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        Title: Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 29: 1883
   Creator(s): Spurgeon, Charles Haddon (1834-1892)
CCEL Subjects: All; Sermons;
   LC Call no: BV42
  LC Subjects:

               Practical theology

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

               Times and Seasons. The church year
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The Star and the Wise Men

   (No. 1698)

   Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, December 24th, 1882, by

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   At the [1]Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   "Now Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the
   king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying,
   Where is he that is born King of the Jews'? for we have seen his star
   in the east, and are come to worship him. When they had heard the king,
   they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went
   before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.
   When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy."—
   Matthew 2:1-2, 9-10.

   SEE, DEAR FRIENDS, the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ even in his state
   of humiliation! He is born of lowly parents, laid in a manger, and
   wrapped in swaddling bands; but, lo! the principalities and powers in
   the heavenly places are in commotion. First, one angel descends to
   proclaim the advent of the new-born King and suddenly there is with him
   a multitude of the heavenly host singing glory unto God. Nor was the
   commotion confined to the spirits above; for in the heavens which
   overhang this card, there is a stir. A star is deputed on behalf of all
   the stars, as if he were the envoy and plenipotentiary of all worlds to
   represent them before their King. This star is put in commission to
   wait upon the Lord, to be his herald to men afar off, his usher to
   conduct them to his presence, and his body-guard to sentinel his
   cradle. Earth, too, is stirred. Shepherds have come to pay the homage
   of simple-minded ones: with all love and joy they bow before the
   mysterious child; and after them from afar come the choice and flower
   of their generation, the most studious minds of the age. Making a long
   and difficult journey, they too at last arrive, the representatives of
   the Gentiles. Lo! the kings of Seba and Sheba offer gifts—gold,
   frankincense, and myrrh. Wise men, the leaders of their peoples, bow
   down before him, and pay homage to the Son of God. Wherever Christ is
   he is honorable. "Unto you that believe he is honor." In the day of
   small things, when the cause of God is denied entertainment, and is
   hidden away with things which are despised, it is still most glorious.
   Christ, though a child, is still King of kings; though among the oxen,
   he is still distinguished by his star.

   Beloved friends, if wise men of old came to Jesus and worshipped,
   should not we come also? My intense desire this morning is that we all
   may pay homage to him of whom we sing, "Unto us a child is born; unto
   us a son is given." Let those of us who have long worshipped, worship
   anew with yet lowlier reverence and intenser love. And God grant-oh,
   that he would grant it!—that some who are far off from him spiritually,
   as the Magi were far off locally, may come to-day and ask, "Where is he
   that is born King of the Jews? for we have come to worship him." May
   feet that have been accustomed to broad roads, but unaccustomed to the
   narrow path, this day pursue that way till they see Jesus, and how
   before him with all their hearts, finding salvation in him. These wise
   men came naturally, traversing the desert; let us come spiritually,
   leaving our sins. These were guided by the sight of a star; let us be
   guided by faith in the divine Spirit, by the teaching of his word and
   all those blessed lights which the Lord uses to conduct men to himself.
   Only let us come to Jesus. It was well to come unto the babe Jesus, led
   by the feeble beams of a star; you shall find it still more blessed to
   come to him now that he is exalted in the highest heavens, and by his
   own light reveals his own perfect glory. Delay not, for this day he
   cries, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will
   give you rest."

   This morning let us try to do three things. First, let us gather light
   from this star; secondly, let us gather wisdom from those wise men; and
   thirdly, let us act as wise men helped by our own particular star.

   I. First, then, LET US GATHER LIGHT FROM THIS STAR. May the Spirit of
   the Lord enable us so to do.

   I suppose you have each one his own imagination as to what this star
   was. It would seem to have been altogether supernatural, and not a
   star, or a comet of the ordinary kind. It was not a constellation, nor
   a singular conjunction of planets: there is nothing in the Scriptures
   to support such a conjecture. In all probability it was not a star in
   the sense in which we now speak of stars: for we find that it moved
   before the wise men, then suddenly disappeared, and again shone forth
   to move before them. It could not have been a star in the upper spheres
   like others, for such movements would not have been possible. Some have
   supposed that the wise men went in the direction in which the star
   shone forth in the heavens, and followed the changes of its position:
   but it could not in that case have been said that it stood over the
   place where the young child was. If the star was at its zenith over
   Bethlehem, it would have been in its zenith over Jerusalem too; for the
   distance is so small that it would not have been possible to observe
   any difference in the position of the star in the two places. It must
   have been a star occupying quite another sphere from that in which the
   planets revolve. We believe it to have been a luminous appearance in
   mid-air; probably akin to that which led the children of Israel through
   the wilderness, which was a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
   Whether it was seen in the daylight or not we cannot tell. Chrysostom
   and the early fathers are wonderfully positive about many things which
   Scripture leaves in doubt, but as these eminent divines drew upon their
   imagination for their facts, we are not under bonds to follow them.
   They aver that this star was so bright as to be visible all day long.
   If so, we can imagine the wise men travelling day and night; but if it
   could be seen only by night, the picture before us grows far more
   singular and weird—like as we see these easterns quietly pursuing their
   star-lit way, resting perforce when the sun was up, but noiselessly
   hurrying at night through slumbering lands. These questions are not of
   much importance to us, and therefore we will not dwell long upon them.

   Only here is a first lesson: if it should ever be that men should fail
   to preach the gospel, God can conduct souls to his Son by a star. Ah!
   say not only by a star, but by a stone, a bird, a blade of grass, a
   drop of dew.

   "Remember that Omnipotence
   Has servants everywhere."

   Therefore, despond not when you hear that one minister has ceased to
   preach the gospel, or that another is fighting against the viral truth
   of God. Their apostasy shall be to their own loss rather than to the
   hurt of Jesus and his church; and, sad though it be to see the lamps of
   the sanctuary put out, yet God is not dependent upon human lights, he
   is the Shekinah light of his own holy place. Mortal tongues, if they
   refuse to preach his word, shall have their places supplied by books in
   the running brooks and sermons in stones. The beam shall cry out of the
   wall, and the timber shall answer it. When chief priests and scribes
   have all gone out of the way, the Lord puts stars into commission, and
   once more in very deed the heavens are telling the glory of God, and
   the firmament is showing his handiwork. Sooner than lack speakers for
   the incarnate God, mountains and hills shall learn eloquence and break
   forth into testimony. Jehovah's message shall be made known to the
   utmost ends of the earth. God shall save his own elect; he shall give
   to Christ to see of the travail of his soul and to be satisfied. His
   counsel shall stand, and he will do all his pleasure. Hallelujah!

   Now, when the Lord does use a star to be his minister, what is the
   order of his ministry? We may learn by this enquiry what kind of
   ministry God would have ours to be if we are stars in his right hand.
   We also shine as lights in the world: let us see how to do it.

   We notice, first, that star-preaching is all about Christ. We do not
   know what the color of the star was, nor the shape of the star, nor to
   what magnitude it had attained; these items are not recorded, but what
   is recorded is of much more importance; the wise men said—"We have seen
   his star." Then the star which the Lord will use to lead men to Jesus
   must be Christ's own star. The faithful minister, like this star,
   belongs to Christ; he is Christ's own man in the most emphatic sense.
   Before we can expect to be made a blessing, dear friends, we must
   ourselves be blessed of the Lord. If we would cause others to belong,
   to Jesus, we must belong wholly to Jesus ourselves. Every beam in that
   star shone forth for Jesus. It was his star, always, and only, and
   altogether. It shone not for itself, but only as his star: as such it
   was known and spoken of—"we have seen his star." As I have already
   said, there is no note taken of any peculiarity that it had except this
   one, that it was the star of the King. I wish that you and I, whatever
   our eccentricities or personalities may be, may never make so much of
   them as to attract men's attention to them. May people never dwell upon
   our attainments or our deficiencies, but may they always observe this
   one thing, that we are men of God, that we are ambassadors of Christ,
   that we are Christ's servants, and do not attempt to shine for
   ourselves, or to make ourselves conspicuous; but that we labor to shine
   for him, that his way may be known upon earth, his saving health among
   all people. Brother, it is well for us to forget ourselves in our
   message, to sink ourselves in our Master. We know the names of several
   of the stars, yet they may each one envy that star which remains
   anonymous, but can never be forgotten because men who sought the King
   of Israel knew it as "his star." Though you be but a very little star,
   twinkling for Jesus; however feeble your light may be, be it plain that
   you are his star, so that if men wonder what you are, they may never
   wonder whose you are, for on your very forefront it shall be written,
   "Whose I am and whom I serve." God will not lead men to Christ by us
   unless we are Christ's heartily, wholly, unreservedly. In his temple
   our Lord uses no borrowed vessels; every bowl before the altar must be
   his own. It is not consistent with the glory of God for him to use
   borrowed vessels. He is not so poor as that comes to. This lesson is
   worthy of all acceptation. Are you in a hurry to preach, young man? Are
   you sure you are Christ's? Do you think it must be a fine thing to hold
   a company or people listening to your words? Have you looked at it in
   another light,? Have you weighed the responsibility of having to speak
   as Christ would have you speak, and of yielding yourself in your entire
   personality to the utterance of the mind of God? You must be
   consecrated and concentrated if you hope to be used or the Lord. If you
   have one ray, or ten thousand rays, all must shine with the one design
   of guiding men to Jesus. You have nothing now to do with any object,
   subject, design, or endeavor, but Jesus only: in him, and for him, and
   to him must you live henceforth, or you will never be chosen of the
   Lord to conduct either wise men or babes to Jesus. See ye well to it
   that perfect consecration be yours.

   Note next that true star-preaching leads to Christ. The star was
   Christ's star itself, but it also led others to Christ. It did this
   very much because it moved in that direction. It is a sad thing when a
   preacher is like a sign-post pointing the way but never following it,
   on his own account. Such were those chief priests at Jerusalem: they
   could tell where Christ was born, but they never went to worship him;
   they were indifferent altogether to him and to his birth. The star that
   leads to Christ must always be going to Christ. Men are far better
   drawn by example than driven by exhortation. Personal piety alone can
   be owned of God to the production of piety in others. "Go," say you;
   but they will not go. Say "come," and lead the way: then they will
   come. Do not the sheep follow the shepherd? He who would lead others to
   Christ should go before them himself, having his face towards his
   Master, his eyes towards his Master, his steps toward his Master, his
   heart towards his Master. We are so to live that we may without
   boasting exhort those around us to have us for an example. Oh, that all
   who think themselves to be stars would themselves diligently move
   towards the Lord Jesus. The star in the east led wise men to Christ
   because it went that way itself: there is a wisdom in example which
   truly wise men are quick to perceive. This star had such an influence
   upon the chosen men that they could not but follow it: it charmed them
   across the desert. Such a charm may reside in you and in me, and we may
   exercise a powerful ministry over many hearts, being to them as
   loadstones, drawing them to the Lord Jesus. Happy privilege! We would
   not, merely show the road, but induce our neighbors to enter upon it.
   We read of one of old, not that they told him of Jesus, but that "they
   brought him to Jesus." We are not only to tell the story of the cross,
   but we are to persuade men to fly to the Crucified One for salvation.
   Did not the king in the parable say to his servants, "Compel them to
   come in." Assuredly he girds his own messengers with such a compelling
   power that men cannot hold out any longer, but must follow their lead
   and bow at the King's feet. The star did not draw, "as it were with a
   cart rope," nor by any force, material and physical; yet it drew these
   wise men from the remote east right to the manger of the new-born
   child. And so, though we have no arm of the law to help us, nor
   patronage, nor pomp of eloquence, nor parade of learning, yet we have a
   spiritual power by which we draw to Jesus thousands who are our joy and
   crown. The man sent of God comes forth from the divine presence
   permeated with a power which makes men turn to the Savior and live. Oh!
   that such power might go forth from all God's ministers yea, from all
   God's servants engaged in street-preaching, in Sunday-schools, in
   tract-visitation, and in every form of holy service. God uses those
   whose aim and intent it is to draw men to Christ. He puts his Spirit
   into them, by which Spirit they are helped to set forth the Lord Jesus
   as so lovely and desirable that men run to him and accept his glorious
   salvation. It is a small thing to shine, but it is a great thing to
   draw. Any cast-away may be brilliant; but only the real saint will be
   attractive for Jesus. I would not pray to be an orator, but I do pray
   to be a soul-winner. Do not aim, beloved brethren, at anything short of
   leading men to Jesus. Do not be satisfied to lead them to orthodox
   doctrine, or merely to bring them to a belief in those views which you
   hold to be Scriptural, valuable as that way be. It is to the person of
   the incarnate God that we must bring them to his feet we must conduct
   them that they may worship him: our mission is not accomplished, it is
   a total failure, unless we conduct our hearers to the house where Jesus
   dwells, and then stand over them, keeping watch over their souls for
   Jesu's sake.

   Once more, the star which God used in this case was a star that stopped
   at Jesus: it went before the wise men till it brought them to Jesus,
   and then it stood still over the place where the young child was. I
   admire the manner of this star. There are remarkable stars in the
   theological sky at the present, time: they have led men to Jesus, so
   they say, and now they lead them into regions beyond, of yet
   undeveloped thought. The gospel of the Puritans is "old-fashioned";
   these men have discovered that it is unsuitable for the enlarged
   intellects of the times; and so these stars would guide us further
   still. To this order of wandering stars I do not belong myself, and I
   trust I never shall. Progress beyond the gospel I have no desire for.
   "God forbid that I should glory save ill the cross of our Lord Jesus
   Christ." When the star had come to the place where the young child was,
   it stood still: and so should the gracious mind become settled, fixed,
   immovable. The wise men knew where to find that star, and where to find
   the young child by it: so be it with us. Oh, you that have hitherto
   been diligent in leading souls to Christ, never indulge for a single
   moment the notion that you need a broader philosophy or a deeper
   spirituality than are to be found in Jesus. Abide in him. Cry, "Oh God,
   my heart is fixed. My heart is fixed." There is nothing beyond Christ
   which is worth a moment's thought. Do not lose your paradise in Christ
   for another taste of that tree of knowledge of good-and-evil which
   ruined our first parents. Stick you to the old points: your one subject
   Christ, your one object to bring men to Christ, your one glory the
   glory of Christ. Standing by your Lord, and there alone, from this day
   to the last day, you will secure a happy, honored, and holy life. They
   said of Greece after her fall that it had become so ruined that you
   might search for Greece in Greece and fail to find it: I fear I must
   say that some professed preachers of the gospel have roamed so far away
   from it that you cannot find the gospel in their gospel, nor Christ
   himself in the Christ they preach. So far have some diverged from the
   grand essential soul-saving truth beyond which no man ought to dare to
   think of going, that they retain nothing of Christianity but the name.
   All that is beyond truth is a lie; anything beyond revelation is at
   best a minor matter, and most probably is an old wives' fable, even
   though he may be of the masculine gender who invented it. Stand you to
   your colors you who hope to be used of the Lord. Abide so that men
   shall find you in twenty years' time shining for Jesus and pointing to
   the place where the Savior is to be found, even as you are doing now.
   Let Jesus Christ be your ultimatum. Your work is done when you bring
   souls to Jesus, and help to keep them there, by being yourself
   "steadfast, unmovable." Be not carried away from the hope of your
   calling; but hold fast even the form of sound words, for it may be that
   in letting go the form you may lose the substance also.

   II. Now that we have somewhat rejoiced in the light of the star, let us
   see if we can GATHER WISDOM FROM THE WISE MEN. Perhaps you have heard
   the "much speaking" of tradition as to who they were, whence they came,
   and how they traveled. In the Greek church, I believe, they know their
   number, their names, the character of their retinue, and what kind of
   ornaments were on their dromedaries' necks. Details which are not found
   in the word of God you may believe or not, at your pleasure, and you
   will be wise if our pleasure is not to believe too much. We only know
   that they were Magi, wise men from the East, possibly of the old Parsee
   religion—watchers if not worshippers of the stars. We will not
   speculate about them, but learn from them.

   They did not content themselves with admiring the star and comparing it
   with other stars, and taking notes as to the exact date of its
   appearance, and how many times it twinkled, and when it moved, and all
   that; but they practically used the teaching of the star. Many are
   hearers and admirers of God's servants, but they are not wise enough to
   make fit and proper use of the preaching. They notice the peculiarity
   of the preacher's language, how much he is like one divine, how much he
   is unlike another; whether he coughs too often, or speaks too much in
   his throat; whether he is too loud or too low; whether he has not a
   provincial tone, whether there may not be about him a commonness of
   speech approaching to vulgarity; or, on the other hand, whether he may
   not be too florid in his diction. Such fooleries as these are the
   constant observations of men for whose souls we labor. They are
   perishing, and yet toying with such small matters With many it is all
   they go to the house of God for, to criticise in this paltry fashion. I
   have even seen them come to this place with opera glasses, as if they
   came hither to inspect an actor who lived and labored to arouse their
   leisure hours. Such is the sport of fools; but these were wise men, and
   therefore practical men. They did not become star-gazers, and stop at
   the point of admiring the remarkable star; but they said, "Where is he
   that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east,
   and are come to worship him." They set out at once to find the now-born
   King, of whose coming the star was the signal. Oh, my dear hearers, how
   I wish that you were all wise in this same manner! I would sooner
   preach the dullest sermon that was ever preached than preach the most
   brilliant that was ever spoken if I could by that poor sermon lead you
   quite away from myself to seek the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the one
   thing I care about. Will you never gratify me by enquiring after my
   Lord and Master? I long to hear you say, "What is the man talking
   about? He speaks about a Savior; we will have that Savior for
   ourselves. He talks about pardon through the blood of Christ; he speaks
   about God coming down among men to save them; we will find out if there
   is any reality in this pardon, any truth in this salvation. We will
   seek Jesus, and find for ourselves the blessings which are reported to
   be laid up in him." If I heard you all saying this I should be ready to
   die of joy.

   Is not this a good day on which to set out to find your Savior? Some of
   you that have postponed it long, would it not be well to set out at
   once ere this expiring year has seen its last day? These wise men
   appear to have set out as soon as they discovered the star: they were
   not among those who have time to waste in needless delays. "There is
   the star," said they; "away we go beneath its guidance. We are not
   satisfied with a star, we go to find the King whose star it is!" And so
   they set out to find Christ immediately and resolutely.

   Being wise men, they persevered in their search after him. We cannot
   tell how far they journeyed. Travelling was extremely difficult in
   those times. There were hostile tribes to avoid, the broad rivers of
   the Tigris and the Euphrates to cross, and trackless deserts to
   penetrate; but they made nothing of difficulty or danger. They set out
   for Jerusalem, and to Jerusalem they came, seeking the King of the
   Jews. If it be true that God has taken upon himself our nature, we
   ought to resolve to find him, let it cost what it may. If we must
   circumnavigate the globe to find a Savior, the distance and the expense
   ought to be nothing so long as we may but reach him. Were the Christ in
   the bowels of the earth, or in the heights of heaven we ought not to
   rest till we come at him. Everything that was necessary for their
   expedition the wise men soon gathered together, regardless of expense;
   and off they went following the star that they might discover the
   Prince of the kings of the earth.

   At length they came to Jerusalem, and here new trials awaited them. It
   must have been a great trouble to them when they asked, "Where is he
   that is born King of the Jews?" and the people shook their heads as if
   they thought the question an idle one. Neither rich nor poor in the
   metropolitan city knew anything of Israel's King. The ribald multitude
   replied, "Herod is king of the Jews. Mind how you speak of another
   king, or your head may have to answer for it. The tyrant brooks no
   rival." The wise men must have been more astonished still when they
   found that Herod was troubled. They were glad to think that he was born
   who was to usher in the age or gold; but Herod's face grew blacker than
   ever at the bare mention of a king of the Jews. His eyes flashed, and a
   thundercloud was upon his brow; a dark deed of murder will come of it,
   though for the moment he conceals his malice. There is tumult all
   through the streets of Jerusalem, for no man knows what grim Herod may
   do now that he has been roused by the question, "Where is he that is
   born King of the Jews? Thus there was a ferment in Jerusalem, beginning
   at the palace; but this did not deter the wise men from their search
   for the promised Prince. They did not pack up their bales and go back
   and say, "It is useless to try to discover this questionable personage
   who is unknown even in the country of which he is King, and who appears
   to "be terribly unwelcome to those who are to be his subjects. We must
   leave to another day the solution of the question: "Where is he that is
   born King of the Jews?'"

   These earnest-minded seekers were not dispirited by the clergy and the
   learned men when they came together. To the chief priests and scribes
   the question was put, and they answered the enquiry as to where Christ
   would be born, but not a mother's son among them would go with the wise
   men to find this new-born King. Strange apathy! Alas, how common! Those
   who should have been leaders were no leaders; they would not even be
   followers of that which is good, for they had no heart towards Christ.
   The wise men rose superior to this serious discouragement. If the
   clergy would not help them they would go to Jesus by themselves. Oh,
   dear friend, if you are wise you will say, "I will find Christ alone if
   none will join me: if I dig to the center, I will find him; if I fly to
   the sun, I will find him; if all men put me off, I will find him; if
   the ministers of the gospel appear indifferent to me, I will find him:
   the kingdom of heaven or old suffered violence, and the violent took it
   by force, and so will I." The first Christians had to leave all the
   authorized teachers of the day behind, and to come out by themselves:
   it will be no strange thing if you should have to do the same. Happy
   will it be if you are determined to go through floods and flames to
   find Christ; for he will be found of you. Thus these men were wise
   because, having started on the search, they persevered in it till they
   found the Lord and worshipped him.

   Notice that they were wise because, when they again saw the star, "they
   rejoiced with exceeding great joy." While enquiring among the priests
   at Jerusalem they were perplexed, but when the star shone out again,
   they were at ease and full of joy: this joy they expressed, so that the
   evangelist recorded it. In these days very wise people think it
   necessary to repress all emotion, and appear like men of stone or ice.
   No matter what happens, they are stoical, and raised far above the
   enthusiasm of the vulgar. It is wonderful how fashions change, and
   folly stands for philosophy. But these wise men were children enough to
   be glad when their perplexity was over, and the clear light shone
   forth. It is a good sign when a man is not ashamed to be happy because
   he hears a plain, unmistakable testimony for the Lord Jesus. It is good
   to see the great man come down from his pedestal, and, like a little
   child, rejoice to hear the simple story of the cross. Give me the
   hearer who looks not for fineries, but cries out, "Lead me to Jesus. I
   want a guide to Jesus, and nothing else will suit me." Why, truly, if
   men did but know the value of things they would rejoice more to see a
   preacher of the gospel than a king. If the feet of the heralds of
   salvation be blessed, how much more their tongues when they tell out
   the tidings of a Savior. These wise men, with all their mystic learning
   were not ashamed to rejoice because a little star lent them its beams
   to conduct them to Jesus. We unite with them in rejoicing over a clear
   gospel ministry. For us all else is darkness, sorrow, and vexation of
   spirit; but that which leads us to our own glorious Lord is spirit, and
   light, and life. Better the sun should not shine than that a clear
   gospel should not be preached. We reckon that a country flourishes or
   decays according as gospel light is revealed or withdrawn.

   Now follow these wise men a little further. They have come to the house
   where the young child is. What will they do? Will they stand looking at
   the star? No: they enter in. The star stands still, but they are not
   afraid to lose its radiance, and behold the Sun of righteousness. They
   did not cry, "We see the star, and that is enough for us; we have
   followed the star, and it is all we need to do." Not at all. They lift,
   the latch, and enter the lowly residence of the babe. They see the star
   no longer, and they have no need to see it, for there is he that is
   born King of the Jews. Now the true Light has shone upon them from the
   face of the child; they behold the incarnate God. Oh, friends! how wise
   you will be if, when you have been led to Christ by any man, you do not
   rest in his leadership, but must see Christ for yourselves. How much I
   long that you may enter into the fellowship of the mystery, pass
   through the door, and come and behold the young child, and bow before
   him. Our woe is that so many are so unwise. We are only their guides,
   but they are apt to make us their end. We point the way, but they do
   not follow the road; they stand gazing upon us. The star is gone; it
   did its work, and passed away: Jesus remains, and the wise men live in
   him. Will any of you be so foolish as to think only of the dying
   preacher, and forget the ever-living Savior? Come, be wise, and hasten
   to your Lord at once.

   These men were wise, last of all—and I commend their example to
   you-because when they saw the child they worshipped. Theirs was not
   curiosity gratified, but devotion exercised. We, too, must worship the
   Savior, or we shall never be saved by him. He has not come to put away
   our sins, and yet to leave us ungodly and self-willed. Oh you that have
   never worshipped the Christ of God, may you be led to do so at once! He
   is God over all, blessed for ever, adore him! Was God ever seen in such
   a worshipful form before? Behold he bows the heavens; he rides upon the
   wings of the wind; he scatters flames of fire; he speaks, and his dread
   artillery shakes the hills: you worship in terror. Who would not adore
   the great and terrible Jehovah? But is it not much better to behold him
   here, allied to your nature, wrapped like other children in swaddling
   clothes, tender, feeble, next akin to your own self? Will you not
   worship God when he thus comes down to you and becomes your brother,
   born for your salvation? Here nature itself suggests worship: O may
   grace produce it! Let us hasten to worship where shepherds and wise men
   and angels have led the way.

   Here let my sermon come to a pause even as the star did. Enter the
   house and worship! Forget the preacher. Let the starlight shine for
   other eyes. Jesus was born that you might be born again. He lived that
   you might live. He died that you might die to sin. He is risen, and
   to-day he maketh intercession for transgressors that they may be
   reconciled to God through him. Come, then; believe, trust, rejoice,
   adore! If you have neither gold, frankincense, nor myrrh, bring your
   faith, your love, your repentance, and falling down before the Son of
   God pay him the reverence of your hearts.

   III. And now I turn to my third and last point, which is this: LET US
   ACT AS WISE MEN UNDER THE LIGHT OF OUR STAR. We too have received light
   to lead us to the Savior: I might say that for us many stars have shone
   to that blessed end. I will, however, on this point content myself with
   asking questions.

   Do you not think that there is some light for you in your particular
   vocation, some call from God in your calling? Listen to me, and then
   listen to God. These men were watchers of the stars; therefore a star
   was used to call them. Certain other men soon after were fishermen; and
   by means of an amazing take of fish the Lord Jesus made them aware of
   his superior power, and then he called them to become fishers of men.
   For a star-gazer a star; for a fisherman a fish. The Master-Fisher hath
   a bait for each one of his elect, and oftentimes he selects a point in
   their own calling to be the barb of the hook. Were you busy yesterday
   at your counter? Did you bear no voice saying "Buy the truth and sell
   it not"? When you closed the shop last night did you not bethink
   yourself that soon you must close it for the last time? Do you make
   bread? and do you never ask yourself, "Has my soul eaten the bread of
   heaven?" Are you a farmer? do you till the soil? Has God never spoken
   to you by those furrowed fields and these changing seasons, and made
   you wish that your heart might be tilled and sown.? Listen! God is
   speaking! Hear, ye deaf; for there are voices everywhere calling you to
   heaven. You need not go miles about to find a link between you and
   everlasting mercy: the telegraphic wires are on either side of the
   road, God and human souls are near each other. How I wish that your
   common vocation would be viewed by you as concealing within itself the
   door to your high vocation. Oh that the Holy Spirit would turn your
   favourite pursuits into opportunities for his gracious work upon you.
   If not among the stars, yet among the flowers of the garden, or the
   cattle of the hills, or the waves of the sea may he find a net in which
   to enclose you for Christ. I wish that those of you who conclude that
   your calling could never draw you to Christ would make a point of
   seeing whether it might not be so. We are to learn from ants, and
   swallows, and cranes, and conies; surely we need never be short of
   tutors. It did seem that a star was an unlikely thing to head a
   procession of eastern sages, and yet it was the best guide that could
   be found; and so it may seem that your trade is an unlikely thing to
   bring you to Jesus, and yet the Lord may so use it. There may be a
   message from the Lord to thee in many a left-handed providence; a voice
   for wisdom may come to thee from the month of an ass; a call to a holy
   life may startle thee from a bush, a warning may flash upon thee from a
   wall, or a vision may impress thee in the silence of night when deep
   sleep falleth upon men. Only be thou ready to hear and God will find a
   way of speaking to thee. Answer the question as the wise men would have
   answered it, and say, "Yes, in our calling there is a call to Christ."

   Then, again, what should you and I do better in this life than seek
   after Christ! The wise men thought all other pursuits of small account
   compared with this. "Who is going to attend to that observatory and
   watch the rest of the stars?" They shake their heads, and say they do
   not know: these things must wait; they have seen his star, and they are
   going to worship him. But who will attend to their wives and families,
   and all besides, while they make this long journey? They reply that
   every lesser thing must be subordinate to the highest thing. Matters
   must be taken in proportion, and the search after the King of the Jews,
   who is the desire of all nations, is so out of all proportion great
   that all the rest must go. Are not you, also, wise enough to judge in
   this sensible fashion? Do you not think, dear friends, it would be well
   to use all to-morrow in seeking Jesus? It will be a leisure day, could
   you spend it better than in Seeking your Redeemer? If you were to take
   a week, and give it wholly to your own soul, and to seeking Christ,
   would it not be well spent? How can you live with your soul in
   jeopardy? Oh that you would say, "I must get this matter right; it is
   an all-important business, and I must see it secure." This would be no
   more than common-sense. If you are driving, and a trace is broken, do
   you not stop the horse, and get the harness right? How, then, can you
   go on with the chariot of life when all its harness is out of order,
   and a fall means eternal ruin? If you will stop driving to arrange a
   buckle for fear of accident, I would beg of you to stop anything and
   everything to see to the safety of your soul. See how the engineer
   looks to the safety-valve: are you content to run more desperate risks?
   If your house were not insured, and you carried on a hazardous trade,
   the probability is you would feel extremely anxious until you had
   arranged that matter: but your soul is uninsured, and it may burn for
   ever,—will you not give heed to it? I beseech you be just to
   yourself,—kind to yourself. Oh! see to your eternal well-being. You are
   not certain that you will get home to dinner to-day. Life is frail as a
   cobweb. You may be in hell before yon clock strikes one! Remember that.
   There is not a step between you and everlasting destruction from the
   presence of God if you are as yet unregenerate; and your only hope is
   to find the Savior, trust the Savior, obey the Savior. Wherefore, like
   these wise men, put everything on one side, and set out now upon an
   earnest, resolute, persevering endeavor to find Jesus. I was about to
   say—resolve to find Jesus, or to die; but I will change the words, and
   say—resolve to find him, and live.

   When we do come near to Jesus, let us ask ourselves this question, "Do
   we see more in Jesus than other people do?" for if we do, we are God's
   elect taught of God, illuminated by his Spirit. We read in the
   Scriptures that when these wise men saw the young child they fell down
   and worshipped him. Other people might have come in and seen the child,
   and said, "Many children are as interesting as this poor woman's babe."
   Ay, but as these men looked, they saw: all eyes are not so blessed.
   Eyes that see are gifts from the All-seeing One. Carnal eyes are blind;
   but these men saw the Infinite in the infant; the Godhead gleaming
   through the manhood; the glory hiding beneath the swaddling bands.
   Undoubtedly there was a spiritual splendor about this matchless child!
   We read that Moses' father and mother saw that he was a "goodly child";
   they saw he was "fair unto God," says the original. But when these
   elect men saw that holy thing which is called the Son of the Highest,
   they discovered in him a glory all unknown before. Then was his star in
   the ascendant to them: he became their all in all, and they worshipped
   with all their hearts. Have you discovered such glory in Christ? "Oh!"
   says one, "you are always harping upon Christ and his glory. You are a
   man of one idea!" Precisely so. My one idea is that he is "altogether
   lovely," and that there is nothing out of heaven nor in heaven that can
   be compared with him even in his lowest and weakest estate. Have you
   ever seen as much as that in Jesus? If so, you are the Lord's; go you,
   and rejoice in him. If not, pray God to open your eyes until, like the
   wise men, you see and worship.

