as Your subject. I
   oppose You no longer!" How I wish that Jesus would make some here know
   Him who have never known Him before--that they may at this very hour
   yield to Him because if once they knew Him it would fire them with
   ardor in His service! There was never a man yet that did really know
   Christ whom Christ did not fill with an inward flame so that he felt he
   could live or die for Him!

   Some human military leaders have had such extraordinary influence over
   their soldiers that they have commanded and have been cheerfully
   obeyed, even at the cost of life. The Christ of God has a superlative
   power over all hearts that know Him. See how Paul felt His influence
   and scoured the world to win Christ's lost ones! Perils of robbers;
   perils of rivers--the deep sea itself; scourging, stoning--all these
   were nothing to the Apostle from the day when he knew Christ! He had
   been exceedingly hot against Him, but now he burns and blazes with zeal
   for Christ. And so will it be with all who know Jesus! Right practical,
   then, is the question, "Who are You, Lord?" Oh that the Spirit of God
   would lead everyone to ask that question for himself!

   Only once more and I leave the question. It is this. While Paul was
   willing to learn, his subject was important, for he wished to learn of
   Christ and it was exceedingly practical, for it moved him to every good
   thing. But it is worthy of remark that he sought instruction from the
   best possible Master, for, my Brothers and Sisters, who can tell us who
   Christ is but Christ Himself? Here is His Book. Read it! It is the
   looking glass! Jesus is yonder and He looks into this Book and if you
   look into it with well-washed eyes, you may see His reflected image in
   this glass darkly, however, at the best. So, too, when you hear His
   faithful servants preach, you may see somewhat of Christ--but let me
   tell you there is no sight of Christ like that which comes personally
   to your own soul by the Holy Spirit.

   I do not mean that any men among us will ever see Christ while we are
   here with these eyes--and if we did, it might not do us good, for
   thousands saw Him who, nevertheless, cried, "Crucify Him." But I do
   mean that there are eyes inside these eyes--eyes of the mind and of the
   soul--to which Christ Himself must reveal Himself. And I charge you who
   have never seen Him to fall on your knees and cry, "Show Yourself to
   me!" You must have personal dealings with Him, each one for himself,
   and you may have these dealings! He is accessible tonight! He will
   receive you at once if you seek Him. He has declared that He will not
   cast any out that come to Him!

   Oh, will you not ask Him to show Himself to you? If you knew He would
   refuse you, you might be excused the prayer, but since He will manifest
   Himself to every contrite, lowly, seeking soul, will you not seek Him?
   Will you not, even now, humbly put this question to Him, "Who are You,
   Lord? Reveal Yourself to me, as You do not to the world, but as You do
   to seeking souls!" So, then, I leave that question to come to the
   second one. May the Holy Spirit help us while we handle it.

   II. "What will You have me to do?" THE OBEDIENT DISCIPLE REQUESTING
   DIRECTION. We are always telling you that whoever believes in the Lord
   Jesus Christ has everlasting life. That is the basic doctrine of the
   Gospel. But remember that we never told you that you might believe in
   the Lord Jesus Christ and then live as you liked! That is far from us.
   He who truly believes in Christ does as Christ bids him and becomes,
   from that time on, Christ's servant and disciple as well as His saved
   one. Therefore the question, "Lord, what will You have me to do?" You
   will notice that the

   Apostle here puts himself into the position of a soldier waiting for
   orders. He will not stir till he has received his officer's command.
   "Lord, what will You have me to do?"

   He stands quite ready to do it, but he needs to know what the order may
   be and, therefore, he looks up and prays, "Lord, direct me. What would
   You have me to do?" It is his Lord's will, alone, that Paul now means
   to do. "Lord, what will You have me to do?" Before, it used to be,
   "What will Moses have me to do?" And with some now present it has been
   "What should I like to do?" for whatever their soul lusts after, that
   have they done and whatever new pleasure, no matter how sinful it might
   be, if it were within their reach, they followed greedily after it! But
   he that would be saved must yield up his will to his Lord.

   Now, Beloved, take heed unto yourselves that Christ is your Master and
   nobody else. It would never do to say, "What would the Church have me
   to do?" As far as the Church teaches what Christ taught, obey her, but
   no farther. It would not even be right to say, "What would an Apostle
   have me to do?" Paul said," Be you followers of me, even as I also am
   of Christ." But if Paul does not follow Christ, we must not follow
   Paul! He says, "Though we, or an angel from Heaven, preach any other
   Gospel, let him be accursed." And so let it stand. I count it to be a
   sad lowering of a Christian's standard when he takes any mortal man
   living, or even any man now in Heaven to be his guide and master.

   "One is your Master, even Christ," and your question should be, "Lord,
   what will You have me to do? I see what I am bid to do in the Prayer
   Book. I see what I am bid to do by learned and godly men, but these
   things have no authority over my conscience. Lord, what would You have
   me to do? If it is not Your will and Your Word, I know there can be no
   light in it, but what I know not, teach me." And, then, notice that
   this childlike obedience of the Apostle is personal. It is, "Lord, what
   will You have me to do? I have little enough to do with my neighbors.
   They have their duty and their calling, but, Lord, what would You have
   me to do? Other persons must follow the light they have, but, Lord,
   what will You have me to do? My father, my brother, my friend--I have
   no right to judge these--to their own Master they must stand or fall.
   But, Lord, what would You have me to do?"

   You that look at your own inability when you come to Christ must come
   to Him with a personal faith, pleading for strength to do His will. You
   must yield to Jesus a personal obedience, even should it separate you
   from all your family! Let it separate the nearest ties. Let it cause
   your past friends to give you the cold shoulder. Let it subject you to
   persecution even unto death--you have nothing to do with these
   consequences--your business is to say, "Show me what You would have me
   to do and I will, in Your strength and by Your Grace, do it." I mention
   a little incident in my own personal history for which I have always
   had reason enough to thank God. When I was converted to God after some
   long time of bitter anguish of spirit, I found rest. And the very first
   thing I did when I found rest in Christ was to read, for myself, the
   New Testament and see what the Lord would have me to do.

   I found in the Word of God the duty of Believers' Baptism. I had never
   met with any Baptist friends in my life until I had, for myself,
   discovered the Truth of God. I had not even heard of their existence,
   so negligent had they been in the spreading of their views on that
   matter! But taking up the New Testament with my lexicon to see what the
   word meant, I found that the word, "baptize," signified to immerse.
   When I read the Scriptures I found everywhere that Believers were
   immersed. I did not, at first, know the existence of another person who
   held that opinion, but it did not matter to me the turn of a hair! I
   was only afraid that I might not find anybody to baptize me--but I
   meant to attend to the duty in some way or other!

   I discovered, afterwards, that there were many who had searched the
   Scriptures and had come to the same conclusion as myself. But to me,
   then, it seemed like walking away from all the Christian people that I
   knew. Have I ever regretted the step? No. Unimportant as some might
   think it, it gave to my whole spirit and life a tone for which I have
   reason to thank God. I stood upon my own feet, having read the Bible
   for myself. I took my own way in obedience to my Lord and Master and
   from that day I know that I have not willfully turned aside from His
   statutes, either in doctrines or in precept, but I have taught the
   faith as I have learned it! When I go to my chamber at night with a
   thousand imperfections to confess, yet I can feel that I have honestly
   and faithfully followed my Master.

   If I have erred, it has been from lack of light and not from lack of
   will to serve Him. But if I had ignored that first conviction and if I
   had made little nicks in my conscience at first, could I stand before
   you all this night and declare that I have not shunned both to do and
   to declare the whole counsel of God? I charge every young convert, as
   soon as he believes in Christ, to read and search the Bible for himself
   and say, "Show me what You would have me to do." I would

   rather be right, alone, than be wrong with all the world! And every
   honest Christian man ought to feel that he would rather follow Jesus
   Christ with two or three than run with a multitude after the traditions
   of men!

   God help you, Beloved, as soon as you are converted, to become
   thoroughly obedient disciples, searching the Word. I do not set so much
   importance upon the result of your investigation as I do upon the
   investigation, itself. I care less about the result you arrive at than
   I do for the Spirit which would lead you, as a disciple, earnestly to
   desire to follow your Master and would lead you to do everything that
   you believe to be His will--the little as well as the great. The Lord
   help us to be anxious to know and do His will in all things, regardless
   of consequences.

   Note again, that the Apostle not only puts it personally, but he pleads
   for Grace at once. "Lord, show me what You would have me to do?" as
   much as to say, "I will do it directly." He does not ask to be allowed
   a little delay, but, "What would You have me to do? Here I, Your
   willing servant, stand." Young man, if you would have salvation you
   must be ready to follow Christ tonight! Tonight, it may be, is the time
   when the Spirit of God is struggling with you and, if resisted, He may
   never return. Just now the scales hang in an even balance. Which way
   shall they turn? It may be tonight for life or death the scale shall
   turn for the last time. O blessed Jesus in Heaven, why should we
   hesitate if You will, indeed, save us? We may well make a complete
   surrender and say, "Now, even now, I enlist beneath Your banner, for I
   am Your willing servant."

   And observe, once more, that Paul does not make any kind of conditions.
   What would You have me to do? I will do it. If unpleasant to the flesh
   it shall be pleasant to my heart and if it appears stern, yet if You
   will help me, I will do it. "What will You have me to do?" Paul little
   knew, when he asked the question, what the doing of His Master's will
   would involve, but he meant at the time that whatever it would involve
   he was prepared for it. O you that would be Christians, do not suppose
   that it is just believing something--an article of a creed, or
   undergoing a ceremony that will save you! You must, if you are
   Christ's, yield yourselves up to Him! He did not come into this world
   to lead men to Heaven by back roads and crooked paths--He leads them
   into the way of righteousness, the end which is everlasting peace!

   Will you be child enough to follow Him? Will you have the childlike
   spirit which only needs, first, to know who He is and then exclaims--

   "Through floods or flames, If Jesus leads

   I'll follow where He goes"?

   The Lord grant it may be so with us! I close with just this remark,
   that it is by knowing Christ that you will learn to obey Him and the
   more you obey Him the more easy it will be. And in obeying Him you will
   find your honor. Paul at this day stands in a most honorable place in
   the Church of God simply because, being called of God to do His will,
   he did it faithfully even to the end. Is it not beautiful to see how
   Paul, in one moment, seems to have forgotten all his old Phariseeism?
   All the harsh words and bitter blasphemies that he had spoken against
   Christ--they were all gone in a moment! What strange changes will come
   over some beings in an instant!

   One of my students who had been a sailor has preached the Gospel for
   some long time, but his English was far from grammatical. Having been
   in college some little time he began to speak correctly, but suddenly
   the old habit returned upon him. He was in the Princess Alice [ship
   which sank with many aboard--ed] at the time of the lamentable
   catastrophe and he escaped in an almost miraculous manner. I saw him
   some time after and congratulated him on his escape and he replied that
   he had saved his life but had lost all his grammar. He found himself,
   for a while, using the language of two or three years ago--and even
   now, though he is recovering his spirits, he declares that he cannot
   get back what he had learned! He seems to have drowned his grammar on
   that terrible occasion.

   Now, just as we may lose some good thing by a dreadful accident or
   occurrence which seems to sweep over the mind like a huge wave and wash
   away our treasures, so by a blessed catastrophe if Christ should meet
   with anyone tonight-- much which he has valued will be swept away! You
   may write on wax and may make the record fair. Take a hot iron and roll
   it across the wax and it is all gone. That seems to me to be just what
   Jesus did with Paul's heart. It was all written over with blasphemy and
   rebellion and He rolled the hot iron of burning love over Paul's soul
   and the evil inscription was all gone. He ceased to blaspheme and he
   began to praise!

   May the same be done to many here present to the praise and glory of my
   Master's love and power! Amen and amen!
     __________________________________________________________________

A Plain Answer to an Important Enquiry

   (No. 1521)

   DELIVERED BY

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that you
   believe on Him whom He has sent." John 6:29.

   NOTICE the connection or you will miss the meaning of the words, for,
   at first sight it looks as if our Savior taught us that it is the work
   of God for us to believe on Him. Now, that would be quite true and it
   is very plainly taught in other parts of Scripture that faith is the
   work of God, but that is not the teaching in this particular instance,
   as will be very plain if you look at the context. First, our Savior
   said to the people, "See how you labor after the bread of your bodies.
   You have been running all round the coast to find Me in order that I
   might feed you again with loaves and fishes. Now," He says, "let your
   labor run after something better. Labor not for the meat that perishes,
   but for that which endures to life eternal."

   He gently rebukes them, "Do not spend all your strength in seeking
   after temporal good, but think about your immortal natures. Satisfy the
   hunger of your spirits, the better part of you." They immediately
   answered, "You tell us to labor after the bread that does not perish.
   What shall we do that we might work the work of God and so obtain it?"
   Our translation fails to let us see that they used precisely the same
   words as the Savior had done. He said, "labor," and they said, "What
   shall we do that we may labor this labor of God? What is it?" They took
   Him at His word and they put a question in accordance. When men begin
   to be awakened about spiritual things, they naturally cry, "What must
   we do to be saved? What must we do that we may work the work of God?"

   It is a faulty question--it is a question very much shaped by their
   ignorance and error. They suppose that there are works to be done, and
   merit to be earned by doing and obeying a law. And so they put it in
   that shape--"What shall we do? What shall we work that we may work the
   work of God?" The Savior did not chide them for the shape of the
   question. It was not the time to expect accuracy, but He gave them such
   Truth as they could understand and He replied, "You want to know what
   work you must do that shall be 'the work of God,' or a work pleasing to
   God? This, then, is 'the work of God,' the work most pleasing to God of
   all the works that can be done by men, that you believe on Him whom He
   has sent."

   The teaching here is not that faith is worked in us by God, which I
   have already said is a great Truth of God, but it is this--that if men
   desire to work, the first and chief of all work is that they believe on
   Jesus Christ whom God has sent! Does any man object to faith being
   called the work of man? If he does, I ask him why he objects. It is
   true that faith is the gift of God, but this does not change, for a
   moment, the other Truth of God that faith is the work of man--for it is
   and must be the act of man. No one in his senses can deny that! Will
   you venture to say that man does not believe? Then I venture to tell
   you that he who does not personally believe in Jesus is a lost man! And
   if there is such a thing as a faith which is not a man's own act and
   deed it will not save him.

   The man must, himself, believe or perish! This is the plain doctrine of
   Scripture. Repentance is worked in us by the Holy Spirit, but we must,
   ourselves, repent or we shall never be saved. Faith is worked in us by
   the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit does not believe, or repent--these
   are a man's own acts! With our hearts we believe unto righteousness. If
   we do not believe, then we are not partakers of the promise which is
   given to those who do believe! Faith is, therefore, the work of man and
   it is the chief of works, the work most pleasing to God, the most
   godlike work, or, as the text puts it, "This is the work of God, that
   you believe on Him whom He has sent."

   To open up this one thought I pray for help from on high--it is just
   this--that faith is the most pleasing of all the works that man can do.
   It is here called, "the work," but not strictly and properly, for it
   can never be ranged with the works of the Law, from which it
   essentially differs. But the Savior took up the word which they used
   and spoke to their ignorance that He might instruct them.

   I. Regarding it as a work, faith is most pleasing to God, for, first,
   IT IS THE COMPREHENSIVE SUMMARY OF ALL TRUE WORK. There lies within the
   loins of faith every possible form of holiness. As a forest may lie
   asleep within an acorn, so within the bounds of faith, little though it
   is, every virtue lies hidden. It may be microscopic in form, but it is
   certainly there and only needs development. Repentance dwells in faith,
   for he that believes in Jesus Christ unto salvation knows that he is a
   sinner and he must have some hatred of sin, or else he would not have
   taken Christ to deliver him from his sin.

   Love to God is there, for, most assuredly, when I trust a
   man--completely trust him--it would be impossible for me to do so
   unless I felt some leaning of my spirit towards him. The complete
   trusting of the soul to Christ, which is faith, has had in it no small
   measure of love to Christ. If I had before me a list of all the Graces
   of the Spirit of God and I were to take them up one by one and then
   analyze faith, I should find some measure of all these good works of
   the Spirit hidden away in the simple act of believing in Jesus Christ.
   I know what some of you have said--"Is that all that I am to do in
   order to be saved? Am I simply and only to believe in Christ, that is,
   trust myself with Him?"

   Yes, that is all and it is so small an act that the most uneducated
   heart can perform it! But yet, within it there are inconceivable
   mysteries of goodness! Just as sometimes inside a walnut shell I have
   seen packed away with careful art all sorts of gems and jewels, "with
   my lady's gloves to wear," so within this little walnut shell of,
   "believe and live," there will be found by any careful eye all the
   Graces of the Spirit of God. What is more, all the Graces come out of
   faith in due time, for faith sums up the whole of a Christian's life!

   Now, my Brothers and Sisters, I challenge you to read the 11th chapter
   of Hebrews and see if you can think of anything noble, brave, glorious
   which has not its counterpart in that chapter. But remember, it is a
   description of the heroism--not of this virtue or of that, but of
   faith. In the long list, beginning with Abel and going down to the
   last, faith worked all. From faith comes the power that stops the
   mouths of lions, quenches the violence of flames! Out of weakness men
   become strong. It is faith that tramples on temptation. It is faith
   that overcomes the world. It is faith that attains to holiness. Within
   the compass of that little babe whom you hold in your hand, a slender
   weight that you can scarcely feel, there are all the elements of yonder
   man of six feet who leads the van in the royal host and so the true
   Christian man in the perfection of the stature of Christ is all within
   the babe in Grace who cries, "Lord, I believe. Help You my unbelief."

   I can well understand why our Savior should say, "If you wish to work
   the work of God, you must believe in Jesus Christ whom He has sent,"
   for in that act lies all the virtues and out of that act will grow all
   the virtues in due time.

   II. But now, secondly, this simple matter of trusting Jesus Christ
   which is called FAITH, IS, IN ITSELF, MOST PLEASING TO GOD. First, it
   is the creature acknowledging its God. While a man says, "I do not care
   about my soul," he lives in atheism, disowning God, living as if there
   were no God. When a man says, "I need no saving," that is contradicting
   God's testimony wherein He declares that we are all gone out of the way
   and have altogether become abominable. When a man says, "I may be
   wrong, but I can get right by myself. My own good deeds will save me,"
   he is setting himself up in independence of his God. In fact, he is
   making himself his own god and so, practically, setting up another god.

   But when the man cries, "I have sinned," there is an acknowledgment
   that the Law is good and holy and just! When he then adds, "I have so
   sinned that I deserve punishment and I submit myself to it," there is a
   recognition of the court of Heaven and an admission of the
   righteousness of its sentences! The rebellious heart submits itself to
   the authority of God! When he further says, "But I have heard, great
   God, that You have given Your Son to bleed and die for sinners and that
   He is able to save to the uttermost them that trust Him and I do trust
   Him," the submission of the man to God is complete. Before, he said, "I
   do not believe it. It does not stand to reason"--that is proud Reason
   still a rebel. Or he said, "It may or may not be so, but I do not see
   the peculiar beauty of an atoning Sacrifice." There, again, is the
   proud heart kicking against God.

   But the man comes into his right place when he believes. When he
   believes in Jesus Christ and accepts mercy through the great Sacrifice,
   God is well-pleased because His poor erring creature has come into its
   right place and God sees in the act of faith the restitution of
   rectitude. Again, God is pleased with faith because it accepts God's
   way of reconciliation. God has given Christ that He might reconcile us
   to Himself by Him. When a man says, "I take Christ to be my Savior," he
   accepts God's way of reconciliation and then God must be reconciled,
   for He has promised to be so. As He longs to be reconciled and wills
   not that any should perish, but that they should come to repentance, so
   does He rejoice when they are willing to make peace with Him in His own
   appointed way. It shows a submission to His wisdom, a confidence in His

   love, a yielding to His Divine will and that is what He seeks after.
   All this, I say, is included in faith and makes it well pleasing to
   God.

   Perhaps the most acceptable element in faith to the eyes of God is the
   fact that it puts honor upon Jesus Christ, for He dearly loves His Son.
   We cannot tell how deep is the love of the Father towards His only
   begotten Son. That which dishonors Jesus must be very obnoxious to the
   Father and your self-confidence, my Friend, is a dishonor to the merit
   and salvation of Christ and God abhors it! But when you fling that all
   away and have no hope but in the great Atonement which He has made,
   then, I say, because your faith honors Jesus, therefore God delights in
   it and He will honor your faith. It is not possible that He should cast
   a soul away that clings to the great High Priest. Oh, if you look to
   Jesus, you shall never lose your sight! If your heart clings to Jesus,
   that heart of yours shall never lose its life! If your soul joys in
   Jesus, that soul of yours shall never lose its joy!

   The fact is, that faith puts us into a right relationship with God, for
   what is the right relationship of a creature to his God but that of
   dependence? Is it not most suitable that since God made us and He has
   all power and all strength, we should depend upon Him for our being, as
   well as for our well-being? See how He hangs the world upon nothing!
   This round globe never starts nor falters, but is steadily upheld in
   its mighty march by the unseen hand of God! Yonder stars, mighty worlds
   though they are, have no power to keep themselves in their places but
   the power of God which established them. All things hang upon Him and
   the only position for a created being is that of entire
   dependence--what is that but

   faith?

   I believe that there is faith in Heaven. Do not tell me there is no
   faith there. I believe it to be the essence of Heaven that the
   glorified exercise unquestioning faith and never feel a doubt. It will
   be the joy of every spirit before the Throne of God to depend every
   moment for its immortality and bliss upon God and to be quite confident
   that He will never fail it. Some sorts of faith will be turned to
   sight--but if faith is confidence in God, I bless God I shall have a
   great deal more of it in Heaven than I can have here! A perfect child
   must have a perfect faith in a perfect Father. Because faith brings the
   creature back to conscious dependence, God is well-pleased with it.

   Faith restores us by putting us into a place of childlike rest. If a
   son has fallen into the hands of a malicious individual who has
   whispered into his ear that his father hates him--that he is doing all
   he possibly can to ruin him--at first the youth will not believe the
   accusation, but perhaps, after a while, he begins to think it is true.
   From that time forward every action that his father makes will be
   interpreted the wrong way--and if there is anything in the father's
   life which is more kind than usual, it is highly probable that this
   poor misled boy will see a deeper subtlety of malice in it than in his
   father's ordinary actions! The lad will break his father's commands and
   vex and anger him. What is the first thing to be done to set that youth
   right?

   You may make him dread his father and then he will behave properly in
   his outward actions, but he will only be waiting his time to break
   loose. Suppose it to be possible to make him believe in his father and
   to be assured that his father loved him and had, all along, been the
   kindest man on earth? Why he would run into his father's arms! He will
   be willing enough to obey a parent whom he trusts--it will be his
   delight to do so! You have won his confidence and everything is right
   now. This is what faith does to us. The devil and our own corrupt
   nature say, "God is unkind, for He has made an awful Hell," and so on.
   Faith interposes and cries, "He has put away His wrath. He has made
   full atonement for sin. He is willing to receive us."

   Then faith says, "Trust Him. Trust Him implicitly." And when the soul
   has done that, then faith testifies, "He has loved you with an
   everlasting love. Jesus died for you and He has provided a Heaven for
   you." Let this be known and felt and what a change takes place! Oh,
   then you hate your sin! Oh, then you are ready to say, "How could I
   play the fool against One so kind, so good, so right?" Under this
   impulse you will serve Him and live for Him! That simple matter of
   believing Him has done it all! It is the hinge on which character
   turns. Hard thoughts of God lead to acts of rebellion, but a childlike
   confidence in Infinite Love softens the heart and sanctifies it and
   makes the man a true child towards the great Father.

   Do you wonder, then, that there is much in faith, in itself, which is
   pleasing to God? And if you ask what great works you are to do to
   please God, we shall not tell you to build a row of almshouses, or
   endow an orphanage, or give your body to be burned--believe in Jesus
   Christ and you have done more than all these things put together!

   III. And now a third reason why faith is so great a thing is
   this--FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST IS THE TEST OF WORKING FOR GOD, for all the
   works that ever were, without faith in Jesus Christ, are not works for
   God at all. Let me explain and prove my point. Suppose that a person
   should say, "But I mean to live for the great God and work for Him."
   Without faith the spirit of work is wrong. My Friend, suppose you said
   to me, "I will live for you and spend my life in your service, but I am
   not going to believe what you say"? There would be a point of
   disagreement between us which would render it impossible for you to be
   of any service to me, or for anything that you did to be of any value
   to me. You call me a liar to begin with and then say you serve me?

   Many of you that have heard the Gospel may, perhaps, think that you are
   serving God, though you have never believed in Christ. But, I tell you,
   your best actions are nothing but whitewashed sins! All that you do
   must be destitute of real excellence because you begin by making God a
   liar! It is a hard word, you say. I cannot help it--it is the word of
   John, the most gentle spirit among all Biblical characters. John says,
   "He that believes not has made God a liar because he has not believed
   on the Son of God." If you begin by calling God a liar, I do not care
   much what you do after that. I would a great deal rather you should be
   moral than immoral and sober than drunk, but, after all, you will be
   lost in either case if you persevere in calling God a liar!

   All your holiness will be a sham if you will not believe in Jesus. The
   test of true work for God is this--"That you believe on Jesus Christ
   whom He has sent." Without faith the motive of work fails. "But," cries
   another person, "I believe I have deserved well of God! I have kept
   myself pretty right and I have performed many good deeds." What have
   you done them for? "I have been working for my salvation," says one. In
   other words, you have been working for yourself. Pay yourself, then!
   Self is first and last--your works are selfishness from top to bottom!
   You have been trying to be good to get to Heaven by it. It is a mean,
   beggarly life that begins and ends with self! Your Maker, whom you were
   bound to love with all your heart, you have not loved at all except
   that you have meanly pretended to love Him in order to save yourself!

   You had a kind of cupboard love to Him, such as an ass or an ox might
   have to a corn bin, or a stall, but no real affection. How can you
   perform a virtuous act while self is your tyrant lord? When you have
   once believed in Jesus Christ then you are saved and from that day on
   you live to glorify the name of the Lord--you live to work out that
   which He has worked in you--to will and to do of His own good pleasure.
   But until you are saved by faith, self is necessarily your first
   thought. No man is capable of virtue as long as self is his objective
   and every man must make self his objective till he is saved! When he is
   saved, he rises into a nobler atmosphere altogether and then his works
   are acceptable to God. Do you not see that you have to get out of
   self-righteousness and to be saved by believing in Christ before you
   can begin to do anything that will be really working for God? Up to
   that point it will be all working for yourself and that is a poor, poor
   thing which cannot please the most high God.

   Beloved Friends, living by faith in Jesus Christ is the evidence of
   your sincerity in any work that you do for God, for can there be any
   real working for God while your own pride is uppermost? God tells you
   that your best works are imperfect and will not save you and He hangs
   His own dear Son upon the Cross to save you because you are a sinner.
   You turn your back to the Cross--you say, "My own merits are good
   enough," and then you talk about serving God after that? Can He accept
   anything at your hands after you have rejected His Son and insulted
   Him? You have touched the Lord in the most tender point when you have
   taken your own detestable righteousness which is just a heap of
   infected rags--a mass of abominable filth in the sight of God--and have
   preferred it to the blood and righteousness of His only Son!

   After such an atrocious crime as this, how dare you talk about doing
   service to God! It is impossible, Sir! There is a lie in the bottom of
   your heart. Get rid of it! How can you serve the Lord while your pride
   thus angers Him? He tells you that you must bow before His Son and
   trust in Him and you reply, "No, I must feel something or do
   something." That is as much as saying, "I will be saved in my own way."
   You talk about serving God after that evil, "I will," of yours has been
   defying Him? Suppose that one of your family will not do what you tell
   him? He defies you to your face. He says he will have his own way and
   then he goes into the garden and he plucks you a flower--and he expects
   that the gift will please you.

   What? Brought in a rebellious hand? While he is in a willful state and
   boiling over with bad temper? Does he think to please you by such a
   trifle? You say, "No, my child, that cannot be. You must first bow
   before your father and acknowledge that you have done wrong." He may
   pout his lips and say he will never obey you and then ask to kiss you.

   Will he have his kiss? Assuredly not till first of all he will submit!
   That is just the condition of many a seeker after God. He has a wicked
   pride in his heart and a rebellious will and if he will believe in
   Jesus it will be a proof that his pride and rebellion are given up. But
   if he will not yield and trust, neither can he expect that God will
   save him!

   IV. I would say, in the fourth place, that faith in God is a most
   blessed and acceptable thing because IT IS THE SEAL OF ALL OTHER
   BLESSINGS. Notice that faith in God is the seal--first, of our
   election. Read the 37th verse, "All that the Father gives Me shall come
   to Me." Now, if you come to Christ, dear Friend, you are one that His
   Father gave Him! You are one of His elect! Oh, what a blessing this is.
   The doctrine of Election is full of rich comfort to all who are
   interested in it and election, itself, is the greatest of all favors.
   "But how am I to know that I am one of God's elect?" By this testimony,
   "All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me." Every elect soul that
   reaches adult age is brought to believe in Jesus Christ and as sure as
   ever you are brought to believe in Jesus Christ, you may be absolutely
   certain that you are predestinated to eternal life!

   In the next place, faith seals our effectual calling. If you look a
   little farther down you will see, "No man can come unto Me except the
   Father which has sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last
   day." These are the express words of Christ and they show that every
   man that comes to Christ must have been drawn by the Father. That is to
   say, that effectual calling has exerted its Divine power upon him. No
   man need say, "Am I drawn of the Father?" after he is once sure that he
   has faith in Jesus Christ, for you never could have believed in Jesus
   Christ unless this had been given you from Heaven. The 44th verse is as
   plain as possible, "No man can come to Me except the Father which has
   sent Me draws him." You have come to him and, therefore, the Father
   must have drawn you.

   The next thing that faith assures us of is final perseverance. Read the
   47th verse--"He that believes on Me has everlasting life." You need not
   raise the question, "Have I received everlasting life?" Raise this
   question, first, "Have I believed in Jesus Christ?" If so, you have
   everlasting life. Not a life, mark you, that will last you up to the
   end of the quarter when you take a new ticket--nor a life that will
   preserve you to old age and then leave you to temptation and death. No,
   "He that believes on Him has everlasting life" And it is not
   everlasting life if it does not last forever. Herein he that believes
   has the guarantee of final perseverance.

   Did not Jesus say, "I give unto them eternal life and they shall never
   perish, neither shall any pluck them out of My hands"? Are we not told
   of him that believes in Christ that there shall be in him a well of
   water springing up unto everlasting life? Or, as Christ puts it in this
   very chapter, "He shall never hunger and he shall never thirst." He has
   drunk a draught of eternal life in Christ Jesus and he shall never
   thirst again! This is a great deal for faith to bring to us, but it is
   not all, for two or three times over we are told here that whoever
   believes in Christ shall be raised up again at the last day--so that
   faith secures resurrection! Read the 39th verse and then the 49th
   verse--"This is the will of Him that sent Me, that everyone which sees
   the Son and believes on Him may have everlasting life and I will raise
   him up at the last

   day."

   How do I know that I shall have a blessed resurrection? How can I be
   certain that though the worms devour this body, yet when Christ shall
   stand in the latter day upon the earth, in my flesh I shall see God? I
   may be quite sure of it because I believe in Jesus Christ whom He has
   sent! Beloved, faith is the seal at the bottom of the title deed which
   secures all things for time and eternity to the man that has it! If you
   are a Believer, all the wheels of Providence revolve for you! If you
   are a Believer, every angel spreads his wings for you! If you are a
   Believer, life is yours and the death which seems to close it is only
   the appointed janitor to open the door of another and a brighter
   chamber! If you believe, God Himself is yours and Christ, His Son, is
   yours! If you believe, Heaven, with its eternity and infinity of joy
   which your eye has not seen, nor your heart conceived of, is yours!

   Nothing shall be kept back from the man that believes his God and
   trusts his Redeemer! Oh that the Lord would give faith to you all!
   "Alas," you say, "I do not feel right." Never mind your feelings, trust
   in Christ! "Oh, but I am such a sinner." Jesus Christ came into the
   world to save sinners. "Alas, but I have tried before." Away with all
   your trying before! Have done with trying and accept the finished work!
   Trust Jesus now! "Do you mean that if I now trust myself with Christ, I
   shall be saved while sitting in the pew?" I mean even so! Be you
   whoever you may be, this night look to Jesus and be saved! If you will
   have done with yourself and will trust your soul in the hands of Jesus
   who has sworn to save those that rest themselves upon Him, you are
   saved!

   Oh, that those who have heard this Gospel many times would now, for the
   first time, really understand it and say, "Is this, after all, the
   greatest of all works--that I believe in Jesus Christ whom He has sent?
   Lord, I believe--help You my unbelief and save me now." O God, help
   many to breathe the prayer of faith at this moment, for Jesus' sake.
   Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Expected Proof of Professed Love

   (No. 1522)

   DELIVERED BY

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Show you the proof of your love." 2 Corinthians 8:24.

   IN every Believer's heart there is love to God, otherwise he cannot be
   a child of God! In every Christian's soul there is love to Jesus
   Christ. How could he be a Christian otherwise? As a consequence of
   this, in every Christian's bosom there is a love to the
   brotherhood--"We know that we have passed from death unto life because
   we love the brethren." In every Christian's breast there is also a love
   to all mankind. He practices that second great Commandment, "You shall
   love your neighbor as yourself." The spirit of God has cast out the
   demon of selfishness and, in proportion as that is the case, the man
   possesses the mind of Christ which is love. As all the Law is fulfilled
   in one word which is, "love," so the outcome of our holy faith is also
   contained in that one word, "love."

   Oh that we were saturated with it! Where there is true love in the
   heart, it becomes a working principle. It does not lie dormant, but it
   works--works abundantly! It is a vital principle that where there is
   life there is movement and a measure of activity. It is a principle
   that grows and out of its growth there comes fruit. For these reasons
   and in these ways, true Believers give sure proofs of the love that is
   in their hearts. I wish to speak to you, at this time, by answering
   four questions.

   I. First, WHAT IS THE EXCELLENCE OF THIS LOVE that we should be so
   anxious to prove it? This Christian love must have some great worth
   about it, or else we should not be exhorted by the Apostle once and
   again to prove that we have it. Remember, first, that true love to God
   and the saints in the Christian heart is Divine in its origin. We would
   never have loved God if He had not first loved us! And, unless His Holy
   Spirit had turned the stream of our affections in that direction, we
   would have run away from God and have hated God and we would neither
   have loved Him nor His people. It is the nature of the seed of the
   serpent to hate the Seed of the woman and as long as we are under
   condemnation and wrath and in our natural state, we are on the
   serpent's side and we war against that which is good.

   "The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the
   Law of God, neither, indeed, can be." If, therefore, we have even a
   spark of love to God, God must have given it to us! It is, therefore, a
   precious thing because it is of God and we ought to take heed that we
   assuredly possess it. And we also should endeavor to live so that
   others may be convinced that this Divine principle rules our spirits.
   As it is Divine in its origin, so it is surpassing in its energy, for
   true love to God exceeds all other love. Does not Christ tell us that a
   man must love Him better than father or mother, or the dearest relative
   he has, or else he does not love Him at all?

   Christ will not be put off with the leftovers of our heart. He must
   have our whole heart. All human affections which are natural and proper
   are to be held in subservience to this grand and master passion which
   is to set our soul on a blaze--love to God in Christ Jesus. He loves
   not Christ at all who does not love Him first and last. This affection,
   like Aaron's rod, must swallow up all others and our whole heart must
   belong to the Lord our God! We must take care that we give proof of an
   affection which is so surpassing in its energy, for surely, if it has
   such force, it must produce its own proof!

   If it were some minor passion--some little narrow jet of flame that
   might light up a corner of our being--we might not be so particular
   about it. But if it is to fire our entire manhood, it must produce some
   effect or else we may well question whether we possess it. This love is
   absolutely vital in its necessity. If it can be proven that a man does
   not love God, love Christ and love His people, then the life of God
   does not dwell in him. Life and love are two words singularly alike
   and, when we get to the bottom and radical principle of the spiritual
   nature, we perceive that they are singularly bound up together insomuch
   that, "He that dwells in love dwells in God and God in him."

   These are some of the Apostle John's great little words, which, in
   their miniature form, contain whole worlds of meaning. Beloved, we must
   love God, or else we are not in Christ! Hence the importance that the
   proofs of our love

   should be very distinct and unmistakable. We should make our calling
   and election sure--and those things can never be sure unless we have
   abundant proofs of our love. It is vital in its necessity. However
   great that love becomes and I have spoken of it as rising to a
   superlative degree, it is warranted by the facts of the case. Love to
   God--I will not spend a word in justifying it. Love to Christ--how can
   it be necessary to commend it to you?--

   "Love so amazing, so Divine,

   Demands our soul, our life, our all."

   And it shall have it, too!

   Do you not say so, my Brothers and Sisters? Do you not yield to this
   soft, yet mighty bond--soft as silk, yet strong as iron? It holds us
   fast! We cannot escape from it. Not love Christ? Not love His people?
   Not love the world of lost sinners? Oh, Sirs, surely we were, of all
   creatures, the most brutish if we were to dispute the necessity of
   love! "You know the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was
   rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you, through His poverty
   might be rich." Go and love Jesus Christ till men call you a fanatic!
   Go and love Him till you give all your goods to feed the poor! Go and
   love Him till you lie in a prison and the moss grows on your eyelids!
   Go and love Him till you burn to ashes at the stake and you have not
   loved Him one whit more than He deserves!

   O our best Beloved, You, Yourself, warrant us in permitting our zeal
   for You to eat us up and, eaten up, we would be for Your Glory's sake!
   This love to Christ has been, in all ages, very eminent in its
   achievements. Wherever love reigns in a Christian, it makes him strong.
   Faith laughs at impossibilities and cries, "It must be done!" But love
   performs the deed, for, "faith works by love." Love is the right hand
   of faith. What have not men done out of love to Christ? Truly, the time
   would fail me to tell of its exploits. What you shall do, dear Sister,
   if you become full of love to Jesus, will astonish you! And what you
   shall do, dear Brother, if the love of Christ burns through your soul,
   will far exceed what you have dreamed of as yet. Oh, for more love!

   Let the martyrs tell you what poor suffering flesh and blood can do
   when love strengthens it! Let holy women that have debated and disputed
   and bled and died for Christ and in all their timidity and weakness
   made brave as lions for Christ tell what love has done! Let the walls
   of the Coliseum at Rome; let the arenas of hundreds of amphitheaters
   tell how bravely men have played the man--how bravely women have met
   death for Christ's sake! All that the Church needs is the Holy Spirit
   to baptize her into the love of Christ and nothing will be impossible
   to her!

   Thus have I tried to commend this love and surely we ought to be able
   to prove that we have it. If we have any question as to whether we have
   it or not, let us find no rest, day or night, till the grand debate is
   ended! We MUST love Christ or perish! Oh, by the certainty that His
   saints shall see Him face to face and be like He, let us rise to
   something nobler in the form of love to Him than we have ever reached
   as yet! This is the love which we are to give proof of.

   II. Secondly, WHAT IS THIS PROOF? The text says, "Show you to them and
   before the churches, the proof of your love." What proof shall we show?
   There are so many forms of action which would prove love to Christ that
   I cannot possibly go through them all, especially as each person, I
   believe, will give a different proof of his love. There is (to use a
   difficult word) an idiosyncrasy about each Believer. He is a man by
   himself and his love, if it is genuine, will take a form peculiar to
   himself in the proof which it gives. Certain proofs look towards God
   and the Lord Jesus. If you love Him, you will keep His Commandments and
   His Commandments are not grievous.

   If you love Him, you will seek to honor Him--to spread the savor of His
   glorious name. If you love God in Christ Jesus, you will be anxious to
   extend His rule over the hearts of men. If you love God, you will long
   for communion with Him--you will not be satisfied to live for days
   without speaking with Him. If you love Him, you will grieve yourself
   when you grieve Him--your heart will smite you when you have gone
   astray. If you love God, you will long to be like He--you will strive
   after holiness. If you love God, He will reign over you--Christ will be
   your King. Your mind will be under subjection to Him. Your thoughts
   will be guided by Him. Your opinions will be taken from His Word. Your
   whole life will be seasoned by His Spirit which dwells in you. Do you
   not see that there are hundreds of ways in which you can show proof of
   your love towards God? Oh, that we may not be found lacking in any of
   these things!

   We may show this love, in the next place, towards God's ministers. I
   cannot help mentioning them because the Apostle so distinctly, in this
   chapter, speaks of himself and his Brothers. And one special way of
   showing it is this--if they speak well of you, do not let them have
   cause to retract their holy boasts and have to say with tears, "I was
   deceived in these people." If any have brought you to Christ, be an
   honor to them and to the Gospel that they preach, because, dear

   Friends, the world turns round and however retired a minister may be,
   yet worldlings are sure to throw the inconsistencies of his people in
   his teeth. They say, "That is one of So-and-So's people! Look how he
   acts!" And our ministry is hindered and our hearts are grieved whenever
   those who profess to have been brought to Christ walk unworthily. Show
   us a proof of the love you often express to us as your servants in
   Christ Jesus by endeavoring so to walk that when we give our account we
   may do it with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable
   to you.

   Next, show proofs of your love in reference to God's people. How can
   that be done? Some of you need to have this thing gone over with you
   because you have evidently forgotten it. If you are God's servants, you
   love His people and the first proof you should give is to go and join
   with them. Say, "Where is the list of their names kept? I will count it
   an honor to have my name enrolled." Certain of you say, "I should count
   it an honor, but I have hardly the courage to come forward." What? Have
   I been sitting these various days to see the timid ones and have you
   not all come? We will have another time for you, then, and try if we
   cannot get you right, for really, we are not so frightful as you think
   we are and you need not be timid about telling to a poor servant of
   Jesus Christ that you really love the name of his Master! He will be
   glad and so will you.

   No, but you say you are half afraid of yourself I wish you were
   altogether afraid of yourself. The more afraid of yourself the better,
   for you are good for nothing in yourself! But do not be afraid of
   trusting yourself with Jesus and when you have done so, then the very
   next thing is to become identified with the visible Church of Christ!
   If you say, "I love the Brethren," the Brethren may turn round and say,
   "Give us a proof of your love. Cast in your lot with us." Do as she did
   who, though she had been a heathen, nevertheless clung to one who
   worshipped the true God and said, "Where you go, I will go; and where
   you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people and your God my
   God."

   And when you have joined the Church, then surely you should show a
   proof of your love by a hearty fellowship with the saints. We do not
   need you to put your name in the book and to be a professor and then
   sit in one of those pews up in the corner and come in and go out and
   never speak to anybody! I meet, even now, with some who say, "I have
   been at the Tabernacle for months and nobody has ever spoken to me."
   Well, I know that there are so many earnest Christians on the watch
   here to speak with strangers that if you have not been spoken to it
   must be your own fault! Perhaps you are some dreadfully stiff body and
   you have frightened them. I do not know, but it may be so. There are
   some who look as if they said, "Do not come near me. I do not need any
   questions asked me."

   We have some Brothers and Sisters who will break through your
   stiffness, though, I dare say. But if it is really so, I am very sorry
   for it and it need not be so any longer. Speak to somebody at this very
   service! I do not dislike to hear a low hum of godly conversation
   before service begins, though some people think it horrible. Neither do
   I deprecate a little lingering upon the steps and around the
   building--you are holding fellowship, one with another, and I like that
   it should be so, for we do not meet too often. It is no desecration of
   the Sabbath or of the place of worship for Christian people to speak
   with one another to edification.

   When you join the Church, join it in earnest and converse much with the
   people of God! And by your hearty zeal show them a proof of your love.
   And then unite with them in all their service. The school needs Sunday
   school teachers. You love Christ, you say, and you love the young--show
   us a proof of your love! Come and help in that good work. There is
   something or other that you can do for Jesus and for His Church--do it
   and thus show us a proof of your love! Show the proof of your love by
   comforting the saints in affliction--by helping them, as much as you
   can, when they are in need--by defending their good name whenever you
   hear them railed at. Prove your love by suffering nobody to speak
   against them falsely when you are by. Stand up for them! Show them the
   proof of your love by bearing with their infirmities.

   The Church is not perfect and if it were, it would not be perfect after
   you had joined it! You who have so many infirmities, yourself, should
   patiently bear with the infirmities of others. If the saints are not
   all you would like them to be, remember, nevertheless, that they are
   dear to the heart of Christ and He, perhaps, sees in them beauties
   which you would see, too, if you had more beauties yourself! Perhaps
   your power to find fault arises from your having so many faults
   yourself and if you were more sanctified and more like Christ, you
   would fix your eyes, as well, upon the beauties of their character as
   upon their defects. Show us the proof of your love! I am not speaking
   as though I did not see among you abundant proofs of your love--but I
   am speaking to some who, perhaps, as yet, have never realized their
   position of

   privilege in reference to Christ and to His people--and they have never
   let their hearts go out as they should go out towards those whom Christ
   has purchased with His precious blood.

   Show us the proof of your love to the ungodly, too--to this great city
   of four millions! Show us the proof of your love by trying to snatch
   the firebrands from the flame. Be up and doing. Stand at the street
   corners, if you can, and preach Jesus Christ! Scatter the printed
   Gospel in every room to which you have access. Talk of Christ to your
   work people. Speak of Him to your companions. Endeavor to spread this
   potent all-heal--this cure for all manner of spiritual diseases--for
   otherwise, talk as you may, profess as you may--we shall have to say to
   you, "Show us the proof of your

   love."

   I have only given you a sort of charcoal sketch of what might be the
   proof of your love--I have not drawn the picture or laid on the colors.
   Think, dear Friends, how you can give such proof at once.

   III. But now, in the third place, WHY IS THIS PROOF CALLED FOR?
   Somebody says, "Why am I called upon to prove my love?" Do not grieve,
   even if I press it very hard upon you, for your case will be something
   like that of Simon Peter when he, too, was pressed exceedingly. Peter
   was grieved when his Master said to him the third time, "Simon, son of
   Jonas, do you love Me?" Now the Lord did not ask it because He doubted
   him, for He knew Peter's heart. Peter's appeal was a true one, "You
   know all things. You know that I love You." Do not, therefore, resent
   it and say, "Why should I prove my love?" No, but just listen.

   True love always longs to prove itself--it does not need a command to
   do it! It is waiting for an opportunity. It is so with your domestic
   life. You know that it is so! I need not give instances. What a
   pleasure it is to show love to those we love! In a far higher degree,
   what a delight it is to a Christian to do something for Jesus! If you
   have never done anything distinctly for Jesus, what sort of a child of
   God can you be? I love my Master's service and I can truly say that I
   think that I would do anything for His people--but I am not quite so
   sure about that as I am about the feeling that I would do anything for
   Him. When I get a hold of something that is distinctly and undividedly
   for my Lord's Glory, I am glad to do it!

   To break an alabaster box of ointment upon His head is a rich
   delight--truly, it might have been given to the poor and have blessed
   the poor, but Jesus, Himself, is best! "It is a waste," somebody
   murmurs. Yes, yes, but to be wasteful for Christ is the noblest
   economy! O hearts that love your Lord, never count the silver when you
   are spending for Jesus! Break the box! Pour out the ointment! The room
   will be filled with the perfume and it will not be wasted. Even if
   there were no nostrils to smell it, if only Jesus had the refreshment
   of it, it would be all the better!

   I like to enter the glade of a forest where there are spots unseen by
   eyes of man and thickets of brush through which nobody but the red deer
   has ever passed! I delight to sit down by a little rippling brook upon
   a bank of thyme undese-crated by human foot and think, "This is God's
   garden and every leaf waves for Him." How dare the poet say that
   flowers which were born to blush unseen are wasting their fragrance on
   the desert air? Why, they are flowering for God and He delights in them
   and they are just the best used flowers in the world! Oh to be just
   such a flower as that at times and to feel that you have got away--away
   from the gardens where men may come and praise or offend and offer
   mercenary prizes for flowers and fruits--away where God sees you and
   delights in you! We should try to work for Jesus only. Proof is called
   for, not because Jesus doubts, but because He loves to please us by
   giving us opportunities of proving our love!

   But one reason why we are called upon to prove our love is that it may
   become a blessing to other people. The Corinthians were to prove their
   love because the poor folks at Jerusalem were starving. It would be of
   no use for the Corinthians to sing a hymn about charity while the poor
   saints at Jerusalem had not a loaf to eat. No, they must prove their
   love that it might be a benefit to others and that the influence of
   that love might spread to others, because the Apostle said, "If you
   Corinthians do not discharge your promise, those people at Macedonia
   will throw it in my teeth and do nothing, themselves, and, therefore,
   for the sake of the Churches in Macedonia, you must be generous."

   So, Beloved, oftentimes one man, by serving his Master well, stirs up a
   whole regiment of other Christians who become ashamed to be doing so
   little! I may preach a great many sermons, Brothers and Sisters, but
   they will do very little good compared with what your sermons will do,
   if, as a Church, you live up to the mark as Christians! If, in holy
   love and concord and every Grace, you abound, other Churches will say,
   "Look at this Church!" Oh that you may be such saints that others may
   be encouraged in their work for Christ by you! That is why you are
   asked to prove your love!

   You are asked to prove your love, for it is reasonable that you should
   do so. God did not love you and keep it to Himself and say, "My name is
   Love, but I will do nothing." No! He gave His Son from His bosom, His
   only Son, and that

   Son He gave to die. God is practical. That which He feels, He
   does--that which He speaks is done. We have many idle words, but the
   word and mind of God come out in deeds of Grace. Is it not right,
   therefore, that we should give practical proof of our love?

   IV. Time fails me, or I would have dwelt on the fourth point, namely,
   WHO IT IS THAT CALLS FOR THIS

   PROOF OF OUR LOVE? I will leave out everybody else but One and say it
   is your Lord--your own dying, living Savior who says, "Show Me the
   proof of your love." I will tell you how He is saying it. Affliction
   has come into your house. There is a dear one dead and Jesus says, "Now
   will you kick against Me, or will you yield Me your treasure? Simon,
   son of Jonas, do you love Me more than these dear ones? If so, you will
   part with them and not complain." "Mary, do you love Me better than
   mother, or sister, or friend? If so, you will bless Me when I take them
   away. Now is your time--show Me the proof of your love by bowing before
   My chastening and love Me still."

   Our Lord only takes from us what He gave to us! Let us, therefore,
   bless His name! Bereaved one, that may be the proof of love to which He
   is calling you. Perhaps you have had a difference lately with one to
   whom you ought to be united in friendship and now your conscience is
   saying, "Christians ought to live in peace and love." But Satan is
   saying "You were not to blame. Do not humble yourself before such a
   proud person as your opponent." But my Lord and Master says to you,
   "Show Me the proof of your love. Forgive him for My sake even to 70
   times seven. And if you have wronged him, confess the wrong and humble
   yourself for My sake. Because I washed My disciples' feet, show Me the
   proof of your love by washing one another's feet." Attend to that
   admonition, I pray you!

   But possibly there are some here who have had in their minds the
   project of doing something unusual for Jesus, or the Church, or the
   poor, or for missions to the heathen. Satan has said, "You must not
   give as much as that." Jesus says, "I have prospered you--when others
   have failed in business I have taken care of you. Show Me the proof of
   your love." Will you not hear His call? Do not hold back your hand and
   do not need anybody to persuade you, because that will spoil it all. It
   must be spontaneous! It must come from your heart, moved only by the
   Spirit of God, if you wish it to be accepted.

   Perhaps I am addressing a young man who has been, for years, a member
   of the Church and it is crossing his mind, "What shall I do to show my
   love?" And, perhaps, it is his ambition to be a missionary in a distant
   land. Keep not yourself back, my dear young Brother! Should it rend a
   fond connection, or cost you your life, give Jesus such proof of your
   love as His Spirit suggests to you! Or is it that you ought to speak to
   people about their souls? The Lord will throw somebody in your way.
   Give a proof of your love by a holy bravery and speak right out for
   Jesus Christ and do not be ashamed. The Lord invites you to a closer
   fellowship with Himself, to come higher up the mount of God and to be
   more thoroughly consecrated. Then show Him the proof of your love!

   I leave this with you. If you love Him, show it! If you do not love
   Him, tremble! I will not repeat what the Scripture says, as though it
   came from myself, but I would have you remember it. Paul says, "If any
   man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema
   maranatha"--cursed with a curse at the coming of Christ. So it must be
   if you love not Christ. Oh, if you love Him, be inventive! Think of a
   new thing that nobody else ever did for Jesus! Strike out a fresh path.
   Deny yourselves comforts to have the comfort of proving your love, as
   His Spirit shall guide and help you. And to His name be praise
   evermore. Amen and Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Royal Prerogative

   (No. 1523)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 15, 1880,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto God the Lord
   belong the issues from death. But God shall wound the head of His
   enemies and the hairy scalp of such an one as goes on still in his
   trespasses." Psalm 68:20,21.

   WHATEVER may be said of the Old Testament dispensation, however dimly
   it may have revealed certain Truths of God, there was one matter about
   which it was clear as the sun. Under the Old Testament economy the Lord
   God of Israel is always most conspicuous. God is in all and over
   all--and from the pages of the Prophets, as well as from the lips of
   the temple choirs, we hear loudly sounding forth the note--"The Lord
   shall reign forever, even your God, O Zion, unto all generations.
   Hallelujah!" By priest and Prophet, saint and Seer, the one testimony
   is borne, "The Lord reigns." You cannot read the Book of Job without
   trembling in the majestic Presence of the Almighty. Nor can you turn to
   the Psalms without being filled with solemn awe as you see David and
   Asaph and Heman adoring the Lord who made Heaven and earth and the sea.

   Everywhere, from Abraham to Malachi, man is of small account and God is
   All in All. Very little consideration is given to any fancied rights
   and claims of man and wonder is expressed that the Creator should be
   mindful of him. We read no discourse upon the dignity of human nature,
   or upon the beauty of human character, but rather God, alone, is holy
   and when He looks from Heaven He sees none that does good, no, not one!
   Man is rolled in the dust from which he sprang and to which he must
   return. All his pride is cut down and his comeliness withered and over
   all is seen one God and none beside Him.

   It will be a great offense if, coming into the brighter light of the
   New Testament, we are less vivid in our conceptions of the Glory of
   God. If God should be less clearly seen in the Person of our Lord Jesus
   than He was under the symbols of the Law, it will be the fault of our
   blinded hearts. It will be ill for us to turn day into night and, like
   owls, see less because the light is increased! Let it not be so among
   us, but let it be in our Churches as in Israel of old, of which it was
   said, "in Judah is God known. His name is great in Israel." "God, who
   at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in times past unto the
   fathers by the Prophets, has, in these last days spoken unto us by His
   Son," and by Him, as the Incarnate Word, He has revealed Himself with a
   sevenfold splendor and, therefore, it should be our soul's great
   delight to perceive God in all things--to rejoice in His Presence and
   to magnify Him in all things as King of kings and Lord of lords!

   The Psalmist, in this particular case, ascribes to the Lord universal
   action and power over us, for he ascribes to Him the mercies of life
   and the issues of death. He says, "Blessed is the Lord who daily loads
   us with benefits." The Lord heaps up His favors till their number loads
   the memory and their value burdens the shoulders of gratitude. He gives
   us so many mercies that the mind is burdened in endeavoring to
   calculate their worth! We are overwhelmed with a sense of His goodness
   and the consciousness that we cannot return any adequate thanks for
   such abundance of daily Grace. Such is our God in life and what will He
   be in death? Shall we be without Him there?

   No, blessed be His name, "Unto God the Lord belong the issues from
   death." His kingdom includes the land of death-shade and all the
   borders thereof. We shall not die without His permission, nor without
   His Presence! Though temporal mercies will find their end when life
   ends, yet there are eternal mercies which throughout eternal life shall
   manifest the goodness of the Most High. And meanwhile, by rescues,
   recoveries and escapes, we shall be preserved from prematurely
   descending to the tomb. If any of you, dear Friends, have been brought
   near to the gates of death; if you have been laid low by wearisome
   sickness; if your heart has sunk within you in a sort of mental death,
   you will, in coming back to health and strength, most heartily bless
   the Lord who finds for us a way of return from the suburbs of the
   sepulcher!

   He is not only the God of life but the God of death. He keeps us in
   life and makes life happy. He keeps us from death and from the fierce
   agencies which wait to drag us to the grave. There are issues out of
   the dark border-land of sickness and peril and despair--and the Lord
   leads us by His own right hand to cause us to escape. Does He not say,
   "I will bring again from Bashan, I will bring My people again from the
   depths of the sea"? We must and we will praise Him for this with a new
   song! I gather from our text that death is in the hand of God; that
   escapes from death are manifestations of His Divine power and that He
   is to be praised for them.

   The outline of this morning's discourse, as indicated by the text, is
   just this--first, the sovereign prerogative of God, "To God the Lord
   belong the issues from death." Secondly, the Character of the Sovereign
   with whom this prerogative is lodged, "He that is our God is the God of
   salvation." And then, thirdly, the solemn warning which this great
   Sovereign gives in reference to the exercise of His prerogative.
   Weighty are the words! May the Holy Spirit cause us to feel their
   power--"God shall wound the head of His enemies and the hairy scalp of
   such an one as goes on still in his trespasses."

   I. First, then, with deep reverence, let us speak upon THE SOVEREIGN
   PREROGATIVE OF GOD--"Unto God

   the Lord belong the issues from death." Kings have been accustomed to
   keep the power of life and death in their own hands. The great King of
   kings, the Sovereign Ruler and absolute Lord of all worlds reserves
   this to Himself--that He shall permit men to die, or shall give them an
   issue or escape from death at His own good will and pleasure. He can
   alike create and destroy. He sends forth His Spirit and they are
   created and at His own pleasure He says, "Return, you children of men,"
   and lo, they fall before Him like autumn's faded leaves!

   The prerogative of life or death belongs to God in a wide range of
   senses. First of all, as to natural life we are all dependent upon His
   good pleasure. We shall not die until the time which He appoints, for
   the time of our death, like all our time, is in His hands. Our skirts
   may brush against the portals of the sepulcher and yet we shall pass
   the iron gate unharmed if the Lord is our Guard. The wolves of disease
   will hunt us in vain until God shall permit them to overtake us. The
   most desperate enemies may waylay us, but no bullet shall find its
   billet in any heart unless the Lord allows it. Our life does not even
   depend upon the care of angels, nor can our death be compassed by the
   malice of devils. We are immortal till our work is done! We are
   immortal till the immortal King shall call us Home to the land where we
   shall be immortal in a still higher sense.

   When we are most sick and most ready to faint into the grave, we need
   not despair of recovery, since the issues from death are in Almighty
   hands. "The Lord kills and makes alive: He brings down to the grave and
   brings up." When we have passed beyond the skill of the physician, we
   have not passed beyond the succor of our God, to whom belong the
   escapes from death. Spiritually, too, this prerogative is with God. We
   are by nature under the condemnation of the Law on account of our sins
   and we are like criminals tried, convicted, sentenced and left for
   death. It is for God, as the great Judge, to see the sentence executed,
   or to issue a free pardon, according as He pleases! And He will have us
   know that it is upon His supreme pleasure that this matter depends.

   Over the head of a universe of sinners I hear this sentence thundering,
   "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion
   on whom I will have compassion." Shut up for death, as men are by
   reason of their sins, it rests with God to pardon whom He wills--none
   have any claim to His favor and it must be exercised upon mere
   prerogative because He is the Lord God, merciful and gracious and He
   delights to pass by transgression and sin. So, too, does the Lord
   deliver His own believing people from those "deaths often" which make
   up their experience. Though we are delivered in Christ Jesus from death
   as a penalty, yet we often feel an inward death caused by the old
   nature which exercises a deadening influence within us. We feel the
   sentence of death in ourselves that we may not trust in ourselves, but
   in Jesus, in whom our life is hid.

   It may be that for a season our joys are dampened, our spiritual vigor
   is drained away and we hardly know whether we have any spiritual life
   left within us. We become like the trees in winter whose substance is
   in them but the sap ceases to flow and there is neither fruit nor leaf
   to betray the secret life within. We scarcely feel a spiritual emotion
   in these sad times and dare not write ourselves among the living in
   Zion! At such times the Lord can give us back the fullness of life!
   Only He can restore our soul from the pit of corruption and cause us
   not only to have life but to have it more abundantly. The escapes from
   death are with the quickening Spirit and when our soul cleaves to the
   dust He can revive us, again, till we rejoice with unspeakable joy!

   As the climax of all, when we shall actually come to die and these
   bodies of ours shall descend into the remorseless grave, as probably
   they will--in the hands of our Redeeming Lord are the escapes from
   death! The archangel is even now waiting for the signal--one blast of
   his trumpet shall suffice to gather the chosen from all lands--from the
   east and from the west, from the south and from the north! Then Death,
   itself, shall die away and the righteous shall arise--

   "From beds of dust and silent clay To realms of everlasting day."

   "I am the Resurrection and the Life," says Christ, and He is both of
   these to all His people. Is He not Life, for He says, "Whoever lives
   and believes in Me shall never die"? Is He not Resurrection, for He
   says, "He that believes in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live"?
   That bright illustrious day in which the saints shall rise with their
   Lord will show how unto God, the Lord, belong the escapes from death!

   Our translation is a very happy one, because it bears so many
   renderings and includes not only escape from death, deliverance from
   condemnation, revival from spiritual death and uplifting from deadly
   mental depression, but recovery from death's direct havoc by our being
   raised again from the tomb! In all these respects the Lord Jesus has
   the key of death--He opens and no man shuts--He shuts and no man opens.
   Concerning this prerogative we may say, first, that to God belongs the
   right to exercise it. This right springs, first, from His being our
   Creator. He says, "all souls are Mine." He has an absolute right to do
   with us as He pleases, seeing He has made us and not we ourselves. Men
   forget what they are and boast great things, but truly, they are but as
   clay on the potter's wheel and He can fashion them or can break them as
   He pleases. They don't think so, but He knows their thoughts that they
   are vain.

   Oh the dignity of man! What a theme for a sarcastic discourse! As the
   frog in the fable swelled itself till it burst asunder, so does man, in
   his pride and envy against his Maker, who, nevertheless, sits upon the
   circle of the heavens and reckons men as though they were grasshoppers
   and regards whole nations of them as the small dust of the balance! The
   Lord's prerogative of creation is manifestly widened morally by our
   forfeiture of any consideration which might have arisen out of
   obedience and rectitude if we had possessed them. Our fault has
   involved forfeiture of the creature's claims, whatever they may have
   been. We are all guilty of high treason and we have, each one, been
   guilty of personal rebellion and, therefore, we have not the rights of
   citizens, but lie under sentence of condemnation.

   What says the Infallible Voice of God? "Cursed is everyone that
   continues not in all things that are written in the Book of the Law to
   do them." We have come under this curse--Justice has pronounced us
   guilty and by nature we abide under condemnation. If, then, the Lord
   shall be pleased to deliver us from death, it rests with Him to do so,
   but we have no right to any such deliverance, nor can we urge any
   argument which would avail in the courts of justice for reversal of
   sentence or stay of execution! Before the bar of justice our case must
   go hard if we set up any plea of not-guilty. We shall be driven away
   with the disdain of the impartial Judge if we urge our suit upon that
   line! Our wisest course is to appeal to His mercy and to His Sovereign
   Grace, for there, alone, is our hope.

   Understand me clearly--if the Lord shall suffer us all to perish, we
   shall only receive our just deserts and we have not, one of us, a shade
   of claim upon His mercy--we are, therefore, absolutely in His hands and
   to Him belong the escapes from death. This right of God to save is
   further made manifest by the redemption of His people. It might have
   been said that God had no right to save if, by saving, He would abridge
   His justice. But now that He has laid help upon One that is mighty and
   His only-begotten Son has become a Victim in our place--to magnify the
   Law and make it honor-able--the Lord God has an unquestionable right to
   deliver from death His own redeemed for whom the Substitute has died!
   Our God saves His people in consistency with justice--no one can
   question His doing right even when He justifies the ungodly. His right
   and power over the escapes from death are, in the case of His own
   blood-bought ones, clear as the sun at noon and who shall dispute with
   Him?

   Our text, however, puts the prerogative upon the one sole ground of
   lordship and we prefer to come back to that. "Unto God the Lord belong
   the issues from death." It is a doctrine which is very unpalatable in
   these days, but one, nevertheless, which is to be held and taught--that
   God is an absolute Sovereign and does as He wills. The words of Paul
   may not be suffered to sleep--"No, but O man, who are you that replies
   against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, why have
   You made me thus?" The Lord cannot do wrong. His perfect Nature is a
   law unto itself! In His case Rex is Lex--the King is the Law! He is the
   Source and Fountain of all right, truth, rule and order. Being
   absolutely perfect within Himself and comprehending all things, it is
   not possible for Him to do otherwise than right. He is Good-

   ness, Truth and Righteousness itself and, therefore, the prerogatives
   of His Throne are not bound and to the Lord of Heaven and earth belong
   the issues from death!

   Enough with regard to that matter of right. I go on to notice that the
   Lord has the power of this prerogative. With Him is the ability to
   deliver men from natural death. Jehovah Rophi is a Physician who is
   never baffled. Medicines may fail, but not the great Maker of all
   plants and herbs and useful drugs! Study and experience may be at a
   nonplus, but He who fashioned the human frame knows its most intricate
   parts and can soon correct its disorders! God can restore when a
   hundred diseases are upon us all at once. Take courage, you fainting
   ones and look up! Certainly, as to the soul, there is no case of man so
   far gone that God cannot find an issue out of its death. He can cast
   out seven devils and a legion of diabolical sins! To God, the Lord,
   belong the issues from death, however foul the sin and however forlorn
   the condition caused by transgression. He who raised Lazarus from the
   grave after four days can raise the most corrupt from the grave of
   their iniquities. O that awakened sinners would believe this!

   I remember reading of an aged minister who had, for some years, fallen
   into deep despondency. He gave up his pulpit and kept himself very much
   alone, always writing bitter things against himself. At last, when he
   was on his sick bed, a servant of God was sent to him who dealt wisely
   with him. This good man said to the despairing one, "Brother, do you
   believe that passage, 'He is able, also, to save them to the uttermost
   that come unto God by Him'?" "I believe it," he said, "with all my
   heart, but I am convinced"--here the other stopped him. "I do not ask
   what your convictions may be, nor what your feelings may be, but I come
   to say to you that the man who trusts that promise lives." This plain
   declaration of the Gospel was made, by the Divine Comforter, the means
   of supreme consolation to the despairing one!

   May it be equally useful to all those who hear it. He who can hang his
   soul's hope upon the infinite ability of Christ to save, is a saved
   man! He that believes on Him has everlasting life! What a blessing this
   is! The devil may tell me that I can never escape out of deserved death
   and that I am shut up forever under the just results of my trespasses.
   My own conscience, knowing my undeservingness, may also condemn me a
   thousand times over! But unto God, the Lord, belong the escapes from
   death and He can and will pluck me from between the jaws of death since
   I believe in Him! He is able to bring up those whom He ordains to save
   even from the utmost depths of despair!

   The absolute right of God is supported by almighty power and thus His
   prerogative is made a matter of fact. Nor is this all--the Lord has
   actually exercised this prerogative in abundant cases. As to those
   issues from death which are seen in restoration from sickness, I need
   not remind you that these are plentiful enough. At times these have
   come in a miraculous form, as when Hezekiah had his life lengthened in
   answer to prayer and when many others were healed by the Savior and His
   Apostles. Life has been preserved in a lion's den and in the belly of a
   fish; in a fiery furnace and in the heart of the sea. Death has no
   arrow in his quiver which can hurt the man whom God ordains to live!
   Out of imminent peril the Lord still delivers in the ordinary course of
   Providence and there are persons present, this morning, who are proofs
   of His interposing power. He has raised some of us from prostration of
   body and depression of spirit. He has rescued others from shipwreck and
   fire in very singular ways and here we are, living to praise God, as we
   do this day!

   God has exercised this prerogative spiritually. In what a myriad of
   cases has He delivered souls from death! Ask yon white-robed hosts in
   Heaven, "Has not God displayed in you His sovereign power to save?" Ask
   many here below who have tasted that He is gracious and they will tell
   you, "He saved me." According to His mercy He has issued a free pardon,
   signed by His royal hand, saying, "Deliver him from going down into the
   Pit, for I have found a Ransom." Why His sovereignty has interposed to
   rescue us from death we cannot tell. We often ask, "Why was I made to
   hear His voice? How was it that I was chosen to live?" But we are
   silent with grateful wonder and invent no answer! Divine will, backed
   by Divine power, worked out the sovereign purpose of love and here we
   are, saved from so great a death by love invincible. Yes, indeed, to
   God the Lord belong the escapes from death!

   Come, then, Brothers and Sisters, let Him have all the glory for it! If
   you are alive after a long sickness, bless the Lord, who forgives all
   our iniquities, who heals all our diseases! If you are saved from
   condemnation this morning and know it, bless the Lord who accepts us in
   the Beloved! If you feel, at this moment, that the death of sin has no
   dominion over you, for the life of Grace reigns within, then bless the
   Lord who has quickened you into newness of life! Glorify His name this
   day, who, in love to your soul, has delivered you from the pit of
   corruption and cast all your sins behind His back! Once more, if you
   have a glorious hope of a blessed resurrection and feel that you can
   smile on death because God smiles on you, then bless the Lord who will
   raise you up at the last day! Your Redeemer lives and you shall live
   because

   He lives! Therefore clap your hands with holy glee! Bless the
   all-glorious name of Him to whom belong the issues or escapes from
   death!

   II. Thus have I set forth the prerogative. And now, secondly, follow me
   with your thoughts while I show THE CHARACTER OF THE SOVEREIGN in whom
   that prerogative is vested. We cannot, upon this earth, exhibit much
   love to human princes who claim absolute dominion. Imperialism is not
   to our mind. Among the worst curses that have ever fallen upon mankind
   have been absolute monarchs--nowadays men shake them off as Paul shook
   off the viper into the fire. The Lord grant we may see the last of all
   despotic dynasties and that the nations may be free. We cannot endure a
   tyrant and yet if we could have absolutely perfect despots, it might be
   the best possible form of government.

   Assuredly, the great and eternal God, who is King of kings and Lord of
   lords, is absolutely perfect and we may be well content to leave all
   prerogatives and vest all powers in His hands. He has never trampled on
   the rights of the meanest, nor forgotten the weakest. His foot does not
   needlessly crush a worm, nor does He beat down a fly in wantonness. He
   has never done a wrong, nor worked an injustice. We oppress each other,
   but the Judge of all oppresses none! The Lord is holy in all His ways
   and His mercy endures forever and the amplest prerogatives are safely
   lodged in such hands.

   Our text yet further tells us who it is in whose hands the issues of
   life and death are left--"He that is our God is the God of salvation."
   Sinner, your salvation rests with God, but do not, therefore, be
   discouraged, for that God with whom the matter rests is the God of
   salvation, or of, "salvations," for so the Hebrew has it. What do we
   mean by this? The Scripture signifies, first, that salvation is the
   most glorious of all God's designs. Since this world was made, the
   working out of salvation has run through its story like a silver
   thread. The Lord made the world and lit up moon and stars and set
   Heaven, earth and sea in order with His eyes upon salvation in the
   whole arrangement. He has ruled all things by His supreme government
   with the same end.

   The great wheels of His Providence have been revolving these 6,000
   years before the eyes of men and among them. And at their back a hand
   has been always passing to conduct every movement to the ultimate issue
   which is the salvation of the covenanted ones! This is the object which
   is dearest to Jehovah's heart. He loves best to save! God was pleased
   with Creation, but not as He is with Redemption. When He made the
   heavens and the earth it was everyday work to Him. He merely spoke and
   said, "It is good." But when He gave His Son to die to redeem His
   people and His elect were being saved, He did not speak with the
   prosaic brevity of creation--He sang! Is it not written, "He shall rest
   in His love, He shall rejoice over you with singing"?

   Redemption is a matter which Jehovah sings about! Are you able to
   imagine what it must be for God to sing? For Father, Son and Holy
   Spirit to burst forth into a joyous hymn over the work of salvation?
   This is because salvation is dearest to God's heart and in it His whole
   Nature is most intensely engaged. Judgment is His strange work, but He
   delights in mercy! He has put forth many attributes in the
   accomplishment of other works, but in this He has laid out all His
   Being. He is seen in this as mighty to save. Herein He has bared His
   arm. For this He has taken His Son out of His bosom. For this He has
   caused His Only-Begotten to be bruised and put to grief. Salvation is
   the eternal purpose of the inmost heart of God and by it His highest
   Glory is revealed! This, then, is the God to whom belong the issues
   from death--the God whose grandest design is salvation! Sing unto His
   name and exult that the Lord reigns, even the Lord who is my strength
   and my song, who also has become my salvation.

   If you ask, again, what this means--"He that is our God is the God of
   salvation"--we remind you that the most delightful works which the Lord
   has performed have been works of salvation. To save our first parents
   at Eden's gate and give them a promise of victory over the serpent was
   joy to God. To house Noah in the ark was also His pleasure. The
   drowning of a guilty world was necessary, but the saving of Noah was
   pleasant to the Lord our God. He destroyed the earth with His left
   hand, but with His right hand He shut in the only righteous ones He
   found. To save His people is always His joy--He goes about it eagerly!
   He rode upon a cherub and did fly, yes, He did fly upon the wings of
   the wind when He came to deliver His chosen! What noise He makes about
   His saving work at the Red Sea! The whole Scripture is full of
   allusions to the great salvation out of Egyptian bondage and even in
   Heaven they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God and the song of
   the Lamb.

   The Old Testament seems to ring with the note, "Sing unto the Lord for
   He has triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider has He thrown into
   the sea." The Lord did greatly rejoice to make a way through the
   wilderness and a path through the deeps for His own people that He
   might work salvation for them in the midst of the earth. Afterwards, in
   the

   Old Testament, how well they keep the records of salvations! They tell
   us of the kings that oppressed the people, but how lovingly they linger
   over the way in which God redeemed Israel from her adversaries. What a
   note of joy there is about Goliath slain and the son of Jesse bearing
   his gory head and Israel delivered from Philistia's vaunts! Well did
   they say, "He that is our God is the God of salvation." He takes
   delight in deeds of Grace--these are His enjoyments. These are His
   recreations. He comes out in His royal robes and puts on His crown
   jewels when He rises to save His people and, therefore, His servants
   cry aloud, "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."

   This, then, is the God in whom is vested all sovereignty over the
   issues from death. He takes pleasure, not in the destruction, but in
   the salvation of the sons of men! Where could the prerogative be better
   laid up? "He that is our God is the God of salvation," also means that
   at this present time the God who is preached to us is the God of
   salvation. We live, at this moment, under the dispensation of mercy.
   The sword is sheathed, the scales of justice are put away. Those scales
   are not destroyed and that sword is not broken, nor even blunted, but,
   for a while, it slumbers in its scabbard. Today over all our heads is
   held out the silver scepter of eternal love. The angelic carol, first
   heard by shepherds at Bethlehem, lingers, still, in the upper air, if
   you have ears to hear it--"Glory to God in the highest and on earth
   peace, good will toward men."