   Lastly, learn from these wise men that when they worshipped they did
   not permit it to be a mere empty-handed adoration. Ask yourself, "What
   shall I render unto the Lord?" Bowing before the young child, they
   offered "gold, frankincense and myrrh," the best of metals and the best
   of spices; an offering to the King of gold; an offering to the priest
   of frankincense; an offering to the child of myrrh. Wise men are
   liberal men. Consecration is the best education. To-day it is thought
   to be wise to be always receiving; but the Savior said, "It is more
   blessed to give than to receive." God judges our hearts by that which
   spontaneously comes from them: hence the sweet cane bought with money
   is acceptable to him when given freely. He doth not tax his saints or
   weary them with incense; but he delights to see in them that true love
   which cannot express itself in mere words, but must use gold and myrrh,
   works of love and deeds of self-denial, to be the emblems of its
   gratitude. Brothers, you will never get into the heart of happiness
   till you become unselfish and generous; you have but chewed the husks
   of religion which are often bitter, you have never eaten of the sweet
   kernel until you have felt the love of God constraining you to make
   sacrifice. There is nothing in the true believer's power which he would
   not do for his Lord: nothing in our substance which we would not give
   to him, nothing in ourselves which we would not devote to his service.

   God give to you all grace to come to Jesus, even though it be by the
   starlight of this Sermon, for his love's sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

                        Supposing Him to be the Gardener

   A Sermon

   (No. 1699)

   Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, December 31st, 1882, by

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

   "Supposing him to be the gardener."--John 20:15.

   I WAS sitting about a fortnight ago in a very lovely garden, in the
   midst of all kinds of flowers which were blooming in delightful
   abundance all around. Screening myself from the heat of the sun under
   the overhanging boughs of an olive, I cast my eyes upon palms and
   bananas, roses and camellias, oranges and aloes, lavender and
   heliotrope. The garden was full of color and beauty, perfume and
   fruitfulness. Surely the gardener, whoever he might be, who had framed,
   and fashioned, and kept in order that lovely spot, deserved great
   commendation. So I thought, and then it came to me to meditate upon the
   church of God as a garden, and to suppose the Lord Jesus to be the
   gardener, and then to think of what would most assuredly happen if it
   were so. "Supposing him to be the gardener," my mind conceived of a
   paradise where all sweet things flourish and all evil things are rooted
   up. If an ordinary worker had produced such beauty as I then saw and
   enjoyed on earth, what beauty and glory must surely be brought forth
   "supposing him to be the gardener"! You know the "him" to whom we
   refer, the ever-blessed Son of God, whom Mary Magdalene in our text
   mistook for the gardener. We will for once follow a saint in her
   mistaken track; and yet we shall find ourselves going in a right way.
   She was mistaken when she fell into "supposing him to be the gardener";
   but if we are under his Spirit's teaching we shall not make a mistake
   if now we indulge ourselves in a quiet meditation upon our ever-blessed
   Lord, "supposing him to be the gardener."

   It is not an unnatural supposition, surely; for if we may truly sing

   "We are a garden walled around,

   Chosen and made peculiar ground,"

   that enclosure needs a gardener. Are we not all the plants of his right
   hand planting? Do we not all need watering and tending by his constant
   and gracious care? He says, "I am the true vine: my Father is the
   husbandman," and that is one view of it; but we may also sing, "My
   well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: and he fenced it,
   and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest
   vine"--that is to say, he acted as gardener to it. Thus has Isaiah
   taught us to sing a song of the Well-beloved touching his vineyard. We
   read of our Lord just now under these terms--"Thou that dwellest in the
   gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice." To what purpose does he
   dwell in the vineyards but that he may see how the vines flourish and
   care for all the plants? The image, I say, is so far from being
   unnatural that it is most pregnant with suggestions and full of useful
   teaching. We are not going against the harmonies of nature when we are
   "supposing him to be the gardener."

   Neither is the figure unscriptural; for in one of his own parables our
   Lord makes himself to be the dresser of the vineyard. We read just now
   that parable so full of warning. When the "certain man" came in and saw
   the fig tree that it brought forth no fruit, he said unto the dresser
   of his vineyard, "Cut it down: why cumbereth it the ground?" Who was it
   that intervened between that profitless tree and the axe but our great
   Intercessor and Interposer? He it is who continually comes forward with
   "Let it alone this year also till I shall dig about it and dung it." In
   this case he himself takes upon himself the character of the
   vine-dresser, and we are not wrong in "supposing him to be the
   gardener."

   If we would be supported by a type, our Lord takes the name of "the
   Second Adam," and the first Adam was a gardener. Moses tells us that
   the Lord God placed the man in the garden of Eden to dress it and to
   keep it. Man in his best estate was not to live in this world in a
   paradise of indolent luxury, but in a garden of recompensed toil.
   Behold, the church is Christ's Eden, watered by the river of life, and
   so fertilized that all manner of fruits are brought forth unto God; and
   he, our second Adam, walks in this spiritual Eden to dress it and to
   keep it; and so by a type we see that we are right in "supposing him to
   be the gardener." Thus also Solomon thought of him when he described
   the royal Bridegroom as going down with his spouse to the garden when
   the flowers appeared on the earth and the fig tree had put forth her
   green figs; he went out with his beloved for the preservation of the
   gardens, saying, "Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the
   vines: for our vines have tender grapes." Neither nature, nor
   Scripture, nor type, nor song forbids us to think of our adorable Lord
   Jesus as one that careth for the flowers and fruits of his church. We
   err not when we speak of him, "supposing him to be the gardener." And
   so I sat me still, and indulged the suggested line of thought, which I
   now repeat in your hearing, hoping that I may open many roads of
   meditation for your hearts also. I shall not attempt to think out such
   a subject thoroughly, but only to indicate in which direction you may
   look for a vein of precious ore.

   I. "Supposing him to be the gardener," we have here THE KEY TO MANY
   WONDERS in the garden of his church.

   The first wonder is that there should be a church at all in the world;
   that there should be a garden blooming in the midst of this sterile
   waste. Upon a hard and flinty rock the Lord has made the Eden of his
   church to grow. How came it to be--here an oasis of life in a desert of
   death? how came faith in the midst of unbelief, and hope where all is
   servile fear, and love where hate abounds? "Ye are of God, little
   children, and the whole world lieth in the wicked one." Whence this
   being "of God" where all beside is fast shut up in the devil? How came
   there to be a people for God, separated, and sanctified, and
   consecrated, and ordained to bring forth fruit unto his name? Assuredly
   it could not have been so at all if the doing of it had been left to
   man. We understand its existence, "supposing him to be the gardener,"
   but nothing else can account for it. He can cause the fir tree to
   flourish instead of the thorn, and the myrtle instead of the briar; but
   no one else can accomplish such a change. The garden in which I sat was
   made on the bare face of the rock, and almost all the earth of which
   its terraces were composed had been brought up there, from the shore
   below, by hard labor, and so upon the rock a soil had been created. It
   was not by its own nature that the garden was found in such a place;
   but by skill and labor it had been formed: even so the church of God
   has had to be constructed by the Lord Jesus, who is the author as well
   as the perfecter of his garden. Painfully, with wounded hands, has he
   built each terrace, and fashioned each bed, and planted each plant. All
   the flowers have had to be watered with his bloody sweat, and watched
   by his tearful eyes the nail-prints in his hands, and the wound in his
   side are the tokens of what it cost him to make a new Paradise. He has
   given his life for the life of every plant that is in the garden, and
   not one of them had been there on any other theory than "supposing him
   to be the gardener."

   Besides, there is another wonder. How comes the church of God to
   flourish in such a clime? This present evil world is very uncongenial
   to the growth of grace, and the church is not able by herself alone to
   resist the evil influences which surround her. The church contains
   within itself elements which tend to its own disorder and destruction
   if left alone; even as the garden has present in its soil all the germs
   of a tangled thicket of weeds. The best church that ever Christ had on
   earth would within a few years apostatise from the truth if deserted by
   the Spirit of God. The world never helps the church; it is all in arms
   against it; there is nothing in the world's air or soil that can
   fertilise the church even to the least degree. How is it, then, that
   notwithstanding all this, the church is a fair garden unto God, and
   there are sweet spices grown in its beds, and lovely flowers are
   gathered by the Divine hand from its borders? The continuance and
   prosperity of the church can only be accounted for by "supposing him to
   be the gardener." Almighty strength is put to the otherwise impossible
   work of sustaining a holy people among men; almighty wisdom exercises
   itself upon this otherwise insuperable difficulty. Hear ye the word of
   the Lord, and learn hence the reason for the growth of his church
   below. "I, the Lord, do keep it: I will water it every moment; lest any
   hurt it, I will keep it night and day." That is the reason for the
   existence of a spiritual people still in the midst of a godless and
   perverse generation. This is the reason for an election of grace in the
   midst of surrounding vice, and worldliness, and unbelief. "Supposing
   him to be the gardener," I can see why there should be fruitfulness,
   and beauty, and sweetness even in the center of the wilderness of sin.

   Another mystery is also cleared up by this supposition. The wonder is
   that ever you and I should have been placed among the plants of the
   Lord. Why are we allowed to grow in the garden of his grace? Why me,
   Lord? Why me? How is it that we have been kept there, and borne with in
   our barrenness, when he might long ago have said, "Cut it down: why
   cumbereth it the ground?" Who else would have borne with such
   waywardness as ours? Who could have manifested such infinite patience?
   Who could have tended us with such care, and when the care was so
   ill-rewarded who would have renewed it so long from day to day, and
   persisted in designs of boundless love? Who could have done more for
   his vineyard? who could or would have done so much? An mere man would
   have repented of his good intent, provoked by our ingratitude. None but
   God could have had patience with some of us! That we have not long ago
   been slipped off as fruitless branches of the vine; that we are left
   still upon the stem, in the hope that we may ultimately bring forth
   fruit, is a great marvel. I know not how it is that we have been
   spared, except upon this ground--"supposing him to be the
   gardener"--for Jesus is all gentleness and grace, so slow with his
   knife, so tardy with his axe, so hopeful if we do but show a bud or
   two, or, perchance, yield a little sour berry--so hopeful, I say, that
   these may be hopeful prognostics of something better by-and-by.
   Infinite patience! Immeasurable longsuffering! where are ye to be found
   save in the breast of the Well-beloved? Surely the hoe has spared many
   of us simply and only because he who is meek and lowly in heart is the
   gardener.

   Dear friends, there is one mercy with regard to this church which I
   have often had to thank God for, namely, that evils should have been
   shut out for so long a time. During the period in which we have been
   together as pastor and people, and that is now some twenty-nine years,
   we have enjoyed uninterrupted prosperity, going from strength to
   strength in the work of the Lord. Alas! we have seen many other
   churches that were quite as hopeful as our own rent with strife,
   brought low by declension, or overthrown by heresy. I hope we have not
   been apt to judge their faults severely; but we must be thankful for
   our own deliverance from the evils which have afflicted them. I do not
   know how it is that we have been kept together in love, helped to
   abound in labor, and enabled to be firm in the faith, unless it be that
   special grace has watched over us. We are full of faults; we have
   nothing to boast of; and yet no church has been more divinely favored:
   I wonder that the blessing should have lasted so long, and I cannot
   make it out except when I fall into "supposing him to be the gardener."
   I cannot trace our prosperity to the pastor, certainly; nor even to my
   beloved friends the elders and deacons, nor even to the best of you
   with your fervent love and holy zeal. I think it must be that Jesus has
   been the gardener, and he has shut the gate when I am afraid I have
   left it open; and he has driven out the wild boar of the wood just when
   he had entered to root up the weaker plants. He must have been about at
   nights to keep off the prowling thieves, and he must have been here,
   too, in the noontide heat to guard those of you who have prospered in
   worldly goods, from the glare of too bright a sun. Yes, he has been
   with us, blessed be his name! Hence all this peace, and unity, and
   enthusiasm. May we never grieve him so that he shall turn away from us;
   but rather let us entreat him, saying, "Abide with us. Thou that
   dwellest in the gardens, let this be one of the gardens in which thou
   dost deign to dwell until the day break and the shadows flea away."
   Thus our supposition is a key to many wonders.

   II. Let your imaginations run along with mine while I say that
   "supposing him to be the gardener" should be A SPUR TO MANY DUTIES.

   One of the duties of a Christian is joy. That is a blessed religion
   which among its precepts commands men to be happy. When joy becomes a
   duty, who would wish to neglect it? Surely it must help every little
   plant to drink in the sunlight when it is whispered among the flowers
   that Jesus is the gardener. "Oh," you say, "I am such a little plant; I
   do not grow well; I do not put forth so much leafage, nor are there so
   many flowers on me as on many round about me!" It is quite right that
   you should think little of yourself: perhaps to droop your head is a
   part of your beauty: many flowers had not been half so lovely if they
   had not practiced the art of hanging their heads. But supposing him to
   be the gardener," then he is as much a gardener to you as he is to the
   most lordly palm in the whole domain. In the Mentone garden right
   before me grew the orange and the aloe, and others of the finer and
   more noticeable plants; but on a wall to my left grew common
   wallflowers and saxifrages, and tiny herbs such as we find on our own
   rocky places. Now, the gardener had cared for all of these, little as
   well as great; in fact, there were hundreds of specimens of the most
   insignificant growths all duly labelled and described. The smallest
   saxifrage could say, "He is my gardener just as surely as he is the
   gardener of the Gloire de Dijon or Mar'chal Neil." Oh feeble child of
   God, the Lord taketh care of you! Your heavenly Father feedeth ravens,
   and guides the flight of sparrows: should he not much more care for
   you, oh ye of little faith? Oh little plants, you will grow rightly
   enough. Perhaps you are growing downward just now rather than upward.
   Remember that there are plants of which we value the underground root
   much more than we do the hull above ground. Perhaps it is not yours to
   grow very fast; you may be a slow-growing shrub by nature, and you
   would not be healthy if you were to run to wood. Anyhow, be this your
   joy, you are in the garden of the Lord, and, "supposing him to be the
   gardener," he will make the best of you. You cannot be in better hands.

   Another duty is that of valuing the Lord's presence, and praying for
   it. We ought whenever the Sabbath morning dawns to pray our
   Well-beloved to come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits. What
   can we do without him? All day long our cry should go up to him, "O
   Lord, behold and visit this vine, and the vineyard which thy right hand
   has planted." We ought to agonize with him that he would come and
   manifest himself to us as he does not unto the world. For what is a
   garden if the gardener never comes near it? What is the difference
   between it and the wilderness if he to whom it belongs never lifts up
   spade or pruning-hook upon it? So that it is our necessity that we have
   Christ with us, "supposing him to be the gardener;" and it is our bliss
   that we have Christ walking between our beds and borders, watching
   every plant, training, tending, maturing all. "Supposing him to be the
   gardener," it is well, for from him is our fruit found. Divided from
   him we are nothing; only as he watches over us can we bring, forth
   fruit. Let us have done with confidence in man, let us forego all
   attempts to supply facts of his spiritual presence by routine or rant,
   ritualism or rowdyism; but let us pray our Lord to be ever present with
   us, and by that presence to make our garden grow.

   "Supposing him to be the gardener," there is another duty, and that is,
   let each one of us yield himself up entirely to him. A plant does not
   know how it ought to be treated; it knows not when it should be watered
   or when it should be kept dry: a fruit-tree is no judge of when it
   needs to be pruned, or digged, or dunged. The wit and wisdom of the
   garden lieth not in the flowers and shrubs, but in the gardener. Now,
   then, if you and I are here to-day with any self-will and carnal
   judgment about us, let us seek to lay it all aside that we may be
   absolutely at our Lord's disposal. You might not be willing to put
   yourself implicitly into the hand of any mere man (pity that you
   should); but, surely, thou plant of the Lord's right-hand planting,
   thou mayest put thyself without a question into his dear hand. "
   Supposing him to be the gardener," thou mayest well say, "I would
   neither have will, nor wish, nor wit, nor whim, nor way, but I would be
   as nothing in the gardener's hands, that he may be to me my wisdom and
   my all. Here, kind gardener, thy poor plant bows itself to thy hand;
   train me as thou wilt. Depend upon it, happiness lives next door to the
   spirit of complete acquiescence in the will of God, and it will be easy
   to exercise that perfect acquiescence when we suppose the Lord Jesus to
   be the gardener. If the Lord hath done it; what has a saint to say? Oh
   thou afflicted one, the Lord hath done it: wouldest thou have it
   otherwise? Nay, art thou not thankful that it is even so, because so is
   the will of him in whose hand thy life is, and whose are all thy ways?
   The duty of submission is very plain, "supposing him to be the
   gardener."

   One more duty I would mention, though others suggest themselves.
   "Supposing him to be the gardener," then let us bring forth fruit to
   him. I do not address a people this morning who feel no care as to
   whether they serve God or not. I believe that most of you do desire to
   glorify God; for being saved by grace, you feel a holy ambition to show
   forth his praises who has called you out of darkness into his
   marvellous light. You wish to bring others to Christ, because you
   yourselves have been brought to life and liberty in him. Now, let this
   be a stimulus to your fruitbearing, that Jesus is the gardener. Where
   you have brought forth a single cluster, bring, forth a hundred!
   "supposing him to be the gardener." If he is to have the honor of it,
   then labor to do that which will give him great renown. If our
   spiritual state were to be attributed to ourselves, or to our minister,
   or to some of our fellow Christians, we might not feel that we were
   tinder a great necessity to be fruitful; but if Jesus be the gardener,
   and is to bear the blame or the honor of what we produce, then let us
   use up every drop of sap and strain every fibre, that, to the utmost of
   which our manhood is capable, we may produce a fair reward for our
   Lord's travail. Under such tutorship and care we ought to become
   eminent scholars. Doth Christ train us? Oh let us never cause the world
   to think meanly of our Master. Students feel that their alma mater
   deserves great things of them, so they labor to make their university
   renowned. And so, since Jesus is tutor and university to us, let us
   feel that we are bound to reflect credit upon so great a teacher, upon
   so divine a name. I do not know how to put it, but surely we ought to
   do something worthy of such a Lord. Each little flower in the garden of
   the Lord should wear its, brightest hues, and poor forth its rarest
   perfume, because Jesus cares for it. The best of all possible good
   should be yielded by every plant in our Father's garden, supposing
   Jesus to the gardener.

   Thus much, then, on those two points--a key to many wonders, and a spur
   to many duties.

   III. Thirdly, I have found in this supposition A RELIEF FROM CRUSHING
   RESPONSIBILITY. One has a work given him of God to do, and if he does
   it rightly he cannot do it carelessly. The first thing when he wakes he
   asks, "How is the work prospering?" and the last thought at night is,
   "What can I do to fulfill my calling?" Sometimes the anxiety even
   troubles his dreams, and he sighs, "O Lord, send now prosperity!" How
   is the garden prospering which we are set to tend? Are we
   broken-hearted because, nothing appears to flourish? Is it a bad
   season? or is the soil lean and hungry? It is a very blessed relief to
   an excess of care if we can fall into the habit of "supposing him to be
   the gardener." If Jesus be the Master and Lord in all things it is not
   mine to keep all the church in order. I am not responsible for the
   growth of every Christian, nor for every backslider's errors, nor for
   every professor's faults of life. This burden must not lie on me so
   that I shall be crushed thereby. "Supposing him to be the gardener,"
   then, the church enjoys a better oversight than mine; better care is
   taken of the garden than could be taken by the most vigilant watchers,
   even though by night the frost devoured them, and by day the heat.
   "Supposing him to be the gardener," then all must go well in the long
   run. He that keepeth Israel doth neither slumber nor sleep; we need not
   fret and despond. I beg you earnest workers, who are becoming
   depressed, to think this out a little. You see it is yours to work
   under the Lord Jesus; but it is not yours to take the anxiety of his
   office into your souls as though you were to bear his burdens. The
   under-gardener, the work-man in the garden, needs not fret about the
   whole garden as though it were all left to him. No, no; let him not
   take too much upon himself. I pray you, bound your anxiety by the facts
   of the case. So you have a number of young people around you, and you
   are watching for their souls as they that must give account. This is
   well; but do not be worried and wearied; for, after all, the saving and
   the keeping of those souls is not in your hands, but it rests with One
   far more able than yourself. Just think that the Lord is the gardener.
   I know it is so in matters of providence. A certain man of God in
   troublous times became quite unable to do his duty because he laid to
   heart so much the ills of the age; he became depressed and disturbed,
   and he went on board a vessel, wanting to leave the country, which was
   getting into such a state that he could no longer endure it. Then one
   said to him, Mr. Whitelock, are you the manager of the world? No, he
   was not quite that. "Did not God get on pretty well with it before you
   were born, and don't you think he will do very well with it when you
   are dead?" That reflection helped to relieve the good man's mind, and
   he went back to do his duty. I want you thus to perceive the limit of
   your responsibility: you are not the gardener himself; you are only one
   of the gardener's boys, set to run on errands, or to do a bit of
   digging, or to sweep the paths. The garden is well enough managed even
   though you are not head manager in it.

   While this relieves us of anxiety it makes labor for Christ very sweet,
   because if the garden does not seem to repay us for our trouble we say
   to ourselves, "It is not, my garden after all. Supposing him to be the
   gardener,' I am quite willing to work on a barren piece of rock, or tie
   up an old withered bough, or dig a worthless sod; for, if it only
   pleases Jesus, the work is for that one sole reason profitable to the
   last degree. It is not mine to question the wisdom of my task, but to
   set about it in the name of my Master and Lord. Supposing him to be the
   gardener,' lifts the ponderous responsibility of it from me, and my
   work becomes pleasant and delightful."

   In dealing with the souls of men, we meet with cases which are
   extremely difficult. Some persons are so timid and fearful that you do
   not know how to comfort them; others are so fast and presumptuous that
   you hardly know how to help them. A few are so double-faced that you
   cannot understand them, and others so fickle that you cannot hold them.
   Some flowers puzzle the ordinary gardener: we meet with plants which
   are covered with prickles, and when you try to train them they wound
   the hand that would help them. These strange growths would make a great
   muddle for you if you were the gardener; but "supposing him to be the
   gardener," you have the happiness of being able to go to him
   constantly, saying, "Good Lord, I do not understand this singular
   creature; it is as odd a plant as I am myself. Oh, that thou wouldest
   manage it, or tell me how. I have come to tell thee of it."

   Constantly our trouble is that we have so many plants to look after
   that we have not time to cultivate any one in the best manner, because
   we have fifty more all wanting attention at the time; and then before
   we have done with the watering-pot we have to fetch the hoe and the
   rake and the spade, and we are puzzled with these multitudinous cares,
   even as Paul was when he said, "That which cometh upon me daily, the
   care of all the churches." Ah, then, it is a blessed thing to do the
   little we can do and leave the rest to Jesus, "supposing him to be the
   gardener."

   In the church of God there is a discipline which we cannot exercise. I
   do not think it is half so hard to exercise discipline as it is not to
   be able to exercise it when yet you feel that it ought to be done. The
   servants of the householder were perplexed when they might not root up
   the tares. "Didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? From whence then
   hath it tares?" "An enemy hath done this." "Wilt thou then that we go
   and gather them up?" "Not so," said he, "lest ye root, up the wheat
   with them." This afflicts the Christian minister when he must not
   remove a pestilent, hindering weed. Yes, but "supposing him to be the
   gardener," and it is his will to let that weed remain, what have you
   and I to do but to hold our peace? He has a discipline more sure and
   safe than ours, and in due time the tares shall know it. In patience
   let us possess our souls.

   And then, again, there is that succession in the garden which we can
   not keep up. Plants will die down, and others must be put into their
   places or the garden will grow bare, but we know not where to find
   these fresh flowers. We say, "When yonder good man dies who will
   succeed him?" That is a question I have heard many a time, till I am
   rather weary of it. Who is to follow such a man? Let us wait till he is
   gone and needs following. Why sell the man's coat when he can wear it
   himself? We are apt to think when this race of good brethren shalt die
   of it that none will arise worthy to unloose the latchets of their
   shoes. Well, friend, I could suppose a great many things, but this
   morning my text is, "Supposing him to be the gardener," and on that
   supposition I expect that the Lord has other plants in reserve which
   you have not yet, seen, and these wilt exactly fit into our places when
   they become empty, and the Lord will keep up the true apostolical
   succession till the day or his second advent. In every time of darkness
   and dismay, when the heart sinks and the spirits decline, and we think
   it is all over with the church of God, let us fall back on this,
   "Supposing him to be the gardener," and expect to see greater and
   better things than these. We are at the end of our wits, but he is not
   at the beginning of his yet: we are nonplussed, but he never will be;
   therefore let us wait and be tranquil, "supposing him to be the
   gardener."

   IV. Fourthly, I want you to notice that this supposition will give you
   A DELIVERANCE FROM MANY GLOOMY FEARS. I walked down the garden, and I
   saw a place where all the path was strewn with leaves and broken
   branches, and stones, and I saw the earth upon the flower-beds, tossed
   about, and roots lying quite out of the ground: all was in disorder.
   Had a dog been amusing himself? or had a mischievous child been at
   work? If so, it was a great pity. But no: in a minute or two I saw the
   gardener come back, and I perceived that he had been making all this
   disarrangement. He had been cutting, and digging, and hacking, and
   mess-making; and all for the good of the garden. It may be it has
   happened to some of you that you have been a good deal clipped lately,
   and in your domestic affairs things have not been in so fair a state as
   you could have wished: it may be in the Church we have seen ill weeds
   plucked up, and barren branches lopped, so that everything is en
   deshabille. Well, if the Lord has done it out, gloomy fears are idle.
   "Supposing him to he the gardener," all is well.

   As I was talking this over with my friend, I said to him--"Supposing
   him to be the gardener," then the serpent will have a bad time of it.
   Supposing Adam to be the gardener, then the serpent gets in and has a
   chat with his wife, and mischief comes of it; but supposing Jesus to be
   the gardener, woe to thee, serpent: there is a blow for thy head within
   half a minute if thou dost but show thyself within the boundary. So, if
   we are afraid that the devil should get in among us let us always in
   prayer entreat that there may be no space for the devil, because the
   Lord Jesus Christ fills all, and keeps out the adversary. Other
   creatures besides serpents intrude into gardens; caterpillars and
   palmerworms, and all sorts of destroying creatures are apt to devour
   our churches. How can we keep them out? The highest wall cannot exclude
   them: there is no protection except one, and that is, "supposing him to
   be the gardener." Thus it is written, "I will rebuke the devourer for
   your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither
   shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the
   Lord of hosts."

   I am sometimes troubled by the question, What if roots of bitterness
   should spring up among us to trouble us? We are all such fallible
   creatures, supposing some brother should permit the seed of discord to
   grow in his bosom, then there may be a sister in whose heart the seeds
   will also spring up, and from her they will fly to another sister, and
   be blown about till brethren and sisters are all bearing rue and
   wormwood in their hearts. Who is to prevent this? Only the Lord, Jesus
   by his Spirit. He can keep out this evil, "supposing him to be the
   gardener." The root which beareth wormwood will grow but little where
   Jesus is. Dwell with us, Lord, as a church and people: by thy Holy
   Spirit reside with us and in us, and never depart from us, and then no
   root of bitterness shall spring up to trouble us.

   Then comes another fear. Suppose the living waters of God's Spirit
   should not come to water the garden, what then? We cannot, make them
   flow, for the Spirit is a sovereign, and he flows where he pleases. Ah,
   but the Spirit of God will he in our garden, "supposing our Lord to be
   the gardener." There is no fear of our not being watered when Jesus
   undertakes to do it. "He will pour water on him that is thirsty, and
   floods upon the dry ground." But what if the sunlight of his love
   should not shine on the garden? If the fruits should never ripen, if
   there should be no peace, no joy in the Lord? That cannot happen
   "supposing him to be the gardener;" for his face is the sun, and his
   countenance scatters those health-giving beams, and nurturing warmths,
   and perfecting influences which are needful for maturing the saints in
   all the sweetness of grace to the glory of God. So, "supposing him to
   be the gardener" at this the close of the year, I fling away my doubts
   and fears, and invite you who bear the church upon your heart to do the
   same. It is all well with Christ's cause because it is in his own
   hands. He shall not fail nor be discouraged. The pleasure of the, Lord
   shall prosper in his hands.

   V. Fifthly, here is A WARNING FOR THE CARELESS, "supposing him to be
   the gardener." In this great congregation many are to the church what
   weeds are to a garden. They are not planted by God; they are not
   growing under his nurture, they are bringing forth no fruit to his
   glory. My dear friend, I have tried often to get at you, to impress
   you, but I cannot. Take heed; for one of these days, "supposing him to
   be the gardener," he will reach you, and you shall know what that word
   meaneth, "Every plant which my heavenly Father hath, not planted shall
   be rooted up." Take heed to yourselves, I pray.

   Others among us are like the branches of the vine which bear no fruit.
   We have often spoken very sharply to these, speaking honest truth in
   unmistakable language, and yet we have not touched their consciences.
   Ah, but "supposing him to be the gardener," he will fulfill that
   sentence: "Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away."
   He will get at you, if we cannot. Would God, ere this old year were
   quite dead, you would turn unto the Lord with full purpose of heart; so
   that instead of being a weed you might become a choice flower; that
   instead of a dry stick, you might be a sappy, fruit-bearing, branch of
   the vine. The Lord make it to be so; but if any here need the caution,
   I pray them to take it to heart at once. "Supposing him to be the
   gardener," there will be no escaping from his eye; there will be no
   deliverance from his hand. As "he will thoroughly purge his floor, and
   burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire," so he will thoroughly
   cleanse his garden and cast out every worthless thing.

   VI. Another set of thoughts may well arise as A QUIETUS TO THOSE WHO
   COMPLAIN, "Supposing him to be the gardener." Certain of us have been
   made to suffer much physical pain, which often bites into the spirits,
   and makes the heart to stoop: others have suffered heavy temporal
   losses, having had no success in business, but, on the contrary, having
   had to endure privation, perhaps even to penury. Are you ready to
   complain against the Lord for all this? I pray you, do not so. Take the
   supposition of the text into your mind this morning. The Lord has been
   pruning you sharply, cutting off your best boughs, and you seem to be
   like a thing despised that is constantly tormented with the knife. Yes,
   but "supposing him to be the gardener," suppose that your loving Lord
   has wrought it all, that from his own hand all your grief has come,
   every cut, and every gash, and every slip: does not this alter the
   case? Hath not the Lord done it? Well, then, if it be so, put your
   finger to your lip and be quiet, until you are able from your heart to
   say, "The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, and blessed be the
   name of the Lord." I am persuaded that the Lord hath done nothing amiss
   to any one of his people; that no child of his can rightly complain
   that he has been whipped with too much severity; and that no one branch
   of the vine can truthfully declare that it has been pruned with too
   sharp an edge. No; what the Lord has done is the best that could have
   been done, the very thing that you and I, if we could have possessed
   infinite wisdom and love, would have wished to have done; therefore let
   us stop each thought of murmuring, and say, "The Lord hath done it,"
   and be glad.

   Especially I speak to those who have suffered bereavement. I can hardly
   express to you how strange I feel at this moment when my sermon revives
   a memory so sweet dashed with such exceeding bitterness. I sat with my
   friend and secretary in that garden some fifteen days ago, and we were
   then in perfect health, rejoicing in the goodness of the Lord. We
   returned home, and within five days I was smitten with disabling pain;
   and worse, far worse than that, he was called upon to lose his wife. We
   said to one another as we sat there reading the word of God and
   meditating, "How happy we are! Dare we think of being so happy? Must it
   not speedily end?" I little thought I should have to say for him,
   "Alas, my brother, thou art brought very low, for the delight of thine
   eyes is taken from thee." But here is our comfort: the Lord hath done
   it. The best rose in the garden is gone. Who has taken it? The gardener
   came this way and gathered it. He planted it and watched over it, and
   now he has taken it. Is not this most natural? Does anybody weep
   because of that? No; everybody knows that it is right, and according to
   the order of nature that he should come and gather the best in the
   garden. If you are sore troubled by the loss of your beloved, yet dry
   your grief by supposing him to be the gardener." Kiss the hand that has
   wrought you such grief? Brethren beloved, remember the next time the
   Lord comes to your part of the garden, and he may do so within the next
   week, he will only gather his own flowers, and would you prevent his
   doing so even if you could?

   VII. "Supposing him to be the gardener," then there is AN OUTLOOK FOR
   THE HOPEFUL. "Supposing him to be the gardener," then I expect to see
   in the garden where he works the best possible prosperity: I expect to
   see no flower dried up, no tree without fruit: I expect to see the
   richest, rarest fruit, with the daintiest bloom upon it, daily
   presented to the great Owner of the garden. Let us expect that in this
   church, and pray for it. oh, if we have but faith we shall see great
   things. It is our unbelief that straitens God. Let us believe great
   things from the work of Christ by his Spirit in the midst of his
   people's hearts, and we shall not be disappointed.

   "Supposing him to be the gardener," then, dear friends, we may expect
   divine intercourse of unspeakable preciousness. Go back to Eden for a
   minute. When Adam was the gardener, what happened? The Lord God walked
   in the garden in the cool of the day. But "supposing him to be the
   gardener," then we shall have the Lord God dwelling among us, and
   revealing himself in all the glory of his power, and the plenitude or
   his Fatherly heart; making us to know him, that we may be filled with
   all the fullness of God. What joy is this!

   One other thought. "Supposing him to be the gardener," and God to come
   and walk among the trees of the garden, then I expect he will remove
   the whole of the garden upward with himself to fairer skies; for he
   rose, and his people must rise with him. I expect a blessed
   transplantation of all these flowers below to a clearer atmosphere
   above, away from all this smoke and fog and damp, up where the sun is
   never clouded, where flowers never wither, where fruits never decay.
   Oh, the glory we shall then enjoy up yonder, on the hills of spices in
   the garden of God. "Supposing him to be the gardener" what a garden
   will he form above, and how shall you and I grow therein, developing
   beyond imagination." It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we
   know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see
   him as he is." Since he is the author and finisher or our faith, to
   what perfection will he conduct us, and to what glory will he bring us!
   Oh, to be found in him! God grant we may be! To be plants in his
   garden, "Supposing him to be the gardener," is all the heaven we can
   desire.

   By C. H. Spurgeon

  The Gospel for the People.

   Sixty Short Sermons, with a Skech of Mr. Spurgeon's Life, and

   Fourteen Portraits and Engravings, with a Preface by Pastor Thomas

   Spurgeon. Cloth Gilt, 5s.

   These Short Sermons have been selected from the Series with a view to

   their being used in Mission Halls, and other similar places. They

   are about half the length of the ordinary Sermons.

   PASSMORE & ALABASTER, 4, Paternoster Buildings, London, E.C.
     __________________________________________________________________

A Monument for the Dead, and a Voice to the Living

   (No. 1700)

   Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, January 7th, 1883, by

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   At the [2]Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   "For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the
   man which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness
   which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who
   shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:)
   Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again
   from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy
   mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
   that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt
   believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou
   shalt be saved."— Romans 10:5-9.

   YOU see by this mourning that our church has been bereaved. I have lost
   a friend tender and true to me, and my heart is too full for utterance.
   [1] I scarcely knew what to preach from this morning; but at last I
   settled in my mind that I would raise a memorial to my departed friend
   by preaching a sermon which should be connected with himself. Therefore
   I cast about me, and I considered what subject he would wish me to
   preach from if he were sitting behind me this morning as he was last
   Lord's-day. I had no difficulty in answering that question. His life
   and death pointed in one direction. He was a man of rare common sense,
   straightforward and downright in his aims, and most pithy in his
   speech, with such a mixture of mother-wit that he might have been taken
   for John Ploughman's brother, as indeed he was. He cared nothing for
   oratory, which I have heard him call "a flash in the pan"; he delighted
   in the plain, solid gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that he would have
   said to me,—Give them Christ crucified, and salvation by grace through
   faith, as plainly as ever you can; for when he was sore sick and in the
   very agony of death, he repeated as his dying creed—

   "Nothing in my hand I bring:
   Simply to thy cross I cling."

   and in his own quaint way he added, "They may talk as much as ever they
   like, but the whole of it lies in Jack the Huckster's verse

   'I'm a poor sinner, and nothing at all
   But Jesus Christ is my an in all.'"

   You will find that story in the first volume of my sermons. [2] In
   Park-street early in my ministry I told the story, and it did my friend
   good, and helped to rest his soul all those years ago, so that he
   remembered it and repeated it at the last. For his sake let me tell it
   again.

   This Huckster Jack was a poor, wicked fellow, who had gone about from
   village to village, swearing, drinking, huckstering and perhaps
   pilfering. Some thought him half-witted, but the story would show his
   wind to be sound enough. He heard a poor woman sing somewhere—

   I'm a poor sinner, and nothing at all;
   But Jesus Christ is my all in all."

   He remembered the words, and what was better, he felt their sense; and
   he kept on humming them to himself till God's good Spirit engraved them
   on his heart. There they were recorded, and Jack was a new man and a
   saved man. So he essayed to join himself unto the church, but the
   brethren looked suspiciously at him and enquired, "What is your
   experience?" He said he had no experience but this—

   "I'm a poor sinner, and nothing at all
   But Jesus Christ is my all in all."

   The good elders very properly asked, "Are you converted? Have you been
   born again?" and Jack replied, "I do not know much about these things;
   but this I do know and am sure of—

   'I'm a poor sinner, and nothing at all
   But Jesus Christ is my all in all.'

   They put him back for awhile, to try if he would grow in his knowledge,
   but he never went an inch beyond the first standard. He know what he
   did know, and to that he held fast—

   "I'm a poor sinner, and nothing at all
   But Jesus Christ is my all in all."

   Well, they must take him into the church; they could not well refuse a
   man with such a confession of faith; and when he was in the church,
   walking with the brethren, he was happier than the rest of them, at
   which they greatly marvelled, and one said to him, "Brother Jack, don't
   you sometimes feel doubts and fears? "Doubts," he said, "what do you
   mean? I never doubt that

   'I'm a poor sinner, and nothing at all;'

   for I have daily proofs of it, and why should I doubt that

   'Jesus Christ is my all in all'?

   for he says he is, and I must believe him." "Ah, well," said one,
   "sometimes I enjoy good frames and feelings, and feel very happy, and
   then I lose them, and sink in spirit." Jack answered, "I never get
   lower than I am, for I am down at the bottom—

   'A poor sinner, and nothing at all.'

   I cannot get lower than that, can I? But I am also at the top,

   'for Jesus Christ is my all in all,'

   and I cannot get higher than that, can I?" They tried him many ways
   with their blessed experience, of which you and I have got cart-loads,
   perhaps waggon-loads; but he could not be drawn out of his one firm
   position. They tried him with their various attainments, depressions,
   anxieties, quibbles, and questions; but still the huckster would not
   budge. He had bought the truth and would not sell it, and so he stuck
   to—

   "I'm a poor sinner, and nothing at all;
   But Jesus Christ is my all in all."

   The conies are a feeble folk, yet have they their habitations among the
   rocks: they are safe, but they keep to their hiding place.

   Of course our new Perfection brethren, spick and span saints as they
   are, are not like Jack, they are not "poor sinners, and nothing at
   all," and I am afraid lest some of them should find out that Jesus
   Christ is not their all in all. But if you and I are as he was, "poor
   sinners, and nothing at all," we may, with firm and resolute grip, lay
   hold upon the other line, "But Jesus Christ is my all in all." Christ's
   fullness is meant for our emptiness; Christ's righteousness is meant
   for our sin, salvation is for the lost. When you and I are no longer
   sinners, Christ is no longer our Savior; when you and I no more need
   him, then we shall not have him. Our need is our warrant, and if that
   be gone, all is gone. Jesus did not bleed and die to be a superfluity
   to us: he cattle to meet a grim necessity. As long as we are nothing
   Christ is our all in all; we may be sure of that, and that is just the
   gospel in a nutshell. I want to preach that same gospel this morning,
   in the hope that in after days this word may be scattered far and wide,
   and some Jack the Huckster, or some other like him, may find himself to
   be utterly empty and undone, and may then know that Christ is ordained
   to be his salvation. Jesus came into the world to save real sinners,
   not sham sinners; for he is a real, and not a pretended Savior. He
   saves those who are always confessors of sin, always needy in
   themselves, and therefore always glad of him. Even in their best estate
   the saved ones need their Lord: even if we walk in the light as God is
   in the light, and have fellowship with him, we still sin, and still the
   blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin.

   I now plunge into my text. Notice, first, what Moses said. Moses said,
   "That the man which doeth those things shall live by them." Next, what
   the gospel says: "But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on
   this wise," and so on. Thirdly, we shall consider what the Scripture
   saith: "Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed." Then,
   fourthly, we will hear what experience saith; for we may bring in the
   experience of believers to back up the declarations of God.

   I. I invite your earnest attention to the first point—WHAT MOSES SAITH:
   "Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man
   which doeth those things shall live by them." This is a clear
   statement. There is no mystery or obscurity about it. You need not go
   to the universities and earn a degree of D.D. in order to understand
   this declaration: it is as plain as words can make it. If you wish to
   be saved by the law you must do its commands and you shall live. The
   law is written in the ten commandments; you know them; and if you
   desire to live by them you must keep them. It will not suffice for you
   to learn those commands by heart, or to write them up in your churches,
   or to read them over and say, "Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline
   our hearts to keep this law": all that may be well enough, but it is
   not to the point. If you are to be saved by the commandments you must
   do them: that is clear. Moses does not allow any person to dream that
   under the law he can be saved in any other way than by perfect
   obedience thereto. "For not the hearers of the law are just before God,
   but the doers of the law shall be justified." Whatever it is that God
   has commanded, you must do; whatever he forbids, you must avoid; for by
   such obedience alone can you live.

   Mark you, Moses does not tone down the law to suit our fallen state, or
   talk of our doing our best and God's being satisfied with our imperfect
   obedience. No, he says only, "He that doeth those things shall live by
   them." He demands perfect and entire obedience, if life is to come of
   it. He does not say that if you have broken the law you may still live
   by some other means. No, if the law is once broken it is all over with
   you as to salvation thereby: one single fault takes away the
   possibility of your ever being justified by the law. "He that doeth
   those things," that is, always, without exception, with all his heart
   and soul and strength—"he shall live by them"; but nobody else. Be he
   Jew or be he Gentile, his only righteousness by law must come through
   the doing of the law. Moses says nothing about wearing phylacteries, or
   washing hands, or offering incense, or performing ceremonies in order
   to righteousness. No; clear, straight, cutting like a sharp razor, he
   puts before us the single sentence, "He that doeth those things shall
   live by them."

   Judge ye whether any one of us has fulfilled the whole law. To my mind
   this word of Moses is conclusive that none of us can possibly live by
   the works of the law. We cannot keep the law now, for we have already
   broken it: the vase is fractured, and to talk of keeping it entire is
   nonsense. But even if it were not already broken, should we get through
   to-morrow with its temptations, bearing such a heart as we have within
   us, without breaking that perfect and spotless law? I am sure we should
   not. You that hope to be saved by your works are indulging a forlorn
   hope; what never you may do or be in the future, the past has already
   ruined you. The way to heaven up the steep sides of Sinai is
   inaccessible to trembling feet like ours. If you were to be saved by
   the law you should have begun without sin, continued without sin, and
   then it would be needful to end without sin. There would not be a
   moment of your life in which you could be at peace, for there would
   always be the fear that in some unguarded instant you would transgress,
   and lose all. But why talk I so? It is no longer in our power to dream
   of a perfect, life-long obedience. We went astray from the womb,
   speaking lies; we were rebellious to our parents in our childhood, and
   wayward in our youth; in our early manhood we were carried about with
   this passion and with that, and since then all kinds of evils have led
   us astray. We are as full of evil as an egg is full of meat, and our
   heart is like a cage of unclean birds. I can say no less. The hope of
   salvation by works is black despair; yet we have a set of men on the
   face of the earth who are always wanting us to preach up this hopeless
   hope, and urging us to lay this heavy burden upon the shoulders of
   dying men. They would have us proclaim salvation by the works of the
   law. This, they say, would at least make men moral and keep them sober:
   whereas even in this they err against the light; for it has been proved
   by history that such preaching makes men worse and worse. The idea of
   salvation by works sits like an awful incubus upon the breast of
   humanity, and presses out of the soul all hope, thus robbing man of
   strength to attempt true holiness. When a man has lost all hope he
   throws the reins upon his neck and runs into all manner of iniquity,
   judging that he may as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb.

   Clear, then, as possible it must be to every man among us who will
   think, that if the only way of salvation by the works of the law is by
   the keeping of the law in its entirety, then that road is closed
   against us, and the sooner we have done with it the better; for then we
   shall turn our thoughts in the right direction, and travel on the way
   which the Lord in great mercy has prepared for us. This is what Moses
   saith: hear it and be humbled.

   II. Now I ask you to listen to WHAT THE GOSPEL SAITH. "The
   righteousness which is of faith," or believing, "speaketh on this wise,
   Say not in thy heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring,
   Christ down from above:) or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is,
   to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is
   nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of
   faith, which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the
   Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him
   from the dead, thou shalt be saved."

   Now observe, first, that the gospel claims to be like the law in its
   clearness. Moses claimed for the law which God had given to the people
   through him that it was clear, and within the range of their knowledge
   and understanding. I will read his exact words to you. Turn to
   Deuteronomy 30:11. "For this commandment which I command thee this day,
   it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven,
   that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it
   unto us, that we may bear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea,
   that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it
   unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? But the word is very nigh unto
   thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it." Now Paul
   here very adroitly takes these words out of the mouth of Moses, alters
   them somewhat, and as good as says, "It was the boast of the law that
   it was clear, known, and accessible to the people; but much more is
   this the glory of the gospel." Did not I show you just now that when
   Moses spoke he did not mystify the matter, but put it plainly, "The man
   that doeth those things shall live by them." So also the gospel by no
   means involves itself in obscurity, but says, Believe and live, quite
   as distinctly as Moses said, "Do and live." Here you have it, "Believe
   in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Moses' utterance
   was single and by itself. He did not say, "Do and thou shalt live, and
   yet there is another way." No; under the law it was nothing but "Do and
   live; leave undone and die." So the gospel does not propose a second
   way, and suggest "a larger hope," but it declares with solemn decision,
   "He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not
   believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." It is just as
   clear as ever the law was, and quite as sharply distinct. Herein is no
   mystery: Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, and
   whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
   Wrapping everything up into one, the gospel says, "Trust thou in the
   Lord Jesus Christ, and thy sins shall be forgiven thee, and thou shalt
   be saved." This believing, or trusting, is the whole of the matter, and
   neither heaven above nor the abyss beneath will ever reveal another
   salvation.

   I want to call your special attention to the fact that Paul borrows the
   words of Moses; for his intent was the ending of all fears. No man
   among us doubts that if he had performed the law of God the Lord would
   give him life; but it is equally certain that if we have believed in
   the Lord Jesus Christ we have eternal lire. No trembling sinner doubts
   but that by the breaking of the law we are condemned: be you equally
   sure of it, that by not believing you are condemned. As no keeper of
   the law would have been lost on any ground whatever, so no believer in
   Christ shall be lost on any ground whatever; as no breaker of the law
   could escape punishment, so no unbeliever in Christ can he saved. The
   gospel states its message as clearly as the law. As positively as the
   law utters its promise and threat, so positively and unalterably doth
   the gospel deliver its decree. The believer in Jesus shall be saved
   because he is a believer; and Christ's veracity is staked
   thereon:—"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath
   everlasting life."

   Oh, but this is a very blessed thing to have to say to you. I do not
   come to-day with a gospel veiled in mystery and shrouded in doubt; I do
   not bring a message which you cannot understand or receive; neither do
   I come with "ifs" and "buts" and "peradventures," but with this,
   "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." "He
   that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." "Whosoever believeth in
   him hath everlasting life." This is as certain and clear as the
   utterance of that dreadful roll of thunder which has just now left on
   your minds the thought, "He that doeth these things shall live by
   them."

   Let us go a little further. What saith the gospel? Why, next, it
   forbids the questions of despair. "The righteousness which is of faith
   speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into
   heaven? or, Who shall descend into the deep?" When a man is at length
   awakened to a sense of sin he cries, "I long to be saved! All that I
   have and all that I am I would give to escape from the righteous wrath
   of God. Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Surely it would need that I
   mount to heaven to own my sin, or dive to hell to bear its punishment.
   I want a righteousness which would need as much labor to produce as a
   climb to heaven would need; and I require an expiation for sin as great
   as though a man were plunged into the abyss itself, and there were made
   to suffer the divine anger. How is it possible that I can be saved?
   "This wail of despair takes many forms: one man puts it thus: "What
   doings can I perform by which I can be saved?

   'Could my zeal no respite know,
   Could my tears for ever flow,
   All for sin could not atone.'"

   Another, despairing of deliverance by his doings, runs upon his
   feelings, and cries, "If I am to be saved, surely I shall need to
   experience joys like those which are felt by spirits before the throne.
   If I had a sense of sin as deep as that of lost souls in hell, I could
   hope that I should be saved." Thus the second man looks to excitements
   and feelings just as the first looked to works and self-denials. Now,
   the gospel forbids us to dream in this fashion. Talk not thus. Say not
   even in thy heart that by these doings or feelings thou canst be saved.
   Perhaps thou wouldst be ashamed to say it with thy lips; but do not say
   it at all; do not say that the way to heaven is hard, or mysterious, or
   in any degree apart from the simple act of believing. Do not suppose
   that anything is wanted as to doings or feelings in order to complete
   the righteousness which is wrought out by the Lord Jesus, and imputed
   by God to the believer.

   Ah, then the heart foolishly cries, "I must know a great deal; as much
   as if I had been to heaven and seen for myself, or as if I had dived
   into the depths and made discoveries there." No, you must not: the
   gospel is simple; salvation is as plain as a pikestaff; familiar an
   homespun; easy as the A B C of your childhood. Say not in thine heart
   that thou must be educated, trained, and made into a scholar. No,
   confess yourself a sinner; trust in the sinner's Savior, and you are
   saved.

   "Ah, well," says one, "I know I must undergo a singular
   experience-either I must be carried right away to heaven with delirious
   delight, or be plunged into the waves of hell in frightful despair."
   No, my dear friend, do not say that even in your thought. The
   righteousness of faith lies not in dreams and visions, delusions or
   depressions: it lies only in reliance upon the work of Jesus finished
   for you. Go not to the loom to weave a righteousness. The garment is
   woven already; put it on; Christ gives it to you. Dig not into the
   bowels of the earth to find the gold of salvation. Christ holds it out
   to you: take it freely, and be rich for ever. So one of the first works
   of the gospel is silencing the questions of our unbelief.

   Next, this precious gospel translates these questions, and then answers
   them. Listen. A voice cries "Who shall ascend into heaven?" The gospel
   replies, if you did ascend to heaven what would you do there, without
   Christ, the anointed Savior? You say, "Who shall descend into the
   deep?" Listen, man. If you were to descend there, what would you do
   without him whom God has anointed to save? If you find him in it will
   not much matter where you find him, in heaven or in the deep, for he
   must be almighty everywhere. Now hearken. Thou sayest, "Who shall
   ascend into heaven?" the top and bottom of such an ascent must be, "to
   bring Christ down." Hear this! Jesus has come down: years ago be left
   the glories of his Father. Hast thou not heard the tale? Being Pure,
   blazing, glorious Godhead, "Light of lights, very God of very God," on
   a sudden they found him in a stable hanging on a woman's breast. Angels
   saw him and wondered. He came down, indeed, when he was born; and,
   being down so low as that, he descended to the carpenter's shop, to the
   weariness of the well's brink, and to a thirst which made him say,
   "Give me to drink." Lower than that, he descended to being "despised
   and rejected of men." he was Lord of heaven and earth, and yet they
   called him Beelzebub, and talked of him as a drunken man and a
   wine-bibber. Having descended all that length he went lower still.
   Listen,—angels, you will not weary while I tell the story over again—he
   went into Gethsemane where he put on the crimson garment of his own
   bloody sweat; and then to Pilate's hall, where they did falsely accuse
   him, and spit on him, and scourge him, and make a jest of him; and then
   to that cross whereon they nailed him in his nakedness, so that he hung
   in agony, to die in fever and in thirst, till he cried, "It is
   finished." He descended into the grave, so that he dwelt among the
   dead! We know not how low he went, but we are told that "he descended
   into the lower parts of the earth." Oh, my bearer, our salvation lies
   in this! Not in our descending, but in Christ's descending our hope is
   to be found. Listen to it, lost ones; you need not climb to heaven:
   Christ has come down from heaven to you; and if you lie among the
   spiritually dead to-day, or think you do, he has come down to you, and
   you need not enquire bow you can go up to him. No prayers, or tears,
   are wanted to bring him down: he has already come and is near at hand.
   You asked, "Who shall descend into the deep?" Now listen. Here is your
   answer. You need not "bring up Christ again from the dead," for the
   Lord has risen indeed. His soul scarce descended among the shades
   before it quitted them for ever; that day he died he was in Paradise,
   and the thief was with him there as a trophy. Up also his body rose on
   the light of the third day; and he sojourned for forty days among his
   disciples. At the close of that period he rose into the air, ascending
   high. As they watched him rising higher, and yet higher, at last a
   cloud received him: he has gone up to the Father's throne, as the
   sinner's Savior: at the throne he stands to-day to intercede for
   sinners, and from that throne he bends to comfort those who come to
   him. Now, your hope lies wholly in what this Son of God did in his
   descent and ascent. God has brought him again from the dead and exalted
   him at his own right hand, and this is not for himself, but for all
   those who trust in him. His death is instead of the death of our souls:
   his life is the life of our spirits. Now, soul, thou hast nothing to do
   with asking vain questions; thou hast to accept the result of the
   Savior's actual performances. The saving work is done, done by him who
   was anointed of the Lord to do it. Look to him and salvation is thine.
   Thy salvation rests in Jesus, rest thou in Jesus. Throw thyself upon
   him now; even as a babe casts itself upon its mother's breast. Have
   done with every other confidence. What canst thou need more than to
   rely upon the Anointed of the Lord?

   Now, Paul declares, or rather the gospel speaking for itself declares,
   this word of life by faith in the risen Christ to be near us, that is,
   to be accessible to us. As your next door neighbor's house is not hard
   to get at, so neither is salvation by the gospel. It is nigh you; it is
   nigh you now: it will never be nigher than it is at this moment. You
   may now believe in Christ and live eternally. Difficulty there is none:
   only believe and thou art saved. It is not a mystical, obscure thing;
   it is near and familiar. Believe in Christ as you would believe in your
   friend: believe that he died for sinners, and trust in him for
   salvation. If God has made you feel yourself a sinner, then Christ is
   such a Savior as you need and you may have him at once: the only
   difficulty lies in the way being so easy that you can hardly think it
   can be so. Have done with doings, and feelings, and trust yourself with
   Christ. "The word is nigh thee." It is simple; indeed, so simple that
   people try to obscure it in order to understand it. It is such milk for
   babes that I have known people refuse such plain truth because they
   were not willing to be treated like little children. Just as I lean all
   my weight upon this rail so do I lean my soul wholly upon Christ. If
   what Christ has done will not save a sinner I am damned; for I have
   nothing else to depend upon; but if it will save, and sure I am that it
   will, I am saved as surely as Christ has risen from the dead. This is
   the substance of the matter—Christ saves, and we trust. This is what
   that word of faith says, even the gospel which we preach. I am afraid
   we say a great deal at times which rather lumbers and cumbers the
   gospel than makes it clear. Perhaps I am doing the same this morning,
   but I do not mean to do it. I mean to let it stand out simply before
   you, that the incarnation, the life, the death, and the resurrection of
   Christ are the one foundation upon which we must depend for eternal
   salvation, and upon that alone; and if we do so depend we shall most
   assuredly be saved.

   Yet note, that Paul opens this up into two things. He says, "If thou
   shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine
   heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." So
   there must be confession with the mouth. Do not leave that out. Do not
   suppose that you can be a believer and conceal your faith. As I said
   the other day, Do not behave like a rat behind the wainscot, only
   daring to come out in the dark. That is not Christ's way. If you trust
   in him with your heart, trust him openly, and confess him with your
   mouth, owning that he is your Lord, and your Savior. He has put the two
   things together,—"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved."
   The believing and the confession of that believing in God's own way are
   never to be separated, for "With the heart man believeth unto
   righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."
   See ye well to this.

   III. Thirdly, let us consider, WHAT THE SCRIPTURE SAITH; "Whosoever
   believeth on him shall not be ashamed." "Whosoever." Whatever man in
   all the world, throughout all the ages, shall come and trust himself on
   Christ shall never be ashamed of having done so. You, dear friend, down
   the aisle there, it you trust in Christ you shall never be ashamed of
   your hope. You, up there in the gallery, however guilty you may have
   been, or however moral you may have been, it matters not, if your one
   hope is in what Christ has done, you shall never turn round on your
   dying bed, and cry, "I made a mistake in trusting Christ." You know
   what Cardinal Bellarmine said: he was a great antagonist of Luther, and
   thought that we might trust in our works; but, looking it all over, he
   admitted that inasmuch as no man could be quite sure that he had done
   enough good works, it was perhaps best on the whole and safest to trust
   altogether to the blood and merits of Jesus Christ. I have always felt
   obliged to the Cardinal for that admission; because the best is good
   enough for me, and since trusting in Jesus is the safest, I intend to
   stick to it even to the end. There is really no other hope, for if you
   get a little bit of your own works put into the building, of your hope,
   you have just so much rotten timber in the fabric, and that rot will
   plague the whole house, and turn it into dust at the last. No man that
   rested in Christ, and Christ alone, ever was ashamed of his hope; and
   none ever shall be. There is sure ground here. The Rock of Ages never
   fails.

   What else does the Scripture say? It says that no man is forbidden to
   believe; "for there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for
   the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him." There
   never was a sinner yet to whom God said, "You must not trust my Son":
   on the contrary, it is written, "Him that cometh to me I will in no
   wise cast out." What about the doctrine of election? I need not speak
   about it this morning: I believe it, and rejoice in it: but it is not
   at all contrary to this precious truth. Read this verse, "All that the
   Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in
   no wise cast out." Whoever will in the whole world believe in Christ
   may do so; he is neither too old or too young, or too rich, or too
   poor, or too wicked, or too moral; if he will but trust Christ he shall
   be saved, and he is fully allowed and permitted, yea, commanded to
   believe and live.

   Once, again, though your faith should only be strong enough to lead you
   to pray, yet it shall save you, for "Whosoever shall call on the name
   of the Lord shall be saved." Suppose your faith cannot work miracles;
   never mind about miracles. Suppose you cannot walk on the sea, like
   Peter: never mind; you are not called to do it. Can your faith pray?
   Can it cry? Then call upon the Lord, and you shall be saved. Poor dear
   heart, if you can but trust Christ, even though the feeblest possible
   manifestation of it should be the only thing visible, namely, your
   calling upon God in prayer, it must and shall save you.

   IV. Now, I hope I have put it plainly. I have tried my best; and so I
   close by bidding you hear WHAT EXPERIENCE SAITH. What does experience
   say about believing in Christ! Experience says, and we are some of us
   here to say it, that it is the grandest way of living in the world. I
   assure you that I daily find the value of living by faith. In hours of
   dire distress and great heaviness of spirit, of which I know enough, I
   prove the power of faith in Jesus. Ah, my Lord, what should I do then
   if I could not as "a poor sinner, and nothing at all" find Christ to be
   my "all in all." Fair-weather sailors, who go out in their little
   painted perfection boats, are people who have had small temptation and
   little soul-trouble. They are generally gentlemen in good health, with
   regular incomes and sweet tempers, and so they soon reach their
   imaginary sinlessness—vain creatures that they are; but you never get
   any of that among the poor, suffering, tried people of God. In stormy
   weather our beauty and glory soon turn pale; when the devil meets us
   face to face, he cracks up our tinsel perfection with a blow. He laughs
   at all our comeliness, he knows that it is a hollow cheat, a vile sham.
   In the moments when the soul is in the lowest depths, faith is the only
   way to live. That mode of living which will do for the depths is safe
   for the heights.

   How blessed it is when a child of God has actually fallen into sin,—God
   keep us so that we never may,—but if guilt is on the soul, what is a
   poor creature to do? He can do nothing unless he has learned this
   precious truth, that he is nothing at all, and Jesus Christ is his all
   in all. Then he knows that Jesus will blot out his transgressions, and
   create in him a clean heart, and restore him to himself again, though
   now, like David, his sin is ever before him.

   Yes, and I find a self-denying, Christ-exalting faith to be good in
   times of jubilation and success. The only way to keep right and humble
   is to be nothing, and let Jesus be all in all. If God has blessed your
   ministry or other holy work, the devil whispers, "You are a pretty
   fellow; you have done wonders"; and up you will go if you are not
   steadied by the firm conviction that you may not glory, since you are
   nothing at all in yourself, and your sole help is in Jesus your Lord.
   When God gives you growth in grace and fruitfulness in good works it
   will be your safety to be as little as ever you were, and to trust in
   nothing but the work of the Lord. This blessed faith keeps men down
   when they are apt to go up, and up when otherwise they would be apt to
   go down. It is a holy balancing pole: we can walk the narrowest line
   with this in our hands, and fear no fall. Ourselves nothing, Christ
   everything—that is it. Keep to it.

   Now as to the test of death. Does this sort of faith enable men to face
   death with courage? I have had almost thirty years among you, and God
   has been very gracious to us, so that we have lost very few
   comparatively by death; but now many are going home, and, according to
   the course of nature, many of our honored brethren and sisters will
   soon follow. As to those who have been called home, how have they died?
   I have the deep satisfaction of saying that when our dear brethren and
   sisters fall asleep they reflect honor upon the gospel which we have
   preached. Ask those who have seen them die. These dear ones at this
   hour look back upon me and say, "Go on: preach the same gospel to
   others; for we found it blessed truth to die upon." Look at our dear,
   departed brother, Mr. Higgs, the last who has crossed the stream. His
   sons and daughters will tell you that his death was sad to them, but
   not to him. He suffered agonizing pain, but his peace was as deep as
   the sea. He had no uncertainty; he was as sure of his safety as it it
   had been a matter of calculation by the rules of arithmetic. He knew
   whom he had believed, and knew what the Lord had done for him, and he
   could not see a weak point in it all. He spent the whole night in
   trying to cheer and comfort others: he had no trembling thought about
   himself. He did not say, "Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O my
   friends, for the hand of the Lord hath touched me." No; he knew that
   Christ was the resurrection and the life, and he was ready to depart.
   He wished his beloved ones to go to their beds; and since they would
   stop with him, he desired them to sing." "What shall we sing?" "Sing"
   said he,

   "For ever with the Lord,
   Amen, so let it be."

   It is hard singing when your father is dying, but it was not hard to
   him. He bade them read that chapter, "Let not your hearts be troubled";
   and, as they read it, he did not take the verses, and apply them to
   himself. No, he directed the comfort to his dear wife, for she had
   greater need of it than he had his faith was firm. It was for her he
   cared, and for those about him as for himself, all was rest. One said
   somewhat roughly to him a fortnight before, "Don't be downhearted; you
   may got better yet." "Stop a minute," said he. "What do you mean? I
   have never been down-hearted at anything my life; certainly not at the
   thought of dying. If it was the Lord's will that I should die in the
   street at this moment, I would cheerfully go." He never said a word
   more than he felt; yet that was the style of man. God send us more like
   him—men to whom religion is for home consumption. Not a pretty toy for
   Sundays, but food to live upon; a common-sense hope; a blunt man's
   religion that he can carry into business. One reported to me the other
   day a word which cheered me much. An Italian gentleman, who has known
   me since I have been at Mentone, was asked, "Are you a Catholic?" "No,
   I am not." "Are you a Protestant?" I am not sure, for I know little
   about it." "What are you?" "I am of Mr. Spurgeon's religion, which
   makes people happy themselves, and causes them to do good to others." I
   thank God he could say that of my religion: it did this for my dear
   friend—it made him a happy man, whose pleasure it was to please others:
   and now he has passed away in full sunlight into a still brighter noon.
   Amen, so let it be.