   The mediatorial reign of Christ is that of multiplied salvations. "Come
   unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you
   rest" is the saving proclamation of the reigning God! The God of the
   Christian age is the God of salvation. He is set forth before us as
   coming to seek and to save the lost! He dwells among us by His abiding
   Spirit, not as a Judge punishing criminals, but as a Father receiving
   His wandering children to His bosom and rejoicing over them as once
   dead but now alive! God in Christ Jesus, our God and Savior Jesus
   Christ, is He who quickens whom He will and is ordained to give eternal
   life to as many as the Father has given Him. Where else could all power
   be more safely laid up?

   Once more, "He that is our God is the God of salvation" means this,
   that to His covenanted ones, to those who can call Him, "our God," He
   is specially and emphatically the God of salvation. There is no
   destruction for those who call Him, "our God," for, "there is therefore
   now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." Jesus came not
   to condemn the world, but that the world, through Him, might be saved.
   "This God is our God forever and ever. He will be"--our destroyer? No,
   "He will be our Guide even unto death." This God is our Sun and Shield
   and He will give Grace and glory. Now, mark well this fact--we who
   believingly call the Lord, "our God," this morning will tell you that
   we are saved entirely through the Sovereign Grace of God and not
   through any natural betterness of our own, nor through anything that we
   have done to deserve His favor.

   It was because He looked upon us with pity and kindly regard when we
   were dead in sin that, therefore, we live! When we were lying in our
   blood and in our filthiness, He passed by in the time of love and He
   said to us, "Live." If He had passed by and left us to die, He would
   have been infinitely just in doing so, but His heart was otherwise
   inclined. He looked on us and said, "Live," and we lived and we bless
   His name that we are still living and praising His eternal and infinite
   mercy! He who says, "I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal," is
   He who has quickened us, though we were dead in trespasses and sins!
   Surely, He who has exercised His prerogative so kindly towards us may
   be trusted to exercise it towards all who come to Him according to His
   gracious invitation! If there is any man who says, "I rejoice in the
   election of God, because, although He has saved me, He has left others
   to perish," I desire to have no sympathy with his spirit.

   My joy is of a far different kind, for I argue that He who saved such
   an unworthy one as I am will cast out none that come to Him by faith!
   His election is not narrow, for it comprehends a number that no man can
   number, yes, all that will believe in Jesus! He waits to be gracious
   and he that comes to Him, He will in no wise cast out. The wedding
   feast needs countless guests and every seat must be filled. We wish
   that all the human race would come and accept the provisions of
   infinite Love and we are anxious to go into the highways and hedges and
   compel them to come in! We rejoice to know that if any man is shut out
   from Christ and hope, he shuts himself out, though at the same time we
   feel that if any man is shut in, he did not shut himself in, but
   undeserved Grace worked out his salvation. Justice rules in
   condemnation, but Grace reigns in salvation!

   In salvation we must ascribe all to Grace, absolutely and unreservedly.
   There must be no stammering over this Truth of God! Some begin to say
   Grace, but they do not come out with the word--they stutter it into,
   "free will." This will

   never do! This is not according to the teaching of Holy Scripture, nor
   is it in accordance with fact. If there is any man here who thinks that
   he has been saved as the result of his own will, apart from the
   powerful Grace of God, let him throw his hat up and magnify himself
   forever. "Glory be to my own good disposition!" But as for me, I will
   fall at the foot of the Throne of God and say, "Grace reigns through
   righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ. Had You, O God, left
   me to my own free will, I had continued, still, to despise Your love
   and to reject Your mercy."

   Surely, all the people of God agree that this is the fact in their own
   case, however they may differ theoretically from the general statement.
   Yes, the prerogative of life and death is in good hands--it is in the
   hands of Him who is the God of our salvation and I beseech everyone
   here present who is not saved to be encouraged to bow before the Throne
   of the great King and sue for mercy of Him who is so ready to save! Go
   home and try to merit salvation and you will waste your efforts.! Go
   about to fit yourself for mercy and to fashion some good that may
   attract the notice of God and you will fool yourselves and insult the
   majesty of Heaven!

   But come just as you are, all guilty, empty, meritless and fall before
   the great King whom you have so often provoked and beseech Him, of His
   infinite mercy, to blot out your transgressions, to change your nature
   and to make you His own and see if He will cast you away! Is it not
   written, "There is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared"? And
   again, "Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out." His Throne is
   a Throne of Grace! Mercy is built up forever before Him! He is the Lord
   God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy! Did
   ever a penitent sue for pardon at His sovereign feet to be rejected?
   Never! Nor shall such a case happen while the earth remains.

   If you try to purchase His favor, you shall be refused. If you claim it
   as a right, you shall be rejected. But if you will come and accept
   salvation of the Divine charity and receive it through the Atonement of
   Christ Jesus, the Lord will find for you an escape from death! Hear the
   witness of Jeremiah and be encouraged to cast yourself before the
   Lord--"I called upon Your name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon. You
   have heard my voice. Hide not Your ear at my breathing, at my cry. You
   drew near in the day that I called upon You--You said, fear not. O
   Lord, You have pleaded the causes of my soul; You have redeemed my
   life."

   III. Our last duty is to hear THE SOLEMN WARNING OF OUR SOVEREIGN LORD.
   A new god has been lately

   set up among men, the god of modern Christianity, the god of modern
   thought, a god made of honey or sugar. He is all leniency, gentleness,
   mildness and indifferent in the matter of sin. Justice is not in him
   and as for the punishment of sin, he knows it not. The Old Testament,
   as you are no doubt made aware by the wise men of this world, takes a
   very harsh view of God and, therefore, modern wisdom sets it on one
   side. Indeed, one half the Word of God is out of date and turned to
   waste paper!

   Although our Lord Jesus did not come "to destroy the Law or the
   Prophets," but to fulfill them, yet the advanced thinkers of these
   enlightened times tell us that the idea of God in the Old Testament is
   a false one. We are to believe in a new god who does not care whether
   we do right or wrong! By his arrangement all will come to the same end
   in the long run. There may be a little twisting about for awhile for
   some who are rather incorrigible, but it will all come right at last.
   Live as you like! Go and swear and drink. Go and oppress the nations
   and make bloody wars and act as you will. By jingo, you will be all
   right at last! This is roughly the modern creed which poisons all our
   literature.

   But let me say by Jehovah--this shall not be as men dream! Jehovah, the
   Judge of all the earth, must do right. The God of Abraham and of Isaac
   and of Jacob is the God of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ--the God of
   the whole earth shall He be called. He has not changed one whit in the
   stern integrity of His Nature and He will, by no means, spare the
   guilty! Read, then, the last verse of our text and believe that it is
   as true today as when it was first written and that if Jesus Himself
   were here, the meek and lowly One would say it in tones of tearful
   solemnity, but He would utter it, none the less--"God shall wound the
   head of His enemies and the hairy scalp of such an one as goes on still
   in his trespasses."

   It is clear from these words that God is not indifferent to human
   character. Our God knows His enemies. He does not mistake them for
   friends, nor treat them as such. He regards iniquity as a trespass and,
   therefore, He has not broken down the boundaries of Law, nor the hedges
   of right--there are still trespasses and God perceives them and notes
   them down and such as go on in their trespasses are trying His
   longsuffering and provoking His justice! God sleeps not, neither does
   He wink at human sin, but calls upon all men everywhere to repent! And
   it is clear, too, that God has the power to smite those who rebel
   against Him.

   Dream not of natural laws which will screen the wicked--"He shall wound
   the head of His enemies." They may lift up those heads as high as they
   please, but they cannot be beyond the reach of His hands! He will not
   merely bruise their heels, or wound them on the back with blows which
   may be healed--but at their heads He will aim fatal blows and lay them
   in the dust. He can do it and He will! They may be very strong and
   their scalp covered with hair may indicate unabated strength, but they
   cannot resist Omnipotence! There may be no sign, as yet, of the
   baldness which comes of weakness, or of the scantiness of hair which is
   a token of old age--but vain are they who boast of vigor, for in their
   prime He can cause them to wither as the grass of the field!

   The proud may vaunt themselves of their beauty--their hairy scalp, like
   that of Absalom, may be their boast--but as the Lord made the hair of
   Absalom to be the instrument of his doom, so can He make the glory of
   man to be his ruin. Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit
   before a fall. No man is out of the reach of God and no nation, either!
   The great ones stand on high upon their lofty places and they talk
   about the "vulgar crowd," and despise the godly of the land. As for
   foreign races, how lightly are they esteemed, though one God has made
   them all! Populations and nations, what are they? Mere food for powder
   when a proud nation is set upon its own aggrandizement. Overturn their
   kingdoms, slaughter their patriotic defenders, redden the earth with
   blood, burn their houses, starve their women and children. Does God
   know and is there judgment in the Most High?

   We are a great people, and have the men, the ships and the money. Who
   shall call us to account? Yet let the still small voice be heard! Thus
   said the Lord to a great nation of old, "You have trusted in your
   wickedness: you have said, None sees me. You have said in your heart, I
   am and none else beside me. Therefore shall evil come upon you; you
   shall not know from where it rises: and mischief shall fall upon you;
   you shall not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon you
   suddenly, which you shall not know." From such chastisements, good
   Lord, deliver us! When the Lord puts His hands to the work of
   vengeance, His smiting will be terrible, even an utter overthrow, for
   it will be a smiting upon the head!

   If He does not smite His enemies until the hour of death, what a blow
   will they then receive! They boasted of their self-righteousness, or of
   their greatness but, oh, what terror will seize them when, at the last
   moment, while they dream of Heaven, they are thrown down into the
   unfathomable deep where woe shall be the everlasting reward of their
   daring rebellion against their King! Warriors of old times would, when
   they went to battle, often shave off all their hair except those locks
   which are on the back part of the scalp. Yet when they turned to flee
   it frequently happened they were grasped by their pursuers by their
   flowing hair! God does not often take the wicked by the forelock, for
   He has great patience and bears with them. In special cases, as when
   young men through dissipated habits hasten on their doom, He takes them
   in front--but as a rule He waits in mercy. And yet He suffers them not
   to go unpunished, for at the last, He seizes their hairy scalp. If for
   fourscore years infinite Patience should permit a man to continue in
   his rebellion, yet if he goes on in his trespasses, at the very last
   God shall thrust His hand into his hairy scalp and grasp him to his
   destruction!

   Turn you, yes, you that know not God! Turn you at His rebuke this
   morning, for the rebuke is meant in love! And if I have used hard
   words, it is because my heart is honestly anxious that you would repent
   and escape to Him who has in His power the escapes from death! I am not
   like yon flatterers who tell you that there is a little hell and a
   little god, from which they naturally infer that you may live as you
   like. Both you and they will perish everlastingly if you believe them!
   There is a dreadful Hell, for there is a righteous God!

   Turn you to Him, I entreat you, while yet, in Christ Jesus, He sets
   mercy before you! He is the God of salvation and entreats you to come
   and accept of His great Grace in Christ Jesus. The Lord bless this word
   according to His own mind and unto Him be praise forever and ever.
   Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Your Personal Salvation

   (No. 1524)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 22, 1880,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Receiving the end of your faith--the salvation of your souls. Of this
   salvation the Prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who
   prophesied of the Grace that would come to you, searching what, or what
   manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did indicating,
   when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories
   that would follow. To whom it was revealed, that not to themselves, but
   to us they did minister the things which are now reported to you by
   them that have preached the Gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent down
   from Heaven--which things angels desire to look into." 1 Peter 1:9-12.

   "Let Your mercies come also unto me, O Lord, even Your salvation,
   according to Your Word."

   Psalm 119:41

   THESE two texts will be, to me, as a bow and a sword--the first for
   shooting the arrows of the Truth of God and the second for close
   quarters in dealing with individual consciences. You will see the
   reason for the pair of texts as we proceed. May the Holy Spirit make
   use of both according to His own mind. Last Sabbath I preached upon the
   God of salvation [#1523--The Royal Prerogative]--this morning our
   principal objective is to speak of that salvation, itself. I then tried
   to show that God is always the same and that the God of the Old
   Testament, unto whom belongs the issues, or escapes from death, is
   still the God of our salvation.

   My first text runs upon the same line, for it teaches us that the
   Prophets of old, who spoke by the power of the Holy Spirit, testified
   concerning the same salvation which has been reported to us by the
   Apostles as actually accomplished. There has been no new salvation!
   There has been a change in the messengers, but they have all spoken of
   one thing and, though their tidings have been more clearly understood
   in these latter days, the substance of the good news is still the same.
   The Old Testament and the New are one, inspired by the same Spirit and
   filled with the same Subject, namely, the one promised Messiah.

   The Prophets foretold what the Apostles reported. The Seers looked
   forward and the Evangelists look backward-- but their eyes meet at one
   place--they see eye to eye and both behold the Cross. I shall aim, this
   morning, at commending the salvation of God to those of you who possess
   it, that you may be the more grateful for your choice inheritance. But
   I will still more labor to commend it to those who possess it not, that
   having some idea of the greatness of its value, they may be stirred up
   to seek it for themselves. Ah, my unsaved Hearers, how great is your
   loss in missing the salvation of

   God!

   "How shall you escape if you neglect so great a salvation?" O that you
   might be rescued from such folly! Perhaps God the Holy Spirit will show
   you the preciousness of this salvation and then you will no longer
   neglect, despise, or refuse it, but will offer the prayer which I have
   selected as a sort of second text and entreat the Lord to let His
   mercies come to you, even His salvation. The prayer may be helpful in
   enabling you to take with you words and turn to the Lord. God grant it
   may be so!

   I. First, I shall in much simplicity, with a vehement desire for the
   immediate conviction and salvation of my hearers, try to COMMEND THE
   SALVATION OF GOD by opening up what Peter has said in the verses before
   us. Let me urge you to give earnest heed to the salvation of God,
   because it is a salvation of Grace. The 10th verse says, "Of this
   salvation the Prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who
   prophesied of the Grace that would come to you." Salvation is
   altogether of Grace--Grace which comes from God in His mercy to man in
   his helplessness! The Gospel does not come to

   you asking something of you, but its hands are laden with gifts more
   precious than gold which it freely bestows upon guilty men. It comes to
   us, not as a reward for the obedient and deserving, but as a merciful
   gift for the disobedient and undeserving.

   It deals with us, not upon the ground of justice, but upon terms of
   pure mercy. It asks no price and exacts no purchase. It comes as a
   benefactor, not as a judge. In the Gospel, God gives liberally and
   upbraids not. We are accustomed not only to say, "Grace," but, "Free
   Grace." It has been remarked that this is a tautology. So it is, but it
   is a blessed one, for it makes the meaning doubly clear and leaves no
   room for mistakes! Since it is evidently objectionable to those who
   dislike the doctrine intended, it is manifestly forcible and,
   therefore, we will keep to it. We feel no compunction in ringing such a
   silver bell twice over--Grace, Free Grace! Lest any should imagine that
   Grace can be otherwise than free, we shall continue to say, not only
   Grace, but Free Grace, so long as we preach!

   You are lost, my dear Hearer, and God proposes your salvation, but not
   on any ground of your deserving to be saved, else the proposal would
   most assuredly fall to the ground in the case of many of you--I might
   have said in the cases of us all, though some of you think not. The
   Lord proposes to save you because you are miserable and He is merciful!
   Because you are needy and He is bountiful. Why, I think every man who
   hears this good news should open both his ears and lean forward, that
   he may not lose a word! Yes, and he should open his heart, too, for
   salvation by Grace is most suitable to all men and they need it
   greatly.

   Only give intimation that goods are to be had free and your shop will
   be besieged with customers! Those who want us to notice their wares are
   often crafty enough to put at the head of their advertisement what is
   not true, "To be given away." But salvation's grand advertisement is
   true--salvation is everything for nothing--pardon free, Christ free,
   Heaven free! "Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price."
   Our good Physician has none but gratis patients. Since the gifts which
   the God of All Grace grants to sinful men are beyond all price, He does
   not barter and dicker with them, but makes His blessings free as air! I
   am sure that if you feel yourselves to be guilty, the very idea of
   being saved by Grace will have a charm for you. To a thirsty man, the
   sound of a rippling stream is music and to a convicted conscience, free
   pardon is as rivers of water in the wilderness! Oh, that all the world
   would listen when we have such a message to tell!

   Again, your closest attention may well be asked to the salvation of God
   when you are told in the text that it is by faith. "Receiving the end
   of your faith--the salvation of your souls." Salvation is not obtained
   by painful and humiliating penances. Nor by despondency and despair.
   Nor by any effort, mental or spiritual, involving a purchase by labor
   and pain. It is entirely and only by faith, or trust, in the Lord
   Jesus! Do you ask--"Is it really so, that salvation is by believing,
   simply believing?''" Such is the statement of the Word of God! We
   proclaim it upon the guarantee of Infallible Scripture! "All that
   believe are justified from all things from which they could not be
   justified by the Law of Moses." "Whoever believes that Jesus is the
   Christ is born of God." "He that believes in Him is not condemned." "He
   that believes on Him has everlasting life."

   These are a mere handful of proof texts gleaned from wide fields of the
   same kind. "Repent and believe the Gospel," is our one plain and simple
   message. We cry again and again, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and
   you shall be saved." "Believe only," and, "Jesus only," are our two
   watchwords! Now, it is singularly foolish that men should quibble at
   this which ought to please them! What? Shall it be that the Gospel
   shall be regarded as too easy a thing? Will men quarrel with Mercy for
   being too generous? If there is a condition, is it wisdom on our part
   to contend with God because that condition seems to be too slight? What
   would you have for a condition? Would you have it proclaimed that men
   must be saved by works?

   Which among you would, then, be saved? Your works are imperfect and
   full of evil! The Law cannot justify you, it condemns you! As long as
   you are under the Law, has not the Holy Spirit declared that you are
   under the curse? Ought you not, you sons of men, bless God that
   salvation is of faith that it might be by Grace and that it might be
   possible to you and sure to all the seed? The sinner cannot keep the
   Law of God--he has already broken it most terribly and he is, himself,
   enfeebled and depraved by the Fall. Adam did not stand when he was in
   his perfection--what shall we do who are ruined by his fall and full of
   evil?

   By the Grace of God the sinner can believe in Jesus! This is ceasing
   from his own power and merit and leaving himself in his Savior's hands.
   Salvation by faith thus sets an open door before those whom the Law
   shuts out! It is in every way

   adapted to the case of the guilty and fallen--and such characters
   should hasten to accept salvation thus presented to them! O my God, how
   is it that this message does not, at once, awaken all who hear it to an
   eager acceptance of Your salvation? O that the Spirit of God would make
   these appeals powerful with you! The Gospel of salvation ought to be
   regarded by you, for it has engrossed the thoughts of Prophets! The
   text says, "Of this salvation the Prophets have inquired and searched
   diligently, who prophesied of the Grace that would come to you."

   Those great men, the choice spirits of the ages which they adorned,
   were delighted to preach of this salvation as a blessing to be
   hereafter revealed! They did not, themselves, altogether understand
   what they were called to reveal, for the Holy Spirit often carried them
   beyond themselves and made them utter more than they understood. The
   Inspiration of the Bible is verbal Inspiration. In some cases it must
   have been only verbal--in every case it must have been mainly so! The
   human mind is not able to understand and to express all the thoughts of
   God, they are too sublime and, therefore, God dictated to the Prophets
   the very language which they should deliver--language of which they,
   themselves, could not see the far-reaching meaning.

   They rejoiced in the testimony of the Spirit within them, but they were
   not free from the necessity to search and to search diligently, if they
   would, for themselves to derive benefit from the Divine Revelation. I
   know not how this is, but the fact is clearly stated in the text and
   must be true. Oh, my Hearers, how diligently you ought to search the
   Scriptures and listen to the saving Word of God! If men that had the
   Holy Spirit and were called, "Seers," nevertheless searched into the
   meaning of the Word of God which they, themselves, spoke, what ought
   such poor things as we are to do in order to understand the Gospel?

   It should be our delight to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest the
   Doctrines of Grace. Surely it must be a crime of crimes to be living in
   utter neglect of a salvation which gained the attentive mind of Daniel
   and Isaiah and Ezekiel! O that the long list of great and holy men
   would have some weight with thoughtless ones! I would cause a noble
   line of Prophets to pass before you this morning that you may see how
   many of them spoke of Christ and His salvation. From Abel, whose blood
   cried from the ground, down to him who spoke of the Sun of
   Righteousness and His Resurrection-- they all spoke in Jehovah's name
   for your sakes! From Moses down to Malachi, all of these lived and many
   of them died that they might bear witness to "the Grace that would come
   to you."

   They, themselves, were, no doubt saved. But still, the full
   understanding and enjoyment of the Truth was reserved for us! Unto them
   it was revealed, that not to themselves, but to us, they ministered the
   things of God! They lighted lamps to shine for future ages! They told
   of a Christ who was actually to come in later days to work out His
   Redemption after they had all died in faith without a sight of His
   actual coming! You and I live in the light of a finished salvation! God
   has appeared in human flesh! Christ has borne the guilt of man! His
   Atonement is complete! Jesus has risen from the dead and gone into
   Glory pleading for Believers!

   Surely that which Prophets thought worth their while to study night and
   day, though they knew that they would never see it, ought to be thought
   worthy of the devout attention of those immediately concerned in it! If
   Daniel set his face, by prayer and study--in fasting and in
   loneliness--to search out the salvation of the future, we ought at once
   to seek for the salvation which is now present among us! If Isaiah
   spoke with a golden tongue as the very Chrysostom of the old
   dispensation; if Jeremiah wept, like a Niobe, rivers of tears; if
   Ezekiel, despite the splendor of his princely intellect, was almost
   blinded by the splendor of his visions--if the whole goodly fellowship
   of the Prophets lived and died to study and to foretell the great
   salvation--we ought to give most earnest heed to it! If they pointed us
   to the Lamb of God and, according to the best of their light, foretold
   the coming of the Redeemer, then woe unto us if we trifle with Heaven's
   message and cast its blessings behind our backs! By all the Prophets
   whom the Lord has sent, I beseech you, give His salvation a hearty
   welcome and rejoice that you have lived to see it!

   Furthermore, when prophecy had ceased, the Holy Spirit came upon
   another set of men of whom our text speaks. Peter says of these things,
   that they "are now reported to you by them that have preached the
   Gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent down from Heaven." The Apostles
   followed the Prophets in testifying to this salvation and with the
   Apostles there was an honorable fellowship of earnest Evangelists and
   preachers. I will not stay to point out to you the admirable character
   of these men, but I would beg you to observe that, having personally
   seen Christ Jesus for themselves, they were not deceived. Many of them
   had eaten and drank with Him--all the Apostles had done so--they had
   been with Him in familiar conversation and they were resolute in
   bearing witness that they had seen Him after He had risen from the
   dead.

   These men spoke with the accent of conviction! If they were duped,
   there certainly never was another instance of such persons and so many
   of them being so utterly deluded. They continued throughout all their
   lives to bear hardships and to endure reproaches for the sake of
   bearing witness to what they had seen and heard--and all the Apostles
   but one died a martyr's death rather than allow the slightest suspicion
   to be cast upon the truth of their report! The text says that they
   reported these things when they preached the Gospel by the Holy Spirit
   sent down from Heaven. I see them going everywhere preaching the Word
   of God!

   They were dressed in no robes but those of poverty. They had no
   distinctions but those of shame and suffering. They had no power but
   that of the Holy Spirit. I hear them fearlessly lifting up their voices
   among a warrior population, or gently testifying in peaceful homes.
   They evangelized the open country and they instructed the capital
   itself--Caesar's household hears of them! I see them far away among the
   Parthians and Scythians telling the barbarians that there is salvation
   and that Jesus has accomplished it! With equal joy I see them telling
   cultured Greeks that God was in Christ a Man among men and that the
   Incarnate God died in man's place that believing men might be delivered
   from the wrath of God and from the plague of sin.

   These noble bearers of glad tidings continued to report this salvation
   till they had finished their missions and their lives and, therefore, I
   feel that for us, in these times, to trifle with God's Word and give a
   deaf ear to the invitations of the Gospel is an insult to their honored
   memories! You martyr them a second time by contemptuously neglecting
   what they died to hand to you! From the dead they bear witness against
   you and when they rise again they will sit with their Lord to judge
   you! Nor have we merely Prophets and Apostles looking on with wonder,
   but our text says, "Which things angels desire to look into."

   We know very little of these heavenly beings. We do know, however, that
   they are pure spirits and that the elect angels have not fallen into
   sin. These beings are not concerned in the Atonement of Christ so far
   as it is a ransom for sin, seeing as they have never sinned--they may,
   however, derive some advantage from His death, but of that we cannot
   now speak particularly. They take such an interest in us, their fellow
   creatures, that they have an intense wish to know all the mysteries of
   our salvation. They were pictured, you know, upon the Ark of the
   Covenant as standing upon the Mercy Seat and looking down upon it with
   steady gaze. Perhaps Peter was thinking of this holy imagery. They
   stand intently gazing into the marvel of Propitiation by blood!

   Can you quite see the beauty of this spectacle? If we knew that a door
   was opened in Heaven, would not men be anxious to look in and see
   Heaven's wonders? But the case is here reversed, for we see a window
   opened towards this fallen world and heavenly beings looking down upon
   the earth, as if Heaven, itself, had no such Object of attraction as
   Christ and His salvation! Watts sang not amiss when he gave us the
   verse--

   "Archangels leave their high abode

   To learn new mysteries here and toll

   The love of our descending God,

   The glories of Immanuel."

   Paul tells us that to principalities and powers in the heavenly places
   shall be made known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God. For men
   to be lessons to angels, books for seraphs to read, is a strange fact!
   Perhaps the angelic enquirers ask such questions as this--How is God
   just and yet the Justifier of the ungodly? At first it must have been,
   I think, a wonder that He who said, "In the day you eat thereof you
   shall surely die," could have permitted man to live on and to have a
   hope of eternal life.

   How could He who says that He will by no means clear the guilty yet
   bestow His favors upon guilty men? Angels wonder as they see how,
   through the Substitution of Jesus Christ, God can be sternly just and
   yet abundantly gracious! And while they learn this, they long to
   discover more of the Truth of God wrapped up in the one great
   Sacrifice--they peer and pry and search and consider and, therefore,
   the doctrines of the Gospel are spoken of as "things which the angels
   desire to look into."

   Now think--if these glorious spirits who need not to be
   redeemed--intently gaze upon the Redeemer, should not we, also, desire
   to look into the mysteries of His death? O men and women, is it nothing
   to you that the Son of God should give His life as a ransom for many?
   If these spotless ones marvel at that sacred bath of blood by which sin
   is washed away, will not you, who are covered with defilement, stop
   awhile to see the Lord whose flowing veins afford such purging? I think
   if I saw an angel intently gazing upon any object, if I were a
   passerby, I should stop and look, too. Have

   you never noticed in the streets that if one person stands still and
   looks up, or is occupied with gazing into a shop window, others become
   curious and also look? I would enlist that faculty of curiosity which
   is within every man and prompt you to search with the angels as they
   pry into the underlying meaning of the fact and doctrine of Atonement!

   They stand at the foot of the Cross ravished, astounded, yes, all
   Heaven to this day has never ceased its amazement at the dying Son of
   God made sin for men! And will none of you spare an hour to look this
   way and see your best Friend? Shall it be that time out of mind we must
   come into our pulpits and talk of Christ to deaf ears and speak to our
   fellow men about the Grace which is brought to them, only to find that
   they treat it as an old wives' fable or a story with which they have
   nothing to do? Ah, my careless Hearer, I wish you were in the same
   plight as I was in once when I was burdened with a sense of my
   transgressions. If you felt as I did, you would grab that word,
   "Grace," right eagerly and be delighted with the promise made to
   "faith."

   You would make up your mind that if Prophets searched out salvation; if
   Apostles reported it; if angels longed to know it, you yourself would
   find it or perish in searching after it! Do you forget that you must
   have eternal life or you are undone forever? Do not trifle with your
   eternal interests! Do not be careless where earth and Heaven are in
   earnest! Prophets, Apostles, angels all beckon you to seek the Lord!
   Awake, you that sleep! Arise, O sluggish soul! A thousand voices call
   you to bestir yourself and receive the Grace which has come to you!

   We have already gone a long way with this text, rising step by step. We
   have stood where angels gaze. Now behold another wonder--we rise beyond
   them to the angels' Master. Christ is the substance of this salvation!
   For what says the text? The Prophets spoke "beforehand of the
   sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow." Ah, there is
   the point! To save men Jesus suffered. The Manhood and the Godhead of
   Christ endured inconceivable anguish! All through His life our Lord was
   "a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief." His was the bravest heart
   that ever lived and the gentlest spirit that ever breathed, but the
   most crushed and downtrodden! He went from one end of our heavens to
   the other like a cloud of sympathy, dropping showers of blessing.

   All the trials of His people He carried in His heart and all their sins
   pressed heavily upon His soul--His daily burden of care for all His
   people was such as none can sympathize with to the fullest, even though
   like He they have kept the flock of God. I have sometimes had intense
   sympathy with Moses--I hope I am not egotistical in comparing small
   things with great--when he cried, "Why have You afflicted Your servant?
   And why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You lay the burden
   of all this people upon me? Have I conceived all this people? Have I
   begotten them, that You should say to me, Carry them in your bosom as a
   nursing father bears the sucking child, to the land which You swore
   unto their fathers? I am not able to bear all this people alone because
   it is too heavy for me."

   But what was the care of the tribes in the wilderness on Moses' heart
   compared with the myriads upon myriads that lay upon the heart of
   Christ, a perpetual burden to His spirit? The sufferings of His life
   must never be forgotten, but they were consummated by the agonies of
   His death. There was never such a death! Physically it was equal in
   pain to the sufferings of any of the martyrs. But its peculiarity of
   excessive grief did not lie in His bodily sufferings--His
   soul-sufferings were the soul of His sufferings! Martyrs are sustained
   by the Presence of their God, but Jesus cried, "My God, My God, why
   have You forsaken Me?" That cry never came up from the stakes of
   Smithfield, or from the agonies of the Spanish torture chambers, for
   God was with His witnesses! But He was not with Christ! Here was the
   depth of His woe!

   Now, I pray you, if you will manifest some sign of thought and
   softness, remember that if the Son of God became a man so that He might
   suffer to the death for men, it is astonishing that men should turn
   deaf ears to the salvation which He accomplished! I hear from His Cross
   His sad complaint, "Is it nothing to you, all you that pass by? Behold
   and see if there was ever sorrow like My sorrow, which is done to Me."
   Oh, if you are born of woman and have a heart that has any flesh about
   it, think well of the salvation, "the Grace, which is brought unto
   you," by the sufferings of the Son of God! One other step remains. It
   cannot be higher--it is on the same level and I beseech you to stand
   upon it and think a while, you that have thought so little of
   yourselves and of your God.

   It is this. The Holy Spirit is the witness to all this. It was the Holy
   Spirit that spoke in the Prophets. It was the Holy Spirit who was with
   those who reported the Gospel at the first. It is the same Holy Spirit
   who every day bears witness to Christ. Do you not know that we still
   have miracles in the Christian Church? Scoffers come to us and say,
   "Work a miracle and we will believe you." We work miracles every day!
   Had you been present at a meeting held here last month you would have
   heard something not far short of one hundred persons, one after
   another, assert that by the preaching of the

   Gospel in this place lately, their lives have been completely changed.
   In the case of some of these the change is very obvious to all persons
   acquainted with them.

   How was this great change achieved? By the Holy Spirit through the
   Gospel of your salvation! But I need not quote those special cases.
   There are many here who would tell you, if this were the time to speak,
   where they used to spend their Sundays and what was their delight. All
   things have become new with them. They now seek after holiness as
   earnestly as they once pursued evil! Though they are not what they want
   to be, they are not what they used to be. They never thought of purity
   or goodness, or anything of the kind, but they loved the wages of
   unrighteousness and now they loathe the things they once loved! I have
   seen moral miracles quite as marvelous in their line as the healing of
   a leper or the raising of the dead! This is the witness of the Holy
   Spirit which He continues to bear in the Church and, by that witness I
   entreat you to stop and think of the blessed salvation which can work
   the same miracle in you.

   From the first day in which man fell--when the Holy Spirit, at the
   gates of Eden presented the Gospel in the first promise--all down the
   prophetic ages and then by Christ and by His Apostles and onward by all
   the men whom God has sent, since, to speak with power, the Holy Spirit
   entreats you to consider Christ and His salvation! To this end He
   convinces the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment to
   come--that men may turn unto the salvation of God and live forever! By
   the Spirit of the living God I entreat you, dear Hearers, to neglect no
   longer the great salvation which has won the admiration of all holy
   beings and has the seal of the Triune God upon its forefront!

   II. So far I have commended my Lord's salvation and now I would desire
   you, with all this in your minds, to turn to the prayer in the 119th
   Psalm--"Let Your mercies come also unto me, O Lord, even Your
   salvation, according to Your Word." Use the prayer with this
   intent--Lord, I have been hearing what Prophets and Apostles and angels
   think of Your salvation. What Your Son and what Your Spirit think of
   it. Now let me humbly say what I think of it--Oh that it were mine! Oh
   that it would come to me! This, then, is my second head. I would
   RECOMMEND THE PRAYER OF

   THE PSALMIST.

   I will say about it, first, that it is, in itself, a very gracious
   prayer, for it is offered on right grounds. "Let Your mercies come also
   unto me." There is no mention of merit or desert. His entreaty is only
   for mercy. He pleads guilty and throws himself upon the prerogative of
   the King who can pardon offenders. Are you willing, my dear Hearer, you
   who have never sought the Savior--are you willing at this moment to
   stand on that ground and to ask for salvation as the result of mercy?
   You shall have it on such terms, but you can never be saved until you
   will acknowledge that you are guilty and submit to Justice.

   Observe the plural, "Let your mercies come unto me," as if David felt
   that he needed a double share of it, yes, a sevenfold measure of it!
   Elsewhere he cried, "According unto the multitude of Your tender
   mercies blot out my transgressions." Our sense of sin leads us to use
   similar language. Lord, I need much mercy, manifold mercy, multiplied
   mercy! I need mercy upon mercy! I need forgiving mercy! I need
   regenerating mercy! I need mercy for the present as well as for the
   past and I shall need mercy to keep me in the future if I am to be
   saved at all! Friend, set your plea on that ground! Multiplied sins
   crave multiplied mercies. "Let Your mercies come also unto me, O Lord."

   It is a gracious prayer, because it asks for the right thing--"Your
   salvation"--not a salvation of my own invention, but, "Your salvation."
   God's salvation is one in which His Divine Sovereignty is revealed and
   that Sovereignty must be accepted and adored. Do not dispute against
   God's salvation, but accept it in its entirety, just as it is revealed.
   Receive the salvation which the Lord planned in eternity--which He
   worked out on Calvary and which He applies to the heart by the Holy
   Spirit. You need salvation from sinning as well as salvation from Hell
   and the Lord will give you that. You need salvation from self to God
   and that, too, He will bestow. Ask for all that the Lord intends by His
   salvation and includes in it. "Let Your mercies come also unto me, even
   Your salvation."

   You see, dear Brothers and Sisters, that the prayer is put in the right
   form, for it is added, "Even Your salvation according to Your Word." He
   wishes to be saved in the manner which the Lord has appointed. Dear
   Hearer, where are you? Are you hidden away in the foggy corners? I wish
   I could get a hold of your hand and speak as a Brother to you. You do
   not want God to go out of the way of His Word to save you, do you? You
   are willing to be saved in the Scriptural way, the Biblical way! People
   nowadays will do anything but keep to the Word of God! They will follow
   any book but the Bible! Now, pray the Lord to give you the salvation of
   the Bible in the Bible's own way.

   Lord, if Your Word says I must repent, give me Your salvation and cause
   me to repent! If Your Word says that I must confess my sin, give me
   Your salvation in the confession of sin! If You say I must trust
   Christ, Lord, help me, now, to trust Him--only grant me Your salvation
   according to Your Word. Observe that the whole prayer is conceived and
   uttered in a humble spirit. It is, "Let Your salvation come also unto
   me." He admits his helplessness. He cannot get at the mercy! He needs
   it to come to him. He is so wounded and so sick that he cannot put on
   the plaster nor reach the medicine and, therefore, he seeks the Lord to
   bring it to him.

   He is like the man half dead on the road to Jericho and needs that
   someone should pour on the oil and wine, for he cannot help himself by
   reason of his spiritual lethargy and death. "Let Your mercies come to
   me, O Lord." This implies that there is a barrier between him and the
   mercy. The road appears to be blocked up. The devil intervenes and his
   fears hedge up the way and he cries to God to clear the road. "Lord,
   let Your mercies come! Did you not say, Let there be light and there
   was light? So let Your mercy come to me, a poor dying sinner and I
   shall have it, Lord! But it must come to me by Your power. Lo, here I
   lie at Hell's dark door and feel within my spirit as if the sentence of
   condemnation were registered in Heaven against me! But let Your mercies
   come also unto me, O God, even Your salvation, according to Your Word."
   That is a very gracious prayer.

   In the second place this prayer may be supported by gracious arguments.
   May the Spirit of God help you to plead them. I will suppose some poor
   heart painfully longing to use this prayer. Here are arguments for you.
   Pray like this. Say, " Lord, let Your mercy come to me, for I need
   mercy." Do not go on the tack of trying to show that you are good,
   because mercy will then pass you by. To argue merit is to plead against
   yourself! Whenever you say, "Lord, I am as good as other people. I try
   to do my best," and so on, you act as foolishly as if a beggar at your
   door should plead that he was not very badly off, not half so needy as
   others and neither scantily fed nor badly clothed. This would be a new
   method of begging and a very bad one!

   No, no! State your case in all its terrible truthfulness. Say, "O Lord,
   I feel that nobody in all this world needs Your mercy more than I do!
   Let my need plead with You! Give me Your salvation. I am no impostor, I
   am a sinner--let Your mercy and Your Truth visit me in very deed." Your
   soul's wounds are not such as sham beggars make with chemicals-- they
   are real sores--plead them with the God of all Grace! Your poverty is
   not that which wears rags abroad and fine linen at home--you are
   utterly bankrupt and this you may urge before the Lord as a reason for
   His mercy.

   Next plead this--"Lord, You know and You have made me to know somewhat
   of what will become of me if Your mercy does not come to me--I must
   perish, I must perish miserably! I have heard the Gospel and have
   neglected it. I have been a Sabbath-breaker, even when I thought I was
   a Sabbath-keeper. I have been a despiser of Christ, even when I stood
   up and sang His praises, for I sang them with a hypocrite's lips. The
   hottest place in Hell will surely be mine unless Your mercy comes to
   me. Oh, send that mercy, now." This is good and prevalent
   pleading--hold on to it.

   Then plead, "If Your mercy shall come to me, it will be a great wonder,
   Lord. I have not the confidence to do more than faintly hope it may
   come, but, oh, if You ever do blot out my sins I will tell the world of
   it! I will tell the angels of it! Through eternity I will sing Your
   praises and claim to be, of all the saved ones, the most remarkable
   instance of what Your Sovereign Grace can do! Do you feel like that,
   dear Hearer? I used to think if the Lord saved me He would have begun
   on a new line altogether--that His mercy would have sent up her song an
   octave higher than before! In every man's case there will be a
   conviction that there is a something so special about his guilt that
   there will be something very special about the mercy which can put that
   guilt away.

   Plead, then, the peril of your soul and the Glory which Grace will gain
   by your rescue. Plead the greatness of the Grace needed, for Christ
   delights to do great marvels and His name is Wonderful. "Lord, pardon
   my iniquity, for it is great. Lord, save me, for I am a nobody and it
   will be a wonder, indeed, if Your Grace shall visit me." Then you can
   put this to the good Savior. Tell Him if He will give you His
   salvation, He will not be impoverished by the gift. "Lord, I am a
   thirsty soul, but You are such a River that if I drink from You there
   will be no fear of my exhausting Your boundless supply." They put up
   over certain little nasty, dirty ponds by the roadside, "No dogs may be
   washed here." Pity the dogs if they were!

   But no one puts up such a notice on the banks of great, glorious Old
   Father Thames! You may wash your dogs if you like and his flood will
   flow on! There is too much of it to be so readily polluted. So is it
   with the boundless mercy of God! God permits many a poor dog of a
   sinner to be washed in it and yet it is just as full and efficacious as
   ever! You need not

   be afraid of enjoying too much sunlight, for the sun loses nothing by
   your basking in his beams. So is it with Divine Mercy--it can visit you
   and bless you and remain as great and glorious as ever! Out of the
   fullness of Christ millions may still receive salvation and He will
   remain the same overflowing Fountain of Grace! Plead, then, "Lord, if
   such a poor soul as I shall be saved, I shall be made supremely happy,
   but none of Your attributes or glories shall be one jot the less
   illustrious! You will be as great and blessed a God as ever."

   You may even say, "Lord, now that Your Son Jesus has died, it will not
   dishonor You to save me. Before the atoning Sacrifice it might have
   stained Your Justice to pass by sin, but now that the Sacrifice is
   offered, You can be just and yet the Justifier. Lord, none shall say
   You are unjust if You save even me now that Jesus Christ has bled.
   Since You have made my salvation possible without infringement of Your
   Law, I beseech You fulfill the design of the great Sacrifice and save
   even me!" There is another plea implied in the prayer and a very sweet
   argument it is--"Let Your mercies come also unto me, O Lord." It
   means--"It has come to so many before, therefore let it also come unto
   me. Lord, if I were the only one and You had never saved a sinner
   before, yet would I venture upon Your Word and promise! Especially
   would I come and trust the blood of Jesus! But, Lord, I am not the
   first by many millions. I beseech You, then, of Your great love, let
   Your salvation come unto me."

   You notice in the parable of the prodigal that the forlorn feeder of
   swine was the only son that had gone astray and consequently the first
   that ever tried whether his father would receive him. The elder brother
   had not gone astray and was there at home to grumble at his younger
   brother. But the poor prodigal son, though he had no instance before
   him of his father's willingness to forgive, was bold to try, by faith,
   his father's heart! None had trod that way before, yet he made bold to
   explore it! He felt that he should not be cast out. But when we hear
   any of you say, "I will arise and go to my Father," scores of us are
   ready to leap out of our seats and cry, "Come along, Brother, for we
   have come and the gracious Father has received us!"

   I do not know whether the elder brother is here to murmur at a penitent
   sinner. I am happy to say I have none of his spirit. It will make my
   heart happy! The bells of my whole nature will ring for joy if I may
   only bring one of my poor, prodigal brothers back to my great Father's
   house! Oh, come along with you and let this be the plea--"You have
   received so many, O receive me!" Cry, "Bless me, even me, also, O my
   Father!" The Lord has not come to the end of His mercy. Jesus has not
   come to the end of His saving work. There is room for you and there
   will be room for thousands upon thousands until the Master of the house
   has risen up and shut the door. He has not risen up, nor closed the
   door as yet and still His mercy cries, "Come to Me! Come to Me! Come to
   Me and he that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out."

   I will close by assuring you that this blessedly gracious prayer which
   I have helped to back up with arguments will be answered by our
   gracious God. Oh, be sure of this! He never sent His Prophets to preach
   to us a salvation which cannot be ours! He never sent His Apostles to
   report to us concerning a mere dream! He never set the angels wondering
   at an empty speculation! He never gave His Son to be a Ransom which
   will not redeem and He never committed His Spirit to witness to that
   which will, after all, mock the sinner's need! No, He is able to
   save--there is salvation--there is salvation to be had, to be had now,
   even now!

   We are sitting in the light in this house while a dense fog causes
   darkness all around, even darkness which may be felt. This is an emblem
   of the state of those who are in Christ--they have light in their
   hearts, light in their habitations, light in Jesus Christ! O come to
   Him and find salvation now! May God bring any that have been in
   darkness into His marvelous light and bring them now and unto His name
   shall be praise forever and ever! Amen and amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Lily Among Thorns

   (No. 1525)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 29, 1880,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "As the lily among thorns, so is My love among the daughters." Song of
   Solomon 2:2.

   WE shall not enter into any profitless discussion this morning. We take
   it for granted that the Song of Solomon is a sacred marriage song
   between Christ and His Church and that it is the Lord Jesus who is here
   speaking of His Church and, indeed, of each individual member, saying,
   "As the lily among thorns, so is My love among the daughters." I will
   not even enter into any study as to what particular flower is here
   intended by the word translated, "lily," for it would be very difficult
   to select a plant from the Holy Land about which travelers and
   botanists would agree. The lily, which we should most naturally fix
   upon, is, as I have gathered from books on travel, not at present found
   in that country, though we may not, therefore, be sure that it was
   never there, or may not yet be discovered. Several other fair and
   beautiful forms, according to the fancies of various travelers, have
   been preferred to occupy the place of the plant intended by the
   original Hebrew, but none of them quite come up to the ideal suggested
   to an English reader by our translation.

   I will for once take the liberty to clothe the Scripture in a Western
   dress, if necessary, and venture to do what Solomon would surely have
   done if his Song of Songs had been written in England. I shall assume
   that he means one of our own lilies--either the lily of the valley, or
   one of those more stately beauties, matchless for whiteness--which so
   gloriously adorn our gardens. Either will do and serve our purpose this
   morning. "As the lily among the thorns, so is My love among the
   daughters." It is of small moment to be precise in botany so long as we
   get the spirit of the text. We seek practical usefulness and personal
   consolation and proceed at once in the pursuit, in the hope that many
   are taking root among us, now, newly transplanted from the world.

   It is well that they should be rooted in a knowledge of their calling
   by Grace and what it includes. They ought to know, at the commencement,
   what a Christian is when he is truly a Christian; what he is expected
   to be; what the Lord means him to be and what the Lord Jesus regards
   him as really being! In that way they may make no mistakes, but may
   count the cost and know what it is that they have ventured upon.
   Thinking over this subject carefully and anxiously desiring to warn our
   new converts without alarming them, I could not think of any text from
   which I should be able, in the exposition of it, to better set forth
   the position, condition and character of a genuine Christian.

   Jesus Himself knows best what His own bride is like--let us hear Him as
   He speaks in this matchless song! He knows best what His followers
   should be and well may we be content to take the words out of His own
   mouth when, in sweetest poetry, He tells us, "As the lily among thorns,
   so is My love among the daughters." Join me then, my Brothers and
   Sisters, at this time, in considering how our Lord's lilies grow!
   Concerning the Church of God, there are two points upon which I will
   enlarge. First, her relation to her Lord and secondly, her relation to
   the world.

   I. First, I think my text very beautifully sets forth THE RELATION OF
   THE CHURCH AND OF EVERY INDIVIDUAL TO CHRIST. He styles her, "My love."
   An exquisitely sweet name, as if His love had all gone forth of Him and
   had become embodied in her. The first point, then, of her relation to
   Christ is that she has His love. Think of it and let the blessed Truth
   of God dwell long and sweetly in your meditations! The Lord of life and
   glory, the Prince of the kings of the earth has such a loving heart
   that He must have an object upon which to spend His affections--and His
   people, chosen from among men, whom He calls His Church--these are they
   who are His "love," the object of His supreme delight! "Christ loved
   the Church and gave Himself for it."

   He looked on His people and He exclaimed, "as the Father has loved Me,
   even so have I loved you." Every Believer, separated from mankind and
   called into the fellowship of Christ, is also the peculiar object of
   His love. Not in name only, but in deed and in truth does Jesus love
   each one of us who have believed on Him. You may, each one of you, say
   with the Apostle, "He loved me." You may read it in any tense you
   please--He loved me; He loves me; He will love me, for He gave

   Himself for me. This shall be your song in Heaven, "Unto Him that loved
   us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, to Him be glory." Let
   your hearts saturate themselves with this honeyed thought! Heaven lies
   hidden within it! It is the quintessence of bliss--Jesus loves me!

   It is not in the power of words to set forth the charming nature of
   this fact. It is a very simple proposition, but the heights and depths,
   the lengths and breadths of it surpass our knowledge. That such a poor,
   insignificant, unworthy being as I am should be the object of the
   eternal affection of the Son of God is an amazing wonder! Yet,
   wonderful as it is, it is a fact! To each one of His people, He says,
   this morning, by the Holy Spirit, "I have loved you with an everlasting
   love, therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn you." Each one of us
   may rejoice in the title under which our Lord addresses us--"My love."
   This love is distinguishing love, for in its light one special object
   shines as a lily and the rest, "the daughters," are as thorns. Love has
   fixed on its chosen object and, compared with the favored one, all
   others are as nothing. There is a love of Jesus which goes forth to all
   mankind, for "the Lord is good to all and His tender mercies are over
   all His works," but there is a special and peculiar love which He bears
   to His own.

   As a man loves his neighbors but still has a special affection for his
   wife, so is the Church Christ's bride beloved above all the rest of
   mankind and every individual Believer the favored one of Heaven! The
   saint is united to Christ by a mystical union, a spiritual marriage
   bond and, above all others, Christ loves the souls espoused to Him. He
   said once, "I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but for them
   which You have given Me." Thus He indicates that there is a specialty
   about His intercession.

   We rejoice in the largeness and the width of Jesus' love, but we do
   not, therefore, doubt its specialty. The sun shines on all things, but
   when it is focused upon one point, ah, then there is a heat about it of
   which you little dreamed! The love of Jesus is focused on those whom
   the Father has given Him! Upon you, my Brother or Sister, if, indeed,
   you are a believer in Jesus Christ, the Lord's heart is set and He
   speaks of you in the words of the text as, "My love," loved above all
   the daughters! Precious in His sight and honorable so that He will give
   men for you and people for your life.

   Observe that this is a love which He openly avows. The Bridegroom
   speaks and says before all men, "As a lily among thorns, so is My love
   among the daughters." He puts it upon record in that Book which is more
   widely scattered than any other, for He is not ashamed to have it
   published on the housetops! The love of Christ was, at first, hidden in
   His heart, but it soon revealed itself, for even of old His delights
   were with the sons of men and He bent His steps downward to this world
   in many forms before Bethlehem's song was sung. And now, since the
   Incarnate God has loved and lived and died, He has unveiled His love in
   the most open form and astonished Heaven and earth thereby! On Calvary
   He set up an open proclamation, written in His own heart's blood, that
   He loved His own even unto the end.

   He bids His ministers proclaim it to the world's end that many waters
   could not quench His love, neither could the floods drown it--and that
   neither life, nor death, nor things present, nor things to come, nor
   height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
   from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord! He would have
   it known, for He is not ashamed to call His people, "the bride, the
   Lamb's wife." He declares it so that His adversaries may know it--that
   He has a people in whom His heart delights and these He will have and
   hold as His own when Heaven and earth shall pass away!

   This love, wherever it has been revealed to its object, is
   reciprocated. If the Lord has really spoken home to your soul and said,
   "I have loved you," your soul has gladly answered, "This is my Beloved
   and this is my Friend; yes, He is altogether lovely." For what says the
   spouse in another place? "My Beloved is mine and I am His." I am His
   beloved, but He is my beloved, too. By this, dear Hearer, shall you
   know whether this text belongs to you or not. What do you say when
   Jesus asks of you, "Do you love Me?" Is your heart warmed at the very
   mention of His name? If you can truly say with Peter, "Lord, You know
   all things, You know that I love You," then rest assured you love Him
   because He first loved you. Doubt not the fact, but be well assured of
   it, that love in your heart towards Jesus is the certain and infallible
   pledge of His infinite, eternal and immutable love to you! If His name
   is on your heart, then be sure of this, that your name is on His breast
   and written on the palms of His hands. You are espoused to Him and the
   bands of the mystical wedlock shall never be snapped. This is the first
   point of the relation of the Church to her Lord--she is the object of
   His love.

   Next, she bears His likeness. Notice the first verse of the chapter,
   wherein the Bridegroom speaks--"I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of
   the valleys." He is the lily, but His beloved is like He, for He
   applies His own chosen emblem to her--"As the lily among thorns, so is
   My love among the daughters." Notice that He is the lily and she is as
   the lily--

   that is to say, He has the beauty and she reflects it! She is comely in
   His comeliness which He puts upon her. If any soul has any such beauty
   as is described here, Christ has endowed that beloved soul with all its
   wealth of charms, for in ourselves we are deformed and defiled! What is
   the confession of this very spouse in the previous chapter? She says "I
   am black"--that is, the opposite of a lily. If she adds, "but comely,"
   it is because her Lord has made her comely. There is no Grace but what
   Grace has been given and if we are graceful it is because Christ has
   made us full of Grace. There is no beauty in any of us but what our
   Lord has worked in us.

   Note, too, that He who gave the beauty is the first to see it. While
   they are unknown to the world, Jesus knows His own. Long before anybody
   else sees any virtue or any praise in us, Jesus descries it and is
   pleased with it. He is quick to say, "Behold, he prays," or, "Behold,
   he repents." He is the first to say, "I have surely heard Ephraim
   bemoaning himself." Love's eyes are quick and her ears are open. Love
   covers a multitude of faults, but it discovers a multitude of beauties.
   Can it be, O my Soul? Can it be that Christ has made you comely in His
   comeliness? Has He shed a beauty upon you and does He, Himself, look
   complacently upon it? He whose taste is exquisite and whose voice is
   the Truth of God--who never calls that beautiful which is not
   beautiful--can He see a beauty in your sighs and tears, in your desires
   after holiness, in your poor attempts to aid His cause, in your prayers
   and in your songs and in your heart's love towards Him-- can He see a
   beauty in these? Yes, assuredly He can, or He would not speak as He
   does in this text!

   Let His condescending discernment have all honor for this generous
   appreciation of us. Let us bless and love Him because He deigns to
   think so highly of us who owe every thing to Him. "You are," He says,
   "My love, as the lily." It is evident that the Lord Jesus takes delight
   in this beauty which He has put upon His people. He values it at so
   great a rate that He counts all rival beauties to be but as thorns. He
   looks upon the court of an earthly monarch and sees my lords and
   ladies, but makes small account of them compared with His poor saints!
   If in that court He spies out one that loves Him, one who wears a
   coronet and prays, He marks that one and counts Him or her, "as the
   lily among thorns." There is a wealthy household, honored and famous
   among the old county families, but in it there is no lover of the
   Savior except one and she, perhaps, is a little maid whose service is
   among the pots, yet shall she be as the wings of a dove covered with
   silver. "As the lily among thorns" shall she be!

   All the kingdoms of the earth are but thorns to the Lord Jesus compared
   with His Church. Be they Roman, German, French, or English--all empires
   with all their splendors are mere spines and thorns upon the common
   bramble bushes and thorn coverts--the haunts of wild and noxious
   creatures in the view of the King of kings! But His Church and those
   that make up the body of the faithful are as lilies in His discerning
   eyes! He delights in them! He finds a sweet content in gazing on them!
   So you see the Lord has given to His people His likeness and that
   likeness He looks upon and loves. Bringing out still further the
   relationship between Christ and His Church, I want you to notice that
   her position has drawn out His love. "As the lily," He says, " among
   thorns, so is My love."

   He spied her out among the thorns! She was at first no better than a
   thorn itself--His Grace, alone, made her to differ from the briars
   about her! But as soon as He had put His life and His Grace into her,
   though she dwelt among the ungodly, she became as the lily and He spied
   her out! The thorn thicket could not hide His beloved! Christ's eye
   towards His people is so quick because it is cleared by love. There
   may, at this time, be in a Popish convent one truly seeking Jesus in
   spirit and in truth. He spies out the Believer among the rest who trust
   in themselves and calls her His love among thorns! There may be, at
   this moment, in the most godless haunt in London a poor, trembling
   heart that loves Jesus in secret-- the Lord knows that heart and it is
   to Him as a lily among thorns!

   You, perhaps, are the only serious working man in the shop in which you
   earn your daily bread and the whole band hold you in derision. You may
   hardly know, yourself, whether you are really a Christian, for you are
   sometimes staggered about your own condition--and yet the enemies of
   Christ have made up their minds as to whose you are and treat you as
   one of the disciples of the Nazarene! Be of good courage, your Lord
   discerns you and knows you better than you know yourself! Such is the
   quickness of His eyes that your difficult and perilous position only
   quickens His discernment and He regards you with the more attention.
   The thorns cannot hide you, thickly as they cluster around you--in your
   loneliness you are not alone--the Crucified is with you!

   "As the lily among thorns" wears, also, another meaning. Dr. Thompson
   writes of a certain lily, "It grows among thorns and I have sadly
   lacerated my hands in extricating it from them. Nothing can be in
   higher contrast than the luxuriant, velvety softness of this lily and
   the withered, tangled hedge of thorns about it." Ah, Beloved, you know
   who it was

   that, in gathering your soul and mine, lacerated not His hands only,
   but His feet and His head and His side and His heart--yes and His
   inmost soul! He spied us out and said, "Yonder lily is Mine and I will
   have it," but the thorns were a terrible barrier--our sins had gathered
   round about us and the wrath of God most sharply stopped the way. Jesus
   pressed through all that we might be His and now when He takes us to
   Himself, He does not forget the thorns which girded His brow and tore
   His flesh for our sakes. This, then, is a part of our relationship to
   Christ, that we cost Him very dearly. He saw us where we were and He
   came to our deliverance. And now, even as Pharaoh's daughter called the
   young child's name, Moses, "Because," she said, "I drew him out of the
   water," so does Jesus call His chosen, "the lily among thorns," because
   such she was when He came to her rescue. Never will He forget Calvary
   and its thorns--nor should His saints allow that memory to fade.

   Yet once more I think many a child of God may regard himself as still
   being a lily among thorns because of his afflictions. Certainly the
   Church is so and she is thereby kept for Christ's own. If thorns made
   it hard for Him to reach us for our salvation, there is another kind of
   thorn which makes it hard for any enemy to come at us for our harm. Our
   trials and tribulations, which we would gladly escape from, often act
   as a spiritual protection--they hedge us about and ward off many a
   devouring foe. Sharp as they are, they serve as a fence and a defense.
   Many a time, dear child of God, you would have been an exposed lily, to
   be plucked by any ruthless hand, if it had not been that God had placed
   you in such circumstances that you were shut up unto Himself. Sick
   saints and poor saints and persecuted saints are fair lilies enclosed
   by their pains and needs and bonds that they may be for Christ, alone.

   I look on John Bunyan in prison writing his, "Pilgrim's Progress," and
   I cannot help feeling that it was a great blessing for us all that such
   a lily was shut up among the thorns that it might shed its fragrance in
   that famous book and thereby perfume the Church for ages! You that are
   kept from roaming by sickness or by family trials need not regret these
   things, for perhaps they are the means of making you more completely
   your Lord's. How charmingly Madame Guyon wrote when she was immured in
   a dungeon. Her wing was closely bound, but her song was full of
   liberty, for she felt that the bolts and bars only shut her in with her
   Beloved and what is that but liberty? She sang--

   "A little bird I am,

   Shut from the fields of air.

   And in my cage I sit and sing

   To Him who placed me there.

   Well pleased a prisoner to be,

   Because, my God, it pleases Thee.

   Nought ha ve I else to do,

   I sing the whole day long.

   And He whom most I love to please

   Does listen to my song.

   He caught and bound my wandering wing,

   But still He bends to hear me sing." "As the lily among thorns," she
   lived in prison shut in with her Lord and since the world was quite
   shut out, she was in that respect a gainer! O to have one's heart made
   as "a garden enclosed, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed." So let my
   soul be, yes, so let it be even if the enclosure can only be
   accomplished by a dense growth of trials and grief!

   May every pain that comes and casts us on our bed and lays us aside
   from public usefulness; may every sorrow which arises out of our
   business and weans us from the world; may every adversary that assails
   us with bitter, taunting words, only thicken the thorn hedge which
   encases us from all the world and constrains us to be chaste lilies set
   apart for the Well-Beloved! Enough upon this point, I think, only let
   me entreat all of you who have lately come to know the Lord to think
   much of your relationship to Him. It is the way by which you will be
   supported under the responsibilities of your relationship to the world.
   If you know that you are His and that He loves you, you will be strong
   to bear all burdens. Nothing will daunt you if you are sure that He is
   for you, that His whole heart is true to you, that He loves you
   especially and has set you apart unto Himself that you may be one with
   Him forever!

   Dwell much, in your meditations, upon what this text and other
   Scriptures teach of the relationship of the renewed heart to Christ and
   know Him of whom you are so well known. May the Holy Spirit teach us
   all this lesson so that it may be learned by our hearts.

   II. But now, secondly, our text is full of instruction as to THE
   RELATIONSHIP OF THE CHURCH AND EACH INDIVIDUAL BELIEVER TO THE
   WORLD--"The lily among thorns." First, then, she has incomparable
   beauty. As compared and contrasted with all else, she is as the lily to
   the thorn thicket. Did not our Lord say of the natural lilies--
   "Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these"? And when
   I think of Christ's lilies, adorned in His own righteousness and
   bearing His own image, I feel that I may repeat my Master's words and
   say with emphasis, "Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one
   of these!"

   In Christ's esteem, His Church bears the bell for beauty. She is the
   fairest among women. She is not to be compared--she has to be
   contrasted with the rest of mankind. Our Lord means that if you take
   worldlings at their best and in their bravest attire--in their pomp and
   glory and parade--they are but as thorns in contrast with His Church.
   Though the Church may seem to be little and poor and despised, yet she
   is better than all the princes and kingdoms and glories of the earth!
   He means that true Christians are infinitely superior to ungodly men.
   These ungodly men may make a fair show of virtue and they may have much
   prudence and wit and count themselves wise and great, but Jesus calls
   all unconverted ones, "thorns," while His own believing ones He
   compares to "lilies."

   The thorns are worthless. They flourish and spread and cumber the
   ground, but they yield no fruit and only grow to be cut down for the
   oven. Alas, such is man by nature, at his best. As for the lily, it is
   a thing of beauty and a joy forever. It lives shedding sweet perfume
   and when it is gathered, its loveliness adorns the chamber to which it
   is taken. So does the saint bless his generation while here and when he
   is taken away he is regarded with pleasure even in Heaven above as one
   of the flowers of God! He will, before long, be transplanted from among
   the thorns to the garden enclosed beyond the river, where the King
   delights to dwell, for such a flower is far too fair to be left forever
   amid tangled briars! There are, among worldly people, some who are very
   fair to look upon in many respects--philanthropic, kind and
   upright--they have many virtues. But since these virtues have no
   bearings towards God and no reference to Christ, He counts the bearers
   of them to be but thorns!

   What virtue can there be in him whose principle in life is disregard of
   his Maker and disbelief in his Savior? He is an avowed rebel and yet
   would be commended by the Lord whom he rejects? How can it be? Acts
   done from other motives than those of obedience to God or love to
   Christ are poor things. There may be a great inward difference between
   actions which outwardly are the same. The apple of Nature has never the
   flavor of the pomegranate of Grace! It may seem, even, to excel the
   fruit of Grace, but it is not so. Two babies before us may appear alike
   as they seem to sleep side by side, but the child of Nature, however
   finely dressed, is not the living child and the Lord will not
   acknowledge the dead thing as belonging to His family! Ah, you that are
   struggling after holiness for Christ's sake--you that are seeking after
   virtue in the power of the Holy Spirit--you have the beauty of the
   lily, while all else are still to Christ but as a thicket of thorns.

   Yes, and let me say that I am sorry to add--a real Christian is as
   superior, even, to a professing Christian as a lily is to thorns! I
   know Churches in which there are many who make a profession, but, ah
   me, it is a pity that they should, for their life does not adorn their
   doctrine! Their temper is not consistent with the indwelling of the
   Holy Spirit. They live like worldlings, to amass money, or to carry on
   business, or to enjoy good eating and drinking, or to dress and go to
   parties. They are as much for this world as if they were never renewed
   and it is to be feared they never were! It will often grieve those who
   really love the Lord to see how mere professors pretend to do what
   saints labor to perform.

   Saints are mimicked--I almost said mocked and mimicked--by empty
   professors and this is a standing source of sorrow. Their cold words
   often vex the zealous heart and pierce it as with thorns. When you are
   full of zeal, their lack of consecration almost kindles indignation in
   the minds of those who are willing to give their last penny--yes, and
   their last breath for their Master's honor! Do not, however, be at all
   astonished, for it must be so. He who is full of the Grace of God will
   always be as the lily among thorns, even in the professing church! Do
   not marvel, young Brother, if older professors dampen your ardor and
   count your warm love to be a mere fanaticism! God give you Grace to
   keep up your first love and even to advance upon it, though the thorny
   ones wound and hinder you. May you be distinguished above your fellow
   professors, for I fear that unless it is so, your life will be a poor
   one. This, then, is the relationship of the Church to the world and of
   Christians to the world--that they are as much superior to the
   unregenerate in moral and spiritual beauty as the lily is to the thorns
   among which it finds itself.

   Secondly, in the comparison of the saint to the lily we remark that he
   has, like the lily, a surpassing excellence. I point not to its beauty,
   just now, but to its intrinsic excellence. The thorn is a fruit of the
   curse--it springs up because of

   sin. "Thorns, also, and thistles shall it bring forth unto you." Not so
   the lily--it is a fair type of the blessing which makes rich without
   the sorrow of carking care. The thorn is the mark of wrath and the lily
   is the symbol of Divine Providence. A true Believer is a blessing, a
   tree whose leaves heal and whose fruit feeds. A genuine Christian is a
   living Gospel, an embodiment of goodwill towards men. Did not the old
   Covenant blessing run, "In you and in your seed shall all the nations
   of the earth be blessed"? I cannot refrain from quoting a metrical
   meditation of one who loved the Song of Solomon and drank into its
   spirit. He says of the Church, she is--

   "A radiant thing, where all is gloomy else,

   Florescent where all else is barrenness.

   A blossom in the desert, that proclaims

   Man is no friendless outcast, hopeless doomed

   To traverse scenes of wickedness and grief,

   But, pilgrim as he is, has One who plans,

   Not only to protect but cheer his way!

   Oh, ever testifying desert flower,

   Still holding forth the story of God's love,

   How amazing it is that busy throngs

   Pause not to look on you!

   That few reflect

   On the strange fact of your existence still, A lily among thorns--a
   life in death, Distinct from, yet in contact with the world; Burning,
   yet unconsumed; though cumbered, free With glorious liberty!"

   Yes, the Church is a blessing, a blessing abiding and scattering its
   delights in the midst of the curse--and each particular Believer is, in
   his measure, a blessing, too, "as the lily among thorns."

   A true Christian knows not how to harm his fellow men. He is like the
   lily which stings no one and yet he lives among those who are full of
   sharpness. He aims to please and not to provoke and yet he lives among
   those whose existence is a standing menace. The thorn tears and
   lacerates--it is all armed from its root to its topmost branch, defying
   all comers. But there stands the lily--smiling, not defying--charming
   and not harming! Such is the real Christian--holy, harmless, full of
   love, gentleness and tenderness. Therein lies his excellence. The thorn
   pierces, but the lily soothes. The very sight of it gives pleasure. Who
   would not stop and turn aside to see a lily among thorns and think he
   read a promise from his God to comfort him amid distress? Such is a
   true Christian! He is a consolation in his family, a comfort in his
   neighborhood, an ornament to his profession and a benediction to his
   age.

   He is all tenderness and gentleness and yet it may be he lives among
   the envious, the malicious and the profane. He is a lily among thorns.
   The thorn says, "Keep away! No one shall touch me with impunity." The
   lily cries, "I come to you. I shed my soul abroad to please you." The
   sweet odors of the lily of the valley are well known. Perhaps no plant
   has so strong a savor about it of intense and exquisite sweetness as
   that lily of the valley which is found in Palestine. Such is the
   sanctified Believer. There is a secret something about him, a hallowed
   savor which goes out from his life, so that his gra-ciousness is
   discovered, for Grace, like its Lord, "cannot be hid." Even if the
   regenerate man is not known as a professor, yet does he reveal himself
   by the holiness of his life--"his speech betrays him."

   When I was resting in the south I wandered by the side of a flowing
   stream, gathering handfuls of maiden-hair fern from the verdant
   bank--and as I walked along I was conscious of a most delicious
   fragrance all around me. I cast my eye downward and I saw blue eyes
   looking up from among the grass at my feet. The violets had hidden
   themselves from sight, but they had betrayed themselves by their
   delicious scent. So does a Christian reveal his hidden life. His tone
   and temper and manners speak of his royal lineage, if, indeed, the
   Spirit of God is in him. Such are the people of God--they court no
   observation, but are like that modest flower of which the poet says--

   "She never affects

   The public walk, nor gaze of midday sun. She to no state nor dignity
   aspires, But silent and alone puts on her suit

   And sheds a lasting perfume, but for which We had not known there was a
   thing so sweet Hidden in the gloomy shade."

   I want you, dear Christian people, to be just like this--to have about
   you a surpassing wealth of blessing and an unrivalled sweetness of
   influence by which you shall be known of all men! Is it so with you, or
   are you as rough and stern and repellant as a thorn thicket? Are you as
   selfish and as quarrelsome as the unregenerate? Or do you shed yourself
   away in sweet odors of self-denying kindness in your families and among
   your neighbors? If you do, then does Jesus say of you, "As the lily
   among thorns, so is My love among the daughters."

   The last point with regard to our relationship to the world is that the
   Church and many individual Christians are called to endure singular
   trials which make them feel, "as the lily among thorns." That lovely
   flower seems out of place in such company, does it not? Christ said,
   "Behold, I send you forth as sheep among sheep"--no, no, that is my
   mistake-- "as sheep among wolves." It is a very blessed thing to be as
   sheep among sheep--to lie down with them under the shadow of the great
   rock and feed with them in green pastures under the Shepherd's eyes.
   This is our privilege and we ought to value it greatly and unite with
   the Church and frequent its ordinances. But even then we shall, some of
   us, have to go home to an ungodly family, or to go out into the world
   to win our bread and then we shall be as sheep among wolves.

   Grow in the Church and you will be lilies in the garden, but you cannot
   always live in the Tabernacle and so you will have to go back to the
   ungodly world and there you will be lilies among thorns. The lily
   startles you if you find it in such a position. Often you come upon one
   of God's elect ones in a most unexpected manner and are as much amazed
   as if an angel crossed your path! This is the wonder of the lily among
   thorns. You are making your way over a wild heath and come to a tangled
   thorn thicket through which you must force your way. As you are walking
   through the dense mass, rending and tearing your garments, suddenly you
   stand still as one who has seen a vision of angels, for there, among
   the most rugged brambles, a lily lifts its lovely form and smiles upon
   you!

   You feel like Moses at the back of the desert when he saw the bush
   which burned with fire and yet was not consumed! So have you met in a
   back slum where blasphemy abounded, a beauteous child of God, whom all
   recognized as such and you have felt amazed! So have you, in a wealthy
   family full of worldliness and vanity, come upon a humble man or
   patient woman living unto Christ and you have asked how came this Grace
   to this house? So, too, in a foreign land, where all bowed down to
   crucifixes and image, you have casually met with a confessor who has
   stood his ground among idolaters, declaring for his God, not by his
   speech so much as by his holy walk! The surprise has been great. Expect
   many such surprises!

   The Lord has a people where you look not for them. Think not that all
   His lilies are in His garden! There are lilies among thorns and He
   knows their whereabouts. Many saints reside in families where they will
   never be appreciated any more than the lily is appreciated by the
   thorns. This is painful, for the sympathy of our fellows is a great
   comfort. Lilies of the valley love to grow in clusters and saints love
   holy company and yet, in some cases it must not be--they must live
   alone. Nor need we think that this loneliness is unrelieved, for God
   goes out of the track of men and He visits those whom His own servants
   are passing by. The poet says--

   "Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on
   the desert air." But the poet forgot that God is in the wilderness and
   the solitary place and the sweetness of lonely flowers is His! He who
   planted the lily among thorns sees its beauty! It is God's flower and
   does it waste its sweetness because no human nostril smells it? It were
   blasphemous to count that wasted which is reserved for the great King!

   The Lord understands the incense of Nature better than we do and as He
   walks abroad He rejoices in His works. Grace struggling in loneliness
   is very choice in God's esteem. If man sees you not, O lonely Believer,
   you may nevertheless sing, "You, God, see me." The flower which blooms
   for God alone has a special honor put upon it and so has the saint
   whose quiet life is all for Jesus. If you are unappreciated by those
   around you, do not, therefore, be distressed, for you are honorable in
   the sight of God!

   The lily is altogether unassisted, too, by its surroundings--"the lily
   among thorns" borrows nothing from the growth which gathers about it. A
   genuine Christian is quite unhelped by ungodly men. And what is worse,
   he is cumbered by them. Yet through Divine Grace he lives and grows!
   You know how the good seed could not grow because of the thorns which
   sprang up and choked it, but here is a good seed, a choice bulb, which
   flourishes where you could not

   have looked for it to do so! God can make His people live and blossom
   even among the thorns where the ungodly, by their evil influences,
   would choke and destroy them. Happy it is when the gracious one can
   overtop the thorn thicket which would check his growth and make his
   influence to be known and felt above the grossness of surrounding sin.

   We would not do justice to this text if we failed to see in it a
   reminder of the persecution to which many of the best of God's people
   are subjected. They live all their lives like the lily among thorns.
   Some of you, dear Friends, are in this condition. You can hardly speak
   a word but what it is picked up and made mischief of. You cannot
   perform an action but what it is twisted and motives imputed to you
   which you know not of. Nowadays persecutors cannot drag men to the
   stake, but the old trial of cruel mocking is still continued--in some
   cases it rages even more fiercely than ever. God's people have been a
   persecuted people in all times and you only fare as they fare. Bear
   well the burden common to all the chosen! Make no great wonder of
   it--this bitter trial has happened to many more before--and you may
   well rejoice that you are now in fellowship with Apostles and Prophets
   and honorable men of all ages!

   The lily among thorns should rejoice that it is a lily and not a
   thorn--and when it is wounded it should consider it a matter of course
   and bloom on. But why does the Lord put His lilies among thorns? It is
   because He works transformations, singular transformations, by their
   means. He can make a lily grow among thorns till the thorns grow into
   lilies! Remember how it is written, "The wilderness and the solitary
   place shall be glad for them and the desert shall rejoice and blossom
   as the rose." He can set a Christian in a godless family till first one
   and, then, another shall feel the Divine power and shall say, "We will
   go with you, for we perceive that God is with you." It cannot happen in
   Nature, but it does happen perpetually in Grace--that the sweet perfume
   of the lily Believer, shed abroad upon the thorn thicket of the
   ungodly--turns it into a garden of lilies!

   Such holy work among ungodly people is the truest and best "FLOWER
   MISSION." They do well who give flowers to cheer the poor in their
   dreary habitations, but they do better, still, who are, themselves,
   flowers in the places where they live! Be lilies, my dear Brothers and
   Sisters--preach by your actions! Preach by your kindness and by your
   love! Do this and I feel quite sure that your influence will be a power
   for good. If the Holy Spirit helps all of you to stand among your
   associates as lilies among the thorns, the day will come when thorns
   will die out and lilies will spring up on every side! Then sin will be
   banished and Grace will abound!

   An Australian gentleman told me yesterday that in his colony the arum
   lily abounds as much as weeds do with us. When will this happen
   spiritually on our side of the globe? Ah, when? Blessed Lord, when will
   You remove the curse? When will You bring the better days? These are
   ill times when the thorns grow thicker and more sharp than ever--
   protect Your lilies, increase their number, preserve their snowy
   whiteness and delight Yourself in them for Jesus' sake, Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Fair Portrait of a Saint

   (No. 1526)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MARCH 7, 1880,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "My foot has held fast to His steps, His way have I kept and not
   declined. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of His lips; I
   have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food." Job
   23:11,12.