   The top and bottom of the matter is, "Believe in the Lord Jesus
   Christ." Be nothing; be nobody; and trust Him. Do not believe in
   yourself, but believe in Jesus. Have as many good works as you can cram
   into your life, but never tell anybody about them, or think anything of
   them. The best of them are but filthy rags: stow them all away in the
   coal-hole, and look to the merits of your Lord for salvation. Go to
   Jesus for everything. He says, "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried
   in the fire, that thou may be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest
   be clothed." Take his counsel. As he whom we sorrow for today could die
   peacefully, and even merrily, so shall you and I if we rely on the same
   Savior. When our time comes to depart, we shall just step aside and
   say, "Good-bye, dear friends, awhile: we will meet again in the home of
   the blessed." I hear him say so at this moment; and I answer him, "Dear
   brother, we will be with you speedily."
     __________________________________________________________________

   [1] William Higgs, Esq., for many years a beloved deacon of the church
   in the Metropolitan Tabernacle, fell on asleep January 3rd, 1883, in
   his fifty-ninth year.

   [2] See No. 47. "Christ's Prayer for his People."
     __________________________________________________________________

Gladness For Sadness

   (No. 1701)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JANUARY 14, 1883,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us, and
   the years in which we have seen evil. Let Your work appear to Your
   servants, and Your glory to their children. And let the beauty of the
   Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands for us;
   yes, establish the work of our hands." Psalm 90:15-17.

   TO understand this Psalm, you must observe its black border. Remember
   the sorrows of Moses, the man of God, who saw a whole generation die in
   the wilderness and was, himself, denied admission to the promised land.
   The man, Moses, was greatly afflicted. I might almost call him, as far
   as his life in the wilderness was concerned, "a man of sorrows and
   acquainted with grief." He dug the desert till it became a cemetery,
   for he lived amid 40 years of funerals. This 90th Psalm is saturated
   with the griefs of a sentenced generation, by whom it could be truly
   said, "We are consumed by Your anger, and by Your wrath are we
   troubled."

   We have, in our own case, as a Church and people, a double black border
   to surround our text this morning, for death has despoiled us a second
   time. We were, last Wednesday, burying our honored deacon, William
   Higgs, and at the moment of our meeting for that solemn purpose,
   another greatly esteemed deacon, William Mills, (William Mills, Esq.,
   for many years a beloved deacon of the Church in the Metropolitan
   Tabernacle, was taken to his rest January 12th, 1883, at the age of
   sixty-two), was suddenly stricken down with paralysis, to linger for a
   few hours and then to breathe out his soul unto God. I shall not trust
   myself to speak about him, for this double loss has, to a great extent,
   unnerved me. But this I must say, that he was an experienced and mature
   Christian and, above all, a quiet, diligent, loving, gracious servant
   of our common Master, whose care was the poor of the Church, to whom he
   distributed our alms with discretion and tenderness.

   It was pleasant to hear from him the story of his Christian experience.
   His was a calm and lowly walk. Of late, being weakly, he was much at
   home and there the Psalms of David and the Morning and Evening Portions
   were his comfort. He was always a source of strength to his pastor and
   his Brothers and Sisters, always of great service to the Church, far
   more so than the mass of our people will ever know--but of late he
   ripened and mellowed into an unusual sweetness and spirituality. My
   last interview with him gave me a high idea of his thorough composure
   and his perfect preparedness to commune with the glorified host above.
   He is gone--gone happily and safely Home. He had no pain or struggle,
   but gradually melted into eternal life. To us who remain, one sorrow
   has succeeded another to keep our wound bleeding and smarting.

   How well did Moses pray, "Return, O Lord, how long? And let it repent
   You concerning Your servants." Oh that our God would no more put His
   hand into the bitter box, as Herbert calls it, but now change His
   dispensation and revive the spirit of His contrite ones! On our part,
   as we are made to sympathize with the man of God in this Psalm, so let
   us imitate his example. Like he in multiplied bereavements, let us be
   like he in Grace and faith! Observe that the first word of this painful
   Psalm is, "Lord, You have been our dwelling place," as if, touched by
   the rod, the sufferer remembered his Father. Will the hypocrite always
   call upon God? No, and when God deals roughly with him, he will kick
   against the pricks.

   But the child of God, when he is smitten, turns to the hand that smote
   him and cries, "Show me why You contend with me?" If foxes and wolves
   are prowling about, and the shepherd's dog appears, they fly here and
   there as far away as they can. But when the dog is sent after the
   sheep, he fetches them back to the shepherd. Trouble drives away the
   carnal man from his pretended religion, but it gathers the true sheep
   together and, being awakened and alarmed, they seek the

   Good Shepherd. The more of grief we feel, the more of Grace we
   need--and the nearer to our Comforter we come! Closer to God is the cry
   of the troubled saint!--

   "Nearer, my God, to Thee! Nearer to Thee! Even though it be a cross
   Thatraises me; Still all my cry shall be, Nearer, my God, to Thee!
   Nearer to Thee!"

   Observe, also, that this Psalm is "a prayer of Moses." The comfort of a
   child of God in the darkness is prayer. Adversity, blessed of the Holy
   Spirit, calls our attention to the promises. The promises quicken our
   faith. Faith betakes itself to prayer--God hears and answers our cry!
   This is the chain of a tried soul's experience. Brothers and Sisters,
   as we suffer tribulation, as we know the promise, let us immediately
   exercise faith and turn in prayer to God, for surely never did a man
   turn to God but the Lord also turned to Him! If we are set a-praying,
   we may depend upon it--the Lord is set on blessing! Blessings are on
   the way from Heaven--their shadow falls upon us even now!

   I desire, at this time, to stir you up to a joyful expectancy! These
   clouds mean rich, refreshing showers. These sharp frosts foretell heavy
   sheaves. The Lord, by the Divine Spirit, make the Words of our text to
   be our prayer this morning! May the Lord Jesus present our supplication
   to the Father. The petition seems to me to be, first, for proportionate
   glad-ness--"Make us glad according to the days in which You have
   afflicted us, and the years in which we have seen evil." And, secondly,
   our prayer is for peculiar gladness, a gladness which is described in
   the 16th and 17th verses--"Let Your work appear unto Your servants, and
   Your glory unto their children. And let the beauty of the Lord our God
   be upon us: and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish
   the work of our hands."

   I. First, then, beloved Friends, our prayer this morning as a Church
   and people should be for PROPORTIONATE GLADNESS--that our God, who has
   filled one scale with grief, would fill the other scale with Grace till
   they balance each other! Inasmuch as He has poured out of His vial,
   certain drops of wormwood, we pray Him to measure out the same quantity
   of the consolation of love, whereby our hearts shall be comforted. May
   our Covenant God, who has chastened us heavily, now revive us
   graciously!

   We begin here by noticing that evidently the prayer desires a gladness
   of the same origin as the sadness. The Psalm plainly ascribes the
   sadness to the Lord--"You turn man to destruction; and say, Return, you
   children of men." "We are consumed by Your anger, and by Your wrath are
   we troubled." God is seen in bereavements--death comes distinctly at
   His command--second causes are left behind. Since we have a distinct
   idea that the sadness comes from God, our text expresses an equally
   distinct desire that the gladness may come from God. We beg for Divine
   comfort under Divine chastening. The words of the prayer are eminently
   simple and childlike--"Make us glad."

   They seem to say, "Father! You have made us sad; now make us glad! You
   have saddened us grievously; now therefore, O Lord, most heartily
   rejoice us." The prayer as good as cries, "Lord, no one but Yourself
   can make us glad under such affliction, but You can bring us up from
   the lowest deep. The wound goes too near the heart for any human
   physician to heal us; but You can heal us even to the making of us
   glad!" The prayer is full of buoyant hope, for it does not merely say,
   "Comfort us; bear us up; keep our heads above water; prevent us from
   sinking in despair"--no, but--"Make us glad." Reverse our state: lift
   us up from the depths to the heights. "Make us glad!"

   I hear the music of hope drowning the discord of fear; the songs of a
   joyous faith rising above the mournful dirges of grief! The appeal is
   to only the Lord! Moses entreats Jehovah, Himself, to kindle the lamps
   of joy within the tabernacles of Israel. It is healthy sadness which
   the Lord sends and it is equally safe gladness which God gives! If we
   make ourselves merry, we may be mere mimics of mirth. If outward goods
   make us merry, we may be no better than the rich fool in the parable!
   But if our God makes us glad, we may take our fill of delight and fear
   no ill consequences! The wine of the Kingdom cheers, but never
   intoxicates! The bread of God strengthens, but never surfeits! Neither
   pride, nor worldliness, nor carelessness comes of feasting at the table
   of our God!

   Come, then, let us together breathe this prayer--"Make us glad!" Let us
   paraphrase the expression, thus, "Lord, You are the Maker of all
   things, make us glad! By Your Word You did make the light; make light
   for us! You will make new these worn-out skies and much-polluted earth;
   come, then, and make us new and restore unto us the joy of Your sal-

   vation!" The parallel lies much in the source to which both sadness and
   gladness are ascribed. Lord, make both our summers and our winters, our
   calms and our storms, for everything is good which comes from You, and
   it is our joy that our times are in Your hands.

   But now notice that a proportion is insisted upon--"Make us glad
   according to the days in which You have afflicted us, and the years in
   which we have seen evil." This is an original prayer, full of thought
   and hope. Truly, also, it is a philosophical prayer--one which is in
   accordance with the harmonies of Nature and consonant with all the ways
   of God. I have been told that on the Scot lakes, the depth of the lake
   is almost always the same as the height of the surrounding hills. And I
   think I have heard that the same is true of the great ocean--so that
   the greatest depth is probably the same as the greatest height.

   Doubtless, the law of equilibrium is manifest in a thousand ways. Take
   an instance in the adjustment of days and nights. A long night reigns
   over the north of Norway--in these wintry months they do not even see
   the sun! But mark and admire their summers--then the day banishes the
   light altogether and you may read your Bible by the light of the
   midnight sun! Long wintry nights find compensation in a perpetual
   summer day! There is a balance about the conditions of the peoples of
   differing lands. Each country has its drawbacks and its advantages. I
   believe it is so with the life of God's people--the Lord also maintains
   a balance in them. "As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our
   consolation also abounds by Christ."

   The great Father permits some to be little in Israel, but they are none
   the less dear to Him for that! Such are like the minnow which swims a
   pool proportioned to its size--no great tempest sweeps over the tiny
   stream--its ruffles and its calms suit its little inhabitants. Another
   of God's children is made for great service. He may be compared to
   leviathan, for whom the ocean is prepared--with billows, tempests and
   hurricanes in due proportion. The great Architect draws everything to
   scale! While some lives are wisely arranged upon a small scale, others
   are fashioned for wider spheres and made to do business on the great
   waters! These have greater tribulations, but they also have greater
   consolations!

   God knows how to manage us all and we have, each one, a place in His
   thoughts. Wisdom allots each one his talent and his work--his strength
   and his trial. What would a sparrow do with an eagle's wings? Given the
   eagle's wings and the eagle's eyes, there must be a soaring up above
   the Alps, a companionship with winds and lightning! To the tiny
   hummingbird God appoints no flight into the upper air, but allots it
   flowers and sunshine nearer the ground. He knows the way of His people
   and His love is over all! The good Lord measures out the dark and the
   light in due proportions--and the result is life sad enough to be safe,
   and glad enough to be desirable!

   I do not believe that our mortal life is fitly set forth by the Thane's
   parable, when he said to the Saxon king, "Have you marked, O king, when
   you are sitting in your hall and the fires are lit, and the lamps are
   burning, how the sparrow comes flying out of the thick darkness, passes
   through the window, glides into the bright and cheerful light, and then
   flits out again into the darkness? Such is our life--an interval of
   light amidst a long darkness." It is not so! If a Believer flits out of
   the light, he glides into the light again! If we traverse a stretch of
   darkness, we may expect an equal breadth of brightness! If today we
   sail a stormy main, we may hop, tomorrow, that the sea will be as
   glass. We have our changes, but the preponderance of life is not to
   misery.

   Rainy days are many and yet, in the long run, they are outnumbered by
   the seasons of fair weather. God makes us glad according to the days in
   which He has afflicted us and the years in which we have seen evil! It
   may not be said of God's children that we are a wretched company.
   Though truly, if only in this life we had hope, we should be, of all
   men, most miserable. Yet, since that hope is sure, we are, of all men,
   the most happy! We shall not say, when life is ended here below, that
   it was an evil thing to have lived! We have the promise of the life
   that now is as well as of that which is to come! "Happy are you, O
   Israel," is for the present as well as for the future!

   God has blessed us and we are blessed--and it is not for us to speak as
   if the blessing were in vain. Now, if it is so, that our gladness and
   our sadness are balanced, let us accept them, by turns, with gratitude!
   Let us notice, further, that sorrow is the herald of joy. Did I not
   tell you but a few Sundays ago how I sat in health and strength and joy
   in the olive gardens, and said to my friend--

   "Should we expect some danger near When we perceive too much delight?"

   The apprehension was soon justified, as it has often been! But let us
   not forget the other side of this Truth of God--we may expect some
   mercy, near, when we are bowed with heaviest grief! Among the ashes of
   sorrow we shall find live coals of joy! Grief is God's usher of the
   black rod, sent to intimate that in the majesty of His Grace, the Lord
   is drawing near to us.

   There will be first, to us, even as there was to Israel, the sound of
   Egypt's chariots, the cry of her horsemen and a descent into the depths
   of the sea--and then shall come the far-resounding, never-forgotten
   shout of victory! The rage of Pharaoh, the darkness of the night and
   the march through the Red Sea must prepare the way for Miriam's timbrel
   and the loud refrain, "Sing unto the Lord, for He has triumphed
   gloriously; the horse and his rider has He thrown into the sea!" Israel
   must make bricks without straw before Moses shall come! If I had been a
   little child among the Israelites, I think I should have known, when
   father set the bitter herbs upon the table, that the lamb was roasting,
   somewhere, and would be set out, too. "With bitter herbs shall you eat
   it"--and so, if there are bitter herbs, the dainty dish is near!

   Job did not know, and he could not guess it, but in the light of Job's
   book we ought to know that the preparation for making a man twice as
   rich as he was before is to take away all that he has. Oftentimes, in
   building a bigger house, it is the way of wisdom to clear away the old
   building altogether. Keeping up the old structure is often an expensive
   economy--it is better to demolish it. Even so do I believe that the
   adversities of the saints are to their lasting profit by removing that
   which would bind greater prosperity. Troubles come clothed in black,
   but to the eyes of faith they carry silver trumpets and proclaim the
   approach of great mercies! God is hastening in the richness of His
   favor to bless His children! Sorrow is the outrider of joy!

   A step further and we have it thus--sorrow often prepares for joy. It
   might not be safe, dear Brother, that you should enjoy worldly
   prosperity at the outset of life. Your adversities in business are
   meant to teach you the worthless-ness of earthly things so that when
   you have them, you may not be tempted to make idols of them! I am
   persuaded that many men have been ruined by rising suddenly to fame and
   power! Had they, at first, been abused and trod down like mire in the
   streets, their spirits might have been hardened to endure that sharpest
   of all tests, namely, human honor-- for, "as the fining pot for silver,
   and the furnace for gold; so is a man to his praise." You are not ready
   yet, dear Brothers and Sisters, to bear the weight of an elevated
   superstructure--you must be dug out, first, and a deep foundation must
   be laid to bear a lofty building!

   In the spiritual life, God does not run us up with glittering virtues
   all of a sudden, but deep prostration of spirit and thorough
   humiliation prepare the under-courses! And then, afterwards, stone upon
   stone, as with rows of jewels, we are built up to be a palace for the
   indwelling of God! Sorrow furnishes the house for joy. The preparation
   for an eternal Heaven is temporary affliction. Jesus has gone to
   prepare Heaven for us, but He has left His Cross behind Him that the
   Holy Spirit may, by its means, prepare us for Heaven! You could not
   enjoy the rest of Paradise if you had not first known the labors of
   pilgrimage! You could not understand the boundless joy of Heaven if
   your hearts had not been enlarged by the endurance of tribulation! Let
   not this be forgotten, then--our troubles build a house and spread a
   table for our joys.

   Did you ever read of a Roman triumph? Have you ever stood upon the Via
   Sacra which led up to the Capitol? There, when the glad day was come,
   the people crowded all along the road. Every roof was loaded--the very
   chimney tops bore each a man, while along the sacred way the conqueror
   rode, drawn by white horses, amid the blast of trumpets and the
   thundering acclamations of myriads. What glory! What renown! Rome's
   millions did their best to crown their hero. But there had been to him
   full many a battle before that hour of pride! Victory needs conflict as
   its preface. The conqueror's scars are his truest decorations. His
   wounds are his best certificates of valor. Because he had been
   smothered with the dust and defiled with the blood of battle, the hero
   stood erect and all men paid him reverence.

   It must be so in the present condition of things. No man can wear the
   garland till he has first contended for it--

   "Surely we must fight if we would reign. Increase our courage, Lord!"
   The way to the crown is by the cross--the palm branch comes not to the
   idle hand--

   "The path of sorrow and that path, alone, Leads to the place where
   sorrow is unknown." Once again, let me say to you, dear Friends, there
   is such a connection between sorrow and joy that no saint ever has a
   sorrow but what it has a joy wrapped in it. It is a rough oyster, but a
   pearl lies within those shells if you will but look for it! Do not
   think I mock at grief by saying that it is the husk of joy. Far from
   it! I would console grief by asserting sol-

   emnly that within the black envelope of affliction there is a precious
   love token from God--you can be sure of that. We find the treasure of
   communion with Christ in the earthen vessel of sorrow. We ask to have
   fellowship with Jesus in His sufferings and we cannot do so unless we
   suffer. It is a joy to remember in our woe that by these things we are
   made like our Lord and conformed to His image! If there were only this
   comfort, it might suffice to sweeten every suffering!

   Beside this, there is generally, with sorrow, a manifestation of the
   Lord amid our weakness. I have known many forms of happiness, but I
   think, upon the whole, I consider the purest and sweetest to be that of
   fainting in weakness upon the breast of Jesus and dying into His life.
   "Oh to be nothing, nothing, only to lie at His feet!" To be as a lily
   broken off at the stalk and, therefore, taken up into His hands! This
   is unutterable happiness! The Lord's love to His poor and afflicted
   ones is most choice and tender. "He carries the lambs in His bosom."
   Favored feebleness to be thus laid in the Heaven of Jesus' bosom! I
   love to cower down under the Divine wings like a chick under the hen,
   finding myself by losing myself in God! I have found it precious to
   feel that no more strength is left with which to suffer and, therefore,
   I must die away into the Divine will!

   Certain is it that in every tribulation there are consolations, even as
   every night has its own stars. I am sure, dear Brothers and Sisters,
   you that grieve most, today, for the departed, possess a joy which
   outweighs your mourning--it is a great sorrow to lose a father, but it
   is a greater joy to know that your father is not really lost, but
   translated to the skies! It is a great grief to part with a true
   Brother and fellow laborer, but it is happiness to know that he is
   promoted to the peerage of the skies! We might, each one, say of our
   departed friend, "Let us go, that we may die with him." These good men
   have a head start on us--they are preferred before us--they have first
   seen the King in His beauty!

   One of them, at least, has reached his reward before his spiritual
   father--he who is my joy and crown is in Heaven before me! Verily,
   there are first that shall be last. Our hold on the invisible is
   strengthened by the departure of our Brothers and Sisters. We have more
   in Heaven to love, more fraternal meetings to anticipate and so we have
   new links with the eternal. Did I not say, truly, that every sorrow
   contains a joy?

   Once more, the day will come when all the sorrows of God's sending will
   be looked upon as joys. Hear this! By some strange alchemy, known only
   to "the King eternal, immortal, invisible," our sorrows shall be turned
   into joys! You see this in your own homes--I quote it because it is the
   Lord's own metaphor--a woman, when she is in travail, has sorrow
   because her hour is come. But soon she remembers no more her travail,
   for joy that a man is born into the world! Our troubles and travails
   are sharp, but they will all be forgotten in the joy that will come of
   them. Before we enter Heaven we shall thank God for most of our
   sorrows--and when we are once in Glory we shall thank Him for all of
   them!

   Perhaps in Heaven, among all the things which have happened to us that
   will excite our wonder and delight, our furnace experience and the
   hammer and the file will take the lead. Sorrow will contribute rich
   stanzas to our everlasting Psalm. Therefore comfort one another with
   these words and breathe the prayer, each one, today, "Make us glad
   accordingly to the days in which You have afflicted us, and the years
   in which we have seen evil." In each case may Divine Love weigh out the
   ingredients of a sanctified life according to the art of the
   apothecary, each one in due proportion!

   II. Bear with me while I come to the second part of my subject which I
   desire to make eminently practical. The gladness desired is also
   described--it is PECULIAR GLADNESS. The Psalmist wishes for a fourfold
   gladness--the first is gladness at the sight of God's Work.
   Notice--"YOUR work." There is always something cheering in God's work.
   Have you ever felt it so? I think you must have done so. When Mungo
   Park was cheered by that little bit of moss which he picked up in the
   wilderness, he was but comforted as many of us have been. The flowers
   of the garden, the wild beauties of the forest, the chance tufts by the
   roadside are all God's work and, therefore, breathe consolation to
   God's servants.

   Nature is kind--her stars speak light to our hearts! Her winds chase
   away our gloom and her waves flash with health for us. Nature is a fond
   stepmother to the Lord's children because she is, like ourselves, the
   work of the Lord. When we are in deep tribulation it is a sweet quietus
   to survey the handiwork of our Father in Heaven. His work in
   Providence, also, is often a consolation to us. Let us but see what God
   has done for His people and for ourselves in years past, and we are
   cheered! Trouble, itself, when we see it to be God's work, has lost its
   terror.

   A certain Persian nobleman found himself surrounded by soldiers who
   sought to take him prisoner. He drew his sword and fought right
   valiantly--and might have escaped had not one of the company said, "The
   king has sent us to convey you to himself." He sheathed his sword at
   once. Yes, we can contend against what we call a misfortune, but when

   we learn that the Lord has done it, our contest is ended, for we joy
   and rejoice in what the Lord does! Or, if we cannot get the length of
   rejoicing in it, we acquiesce to His will. This is our song--

   "I would not contend with Your will, Whatever that will may decree! But
   oh, may each trial I feel Unite me more fondly to Thee." Brothers and
   Sisters, the great comfort which this Church needs, now, is to see
   God's work in the midst of her revived and glorified. If the Lord will
   but come among us and save men. And if He will build up and edify His
   people and give them help to accomplish their holy service--this will
   be our richest possible comfort--"Let Your work appear unto Your
   servants." Lord, our Brothers and Sisters fade away! They go into the
   shadow land and we see them no more. But, oh, if we can see Your hand
   at work among us, we shall not be discouraged! We mourn the loss of our
   Brothers' work, but we will not be disheartened if we see Your work!
   May the Lord make you to see His work on your own hearts, dear Brothers
   and Sisters! May He make you to see His work in the congregation, in
   the Sunday school and everywhere throughout the world, bringing men to
   Himself--and you will find therein a sovereign balm for all your
   wounds.

   The next consolation is also a very rich one--gladness at the
   Revelation of God to our children--"And Your glory to their children."
   If our God will but make His glory to be seen by our children, what
   more can we ask? "I have no greater joy than this, that my children
   walk in the Truth of God." No better comfort can be found for bereaved
   mothers than to see their sons and daughters converted! There is a
   sorrow for those who have departed, but I could almost say, "Weep not
   for the dead, neither bewail them"--for there is a sharper grief, by
   far, and that is our anxiety for those who survive and yet are dead
   unto God!

   Did you ever see a chain gang of convicts marching to their labor? I
   could wish never to see the sad scene again. Suppose that among those
   convicts there was a boy of yours! Ah me! Ah me! It were better for you
   that he had never been born! But think of those who are prisoners in
   the chains of sin. Is there a boy or girl of yours in such bonds? Oh,
   then, I am sure you will pray the Lord to rescue you from so sharp a
   trial--and to set your sons and daughters free from the fetters of
   iniquity. Pray, each one of you, fervently, "O Lord, let Your glory as
   their Emancipator appear to my children and then do what You will."

   Did you ever visit a condemned cell? To peep through the gate and to
   see a man sitting there, condemned to die, is enough to make one faint!
   Suppose it were your boy! Suppose it were your husband! Suppose it were
   your brother! But listen--"He that believes not is condemned already."
   Pardon us, dear unconverted relatives, if we say that we feel more
   sorrow for you living than we do for our gracious ones who are dead,
   for yours is a terrible plight, to be, even now, sitting in the
   condemned cell--doomed to be taken out to execution before long unless
   Infinite Mercy shall grant a free pardon.

   What dreadful sights must meet the eyes upon a battlefield! If I see a
   man bleeding by a common cut, my heart is in my mouth and I cannot bear
   the sight! But what must it be to see men dismembered, disemboweled,
   writhing to and fro in the last agonies of death! What horror to walk
   among mounds of dead bodies and stumble at each stop over a human
   corpse! Yet, what is natural death compared with spiritual death? What
   terror to dwell in the same house with relatives who are dead while
   they live--dead unto God! The thought is full of anguish. If God will
   quicken our spiritually dead. If He will give life to those who are
   "free among the slain, as they that go down into the Pit," what a
   consolation we shall

   find!

   Did you see that alarming fire the other day? Did you hear of the hotel
   in flames--the one in which there were many guests in the upper
   story--and the flames had grasped the whole edifice, so that numbers
   perished? It must be dreadful to see persons at the upper windows of a
   burning house and to be powerless to rescue them. But if your child
   were there-- your boy, your girl, or if your husband or your wife were
   there, or even if anyone you knew were there--your grief would have a
   double sting about it and you would cry, "Lord, do what You will with
   me, but save those precious lives!" Remember, then, that your ungodly
   friends are in the same condition, and what greater mercy can God
   bestow upon you than for Him to make His glory to be seen by your
   children in their eternal salvation? Therefore I turn your thoughts to
   that prayer. May you breathe it now and may the Lord, for Christ's
   sake, answer it right speedily--

   "Let your glory appear unto our children."

   The third consolation which Moses here describes is gladness at beauty
   bestowed--"Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us." Sorrow mars
   the countenance and clothes the body with sackcloth. But if the Lord
   will come to us and adorn us with His beauty, then the stains of
   mourning will speedily disappear! Brothers and Sisters, what a beauty
   is this which the Lord gives--"the beauty of the Lord our God!" This
   comeliness is the beauty of His Grace, for our covenant God is the God
   of all Grace! If the Lord makes us to know that we are His, our faces
   shine. If He fills us with His life and love, then brightness flashes
   from the eyes and there is a Grace about every movement! This "beauty"
   means holiness, for holiness is the beauty of God!

   If the Holy Spirit works in you the beauty of holiness, you will rise
   superior to your afflictions. If this Church shall be made the holier
   by its bereavements, we shall gain much by our losses. This beauty of
   the Lord must surely mean His Presence with us. As the sun beautifies
   all things, so does God's Presence! When we know that Jesus is with us.
   When we feel that He is our Helper. When we bask in His love, when He
   abides with us in power--this is the beauty of the saints! If we have
   Christ in us, Christ with us, we can bear any amount of trouble!--

   "I can do all things, or can bear

   All suffering if my Lord is there." This beauty gives to the Believer
   an attractiveness in the eyes of men. They perceive that we have been
   with Jesus and they behold our faces shining like the faces of angels!
   It is a great thing when a Christian is so happy, so holy and so
   heavenly that he attracts others to Christ and people seek his company
   because they perceive that he has been in the company of the blessed
   Lord! God give you this, and if you have it, dear Friends, you may
   forget your sorrows--they are transfigured into joy!

   The last comfort that Moses speaks of is gladness at our own world
   being established--"Establish the work of our hands upon us; yes,
   establish the work of our hands." Do you notice the wonderful blending
   in the 15th and 17th verses? There it is, "Let Your work appear to Your
   servant." Here it is, "Let our work be established." Alas, I have heard
   divines rightly say that salvation is God's work and then they have
   harshly added that, in our preaching of the Gospel, we make it out to
   be our own work. Thus they speak hard things against us and their
   speech is not after the Lord's mind. Others, again, make out this work
   to be so much man's work that God is forgotten!

   Neither of these is correct--we must blend the two! To build up the
   Church and win souls for Jesus is, first of all, God's work and then
   our work! Why should a Christian work to win souls? Answer--because God
   works in him to win souls! Remember the verses--"Work out your
   salvation with fear and trembling." Why? "For it is God that works in
   you to will and to do of His good pleasure." God works to set us
   working--our work is the result of His work! Our work is often a very
   effectual means of comfort to us. On the battlefield of Gettysburg
   there had been a terrible fight and among the wounded lay a certain
   chaplain of the name of Eastman who had been seriously injured in the
   back by his horse falling upon him.

   The dark and dreary night came on and, as he lay in intense pain,
   unable to rise, he heard a voice at a little distance cry, "O God!" His
   interest was excited and he rolled himself over and over through pools
   of blood--and among the slain--till he reached the side of the dying
   man. And there they lay--talking of Jesus and His free salvation! The
   man expired in hope! And just then two soldiers came and told Eastman
   that a captain was dying a little further down the field and they must
   carry him there--so he was borne in anguish upon the work of mercy--and
   while the night wore on, he spoke of Jesus to many dying men. Could he
   have had a surer relief from his pain? I think not! Why, it seems to me
   that to lie there on his back with nothing to do but moan and groan
   would have been horrible! But in all his pain and anguish, to be
   carried about to proclaim mercy to dying men made the anguish of an
   injured back endurable! So is it when you miss a friend, or have lost
   property, or are heavy in spirit--you shall find your surest comfort in
   serving God with all your might.

   The text prays for our work that it may succeed--"Establish the work of
   our hands." Oh, if God will but prosper us in our work for Him, how
   happy we shall be! One day this week I had a great lift up out of deep
   distress when I was informed that a captain was here, last Sunday
   morning, and was so impressed that he found the Savior and made the
   fact known at one of the noonday Prayer Meetings, asking for himself
   that he might be kept faithful to his God. This is good. We do not
   always see our seed grow so quickly as that. It is wet weather just
   now, the damp of sorrow is on all things,

   and so the seed sown in tears is speedily reaped in joy! Is not this
   something to comfort us? Let us pray God to send us more of it, that by
   conversions our work may prosper.

   Then we pray that our work may be lasting--that is the chief point. I
   look forward to the future of this Church with prayerful, hopeful
   anxiety! I am not old--not very old at any rate--but I am not all that
   I was in my earlier days. And I mistrust whispers that soon things will
   decline. The other day a certain great preacher said that after a
   preacher had been for a while in a place, all the heroism, all the
   earnestness, all the fervor which characterizes new efforts would be
   gone. He said the best thing would be to disband the Church and let
   them begin, again, under a new leader. That may look like a practical
   idea, but I do not quite see it--nor does it commend itself, to me, as
   sound and true. If a Church is a man's work, it is dependent upon a
   man--and when he is gone, the best thing we can do with it is to let it
   dissolve!

   But I desire to see built up on this spot, by God's hand, a Church
   which will endure till the coming of the Lord! Though dear ones, who
   seemed to be pillars, are taken away, the Lord will find other pillars!
   And though just now there are breaches in Zion's wall, here and there,
   yet the wall shall again be repaired and not a broken place shall
   remain! If we may see this accomplished, we shall be abundantly
   comforted. "Establish the work of our hands for us; yes, establish the
   work of our hands." We belong to an established Church--established not
   by men, but by the Lord! This Church will flourish when you and I have
   passed into our rest.

   Meanwhile, I beg you to take a deep interest in it and do all you can
   for its prosperity. Make it more and more be the model of what a Church
   of Christ should be. I long that the Truth of God which I have preached
   may be established in all the earth. They say that Calvinism is at a
   great discount now--perhaps it is. Yet, to me, it seems that its Free
   Grace spirit is far more spread than ever and is quietly saturating all
   true evangelical preaching. If it is so, that the Doctrines of Grace
   are now despised, we still hope that we shall live to see them brought
   to the front, again! Or, if not, we shall leave behind such a testimony
   that, in years to come, the Gospel of the Grace of God will be read by
   thousands!

   At this time I beg for the loving help of you all, for the Church
   itself. Our institutions deserve your zeal, liberality and
   prayerfulness. But do not forget the old house at home, the mother of
   these efforts. The Church, itself, needs your love, your prayers, your
   help, your sustenance! I say this to you, my dear Friends, who have
   been with me long--be you this day what you were at first--be as knit
   together and as earnest as you were when you had a boy preacher to lead
   you and you loved him and helped him to do good service for the Lord.
   For nearly 30 years God has been with us--let us begin, again, from
   this date and see if we cannot complete the 30 years of blessing and,
   if the Lord permits us, let us add another 20 years to it and make up
   half-a-century of prosperity!

   Who knows? Only let us carefully watch the present and see that nothing
   declines. Let each one be eager to keep the sacred cause in a healthy
   condition. God will establish His work upon us from day to day--and
   this shall be our comfort. Keep everything in the best possible working
   order! Plead with the Holy Spirit to clothe us with His power. Maintain
   all forms of holy labor vigorously and sustain every fund by your
   spontaneous liberality. Never need pressing, but let each one enquire,
   "What can I do to keep the Church well supplied to God's glory?" I
   believe this is the way to Church comfort. God will comfort Zion; He
   will comfort all her waste places! But we must, each one, take pleasure
   in her stones and favor the dust thereof.

   Close up your ranks! Leave no empty spaces. Let every man stand closer
   to his fellow--and then--"Forward!" Forward to a fuller consecration
   and a braver faith in God! Forward to more Grace and higher holiness!
   And so shall we wipe away our tears and praise the name of the Lord!
   And He will remember us and, by a plenitude of blessing, make up to us
   all that we have lost. A blessing is coming! Be ready for it! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

On Laying Foundations

   (No. 1702)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JANUARY 21, 1883,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "And why do you call Me, Lord, Lord, and not do the things which I say?
   Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings, and does them, I will show
   you whom he is like: he is like a man which built a house, and dug
   deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the
   stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it
   was founded upon a rock. But he that hears, and does not, is like a man
   that without a foundation built a house upon the earth; against which
   the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin
   of that house was great." Luke 6:46-49.

   THESE parables describe two classes of hearers, but they say nothing of
   those who are not hearers. Their position and prospects we must infer
   from what is said of hearers. Our Lord Jesus Christ has come into the
   world to tell us of the Father's love. And never man spoke as He spoke
   and yet there are many who refuse to hear Him. I do not mean those who
   are far away, to whom the name of Jesus is well-near unknown, but I
   mean persons in this land and especially in this great and
   highly-favored city who willfully refuse to hear Him whom God has
   anointed to bring tidings of salvation! Our Lord Jesus is proclaimed, I
   was about to say, upon the housetops in this city, for even in their
   music halls and theaters, Christ is preached to the multitude! And at
   the corners of our streets His banner is lifted up--and yet there are
   tens of thousands to whom the preaching of the Gospel is as music in
   the ears of a corpse!

   They shut their ears and will not hear, though the testimony is
   concerning God's own Son, eternal life and the way to escape from
   everlasting wrath! To their own best interests, to their eternal
   benefit, men are dead--nothing will secure their attention to their
   God. To what, then, are these men like? They may fitly be compared to
   the man who built no house whatever and remained homeless by day and
   without shelters by night. When worldly trouble comes like a storm,
   those persons who will not hear the Words of Jesus have no consolation
   to cheer them. When sickness comes, they have no joy of heart to
   sustain them under its pains. And when death, that most terrible of
   storms, beats upon them, they feel its full fury, but they cannot find
   a hiding place.

   They neglect the housing of their souls and when the hurricane of
   Almighty Wrath shall break forth in the world to come they will have no
   place of refuge. In vain will they call upon the rocks to fall upon
   them and the mountains to cover them! They shall be, in that day,
   without a shelter from the righteous wrath of the Most High. Alas, that
   any being who wears the image of man should be found in such a plight!
   Homeless wanderers in the day of tempest! How my soul grieves for them!
   Yet, what excuse will those men invent who have refused, even, to know
   the way of salvation? What excuse can the most tender heart make for
   them?

   Will they plead that they could not believe? Yet they may not say that
   they could not hear--and faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the
   Word of God! Oh my Friend, if the Word of God comes to you and you
   decline to hear it and, therefore, do not believe in Jesus, but die in
   your sins--what is this but soul-suicide? If a man dies of a disease
   when infallible medicine is to be had, must not his death lie at his
   own door? If a man perishes of hunger when bread is all around him and
   others feed to the full, but he will not have it, will any man pity
   him? Surely not a drop of pity will be yielded to a lost soul with
   which he may relieve the torment of his conscience, for all holy
   intelligences will perceive that the sinner chose his own destruction!

   This shall ever press upon the condemned conscience, "You knew the
   Gospel, but you did not attend to it: you knew that there was salvation
   and that Christ was the Savior, and that pardon was proclaimed to
   guilty men, but you would not afford time from your farm and from your
   merchandise, from your pleasures and from your sins, to learn how you

   could be saved. That which cost God so dearly, you treated as a
   trifle." Ah, my dear Friends, may none of you belong to the non-hearing
   class!

   It is not to such that I shall, this morning, address myself, and yet I
   could not enter upon my discourse without a word of loving
   expostulation with them. Let me part with them by quoting the warning
   Words of the Holy Spirit, "See that you refuse not Him that speaks. For
   if they escaped not who refused Him that spoke on earth, much more
   shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaks from Heaven."
   Our earnest attention will now be given to those who are hearers of the
   Word of God and are somewhat affected by it. All hearers are builders
   of houses for their souls--they are, each one, doing something to set
   up a spiritual habitation.

   Some of these go a considerable distance in this house-building and
   even crown the structure by publicly confessing Christ. They say unto
   Him, "Lord, Lord!" They meet with His followers and join with them in
   reverence to the Master's name, but they do not obey the Lord. They
   hear Him, but they fail to do the things which He says. Therefore they
   are mistaken builders, who fail in the foundation, and make nothing
   sure except that their house will come down about their ears! Others
   there are, and we trust they will be found to be many among us, who are
   building rightly, building for eternity--constructing a dwelling place
   with a foundation of rock and walls of well-built stone--of which the
   Lord Christ is both Foundation and Cornerstone.

   I am anxious to speak, at this time, to those who are just beginning to
   build for eternity. I am indeed happy to know that there are many such
   among us. May the Holy Spirit bless this sermon to them!

   I. Our first subject will be A COMMON TEMPTATION WITH SPIRITUAL
   BUILDERS. A common temptation with hearers of the Word of God,
   according to the two parables before us, is to neglect foundation
   work--to get hurriedly over the first part of the business--and run up
   the building quickly. They are tempted to assume that all is done which
   is said to be done--to take it for granted that all is right which is
   hoped to be right and then to go on piling up the walls as rapidly as
   possible. The great temptation, I say, with young beginners in
   religious life, is to skimp on the foundation and treat those things
   lightly which are of the first importance.

   The same temptation comes to us throughout the whole of life, but to
   young beginners it is especially perilous. Satan would have them
   neglect the fundamental principles upon which their future hope and
   character are to rest, so that in a future trying hour, from need of a
   solid foundation, they may yield to evil and lose the whole of their
   life building. This temptation is all the more dangerous, first,
   because these young beginners have no experience. Even the most
   experienced child of God is often deceived--how much more the pilgrim
   who has but just entered the wicket gate! The tried saint sometimes
   mistakes that for a virtue which is only a gilded fault and he fancies
   that to be genuine which is mere counterfeit! How, then, without any
   experience, whatever, can the mere babe in Grace escape deception
   unless he is graciously preserved?

   Newly awakened and rendered serious, earnest hearts get to work in the
   Divine life with much hurry, seizing upon that which first comes to
   hand, building in heedless haste, without due care and examination.
   Something must be done and they do it without asking whether it is
   according to the teaching of the Lord. They call Jesus, "Lord," but
   they do what others say, rather than what Jesus says. Satan is sure to
   be at hand at such times that he may lead the young convert to lay, in
   place of Gospel repentance, a repentance that needs to be repented
   of--and instead of the faith of God's elect-- a proud presumption or an
   idle dream. For that love of God which is the work of the Spirit of
   God, he brings mere natural affection for a minister and he says,
   "There, that will do! You must have a house for your soul to dwell in.
   There are the materials, pile them up."

   Like children at play upon the beach, the anxious heap up their
   sandcastles and please themselves with them, for they are ignorant of
   Satan's devices. I am, for this reason, doubly anxious to save my
   beloved young friends from the Deceiver! The common temptation is,
   instead of really repenting, to talk about repentance. Instead of
   heartily believing, to say, "I believe," without believing. Instead of
   truly loving, to talk of love, without loving! Instead of coming to
   Christ, to speak about coming to Christ, and profess to come to Christ,
   and yet not to come at all! The character of Talkative in Pilgrim's
   Progress is ably drawn. I have met the gentleman many times and can
   bear witness that John Bunyan was a photographer before photography was
   invented!

   Christian said of him "He talks of prayer, of repentance, of faith and
   of the new birth, but he knows but only to talk of them. I have been in
   his family and his house is as empty of religion as the white of an egg
   is of savor." We have too

   many such persons around us who are, as to what they say, everything
   that is to be desired and yet they are proven to be mere shams. As
   tradesmen place dummies in their shops, papered and labeled to look
   like goods, while yet they are nothing of the sort, so are these men
   marked and labeled as Christians, but the Grace of God is not in them!
   Oh that you young beginners may be on the alert, that you be not
   content with the form of godliness, but are made to feel the power

   of it!

   There is this to help the temptation, too, that this plan for the
   present saves a great deal of trouble. Your mind is distressed and you
   need comfort--well, it will comfort you to say, "Lord, Lord," though
   you do not the things that Christ says. If you admit the claims of
   Jesus to be Lord, even though you do not believe on Him for salvation
   and so neglect the main thing which He commands, you will find some
   ease in the admission. He bids you repent of sin, trust His blood, love
   His Word and seek after holiness--but it is much easier to admire these
   things without following after them in your life. To feign repentance
   and faith is not difficult, but genuine godliness is heart work and
   requires thought, care, sincerity, prayerfulness and watchfulness.

   Believe me, real religion is no sport! He that would be saved will find
   it to be no jesting matter. "The kingdom of Heaven suffers violence,"
   and he that is easy about the thing, and thinks it is nothing more than
   the magician's, "Heigh, presto, done," has made a fatal mistake!
   "Strive," says Christ, "to enter into the strait gate." The Spirit
   strives in us mightily and often works us to an agony. The crown of
   eternal Glory is not won without fighting, nor the prize of our high
   calling received without running--yet, by just making a holy
   profession, and by practicing an outward form--a man imagines that the
   same result is produced as by seeking the Lord with his whole heart and
   believing in the Lord Jesus. If it were so, there would be a fine broad
   road to Heaven and Satan, himself, would turn pilgrim! Believe me, dear
   Hearers, this saving of trouble will turn out to be a making of trouble
   and, before matters end, the hardest way will turn out to be the
   easiest way!

   This kind of building without a foundation has this advantage to back
   up the temptation--it enables a man to run up a religion very quickly.
   He makes splendid progress! While the anxious heart is searching after
   the Truth of God in the inward parts and begging to be renewed by
   Grace, his exulting friend is as happy as he can be in a peace which he
   has suddenly obtained without question or examination. This rapid
   grower never asks, "Has my religion changed my conduct? Is my faith
   attended by a new nature? Does the Spirit of God dwell in me? Am I
   really what I profess to be, or am I but a bastard professor, after
   all?" No, he puts aside all enquiry as a temptation of the devil! He
   takes every good thing for granted and votes that all is gold which
   glitters!

   Look how fast he goes! The fog is dense, but he steams through it,
   heedless of danger! He has joined the Church--he has commenced work for
   God! He is boasting of his own attainments--he hints that he is
   perfect! But is this mushroom building safe? Will it pass muster in the
   last, great survey? Will it stand should a tempest happen? The chimney
   shaft is tall, but is it safe? Yes, there's the rub! This is the
   question which makes an end of much of the boasting which is all around
   us. It is better to tremble at God's Word than boldly to presume. It is
   better to be fearful, lest, after all, we may be castaways, than to
   harden one's forehead with vain confidence. When a man travels upon a
   wrong road, the faster he runs, the further he will go astray.

   Remember the advice to go slowly and the old proverb which says, "The
   more haste the less speed." If you build quickly because you build
   without a foundation, your time and toil are thrown away. How common,
   how deceptive is this temptation! The young beginner, the man who is
   just awakened to seek the Lord, will find a great many to help him in
   his mistake, should he neglect the foundation. Kind, good, Christian
   friends often, without a thought of doing so, help to mislead seeking
   souls. "Yes," they say, "you are converted," and so, perhaps, the
   person would be if all he said were true! But it is said without
   feeling; it comes from the lips, only, and does not come from the
   heart! And, therefore, it is ruinous to encourage him. A kindly
   assurance from a Christian friend may breed false confidence if that
   assurance was mistakenly given.

   In these days, we do not meet with many Christians who err by dealing
   too severely with converts--the shot strikes the other target. Our
   forefathers were possibly too suspicious and jealous, but nowadays we
   nearly all err in the opposite direction--we are so anxious to see
   everybody brought to Christ that our wish may tend to delude us into
   the belief that it is so. We are so willing to cheer and comfort those
   who seek the Lord, that we may fall into the habit of prophesying
   smooth things and thus shun everything which tends to probe and test,
   lest it should also discourage. Let us beware lest

   we cry, "Peace, peace," where there is no peace! It will be a sad thing
   to breed hypocrites when we were looking for converts.

   I have heard of one who had been into the Enquiry Room a dozen times
   and when, on another occasion, she was invited to go there, she said,
   "I really do not know why I should go, for I have been told that I was
   saved 12 times, already, and I am not a bit better than before they
   told me so." It would be better to send some home weeping rather than
   rejoicing! Many a wound needs the knife more than the plaster. You may
   be comforted by well-meant assurances of tender friends and yet that
   comfort may be all a lie! I therefore warn you against any peace except
   that which comes from doing that which Jesus commands, or, in other
   words, against any confidence except that which rests in only Jesus and
   is attended with repentance, faith and a life of obedience to your
   Lord.

   No doubt man are encouraged in slight building by the fact that so many
   professors are making a fair show and yet their building is without
   foundation. We cannot shut our eyes to the fact that in all Churches
   there are persons who have no depth of spiritual root and, we are
   afraid, no real spiritual life. We cannot root them up, though we fear
   that they are tares, for we are assured that we would unavoidably root
   up the wheat with them--and this our Master forbids. There is nothing
   about their outward conduct which we could lay hold upon as a proof of
   their being deceivers, and yet a cold chill runs through us when we
   talk with them, for they have no warmth, no life and nothing of the
   Lord about them.

   We miss in their conversation that sweet spirituality, that holy
   unction, that blessed humility which are sure to be present when men
   are truly familiar with the Lord and have entered into living union
   with Him. People of this order mix up with us in our holy
   convocations--and when they come across the newly-awakened ones--they
   talk of Divine things in such an off-hand and flippant manner that they
   do serious mischief. They speak about conversion as if it were a mere
   trifle, a matter as easy as kissing your hand--and those who are
   hopeful, and over whom our hearts are yearning--are turned aside by
   them. Young people are apt to think, "So-and-So is a member of the
   Church and he is never very precise. If a lukewarm profession satisfies
   him, why should it not satisfy me!"

   Ah, my dear Friends, you would not say so in business! If you knew a
   man was trading without capital and likely to come to bankruptcy, you
   would not say, "I may do the same." If you saw a man venturing into
   deep water who could not swim, and you felt sure that he would
   ultimately drown, you would not follow his example and drown, too. No,
   no! Do not let these frothy professors be beacons to you. Get away from
   Mr. Talkative, lest he make you as hollow a drum as he is! Beware of
   loose professors who are as wreckers' lights that lure men upon the
   rocks. Make sure work for eternity and bid triflers be gone.

   Again, there is always, at the back of all this, an inducement to build
   without a foundation because it will not be known and possibly may not
   be found out for years. Foundation work is quite out of sight--and the
   house can be built up and be very useful in a great many ways--and it
   may stand a good while without the underground work, for houses without
   foundations do not tumble down at once--they will stand for years.
   Nobody knows how long they may stay up. Perhaps they may even be
   inhabited with comfort till the last great flood. Death, alone, will
   discover some impostors. Therefore, because the ill-founded house will
   do for the present--and can be used and may bring immediate comfort--
   many people consider it economical to leave out the foundation as a
   needless superfluity.

   If they are questioned as to their vital godliness, they grow
   angry--"What business have you to enter into my private business? Why
   should you meddle with the secrets of my soul?" Ah, dear Friend, if we
   were cruel to you and wished you to be deceived, we would hold our
   tongues, or speak to you with the voice of flattery! But as we love you
   and as we hope to be blessed, in years to come, through your true and
   holy consecration to Christ, we are intensely earnest that you should
   begin aright. We would have you build that which will not need to be
   pulled down, again--work that will stand when the waters are out and
   the stream beats vehemently upon it! I dread that any man should perish
   without religion, but I dread far more that any man should perish with
   it, finding his faith to have been false, after all!

   If you build, build what is worth building! If you must be builders for
   your souls, and surely you must, or else be shelterless, then take heed
   on what foundation you build and be careful what you build, lest, after
   all, you suffer the loss of all your labor in that last tremendous day!
   How sad it will seem to dwell near the gates of Heaven--and spend your
   lives among those who are to be its future inhabitants--and then for
   lack of sincerity and truth, to be shut out of the Celestial City! How
   terrible to find out by experience that there is a back way to the
   gates of Hell even from the gates of Heaven! God grant it be not so
   with one of us here present.

   O you builders, care not merely for the present, but build for death,
   judgment and eternity! This part of our discourse is not only for young
   people, but for us all--for old as well as young. Depend upon it, there
   is not one man among us but what has need to search himself and see
   whether the foundation of his faith has been truly laid or not.

   II. So I advance to the second step, where we will consider--A WISE
   PRECAUTION WHICH SAFE BUILDERS

   NEVER FORGET. They dig deep and never rest till they have a good
   substantial foundation--they are glad to get to the bottom of all the
   loose earth and to build on the rock. Let me commend this wise
   precaution to all of you. Follow the text and learn to see to your
   sincerity. The Lord Jesus says, "Why do you call Me, Lord, Lord, and do
   not the things which I say?" May the Holy Spirit make you true to the
   core. Be afraid to say a word more than you feel. Never permit yourself
   to speak as if you had an experience of which you have only read. Let
   not your outward worship go a step beyond the inward emotion of your
   soul. If Christ is truly your Lord, you will obey Him--if He is not
   your Lord, do not call Him so.

   It is a great point in all your religious thoughts, beliefs, words and
   acts to have the heart moving in all. It is an awful thing to make a
   high profession of sanctity and yet live in the indulgence of secret
   vice. Such persons will listen to my observation and commend me for my
   faithfulness and yet continue in their hypocrisy! This is most painful.
   These men can speak the Jew's language and yet the tongue of Babylon is
   more natural to them--they follow Christ, but their hearts are with
   Belial. Ah, me! My soul is sick at the thought of them. Be true! Be
   true! If truth will carry you no further than despair, better that you
   stop in despair than gain a hope by a lie! Do not live on fiction,
   profession, presumption. Eat that which is good and feed only upon the
   Truth of God. Remember that when you build with wood, hay and stubble
   of mere notion, you are only gathering materials for your own funeral
   pile in that day when the fire shall devour all lovers and makers of a
   lie. Be true as steel! Every wise builder for his soul must mind that.

   The next thing is thoroughness. For observe, according to our Lord, the
   wise builder dug deep. You cannot do a right thing too well. Dig deep
   if you dig a foundation. If it is repentance, let it be an intensely
   earnest repentance, including a vehement hatred of every form of sin.
   If you make confession before God, confess with your very soul and not
   only with your lips--lay bare your spirit before the glance of Deity.
   If it is faith that you talk of, believe right up to the hilt. Do not
   go in for that kind of skeptical believing which is so common,
   nowadays. If you believe, believe! If you repent, repent! In the
   purging of the soul, there is nothing like sweeping out every particle
   of the old leaven of falsehood. And in bringing in the good things into
   the heart, there is nothing like bringing in everything that Christ
   prescribes--so that of His fullness we may receive not only Grace, but
   Grace for Grace, Grace upon Grace, all the Grace that is needed!

   Be downright in everything. The wise builder dug through the earth and
   continued his digging till he reached rock. And then he dug into the
   rock and struck out a trench in which he might lay his foundation, for
   he could not be content unless he made sure and thorough work of it.
   Sincerity and thoroughness are fine building materials! Next to that
   add self-renunciation, for that is in the parable. When a man digs a
   deep foundation, he has much earth to throw out. So he that builds for
   eternity has a great deal to get rid of. Self-trust must go at the
   beginning! Love of sin must follow-- worldliness, pride, self-seeking,
   all sorts of iniquity--these must be cast aside. There is very much
   rubbish and the rubbish must go! You cannot make sure work for eternity
   without clearing away much which flesh and blood would like to retain.
   See to this and count the cost.

   Then must come solid principle. The man who is determined that if he
   does build, he will build securely, digs down to the rock. He says, "I
   believe in God, He is my Helper. I believe in Christ Jesus and on His
   atoning sacrifice and living intercession I build my eternal hopes. I
   also build on the Doctrine of Grace, for the Lord has said it--By Grace
   are you saved, through faith. I build on Scripture--nothing but the
   warrant of the Word of God will do for me." What God has said is a
   rock--what man teaches is mere shifting sand! What a blessed thing it
   is to get down to the eternal principles of Divine Truth! You that pick
   up your religion from your mothers and fathers--you that follow it
   because it happened to be in the family--what are you worth in the day
   of trouble? You are blown down like a booth, or a hut of twigs!

   But you that know what you believe and why you believe it--you who,
   when you put your foot down, know what you are standing upon and are
   persuaded that you have firm rock beneath you--you are the men and
   women who will stand fast when mere pretenders are burled out of their
   place! Oh, my dear seeking Friends, fix upon true principles and be not
   content with lies! These truthful principles must be firmly adhered to.
   Bind your building to the rock. A house will not stand merely because
   it is on the rock--you must get its foundation into the rock. The house
   must take a grip of

   the rock and the rock must grasp the house. The more you can get the
   house to be a bit of the rock and the rock, as it were, to grow up into
   the house, the more secure you are.

   It is of no use saying, "Yes, I confide in Christ, in Grace, in
   Revelation," unless your very life enters into these things and they
   enter into you! Hypocrites, Job says, are stolen away in the night.
   They are easily removed. The inventor of some new notion comes along,
   cracks up his novel wares, and silly souls are at once taken in by him.
   Christ may go, Grace may go and the Bible may go, too--their new master
   has them wholly in his power. We do not need such unsubstantial men! We
   care not for these speculating builders whose carcasses are all around
   us! We have had enough of castles in the air--we need true men who will
   stand fast like the mountains--while errors, like clouds, blow over
   them! Remember the huge shaft at Bradford and how many were slain by
   its fall? Let it teach you to hold hard to foundation Truths of God and
   never depart from them.

   The man in the second parable did not build as he should. What may I
   say of him? I will say three words. First, he was a man who had nothing
   out of sight--you could see all his house when you looked at it. If you
   can see all a man's religion at a glance, he has no religion worth
   having! Godliness lies most in secret prayer, private devotion and
   inward Grace. The wise builder had the most costly part of his house
   buried in the ground, but the other man showed all that he had above
   ground. He is a poor tradesman who has no stock but that which he puts
   into the window. He will not last long who has no capital. He cannot
   long stand who has no backbone within. Beware of a religion of show!

   Next, this man had nothing to hold to. He built a house, but it stood
   upon the loose soil. He easily dug into that and stuck up his house but
   his walls had no holdfast. Beware of a religion without holdfasts! "But
   if I get a grip upon a doctrine, they call me a bigot" you say. Let
   them do so! Bigotry is a hateful thing and yet that which is now abused
   as bigotry is a great virtue and greatly needed in these frivolous
   times! I have been inclined, lately, to start a new denomination, and
   call it, "the Church of the Bigoted." Everybody is getting to be so
   oily, so plastic, so untrue, that we need a race of hard-shells to
   teach us how to believe!

   Those old-fashioned people who, in former ages, believed something and
   thought the opposite of it to be false, were truer folk than the
   present time-servers. I should like to ask the divines of the broad
   school whether any doctrine is worth a man's dying for it. They would
   have to reply, "Well, of course, if a man had to go to the stake or
   change his opinions, the proper way would be to state them with much
   diffidence and to be extremely respectful to the opposite school." But
   suppose he is required to deny the Truth of God? "Well, there is much
   to be said on each side, and probably the negative may have a measure
   of truth in it as well as the positive. At any rate, it cannot be a
   prudent thing to incur the odium of being burned, and so it might be
   preferable to leave the matter an open question for the time being."

   Yes, and as these gentlemen always find it unpleasant to be unpopular,
   they soften down the hard threats of Scripture as to the world to come
   and put a color upon every doctrine to which worldly-wise men object!
   The teachers of doubt are very doubtful teachers! A man must have
   something to hold to, or he will neither bless himself or others. Bring
   all the ships into the pool but do not moor or anchor one of them--let
   each one be free! Wait for a stormy night and they will dash against
   each other--and great mischief will come of this freedom! Perfect love
   and charity will not come through our being all unmoored, but by each
   having his proper moorings and keeping to them in the name of God. You
   must have something to hold to!

   But the builder in the parable had not, and so he perished. The foolish
   builder had nothing to resist outward circumstances. On summer days his
   house was a favorite resort and was considered to be quite as good as
   his neighbor's in all respects. Frequently he rubbed his hands and
   said, "I do not see but what my house is quite as good as his and
   perhaps a little better! The fact is, I had a few pounds to spare which
   I did not bury in the ground, as he did, and with it I have bought many
   a little ornament, so that my habitation has a finer look than his
   building." So it seemed--but when the torrent came raging down the
   mountain side, his building, having nothing with which to resist the
   violence of the flood, fell down at once--and not a trace of it
   remained when the storm had ceased. Thus do men fail because they offer
   no resistance to forces which drive them into sin--the great current of
   evil finds in them victims--not opponents.

   III. Thirdly, we will now gather from our text A SET OF ARGUMENTS
   URGING US TO TAKE CARE OF THE

   FOUNDATION. I will glance over these arguments, wishing much that I had
   time to enforce them. The first is this. We ought to build with a good
   foundation at the beginning, because otherwise we shall not build well
   in any other part of the house. Bad work in the foundation influences
   all the rest of the courses. In the Revised Version, at the end of the
   48th

   verse, instead of, "For it was founded upon a rock," we read, "Because
   it had been well built." The house was built well at the bottom and
   that led the workman to put in good work all the way up, so that all
   through, "it had been well

   built."

   The other man built badly underground and did the same up to the roof!
   When you get into the habit of slovenly work in secret, the tendency is
   to be slovenly in public, too. If the underground part of our religion
   is not firmly laid upon Christ, then in the upper part there will be
   rotten work, half-baked bricks, mud instead of mortar and a general
   skimping of everything. When a great Grecian artist was fashioning an
   image for the temple, he was diligently carving the back part of the
   goddess, and one said to him, "You need not finish that part of the
   statue, because it is to be built into the wall." He replied, "The gods
   can see in the wall." He had a right idea of what is due to God! That
   part of my religion which no man can see should be as perfect as if it
   were to be observed by all. The Day shall declare it! When Christ shall
   come, everything shall be made known and published before the universe.
   Therefore see to it that it is fit to be thus made known.

   See, again, that we ought to have good foundations when we look at the
   situation where the house is to be built. It is clear from this parable
   that both these houses were built in places not far from a river, or
   where streams might be expected to come. Certain parts of the South of
   France are marvelously like Palestine and, perhaps at the present
   moment, they are more like what the Holy Land was in Christ's day than
   the Holy Land is now. When I reached Cannes, last year, I found that
   there had been a flood in the town. This flood did not come by reason
   of a river being swollen, but through a deluge of rain. A waterspout
   seems to have burst upon the hillside tearing up earth, rocks, stones
   and then hurrying down to the sea. It rushed across the railway station
   and poured down the street which led to it, drowning several persons in
   its progress.

   When I was there a large hotel--I should think five stories high--was
   shored up with timber and was evidently doomed, for when this stream
   rushed down the narrow street it undermined the lower courses of the
   building and, as there were no foundations at all able to bear such a
   test, the whole structure was rendered unsafe. The Savior had some such
   case in His mind's eye. A torrent of water would come tearing down the
   side of the mountain--and if a house were built on the mere earth, it
   would be carried away--but if it were fastened into the rock so that it
   became part and parcel of it, then the flood might rush all around it,
   but it would not shake the walls.

   Beloved builder of a house for your soul, your house is so situated
   that one of these days there must come great pressure upon it. "How do
   you know?" Well, I know that the house in which my soul lives is
   pitched just where winds blow, waves rise and storms beat. Where is
   yours? Do you live in a snug corner? Yes, but one of these times you
   will find that the snug corner will be no more shielded than the open
   riverside, for God so orders Providence that every man has his test
   sooner or later! It may be that you think yourself past temptation, but
   the idea is a delusion, as time will show! Perhaps from the very fact
   that you seem quite out of the way, a peculiar temptation may befall
   you. Therefore, I pray you, because of the exposed condition of your
   life's building, build upon a good foundation!

   The next argument is, build deep, because of the ruin which will result
   from a bad foundation. The foolish builder's house was without a
   foundation. Notice that word, "without a foundation." Write down the
   expression and see whether they apply to you or not. What happened to
   this house without a foundation? The stream beat vehemently on it! The
   river's bed had long been dry, but suddenly it was flooded and the
   torrent rolled with tremendous power. Perhaps it was persecution.
   Perhaps it was prosperity. Perhaps it was trouble, or temptation.
   Perhaps it was prevalent skepticism or death, but, whatever--the flood
   beat vehemently upon that house!

   And now we read the next word--"And immediately it fell." It did not
   stand a prolonged assault! It was captured at once. "Immediately it
   fell." What? In a minute all that fair profession gone? "Immediately it
   fell." Why, that is the man I shook hands with the other Sunday and
   called him, "Brother," and he has been seen drunk! Or he has been in
   the frivolous assembly, using unhallowed language! Or he has become an
   utter doubter all on a sudden! It is sorrowful work burying our
   friends, but it is much more sorrowful work to lose them in this
   fashion--and yet so they vanish. They are gone! Even as Job says "the
   east wind carries him away and he departs." "Immediately" they fall and
   yet we thought so highly of them--and they thought so highly of
   themselves. "Immediately it fell"--their profession could not endure
   trial--and all because it had no foundation!

   Then it is added, "And the ruin of that house was great." The house
   came down with a crash and it was all the man had. The man was an
   eminent professor and, therefore, his ruin was all the more notable. It
   was a great fall because it could never be built up, again. When a man
   dies a hypocrite, certainly there is no hope of restitution for him. By
   the stream the very debris of the ruined house was swept away. Nothing
   was left. Oh, men, if you lose a battle, you may fight, again, and win
   another. If you fail in business you may start, again, in trade and
   realize a fortune. But if you lose your souls, the loss is
   irretrievable! Once lost, forever lost! There will be no second
   opportunity! Do not deceive yourselves about that. Therefore, dig deep
   and lay every stone most firmly upon the foundation of rock.

   For lastly, and perhaps this will be the best argument, observe the
   effect of this good, sure building--this deep building. We read that
   when the flood beat upon the wise man's house, "it could not shake it."
   That is very beautiful. Not only could it not carry it away, but, "it
   could not shake it." I see the man--he lost his money and became poor,
   but he did not give up his faith--"It could not shake it." He was
   ridiculed and slandered. And many of his former friends gave him the
   cold shoulder--but, "It could not shake it." He went to Jesus under his
   great trial and he was sustained-- "It could not shake it." He was very
   sick and his spirit was depressed within him, but he still held to his
   confidence in Christ--"It could not shake it."