   THUS Job speaks of himself, not by way of boasting, but by way of
   vindication. Eliphaz the Temanite and his two companions had brought
   distinct charges against Job's character. Because they saw him in such
   utter misery they concluded that his adversity must have been sent as a
   punishment for his sin and, therefore, they judged him to be a
   hypocrite who, under cover of religion, had exercised oppression and
   tyranny. Zophar had hinted that wickedness was sweet in Job's mouth and
   that he hid iniquity under his tongue. Eliphaz charged him with
   hardness of heart to the poor and dared to say, "You have taken a
   pledge from your brother for nothing and stripped the naked of their
   clothing." This last, from its very impossibility, was meant to show
   the extreme meanness to which he falsely imagined that Job must have
   descended--how could he strip the naked?. He was evidently firing at
   random.

   As neither he nor his companions could discover any palpable blot in
   Job upon which they could distinctly lay their finger, they bespattered
   him right and left with their groundless accusations. They made up, in
   venom, for the lack of evidence to back their charges. They felt sure
   that there must be some great sin in him to have procured such
   extraordinary afflictions and, therefore, by smiting him all over, they
   hoped to touch the sore place. Let them stand as a warning to us never
   to judge men by their circumstances and never to conclude that a man
   must be wicked because he has fallen from riches to poverty.

   Job, however, knew his innocence and he was determined not to give way
   to them. He said, "You are forgers of lies, physicians of no value. O
   that you would altogether hold your peace and it should be your
   wisdom!" He fought the battle right manfully. Not, perhaps, without a
   little display of temper and self-righteousness, but still, with much
   less of either than any of us would have shown had we been in the same
   plight and had we been equally conscious of perfect integrity. He has,
   in this part of his self-defense, sketched a fine picture of a man
   perfect and upright before God. He has set before us the image to which
   we should seek to be conformed. Here is the high ideal after which
   every Christian should strive and happy shall he be who shall attain to
   it.

   Blessed is he who, in the hour of his distress, if he is falsely
   accused, will be able to say with as much truth as the Patriarch could,
   "My foot has held His steps, His way have I kept and not declined.
   Neither have I gone back from the commandment of His lips; I have
   esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food." I ask
   you, first, to inspect the picture of Job's holy life, that you may
   make it your model. After we have done this, we will look a little
   below the surface, asking the question, "How was he enabled to lead
   such an admirable life as this. Upon what meat did this great Patriarch
   feed that he had grown so eminent."

   We shall find the answer in our second head, Job's holy sustenance--"I
   have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food." May
   He, who worked in Job His patience and integrity, by this, our
   meditation, teach us the same virtues by the power of the Holy Spirit.

   Let us sit down before this sketch of JOB'S HOLY LIFE--it will well
   repay a meditative study. Note, first, that Job had been, all along, a
   man fearing God and walking after the Divine Rule. In the words before
   us he dwells much upon the things of God--"His steps." "His way." "The
   commandment of His lips." "The words of His mouth." He was
   pre-eminently one that "feared God and eschewed evil." He knew God to
   be the Lord and worthy to be served and, therefore, he lived in
   obedience to His Law which was written upon his instructed conscience.
   His way was God's way! He chose that course which the Lord commanded.
   He did not seek his own pleasure, nor the carrying out of his own will.

   Neither did He follow the fashion of the times, nor conform himself to
   the ruling opinion or custom of the age in which he lived--fashion and
   custom were nothing to him--he knew no rule but the will of the
   Almighty. Like some tall cliff which breasts the flood, he stood out
   almost alone, a witness for God in an idolatrous world. He acknowledged
   the living God and lived "as seeing Him who is invisible." God's will
   had taken the helm of the vessel and the ship was steered in God's
   course according to the Divine compass of Infallible Justice and the
   unerring chart of the Divine Will!

   This is a great point to begin with. It is, indeed, the only sure basis
   of a noble character. Ask the man who seeks to be the architect of a
   great and honorable character this question--Where do you place God? Is
   He second with you? Ah, then, in the judgment of Him whose view
   comprehends all human relationships, you will lead a very secondary
   kind of life, for the first and most urgent obligation of your being
   will be disregarded. But is God first with you? Is this your
   determination, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord"? Do you
   seek, first, the kingdom of God and His righteousness?

   If so, you are laying the foundation for a whole or holy character, for
   you begin by acknowledging your highest responsibility. In this respect
   you will find that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."
   Whether the way is rough or smooth, uphill or down dale, through green
   pastures or burning deserts, let God's way be your way! Where the fiery
   cloudy pillar of His Providence leads, be sure to follow and where His
   holy statutes command, there promptly go. Ask the Lord to let you hear
   His Spirit speak like a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way,
   walk you in it." As soon as you see from the Scriptures, or from
   conscience, or from Providence, what the will of the Lord is, make
   haste and delay not to keep His Commandments.

   Set the Lord always before you. Have respect unto His statutes at all
   times and in all your ways acknowledge Him. No man will be able to look
   back upon his life with complacency unless God has been sitting upon
   the throne of his heart and ruling all his thoughts, aims and actions.
   Unless he can say with David, "My soul has kept Your testimonies and I
   love them exceedingly," he will find much to weep over and little with
   which to answer his accusers. We must follow the Lord's way, or our end
   will be destruction! We must take hold upon Christ's steps, or our feet
   will soon be in slippery places! We must reverence God's Word, or our
   own words will be idle and full of vanity. And we must keep God's
   Commandments, or we shall be destitute of that holiness without which
   no man shall see the Lord.

   I set not forth obedience to the Law as the way of salvation, but I
   speak to those who profess to be saved already by faith in Christ Jesus
   and I remind all of you who are numbered with the company of Believers
   that if you are Christ's disciples you will bring forth the fruits of
   holiness--if you are God's children you will be like your Father!
   Godliness breeds God-likeness! The fear of God leads to imitation of
   God and where this is not so, the root of the matter is lacking. The
   Scriptural rule is, "by their fruits you shall know them," and by this
   we must examine ourselves.

   Let us now consider Job's first sentence. He says--"My foot has held
   fast to His steps." This expression sets forth great carefulness. He
   had watched every step of God, that is to say, he had been minute as to
   particulars, observing each precept which he looked upon as being a
   footprint which the Lord had made for him to set his foot in and,
   observing, also, each detail of the great example of His God. In so far
   as God is imitable He is the great example of His people, as He
   says--"Be you holy, for I am holy"--and again, "Be you perfect, even as
   your Father which is in Heaven is perfect." Job had observed the steps
   of God's Justice that he might be just.

   Job had observed the steps of God's mercy that he might be pitiful and
   compassionate. He had observed the steps of God's bounty that he might
   never be guilty of churlishness or lack of liberality. And he had
   studied the steps of God's Truth that he might never deceive. He had
   watched God's steps of forgiveness, that he might forgive his
   adversaries and God's steps of benevolence that he might, also, do good
   and communicate, according to his ability, to all that were in need. In
   consequence of this he became eyes to the blind and feet to the lame.
   He delivered the poor that cried and the fatherless and those that had
   none to help. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon
   him and he caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. "My foot," he
   says, "has held fast to His steps." He means that he had labored to be
   exact in his obedience towards God and in his imitation of the Divine
   Character.

   Beloved, we shall do well if we are, to the minutest point, observant
   of the precepts and example of God in all things. We must follow not
   only the right road, but His footprints in that road. We are to be
   obedient to our heavenly Father not only in some things, but in all
   things--not in some places but in all places, abroad and at home, in
   business and in devotion--in the words of our lips and in the thoughts
   of our hearts. There is no holy walking without careful watching.

   Depend upon it, no man was ever good by chance, nor did anyone ever
   become like the Lord Jesus by a happy accident. "I put gold into the
   furnace," said Aaron, "and there came out this calf"--but nobody
   believed him. If the image was like a calf it was because he had shaped
   it with an engraving tool. If it is not to be believed that metal will,
   of itself, take the form of a calf, much less will character assume the
   likeness of God, Himself, as we see it in the Lord Jesus!

   The pattern is too rich and rare, too elaborate and perfect to ever be
   reproduced by a careless, half-awakened trifler! No, we must give all
   our heart and mind and soul and strength to this business and watch
   every step or else our walk will not be close with God, nor pleasing in
   His sight. O to be able to say, "My foot has held fast to His steps!"
   Notice here that the expression has something in it of tenacity. He
   speaks of taking hold upon God's steps. The idea needs to be lit up by
   the illustration contained in the original expression. You must go to
   mountainous regions to understand it.

   In very rough ways a person may walk all the better for having no shoes
   on his feet. I sometimes pitied the women of Mentone coming down the
   rough places of the mountains barefooted, carrying heavy loads upon
   their heads, but I ceased to pity them when I observed that most of
   them had a good pair of shoes in the basket at the top! And I
   perceived, as I watched them, that they could stand where I slipped
   because their feet took hold upon the rock, almost like another pair of
   hands. Barefooted they could safely stand and readily climb where feet
   encased after our fashion would never carry them!

   Many Orientals have a power of grasp in their feet which we appear to
   have lost from lack of use. An Arab in taking a determined stand,
   actually seems to grasp the ground with his toes! Roberts tells us in
   his well-known, "Illustrations," that Easterns, instead of stooping to
   pick up things from the ground with their fingers, will pick them up
   with their toes. And he tells of a criminal condemned to be beheaded,
   who, in order to stand firm when about to die, grasped a shrub with his
   foot. Job declares that he took fast hold of God's steps and thus
   secured a firm footing. He had a hearty grip of holiness, even as David
   said, "I have stuck unto Your testimonies." That eminent scholar, Dr.
   Good, renders the passage, "In His steps will I rivet my feet." He
   would set them as fast in the footprints of truth and righteousness as
   if they were riveted there, so firm was his grip upon that holy way
   which his heart had chosen.

   This is exactly what we need to do with regard to holiness--we must
   feel about for it with a sensitive conscience to know where it is and
   when we know it, we must seize upon it eagerly and hold to it as for
   our life. The way of holiness is often craggy and Satan tries to make
   it very slippery. Unless we can take hold of God's steps we shall soon
   slip with our feet and bring grievous injury upon ourselves and
   dishonor to His holy name. Beloved, to make up a holy character, there
   must be a tenacious adherence to integrity and piety. You must not be
   one that can be blown off his feet by the hope of a little gain, or by
   the threatening breath of an ungodly man--you must stand fast and stand
   firm and against all pressure and blandishment you must seize and grasp
   the precepts of the Lord and abide in them, riveted to them.

   Standfast is one of the best soldiers in the Prince Immanuel's army and
   one of the most fit to be trusted with the colors of His regiment.
   "Having done all, still stand." To make a holy character we must take
   hold of the steps of God in the sense of promptness and speed. Here
   again I must take you to the East to get the illustration. They say of
   a man who closely imitates his religious teacher, "His feet have laid
   hold of his master's steps," meaning that he so closely follows his
   teacher that he seems to take hold of his heels. This is a blessed
   thing, indeed, when Divine Grace enables us to follow our Lord closely.
   There are His feet and close behind them are ours. He takes another
   step and we plant our feet where He has planted His.

   A very beautiful motto is hung up in our infant classroom at the
   Stockwell Orphanage, "What would Jesus do?" Not only may children take
   it as their guide, but all of us may do the same, whatever our age.
   "What would Jesus do?" If you desire to know what you ought to do under
   any circumstances, imagine Jesus to be in that position and then think,
   "What would Jesus do? for what Jesus would do, that ought I to do." In
   following Jesus we are following God, for in Christ Jesus the
   brightness of the Father's Glory is best seen. Our example is our Lord
   and Master, Jesus the Son of God, and, therefore, this question is but
   a beam from our guiding Star. Ask in all cases--"What would Jesus do?"
   That unties the knot of all moral difficulty in the most practical way
   and does it so simply that no great wit or wisdom will be needed.

   May God's Holy Spirit help us to copy the line which Jesus has written,
   even as scholars imitate their writing master in each stroke and line
   and mark and dot. Oh, when we come to die and have to look back upon
   our lives, it will be a blessed thing to have followed the Lord fully!
   They are happy who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. Blessed are they
   in

   life and death of whom it can be said--as He was, so were they, also,
   in this world. Though misunderstood and misrepresented, yet they were
   honest imitators of their Lord! Such a true-hearted Christian can say,
   "He knows the way that I take. He tried me and I came forth as gold. My
   foot has held fast to His steps." You will avoid many a sorrow if you
   keep close at your Master's heels.

   You know what came of Peter's following afar off--try what will come of
   close walking with Jesus. Abide in Him and let His Words abide in you,
   so shall you be His disciples. You dare not trust in your works and
   will not think of doing so, but you will bless God that, being saved by
   His Grace, you were enabled to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit by
   a close and exact following of the steps of your Lord. Three things,
   then, we get in the first sentence--an exactness of obedience, a
   tenacity of grip upon that which is good and a promptness in
   endeavoring to keep in touch with God and to follow Him in all
   respects. May these things abound in us!

   We now pass on to the second sentence. I am afraid you will say, "Spare
   us, for even unto the first sentence we have not yet attained." Labor
   after it then, Beloved. Forgetting the things that are behind, except
   to weep over them, press forward to that which is before. May God give
   you those sensitive grasping feet which we have tried to describe--feet
   that take hold on the Lord's way--and may you throughout life keep that
   hold, for "blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the Law of
   the Lord."

   The next sentence runs thus--"His way have I kept"--that is to say, Job
   had adhered to God's way as the rule of his life. When he knew that
   such-and-such a thing was the mind of God, either by his conscience
   telling him that it was right, or by a Divine Revelation, then he
   obeyed the intimation and kept to it! He did not go out of God's way to
   indulge his own fancies, or to follow some supposed leader--to God's
   way he kept from his youth--even till the time when the Lord Himself
   said of him, to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job, a perfect
   and an upright man, one that fears God and eschews evil?" The devil
   could not deny it and did not attempt to do so, but only muttered,
   "Does Job serve God for nothing? Have You not set a hedge about him and
   all that he has?"

   When Job uttered our text, he could have replied to the malicious
   accuser that even when God had broken down his hedges and laid him
   waste, he had not sinned nor charged God foolishly. He heeded not his
   wife's rash counsels to curse God and die--he still blessed the Divine
   Name even though everything was taken from him. What noble words are
   those--"Naked came I out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return
   there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name
   of the Lord." Though bereft of all earthly comfort, he did not forsake
   the way of holiness, but still kept to his God! Keeping to the way
   signifies not simply adherence, but continuance and progress in it.

   Job had gone on in the ways of God year after year. He had not grown
   tired of holiness, nor weary of devotion, neither had he grown sick of
   what men call straight-laced piety. He had kept the way of God on and
   on and on, delighting in what Coverdale's version calls God's, "high
   street"--the highway of holiness. The further he went, the more
   pleasure he took in it and the more easy he found it to his feet, for
   God was with him and kept him--and so he kept God's way. "Your way have
   I kept." He means that, notwithstanding the difficulties in the way he
   persevered in it. It was stormy weather, but Job kept to the old road.
   The sleet beat in his face, but he kept His way--he had gone that path
   in fair weather and he was not going to forsake his God now that the
   storms were out--and so he kept His way.

   Then the scene changed, the sun was warm and all the air was redolent
   with perfume and merry with the song of birds, but Job kept His way. If
   God's Providence flooded Job's sky with sunshine, he did not forsake
   God because of prosperity, as some do, but kept His way--kept His way
   when it was rough, kept His way when it was smooth. When he met with
   adversities, he did not turn onto a side road, but traveled the King's
   highway, where a man is safest, for those who dare to assail him will
   have to answer for it to a higher power. The high street of holiness is
   safe because the King's guarantee is given that, "no lion shall be
   there, neither shall any ravenous beast go up on it." The righteous
   shall keep God's way and so Job did, come fair, come foul.

   When there were others in the road with him and when there were none,
   he kept His way. He would not even turn aside for those three good men,
   or men who thought themselves good, who sat by the wayside and
   miserably comforted, that is to say, tormented him! He kept God's way
   as one whose mind is made up and whose face is set like a flint. There
   was no turning him, he would fight his way if he could not have it
   peaceably. I like a man whose mind is set upon being right with God, a
   self-contained man, by God's Grace, who does not need patting on the
   back and encouraging and who,

   on the other hand, does not care if he is frowned at, but has counted
   the cost and abides by it. Give me a man who has a backbone--a brave
   fellow who has grit in him!

   It is well for a professor when God has put some soul into him and made
   a man of him, for if a Christian man is not a man as well as a
   Christian, he will not long remain a Christian man. Job was firm--a
   well-made character that did not shrink in the wetting. He believed his
   God! He knew God's way and he kept to it under all circumstances from
   his first start in life even until that day when he sat on a dunghill
   and transformed it into a throne where he reigned as among all mere
   men, the peerless prince of patience! You have heard of the patience of
   Job and of this, as one part of it, that he kept the way of the Lord.

   Now, dear Brothers and Sisters, on this second clause let me utter this
   word of self-examination. Have we kept God's way? Have we got into it
   and do we mean to keep it? Some are soon hot and soon cold. Some set
   out for the New Jerusalem like Pliable, very eagerly, but the first
   Slough of Despond they tumble into shakes their resolution and they
   crawl out on the homeward side and go back to the world. There will be
   no comfort in such temporary religion, but dreadful misery when we come
   to consider it on a dying bed! Changeful Pliables will find it hard to
   die! O to be constant even to the end, so as to say, "My foot has held
   fast to His steps, His way have I kept." God grant us Grace to do it by
   His Spirit abiding in us!

   The third clause is, "And not declined," by which I understand that he
   had not declined from the way of holiness, nor declined in the way of
   God. First, he had not declined from it. He had not turned to the right
   hand nor to the left. Some turn away from God's way to the right hand
   by doing more than God's Word has bid them do--such as invent religious
   ceremonies and vows and bonds and become superstitious--falling under
   the bondage of priestcraft and being led into will-worship and things
   that are not Scriptural. This is as truly wandering as going out of the
   road to the left would be!

   Ah, dear Friends, keep to the simplicity of the Bible! This is an age
   in which Holy Scripture is very little accounted of. If a Church
   chooses to invent a ceremony, men fall into it and practice it as if it
   were God's ordinance! Yes and if neither Church nor Law recognize the
   performance, yet if certain self-willed priests choose to burn candles
   and to wear all sorts of bedizenments and bow and cringe and march in
   procession, there are plenty of simpletons who will go whichever way
   their clergyman chooses, even if he should lead them into downright
   heathenism. "Follow my leader" is the game of the day, but, "Follow my
   God," is the motto of a true Christian!

   Job had not turned to the right. Nor had he turned to the left. He had
   not been lax in observing God's Commandments. He had shunned omission
   as well as commission. This is a very heart-searching matter, for how
   many there are whose greatest sins lie in omission. And remember, sins
   of omission--though they sit very light on many consciences and though
   the bulk of professors do not even think them sins--are the very sins
   for which men will be condemned at the last! How do I prove that? What
   said the great Judge? "I was hungry and you gave Me no meat. I was
   thirsty and you gave Me no drink; sick and in prison and you visited Me
   not." It was what they did not do that cursed them, more than what they
   did do. So look well to it and pray God that you may not decline from
   the way of His precepts, from Jesus who, Himself is the one and only
   Way.

   Furthermore, I take it Job means that he had not even declined in that
   way of God. He did not begin with running hard and then get out of
   breath and sit by the wayside and say, "Rest and be thankful." No, he
   kept up the pace and did not decline. If he was warm and zealous once,
   he remained warm and zealous. If he was indefatigable in service, he
   did not gradually tone down into a sluggard, but he could say, "I have
   not declined." Whereas we ought to make advances towards Heaven, there
   are many who are, after 20 years of profession, no more forward than
   they were, but perhaps in a worse state! Oh, beware of a decline!

   We were accustomed to use that term years ago to signify the
   commencement of a consumption, or perhaps the effects of it and,
   indeed, a decline in the soul often leads on to a deadly consumption.
   In a spiritual consumption the very life of religion seems to ebb out
   little by little. The man does not die by a wound that stabs his
   reputation, but by a secret weakness within him which eats at the
   vitals of godliness and leaves the outward surface fair. God save us
   from declining! I am sure, dear Friends, we cannot, many of us, afford
   to decline much, for we are none too earnest, none too much alive now!
   This is one of the great faults of Churches--so many of the members are
   in a decline that the Church becomes a hospital instead of a barracks.

   Many professors are not what they were at first--they were very
   promising young men, but they are not performing old men. We are
   pleased to see the flowers on our fruit trees, but they disappoint us
   unless they knit into fruit and we are not satisfied, even then, unless
   the fruit ripens to a mellow sweetness. We do not make orchards for the
   sake of blossoms--we want apples! And so it is with the garden of
   Grace. Our Lord comes seeking fruit and instead He often finds nothing
   but leaves. May God grant to us that we may not decline from the
   highest standard we have ever reached. "I would," said the Lord of the
   Church of Laodicea, "that you were either cold or hot."

   Oh, you lukewarm ones, take that warning to heart! Remember, Jesus
   cannot endure you--He will spit you out of His mouth--you make Him sick
   to think of you. If you were downright cold He would understand you. If
   you were hot He would delight in you. But being neither cold nor hot He
   is sick at the thought of you! He cannot endure you and, indeed, when
   we think of what the Lord has done for us, it is enough to make us sick
   to think that anyone should drag on in a cold, inanimate manner in His
   service, who loved us and gave Himself for us!

   Some decline because they become poor--they even stay from worship on
   that account. I hope none of you say, "I do not like to come to the
   Tabernacle because I have no fit clothes to come in." As I have often
   said, any clothes are fit for a man to come here if he has paid for
   them! Let each come by all manner of means in such garments as he has
   and he shall be welcome. But I know some very poor professors who, in
   the extremity of their anxiety and trouble, instead of flying to God,
   fly from Him. This is very sad. The poorer you are, the more you need
   the rich consolations of Divine Grace. Do not let this temptation
   overcome you, but if you are as poor as Job, be as resolved as he to
   keep to the Lord's way and not decline.

   Others fly from their religion because they grow rich. They say that
   three generations will never come on wheels to a dissenting place of
   worship and it has proven to be sadly true in many instances, though I
   have no cause to complain of you as yet. Some persons, when they rise
   in the world, turn up their noses at their poor friends. If any of you
   do so, you will be worthy of pity, if not of contempt! If you forsake
   the ways of God for the fashion of the world you will be poor gainers
   by your wealth! The Lord keep you from such a decline! Many decline
   because they conform to the fashion of the world and the way of the
   world is not the way of God! Does not James say, "Know you not that the
   friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whoever, therefore, will be
   a friend of the world is the enemy of God"?

   Others wander because they get into ill company, among witty people, or
   clever people, or hospitable people who are not gracious people. Such
   society is dangerous! People whom we esteem, but whom God does not
   esteem, are a great snare. It is very perilous to love those who love
   not God. He shall not be my bosom friend who is not God's friend, for I
   shall probably do him but little service and he will do me much harm.
   May the Grace of God prevent your growing cold from any of these causes
   and may you be able to say, "I have not declined." One more sentence
   remains--"Neither have I gone back from the commandment of His
   lips"--that is to say, as Job had not slackened his pace, so much less
   had he turned back. May none of you ever go back.

   This is the most cutting grief of a pastor, that certain persons come
   in among us and even come to the front, who, after a while, turn back
   and walk no more with us. We know, as John says, "They went out from
   us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no
   doubt have continued with us; but they went out, that they might be
   made manifest that they were not all of us." Yet what anguish it causes
   when we see apostates among us and know their doom! Take heed, Brothers
   and Sisters, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in
   departing from the living God! Let Lot's wife be a warning! Season your
   souls with a fragment of salt from that pillar and it may keep you from
   corruption.

   Remember that you can turn back, not only from all the Commandments and
   so become an utter apostate, but there is such a thing as backing at
   single Commandments. You know the precept to be right, but you cannot
   face it--you look at it and look at it and look at it and then go back,
   back, back from it, refusing to obey. Job had never done so. If it was
   God's command, he went forward to perform it. It may be that it seems
   impossible to go forward in the path of duty, but if you have faith,
   you are to go on whatever the difficulty may be. The slave was right
   who said, "Massa, if God say, 'Sam, jump through the wall,' it is Sam's
   business to jump and God's work to make me go through the wall." Leap
   at it, dear Friends, even if it seem to be a wall of granite! God will
   clear the road. By faith the Israelites went through the Red Sea as on
   dry land. It is ours to do what God bids us, as He bids us, when He
   bids us and no hurt can come of it. Strength equal to our day shall be
   given, only let us cry, "Forward!" and push on.

   Here just one other word. Let us take heed to ourselves that we do not
   go back, for going back is dangerous. We have no armor for our back, no
   promise of protection in retreat. Going back is ignoble and base. To
   have had a grand idea and then to turn back from it like a whipped cur,
   is disgraceful. Shame on the man who dares not be a Christian! Even
   sinners and ungodly men point at the man who put his hand to the plow
   and looked back and was not worthy of the kingdom. Indeed, it is fatal!
   For the Lord has said, "If any man draw back, My soul shall have no
   pleasure in him." Forward! Forward though death and Hell obstruct the
   way, for backward is defeat, destruction, despair! O God, grant us of
   Your Grace that when we come to the end of life we may say with joy, "I
   have not gone back from Your Commandments." The Covenant promises
   persevering Grace and it shall be yours--only be sure that you trifle
   not with this Grace.

   There is the picture which Job has sketched. Hang it up on the wall of
   your memory and God help you to paint after this old master, whose
   skill is unrivalled!

   II. Secondly, let us take a peep behind the wall to see how Job came by
   this character. Here we note Job's HOLY SUSTENANCE--"I have esteemed
   the words of His mouth more than my necessary food." First, then, God
   spoke to Job. Did God ever speak to you? I do not suppose Job had a
   single page of inspired writing. Probably he had not even seen the
   first books of Moses. He may have done so, but probably he had not. God
   spoke to him! Did He ever speak to you? No man will ever serve God
   aright unless God has spoken to him. You have the Bible and God speaks
   in that Book and through it--but mind you, do not rest in the printed
   letter without discerning its spirit. You must try to hear God's voice
   in the printed letter.

   "God has, in these last days, spoken unto us by His Son" but oh, pray
   that this Divine Son may speak by the Holy Spirit right into your
   heart! Anything which keeps you from personal contact with Jesus robs
   you of the best blessing! The Romanist says he uses a crucifix to help
   him to remember Christ and then his prayers often stop at the crucifix
   and do not get to Christ--and in the same manner you can make an idol
   of your Bible by using the mere words as a substitute for God's voice
   to you. The Book is to help you to remember God, but if you stick in
   the mere letter and get not to God at all, you misuse the sacred Word
   of God. When the Spirit of God speaks a text right into the soul. When
   God Himself takes the promise or the precept and sends it with living
   energy into the heart--this is that which makes a man have a reverence
   for the Word--he feels its awful majesty, its Divine supremacy and
   while he trembles at it he rejoices and goes forward to obey because
   God has spoken to him!

   Dear Friends, when God speaks, be sure that you have open ears to hear,
   for oftentimes He speaks and men regard Him not. In a vision of the
   night when deep sleep falls upon men, God has spoken to His Prophets,
   but now He speaks by His Word, applying it to the heart with power by
   His Spirit. If God speaks but little to us, it is because we are dull
   of hearing. Renewed hearts are never long without a whisper from the
   Lord. He is not a dumb God, nor is He so far away that we cannot hear
   Him! They that keep His ways and hold His steps, as Job did, shall hear
   many of His Words to their soul's delight and profit! God's having
   spoken to Job was the secret of his consistently holy life.

   Then note that what God had spoken to him, he treasured it up. He says
   in the Hebrew that he had hid God's Word more than ever he had hidden
   his necessary food. They had to hide grain away in those days to guard
   it from wandering Arabs. Job had been more careful to store up God's
   Word than to store up his wheat and his barley! He was more anxious to
   preserve the memory of what God had spoken than to garner his harvests!
   Do you treasure up what God has spoken? Do you study the Word? Do you
   read it? Oh, how little do we search it compared with what we ought to
   do! Do you meditate on it? Do you suck out its secret sweets? Do you
   store up its essence as bees gather the life-blood of flowers and hoard
   up their honey for winter food?

   Bible study is the metal that makes a Christian! It is the strong meat
   on which holy men are nourished! It is that which makes the bone and
   sinew of men who keep God's way in defiance of every adversary! God
   spoke to Job and Job treasured up His Words. We learn from our version
   of the text that Job lived on God's Word--he reckoned it to be better
   to him than his necessary food. He ate it. This is an art which some do
   not understand--eating the Word of the Lord. Some look at the surface
   of the Scriptures. Some pull the Scriptures to pieces without mercy.
   Some cut the heavenly bread into pieces and show their cleverness. Some
   pick it over for plums, like children with a cake. But blessed is he
   that makes it his meat and drink! He takes the Word of God to be what
   is, namely, a Word from the mouth of the Eternal and he says, "God is
   speaking to me in this and I will satisfy my soul upon it. I do not
   need anything better than this, anything

   truer than this, anything safer than this! And having got this, it
   shall abide in me, in my heart, in the very bowels of my life. It shall
   be interwoven with the warp and woof of my being."

   But the text adds that he esteemed it more than his necessary food. Not
   more than dainties only, for those are superfluities, but more than his
   necessary food and you know that a man's necessary food is a thing
   which he esteems very highly. He must have it. "What? Take away my
   bread?" he asks, as if this could not be borne. To take the bread out
   of a poor man's mouth is looked upon as the highest kind of
   villainy--but Job would sooner that they took the bread out of his
   mouth than the Word of God out of his heart! He thought more of it than
   of his necessary food and I suppose it was because meat would only
   sustain his body, but the Word of God feeds the soul. The nourishment
   given by bread is soon gone, but the nourishment given by the Word of
   God abides in us and makes us live forever! The natural life is more
   than meat, but our spiritual life feeds on meat even nobler than
   itself, for it feeds on the Bread of Heaven, the Person of the Lord
   Jesus!

   Bread is sweet to the hungry man, but we are not always hungry and
   sometimes we have no appetite. But the best of God's Word is that he
   who lives near to God has always an appetite for it and the more he
   eats of it the more he can eat! I confess I have often fed upon God's
   Word when I have had no appetite for it, until I have gained an
   appetite. I have grown hungry in proportion as I have felt
   satisfied--my emptiness seemed to kill my hunger--but as I have been
   revived by the Word I have longed for more! So it is written, "Blessed
   are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be
   filled"--and when they are filled they shall continue to enjoy the
   benediction, for they shall still hunger and thirst, though filled with
   Grace!

   God's Word is sweeter to the taste than bread to a hungry man and its
   sweetness never spoils, though it dwells long on the palate. You cannot
   be always eating bread, but you can always feed on the Word of God. You
   cannot eat all the meat that is set before you--your capacity is
   limited that way and none but a glutton wishes it otherwise. But oh,
   you may be ravenous of God's Word and devour it all and yet long for
   more! You are like a little mouse in a great cheese and you shall have
   permission to eat it all, though it is a thousand times greater than
   yourself! Though God's thoughts are greater than your thoughts and His
   ways are greater than your ways, yet may His ways be in your heart and
   your heart in His ways! You may be filled with all the fullness of God,
   though it seems a paradox. His fullness is greater than you and all His
   fullness is infinitely greater than you, yet you may be filled with all
   the fullness of God! So that the Word of God is better than our
   necessary food--it has qualities which our necessary food has not.

   No more, except this--you cannot be holy, my Brothers and Sisters,
   unless you, in secret, live upon the blessed Word of God--and you will
   not live on it unless it comes to you as the Word of His mouth. It is
   very sweet to get a letter from home when you are far away. It is like
   a bunch of fresh flowers in winter time. A letter from the dear one at
   home is as music heard over the water. But half a dozen words from that
   dear mouth are better than a dozen pages of manuscript, for there is a
   sweetness about the look and the tone which paper cannot carry! Now, I
   want you to get the Bible to be not a book, only, but a speaking
   trumpet through which God speaks from afar to you so that you may catch
   the very tones of His voice! You must read the Word of God to this end,
   for it is while reading, meditating and studying and seeking to dip
   yourself into its spirit that it seems, suddenly, to change from a
   written book into a talking book or phonograph!

   It whispers to you or thunders at you as though God had hidden Himself
   among its leaves and spoke to your condition! It speaks as though
   Jesus, who feeds among the lilies, had made the chapters to be lily
   beds and had come to feed there! Ask Jesus to cause His Word to come
   fresh from His own mouth to your soul and if it is so and you thus live
   in daily communion with a personal Christ, my Brothers and Sisters, you
   will then, with your feet take hold upon His steps! You will then keep
   His way! You will then never decline or go back from His Commandments,
   but you will make good speed in your pilgrim way to the Eternal City.

   May the Holy Spirit daily be with you! May each of you live under His
   sacred mist and be fruitful in every good word and work. Amen and amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Perfect Sanctification

   (No. 1527)

   DELIVERED BY

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body
   of Jesus Christ once for all." Hebrews 10:10.

   DEAR Friends, ever since the Lord has quickened us by His Grace we have
   begun to look into ourselves and to search our hearts to see our
   condition before God. Hence many things which once caused us no
   disquietude now create in us great anxiety. We thought that we were all
   right and felt it to be enough to be quite as good as others. We
   dreamed that if we were not quite as good as we should be, we would
   certainly grow better, though we did not stop to inquire how or why. We
   took stock of our condition and concluded that we were rich and
   increased with goods and had need of nothing. A change has come over
   the spirit of the scene--the Grace of God has made us thoughtful and
   careful. We dare not take things for granted. We test and prove things,
   for we are very anxious not to be deceived. We look upon eternal
   realities as being of the utmost consequence and we dare not take them
   for granted as being certain to be right.

   We are afraid of being presumptuous and we long to be sincere. We hold
   an assize within our spirits and we are so afraid that we may be
   partial, as probably we shall be, that we ask the Lord to search us and
   try us, to see if there is any wicked way in us, that He may lead us
   out of such a way into the way everlasting. This is all very wise and
   very proper and I would not, for a moment, try to turn the people of
   God away from a proper measure of this state of heart. And yet let it
   never be forgotten that we are, in the sight of God, different, in some
   respects, than we shall ever see ourselves to be if we look through the
   glass of feeling and consciousness--there are other matters to be taken
   into consideration-- matters which our anxiety may lead us to overlook
   and our inward search may cause us to forget.

   Faith reveals to us another position for the people of God besides that
   which they occupy in themselves. Some call it an evangelical fiction
   and the like but, thank God, it is a blessed fact that sinners as we
   are in ourselves, yet Believers are saints in God's sight and that
   sinful as they feel themselves to be, yet they are washed, cleansed and
   sanctified in Jesus Christ! Notwithstanding all that we mourn over, the
   very fact that we do mourn over it becomes an evidence that we are no
   longer what we once were and do not stand, now, where we once stood. We
   have passed from death unto life! We have escaped from under the
   dominion of the Law into the kingdom of Divine Grace. We have come from
   under the curse and we dwell in the region of blessing!

   We have believed on Him that justifies the ungodly and our faith is
   counted for righteousness (Rom. 4:5). There is, therefore, no
   condemnation for us, for we are in Christ Jesus our Lord and walk no
   longer after the flesh but after the Spirit. That your hearts may be
   gladdened, I want yon to think of the noble position into which the
   Grace of God has lifted all Believers--the condition of sanctification
   which is spoken of in the text--for by the "will of God we are
   sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for
   all."

   We shall, first, speak of the eternal will. Secondly of the effectual
   Sacrifice by which that will has been carried out. And thirdly, of the
   everlasting result accomplished by that will through the Sacrifice of
   the body of Christ. May the Holy Spirit who has revealed the grand
   doctrine of Justification now enable us to understand it and to feel
   its comforting power.

   I. First, then, THE ETERNAL WILL--"By that will we have been
   sanctified." This will must, first of all, be viewed as the will
   ordained of old by the Father--the eternal decree of the Infinite
   Jehovah that a people whom He chose should be sanctified and set apart
   unto Himself. The will of Jehovah stands fast forever and ever and we
   know of it that it is altogether unchangeable and that it has no
   beginning. It is an eternal will, we have no vacillating Deity, no
   fickle God. He wills changes, but He never changes His will. "He is of
   one mind and who can turn Him? And what His soul desires, even that He
   does."

   The will of God is invincible as well as eternal. We are told in
   Ephesians that He works all things after the counsel of His own will.
   "Who can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What are You doing?" The good
   pleasure of His will is never defeated--there cannot be such a thing as
   a vanquished God. "His purpose shall stand and He will do all His
   pleasure." In fact, the will of God is the motive force of all things.
   "He spoke and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast." His Word is
   Omnipotent because His will is at the back of it and it puts force into
   it. He said, "Light be," and there was light because He willed that
   there should be light! He bade creatures come forth, numerous as the
   drops of dew, to people the world that He had made and forth they came,
   flying, leaping, swimming in varied orders of life, because of His own
   will He did create them.

   His will is the secret power which sustains the universe and threads
   the starry orbs and holds them like a necklace of light about the neck
   of Nature. His will is the Alpha and the Omega of all things. It was
   according to this eternal, invincible will of God that He chose,
   created and set apart a people that should show forth the glory and
   riches of His Grace--a people that would bear the image of His
   only-begotten Son, a people that should joyfully and willingly serve
   Him in His courts forever and ever--a people who should be His own sons
   and daughters, to whom He would say, "I will dwell in them and walk in
   them and they shall be My people and I will be their God."

   Thus stood the eternal will of old. "For whom He did foreknow, He also
   did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might
   be the firstborn among many brethren." But the people concerning whom
   this will was made were dead in sin, defiled with evil, polluted by
   transgression! The old serpent's venom was in their veins. They were
   fit to be set apart for the curse, but not to be set apart for the
   service of the thrice holy God! And the question was, how then, should
   the will of the Immutable Invincible ever be carried out? How shall
   these rebels become absolved? How shall these fountains of filth become
   clear as crystal, pouring forth floods of living water and Divine
   praise? How shall these unsanctified and defiled ones become sanctified
   unto the service of God?

   It must be--but how shall it be? Then came the priests, with smoking
   censers and with basins full of blood, steaming as it came fresh from
   the slaughtered victims and they sprinkled this blood upon the Book and
   upon the people, upon the altar and upon the Mercy Seat and upon all
   the hangings of the tabernacle and all the ground whereon the
   worshippers walked, for almost all things under the Law were sanctified
   by blood. Everywhere was this blood of bulls and of goats. Fresh every
   morning and renewed every evening. Still, God's will was not done, the
   chosen were not thus sanctified and we know they were not, because it
   is written, "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire." His will was
   not fulfilled in them. It was not His will that they should sanctify
   the people. They were inefficacious to such an end for, as the Holy
   Spirit has said, it was "not possible that the blood of bulls and of
   goats should take away sins." And so, if these offerings had been all
   there was, centuries of the house of Aaron and of the priests of the
   tribe of Levi might have come and gone and yet the will decreed by the
   eternal Father would not have been an accomplished fact!

   Thus we have landed at our second point, which is that this will by
   which we are sanctified was performed by the ever-blessed Son. It was
   the will of God the Father, but it was carried out by the Divine Son
   when He came into the world. A body was prepared for Him and into that
   body, in a mysterious manner which we will not attempt, even, to
   conceive of, He entered and there He was--the Incarnate God! This
   Incarnate God, by offering His own blood; by laying down His own life;
   by bearing in His own body the curse and in His own spirit enduring the
   wrath, was able to effect the purpose of the everlasting Father in the
   purging of His people, in the setting of His chosen apart and making
   them henceforth holiness unto the Lord.

   Do you not see what the will of the Father was--that He should have a
   people that should be sanctified unto Himself? But that will could not
   be carried out by the blood of bulls and of goats! It must be achieved
   by the offering up of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Our Lord
   Jesus Christ has done whatever that will of the Father required for its
   perfect achievement. This is our satisfaction. We will not enter, at
   this time, into a detailed account of our Lord's active and passive
   obedience by which He magnified the Law and set apart His people. I
   pray you, however, never fall into the error of dividing the work of
   Christ as some do and say, "Here He made Atonement for sin and there He
   did not." In these modern times, certain brethren have invented
   refinements of statement of so trivial a character that they are not
   even worth the trouble of thinking over and yet, like babies with a new
   rattle, they make a noise with them all day long!

   It is amusing how these wise professors make grave points out of mere
   hair-splitting distinctions and if we do not agree with them they give
   themselves mighty airs, pitying our ignorance and esteeming themselves
   as superior persons

   who have an insight into things which ordinary Christians cannot see!
   God save us from having eyes which are so sharp that we are able to spy
   out new occasions for difference and fresh reasons for making men
   offenders for mere words. I believe in the life of Christ as well as in
   His death and I believe that He stood for me before God as much when He
   walked the acres of Palestine as when He hung on the Cross at
   Jerusalem. You cannot divide and split Him in sunder and say, "He is so
   far an example and so far an Atonement," but you must take the entire
   Christ and look at Him from the very first as the Lamb of God which
   takes away the sin of the world.

   "Oh, but," they say, "He made no Atonement except in His death," which
   is, let me tell you, an absurdity in language! Listen a minute. When
   does a man die? I cannot tell you. There is the minute in which the
   soul separates from the body, but all the time that a man may be
   described as dying he is alive, is he not? A man does not suffer when
   actually dead. What we call the pangs of death are truly and accurately
   pangs of life. Death does not suffer--it is the end of suffering! A man
   is in life while he suffers and if they say, "It is Christ's death that
   makes an Atonement and not His life," I reply that death, alone and by
   itself, makes no Atonement! Death in its natural sense and not in this
   modern non-natural severance from life, does make Atonement--but it
   cannot be viewed apart from life by any unsophisticated mind.

   If they must have distinctions, we could make distinctions enough to
   worry them of such an unprofitable business, but we have nobler work to
   do! To us our Lord's death seems to be the consummation of His life,
   the finishing stroke of a work which His Father had given Him to do
   among the sons of men. We view Him as having come in a body prepared
   for Him to do the will of God once--and that "once" lasted throughout
   His one life on earth! We will not, however, dwell on any moot point,
   but unfeignedly rejoice that whatever was needed to make God's people
   wholly sanctified unto God, Christ has worked out! "By that will we are
   sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once." It
   is finished!

   Does the Divine Law require, for our acceptance, perfect submission to
   the will of the Lord? Jesus has rendered it! Does it ask complete
   obedience to its precepts? He has presented the same! Does the
   fulfilled will of the Lord call for abject suffering, a sweat of blood,
   pangs unknown and death, itself? Christ has presented it all, whatever
   that "all" may be! As when God created, His Word effected all His will,
   so, when God redeemed, His blessed and Incarnate Word has done all His
   will! In every point, as God looked on each day's work and said, "It is
   good," so, as He looks upon each part of the work of His dear Son, He
   can say of it, "It is good." The Father joins in the verdict of His Son
   that it is finished--all the will of God for the sanctification of His
   people is accomplished!

   Beloved, this work must be applied to us by the Holy Spirit. It is the
   Holy Spirit who brings us to know that Jesus Christ has sanctified us,
   or set us apart and made us acceptable with God. It is the Holy Spirit
   who has given us the New Testament and shed a light upon the Old. It is
   the Holy Spirit who speaks to us through the ministers of Christ when
   He blesses them to our conversion. Especially is it the Holy Spirit who
   takes away from us all hope of being sanctified before God by any means
   of our own, brings us to see our need of cleansing and reconciliation
   and then takes of the things of Christ and reveals them to us.

   Not without the going forth of His sacred power are we made to take the
   place of separation and dedication, to which the Lord of old ordained
   us. Thus it is by the will of the Father, carried out by the Son and
   applied by the Holy Spirit that the Church of God is regarded as
   sanctified before God and is acceptable unto Him. I do not tarry longer
   on any one point because these great things are best spoken of with few
   words. They are subjects better fed upon by quiet thought than
   exhibited in speech.

   II. I invite you, dear Friends, in the second place, to consider THE
   EFFECTUAL SACRIFICE by which the will of God with regard to the
   sanctity of His people has been carried out. "By that will we are
   sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ." This
   implies, first, His Incarnation, which of course includes His eternal
   Deity. We can never forget that Jesus Christ is God. The Church has
   given forth many a valiant confession to His Deity and woe be to her
   should she ever hesitate on that glorious Truth of God! Yet sometimes
   she has great need to earnestly insist upon His Humanity. As you bow
   before your glorious Lord and adore Him with all the sanctified, yet
   remember that He whom you worship was truly and really a Man.

   The Gospel of His Incarnation is not a spiritual idea, nor a metaphor,
   nor a myth. In very deed and truth the God that made Heaven and earth
   came down to earth and hung upon a woman's breast as an Infant. That
   Child, as He grew in stature and wisdom, was as certainly God as He is
   at this moment in Glory! He was as surely God when He was here hun-

   gry and suffering, sleeping, eating, drinking as He was God when He
   hung up the morning stars and kindled the lamps of night, or as He
   shall be when sun and moon shall dim at the brightness of His coming!
   Jesus Christ, very God of very God, did certainly stoop to become such
   as we are and was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. It is a Truth
   of God you all know, but I want you to grasp it and realize it. It will
   help you to trust Christ if you clearly perceive that, Divine as He is,
   He is bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh--your Kinsman, though
   the Son of God. All this is implied in the text, because it speaks of
   the offering of the body of Christ.

   But why does it specially speak of the body? I think to show us the
   reality of that offering--His soul suffered and His soul's sufferings
   were the soul of His sufferings, but still, to make it palpable to us,
   to record it as a sure historical fact, the Holy Spirit mentions that
   there was an offering of the body of Christ. I take it, however, that
   the word means the whole of Christ--that there was an offering made of
   all of Christ, the body of Him, or that of which He was constituted. It
   is my solemn conviction that the Deity co-worked with His Humanity in
   the wondrous passion by which He has sanctified His elect.

   I am told that Deity cannot suffer. I am expected to subscribe to that
   because theologians say so. Well, if it is true, then I shall content
   myself with believing that the Deity helped the Humanity by
   strengthening it to suffer more than it could otherwise have endured.
   But I believe that Deity can suffer, heterodox as that notion may seem
   to be. I cannot believe in an impassive God as my Father. If He pities
   and sympathizes, surely He must have some sensibilities! Is He a God of
   iron? If He wills it, He can do anything and, therefore, He can suffer
   if He pleases. It is not possible for God to be made to suffer--that
   would be a ridiculous supposition--yet if He wills to do so, He is
   certainly capable of doing that as well as anything else--for all
   things are possible to Him.

   I look upon our Lord Jesus as in His very Godhead stooping down to bear
   the weight of human sin and human misery, sustaining it because He was
   Divine and able to bear what otherwise had been too great a load. Thus
   the whole of Christ was made a Sacrifice for sin. It was the offering,
   not of the spirit of Christ, but of the very body of Christ--the
   essence, subsistence and most manifest reality and personality of Jesus
   Christ, the Son of the Most High! And this was wholly offered. I do not
   know how to bring out my own thoughts here, but to accomplish the will
   of God in sanctifying all His people, Christ must be the Offering and
   He must be wholly offered.

   There were certain sacrifices which were only presented to God in part,
   so far as the consumption by fire was concerned. A part was eaten by
   the priest or by the offerer and so far it was not a whole burnt
   offering. In this there was much precious Truth set forth, of which we
   will not speak at this time, but as our Sin-Offering, making expiation
   for guilt, our blessed Lord and Master gave Himself wholly for us as an
   atoning Sacrifice and Offering for sin--and that, "Himself," sums up
   all you can conceive it to be in and of the Christ of God! And the
   pangs and griefs which, like a fire went through Him, did consume Him,
   even to the uttermost of all that was in Him.

   He bore all that could be borne! He stooped to the lowest to which
   humility could stoop! He descended to the utmost abyss to which a
   descent of self-denial could be made! He made Himself of no reputation!
   He emptied Himself of all honor and glory! He gave up Himself without
   reserve! He saved others, Himself He could not save--He spares us in
   our chastisements, but Himself He spared not! He says of Himself in the
   22nd Psalm, "I am a worm and no man; a reproach of men and despised of
   the people." You do not know, you cannot imagine how fully the
   Sacrifice was made by Christ! It was not only a Sacrifice of all of
   Himself, but a complete Sacrifice of every part of Himself for us! The
   blaze of eternal wrath for human sin was focused upon His head!

   The anguish that must have been endured by Him who stood in the place
   of millions of sinners to be judged of God and smitten in their place
   is altogether inconceivable! Though Himself perfectly innocent, yet in
   His own Person to offer up such a Sacrifice as could honor the Divine
   Justice on account of myriads of sins of myriads of the sons of men was
   a work far beyond all human realization! You may give loose to your
   reason and your imagination and rise into the seventh Heaven of sublime
   conception as with eagle wings, but you can never reach the utmost
   height. Here is the sum of the matter--"Thanks be unto God for His
   unspeakable gift," for unspeakable, inconceivable it certainly is when
   we view the Lord Jesus as a Sacrifice for the sins of men!

   This offering was made once and only once. The pith of the text lies in
   the finishing words of it, "through the offering of the body of Jesus
   Christ once for all." Those words, "for all," are very properly put in
   by the translators but you must not make a mistake as to their meaning.
   The text does not mean that Christ offered Himself up once for
   all--that is,

   for all mankind. That may be a doctrine of Scripture, or it may not be
   a doctrine of Scripture--but it is not the teaching here. The passage
   means "once for all" in the sense of--all at once, or only once. As a
   man might say, "I gave up my whole estate once and for all to my
   creditors and there was the end of the matter," so here our Lord Jesus
   Christ is said to have offered Himself up as a Sacrifice once and for
   all--that is to say, only once and that was the end of the matter.

   His Sacrifice on behalf of His people was for all the sins before He
   came. Think of what they all were! Ages had succeeded ages and there
   had been found among the various generations of men criminals of the
   blackest dye and crimes had been multiplied. The Prophet said in vision
   concerning Christ, as he looked on all the multitude, "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." That was before He
   came. Reflect that there has been no second offering of Himself ever
   since and never will be--it was once and that once did the deed!

   Now let your mind conceive of this--nearly 2,000 years have passed
   since the offering and if the Prophet were to stand here tonight and
   look back through those 1,800 years and more, he would still say, "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." Oh, it is a
   wonderful conception--the Sacrifice of the Lord Jesus was the reservoir
   into which all the sins of the human race ran, from this quarter and
   that and that and that and that! All the sins of His people rolled in a
   torrent unto Him and gathered as in a great lake! In Him was no sin and
   yet the Lord made Him to be sin for us. You may have seen a deep
   mountain lake which has been filled to the brim by innumerable
   streamlets from all the hillsides round about. Here comes a torrent
   gushing down and there trickles from the moss that has overgrown the
   rock a little drip, drip, drip, which falls perpetually-- great and
   small tributaries all meet in the black lake which, after the rain, is
   full to the brim and ready to burst its banks!

   That lone lake pictures Christ, the meeting place of the sins of His
   people! They were all laid on Him, that from Him the penalty might be
   exacted. At His hands the price must be demanded for the ransom of all
   this multitude of sins! And it is said that He did this once for all. I
   have no language with which to describe it--but I see before me the
   great load of sin, the huge, tremendous world of sin! No, no, it is
   greater than the world! Atlas might carry that, but this is a weight
   compared with which the world is but as a pin's head! Mountains upon
   mountains, alps on alps are nothing to the mighty mass of sin which I
   see before my mind's eyes! And lo, it all falls upon the Well-Beloved!
   He stands beneath it and bows under it till the bloody sweat starts
   from every pore and yet He does not yield to its weight so as to get
   away from the burden! It presses more heavily, it bows Him to the dust,
   it touches His very soul, it makes Him cry in anguish, "My God, My God,
   why have You forsaken Me?" and yet, at the last He lifts Himself up and
   flings it all away and cries, "It is finished!" And it is gone!

   There is not a speck of it left! No, not an atom of it left! It is all
   gone at once and once and for all. He has borne the immeasurable weight
   and cast it off from His shoulders forever and, as it lies no more on
   Him, so also it lies no more on us! Sin shall never be mentioned
   against His people any more forever. Oh, wondrous deed of Deity! Oh,
   mighty feat of love accomplished once and for all! The Redeemer never
   offered Himself to death before. He never will do it again! Look at it
   this way, my Brothers and Sisters--the reason why it never will be done
   again is because there is no need for it! All the sin that was laid
   upon Jesus is gone--all the sin of His people is forever discharged. He
   has borne it--the debt is paid! The handwriting of ordinances against
   us is nailed to His Cross! The accuser's charge is answered forever.

   What, then, shall we say of those who come forward and pretend that
   they perpetually present the body of Christ in the unbloody sacrifice
   of the "mass?" Why, no profane jest from the lips of Voltaire ever had
   even the slightest degree of God-defiant blasphemy in it compared with
   such a hideous insult as this horrible pretense! It is infernal! I will
   say no less. There can be nothing more intolerable than that notion,
   for our Lord Jesus Christ has offered Himself for sin once and once and
   for all! He who dares to think of offering Him again insults Him by
   acting as if that once were not enough. I cannot believe any language
   of abhorrence to be too strong if the performers and attendants at the
   "mass" really knew what is implied in their professed act and deed!

   In the judgment of Christian charity we may earnestly pray, "Father,
   forgive them, for they know not what they do." Our words fail and our
   conceptions faint at the thought of the great Substitute with all the
   sins of His people condensed into one black draught and set before Him!
   How shall we think of Him as putting that cup to His lips and drinking,
   drinking, drinking all the wrath till He had drained the cup to the
   bottom and filled Himself with horror? Yet look, He has finished the
   death-drink and turned the cup upside down, crying, "It is finished!"
   At one tremendous draught the

   loving Lord has drained destruction dry for all His people and there is
   no dreg nor drop left for any one of them, for now is the will of God
   accomplished--"by that will we are sanctified through the offering of
   the body of Jesus Christ once for all." Glory be to God! And yet again,
   glory be to God!--

   "He bore on the tree the sentence for me,

   And now both the Surety and sinner are free.

   In the hea venly Lamb thrice happy I am

   And my heart does rejoice at the sound of His name." III. Now I close
   with our third head and that is THE EVERLASTING RESULT. The everlasting
   result of this effectual carrying out of the will of God is that God
   now regards His people's sin as expiated and their persons as
   sanctified. Our sin is removed by expiation. Atonement has been offered
   and its efficacy abides forever. There is no need of any other
   expiation. Believers repent bitterly, but not in the way of expiation.
   There is no penance to be exacted of them by way of putting away guilt.
   Their guilt is gone--their transgression is forgiven! The Covenant is
   made with them and it runs thus--"Their sins and their iniquities will
   I remember no more forever." Their sins have, in fact, been ended,
   blotted out and annihilated by the Redeemer's one Sacrifice.

   Next, they are reconciled. There is no quarrel, now, between God and
   those who are in Christ Jesus. Peace is made between them forever. The
   middle wall that stood between them is taken away. Christ, by His one
   Sacrifice, has made peace for all His people and effectually
   established an amity which never shall be broken--

   "Lord Jesus, we believing

   In You have peace with God,

   Eternal life receiving

   The purchase of Your blood.

   Our curse and condemnation

   You bore in our stead

   Secure is our salvation

   In You, our risen Head."

   Moreover, they are not only accepted and reconciled, but they are
   purified--the taint that was upon them is taken away. In God's sight
   they are regarded no more as unclean. They are no longer shut outside
   the camp--they may come to the Throne of the heavenly Grace whenever
   they will. God can have communion with them! He regards them as fit to
   stand in His courts and to be His servants, for they are purified,
   reconciled, expiated through the one Offering of Christ! Their
   admission into the closest intimacy with God could never be allowed if
   He did not regard them as purged from all un-cleanness and this has
   been effected not at all by themselves, but only by the great
   Sacrifice--

   "Your blood, not mine, O Christ, Your blood so freely spilt, Has
   blanched my blackest stains, And purged away my guilt. Your
   righteousness, O Christ, Alone does cover me. No righteousness avails
   Save that which is in Thee."

   Now, what has come of it? That is the point. I want you, now, to let me
   leave the doctrine and try and bring out the experience arising from
   it. What Christ has done in the carrying out of the great will of God
   has effected salvation for all His chosen--but this is applied to them
   actually and experimentally by the Holy Spirit's dwelling in them--by
   which indwelling they know they are now God's people. The Israelites
   were God's people, after a fashion. The Levites were more peculiarly so
   and the priests were still more especially so--and all of these had to
   present perpetual sacrifices and offerings that God might be able to
   look upon them as His people--for they were a sinful people.

   You and I are not typically, but truly and really His people. Through
   Jesus Christ's offering of Himself once and for all, we are really set
   apart to be the Lord's people from now on and forever and He says of
   us--I mean, of course, not of us all, but of as many as have believed
   in Jesus and to whom the Holy Spirit has revealed His finished work--"I
   will be their God and they shall be My people." You Believers are
   sanctified in this sense, that you are now the set-apart ones unto God
   and you belong wholly to Him. Will you think that over? "I am now not
   my own. I do not belong, now, to the

   common order of men, as all the rest of men do. I am set apart. I am
   called out. I am taken aside. I am one of the Lord's own. I am His
   treasure and His portion. He has, through Jesus Christ's death, made me
   one of those of whom He says-- 'They shall dwell alone, they shall not
   be numbered among the people.'"

   I want you to feel it so that you may live under the power of that fact
   that you may feel, "My Lord has cleansed me. My Lord has made expiation
   for me. My Lord has reconciled me unto God and I am God's man, I am
   God's woman. I cannot live as others do. I cannot be one among you. I
   must come out. I must be separate. I cannot find my pleasure where you
   find yours. I cannot find my treasure where you find yours. I am God's
   and God is mine. That wondrous transaction on the Cross of which our
   minister has tried to speak, but of which he could not speak as he
   ought--that wondrous unspeakable deed upon the Cross--that wonderful
   life and death of Jesus, has made me one of God's people, set apart
   unto Him and as such I must live."

   When you realize that you are God's people, the next thing is to
   reflect that God, in sanctifying a people, set them apart for His
   service and He made them fit for His service. You, Beloved, through
   Christ's one great Offering of His body for you, are permitted, now, to
   be the servants of God! You know it is an awful thing for a man to try
   and serve God until God gives Him permission--there is a presumption
   about it. Suppose that one of the Queen's enemies, who has sought her
   life and has always spoken against her, were to say, "I mean to be one
   of her servants. I will go into her palace and I will serve her,"
   having all the while in his heart a rebellious, proud spirit? His
   service could not be tolerated! It would be sheer impudence. Even so,
   "Unto the wicked God says, What have you to do to declare My statutes?"
   A wicked man, pretending to serve God, stands in the position of Korah,
   Dathan and Abiram trying to offer incense because he is not purified
   and not called to the work and has no fitness for it.

   But now, Beloved, you that are in Christ are called to be His servants.
   You have permission and leave to serve Him. It ought to be your great
   joy to be accepted servants of the living God. If you are only the
   Lord's shoeblack, you have a greater privilege than if you were an
   emperor! If the highest thing you ever will be allowed to do should be
   to loosen the laces of your master's shoes or to wash his servants'
   feet--if that master is Christ you are favored above the mightiest of
   the mighty! Men of renown may envy you--their orders of the Garter or
   the Golden Fleece are nothing compared with the high dignity of being
   servitors of King Jesus! Look upon this as being the result of Christ's
   death upon the Cross, that such a poor, sinful creature as you
   are--once a slave of the devil--is now allowed to be the servant of
   God!

   On the Cross my Master bought for me the privilege to preach to you at
   this time. And He bought for you, dear Mother, the privilege to go home
   and train your little child for the great Father in Heaven. In fact, He
   bought for us a sanctification which has made us the Lord's people and
   has enabled us to engage in His service. Do we not rejoice in this?
   Next to that we have this privilege that what we do can now be
   accepted. Because Jesus Christ, by the offering of His body once, has
   perfected the Father's will and has sanctified us, therefore what we do
   is now accepted with God! We might have done whatever we would, but God
   would not have accepted it from a sinner's hands--from the hands of
   those that were out of Christ.

   Now He accepts anything of us. You dropped a penny into the box--it was
   all that you could give and the Lord accepted it! It dropped into His
   hand! You offered a little prayer in the middle of business this
   afternoon because you heard an ill word spoken--and your God accepted
   that prayer. You went down the street and spoke to a poor sick person.
   You did not say much, but you said all you could--the great God
   accepted it! Acceptance in the Beloved, not only for our persons, but
   for our prayers and our works, is one of the sweetest things I know of.
   We are accepted! That is the joy of it. Through that one great bloody
   Sacrifice, once and for all offered, God's people are forever accepted
   and what His people do for Him is accepted, too! And now we are
   privileged to the highest degree, being sanctified--that is to say,
   made into God's people, God's servants and God's accepted servants!

   Every privilege which we could have had, if we had never sinned, is now
   ours and we are in Him as His children. We have more than would have
   come to us by the Covenant of Works and if we will but know it and live
   up to it, even the very privilege of suffering and the privilege of
   being tried--the privilege of being in need--should be looked upon as a
   great gift, for I think an angel spirit, seated high alone there,
   meditating and adoring, might say within himself, "I have served God.
   These swift wings have borne me through the ether on His errands, but I
   never suffered for Him. I was never despised for Him. Drunks never
   called me names. I was never misrepresented as God's servant. After
   all, though I have served Him, it has been one perpetual joy. He has
   set a hedge about me and all that I have."

   If an angel could envy anybody, I think he would envy the martyr who
   had the privilege of burning to the death for Christ, or such as Job,
   who, when stripped of everything and covered with sores, could sit on a
   dunghill and yet honor his God! Such as these achieved an unique
   service within itself which has sparkling diamonds of the first water
   glittering about it--but the same cannot be found in an unsuffering
   ministry--be it as complete as it may! You are favored sons of Adam,
   you who have become sons of God! You are favored beyond cherubim and
   seraphim in accomplishing a service for the manifestation of the riches
   of the Grace of God which unfallen spirits never could accomplish!
   Rejoice and be exceedingly glad that this one offering has put you
   there.

   And now you are eternally secure. No sin can ever be laid to your door,
   for it is all put away and sin being removed, every other evil has lost
   its fang and sting. Now you are eternally beloved, for you are one with
   Him who can never be other than dear to the heart of Jehovah! That
   union never can be broken, for nothing can separate us from the love of
   God and, therefore, your security can never be imperiled. Now are you
   in some measure glorified for, "the spirit of glory and of Christ does
   rest upon you," and our conversation is in Heaven, from where we look
   for the Savior, the Lord Jesus, who has already raised us up together
   and made us sit together in the heavenlies! Heaven is already ours in
   promise, in price and in principle and the preparation for it has also
   begun. I feel at this hour that--

   "All that remains for me Is but to love and sing, And wait until the
   angels come To bear me to their King."

   In such a spirit would I always live!

   Brothers and Sisters, are you dispirited at this time? Have you a great
   trouble upon you? Are you alone in the world? Do others misjudge you,
   or does the iron of scandal pierce your very soul? Do fierce coals of
   juniper await those vicious tongues that wrong you? Do you feel bowed
   into the dust? Yet, why are you despairing? Child of God and heir of
   all things, why are you cast down? Joint heir with Christ, why are
   groveling? Why do you lie among the pots when you have already angels'
   wings about you? Up, Man, up! Your heritage is not here among the
   dragons and the owls. Up! You are one of God's eagles, born for
   brighter light than earth could bear--light that would blind the
   weak-eyed sons of men if they were once to get a veiled glimpse of it!
   You, a twice-born man, one of the imperial family, one that shall sit
   upon a throne with Christ as surely as Christ sits there--why are you
   moaning and groaning?

   Wipe your eyes and smooth your brow and in the strength of the Eternal
   go to your life-battle. It will not be long. The trumpet of victory
   almost sounds in your ears. Will you now beat a retreat? No! Play the
   man and win the day! "Trust in the Lord and do good; so shall you dwell
   in the land and verily you shall be fed," till He comes to catch you
   away where you shall see what Jesus did for you when He made His body
   once and for all a Sacrifice that He might fulfill the will of the
   eternal Father and sanctify you and all His people unto God forever and
   ever! May the best of blessings rest upon all who are in Christ Jesus.
   Amen.

   STOCKWELL ORPHANAGE FOR GIRLS

   The land being bought and paid for, Mr. Spurgeon is anxious to begin
   building, since large numbers of orphans are applying. The block, which
   will contain houses for 250 girls and the various schoolrooms, will
   cost about £8,000, of which £3,000 is promised. To raise the rest of
   the money will need the united liberality of many and the special
   bounty of the few who are wealthy. It is proposed that the first stone
   should be laid on Mr. Spurgeon's birthday, June 19, should a sufficient
   sum be in hand to make it prudent to begin. Sympathizing readers can
   forward donations to Mr. Spurgeon, Nightingale Lane, Balham, and he
   will gratefully acknowledge the same.
     __________________________________________________________________

"They Were Tempted"

   (No. 1528)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MARCH 14, 1880,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "They were tempted." Hebrews 11:37.

   LAST Lord's-Day I tried to draw the fair portrait of a believing man
   [Sermon #1526, The Fair Portrait of a Saint] putting his feet into
   God's steps and keeping God's way even unto the end. This morning we
   shall show in what circumstances such men were produced. We shall
   discover that they were not nursed upon the lap of ease, but were born
   and reared and perfected amid storms of opposition. We shall again see
   "the lily among thorns." The gracious characters of which we read in
   Scripture were not created by favorable circumstances--they owed
   nothing to their position or age-- their character was formed from
   within. Their faith was not produced by the tenderness of
   Providence--they were not put into a conservatory like fair flowers
   which cannot endure the frost--we might rather say that they were
   helped to their robustness by the rough winter blasts which swept over
   them.

   They were warriors of peace--pilgrims who traveled armed to the teeth
   making no holiday march, but contending with giants and dragons.
   Whoever else may find life a sport, the saints have found it to be real
   and earnest. Their path has been no mere parade, but grim and grisly
   dangers have beset them--"they were stoned, they were sawn asunder,
   they were slain with the sword." One form of the opposition which they
   encountered is the subject of this morning's meditation--"They were
   tempted." Do not forget that the leading principle of a godly man is
   faith and, according to this chapter, faith is the force by which brave
   deeds are done and great sufferings are endured.

   All the world appears to be in arms against the man of faith. Ishmael,
   the child of human strength, mocks Isaac who is born by the power of
   faith according to promise. Yet faith is able to bear all attacks and
   to flourish under them, even as the Israelites in Egypt multiplied the
   more as their oppressions were increased. The sufferings of Believers,
   which are mentioned by Paul, are varied and exceedingly intense. And
   this is one of them--"they were tempted." The speedy weapon of stone,
   or sword, or saw gratified the malice which sought their death, but
   tempting them satisfied a subtle hate which stabbed at their character
   and their faith.

   In temptation there is for the soul all the deadliness which the
   slaughter weapon brings to the body. It is blessed to observe that the
   faithful also survived this danger. A torrent roared against them and
   they stemmed it with resolute confidence. They did not drift with the
   current, nor drown in its floods. Dealing with this one form of
   opposition, "they were tempted," I shall be able to say a great many
   more practical things than if I were preaching upon, "they were
   stoned," or, "they were sawn asunder," for those things happen but now
   and then. But this record that, "they were tempted," is repeated in us
   all and, especially in you who have lately set out on the heavenly
   pilgrimage. You have got far enough to discover that you are not to be
   allowed to go to Heaven if Satan can prevent it, nor suffered to remain
   a Christian if by any means the men of this world can cast you down.

   You are being tempted. May the practical words I shall be able to speak
   be applied with power by the Holy Spirit to your comfort and help.

   I. First I will call attention to THE UNIVERSAL TRUTH OF THE STATEMENT
   now before us. It is not true that all the saints were scourged, nor
   all imprisoned. Neither were all stoned, nor all slain with the sword.
   But it is true of the whole cloud of witnesses that they were all
   tempted. The word, "tempted," bears two meanings. First of all, that of
   being tried or afflicted and, secondly, that of being persuaded or
   enticed to sin. In the first aspect of it God did tempt Abraham, that
   is, He tried him and this He does with all His people. God had one Son
   without sin, but He never had a son without trial!

   "What son is there whom the Father chastened not?" "Of which you are
   all partakers," says Paul, when he speaks of chastening. "For whom the
   Lord loves, He corrects, even as a father the son in whom he delights."
   His own elect are

   made to feel His refining fires, for He declares of each one "I have
   chosen you in the furnace of affliction." All the sheep of Christ bear
   His private mark--He sets the cross of affliction upon them all. "All
   that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." "In the
   world you shall have tribulation." Before you shall find me a man who
   has never known trouble I think you will have ridden many a horse lame
   and searched far and wide for, "man is born to trouble as the sparks
   fly upward." And I will guarantee that the wonderful untried person is
   as much a stranger to God as he is to affliction!

   Within the sacred enclosure of the elect of God you shall not be able
   to discover one whom the Lord has not, in some way or at some time
   afflicted in love. Count it not, therefore, a strange thing, my dear
   Brothers and Sisters, that you should have a cross to carry! Do not
   begin to kick against the pricks as though some unusual suffering were
   laid upon you when the Lord touches you with the goad of sorrow. You
   are one among many and among the many there are worthy ones who bear
   heavier loads than yours! Envy none, but feel a brotherhood with all
   the faithful, for they, too, "were tempted." As for the other sense of
   the word, "tempt"--the bad and hard one. In that sense, also, the
   statement is universally true. All the people of God have been tempted
   to sin. Satan no sooner perceives a child of God renewed in heart and
   cleansed from defilement than he endeavors, if he can, to mar the work
   of the Holy Spirit; to ruin the happiness of the Believer and to weaken
   his usefulness by leading him into sin.

   The Prince of the power of the air, though he cannot be everywhere
   himself, manages with his host of underlings to be so nearly
   omnipresent that he tempts us all in turns and some of us very
   fiercely. Woe unto the man who is beset by the arch enemy, himself, if
   he is not abiding in fellowship with the Lord Jesus! If the Lord is
   away from the Believer it will go hard with him when Apollyon, himself,
   meets him in deadly duel. The fiend is stronger and craftier than we
   are and unless the Lord covers our head in the day of battle we shall
   find his fiery darts too terrible. This, however, is some comfort, that
   every Believer now with God has crossed swords with the devil--He has
   not suffered one to pass unmolested-- "they were tempted."

   Nor is it only Satan who tempts the saints. The world is always
   tempting God's people and there is no position in life which is free
   from peril. A man sick of the fever dreams that if he can be placed in
   another bed he shall feel better--it is but a dream. He turns and
   tosses to and fro upon his pillow, but as Watts well says--

   "It is a poor relief we gain To shift the place but keep the pain." In
   this mortal life we may change our position, but we shall never get
   away from temptation. Temptations are with kings upon their thrones and
   with peasants at the plow--they come of plenty and they come of
   poverty--they are born of success and they are born of defeat. Whether
   our path is rough or smooth, we are liable to be tripped up unless an
   unseen hand shall hold us up. This is true of all who have gone before
   us--"they were tempted."

   At times Providence permits those who are in authority to exercise
   great power of temptation. So it was with the saints of old--those who
   were in power accounted them as sheep for the slaughter. The rulers of
   the synagogues and then the magistrates, rulers and emperors set
   themselves against God and against His Christ and those who held the
   reins of government were determined that they would put down the reign
   of Christ and utterly destroy His people. Princes and potentates became
   the willing servitors of Satan, threatening and bribing those who had
   espoused the faith. So far as open, legalized persecution by the State
   is concerned, we are happily free from it--but of those who in the
   martyr days bore high the banner of the Cross it may be said with
   emphasis--"they were tempted."

   But, Brothers and Sisters, if there were no devil and if there were no
   wicked world it would still be true that the saints are tempted, for
   every man is tempted when he is "drawn away by his own lusts" and there
   is that within the best of men which might make them into the worst of
   men if the Grace of God did not prevent it! O child of God, you are, on
   one side, fair as an angel and the Grace of God gleams upon you and
   makes you bright as your transfigured Master! And yet on the other side
   of you, you are black as a devil and if the Grace of God were taken
   from you, you would as much dishonor the name and Cross of Christ as
   did the false apostate who took the thirty pieces of silver! Every good
   man is two men--he finds one fighting against the other--the old man,
   according to its corruptions and lusts, daily warring with the new-born
   man within him which cannot sin because it is born of God.

   Now it is true, not only of you and me, but it has been true of all the
   people of God, that they have had inward conflicts and spiritual
   contests within themselves of the most painful kind. The saints were
   tempted. They were persuaded to

   sin by Satan, by the world and by the propensities of their nature. And
   of all the blood-redeemed host it must be said, "they were tempted."
   Ought not this fact restrain every man from a self-indulgent despair?
   Do you know what I mean? I mean this--a man says, "Well, I cannot help
   it! I am in such a place of temptation that if I give way I may well be
   excused." Not so, Sir! "They were tempted" and yet they did not fall,
   but held fast their integrity! They who today are waving the palm of
   victory were tempted even as you are and it is idle for you to say that
   victory is impossible seeing they have proved the reverse!

   Using the same weapons and helped by the same Spirit, your temptations,
   which are the same as theirs, will be overcome by you even as theirs
   were vanquished by them! Get up and fight like men! Dream no longer of
   impossibilities which might excuse you--what has been done by one, by
   the help of God, can be done by another! This leaves us without any
   excuse for yielding to temptation. I know we commonly think that if we
   can prove that we are tempted there is not much blame attached to us
   but it is not so! It is most true that those who tempt others are
   guilty of the greater sin, but the sin of those who are tempted and
   yield to the temptation is great enough--great enough to crush them
   into eternal destruction unless they repent of it! Other people have
   been tempted as you have been and yet they have resisted the temptation
   and have remained in obedience to God and, therefore, if you yield to
   the evil influence you are without excuse.

   The multitude of holy men and women who are now before the Throne of
   God are all witnesses against you, for they show what can be done and
   what can be done in you, too, the Grace of God being with you. This
   fact that all the saints have been tempted should put an end to all
   murmuring upon that score. Somebody says, "Mine is a hard lot! I have
   to follow Christ under great disadvantages. My foes are those of my own
   household." Yes, your lot may be difficult, but if you could just peep
   within the pearly gates and see that brilliant company who are the
   peers of the realm of Heaven, you would see none but those who once
   were tempted!

   Do you dare demand a better lot than theirs? Remember your Master was
   tempted and shall the disciple wish to be above his Master, or the
   servant above his Lord? Is there to be some easy bye-road to Heaven
   made for you, turned from end to end and rolled every morning?--

   "Must you be carried to the skies On flowery beds of ease While others
   fought to win the prize And sailed through bloody seas.9" You must not
   expect it! You must fight if you would reign! You must carry the cross
   as others carried it if you are like they, to wear the crown! The
   temptations which were endured by saints in all ages must forever
   prevent our complaining if hooks are baited for us and snares laid for
   our destruction!

   One sweet thought arises here. Since the best of saints were tempted,
   this prevents our conceiving that to be tempted is, in itself, a sin. I
   have known feeble-minded Christians bemoan themselves and cry, "If I
   were not exceedingly sinful I should not have these hideous thoughts
   and dreadful suggestions! If my heart were not full of evil, I should
   not have these blasphemous ideas forced into my poor, unwilling brain."
   Beloved, it is not so! If your heart were wholly the devil's, he might
   not care to worry you and, indeed, you would not be worried, but would
   love sin! It is because you are not his, because you are desperately
   struggling towards holiness and virtue that, therefore, he tempts you.
   It is no sin to be tempted--the sin is in yielding to temptation!

   Your Lord was tempted and yet in Him was no sin. Thrice did Satan
   assail our Lord--three evil courses did he plausibly suggest, but he
   found nothing in Him to work upon! There was no tinder for his sparks
   to light. Be, therefore, greatly comforted, by God's Grace, you who
   find evil thoughts rushing through your minds like a torrent. You try
   to fight against these temptations and yet they return again and again
   till your heart is well-near broken with them--do not, therefore,
   condemn yourself for them so long as you abhor them. You are not a
   castaway because you are tempted, for all the saints in Gory were
   tempted, too. Yes, I think, dear Friends, if any of us here present
   meet with great trials in life and with very strong temptations to turn
   back to the world--if God gives us Grace to keep towards the New
   Jerusalem we may even glory in these trials!

   We ought to pray, "Lead us not into temptation," for temptation is not
   to be sought for but to be looked upon as an evil, seeing that flesh is
   frail. But when it assumes the form of persecution and our Lord helps
   us to endure it, steadfast in the faith, we may even rejoice and leap
   for joy! If your name is slandered, or you become a loser in wage, or
   in estate, or in comfort for Christ's sake, you may greatly
   rejoice--for now you have fellowship with Jesus and His suffering
   follow-

   ers! You are entering the confederacy of the bravest of the brave. Now
   shall you share in "that lordlier chivalry" which belongs not to mailed
   knights, but to spirits purified and ennobled by the Holy Spirit! These
   are the blessed ones who endure temptation, who, when they are tried,
   shall receive the Crown of Life which fades not away! Forget not, then,
   the universal truth of the statement before us--"They were tempted."

   II. Secondly, let us consider THE UNLIMITED BREADTH OF THE STATEMENT.
   "They were tempted"--it

   does not say how. If one form of temptation had been mentioned, we
   should have surmised that they did not suffer in other ways, but when
   the statement is, "they were tempted," we shall not be wrong in
   concluding that they were tried in any and every form. Whatever form
   temptation may take, in some or in all the saints, that temptation has
   been endured. We may say of Christ's mystical body as we may say of
   Christ's self--"tempted in all points like as we are." Brothers and
   Sisters, the saints who are in Heaven were tempted in all ways!

   They were tempted by threats, but they were equally tempted by
   promises. They were put into prison, or they were banished. They were
   deprived of their goods and of their good names, but they stood fast
   and firm and would not yield up Christ, threaten as men might. Then
   they were tried by bribes--if they would forsake Christ and turn from
   the Truth of God they would be rich and honorable, they would be
   restored to their families, they would have, in some cases, every
   indulgence which the monarch could grant. They were equally deaf to
   either form of solicitation--they could not be driven and they could
   not be drawn! However the net might be spread they could not be taken
   in it.

   Standing at the stake, with the flames kindling and the firewood
   beginning to burn, the tempting monk has held up the crucifix and said,
   "Kiss it! Kiss it and your life shall be given you and you shall have
   great honors!" But they put away the idol from them and would not
   dishonor God by worshipping any material substance, whatever it might
   be. Or else the martyr, on his way to die, has been confronted by his
   wife and children, kneeling down and praying their father to have pity
   upon them, if none upon himself, and not to die and leave a widow and
   fatherless children. But though natural love struggled in their hearts,
   they leaped over that temptation, for they loved Christ better than
   their dearest relatives. They were tempted in the most subtle
   fashion--reason and rhetoric, threat and scorn, bribe and blandishment
   have all been used and used in vain. Against them the enemy has sent
   forth the arrow which flies by day and the pestilence which walks in
   darkness, but the Lord has kept their soul alive and they have
   glorified His name!

   Yet very sorely "they were tempted." They were tempted both with trials
   peculiar to themselves and with trials common to us all. We are apt,
   sometimes, to say that this age is not congenial to the strength of
   Grace and I think there is truth in the remark. We are a set of dwarfs
   and it seems hard to grow to the stature of a man in Christ Jesus in
   the atmosphere which daily surrounds us. We have fallen upon an evil
   age in which principle is treated like a football in the streets and
   bluster rules the hour. But the ages in which saints lived long ago had
   their peculiar temptations, too, and they were tempted. Every period
   since the world began has had its own form of spiritual danger--as
   weapons of war have changed so have temptations--but the old enmity
   remains.

   Not always does the swordsman make his cut at the head. Sometimes he
   stabs at the heart, or at another time he drives at the feet--always
   aiming to wound, but not always aiming at the same part of the man. One
   age is dark and ignorance would chill the heart; another is
   philosophical and by its false wisdom would overlay the Gospel. The
   points from which the wind blows may differ, but it always blows
   against the servants of God who are traveling to Heaven. Say not
   therefore, O child of God, that others who lived before you were not
   tempted as you are, for they endured temptations which to them were as
   keen and as powerful as any which have fallen on you!

   They had, also, special temptations arising out of their individual
   constitutions. We have, every one of us, some weak point. One man is
   not readily made angry, but he is too cold. Another is sensitive, but
   he is too speedily wrathful. One man is full of love and affection, but
   he lacks decision. Another is resolute, but fails in tenderness. Side
   by side with the special excellence of any character we usually
   discover a remarkable weakness calling for great watchfulness! And of
   all those who are now in Heaven it may be said they were
   tempted--tempted in some characteristic point and with some besetting
   sin.

   Beloved, if you have to endure the same, mark well that you follow a
   well-trod path. As they had their peculiar temptations, so they had the
   common trials of the most ordinary life. Look at Abraham--not only does
   he stand alone in the sacrifice of Isaac, but he stands with us in our
   common afflictions. He is tried in his relatives--his nephew Lot is
   ungrateful to him and leaves him. He is tried in his servants--the
   family is set by the ears by Hagar. He is tried in his wife,

   for she complains against him wrongfully. He is tried in his children,
   for Ishmael mocks Isaac. His dwelling in tents brought with it quite as
   much discomfort and trial as our dwelling in houses. Flocks and herds
   involve as much care as shops and workrooms.

   Just such domestic troubles as you and I experience were known to Jacob
   and David. One man is very like another and nothing can be more unwise
   than to set up saintly men who lived ages ago upon a sort of shelf, as
   if they were unapproachable and inimitable and belonged to a different
   race! These heroes are our brothers, their battles are our battles,
   their victory shall be ours. Our Divine Master Himself, when He was
   assailed by the devil in the wilderness, was attacked by those same
   temptations which have been used against us--we, too, have been tempted
   to use wrong means to supply our pressing needs, to presume upon the
   Providence of God and to commit idolatry in order to gratify ambition.
   These are arrows which have rattled on the harness of many soldiers of
   the Cross.

   Our Lord Jesus, the Captain of our salvation, bore the brunt of the
   battle and in the matter of temptation He condescended to fight upon
   the same level with ourselves. "He was tempted in all points like as we
   are, yet without sin." So that the text stands good in all its length
   and breadth that all those who have won the everlasting Victory were
   tempted, even as we are now.

   III. Thirdly, let us notice THE SPECIAL POINT OF THE TRIAL. All these
   temptations, according to the connection of our text, were aimed at the
   faith of these holy men. Paul is writing of the victories and
   sufferings of faith and, therefore, we are sure that these temptations
   were a test and trial of their faith. It is wonderful how God takes
   care that the victories of faith shall somehow or other be kept in
   mind. There was a period after the Prophets had ceased to prophesy and
   before Christ came in which the Israelite church had to contend against
   antichrist and other enemies. In the Apocrypha you have the account of
   some few of the martyrdoms of those who held fast to God and to His
   Truth.

   They are not put in canonical Scripture--they neither belong to the Old
   Testament nor to the New--but here Paul immortalizes them, for the Lord
   will have them remembered. Those who were stoned and sawn asunder for
   the Truth's sake shall not be forgotten. If the details are not given,
   they shall yet be recorded in the gross on the sacred pages. Since that
   time, dear Friends, as if Paul had been writing prophecy rather than
   history, the people of God have had to pass through sufferings which,
   if I were to repeat them now, would break your hearts with grief
   because of the horrors of cruelty which human ingenuity has invented.

   Man has seemed to turn into a devil and sink below a fiend in the
   barbarities which he has perpetrated against the servants of God. All
   this has been aimed at the destruction of faith. The Jews were tempted
   to worship idols--they must offer incense to a false God--but they
   would not. In later years Christians must pay homage to the image of
   the em-peror--this they would not do--they would die a thousand deaths
   sooner than worship a false God! By-and-by they were called upon to
   deny the Deity of Christ and by tens of thousands they perished sooner
   than deny that fact! In later years it came to this--that they must
   submit to superstition--they must assert that they believed in
   transubstantiation, which they could not believe in, nor thus insult
   their God!

   They must submit themselves to men who said they were priests and could
   forgive their sins--which they felt was a forsaking of the great High
   Priest to think of doing it--and so they died rather than deny the
   faith. The story of the lives of these heroes is recorded in such
   half-inspired books as Foxe's "Book of Martyrs" and the like. Read it
   and let your children read it till both they and you have learned
   fidelity to Christ! The main point of the adversary's attack was always
   their faith--therefore let us learn where to set our guard. Let us see
   to it that we become strong in faith, for that is true strength. Feed
   your faith well. Know the Truth of God and know it thoroughly. Read the
   Scriptures and understand them. Make sure of the eternal Truths of God.

   Live much upon the promises of future bliss. A sight of the unfading
   crown will make you cheerfully forego the withering flowers of earth.
   The sorrows of the way will grow light as the eternal weight of Glory
   is revealed. You will think less of the commendation or censure of men
   if your ears already hear the great Master saying, "Well done, good and
   faithful servant."

   IV. I cannot dwell long on this point, though I had wished to do so,
   but must now call your attention, in the fourth place, to THE INTENSITY
   OF THIS TRIAL. That I gather from the position of our text, which is
   very strange. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted,
   were slain with sword. It has seemed to commentators to be so singular
   that to be "tempted" should be, as it were, sandwiched in between,
   "sawn asunder" and being "slain with the

   sword," that they have thought there must be an error in the text.
   Certainly at the first blush, the words look rather out of place, but
   they are not so. Some learned men have imagined another Greek word to
   be the correct one, since it involves a very slight alteration and then
   the passage would run--"They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they
   were burnt, they were slain with the sword."

   I do not see any reason for desiring an alteration. It seems to me to
   be plain that the original is, "they were tempted," and what is written
   must stand. The more we think of it, the more we shall see that being
   tempted is worthy to be put side by side with being sawn asunder and
   being slain with the sword, for many of those who are daily tormented
   with temptations will tell you that it is as painful to bear as any
   form of death. If you live in a place where you hear little else but
   blasphemy from morning to night you will soon say, "I think I should
   prefer being in a prison to this. The cut of a whip or the wound of a
   sword would scarcely cause more pain than to hear the name of Jesus
   Christ profaned and to see every holy and precious thing trampled on!"

   When the ungodly persecute cruelly, as they can do, even now, without
   violating the law of man, they can tease and worry your very soul. They
   can embitter every morsel that you eat, make home to be a
   torture-chamber and the workroom an inquisition. They will maliciously
   track you in all your steps with jests and jeers and slanders and hard
   speeches and make you live like Marcus Arethusa, among the bees which,
   at last, stung him to death. Believe me, some of God's people have
   found that to be tempted in that sense has been as bad as to be stoned,
   or to be slain with a sword! In fact, there are times when they have
   said, "If we could be taken out and our heads could be cut off at one
   stroke with a sword, it would be a happy release from this life-long
   agony."

   Alas for gentle, timid, loving spirits who have to endure such
   temptation! I think Paul did well to put this here, not only because of
   the painfulness of it, but because of the danger of it, for it is
   certain that under temptation of the more insidious kind more professed
   Christians have been led away than ever were frightened from the faith
   by racks, or torments, or fear of death. It is a very sad fact that
   when Queen Mary died there were persons lying in prison condemned for
   heresy who had, some of them, been great sufferers for the faith and
   bold confessors of it and yet when released they did not abide in their
   steadfastness.

   Queen Mary died and Elizabeth ascended the throne and they obtained
   their liberty and, alas, some of them, returning to the comforts of
   home, became altogether worldly persons and forsook the faith for which
   once they would have even dared to die. I have known some unhappy cases
   of the same kind, where persons have been persecuted by their families
   for following Christ and have stood up for Him right manfully so that I
   have felt great admiration for them for their consistent courage. I
   have lived to see these very individuals delivered from the yoke of
   bondage, able to start in life for themselves and to do exactly as they
   pleased and, alas, soon after persecution ceased they have grown cold
   and have forsaken the ways of God! What a strange creature is man!

   Lord, what a deceitful heart I have! O that You would search it and try
   it, lest it be so that I follow You in stormy weather, but leave You
   when the south wind blows! I think the Apostle put in this clause just
   where we find it because more deadly to the Church have been the
   blandishments of the world's wealth than all the raging of her cruelty.
   Her stakes, her racks, her gallows have never injured the Church so
   much as her witcheries, her smiles, her fashions and her patronage. Yet
   this was borne by saints of old, for, "they were tempted." "Well," says
   one, "you describe these Christian people as having had very hard times
   of it, for they were tempted and tempted very severely, too." Yes, it
   is true, but we do not pity one of them. If you saw those gallant men
   who wear the Victoria cross for valor and you were told of their perils
   and sufferings, you would not pity them.

   They could not have worn the coveted cross given them by their Queen if
   they had not bravely endured hardship and peril. We do not pity men who
   have performed daring exploits, nor may we pity those servants of God
   who suffered the utmost cruelties, but now rest from their labors and
   wear their honors in Heaven. The question is--Can you aspire to take a
   place among them? To be a true Christian is no small thing and, before
   you pretend to be a follower of Jesus, count the cost! Are you willing
   to endure temptation without yielding? Can you scorn the world's bribes
   and defy its threats? Will you set your face like a flint for Christ
   and holiness? Has Grace made you a lion-like man? Have you a strong
   determination worked in you by the Holy Spirit? If not, you may run
   well for a time, but you will turn back and prove an apostate. I pray
   God that you may be of that noble stock which the Lord has chosen and
   may have in you that noble na-

   ture which only the Holy Spirit can impart, so that, though you shall
   be tempted, you shall hold out till life's last hour, invincible
   through the Grace of God!

   I want, in conclusion, to answer the question which naturally
   arises--Why, then, does God permit His people to encounter so much
   temptation? Why is the road to Heaven so beset with foes? I answer that
   there are a great many replies to that question, for the Lord answers
   many designs at one and the same time. First, persecution and
   temptation are a sort of sieve to sift the Church of God. As it is, we
   have enough hypocrites among us and if the way to Heaven were strewn
   all along with loaves and fishes, we should have the devil, himself,
   going on pilgrimage! There must be these fiery persecutions so that the
   hypocrites may be purged out. I guarantee you there were not many
   hypocrites in the catacombs of Rome when, to be a Christian involved
   almost certain death! They crept into their assemblies at the dead of
   night and there gathered to sing hymns to the name of Jesus and few
   were the traitors' tongues which joined in the singing!

   When in our own country any man who had a Bible must die for it and,
   therefore, men hid their Bibles behind the wainscot, or under the
   floor, few were very eager for Bible-reading. The mocking, the jesting,
   the jeering which goes on in the world is the sieve constantly moving
   to shake off the chaff and let the good wheat remain. If we could stop
   that winnowing fan we should hardly wish to do so! I am sure if I could
   give some of you new converts a pass from here to Heaven so that nobody
   should ever laugh at you and you should never suffer anything for
   Christ, I would not do it! I feel I would be doing you a serious injury
   if I could secure you against every trial.

   Think of a soldier when he enlists. Suppose he should say to the
   sergeant, "Sergeant, will you give me a guarantee that I shall never
   fight?" I think the officer would reply, "You had better not enlist."
   Even so I say to you we cannot guarantee you that you shall not be
   tempted and if you need such a guarantee as that, you are not the kind
   of man we want--you are not the sort of man that is ever likely to win
   the unfading Crown! Trial and temptation also discover the reality of
   conversion. Look at this. Here is a man ridiculed for his religion and
   for his sobriety. He will not touch a drop of the drink which formerly
   cast him down to his destruction and, therefore, his fellow workmen
   laugh at him. All sorts of epithets are hurled at him while he is at
   work.

   He goes to a place of worship on Sunday and for this he must be jeered
   at to the last degree. Who is this man that bears this so patiently?
   Why, the very man who, 12 months ago, could drink as much as any of
   them and used to jeer at others! The very man who for 20 years before
   never entered the house of God! Now, the fact that he can stand against
   temptation is one of the very best evidences that he is born again and
   made a new creature in Christ Jesus! And those who see such a change
   confess that this is the finger of God. What else could have changed
   him so completely as to make him stand against the very thing which he
   took part in so short a time ago? We may thank God for the temptations
   since it helps to evidence the reality of the conversion!

   Again, it is by this that men are left without excuse, inasmuch as they
   refuse the Light of God. I sometimes wonder why ungodly men cannot let
   Christian people alone. We do not interfere with you! Have we not as
   much right to do as we like as you have to do what you like? But no!
   The moment a Christian appears among working men, they are all upon him
   as though they were so many dogs worrying a hare! What does this show
   but that they know the Truth of God and hate it? They know the Light,
   but would gladly quench it and, therefore, they put from them the
   candle which God sends them. They treat His blessing as if it were a
   curse! Did you ever read in the Scriptures of God's thinking better of
   men than they deserved? "No," you say, "that cannot be!"

   Yes, but there is a case, a parabolical case, of course, where the Lord
   is represented as judging men too easily. "Last of all he sent unto
   them his son, saying, they will reverence my son." But they did not
   reverence him! They took the heir and slew him and cast him out of the
   vineyard. There are people of God who are naturally so amiable, kind
   and good that you feel sure all must love and esteem them and yet,
   because of their religion, even such must be persecuted. The beloved
   Brother cannot escape without sarcasm. The dear Sister that was
   everything, before, must now be made the subject of jeers and the
   husband or the wife, however much beloved, is not spared. This leaves
   the ungodly altogether without excuse--it is God's purpose that it
   should do so!

   Meanwhile, it does saints good, for painful as it is to them, it drives
   them to prayer. Many a man lives near to God in prayer who would not
   have done so if he had enjoyed an easier position. His prayerfulness
   strengthens him! His having to summon Divine aid to sustain him under
   trial makes him grow in faith and in every Grace! And he becomes a
   better Christian. I believe that persecution is overruled by God for
   displaying the work of the Divine Spirit. Men see in Chris-

   tian patience, in Christian fortitude, in Christian courage and in
   Christian zeal what the Holy Spirit can work, even in such poor raw
   material as our human nature! God is magnified by the successful
   struggling of His people out of love to

   His name.

   Moreover, Brothers and Sisters, the life of the Church is the life of
   Christ extended and drawn out in His people. He was "holy, harmless,
   undefiled and separate from sinners," yet He, "endured such
   contradiction of sinners against Himself," and if we keep close to
   Christ we must expect to share His lot. Ours should be the prolonged
   echoes of the music of Christ's life, "linked sweetness long drawn
   out." Oh that God would help us till Christ Himself shall come to keep
   up the blessed strain! It seems to me the trials and the temptations of
   this life are all making us fit for the life to come--building up a
   character for eternity. You have been in a piano plant--did you ever go
   there for the sake of music? Go into the tuning room and you will say,
   "My dear Sir, this is a dreadful place to be in! I cannot bear it! I
   thought you made music here." They say, "No, we do not produce music
   here, we make the instruments and tune them here and in the process
   much discord is forthcoming."

   Such is the Church of God on earth. The Lord makes the instruments down
   here and tunes them and a great deal of discord is easily perceptible,
   but it is all necessary to prepare us for the everlasting harmonies up
   yonder. Have you thought what a wonderful creature a man is--a perfect
   man, made fit to dwell in Heaven? He is the last product of Divine
   wisdom, the noblest work of God! There is an angel, he is perfectly
   holy, but he never knew what sin was and there is little wonder that he
   clings to that which has been his nature these many centuries! Besides,
   He is not encumbered by a body of dust, full of passions and appetites
   which are the inlets of sin.

   But here is a being with a soul, encumbered with materialism and it has
   known sin, known it terribly and yet it is forever bound to do right
   beyond fear of turning aside! How is this to be achieved? Take away its
   free agency, says one. No, that would spoil it! It would be no longer a
   man if free agency were destroyed. This being is perfectly free to do
   whatever he pleases throughout eternity and yet he will never wish to
   do a wrong thing again! It is a wonderful work for God to fashion such
   a creature! He begins to do it in regeneration and continues the work
   in sanctification--and all the endurance of trial and all the patience
   manifested by the tried ones work together to prepare a character which
   can endure the strain of everlasting bliss and perform the holy service
   incident thereto!

   I speak for every Christian here--I am to stand, one day, so near to
   God that between Him and me there will be but one Person and that
   Person the Lord Jesus Christ, my Lord and Mediator! I am, in Christ, to
   have dominion over all the works of God's hands and to be crowned with
   glory and honor! Angels are to be my servants and Heaven my
   inheritance! Shall I never grow proud? Shall no self-exaltation creep
   in? No! The character will be fixed for holiness as though engraved in
   eternal brass and yet the man will be free! It may be that all the
   afflictions and temptations which God permits to pass over us here
   below are forming us for eternal bliss. Thus is the corn ripening for
   the garner, the fruit mellowing for the basket! Here the engraving tool
   and the hammer bring out the beauties which shall shine in the courts
   of the Lord forever when, of us, also, the record will be
   written--"they were tempted."
     __________________________________________________________________

A Powerful Reason For Coming To Christ

   (No. 1529)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MARCH 21, 1880,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "A great multitude, when they had heard what great things He did, came
   unto Him." Mark 3:8.

   THE opposition of the great ones of the earth did not, after all,
   hinder the cause of Christ. The Pharisees, who were the leaders of
   religious thought, combined with the Herodians, who were the court
   party, to destroy Jesus, but at the very moment when their wrath had
   reached its highest pitch the crowd about the Savior's Person was
   greater than ever. Let us not, therefore, dear Friends, be at all
   dismayed if great men and learned men and nominally religious men,
   should oppose the simple Gospel of Christ! All the world is not bound
   up in a Pharisee's phylactery, nor held in chains by a philosopher's
   new fancy. If some will not have our Savior, others will--God's eternal
   purpose will stand and the kingdom of His Anointed shall come.

   If our Lord Jesus is rejected by the great, nevertheless the common
   people hear Him gladly. To the poor, the Gospel is preached and it is
   His joy and His delight that out of them He still gathers a company
   who, though poor in this world, are rich in faith and give glory to
   God. I would have you, Beloved, count upon opposition and regard it as
   a token of coming blessings. Dread not the black cloud, it does but
   prognosticate a shower. March may howl and bluster and April may dampen
   all things with its rains, but the May flowers and the autumn's harvest
   of varied fruits will come and come by this very means. Go on and serve
   your God in the serenity of holy confidence and you shall live to see
   that the hand of the Lord is not to be turned back, though the kings of
   the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together.

   Those who came to Christ in such great multitudes did not all come from
   right motives and I shall not assume that they did. Some came from idle
   curiosity, no doubt. Others came to listen to what He had to say, but
   were not prepared to believe in Him. We know that many came to be fed
   with loaves and fishes, swayed by the most mercenary motives. Still, in
   the case now under notice, large numbers came to Jesus because they had
   heard of the great things which He did, hoping that He would do
   something of the same kind for them, for multitudes of those who came
   were sick folk, plague-smitten, stricken with disease and they came
   thinking that by touching Him they might be delivered from all their
   sufferings. This gift they gained and glorified the name of the Lord!

   I shall not, therefore, stay to divide out the characters which made up
   the crowd, but remind you that we must never expect that all who come
   to hear the Gospel will receive it. Just as Jesus went up into the
   mountain and there called out to Himself whom He would, so does He form
   His Church, which is an assembly of called-out ones whom the Sovereign
   Lord selects from the congregation of hearers that they may become a
   Church of Believers. The process of selection and separation is always
   going on and the great heap which lies on the threshing floor is being
   daily winnowed to divide the golden grain from the worthless chaff.

   For our present purpose, only, we shall just now view those who
   literally came to Christ as the types of those who come spiritually.
   Many, I trust, who are present at this time will come to Jesus for the
   same reason that these people came, namely, because they have heard of
   the great things which have been done by Him. So to our work at once.
   Three things are before us. The first is the attraction--"They had
   heard what great things He did." Secondly, the gathering--"They came
   unto Him." And thirdly, the context furnishes us with this--the result
   of the attraction and the gathering. We find it written, "He had healed
   many; insomuch that they pressed upon Him for to touch Him, as many as
   had plagues."

   I. Here is the ATTRACTION--"They had heard what great things He did."
   My dear Hearers, the case of these people is parallel with your own!
   There must be very few of you here but what have not heard of the great
   things which Jesus Christ has done. Let us note, first, that these
   people had heard with somewhat of a believing ear. Stories floated
   about concerning one who had healed blindness, palsy, leprosy and they
   accepted the statements as facts. A lame man told how

   he had been made to leap like a rabbit and a blind man declared that
   his eyes had been opened--and as these wonders passed from mouth to
   mouth these people believed them to be true.

   I know that even those of you who are not converted yet, believe what
   is recorded in these four Gospels concerning the miracles that Jesus
   worked. You are persuaded that the records are authentic. You believe
   that the Lord Jesus did heal the sick and that He did even raise the
   dead and cast out devils. You also accept the grand Gospel statement
   that He is able to save unto the uttermost those that come unto God by
   Him. Believing so much as that, you ought to believe a good deal more
   and I pray the Holy Spirit, now, to lead you to that farther faith. If
   you have come as far as that, the most reasonable thing to do is to go
   to Him with your own case and trust Him to heal you!

   I am persuaded that I may go very far with many here present in a
   statement of their beliefs. You believe that Jesus Christ has done
   great spiritual wonders for multitudes. You have been told of great
   sinners whose hard hearts have been softened, whose characters have
   been changed, whose lives have been renewed, whose sins have been
   forgiven! You have met with such, have you not? The deed of Grace was
   performed upon your own brother, perhaps, or upon some intimate friend,
   or some person of public notoriety. You know many such cases and you
   believe them to be genuine wonders of Divine Grace. You do not think
   that conversion is all a delusion--you have not reached that degree of
   unbelief. Indeed, instead of unbelief, you are filled with ardent
   admiration and feel a measure of desire to be saved yourself--and while
   sitting in this house you have often said, "Yes, I believe it is so. Oh
   that the mighty Grace of God would renew me and that I could touch the
   hem of the Savior's garment that He might save even me."

   Believing so much as you do, you ought, in all reason, to believe more.
   I mean you should go on to trust Him who has worked these great things
   and place your own case in His hands and leave it there. This is the
   legitimate course to pursue. A man believes a certain medicine to have
   worked great cures and he knows that he, himself, is sick of the
   disease which it is meant to heal. Why, it seems as if no one needs to
   say, "The next step is that you should try that medicine upon
   yourself." Yet it grieves me that so many of you do not proceed to this
   saving point, but linger on the borders of faith. You see the river of
   the Water of Life and wish to drink, for you are sure that it would
   quench your thirst and yet you are in danger of perishing in sight of
   the flowing stream! O, Holy Spirit, remove the madness of sin and teach
   men true wisdom!

   The many who came to Jesus felt themselves drawn because they had heard
   of the great things which He had done and believed them. They
   proceeded, however, to the second step which I have already indicated,
   for they drew from what they had heard, an argument of hope. They said,
   "Has He done these great things to others? Why should He not work the
   same gracious miracles upon us?" The palsied man said, "He that was
   sick as I am has been recovered! Surely, if I could get near to Jesus
   and could catch His eye, He would restore me." The blind said, "He
   healed one like myself--oh, if I could but sit where He passes by I
   would cry, 'You Son of David, have mercy on me,' and He would open my
   eyes, too."

   They could not be, at once, sure that He would heal them, for that He
   works a cure in one is not, in itself, a proof that He will work upon
   another--but they were further informed that He delighted in mercy and
   that He was gentle and gracious and easily entreated and, therefore,
   they concluded that if such an One had power to work such beneficent
   miracles and evidently had a will to work them, they had but to come to
   Him and they would be partakers of His healing power! O that my
   unconverted hearers would act reasonably at this time and draw the same
   conclusion!

   I pray you, dear Friends, see how sensible these people were that you
   may imitate them! To me it seems as plain as the working out of a
   proposition in mathematics. Jesus has saved such as I am, therefore He
   can save me. To believe in Him is as reasonable an act as to eat that
   which is good when you know it is good and know that you need it! Or to
   drink that which quenches thirst, when you perceive that it is suitable
   for that purpose and that you are in need of drink. O that your hearts
   would say--Jesus Christ has worked great deeds of Grace! He is
   evidently willing to work more--let me, then, come to Him and trust
   myself in His hands! If this is a time of cool, collected thought and
   the Holy Spirit works in us wisdom, it will again happen that, "A great
   multitude, when they had heard of the great things which Jesus did,
   came unto Him."

   One more step should be mentioned. No doubt these persons were partly
   urged to come to Him by their own sad condition. Some of them were full
   of pain through bodily plagues and others suffered poverty and
   wretchedness through being blind, crippled, lame, or withered and they
   were anxious to be delivered from their infirmity and the poverty which
   came of it. Being convinced that their cases were similar to those
   which had been healed by Christ, they felt an eager de-

   sire to see what He could do for them. Now, I know that I may call my
   hearers to Christ till I lose my voice, but none will come but those
   who feel that they need Him. But, my dear unconverted Hearers, you need
   Him whether you know it or not!

   There is a disease upon you which has already brought you down to
   spiritual death and will bring you down to Hell before long. The most
   moral of you; the most amiable of you, unless Jesus shall look upon you
   in love, is carrying about within himself a plague of the heart which
   will be your eternal ruin! Jesus must save you, or you are lost! There
   is no hope for any man among you except it comes from Him. Do you know
   this? If so, come at once to the Savior! Do you not know it? Then
   believe it to be so, for so it is and let the conviction lead you to
   seek His face. But remember, these people did not only come because
   they were sick, or because they felt they were sick, for they had long
   known and felt their sicknesses and had remained at home. Or they had
   resorted to other physicians, or to Bethesda's pool, or to some other
   famous fountain. They came to Jesus because, knowing and feeling their
   need, they also perceived that Jesus was able to meet their case.

   Come, then, to Christ, O my sin-stricken Hearers, because, be your
   condition what it may, He can meet it! Are you troubled with hardness
   of heart? By His Spirit He can take away the heart of stone and give
   you a heart of flesh! Is your difficulty unbelief? You cannot see the
   Truth of God, but the Lord Jesus can open the eyes of him that was born
   blind! Is it a case of lack of power? Is your hand withered? The Lord
   can bid the withered hand be stretched out and it shall be done! It is
   not possible that there should be any moral or spiritual disease about
   any one of you that will baffle the power of my great Lord and Master!
   If you do but come to Him, He can and will make you every whit whole.
   He has already dealt with cases like yours, as bad as yours, as
   desperate as yours--in the record of His cures there are instances
   parallel to your own and some which even surpass them in difficulty.
   Depend on it, He is able to do, again, what He has already done, for He
   is the same yesterday, today and forever!

   His arm is not shortened that He cannot save! He can reach as far as
   sin can go and draw back those whom Satan has driven to the Pit's
   mouth. Now, be reasonable and act upon this fact. May the Spirit of God
   lead you in the way of understanding and then you will say, today, "I,
   also, will join that multitude who, having heard of the great things
   which Jesus did, came to Him." God grant it may be so! Yes, He will
   grant it, for His Word shall not return unto Him void.

   II. Secondly, I shall ask you to think of THE GATHERING. We have seen
   the attraction, now let us see what it drew together. "They came unto
   Him." Observe, then, that hearing did not content them. I wish I could
   say this of all my hearers. These people heard the story of what Christ
   had done and I should not wonder but what they said, "It is good news!
   Say it in our ears a second time." They were told that He had opened
   the eyes of a blind man and a blind man who heard it, cried out,
   "Gladsome tidings! Tell me that again." I should not wonder if that
   blind man went many times to the house of the person who reported the
   cure and said, "Tell me again of this matter."

   The woman, too, who was sick with internal disease, said, "You told us
   of one that was healed. Tell us of that marvel again." Yes, but what
   would you have thought if they had kept on, week after week, saying,
   "Tell us that story! Tell us that story!" and then had gone home and
   said, "We feel so much better! We feel comforted by hearing this good
   news"? What fools they would have been to have been satisfied with a
   mere report of other people's cures without going to the great
   Physician to obtain healing for themselves! Did you not sing the other
   day--

   "Tell me the story often, For I forget so soon, The early dew of
   morning Has passed away at noon"?

   Why should you be told that tale so often? Will you never draw the
   inference that Jesus is able to save you and will you never go to Him
   for yourselves? I am afraid that some of you are getting satisfied with
   coming to the Tabernacle and that you are beginning to think, "There is
   hope for me. I always hear the Word of God. I am a regular hearer of
   the Gospel of Jesus."

   Yes, but that is not it. Those who are hearers, only, are not blessed
   in the deed. A hungry man hears that there is bread given away to the
   poor and he says, "Tell me where the food is given and on what terms
   and I will hasten to get it, for I am famished." Do you think the poor
   starving wretch will stop here a week and be refreshed by merely
   hearing about bread? Not he! He will die if he does that. He may,
   perhaps, ask again for information and say, "Tell me once more! Give me
   plain directions where to go and I will hasten to be fed as others have
   been," but he will not expect to fill

   his empty stomach with merely hearing the news! He is not so stupid as
   that! I am compelled to feel that some of you are very short of sense
   when you are dealing with your souls. Why, some of you might almost
   sing--

   "Tell me the same old story, Though you ha ve cause to fear That I
   shall miss of Glory, And die with Grace so near."

   O that this fooling would come to an end! Think me not harsh, I am but
   honest! It is fooling and nothing better, to go on hearing the Word of
   God and refusing to obey its call. May God's Grace lead you to come to
   Jesus at once. O do not be hearers only! Turn your faces Christward and
   accept His great salvation!

   Observe, next, that these people did not wait until Jesus came to them.
   That we are to wait till Jesus comes to us is a common error--a sort of
   orthodox wickedness, a rebellious unbelief dressed out as humble
   submissiveness. I have known this preached--that we are to wait at the
   pool of the ordinances, in the hope that one of these days the angel
   may trouble the pool and we shall step in. Those who talk so are not,
   as a rule, the most successful of soul-winners and that fact reminds me
   of a story I have heard of a Scotchman who had attended the ministry of
   an Episcopal minister for some years. At last Donald forsook the
   Episcopal Church and when he was missed, the pastor came to him. "Why
   don't you come to the church, Donald?" "Because I want to be saved and
   I get no good with you."

   "Ah," said the bishop, "you should wait at the pool." "I have been
   waiting at the pool a long time," said Donald, "a very long while and
   no good has come of it." "But, Donald, you know the man who waited was
   healed at last." "Ah, well, Sir, but he had some encouragement, for he
   saw some step in before him, but all these years that I have waited at
   your pool I have never seen one step in yet and therefore I will wait
   no longer." Donald was right--no man can afford to run so terrible a
   risk as to remain in disobedience in the bare hope of some unpromised
   salvation. The Gospel narrative does not teach us to wait at the pool!
   I want to call particular attention to that fact.

   See the crowd lying around the pool of Bethesda? What did Jesus do when
   He came walking along that morning through the five porches? Listen,
   you sick folk, still waiting at the pool! Does He say, "Wait
   patiently"? Not a word of it! But, singling out a man who was among the
   most despairing, He said, "Rise, take up your bed and walk." That is
   the Gospel! It is a Divine command to believe and live! Our Lord comes
   here at this moment by His Gospel and He does not say to you, "Wait,
   wait, wait," but, "Behold, now is the accepted time! Now is the day of
   salvation!" Believe in Jesus now, for He that believes in Him has
   everlasting life! Look to Him and be saved! The Gospel which is
   preached in your ears is a voice from Jesus, Himself, attended by His
   own Divine power and if you feel it to be such, you will obey it and
   you shall find salvation now and wait no longer! These people did not
   wait till Jesus journeyed into their own regions, but when they heard
   what great things He did, they went to Him! May you be led of the
   Spirit to do the same.

   Note, again, that these people did not stop at His disciples. Satan
   tries to keep men from Christ by pointing them to ministers,
   evangelists, or other eminent Believers. Persons are impressed under a
   sermon and they say, "I should like to speak with some Christian man."
   That is very good, but after all it is not the thing which is commanded
   by the Gospel. You are to believe in the Master and it will not suffice
   to speak to the servants. "But I would like to go into the enquiry
   room," says one. Very well, I do not condemn that action, but the best
   enquiry room for a seeking sinner is his own bedchamber, where he seeks
   the Lord at once, with no one between him and his Redeemer. Why, if you
   could pick out the most earnest and thoughtful divines that ever lived
   and you could have 12 of them locked up at home so that you might go
   and talk to them all day and all night long, it would not be worth one
   bad farthing to you and it might even be an injury to you if it kept
   you from going straight to Jesus Christ!

   There is no salvation in men! And ministers must not be mistaken for
   priests. I shake off the thought of being a priest as Paul shook off
   the viper from his hand! I have often said I would sooner be called
   devil, than "priest" if by that word is meant that I have any
   priesthood beyond that which belongs to all my fellow Christians, or
   any power to forgive sin, or to impart Grace. My ministry is for the
   extolling of Jesus and not for the magnifying of myself and my
   Brothers! I dare not say, "Behold the priesthood! Behold the Church!
   Behold the sacraments!" My one business is to cry, "Behold the Lamb of
   God!" I point you away from all ministries to Jesus Christ, the
   Minister of the New Covenant, who alone can save your souls!

   These people were wise in not staying with the disciples, for they
   could not meet their varied needs. They did not rest in the society of
   the virgin mother, nor in that of Peter, or James, or John--they
   hastened at once to the Lord Jesus Himself to touch His blessed Person
   for themselves. In this I would have you all imitate them. O that you
   would--

   "Steal away steal away to Jesus,

   Steal away home

   For Jesus waits to save you."

   Go to no one else but Jesus, for the great things that He did and not
   the poor things that such worms as we are can ever do, should raise
   hope in your bosoms! Observe, again, that these people who came to
   Jesus in such crowds must have left their businesses. I do not know
   what became of their farms, their olive gardens, their cattle, their
   shops, but they certainly left them to journey to Jesus. We do not
   commend any man for neglecting his business and daily calling, but I
   will say this, that when a man's soul is not saved he cannot be blamed
   if he neglects everything till it is!

   That woman who came out in the morning with her water pot to draw water
   from the well was doing a very useful and proper action, for I dare say
   those at home needed water to drink. But after she had heard Christ
   speak, it is written, "The woman left her water pot." Some of those at
   home may have said, "Where is the water, mistress?" But she would
   reply, "I have not thought of the poor water pot. Come, see a Man that
   told me all things that I ever did! Is not this the Christ?" Ah, if you
   leave your water pots to find Christ, you may very well be excused! O
   working man in soul trouble, if you are out with a cart and the horse
   should stand still in the street while you breathe a prayer for
   salvation, who could blame you? If the engine paused while the stoker
   cried for mercy, or the shuttle lingered while the weaver begged for
   pardon, would there not be a justifiable excuse?

   If the shop shutters were kept up for an hour later than usual while
   the tradesman sought the Savior, yes, if the business of the
   Senate-house stood still and all the commerce of a nation stopped while
   but one soul sought Christ, it were worth while! For what human
   business can equal the salvation of the souls of men? Elections occupy
   men's thoughts just now, but what are all these compared with making
   your calling and election sure? You are candidates for Heaven and there
   is more importance in eternal election than in all other elections
   under Heaven, for when everything else shall have passed away, this
   must endure! See to the one thing necessary, with Mary, even if you do
   for a while neglect what Martha thinks to be the urgent demands of the
   household! Let your first care be for your soul, "For what shall it
   profit a man if he gains the whole world and lose his own soul?"

   Many of these people, too, came from a great distance. Some came from
   the south, from Judea. Others came from the north, from Tyre and Sidon.
   Some from across the river Jordan. Others from the hills of Edom. Rough
   roads and deep rivers could not keep those back who resolved to come to
   Christ. O Souls, if you need Christ, let nothing hinder you! If there
   were seven Hells between a soul and Christ it were worth while for it
   to force its way through all their fires to get at Him--for when you
   get at Him there is salvation and eternal life! Rest not, I pray you,
   till over all impediments you have forced a way. There is a plenitude
   of mercy about our Lord Jesus which will well reward you for pressing
   towards Him. Oh, get to my Master, however far off you may be, for the
   sight of Him will well repay the weary journey!

   I delight to see the holy ingenuity of anxious minds when they are
   eager to find the Savior--they will do anything to obtain salvation! I
   remember that years ago, when Bibles were not so common as they are
   now, a very, very poor man who was impressed with his need of Christ,
   longed to read the Word of God and, therefore, he went to a shop to ask
   the price of a second-hand Bible--the cheapest, the oldest they had on
   hand. "Ah," said he, as he shook his head, "I have not money enough to
   buy it, but I will take great care of it if you will lend it to me from
   Saturday night till Monday morning. You won't miss the sale of it and I
   may read a part of it." As soon as He gained the friendly loan he gave
   himself up to the precious book till the moment he had to return it and
   so sought to find Christ!

   Ah, you have Bibles, some of you half-a-dozen of them, but you never
   look at them! The dust on the unread books condemns you! You take no
   trouble to reach the Savior! God save you from this carelessness and
   may you resolve to come to Jesus whoever may oppose. Be eager to listen
   to His Gospel, though you may have far to go to hear it and may be
   roughly squeezed in the crowd. When you hear the Gospel, cry to the
   Lord God for His blessing upon it! Though dark thoughts may gather and
   Satan may try to thrust you back, be not removed from your purpose.
   Make a push for Heaven and holiness! Never does the Lord work in any
   man a firm resolution to find the Savior and yet allow him to perish.

   One thing I want to call very particular attention to is this--these
   poor people came to Jesus with all their ailments about them. I know
   they did, because we read that they pressed upon Him to touch Him and
   He made them whole. Now, suppose they had said, "We will not come till
   we are recovered," then, of course, they needed not to come at all and
   our Lord would have been a superfluity to them! But no--he that was
   blind came blind, he who was lame hobbled as best he could and he who
   was palsied came shaking and trembling--but they came! The poor people
   who had all sorts of dire complaints, even those who had devils in
   them, came just as they were! That is the point to which I would bring
   every man here who has not come to Christ--you are to come just as you
   are!

   Are you a drunk? You have to give up the drink, but you must come to
   Him as you are to help you to give it up! Have you lived in uncleanness
   of life? Come and trust in Christ, unclean as you are--trust Him to
   make you pure! Have you been dishonest? Come to Him as dishonest, that
   He may make you honest! Do not attempt to make yourself fit for
   salvation, for it is clear that no one is so fit for saving as the
   lost--no one so fit for washing as the foul, no one so fit for healing
   as the sick! Come to the Savior! Come just as you are. Catch the spirit
   of the hymn--

   "Come needy and guilty,

   Come loathsome and bare!

   You can't come too filthy--

   Come just as you are."

   If you think that it is necessary to begin the work yourself, what is
   that but to insinuate that the Lord Jesus cannot do anything till you
   have started the work? Would you have it to be supposed that He is not
   quite up to the mark and needs help from you? Is He so poor a Savior
   that He is nothing till you enable Him to work? Think not so, but come
   along! You have heard what great things He has done--come, then, to Him
   even now--that the same great things may be worked in you!

   III. I will not say much upon the third point which is THE RESULT. Of
   all that came to our Lord, multitudes though they were, not one was
   ever repulsed--no, not one! Since the world began has one soul been
   driven away from the Savior's door? Oh, tell it in Gath! Publish it in
   the streets of Askelon if ever Christ shall be found casting out a
   sinner, for then may the adversary justly rejoice over the defeat of
   the Gospel! Let it ring down the corridors of Hell and let every devil
   dance for joy as he hears that Christ has broken His promise and is
   untrue to His character whenever you hear of one who comes to Him whom
   He casts out! I challenge all time! I challenge Heaven and earth and
   Hell to bring a case in which my Lord and Master ever cast out a soul
   that put its trust in Him. It cannot be!

   As none were repulsed, so all were healed! And even so all who now
   believe in Christ are healed of sin and its plagues! "Ah," say
   objectors, "you preach faith as the way of salvation." We confess the
   charge and glory in it, since it is most true that it does save men.
   "But you ought to bid people do good works in order to salvation." See
   here, good Sir, if the people who believe in Jesus do not perform good
   works and if this faith does not make them moral, honest, sober, holy
   people, then we grant your point! But who shall assert that the
   doctrine of faith is other than purifying and sanctifying when we can
   bring multitudes of proofs that this very preaching up of faith and not
   of works is the most effective cause of virtue and holiness?

   Those who cry "Works, works, works," have generally but a scant supply
   of such wares! Remember the age of Laud and his popish preaching? Who
   were the followers of that theology but the libidinous cavaliers? Those
   who preached salvation by Grace--who were they but the godliest men in
   the nation, the Puritans, against whom no man could bring any charge
   except that they were too sternly good and kept the Sabbath too
   precisely and walked before God with too much gravity? I wish the same
   fault could be found with us all! If that is vile, we propose to be
   viler still--

   "Talk we of morals, oh, You bleeding Lamb! The grand morality is love
   of You." How can this Divine morality of love be worked in us unless
   the Lord Jesus, by His Holy Spirit, bestows upon us a heart to trust
   Him and to take Him and Him, alone, to be our salvation?

   One thing I cannot help mentioning and that is, as everyone that came
   to Christ was healed, it followed that the attraction grew. Say there
   had been 500 healed--then when the people came and a hundred more were
   benefited there were 600 to draw. And the next day, if there were a
   hundred more healed, there were 700 to attract others! Now, there never
   was a time since the world began when there were so many reasons for a
   sinner's coming to Christ as there are this morning! Just think of it.
   Every soul whom the Lord has saved is another argument that He is able
   to save you! In reasoning

   philosophically, if we find a fact, we put it down. But we do not dare
   to draw any inference from it because an isolated fact cannot prove a
   general rule. When we get two or three dozen facts, we say, "The common
   inference from all these is such-and-such," and a rule is proven.

   Suppose we could collect two or three hundreds of such facts, then we
   are really sure! Now, for 1,800 years and more our Lord Jesus Christ
   has gone on saving sinners! And He has saved more sinners at this
   moment than ever before. Still they are coming! Still they are coming
   and still He is saving them and every one of these is an arguments that
   you should come! O my dear Hearer, where are you--the man whom God
   means to bless under this sermon? Come at once and say, "I, too, will
   trust Him with my soul, for He has power to save me." Then shall
   another be added to the long roll of His wonderful cures! The Lord
   grant it may be so and His shall be the praise!

   I desire now to spend a few minutes in real, hard, earnest work, in
   which may God the Holy Spirit help me while I plead with those who have
   never come to Jesus, that they should come to Him at once. My dear
   Hearer, if you have often heard about what Christ has done and yet have
   never come to Him, yourself, that He might work a similar work of love
   in you, I pray you not be hindered any longer. First, come because His
   very name invites you--Jesus, a Savior! You are sinful, but He has
   forgiveness. Come to Him! You will be well met--a sinner and a Savior!
   Can two more congruous things come together?

   His name is Christ, too--that is, Anointed. Now, God has anointed Him
   with power to save and commissioned Him to save and He must and will
   discharge His high office by saving those who come to Him. It is His
   business to save and you may be sure that He wears no empty title and
   makes no vain pretense of being what He is not. Come along, then! Come
   along to Him who is a real Savior for real sinners. He is a Savior
   commissioned of God--commit your soul's business to His care. I say the
   name He bears rings out like a silver bell and this is its note, "Come
   and welcome! Come and welcome to Jesus Christ!" Our Lord's power should
   also encourage you to come to Him. Of that I have already spoken.
   Nothing has ever baffled Him yet. Stormy winds and raging waves obey
   Him! The very devils flee before Him. Come along with you. He is mighty
   to save. Therefore come and hang the whole weight of your souls upon
   Him.

   Next, let His Character allure you. There was never such a mass of love
   as Jesus is! He speaks no harsh words to coming sinners--He gives them
   mercy liberally and upbraids not. Has He not said, "I will receive them
   graciously and love them freely"? Oh, come to Jesus! I am not calling
   you to Moses with the broken fragments of the Law at His feet
   thundering in indignation! I invite you to Jesus with His pierced hands
   and open side entreating souls to come to Him. Come to Jesus because
   God has made it His Glory to pardon sinners! Constantine had a son whom
   he much loved and he wished the nation to honor him and so while his
   son was yet a child he caused him to sign pardons and charters, so that
   all gracious acts of the king bore the prince's signature. The Prince
   Emmanuel signs and seals Divine pardons for the chief of sinners! And
   the great God in Heaven loves that His Son should give pardon to
   sinners, for it endears Him to men and brings Him honor. Since it will
   honor Him to save you, come to Him and be not afraid.

   Again, let me remind you of the preparations that are made for saving
   sinners. Christ has died to save them! He shed His blood to save them
   and do you think He will have these preparations wasted? I smiled last
   night at a little incident in my own home. Three of our friends had
   been writing hard for me all day and my wife, expecting them to tea,
   had spread the table bountifully and adorned it with choice flowers. I
   came into the room and said, "They cannot stop to tea, for there is a
   meeting at the Orphanage and they say they must hurry off." I confess I
   felt sorry as I looked at the table and all its adornments. My own good
   wife replied, "No, no. They cannot go. They must have their tea. I
   cannot spread a table like this and nobody come and eat. Go out and
   fetch in those highwaymen who want to run off! Compel them to come in."
   I fetched them in and they were by no means loath to sit down and
   partake!

   It would have been a great disappointment to the kind hostess if no one
   had eaten what she had provided. This is a homely story, but it sets
   forth the need there is that our Lord's provisions of Grace should be
   used. He has spread a table and He will have sinners come and feed at
   it. What did the king say who made a wedding feast for his son? "Go out
   quickly into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in." Thus
   the wedding was furnished with guests. Strange guests they were and yet
   they furnished the feast with guests! They were odd bits of furniture,
   but they were necessary! A wedding with a feast and nobody to eat it
   would be a dishonor to the king, so guests were necessary furniture. Oh
   you that are furthest off from God, my Master's mercy needs your misery
   that He may relieve it! He needs your emptiness that He may impart His
   fullness and Grace for Grace!

   One thing more I have to say. I cannot tell if it will have power with
   anybody present, but I hope it may. I wish you would come to Jesus even
   for His servant's sake. If I were a sculptor fashioning a statue I
   should feel that every stroke I took made a permanent impression, so
   that if I only worked a little upon the hard stone I should make some
   progress and my work would remain. Alas, my labor is not thus abiding
   in reference to some of you. I do my best each Sunday, but I am not
   much the gainer, for you seem to be statues of ice and the six weekdays
   melt away my one day's work! It is weary work to labor thus in vain! A
   painter takes his brush and though he may be executing a very difficult
   portrait, yet every stroke and each tint and touch of color denotes
   progress.

   Alas, I seem as if I wrote on the sand with some of you! The week's
   tide obliterates the Sabbath's marks! Am I always to weave in the
   pulpit that which is undone at home? You do not know how sadly we
   sometimes say to our Master, "Who has believed our report and to whom
   is the arm of the Lord revealed?" We would give anything to see our
   hearers converted, that our Master might have honor and we are sad when
   men come not at our call! If we see no souls brought to the Redeemer's
   feet, we are ready to lie down and die.

   I read the other day of an old minister who had been some 20 years
   without a conversion, as far as he knew and yet he was a really earnest
   man. At last, having much prayed over it, he announced that he should
   preach no more in that place, but resign his charge and the reason he
   gave them with many tears was, "I am doing no good among you. There are
   no souls saved and perhaps if another minister filled my place you
   might listen to his appeals. At any rate, I will not stand in the way
   of one who might be more useful and so I bid you farewell." As he went
   out an old woman named Sarah said, "O, Sir, you cannot go, for you were
   the means of leading me to Christ some three or four years ago." "You,"
   he said, "Sarah, I thought you were one who did not care for my
   ministry." "Oh, Sir," she said, "it has been my meat and my drink."
   "Woman," he said, "why did you not tell me as much before? My heart has
   been breaking for you." In the course of the week 20 or 30 came in to
   testify that they had sought and found the Savior through his ministry.
   All he could do was to say, "Bless the Lord, I'll not leave my post.
   But why did you not tell me of it before? O the sleepless nights I
   might have missed if you had but told me."

   Some of you may have been saved and yet you have never confessed the
   blessed fact! I ask you, whether you do well and kindly by His servant
   thus to rob him of his wages and keep back comforting news from his
   burdened heart! However, that may pass. You who have not sought and
   have not found my Lord--what message shall I take home, this morning,
   to my Master when I go upstairs to speak with Him alone? Shall I tell
   Him you will not believe on Him? I set Him before you once again as
   able to save you--will you again refuse Him? Or shall the message be
   that you will trust in Him for salvation? God grant that you may give a
   wise reply for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Following the Risen Christ

   (No. 1530)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MARCH 28, 1880,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "If you then are risen with Christ, seek those things which are above,
   where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Set your affection on
   things abo ve, not on things on the earth." Colossians 3:1,2.

   THE resurrection of our Divine Lord from the dead is the cornerstone of
   Christian doctrine. Perhaps I might more accurately call it the
   keystone of the arch of Christianity, for if that fact could be
   disproved, the whole fabric of the Gospel would fall to the ground. If
   Jesus Christ is not risen, then is our preaching in vain and your faith
   is also in vain--you are yet in your sins. If Christ is not risen, then
   they which have fallen asleep in Christ have perished and we,
   ourselves, in missing so glorious a hope as that of Resurrection, are,
   of all men, the most miserable! Because of the great importance of His
   Resurrection, our Lord was pleased to give many Infallible proofs of
   it, by appearing again and again in the midst of His followers.

   It would be interesting to search out how many times He appeared. I
   think we have mention of some 16 manifestations. He showed Himself
   openly before His disciples and did eat and drink with them. They
   touched His hands and His side and heard His voice and knew that it was
   the same Jesus that was crucified. He was not content with giving
   evidence to the ears and to the eyes, but even to the sense of touch He
   proved the reality of His Resurrection. These appearances were very
   varied. Sometimes He gave an interview to one alone, either to a man,
   as to Cephas, or to a woman, as to Magdalene. He conversed with two of
   His followers as they went to Emmaus and with the company of the
   Apostles by the sea. We find Him at one moment among the 11 when the
   doors were shut for fear of the Jews and at another time in the midst
   of an assembly of more than 500 brethren, who, years later, were, most
   of them, living witnesses to the fact.

   They could not all have been deceived. It is not possible that any
   historical fact could have been placed upon a better basis of
   credibility than the Resurrection of our Lord from the dead. This is
   put beyond all dispute and question and it was done on purpose because
   it is essential to the whole Christian system. For this same cause the
   Resurrection of Christ is commemorated frequently. There is no
   ordinance in Scripture of any one Lord's-Day in the year being set
   apart to commemorate the rising of Christ from the dead and for this
   reason every Lord's-Day is the memorial of our Lord's Resurrection.
   Wake up any Lord's-Day you please, whether in the depth of winter, or
   in the warmth of summer and you may

   sing--

   "Today He rose and left the dead,

   And Satan's empire fell!

   Today the saints His triumph spread, And all His wonders tell."

   To set apart an Easter Sunday for special memory of the Resurrection is
   a human device for which there is no Scriptural command. But to make
   every Lord's-Day an Easter Sunday is due to Him who rose early on the
   first day of the week. We gather together on the first, rather than
   upon the seventh day of the week, because redemption is even a greater
   work than creation and more worthy of commemoration and because the
   rest which followed creation is far outdone by that which ensues upon
   the completion of redemption! Like the Apostles, we meet on the first
   day of the week and hope that Jesus may stand in our midst and say,
   "Peace be unto you."

   Our Lord has lifted the Sabbath from the old and rusted hinges whereon
   the Law had placed it long before and set it on the new golden hinges
   which His love has fashioned. He has placed our rest day, not at the
   end of a week of toil, but at the beginning of the rest which remains
   for the people of God. Every first day of the week we should meditate
   upon the

   rising of our Lord and seek to enter into fellowship with Him in His
   risen life. Never let us forget that all who are in Him rose from the
   dead in His rising.

   Next in importance to the fact of the Resurrection is the doctrine of
   the federal headship of Christ and the unity of all His people with
   Him. It is because we are in Christ that we become partakers of
   everything that Christ did--we are circumcised with Him, dead with Him,
   buried with Him, risen with Him because we cannot be separated from
   Him. We are members of His body and not a bone of Him can be broken.
   Because that union is most intimate, continuous and indissoluble,
   therefore all that concerns Him concerns us and as He rose, so all His
   people have arisen in Him! They are risen in two ways. First,
   representatively. All the elect rose in Christ in the day when He quit
   the tomb. He was justified, or declared to be clear of all liabilities
   on account of our sins by being set free from the prison of the tomb.

   There was no reason for detaining Him in the sepulcher, for He had
   discharged the debts of His people by dying "unto sin once." He was our
   Hostage and our Representative and when He came forth from His bonds we
   came forth in Him. We have endured the sentence of the Law in our
   Substitute. We have lain in its prison and even died under its death
   warrant and now we are no longer under its curse. "Now if we are dead
   with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him: knowing that
   Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more; death has no more
   dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died unto sin once: but in
   that He lives, He lives unto God."

   Next to this representative resurrection comes our spiritual
   resurrection, which is ours as soon as we are led by faith to believe
   in Jesus Christ. Then it my be said of us, "And you has He quickened
   who were dead in trespasses and sins." The resurrection blessing is to
   be perfected, by-and-by, at the appearing of our Lord and Savior, for
   then our bodies shall rise again if we fall asleep before His coming.
   He redeemed our manhood in its entirety--spirit, soul and body-- and He
   will not be content until the resurrection which has passed upon our
   spirit shall pass upon our body, too. These dry bones shall live!
   Together with our dead body they shall rise--

   "When He arose ascending high, He showed our feet the way; Up to the
   Lord our flesh shall fly At the great rising day."

   Then shall we know in the perfection of our resurrection beauty that we
   are, indeed, completely risen in Christ and "as in Adam all die, so in
   Christ shall all be made alive."

   This morning we shall only speak of our fellowship with Christ in His
   Resurrection as to our own spiritual resurrection. Do not misunderstand
   me as if I thought the resurrection to be only spiritual, for a literal
   rising from the dead is yet to come. But our text speaks of spiritual
   resurrection and I shall, therefore, endeavor to set it before you. '
   I. First, then, LET US CONSIDER OUR SPIRITUAL RISING WITH Christ--"If
   you then are risen with Christ." Though the words look like a
   supposition they are not meant to be. The Apostle casts no doubt and
   raises no question, but merely puts it thus for argument's sake. It
   might just as well be read, "Since you then are risen in Christ." The
   "if is used logically, not theologically--by way of argument and not by
   way of doubt. All who believe in Christ are risen with Christ. Let us
   meditate on this Truth of God. For, first, we were "dead in trespasses
   and sins," but having believed in Christ we have been quickened by the
   Holy Spirit and we are dead no longer!

   There we lay in the tomb, ready to become corrupt--yes, some of us were
   corrupt--the marks of the worm of sin were upon our character and the
   foul stench of actual sin arose from us. More or less, according to the
   length of time in which we abode in that death and according to the
   circumstances with which we were surrounded, death worked in us
   corruption. We lay in our death quite unable to raise ourselves. Ours
   were eyes that could not see and ears that could not hear; a heart that
   could not love and withered hands that could not be stretched out to
   give the touch of faith. We were even as they that go down into the
   Pit, as those that have been long dead--only we were in a worse plight
   than those actually dead, for we were responsible for all our omissions
   and inabilities.

   We were as guilty as if we had power, for the loss of moral power is
   not the loss of moral responsibility! We were, therefore, in a state of
   spiritual death of the most fearful kind. The Holy Spirit visited us
   and made us live. We remember the first sensation of life, some of
   us--how it seemed to tingle in our soul's veins with sharp and bitter
   pain--just as drowning persons, when life is coming back to them,
   suffer great pain. Conviction was worked in us and confession of sin. A
   dread of judgment to come and a sense of present condemnation were
   present, but these were tokens of life and that life gradually deepened
   and opened up until the eyes were opened--we could see Christ! Our
   hands ceased to be withered

   and we stretched them out and touched His garment's hem. Our feet began
   to move in the way of obedience and our heart felt the sweet glow of
   love within.

   Then the eyes, not content with only seeing, fell to weeping and
   afterwards, when the tears were wiped away, they flashed and sparkled
   with delight. And oh, my Brothers and Sisters, believers in Jesus, you
   were not spiritually dead any longer! On Christ you have believed and
   that grand act proves that you are dead no more! You have been
   quickened by God according to the working of His mighty power which He
   worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His
   own right hand in the heavenlies. Now, Beloved, you are new
   creatures--the product of a second birth, begotten again in Christ
   Jesus unto newness of life! Christ is your life--such a life as you
   never knew before, nor could have known apart from Him. If you then are
   risen with Christ you walk in newness of life while the world abides in
   death!

   Let us advance another step. We are risen with Christ and, therefore,
   there has been worked in us a wonderful change. When the dead shall
   rise, they will not appear as they now are. The buried seed rises from
   the ground, but not as a seed, for it puts forth green leaves and bud
   and stem and gradually develops expanding flowers and fruit and even so
   we wear a new form, for we are renewed after the image of Him that
   created us in righteousness and holiness! I ask you to consider the
   change which the Spirit of God has worked in the Believer--a wonderful
   change, indeed! Before regeneration our soul was as our body will be
   when it dies and we read that, "it is sown in corruption." There was
   corruption in our mind and it was working irresistibly towards every
   evil and offensive thing.

   In many, the corruption did not appear upon the surface, but it worked
   within. In others it was conspicuous and fearful to look upon. How
   great the change! For now the power of corruption within us is broken!
   The new life has overcome it, for it is a living and incorruptible seed
   which lives and abides forever. Corruption is upon the old nature, but
   it cannot touch the new, which is our true and real self. Is it not a
   great thing to be purged of the filthiness which would have ultimately
   brought us down to Hell where the unquenchable fire burns and the
   undying worm feeds upon the corrupt?

   Our old state was further like that which comes upon the body at death
   because it was a state of dishonor. You know how the Apostle says of
   the body, "It is sown in dishonor" and certainly no corpse wears such
   dishonor as that which rests upon a man who is dead in trespasses and
   sins. Why, of all things in the world that deserve shame and contempt,
   a sinful man is certainly the most so! He despises his Creator; he
   neglects his Savior; he chooses evil instead of good and puts the Light
   of God from him because his deeds are evil and, therefore, he prefers
   the darkness. In the judgment of all pure spirits, a sinful man is a
   dishonorable man.

   But oh how changed is man when the Grace of God works within him, for
   then he is honorable. "Behold, what manner of love the Father has
   bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." What an
   honor this is! Heaven itself contains not a more honorable being than a
   renewed man! Well may we cry with David, "What is man, that You are
   mindful of him? And the son of man, that You visit him?" But when we
   see man, in the Person of Jesus, made to have dominion over all the
   works of God's hands and know that Jesus has made us kings and priests
   unto God, we are filled with amazement that God should so exalt us! The
   Lord Himself has said, " Since you were precious in My sight, you have
   been honorable and I have loved you." "Unto you therefore which believe
   he is an honor," for so the original text may run. A precious Christ
   makes us precious--such honor have all the saints!

   When a body is buried, we are told by the Apostle, again, that it is
   "sown in weakness." The poor dead frame cannot lay itself down in its
   last bed--friendly hands must place it there. Even so we were utter
   weakness towards all good. When we were the captives of sin, we could
   do nothing good, even as our Lord said, "Without Me you can do
   nothing." We were incapable of even a good thought apart from Him. But
   "when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the
   ungodly" and now we know Him and the power of His Resurrection! God has
   given us the spirit of power and of love. Is it not 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"? What an amazing power is this! Now
   we "taste of the powers of the world to come" and we are "strengthened
   with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and
   longsuffering with joyfulness."

   Faith girds us with a Divine power, for, "all things are possible to
   him that believes," and each Believer can exclaim, without boasting, "I
   can do all things through Christ which strengthens me!" Is not this a
   marvelous change which the spiritual resurrection has worked upon us?
   Is it not a glorious thing that God's strength should be perfect in our
   weakness? The great change mainly concerns another point. It is said of
   the body, "It is sown a natural body, it is raised a

   spiritual body." Before this we were natural men and discerned not the
   things that are of the Spirit of God. We minded earthly things and were
   moved by carnal lusts after the things which are seen. But now, through
   Divine Grace, a spirit has been created in us which feeds on spiritual
   bread, lives for spiritual objects, is swayed by spiritual motives and
   rejoices in spiritual truths.

   This change, from the natural to the spiritual, is such as only God
   Himself could have worked and yet we have experienced it. To God be the
   glory! So that by virtue of our rising in Christ we have received life
   and have become the subjects of a wondrous change--"old things are
   passed away; behold, all things are become new." In consequence of our
   receiving this life and undergoing this change, the things of the world
   and sin become a tomb to us. To a dead man a sep-ulcher is as good a
   dwelling as he can want. You may call it his bedchamber if you will,
   for he lies within it as unconscious as if he were sleeping. But the
   moment the dead man lives, he will not endure such a bedchamber! He
   calls it a dreary vault; a loathsome dungeon; an unbearable morgue and
   he must leave it at once!

   So when you and I were natural men and had no spiritual life, the
   things of this life contented us. But it is far otherwise now. A merely
   outward religion was all that we desired--a dead form suited a dead
   soul. Judaism pleased those who were under its yoke in the very
   beginning of the Gospel. New moons and holy days and traditional
   ordinances and fasting and feasting were great things with those who
   forgot their resurrection with Christ! All those things make pretty
   furniture for a dead man's chamber! But when the Eternal Life enters
   the soul, these outward ordinances are flung off-- the living man tears
   off his grave clothes and demands such garments as are suitable for
   life!

   So the Apostle in the chapter before our text tells us to let no man
   spoil us by the traditions of men and the inventions of a dead
   ritualism, for these things are not the portion of renewed and
   spiritual men. So, too, all merely carnal objects become as a grave to
   us, whether they are sinful pleasures or selfish gains. For the dead
   man, the shroud, the coffin and the vault are suitable enough--but make
   the corpse alive and he cannot rest in the coffin! He makes desperate
   struggles to break it up. See how, by main force, he dashes up the lid,
   tears off his bandages and leaps from the bier! So the man renewed by
   Grace cannot live in sin--it is a coffin to him--he cannot bear evil
   pleasures, they are as a shroud. He cries for liberty!

   When resurrection comes, the man lifts up the soil above his grave and
   scatters monument and headstone, if these are raised above him. Some
   souls are buried under a mass of self-righteousness, like wealthy men
   on whom shrines of marble have been heaped. But all these the Believer
   shakes off! He must have them gone! He cannot bear these dead works. He
   cannot live otherwise than by faith--all other life is death to him. He
   must get out of his former state, for as a tomb is not a fit place for
   a living man, so when we are quickened by Grace, the things of sin and
   self and carnal sense become dreary catacombs to us where our soul
   feels buried and out of which we must arise. How can we that are raised
   out of the death of sin live any longer in sin?

   And, now, Beloved, we are at this time wholly raised from the dead in a
   spiritual sense. Let us think of this, for our Lord did not have His
   head quickened while His feet remained in the sepulcher. He rose a
   perfect and entire Man, alive throughout. Even so have we been renewed
   in every part. We have received, though it is but in its infancy, a
   perfect spiritual life--we are perfect in Christ Jesus. In our inner
   man our eyes are opened, our ears are awakened, our hands are active,
   our feet are nimble--our every faculty is there, though as yet immature
   and needing development and having the old dead nature to contend with.
   Moreover and best of all, we are so raised that we shall die no more!
   Oh, tell me no more the dreary tale that a man who has received the
   Divine Life may yet lose Grace and perish!

   With our Bibles in our hands we know better. "Christ being raised from
   the dead dies no more, death has no more dominion over Him" and,
   therefore, He that has received Christ's life in him shall never die.
   Has He not said, "He that believes in Me, though he were dead yet shall
   he live; and whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die"? This
   life which He has given us shall be in us, "a well of water, springing
   up unto everlasting life." He has said, "I give unto My sheep eternal
   life and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of
   My hand." On the day of our quickening we bid farewell to spiritual
   death and to the sepulcher where we slept under sin's dominion!

   Farewell, you deadly love of sin! We have done with you! Farewell, dead
   world, corrupt world! We have done with you! Christ has raised us.
   Christ has given us eternal life! We forsake forever the dreary abodes
   of death and seek the heavenly places. Our Jesus lives and because He
   lives we shall live also, world without end! Thus I have tried to work
   out the metaphor of resurrection, by which our spiritual renewal is so
   well set forth.

   II. We are urged by the Apostle to use the life which we have received
   and so, secondly, LET US EXERCISE THE NEW LIFE IN SUITABLE PURSUITS.
   "If you then are risen with Christ, seek those things which are above."
   Let your actions be agreeable to your new life. First, then, let us
   leave the sepulcher. If we are quickened, our first act should be to
   leave the region of death. Let us quit the vault of a merely outward
   religion and let us worship God in spirit and in truth. Let us have
   done with priestcraft and all the black business of spiritual
   undertaking and let the dead bury their dead-- we will have none of it!
   Let us have done with outward forms and rites and ceremonies, which are
   not of Christ's ordaining and let us know nothing except Christ
   Crucified, for that which is not of the living Lord is a mere piece of
   funeral pomp, fit for the cemeteries of formalists whose whole religion
   is a shoveling in of dust on coffin lids. "Earth to earth, ashes to
   ashes, dust to dust." "That which is born of the flesh is flesh."

   Let us also quit the vault of carnal enjoyments where men seek to
   satisfy themselves with provision for the flesh. Let us not live by the
   sight of the eyes, nor by the hearing of the ears. Let us not live for
   the amassing of wealth, or the gaining of fame, for these ought to be
   as dead things to the man who is risen in Christ. Let us not live for
   the world which we see, nor after the fashion of men to whom this life
   is everything. Let us live as those that have come out of the world and
   who, though they are in it, are no more of it. Let us be unmindful of
   the country from where we came out and leave it, as Abraham did, as
   though there were no such country, henceforth dwelling with our God,
   sojourners with Him, seeking "a city which has foundations, whose
   builder and maker is God." As Jesus Christ left behind Him all the
   abodes of death, let us do the same.

   And, then, let us hasten to forget every evil, even as our Lord
   hastened to leave the tomb. How little a time, after all, did He
   sojourn among the dead! He must lie in the heart of the earth three
   days, but He made them as short as possible, so that it is difficult to
   make out the three days at all. They were there, for there were
   fragments of each period, but surely never were three days so short as
   Jesus made them! He cut them short in righteousness and being loosed
   from the pains of death, He rose early, at the very break of day! At
   the first instant that it was possible for Him to get away from the
   sepulcher, consistent with the Scriptures, He left the napkin and the
   grave clothes and stood in the garden, waiting to salute His disciples!

   So let it be with us! There should be no lingering, no loitering, no
   hankering after the world--no clinging to its vanities, no making
   provision for the flesh. Up in the morning early, oh you who are
   spiritually quickened! Up in the morning early from your ease, your
   carnal pleasure, your love of wealth and self and away out from the
   dark vault into a congenial sphere of action--"If you then are risen
   with Christ, seek those things which are above."

   To pursue the analogy--when our Lord had left the tomb thus early, He
   spent a season on earth among His disciples and we are to pass the time
   of our sojourning here on earth as His was passed--in holy service. Our
   Lord reckoned that He was on the move from earth as soon as He rose. If
   you remember, He said, "I ascend unto My Father and your Father." He
   did not say, "I shall ascend," as though He looked at it as a future
   event, but He said, "I ascend," as if it were so quickly to be done
   that it was already doing. Forty days He stayed, for He had 40 days'
   work to do--but He looked upon Himself as already going up into Heaven.
   He had done with the world. He had done with the grave and now He said,
   "I ascend to My Father and your Father."

   We also have our 40 days to tarry here--the period may be longer or
   shorter as the Providence of God ordains-- but it will soon be over and
   the time of our departure will come. Let us spend our risen life on
   earth as Jesus spent His-- in a greater seclusion from the world and in
   greater nearness to Heaven than ever. Our Lord occupied Himself much in
   testimony--manifesting Himself--as we have already seen, in many ways
   to His friends and followers. Let us also manifest the fruits of our
   risen life and bear testimony to the power of God! Let all men see that
   we are risen! So live that there can be no more doubt about your
   spiritual resurrection than there was about Christ's literal
   Resurrection. Do not publish to the world your own virtues that you may
   be honored among them. "Let your light so shine before men that they
   may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven."

   Put your possession of the new life beyond question so that when you
   have gone Home your friends and acquaintances may say--"He was a living
   child of God, for we felt the power of his life. He was a changed man,
   for we saw the renewing." Jesus spent His risen life, also, in
   comforting His saints. He said, "Peace be unto you." He spoke to one
   and another, to poor Peter who denied Him and to all the assembled
   company, cheering them and preparing them for their future career. He
   spent those 40 days in setting everything in order in His kingdom,
   arranging as to what should be when

   He should be taken up and leaving His last commission to His followers
   was that they should "go into all the world and preach the Gospel to
   every creature." Beloved, let us also spend the time of our sojourning
   here in the fear of God, worshipping Him, serving Him, glorifying Him,
   endeavoring to set everything in order for the extension of our
   Master's Kingdom, for the comforting of His saints, for the
   accomplishment of His sacred purposes.

   And now I have led you up so far, I want to go further and rise higher.
   May the Lord help us! Let our minds ascend to Heaven in Christ. Even
   while our bodies are here we are to be drawn upward with
   Christ--attracted to Him so that we can say, "He has raised us up
   together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus."
   Our text says, "Seek those things which are above where Christ sits at
   the right hand of God." What is this but rising to heavenly pursuits?
   Jesus has gone up--let us go up with Him! As for these bodies, we
   cannot as yet ascend, for they are not fit to inherit the Kingdom of
   God--yet let our thoughts and hearts mount up and build a happy rest on
   high! Let not a stray thought ascend like one lone bird which sings and
   mounts the sky, but let our whole mind, soul, spirit, heart arise as
   when doves fly as a cloud!