   He was near to death. He knew that he must soon depart out of this
   world, but all the pains of death and the certainty of dissolution
   could not shake him. He died as he lived--firm as a rock, rejoicing as
   much as ever, nay--rejoicing more because he was nearer to the Kingdom
   and to the fruition of all his hopes! "It could not shake it." It is a
   grand thing to have a faith which cannot be shaken! I saw, one day, a
   number of beech trees which had formed a small forest-- they had all
   fallen to the ground through a storm. The fact was they leaned upon one
   another, to a great extent, and the thickness of the forest prevented
   each tree from getting a firm hold of the soil. They kept each other up
   and also forced each other to grow up tall and thin, to the neglect of
   a strong root growth. When the storm forced down the first few trees,
   the others readily followed one after the other.

   Close to that same spot, I saw another tree in the open, bravely
   defying the blast, in solitary strength. The hurricane had beaten upon
   it, but it had endured all its force unsheltered! That lone, brave tree
   seemed to be better rooted than before the storm. I thought, "Is it not
   so with professors?" They often hold together and help each other to
   grow up, but if they have not firm personal roothold, when a storm
   arises they fall in rows. A minister dies, or certain leaders are taken
   away--and over go the members by departure from the faith and from
   holiness! I would have you be self-contained, growing, each man, into
   Christ for himself, rooted and grounded in love and faith and every
   holy Grace. Then when the worse storm that ever blew on mortal man
   shall come, it will be said of your faith, "It could not shake it."

   I beseech you who are now seeking Christ to take care that you build
   well, that you may stand long in our Zion, steadfast and unmovable. God
   grant it for Christ's sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Hands Full of Honey

   (No. 1703)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JANUARY 28, 1883,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "And Samson turned aside to see the carcass of the lion: and, behold,
   there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of the lion. And he
   took some in his hands, and went on eating, and came to his father and
   mother, and he gave some to them, and they did eat: but he did not tell
   them that he had taken the honey out of the carcass of the Lion."
   Judges 14:8,9.

   IT was a singular circumstance that a man unarmed should have slain a
   lion in the prime of its vigor and yet, more strange that a swarm of
   bees should have taken possession of the dried carcass and have filled
   it with their honey. In that country, what with beasts, birds, insects
   and the dry heat, a dead body is soon cleansed from all corruption and
   the bones are clean and white. Still, the killing of the lion and the
   finding of the honey make up a remarkable story. These singular
   circumstances became, afterwards, the subject of a riddle--but with
   that riddle we have no concern at this time. Samson, himself, is a
   riddle! He was not only a riddle-maker, but he was, himself, an enigma
   very difficult to explain.

   With his personal character I have, at this time, little or nothing to
   do. We are not, today, resting at the house of "Gains, my host," where
   the pilgrims amused themselves with a dish of nuts after dinner, but we
   are on the march and must attend to the more important matter of
   refreshing and inspiriting those who are in our company. Neither are we
   going to discuss difficulties, but as Samson took the honey without
   being stung, so would we gain instruction without debate.

   We have, in these days, so much to do that we must make practical use
   of every incident that comes before us in the Word of God. My one
   design is to cheer the desponding and stir up all God's people to
   greater diligence in His service. I conceive that the text may
   legitimately be employed for this purpose. By the help of the Divine
   Spirit, even after this lapse of time, we may find honey in the lion!
   The particular part of the incident which is recorded in these two
   verses appears to have been passed over by those who have written upon
   Samson's life--I suppose it appeared to be too inconceivable. They are
   taken up with his restive riddle, but they omit the far more natural
   and commendable fact or his bringing forth the honey in his hands and
   presenting it to his father and mother.

   This is the little scene to which I direct your glances. It seems to me
   that the Israelite hero, with a slain lion in the background, standing
   out in the open road with his hands laden with masses of honeycomb and
   dripping with honey, which he holds out to his parents, makes a fine
   picture, worthy of the greatest artist. And what a type we have here of
   our Divine Lord and Master, Jesus, the conqueror of death and Hell! He
   has destroyed the lion that roared upon us and upon Him. He has shouted
   victory "over all our foes." "It is finished" was His note of triumph
   and now He stands in the midst or His Church with His hands full of
   sweetness and consolation, presenting them to those of whom He says,
   "these are My brother and sister and mother."

   To each one of us who believe in Him, He gives the luscious food which
   He has prepared for us by the overthrow of our foes. He bids us come
   and eat that we may have our lives sweetened and our hearts filled with
   joy. To me, the comparison seems wonderfully apt and suggestive! I see
   our triumphant Lord laden with sweetness, holding it forth to all His
   Brothers and Sisters, and inviting them to share in His joy. But,
   Beloved, it is written, "As He is, so are we, also, in this world." All
   that are true Christians are, in a measure, like the Christ whose name
   they bear--and it is to His image that we are finally to be conformed.
   When He shall appear, we shall be like He, for we shall see Him as He
   is. And, meanwhile, in proportion as we see Him, now, "we are changed
   into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the

   Lord."

   The Samson type may well serve as the symbol of every Christian in the
   world. The Believer has been helped by Divine Grace in his spiritual
   conflicts and he has known "the victory which overcomes the world, even
   our faith." He has

   thus been made more than a conqueror through Him that loved us and now
   he stands in the midst of his fellow men inviting them to Jesus. With
   the honey in his hands, which he continues to feast upon, he displays
   the heavenly sweetness to all that are round about him, saying, "O
   taste and see that the Lord is good! blessed is the man that trusts in
   Him." I have before now met with that popular artist, Gustave Dore,
   [1832-1883] and suggested subjects to him. Had he survived among us,
   and had another opportunity occurred, I would have pressed him to
   execute a statue of Samson handing out the honey--strength distributing
   sweetness!

   And it might have served as a perpetual reminder of what a Christian
   should be--a Conqueror and a Comforter, slaying lions and distributing
   honey! The faithful servant of God wrestles with the powers of evil,
   but with far greater delight he speaks to his friends and companions,
   saying, "Eat that which is good and let your souls delight themselves
   in sweetness." Set the statue before your mind's eye and now let me
   speak about it. Three touches may suffice. First, the Believer's life
   has its conflicts. Secondly, the Believer's life has its sweets. And,
   thirdly, the Believer's life leads him to communicate of those sweets
   to others. Here is room for profitable meditation!

   I. First, then, THE BELIEVER'S LIFE HAS ITS CONFLICTS. To become a
   Christian is to enlist as a soldier. To become a Believer is to enter
   upon a pilgrimage and the road is often rough--the hills are steep, the
   valleys are dark, giants block the way and robbers lurk in corners! The
   man who reckons that he can glide into Heaven without a struggle has
   made a great mistake. No cross, no crown--no sweat, no sweet--no
   conflict, no conquest. These conflicts, if we take the case of Samson
   as our symbol, begin early in the life of the Believer. While Samson
   was a child, the Spirit of the Lord moved him in the camps of Dan--see
   the last verse of the 13th chapter.

   And as soon as he was on the verge of manhood, he must match himself
   with a lion! God, who intended that His servant should smite the
   Philistines and should check their proud oppression of His people,
   Israel, began early to train the hero for his life's conflict. So, when
   Samson was going to seek a wife, he turned aside into the vineyards of
   Timnath and a lion roared upon him. Yes, and the young Believer, who as
   yet has not wrestled with the Powers of Darkness, will not be long
   before he hears the roar of the lion and finds himself in the presence
   of the great Adversary. Very soon we learn the value of the prayer,
   "Deliver us from the Evil One!"

   Most of the Lord's servants have been men of war from their youth up.
   This early combat with the savage beast was intended by God to let
   Samson know his strength, when under the influence of the Spirit, and
   to train him for his future combats with Israel's enemies. He that is
   to smite the Philistines hip and thigh with a great slaughter, until he
   has laid them heaps on heaps by his single prowess, must begin by
   tearing a lion apart with his naked hands! He was to learn war in the
   same school as another and a greater hero, who afterwards said, "Your
   servant slew both the lion and the beast, and this uncircumcised
   Philistine shall be as one of them."

   Soldiers are made by war. You cannot train veterans or create victors
   except by battles. As in the wars of armies, so is it in spiritual
   contests--men must be trained for victory over evil by combat with it.
   Therefore, "it is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth,"
   for it will not gall his shoulders in later years. It is assuredly a
   dangerous thing to be altogether free from trouble--in silken ease the
   soldier loses his prowess. Look at Solomon, one of the greatest and
   wisest, and yet, I might say, one of the least and most foolish of men.
   It was his fatal privilege to sit upon a throne of gold and sun himself
   in the brilliance of unclouded prosperity. And, therefore, his heart
   soon went astray and he fell from his high places.

   Solomon, in his early days, had no trouble, for no war was raging,
   then, and no enemy worth notice was then living. His life ran smoothly
   and he was lulled into a dreamy sleep, the sleep of the voluptuous. He
   had been happier far had he been like his father, called, from his
   earliest days, to trial and conflict, for this might have taught him to
   stand fast upon the pinnacle of glory whereon the Providence of God had
   placed him. Learn, then, O young Brother, that, if, like Samson, you
   are to be a hero for Israel, you must early be subjected to suffering
   and daring, in some form or other! When you step aside and seek for
   meditation in the quiet of the vineyard, a young lion may roar upon you
   even as in the earliest days of your Lord and Master's public service
   He was led into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

   These conflicts, dear Friends, may often be very terrible. By a young
   lion is not meant a whelp, but a lion in the fatness of its early
   strength and not yet slackened in its pace, or curbed in its fury by
   growing years. Fresh and furious, a young lion is the worst kind of
   beast that a man can meet with! Let us expect, as followers of Christ,
   to meet with strong temptations, fierce persecutions and severe trials
   which will lead to stern conflicts. Do not reckon, you that are yet
   put-

   ting on the harness, that you shall soon put it off, or that when you
   take it off, it will be quite as bright as it is today! It will be
   dimmed with blood and dust--and battered by many a blow. Perhaps your
   foe may find a way to pierce it, or at least to wound you between its
   joints. I would have every man begin to be a soldier of the Cross, but
   I would, at the same time, have him count the cost for it is no child's
   play! And if he thinks it will be such, he will be grievously
   disappointed.

   A young Believer will, all of a sudden, have a doubt suggested to him
   of which he never heard before--and it will roar upon him like a young
   lion. Neither will he see, all at once, how to dispose of it. Or he may
   be placed in singular circumstances where his duty seems to run counter
   to the most tender instincts of his nature. Here, too, the young lion
   will roar upon him. Or, one for whom he has an intense respect may
   treat him badly because he is a follower of Christ-- and the affection
   and respect which he feels for this person may make his opposition the
   more grievous. In this, also, it is with him as when a lion roars. Or
   he may suffer a painful bereavement, or sustain a severe loss. Or he
   may have a disease upon him with consequent pains and depressions--all
   of these may cast the shadow of death upon his spirit, so that, again,
   a young lion roars upon him.

   Brother, Sister, let us reckon upon this and not be dismayed by it,
   since in all this is the life of our spirit. By such lessons as these
   we are taught to do service for God, to sympathize with our fellow
   Christians and to value the help of our gracious Savior. By all these
   we are weaned from earth and made to hunger for that eternal Glory
   which is yet to be revealed, of which we may truly say, "No lion shall
   be there, neither shall any ravenous beast go up there." These present
   evils are for our future good--their terror is for our teaching! Trials
   are sent us for much the same reason that the Ca-naanites were
   permitted to live in the Holy Land, that Israel might learn war and be
   equipped for battles against foreign foes!

   These conflicts come early and they are very terrible and, moreover,
   they happen to us when we are least prepared for them. Samson was not
   hunting for wild beasts. He was engaged on a much more tender business.
   He was walking in the vineyards of Timnath, thinking of anything but
   lions, "and behold," says the Scripture, "a young lion roared against
   him." It was a remarkable and startling occurrence! He had left his
   father and mother and was quite alone. No one was within call to aid
   him in meeting his furious assailant. Human sympathy is exceedingly
   precious, but there are points in our spiritual conflict in which we
   cannot expect to receive it. To each man there are passages in life too
   narrow for walking two abreast. Upon certain crags we must stand alone.
   As our constitutions differ, so our trials, which are suited to our
   constitutions, must also differ.

   Each individual has a secret with which no friend can interfere, for
   every life has its mystery and its hidden treasure. Do not be ashamed,
   young Christian, if you meet with temptations which appear to you to be
   quite singular--we have, each one, thought the same of our trials. You
   imagine that no one suffers as you do, whereas no temptation has
   happened unto you but such as is common to man--and God will, with the
   temptation, make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. Yet,
   for the time being, you may have to enter into fellowship with your
   Lord when He trod the winepress alone, and of the people there was none
   with Him. Is not this for your good? Is not this the way to strength?

   What kind of piety is that which is dependent upon the friendship of
   man? What sort of religion is that which cannot stand alone? Beloved,
   you will have to die alone and you need, therefore, Divine Grace to
   cheer you in solitude. The dear wife can attend you, weeping, to the
   river's brink, but into the chill stream she cannot go with you--and if
   you have not a religion which will sustain you in the solitudes of
   life--of what use will it be to you in the grim lonesomeness of death?
   Thus I reckon it to be a happy circumstance that you are called to
   solitary conflict so that you may test your faith and see of what stuff
   your hope is made!

   The contest was all the worse for Samson, that in addition to being
   quite alone, "there was nothing in his hands." This is the most
   remarkable point in the narrative. He had no sword or hunter's spear
   with which to wound the lordly savage--he had not, even, a stout staff
   with which to ward off his attack. Samson stood all unarmed, an
   unarmored man in the presence of a raging beast! So we, in our early
   temptations, are apt to think that we have no weapon for the war and we
   not know what to do. We are made to cry out, "I am unprepared! How can
   I meet this trial? I cannot grasp the enemy to wrestle with him. What
   am I to do?" Herein will the splendor of faith and Glory of God be made
   manifest, when you shall slay the lion, and yet it shall be said of
   you, "he had nothing in his hands"--nothing but that which the world
   sees not and values not!

   Now, go one step further, for time forbids our lingering here. I invite
   you to remember that it was by the Spirit of God that the victory was
   won. We read, "And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him and he
   tore him as he would have torn a kid." Let the Holy Spirit help us in
   our trouble and we need neither company nor weapon! But without Him
   what can we do? Good Bishop Hall says, "If that roaring lion that goes
   about continually seeking whom he may devour, finds us alone among the
   vineyards of the Philistines, where is our hope? Not in our heels--he
   is swifter than we! Not in our weapons--we are naturally unarmed! Not
   in our hands which are weak and languishing--but in the Spirit of God,
   by whom we can do all things! If God fights in us, who can resist us?
   There is a stronger lion in us than that against us," There is only one
   necessity--to be endowed with power from on high--the power of the Holy
   Spirit!

   Helped by the Spirit of God, the Believer's victory will be complete!
   The lion shall not be driven away, but torn in pieces. Girt with the
   Spirit's power, our victory shall be as easy as it will be
   perfect--Samson tore the lion as though it were a little lamb, or a kid
   of the goats. Well said Paul, "I can do all things through Christ that
   strengthens me." Sin is soon overcome, temptations are readily refused,
   affliction is joyfully borne, persecution is gladly endured when the
   Spirit of Glory and of Peace rests upon us! With God all things are
   possible and as the Believer is with God, it comes to pass that all
   things are possible to him that believes!

   If we were surrounded by all the devils in Hell, we need not fear them
   for an instant if the Lord is on our side. We are mightier than all
   Hell's legions when the Spirit is mightily upon us! If we were to be
   beaten down by Satan until he had set his foot upon our chest to press
   the very life out of us, yet if the Spirit of God helped us, we would
   reach out our hand and grasp the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word
   of God, and we would repeat the feat of Christian, against Apol-lyon,
   when he gave the fiend such grievous wounds that he spread his dragon
   wings and flew away! Therefore fear not, you tried ones, but trust in
   the Spirit of God and your conflict shall speedily end in victory!

   Sometimes our conflict is with past sin. We doubtfully enquire, "How
   can it be forgiven?" The temptation vanishes before the sight of the
   dying Redeemer! Then inbred lusts roar against us and we overcome it
   through the blood of the Lamb, for "the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son,
   cleanses us from all sin." Sometimes a raging corruption, or a strong
   habit wars upon us--and then we conquer by the might of the sanctifying
   Spirit of God who is with us and shall be in us forever! Or else it is
   the world which tempts and our feet have almost gone--but we overcome
   the world through the victory of faith!

   And if Satan raises pride of life against us--the lust of the flesh,
   the lust of the eyes and the life all at once--we are still delivered,
   for the Lord is a wall of fire round about us! The inward fire bravely
   resists all sin and God's help is given to Believers to preserve them
   from all evil in the moment of urgent need, even as He helped His
   martyrs and confessors to speak the right words when called,
   unprepared, to confront their adversaries! Care not, therefore, oh you
   truster in the Lord Jesus, how fierce your enemy may be this day! As
   young David slew the lion and the bear and slew the Philistine, too,
   even so shall you go from victory to victory! " Many are the
   afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them
   all." Therefore, with a lion-like spirit, meet lions which seek to
   devour you!

   II. Now, then, we, come to our second head, which is--THE BELIEVER'S
   LIFE HAS ITS SWEETS. We are not always killing lions--we are sometimes
   eating honey! Certain of us do both at a time--we kill lions and yet
   cease not to eat honey--and truly it has become so sweet a thing to
   enter into conflict for Christ's sake, that it is a joy to contend
   earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. The same Lord who
   has bid us, "quit yourselves like men; be strong," has also said,
   "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again, I say, rejoice."

   The Believer's life has its sweets and these are of the choicest--for
   what is sweeter than honey? What is more joyful than the joy of a
   saint? What is more happy than the happiness of a Believer? I will not
   condescend to make a comparison between our joy and the mirth of
   fools--I will go no further than a contrast. Their mirth is as the
   crackling of thorns under a pot, which spit fire and make a noise and a
   flash--but there is no heat and they are soon gone out--nothing comes
   of it, the pot is long in boiling.

   But the Christian's delight is like a steady coal fire. You have seen
   the grate full of coals, all burning red and the whole mass of coal has
   seemed to be one great glowing ruby! And everybody who has come into
   the room, out of the cold, has delighted to warm his hands, for it
   gives out a steady heat and warms the body even to its marrow. Such are
   our joys! I would sooner possess the joy of Christ five minutes than I
   would revel in the mirth of fools for half a century! There is more
   bliss in the tear of repentance than in the laughter of gaiety--our
   holy sorrows are sweeter than the world-

   lings' joys. But, oh, when our joys grow full, Divinely full, then they
   are unspeakably like those above--and Heaven begins below!

   Did you never cry for joy? You say, perhaps, "Not since I was a child."
   Nor have I, but I have always remained a child as far as Divine joy is
   concerned. I could often cry for joy when I know whom I have believed
   and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed to
   Him! Ours is a joy which will bear thinking over. You can dare to pry
   into the bottom of it and test its foundation! It is a joy which does
   not grow stale. You may keep it in your mouth by the years together,
   and yet it never sours. You may return to it again and again, and
   again, and find it still as fresh as ever. And the best of it is there
   is no repentance after it. You are never sorry that you were so glad!

   The world's gay folk are soon sick of their drink, but we are only
   sorry that we were not gladder, still, for our gladness sanctifies! We
   are not denied any degree of joy to which we can possibly attain, for
   ours is a healthy, health-giving delight! Christ is the fullness of joy
   to His people and we are bid to enjoy Him to the fullest! Christians
   have their sweets and those are, as honey and the honeycomb, the best
   of the best! Of these joys there is plenty, for Samson found, as it
   were, a living spring of honey, since he discovered a swarm of bees. So
   abundant was the honey that he could take huge masses of the comb and
   carry it in his hands and go away with it, bearing it to others. In the
   love of Christ; in pardoned sin; in acceptance in the Beloved; in
   resting in God; in perfectly acquiescing in His will; in the hope of
   Heaven there is such joy that none can measure it. We have such a
   living swarm of bees to make honey for us in the precious promises of
   God, that there is more delight in store than any of us can possibly
   realize!

   There is infinitely more of Christ beyond our comprehension than we
   have as yet been able to comprehend. How blessed to receive of His
   fullness, to be sweetened with His sweetness and yet to know that
   infinite goodness still remains! Perhaps some of you have enjoyed so
   much of Christ that you could hardly bear any more--but your largest
   enjoyments are only as tiny shells filled by a single wave of the
   sea--while all the boundless ocean rolls far beyond your perception! We
   have exceedingly great joy, yes, joy to spare! Our Master's wedding
   feast is not so scantily furnished that we have to bring in another
   seat for an extra guest, or murmur to ourselves that we had better not
   invite at random lest we should be swarmed by too great a crowd.

   No, rather the pillared halls of mercy in which the King makes His
   feast are so vast that it will be our life-long business to furnish
   them with guests, compelling more and more to come in, that His house
   may be filled and that His royal festival may make glad ten thousand
   times ten thousand hearts! Dear Friends, if you want to know what are
   the elements of our joy, I have already hinted at them, but I will, for
   a moment, enlarge them. Our joys are often found in the former places
   of our conflicts. We gather our honey out of the lions which have been
   slain for us or by us. There is, first, our sin. A horrible lion that!
   But it is a dead lion, for Grace has much more abounded over abounding
   sin. Oh, Brothers and Sisters, I have never heard of any dainty in all
   the catalog of human joys that could match a sense of pardoned sin!
   Full forgiveness! Free forgiveness! Eternal forgiveness! See, it
   sparkles like dew of Heaven!

   To know that God has blotted out my sin is knowledge rich with
   unutterable bliss! My soul has begun to hear the songs of seraphim when
   it has heard that note, "I have blotted out your sins like a cloud, and
   as thick cloud your iniquities." Here is choice honey for you! The next
   dead lion is conquered desire. When a wish has arisen in the heart
   contrary to the mind of God and you have said--"Down with you! I will
   pray you down. You used to master me--I fell into a habit and I was
   soon overcome by you--but I will not, again, yield to you. By God's
   Grace I will conquer you." I say, when at last you have obtained the
   victory, such a sweet contentment perfumes your heart that you are
   filled with unspeakable joy and you are devoutly grateful to have been
   helped by the Spirit of God to master your own spirit. Thus you have
   again eaten spiritual honey!

   When you are ale to feel in your own soul that you have overcome a
   strong temptation, the fiercer it was and the more terrible it was, the
   louder has been your song and the more joyful your thanksgiving! To go
   back to Mr. Bunyan, again, when Christian had passed through the Valley
   of the Shadow of Death during the night, and when he had come entirely
   out of it and the sun rose, you remember he looked back. (A pause). He
   was long in taking that look, I guarantee you! What thoughts he had
   while looking back! He could just discern that narrow track with the
   quagmire on one side and the deep ditch on the other--and he could see
   the shades out of which the hobgoblins hooted and the fiery eyes
   glanced forth! He looked back by sunlight and thought within himself,
   "Ah me! What goodness has been with me! I have gone through all that
   and yet I am unharmed!"

   What a happy survey it was to him! Ah, the joy of having passed through
   temptation without having defiled one's garments! How must Shadrach,
   Meshach and Abednego have felt when they stepped out of the fiery
   furnace and were not even singed, neither had the smell of fire passed
   upon them! Happy men were they to have lived in the center of the
   seven-times-heated furnace where everything else was consumed! Here,
   again, is "a piece of the honeycomb." We find honey, again, from
   another slain lion--namely, our troubles after we have been enabled to
   endure them. This is the metal of which our joy-bells are cast! Out of
   the brass of our trials, we make the trumpets of our triumph! He is not
   the happy man who has seen no trouble, but, "blessed is he that endures
   temptation, for when he is tried, he shall receive a crown of life that
   fades not away."

   Death, too. Oh, the honey that is found in dead death! Death is,
   indeed, dead! We triumph over him and are no more afraid of him than
   little children are of a dead lion! We pluck him by the beard, and say
   to him, "O Death, where is your sting? O Grave, where is your victory?"
   We even look forward to the time of our departure with delight, when we
   shall leave this heavy clay and on spirit wings ascend unto our Father
   and our God! You see, there is a rich store of honey for God's people
   and we do not hesitate to eat it! Let others say what they will, we are
   a happy people, happy in Christ, happy in the Holy Spirit, happy in God
   our Father! So that Believers have their sweets.

   III. But the third is the point I want to dwell upon--THE BELIEVER'S
   LIFE LEADS HIM TO COMMUNICATE OF THESE SWEETS. As soon as we have
   tasted the honey of forgiven sin and perceived the bliss that God has
   laid up for His people in Christ Jesus, we feel it to be both our duty
   and our privilege to communicate the good news to others. Here let my
   ideal statue stand in our midst--the strong man, conqueror of the
   lion--holding forth his hands full of honey to his parents. We are to
   be modeled according to this fashion.

   And, first, we do this immediately. The moment a man is converted, if
   he would let himself alone, his instincts would lead him to tell his
   fellows. I know that the moment I came out of that little chapel in
   which I found the Savior, I needed to pour out my tale of joy! I could
   have cried with Cennick--

   "Now will I tell to sinners round, What a dear Savior I have found!
   I'll point to Your redeeming blood, And say, 'Behold the way to God!'"
   I longed to tell how happy my soul was and what a deliverance I had
   obtained from the crushing burden of sin! I longed to see all others
   come and trust my Lord and live! I did not preach a sermon, but I think
   I could have told out all the Gospel in that first hour!

   Did not you, my Friend, feel much the same? Did not your tongue long to
   be telling of what the Lord had done for you? Perhaps you are one of
   those proper and retiring people who are greatly gifted at holding
   their tongues and, therefore, you left the feet of Jesus in
   silence--silence which angels wondered at! Is that why you have held
   your tongue ever since? Perhaps if you had begun to speak, then, you
   would have continued your testimony to this day! I repeat my assertion
   that it is the instinct of every new-born soul to communicate the glad
   tidings which Grace has proclaimed in his heart. Just as Samson had no
   sooner tasted of the honey than he carried a portion of it to his
   father and mother, so do we hasten to invite our neighbors to Christ!

   My dear young Friend, as soon as ever you know the joy of the Lord,
   open your mouth in a quiet, humble way and never allow yourself to be
   numbered with the deaf and dumb! Let no one stop you from unburdening
   your heart! Do not follow the bad example of those who have become dumb
   dogs because of their cowardice at the beginning. The Believer will do
   this, first, to those who are nearest to him. Samson took the honey to
   his father and mother who were not far away. With each of us, the most
   natural action would be to tell a brother or a sister or a fellow
   workman, or a bosom friend. It will be a great joy to see them eating
   the honey which is so pleasant to our own palate!

   It is most natural in a parent, at once, to wish to tell his children
   of Divine Love--have you all done so? You pray for your children, but
   many of you would be the means of answering your own prayers if you
   would a talk with them, one by one! This may appear difficult, but once
   commenced, it will soon grow easy--and, indeed, if it is difficult, we
   should aspire to do it for that very reason! Should we not do many a
   difficult thing for Him who overcame all difficulties for us? At the
   least, do not deny to your own children the personal testimony of their
   father or their mother to the surpassing power of Grace and the
   unutterable sweetness of Divine Love. Tell it to those who are nearest
   to you. The Believer will do this as best he can.

   Samson, you see, brought the honey to his father and mother in a rough
   and ready style going on eating it as he brought it. If I wished to
   give honey to my father and mother, I should do it up rather
   daintily--I would at least put it in as respectable a dish as our
   kitchen could afford--but there were no plates and dishes out there in
   that Timnath vineyard and so his own hands were the only platters upon
   which Samson could present the delicacy! "He took some in his hands,
   and came to his father and mother, and he gave them, and they did eat."
   Perhaps you think, "If I am to speak to any person upon true religion,
   I should like to do it in poetry." Better do it in prose, for perhaps
   they will take more notice of your verse than of your subject. Give
   them the honey in your hands and if there is no dish, they cannot take
   notice of the dish.

   "Yes, but, I should like to do it very properly," says one. "It is a
   very important matter. I should like to speak most correctly." But my
   judgment is, that as you will not be likely to attain correct speech
   all in a hurry and your friends may die while you are learning your
   grammar and your rhetoric, you had better tell them of Jesus according
   to your present ability! Tell them there is life in a look at Jesus!
   Tell them the story, simply, as one child talks to another. Carry the
   honey in your hands, though it drips all round--no hurt will come of
   the spilling--there are always little ones waiting for such drops. If
   you were to make the Gospel drip about everywhere and sweeten all
   things, it would be no waste, but a blessed gain to all around!
   Therefore, I say to you, tell of Jesus Christ as best you can and never
   cease to do so while life lasts.

   But then Samson did another thing and every true Believer should do it,
   too--he did not merely tell his parents about the honey, but he took
   them some of it. I do not read, "And he told his father and mother of
   the honey," but I read, "and he took some in his hands." Nothing is so
   powerful as an exhibition of Grace, itself, to others. Do not talk
   about it, but carry it in your hands! "I cannot do that," says one.
   Yes, you can, by your life, your temper, your spirit, your whole being!
   If your hands serve God, if your heart serves God, if your face beams
   with joy in the service of God, you will carry Grace wherever you go
   and those who see you will perceive it! You will hardly have need to
   say, "Come and partake of Grace," for the Grace of God in you will be
   its own invitation and attraction! Let our lives be full of Christ and
   we shall preach Christ! A holy life is the best of sermons!
   Soul-winning is worked by a winning life more surely than by winning
   words.

   Take note, also, that Samson did this with great modesty. We have
   plenty of people about, nowadays, who could not kill a mouse without
   publishing it in the Gospel Gazette! But Samson killed a lion and said
   nothing about it. He holds the honey in his hands for his father and
   mother--he shows them that--but we are specifically informed that he
   told not his father or his mother that he had taken it out of the
   carcass of the lion. The Holy Spirit finds modesty so rare that He
   takes care to record it! In telling your own experience, be wisely
   cautious. Say much of what the Lord has done for you, but say little of
   what you have done for the Lord! You need not make much effort to be
   brief on that point, for I am afraid that there is not much of it, if
   all were told! Do not utter a self-glorifying sentence! Let us put
   Christ to the front--and the joy and blessedness that comes of faith in
   Him--but as for ourselves, we need not speak a word except to lament
   our sins and shortcomings.

   The sum of what I have to say is this--if we have tasted any joy in
   Christ; if we have known any consolation of the Spirit; if faith has
   been to us a real power and if it has worked in us peace and rest, let
   us communicate this blessed discovery to others. If you do not do so,
   mark you, you will have missed the very objective for which God has
   blessed you! I heard the other day of a Sunday school address in
   America which pleased me much. The teacher, speaking to the boys, said,
   "Boys, here's a watch, what is it for?" The children answered, "To tell
   the time." "Well," he said, "suppose my watch does not tell the time,
   what is it good for?" "Good-for-nothing, Sir." Then he took out a
   pencil. "What is this pencil for?" "It is to write with, Sir." "Suppose
   this pencil won't make a mark, what is it good for?" "Good-for-nothing,
   Sir."

   Then he took out his pocket knife. "Boys, what is this for?" They were
   American boys and so they shouted--"to whittle with"--that is to
   experiment on any substance that came in their way by cutting a notch
   in it. "But," he said, "suppose it will not cut, what is the knife good
   for?" "Good-for-nothing, Sir." Then the teacher asked, "What is the
   chief end of man?" And they replied, "To glorify God." "But suppose a
   man does not glorify God, what is he good for?" "Good-for-nothing,
   Sir." That brings out my point most clearly--there are many professors
   of whom I will not say that they are good-for-nothing, but I think if
   they do not soon stir themselves up to glorify God by proclaiming the
   sweetness

   of God's love, it will go hard with them! Remember how Jesus said of
   the savorless salt, "Henceforth it is good for nothing"?