   Let us be practical, too, and in very deed seek the things that are
   above--seek them because we feel we need them. Seek them because we
   greatly prize them. Seek them because we hope to gain them for a man
   will not heartily seek for that which he has no hope of obtaining. The
   things which are above, which we are even now to seek, are such as
   these-- let us seek heavenly communion, for we are no more numbered
   with the congregation of the dead, but we have fellowship in Christ's
   Resurrection and with all the risen ones. "Truly our fellowship is with
   the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ" and, "our conversation is in
   Heaven." Let us seek to walk with the living God and to know the
   fellowship of the Spirit. Let us seek heavenly Graces, for "every good
   gift and every perfect gift is from above." Let us seek more faith,
   more love, more patience, more zeal--let us labor after greater
   charity, greater brotherly kindness, greater humbleness of spirit.

   Let us labor after likeness to Christ, that He may be the firstborn
   among many brethren. Seek to bear the image of the heavenly and to wear
   those jewels which adorn heavenly spirits. Seek also heavenly
   objectives. Aim at the Glory of God in everything. You have to labor
   and toil in this world for you are yet in the body--take care to use
   worldly things to God's Glory. Exercise your privileges and fulfill
   your duties as men and as Englishmen, as before God, not minding the
   judgment of men. Wherein you mingle with the sons of men, take heed
   that you descend not to their level, nor act from their motives. You
   are not to seek your own selfish ends or the aggrandizement of a party,
   but to promote the general good and the interests of truth,
   righteousness, peace and purity. Sanctify everything by the love of God
   and your neighbor. Seek no party ends, but things which are pure and
   honest and of good report.

   Descend not to the falsehood, the trickery, the policy which are from
   beneath, but honestly, sincerely, righteously, always seek to live as
   those who are alive from the dead. "Seek those things which are above,"
   that is, heavenly joys. Oh seek to know on earth the peace of Heaven,
   the rest of Heaven, the victory of Heaven, the service of Heaven, the
   communion of Heaven, the holiness of Heaven! You may have foretastes of
   all these--seek after them! Seek, in a word, to be preparing for the
   Heaven which Christ is preparing for you. You are soon to dwell
   above--robe yourselves for the great festival. Your treasure is above,
   let your hearts be with it. All that you are to possess in eternity is
   above, where Christ is! Rise, then, and enjoy it! Let hope anticipate
   the joys which are reserved and so let us begin our Heaven here below.

   If you, then, are risen with Christ, live according to your risen
   nature, for your life is hid with Christ in God. What a magnet to draw
   us towards Heaven should this fact be--that Christ sits at God's right
   hand! Where should the wife's thoughts be when her husband is away but
   with the absent and beloved one? You know, Brothers and Sisters, it is
   not otherwise with us--the objects of our affection are always followed
   by our thoughts. Let Jesus, then, be as a great loadstone, drawing our
   meditations and affections towards Himself. He is sitting, for His work
   is done, as it is written, "This Man, when He had offered one sacrifice
   for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God." Let us rise and
   rest with Him! He is sitting on a Throne. Observe His majesty! Delight
   in His power and trust in His dominion.

   He is sitting at the right hand of God in the place of honor and favor.
   This is a proof that we are beloved and favored of God, for our
   Representative has the choicest place, at God's right hand! Let your
   hearts ascend and enjoy that love and favor with Him. Take wing, my
   thoughts, and fly away to Jesus! My Soul, have you not often said,
   "Woe's me that I dwell in Meshach and tabernacle in the tents of Kedar!
   Oh that I had wings like a dove, that I might fly away and be at rest"?
   Now, then, my Soul, here are wings for you! Jesus draws you upward! You
   have a right to be where Jesus is, for

   you are married to Him! Therefore let your thoughts abide with Him,
   rest in Him, delight in Him, rejoice in Him and yet again rejoice!

   The sacred ladder is before us, Brothers and Sisters, let us climb it,
   until, by faith, we sit in the heavenlies with Him. May the Spirit of
   God bless these words to you.

   III. Thirdly, inasmuch as we are risen with Christ, LET THE NEW LIFE
   DELIGHT ITSELF IN SUITABLE OBJECTS. This brings in the second
   verse--"Set your affection on things above, not on things on the
   earth." "Set your affection." These words do not quite express the
   meaning, though they are as near it as any one clause could well come.
   We might render it thus--"Have a relish for things above" or, "Study
   industriously things above" or, "Set your mind on things above, not on
   things on the earth." That which is proper enough for a dead man is
   quite unsuitable for a risen one! Objects of desire which might suit us
   when we were sinners are not legitimate nor worthy objects for us when
   we are made saints. As we are quickened, we must exercise life and, as
   we have ascended, we must love higher things than those of earth.

   What are these "things above" which we should set our affection upon? I
   ask you, now, to lift your eyes above yonder clouds and this lower
   firmament to the residence of God. What do you see there? First, there
   is God Himself. Make Him the subject of your thoughts, your desires,
   your emotions, your love. "Delight yourself, also, in the Lord and He
   will give you the desires of your heart." "My Soul, wait only upon God,
   for my expectation is from Him." Call Him, "God my exceeding joy." Let
   nothing come between you and your heavenly Father! What is all the
   world if you have not God and when you once have God, what matters it
   though all the world is gone? God is all things and when you can say,
   "God is mine," you are richer than Croesus. O to say, "Whom have I in
   Heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside You"!

   O to love God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our
   mind and with all our strength--that is what the Law required--but it
   is what the Gospel enables us to render. What do I see next? I see
   Jesus, who is God, but yet is truly Man. Need I press upon you,
   Beloved, to set your love upon the Well-Beloved? Has He not won your
   heart and does He not hold it, now, as under a mighty spell? I know you
   love Him! Fix your mind on Him, then. Often meditate upon His Divine
   Person, His perfect work, His mediatorial Glory, His second coming, His
   glorious reign, His love for you, your own security in Him, your union
   with Him! Oh let these sweet thoughts possess your breasts, fill your
   mouths and influence your lives. Let the morning break with thoughts of
   Christ and let your last thought at night be sweetened with His
   Presence. Set your affection upon Him who has set His affection upon
   you!

   But what do I see above next? I see the new Jerusalem which is the
   mother of us all! I see the Church of Christ triumphant in Heaven, with
   which the Church militant is one. We do not realize enough the fact
   that we are come unto the general assembly and Church of the Firstborn,
   whose names are written in Heaven. Love all the saints, but do not
   forget the saints above! Have fellowship with them, for we make but one
   communion. Remember those--

   "Who once were mourning here below,

   And wet their couch with tears,

   Who wrestled hard, as we do now,

   With sins and doubts and fears."

   Speak with the brave ones who have won their crowns, the heroes who
   have fought a good fight and now rest from their labors, waving the
   palm. Let your hearts be often among the perfected, with whom you are
   to spend eternity.

   And what else is there above that our hearts should love but Heaven
   itself? It is the place of holiness! Let us so love it that we begin to
   be holy here. It is the place of rest--let us so delight in it that by
   faith we enter into that rest! O my Brothers and Sisters, you have vast
   estates which you have never seen--and I think if I had an estate on
   earth which was soon to be mine, I would wish to take a peep over the
   hedge now and then. If I could not take possession, I should like to
   see what I had in reversion. I would make an excuse to pass that way
   and say to any who were with me, "That estate is going to be mine
   before long."

   In your present poverty console yourselves with the many mansions. In
   your sickness delight much in the land where the inhabitants shall no
   more say, "I am sick." In the midst of depression of spirit comfort
   your heart with the prospect of unmixed felicity--

   "No more fatigue, no more distress, Nor sin nor death shall reach the
   place!

   No groans to mingle with the songs

   Which warble from immortal tongues!" What? Are you fettered to earth?
   Can you not project yourself into the future? The stream of death is
   narrow--cannot your imagination and your faith leap over the brook to
   stand on the other shore awhile and cry, "All is mine and mine forever!
   Where Jesus is there shall I be! Where Jesus sits there shall I rest--

   'Far from a world of grief and sin,

   With God eternally shut in'"? "Set your affection on things above."

   Oh to get away at this present time from these dull cares which, like a
   fog, envelope us! Even we that are Christ's servants and live in His
   court, at times, feel weary and droop as if His service were hard. He
   never means it to be a bondage and it is our fault if we make it so.
   Martha's service is due, but she is not called to be cumbered with much
   serving--that is her own arrangement! Let us serve abundantly and yet
   sit with Mary at the Master's feet. You who are in business and mix
   with the world by the necessity of your callings must find it difficult
   to keep quite clear of the dragging down influences of this poor
   world--it will hamper you if it can. You are like a bird which is
   always in danger when it alights on the earth. There are twigs and
   traps and nets and guns and a poor bird is never safe except upon the
   wing and up aloft. Yet birds must come down to feed and they do well to
   gather their meal in haste and take to their wings again.

   When we come down among men we must speedily be up again. When you have
   to mix with the world and see its sin and evil, yet take heed that you
   do not light on the ground without your Father. And then, as soon as
   ever you have picked up your barley, rise again--away, away, for this
   is not your rest! You are like Noah's dove flying over the waste of
   waters--there is no rest for the sole of your feet but on the ark with
   Jesus! On this Resurrection Day fence out the world! Let us chase away
   the wild boar of the woods and let the vines bloom and the tender
   grapes give forth their good smell and let the Beloved come and walk in
   the garden of our souls while we delight ourselves in Him and in His
   heavenly

   gifts.

   Let us not carry our burden of things below on this holy day, but let
   us keep it as a Sabbath unto the Lord! On the Sabbath we are no more to
   work with our minds than with our hands. Cares and anxieties of an
   earthly kind defile the day of sacred rest. The essence of
   Sabbath-breaking lies in worry and murmuring and unbelief with which
   too many are filled. Put these away, Beloved, for we are risen with
   Christ and it is not right that we should wander among the tombs! No,
   rather let us sing unto the Lord a new song and praise Him with our
   whole soul.
     __________________________________________________________________

On Whose Side Are You?

   (No. 1531)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, APRIL 4, 1880,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, Who is on the
   Lord's side? Let him come unto me." Exodus 32:26.

   DURING the last few days in which the stir of a general election has
   moved the most quiet of our streets, every one of you must have been
   asked, many times, on which side you are. Some are enthusiastic on this
   side and some are quite as warm on the other and the interest of all
   ranks and classes is awakened. Now that the Lord's Day has come I hope
   you will forget all about politics and listen to me while I ask a far
   more important question, namely, "Who is on the Lord's side?" May God
   grant us Grace to give an honest answer and may that answer be, "Yes,
   Lord, You know all things, You know that I love You."

   May thousands of you say to the Lord what Amaziah and his band said to
   David, "Yours are we, David, and on your side, son of Jesse." Before I
   enlarge upon this exceedingly personal and practical question, I must
   ask you to remember the man who asked it. It was Moses who put this
   question, "Who is on the Lord's side?" and he put it to Israel when sin
   was rampant in the camp. It is well to remember that he stood there as
   a lone man, the solitary champion of Jehovah and challenged the whole
   nation to decide for God! His own brother had practically deserted him
   and become the means of making the golden calf. The 70 elders who ought
   to have been by his side were, none of them, present with him except
   his lieutenant Joshua.

   He stood alone in the midst of the multitude just when they were
   intoxicated with their lustful pleasures and their fanatical worship.
   He was equal to the emergency! Thoughtless altogether of his own
   safety, dauntless, brave and bold, he dashes down their idol and
   commands it to be ground small and cast into the water of which the
   nation would drink. He upbraids them to their faces and strides among
   them, as much superior to them all as a shepherd is superior to the
   flock he tends. You have to admire his courage! You wonder at his
   supreme power and you inquire for the secret of such sovereign
   strength. Moses must have worn about him a dignity most commanding, a
   royalty far superior to that which comes of birth or office!

   Don't you know where he derived that majesty? He had been, for 40 days,
   alone with God! Heavenly communion makes a man strong. He had been in
   the secret place of the Most High. He had spoken with God, face to
   face, as a man speaks with his friend, and it was not likely that he
   should fear the face of man after having seen the face of God! He had
   been familiar with the sublime and when he came down to the infinite
   littleness of men who had dared to liken the Glory of God to the image
   of an ox that eats grass, he wore about him a natural superiority
   before which they all trembled and slunk away in fear!

   Moses was also a man of prayer. He had stopped the hand of the Almighty
   on the mountain's brow till even God, Himself, had said, "Let Me
   alone"--wondrous though it may seem, the man, Moses, by his holy faith
   had even put a restraint on God Himself! Be you sure of this, that the
   man who has power with God will have power with men. If we have power
   with God for men, we shall have power with men for God! He that can
   overcome Heaven by prayer--what is there that he cannot conquer? There
   stood Moses, like a lone rock in the midst of the tempestuous sea! The
   tumult of the people raged around him, but he was firm and unmoved. He
   became, indeed, the one fixed point upon which the very existence of
   true religion depended. All the partisans of godliness remaining in the
   camp, hidden and concealed, rallied to his call and the one man saved
   the cause.

   So has it been in history, not once nor twice, but many a time! A
   single determined man, full of God's Spirit, has confronted the whole
   mass of the people--has breasted the rushing torrent of popular
   prejudice and has not only stemmed the current, but turned it in the
   opposite direction even as Moses did! Being girt with the power of God
   and

   having learned to dwell on high, the one Believer has become the heroic
   leader of a band of earnest hearts. Brothers and Sisters, we need, in
   these days, men and women of fixed principles! We need individuals of
   enlightened mind and determined will! We need those who know what is
   right and will not deviate from it even though they should risk their
   lives! We need to have, not one or two, but multitudes of steadfast men
   and women, who, when they put their foot down, mean to abide there and
   cannot be pushed from off their standing-place.

   If any of you aspire to lead your own families and to influence your
   own connections in the right way, you must possess personal strength of
   mind of the right sort and you must get it where Moses gained his
   power. You must be much alone with God and mighty on your knees. Come
   forth to face the wicked world with your faces radiant with the light
   of God! Communion with Heaven must win for you Divine help, that you
   may not be overcome by evil, but may overcome evil with good. Thus much
   concerning Moses. God make us to be like he.

   Let us now consider Moses' question and command--"Who is on the Lord's
   side? Let him come unto me." I think I see here three very important
   points. The first is decision--a man must be on the Lord's side.
   Secondly, here is acknowledgment, "Let him come unto me"--if he is on
   the Lord's side, do not let him skulk away in his tent, but let him
   confront the adversary. And, thirdly, here is consecration, for those
   on the Lord's side were to come to Moses that they might do the Lord's
   bidding and fight the Lord's battles at all costs.

   I. First then, here is DECISION, or being on the Lord's side. It is a
   decision upon the most sublime and important theme which can ever come
   under a man's notice. Here are the two camps, God and Satan, truth and
   falsehood, holiness and sin. On which side are we? When I see a man
   pausing, as it were, between the two hosts and saying to himself,
   "Which shall have my heart? Which shall command my service?" I feel
   that he tarries in a position at once hazardous and sublime, for
   whichever that choice shall be, it means eternity--it means Heaven and
   all its glories--or it means Hell with all its terrors.

   Whether the man shall be for God or for God's enemies will mean, for
   that man, kinship with angels, or league with devils! It shall mean for
   him the white robe and the everlasting song of adoring praise, or it
   shall mean the blackness of darkness and the perpetual wailing of
   unending misery. Hence a man is placed in a most solemn position when
   this question is put to him, "Are you on God's side, or are you His
   enemy?" About all other matters, you should go to work with such a
   measure of consideration as they deserve. But to this business you must
   bring your weightiest thought. You must concentrate all your wit and
   wisdom and judge and decide upon this matter with all calmness and
   deliberation--but with all solemnity of resolution and sternness of
   determination, so that, having once made your choice by the directing
   Grace of God--you may stand to that choice world without end.

   Are there any here who have not decided upon this point? As the
   question goes round, "Who is on the Lord's side?" are some of you
   obliged to say, "I have not made up my mind yet"? It is time you did,
   for it is a dreadful thing for a man to be standing there, as I said,
   midway between God and the devil, between Christ and Belial, between
   Heaven and Hell, for, whether he knows it or not, that midway place
   which he thinks he occupies is really on the wrong side! So our Lord
   Jesus judges it--"He that is not with Me is against Me and he that
   gathers not with Me scatters abroad." This decision, dear Friends, so
   important and weighty, should be made as early as possible. It is not a
   matter which we can afford to leave in the balances, hanging in
   suspense.

   Oh that young people would think of this and not waste the best part of
   their lives in stammering between two opinions! When Aerials came to
   the borders of Macedon, he sent the terse message--"As friends or as
   enemies?" The answer was, "We must stop awhile and take advice." His
   reply was, "While you advise, we march." Happy is that young man who
   can say to others, "While you are considering, I have decided! While
   you are hesitating, I have pushed on and given my heart to God! While
   you are temporizing, I have already entered into conflict with sin and
   death and Hell! While you are counting the cost, I have already
   reckoned the reproach of Christ to be greater riches than all the
   treasures of Egypt!"

   Happy is he who first crosses the Rubicon of decision, drawing his
   sword against sin and throwing away the scabbard, that he may never
   make a truce or treaty with the foe. It is a decision that should be
   made at once, O man, for death is near you and eternity begins to dawn!
   Wait not, young man! Wait not, young woman! Every hour renders it more
   likely that you will make a foolish choice. Delay is dangerous, for it
   is breeding in you the disease of trifling. Take heed lest you grow
   into a procrastinator and halt and halt and halt till you become such a
   cripple that you will halt through

   life and never march with the armies of the Lord! Oh that Divine Grace
   would lead each one to decide upon the spot! This is a decision of the
   greatest importance, for it will influence every subsequent decision
   throughout life.

   If God's Grace shall lead me to say, "Yes, write my name down in the
   roll of champions on the Lord's side," then from that day forth every
   other question will be read in the light of that decision. You will
   henceforth give your love to the Truth of God in rags and not to
   falsehood in silk apparel. You will henceforth favor Righteousness when
   she walks in the mire and abhor Injustice when he rides in the high
   places of the earth. If you are on God's side, whatever things are
   pure, honest and of good report will find a friend in you. You will
   never be on the side of drunkenness, nor on the side of oppression,
   injustice, or war--for in being on the side of God you are the advocate
   of sobriety, justice and peace.

   The side of God is, in the highest and best sense, the side of mankind.
   We best promote the interests of nations when we advance the cause of
   God. I pray that our piety may be of such a practical kind that we may
   carry it with us into everything that we do. I like not that religion
   which lives in churches and is glorious on a Sunday, like the parish
   official in his fine coat, but falls back into its ordinary shabby wear
   when the service is done. Give me that godliness which finds itself at
   home at the fireside and is in its right place in the counting house
   and the work room. True religion is meant for field and street, for
   polling booth and the market. True religion gives a tincture to
   everything with which the man comes in contact and, find him where you
   will, you see that he is on the Lord's side because he is on the right
   side! The follower of Jesus takes that side which for a season may be
   unpopular, but which is, according to the Law and to the Testimony,
   right in the sight of God. Take care, then, how you make your decision
   as to God, since on that pivot your whole character will turn.

   As to this decision there ought to be no possible difficulty. A man
   should decide for God since He is his Creator. Dare you think of being
   opposed to Him that made you and who can crush you as easily as a moth?
   He is our Redeemer, the Lord that bought us with His blood! Is it
   possible that we can be on any other side than His? He is our daily
   Preserver, in whose hands our breath is--can we live in antagonism to
   Him? Our relation to our God ought to be an easy question to decide
   when we remember our obligations. We are not only indebted to God for
   our being, but for every favor which we now enjoy or ever hope to
   possess. Should not a man be on the side of his friend? On the side of
   the best of friends? Think of our responsibilities as they arise out of
   all the blessings which God bestows and there should be an instant
   verdict of the heart for God and for His Christ.

   It should not be difficult to any right-minded man to say, " Yes, I am
   on the side of truth," and because God is Truth, we should be on His
   side. Every right principle demands that we yield ourselves to God. His
   is the just side, the true side, the side which must ultimately
   conquer, the side deliberately adopted and earnestly upheld by all holy
   angels and perfected spirits. Should our decision need much
   considering? Who needs time to debate when the way is plain? And yet it
   is sadly true that, through our sinfulness, an honest, sincere,
   practical decision is not soon arrived at. No, it will never be arrived
   at unless the Holy Spirit shall influence our minds and deliver us from
   the thralldom of our sinful lusts! Oh, that the Spirit of God might
   lead us to choose God's side although it is not the side of self, but
   directly the opposite!

   The most of men are swayed by their own interests--"Which is the be
   side for me? Which will bring me the most wealth, or the most esteem,
   or the most quiet?" But he that is on the side of God scorns such
   selfish considerations and favors not that which is profitable for the
   present, but that which is just and right. Alas, many are influenced by
   the fear of men. What a potent factor is this evil element in directing
   human affairs! Men would do right, but they dare not! They would avoid
   that which is wrong, but then they might be ridiculed for too great
   precision and, therefore, they indulge the side which their conscience
   condemns.

   My Brothers and Sisters, may the Lord give us a different mind from
   this. May the opinion of men have small weight with us. Let us not be
   afraid to make enemies rather than disobey God! I would have you of the
   same mind as the old Spartan who said the question with him never was,
   "How many are my enemies?" but, "where are they?" Yes, that is it,
   "Where are they?" That is all. We are ready for them and do not count
   the odds. If adversaries to the Truth of God and righteousness abound,
   never think of them! Do not calculate their strength, nor estimate what
   an attack upon them may cost you, but at once throw down the gage of
   battle and for God and for righteousness--take the right side.

   One other remark must be made--this decision involves but one
   alternative. If we are not on God's side, we are on the opposite side.
   All through the Word of God there is no preparation made for a third
   party. There is a very numerous body of people who try to inhabit the
   "Betweenities." They will, if they can, go on both sides, or on neither
   side--they

   want to be left alone--they wish to keep themselves to themselves and
   say nothing and do nothing either way. Now, there is no preparation
   made for you, either in this world or in the next! There is no
   synagogue of the undecided on earth and no "purgatory" of middle men in
   the unseen world.

   As to this world, there is no comfort held out to you. You are not
   praised, but you are denounced by the Scriptures and even cursed most
   bitterly for not coming to the help of the Lord against the mighty. You
   are regarded as enemies to God until you are His friends and it must be
   so, for he that is not honest is dishonest! He that is not chaste is
   impure and He that is not for God is necessarily against Him. It is a
   matter about which a soul cannot be colorless, so far from this even
   being possible. This matter is one about which there is usually much
   intensity of feeling one way or another--God has fervent friends and
   bitter foes. All great questions raise in men's minds strong movements
   one way or the other and this greatest of questions is sure to do so.

   Though at present, my Friend, you feel no strong movement in the wrong
   direction, yet that which can produce a great evil movement is lurking
   in your spirit and if it is not slain, by the Grace of God leading you
   to be on God's side, one of these days that slumbering sin of yours may
   awaken itself to an awful display of power. As when a viper, which
   before was numbed by the cold, is warmed into vitality and stings all
   who are near it, so does sin when its hour comes. As the lion cub which
   has not tasted blood is tame as a cat and yet, by-and-by, it assumes
   all the fury of the beast of prey, so is it with the demon of iniquity
   which hides within the human spirit! One way or another you must have
   God and His Christ, or you must be the servants of Satan--holiness must
   hold you or sin will bind you--Heaven must win you and attract you to
   itself--or Hell will mark you for its own and down you will descend!

   There, then, I leave the matter of decision, praying earnestly that all
   who have decided may stand to it and that those who have not decided
   may be led of the Spirit to make up their minds at once.

   II. Secondly, let us consider the ACKNOWLEDGMENT. "Who is on the Lord's
   side? Let him come unto me." The Hebrew is more sharp. It reads like
   this--"Who is on Jehovah's side? To me." It is like the cry of one who
   strikes the first blow in war and, unfurling the standard, summons men
   to enlist. "For God--to me." "If you really are His servants, come and
   gather to me." In this acknowledgment there is, first of all, a coming
   out. They were to come out from among the idolaters. You who are on the
   Lord's side, away in your tents where you have gone that you might not
   join with the riotous crowd--come to me! You that are away there in the
   furtherest limits of the camp who have gone to be quiet from all this
   noise and uproar--come into the gate of the camp to me and show
   yourselves! None must hide their colors this day.

   Now then, I say this morning to you who are on God's side, do not
   conceal your religion! Be not wickedly reticent. Be not ungratefully
   retiring, but come forward. "Come you out from among them! Be you
   separate; touch not the unclean thing." There is too little separation
   from the world, nowadays, among Christian professors. I do not wonder
   at the question a little girl asked of her mother when she had been
   reading the New Testament, "Mother, don't you think it would be very
   nice if we could all move away and go and live where there are
   Christians?" Her mother said, "Why, there are many Christians around
   us." "Oh no, Mother, not like those I have been reading of in the New
   Testament."

   I am afraid the child was right, though there are some New Testament
   Christians even here. I wish there were many more who, in all things,
   followed not the fashions of the world and the follies of the times but
   walked with God in the separated path where Jesus' footsteps are seen.
   This avowal, however, was not only a mere coming out--they were to come
   to the leader. Moses stood there and said, "Let him come unto me." He
   stood there as God's representative and seemed to say, "I am on God's
   side; there is no question about that, though I stand alone--now let
   others who are on God's side come to me."

   "Ah," you say this morning, "We wish we had a leader bold and brave to
   whom we could come." I reply, you have such a leader! Where is He? He
   is gone into the highest heavens, but your faith may see Him! It is the
   Lord Jesus Christ who is first and foremost on God's side! He proved it
   by His life and proved it by His death and this morning He bids all
   that are on God's side to come to Him! Come and let Him be your Master
   and Lord! Come and imitate His example and keep His precepts! Come and
   proclaim His Gospel and defend His Kingdom! He that is on the Lord's
   side let him come to Christ and follow the Lamb wherever He goes!

   And yet there is this much more about it. Those who were to come to
   Moses were, of course, to come to one another. When Moses said, "Who is
   on the Lord's side? Let him come unto me," He was virtually gathering a
   Church and enlist-

   ing an army of men whose hearts God had touched. Such came forth at
   Moses' call. Come, then, you that love the Lord, come and join with
   others who think as you do! Do not birds of a feather flock together?
   If God has made you birds of Paradise, hasten to fly like doves to your
   windows! Friend, if I am on the Lord's side and you are on the Lord's
   side, why should we be strangers to one another? There are few enough
   to stand up for Christ! Surely they ought to be knit together in
   closest affection.

   Unity is strength and as we have no strength to spare, let us be
   united. Come forth you that know the Lord and acknowledge your
   allegiance by joining with others who love your King! Enlist under the
   same Captain and inscribe your names in the same muster roll. I cannot
   give out this call with all the energy I would, or I would publish it
   from every market. I beseech those who are not on the Lord's side not
   to attempt to unite with any visible Church, for that would be rank
   hypocrisy! But I would encourage and invite and entreat and almost go
   the length of commanding those who are on the Lord's side to declare
   themselves! Come you to us, for we, also, are on the Lord's side. Lend
   us your help. Afford us your company. Let us enter into fellowship with
   one another and let us be banded together for everything that is good
   and true because we are on the Lord's side. Attend to this, I pray you
   and make an acknowledgment of your decision for God as speedily as
   possible.

   III. In the third place, with this acknowledgment should come
   CONSECRATION. Those who are on the Lord's side should not merely give
   their names, but give themselves. When we are on the side of Christ we
   belong to Christ. Every man who really is on the Lord's side should
   feel that he is bound to obey God's will. I thank God that I learned
   this lesson when I first knew the Savior. I did not think that in
   matters of religion I was to follow my father, or any other good man.
   It seemed to me that God had put into my hand the Bible and I was to
   read it--I was to find out with diligent searching whatever the Lord
   taught me in that Book and I was to believe and to do as His Word
   taught me.

   I feel it now to be a great comfort to my heart that I took nothing at
   secondhand. I received my doctrine not of men, neither was I taught it,
   but I went directly to the wellhead and drank from the source itself,
   by the teaching of the Spirit of God. I want you all to do this. Do not
   follow a Church--do not follow any great preacher--pin yourself to no
   man's sleeve. To the Law and to the Testimony, if men speak not
   according to this Word of God it is because there is no Light of God in
   them. If everybody would do this, there might still remain diversities
   of judgment, but I am inclined to think that unity in doctrine and in
   practice would be far sooner attained by this habit than by any other
   means.

   If each one would go to the Word for himself and no longer settle down
   in an "ism" learned from somebody else, we would know the Truth of God
   and come together in our views of it. Following in a certain track
   because you happen to be put in it by the circumstances of your birth
   and education is not the way of a candid and enlightened mind! I care
   not for the decrees of Churches, or the dogmas of men. I honor both
   Churches and holy men, but not as dictators to my faith! This one book,
   the Bible, contains the religion of the true Christian, so far as it
   can be described by letters and the Spirit of God has promised to
   enlighten us as to its meaning.

   God grant we may never say, "I do such-and-such because it is in the
   Prayer-Book" or, "Because it is according to our denominational
   standards." What have you to do with any book but the Bible, or with
   any denomination but the Church of Christ, unless it is that the book
   and the denomination are scriptural? See you well to this, for careful
   obedience to God is much needed in these times. I have referred to a
   Spartan once or twice this morning, for something of the Spartan spirit
   would do well if saturated with the spirit of Christ. A Spartan in the
   midst of battle was about to kill his foe. His sword was lifted up as
   the trumpet sounded a retreat and he drew back his weapon. And when one
   asked, "Why did you allow him to escape?" he replied, "I would sooner
   obey my general than kill an enemy."

   For a Christian there is nothing like obedience. "To obey is better
   than sacrifice and to listen, than the fat of rams." Let us learn that.
   When we come to be on the Lord's side we are not only to be willing to
   obey His will, but we are to serve Him actively and energetically.
   Moses said to these men, "Gird every man his sword upon his thigh." You
   are not to enlist on the Lord's side to idle away your time. Hosts of
   people think when they get into the bosom of the Church that they are
   to sleep there like babies in their mothers' arms. The Gospel coach
   goes by and they climb to a box seat if they can, and ride. But the
   idea of ever driving the coach--the idea of working for the
   Master--never enters into their heads. It must not be so with us. We
   must throw our activities and our energies into the side which is
   God's, even as the tribe of Levi fought valorously against the
   rebellious people. And we must do this at all risks and costs.

   These men had a very painful duty to perform. They were made
   executioners of their relatives who were found guilty of high treason
   against God, their King. It cost their hearts much to kill, every man,
   his brother or friend. But if they found them obdurate in their
   idolatry, they were commanded to slay them without mercy and they did
   so. Their hands did not spare, neither did their eyes have pity upon
   any who persisted in rebellion. See what Moses said of them--"Of Levi
   he said, let your Thummim and your Urim be with your Holy One, whom you
   did prove at Massah and with whom you did strive at the waters of
   Meribah. Who said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen
   him; neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own
   children: for they have observed Your Word and kept Your Covenant."

   They were thorough with God and so must we be. When you join Christ's
   Church there must be a cutting off of right arms and a plucking out of
   right eyes if necessary. There must be a mortifying of the flesh with
   its affections and lusts. We are called to a battle and we must prepare
   for it and not be afraid. Now, because these men were thus faithful to
   God, they were made the teachers of Israel forever afterwards. Let me
   continue to read to you what Moses says of them, in Deuteronomy 33:10,
   because they had impartially executed the sentence of the Lord. "They
   shall teach Jacob Your judgments and Israel Your Law; they shall put
   incense before You and whole burnt sacrifice upon Your altar."
   Furthermore, they were to be preserved and made more than conquerors
   because of their stern faithfulness.

   They had smitten through the loins of God's enemies and now the prayer
   of the man of God breathes this blessing over them--"Bless, Lord, his
   substance and accept the work of his hands: smite through the loins of
   them that rise against him and of them that hate him, that they rise
   not again." Levi smote God's enemies--God will smite his enemies. Those
   who mind God's work shall find that God works for them. They did their
   duty with stern integrity and, therefore, God makes them leaders of His
   people, teachers of His nation and they shall henceforth triumph over
   all their adversaries. I would have every man who is on the Lord's side
   and who has acknowledged it, follow the Lord's Word in all things, cost
   what it may. You will find, in the Bible, doctrines which the world
   will denounce as harsh--hold them and let them call you cruel if they
   please!

   You will have to publish stern doctrines which will smite the tall
   crest of human pride and thwart the pleasing inclinations of fleshly
   minds--publish them, nevertheless! God will justify you in so doing and
   vindicate you from all aspersions. Allow no reservations. Make no
   provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. If you are "a
   soldier of the Cross, a follower of the Lamb," it is yours to do what
   God bids you. Yours not to reason why, yours, if necessary, to dare and
   die and still in all holy meekness and gentleness to maintain Truth,
   rough and rugged though it seems to the dainty philosophers of our day.
   Be ever on the side of right! May the Spirit of God help us in all
   this, for unless He helps us, I am sure we shall fail. But if He is
   with us, we shall conquer!

   Those of you who are as yet little in Israel should take care that you
   do your work well for God in your obscure places and then you shall be
   lifted to more prominent positions. These Levites were made teachers
   because they had dared, at God's bidding, to be executioners, a work
   associated in men's minds with dishonor. They were bold enough, though
   but a few, to confront the whole camp and now they shall be made wise
   enough to teach all the tribes. Use well the lowest position and do it
   honor. Aerials the Spartan, when they placed him in a back seat, took
   no umbrage at it, but said, "I will honor the seat if the seat does not
   honor me." So, if you are placed in the lowliest place in Christ's
   house, do honor to it and, by-and-by, when the King comes in to see the
   guests, He will say, "Friend, come up higher."

   If you are faithful over a few things, He will make you ruler over many
   things. Only take heed to it that you fully consecrate yourselves to
   Him on whose side you are. I wish, in conclusion, to show the
   suitability of my subject to this present time. I am sure it is not out
   of season. "Who is on the Lord's side?" let him come to Christ and
   consecrate himself this day to Him. For first, the worship of the
   golden calf is pretty general now. Men are esteemed according to the
   amount of money which they possess. Indeed, we say a man is "worth so
   much." Though the man may not be worth a pair of old shoes, yet if he
   has a big house, a fair estate and a huge capital, he is said to be
   worth so much. Poor little creature! In many cases his worth might be
   written on your thumbnail.

   It is not the man that has worth--his house, his lands and his gold
   have the worth--not the man! There is far too much bowing down and
   cringing before the golden calf in all classes of society. No end of
   dodges are tried to get a scraping of one of the creature's hoofs!
   Brother, you must sooner endure poverty than do a wrong thing for the
   sake of riches and you must learn to value men for what they are, not
   for what they have! It needs not Christianity to tell you that some of
   the worthiest, noblest and most kingly of men earn their bread by the
   sweat of their brow. When you meet them, love

   and honor them. On the other hand, you must know that some of the
   vilest of men have, at times, climbed to high places of wealth and
   power. Do not cringe to any man, but least of all bow to a mere
   moneybag. Value men by their characters and not by their positions. God
   grant that none of us may ever be found worshipping the golden calf!

   Yet to get into society the meanest things are done. I do not know what
   sort of thing society may be, but I have heard that it is a very
   wonderful achievement to get into society--to have the privilege of
   enjoying the empty ceremonies and hollow shams of stupid splendor! To
   have the privilege of talking to those persons who spend more on their
   dress than on their religion. From what little I do know of this
   wonderful thing called, "society," I have felt no ambition to partake
   in its felicities. And yet to get into society I have seen men fling
   away their principles, forsake their friends, stifle their consciences,
   abandon their Church fellowship and become traitors to their God!
   Indeed, they are successful in business and hope to rank among the
   county families and so they leave those who love them to entertain, at
   lavish cost, those who sneer at them! The Lord save those of you who
   are prosperous from being thus degraded.

   The next thing you need to be firm and strong about is the
   superstitions which are too often associated with religious worship.
   Remember, God is to be worshipped and only God. That is the essence of
   the First Commandment. And God is to be worshipped in His own way--that
   is the essence of the Second Commandment. The first is, "You shall have
   no other God," and the second, virtually, is, "You shall not make any
   graven image to represent God, nor bow down to it, nor worship it."
   Moses made the rebellious people drink their god as a punishment. But
   in these times persons live among us who literally eat their god as an
   act of devotion!

   The high spiritual mystery in which we are described as spiritually
   feeding upon our Lord Jesus has my deepest and most solemn reverence,
   but the superstitious opinion that men can and do literally eat the
   flesh of Christ under the form of consecrated bread awakens my
   abhorrence and disgust! The worship of what is called the "Blessed
   Sacrament" is as vile an idolatry as the worship by the Egyptians of
   onions and other pot herbs which grew in their own gardens! There is
   not a pin to choose between the one and the other and yet this is
   getting to be common! Bread, which is nothing but bread and when you
   have said all you can say over it still remains bread, must not be
   produced in a court of law, or if it is so produced, a great bishop,
   who should know better, assures his brethren that he has taken care
   that it is reverently consumed!

   I wonder what became of the moldy bread? Oh, that ever I, an
   Englishman, should be forced to believe that another Englishman in this
   19th century reverences the baker's paste! Great God in Heaven, is this
   the country of Latimer? Is this the land of Gospel Light? Or have we
   clean gone back to Rome and all its idolatries? I want you to be very
   stiff and straight about this! Do not pay religious honor to anything
   which can be seen by the eyes! Worship no symbol, however ancient!
   Worship only God! Abhor every act which approximates to reverence paid
   to pictures, images, crucifixes, pyxes, wafers, chalices, or altars!
   Away with the whole idolatrous business--no epithet of scorn will be
   misapplied if it is turned against these superstitions! I will not now
   quote the words of ridicule which our fathers poured upon this
   wickedness, but I beseech you follow them in sternly refusing by word,
   or look, or sign, to pay the slightest regard for objects of
   superstitious reverence, lest by mingling with the heathen you incur
   their guilt!

   These idolatrous Israelites would have pleaded that they did not
   worship the golden calf but they worshipped Jehovah under the figure of
   a bull--and then they said, "See what a beautiful emblem it is! The
   bull is the image of strength and God is almighty! How instructive it
   is! The ox plows our fields and so produces our harvests--what a
   teaching symbol of the goodness of God! Many of the common people will
   learn more from this than from a sermon." Certain artistic people would
   add, each one in his own manner, "This symbolic worship is so tasteful
   that it helps me to worship. When I was in the camp and there was no
   golden image, I could never enter into such a bare worship, but I
   greatly admire this decorous and hearty service. The extemporary
   prayers of Moses and his brother were too poor for me. That beautiful
   bull is aesthetic and awakens thought and emotion and the ceremonies of
   Apis is to my mind quite a model. Give me a little of
   Israelite-Egyptian, in which you have the old embellished by the new
   and, by the help of music and genuflections I can, indeed, adore." You
   know who they are who talk in this fashion nowadays!

   Afterwards came the popular sports--for it is written of the people
   "they ate and they drank and they rose up to play"--the superstitious
   are usually fond of vain amusements. The Laudean churchman admired The
   Book of Sports. The Book of Sports usually gets upon the same shelf as
   the Book of Ceremonies. "Oh, that is the religion for me," cries one,
   "none of your straight-laced talk about worshipping God in spirit and
   in truth." My Brothers and Sisters, I want

   you to feel that you are on God's side about this, for every symbol, I
   repeat it, whether image, picture, bread, or whatever you please, must
   be denounced if it is set up as an object of worship. Whereas the bread
   and wine are appointed by our Lord Jesus to be used for a memorial of
   Him, they are so to be used with loving thoughtfulness, but we must
   not, we dare not, pay the slightest worship to them, for that were to
   make sin of the blackest dye out of the most tender of all memories.

   The next point is, I would to God we were on the Lord's side in view of
   the sinful amusements which appear to have such charms for many that
   even Christian people go quite as far as they should in reference to
   them. When they had bowed before this golden calf they "rose up to
   play," and very pretty play it was. It does not bear explanation. There
   is about the world a good deal of this "playing." Beware, I pray you,
   of every amusement which prevents your redeeming the time, or tends to
   pollute the mind. There are recreations of a healthy, manly, refreshing
   kind--but those which are of no possible service to you are
   unprofitable. The same spirit which made the Puritan refuse to
   reverence the so-called holy days and holy things of superstition led
   him so to reverence God and His sacred Law that He would not join in
   the debasing amusements of the period, which were, indeed, so gross, as
   a rule, that even irreligious people would not, in these times, endure
   them.

   We have somewhat of the same protest to bear and we must not flinch
   from it. We have better joys than the wanton and the foolish can bring
   to us. We say of a pastime--if this is pure and clean, if this is
   health-giving to the body, or restful and invigorating to the mind--we
   are not led by any old-fashioned whim to denounce it and we do not
   denounce it. But if about it there is a taint of vice or a temptation
   that way, or if it is mere folly, we cannot endure it. We venture not
   where Jesus would not have gone. We would not go where we should be
   afraid to die, or should tremble to hear the trumpet announcing the
   coming of the Lord. This is stern teaching--are you enough on the
   Lord's side to bear it? I pray God to put backbones into modern
   professors! Every other part of their bodies seems to grow firm except
   their spinal column, which remains soft and easily distorted. We need
   to be made resolute and faithful on the Lord's side!

   "Oh," says one, "these are small points." Yes, but I want you to be
   like the Spartan who painted on his shield a fly. "Your escutcheon is
   very small," said one. "True," he said, "but I hold it very close to
   the enemy." If our points of conscience seem to be small, so much the
   more need that we hold them in the very faces of those who think little
   of the things of God! A small point where God is involved is a great
   matter! Trifling with small things leads to trifling with great things!
   Lastly, we need firm decision for God and bold acknowledgment of it in
   this day of general tampering with principle. Numbers of people whom we
   meet say, "You are right, no doubt, but--." Now, the Christian way of
   talking is, "If it is right we know no, 'but'!" "Oh, yes," says one, "I
   agree that it is the straight thing and yet--." A genuine Christian has
   no, "and yets."

   If words plainly mean such-and-such a thing, he uses them in that sense
   and not in an unnatural sense. And he never dares to say, "I know that
   such-and-such things are wrong and they trouble my conscience, but
   still, you see, I am doing a vast amount of good and we must submit to
   a little evil in order to gain a great good." The plain Christian will
   do no evil that good may come--he loathes the Jesuitical notion! He
   believes that it is a great evil to attempt to do good by doing evil.
   To him, truth, right, the teaching of God, the will of Christ are
   supreme objects. Oh, that you all possessed this spirit and were
   steadfast in it! In your family circle; in your
   business--everywhere--be true, be thorough, be upright, be godlike, be
   Christ-like and may the Divine Spirit help you to this, for Jesus
   Christ's sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

                         The Holy Spirit's Intercession

   A Sermon

   (No. 1532)

   Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, April 11th, 1880, by

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what
   we should what pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh
   intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that
   searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he
   maketh intercession for the saints according the to will of God.'Romans
   8:26,27.

   THE APOSTLE PAUL was writing to a tried and afflicted people, and one
   of his objects was to remind them of the rivers of comfort which were
   flowing near at hand. He first of all stirred up their pure minds by
   way of remembrance as to their sonship,'for saith he as many as are led
   by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.' They were, therefore,
   encouraged to take part and lot with Christ, the elder brother, with
   whom they had become joint heirs; and they were exhorted to suffer with
   him, that they might afterwards be glorified with him. All that they
   endured came from a Father's hand, and this should comfort them. A
   thousand sources of joy are opened in that one blessing of adoption.
   Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have
   been begotten into the family of grace.

   When Paul had alluded to that consoling subject he turned to the next
   ground of comfort'namely, that we are to be sustained under present
   trial by hope. There is an amazing glory in reserve for us, and though
   as yet we cannot enter upon it, but in harmony with the whole creation
   must continue to groan and travail, yet the hope itself should minister
   strength to us, and enable us patiently to bear these light
   afflictions, which are but for a moment.' This also is a truth full of
   sacred refreshment: hope sees a crown in reserve, mansions in
   readiness, and Jesus himself preparing a place for us, and by the
   rapturous sight she sustains the soul under the sorrows of the hour.
   Hope is the grand anchor by whose means we ride out the present storm.

   The apostle then turns to a third source of comfort, namely, the
   abiding of the Holy Spirit in and with the Lord's people. He uses the
   word likewise' to intimate that in the same manner as hope sustains the
   soul, so does the Holy Spirit strengthen us under trial. Hope operated
   spiritually upon our spiritual faculties, and so does the Holy Spirit,
   in some mysterious way, divinely operate upon the new-born faculties of
   the believer, so that he is sustained under his infirmities. In his
   light shall we see light: I pray, therefore, that we may be helped of
   the Spirit while we consider his mysterious operations, that we may not
   fall into error or miss precious truth through blindness of heart.

   The text speaks of our infirmities,' or as many translators put it in
   the singular'of our infirmity.' By this is intended our affliction, and
   the weakness which trouble discovers in us. The Holy Spirit helps us to
   bear the infirmity of our body and of our mind; he helps us to bear our
   cross, whether it be physical pain, or mental depression, or spiritual
   conflict, or slander, or poverty, or persecution. He helps our
   infirmity; and with a helper so divinely strong we need not fear for
   the result. God's grace will be sufficient for us; his strength will be
   made perfect in weakness.

   I think, dear friends, you will all admit that if a man can pray, his
   trouble is at once lightened. When we feel that we have power with God
   and can obtain anything we ask for at his hands, then our difficulties
   cease to oppress us. We take our burden to our heavenly Father and tell
   it out in the accents of childlike confidence, and we come away quite
   content to bear whatever his holy will may lay upon us. Prayer is a
   great outlet for grief; it draws up the sluices, and abates the
   swelling flood, which else might be too strong for us. We bathe our
   wound in the lotion of prayer, and the pain is lulled, the fever is
   removed. We may be brought into such perturbation of mind, and
   perplexity of heart, that we do not know how to pray. We see the
   mercy-seat, and we perceive that God will hear us: we have no doubt
   about that, for we know that we are his own favoured children, and yet
   we hardly know what to desire. We fall into such heaviness of spirit,
   and entanglement of thought, that the one remedy of prayer, which we
   have always found to be unfailing, appears to be taken from us. Here,
   then, in the nick of time, as a very present help in time of trouble,
   comes in the Holy Spirit. He draws near to teach us how to pray, and in
   this way he helps our infirmity, relieves our suffering, and enables us
   to bear the heavy burden without fainting under the load.

   At this time our subjects for consideration shall be, firstly, the help
   which the Holy Spirit gives; secondly, the prayers which he inspires;
   and thirdly, the success which such prayers ore certain to obtain.

   I. First, then, let us consider THE HELP WHICH THE HOLY GHOST GIVES.

   The help which the Holy Ghost renders to us meets the weakness which we
   deplore. As I have already said, if in time of trouble a man can pray,
   his burden loses its weight. If the believer can take anything and
   everything to God, then he learns to glory in infirmity, and to rejoice
   in tribulation; but sometimes we are in such confusion of mind that we
   know not what we should pray for as we ought. In a measure, through our
   ignorance, we never know what we should pray for until we are taught of
   the Spirit of God, but there are times when this beclouding of the soul
   is dense indeed, and we do not even know what would help us out of our
   trouble if we could obtain it. He see the disease, but the name of the
   medicine is not known to us. We look over the many things which we
   might ask for of the Lord, and we feel that each of them would be
   helpful, but that none of them would precisely meet our case. For
   spiritual blessings which we know to be according to the divine will we
   could ask with confidence, but perhaps these would not meet our
   peculiar circumstances. There are other things for which we are allowed
   to ask, but we scarcely know whether, if we had them, they would really
   serve our turn, and we also feel a diffidence as to praying for them.
   In praying for temporal things we plead with measured voices, ever
   referring our petition for revision to the will of the Lord. Moses
   prayed that he might enter Canaan, but God denied him; and the man that
   was healed asked our Lord that he might be with him, but he received
   for answer, Go home to thy friends.' We pray evermore on such matters
   with this reserve, Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.' At
   times this very spirit of resignation appears to increase our spiritual
   difficulty, for we do not wish to ask for anything that would be
   contrary to the mind of God and yet we must ask for something. We are
   reduced to such straits that we must pray, but what shall be the
   particular subject of prayer we cannot for a while make out. Even when
   ignorance and perplexity are removed, we know not what we should pray
   for as we ought.' When we know the matter of prayer, we yet fail to
   pray in a right manner. We ask, but we are afraid that we shall not
   have, because we do not exercise the thought, or the faith, which we
   judge to be essential to prayer. We cannot at times command even the
   earnestness which is the life of supplication: a torpor steals over us,
   our heart is chilled, our hand is numbed, and we cannot wrestle with
   the angel. We know what to pray for as to objects, but we do not know
   what to pray for as we ought' it is the manner of the prayer which
   perplexes us, even when the matter is decided upon. How can I pray? My
   mind wanders: I chatter like a crane; I roar like a beast in pain; I
   moan in the brokenness of my heart, but oh, my God, I know not what it
   is my inmost spirit needs; or if I know it, I know not how to frame my
   petition aright before thee. I know not how to open my lips in thy
   majestic presence: I am so troubled that I cannot speak. My spiritual
   distress robs me of the power to pour out my heart before my God. Now,
   beloved, it is in such a plight as this that the Holy Ghost aids us
   with his divine help. and hence he is a very present help in time of
   trouble.'

   Coming to our aid in our bewilderment he instructs us. This is one of
   his frequent operations upon the mind of the believer: he shall teach
   you all things.' He instructs us as to our need, and as to the promises
   of God which refer to that need. He shows us where our deficiencies
   are, what our sins are, and what our necessities are; he sheds a light
   upon our condition, and makes us feel deeply our helplessness,
   sinfulness, and dire poverty; and then he casts the same light upon the
   promises of the Word, and lays home to the heart that very text which
   was intended to meet the occasion'the precise promise which was framed
   with foresight of our present distress. In that light he makes the
   promise shine in all its truthfulness, certainty, sweetness, and
   suitability, so that we, poor trembling sons of men, dare take that
   word into our mouth which first came out of God's mouth, and then come
   with it as an argument, and plead it before the throne of the heavenly
   grace. Our prevalence in prayer lies in the plea, Lord, do as thou hast
   said.' How greatly we ought to value the Holy Spirit, because when we
   are in the dark he gives us light, and when our perplexed spirit is so
   befogged and beclouded that it cannot see its own need, and cannot find
   out the appropriate promise in the Scriptures, the Spirit of God comes
   in and teaches us all things, and brings all things to our remembrance,
   whatsoever our Lord has told us. He guides us in prayer, and thus he
   helps our infirmity.

   But the blessed Spirit does more than this, he will often direct the
   mind to the special subject of prayer. He dwells within us as a
   counsellor, and points out to us what it is we should seek at the hands
   of God. We do not know why it is so, but we sometimes find our minds
   carried as by a strong under current into a particular line of prayer
   for some one definite object. It is not merely that our judgment leads
   us in that direction, though usually the Spirit of God acts upon us by
   enlightening our judgment, but we often feel an unaccountable and
   irresistible desire rising again and again within our heart, and this
   so presses upon us, that we not only utter the desire before God at our
   ordinary times for prayer, but we feel it crying in our hearts all the
   day long, almost to the supplanting of all other considerations. At
   such times we should thank God for direction and give our desire a
   clear road: the Holy Spirit is granting us inward direction as to how
   we should reckon upon good success in our pleadings. Such guidance will
   the Spirit give to each of you if you will ask him to illuminate you.
   He will guide you both negatively and positively. Negatively, he will
   forbid you to pray for such and such a thing, even as Paul essayed to
   go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered him not: and, on other hand,
   he will cause you to hear a cry within your soul which shall guide your
   petitions, even as he made Paul hear the cry from Macedonia, saying,
   Come over and help us.' The Spirit teaches wisely, as no other teacher
   can do. Those who obey his promptings shall not walk in darkness. He
   leads the spiritual eye to take good and steady aim at the very centre
   of the target, and thus we hit the mark in our pleadings.

   Nor is this all, for the spirit of God is not sent merely to guide and
   help our devotion, but he himself maketh intercession for us' according
   to the will of God. By this expression it cannot be meant that the Holy
   Spirit ever groans or personally prays; but that he excites intense
   desire and created unutterable groanings in us, and these are ascribed
   to him. Even as Solomon built the temple because he superintended and
   ordained all, and yet I know not that he ever fashioned a timber or
   prepared a stone, so doth the Holy Spirit pray and plead within us by
   leading us to pray and plead. This he does by arousing our desires. The
   Holy Spirit has a wonderful power over renewed hearts, as much power as
   the skillful minstrel hath over the strings among which he lays his
   accustomed hand. The influences of the Holy Ghost at times pass through
   the soul like winds through an Eolian harp, creating and inspiring
   sweet notes of gratitude and tones of desire, to which we should have
   been strangers if it had not been for his divine visitation. He can
   arouse us from our lethargy, he can warm us out of our lukewarmness, he
   can enable us when we are on our knees to rise above the ordinary
   routine of prayer into that victorious importunity against which
   nothing can stand. He can lay certain desires so pressingly upon our
   hearts that we can never rest till they are fulfilled. He can make the
   zeal for God's house to eat us up, and the passion for God's glory to
   be like a fire within our bones; and this is one part of that process
   by which in inspiring our prayers he helps our infirmity. True Advocate
   is he, and Comforter most effectual. Blessed be his name.

   The Holy Spirit also divinely operates in the strengthening of the
   faith of believers. That faith is at first of his creating, and
   afterwards it is of his sustaining and increasing: and oh, brothers and
   sisters, have you not often felt your faith rise in proportion to your
   trials? Have you not, like Noah's ark, mounted towards heaven as the
   flood deepened around you? You have felt as sure about the promise as
   you felt about the trial. The affliction was, as it were, in your very
   bones, but the promise was also in your very heart. You could not doubt
   the affliction, for you smarted under it, but you might almost as soon
   have doubted the divine help, for your confidence was firm and unmoved.
   The greatest faith is only what God has a right to expect from us, yet
   do we never exhibit it except as the Holy Ghost strengthens our
   confidence, and opens up before us the covenant with all its seals and
   securities. He it is that leads our soul to cry, though my house be not
   so with God, yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant ordered
   in all things and sure.' Blessed be the Divine Spirit then, that since
   faith is essential to prevailing prayer, he helps us in supplication by
   increasing our faith. Without faith prayer cannot speed, for he that
   wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed, and
   such an one may not expect anything of the Lord; happy are we when the
   Holy Spirit removes our wavering, and enables us like Abraham to
   believe without staggering, knowing full well that he who has promised
   is able also to perform.

   By three figures I will endeavour to describe the work of the Spirit of
   God in this matter, though they all fall short, and indeed all that I
   can say must fall infinitely short of the glory of his work. The actual
   mode of his working upon the mind we may not attempt to explain; it
   remains a mystery, and it would be an unholy intrusion to attempt to
   remove the veil. There is no difficulty in our believing that as one
   human mind operates upon another mind, so does the Holy Spirit
   influence our spirits. We are forced to use words if we would influence
   our fellow-men, but the Spirit of God can operate upon the human mind
   more directly, and communicate with it in silence. Into that matter,
   however, we will not dive lest we intrude where our knowledge would be
   drowned by our presumption.

   My illustrations do not touch the mystery, but set forth the grace. The
   Holy Spirit acts to his people somewhat as a prompter to a reciter. A
   man has to deliver a piece which he has learned; but his memory is
   treacherous, and therefore somewhere out of sight there is a prompter,
   so that when the speaker is at a loss and might use a wrong word, a
   whisper is heard, which suggests the right one. When the speaker has
   almost lost the thread of his discourse he turns his ear, and the
   prompter gives him the catch-word and aids his memory. If I may be
   allowed the simile, I would say that this represents in part the work
   of the Spirit of God in us,'suggesting to us the right desire, and
   bringing all things to our remembrance whatsoever Christ has told us.
   In prayer we should often come to a dead stand, but he incites,
   suggests, and inspires, and so we go onward. In prayer we might grow
   weary, but the Comforter encourages and refreshes us with cheering
   thoughts. When, indeed, we are in our bewilderment almost driven to
   give up prayer, the whisper of his love drops a live coal from off the
   altar into our soul, and our hearts glow with greater ardour than
   before. Regard the Holy Spirit as your prompter, and let your ear be
   opened to his voice.

   But he is much more than this. Let me attempt a second simile: he is as
   an advocate to one in peril at law. Suppose that a poor man had a great
   law-suit, touching his whole estate, and he was forced personally to go
   into court and plead his own cause, and speak up for his rights. If he
   were an uneducated man he would be in a poor plight. An adversary in
   the court might plead against him, and overthrow him, for he could not
   answer him. This poor man knows very little about law, and is quite
   unable to meet his cunning opponent. Suppose one who was perfect in the
   law should take up his cause warmly, and come and live with him, and
   use all his knowledge so as to prepare his case for him, draw up his
   petitions for him, and fill his mouth with arguments,'would not that be
   a grand relief? This counsellor would suggest the line of pleading,
   arrange the arguments, and put them into right courtly language. When
   the poor man was baffled by a question asked in court, he would run
   home and ask his adviser, and he would tell him exactly how to meet the
   objector. Suppose, too, that when he had to plead with the judge
   himself, this advocate at home should teach him how to behave and what
   to urge, and encourage him to hope that he would prevail,'would not
   this be a great boon? Who would be the pleader in such a case? The poor
   client would plead, but still, when he won the suit, he would trace it
   all to the advocate who lived at home, and gave him counsel: indeed, it
   would be the advocate pleading for him, even while he pleaded himself.
   This is an instructive emblem of a great fact. Within this narrow house
   of my body, this tenement of clay, if I be a true believer, there
   dwells the Holy Ghost, and when I desire to pray I may ask him what I
   should pray for as I ought, and he will help me. He will write the
   prayers which I ought to offer upon the tablets of my heart, and I
   shall see them there, and so I shall be taught how to plead. It will be
   the Spirit's own self pleading in me, and by me, and through me, before
   the throne of grace. What a happy man in his law-suit would such a poor
   man be, and how happy are you and I that we have the Holy Ghost to be
   our Counsellor!

   Yet one more illustration: it is that of a father aiding his boy.
   Suppose it to be a time of war centuries back. Old English warfare was
   then conducted by bowmen to a great extent. Here is a youth who is to
   be initiated in the art of archery, and therefore he carries a bow. It
   is a strong bow, and therefore very hard to draw; indeed, it requires
   more strength than the urchin can summon to bend it. See how his father
   teaches him. Put your right hand here, my boy, and place your left hand
   so. Now pull'; and as the youth pulls, his father's hands are on his
   hands, and the bow is drawn. The lad draws the bow: ay, but it is quite
   as much his father, too. We cannot draw the bow of prayer alone.
   Sometimes a bow of steel is not broken by our hands, for we cannot even
   bend it; and then the Holy Ghost puts his mighty hand over ours, and
   covers our weakness so that we draw; and lo, what splendid drawing of
   the bow it is them! The bow bends so easily we wonder how it is; away
   flies the arrow, and it pierces the very centre of the target, for he
   who giveth have won the day, but it was his secret might that made us
   strong, and to him be the glory of it.

   Thus have I tried to set forth the cheering fact that the Spirit helps
   the people of God.

   II. Our second subject is THE PRAYER WHICH THE HOLY SPIRIT INSPIRES, or
   that part of prayer which is especially and peculiarly the work of the
   Spirit of God. The text says, The Spirit itself maketh intercession for
   us with groanings which cannot be uttered.' It is not the Spirit that
   groans, but we that groan; but as I have shown you, the Spirit excited
   the emotion which causes us to groan.

   It is clear then the prayers which are indited in us by the spirit of
   God are those which arise from our inmost soul. A man's heart is moved
   when he groans. A groan is a matter about which there is no hypocrisy.
   A groan cometh not from the lips, but from the heart. A groan then is a
   part of prayer which we owe to the Holy Ghost, and the same is true of
   all the prayer which wells up from the deep fountains of our inner
   life. The prophet cried, My bowels, my bowels, I am pained at my very
   heart: my heart maketh a noise in me.' This deep ground-swell of
   desire, this tidal motion of the life-floods is caused by the Holy
   Spirit. His work is never superficial, but always deep and inward.

   Such prayers will rise within us when the mind is far too troubled to
   let us speak. We know not what we should pray for as we ought, and then
   it is that we groan, or utter some other inarticulate sound. Hezekiah
   said, like a crane or a swallow did I chatter.' The psalmist said, I am
   so troubled that I cannot I have roared by reason of the disquietness
   of my heart'; but he added, Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my
   groaning is not hid from thee.' The sighing of the prisoner surely
   cometh up into the ears of the Lord. There is real prayer in these
   groanings that cannot be uttered.' It is the power of the Holy Ghost in
   us which creates all real prayer, even that which takes the form of a
   groan because the mind is incapable, by reason of its bewilderment and
   grief, of clothing its emotion in words. I pray you never think lightly
   of the supplications of your anguish. Rather judge that such prayers
   are like Jabez, of whom it is written, that he was more honourable than
   his brethren, because his mother bare him with sorrow.' That which is
   thrown up from the depth of the soul, when it is stirred with a
   terrible tempest, is more precious than pearl or coral, for it is the
   intercession of the Holy Spirit.

   These prayers are sometimes groanings that cannot be uttered,' because
   they concern such great things that they cannot be spoken. I want, my
   Lord! I want, I want; I cannot tell thee what I want: but I seem to
   want all things. If it were some little thing, my narrow capacity could
   comprehend and describe it, but I need all covenant blessings. Thou
   knowest what I have need of before I ask thee, and though I cannot go
   into each item of my need, I know it to be very great, and such as I
   myself can never estimate. I groan, for I can do no more. Prayers which
   are the offspring of great desires, sublime aspirations, and elevated
   designs are surely the work of the Holy Spirit, and their power within
   a man is frequently so great that he cannot find expression for them.
   Words fail, and even the sighs which try to embody them cannot be
   uttered.

   But it may be, beloved, that we groan because we are conscious of the
   littleness of our desire, and the narrowness of our faith. The trial,
   too. may seem too mean to pray about. I have known what it is to feel
   as if I could not pray about a certain matter, and yet I have been
   obliged to groan about it. A thorn in the flesh may be as painful a
   thing as a sword in the bones, and yet we may go and beseech the Lord
   thrice about it, and getting no answer we may feel that we know not
   what to pray for as we ought; and yet it makes us groan. Yes, and with
   that natural groan there may go up an unutterable groaning of the Holy
   Spirit. Beloved, what a different view of prayer God has from that
   which men think to be the correct one. You may have seen very beautiful
   prayers in print, and you may have heard very charming compositions
   from the pulpit, but I trust you have not fallen in love with them.
   Judge these things rightly. I pray you never think well of fine
   prayers, for before the thrice holy God it ill becomes a sinful
   suppliant to play the orator. We heard of a certain clergyman who was
   said to have given forth the finest prayer ever offered to a Boston
   audience.' Just so! The Boston audience received the prayer, and there
   it ended. We want the mind of the spirit in prayer, and not he mind of
   the flesh. The tail feathers of pride should be pulled out of our
   prayers, for they need only the wing feathers of faith; the peacock
   feathers of poetical expression are out of place before the throne of
   God. Hear me, what remarkably beautiful language he used in prayer!'
   What an intellectual treat his prayer was! Yes, yes; but God looks at
   the heart. To him fine language is as sounding brass or tinkling
   cymbal, but a groan has music in it. We do not like groans: our ears
   are much too delicate to tolerate such dreary sounds; but not so the
   great Father of spirits. A Methodist brother cries, Amen,' and you say,
   I cannot bear such Methodistic noise'; no, but if it comes from the
   man's heart God can bear it. When you get upstairs into your chamber
   this evening to pray, and find you cannot pray, but have to moan out,
   Lord, I am too full of anguish and too perplexed to pray, hear thou the
   voice of my roaring,' though you reach to nothing else you will be
   really praying. When like David we can say, I opened my mouth and
   panted,' we are by no means in an ill state of mind. All fine language
   in prayer, and especially all intoning or performing of prayers, must
   be abhorrent to God; it is little short of profanity to offer solemn
   supplication to God after the manner called intoning.' The sighing of a
   true heart is infinitely more acceptable, for it is the work of the
   Spirit of God.

   We may say of the prayers which the Holy Spirit works in us that they
   are prayers of knowledge. Notice, our difficulty is that we know not
   what we should pray for; but the Holy Spirit does know, and therefore
   he helps us by enabling us to pray intelligently, knowing what we are
   asking for, so far as this knowledge is needful to valid prayer. The
   text speaks of the mind of the Spirit.' What a mind that must be!'the
   mind of that Spirit who arranged all the order which now pervades this
   earth! There once was chaos and confusion, but the Holy Spirit brooded
   over all, and His mind is the originator of that beautiful arrangement
   which we so admire in the visible creation. What a mind his must be!
   The Holy Spirit's mind is seen in our intercessions when under his
   sacred influence we order our case before the Lord, and plead with holy
   wisdom for things convenient and necessary. What wise and admirable
   desires must those be which the Spirit of Wisdom himself works in us!

   Moreover, the Holy Spirit's intercession creates prayers offered in a
   proper manner. I showed you that the difficulty is that we know not
   what we should pray for as we ought,' and the Spirit meets that
   difficulty by making intercession for us in a right manner. The Holy
   Spirit works in us humility, earnestness, intensity, importunity,
   faith, and resignation, and all else that is acceptable to God in our
   supplications. We know not how to mingle these sacred spices in the
   incense of prayer. We, if left to ourselves at our very best, get too
   much of one ingredient or another, and spoil the sacred compound, but
   the Holy Spirit's intercessions have in them such a blessed blending of
   all that is good that they come up as a sweet perfume before the Lord.
   Spirit-taught prayers are offered as they ought to be. They are his own
   intercession in some respects, for we read that the Holy Spirit not
   only helps us to intercede but maketh intercession.' It is twice over
   declared in our text that he maketh intercession for us; and the
   meaning of this I tried to show when I described a father as putting
   his hands upon his child's hands. This is something more than helping
   us to pray, something more than encouraging us or directing us,'but I
   venture no further, except to say that he puts such force of his own
   mind into our poor weak thoughts and desires and hopes, that he himself
   maketh intercession for us, working in us to will and to pray according
   to his good pleasure.

   I want you to notice, however, that these intercessions of the Spirit
   are only in the saints. He maketh intercession for us,' and He maketh
   intercession for the saints.' Does he do nothing for sinners, then?
   Yes, he quickens sinners into spiritual life, and he strives with them
   to overcome their sinfulness and turn them into the right way; but in
   the saints he works with us and enables us to pray after his mind and
   according to the will of God. His intercession is not in or for the
   unregenerate. O, unbelievers you must first be made saints or you
   cannot feel the Spirit's intercession within you. What need we have to
   go to Christ for the blessing of the Holy Ghost, which is peculiar to
   the children of God, and can only be ours by faith in Christ Jesus! To
   as man as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of
   God'; and to the sons of God alone cometh the Spirit of adoption, and
   all his helping grace. Unless we are the sons of God the Holy Spirit's
   indwelling shall not be ours: we are shut out from the intercession of
   the Holy Ghost, ay, and from the intercession of Jesus too, for he hath
   said, I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me.'

   Thus I have tried to show you the kind of prayer which the Spirit
   inspires.

   III. Our third and last point is THE SURE SUCCESS OF ALL SUCH PRAYERS.

   All the prayers which the Spirit of God inspires in us must succeed,
   because, first, there is a meaning in them which God reads and
   approves. When the Spirit of God writes a prayer upon a man's heart,
   the man himself may be in such a state of mind that he does not
   altogether know what it is. His interpretation of it is a groan, and
   that is all. Perhaps he does not even get so far as that in expressing
   the mind of the Spirit, but he feels greenings which he cannot utter,
   he cannot find a door of utterance for his inward grief. Yet our
   heavenly Father, who looks immediately upon the heart, reads what the
   Spirit of God has indited there, and does not need even our groans to
   explain the meaning. He reads the heart itself: he knoweth,' says the
   text, what is the mind of the Spirit.' The Spirit is one with the
   Father, and the Father knows what the Spirit means. The desires which
   the Spirit prompts may be too spiritual for such babes in grace as we
   are actually to describe or to express, and yet the Spirit writes the
   desire on the renewed mind, and the Father sees it. Now that which God
   reads in the heart and approves of'for the word to know' in this case
   includes approval as well as the mere act of omniscience'what God sees
   and approves of in the heart must succeed. Did not Jesus say, Your
   heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of these things before you
   ask them'? Did he not tell us this as an encouragement to believe that
   we shall receive all needful blessings? So it is with those prayers
   which are all broken up, wet with tears, and discordant with those
   sighs and inarticulate expressions and heavings of the bosom, and
   sobbings of the heart and anguish and bitterness of spirit, our
   gracious Lord reads them as a man reads a book, and they are written in
   a character which he fully understands. To give a simple figure: if I
   were to come into your house I might find there a little child that
   cannot yet speak plainly. It cries for something, and it makes very odd
   and objectionable noises, combined with signs and movements, which are
   almost meaningless to stranger, but his mother understands him, and
   attends to his little pleadings. A mother can translate baby-talk: she
   comprehends incomprehensible noises. Even so doth our Father in heaven
   know all about our poor baby talk, for our prayer is not much better.
   He knows and comprehends the cryings, and meanings, and sighings, and
   chatterings of his bewildered children. Yea, a tender mother knows her
   child's needs before the child knows what it wants. Perhaps the little
   one stutters, stammers, and cannot get its words out, but the mother
   sees what he would say, and takes the meaning. Even so we know
   concerning our great Father:'

   He knows the thoughts we mean to speak,

   Ere from our opening lips the break.'

   Do you therefore rejoice in this, that because the prayers of the
   Spirit are known and understood of God, therefore they will be sure to
   speed.

   The next argument for making us sure that they will speed is this'that
   they are the mind of the Spirit.' God the ever blessed is one, and
   there can be no division between the Father, the Son, and the Holy
   Ghost. These divine persons always work together, and there is a common
   desire for the glory of each blessed Person of the Divine Unity, and
   therefore it cannot be conceived without profanity, that anything could
   be the mind of the Holy Spirit and not be the mind of the Father and
   the mind of the Son. The mind of God is one and harmonious; if,
   therefore, the Holy Spirit dwells in you, and he move you to any
   desire, then his mind is in your prayer, and it is not possible that
   the eternal Father should reject your petitions. That prayer which came
   from heaven will certainly go back to heaven. If the Holy Ghost prompts
   it, the Father must and will accept it, for it is not possible that he
   should put a slight upon the ever blessed and adorable Spirit.

   But one more word, and that circles the argument, namely, that the work
   of the Spirit in the heart is not only the mind of the Spirit which God
   knows, but it is also according to the will or mind of God, for he
   never maketh intercession in us other than is consistent with the
   divine will. Now, the divine will or mind may be viewed two ways.
   First, there is the will declared in the proclamations of holiness by
   the Ten Commandments. The Spirit of God never prompts us to ask for
   anything that is unholy or inconsistent with the precepts of the Lord.
   Then secondly, there is the secret mind of God, the will of his eternal
   predestination and decree, of which we know nothing; but we do know
   this, that the Spirit of God never prompts us to ask anything which is
   contrary to the eternal purpose of God. Reflect for a moment: the Holy
   Spirit knows all the purposes of God, and when they are about to be
   fulfilled, he moves the children of God to pray about them, and so
   their prayers keep touch and tally with the divine decrees. Oh would
   you not pray confidently if you knew that your prayer corresponded with
   the sealed book of destiny? We may safely entreat the Lord to do what
   he has ordained to do. A carnal man draws the inference that if God has
   ordained an event we need not pray about it, but faith obediently draws
   the inference that the God who secretly ordained to give the blessing
   has openly commanded that we should pray for it, and therefore faith
   obediently prays. Coming events cast their shadows before them, and
   when God is about to bless his people his coming favour casts the
   shadow of prayer over the church. When he is about to favour an
   individual he casts the shadow of hopeful expectation over his soul.
   Our prayers, let men laugh at them as they will, and say there is no
   power in them, are the indicators of the movement of the wheels of
   Providence. Believing supplications are forecasts of the future, He who
   prayeth in faith is like the seer of old, he sees that which is to be:
   his holy expectancy, like a telescope, brings distant objects near to
   him. He is bold to declare that he has the petition which he has asked
   of God, and he therefore begins to rejoice and to praise God, even
   before the blessing has actually arrived. So it is: prayer prompted by
   the Holy Spirit is the footfall of the divine decree.

   I conclude by saying, see, my dear hearers, the absolute necessity of
   the Holy Spirit, for if the saints know not what they should pray for
   as they ought; if consecrated men and women, with Christ suffering in
   them, still feel their need of the instruction of the Holy Spirit, how
   much more do you who are not saints, and have never given yourselves up
   to God, require divine teaching! On, that you would know and feel your
   dependence upon the Holy Ghost that he may prompt the once crucified
   but now ascended Redeemer that this gift of the Spirit, this promise of
   the Father, is shed abroad upon men. May he who comes from Jesus lead
   you to Jesus.

   And, then O ye people of God, let this last thought abide with
   you,'what condescension is this that Divine Person should dwell in you
   for ever, and that he should be with you to help your prayers. Listen
   to me for a moment. If I read in the Scriptures that in the most heroic
   acts of faith God the Holy Ghost helpeth his people, I can understand
   it; if I read that in the sweetest music of their songs when they
   worship best, and chant their loftiest strains before the Most High
   God, the Spirit helpeth them, I can understand it; and even if I hear
   that in their wrestling prayers and prevalent intercessions God the
   Holy Spirit helpeth them, I can understand it: but I bow with reverent
   amazement, my heart sinking into the dust with adoration, when I
   reflect that God the Holy Ghost helps us when we cannot speak, but only
   groan. Yea, and when we cannot even utter our groanings, he doth not
   only help us but he claims as his own particular creation the groanings
   that cannot be uttered.' This is condescension indeed! In deigning to
   help us in the grief that cannot even vent itself in groaning, he
   proves himself to be a true Comforter. O God, my God, thou hast not
   forsaken me: thou art not far from me, nor from the voice of my
   roaring. Thou didst for awhile leave the Firstborn when he was made a
   curse for us, so that he cried in agony, Why hast thou forsaken me?'
   but thou wilt not leave one of the many brethren' for whom he died: the
   Spirit shall be with them, and when they cannot so much as groan he
   will make intercession for them with groanings that cannot be uttered.
   God bless you, my beloved brethren, and may you feel the Spirit of the
   Lord thus working in you and with you. Amen and amen.

   PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON'Romans 8:14 to end.

   HYMNS FROM OUR OWN HYMN BOOK'1009, 978, 400.
     __________________________________________________________________

Fear Not

   (No. 1533)

   DELIVERED ON TUESDAY EVENING, MARCH 9, 1880,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE SHOREDITCH TABERNACLE, ERECTED FOR THE CONGREGATION OF PASTOR W.
   CUFF.

   "Fear not." Revelation 1:17.

   "FEAR not" is a plant which grows very plentifully in God's garden. If
   you look through the lily beds of Scripture you will continually find,
   by the side of other flowers, the sweet, "Fear nots" peering out from
   doctrines and precepts even as violets look up from their hiding among
   places of green leaves. "Fear nots" bloomed in the old times at the
   feet of Abraham when he returned from fighting with the kings.
   Melchisedec blessed him and the Lord comforted him. The Patriarch might
   have been half afraid that he would always lead a troubled life, now
   that he had once drawn the sword. But the Lord came to him in vision
   and said, "Fear not, Abram. I am your shield and your exceedingly great
   reward." If he had to undergo a soldier's toils, he should have a
   soldier's shield and a soldier's pay and both should be exceedingly
   great, for he should find them both in God!

   After you have been fighting battles for Christ you may feel weary and
   worried and then your great Melchisedec will refresh you with bread and
   wine and whisper in your ear, "Fear not." A "Fear not" was spoken to
   Isaac when he had dug wells and the Philistines fought for them and he,
   like the meek soul that he was, gave them up, one by one, to avoid a
   conflict. At last he settled down at Beersheba and there the Lord
   appeared unto him and said, "Fear not, for I am with you and will bless
   you." He was a feeble man and, therefore, the Lord dealt tenderly with
   him. If any of you are meek and quiet spirits and rather apt to tremble
   exceedingly, may the Lord often give you a blessed, "Fear not" to wear
   in your bosoms that its fragrance may comfort your hearts.

   Then there was Jacob. You know how troubled his life was, but when he
   heard that his beloved son whom he thought was dead was alive in Egypt
   and was clothed with glory and that he had sent for him to go down to
   see him, he was afraid to go till the Lord said to him, "Fear not to go
   down into Egypt," and gave him this encouraging promise, "I will go
   down with you into Egypt." If any of you are making a great change in
   life and moving, perhaps, to the very ends of the earth, "fear not to
   go down into Egypt!" Should God command you to go to the utmost edge of
   the green earth, to rivers unknown to you, yet if He bids you go, fear
   not to go down into Egypt, for certainly He will be with you!

   The Israelites at the Red Sea were afraid of Pharaoh and then the Lord
   said to them, "Fear not, stand still and see the salvation of God." If
   you are brought to a pass tonight and know not what to do, take the
   advice of Holy Scripture and, "Fear not"--"stand still and see the
   salvation of God." As we observe the Scriptures we perceive that "Fear
   nots" are scattered throughout the Bible as the stars are sprinkled
   over the whole of the sky. But when we come to Isaiah, we find
   constellations of them! When I was a boy I learned Dr. Watts' Catechism
   and I am glad I did. One of its questions runs thus, "Who was Isaiah?"
   And the answer is, "He was that Prophet who spoke more of Jesus Christ
   than all the rest."

   Very well and for that very reason--that he spoke more of Jesus Christ
   than all the rest--he is richest in comfort to the people of God and
   continually he is saying, "Fear not." Here are a few of his antidotes
   for the fever of fear--"Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be
   strong, fear not." "Fear you not, for I am with you; be not dismayed,
   for I am your God." "Fear not, I will help you." "Fear not, you worm
   Jacob." "Fear not, I have redeemed you." "Fear not, for you shall not
   be ashamed; neither be you confounded, for you shall not be put to
   shame" and so on. I was going to say, "world without end." So abundant
   are these, "Fear nots," that they grow like the king-cups and the
   daisies and other sweet flowers of the meadows among which the little
   children in the springtime delight themselves. As to gathering them
   all, no one would attempt the task. The bank that is fullest of these
   beautiful flowers is that which Isaiah has cast up--go there and pluck
   them for yourselves.

   Now I gather from the plentifulness of "Fear nots," even in the Old
   Testament, that the Lord does not wish His people to be afraid. I
   gather that He is glad to see His people full of courage and especially
   that He does not love them to be afraid of Him. He would have His
   children treat Him with confidence. Slavish fear may be thought to be
   congenial to the Old Testament and yet it is not so, for there the Lord
   cries to His chosen, "Fear not." When we come into the New Testament,
   there we see God coming more familiarly to men than ever before--not
   descending upon Paran with 10,000 flaming chariots, setting the
   mountain on a blaze--but coming down to Bethlehem in an Infant's form
   with angels chanting the joyful words, "Glory to God in the highest and
   on earth peace, goodwill toward men."

   The genius of the New Testament is drawing near to God--ceasing to
   tremble and beginning to trust--ceasing to be the slave and learning to
   be the child! Though in the precise form of it, the words of my text
   were not very often spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ, yet His whole life
   was one long proclamation of, "Fear not." I think I shall give you,
   to-night, most of the instances in which our Lord Himself expressly
   said, "Fear not," and, as each one I shall give you will either come
   from the lips of Christ, or else from Christ's own angel sent to
   comfort one of His servants, I pray that it may come fresh from God to
   every tried and troubled Believer and that all of us, together, may
   receive for our different fears this one same solace from the mouth of
   the Eternal, "Thus says the Lord unto you, fear not."

   I. Our first text you will kindly look for if you have your Bibles with
   you. I hope you all have them, for I love to hear the rustling of Bible
   pages as we do in Scotland, but not often in England. Turn to the Book
   of Revelation, the first chapter and the 17th verse and there you will
   read that John beheld the Savior in His glorious array and he says,
   "When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. And He laid His right hand
   upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the First and the Last." Our
   first, "Fear not," MEETS THE DREAD OCCASIONED BY THE MAJESTY OF OUR
   SAVIOR'S PERSON. You that know Him hold Him in deepest reverence, even
   as John did when, at the sight of his Divine Lord, he fell at His feet
   as dead.

   Did you ever think of Jesus as Divine and try to form some idea of His
   grandeur, His triumph and His exaltation above the thrones and
   principalities of Heaven? As your soul has extolled Him and your mind
   has been expanded with high thoughts of the All-Glorious Son of God,
   has it not occurred to you to say within yourself, "How dare I think
   that He is my Beloved and that I am His? Could such Majesty meet such
   misery? Could such Glory bring itself into union with such
   insignificance as mine?''" I know you must have experienced that
   feeling and yet you must not yield to it, for our Lord Jesus, although
   He loves to see your holy awe, would not have that reverence freeze
   into a chill reserve or a slavish trembling! No, though He is Divine,
   He invites you to approach Him without dread! Great as He is, you may
   dare to be free with Him--

   "Let us be simple with Him, then--

   Not backward, stiff, or cold,

   As though our Bethlehem could be

   What Sinai was of old."

   Let your Lord be glorious to you, but still let Him be near you. Exalt
   Him on His throne, but remember that you sit there with Him. However
   glorious He may be, He has desired that you may behold His Glory and be
   with Him where He is. To you has He given to overcome and to sit upon
   His Throne even as He has overcome and has sat down with the Father
   upon His Throne. If you have studied the matchless purity of His
   Character with adoring admiration, you must have been amazed at the
   absolute perfection of His Manhood and the Glory of His moral and
   spiritual Character. At such times, if you have had a true sense of
   your own position, you have been ready to sink into the dust and you
   have exclaimed, "Shall He wash my feet? Shall He give Himself for me?
   Can it be that He could have loved one so stained and polluted, so mean
   and so beggarly, so altogether unworthy even to live, much less to be
   loved by such an altogether

   lovely One?"

   I pray you will always remember, when you think of His perfection, that
   He has perfection of mercy as well as of holiness and perfection of
   love to sinners as well as perfection of hatred of sin--and that,
   guilty as you are, you must never doubt His affection, for He has
   pledged you in His heart's blood and proved His love by His death!
   Albeit that you are conscious of being less than nothing and vanity and
   know that Jesus is absolute Perfection, yet regard Him not with
   timorous dread, but draw near to Him as confidently as a child to its
   parent, or a wife to her husband. It is one of Satan's temptations to
   make us afraid of Christ. Let us not be ignorant of his devices. Why
   should you be afraid of Jesus when He

   tells you not to be? Why dread the Lamb of God? He says, "Fear not." It
   is not the preacher who cries, "Fear not," but it is Jesus Himself who
   whispers to His poor servant, fallen as dead at His feet, "Fear not:
   fear not."

   It will be disobedience, then, to be afraid. When those lips, which are
   as lilies dropping sweet-smelling myrrh, say to me, "Child of Mine,
   fear not," how can I be afraid? Your safety lies, remember, dear
   Friend, in trusting Jesus and not in being afraid of Him. There was
   never a soul yet saved by being afraid of Christ--there was never a
   prodigal that found forgiveness yet by being afraid of his father! This
   kind of fear needs casting out, for it has torment. Jesus, our Lord, is
   great and good and He has chosen to become the Savior of sinners and we
   need not fear to approach Him, for, "this Man receives sinners." A Host
   that entertains at His table the poorest of the poor and the lowest of
   the low and bids them welcome is not one to be feared! Remember that if
   you are honestly afraid of Jesus, you must be afraid of grieving Him by
   being afraid of Him.

   When the physician sees the patient shrinking from his knife, he does
   not wonder, but when Jesus sees you shrinking from that hand which does
   not wound, but cures by its own wound, He looks with eyes of sorrow
   upon such fear! Why shrink from Him? The little children ran into His
   arms! Why shrink from Him? Nothing cuts Him to the quick more than the
   unkind, ungenerous thought that He is unwilling to receive the guilty.
   If He meant to keep you at a distance, He would have never left Heaven.
   His coming here cannot mean anything else than love to the
   perishing--therefore do not grieve Him by being afraid of Him! Remember
   that His truthfulness forbids the rejection of any that ever come to
   Him since He has pledged His Word that He will in no wise cast them
   out. You need not, therefore, be afraid that you, in particular, may
   not come.

   I had a letter but this week in which one poor soul says, "I believe
   that I am the worst person that ever lived, though not in outward
   appearance, yet in heart. I believe that all other sorts of people feel
   more than I do, or have some one point in which they are better than I
   am. I am the worst of all and I fear that Jesus will never look on me."
   Downcast Soul, there is no true ground for such a suspicion! If you had
   a devil in you, you might still come to Christ! And if there were a
   legion of devils in you--and I do not quite know how many make up a
   legion--but if there were so many that you could not count them, yet
   you may still come with all the devils in Hell in you and He would
   still not frown upon you! And He would cast the devils out of you! Oh,
   be not afraid to come to Him whose wounds invite you! The blessed
   Savior who receives sinners loves not that you should stay away through
   fear.

   I know what some of you are doing--you are trying to get to Heaven by a
   roundabout road. The late Emperor of Russia, when the railway was to be
   made between Moscow and St. Petersburg, employed a great number of
   engineers in making plans. He looked over many of their maps and, at
   last, like the practical man that he was, he said, "Here, bring me a
   ruler." They brought him a ruler. He took a pencil and, drawing a
   straight line, he said, "That is the way to engineer it--we need no
   other plan than one straight line." There are a great many ways of
   engineering souls to Heaven, but the only one that is worth considering
   is this--Draw a straight line to Christ at once!

   Did I hear one awakened soul say, "I should like to talk to Mr. Cuff"?
   By all means talk to him, but do not stop at that, nor stop for that.
   Go to Christ first! "Oh, but I should like to talk with a good woman--a
   dear Christian lady." I recommend you to go to Jesus Christ at once and
   see the lady afterwards! It is all very well to have an enquiry room
   and I have not a word to say against it, but the best enquiry room in
   the world is your own bedroom. Go and inquire of Christ straight away!
   We may make our Christian workers and leaders into little priests if we
   do not watch what we are doing. There must be nobody between a soul and
   Christ! Blind souls will never get their eyes opened by all the kind
   hands of all the good people in Shoreditch, or in all of London!
   Christ's hands can give sight and only His--and you may get to Christ
   tonight.

   "Which way?" you ask. By no movement of your body, but by a motion of
   your mind. Turn your thoughts towards Him, your desires towards Him,
   your trust towards Him. Look to Him and live! May the Holy Spirit lead
   you to trust Him now and He will save you. Thus have I tried very
   briefly to set forth the fear which arises from the majesty of the
   Divine Person of Christ for which He prescribes this cure--"Fear not, I
   am the First and the Last: I am He that lives and was dead; and behold
   I am alive forevermore." Do not be afraid of Jesus because of His
   Glory, nor stand back because of your unfitness. You need a Mediator
   between your soul and God, but you do not need a mediator between your
   souls and Christ. You may come to Him straight away just as you are!--

   "Come needy and guilty, come loathsome and bare;

   You can't come too filthy, come just as you are." Draw a straight
   line--remember that--a straight line from your lost condition to Christ
   and let your resolve be, "I, being lost, trust Jesus to save me and I
   am saved!"

   II. The second, "Fear not," is equally precious. Turn to Luke, the
   eighth chapter and the 50th verse, the chapter we were reading just now
   and there you will find that Jairus had a little daughter who was dead
   and they said--"Trouble not the Master. But when Jesus heard it, He
   answered him, saying, "Fear not: only believe and she shall be made
   whole."

   THIS MEETS THE FEAR ARISING OUT OF THE DESPERATENESS OF THE CASE IN
   HAND. The little girl was

   actually dead and yet Jesus said, "Fear not." Here is comfort as to
   others. Dear Friend, if you have been praying, for a long time, about
   someone who is near and dear to you. If you have been longing for that
   person's salvation and your prayer has not been answered. And even if
   that person has gone from bad to worse, I want you not to give up
   praying!

   "Oh, but," you say, "I am getting very downcast, for they are plunging
   into deeper sin." Well, there is cause for fear, but not while Jesus
   lives, for He can reach a soul as long as it remains on this side of
   the gates of Death! Jesus can still save a man while he is yet out of
   Hell! Continue to pray and fear not! No case is absolutely hopeless
   while Jesus lives! Love will still prevail. We meet, sometimes, with
   amazing instances where prayer is heard at last. I have read of a woman
   who prayed long for her husband. She used to attend a certain Meeting
   House in the north of England, but her husband never went with her. He
   was a drinking, swearing man and she had much anguish of heart about
   him. She never ceased to pray and yet she never saw any result.

   She went to the Meeting House quite alone, with this exception, that a
   dog always went with her and this faithful animal would curl himself up
   under the seat and lie quiet during the service. When she was dead, her
   husband was still unsaved, but doggie went to the Meeting House. His
   master wondered whatever the faithful animal did at the service.
   Curiosity made him follow the good creature. The dog led him down the
   aisle to his dear old mistress's seat. The man sat on that seat and the
   dog curled himself up as usual. God guided the minister that day--the
   Word came with power and that man wept till he found the Savior! Never
   give up your husbands, good women, for the Lord may even use a dog to
   bring them to Christ when you are dead and gone!

   Never give up praying, hoping and expecting. Fear not! Only believe and
   you shall have your heart's desire. Pray for them as long as there is
   breath in your body and theirs. It is of no use praying for them when
   they are dead, but as long as they are here, never cease to plead with
   God on their account. Persons have been converted to God under very
   extraordinary circumstances. Two base fellows thought to rob the house
   of a godly man, the vicar of the parish, who was accustomed, on Sunday
   evening, to gather his poor people together in his parlor and preach
   the Gospel to them. This was a little extra work after the day's
   services. The thieves thought that if they could get into the house
   with the people during the evening and hide themselves away, they could
   rob the house easily during the night.

   And so they got into the next room to that in which the Word was
   preached. But they never robbed that house, for through the godly
   vicar's address the Lord Jesus Christ stole away their hearts and they
   came forth to confess their sin and to become followers of the Savior!
   You do not know how far the arrows of the conquering Savior may fly!
   Never despair! Jesus Christ comforts you in reference to the souls of
   those for whom you are anxious by saying, "Fear not; only believe and
   they shall be made whole." Labor for them, pray for them and believe
   that Jesus Christ can save them! And let the same Truth of God be fully
   believed as to yourselves. O my dear Hearer, you may think you are too
   far gone for salvation, but you are not!

   You may imagine that your case is altogether a lot out of the catalog,
   but you are just the sort of person that Jesus Christ saves! If He
   never saved odd people, He would never have saved me, for many men
   judge me to be a strange being! If you are another oddity, come along
   with me and let us trust in Him! If you are the one man that is a
   little over the line of mercy, you are the very man that Jesus Christ
   chooses to bless, for He loves to save extraordinary sinners! He is a
   very extraordinary Savior--there never was another like He and when He
   meets a sinner that is extraordinary and never another like he, He
   often takes him and makes him one of His captains, as He did Saul of
   Tarsus who became Paul the Apostle! I pray you "fear not" on account of
   the greatness of your sin. Be humbled on account of it, but do not
   despair about it.

   Are you old in iniquity? Are you deeply ingrained in transgression by
   long practice in it? Still doubt not the Redeemer's power! If your
   salvation rested on yourself you might despair, but the Lord has laid
   help on One that is mighty,

   even on His only-begotten Son! And He is able to save to the uttermost
   them that come to God by Him. O poor condemned sinner, look up and
   hope! O you who have heard the clang of the iron gate--you who are shut
   up in despair-- have hope, have brave hope, for Jesus says to you,
   "Fear not, only believe and you shall be made whole." God grant that
   this gracious, "Fear not" may be a comfort to some seeker here.

   III. Our third, "Fear not," is taken from the fifth chapter of Luke
   beginning at the seventh verse. And perhaps what I am about to say will
   suit Mr. Cuff and other successful ministers--"They came and filled
   both the ships, so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he
   fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful
   man, O Lord. For he was astonished and all that were with him, at the
   draught of the fishes which they had taken. And so was also James and
   John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus
   said unto Simon, Fear not, from henceforth you shall catch men."

   THIS MEETS THE FEAR WHICH ARISES OUT OF THE GREATNESS OF HIS GOODNESS.
   If the Lord has made any one of you successful in His service, if you
   are made of the same stuff as I am, your success lays you low before
   His Throne. Time was when everybody was abusing me and then I rejoiced
   and gloried in God--I had happy days when my name was cast out as evil.
   But when the Lord, in His great mercy, gave me souls for my hire and
   began to build up the Church at the Tabernacle, I became subject to
   such sinking of spirits that I can scarcely tell you how crushed I have
   been under the weight of Divine Mercy. I should not wonder if my dear
   Brother Cuff has gone home, after seeing a crowd at the Town Hall and
   after seeing this great house full and has said, "Lord, why have You
   been pleased to use me and to favor me?"

   If any of you are blessed in your work, as I trust you may be, you may
   also be made to feel the mysterious depression which takes the place of
   self-exaltation in those who know that every good gift comes from God
   alone. Fear because of the Lord's great goodness, also comes in another
   shape--a person says, "I believe that I am saved for I have looked to
   Christ and I am lightened. And yet can it be?" The thought suggests
   itself, "It is too good to be true." Now, look, Sirs, if it were not
   supremely good it would not be true! It is because it is so excessively
   good that it is true! As one said of God's mercy when his friend was
   astonished at it, "I am astonished, too, but still it is just like He."
   It is just like God, you know, to bless a poor sinner beyond all that
   he can ask or think! It is the way with God to astonish us with His
   Grace. When the Lord sends His mercy it never rains--it pours!

   He deluges the desert. He not only gives enough to moisten, but enough
   to drench the furrows. He makes the wilderness a standing pool of water
   and the thirsty land springs of water! Do not, therefore, doubt the
   genuineness of His mercy because of its greatness. But some timorous
   professors say, "This is a great work which God is doing here, but it
   is too great to last." Yes, that, too, I have heard and the gathering
   of many to hear the Gospel has been sneered at as "a nine days'
   wonder." Alas, our unbelief has said, "It cannot last!" And yet it has
   lasted. The path of faith, to my mind, is very like that of a man
   walking on a tight-rope high up in the air and you always seem half
   afraid that he will fall. Yet if the Lord placed us on a spider's web
   as high as the Alps, He would not let us slip.

   The walk of faith is like going up an invisible staircase. When you
   have climbed and climbed, you sometimes cannot see one single step
   before you. Each step seems to be upon the air and yet when you put
   your foot down it is solid granite, firmer than the earth, itself.
   There are times when Satan whispers, "God will leave you. God will
   forsake you. He has done all this for you and yet He will leave you."
   Ah, but He never will, for His faithfulness never fails! We must not be
   like the countryman who, when he had to cross the river, said that he
   would wait till the stream was dry, for it could not run so fast as
   that long, but must all run away! We have feared that we should live
   till the river of God's mercy has run dry, but it never has and it
   never will!

   Some professors say, when a great number of sinners are converted, "Oh,
   well, you see there are so many they cannot be all genuine." That is
   why I think the work to be real! When I see a little peddling work of
   one, every now and then, I am far more inclined to say, "Well, I do not
   know. It may be of God, but it is not a very great affair and He
   generally does great things when His Spirit is poured out." But when I
   see Him calling 3,000 in one day, I say, "This is the finger of God. I
   am sure of it!" I would be the last to despise the day of small things,
   but I must also speak up for the day of great things! I have noticed
   that those who are added to the Church at times of revival are people
   that hold on quite as well as others and I think better than others.
   That is my experience because at other times we are apt to say, "there
   are so

   few coming forward we must not be quite so strict in examining them."
   But when there is a great number we feel that we can afford to be
   particular and we are naturally more strict.

   I do not justify this, but I am sure that the tendency exists. I
   believe in a great work and when I see our Lord filling the net, I
   think I hear Him saying to me, "Do not be afraid because the fish make
   the boat sink down to the water's edge. Fear not. You shall get many
   more than these. Let down your net again." Let us not doubt because it
   seems too wonderful that God should bless us to a great extent. It is
   wonderful, but let us have no doubt about it! Can the Lord use such
   poor worms as we are? He does use us. Do not ask how He can do it if He
   does it. He is a God of Sovereignty and He uses whom He wills and if He
   blesses you, give Him the glory of it--and do not let the greatness of
   His Grace cause you to mistrust Him!

   You have seen a painter with his palette on his fingers and he has ugly
   little daubs of paint upon the palette. What can he do with those
   spots? Go in and see his picture. What splendid painting! What lights!
   What shades! Where are those daubs of paint? They have been used up
   upon the picture. What? Did he make that beautiful picture out of those
   ugly spots of paint? Yes, that picture was made out of those little
   daubs of color! That is the way with painters. In even a wiser way does
   Jesus act towards us. He takes us, poor smudges of paint, and He makes
   the blessed pictures of His Grace out of us, for it is neither the
   brush He uses, nor the paint He uses, but it is the skill of His own
   hands which does it all and unto His name be the praise!

   Now, poor worker, do not be afraid. The great Artist will take you in
   hand and make something of you. I forget how much can be made out of a
   pennyworth of iron, but I do know that there are methods by which a
   pennyworth of iron can be so molded and worked and fashioned that it
   can become worth a hundred times what it was before it came under the
   manufacturer's hands! What the Lord can make of such poor creatures as
   we are, who shall tell? He says, "Fear not" and I pray you do not fear.
   You who make up the Church in Shoreditch, do not be afraid because the
   Lord fills this great house. Beckon to your partners that are in the
   other ships to come and help you! Help those round about to fill their
   boats and may God send you a long and continued revival of religion in
   this whole region!

   Let not the old folks get frightened at the Lord's glorious
   working--believe in it and rejoice! Why, if the Lord were to convert
   3,000 in one day in any place, there are numbers who would say, "I do
   not believe in it, for I never saw anything like it." Many Churches
   would say, "We do not think that we ought to take them in just yet." At
   Pentecost they baptized the converts the same day! You see, the Church
   was ready to baptize them--we have no Church in England that would do
   that--I fear not one and we have no Christian people who would approve
   of it if it were done. No, they would, as a rule, murmur that it was
   rash enthusiasm and an ill-advised haste. "1 believe in the Holy
   Spirit." We say that, but do we practically believe it? God grant we
   may!

   IV. But now I turn to a fourth, "Fear not," which we find in the 10th
   chapter of Matthew, the 28th verse. I will not turn to it, but I will
   just tell you of it because there are many of you here who need its
   comfort. "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill
   the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and
   body in Hell." THIS IS MEANT TO REMOVE THE FEAR ARISING OUT OF SHARP
   PERSECUTION. In a region like this, when a working man is converted to
   Jesus Christ, his friends and his neighbors soon find it out and, I am
   sorry to say, that working men, as a rule, do not treat Christian men
   fairly. They used to say in America, "It is a free country. Every man
   may whip his own slave," and so it is here. It is a free country. Every
   man may swear at his fellow workman for worshipping

   God.

   It is a fearful piece of meanness that men should molest their fellows
   for being godly. If you have a right to swear, I have a right to sing
   Psalms! And if you have a right to break the Sabbath, I have a right to
   keep it and I have a right to go in and out of the workshop without
   being called bad names because I live in the fear of God. But the right
   is not always recognized. Some have to run the gauntlet from morning to
   night because they serve the Lord. Now, my dear Brothers and Sisters in
   Christ, do not be afraid though you are nothing but poor sheep and you
   are sent out into the midst of wolves. Does it not seem as if our Lord
   could hardly have known what He was doing when He said, "Behold, I send
   you forth as sheep among wolves"?

   Yet He made no mistake. Just think for a minute--how many wolves are
   there in the world now? They have been eating up the sheep ever since
   they had a chance, but are there more wolves or more sheep alive at
   this day? Why, the wolves get fewer and fewer every day, till when a
   wolf comes down into the inhabited lands in France, we have it reported

   in the paper and we have not one wild animal of the kind in this
   country, though they used to abound here! The fact is, the sheep have
   driven out the wolves! It looked as if they would eat the sheep up, but
   the sheep have exterminated them. So it will be in the end with
   defenseless Believers and raging persecutors--patient weakness will
   overcome passionate strength! Only be patient.

   You have an anvil in the shop and you know how hard the hammer comes
   down on it. What does the anvil do? Why, bears it. You never saw the
   anvil get up and fight the hammer. Never! It stands still and takes the
   blows. Down comes the hammer. But now listen. How many hammers have
   been worn out to one anvil? Where it has stood for years, the old block
   of iron remains, ready to bear more strokes. The hammers will break,
   but not the anvil! Be an anvil, Brother. Still be the sheep, Brothers
   and Sisters, for heavenly submission shall win the victory and patient
   non-resistance shall come off more than a conqueror! Do not fear, I
   pray you, so as to conceal your testimony! Tell all what Jesus Christ
   has done for you and the more they blaspheme and persecute you, be you
   the more determined, by God's Grace, that they shall not be able to
   find fault in your character and that they shall know that you are a
   Christian!

   Climb up the mast and nail the colors to it! Drive another nail
   tonight. Fix the colors to the masthead. Say, "No, never, by God's
   Grace, will I be ashamed of being a Christian! I might be ashamed if I
   were a drunk. I might be ashamed if I were a swearer. But I will never
   be ashamed that I am a follower of the crucified Son of God." O poor
   men and women, who have, for the most part, to bear the brunt of the
   world's assaults, God grant that you may not fear! Do not fall into
   doubt about your religion, either. Do not be so afraid as to fall into
   questioning and unbelief. True religion never was in the majority and
   never will be for many a year to come. You may rest assured that if we
   were to poll the world for any opinion and if that opinion should be
   decided by a majority, it would be necessarily wrong.

   Now and then, in one country, the right prevails, but all the world
   over the seed of the serpent outnumber the seed of the woman. Blessed
   is he who can stand in a minority of one with God, for a minority of
   one for God is, in the judgment of the Truth of God, a majority! Count
   God with you and you have more with you than all they that are against
   you!

   V. I must not keep you much longer, for the heat grows great and I fear
   some of you are fainting. Therefore I want to say another word which I
   should like you all to hear. This is the fifth, "Fear not." You will
   find it in Luke 12:32. Christ preaching to His disciples said--"Fear
   not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you
   the kingdom."

   THIS IS MEANT TO PREVENT FEAR AS TO TEMPORAL THINGS. Now, I know that
   this is a time in which many

   of God's people are much tried and they tremble lest they should not be
   provided for. Listen to this--Did you escape from poverty by being
   frightened about it? Did your fears ever make you any richer? Have you
   not found it to be vain to rise up early and to sit up late and to eat
   the bread of carefulness when you have had no faith in God? Have you
   not learned that?

   And do you not know that if you are a child of God He will certainly
   give you your food and raiment? Ah, I hear a heavy sigh from one--"It
   has been a hard winter." It is true, my Friend, it has been a hard
   winter. I dare say that the birds have found it so and yet on Sunday
   morning I noticed, when I opened my window early, that they were
   singing very sweetly. And this morning, too, they broke forth in a
   chorus of harmonious song. You know what the little bird sings when he
   sits on a bare branch with the snow all around him? He chirps out--

   "Mortal, cease from toilandsorrow, God provides for the morrow."

   Learn the sparrow's song and try, if you can, to catch the spirit of
   the bird which has no barn or storehouse and yet is fed! There is this
   to comfort you--"Your heavenly Father knows what things you have need
   of." He understands your needs. Is it not enough for a child that his
   father knows his needs? Rest in that and be confident that verily you
   shall be

   fed.

   You will not have much in this world, perhaps, but you shall have the
   kingdom of God! Be of good cheer about that. Your inheritance is yet to
   come--you shall have the kingdom! You have even now a reversionary
   interest in Eternal Glory and this involves present supplies! He who
   promises the end will provide for the way. Some of the Lord's best
   people are those that have to suffer most, but it is because they can
   glorify Him here most by suffering. I think the angels in Heaven must
   almost envy a child of God who has the power and the privilege to
   suffer for Christ's sake, for doubtless angels render perfect service
   to the heavenly King, yet not by suffering. Theirs is active and not
   passive obedience to the will of God! I think they will cluster round
   some of you in Heaven and say, "You lived down at Bethnal Green, or

   Shoreditch. Ah, yes," the angels will say, "What sort of a place did
   you live in? One dark room? You were very poor. You were out of work
   and did you trust God?"

   The angels will be pleased as you tell them, "Oh yes, we still went to
   the heavenly Father and we said, 'Though He slay me, yet will I trust
   in Him."' That is the grandest thing that a man ever did say! At least,
   I think it is. Mr. Cuff says some fine things, but he never uttered a
   nobler sentence than that--"Though He slay me, yet will I trust in
   Him." The expression is sublime! When Job had lost everything, after
   being immensely rich, he sat on a dunghill and scraped his sores and he
   said, "Naked came I out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return
   there." He was reduced to the most abject need and yet he added--"The
   Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the
   Lord." You cherubim and seraphim, in all your songs, no stanza excels
   that heroic verse! Angels cannot rise to such a height of sublime
   devotion to the Invisible One as Job did when, in his misery, he
   glorified his God by abiding confidence.

   Oh, you that are brought very low, you have grand opportunities for
   honoring God if you will but trust Him. "Fear not." "Fear not."--

   "Fear not the loss of outward good, He will for His provide.

   Give them supplies of daily food, And all they need beside."

   And He will give you spiritual food, too. When God saves His people He
   gives them spiritual food to live upon till they get to Heaven. God
   does not give us treatment like that which the Duke of Alva measured
   out to a city which had surrendered. He agreed to give the inhabitants
   their lives, but when they complained that they were dying of hunger,
   he maliciously replied, "I granted you your lives, but I did not
   promise you food." Our God does not talk so. He includes in the promise
   of salvation all that goes with it--and you shall have all you really
   need between here and Heaven! Fear not!

   VI. Lastly, time fails me, but I was going to close with that word in
   the 27th of Acts, the 24th verse, where the Lord sent His angel to His
   servant Paul in the time of the shipwreck and said to him, "Fear not,
   Paul; you must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God has given you all
   them that sail with you." So I pray God that all perils in the
   future--all imminent ills and dangers which surround you now--may not
   cause you to fear, for the Lord will not suffer a hair of your head to
   perish! He that has made you will bear you through and make you more
   than conquerors! Tried people of God, rest in the Lord and your
   confidence shall be your strength!

   You have often heard of the boy on board ship in time of storm who was
   the only person that was not afraid. When they asked him why he did not
   fear, he said, "Because my father is at the helm." We have still better
   cause for casting away all fear, for not only is our Father at the helm
   but our Father is everywhere! He is holding the winds and the waves in
   the hollow of His hand! No trouble can happen to you or to me but what
   He ordains or permits. No trial can come but what He will restrain and
   overrule. No evil can happen but what shall certainly work for good to
   them that love God! Therefore be not afraid.

   Though the howling tempest yell and the ship creak and groan as she
   labors among the waves and you think that nothing but destruction
   awaits you, fear not! Let not fear linger for a single moment in the
   Presence of the eternal Christ who says, "It is I. Be not afraid." May
   God grant that His own, "Fear not," may go home to the heart of
   everyone here present in some form or other--and unto His name be
   Glory, world without end. Amen!
     __________________________________________________________________

Salvation By Works, A Criminal Doctrine

   (No. 1534)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, APRIL 18, 1880,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "I do not frustrate the Grace of God: for if righteousness comes by the
   Law, then Christ is dead in vain." Galatians 2:21.

   THE idea of salvation by the merit of our own works is exceedingly
   insinuating. It matters not how often it is refuted, it asserts itself
   again and again and when it gains the least foothold it soon makes
   great advances. Hence Paul, who was determined to show it no quarter,
   opposed everything which bore its likeness. He was determined not to
   permit the thin end of the wedge to be introduced into the Church, for
   well he knew that willing hands would soon be driving it home!
   Therefore when Peter sided with the Judaizing party and seemed to favor
   those who demanded that the Gentiles should be circumcised, our brave
   Apostle withstood him to his face. He always fought for salvation by
   Grace through faith and contended strenuously against all thought of
   righteousness by obedience to the precepts of the ceremonial or the
   moral Law.

   No one could be more explicit than he upon the doctrine that we are not
   justified or saved by works in any degree, but solely by the Grace of
   God. His trumpet gave forth no uncertain sound, but gave forth the
   clear note--"By Grace are you saved through faith; and that not of
   yourselves: it is the gift of God." Grace meant Grace with Paul and he
   could not endure any tampering with the matter, or any frittering away
   of its meaning. So fascinating is the doctrine of legal righteousness
   that the only way to deal with it is Paul's way--stamp it out! Cry war
   to the knife against it! Never yield to it! And remember the Apostle's
   firmness and how stoutly he held his ground--"To whom," he says, "we
   gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour."

   The error of salvation by works is exceedingly plausible. You will
   constantly hear it stated as a self-evident truth and vindicated on
   account of its supposed practical usefulness, while the Gospel doctrine
   of Salvation by Faith is railed at and accused of evil consequences. It
   is affirmed that if we preach salvation by good works we shall
   encourage virtue--and so it might seem in theory--but history proves,
   by many instances, that as a matter of fact where such doctrine has
   been preached virtue has become singularly uncommon and that in
   proportion as the merit of works has been cried up, morality has gone
   down!

   On the other hand, where Justification by Faith has been preached,
   conversions have followed and purity of life has been produced even in
   the worst of men. Those who lead godly and gracious lives are ready to
   confess that the cause of their zeal for holiness lies in their faith
   in Christ Jesus. Where will you meet with a devout and upright man who
   glories in his own works? Self-righteousness is natural to our fallen
   humanity and, therefore, it is the essence of all false religions. Be
   they what they may, they all agree in seeking salvation by our own
   deeds. He who worships his idols will torture his body, will fast, will
   perform long pilgrimages and do or endure anything in order to merit
   salvation! The Roman Catholic church holds up continually before the
   eyes of its votaries the prize to be earned by self-denial, by penance,
   by prayers, by sacraments or by some other performances of man. Go
   where you may, the natural religion of fallen man is salvation by his
   own merits.

   An old Divine has well said every man is born a heretic upon this point
   and he naturally gravitates towards this heresy in one form or another.
   Self-salvation, either by his personal worthiness, by his repentance or
   by his resolves is a hope ingrained in human nature and very hard to
   remove. This foolishness is bound up in the heart of every child and
   who shall get it out of him? This erroneous idea arises partly from
   ignorance, for men are ignorant of the Law of God and of what holiness
   really is. If they knew that even an evil thought is a breach of the
   Law and that the Law once broken in any point is altogether violated,
   they would be at once convinced that there can be no righteousness by
   the Law to those who have already offended against it.

   They are also in great ignorance concerning themselves, for those very
   persons who talk about self-righteousness are, as a rule, openly
   chargeable with fault. And if not, were they to sit down and really
   look at their own lives, they would soon perceive, even in their best
   works, such impurity of motive beforehand, or such pride and
   self-congratulation afterwards, that they would see the gloss taken off
   from all their performances and they would be utterly ashamed of them!
   Nor is it only ignorance which leads men to self-righteousness--they
   are also deceived by pride. Man cannot endure to be saved on the
   footing of mercy--he hates to plead guilty and throw himself on the
   favor of the great King--he cannot stand to be treated as a pauper and
   blessed as a matter of charity!

   He desires to have a finger in his own salvation and claim at least a
   little credit for it. Proud man will not have Heaven, itself, upon
   terms of Grace! As long as he can, he sets up one plea or another and
   holds to his own righteousness as though it were his life. This
   self-confidence also arises from wicked unbelief, for through his
   self-conceit, man will not believe God. Nothing is more plainly
   revealed in Scripture than this--that by the works of the Law shall no
   man be jus-tified--yet men, in some shape or other, stick to the hope
   of legal righteousness! They will have it that they must prepare for
   Grace, or assist mercy, or in some degree deserve eternal life. They
   prefer their own flattering prejudices to the declaration of the
   heart-searching God! The Testimony of the Holy Spirit concerning the
   deceitfulness of the heart is cast aside and the declaration of God
   that there is none that does good, no, not one, is altogether denied.
   Is not this a great evil?

   Self-righteousness is also much promoted by the almost universal spirit
   of trifling which is now abroad. Only while men trifle with themselves
   can they entertain the idea of personal merit before God. He who comes
   to serious thought and begins to understand the Character of God,
   before whom the heavens are not pure and the angels are charged with
   folly--he, I say, that comes to serious thought and beholds a true
   vision of God, abhors himself in dust and ashes and is forever silenced
   as to any thought of self-justification! It is because we do not
   seriously examine our condition that we think ourselves rich and
   increased in goods. A man may fancy that he is prospering in business
   and yet he may be going back in the world. If he does not face his
   books or take stock, he may be living in a fool's paradise, spending
   largely when on the verge of bankruptcy.

   Many think well of themselves because they never think seriously. They
   do not look below the surface and, therefore, they are deceived by
   appearances. The most troublesome business to many men is thought--and
   the last thing they will do is to weigh their actions, or test their
   motives, or ponder their ways to see whether things are right with
   them. Self-righteousness, being supported by ignorance, by pride, by
   unbelief and by the natural superficiality of the human mind, is
   strongly entrenched and cannot readily be driven out of men.
   Self-righteousness is evidently evil, for it makes light of sin! It
   talks of merit in the case of one who has already transgressed and
   boasts of excellence in reference to a fallen and depraved creature. It
   prattles of little faults, small failures and slight omissions and so
   makes sin to be a venial error which may be readily overlooked. Not so
   faith in God, for though it recognizes pardon, yet that pardon is seen
   to come in a way which proves sin to be exceedingly sinful.

   On the other hand, the doctrine of salvation by works has not a word of
   comfort in it for the fallen. It gives to the elder son all that his
   proud heart can claim, but for the prodigal it has no welcome. The Law
   has no invitation for the sinner, for it knows nothing of mercy. If
   salvation is by the works of the Law, what must become of the guilty
   and the fallen and the abandoned? By what hopes can these be recalled?
   This unmerciful doctrine bars the door of hope and hands over the lost
   ones to the executioner in order that the proud Pharisee may air his
   boastful righteousness and thank God that he is not as other men are!

   It is the intense selfishness of this doctrine which condemns it as an
   evil thing. It naturally exalts self. If a man conceives that he will
   be saved by his own works, he thinks himself something and glories in
   the dignity of human nature! When he has been attentive to religious
   exercises he rubs his hands and feels that he deserves well of his
   Maker--he goes home to repeat his prayers and before he falls asleep he
   wonders how he can have grown to be so good and so much superior to
   those around him. When he walks abroad he feels as if he dwelt apart in
   native excellence, a person much distinguished from "the vulgar herd,"
   a being whom to know is to admire. All the while he considers himself
   to be very humble and is often amazed at his own condescension.

   What is this but a most hateful spirit? God, who sees the heart,
   loathes it! He will accept the humble and the contrite, but He puts far
   from Him those who glory in themselves. Indeed, my Brothers and
   Sisters, what have we to glory in? Is not every boast a lie? What is
   this self-hood but a peacock feather, fit only for the cap of a fool?
   May God deliver us

   from exalting self! And yet, we cannot be delivered from so doing if we
   hold, in any degree, the doctrine of salvation by our own good works.
   At this time I desire to shoot at the very heart of that
   soul-destroying doctrine, while I show you, in the first place, that
   two great crimes are contained in the idea of self-justification. When
   I have brought forth that indictment, I shall further endeavor to show
   that these two great crimes are committed by many and then, thirdly, it
   will be a delight to assert that the true Believer does not fall into
   these crimes. May God, the Holy Spirit, help us while meditating upon
   this important theme.

   I. First, then, TWO GREAT CRIMES ARE CONTAINED IN SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS.
   These high crimes and misdemeanors are frustrating the Grace of God and
   making Christ to have died in vain. The first is the frustration of the
   Grace of God. The word here translated, "frustrate," means to make
   void, to reject, to refuse, to regard as needless. Now, he that hopes
   to be saved by his own righteousness rejects the Grace, or free favor,
   of God! He regards it as useless and in that sense frustrates it. It is
   clear, first, that if righteousness comes by the Law, the Grace of God
   is no longer required. If we can be saved by our own merits, we need
   justice, but we certainly do not need mercy.

   If we can keep the Law and claim to be accepted as a matter of debt, it
   is plain that we need not turn suppliants and crave for mercy. Grace is
   a superfluity where merit can be proven. A man who can go into court
   with a clear case and a bold countenance asks not for mercy of the
   judge and the offer of it would insult him. "Give me justice," he says!
   "Give me my rights" and he stands up for them as a brave Englishman
   should do. It is only when a man feels that the law condemns him that
   he puts in a plea for mercy. Nobody ever dreamed of recommending an
   innocent man to mercy. I say, then, that the man who believes that by
   keeping the Law, or by practicing ceremonies, or by undergoing
   religious performances he can make himself acceptable before God, most
   decidedly puts the Grace of God on one side as a superfluous thing as
   far as he is concerned! Is it not clearly so? And is not this a crimson
   crime--this frustration of the Grace of God?

   Next, he makes the Grace of God to be at least a secondary thing which
   is only a lower degree of the same error. Many think that they are to
   merit as much as they can by their own exertions and then the Grace of
   God will make up for the rest. The theory is that we are to keep the
   Law as far as we can and this imperfect obedience is to stand good--as
   a sort of compromise--say a shilling in the pound, or fifteen shillings
   in the pound--according as man judges his own excellence. And then,
   what is required over and above our own hard-earned money, the Grace of
   God will supply--in short, the plan is every man is his own savior and
   Jesus Christ and His Grace just make up for our deficiencies.

   Whether men see it or not, this mixture of Law and Grace is most
   dishonoring to the salvation of Jesus Christ. It makes the Savior's
   work to be incomplete, though on the Cross He cried, "It is finished."
   Yes, it even treats it as being utterly ineffectual since it appears to
   be of no use at all until man's works are added to it. According to
   this notion, we are redeemed as much by our own doing as by the ransom
   price of Jesus' blood--man and Christ go shares, both in the work and
   in the glory! This is an intense form of arrogant treason against the
   majesty of Divine Mercy! This is a capital crime which will condemn all
   who continue in it. May God deliver us from thus insulting the Throne
   of Grace by bringing a purchase price in our own hands as if we could
   deserve such peerless gifts of love!

   More than that, he who trusts in himself, his feelings, his works, his
   prayers, or in anything except the Grace of God virtually gives up
   trusting in the Grace of God altogether! Don't you know that God's
   Grace will never share the work with man's merit? As oil will not
   combine with water, so neither will human merit and heavenly mercy mix
   together! The Apostle says in Romans 11:6, "If by Grace, then it is no
   more of works: otherwise Grace is no more Grace. But if it is of works,
   then is it no more Grace: otherwise work is no more work." You must
   either have salvation wholly because you deserve it, or wholly because
   God graciously bestows it, though you do not deserve it! You must
   receive salvation at the Lord's hands either as a debt or as a
   charity--there can be no mingling of the ideas. That which is a pure
   gift of favor cannot also be a reward of personal merit! A combination
   of the two principles of Law and Grace is utterly impossible. Trusting
   in our own works in any degree effectually shuts us out from all hope
   of salvation by Grace--and so it frustrates the Grace of God.

   There is another form of this crime, that when men preach up human
   works, sufferings, feelings, or emotions as the ground of salvation,
   they deny the sinner confidence in Christ, for as long as a man can
   maintain any hope in himself, he will never look to the Redeemer. We
   may preach forever and ever, but as long as there remains latent in any
   one bosom a hope that he can effectually clear himself from sin and win
   the favor of God by his own works, that man will never accept the
   proclamation of free pardon through the blood of Christ! We know that
   we cannot frustrate the Grace of God--it

   will have its way and the eternal purpose shall be fulfilled. But as
   the tendency of all teaching which mixes up works with Grace is to take
   men away from believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, its tendency is to
   frustrate the Grace of God and every act is to be judged by its
   tendency even if the Lord's Divine power prevents its working out its
   natural result.

   No man can lay another Foundation than that which is laid, but inasmuch
   as they try to do so they are guilty of despising the Foundation of God
   as much as those builders of the olden times who rejected the stone
   which God had chosen to be the head of the corner. May the Grace of God
   keep us from such a crime as this, lest the blood of other men's souls
   should crimson our garments. This hoping to be saved by our own
   righteousness robs God of His Glory. It as good as says, "We do not
   need Grace. We need no free favor." It reads of the New Covenant, which
   Infinite Love has made, but by clinging to the Old Covenant it puts
   dishonor upon it. In its heart it murmurs, "What need of this Covenant
   of Grace? The Covenant of Works answers every purpose for us."

   It reads of the great gift of Grace in the Person of Jesus Christ and
   it does despite thereto by the secret thought that human works are as
   good as the life and death of the Son of God! It cries, "We will not
   have this Man to save us." A self-righteous hope casts a slur upon the
   Glory of God since it is clear that if a man could be saved by his own
   works, he would naturally have the honor of it. But if a man is saved
   by the free Grace of God, then God is glorified. Woe unto those who
   teach a doctrine which would pluck the royal Crown from the head of our
   Sovereign Lord and disgrace the Throne of His glory! God help us to be
   clear of this rank offense against high Heaven. I grow warm upon such a
   subject as this, for my indignation rises against that which does
   dishonor to my Lord and frustrates His Grace.

   This is a sin so gross that even the heathen cannot commit it! They
   have never heard of the Grace of God and therefore they cannot put a
   slight upon it--when they perish it will be with a far lighter doom
   than those who have been told that God is gracious and ready to pardon
   and yet turn on their heels and wickedly boast of innocence and pretend
   to be clean in the sight of God! This is a sin which devils cannot
   commit. With all the obstinacy of their rebellion, they can never reach
   to this! They have never had the sweet notes of Free Grace and dying
   love ringing in their ears and, therefore, they have never refused the
   heavenly invitation. What has never been presented to their acceptance
   cannot be the object of their rejection. Thus, my Hearer, if you should
   fall into this deep ditch, you will sink lower than the heathen, lower
   than Sodom and Gomorrah and lower than the devil, himself! Wake up, I
   pray, and do not dare to frustrate the Grace of God!

   The second great crime which self-justification commits is making
   Christ to be dead in vain. This is plain enough. If salvation can be by
   the works of the Law, why did our Lord Jesus die to save us? O, You
   bleeding Lamb of God, Your Incarnation is a marvel, but Your death upon
   the accursed tree is such a miracle of mercy as fills all Heaven with
   astonishment! Will any dare to say that Your death, O Incarnate God,
   was a superfluity, a wanton waste of suffering? Do they dare think You
   a generous but unwise enthusiast whose death was needless? Can there be
   any who think Your Cross a vain thing? Yes, thousands virtually do this
   and, in fact, all do who make it out that men might have been saved in
   some other way, or may now be saved by their own works and doings! They
   who say that the death of Christ goes only part of the way and that man
   must do something in order to merit eternal life--these, I say, make
   this death of Christ to be only partially effective and, in yet clearer
   terms, ineffectual in and of itself!

   If it is even hinted that the blood of Jesus is not price enough till
   man adds his silver or his gold, then His blood is not our redemption
   at all and Christ is no Redeemer! If it is taught that our Lord's
   bearing of sin for us did not make a perfect Atonement and that it is
   ineffectual till we either do or suffer something to complete it--then
   in the supplemental work lies the real virtue and Christ's work, is in
   itself, insufficient! His death cry of, "It is finished," must have
   been all a mistake if it is still not finished! And if a believer in
   Christ is not completely saved by what Christ has done, but must do
   something, himself, to complete it, then salvation was not finished and
   the Savior's work remains imperfect till we, poor sinners, lend a hand
   to make up for His deficiencies! What blasphemy lies in such a
   supposition that Christ, on Calvary, made a needless and a useless
   offering of Himself and any man among you can be saved by the works of
   the Law!

   This spirit also rejects the Covenant which was sealed with Christ's
   death. For if we can be saved by the old Covenant of Works, then the
   New Covenant was not required. In God's wisdom the New Covenant was
   brought in because the first had grown old and was void by
   transgression. But if it is not void, then the New Covenant is an idle
   innovation and the Sacrifice of Jesus ratified a foolish transaction! I
   loathe the words while I pronounce them! No one ever was saved under
   the Covenant of Works nor ever will be--the New Covenant is introduced
   for that reason--but if there is salvation by

   the first, then what need was there of the second? Self-righteousness,
   as far as it can, disannuls the Covenant, breaks its seal and does
   despite to the blood of Jesus Christ which is the substance, the
   certificate and the seal of that Covenant.

   If you hold that a man can be saved by his own good works, you pour
   contempt upon the Testament of Love which the death of Jesus has put in
   force, for there is no need to receive as a legacy of love that which
   can be earned as the wage of work! O Sirs, this is a sin against each
   Person of the sacred Trinity! It is a sin against the Father. How could
   He be wise and good and yet give His only Son to die on yonder tree in
   anguish if man's salvation could be worked by some other means? It is a
   sin against the Son of God--you dare to say that our redemption price
   could have been paid another way and, therefore, His death was not
   absolutely necessary for the redemption of the world. Or, if necessary,
   yet not effectual, for it requires something to be added to it before
   it can effect its purpose.

   It is a sin against the Holy Spirit and beware how you sin against Him,
   for such sins are fatal! The Holy Spirit bears witness to the glorious
   perfection and unconquerable power of the Redeemer's work and woe to
   those who reject that witness! He has come into the world, on purpose,
   that He may convict men of the sin of not believing in Jesus Christ
   and, therefore, if we think that we can be saved apart from Christ we
   do despite to the Spirit of His Grace. The doctrine of salvation by
   works is a sin against all the fallen sons of Adam, for if men cannot
   be saved except by their own works, what hope is left for any
   transgressor? You shut the gates of Mercy on mankind! You condemn the
   guilty to die without the possibility of remission! You deny all hope
   of welcome to the returning prodigal, all prospect of Paradise to the
   dying thief! If Heaven is by works, thousands of us will never see its
   gates. I know that I never shall. You fine fellows may rejoice in your
   prospects, but what is to become of us? You ruin us all by your
   boastful scheme!

   Nor is this all. It is a sin against the saints, for none of them have
   any other hope except in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ.
   Remove the doctrine of the atoning blood and you have taken all away!
   Our foundation is gone! If you speak thus you offend the whole
   generation of godly men. I go further--work-mongering is a sin against
   the perfect ones above! The doctrine of salvation by works would
   silence the hallelujahs of Heaven. Hush, you choristers, what meaning
   is there in your song? You are chanting, "Unto Him that loved us and
   washed us from our sins in His own blood." But why do you sing so? If
   salvation is by works, your ascriptions of praise are empty flatteries.
   You ought to sing, "Unto ourselves who kept our garments clean, to us
   be glory forever and ever!" Or at least, "unto ourselves whose acts
   made the Redeemer's work effectual be a full share of praise."

   But a self-lauding note was never heard in Heaven and, therefore, we
   feel sure that the doctrine of self-justification is not of God. I
   charge you--renounce it as the foe of God and man! This proud system is
   a sin of deepest dye against my Master, Jesus Christ! I cannot endure
   to think of the insult which it puts upon our dying Lord! If you have
   made Christ to live in vain, that is bad enough, but to represent Him
   as having died in vain? What shall be said of this? That Christ came to
   earth for nothing is a most horrible statement, but that He became
   obedient to the death of the Cross without result is profanity at its
   worst!

   II. I will say no more concerning the nature of these sins, but in the
   second place proceed to the solemn fact that THESE TWO GREAT CRIMES ARE
   COMMITTED BY MANY PEOPLE. I am afraid they are committed by some who
   hear me this day. Let everyone search himself and see if these accursed
   things are not hidden in his heart and if they are, let him cry unto
   God for deliverance from them! Assuredly these crimes are chargeable on
   those who trifle with the Gospel! Here is the greatest discovery that
   was ever made--the most wonderful piece of knowledge that ever was
   revealed and yet you do not think it worth a thought! You come now and
   then to hear a sermon, but you hear without heart. You read the
   Scriptures occasionally, but you do not search them as for hidden
   treasure.

   It is not your first objective in life to thoroughly understand and
   heartily to receive the Gospel which God has proclaimed--yet such ought
   to be the case. What, my Friend? Does your indifference say that the
   Grace of God is of no great value in your esteem? You do not think it
   worth the trouble of prayer, of Bible-reading and attention? The death
   of Christ is nothing to you--a very beautiful fact, no doubt--you know
   the story well, but you do not care enough about it to wish to be a
   partaker in its benefits? His blood may have power to cleanse from sin,
   but you do not need remission? His death may be the life of men, but
   you do not long to live by Him? To be saved by the atoning blood does
   not strike you as being half as important as to carry on your business
   at a profit and acquire a fortune for your family? By thus trifling
   with these precious things, you do, as far as you can, frustrate the
   Grace of God and make Christ to die in vain!

   Another set of people who do this are those who have no sense of guilt.
   Perhaps they are naturally amiable, civil, honest and generous people
   and they think that these natural virtues are all that is needed. We
   have many such in whom there is much that is lovely, but the one thing
   necessary is lacking--they are not conscious that they ever did
   anything very wrong! They think themselves certainly as good as others
   and in some respects rather better. It is highly probable that you are
   as good as others and even better than others, but still, do you not
   see, my dear Friend, if I am addressing one such person, that if you
   are so good that you are to be saved by your goodness, you put the
   Grace of God out of court and make it vain? The whole have no need of
   the Physician--only they that are sick require His skill and,
   therefore, it was needless that Christ should die for such as you
   because you, in your own opinion, have done nothing worthy of death.

   You claim that you have done nothing very bad and yet there is one
   thing in which you have grievously transgressed and I beg you not to be
   angry when I charge you with it. You are very bad because you are so
   proud as to think yourself righteous, though God has said that there is
   none righteous, no, not one! You tell your God that He is a liar! His
   Word accuses you and His Law condemns you but you will not believe Him
   and actually boast of having a righteousness of your own! This is high
   presumption and arrogant pride and may the Lord purge you from it! Will
   you lay this to heart and remember that if you have never been guilty
   of anything else, this is sin enough to make you mourn before the Lord
   day and night? You have, as far as you could, by your proud opinion of
   yourself made void the Grace of God and declared that Christ died in
   vain. Hide your face for shame and entreat for mercy for this glaring
   offense!

   Another sort of people may fancy that they shall escape but we must now
   come home to them. Those who despair will often cry, "I know I cannot
   be saved except by Grace, for I am such a great sinner! But, alas, I am
   too great a sinner to be saved at all! I am too black for Christ to
   wash out my sins." Ah, my dear Friend, though you know it not, you are
   making void the Grace of God by denying its power and limiting its
   might! You doubt the efficacy of the Redeemer's blood and the power of
   the Father's Grace. What? The Grace of God not able to save? Is not the
   Father of our Lord Jesus able to forgive sin? We joyfully sing--

   "Who is a pardoning Godlike Thee? Or who has Grace so rich and free?"
   And you dare say He cannot forgive you and this in the teeth of His
   many promises of mercy? He says, "All manner of sin and of blasphemy
   shall be forgiven unto men." "Come now and let us reason together, says
   the Lord: though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as
   snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

   You say that this is not true! Thus you frustrate the Grace of God and
   you make out that Christ died in vain, at least for you, for you say
   that He cannot cleanse you. Oh do not say this! Let not your unbelief
   give the lie to God. Oh, believe that He is able to save even you and
   freely, at this very moment, and put all your sin away and to accept
   you in Christ Jesus! Take heed of despondency, for if you do not trust
   Him, you will make void His Grace. And those, I think, commit this sin
   in a large measure, who make a mingle-mangle of the Gospel. I mean
   this--when we preach the Gospel we have only to say, "Sinners, you are
   guilty! You never can be anything else but guilty in and of
   yourselves--if that sin of yours is pardoned, it must be through an act
   of Sovereign Grace and not because of anything in you, or that can be
   done by you. Grace must be given to you because Jesus died and for no
   other reason and the way by which you can have that Grace is simply by
   trusting Christ. By faith in Jesus Christ you shall obtain full
   forgiveness." This is pure Gospel.

   If the man turns round and enquires, "Why do I have a right to believe
   in Christ?" If I tell him that he is warranted to believe in Christ
   because he feels a law-work within, or because he has holy desires, I
   have made a mess of it--I have put something of the man into the
   question and marred the glory of Grace. My answer is, "Man, your right
   to believe in Christ lies not in what you are or feel, but in God's
   command to you to believe and in God's promise which is made to every
   creature under Heaven that whoever believes in Jesus Christ shall be
   saved." This is our commission, "Go you into all the world and preach
   the Gospel to every creature. He that believes and is baptized shall be
   saved."

   If you are a creature, we preach that Gospel to you! Trust Christ and
   you are saved. Not because you are a sensible sinner, or a penitent
   sinner, or anything else, but simply because God, of His Free Grace,
   with no consideration rendered to Him on your part, but gratis and for
   nothing, freely forgives all your debts for the sake of Jesus Christ.
   Now I have not mangled the Gospel--there it is with nothing of the
   creature about it but the man's faith and even that is the Holy

   Spirit's gift! Those who mingle their, "ifs," and, "buts," and insist
   upon, "you must do this and feel that before you may accept Christ,"
   frustrate the Grace of God, in a measure, and do damage to the glorious
   Gospel of the blessed God.

   And so, once more, to those who apostatize. Do I speak to any here who
   were once professors of religion--who once used to offer prayer in the
   assembly--who once walked as saints but now have gone back, breaking
   the Sabbath, forsaking the house of God and living in sin? You, my
   Friend, say by your course of life--"I had the Grace of God, but I do
   not care about it! It is worth nothing. I have rejected it, I have
   given it up! I have made it void! I have gone back to the world." You
   do as good as say, "I did once trust in Jesus Christ, but He is not
   worth trusting."

   You have denied Him--you have sold your Lord and Master! I will not now
   go into the question as to whether you ever were sincere, though I
   believe you never were. But on your own showing such is your case. Take
   heed lest these two terrible crimes should rest upon you--that you do
   frustrate the Grace of God and make Christ to be dead in vain.

   III. On my third point I shall carry with me the deep convictions and
   the joyful confidences of all true Believers. It is

   this, that NO TRUE BELIEVER WILL BE GUILTY OF THESE CRIMES. In his very
   soul he loathes these infamous

   sins. First of all, no believer in Christ can bear to think of
   frustrating of the Grace of God or the making it void. Come, now,
   honest hearts, I speak to you! Do you trust in Grace alone, or do you,
   in some measure, rest in yourselves? Do you, even in a small degree,
   depend upon your own feelings, your own faithfulness, your own
   repentance? I know you abhor the very thought! You have not even the
   shadow of a hope nor the semblance of a confidence in anything you ever
   were, or ever can be, or ever hope to be! You fling this away as a foul
   rag full of filth which you would hurl out of the universe if you
   could.

   I acknowledge that though I have preached the Gospel with all my heart
   and glory in it, yet I cast my preaching away as dross and dung if I
   think of them as a ground of reliance! And though I have brought many
   souls to Christ, blessed be His name, I never dare, for one moment, to
   put the slightest confidence in that fact as to my own salvation, for I
   know that I, after having preached to others, may yet be a castaway. I
   cannot rest in a successful ministry, or an edified Church, but I
   repose alone in my Redeemer! What I say of myself I know that each one
   of you will say for himself. Your almsgivings, your prayers, your
   tears, your suffering persecution, your gifts to the Church, your
   earnest work in the Sunday school or elsewhere--did you ever think of
   putting these side by side with the blood of Christ as your hope?

   No, you never dreamed of it! I am sure you never did and the mention of
   it is utterly loathsome to you, is it not? Grace, Grace, Grace is your
   only hope. Moreover, you have not only renounced all confidence in
   works, but you renounce it this day more heartily than ever before. The
   older you are and the more holy you become, the less do you think of
   trusting in yourself! The more we grow in Grace the more we grow in
   love with Grace--the more we search into our hearts and the more we
   know of the holy Law of God, the deeper is our sense of unworthiness
   and consequently the higher is our delight in rich, free, unmerited
   mercy--the free gift of the royal heart of God!

   Tell me, does not your heart leap within you when you hear the
   Doctrines of Grace? I know there are some who never felt themselves to
   be sinners, who shift about as if they were sitting on thorns when I am
   preaching Grace and nothing else but Grace--but it is not so with you
   who are resting in Christ. "Oh, no," you say, "ring that bell again,
   Sir! Ring that bell again! There is no music like it. Touch that string
   again, it is our favorite note!" When you get down in spirits and
   depressed, what sort of book do you like to read? Is it not a Book
   about the Grace of God? What do you turn to in the Scriptures? Do you
   not turn to the promises made to the guilty, the ungodly, the sinner?
   And do you not find that only in the Grace of God and only at the foot
   of the Cross is there any rest for you? I know it is so! Then you can
   rise up and say with Paul, "I do not frustrate the Grace of God. Some
   may, if they like, but God forbid that I should ever make it void, for
   it is all my salvation and all my desire."

   The true Believer is also free from the second crime--he does not make
   Christ to be dead in vain. No, no, no! He trusts in the death of
   Christ! He puts his sole and entire reliance upon the great Substitute
   who loved and lived and died for him! He does not dare to associate
   with the bleeding Sacrifice his poor bleeding heart, or his prayers, or
   his sanctifi-cation, or anything else. "None but Christ, none but
   Christ," is his soul's cry. He detests every proposal to mix anything
   of ceremony or of legal action with the finished work of Jesus Christ.
   The longer we live, I trust, dear Brothers and Sisters, the more we see
   the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ! We are struck with
   admiration at the wisdom of the way by which the Substitute was
   introduced--that God might smite sin and yet spare the sinner--we are
   lost in admiration at the matchless love of God, that He spared not His
   own Son!

   We are filled with reverent adoration at the love of Christ, that when
   He knew the price of pardon was His blood, His pity never withdrew.
   What is more, we not only joy in Christ, but we feel an increasing
   oneness with Him. We did not know it at first, but we know it now, that
   we were crucified with Him, that we were buried with Him, that we rose
   again with Him! We are not going to have Moses for a ruler, or Aaron
   for a priest, for Jesus is both King and Priest to us! Christ is in us
   and we are in Christ and we are complete in Him and nothing can be
   tolerated as an aid to the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ our
   Lord! We are one with Him and being one with Him we realize more, every
   day, that He did NOT die in vain! His death has bought us real life!
   His death has already set us free from the bondage of sin and has even
   now brought us deliverance from the fear of eternal wrath.

   His death has bought us eternal life, has bought us sonship and all the
   blessings that go with it which the Fatherhood of God takes care to
   bestow! The death of Christ has shut the gates of Hell for us and
   opened the gates of Heaven! The death of Christ has worked mercies for
   us--not visionary or imaginary but real and true--which this very day
   we enjoy and so we are in no danger of thinking that Christ died in
   vain. It is our joy to hold two great principles which I will leave
   with you, hoping that you will suck marrow and fatness out of them.
   These are the two principles. The Grace of God cannot be frustrated and
   Jesus Christ died not in vain. These two principles, I think, lie at
   the bottom of all sound doctrine. The Grace of God cannot be
   frustrated! Its eternal purpose will be fulfilled, its Sacrifice and
   seal shall be effec-tual--the chosen ones of Grace shall be brought to
   Glory!

   There shall be no failures as to God's plan in any point whatever! At
   the last, when all shall be summed up, it shall be seen that Grace
   reigned through righteousness unto eternal life and the top stone shall
   be brought out with shouts of "Grace, Grace unto it." And as Grace
   cannot be frustrated, so Christ did not die in vain! Some seem to think
   that there were purposes in Christ's heart which will never be
   accomplished. We have not so learned Christ. What He died to do shall
   be done--those He bought, He will have--those He redeemed shall be
   free. There shall be no failure of reward for Christ's wondrous work!
   He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied.

   On these two principles I throw back my soul to rest. Believing in His
   Grace that Grace shall never fail me. "My Grace is sufficient for you,"
   says the Lord and so shall it be. Believing in Jesus Christ, His death
   must save me. It cannot be, O Calvary, that you should fail! O
   Gethsemane, that your bloody sweat should be in vain. Through Divine
   Grace, resting in our Savior's precious blood, we must be saved! Joy
   and rejoice with me and go your way to tell it to others! God bless you
   in so doing, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Christ's Universal Kingdom and How It Comes

   (No. 1535)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, APRIL 25, 1880,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Ask of Me and I shall give You the heathen for Your inheritance and
   the uttermost parts of the earth for Your possession. You shall break
   them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them in pieces like a potter's
   vessel." Psalms 2:8,9.

   OBSERVE, dear Friends, the wonderful contrast between the violent
   excitement of the enemies of the Lord and the sublime serenity of God
   Himself. He is not disturbed though the heathen so furiously rage and
   their kings and mighty ones set themselves in battle array. He smiles
   at them--He has them in derision. You and I are often downcast and
   depressed and our forebodings are dark and dismal, but God sits in His
   eternal peacefulness and serenely overrules tumult and rebellion. The
   Lord reigns and His Throne is not moved, nor His rest broken whatever
   may be the noise and turmoil down below. Notice the sublimity of this
   Divine calm. While the heathen and their princes are plotting and
   planning how to break His bands asunder and cast His cords from them,
   He has already defeated their devices and He says to them, "Yet have I
   set My king upon My holy hill of Zion." "You will not have My Son to
   reign over you, but nevertheless He reigns. While you have been raging
   I have crowned Him. Your imaginations are, indeed, vain, for I have
   forestalled you and established Him upon His Throne. Hear Him as He
   proclaims My decree and asserts His filial sovereignty."

   God is always beforehand with His adversaries--they find their scheming
   frustrated and their craft baffled even before they have begun to
   execute their plans! By God's decree the Ever-Blessed Son of the
   Highest is placed in power and exalted to His Throne. The rulers cannot
   snatch from His hand the scepter, nor dash from His head the
   crown--Jesus reigns and must reign till all enemies are put under His
   feet. God has set Him firmly upon Zion's sacred hill and raging nations
   cannot cast Him down! The very idea of their doing so excites the
   derision of Jehovah, He disturbs not His great soul because of their
   blustering. As if it were a banquet rather than a conflict, the Lord
   God, as Himself King, speaks to the King's Son, even to His Anointed on
   His right hand and having acknowledged His royal rank, confers upon Him
   the highest honors.

   At great feasts many a monarch has been known to say to his favorite,
   "Ask what I shall give you and nothing shall be denied you this day."
   Even thus does the great Father say to His glorious Son, the Prince of
   Peace, "Ask of Me and I will give You the heathen for Your inheritance
   and the uttermost parts of the earth for Your possession." He bids Him
   open His mouth wide and request a boundless dominion! He will give Him
   distant nations, yes, and the whole round earth to be His kingdom.
   There is an air of regal festivity and peaceful joy about all this
   which strangely contrasts with the uproar of the adversaries.

   Brothers and Sisters, I wish we could enter, in some measure, into this
   sublime quiet. We may well be confident since God is so. If the Captain
   is assured of victory, it behooves the common soldier to be bravely
   hopeful. The battle is the Lord's and since He is the Lord God
   Omnipotent, fear about the issue of the conflict is foolish and wicked.
   All events are in His hands--His hands who can dash whole worlds to
   dust or create them when it pleases Him. What can stand against the
   almighty will? Who shall say unto Jehovah, "What are You doing?" In
   this eternal All-Sufficiency is our rest and we may, therefore, cease
   from anxiety! Stand still, my weary Brother, and see the salvation of
   God! Put not forth your timorous hands to stay the trembling ark, but
   know that Jehovah can protect His own!

   Lay your Martha cares aside, my Sister--sit at your Savior's feet and
   listen to His voice! He will tell you that God still reigns and that
   His Anointed shall reign, also. Things are not as they seem--all is
   well when all looks ill. If the heavens are clouded, the sun is not put
   out! If the evening has darkened, even to midnight, yet the morning
   comes! To the moment shall it break, nor can all the powers of darkness
   hinder the dawning day! Jehovah's fixed decrees remain engraved as in
   eternal brass, nor can the craft of Hell efface a single line nor stay
   the execution of a single purpose! Despite

   all opposition, the sacred purpose will blossom into the actual
   Providence and the Providence will ripen into salvation. God's plan
   will be carried out without failure in any point and there is no cause
   for alarm.

   If we were more calm and restful we would do our work better, for do we
   not gather both wisdom and courage when we abide in quietness and
   confidence? The joy of the Lord is the strength of His saints. The
   assurance of faith, if we were filled with it, would make us go forth
   "fair as the moon, clear as the sun and terrible as an army with
   banners." Alas, our short-sighted fretfulness, our anxious mistrust and
   our timorous suspicion cause us needless distress, weaken us for
   service and expose us to the assaults of our adversaries! Without the
   preparation of the Gospel of peace our feet are unshod and we are unfit
   for the heavenly pilgrimage.

   Groveling here below among the troubles of the hour, the majority of
   Christians are a timorous people and act like the tribe of Reuben in
   the day of Barak's battle, to whom Deborah cried, "Why abide you among
   the sheep-folds, to hear the bleating of the flocks?" O you who lie
   among the pots and do servile work in abject fear, arise to a braver
   spirit! Up to the everlasting hills and breathe a purer air--gird
   yourselves with the belt of confidence in God and you shall be "strong
   in the Lord and in the power of His might!" May God grant that the
   subject of this morning may help us out of the depressing influences
   which surround us and raise us into fellowship with the calm in which
   Jehovah sits smiling and out of which He says, "Yet have I set My King
   upon My holy hill of Zion."

   Our text suggests to us this morning, first, that the kingdoms of the
   earth and the earth itself are Christ's inheri-tance--"I shall give You
   the heathen for Your inheritance." Leave out those little words which
   the translators have inserted, for they but feebly help the sense. "I
   will give the heathen, Your inheritance and the uttermost parts of the
   earth, Your possession." When we have dwelt upon that we shall then
   notice that this is to be had for the asking--"Ask of Me and I shall
   give." Thirdly, we shall note that the power by which the dominion
   shall be gained is altogether of God--"I shall give." And fourthly, we
   shall remark that in order to complete the conquest of the world all
   existing and all future confederacies against the Lord and against His
   Christ shall be utterly destroyed--"You shall break them with a rod of
   iron; You shall dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel."

   I. For our comfort let us notice the teaching of the text that THE LORD
   WILL GIVE TO CHRIST THE HEATHEN AS HIS INHERITANCE AND THE UTTERMOST
   PARTS OF THE EARTH AS HIS POSSESSION. This I

   take to refer to our Lord as Man. Already as God, the kingdom of the
   Divine Son rules over all. There never was a limit to the reign of
   Jesus as God, not even when He was hanging on the Cross--He was the
   everlasting Father even when He was "the Child born, the Son given." It
   is in His wondrous Nature as God-Man Mediator that these words may be
   understood, for so the Apostle Paul evidently interpreted them.

   The mysterious sentence, "You are My Son; this day have I begotten
   You," may refer to the deep and secret Truth of God of the Eternal
   Filiation of our Lord, whatever that may be. But Paul quotes it in the
   13th chapter of Acts as referring to His Resurrection. Here are His
   Words, "And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise
   which was made unto the fathers, God has fulfilled the same unto us,
   their children, in that He has raised up Jesus again, as it is also
   written in the second Psalm, You are My Son, this day have I begotten
   You." It is in resurrection power that Christ comes forth and God gives
   to Him dominion over the earth and all that is upon it.

   Because He lives and was dead He has the keys of Hell and of death. By
   virtue of His humiliation He reigns. For the suffering of death He is
   crowned with Glory and honor. The heavenly host proclaim His worthiness
   to take the Book and open its seven seals, singing, "For You were slain
   and have redeemed us to God by Your blood." He descended that He might
   ascend above all things and fill all things! He laid aside His Glory
   that He might be crowned with this new Glory and honor and might have
   all things put under His feet as the Son of Man. We speak, therefore,
   of Jesus Christ the Risen One, who once died, but has now risen from
   the tomb and quit this earth for the splendors of the New Jerusalem.

   Our conviction is that this same Jesus is to reign over the whole
   world. I shall not enter into the question whether this will be
   accomplished before His Second Advent or will be the result of His
   glorious appearing. I should not like to assert that this consummation
   will be reached before His Advent, for that might seem to work against
   our duty to watch for His coming which may be at any moment. On the
   other hand, I would not venture to assert that the Gospel cannot be
   universally victorious before His coming, because I perceive that this
   opinion is a pillow for many an idle head and is ruinous to the hopeful
   spirit of missionary enterprise. It is enough for me that a wide
   dominion will be given to our Lord at

   some time or other and that assuredly His kingdom shall embrace all the
   nations of mankind. The whole earth shall yet be filled with His Glory!
   The Seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head and clear the
   world of his slimy trail!

   For the next few minutes you will be so good as to keep your Bibles
   open, for the appeal must be to God's own Word. I gather that the
   kingdom of Christ is to be so extensive as to comprehend all mankind,
   first, because, of the exceeding breadth of the prophecy of it which
   was made to Abraham in Genesis 12:3. That is an old Covenant promise
   which refers to Abraham as the father of the faithful and to his one
   great seed, even Jesus, the promised Messiah. Here are the far-reaching
   words--"In you shall all families of the earth be blessed." Assuredly
   they are not as yet all blessed in him to such an extent as to exhaust
   the Divine meaning. When God, in Covenant, promises a blessing it is no
   light thing and, therefore, I am sure that this grand Covenant blessing
   of the nations is something more than a name.

   Though I doubt not that the whole earth is, to some extent, the better
   because of the coming of Christ and His peacemaking death and the
   spread of His pure faith, yet I cannot believe that multitudes who live
   and die in the thick darkness of ignorance and idolatry are really
   blessed in Christ in such a sense as to make it a Covenant blessing.
   How much are Tartary, China and Tibet blessed by the Gospel? There must
   yet be something better for all the families of the earth than anything
   they have up to now received. All the families of the earth shall yet
   know that the promised Seed has lived and died for them and some of
   every kindred and tongue shall find salvation in Him.

   Jacob, too, when He spoke concerning the Shiloh in Genesis 49:10, said,
   "Unto Him shall the gathering of the people be." By the people is not
   meant the seed of Israel, but the nations, or the Gentiles. So the
   Septuagint and the Syrian understand it and so, indeed, it is. Jesus,
   our great Shiloh, sets up the standard and His chosen rally around in
   ever growing numbers till the dispersed of Babel shall find in Him a
   new center and a pure language shall be given to them in Him. The words
   mean not, "gathering," only, but a willing obedience, the fruit of
   faith and the expression of piety. To this is parallel the word of Paul
   in Romans 15:12--"And again, Isaiah says, There shall be a root of
   Jesse and He that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in Him shall
   the Gentiles trust."