   What were you converted for? What were you forgiven for? What were you
   renewed for? What have you been preserved on earth for but to tell
   others the glad tidings of salvation and so to glorify God? Then go out
   with your hands full of the honey of Divine Love and hold it out to
   others! You must assuredly do good by this--you cannot possibly do
   harm. Samson did not invite his father and mother to see the lion when
   he was alive and roaring--he might have done some hurt in that case, by
   frightening them, or exposing them to injury. But he settled the lion
   business, himself, and when it came to honey, he knew that even his
   mother could not be troubled about that! Therefore he invited them both
   to share his gains. When you get into a soul-conflict, do not publish
   your distress to all your friends, but fight manfully in God's
   name--and when you possess the joy of Christ and the love of the Spirit
   and Grace is abundant in your soul--then tell the news to all around!

   You cannot do any hurt by such a proceeding! Grace does good and no
   harm, all its days. Even if you blunder over it, you will do no
   mischief. The Gospel spilled on the ground is not lost! Good, and only
   good must come of making known salvation by Jesus Christ! It will be
   much better for you to tell of the sweets of godliness than it will be
   to make riddles about the doctrine of it. Samson, afterwards, made a
   riddle about his lion and the honey--and that riddle ended in fighting
   and bloodshed. We have known certain Christians spend their lives in
   making riddles about the honey and the lion, by asking tough doctrinal
   questions which even angels cannot answer. "Riddle me this," they say,
   and then it has ended in a fight and brotherly love has been murdered
   in the fray.

   It is much better to bring your hands full of honey to those who are
   needy and present it to them that they may eat of it, than it is to
   cavil and discuss. No hurt can come of telling what the Lord has done
   for your soul and it will keep you out or mischief. Therefore, I would
   stir up all Christian people to continue, from day to day, exhibiting
   to needy sinners the blessedness of Christ, that unbelievers may come
   and eat thereof. By doing this you will be blessing men far more than
   Samson could bless his parents, for our honey is honey unto eternity,
   our sweets are sweets that last to Heaven and are best enjoyed there!
   Call upon others to taste and see that the Lord is good and you shall
   have, therein, much joy! You shall increase your own pleasure by seeing
   the pleasure of the Lord prospering in your hands.

   What bliss awaits useful Christians when they enter into Heaven, for
   they shall be met there by many who have gone before them whom they
   were the means of turning to Christ! I often inwardly sing when I
   perceive that I can scarcely go into any town or village but what
   somebody hunts me up to say to me, "Under God I owe my salvation to
   your sermons or to your books." What will be the joys of Heaven when we
   shall meet those who were turned to righteousness by our holding forth
   the Word of Life! Our Heaven will be seven heavens as we see them
   there! If you have done nothing but exhibit in your lives the precious
   results of Grace, you will have done well. If you have presented to
   your companions Truths of God that were sweetness, itself, to you, and
   tried to say in broken accents, "Oh that you knew this peace!" it shall
   give you unspeakable joy to meet those in Glory who were attracted to
   Christ by such a simple means!
     __________________________________________________________________

                             All Joy in All Trials

   A Sermon

   (No. 1704)

   Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, February 4th, 1883, by

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
   knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let
   patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire,
   wanting nothing."--James 1:2-4.

   James calls the converted among the twelve tribes his brethren.
   Christianity has a great uniting power: it both discovers and creates
   relationships among the sons of men. It reminds us of the ties of
   nature, and binds us with the bonds of grace. Every one that is born of
   the Spirit of God is brother to every other that is born of the same
   Spirit. Well may we be called brethren, for we are redeemed by one
   blood; we are partakers of the same life; we feed upon the same
   heavenly food; we are united to the same living head; we seek the same
   ends; we love the same Father: we are heirs of the same promises; and
   we shall dwell for ever together in the same heaven. Wherefore, let
   brotherly love continue; let us love one another with a pure heart
   fervently, and manifest that love, not in word only, but in deed and in
   truth. Whatever brotherhood may be a sham, let the brotherhood of
   believers be the most real thing beneath the stars.

   Beginning with this word "brethren," James shows a true brotherly
   sympathy with believers in their trials, and this is a main part of
   Christian fellowship. "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the
   law of Christ." If we are not tempted ourselves at this moment, others
   are: let us remember them in our prayers; for in due time our turn will
   come, and we shall be put into the crucible. As we would desire to
   receive sympathy and help in our hour of need, let us render it freely
   to those who are now enduring trial. Let us remember those that are in
   bonds, as bound with them, and those that suffer affliction as being
   ourselves in the body. Remembering the trials of his brethren, James
   tries to cheer them, and therefore he says, "My brethren, count it all
   joy when ye fall into divers trials." It is a part of our high calling
   to rise ourselves into confidence; and it is also our duty to see that
   none of our brethren despond, much less despair. The whole tendency of
   our holy faith is to elevate and to encourage. Grace breeds no sorrow,
   except the healthy sorrow which comes with saving repentance and leads
   to the joy of pardon: it comes not to make men miserable, but to wipe
   all tears from their eyes. Our dream is not of devils descending a
   dreary staircase to hell, but of angels ascending and descending upon a
   ladder, the top of which leads to the shining throne of God. The
   message of the gospel is one of joy and gladness, and were it
   universally understood and received this world would be no longer a
   wilderness, but it would rejoice and blossom as the rose. Let grace
   reign in all hearts, and this earth will become a temple filled with
   perpetual song; and even the trials of life will become causes of the
   highest joy, so beautifully described by James as "all joy," as if
   every possible delight were crowded into it. Blessed be God, it is our
   work, not to upbraid, but to cheer all the brotherhood: we walk in a
   light which glorifies everything upon which it falls, and turns losses
   into gains. We are able in sober earnest to speak with the afflicted,
   and bid them be patient under the chastening hand of God; yea, to count
   it all joy when they fall into divers trials because those trials will
   work out for them such signal, such lasting good. They may be well
   content to sow in tears since they are sure to reap in joy.

   Without further preface we will come at once to the text; and observe
   that in speaking about affliction, for that is the subject of the text,
   the apostle notes, first, the essential point which is assailed by
   temptation, namely, your faith. Your faith is the target that all the
   arrows are shot at; the furnace is kindled for the trial of your faith.
   Notice, secondly, the invaluable blessing which is thus gained, namely,
   the proving of your faith, discovering whether it be the right faith or
   no. This proof of our faith is a blessing of which I cannot speak too
   highly. Then, thirdly, we may not overlook the priceless virtue which
   is produced by this process of testing, namely, patience; for the
   proving of your faith produces patience, and this is the soul's surest
   enrichment. Lastly, in connection with that patience we shall note the
   spiritual completeness which is thus promoted:--"That ye may be perfect
   and entire, lacking nothing." Perhaps you have noticed that little
   variations I have made in the text; but I am now following the Revised
   Version, which gives an admirable rendering. I will read it. "Count it
   all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into manifold temptations; knowing
   that the proof of your faith worketh patience. And let patience have
   its perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, lacking in
   nothing."

   I. First, let us think a little upon THE ESSENTIAL POINT WHICH IS
   ASSAILED by temptation or trial. It is your faith which is tried. It is
   supposed that you have that faith. You are not the people of God, you
   are not truly brethren unless you are believers. It is this faith of
   yours which is peculiarly obnoxious to Satan and to the world which
   lieth in the wicked one. If you had not faith they would not be enemies
   of yours; but faith is the mark of the chosen of God, and therefore his
   foes become the foes of all the faithful, spitting their venom
   specially upon their faith. God Himself hath put enmity between the
   serpent and the woman, between the serpent's seed and the woman's seed;
   and that enmity must show itself. The serpent bites at the heel of the
   true seed: hence mockings, persecutions, temptations, and trials are
   sure to beset the pathway to faith. The hand of faith is against all
   evil, and all evil is against faith. Faith is that blessed grace which
   is most pleasing to God, and hence it is the most displeasing to the
   devil. By faith God is greatly glorified, and hence by faith Satan is
   greatly annoyed. He rages at faith because he sees therein his own
   defeat and the victory of grace.

   Because the trial of your faith brings honour to the Lord, therefore
   the Lord Himself is sure to try it that out of its trial praise may
   come to his grace by which faith is sustained. Our chief end is to
   glorify God, and if our trials enable us more fully to answer the end
   of our being it is well that they should happen unto us. So early in
   our discourse we see reason to count it all joy when we fall into
   manifold trials.

   It is by our faith that we are saved, justified, and brought near to
   God, and therefore it is no marvel that it is attacked. It is by
   believing in Christ that we are delivered from the reigning power of
   sin, and receive power to become the sons of God. Faith is as vital to
   salvation as the heart is vital to the body: hence the javelins of the
   enemy are mainly aimed at this essential grace. Faith is the standard
   bearer, and the object of the enemy is to strike him down that the
   battle may be gained. If the foundations be removed what can the
   righteous do? If the cable can be snapped whither will the vessel
   drift? All the powers of darkness which are opposed to right and truth
   are sure to fight against our faith, and manifold temptations will
   march in their legions against our confidence in God.

   It is by our faith that we live; we began to live by it, and continue
   to live by it, for "the just shall live by faith." Once let faith go
   and our life is gone; and hence it is that the powers which war against
   us make their main assault upon this royal castle, this key of the
   whole position. Faith is your jewel, your joy, your glory; and the
   thieves who haunt the pilgrim way are all in league to tear it from
   you. Hold fast, therefore, this your choice treasure.

   It is by faith, too, that Christians perform exploits. If men of old
   wrought daring and heroic deeds it was by faith. Faith is the fighting
   principle and the conquering principle: therefore it is Satan's policy
   to slay it even as Pharaoh sought to kill the male children when Israel
   dwelt in Egypt. Rob a Christian of his faith and he will be like Samson
   when his locks were cut away: the Philistines will be upon him and the
   Lord will have departed from him. Marvel not if the full force of the
   current shall beat upon your faith, for it is the foundation of your
   spiritual house. Oh that your faith may abide steadfast and unmovable
   in all present trials, that so it may be found true in the hour of
   death and in the day of judgment. Woe unto that man whose faith fails
   him in this land of peace, for what will he do in the swelling of
   Jordan?

   Now, think of how faith is tried. According to the text we are said to
   fall into "manifold temptations" or into "divers temptations"--that is
   to say, we may expect very many and very different troubles. In any
   case these trials will be most real. The twelve tribes to whom this
   epistle was written were a specially tried people, for in the first
   place they were, as Jews, greatly persecuted by all other nations, and
   when they became Christians they were cruelly persecuted by their own
   people. A Gentile convert was somewhat less in peril than a Jewish
   Christian, for the latter was crushed between the upper and nether
   millstones of Paganism and Judaism. The Israelitish Christian was
   usually so persecuted by his own kith and kin that he had to flee from
   them, and whither could he go, for all other people abhorred the Jews?
   We are not in such a plight, but God's people even to this day will
   find that trial is no sham word. The rod in God's house is no toy to
   play with. The furnace, believe me, is no mere place of extra warmth to
   which you may soon accustom yourself: it is often heated seven times
   hotter, like the furnace of Nebuchadnezzar and God's children are made
   to know that the fire burns and devours. Our temptations are no
   inventions of nervousness nor hobgoblins of dreamy fear. Ye have heard
   of the patience of Job--his was real patience, for his afflictions were
   real. Could each tried believer among us tell his own story I do not
   doubt we would convince all who heard us that the troubles and
   temptations which we have endured are no fictions of romance, but must
   be ranked among the stern realities of actual life.

   Ay, and note too, that the trials of Christians are such as would in
   themselves lead us into sin, for I take it that our translators would
   not have placed the word "temptation" in the text, and the Revisionists
   would not have retained it, if they had not felt that there was a
   colouring of temptation in its meaning, and that "trial" was hardly the
   word. The natural tendency of trouble is not to sanctify, but to induce
   sin. A man is very apt to become unbelieving under affliction: that is
   a sin. He is apt to murmur against God under it: that is a sin. He is
   apt to put forth his hand to some ill way of escaping from his
   difficulty: and that would be sin. Hence we are taught to pray, "Lead
   us not into temptation; because trial has in itself a measure of
   temptation"; and if it were not neutralized by abundant grace it would
   bear us towards sin. I suppose that every test must have in it a
   measure of temptation. The Lord cannot be tempted of evil, neither
   tempteth he any man; but this is to be understood of his end and
   design. He entices no man to do evil; but yet He tries the sincerity
   and faithfulness of men by placing them where sin comes in their way,
   and does its best or its worst to ensnare them: His design being that
   the uprightness of His servants may thus be proved, both to themselves
   and others. We are not taken out of this world of temptation, but we
   are kept in it for our good. Because our nature is depraved it makes
   occasions for sin, both out of our joys and our trials, but by grace we
   overcome the tendency of nature, and so derive benefit from
   tribulation. Do I not speak to many here who at times feel strong
   impulses towards evil, especially in the darksome hour when the spirit
   of evil walks abroad? Have you not been made to tremble for yourselves
   in season of fierce trial, for your feet were almost gone, your steps
   had well-nigh slipped. Is there any virtue that has not been
   weather-beaten? Is there any love that has not at times been so tried
   that it threatened to curdle into hate? Is there any good thing this
   side heaven which has marched all the way in silver slippers? Did ever
   a flower of grace blossom in this wretched clime without being tried
   with frost or blight? Our way is up the river; we have to stem the
   current, and struggle against a flood which would readily bear us to
   destruction. Thus, not only trials, but black temptations assail the
   Christian's faith.

   As to what shape they take, we may say this much: the trial or
   temptation of each man is distinct from that of every other. When God
   did tempt Abraham he was bidden to take his son, his only son, and
   offer him upon a mountain for a sacrifice. Nobody here was ever tried
   in that way: nobody ever will be. We may have the trial of losing our
   child, but certainly not the trial of having a command to offer him in
   sacrifice. That was a trial peculiar to Abraham: necessary and useful
   to him, though never proposed to us. In the case of the young man in
   the gospels, our Lord Jesus tried him with, "If thou wouldest be
   perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou
   shalt have treasure in heaven." Some have dreamed that it must
   therefore be the duty of everybody to part with their possessions: but
   this is idle. It would not be the duty of any man to offer up his only
   son; and it is not the duty of every man to part with all his goods.
   These were tests to particular persons; and others equally special and
   searching have been applied in other cases. We are not to try
   ourselves, nor to desire other men's trials; it will be well if we
   endure those which the Lord appoints for us, for they will be wisely
   chosen. That which would most severely test me would perhaps be no
   trial to you; and that which tries you might be no temptation to me.
   This is one reason why we often judge one another so severely, because
   feeling ourselves to be strong in that particular point we argue that
   the fallen one must have been strong in that point too, and therefore
   must have willfully and earnestly have determined to do wrong. This may
   be a cruel supposition. We hastily conclude that the temptation must
   have been as feeble in his case as it would have been in our own; which
   is a great mistake, for a temptation which to you or to me would be no
   temptation at all, may be to another individual, of a peculiar
   constitution and under singular circumstances, a most fierce and
   terrible blast from the adversary, before which he falls mournfully,
   but not with malice aforethought. Divers trials, says the apostle, and
   he knew what he said.

   And, dear friends, sometimes these divers trials derive great force
   from their seemingly surrounding us, and cutting off escape: James
   says,--"Ye fall into divers temptations": like men who fall into a pit,
   and do not know how to get out; or like soldiers who fall into an
   ambuscade; or travellers in the good old times when two or three
   footpaths surrounded them and made them feel that they had fallen into
   bad hands. The tempted see not which way to turn; they appear to be
   hemmed in; they are as a bird that is taken in the fowler's snare. This
   it is that makes calamity of our manifold temptations, that they hedge
   up our way, and unless faith finds the clue we wander in a thorny maze.

   At times temptation comes suddenly upon us, and so we fall into it.
   When we were at rest, and were quiet, suddenly the evil came, like a
   lion leaping from the thicket. When Job's children were eating and
   drinking in their elder brother's house, then suddenly a wind came from
   the wilderness, and the patriarch was bereaved: the cattle were
   ploughing, the sheep were grazing, the camels were at their service,
   and in a moment, by fire from heaven, and by robber bands, the whole of
   these possessions vanished. One messenger had not told his story before
   another followed at his heels; Job had no breathing time, the blows
   fell thick and fast. The trial of our faith is most severe when divers
   trials happen to us when we look not for them. It is not strange in the
   light of these things that James should say, "Count it all joy when ye
   fall into divers trials"?

   Those were the days of tumults, imprisonment, crucifixion, sword, and
   fire. Then the amphitheatre devoured Christians by thousands. The
   general cry was "The Christians to the lions!" Do you wonder if
   sometimes the bravest were made to say, Is our faith really true? This
   faith which is abhorred of all mankind, can it be divine? Has it come
   from God? Why, then, does He not interpose and deliver His people?
   Shall we apostatise? Shall we deny Christ and live, or shall we go on
   with our confession through innumerable torments even to a bloody
   death? Will fidelity answer after all? Is there a crown of glory? is
   there an eternity of bliss? Is there in very deed a resurrection of the
   dead? These questions came into men's minds then, and were fairly
   faced: the faith of martyrs was not taken up at second hand, or
   borrowed from their parents; they believed for themselves in downright
   earnest. Men and women in those days believed in such a way that they
   never flinched nor started aside from fear of death; indeed, they
   pressed forward to confess their faith in Jesus in such crowds that at
   last the heathen cried, "There must be something in it: it must be a
   religion of God, or how could these men so gladly bear their troubles?"
   This was the faith of God's elect, the work of the Holy Ghost.

   You see, then, the main point of attack is our faith, and happy is the
   man whose shield can catch and quench all the fiery darts of the enemy.

   II. That we may make the text more clear we shall next notice THE
   INVALUABLE BLESSING WHICH IS GAINED BY THE TRIAL OF OUR FAITH. The
   blessing gained is this, that our faith is tried and proved. Two
   Sabbaths ago I addressed you upon the man whose bad foundations led to
   the overthrow of his house; and I know that many said after the
   sermon:--"God grant that we may not be like him: may we have a firm
   foundation for our soul to rest on." Then you went home, and you sat
   down and said, "Have I this sure foundation?" You began to question,
   argue, reason, and so on, and your design was a good one. But I do not
   reckon that much came of it; our own looking within seldom yields solid
   comfort. Actual trial is far more satisfactory; but you must not try
   yourself. The effectual proof is by trials of God's sending. The way of
   trying whether you are a good soldier is to go down to the battle: the
   way to try whether a ship is well built is, not merely to order the
   surveyor to examine her, but to

   send her to sea: a storm will be the best test of her staunchness. They
   have built a new lighthouse upon the Eddystone: how do we know that it
   will stand? We judge by certain laws and principles, and feel tolerably
   safe about the structure; but, after all, we shall know best if
   after-years when a thousand tempests have beaten upon the lighthouse in
   vain. We need trials as a test as much as we need divine truth as our
   food. Admire the ancient types placed in the ark of the covenant of
   old: two things were laid close together,--the pot of manna and the
   rod. See how heavenly food and heavenly rule go together: how our
   sustenance and our chastening are equally provided for! A Christian
   cannot live without the manna nor without the rod. The two must go
   together. I mean this, that it is as great a mercy to have your
   salvation proved to you under trial as it is to have it sustained in
   you by the consolations of the Spirit of God. Sanctified tribulations
   work the proof of our faith, and this is more precious than that of
   gold which perisheth, though it be tried by fire.

   Now, when we are able to bear it without starting aside, the trial
   proves our sincerity. Coming out of a trouble the Christian says to
   himself, "Yes, I held fast mine integrity, and did not let it go.
   Blessed be God, I was not afraid of threatening; I was not crushed by
   losses; I was kept true to God under pressure. Now, I am sure that my
   religion is not a mere profession, but a real consecration to God. It
   has endured the fire, being kept by the power of God."

   Next, it proves the truthfulness of our doctrinal belief. Oh, yes, you
   may say, "I have heard Mr. Spurgeon expound the doctrines, and I have
   believed them." This is poor work; but if you have been sick, and found
   a comfort in those doctrines, then you are assured of their truth. If
   you have been on the borders of the grave, and the gospel has given you
   joy and gladness, then you know how true it is. Experimental knowledge
   is the best and surest. If you have seen others pass through death
   itself triumphantly you have said, "This is proof to me: my faith is no
   guess-work: I have seen for myself." Is not this assurance cheaply
   purchased at any price? May we not count it all joy when the Lord puts
   us in the way of getting it? It seems to me that doubt is worse than
   trial. I had sooner suffer any affliction than be left to question the
   gospel or my own interest in it. Certainly it is a jewel worth
   purchasing even with our heart's blood.

   Next, your own faith in God is proved when you can cling to Him under
   temptation. Not only your sincerity, but the divinity of your faith is
   proved; for a faith that is never tried, how can you depend upon it?
   But if in the darkest hour you have still said, "I cast my burden upon
   the Lord, and He will sustain me," and you find He does sustain you,
   then is your faith that of God's elect. If in temptation you cry to God
   in prayer that you may keep your garment unspotted, and He helps you to
   do so, then also are you sure that yours is the faith which the Spirit
   begets in the soul. After a great fight of affliction, when I come
   forth a conqueror, I know that I do believe in God, and I know that
   this faith makes me a partaker of covenant blessings; from this I may
   fairly argue that my faith is of the right kind.

   I find it especially sweet to learn the great strength of the Lord in
   my own weakness. We find out under trial where we are most weak, and
   just then in answer to prayer strength is given answerable to the need.
   The Lord suits the help to the hindrance, and puts the plaster on the
   wound. In the very hour when it is needed the needed grace is given.
   Does this not tend to breed assurance of faith?

   It is a splendid thing to be able to prove even to Satan the purity of
   your motives. That was the great gain of Job. There was no question
   about his outward conduct, but the question was about his motive. "Ah,"
   says the devil, "he serves God for what he gets out of Him. Hast Thou
   not set a hedge about him and all that he has? His is cupboard love: he
   cares nothing for God Himself, he only cares for the reward of his
   virtue." Well, he is tried, and everything is taken away, and when he
   cries, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him," when he blesses
   the taking as well as the giving God, then the devil himself could not
   have the prudence to accuse him again. As to Job's own conscience, it
   would be quite settled and confirmed as to his pure love to God. My
   brethren, I reckon that the endurance of every imaginable suffering and
   trial would be a small price to pay for a settled assurance, which
   would for ever prevent the possibility of doubt. Never mind the waves
   if they wash you upon this rock. Therefore, when you are tempted,
   "Count it all joy" that you are tried, because you will thus receive a
   proof of your love, a proof of your faith, a proof of your being the
   true-born children of God.

   James says, "Count it." A man requires to be trained to be a good
   accountant; it is an art which needs to be learned. What muddles some
   of us would make if we had to settle accounts and manage disbursements
   and incomings without the aid of a clerk! How we should get entangled
   with balances and deficits! We could much easier spend money than count
   it. But when a man once knows the science of book-keeping, and gets
   into the way of it, he readily arrives at the true position of affairs.
   He has learned to count, and no error escapes his eye. James gives us a
   ready reckoner, and teaches us in our troubles how to count. He sets
   before us a different kind of measure from that which carnal reason
   would use: the shekel of the sanctuary was very different from the
   shekel in common commerce, and so is the counting of faith far other
   than that of human judgment. He bids us take our pen and sit down
   quickly and write at his correct dictation. You are going to write
   down, "Manifold temptations;" that would be so much on the wrong side:
   but instead thereof he bids you set down the proving of your faith, and
   this one asset transforms the transaction into a substantial gain.
   Trials are like a fire; they burn up nothing in us but the dross, and
   they make the gold all the purer. Put down the testing process as a
   clear gain, and, instead of being sorry about it, count it all joy when
   ye fall into divers trials, for this bestows upon you a proof of your
   faith. So far there is sufficient ground for counting all trials joy.
   Now, let us go a little further.

   III. Let us think of THE PRICELESS VIRTUE WHICH IS PRODUCED BY TRIAL,
   namely, patience; for the proof of your "faith worketh patience."
   Patience! We all have a large stock of it--until we need it, and then
   we have none. The man who truly possesses patience is the man that has
   been tried. What kind of patience does he get by the grace of God?
   First, he obtains a patience that accepts the trials as from God
   without a murmur. Calm resignation does not come all at once; often
   long years of physical pain, or mental depression, or disappointment in
   business, or multiplied bereavements, are needed to bring the soul into
   full submission to the will of the Lord. After much crying the child is
   weaned; after much chastening the son is made obedient to his Father's
   will. By degrees we learn to end our quarrel with God, and to desire
   that there may not be two wills between God and ourselves, but that
   God's will may be our will. Oh, brother, if your troubles work you to
   that, you are a gainer, I am sure, and you may count them all joy.

   The next kind of patience is when experience enables a man to bear
   ill-treatment, slander, and injury without resentment. He feels it
   keenly, but he bears it meekly. Like his Master, he opens not his mouth
   to reply, and refuses to return railing for railing. Contrariwise he
   gives blessing in return for cursing; like the sandal-wood tree which
   perfumes the axe which cuts it. Blessed is that holy charity which
   hopeth all things, endureth all things, and is not easily provoked. Ah,
   friend, if the grace of God by trial shall work in you the quiet
   patience which never grows angry, and never ceases to love, you may
   have lost a trifle of comfort, but you have gained a solid weight of
   character.

   The patience which God works in us by tribulation also takes another
   form, namely, that of acting without undue haste. Before wisdom has
   balanced our zeal we are eager to serve God all in a hurry, with a rush
   and a spurt, as if everything must be done within the hour or nothing
   would ever be accomplished. We set about holy service with somewhat
   more of preparedness of heart after we have been drilled in the school
   of trial. We go steadily and resolutely about work for Jesus, knowing
   what poor creatures we are, and what a glorious Master we serve. The
   Lord our God is in no hurry because He is strong and wise. In
   proportion as we grow like the Lord Jesus we shall cast aside
   disturbance of mind and fury of spirit. His was a grand life-work, but
   He never seemed to be confused, excited, worried, or hurried, as
   certain of His people are. He did not strive nor cry, nor cause His
   voice to be heard in the streets. He knew His hour was not yet come,
   and there were so many days in which He could work, and therefore He
   went steadily on till He had finished the work which His Father had
   given Him to do. That kind of patience is a jewel more to be desired
   than the gem which glitters on the imperial brow. Sometimes we blunder
   into a deal of mischief, making more haste than speed; and we are sure
   to do so when we forget to pray, and fail to commit our matters into
   the Divine hands. We may run with such vehemence that we may stumble,
   or lose our breath: there may be in our random efforts as much undoing
   as doing, for want of possessing our souls in patience.

   That is a grand kind of patience, too, when we can wait without
   unbelief. Two little words are good for every Christian to learn and to
   practise--pray and stay. Waiting on the Lord implies both praying and
   staying. What if the world is not converted this year! What if the Lord
   Jesus does not come to-morrow! What if still our tribulations are
   lengthened out! What if the conflict is continued! He that has been
   tried and by grace has obtained the true profit of his trials, both
   quietly waits and joyfully hopes for the salvation of God. Patience,
   brother! Is this high virtue scarce with thee? The Holy Spirit shall
   bestow it upon thee through suffering.

   This patience also takes the shape of believing without wavering, in
   the very teeth of strange providences and singular statements, and
   perhaps inward misgivings. The established Christian says, "I believe
   my God, and therefore if the vision tarry I will wait for it. My time
   is not yet come. I am to have my worst things first and my best things
   afterwards, and so I sit me down at Jesus' feet and tarry his leisure."

   Brothers and sisters, if, in a word, we learn endurance we have taken a
   high degree. You look at the weather-beaten sailor, the man who is at
   home on the sea: he has a bronzed face and mahogany-coloured flesh, he
   looks as tough as heart of oak, and as hardy as if he were made of
   iron. How different from us poor landsmen. How did the man become so
   inured to hardship, so able to breast the storm, so that he does not
   care whether the wind blows south-west or north-west? He can go out to
   sea in any kind of weather; he has his sea legs on: how did he come to
   this strength? By doing business in great waters. He could not have
   become a hardy seaman by tarrying on shore. Now, trial works in the
   saints that spiritual hardihood which cannot be learned in ease. You
   may go to school for ever, but you cannot learn endurance there: you
   may colour your cheek with paint, but you cannot give it that ingrained
   brown which comes of stormy seas and howling winds. Strong faith and
   brave patience come of trouble, and a few men in the church who have
   thus been prepared are worth anything in times of tempest. To reach
   that condition of firm endurance and sacred hardihood is worth all the
   expense of all the heaped-up troubles that ever come upon us from above
   or from beneath. When trial worketh patience we are incalculably
   enriched. The Lord give us more of this choice grace. As Peter's fish
   had the money in its mouth, so have sanctified trials spiritual riches
   for those who endure them graciously.

   IV. Lastly, all this works something better still, and this is our
   fourth head: THE SPIRITUAL COMPLETENESS PROMOTED. "That ye may be
   perfect and entire, wanting nothing." Brethren, the most valuable thing
   a man can get in this world is that which has most to do with his
   truest self. A man gets a good house; well, that is something: but
   suppose he is in bad health, what is the good of his fine mansion? A
   man is well clothed and well fed: that is something: but suppose he
   shivers with ague, and has no appetite through indigestion. That spoils
   it all. If a man is in robust health this is a far more valuable boon.
   Health is far more to be prized than wealth, or honour, or learning: we
   all allow that, but then suppose that a man's innermost self is
   diseased while his body is healthy, so that he is disgraced by vice or
   fevered with passion, he is in a poor plight, notwithstanding that he
   has such a robust frame? The very best thing is that which will make
   the man himself a better man; make him right, and true, and pure, and
   holy. When the man himself is better, he has made an unquestionable
   gain. So, if our afflictions tend, by trying our faith, to breed
   patience, and that patience tends to make us into perfect men in Christ
   Jesus, then we may be glad of trials. Afflictions by God's grace make
   us all-around men, developing every spiritual faculty, and therefore
   they are our friends, our helpers, and should be welcomed with "all
   joy."

   Afflictions find out our weak points, and this makes us attend to them.
   Being tried, we discover our failures, and then going to God about
   those failures we are helped to be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

   Moreover, our trials, when blessed of God to make us patient, ripen us.
   I do not know how to explain what I mean by ripening, but there is a
   sort of mellowness about believers who have endured a great deal of
   affliction that you never meet in other people. It cannot be mistaken
   or imitated. A certain measure of sunlight is wanted to bring out the
   real flavour of fruits, and when a fruit has felt its measure of
   burning sun it develops a lusciousness which we all delight in. So is
   it in men and women: a certain amount of trouble appears to be needful
   to create a certain sugar of graciousness in them, so that they may
   contain the rich, ripe juice of a gracious character. You must have
   known such men and such women, and have said to yourselves, "I wish I
   could be like them, so calm, so quiet, so self-contained, so happy, and
   when not happy, yet so content not to be happy; so mature in judgment,
   so spiritual in conversation, so truly ripe." This only comes to those
   in whom the proof of their faith works experience, and then experience
   brings forth the fruits of the Spirit. Dear brothers and sisters, there
   is a certain all-roundness of spiritual manhood which never comes to us
   except by manifold temptations. Let me attempt to show you what I mean.
   Sanctified trials produce a chastened spirit. Some of us by nature are
   rough and untender; but after awhile friends notice that the roughness
   is departing, and they are quite glad to be more gently handled. Ah,
   that sick chamber did the polishing; under God's grace, that depression
   of spirit, that loss, that cross, that bereavement,--these softened the
   natural ruggedness, and made the man meek and lowly, like his Lord.
   Sanctified trouble has a great tendency to breed sympathy, and sympathy
   is to the church as oil to machinery. A man that has never suffered
   feels very awkward when he tries to sympathize with a tried child of
   God. He kindly does his best, but he does not know how to go to work at
   it; but those repeated blows from the rod make us feel for others who
   are smarting, and by degrees we are recognized as being the Lord's
   anointed comforters, made meet by temptation to succour those who are
   tempted.