   It is evident, then, that the nations shall come to trust in the
   Messiah and thus shall they find life eternal. Moses, too, in
   Deuteronomy 32:21, to which passage Paul, in Romans, so especially
   refers, speaks of the heathen nations when he says, "I will move them
   to jealousy with those who are not a people; I will provoke them to
   anger with a foolish nation." Truly this is fulfilled in these days
   when the Gospel line has gone out throughout all the earth and its
   words unto the ends of the earth--and this, our own foolish nation,
   this once barbarous people which seemed shut out from God, worshipping
   idols with all the cruel rites of the Druids, has been brought into
   Covenant with God and made to rejoice in Him!

   Degraded heathens in all lands have become Believers and so shall all
   nations be brought believingly to Jesus' feet, that Israel may be
   angered and provoked to jealousy until her time shall come when she
   shall look on Him whom she has pierced and shall mourn for Him and turn
   to Him with full purpose of heart. When we reach the Psalms, we come
   into the clear light of prophecy concerning the kingdom of our blessed
   Master. Our text stands first and is sufficient in it-self--the heathen
   are to be His inheritance and the utmost bounds of the world are to be
   His possession!

   Turn to that famous passion Psalm, the twenty-second. Its pathos with
   regard to the griefs of the Crucified One is deep and touching. You see
   Him hanging on the tree, a laughingstock to scoffers, with His tongue
   cleaving to His jaws and His heart melting like wax in the midst of His
   bowels--and yet before the Psalm closes the plaintive gives place to
   the triumphant and the dying One cries--"All the ends of the world
   shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the
   nations shall worship before You. For the kingdom is the Lord's: and He
   is the Governor among the nations. All they that are fat upon earth
   shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow
   before Him: and none can keep alive His own soul."

   On the Cross this prospect cheered our dying Master's heart, that the
   kingdoms should be the Lord's and that all the kindreds of the nations
   should come and worship before Him! Let it cheer us, also. Do you think
   that the crucified Lord will be disappointed of the end for which He
   died? Will you venture to assert that a single drop of His blood was
   shed for nothing? Rest assured that He shall see of the travail of His
   soul, till even His great loving heart shall be content! God has said
   it, "I will divide Him a portion with the great and He shall divide the
   spoil with the strong, because He has poured out His soul unto death."
   And you can be calmly confident that the Word of the Lord will stand!

   Turn in your Bibles to Psalm 66:4 and there you come upon another word
   of comfort--"All the earth shall worship You and shall sing unto You;
   they shall sing to Your name." This sentence is not merely the
   passionate hope of an enthu-

   siastic worshipper, but a voice inspired of the Holy Spirit plainly
   declaring that all peoples shall adore their Maker with hearty praise
   and joyful song! How glowing is the language of Psalm 72. Can we expect
   too great things for our King when we remember the gracious words
   beginning at the 8th verse--"He shall have dominion also from sea to
   sea and from the river unto the ends of the earth. They that dwell in
   the wilderness shall bow before Him; and His enemies shall lick the
   dust. The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the
   kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yes, all kings shall fall
   down before Him: all nations shall serve Him."

   Read on at verse 17--"His name shall endure forever: His name shall be
   continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in Him: all
   nations shall call Him blessed." These terms include the most barbarous
   tribes that exist and they specially mention nations which boast that
   they were never conquered, such as the untamed rovers of the wilderness
   who centuries ago laughed at the Roman power. The legions which subdued
   all other peoples could not conquer the sons of Ishmael! Fleet of foot
   as a rabbit and swift as a young roe, they fled over the desert sands
   out of reach of the pursuer. Yet these shall bow before our Lord and
   joyfully pay Him homage! He will sway His scepter where scepter was
   never acknowledged before! He shall set up a throne where all other
   authority has been laughed to scorn!

   You will not be wearied if I ask you to look at Psalm 86:9. There you
   will find it written, "All nations whom You have made shall come and
   worship before You, O Lord; and shall glorify Your name." It is not to
   be mere outside worship that shall be paid, for the nations are to
   glorify His name which is a high form of praise! All nations are to
   glorify the Lord and this they have not done as yet. We expected to
   find and we are not disappointed in our expectation, that Isaiah would
   be sure to speak concerning these things. I would rather you heard the
   Word of God by far than my word and, therefore, we will keep to our
   reading.

   It will bring you encouragement and cheer your heart to know what
   Prophets said in the olden times when only Israel had the light. They
   did not think the light would be confined to the one peculiar people,
   but they expected that light would break on all the nations which sat
   in darkness and they, also, would seek the Lord. Turn to Isaiah and
   read. See what he says in his second chapter. "It shall come to pass in
   the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be
   established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the
   hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and
   say, Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of
   the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways and we will walk in
   His paths for out of Zion shall go forth the Law and the Word of the
   Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among the nations and shall
   rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares
   and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword
   against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

   I can but give samples. The passages abound all through Isaiah in which
   there is the intimation of the general spread of the Redeemer's
   kingdom. Turn to Isaiah 49:6, 7--"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 end of the earth. Thus says the
   Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and His Holy One, to Him whom man
   despises, to Him whom the nation abhors, to a Servant of rulers, Kings
   shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the Lord
   that is faithful and the Holy One of Israel and He shall choose You."
   And now, verse 12--"Behold, these shall come from far: and, lo, these
   from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim."
   And verse 18--"Lift up your eyes round about and behold: all these
   gather themselves together and come to you."

   Nor is Isaiah alone in such prophecies as these. I cannot detain you by
   reading what Ezekiel says concerning the ever deepening waters which
   shall carry life to all lands and I will only mention one word of
   Jeremiah, because it so peculiarly proves that the homage paid by
   heathen nations to our Lord will be that of their hearts--and that the
   reign of Christ, whatever else it may be, will certainly be a spiritual
   reign. Jeremiah 3:17--"They shall call Jerusalem the throne of the
   Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the
   Lord, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the
   imagination of their evil heart." Christ will work a heart-change when
   He shall win the nations to allegiance and this shall lead to a
   manifest change of life--"neither shall they walk any more after the
   imagination of their evil heart."

   Daniel, that John of the Old Testament, of course saw more clearly than
   any, the coming kingdom of the Anointed One. Listen what he says
   beginning in 7:18--"But the saints of the Most High shall take the
   kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever. Until
   the Ancient of Days came and judgment was given to the saints of the
   Most

   High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. And the
   kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole
   Heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High,
   whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and all dominions shall serve
   and obey Him." Can anything be more positive than this last word?

   Look how the idols are to be destroyed according to the Prophet
   Zephaniah (2:11)--"The Lord will be terrible unto them: for He will
   famish all the gods of the earth; and men shall worship Him, everyone
   from his place, even all the isles of the heathen." Zechariah says, to
   the same effect, (9:10)--"He shall speak peace unto the heathen and His
   dominion shall be from sea even to sea and from the river even to the
   ends of the earth." Lest I should weary you, I dare not quote any more.
   To me it is evident beyond all contradiction that according to the
   whole run of Scripture the kingdom of Christ is to extend over all
   parts of the earth and over all races and conditions of men and,
   therefore, I charge you never despair for the grand old cause!

   An infidel notion is abroad that these different religions have sprung
   up at different times as developments of the religious instinct and
   that they may all profitably exist side by side with ours. It is
   admitted that the religion of Christ is excellent and that it deserves
   a large following, but still other religions have their advantages and
   must not be despised--as if to say that something better than the
   Gospel of Christ may yet be discovered. This is the current talk in
   certain circles and we would at once express our horror at it! Jesus is
   not to share a divided Throne! Cast with abhorrence from your souls
   every such blasphemous thought! Jesus must reign till all enemies are
   put under His feet and to Him all rivals are enemies!

   If Jesus is King, He is the only Potentate. Christians are enlisted
   under a banner which does not allow another standard side by side with
   it! They serve a Prince who will not share dominion with others--who
   will not submit that even a province shall be torn away from His
   government! He shall reign forever and ever, King of kings and Lord of
   lords. Hallelujah! Like a burst of thunder let all hearts that love Him
   say, Amen!

   II. It appears from our text that THIS UNIVERSAL DOMINION IS TO BE
   ASKED FOR. Thus says the Father to

   His glorious Son, "Ask of Me and I will give You." Beloved, Jesus fails
   not to ask. We do not doubt that He responds to the Father's invitation
   and asks for His inheritance. This is the way in which the Psalm before
   us touches upon the priestly character of Christ as combined with His
   kingly office. He always lives to intercede and a part of His daily
   intercession is to ask that the heathen may be His inheritance.

   Now, Beloved, this is a lesson to us. We belong to Christ. We are
   members of that body of which He is the mystical Head and it is ours to
   act with Him in His lifework--as He asks, we are to ask with Him. As
   Jesus suffers in His people, so He pleads in them. Let us cry day and
   night unto God for the coming of the kingdom of our Lord! Let the
   Throne of the Highest be surrounded by our perpetual prayers! Let us
   urge for the Lord Jesus His suit in the courts above, that the heathen
   may be His inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth His
   possession. We are so truly one with Him that His sympathies and hopes
   are ours! His Glory is our glory! His victory our victory and,
   therefore, our supplications should naturally and spontaneously arise
   for Him every day of our lives.

   Our union with Him has given us a kingdom, the same kingdom as that
   which He claims. He Himself has said it, "It is your Father's good
   pleasure to give you the kingdom." As surely as He sets His Son upon
   His holy hill of Zion, so surely will the Lord bring us all there! Our
   prayers, therefore, should daily rise together with the pleading of the
   great Intercessor, Himself. O Lord, Yours is the kingdom and the power
   and the glory! Let Your will be done in earth as it is in Heaven! This
   prayer is one which is commanded by God Himself. About its fitness we
   can, therefore, have no doubt. Your Savior taught you to say, "Your
   kingdom come." In this text we find it prescribed as a prayer to the
   Well-Beloved--"Ask of Me"--and, therefore, it is certainly a proper
   prayer for us and we may use it without question.

   We are highly honored in being permitted to present such a petition--to
   be allowed to pray for myself is mercy, to be permitted to pray for my
   fellow man is favor--but to be allowed to pray for Jesus is an honor!
   It is written, "Prayer also shall be made for Him continually," and
   thus there is a special honor put upon those who intercede. My Lord's
   prayer for me saves me, but when He bids me pray for Him, He dignifies
   me and I say with David, "Your gentleness has made me great." Whatever
   else we forget, never from our private intercessions let us omit the
   prayer that the heathen may come to glorify Christ! It is a joy to know
   that this prayer will be effectual to the fullest. It is no vain
   desire, no dream of a fevered brain--the infinite wisdom of God,
   Himself, suggests it, for He says, "Ask and I shall give You."

   This union of precept and promise is found attached to every Covenant
   blessing, but here it is conspicuously and distinctly stated in so many
   words--"Ask and I shall give You." Concerning this thing,, the promise
   of God is definite! We may, therefore, pray with full assurance. Let us
   avail ourselves of this plain direction every hour of our lives. O
   Church of God, ask, on Christ's behalf, and the Lord God will give Him
   the kingdom! Heir of Heaven, ask on behalf of the Elder Brother, for
   the Elder Brother pleads in you and God will hear both you and Him and
   He will grant the united request! My heart is full of confidence when
   pleading upon this subject! What surer guarantee do we need than, "Ask
   and I shall

   give You"?

   Let our prayer be wide and far-reaching. Let our desires embrace the
   world. Pray not only for your own country, though it needs it and God,
   alone, knows how much--but pray for the colonies, the continent and the
   far off lands. Ask that all heathens may become Christians! Plead that
   the whole round earth may be the Lord's--that the uttermost parts of
   the earth may resound with songs in His praise! On this earth His blood
   has fallen! The precious drops could not be gathered up again and so
   this globe remains blood-marked--the one star upon which the Son of God
   poured out His life! It must be the Lord's! The Sacrifice of Calvary
   has made it sacred to the Son of God! As our Government marks with the
   broad arrow those stores which belong to it, so did Christ, upon the
   tree, when the blood fell from His hands and feet and side, mark, as it
   were, with something more full of meaning than the broad arrow--this
   round earth on which He bled--and it must be forever and ever His by
   right of purchase and ransom!

   It was made subject to vanity for a little season, but it is to be
   redeemed from it--and when it shall be purified and beautified in the
   day of the manifestation of the sons of God, you will not know it, for
   it will come forth as "a new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells
   righteousness." Its sister stars have long wondered at its silence, or
   its discord, but at the sight of its restoration to the choirs of
   holiness, they will sing in deep delight and chant a new song unto the
   Lord! With what admiration will they perceive, rising up from this once
   beclouded orb, a flame of unquenchable praise with pillars of perfumed
   smoke, the incense of eternal gratitude! Sweeter the offering of this
   once fallen world than that of any other sphere, for it has been
   redeemed and upon it have been seen marvels of free Grace and dying
   love such as no other world has known.

   Oh, may this soon come to pass! May the prayer be heard and God be
   praised. But it can only be accomplished through His own appointed
   method, the asking of Christ, the pleading of the Church. Oh, awaken,
   Church, to ask! Awake from your unholy lethargy and cry day and night
   unto God! Cease not, but with anguish, like a woman in travail, cry
   aloud and spare not until He gives the risen Lord the heathen for His
   inheritance and makes His Throne higher than the kings of the earth!

   III. Thirdly, THIS DOMINION IS TO BE GAINED BY THE POWER OF GOD. Notice
   the text, for it is very explicit--"Ask of Me and I shall give You."
   The power and Grace of God will be conspicuously seen in the
   subjugation of this world to Christ. Every heart shall know that it was
   worked by the power of God in answer to the prayer of Christ and His
   Church. I believe, Brothers and Sisters, that the length of time spent
   in the accomplishment of the Divine plan has, much of it, been occupied
   with getting rid of those many forms of human power which have intruded
   into the place of the Spirit. If you and I had been about in our Lord's
   day and could have had everything managed to our hand, we should have
   converted Caesar straight away by argument or by oratory. We should
   then have converted all his legions by every means within our reach.
   And, I guarantee you, with Caesar and his legions at our back we would
   have Christianized the world in no time, would we not?

   Yes, but that is not God's way at all, nor the right and effectual way
   to set up a spiritual kingdom! Bribes and threats are, alike, unlawful.
   Eloquence and carnal reasoning are out of court. The power of Divine
   Love is the one weapon for this campaign. Long ago the Prophet wrote,
   "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord." The fact
   is that such conversions as could be brought about by physical force,
   or by mere mental energy, or by the prestige of rank and pomp are not
   conversions at all! The kingdom of Christ is not a kingdom of this
   world, otherwise would His servants fight! It rests on a spiritual
   basis and is to be advanced by spiritual means. Yet Christ's servants
   gradually slipped down into the notion that His kingdom was of this
   world and could be upheld by human power.

   A Roman emperor professed to be converted, using a deep policy to
   settle himself upon the throne. Then Christianity became the religion
   patronized by the State--it seemed that the world was Christianized,
   whereas, indeed, the Church was heathenized! Hence sprang the monster
   of a State Church, a conjunction ill-assorted and fraught with untold
   ills.

   This incongruous thing is half human, half Divine! As a theory it
   fascinates, as a fact it betrays! It promises to advance the Truth of
   God and is, itself, a negation of it! Under its influences a system of
   religion was fashioned which, beyond all false religions and beyond
   even Atheism itself, is the greatest hindrance to the true Gospel of
   Jesus Christ!

   Under its influence dark ages lowered over the world. Men were not
   permitted to think. A Bible could scarcely be found and a preacher of
   the Gospel, if found, was put to death! That was the result of human
   power coming in with the sword in one hand and the Gospel in the other
   and developing its pride of ecclesiastical power into a triple crown,
   an Inquisition and an "infallible Pope"! This parasite, this canker,
   this incubus of the church will be removed by the Grace of God and by
   His Providence in due season. The kings of the earth who have loved
   this unchaste system will grow weary of it and destroy it.

   Read Revelation 17:16 and see how terrible her end will be. The death
   of the system will come from those who gave it life--the powers of
   earth created the system and they will, in due time, destroy it!
   Frequently do we meet with the idea that the world is to be converted
   to Christ by the spread of civilization. Now civilization always
   follows the Gospel and is, in a great measure, the product of it, but
   many people put the cart before the horse and make civilization the
   first cause. According to their opinion, trade is to regenerate the
   nations! The arts are to ennoble them and education is to purify them.
   Peace Societies are formed, against which I have not a word to say, but
   much in their favor. Still, I believe the only efficient Peace Society
   is the Church of God and the best peace teaching is the love of God in
   Christ Jesus!

   The Grace of God is the great instrument for lifting up the world from
   the depths of its ruin and covering it with happiness and holiness.
   Christ's Cross is the Pharos of this tempestuous sea, like the
   Eddystone lighthouse flinging its beams through the midnight of
   ignorance over the raging waters of human sin, preserving men from rock
   and shipwreck, piloting them into the port of peace! Tell it among the
   heathen--the Lord reigns from the Cross--and as you tell it believe
   that the power to make the peoples believe it is with God the Father
   and the power to bow them before Christ is in God the Holy Spirit.
   Saving energy lies not in learning, nor in wit, nor in eloquence, nor
   in anything except in the right arm of God who will be exalted among
   the heathen, for He has sworn that surely all flesh shall see the
   salvation of God.

   The might of the Omnipotent One shall work out His purposes of Grace
   and as for us, we will use the simple processes of prayer and faith.
   "Ask of Me and I shall give You." Oh, that we could keep in perpetual
   motion the machinery of prayer! Pray, pray, pray and God will give,
   give, give--abundantly and supernaturally above all that we ask, or
   even think! He must do all things in the conquering work of the Lord
   Jesus. We cannot convert a single child, nor bring to Christ the
   humblest peasant, nor lead to peace the most hopeful youth! All must be
   done by the Spirit of God, alone, and if ever nations are to be born in
   a day and crowds are to come humbly to Jesus' feet, it is Yours,
   Eternal Spirit, YOURS to do it! God must give the dominion or the
   rebels will remain unsubdued!

   IV. Thus the power of God works to bring about the kingdom of Christ
   and THIS INVOLVES THE BREAKING UP OF ALL THE CONFEDERACIES WHICH NOW
   EXIST OR EVER SHALL EXIST FOR THE HINDRANCE OF THE REDEEMER'S KINGDOM.
   Our text employs a figure which is very full of meaning. "He shall
   break them with a rod of iron." He breaks not the subject nations, nor
   the inherited heathen, but the kings of the earth who stood up and took
   counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed. Against
   these He will lift up His iron rod of stern justice and irresistible
   power!

   Over His own inheritance He will sway a silver scepter of love. Over
   His own possession He shall reign with gentleness and Grace, but as for
   His adversaries, He will deal with them in severity and display His
   power in them. How shall they stand out against Him? They have formed
   their confederacy with great care and skill--as when men prepare clay
   and make it pliable for the potter's use, so have they made all things
   ready--they have set their design upon the wheel and caused it to
   revolve in their thoughts and with great skill they have fashioned it.
   Lo, there it stands--finished and fair to look upon! Yet at its very
   best it is nothing more than a potter's vessel. It may be of the purest
   clay and of such exquisite workmanship that it shall enchant every man
   of taste, but it is nothing more than an earthen vessel and, therefore,
   woe unto it when the rod of iron falls upon it.

   Woe to all human societies and brotherhoods which are framed to resist
   the Lord! Mark the conflict and its end! It is brief enough. A stroke!
   Where is the hope of the Lord's adversary? Gone, gone, utterly gone!
   Only a few potsherds remain. Oh for such a smiting of the apostasy of
   Rome! Oh for one touch of the iron rod upon the imposture of Mohammed!
   Oh, for a blow at Buddhism and a back stroke at the superstition of
   Brahmanism and at all the idols of the heathen!

   Woe unto the gods of the land of Sinim in that day! A single stroke
   shall set the potsherds flying. Why, then, should we fear, although
   they plot and plan? Although a solemn conclave of cardinals is held.
   Though the "Pope" fulminates his bulls. Though the Sultan ordain that
   every convert to Christianity shall be put to death. Though the
   scoffers still revile at Christianity and say that it spreads not as
   once it did, a speedy answer shall confound them, or if not speedy, yet
   the stroke shall be sure!

   Our King waits a while. He has leisure. Haste belongs to weakness. His
   strength moves calmly. Only let Him be awakened and you shall see how
   quick are His paces! He redeemed the world in a few short hours upon
   the Cross and I guarantee you that when He gets that iron rod once to
   working, He will not need many days to ease Him of His adversaries and
   make a clean sweep of all that set themselves against Him! If you want
   to see how it will be done, read, I pray you, Daniel 2:31--"You, O
   king, saw and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness
   was excellent, stood before you; and the form thereof was terrible.
   This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver,
   his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of
   iron and part of clay."

   It was a strange conglomeration--all the metallic empires are set forth
   as combined in one image--which image is the embodied idea of
   monarchical power which has fascinated men even to this day. The
   Prophet goes on to say, "You saw still that a stone was cut out without
   hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay
   and broke them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the
   silver and the gold broken to pieces together and became like the chaff
   of the summer threshing floors and the wind carried them away, that no
   place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a
   great mountain and filled the whole earth."

   And so it is to be--the vision is being each day fulfilled. The Gospel
   stone, which owes nothing to human strength or wisdom, is breaking the
   image and scattering all opposing powers. No system, society,
   confederacy, or cabinet can stand which is opposed to the Truth of God
   and righteousness. I, even I, that am but of yesterday and know
   nothing, have seen one of the mightiest of empires of modern times melt
   away all of a sudden as the frost of the morning in the heat of the
   sun. I have seen monarchs driven out of their tyrannies by the powers
   of a single man and a free nation born as in an hour. I have seen
   states which fought to hold the Negro in perpetual captivity subdued by
   those whom they despised, while the slave has been set free!

   I have seen nations chastened under evil governments and revived when
   the yoke has been broken and they have returned to the way of
   righteousness and peace. He who lives longest shall see most of this.
   Evil is short-lived. Truth shall yet rise above all. The Lord says,
   overturn, overturn till He shall come whose right it is and God shall
   give it to Him. Woe unto those that stand against the Lord and His
   Anointed, for they shall not prosper. "Be wise now, therefore, O you
   kings: be instructed, you judges of the earth. Kiss the Son, lest He be
   angry and you perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a
   little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him."
     __________________________________________________________________

Sentence Of Death, The Death Of Self-trust

   (No. 1536)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 2, 1880,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not
   trust in ourselves, but in God which raises the dead." 2 Corinthians
   1:9.

   WE are justified, dear Friends, in speaking about our own experience
   when the mention of it will be for the benefit of others. Especially is
   this the case with leaders in the Church such as Paul, for their
   experience is rich and deep and the rehearsal of it comes with great
   weight and is peculiarly valuable. We are all the better when we are
   distressed for discovering that such an one as Paul was also subject to
   heaviness--we feel safe in following the line of conduct which was
   marked out by the great Apostle and we are hopeful that if he came out
   of his troubles which were so great, we may, also, be delivered out of
   ours which are comparatively so little.

   These footprints on the sand of time help us to take heart. By tracing
   the footsteps of the flock, we are helped to return to the fold and to
   the Shepherd. It would have been a great calamity if such men as David
   and Paul had, through a fear of seeming egotistical, withheld from us a
   sight of their inner selves. God has been pleased to fill a large part
   of the Bible with biographies and histories of human actions in order
   that we who are men, ourselves, may learn from them. Where a biography
   concerns mainly the inner rather than the outer life, as in the Psalms
   and in Paul's Epistles, we are all the more strengthened, instructed,
   directed and comforted, for it is in the inner life that we are most
   perplexed and most in danger of going astray.

   God grant us Grace to make good use of the treasure of experience which
   is stored up for us in His Word! How rich, how varied, how admirably
   selected! If one man can learn by the life of another, surely we ought
   to learn from such memorable lives as those immortalized in the
   Scriptures. Especially may we see ourselves as in a mirror while we
   steadily look into the heart of Paul. As to our own experience of trial
   and of delivering mercy, it is sent for our good and we should endeavor
   to profit to the utmost by it. But it was never intended that it should
   end with our private and personal benefit. In the kingdom of God no man
   lives unto himself. We are bound to comfort others by the comfort which
   the Lord has comforted us. We are under solemn obligation to seek out
   mourners and such as are in tried circumstances, that we may
   communicate to them the cheering testimony which we are personally able
   to bear to the love and faithfulness of

   God.

   Our Lord has handed out to us spiritual riches ofjoy that we may
   communicate to others who are in need of consolation through great
   tribulation. You may think that you are not called upon to preach and
   possibly you may neither have the ability nor the opportunity for such
   public witness bearing, but your experience is a treasure of which you
   are the trustee and you are bound by the law of gratitude to make use
   of all you know, all you have felt, all you have learned by personal
   experience for the comforting and the building up of your Brothers and
   Sisters in Christ. To be reticent is sometimes to be treacherous--you
   may be found unfaithful to your charge unless you endeavor to improve
   for the general good the dealings of the Lord with your soul. I would
   exhort every Christian to reflect the light which falls upon him.

   Brother, echo your Master's voice faithfully and clearly! What the Lord
   has whispered to you in your ear in closets, proclaim according to your
   ability upon the housetops! If you have found honey, eat of it, yet eat
   not the feast alone, but call in others who can appreciate its
   sweetness that they may rejoice with you! If you have discovered a
   well, drink and quench your thirst, but hasten forthwith to call the
   whole caravan, that every traveler may also drink! If you have been
   sick and you have been healed, tell the glad news to all sick folk
   around you and let them know where they, too, may find a cure.

   Perhaps your telling of the news may have more weight with men than all
   our preaching--they know you and have seen the change which Grace has
   worked in you and you will, by your own experience, give them proof and
   evidence

   which they cannot deny. May the Holy Spirit help you in this thing. Let
   this stand for the preface to our sermon and let us learn, once and for
   all, that, as Paul used his experience for the comfort and edification
   of the Churches, so is every Believer called upon to use their
   experience for the benefit of his fellow Christians. The particular
   experience of which Paul speaks was a certain trial, or probably series
   of trials, which he endured in Asia. You know how he was stoned at
   Lystra and how he was followed by his malicious countrymen from town to
   town wherever he went, that they might excite the mob against him.

   You recollect the uproar at Ephesus and the constant danger to which
   Paul was exposed from perils of all kinds, but it must not be forgotten
   that he appears to have been suffering, at the same time, grievous
   sickness of body and that the multiple, together, caused very deep
   depression of mind. His tribulations abounded--outside were fights and
   within were fears. I call to your notice the strong expressions which
   he uses in the 8th verse--"We were pressed"--he says. The word is such
   as you would use if you were speaking of a cart loaded with sheaves
   till it could not bear up under the weight--it is overloaded and
   threatens to break down and fall by the way. Or the word might be used
   if you spoke of a man who was weighted with too great a burden, under
   which he was ready to fall. Or, perhaps, better still, if you were
   speaking of a ship which had taken too much cargo and sank nearly to
   the water's edge, looking as if it must sink altogether through
   excessive pressure.

   Paul says that this was his condition of mind when he was in Asia--"We
   were pressed." To strengthen the language he adds, "out of measure." He
   was pressed out of measure. He could convey no idea of the degree of
   pressure put upon him--it seemed to be beyond the measure of his
   strength. All trials, we are taught in Scripture, are sent to us in
   measure and so were Paul's, but for the time being he, himself, could
   see no limit to them and he seemed to be quite crushed. Paul could not
   tell how much he was tried. He could not calculate the pressure--it was
   more severe than he could estimate! So great, so heavy was the burden
   upon his mind, that he gave up calculating its weight.

   Then he adds another word, "above strength," because a man may be
   pressed out of measure and yet he may have such remarkable strength
   that he may bear up under it all. The posts and bars and gates of Gaza
   must have pressed Samson and they must have pressed him out of measure,
   but still, not beyond his strength because gigantic force was given to
   those mighty limbs of his so that he readily carried what would have
   crushed another man! Paul says that the pressure put upon him was
   beyond his strength, He was quite unable to cope with it and his
   spirits so failed him that he adds, "insomuch that we despaired even of
   life."

   He gave himself up for a dead man, for no way of escape was visible to
   him. Into whatever town he entered, he was followed by the Jews. The
   fickle mob soon turned against him--even the converts were not always
   faithful. He had been stoned and beaten with rods and men had sworn to
   take his life. Perils of robbers beset him in lonely places while
   tumult and assault befell him in the cities. Meanwhile, the thorn in
   his flesh worried him, afflictions and cares of all kinds weighed upon
   him and altogether his mind was bowed down under the pressure which had
   come upon him. What a deep bass there is in this note, "We were pressed
   out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of
   life"! May we be spared so grievous a condition, or if that cannot be,
   may we be profited by it.

   We shall, in the sermon of this morning, as the Holy Spirit, the
   Comforter, may help us, endeavor to show the reason for such affliction
   and the good effect of it. First, I shall direct your attention to the
   disease mentioned in the text as one to be prevented by the sentence of
   death--"that we should not trust in ourselves." Secondly, we shall
   dwell, for a little, upon the treatment, "we had the sentence of death
   in ourselves." And thirdly, we will observe the cure--"we should not
   trust in ourselves, but in God which raises the dead."

   I. The first point is THE DISEASE--the tendency to trust in ourselves.
   And we remark upon it, first, that this is a disease to which all men
   are liable, for even Paul was in danger of it. I do not say that Paul
   did trust in himself, but that he might have done so and would have
   done so, if it had not been for the Lord's prudent dealings with him
   both in the matter of this great trial in Asia and in the incident of
   the thorn in the flesh. Where a sharp preventive is used, it is clear
   that a strong liability exists. My Brothers and Sisters, I should have
   thought that Paul was the last man to be in danger of trusting in
   himself!

   He was so amazingly converted, so remarkably clear in his views of the
   Gospel! Indeed, he was so thorough in his faith, so intense in his
   zeal, so eminent in his humility that all could see that his reliance
   was upon Grace alone. No writer that ever lived has set in so clear a
   light the fact that all things are of God and that we must walk by
   faith and depend

   alone upon God if we would find salvation and eternal life! And yet you
   see, my Brethren, it was possible that the great teacher of Grace could
   have trusted in himself! He was a man in whose life we see no sort of
   self-confidence. I cannot recall anything that he did or said which
   looks like vanity or pride. He exhibits deep humility of spirit and
   great faith in God and he evidently had no confidence in himself--such
   confidence he was always disclaiming. He looked upon his own works and
   his own righteousness as dross and dung that he may win Christ. And
   when he does speak of himself, it is generally with special
   self-denials--"I, yet not I, but the Grace of God which was with me."
   "By the Grace of God," says he, "I am what I am."

   It is plain, then, that no clearness of knowledge, no purity of intent
   and no depth of experience can altogether kill in our corrupt nature
   the propensity to self-reliance. We are so foolish that we readily
   yield to the witchery which would cause us to trust in ourselves. This
   wide-spread folly has no respect for knowledge, age, or experience, but
   even feeds upon them! I have heard men say several times and I have
   been ashamed as I have heard the boast--"I am sure there is no
   likelihood that I should ever trust in myself. I know better." Brother,
   you are trusting in yourself when you say that-- the subtle poison is
   in your veins even now! You do not know what folly you can commit. You
   are such a fool that even while you say, "I know my folly," you are
   probably even, then, betraying your self-conceit.

   What do we know? We know not of what spirit we are. We are capable of
   almost everything that the devil is capable of. Yes, and if the Grace
   of God should leave us, though we had been exalted to stand like Paul
   and say, "I am not a whit behind the very chief of the Apostles," yet
   should we fall, like Lucifer, and perish with pride! The silliest of
   the vices may overcome the wisest of saints! Trust in self is one of
   the most foolish of sins, though the commonness of it hides its
   contemptible character. When we say, "I am surprised that I should have
   acted so unwisely," we betray our secret pride and confess that we
   thought ourselves wonderfully wise.

   If, my Brothers and Sisters, you knew yourself, you would not be
   surprised at anything that you might do. If you had a proper estimate
   of yourself, it would rather cause you surprise that you were ever
   right than that you were sadly wrong, for such is the natural weakness,
   folly and vanity of our deceitful hearts that when we err, even in the
   most foolish way, it may be said of us that we are only acting out our
   own selves and we would do the same again, if not worse, were we left
   by the Spirit of God.

   Notice, secondly, that trusting in self is evil in all men, since it
   was evil in an Apostle. Paul speaks of it as a fault which God, in
   mercy, prevented, "that we should not trust in ourselves." Why,
   Beloved, if you or I were to trust in ourselves, we should be fit
   objects for ridicule and derision, for what is there in us that we can
   trust? But as for Paul, in labors more abundant, in stripes above
   measure, laying himself out for the Church of God with heroic zeal and
   wearing himself out with self-denials--at first sight it seems that
   there was something in him whereof he might glory! He walked with God
   and was like his Master and Lord.

   He was an humble but admirable imitation of the Lord Jesus and the mind
   that was in Christ was also in him! He was a noble man--we cannot find
   another man like he! He was one of the most beautiful, well-balanced,
   forceful and influential of human characters and yet it would have been
   a most injurious thing for him to have trusted in himself in any
   degree. He was singularly judicious, far-seeing and prudent--and yet he
   might not rely on himself. If this is so--if his Revelations from God;
   if his deep experience; if his intense consecration; if his remarkable
   wisdom; if his splendid education; if his logical mind and fervent
   spirit--if all these combined could not warrant his trusting in
   himself, what folly would be ours if we became self-sufficient?

   If a lion's strength is insufficient, what can the dogs do? If the oak
   trembles, how can the brambles boast? If such poor things as we are
   dare to be self-confident, we deserve to smart for it! May God keep us
   from this evil in all its disguises, whether it beguiles us in the form
   of boasting of our own righteousness, or flatters us into reliance upon
   our own judgment! In any shape it is a sin against God and a mischief
   to ourselves! May the God of all Grace destroy it, root and branch.

   We see, dear Friends, in the next place, that it must be highly
   injurious to trust in ourselves, since God Himself interposed to
   prevent His dear servant from falling into it. The Lord warded off the
   evil by sending Paul a great trouble when he was in Asia--thus does our
   all-wise and almighty God arrange Providence to prevent His servants
   from falling into self-trust. Depend upon it, He is doing the same for
   us since we have even a greater need--He is arranging all our ways and
   steps that we may not wander into self-conceit. Perhaps our heavenly
   Father is, at this present time, afflicting

   some of you, denying you your heart's desire, or taking from you the
   delight of your eyes. Perhaps He is placing you in circumstances where
   you are puzzled and bewildered and do not know what to do--and all for
   this reason--that you may become sick of yourself and fond of
   Christ--that you may know your own folly and may trust yourself with
   purpose of heart to the Divine Wisdom, for, rest assured, nothing can
   happen to you that is much worse than to trust yourselves!

   A man may escape from poverty, but if he falls into self-confidence he
   has, of two evils, fallen into the worse! A man may escape from great
   blunders and yet if he grows proud because he was so prudent, it may
   happen that his conceit of his own wisdom may be a worse evil than the
   mistakes which he might have made. Anything is better than vain-glory
   and self-esteem. Self-trust before God is a monster evil which the Lord
   will not endure! Indeed, He so abhors it that He has pronounced a curse
   upon it--"Cursed is the man that trusts in man and makes flesh his
   arm." That dread word of warning emphatically applies to those who
   trust in themselves. Let me, then, think most solemnly of the fact that
   if I am relying upon myself for acceptance with God, or for power to
   serve Him, I am cursed!

   I am so and I must be so, because trusting in myself means idolatry and
   idolatry is a cursed thing. The self-truster puts himself into God's
   place, for God alone is to be relied upon. "Trust in Him at all times,
   you people. Pour out your heart before Him." Trusting in yourself, you
   lift yourself into the Throne where God alone may sit and so you become
   a traitor. To trust yourself is the result of a gross falsehood and it
   also imputes falsehood to the God of Truth, for you do, as it were,
   deny that God can be believed and you assert that you can be trusted,
   whereas the Lord declares that no man is the proper object of trust.
   "He that trusts in his own heart," He says, "is a fool." But you will
   not have it so and, therefore, you make God out to be a liar!

   To trust in one's self is a piece of impertinent pride, insulting to
   the Majesty of Heaven. It is a preference of ourselves to God, so that
   we take our own opinion in preference to His Revelation. We follow our
   own whim in preference to His Providential direction. We, as it were,
   become gods to ourselves and act as if we knew better than God. It is,
   therefore, a very high crime and misdemeanor against the Majesty of
   Heaven that we should trust in ourselves. And in whomever this evil
   exists, it makes a man intolerable to God! Yet, Brothers and Sisters,
   this fourth remark must be made, that this evil is very hard to
   cure--for it seems that to prevent it in Paul it was necessary for the
   Great Physician to go the length of making Paul feel the sentence of
   death in himself--nothing short of this could cure the tendency.

   On another occasion it is written, "Lest I should be exalted above
   measure, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of
   Satan to buffet me." In the case mentioned in our text, the buffeting
   of Satan does not seem to have sufficed and God, in His Providence and
   love, deemed it necessary to cause the sentence of death to ring out
   its knell in the Apostle's heart. A sentence of death! Can you conceive
   the feeling of a man who has just seen the judge put on the black cap
   and pronounce the sentence of death? The condemned cell, the iron bars,
   the prison fare, the grim guards--these are nothing compared to the
   death-sentence--the sentence of death! This is terrible! Paul must feel
   that woe!

   A sharp knife was necessary to cut out the cancer of self-trust even
   from such an one as Paul. This bitter potion, bitter as gall, he must
   drink even to the dregs. The sentence must not only be in his ears, but
   be in his very self. "We had the sentence of death in ourselves."
   Nothing short of this could prevent his being polluted with self-trust,
   for if less suffering would have sufficed, the Lord would have spared
   him so dread a sorrow. As stones fall towards the earth, so do we
   gravitate towards self. If we are zealous, self-trust says, "What a
   zealous man you are! You can certainly carry everything before you." If
   we grow diffident, then this same pride whispers, "What a humble,
   modest person you are! You are not conceited or rash, you can well be
   trusted."

   If God grants us a little success in working for Him, we blow the
   trumpets that all men may be aware of it. Our Lord can scarcely send us
   on the most common errand without danger of our becoming like
   Jack-in-Office--too proud to be borne with! The Lord cannot allow us a
   little sweet communion with Christ but what we say, "Oh, what joy I
   have had! What delights at His table! What a precious season of private
   prayer! I am somebody!" Yes, we are prone to sacrifice before this most
   base idol--I say the most base idol--for surely there is no idolatry so
   utterly degrading as the worship of one's self! Alas, we cannot get rid
   of the flavor of the Egyptian leeks and onions! Self clings to us as a
   foul odor not to be gotten out of our unclean flesh!

   Does the Lord teach us much of His Word? Then we grow proud of
   knowledge. Does the Lord help us to comfort His people? Then we set up
   ourselves, at once, as something wonderful in the Church. Does Christ
   reveal Himself to us as He does not to the world? Ah, then our heads
   are ready to smite the stars, we are so great! God save us from this
   subtle mal-

   ady, this spiritual leprosy! I think I may add, even, if nothing else
   but the sentence of death in ourselves can stop us from trusting in
   ourselves, then let even this remedy be used.

   II. But now I invite you for a few minutes to look at THE TREATMENT
   ordained for the Apostle's cure--"We had the sentence of death in
   ourselves," which means, first, that he seemed to hear the verdict of
   death passed upon him by the conditions which surrounded him. So
   continually hounded by his malicious countrymen, he felt certain that
   one day or other they would cause his destruction he was so frequently
   subject to popular violence. He felt that his life was not worth a
   moment's purchase and, therefore, so sick in body and so depressed in
   spirit he felt that he might, at any moment, expire.

   The original conveys the idea, not only of a verdict from without, but
   of an answer of assent from within. There was an echo in his
   consciousness--an inward dread--a sort of apprehension that he was soon
   to die. The world threatened him with death and he felt that one of
   these days the threat would be carried out and that very speedily. And
   yet it was not so--he survived all the designs of the foe. My Brothers
   and Sisters, we often feel a thousand deaths in fearing one. We die
   before we die and find ourselves alive to die again! Death seems
   certain and yet the bird escapes even out of the fowler's hands. Just
   when he was about to wring its neck it flew aloft. Listen! How it
   sings, far above his reach. "Unto God the Lord belong the escapes from
   death."

   A witty saying puts it, "Let us never say die till we are dead." But
   then we shall most truly say we live forever and ever! Let us postpone
   despair till the evil comes. Into a low state of spirit was Paul
   brought--death appeared imminent and his eyes of faith gazed into the
   eternities and this prevented his trusting in himself. The man who
   feels that he is about to die is no longer able to trust in himself.
   After this manner the remedy works our health. What earthly thing can
   help us when we are about to die? Paul needed not to say, "My riches
   will not help me," for he had no wealth. He had no need to say, "My
   lands and broad acres cannot comfort me, now," for he had not even a
   foot of land to call his own--his whole estate lay in a few needles
   with which he made and mended tents.

   His trade implements and a manuscript book or two were all his
   possessions. He says, in effect, "Nothing on earth can help me now. My
   tongue, with which I preached, cannot plead with Death, whose deaf ears
   no oratory can charm. My epistles and my power of writing cannot stand
   me in any stead, for no pen can arrest the death warrant--it is written
   and I must die. Friends cannot help me. Titus, Timothy, none of these
   can come to my aid. Neither Barnabas nor Silas can pass through the
   death stream with me--I must ford the torrent alone." He felt as every
   man must who is a true Christian and is about to die, that he must
   commit his spirit unto Christ and watch for His appearing. He
   determined whether he died or lived that he would spend and be spent
   for the Lord Jesus.

   Brothers and Sisters, we do not yet know what dying is--the way to the
   other land is an untrod path as yet. We read about Heaven and so on,
   but we know very little of the way there. To the mind of one about to
   die, the unknown frequently causes a creeping sensation of fear and the
   heart is full of horror. Paul felt the chill of death coming over him
   and by this means his trust in himself was killed and he was driven to
   rely upon his God! If nothing else will cure us of self-confidence we
   may be content to have the rope about our neck, or to lay our neck upon
   the block, or to feel the death rattle in our throats! We may be
   satisfied to sink as in the deep waters if this would cure us of
   trusting in ourselves!

   Such was the case with Paul, when his gracious Master put forth His
   hand to turn Him aside from all glorying in the flesh. What was more, I
   think Paul means, here, that the sentence of death which he heard
   outside worked within his soul a sense of entire helplessness. He was
   striving to fight for the kingdom and Gospel of Christ, but he saw that
   he must be baffled if he had nothing to rely upon but himself--he was
   hampered and hemmed in on every side by the opposing Jews who would not
   permit him to go about his work in peace. He despaired even of his
   life. He was not able to get at his work, for these persons were always
   about him, howling at him, uttering falsehoods against him and
   hindering him. He became so worried and wearied that he was pressed and
   oppressed, immeasurably loaded and brought into such a state of mind
   that all inward comfort failed him and he was obliged to look above for
   succor.

   His faculties were cramped as with a mortal rigor, his reason argued
   against him and his imagination rather created terrors than
   expectations. He knew the experience so poetically described by Kirke
   White in his hymn upon the star of Bethlehem--

   "Deep horror, then, my vitals froze, Death struck, I ceased the tide to
   stem."

   And he also knew the joy of the other two lines of the verse--

   "When suddenly a star arose, It was the star of Bethlehem."

   Paul's mind was so struck with death within himself that he could not
   stem the torrent and would have drifted to despair had he not given
   himself up into the hands of Divine Grace and proved the loving power
   of God.

   My Brothers and Sisters, you may never have experienced this and I do
   not wish that you may do so to the same extent as the Apostle, for the
   Lord may not bring you into a condition of exaltation where you are so
   exposed to the peril of self-confidence and, therefore, it may not be
   necessary to make you feel, to the same extent, this sentence of death.
   But I am aware that some of God's people here know what it is to see
   death written upon everything within them and around them and these
   dare not trust in themselves!

   Ah, there are times with some of us when we appear to lose all power to
   think aright; when we set ourselves to a subject and our brain will not
   exercise itself upon it; when we wish to do right and cannot tell which
   of two courses is the proper one. At times we cannot make out our
   way--we kneel to pray and find that we cannot pray as we would like to
   do--the whole energy and force of our spirit seems to be shriveled up
   as though the desert heat had blown over the meadow of our soul and
   left every blade of grass and flower dead beneath its burning breath.
   Such things do happen to men and when they happen, this is God's severe
   but effectual treatment whereby He prevents their trusting in
   themselves!

   You have said, sometimes, of a very useful person--"God honors that man
   and I am afraid he will be proud." You might well tremble for him were
   it not that behind the door God whips the man and makes him loathe
   himself in dust and ashes! If the great Father favors any one of you
   with usefulness to any great extent or degree, depend upon it, He will
   favor you, also, with humiliations and spiritual conflicts, unless,
   indeed, you have so much Grace that you do not need these correctives
   and this is not the case with many. Brothers and Sisters, take the
   bitter with the sweet--all things work together for good, not one
   alone, neither the exaltation nor the depression, alone--but "all
   things work together for good to them that love God."

   The compound brings the benefit to us. As one drug in a compound
   medicine counteracts another and the whole result is health, so is it
   with the total sum of different Providences--it brings benefit to us
   and glory to God. I think I need not say any more about this remedy,
   except to notice that the Lord uses the same treatment in dealing with
   men who as yet are not saved. Why is it that one of the first works of
   Grace on a man is to take away all his comfort and hope? I will soon
   tell you. Suppose that a poor man had fallen into such a state of mind
   that he could not bear the sun, but lived in perpetual candle light? He
   dreamed that no light could equal his poor tapers and he despised the
   sun--only candles for him--he hated daylight!

   By the way, I am not wild in this supposition, for there are people who
   cannot worship God without candles, even in the daylight and yet they
   are not said to be insane! But to return to the imaginary case, our
   poor, weak-minded friend is prejudiced against the sun and we aim to
   bring him into brightness. How shall we proceed? I think we had better
   blow out his candles and leave him in the dark and then, perhaps, he
   will be willing to try the light of Heaven. Then I would take him
   outdoors and let him see the sun. And, after he had once beheld its
   superior light, he would never be able to praise his poor candles
   again! The first thing is to blow his candles out--and the first thing
   to bring a man to Christ, the Divine Light--is to put out his own
   feeble tapers of self-trust.

   I have heard of one who fell into the water and sank and a strong
   swimmer standing on the shore did not at the same instant plunge in,
   though fully resolved to rescue him. The man went down the second time
   and then he who would rescue him was in the water swimming near him,
   but not too near, waiting very cautiously till his time came. He who
   was drowning was a strong, energetic man and the other was too prudent
   to expose himself to the risk of being dragged under by his struggles.
   He let the man go down for the third time and then he knew that his
   strength was quite exhausted and, swimming to him, he grasped him and
   drew him to shore. If he had seized him at first, while the drowning
   man had strength, they would have gone down together!

   The first part of human salvation is the sentence of death upon all
   human power and merit. When all hope in self is quite gone, Christ
   comes in and, with His Divine Grace rescues the soul from destruction.
   As long as you think you can swim, you will kick and struggle and
   drown! But when you see the futility of all your own efforts and
   perceive that you are without strength, you will leave yourselves with
   Jesus and be saved. The eternal power will come in when your power

   goes out. The sentence of death in yourselves will prevent your
   trusting in yourselves--death recorded and death confessed to be a just
   penalty will expel all vain hope and Grace will be welcomed and the
   heart will believe with a true faith worked in it by the Spirit of God!

   III. Thirdly, let us think of THE CURE. It was sharp medicine, but it
   worked well with Paul, for we find, first, that Paul's self-trust was
   prevented--every rising token of it was effectually removed. He says,
   "We had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in
   ourselves." Under this influence he preached as though he never might
   preach again--a dying man to dying men! I have heard of Brethren who do
   not expect to die. I do not wish to disturb their hope if it gives them
   comfort, but I know there is something very salutary in my own sense of
   the nearness of death. Christ may come, it is true, and this faith has
   the same effect as the expectation of going Home to Him, but one way or
   the other, the sense of the insecurity of this mortal life is good for
   us.

   To bring death very near to the mind is a solemn, searching,
   sanctifying exercise. Our forefathers of centuries ago were known to
   have a human skull on the table where they read their Bibles. I do not
   recommend so sickening a device-- we can have a memento of death in
   better form than that! Still, it is greatly wise to talk about our last
   hours, to be familiar with the grave, to walk among those little
   hillocks where our predecessors sleep and to remember that all the
   world is like a sandy beach where, after the tide has gone, innumerable
   little worm casts cover all the plain. Such a worm cast, I, too, shall
   leave behind me. This world is full of death's handiwork, a very
   morgue--no, better--name it a God's acre, a sleeping place where
   myriads lie waiting for the awakening trumpet! We, too, may expect to
   sleep with them and, therefore, we must not confide in ourselves.

   Are you a dying man and can you trust yourself? More frail than the
   moth, driven up and down like a sere leaf in the tempest, can you trust
   yourself? I hope a sense of death will work a cure of that tendency in
   us. When the sentence of death assumes the form of an experience of
   despair as to everything that is of our own selves, then it has
   thoroughly worked the cure. I have gone up and down in my own soul
   where once sweet things did sing and fair hopes bloomed and I have
   searched in every chamber to hear a note or find a flower and I have
   found nothing but silence and death. I have gone abroad into the fields
   of my imagination where once I saw much that made my heart right glad
   and I have seen a valley of dry bones where only death reigned.
   Everything which I formerly rejoiced in was touched by the paralyzing
   hand--all was dead within me, sentence was passed and apparently
   executed upon my whole being.

   If a man does not trust God then, when will he? And if this does not
   take him off from self-confidence, what is to do it? This treatment
   never fails when the Holy Spirit uses it. Remember, this was only half
   the result in Paul's case, for he does not only say that by this
   sentence of death he was delivered from trusting in himself, but he was
   led to trust "in God which raises the dead." Now, my Brothers and
   Sisters, we have come out of the gloom of the sepulcher into the glory
   of the resurrection! "God which raises the dead" is our hope! The
   doctrine of the Resurrection is essential to the Christian system and
   Paul takes it for granted.

   When he was delivered from trusting in himself because of the sentence
   of death, the first thing he did was to trust in the God and Father of
   His risen Lord. For first he argued thus--If I die, what does it
   matter? God can raise me from the dead. If they stone me, if they smite
   me with the sword, if they fling me headlong into the sea, I shall rise
   again! I know that my Redeemer lives and that I shall see Him when He
   appears. He inferred, also, that if God could raise him from the dead,
   He could preserve him from a violent death. He that could restore him,
   if he were dead and rotten in the tomb, could certainly keep him from
   dying till all his lifework was accomplished. This inference is
   unquestionably true--

   "Plagues and deaths around me fly, But till He bids I cannot die! Not a
   single shaft can hit Till the God of love thinks fit." Immortal is
   every Believer till his work is done! Paul felt this and was comforted.

   He argued yet further that if God can raise the dead and call together
   the separate atoms of a body long since dissolved and rebuild the house
   out of such ruin, then surely He could take his fainting powers, over
   which the sentence of death has passed and He could use them for His
   own purposes! Thus would I also reason with myself when I am deeply
   depressed. He can make me feel His life within me again! And He can
   make great use of me under all my weaknesses and difficulties. It needs
   Omnipotence to wake the dead! That same Omnipotence can make me triumph
   and enable me to do

   its will, whatever may stand in my way! Is not this a blessed form of
   argument--that God, who raises the dead can do for me, can do in me,
   can do by me great things for which His name shall have glory forever
   and ever?

   Brothers and Sisters, we need to get away, more and more, from
   ourselves and we shall never do it till we write this down in our
   books--that self is dead--we must make a corpse of it. We sometimes
   hear that in setting forth the balance sheet of a banking establishment
   a mistake was committed by putting down a doubtful asset at too high a
   value--we must keep clear of such a blunder in making up our spiritual
   balances. There is no fear of undue depreciation if you say of anything
   which belongs to self, "it is good for nothing! Set it down as
   worthless.''" If, then, you have written yourself down at twenty
   shillings in the pound, my dear Brother, I warn you that you will never
   realize it. But you say, "I never thought to get more than half-a-crown
   in the pound out of self'--you will never get that in good money!

   "Well, I will put it down at a farthing in the pound." You will never
   realize even that! It will cost you more to get it than it is worth--it
   is altogether a deception! He that trusts in himself not only gets not
   a farthing in the pound out of what he trusted in, but he is a loser by
   his foolish confidence. I should not like to realize myself--it would
   be an awful loss and leave a great gap in my checking account, for what
   am I but a mass of wounds, a bag of necessities, a mountain of
   weakness, a world of infirmities and nothing else worth mentioning? Do
   not put yourself down in your spiritual assets at all except as a debt,
   a liability and an encumbrance. Say, "Self is dead," and you will be
   happy if you find that he is dead, for the most of your trouble will
   come from his being too much alive!

   That old corrupt nature--ah, the vagabond--if he were, indeed, dead and
   would never struggle again, what a mercy! But there is still life in
   the old dog--life of a troublesome sort, full of mischief! Wisdom
   reckons self as a dead and worthless thing, to be mortified, but never
   to be trusted. Folly talks otherwise and bids you think well of
   yourself, but do not listen to its doting. He says, "You are getting to
   be an old man now; those gray hairs have brought experience and
   wisdom--you are not like those young chits of children that have just
   come into the Church." No, but there is no fool like an old fool! Mind
   you, do not become another example of that old saying! Do not say to
   yourself, "Ah, now you are a man of wide experience, you are! You are
   not like those narrow-minded people who never went beyond their cottage
   or the hedges of their little farm. You have had a splendidly wide
   experience."

   Ah, but no blunder is so great as the blunder of a great man! No man is
   capable of doing so much mischief as the man who has capacity for doing
   great good. "Oh, but," says someone, "I am so careful, so guarded, that
   there can be no fear of me." Yet no one is so likely to sleep as the
   watchman who flatters himself that he does not even doze! So it used to
   be in the old days--and you watchful people are sure to go wrong if you
   are proud of being watchful. If, on the other hand, you feel that you
   are not as watchful as you ought to be and pray to be made more so, you
   will be kept right. Trust in ourselves is a kind of manna which will
   breed worms and stink and it will make our house unbearable and
   ourselves sick. Sweep it out! Oh, for a state of weakness that is
   strong in the Divine strength! Oh, to be nothing! To be NOTHING, that
   God may be All in All! Amen and amen! So let it be!
     __________________________________________________________________

Samuel--an Example of Intercession

   (No. 1537)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 9, 1880,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in
   ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right
   way." 1 Samuel 12:23.

   It is a very great privilege to be permitted to pray for our fellow
   men. Prayer in each man's case must necessarily begin with personal
   petition, for until the man is, himself, accepted with God, he cannot
   act as an intercessor for others. And herein lies part of the
   excellence of intercessory prayer, for it is to the man who exercises
   it aright a mark of inward Grace and a token for good from the Lord.
   You may be sure that your King loves you when He will permit you to
   speak a word to Him on behalf of your friends. When the heart is
   enlarged in believing supplication for others, all doubts about
   personal acceptance with God may cease. He who prompts us to love has
   certainly given us that love and what better proof of His favor do we
   desire?

   It is a great advance upon anxiety for our own salvation when we have
   risen out of the narrowness of dread about ourselves into the broader
   region of care for a Brother's soul. He who, in answer to his
   intercession, has seen others blessed and saved, may take it as a
   pledge of Divine Love and rejoice in the condescending Grace of God!
   Such prayer rises higher than any petition for ourselves, for only he
   who is in favor with the Lord can venture upon pleading for others.
   Intercessory prayer is an act of communion with Christ, for Jesus
   pleads for the sons of men. It is a part of His priestly office to make
   intercession for His people. He has ascended up on High to this end and
   exercises this office continually within the veil.

   When we pray for our fellow sinners we are in sympathy with our Divine
   Savior who made intercession for the transgressors. Such prayers are
   often of unspeakable value to those for whom they are offered. Many of
   us trace our conversion, if we go to the root of it, to the prayers of
   certain godly persons. In innumerable instances the prayers of parents
   have availed to bring young people to Christ. Many more will have to
   bless God for praying teachers, praying friends, praying pastors.
   Obscure persons confined to their beds are often the means of saving
   hundreds by their continual pleadings with God. The Book of Remembrance
   will reveal the value of these hidden ones, of whom so little is
   thought by the majority of Christians. As the body is knit together by
   bands and sinews and interlacing nerves and veins, so is the whole body
   of Christ converted into a living unity by mutual prayers--we were
   prayed for and now, in turn, we pray for others!

   Not only the conversion of sinners, but the welfare, preservation,
   growth, comfort and usefulness of saints are abundantly promoted by the
   prayers of their Brothers and Sisters and, therefore, Apostolic men
   cried, "Brethren, pray for us." He who was the personification of love
   said, "Pray, one for another, that you may be healed." And our great
   Lord and Head ended His earthly career by a matchless prayer for those
   whom the Father had given Him. Intercessory prayer is a benefit to the
   man who exercises it and is often a better channel of comfort than any
   other means of Grace. The Lord turned, again, the captivity of Job when
   he prayed for his friends. Even where such prayer does not avail for
   its precise objective, it has its results. David tells us that he
   prayed for his enemies--he says, in Psalm 35:13, "As for me, when they
   were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting."

   And he adds, "my prayer returned into my own bosom." He sent forth his
   intercession, like Noah's dove, but as it found no rest for the sole of
   its feet and no blessing came of it, it returned to him who sent it and
   brought back with it an olive leaf plucked off--a sense of peace to his
   own spirit--for nothing is more restful to the heart than to have
   prayed for those who despitefully use us and persecute us. Prayers for
   others are pleasing to God and profitable to ourselves! They are no
   waste of breath, but have a guaranteed result by the faithful Promiser.

   I. Let us first dwell upon Samuel's habit of intercession, for it was
   most manifest in him. We gather this from the text. He says, "God
   forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you."
   It is clear, therefore, that he had been in the continual habit and
   practice of praying for Israel. He could not speak of ceasing to pray
   if he had not, up to now, continued in prayer! Samuel had become so
   rooted in the habit of prayer for the people that he seems to be amazed
   at the very thought of bringing his intercession to an end! The people,
   measuring the Prophet by themselves, half suspected that he would be
   irritated with them and would, therefore, deny them his prayers.
   Therefore in the 19th verse we read, "All the people said unto Samuel,
   Pray for your servants unto the Lord your God, that we die not."

   They greatly valued his prayers and felt as if their national life and,
   perhaps, their personal lives depended upon his pleading for
   them--therefore they urged him, as men who plead for their lives, that
   he would not cease to pray for them and he replied, "God forbid that I
   should." The denial of his prayers does not seem to have entered his
   thoughts. To my mind the words represent him as astonished at the
   idea--horrified and half indignant at the suggestion--"What? I, Samuel,
   I who have been your servant from my childhood since the day when I put
   on the little ephod and waited for you in the house of the Lord? I that
   have lived for you and have loved you and was willing to have died in
   your service, shall I ever cease to pray for you?"

   He says, "God forbid." It is the strongest expression that one can well
   imagine and this, together with his evident surprise, shows that the
   Prophet's habit of intercession was rooted, constant, fixed, abiding--a
   part and parcel of himself. If you will read of his life you will see
   how truly this was the case. Samuel was born of prayer. A woman of a
   sorrowful spirit received him from God and joyfully exclaimed, "For
   this child I prayed." He was named in prayer, for his name, Samuel,
   signifies "asked of God." Well did he carry out his name and prove its
   prophetic accuracy, for having commenced life by being, himself, asked
   of God, he continued asking of God and all his knowledge, wisdom,
   justice and power to rule were things which came to him because "asked
   of God"!

   He was nurtured by a woman of prayer at the first and when he left her,
   it was to dwell in the house of prayer all the days of his life. His
   earliest days were honored by a Divine visitation and he showed, even
   then, that waiting, watchful spirit which is the very knee of prayer.
   "Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears" is the cry of a simple, sincere
   heart, such as the Lord always accepts! We all think of Samuel under
   that little figure so often painted and sculptured in which a sweet
   child is seen in the attitude of prayer. We all seem to know little
   Samuel, the praying child--our boys and girls know him as a familiar
   friend--but it is as kneeling with clasped hands. He was born, named,
   nurtured, housed and trained in prayer and he never departed from the
   way of supplication.

   In His case the text was fulfilled, "Out of the mouth of babes and
   sucklings You have perfected praise" and he so persevered in prayer
   that he brought forth fruit in old age and testified of God's power to
   those who came after him. So famous did Samuel become as an intercessor
   that if you will turn to the 99th Psalm, at the sixth verse, you will
   read a short but very fragrant eulogy of him--"Moses and Aaron among
   His priests and Samuel among them that call upon His name." If Moses
   and Aaron are selected as being consecrated men, leaders of God's
   Israel in service and sacrifice, Samuel is selected as the praying man,
   the man who calls upon God's name. All Israel knew Samuel was an
   intercessor as well as they knew Aaron as a priest.

   Perhaps even more notably you get the same Inspired estimate of him in
   Jeremiah 15, at the first verse, where he is again classed with
   Moses--"Then said the Lord unto me, though Moses and Samuel stood
   before Me, yet My mind could not be favorable toward this people: cast
   them out of My sight and let them go forth." Here there is no doubt an
   allusion to the prevalent prayer of Moses, when in the agony of his
   heart, he cried, "If not, blot me, I pray You, out of Your Book which
   you have written." This was a high form of pleading, but such is God's
   valuation of Samuel as an intercessor, that He puts him side by side
   with Moses and, by way of threat to sinful Israel, He tells Jeremiah
   that He would not even listen to Moses and Samuel if they stood before
   Him!

   It is well to learn the art of prayer in our earliest days, for then we
   grow up to be proficient in it. Early prayer grows into powerful
   prayer. Hear this, you young people, and may the Lord now make Samuels
   of you! What an honor to be called to intercede for others, to be the
   benefactor of our nation, or even the channel of blessing to our own
   households! Aspire to it, my dear young Friends. Perhaps you will never
   preach, but you may pray. If you cannot climb the pulpit, you may
   surely bow before the Mercy Seat and be quite as great a blessing! As
   to the success of Samuel's prayers, read of his life and you will find
   that he worked great deliverances for the people. In the seventh
   chapter of this book we find that

   the Philistines grievously oppressed Israel and Samuel bravely called
   the people together to consider their condition and bade them turn from
   idolatry and worship the only true God. And he promised them his
   prayers as a gift which they greatly valued.

   These are his words--"Gather all Israel to Mizpeh and I will pray for
   you unto the Lord." He then took a lamb and offered it up for a burnt
   offering wholly unto the lord, "and Samuel cried unto the Lord for
   Israel and the Lord heard him." This is one of the grand events of his
   life and yet it is fairly descriptive of his whole career. He cried and
   the Lord heard! In this instance the Israelites marched to battle, but
   Jehovah went before them, in answer to the Prophet's prayer. You could
   hear the rolling of the drums in the march of the God of Armies and see
   the glittering of His spear, for so is the history of the battle
   recorded--"And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the
   Philistines drew near to battle against Israel: but the Lord thundered
   with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines and discomfited
   them; and they were smitten before Israel. And the men of Israel went
   out of Mizpeh and pursued the Philistines and smote

   them."

   The conclusion of the whole is, "So the Philistines were subdued," that
   is to say, the prayer of Samuel was the conquering weapon and Philistia
   crouched beneath its power! Oh you who know the power of prayer, write
   this on your banners, "So the Philistines were subdued." Samuel's
   prayers were so prevalent that the very elements were controlled by
   him. Oh, the power of prayer! It has been ridiculed--it has been
   represented as an unscientific and an unpractical thing--but we who
   daily try it know that its power cannot be exaggerated and do not feel
   even a shadow of a doubt concerning it! There is such power in prayer
   that it "moves the arm that moves the world." We have but to know how
   to pray and the thunder shall lift up its voice in answer to our cry
   and Jehovah's arrows shall be scattered abroad to the overthrowing of
   His adversaries! How should those be able to judge of prayer who never
   ask at all, or never ask in faith? Let those bear witness to whom
   prayer is a familiar exercise and to whom answers from God are as
   common as the day! Over a father's heart no power has so great a
   control as his child's needs and in the case of our Father who is in
   Heaven, it is especially so! He must hear prayer, for He cannot
   dishonor His own name, or forget His own children!

   When, in his old age, the people began to turn against Samuel and to
   express dissatisfaction with his unworthy sons, it is beautiful to
   notice how Samuel at once resorted to prayer. Look at the 8th chapter,
   the 5th verse--the people "said unto him, Behold, you are old and your
   sons walk not in your ways: now make us a king to judge us." The old
   man was sorely grieved. It was natural that he should be. But look at
   the next words. Did Samuel scold the people? Did he send them home in a
   huff? No. It is written, "And Samuel prayed unto the Lord." He told his
   Master about them and his Master said to him, "Hearken unto the voice
   of the people in all that they say unto you: for they have not rejected
   you"--do not lay it to heart as if it were a personal affront to
   you--"but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them."

   This slight upon God's servant was a rejection of God Himself and He
   would not have Samuel lay to heart their ingratitude to him, but think
   of their wicked conduct to the Lord their God. Thus, you see, Samuel
   was a man of abundant prayer and in the 21st verse we read that after
   he had entered his protest and told the people of all that they would
   have to suffer from a king--how he would tax them and oppress them and
   take their sons to be soldiers and their daughters to wait in his
   palace and take their fields and vineyards, though they still persisted
   in saying, "No, but we will have a king"--he made no angry answer but
   returned to his God in secret communion. "Samuel heard all the words of
   the people and he rehearsed them in the ears of the Lord."

   Oh, that we were wise enough to do the same! Instead of going about and
   telling one and another of the opprobrious things that have been said
   about us, it were well to go straight away to our closet and rehearse
   them in the ears of the Lord! Samuel was thus, you see, throughout his
   whole official life, a man mighty in prayer and when the people left
   him and followed after their new-made king, our text shows that he did
   not cease to intercede for them. He says, "God forbid that I should
   cease to pray to God for you." Nor was this all--when Saul had turned
   aside and become a traitor to his Divine Lord, Samuel made intercession
   for him. One whole night he spent in earnest entreaty, though it was
   all in vain. But many a time and often did he sigh for the rejected
   prince. The old man had been, from his youth up, an intercessor and he
   never ceased from the holy exercise till his lips were closed in death.

   Now, Beloved, you are not judges of the land, otherwise would I plead
   with you to pray much for the people whom you rule. You are not all
   pastors and teachers, otherwise would I say that if we do not abound in
   prayer the blood of souls will be upon our garments. Some of you,
   however, are teachers of the young--do not think that you have done

   anything for your classes till you have prayed for them! Be not
   satisfied with the hour or two of teaching in the week--be frequent in
   your loving supplications. Many of you are parents. How can you
   discharge your duty towards your children unless you bear their names
   upon your hearts in prayer? Those of you who are not found in these
   relationships have, nevertheless, some degree of ability, some measure
   of influence, some position in which you can do good to your fellows
   and these demand your dependence upon God! You cannot discharge your
   responsibilities as relatives, as citizens, as neighbors, no, as
   Christian men and women, unless you often make supplication for all
   ranks and conditions.

   To pray for others must become a habit to you from which you would not
   cease even if they provoked you to the utmost degree, for you would
   only cry out, "God forbid that I should cease to pray for you, for it
   would be a great sin in the sight of the Most High."

   II. Now, secondly, I call you to notice in Samuel's case his
   provocation to cease from intercession, which provocation he patiently
   endured. The first provocation was the slight which they put upon him.
   The grand old man who had all the year round made his circuit from
   place to place to do justice had never looked at a bribe. He had done
   everything for them without fee or reward. Though he had a right to his
   stipend, yet he did not take it. In the generosity of his spirit, he
   did everything gratuitously like Nehemiah, in later days, who said,
   "The former governors that had been before me were chargeable unto the
   people and had taken of them bread and wine, beside 40 shekels of
   silver; yes, even their servants ruled over the people: but so did not
   I, because of the fear of God."

   Samuel, throughout a long life, had kept the land in peace and
   innumerable blessings had come to Israel through his leadership. But
   now he was getting old and somewhat infirm, though he was far from
   being worn out--but they seized on this excuse for setting up a king.
   The old man felt that there was life and work in him yet, but they
   clamored for a king and therefore their aged friend must give up his
   office and come down from his high position. It displeases him when he
   first hears their demand, but after a little time spent in prayer he
   resigns his position very pleasantly and all his anxiety is to find the
   right man for the throne. When the man is found, he is full of care
   that the Lord's Anointed shall be guided aright in the kingdom and
   without a thought about himself he rejoices at the sight of one whose
   opening days promised so well.

   His deposition was a hard thing, mark you--an unkind, ungenerous
   thing--but he did not pray one atom the less for the people because or
   it! He probably prayed much more, for as his mother prayed most when
   the sorrow of her heart was greatest, so was it with Samuel. Beyond the
   provocation which came from slight upon himself, he felt wounded by
   their utter rejection of his solemn protest. He stood before them and
   reasoned with them in the clearest possible man-ner--"What do you want
   a king for?" he seemed to say. "This will be the manner of the king
   that shall reign over you. He will take your sons and appoint them for
   himself, for his chariots and to be his horsemen; and some shall run
   before his chariots. He will take your daughters to be confectionaries
   and to be cooks and to be bakers and he will take your fields and your
   vineyards and your olive yards, even the best of them and give them to
   his servants.

   "He will take the tenth of your seed and of your vineyards and give to
   his officers and to his servants and he will take your menservants and
   your maidservants and your best young men and your asses and put them
   to his work. He will take the tenth of your sheep and you shall be his
   servants and you shall cry out in that day because of your king which
   you shall have chosen; and the Lord will not hear you in that day."
   There was sound common sense in all this and every word turned out to
   be true, in fact, before long--and yet they would not listen. They
   said, "No, but we will have a king over us; that we, also, may be like
   all the nations; and that our king may judge us and fight our battles."

   Despite their rejection of his warning, the venerable man did not grow
   testy. It is sometimes the infirmity of wise men of years and weight,
   that when they have presented a clearer case--presented it earnestly in
   all simplicity of heart and the thing looks as plain as that twice two
   make four--then if their hearers deliberately persist in defying their
   warning they grow peevish, or perhaps it is more fair to say they
   exhibit a justifiable indignation. Samuel is always hopeful and if they
   will not do the best thing possible, he will try to lead them to do the
   second best. If they will not abide under the direct rule of the Lord,
   as their King, he hopes that they will do well under a human king who
   shall be a viceroy under God and so he continues hopefully to pray for
   them and to make the best he can of them.

   At last it came to this, that the nation must have a king and their
   king must be crowned. They must go to Gilgal to settle the kingdom and
   then Samuel stood up and in the words which I read to you just now he
   declared how he had dealt with them--how he had never defrauded nor
   oppressed, nor taken anything from them--and he told them that their

   choice of a king was, to some extent, a rejection of God. He told them
   that they were putting aside the best of rules and the most honorable
   of governments to go down to the level of the nations. Still, they
   rejected his last appeal and it is beautiful, to my mind, to see how
   calmly he drops the question when he has given his last address and
   made his most solemn appeal to Heaven. Their obstinate adherence to
   their whim did not cause him to restrain prayer on their behalf.

   The practical lesson of this is that when you are tempted to cease from
   pleading for certain persons, you must not yield to the suggestion.
   They have ridiculed your prayers--they tell you that they do not need
   them--they have even made a taunt and a jest of your pious wishes on
   their behalf. Never mind! Retaliate by still greater love! Do not cease
   to wrestle with God for them. It may be you have been very much
   disappointed in them. Your heart breaks to see how they have gone
   aside, yet go with your deep anxieties to the Mercy Seat and cry out,
   again, for them! What will become of them if you leave them to
   themselves? Do not leave off interceding, though you are provoked to do
   so in 10,000 ways! It may be that you think, partly in unbelief and
   partly through trembling anxiety, that their doom is sealed and they
   will go on to Perdition. Let this rather increase the intensity of your
   prayer than in the least degree diminish it.

   Till sinners are in Hell cry to God for them! As long as there is
   breath in their bodies and your body, cause the voice of your
   supplication to be heard. Your husband, good Woman, what if he grows
   more drunken and more profane? Still pray for him! God, who can draw
   out leviathan as with a hook, can yet take this great sinner and make a
   saint of him! What if your son seems to be more profligate than ever?
   Follow him with many entreaties and weep before God about him, still.
   Loving Mother and gracious Father, join your fervent cries day and
   night at the Mercy Seat and you shall yet obtain your desire!

   III. I come, in the third place, briefly to notice Samuel in his
   persevering intercession. Though the people provoked him, he did not
   cease from prayer for them, for, first, then and there, he offered
   fresh supplication for them and that cry was heard and Saul was dowried
   with a rich measure of favor to start with. Samuel did not cease his
   prayer for Saul when Saul had gone far astray, for we find this
   passage--"Then came the word of the Lord to Samuel, saying, It repents
   Me that I have set up Saul to be king, for he has turned back from
   following Me and has not performed My commandment. And it grieved
   Samuel and he cried unto the Lord all night."

   All night! I think I see the old man in agony for Saul, whom he loved.
   Old men need sleep, but the Prophet forsook his bed and, in the night
   watches, poured out his soul unto the Lord. Though he received no
   cheering answer, he still continued to cry, for we read, a little
   further on, that the Lord said to him, "How long will you mourn for
   Saul?" He was pushing the case as far as ever he could push it, till
   the Lord gave him warning that there was no use in it. "How long will
   you mourn for Saul?" It is to be admired in Samuel, that even though
   Saul may have committed the sin which is unto death and Samuel had some
   fear that his fate was fixed, yet he prayed on in desperate hope.

   The Apostle John puts the case thus--"If any man sees his Brother sin a
   sin which is not unto death, he shall ask and He shall give him life
   for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not
   say that he shall pray for it." He does not, in such a case, forbid our
   prayers, neither does he encourage them, but I take it that he gives us
   a permit to pray on. We do not know for certain that the most guilty
   person has, indeed, passed the bounds of mercy and, therefore, we may
   intercede with hope. If we have a horrible dread upon us that possibly
   our erring relative is beyond hope, if we are not commanded to pray, we
   are certainly not forbidden and it is always best to err on the safe
   side, if it is erring at all. We may still go to God, even with a
   forlorn hope and cry to Him in the extremity of our distress.

   We are not likely to hear the Lord say to us, "How long will you mourn
   for Saul?" We are not likely to hear Him say, "How long will you pray
   for your boy? How long will you mourn over your husband? I do not
   intend to save them." When the Prophet knew that Saul was hopelessly
   rejected, he did not cease to pray for the nation, but went down to
   Bethlehem and anointed David. And when David was pursued by the malice
   of Saul, we find him harboring David at Ramah and exhibiting the power
   of prayer in his own house and in the holy place. For when Saul came
   down thinking to seize David, even in the Seer's house, there was a
   Prayer Meeting being held and Saul was so struck with it that he took
   to prophesying, himself, and lay down all night among them disrobed and
   humbled.

   Men exclaimed, "Is Saul also among the Prophets?" The malicious king
   could not venture to touch Samuel! The Prophet was a gentle, mild,
   loving man and yet the black-hearted Saul always had an awe of him, so
   that he took hold of his garment for protection and after Samuel was
   dead, wickedly sought for his supposed spirit for guidance. The man of
   God had evidently impressed the tall reprobate with the weight of his
   holy character. It is written that God was with him

   and let none of his words fall to the ground--and this was because he
   was a praying man. He who can prevail with God for man can always
   prevail with man for God! If you can overcome Heaven by prayer, you can
   overcome earth by preaching! If you know the art of speaking to the
   Eternal, it will be a small thing to speak to mortal men!

   Rest assured that the very essence of all true power over men for their
   good must lie in power with God in secret-- when we have waited upon
   the Lord and prevailed, our work is well-near done. I pray you,
   therefore, still persevere in supplication and be supported in your
   perseverance by the knowledge that it would be a sin to cease to pray
   for those who have been the subjects of your petitions! Samuel
   confesses that it would have been sinful on his part to abstain from
   intercession. How so? Why, if he ceased to pray for that people, he
   would be neglecting his office, for God had made him a Prophet to the
   nation and he must intercede for them or neglect his duty! It would
   show a lack of love to the Lord's chosen people if he did not pray for
   them!

   How could he teach them if he were not, himself taught of God? How
   could he possibly hope to sway them if he had not enough affection for
   them to cry to God on their behalf? It would be, in his case, too, a
   sin of anger. It would look as if he were in a spat with them and with
   God, too, because he could not be all that he would wish to be. "God
   forbid," he said, "I should harbor such anger in my bosom as to cease
   to pray for you." It would have been a neglect of the Divine Glory, for
   whatever the people might be, God's name was wrapped up in them and if
   they did not prosper, the Lord would not be glorified in the eyes of
   the heathen. He could not give up praying for them, for their cause was
   the cause of God! It would have been a cruelty to souls if he who
   possessed such power in prayer had restrained it.

   Now, Brothers and Sisters, it will be sin on your part if you neglect
   the Mercy Seat. You will grieve the Holy Spirit, you will rob Christ of
   His Glory, you will be cruel to souls dead in sin and you will be false
   and traitorous to the Spirit of Grace and to your sacred calling.

   IV. Our last point is that Samuel showed his sincerity in intercession
   by corresponding action, for he says in the words of the text, "God
   forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you:
   but I will teach you the good and the right way." So far from leaving
   off praying, he would be doubly diligent to teach them and he did so.
   He taught them by reminding them of God's promises, that He would not
   forsake His people and by directing them how to act-- "Serve God in
   truth with all you heart." He urged good motives upon them--"Consider
   the great things He has done for you"--and he added a solemn warning,
   "If you shall still do wickedly, you shall be consumed, both you and
   your

   king."

   After praying for your friends, try, as well as you can, to answer your
   own prayer by using the means which God ordinarily blesses. Some
   persons make idle prayers, for they use no effort for obtaining their
   requests. If a farmer asks for a harvest, he also plows and sows, or
   else his supplications would be hypocritical! If we wish to see our
   neighbors converted, we shall labor for it in all ways. We should
   invite them to go with us where the Gospel is faithfully preached, or
   place a good book in their way, or speak with them, personally, about
   eternal things. If I knew where gold was to be had for the picking up
   and I wanted my neighbor to be rich, I would tell him of the precious
   deposit and ask him to come and gather some of the treasure with me.

   But many never think of inviting a neighbor or a friend who is a
   Sabbath-breaker to go with them to the house of God--and there are
   thousands in London who only need an invitation and they would be sure
   to come, once, at any rate--and who can tell but that once might lead
   to their conversion? If I desire the salvation of anyone, I ought to
   tell him, as best as I can, what his condition is and what the way of
   salvation is and how he may find rest. All men are approachable at some
   time or in some way. It is very imprudent to rush at everybody as soon
   as you see them, without thought or ordinary prudence, for you may
   disgust those whom you wish to win. Those who earnestly plead for
   others and bestir themselves to seek them, are generally taught of God
   and so they are made wise as to time, manner and subject.

   A man who wishes to shoot birds will, after a while, become expert in
   the sport, because he will give his mind to it. He will, after a little
   practice, become a noted marksman and know all about guns and dogs. A
   man who wants to catch salmon has his heart set upon his angling and
   becomes absorbed in the pursuit. He soon learns how to use his rod and
   how to manage his fish. So he who longs to win souls and puts his heart
   into it, finds out the knack of it by some means and the Lord gives him
   success. I could not teach it to you--you must practice in order to
   find out--but this I will say, no man is clear of his fellows' blood
   simply because he has prayed to be so. Supposed we had around this
   parish of New-ington a number of people who were dying of hunger and we
   were to have a Prayer Meeting that God would relive their

   need--would it not be hypocrisy worthy to be ridiculed and held up to
   reprobation if, after having prayed for these people, we all went home
   and ate our own dinners and did not give them a farthing's worth of
   bread?

   The truly benevolent man puts his hand in his pocket and says, "What
   can I do that my prayer may be answered?" I have heard of one who
   prayed in New York for a certain number of very poor families that he
   had visited and he asked the Lord that they might be fed and clothed.
   His little sons said, "Father, if I were God I should tell you to
   answer your own prayer, for you have plenty of money." Thus the Lord
   might well say to us when we have been interceding, "Go and answer your
   own prayer by telling your friends of My Son." Do you sing, "Fly
   abroad, you mighty Gospel"? Then give it wings covered with silver!

   Do you sing, "Waft, waft, you winds, His story"? Then spend your breath
   for it! There is a power in your gifts! There is a power in your
   speech! Use these powers. If you cannot personally do much, you can do
   a great deal by helping another to preach Christ. But chief and first
   you ought to do something by your own hand, heart and tongue. Go and
   teach the good and right way and then shall your prayers be heard!
     __________________________________________________________________

Divine Surprises

   (No. 1538)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 16, 1880,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "When You did terrible things which we looked not for, You came down,
   the mountains flowed down at Your Presence." Isaiah 64:3.

   THE people of God were in a very sad state when this chapter described
   them. Isaiah pictures them as brought into the lowest degree of fear
   and sorrow. He pleads with God to return to His chosen people and
   restore their former peace and prosperity. He makes use of the past as
   an argument for the future and recites the wonderful acts of God in
   days gone by as an encouragement to expect that He would do the same
   again. If it were not that God is unchangeable, no inference could be
   drawn from His past behavior toward us, but inasmuch as He is immutably
   the same, yesterday, today and forever, we may safely infer that what
   He has done He will do again.

   They say that history repeats itself--it were more true to say that God
   abides the same, that His ways are everlasting and His mercy endures
   forever. Therefore it is good and sound pleading to say, "You have done
   this and that, therefore again make bare Your arm and once more let
   Your people rejoice in Your faithfulness and Your power." While we may
   all do this on behalf of the Church of God and find a rich store of
   arguments in her past history, we may also do it for ourselves. Some of
   us are now getting into years and we have known the Savior for 30 years
   or more--we ought to be well supplied with reasons for trusting Him and
   I am sure we are. Let us look back on the past and remember how He has
   forgiven our transgressions, how He has recovered our backslidings, how
   He has relieved our necessities, how He has cheered our despondencies
   and strengthened our weaknesses--He that is our God is still the God of
   salvation and He will continue still to bless us, even to the end.
   Because the Lord is my shepherd and now makes me to lie down in green
   pastures, therefore I conclude that, "surely goodness and mercy shall
   follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the
   Lord forever."

   At the back of whatever I shall have to say this morning will lie this
   grand principle--that as the past is, so we may expect the future to be
   in reference to God's dealings with us. Let us come more closely to our
   point. From the text and from its connection, I gather, first, that the
   Presence of God is the one hope of His people. In this text the Prophet
   speaks of God's doing terrible things when He came down among His
   people. We shall next notice that the Presence of God creates
   surprises--He did "things which we looked not for." We shall observe,
   thirdly, that the Presence of God achieves wonders--"the mountains
   flowed down at Your Presence." And then, lastly, we shall come back to
   where we started and reflect that we may expect the same results from
   the Divine Presence if we are privileged to enjoy it.

   I. First let us meditate upon the fact that THE DIVINE PRESENCE IS THE
   ONE HOPE OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD. The Prophet shows that he believed this,
   for he commences the chapter by a most ardent cry to God that He would
   come into the midst of His people--"Oh that You would rend the heavens,
   that You would come down." A little before this, (in the 15th verse of
   the previous chapter), he had prayed, "Look down from Heaven." But it
   is the characteristic of true prayer that it grows as it proceeds--he
   begins by asking God to look down but he gathers intensity of desire
   and confidence of faith and here he cries, "Come down."

   So eager is Isaiah that God should come and come at once, that he
   speaks to Him as though addressing a warrior who lingered in his tent
   while a battle was raging--who would be so eager to rush to the help of
   his friends that he would not stay to remove the canvas or to lift the
   curtain, but would tear a way for himself through the canopy to come at
   once to the deliverance of those who called him to the rescue. "Oh that
   You would rend the heavens." Stay not, Great God, to pass through the
   gate of pearl, but rend Your heavens--let the blue firmament be torn in
   two and descend from Heaven upon rushing mighty winds for the help of
   Your people!

   When our Divine Lord opened the way by which God could come to us poor
   guilty men, He did not lift the curtain nor fold it up, but the veil of
   the Temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom and so the door
   was left wide open forever--for none can ever fix the veil in its place
   again. It was through the open heavens that Christ went in where He now
   stands to plead for us and by that open Heaven the sacred Spirit
   descended to rest upon the Church. The impetuous character of the
   simile here used shows that the Prophet looked upon the Divine
   visitation as the one thing needed for Israel. O Lord, we do not ask
   You to cause the earth to bring forth plentifully, or to make our
   wealth increase, or to make the kings of the earth favorable to Your
   cause! But come, Yourself, to bless Your people and they will need no
   more! Oh that You would come down! Even so, come quickly.

   Is not this the prayer of every true heart here that knows the need of
   the Church and the need of the age? We do not so much require more
   ministers, or more eloquent teachers, but more of the sacred Presence.
   We do not need wealth in the Church, or magnificent buildings, or
   ornate services, but we crave, above all things, that the living God
   will refresh His people! If the Lord were in the midst of us, if the
   shout of a king were heard in our camps, then would our armies march to
   the victory and our foes would be defeated! The desire of the Prophet
   in the present instance is abundantly justified by the history of God's
   people in all times, for when the tribes were in Egypt, what could set
   them free from the iron bondage? What but the Presence of God?

   The Lord said, "I have surely seen the affliction of My people and have
   heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know their
   sorrows." Then the Lord came down to deliver them and you know with
   what signs and wonders He plagued the proud Egyptian oppressor! Pharaoh
   said, "Who is Jehovah?" But he soon received his answer when the waters
   were turned into blood and the dust into lice--when the cattle died of
   disease and every green thing in the land was blasted with lightning or
   eaten with locusts! Pharaoh and his people learned that when God is in
   the midst of His oppressed and down-trodden people they are "like an
   hearth of fire among the woods and like a torch of fire in a sheaf."

   God's Presence in Israel with Moses and Aaron brought them out "with a
   high hand and with an outstretched arm." When they started on that
   memorable night, after eating the Passover, what was it that made the
   march of Israel so grand an event in history? Did not Jehovah lead the
   way? When they came to the borders of the Red Sea with the rocks on
   either side and the angry host pursuing them, what was their defense
   but that God looked out from the fiery, cloudy pillar and while His
   smile lit up the midnight of His people and made it bright as day, He
   looked forth from the cloudy side and troubled the Egyptians and took
   off their chariot wheels, so that they drove them heavily? It was God's
   Presence that quickened the feet of Miriam and Israel's daughters on
   the other side of the sea, when they struck their timbrels and cried,
   "Sing you to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously; the horse and
   his rider has He thrown into the sea."

   God's Presence did it all! He who made His kingly dwelling amid their
   thick array was the glory of their strength, the banner of their joy!
   So was it when their marching was through the lone wilderness. What
   made Israel thrive upon barren sand? What made the nation drink
   plenteously from the Rock? It was the Presence of God that made the
   earth a watered sod, the flint a gushing rill! The tabernacle stood in
   their midst and the Presence of God was symbolized there by a blaze of
   Glory between the cherubim and this it was that made Israel the chief
   among the nations! The whole of the story of Israel proves the same
   truth! God's Presence was Israel's Glory!

   When they grieved Him and provoked Him, then the feeblest of the
   nations round about them tyrannized over them. They were an
   insignificant and defenseless nation of themselves, but when God shone
   upon them, they were great among the nations and the scepter of Israel
   was stretched from sea to sea. "God with us," when written on Israel's
   banner, secured them honor and conquest. But without God they could do
   nothing. Dear Friends, this Truth of God which is thus borne out in the
   history of God's ancient people is certainly true with us, too! The
   favor of God is the hope of all His people. First, we see this in the
   Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, when did you and I ever obtain
   comfort, or receive hope of acceptance until we saw God with us in our
   flesh?

   The world would have perished if God had not come down to it in the
   Person of His dear Son. At Bethlehem the wondrous mystery was seen--the
   Godhead veiled beneath the form of a Babe. This was the birth of hope.
   So, too, when the Lord Jesus comes to any one of us by His Spirit, our
   hope begins! We see Him as our Immanuel and we are comforted. Dr. Watts
   most sweetly sings--

   "Till God in human flesh I see, My thoughts no comfort find.

   The holy, just and sacred Three Are terrors to my mind. But if
   Immanuel's face appears My hope, my joy begins! His name forbids my
   slavish fear, His Grace removes my sins."

   God saves us by coming to us in Christ with an atonement in His hands
   to put away our sins. Yes, and our hope of the perfection of our
   salvation still lies in the coming of Christ to us! We expect that when
   He comes in the latter day, though our bodies may have seen corruption
   and the worms may have devoured them, yet in our flesh we shall see
   God! When Christ shall come a second time the Archangel's trumpet shall
   sound and then shall we receive the adoption, to wit, the redemption of
   the body for which we now hopefully await.

   Because He lives we shall also live and because He shall come to be
   revealed, we also shall be manifested! Our Lord's first coming in our
   flesh has given us eternal salvation! His coming to us by His Spirit
   has worked in us a living faith and His second coming, by-and-by, is
   the grand object of our hope. That day and hour no man knows, for the
   Father keeps it in His own power, but the consummation of all our hopes
   is wrapped up in it and, therefore, we cry, "Come quickly! Even so,
   Lord Jesus, come quickly! Amen." So, you see, Brothers and Sisters, it
   is the Presence of God with us in Christ which is the ground of all our
   hope.

   Until our Lord's glorious Advent, the Presence of the Holy Spirit in
   the Church is our only dependence for success in all that we attempt.
   If we meet for prayer, it must be praying in the Holy Spirit, for we
   know not what we should pray for as we ought till He instructs us. It
   is hard praying to an absent God--the Lord's Presence is the life of a
   Prayer Meeting. If the Lord is not there to inspire the prayer, He is
   not there to hear the prayer. When we preach, it is poor testifying if
   we have not the Lord's anointing resting upon us and His Presence all
   around us. If the Spirit of God is not with the preacher, a silent
   tongue might be as efficient as the most eloquent speech. So is it with
   our missionary enterprise--it will be a failure unless the Lord is in
   it from first to last. Every missionary might fitly say, "If Your
   Spirit go not with me, carry me not up from here."

   Vain will it be to organize societies, enlist subscribers and enter
   upon actual effort and to spend money and zeal thereon if the Lord is
   not there. "Without Me you can do nothing," said our Lord of old and
   the same is true unto this day! The Presence of God is essential to
   each one of us if we are to be saved. It is well for the prodigal to
   arise and go to his Father, but the saving moment comes when his Father
   meets him. "When he was yet a great way off, his Father saw him and ran
   and had compassion on him and fell upon his neck and kissed him"--there
   was the actual salvation! The lost sheep is not found till the Shepherd
   comes to it. God's coming to a man convinces him of sin--he stands up
   for self-righteousness till the Holy Spirit constrains him to ask the
   Truth. Never did a stony heart turn itself to flesh, or a blind eye
   remove its own darkness! God must come in infinite freeness of Grace
   and work with boundless power of love, or the dead sinner will remain
   dead and the blinded mind will remain blind.

   Yes, and after the work is begun, the Presence of God in the soul is
   necessary for its continuance and progress. We never take a step
   towards God except with God. Even the faintest desire towards Him is
   breathed into us by His own Spirit! And as for the higher works of
   Grace in the soul, they are evidently all of God, for the assurance of
   faith, the confidence of hope and the consecration of love were never
   ascribed by their possessors to any source less than Divine. Let a man
   try to serve God without God and he will fail! Sitting at Jesus' feet
   is our proper posture--when He teaches, we have knowledge--all else is
   conceit! In His company we are happy and useful, but apart from Him we
   are miserable failures.

   Even in Heaven, itself, the Presence of God is the source of joy and
   perfection. Up yonder they need no candle, neither light of the sun,
   because the Lord God gives them light--if He were not among them it
   would be dark as death-shade. The blessed ones drink from the river of
   His pleasures--no other stream makes glad the city of God! Their life
   is His life--their bliss is His own Divine pleasure! They enter into
   Christ's Glory and they are filled with Christ's joy! Is it not clear
   enough that our most essential need is the nearness of God to our
   souls? "My soul, wait only upon God, for my expectation is from Him."
   David's petition shall be mine--"Draw near unto my soul and redeem it."
   "It is good for me to draw near unto God." O Lord, remember Your Word
   unto Your servant--"My Presence shall go with you and I will give you
   rest."

   II. The second point I wish to bring before you is when the Lord comes,
   HIS PRESENCE CREATES GREAT SUR-PRISES--"When You did terrible things
   which we looked not for, You came down." It has always been so.
   Whenever God has come to men He has always surprised them. Even the
   most expectant among men have found their expectations far exceeded,
   while those who have been depressed and have prophesied dark things,
   have been altogether taken aback to see the goodness of the Lord! God
   came to Jacob's house and his favorite son was sold for a slave--the
   Ishmaelites took him down into Egypt. "Ah," said Jacob when he thought
   on this and his other trials, "all these things are against me."

   He could not make out that there could be any good intended of the Lord
   when he cried, "Joseph is not and Simeon is not and you would take
   Benjamin away?" And yet God was doing great things for him which he
   looked not for, for Joseph was set upon the throne of Egypt that he
   might provide a refuge for his old father and his brethren in the days
   when there should be a famine over all the earth. Then would he say
   unto them, "Come down unto me, tarry not; you shall dwell in the land
   of Goshen and there will I nourish you." God was doing for the
   trembling Patriarch, "things which he looked not for."

   I shall not stop to give instances in the history of God's people.
   Often did they cry out, "You are the God that does wonders! Who is like
   unto You?" Do you think the Israelites, when they stood by the Red Sea,
   ever imagined they would walk through it dry-shod? When they stood on
   the burning sand, did they expect to live under a vast sunshade all day
   long? Yet they did, for the cloudy pillar screened them from the heat.
   Did they suppose that their camp would be lit up at night as never
   canvas city had been lighted before, with an illumination brighter than
   our electric lights can give to us? Yet the flaming column was a grand
   illumination to them! When they were starving, did they hope to gather
   angels' bread fresh from the skies? When they were thirsty, did they
   reckon upon a smitten rock yielding an abundant stream?

   When they were bit by serpents, did they expect that a bronze serpent
   would work their cure? When they came to the river, did they look to
   see old Jordan retreat before the priests' feet? When they compassed
   the city of Jericho, did they hope to see the walls tumble down about
   the ears of its inhabitants because the tribes sounded rams' horns and
   gave forth a shout? The history of Israel is a series of surprises and
   unexpected mercies! The Lord does great marvels and His people are
   filled with happy astonishment. It has been even more so in the works
   of Grace. See what God has done for us in matchless mercy. When He
   stood at the gates of Eden and talked with Adam and cursed the ground
   for man's sake, could any onlooking angel have imagined that in all
   this God intended to display the greatness of His mercy, so that where
   sin abounded Grace should much more abound?

   Did any man, did any angel, did any seraph ever imagine that the Son of
   God would come down to be born into this rebel race? Did it ever enter
   into their conception that He would die, the Just for the unjust, to
   bring men to God? Was it ever thought of that sinful man should be
   adopted into the Divine family? Do you not think it a most amazing
   thing that sinful men should be born again and adopted into the family
   of God?--

   "Behold what wondrous Grace The Father has bestowed On sinners of a
   mortal race, To call them sons of God!"

   This was an honor that we looked not for! Moreover, God, having made us
   to be His children, did we ever think that He would make us His heirs?
   Yet He says, "If children, then heirs; heirs of God, joint-heirs with
   Christ." Did it ever enter into man's heart to conceive that the Church
   should be married to Christ, wedded to Him in bands of everlasting
   love? Did it ever enter the dreams of any intelligent being that God
   would lift up man, poor, fallen man, to sit in the person of Christ
   next to Himself?

   Well did David cry, "What is man, that You are mindful of Him? And the
   son of man, that You visit him?" You made him to have dominion over the
   works of Your hands. This is wonderful! Brothers and Sisters, though we
   think we know what God, in Grace, is doing, I am sure we do not! We
   shall not know even when we get to Heaven and when we rise from the
   dead we shall say, "I believed in the resurrection of the dead, but
   this out-miracles all miracles!" When our Lord shall take us up into
   Glory, how amazed we shall be! To talk about that Glory now does ravish
   us, but to be in it, flooded with it, filled with it, crowned with
   it--this will be overwhelming! Surely we shall need stronger frames and
   hearts more able to endure the weight of bliss than those which we now
   have!

   How is it that we continue to be surprised at what God does? I answer,
   first, because our largest conceptions of God fall short. The man who
   has, like Enoch, walked with Him for years, yet knows little of Him.
   Ah, my Brothers and Sis-

   ters, you do not know the heights and depths, the lengths and breadths
   of His wondrous liberality! God is infinite! We are as a tiny shell on
   the beach--we cannot hold the ocean and therefore the measureless main
   must always be a marvel to us. We shall always be, in a measure,
   ignorant and as the unknown is gradually revealed it will take us aback
   with absolute astonishment. Besides, our experience of God is very
   brief. We have lived as yet only for a span, or a hand's breadth. Even
   you old men of 60 or 70 years, what are you? Your life has gone like
   the winking of an eye--it is nothing as compared with the life of God!

   Therefore there must be in God's dealings a great deal yet to come of
   which poor, short-lived insects like ourselves can have no idea.
   Besides that, I am sorry to say our faith is shamefully weak and does
   not look for great things. We have never had such faith in God as He
   deserves at our hands. We have never believed Him for more than two
   pence, when we ought to have believed in Him for all the gold of Ophir!
   He is worthy of a trust boundless as the sea and we have scarcely
   relied upon Him beyond the mere drop in a bucket. By doing "exceeding
   abundantly above what we ask, or even think," the Lord puts us into an
   amazed state. It will always be so. Even in Heaven we shall still be
   astonished, as the poet puts it--

   "Then let me mount and soar away To the bright world of endless day And
   sing with rapture and surprise, His loving kindness in the skies."

   It is a most blessed thing it is so. I am so glad that God does those
   "things which we looked not for" because first, it keeps our life fresh
   and sweet and puts us far from monotony and routine. You people who
   have no God must find life a threadbare tale--one week must be very
   like another and one year as another to you! But some of us can
   sing--"Still has my life new wonders seen." Novels! I assure you that
   no novel can equal in interest the unvarnished facts of Christian
   experience, especially in the case of those who are much tried! Facts
   surpass fictions in their power to surprise. The makers of romances may
   rub their foreheads as long as they like, but they cannot invent
   stories at all comparable to those which happen to us in our ordinary
   lives.

   We do not get tired of living because there is something new every
   morning in the goodness of the Lord--fresh revelations are brought out
   by the trials we are called to endure. Thus He increases our knowledge.
   When you and I enter upon a new trouble, we ought to fall on our knees
   and thank God that He is about to elevate us to a higher Grace of
   dis-cipleship. Sanctified afflictions are spiritual promotions! The
   Christian's experience is like that of the man who is conducted from an
   outer court into inner rooms until he reaches the innermost of all. If
   God opens the first door of gracious knowledge and lets you in, you are
   a saved man as soon as you enter by faith--but there is another door
   and when you enter in there you are not only saved but made useful in
   the saving of others!

   Yet there is another door and if God favors you by admitting you into
   the inner chamber you will be a happy man, mighty in prayer and
   confident in hope. Another door stands within this hallowed chamber and
   if you can find the key, and use it, you will enter into the secret
   hall of intimate fellowship with Christ! I do not know how many rooms
   there are, one within another in the place of heavenly wisdom, but this
   I know, that whenever the Lord is about to introduce His servants into
   a still more secret chamber where they shall be nearer to Himself, He
   generally sends them a new trial to test them and to discover whether
   they can bear a fresh installment of His revelations of love. Bless the
   Lord for trials, for they prove the Lord's faithfulness and endear Him
   to our hearts!

   He will never lead us into a labyrinth without giving us the clue.
   Growing trials in God's hands mean growing Grace--you were once in a
   little canoe and you might not leave the tiny stream. But when years
   had gone by you rowed in a boat upon the river, though you dared not
   leave the shore. Now the Lord has built you a larger vessel and you
   make coasting voyages upon the sea, but He does not mean you always to
   be a mere coaster, carrying a few coals about--He intends you to cross
   the seas, to brave the ocean and navigate the globe! As you are
   gradually fitted for longer voyages, so will you encounter rougher
   storms and so will you see more of the works of the Lord and of His
   wonders in the deep.

   Surprising mercies tend to awaken our gratitude. Have we not marveled
   at the goodness of the Lord? "Bless the Lord," we have said, "I never
   dreamed of such love! This way out of my difficulties is excellent, but
   it is one which I could not have foreseen. I am glad I was brought into
   straits that I might see how my Lord could bring me out of them." I
   almost wish I had been with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery
   furnace! It must have been a fine thing to walk unhurt among those
   glowing coals and to come out and be able to say of all your garments,
   to your children and your

   children's children, "These have passed through the fire. See the socks
   and the hat which I wore amid the flames, there is not a smell of fire
   upon them!" What a wardrobe to pass on to your children's children, to
   show what the Lord has done! Some of us can do this spiritually, for
   our hearts are stored with grateful memories. How much God is glorified
   by His people when He does things they looked not for. Their neighbors
   are surprised. As they tell the tale, even unbelievers are struck with
   it and strangers join to say, "The Lord is good to His people and His
   mercy endures forever."

   Dear Friends, I know that some of you can tell of instances in which
   the Presence of God has worked great surprises for you and I can join
   you in doing so. If you have had rich experiences be sure to tell them
   to others. Perhaps you remember that a fortnight ago, on Sunday
   morning, I preached of Paul's deep experience [#1536--Sentence of
   Death, the Death of Self-Trust] and I said that the experiences of the
   saints were a treasure, of which they were the trustees, for the
   benefit of others. A well-known and beloved Brother in Christ was here
   that morning--I refer to Mr. W. Haslam, a clergyman of the Church of
   England--and he so fully agreed with the remark that he carried it out
   by sending me a book in which he has written out the story of the first
   20 years of his ministry.

   I have much enjoyed the reading of the narrative and to carry out the
   principle, I will now give you in brief, the story of Mr. Haslam's
   conversion as an instance of "things which we looked not for." You have
   all heard of Billy Bray, the Cornish Methodist who was so mighty in
   prayer. There was a certain hill that Billy was accustomed to pass, for
   which he prayed, with all his might, till he believed that his heavenly
   Father had given him that mountain, so that all the souls that lived on
   it should be saved. He visited all the houses and obtained a blessing
   for the inhabitants, but as there were only three houses on the hill,
   he prayed, in his own simple way, that more might be built. It seemed
   an odd prayer and the neighbors did not think it a wise one, but
   nevertheless it was fulfilled.

   Some time later, when he visited that place, he found that Mr. Haslam
   had built a church and schools there and his joy was great until he
   entered the church. At the sight of the surprised choir and the
   Ritualistic performance, poor Bray was greatly downcast and said that
   it was nothing but an "old Roman church." Billy went home and set
   himself to praying, again, for that hill, but the fact was quite
   unknown to those who were the objects of his petitions. Soon the Lord
   hearkened to the cry of His servant and it came to pass that the Lord
   visited Mr. Haslam. His gardener fell sick and in the time of his
   illness his churchmanship failed to comfort him. A Methodist Brother
   visited him and was the means of his conversion. When the man told Mr.
   Haslam that he was converted, he was very grieved and disappointed--he
   felt that he could never make Cornish men into Churchmen--they were
   confirmed schismatics.

   His favorite and most promising Churchman, a Mr. Aitken, had become a
   Dissenter and was actually praying that his master might become the
   same. What was to be done? Mr. Haslam had occasion to visit Mr. Aitken
   and told him about the sad defection of the gardener. "Why," said Mr.
   Aitkin, "you are not converted yourself! I am sure of it, or you would
   not have come here to complain of your gardener." Conviction came into
   Haslam's heart! His former hopes vanished and in sadness he sought the
   Lord. Mr. Aitken said, "The best thing you can do is to shut the church
   up and tell your people you will never preach again till you are
   converted." He could not do that, but on the next Sunday morning he
   went, ill and sad, to read the prayers, determined to send the people
   home as soon as they were finished.

   Instead of that, his eye lighted on the text, "What think you of
   Christ?" and he thought he would make a few observations upon that
   question before dismissing the congregation. For the rest, I will quote
   his own words, lest I should seem to color the incident by telling it
   in my own language--"As I went on to explain the passage, I saw that
   the Pharisees and scribes did not know that Christ was the Son of God,
   or that He was come to save them. They were looking for a king, the son
   of David, to reign over them as they were. Something was telling me,
   all the time, 'You are no better than the Pharisees, yourself--you do
   not believe that He is the Son of God and that He is come to save you
   any more than they did.' I do not remember all I said, but I felt a
   wonderful light and joy coming into my soul and I was beginning to see
   what the Pharisees did not.

   "Whether it was something in my words, or my manner, or my look, I know
   not, but all of a sudden a local preacher, who happened to be in the
   congregation, stood up and, putting up his arms, shouted out in Cornish
   manner, 'The parson is converted! The parson is converted! Hallelujah!'
   and in another moment his voice was lost in the shouts and praises of
   three or four hundred of the congregation! Instead of rebuking this
   extraordinary 'brawling,' as I would have done in a former time, I
   joined in the outburst of praise, but to make it more orderly, I gave
   out the Doxology--'Praise God, from whom all blessings flow'--and the
   people sang it with heart and voice over and over again! When this
   subsided, I found

   at least 20 people crying for mercy, whose voices had not been heard in
   the excitement and noise of thanksgiving. They all professed to find
   peace and joy in believing. Among this number there were three from my
   own house--and we returned home praising God."

   This is a memorable illustration of the statement that when God comes
   down among a people He does things we looked not for! You may hope that
   the Divine Spirit will still display His power over the most unlikely
   persons to the glory of His Grace. He can save the most obstinate and
   bring opposers to the feet of Jesus. Plead with Him to do so!

   III. Thirdly, THE PRESENCE OF GOD DISSOLVES DIFFICULTIES. I would bring
   you back to the text again,

   for perhaps you are beginning to forget it. "When You did terrible
   things which we looked not for, You came down, the mountains flowed
   down at Your Presence." This is a blessed sentence, "The mountains
   flowed down at Your Presence." Israel had enemies which were strong and
   powerful. Nations and kings towered above them like great mountains,
   but whenever God came to help them, the kingdoms dissolved, the people
   were conquered and the mountains and hills were laid low.

   At this present time great systems of error oppose the Gospel of Jesus
   Christ. I need not mention them, for they are before us and seem to
   rise like giant Alps, overtopping our faith. Blessed be God, the Church
   only needs the Divine Presence in the midst of her and all the systems
   of error will flow down at His feet like glaciers which dissolve in the
   summer's sun. Perhaps you have seen a volcano when a stream of lava has
   been pouring down its side and, if so, you have had the metaphor of the
   text before your eyes. God does but touch it and the mountain melts and
   flows away! So will it be with infidelity and superstition, Rationalism
   and Ritualism and every form of wrong. If the Holy Spirit clothes the
   Church with power by His Presence, the powers of evil will not maintain
   themselves for an hour--the fire of sacred Truth and heavenly life will
   utterly dissolve them.

   Many hearts are hard as granite--you may pray for them, talk to them,
   preach to them, but all in vain. What is required is the Presence of
   God and then hearts of stone are turned to flesh, dead souls feel the
   beating of spiritual life and corruption is overcome by resurrection
   power! Do not be afraid, Brother. No heart can stand out against the
   Grace of God when it comes in all its power. Do not despair in
   reference to your prodigal boy--keep on praying and he will yet come to
   the house of God with you and you will sing together the praises of
   redeeming love. Despair of no one so long as you have a heart to pray!
   Within our own selves, also, we may see mountains of difficulty, but if
   we go to Christ and so obtain God's help, every mountain shall sink and
   every rock melt--

   "Your mercy is more than a match for my heart, Which wonders to feel
   its own hardness depart; Dissolved by Your mercy, I fall to the ground,
   And weep to the praise of the mercy I've found." There is nothing in
   you, there is nothing round about you, there is nothing on earth, there
   is nothing in Hell that can stand against you if you have God on your
   side! And you have God on your side when you put your trust in Jesus
   Christ! Between here and the eternal glories of Heaven nothing shall
   ever stand against you if you do but trust in Jesus. No weapon that is
   formed against you shall prosper and every tongue that shall rise
   against you in judgment you shall condemn.

   IV. Lastly, WE MAY EXPECT TO SEE THE SAME RESULTS FROM THE DIVINE
   PRESENCE TODAY and tomorrow and as long as we live. God is the same.
   "Are You not He that has cut Rahab and wounded the dragon?" He is the
   same conquering Lord! The ages may have degenerated, but God has not
   degenerated. Do not say that the Truth of God has lost its power. Its
   power always lies in God and God is still almighty! He can work
   miracles today if He pleases--He could divide the Atlantic as easily as
   He did the Red Sea! "With God all things are possible," not, "were,"

   but, "are" still.

   As to spiritual wonders, people think that Pentecost was with us once,
   but never can return--but Pentecost was only the Feast of First Fruits
   and first fruits predict the harvest! God will do greater things in the
   latter days than He did at Jerusalem at Pentecost. He says to us, "Open
   your mouth wide and I will fill it." We do not believe in Him. "If the
   Son of Man comes, shall He find faith on the earth?" There is such a
   microscopic quantity of it that no eyes but His, which are like a flame
   of fire, could spy it out. Yet, I say, God is the same and as worthy to
   be trusted. And, Brothers and Sisters, we are the same. "No," you say,
   "we are not, we are not such good men as those who lived in the olden
   times." I answer that they had the same passions and infirmities as we
   have now!

   There was not a morsel of good in the Apostles, martyrs and confessors
   but what God put there. One earthen vessel is of the same clay as
   another and the same God may put the same treasure into one as well as
   into another. He can bless you and me as He did Peter, James and John.
   Human nature is human nature, still, both in its degradation and in its
   possibilities. God can make as much of you, my dear Sister, as ever He
   did of Dorcas, or Mary, or Lydia! And He can make as much of you, my
   Brother, as ever He did of any of the worthies of past times, if you
   will but trust Him. This feeble arm could slay a thousand men, or pluck
   up the gates of Gaza, or kill a lion, or pull down a temple upon the
   Philistines if God chose to use it as He did Samson's. The Lord has His
   own choice of instruments and He can make any instrument fit for His
   use if He pleases to do so!

   Brethren, the promises are the same. "Oh," you ask, "how is that? Are
   not some of them out of date?" No, the Covenant is made up of abiding
   promises, suitable for all ages and all of them are yes and amen in
   Christ Jesus! We have the sure mercies of David--they stand fast
   forever and ever. Mark you, there are things yet to be done by God
   which will astonish us beyond measure! We shall cry out against
   ourselves for our drooping and desponding thoughts, for, by-and-by,
   perhaps before some of us see death, we shall behold greater things
   than our fathers saw and shall clap our hands for very joy!

   Read the chapter which follows our text and see what God is going to
   do. "I am sought of them that asked not for Me; I am found of them that
   sought Me not: I said, Behold Me, behold Me, unto a nation that was not
   called by My name." Heathens are to be saved! Far off lands will soon
   be called! Watch for it, work for it, pray for it! Israel is also to be
   gathered--"I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob and out of Judah an
   inheritor of My mountains: and My elect shall inherit it and My
   servants shall dwell there." O blessed hour, when the Jew shall worship
   the Christ whom he crucified! That is not all. There is coming yet--who
   knows how soon?--a new creation. "Behold, I create new heavens and a
   new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
   But be you glad and rejoice forever in that which I create: for,
   behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing and her people a joy."

   There will come a time in which the shortening of life after the deluge
   shall be remedied. "There shall be no more thence an infant of days,
   nor an old man that has not filled his days: for the child shall die an
   hundred years old. As the days of a tree are the days of My people and
   My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands." Yes and there comes
   a time of universal peace. "The wolf and the lamb shall feed together
   and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the
   serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy
   mountain, says the Lord."

   Verily, verily, I say unto you, this text is true! When God shall do
   terrible things which we looked not for, He shall come down among us
   and the mountains shall flow at His Presence. Amen and amen!
     __________________________________________________________________

"The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved"

   (No. 1539)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 23, 1880,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "The disciple whom Jesus loved; who also leaned on His breast at
   supper." John 21:20.

   Our Lord loved all His disciples--"having loved His own which were in
   the world, He loved them unto the end." He said to all the Apostles, "I
   call you not servants; for the servant knows not what his Lord does:
   but I have called you Friends; for all things that I have heard of My
   Father I have made known unto you." And yet within that circle of love
   there was an innermost place in which the beloved John was favored to
   dwell. Upon the mountain of the Savior's love there was a knoll a
   little higher than the rest of the mountain and there John was made to
   stand, nearest to his Lord. Let us not, because John was specially
   loved, think less, even in the slightest degree, of the love which
   Jesus Christ gave forth to the rest of His chosen. I take it, Brothers
   and Sisters, that those who display an extraordinary love to one are
   all the more capable of great affection to many and, therefore, because
   Jesus loved John most, I have an enhanced estimate of His love to the
   other disciples.

   It is not for a moment to be supposed that any one suffered from His
   supreme friendship for John. John was raised and they were not lowered,
   but raised with him. All Believers are the dear objects of the Savior's
   choice, the purchase of His blood, His portion and inheritance, the
   jewels of His crown. If, in John's case, one is greater in love than
   another, yet all are eminently great and, therefore, if it should so
   happen that you dare not hope to reach the height of John and cannot
   look to be distinguished above others as "the disciple whom Jesus
   loved," yet be very thankful to be among the brotherhood who can each
   say, "He loved me, and gave Himself for me." If you have not attained
   unto the first three, be happy to belong to the host of those who
   follow the Son of David.

   It is a matchless privilege and an unspeakable honor to enjoy the love
   of Jesus, even if you march among the rank and file of the armies of
   love. Our Lord's love to each of us has in it heights immeasurable and
   depths unfathomable. It passes knowledge. Yet would I not utter this
   word of good cheer to make you remain at ease in a low state of
   Grace--far rather would I excite you to rise to the highest point of
   love--for if already the Lord has loved you with an everlasting love,
   if already He has chosen you and called you and kept you and instructed
   you and forgiven you and manifested Himself to you, why should you not
   hope that another step or two may yet be taken and that you may climb
   to the very highest eminence? Why should you not, before long, be
   styled like Daniel, a "man greatly beloved"? Or like John, "that
   disciple whom Jesus loved"?

   To be loved as John was, with a special love, is an innermost form of
   that same Grace with which all Believers have been favored. You must
   not imagine, when I try to exhibit some of the lovable traits of John's
   character, that I would have you infer that the love of Christ went
   forth towards John in any other way than according to the Law of Grace,
   for whatever there was that was lovable in John it was worked in him by
   the Grace of God. Under the Law of Works John would have been as surely
   condemned as any of us and there was nothing legally deserving in John.
   Grace made him to differ, just as truly as Grace separates the vilest
   sinner from among the ungodly. Though it is granted that there were
   certain natural characteristics which made him amiable, yet God is the
   creator of all that is estimable in man and it was not till the natural
   had been, by Grace, transformed and transfigured into the spiritual
   that these things became the subject of the complacency of Christ
   Jesus.

   Brethren, we do not speak of John today as if he were loved because of
   his works, or stood higher in the heart of Christ on the ground of
   personal merit, of which John might glory. He, like all the rest of his
   brethren, was loved of Jesus because Jesus is all love and chose to set
   His heart upon him. Our Lord exercised a sovereignty of love and chose
   John for His own name's sake. And yet, at the same time, there was
   created in John much that was a fit object for the love of

   Christ. The love of Jesus was shed abroad in John's heart and thus John
   himself was made fragrant with delightful odors. It was all of
   Grace--the supposition of anything else is out of place! I look upon
   this special form of our Lord's love as one of those "best gifts" which
   we are bid earnestly to covet--but most emphatically a gift and not a
   wage or a purchasable commodity.

   Love is not bought. It never talks of price or claim. Its atmosphere is
   free favor. "If a man would give all the substance of his house for
   love, it would be utterly despised." The most supreme love is to be
   sought for, then, after the analogy of Grace, as gracious men seek
   greater Grace and not as legalists chaffer and bargain for reward and
   desert. If ever we reach the upper chambers of Love's palace, Love,
   herself must lead us up the stairs! Yes, and be to our willing feet the
   staircase itself. O for the help of the Holy Spirit while we speak upon
   such a theme!

   I. And now, to come nearer to the text, first, dear Friends, LET US
   CONSIDER THE NAME ITSELF--"The disciple whom Jesus loved." Our first
   observation upon it is--it is a name which John gives to himself. I
   think he repeats it five times. No other writer calls John, "the
   disciple whom Jesus loved." John has thus surnamed himself and all the
   early writers recognize him under that title. Do not suspect him,
   however, of egotism. It is one of the instances in which egotism is
   quite out of the question. Naturally, you and I would be rather slow to
   take such a title, even if we felt it belonged to us because we would
   be jealous for our reputation and be afraid of being thought
   presumptuous. But with a sweet naivete which makes him quite forget
   himself, John took the name which he knew most accurately described
   him, whether others quibbled at it or not.

   So far from there being any pride in it, it just shows the simplicity
   of his spirit, the openness, the transparency of his character and his
   complete self-forgetfulness. Knowing it to be the truth, he does not
   hesitate to say it. He was sure that Jesus loved him better than others
   and, though he marveled at it more than anyone else, yet he so rejoiced
   in the fact that he could not help publishing it, whatever the
   consequences might be. Often there is a deal more pride in not
   witnessing to what God has done for us than in speaking of it.
   Everything depends upon the spirit which moves us. I have heard a
   Brother with the deepest humility speak with full assurance of the
   Divine love and while some have thought that he was presumptuous, I
   have felt within myself that his positive testimony was perfectly
   consistent with the deepest humility and that it was his simple modesty
   which made the man so utterly forget himself as to run the risk of
   being thought forward and egotistical.

   He was thinking of how he should glorify God and the appearance of
   glorifying himself did not alarm him, for he had forgotten himself in
   his Master. I wish we could bear to be laughed at as proud for our
   Lord's sake. We shall never have John's name till, like John, we dare
   wear it without a blush. It is a name in which John hides himself. He
   is very wary of mentioning John. He speaks of "another disciple," and,
   "that other disciple," and then, of "that disciple whom Jesus loved."
   These are the names by which he would travel through his own Gospel,
   "incognito." We find him out, however, for the disguise is too thin!
   But still, he intends to conceal himself behind his Savior. He wears
   his Master's love as a veil, though it turns out to be a veil of light.

   He might have called himself, if he had chosen, "that disciple who
   beheld visions of God," but he prefers to speak of love rather than of
   prophecy. In the early Church we find writings concerning him in which
   he is named, "that disciple who leaned on Jesus' bosom," and this he
   mentions in our text. He might have been called, "that disciple who
   wrote one of the gospels," or, "that disciple who knew more of the very
   heart of Christ than any other," but he gives the preference to love.
   He is not that disciple who did anything, but who received love from
   Jesus--and he is not that disciple who loved Jesus, but "whom Jesus
   loved." John is the man in the silver mask, but we know the man and his
   communications and we hear him say, "We have known and believed the
   love that God has to us. God is love and he that dwells in love dwells
   in God and God in Him."

   The name before us is a name in which John felt himself most at home.
   No other title would so well describe him. His own name, "John," means
   the "gift of God" and he was a precious gift from God the Father to His
   suffering Son and a great comfort to the Savior during the years of His
   abode among men. Jesus doubtless counted him to be His Jonathan, His
   John, His God-gift and He treasured him as such. But John does not so
   much think of his being of any service to his Lord as of that which His
   Lord had been to him. He calls himself, "that disciple whom Jesus
   loved" because he recognized the delightful obligation which springs
   out of great love and wished to always be under its royal influence. He
   looked on Jesus' love as the source and root of everything about
   himself which was gracious and commendable. If he had

   any courage, if he had any faithfulness, if he had any depth of
   knowledge it was because Jesus had loved these things into him.

   All the sweet flowers which bloomed in the garden of his heart were
   planted there by the hand of Christ's love, so when he called himself,
   "that disciple whom Jesus loved," he felt that he had gone to the root
   and bottom of the matter and explained the main reason of his being
   what he was. This endearing name was very precious to him because it
   evoked the sunniest memories of all his life. Those short years in
   which he had been with Jesus must have been looked upon by him in his
   old age with great transport, as the crown and glory of his earthly
   existence. I do not wonder that he saw Christ, again, in Patmos, after
   having seen Him once in Palestine as he did see Him--for such sights
   are very apt to repeat themselves. Such sights, I say, for John's view
   of his Lord was no ordinary one.

   There is at times an echo to sights as well as to sounds and he who saw
   the Lord with John's eagle eyes--with his deep-seated inner eyes--was
   the likeliest man in all the world to see Him over again in vision as
   he did see Him amid the rocks of the Aegean Sea. All the memories of
   the best part of his life were awakened by the name which he wore and,
   by its power, he often renewed that intimate communion with the living
   Christ which had lived on during the horrors of the Crucifixion and
   lasted to the end of his days. That charming name set all the bells of
   his soul a-ringing--does it not sound right musical? "The disciple whom
   Jesus loved."

   That name was a powerful spring of action to him as long as he lived.
   How could he be false to Him who had loved him so? How could he refuse
   to bear witness to the Gospel of the Savior who had loved him so? What
   leagues of journeying could be too long for the feet of that disciple
   whom Jesus loved? What mobs of cruel men could cow the heart of the
   disciple whom Jesus loved? What form of banishment or death could
   dismay him whom Jesus loved? No, in the power of that name John becomes
   bold and faithful and he serves his loving Friend with all his heart. I
   say, then, that this title must have been very dear to John because he
   felt himself most at home in it. The secret springs of his nature were
   touched by it. He felt his whole self, heart, soul, mind, memory all
   comprehended within the compass of the words, "The disciple whom Jesus
   loved."

   It was a name which was never disputed. You do not find anyone
   complaining of John for thus describing himself. General consent
   awarded him the title. His brethren did quarrel with him a little when
   his fond mother, Salome, wanted thrones for her two sons on the right
   and the left hand of the Messiah, but the love of Jesus to John never
   caused any ill will among the Brethren, nor did John take any undue
   advantage of it. I believe that the Apostles tacitly acknowledged that
   their Lord was perfectly right in His choice. There was something about
   John which made his brethren love him and, therefore, they did not
   marvel that their Lord should make him His most intimate friend. The
   truly loved one of God generally receives the love of his brethren.
   Yes, and even the love of the ungodly, after a sort, for when a man's
   ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with
   him.

   While David walked with God all Israel loved him and even Saul was
   forced to cry, "You are more righteous than I." John was so loving that
   he gained love everywhere. We may well be eager after this choice
   blessing since it, alone, of all known treasures, excites no envy among
   the brethren, but rather makes all the godly rejoice. Inasmuch as
   saints wish to be greatly loved, themselves, they are glad when they
   meet with those who have obtained that blessing. If we would smell of
   myrrh and aloes and cassia, we are glad to meet with those whose
   garments are already fragrant. You never find John lecturing his
   brethren, or acting as a lord over God's heritage--but in all
   gentleness and lowliness he justified the affection which our Lord
   manifested toward him.

   II. Thus much, then, with regard to the name. Secondly, LET US LOOK AT
   THE CHARACTER WHICH LAY

   BELOW IT. I can only give a miniature of John. It is quite impossible,
   in the few moments of a sermon, to draw a full-length portrait and,
   indeed, I am not artist enough to accomplish it if I should attempt the
   task! In the character of John we see much that is admirable. First,
   let us look at his personality as an individual. His was a large and
   warm heart. Perhaps his main force lies in the intensity of his nature.
   He is not vehement, but deep and strong. Whatever he did, he did right
   heartily. He was simple-minded--a man in whom there was no guile. There
   was no division in his nature. He was one and indivisible in all that
   he felt or did.

   He did not entertain questions. He was not critical. He was not apt to
   spy out faults in others and, as to difficulties, mental or otherwise,
   he seems to have been happily without them. Having pondered and come to
   a conclusion, his whole nature moved in solid phalanx with forceful
   march. Whichever way he went, he went altogether and right resolutely.

   Some men go two ways, or they tack about, or they go towards their
   objective in an indirect manner. But John steams straight forward with
   the fires blazing and the engine working at full speed. His whole soul
   was engaged in his Lord's cause, for he was a deep thinker, a silent
   student and then a forceful actor. He was not impetuous with the haste
   of Peter, but yet he was determined and thorough-going and all on fire
   with zeal.

   He was exceedingly livid in his beliefs and believed to the utmost what
   he had learned of his Lord. Read his Epistle through and see how many
   times he says "we know," "we know," "we know." There are no, "ifs,"
   about him. He is a deep and strong Believer. His heart gives an
   unfeigned assent and consent. There was an intense warmth about John.
   He loved his Lord, he loved his Brethren. He loved with a large heart,
   for he had a grand nature. He loved constantly and he loved in such a
   way as to be practically courageous for his Master, for he was a bold
   man, a true son of thunder. He was ready to go to the front if he was
   bound to do so, but in a quiet way and not with a rush and a noise--his
   is not the dash of a waterfall, but the still flow of a deep river.

   Putting all together that we know about his personality, we look upon
   him as a man who was the reverse of your cold, calculating, slow-moving
   son of diffidence. You know the sort of persons I mean--very good
   people in their way, but by no means fascinating or much to be
   imitated. He was quite the reverse of those dried, juiceless Brethren
   who have no human nature in them--men who are somewhere about
   perfect--for they have not life enough to sin. They do no wrong, or
   rather they do nothing at all. I know a few of those delightful people,
   sharp critics of others and faultless themselves with this one
   exception--they are heartless. John was a hearty man--a man of brain,
   but of soul, too--a soul which went out to the tips of his fingers. He
   was a man who was permeated with intense but quiet life--in a word, a
   man to be loved. His life was not that of an ice-plant, but of the red
   rose. He carried summer in his countenance, energy in his manner,
   steady force in all his movements. He was like that other John of whom
   he was once a disciple, "a burning and a shining light." There was
   warmth as well as light in him. He was intense, sincere and unselfish
   by nature and a fullness of Divine Grace came upon him and sanctified
   these virtues.

   Let us now view him in his relation to his Lord. The name he takes to
   himself is, "the disciple whom Jesus loved." Jesus loved him as a
   disciple. What sort of disciples do masters love? You that have ever
   been teachers of youth know that if teachers had their choice, certain
   persons would be selected before others. If we teach, we love teachable
   people! Such was John. He was a man quick to learn. He was not like
   Thomas who was slow, argumentative, cautious. But having once assured
   himself that he had a true Teacher, he gave himself right up to Jesus
   and was willing to receive what He had to reveal. He was a disciple of
   a very keen eye, seeing into the soul of his Instructor's teaching. His
   emblem in the early church was the eagle--the eagle which soars, but
   also the eagle which sees from afar.

   John saw the spiritual meaning of types and emblems. He did not stop at
   the outward symbols, as some of the disciples did, but his penetrating
   soul read into the depths of the Truth of God. You can see this both in
   his Gospel and in his Epistles. He is a spiritually-minded man. He
   stays not in the letter, but he dives beneath the surface. He pierces
   through the shell and reaches the inner teaching. His first master was
   John the Baptist and he was so good a disciple that he was the first to
   leave his teacher! You hint that this did not show that he was a good
   disciple? Indeed it did, for it was the Baptist's aim to send his
   followers to Jesus! The Baptist said, "Behold the Lamb of God, which
   takes away the sin of the world" and John was so good a follower of the
   forerunner that he immediately followed the Lord, Himself, to whom the
   forerunner introduced him.

   This he did without a violent jerk--his progress was natural and even.
   Paul came to Jesus with a great start and twist, when he was put upon
   the lines on the road to Damascus. But John glided gently to the
   Baptist and then from the Baptist to Jesus. He was not obstinate,
   neither was he weak, but he was teachable and so he made steady
   progress in his learning. Such a disciple is one that a teacher is sure
   to love and John was, therefore, "the disciple whom Jesus loved." He
   was full of faith to accept what he was taught. He believed it and he
   believed it really and thoroughly. He did not believe, as some people
   do, with the fingertips of their understanding, but he gripped the
   Truth of God with both hands, laid it up in his heart and allowed it to
   flow from that center and saturate his whole being.

   He was a Believer in his inmost soul, both when he saw the blood and
   water at the Cross and the folded grave clothes at the sepulcher--he
   saw and believed. His faith worked in him a strong and enduring love,
   for faith works by love. He believed in his Master in a sweetly
   familiar way, "for there is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out
   fear." Such a trustful, confiding disciple is sure to be loved of his
   teacher. John had great receptiveness. He drank in what he was taught.
   He

   was like Gideon's fleece, ready to be saturated with the dew of Heaven.
   His whole nature absorbed the Truth as it is in Jesus. He was not a
   great talker--I think he was almost a silent disciple. So little did he
   say that we have only one saying of his recorded in the Gospels. "Why,"
   says one, "I remember two or three." Do you remind me that he asked
   that he might sit on the right hand of Christ? I have not forgotten
   that request, but I answer that his mother, Salome, spoke on that
   occasion.

   Again, you tell me that at the supper he asked, "Lord, who is it?" Yes,
   but it was Peter who put that question into his mouth. The only
   utterance that I remember in the Gospel which was altogether John's is
   that at the sea of Tiberius, when he said to Peter, "It is the Lord."
   This was a very significant little speech--a recognition of his Lord
   such as the quick eyes of love are sure to make. He who lived nearest
   to Jesus could best discern Him as He stood upon the shore. "It is the
   Lord," is the gladsome cry of love, overjoyed at the sight of its
   Beloved! It might have served John as his motto-- "It is the Lord." O
   that we were able amid darkness and tossing to discern the Savior and
   rejoice in His Presence! "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall
   see God"--and such was the beloved disciple!

   One great trait in John's character as a disciple was his intense love
   for his Teacher. He not only received the Truth of God, but he received
   the Master Himself. I take it that the leaning of a man's faults often
   betrays his heart more than his virtues. It may seem a strange
   observation to make, but it is true. A true heart may as well be seen
   in its weakness as in its excellence. What were the weak points about
   John, as some would say? On one occasion he was intolerant. Certain
   persons were casting out devils and he forbade them because they
   followed not with the disciples. Now, that intolerance, mistaken as it
   was, grew out of love to his Lord! He was afraid that these interlopers
   might set up as rivals to his Lord and he wanted them to come under the
   rule of his beloved Jesus.

   At another time the Samaritans would not receive them and he asked his
   Master if he might call down fire from Heaven on them. One does not
   commend him, but still it was love to Jesus which made him indignant at
   their ungenerous conduct to their best Friend. He felt so indignant
   that men should not entertain the Savior who had come into the world to
   bless them, that he would even call fire from Heaven--it showed his
   burning love for Jesus. Even when his mother asked that he and the
   brother might sit upon thrones at the right hand and the left hand of
   Christ, it was a deep and thoughtful faith in Jesus which suggested it.
   His idea of honor and glory was bound up with Jesus! If he gives way to
   ambition it is an ambition to reign with the despised Galilean. He does
   not want a throne unless it is at his Lord's side.

   Moreover, what faith there was in that request! I am not going to
   justify it, but I am going to say something to moderate your
   condemnation. Our Lord was going up to Jerusalem to be spit upon and to
   be put to death and yet John so thoroughly threw himself into his
   Lord's career that he would gladly share in the fortune of his great
   Caesar, assured that it must end in His enthronement. He is content, he
   says, to be baptized with His baptism and to drink of His cup-- he only
   asks to share with Jesus in all things. As a good writer says, it
   reminds one of the courage of the Roman who, when Rome was in the hands
   of the enemy, purchased a house within the walls. John heroically asks
   for a throne at the side of One who was about to die on the Cross, for
   he feels sure that He will triumph!

   When the cause and kingdom of Christ seemed ready to expire, yet so
   whole-hearted was John in his faith in God and his love to his beloved
   Lord that his highest ambition was still to be with Jesus and take
   shares with Him in all that He would do and be. So, you see, all
   through John loved his Lord with all his heart and, therefore, Jesus
   Christ loved him. Or let me turn it the other way--the Lord loved John
   and, therefore, John loved the Lord Jesus. It is John's own explanation
   of it--"We love Him because He first loved us." I must ask you to look
   at John, once more, as an instructed person. He was a beloved disciple
   and remained a disciple, but he grew to know more and more and, in that
   capacity I would say of him that doubtless our Lord Jesus loved him
   because of the tenderness which was produced by Grace out of his
   natural warmth.

   How tender he was to Peter, after that Apostle's grievous fall, for
   early in the morning John goes with him to the sepulcher. He is the man
   who restored the backslider. He was so tender that our Lord did not say
   to John, "Feed My lambs," for He knew he would be sure to do it. And He
   did not even say to him, "Feed My sheep," as He did to Peter-- He knew
   that John would do so from the instincts of his loving nature. He was a
   man who, under the tutorship of Christ, grew, moreover, to be very
   spiritual and very deep. The words he uses in his Epistles are mostly
   monosyllables, but what mighty meanings they contain! If we may compare
   one Inspired writer with another, I should say that no other Evangelist
   is at all comparable to John in depth.

   The other evangelists give us Christ's miracles and certain of His
   sermons, but His profound discourses and His matchless prayer are
   reserved for that disciple whom Jesus loved. Where the deep things of
   God are concerned, there is John, with sublime simplicity of utterance,
   declaring unto us the things which he has tasted and handled. Of all
   the disciples John was most Christ-like. Like will gravitate to like.
   Jesus loved John for what He saw of Himself in him--created by His
   Grace. Thus I think you will see that, without supposing John to have
   possessed any merit, there were points in his personal character, in
   his character as a disciple and in his character as an educated,
   spiritual man which justified our Savior in making him the object of
   His most intimate affection.

   III. Very briefly, in the third place, LET US REVIEW THE LIFE WHICH
   GREW OUT OF THIS EXTRAORDINARY LOVE OF CHRIST. What was the life of
   John? First, it was a life of intimate communion. John was wherever
   Christ was. Other disciples are away, but Peter and James and John are
   present. When all the disciples sit at the table, even Peter is not
   nearest to the Lord Jesus, but John leans his head upon His bosom.
   Their communion was very near and dear. Jesus and John were David and
   Jonathan over again. If you are a man greatly beloved you will live in
   Jesus, your fellowship will be with Him from day to day.

   John's was a life of special instruction. He was taught things which no
   others knew, for they could not bear them. At the latter end of his
   life he was favored with visions such as even Paul, himself, though not
   a whit behind the chief of the Apostles, had never seen. Because of the
   greatness of his Lord's love to him, He showed him future things and
   lifted up the veil so that he might see the Kingdom and the Glory. They
   shall see most who love most. They shall be taught most who most
   completely give up their hearts to the doctrine. John, therefore,
   became a man in whose life there was amazing depth. If he did not say
   much as a rule while his Lord was with him, he was taking it all in for
   future use. He lived an inner life. He was a son of thunder and could
   boldly thunder out the Truth of God because, as a thundercloud is
   charged with electricity, so had he gathered up the mysterious force of
   his Lord's life, love and truth.

   When he did break out, there was a voice like the voice of God in
   him--a deep, mysterious, overwhelming power of God was about him. What
   a flash of lightning is the Apocalypse! What awful thunders sleep
   within the vials and the trumpets! His was a life of Divine power
   because of the great fire which burned within. His was not the flash of
   crackling thorns beneath a pot, but the glow of coals in a furnace when
   the whole mass is molten into a white heat. John is the ruby among the
   twelve--he shines with a warm brilliance reflecting the love which
   Jesus lavished on him. And his life was one of special usefulness. He
   was entrusted with choice commissions involving high honor. The Lord
   gave him to do a work of the most tender and delicate kind which, I am
   afraid, He could not commit to some of us.

   As the Redeemer hung upon the tree dying, He saw His mother standing in
   the throng and He did not commit her to Peter, but to John. Peter would
   have been glad of the commission, I am sure, and so would Thomas and so
   would James--but the Lord said to John, "Behold your mother!" And to
   His mother, "Woman, behold your son!" And from that hour that disciple
   took her to his own home. So modest, so retiring--I was going to say,
   so gentlemanly--was John that he was the man to take charge of a
   broken-hearted mother. Said I wrong that he was a true gentleman?
   Divide the word and surely he was the gentlest of men. John has a
   delicate air and considerate manner, necessary to the care of an
   honored woman. Peter is good, but he is rough. Thomas is kind, but
   cold. John is tender and affectionate.

   When you love Jesus much, He will trust His mother to you--I mean His
   Church--and the poorest people in it, such as widows and orphans and
   poor ministers. He will trust them to you because He loves you much. He
   will not put everybody into that office. Some of His people are very
   hard and stony of heart and more fit to be tax-collectors than
   distributors of alms. They would make capital officers in an army, but
   not nurses in a hospital. If you love Jesus much, you shall have many
   delicate offices to perform which shall be to you proofs of your Lord's
   trust in you and renewed tokens of His love. John's life was, moreover,
   one of extraordinary heavenliness. They call him John the Divine and he
   was so. His eagle wings bore him aloft into the heavenly places and
   there he beheld the Glory of the Lord.

   Whether in Jerusalem or in Antioch, in Ephesus or in Patmos, his
   conversation was in Heaven! The Lord's Day found him in the spirit,
   waiting for Him that comes with clouds--so waiting that He who is the
   Alpha and Omega hastened to reveal Himself to him. It was the love of
   his Lord which had thus prepared him for visions of the Glory. Had not
   that love so enkindled his own love as to hold him faithfully at the
   Cross all through the agony, he might never have been able to gaze upon
   the Truth of God. He had lovingly followed Him who had been pointed out
   to Him as the "Lamb of God" and, therefore, he was made meet to see Him
   as the Lamb in the midst of the Throne--adored of angels and re-

   deemed saints, whose harps and viols are engrossed with His praise! O
   that we, too, could be freed from the grossness of earth and borne
   aloft into the purer atmosphere of spiritual and heavenly things!

   IV. We close by saying, very briefly, LET US LEARN LESSONS FOR
   OURSELVES from that disciple whom Jesus loved. May the Holy Spirit
   speak them to our inmost hearts. First, I speak to those of you who are
   still young. If you wish to be "the disciple whom Jesus loved" begin
   soon. I suppose that John was between 20 and 25 when he was converted.
   At any rate, he was quite a young man. All the representations of him
   which have been handed down to us, though I attach no great value to
   them, yet unite in the fact of his youth. Youthful piety has the most
   profitable opportunity of becoming eminent piety.

   If you begin, soon, to walk with Christ, you will improve your pace and
   the habit will grow upon you. He who is only made a Christian in the
   last few years of his life will scarcely reach to the first and highest
   degree for lack of time and from the hampering influence of old habits.
   But you who begin soon are planted in good soil with a sunny aspect and
   should come to maturity. Soldiers who enlist early under the banner of
   our David have hope of becoming veterans and attaining to the first
   three.

   Next, if we would be like John in being loved by Christ, let us give
   our heart's best thoughts to spiritual things. Brothers and Sisters, do
   not stop in the outward ordinances but plunge into their inner sense.
   Never allow your soul, on the Lord's Day for instance, to be thankful
   and happy merely because you have been to the place of worship. Ask
   yourself, "Did I worship? Did my soul commune with God?" In the use of
   the two ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, content not
   yourself with the shell, but seek to get at the kernel of their inner
   meaning. Rest not unless the Spirit of God, Himself, dwells within you.
   Remember that the letter kills--it is the spirit that gives life. The
   Lord Jesus Christ takes no delight in those who are fond of broad
   phylacteries and multiplied sacraments and holy performances and
   superstitious observances. The Father seeks those to worship Him who
   worship Him in spirit and in truth. Be spiritual and you are among
   those who are likely to be men greatly beloved.

   Next to that, cherish a holy warmth. Do not repress your emotions and
   freeze your souls. You know the class of people who are gifted with
   refrigerating power. When you shake hands with them, you would think
   that you had hold of a fish--a chill goes to your very soul! Listen to
   them sing. No, you cannot hear them! Sit in the next pew and you will
   never hear the gentle hiss or mutter which they call singing. Out in
   their shops they could be heard a quarter of a mile off, but if they
   pray in the Prayer Meeting, you must strain your ears. They do all
   Christian service as if they were working by the day for a bad master
   and at scanty wages. But when they get into the world they work by the
   piece as if for dear life. Such people cannot be affectionate.

   They never encourage a young convert, for they are afraid that their
   weighty commendation might exalt him above measure. A little
   encouragement would help the struggling youth mightily, but they have
   none to offer. They calculate and reckon and move prudently and
   anything like a brave trust in God they set down as rashness and folly.
   God grant us plenty of rashness, I say, for what men think imprudence
   is about the grandest thing under Heaven! Enthusiasm is a feeling which
   these refrigerators do not indulge. Their chant is, "As it was in the
   beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen!" Anything
   like a dash for Christ and a rush for souls they do not understand.
   Mark this, if you follow such people home, you will find that they have
   little joy, themselves, and make very little joy for others. They are
   never quite certain that they are saved and if they are not sure of it
   we may readily guess that other people are not.

   They spend, in anxious thought, the strength which ought to have gone
   in hearty love. They were born at the north pole and live amid
   perpetual frost--all the furs of Hudson's Bay could not warm them.
   About them you see none of the rich tropical flowers which bedeck the
   heart upon which the Sun of Righteousness shines with perpendicular
   beams. These chilly mortals have never traversed the sunny regions of
   heavenly love where the spices of holy delight load all the air and
   apples of gold are everywhere within the reach of glowing hearts. The
   Lord bring us there! Jesus Christ loves warm people! He never shines on
   an iceberg except to melt it. His own life is so full of love that its
   holy fire kindles the same flame in others and thus He has fellowship
   with those whose hearts burn within them.

   The fitness for love is love. To enjoy the love of Jesus we must
   overflow with love. Pray for earnest, eager, intense affection. Lay
   your hearts among the coals of juniper till they melt and glow. Dear
   Brothers and Sisters, if you want to be the man or woman that Jesus
   loves, cultivate strong affection and let your nature be tender and
   kind. One who is habitually cross and frequently angry cannot walk with
   God. A person of a quick, hot temper who never tries to check it, or

   in whom there is a malicious remembrance of injuries, like a fire
   smoldering amidst the embers, cannot be the companion and friend of
   Jesus whose spirit is of an opposite character! A pitiful,
   compassionate, unselfish, generous heart is that which our Lord
   approves. Forgive your fellow as if you never had anything to forgive.
   When Brethren injure you, hope that they have made a mistake, or else
   feel that if they knew you better they would treat you worse! Be of
   such a mind towards them that you will neither give nor take offense.
   Be willing to lay down, not only your comfort, but even your life for
   the Brethren! Live in the joy of others, even as saints do in Heaven.
   Love others so as to forget your own sorrows. So shall you become a man
   greatly beloved.

   Last of all, may the Spirit of God help you to rise to heavenliness. Do
   not be miserable money-grubbers, or sordid earthworms. Do not be
   pleasure hunters and novelty seekers. Do not set your affection upon
   these children's toys which will be so soon broken. Be you no more
   children, but men of God! Oh to find your joy in Christ, your wealth in
   Christ, your honor in Christ, your everything in Christ--this is peace.
   To be in the world but not to be of it. To linger here as if you were
   an angel sent from Heaven to dwell, for a while, among the sons of men,
   to tell them of Heaven and point them the way--this is to abide in
   Christ's love.

   To be always ready to fly, to stand on tiptoe waiting for the
   heavenward call, to expect to hear the trumpet ring out its clarion
   note, the trumpet of the coming of your Lord--this is to have
   fellowship with Christ! Sit loose, I pray you, by this world, but get a
   tighter grip of the world to come--so shall Jesus' love be shed abroad
   within you. Throw your anchor upward into the placid sea of Divine Love
   and not like the seamen, downward, into a troubled ocean. Anchor
   yourselves to the eternal Throne and never be divided, even in thought,
   from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. May it be my
   privilege and yours, Brothers and Sisters, to lean these heads of ours
   on Jesus' bosom till the day breaks and the shadows flee away. Amen and
   Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Mediator--Judge And Savior

   (No. 1540)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 30, 1880,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "And He commanded us to preach unto the people and to testify that it
   is He which was ordained of God to be the Judge of the quick and the
   dead. To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever
   believes in Him shall receive remission of sins." Acts 10:42,43.

   THESE two verses are an extract from a very remarkable sermon, a sermon
   preached by Peter in the house of Cornelius upon the occasion of the
   Gentile Pentecost. I think we are entitled to call the event by that
   name, for then the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the
   Gentiles. Peter preached at the first Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit
   fell upon the company of Jewish Believers and it is remarkable that he
   should be the preacher at the second Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit
   descended upon those of the uncircumcision while they were listening to
   the Gospel. Philip was at Caesarea and might have been called in, but
   God had determined that the strict Peter, the minister of the
   circumcision, should himself open the door of faith to the Gentiles.

   Paul was, at that time, converted and it might have seemed to be more
   appropriate to have used him in enlightening this Italian officer, but
   the Lord thought not so--He would send the Spirit upon the Gentiles in
   connection with the same person who preached when this visitation
   blessed the converts of Israel. Peter preached, as it were, upon the
   ruins of the middle wall of partition which once divided the sons of
   men. The occasion was very special and hence the sermon is the more
   worthy of our earnest consideration. What kind of discourse is that
   which is likely to be sealed by the Holy Spirit? We may learn something
   upon that point from the instance before us.

   Notice that it was a sermon "preached by request." I have seen those
   words printed upon the title page of very poor sermons--as a sort of
   apology for their being printed. I have wondered who it was that
   requested them and whether the requesters were pleased with what they
   got by their petition. I should think that they would hardly have asked
   that the same words should be spoken to them again. But this request
   was a very honest and hearty one, for Cornelius sent many miles to
   fetch the preacher and the preacher came a long day's journey in order
   to deliver his discourse. It were devoutly to be wished that many such
   sermons would both be preached and published by request. When men are
   anxious to hear such discourses and count the preacher to be their
   benefactor, there is every hope that the Truth of God will work their
   salvation.

   This discourse was delivered to a model congregation. One might be
   satisfied to preach in the middle of the night to such an assembly, for
   a devout family had come together at the earnest request of a leading
   kinsman to have the Gospel preached to them. To that assembly not a
   single person came in late--everyone was there before the speaker
   arrived. Late attendance frequently means heartless worship,
   disturbance and distraction. "Now, therefore," said Cornelius before
   Peter began, "we are all here present before God." This was well--O
   that all hearers were punctual, that all worship might be undisturbed!
   Better, still, would it be if all our audiences felt that they were
   "before God"--this would create a solemn feeling and ensure devout
   attention.

   The hearers were all in a waiting and expectant mood and all in a
   receptive condition, desiring, as Cornelius said, "to hear all things
   that are commanded you of God." Never was the ground better plowed, nor
   in a finer condition for receiving the living Seed. Peter gave them a
   very plain and simple sermon--you cannot find a flourish in it, nor a
   metaphor, nor even the least attempt at oratory as, indeed, you do not
   find in the sermons of Inspired men. Those gentlemen who preach
   grandiloquently are uninspired, you may depend upon that, or else they
   would not attempt their high and mighty style. The Inspiration which
   the Holy Spirit gives, leads men to use great plainness of speech. Not
   in words, only,

   was Peter plain, but the Truths of God which he taught were the first
   principles of the faith and it is generally by these that men are
   saved--points of difficult theology are not often the means of
   conversion.

   What have we to do with the fireworks of rhetoric, or the playthings of
   controversy when men are anxious to know the way of salvation? Simple
   as the discourse was, it was a very powerful one. So powerful, indeed,
   that all that heard it were converted! I do not see any intimation that
   one of them remained unconvinced, for the 44th verse says, "The Holy
   Spirit fell on all them which heard the Word." What a very remarkable
   occasion was this, when all who heard the Truth of God felt the power
   of the Holy Spirit! What would I not give to be enabled to preach after
   that fashion and to see such a result! Peter's sermon, however, was
   never finished--it remains forever a homiletical fragment, a broken
   column of the temple of wisdom, a discourse of which we shall never
   know the conclusion intended by its author.

   I am sure that Peter felt full of matter that day, for so a minister
   usually feels when he knows that he is sent by the Lord, Himself, with
   a special commission and sees a people with open hearts receiving all
   that he utters. He then feels like a vessel needing vent, his heart is
   inditing a good matter, his tongue is the pen of a ready writer. Yet
   the sermon was never finished, but closed abruptly. Oh that our sermons
   were incomplete for the same cause that Peter's was, for the Holy
   Spirit, who speaks better by Himself than by the most earnest voice,
   caused a divinely joyful interruption--"The Holy Spirit fell on all
   them which heard the Word."

   The sermon was stopped while they heard the converts speak with tongues
   and magnify God and the preacher did not return to his sermon but,
   together with his converts, attended to Baptism and then enjoyed holy
   fellowship. Oh that the Spirit of God would, in the same manner,
   interrupt us! We have too much talk and too little of those blessed
   silences which He is sure to cause. It were better for our lips to be
   sealed by the hour than for us to speak except as He opens our mouth to
   show forth the praises of the Lord. A sacred irregularity would be far
   better in our public services than the prim monotony of death. For all
   these reasons I think I have a claim upon your very earnest attention
   while we look at Peter's sermon more intently--surely a sermon produced
   under such circumstances--leading up to such results and interrupted so
   Divinely deserves to be reverently studied!

   What was the subject? What was Peter preaching upon? He was preaching
   Christ and Him Crucified! No other subject ever produces such effects
   as this. The Spirit of God bears no witness to Christless sermons!
   Leave Jesus out of your preaching and the Holy Spirit will never come
   upon you. Why should He? Has He not come on purpose that He may testify
   of Christ? Did not Jesus say, "He shall glorify Me: for He shall
   receive of Me and shall show it unto you"? Yes, the subject was Christ
   and nothing but Christ and such is the tea