   Have you never noticed how tried men, too, when their trouble is
   thoroughly sanctified, become cautious and humble? They cannot speak
   quite so fast as they used to do: they do not talk of being absolutely
   perfect, though thy are the very men who are Scripturally perfect; they
   say little about their doings, and much about the tender mercy of the
   Lord. They recollect the whipping they had behind the door from their
   Father's hands, and they speak gently to other erring ones. Affliction
   is the stone which our Lord Jesus throws at the brow of our giant
   pride, and patience is the sword which cuts off its head.

   Those, too, are the kind of people who are most grateful. I have known
   what it is to praise God for the power to move one leg in bed. It may
   not seem much to you, but it was a great blessing to me. They that are
   heavily afflicted come to bless God for everything. I am sure that
   woman who took a piece of bread and a cup of water for her breakfast,
   and said, "What, all this, and Christ too!" must have been a tried
   woman, or she would not have exhibited so much gratitude. And that old
   Puritan minister was surely a tried man, for when his family had only a
   herring and a few potatoes for dinner, he said, "Lord, we bless Thee
   that Thou hast ransacked sea and land to find food for us this day." If
   he had not been a tried man, he might have turned up his nose at the
   meal, as many do at much more sumptuous fare. Troubled men get to be
   grateful men, and that is no small thing.

   As a rule, where God's grace works, these come to be hopeful men. Where
   others think the storm will destroy the vessel, they can remember
   storms equally fierce which did not destroy it, and so they are so calm
   that their courage keeps others from despair.

   These men, too, become unworldly men. They have had too much trouble to
   think that they can ever build their nest in this black forest. There
   are too many thorns in their nest for them to reckon that this can be
   their home. These birds of paradise take to their wings, and are ready
   to fly away to the land of unfading flowers.

   And these much-tempted ones are frequently the most spiritual men, and
   out of this spirituality comes usefulness. Mr. Greatheart, who led the
   band of pilgrims up to the celestial city, was a man of many trials, or
   he would not have been fit to lead so many to their heavenly rest; and
   you, dear brother, if ever you are to be a leader and a helper, as you
   would wish to be, in the church of God, it must be by such means as
   this that you must be prepared for it. Do you not wish to have every
   virtue developed? Do you not wish to become a perfect man in Christ
   Jesus? If so, welcome with all joy divers trials and temptations; fly
   to God with them; bless Him for having sent them: ask Him to help you
   to bear them with patience, and then let that patience have its perfect
   work, and so by the Spirit of God you shall become "perfect and entire,
   lacking in nothing." May the Comforter bless this word to your hearts,
   for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Hearing of Faith

   (No. 1705)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 11, 1883,

   BY C, H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "This only would I learn of you, did you receive the Spirit by the
   works of the Law, or by the hearing of faith?" Galatians 3:2.

   A GREAT delusion is upon the heart of man as to his salvation. His ways
   are perverse. He does not love the Law of God, no, his mind is opposed
   to it and yet he sets up to be its advocate. When he understands the
   spirituality and severity of the Law, he reckons it to be a sore burden
   and yet, when the Gospel is preached and set forth as the gift of
   Sovereign Grace and he is bid, simply, to accept it by an act of faith
   in Christ Jesus, the man professes great concern about the Law, lest it
   should be made void by the freeness of Grace! He takes the broken
   pieces of the two tables of the Law and hurls them at the Cross! It is
   not that man loves the Law of God, but that he does not love the God of
   the Law! Hence he will resort to any pretense to oppose that way of
   salvation which God has appointed.

   Doubtless, if it had been possible for the Lord to have set forth
   another way of salvation, man would have opposed that, also, for he is
   determined to walk contrary to God. Be that as it may, there is a
   constant animosity in the minds of unregenerate men against the way of
   salvation by faith in Christ--and to oppose it, they set up the
   pretense of salvation by the works of the Law. Brothers and Sisters, in
   all our hearts there is this natural enmity to God and to the
   sovereignty of His Grace. Therefore it is that Believers have often to
   complain of the difficulties of faith. Faith in itself is, or ought to
   be, the easiest thing in the world, for a creature to believe in its
   Creator, for a child to believe in his father, ought to be the simplest
   and most natural thing in the world! But by reason of the corruption
   that remains, even, in the regenerate, there is always a struggling
   against this simple way of faith.

   There are times with the best man, when, in recollection of his many
   sins, Conscience says, "How can you believe that you are justified and
   accepted while so much of evil is found in you?" Unless we cleave to
   the promise of God and to His free mercy in Christ Jesus it will, then,
   go hard with us. The soul of the most sincere and upright man may be
   driven to despair by a sight of his own imperfections unless he clings
   to that righteousness by which sinners are justified through faith in
   Christ Jesus. Beloved, if this warfare is discovered, even, in the
   minds of those who are born-again, we must not wonder that it rages in
   the unregenerate!

   One would have thought that the moment we preached salvation by faith
   every sinner would have leaped up and accepted it. It is so simple, so
   easy, that surely every man would wish in this way to be forgiven and
   justified! Instead of which, all the reasoning, all the thoughtfulness,
   yes, all the cunning of unregenerate human nature is stirred up to
   fight against the method of deliverance by faith in Christ Jesus. "It
   is too good to be true," says one. Another cries, "If this is preached,
   it will lead men to think little of moral excellence." A third finds,
   in the Doctrines of Grace, inducements to inaction and so on, without
   end. These quibblings take hundreds of shapes, but, after all, they
   come to this--proud sinners must dictate to their offended Lord and be
   forgiven on their own terms.

   It would appear that God does not know the best way of saving men and
   men are so wise that they amend His methods! Is not this a refinement
   of blasphemy? It is a hideous farce to see a rebellious sinner suddenly
   become jealous about good works and greatly concerned for public
   morality! Does it not make laughter in Hell to see licentious men
   censuring the pure Gospel of the Lord Jesus and quibbling at free
   forgiveness because it might make men less mindful of purity? It makes
   one sick to see the hypocrisy of legalists! The reason of this
   contention lies in the fact that man is not only poor, but proud. He is
   not only guilty, but conceited, so that he will not humble himself to
   be saved upon terms of Divine charity. He will not consent to believe
   God--he prefers to believe in the proud falsehoods of his own
   heart--which delude him into the flattering hope that he may merit
   eternal life!

   Against this wicked spirit our text enters the fight. Let us see how it
   conducts the combat. The argument of the text is a very plain and
   powerful one. Paul puts it thus--"The Holy Spirit has been received by
   you Galatians. How did you receive the Holy Spirit--by the works of the
   Law or by the hearing of faith?" They were bound to admit, each one for
   himself, that they received the Holy Spirit by faith and by no other
   means! Now, the Holy Spirit is the choicest of all the gifts of God
   which are received into the soul--it is by the Spirit the work of the
   Lord Jesus is known and received! The Holy Spirit is, Himself, the seal
   of Divine favor and the token that we are at peace with God. I might
   almost say that the reception of the Holy Spirit is salvation--for when
   He enters into us, we are saved from death in sin, from the love of
   sin, from the power of sin and from the terror of sin!

   When He reigns in the heart, all the Divine Graces of a perfect
   character attend upon Him as courtiers upon a king. He becomes the
   source of life, light, love and liberty to our souls--and He even
   sanctifies our bodies. Know you not that your bodies are the temples of
   God when the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in them? To whom, then, the
   Holy Spirit is given, salvation is given in the highest sense! But how
   is that Holy Spirit received? The question is soon answered. He is not
   received by the works of the Law, but by the hearing of faith. I am
   going to handle this fact, first, as an argument of experience for all
   the people of God and, secondly, as an argument, at least, of
   observation for those who are seeking after Christ. May the Holy Spirit
   graciously aid us in our discourse.

   I. First, then, here is AN ARGUMENT OF EXPERIENCE FOR THE PEOPLE OF
   GOD. Before I dwell upon the personal experience of Believers who are
   here present, I would remind you of the experience of the Church of God
   as it is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. The book of the Acts of
   the Apostles is a confirmation of the correct answer to my text. The
   disciples were met together after our Lord's ascension and the Holy
   Spirit descended upon them--but in what way? Simply by their obeying
   the command of the Lord Jesus, "who commanded them that they should not
   depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which,
   says He, you have heard of Me."

   The gift was received by the hearing of faith, which led them to united
   prayer and waiting. They performed no ceremonies and entered upon no
   labors--the watchword was, "Tarry you till you are endowed with power
   from on high." The power came that they might work and not because they
   had worked! The gift of the Spirit came according to promise and not
   according to works! Very speedily the Spirit of God fell upon the
   people and 3,000 of them were converted and baptized. How came the
   Spirit of God upon Parthians, Medes, Elamites, the dwellers in
   Mesopotamia and so forth? Was it by the works of the Law?

   No, Beloved! Peter thus preached (Acts 2:38)--"Repent and be baptized,
   every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins,
   and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." When the thousands
   believed in Christ Jesus and confessed their faith by Baptism, the Holy
   Spirit was given them. So was it also in Samaria--"When they believed
   Philip preaching the things concerning the Kingdom of God and the name
   of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women." And then we
   read that the Apostle Peter went to them and these Believers received
   the Holy Spirit--certainly not by the works of the Law, but by the
   hearing of faith were they thus blessed! Turn to the story of
   Cornelius. That good man had abounded in almsgiving and prayer--and yet
   the Holy Spirit fell not upon him.

   But, when the "hearing of faith" came, and they were assembled in the
   house with one accord to listen to Peter, then the Holy Spirit fell
   upon all them that heard the Word of God. "And they of the circumcision
   which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because
   that on the Gentiles, also, was poured out the gift of the Holy Spirit!
   For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Then answered
   Peter, "Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized,
   which have received the Holy Spirit as well as we?"

   Was it not the same when Paul went out and preached among the Gentiles?
   It was, indeed, so--startlingly so--that the news came to the Hebrew
   Christians who were at Jerusalem and no small dissension and
   disputation was the consequence! Here had been no circumcision, no
   proselyting to Judaism, no observation of any part of the Mosaic ritual
   and yet they heard that the Holy Spirit had fallen upon the
   Gentiles--and they had not even known the Law, much less fulfilled it!
   It needed all of Peter's influence to stem the flood. Hear how he puts
   it--"God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should
   hear the Word of the Gospel and believe. And God, which knows the
   hearts, bore them witness, giving them the Holy Spirit, even as He did
   unto us." The Holy Spirit was received by believing Gentiles in every
   place where Paul had preached and, therefore, he could refer to these
   Galatians and use their experience to correct their errors. The fact
   that the Holy Spirit is given to the hearing of faith and not as a
   reward of works, runs like a silver thread

   through the whole of the Acts of the Apostles! Why, then, should men
   look to the works of the Law for that which was never given except to
   faith? What an infatuation to look to the mirage when a real well is
   open at their feet!

   Now I come to your own experience. You, beloved Friends, if you are,
   indeed, in Christ Jesus, have received the Holy Spirit! But how? Let us
   go over the list of His operations upon your minds. You received
   enlightenment by His means, by which you were led to understand the way
   of salvation and to behold the Glory of God in the face of Jesus
   Christ. Did you attain to that enlightenment by the works of the Law?
   Was it so in any one case? It has been my privilege to know many of you
   and to remember your confessions of faith--you told me that when you
   were seeking salvation by your own works you were blind and saw not the
   Light of God. The more you strove and the more you struggled, the more
   intense the midnight grew about you until you well-near despaired!

   Light came by a look at the Crucified! It came only by the hearing of
   faith! After that, you received peace, which peace, I trust, you enjoy
   this morning--"The peace of God which passes all understanding." But
   did you receive that peace while you were trusting in ceremonies, in
   baptism, or in the Lord's Supper, or in your own works? I know you did
   not, for true peace of conscience comes not in at that door! Did you
   obtain peace while you tried to repent so much, to weep so much, to
   feel so much, or to do so much? No, Brothers and Sisters, not an atom
   of peace ever came to your spirit until you looked away from yourself
   to the Lord Jesus, of whom you heard that He was able to save even the
   chief of sin-ners--and in whom you, therefore, by the Grace of God,
   believed! When faith came, peace grew out of it as a fruit of the Holy
   Spirit.

   Since then, you have received the Holy Spirit to help you in your
   sanctification, but you have obtained no sanctifica-tion apart from
   believing. If you have reached after sanctification by your own
   efforts, made in unbelief, you have never succeeded. Unbelief works
   towards sin and never towards sanctification! Our good works are fruits
   of sanctification, not causes of it, and if we put the fruit where the
   root should be, we greatly err. If you have gone out to fight against a
   temptation in your own strength, have you ever returned a conqueror? It
   has been written of all other Believers, "They overcame through the
   blood of the Lamb," and this is true of you, also. Sanctification does
   not come to us from self-reliance, but as a work of the Spirit received
   by faith in Christ. Believing in Him, He is "made of God unto us
   wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption."

   You have had besides, dear Friends, another gift of the Holy Spirit,
   namely, that of communion with God. But did you ever commune with the
   holy God on the footing of your own goodness? Never! Abraham never
   spoke with Jehovah on legal terms, for when he interceded with the
   Lord, he said, "I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord--I that am
   but dust and ashes." Yet he spoke with God in wondrous nearness and
   that is the point of it--to be dust and ashes in your own sight--and
   yet to commune with God as a friend! This is the daring of faith! This
   the Lord delights in! David said, "So foolish was I, and ignorant: I
   was as a beast before You. Nevertheless I am continually with You: You
   have held me by my right hand." A beast in his own esteem, and yet
   upheld by God, Himself, and allowed to live in favored fellowship with
   Him!

   Dear Friends, there is no communion with God except by faith, without
   which we cannot ever please God. The favorites of Heaven are, in every
   case, men who believe in God! Faith has the golden key of the ivory
   palaces. Faith opens the secret chambers of communion to those who love
   her. The works of the Law bring no nearness to God, in token whereof,
   none might come near to Sinai and if so much as a beast touched the
   mountain, it must be stoned or thrust through with a dart. And you,
   dear Friends, have received the Holy Spirit, often, as your Helper in
   prayer--"The Spirit also helps our infirmity." And I am sure it never
   was by the works of the Law. When infirmity has stopped your prayers
   and you could not cry as you would, then you have had no room to boast
   of good works--and yet then the Spirit has made "intercession for you
   with groans that could not be uttered." Your infirmity made you feel
   that it was by Grace, and by Grace, alone, that you were helped in your
   time of need.

   Now, as to the Holy Spirit's office of sealing the soul and working
   full assurance in the heart--as to the Holy Spirit's being the earnest
   of the future Glory, the pledge of joys to come--in all these, Grace
   reigns, and not merit! He that dwells in the least degree upon any
   phantom merit of his own has no earnest of the inheritance whatever! In
   fact, for him there is no inheritance, since an inheritance does not
   come by works. Neither has he that trusts in his works any pledge of
   joys to come, for he does not know that he has done enough to secure
   them. Neither can he have any comfortable rest in God, for his work is
   not finished and, therefore, he cannot rest. You know it, you that have
   toiled to save

   yourselves! Every Christian here must confess, "It is even so--we have
   received everything by faith and nothing by merit."

   Well, then, the inference is this--do not pump a dry well! If there is
   a fountain that is always flowing and overflowing, keep to it. Do not
   commit the double evil of forsaking the fountain of Living Water and
   hewing out for yourselves broken cisterns. Wait at that door which you
   have received everything as yet and do not go where you have received
   nothing except conviction and condemnation! Look not to Moses to bring
   you into Canaan--that can only be done by Joshua Jesus. Now, mark this
   inference--let every child of God ponder it--keep to "the hearing of
   faith." When you are under a sense of backsliding; when you feel
   unworthy to be called God's child; when you have erred and strayed from
   His ways like a lost sheep, do not rush like a madman to the Law, for
   that would be to leap into the fire! But say, "Lord, I believe in You.
   As a sinner I trust the sinner's Substitute."

   Whether you did truly come to Christ at the first, or not, is a point
   which you need not discuss, but begin again! Take with you, words, and
   come, by faith, to Jesus, and say, "Heal my backsliding. Receive me
   graciously and love me freely." By faith we can be restored, but never
   by doubting and despairing. We can only come to Christ by faith at
   first, and we can only return to Him in the same way! If you begin to
   doubt the mercy and love of God to you, you will backslide more and
   more! Your hope lies in holding on to this--"Be I what I may, yet God
   has not changed and there is still forgiveness with Him, that He may be
   feared. Therefore I will go with the language of the 51st Psalm upon my
   tongue and the penitence of David in my heart, and I will say, 'Create
   in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within

   me.'"

   Stick to your faith in Christ! Do not think that the greatness of your
   sin exceeds His atoning merit! Do not doubt but that He will still
   cleanse you and love you as before! Suppose you have not backslidden,
   but yet you are in the presence of a tremendous inward conflict. I will
   suppose that you are led to question whether you are the children of
   God at all, and persuaded to doubt your sonship. Now, be resolved to
   hold on to your faith in your heavenly Father! The devil is saying to
   you, "f you are the son of God." Do not yield to his "if." This is the
   way in which he attacked your Savior in the wilderness! A question
   about our sonship is the very point of the devil's sword and it is
   dipped in deadly poison-- therefore guard yourself with that Word of
   God, "To as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the
   sons of God, even to as many as believed on His name."

   Say, "I believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, who died for the ungodly, and
   in Him I am assured of being a child of God." You cannot resist
   temptation by doubting! Doubting is weakness--in believing is your
   might. "How can I believe," asks one. The elect of God believe--those
   who are born from above believe their Father's Word. If you can
   believe, you shall win great victories, but if you cast away your
   confidence, the battle is already lost. Above all, or over all, carry
   the shield of faith! Be sure to do this in the evil day when sin
   prevails. Is this too hard for you? What? Has it come to this, that
   when you feel you are a saint you can then trust to Christ? That is,
   you can trust Him when you can do without Him! Poor sham of faith! The
   genuine faith is a sinner's faith which trusts the Savior when signs,
   evidences and marks are all hid-den--and sin and temptation hold the
   upper seats.

   To believe that I, a sinner, am forgiven by the free Grace of God--that
   I, a poor, imperfect being, am yet accepted of God--this is faith! May
   we have power to trust the Lord Jesus in earnest; to trust Him with
   real sin and real unworthi-ness. Do this, dear Friends, with regard to
   the whole of your life's struggle. Some begin their religious life in
   the Spirit by faith, but they fancy that the rest of their spiritual
   life will have to be by works. They forget that the just shall live by
   faith. Those who say that though they are children of God, they may
   perish, after all, have not the true Gospel ring about them. If they
   are children of God, can they perish? How? Why? "Well, we must be
   watchful and prayerful." Precisely so! But is there no provision made
   to secure that you shall be watchful and prayerful? If not, then I tell
   you, Brothers and Sisters, you will never get to Heaven!

   You will fail in this watchfulness of yours and then where are you? My
   hope of Heaven lies in the belief that the Lord Jesus has redeemed me
   and will keep me! He will make me watchful and prayerful and work in
   me, by His Spirit, all else that is essential to my safety. "I know
   whom I have believed," and I am not afraid to add, "I am persuaded that
   He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him until that
   day." Brothers and Sisters, it is by such faith that we receive the
   Spirit--not by legal works and fears. At this present moment you are
   saved by faith, alone, are you not? Yes. Then I would persuade you to
   extend that faith over the whole area of your life. Believe for final
   preservation. Believe for com-

   plete salvation. Is it not written "He that believes on Him has
   everlasting life"? Can that life which is everlasting come to an end?
   Can eternal life expire? "Faithful is He that has called you, who also
   will do it."

   "Oh," you say, "I am half afraid to believe so bravely, for it might
   make me careless." This is a mistake--faith works by love, it never
   tends to sloth. My dear Friend, if you look to yourself in any degree
   your foot is beginning to slip. Put the future where you put the past,
   namely, into the hands of Him that is able to keep you from falling!
   Believe in Jesus for a life as well as for an hour, and He will keep
   you with spotless garments to the end! Stand on the sure rock of the
   Lord's finished work and not on the dubious ground of your own
   carefulness. Works done by the efforts of our own strength are poor
   things, but the work of the Grace of God upon our spirit is precious.
   Let all be of Grace and nothing of self! The two will no more go
   together than oil and water will mix. Do not try to trust partly in
   Christ and partly in self--as well yoke an archangel with an ant, or a
   cherub with a cricket! Salvation is of the Lord, alone, from first to
   last!

   Brothers and Sisters, let us keep in this condition when we are
   comparing ourselves with other saints of God. I sometimes read
   biographies which make me cover my face for shame because I fall so far
   short of the attainments of certain Believers. This humbling is good
   for us. What ought we to do when we feel it? To begin to doubt the Lord
   and imagine that the Lord Jesus cannot or will not save us? Far from
   it! Faith should rise by observing what the Lord has done for other
   poor sinners like ourselves, for He is able to do the same for us.
   Remember that the safety of the weak and of the strong Believer rests
   upon the same foundation!

   This may be seen in a figure. On board one of the fine steamboats which
   flit between England and America I see a strong, hardy, vigorous man.
   Will he get to America safely? Yes, if the ship does. But look, yonder
   is a little child which cannot walk and has to be carried in its
   mother's arms. Will it reach America safely? Yes, if the ship does.
   Both the robust man and the little infant, all being well, will reach
   their journey's end--if the ship does. Their safety lies in the same
   place. Their condition does not affect their transit. But is there no
   difference between the child and the man? Assuredly, a great deal of
   difference as to many things--but there is no difference about the fact
   that their passage across the ocean depends upon the steamboat, rather
   than upon themselves!

   So, if you meet with a great saint, say to yourself, "My honored
   Brother will get to Heaven through Jesus Christ. And I, a poor babe in
   Grace, shall get to Heaven in the same way." I want you children of God
   to feel this. Are you on board the Covenant transport? Does the
   blood-red flag fly at the masthead? Then, if the weakest Believer is
   not safely carried into port, neither will the strongest child of God
   reach the fair havens! If that ship of Free Grace goes down, Peter and
   Paul must sink as well as ourselves, for we are at sea in the same
   vessel! Our confidence is in no measure or sense in what we are, but
   altogether in what Christ is on our behalf! We depend on Jesus and rest
   in Jesus by a simple faith and the brightest of martyrs and Apostles
   has no surer ground to rest on!

   When you come to die, do not look upon death through the glass of the
   Law, for if so, it will be terrible for you! But believe this--that to
   die by faith is to enter into life! I hardly like to use the word,
   death in such a connection, for it is not dying at all, but "departing
   out of this world unto the Father." By faith, to die is such sweet work
   as you, poor Despondency, and you, Much-Afraid, will be able to
   accomplish as safely as Valiant-for-Truth, or Great-Heart himself! By
   faith we swallow up death in victory! They that have served God for 50
   years faithfully and without fault, when they come to die, have, in
   every case gathered up their feet in the bed and said, "Into Your hands
   I commit my spirit." But never has one of them died pleading his own
   religiousness and claiming a reward as due to his works! Trusting in
   Jesus is the universal spirit of the most praiseworthy Believers!

   Well, if they flung every other hope away except that which was
   presented to them in Christ, you, dear Friend, need not hesitate to do
   the same! And as they were secure and triumphant, even so shall you be!
   This is the argument, then-- you have obtained nothing except by the
   hearing of faith--therefore, keep to the way of faith even to your last
   hour, for wisdom teaches you to do so.

   II. But now I want to throw all my strength into the second part of the
   sermon, which is this--I want to use this AS AN ARGUMENT DERIVED FROM
   OBSERVATION FOR THE USE OF SEEKERS. I say "observation," but in part,
   it might be called an argument from experience, for, at any rate, on
   the negative side it is so. Listen, dear Hearer, you have not yet found
   rest, you are not yet saved--and so far you have obtained no advantage
   by the works of the Law. By your own honesty, generosity and
   righteousness, you have not been justified, nor have you received a new
   heart, or any other gift of the Spirit. Why continue at this
   unprofitable business?

   Some try Church attendance, Chapel attendance, Bible-reading,
   sacraments, forms of prayer and the like--but nothing comes of it. Hear
   how they repeat their Ave Marias and their Pater Nosters! And not only
   Romanists, but so-called Protestants are puffed up with the hope that
   by formal worship they will be saved! But they make no headway and are
   still without salvation! Let me ask you work-trusters, have you any
   rest? Are you prepared to die? Would you be willing to die at once? No!
   Your position is one of unrest, fear and dread! Why not abandon this
   vain method of building, for "unless the Lord builds the house they
   labor in vain that build it!" Instead of following out your own way of
   salvation by the works of the Law, why not try the Lord's appointed way
   of the hearing of faith?

   Has He not said, "Hear and your soul shall live"? Are willing to let me
   explain it? The "hearing of faith"--this is the way by which the Spirit
   of God comes to men. "What kind of hearing," asks one, "is that?" Well,
   to begin with, it is personal hearing, listening to the Word of God for
   yourself. I have heard of one who had a dream in which he thought he
   stood at the gates of Heaven and his wife with him. She went in, but
   the pointer shut him out, saying, "The other day you said to your wife,
   'Mistress, you may go to Church and pray for us both,' and now she
   shall go to Heaven for you both, and you must stay outside." Is not
   that just? There must be a personal hearing! I pray you, do not absent
   yourselves from the hearing of the Word of God, for, "faith comes by
   hearing, and hearing by the Word of God."

   That last sentence reminds me that the hearing must be the hearing of
   the Gospel. I wish people were more careful upon that point. You will
   not receive the Holy Spirit by merely hearing a man talk. He may be
   eloquent, he may be clever and he may be pious, but mark you, if he
   does not preach the Gospel, saving faith cannot come of your hearing
   it! Too many people go to that place of worship which is nearest to
   their houses and never mind what is preached so long as there is an
   attractive service. Oh, Sirs, do not thus play the fool with
   yourselves! The faith that saves you cannot come to you by hearing
   anything which comes first--it only comes by hearing the testimony of
   the Spirit to the appointed Savior!

   The right kind of hearing is an attentive hearing. There is a great
   difference between hearing and hearing. If I were to say, "There is a
   ship going to sail next Tuesday for New Zealand," the most of you would
   hear it and think no more of it. But suppose there should be a person
   here who is in great haste to reach New Zealand? He will catch at my
   words and be round in the vestry to make further enquiries. This is the
   kind of hearing which the Gospel requires! You are in one of our great
   stations and you hear a person say, "That train is for Exeter." The
   information is lost upon you, for you are bound for Oxford and it is as
   though you heard it not. But suppose you were bound for Exeter? You
   would catch at the sound and make use of the news!

   Now, I am talking about the salvation of man from the power of sin; the
   salvation of man from the guilt of sin; the preparation of man for a
   holy life on earth and an eternal life of bliss in Heaven--if you have
   the hearing of faith, you will feel that this subject is one which
   concerns yourself--you will be anxious to know more about it and you
   will give your mind to its consideration! This is the sort of hearing
   by which faith comes. Do not lend your ears to others, but hear for
   yourself! Go where the Gospel is preached and hear it with both your
   ears. Drink it in as an ox drinks at the stream. Treasure up every word
   as the ants store up grain. Test all as goldsmiths test gold--and then
   receive the Truth of God as babes drink in milk from the breast. This
   is "the hearing of faith."

   "But what is this faith," asks one, "this 'hearing of faith?'" I will
   try to work out the idea. You begin with hearing the Gospel and
   believing that it comes from God. I suppose nearly everybody here
   believes the Bible to be the Word of God. Very well, when you hear that
   teaching which is consistent with Scripture, the hearing of faith is to
   accept it as God's Word and, therefore, true and worthy of your
   reverent attention. The Gospel is the voice of God and it comes by the
   Spirit of God--a belief of this Truth of God will help you to hear it
   reverently--and it will prepare your mind to receive it. Then remember,
   if it is God's Word, a genuine faith in God knows of no difficulties
   whatever! A man who believes the Bible to be Inspired, just as readily
   believes that the whale swallowed Jonah, or that Joshua stopped the
   sun, as he believes that Abraham interceded for Sodom, or that Paul was
   a prisoner at Rome.

   Knowing the Gospel to be God's Testimony, we believe it all! That is
   the way in which to hear the Gospel. Say to yourself, "This is God's
   Gospel. It is wonderfully grand and good, and it is not, therefore, a
   matter of doubt. That I may be saved in one single minute by believing
   in Jesus; that every sin I have ever committed, however black, may all
   be washed away as the clock ticks again--these are wonderful things and
   I believe them because the Lord has said so. It is not mine to quibble,
   question, or argue--if there are any difficulties in these great
   promises, those difficulties belong to

   God--not to me. Let the Lord promise what He pleases, I am ready to
   believe it because He is able to perform His own word."

   Then, "the hearing of faith" signifies, further, that we venture our
   eternal interests upon the truth of what we hear. I use the word,
   "venture," advisedly. One of our hymns puts it--

   "Venture on Him, venture wholly, Let no other trust intrude."

   I have heard critics object that it is no venture, but a certainty,
   when men trust in Christ. But I venture to assert that when a man is in
   trouble of spirit, faith is a venture to him--it appears to him to be
   the greatest venture possible! He that says, "This Gospel which I have
   heard is true and I will venture my soul upon the truth of it," he is
   the man who has given to the Gospel "the hearing of faith"! Let me try
   to set forth faith yet again--this bridge is strong enough to carry me
   over the stream, therefore I am going over the stream upon it. That is
   real faith. Faith is a most practical principle in daily life. The most
   of trade hangs on trust. When a man sows wheat, he has to scatter it
   into the furrows and lose it. He does so because he has faith that God
   will send a harvest.

   When the sailor loses sight of the shore, he has to sail by
   faith--believing in his compass, he feels safe though he may not see
   land for weeks! Faith is the hand which receives what God presents to
   us and, therefore, it is a simple child-like thing. When a child has an
   apple offered to him, the child may know nothing about the orchard in
   which the apple grew, and he may know nothing of the mechanism of his
   hand and arm, but it is quite enough for him to take the apple. Faith
   does the most effectual thing for the soul when it takes what God
   gives! All the rest may be or may not be, faith is the main thing. When
   God holds out to me, salvation by Christ Jesus, I need not ask anything
   further about it, but just take it to myself and be at once saved, for
   by faith the Spirit of God is received.

   Once more, "the hearing of faith" is when a man hears and accepts the
   Gospel and then holds to it under opposition. When conscience reminds
   you that you are a guilty man, you must still hold to peace by the
   blood of Jesus. What says the Word of God? It tells you that he that
   believes in Jesus is not condemned and you must believe that, whatever
   your own judgment and feelings may say. When the devil, as the accuser
   of the Brethren, howls out, "You cannot be saved! Look at your
   imperfections and transgressions!" then reply, "But I am saved,
   whatever my imperfections and my sins may be, for it is written, 'He
   that believes and is baptized shall be saved.' I have obeyed both
   precepts and, therefore, I shall be saved, despite your rage."

   Poor Sinner, have you not seen that this is the way the Holy Spirit has
   come to others? Your Christian friends have all told you that this is
   the way they obtained mercy. Will you not make an attempt in the same
   way, and hear and believe as a little child? Believe God's Word! Do not
   wish to be anything or to do anything--just trust in what Jesus is and
   did. You shall have the Holy Spirit and you shall feel as you have
   never felt before, if you will have "the hearing of faith." I need your
   attention for a minute while I mention some of the points in the Gospel
   out of which this "hearing of faith" generally comes. What truth is it
   which men most readily believe? The first is this. A man says, "I
   cannot believe," but he can hear, and he hears that God has sent forth
   His Son Jesus Christ to be the Savior of men. "God has sent Him," he
   says, "the offended God has appointed a Mediator. Christ does not come
   as an amateur, but as an Ambassador authorized of Heaven." "Then," he
   says, "I will trust Him whom God has ordained to be a Savior."

   Next, while listening to the Gospel, the man hears about the Person of
   the Lord and sees who He is, namely, that He is God's only-begotten
   Son, equal and co-eternal with the Father and yet, He is, in the
   fullest sense, Man, in our nature. I have known many a soul say, "I can
   trust Jesus, since He is God and able to save me, and Man, and thus
   willing to save me." By that celestial lamp many have seen their way to
   faith. Oh, that faith may come to you while you are hearing me! Another
   very blessed nail on which faith loves to hang all its weight is the
   sufferings of Christ--for, being found in fashion as a Man, He humbled
   Himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the Cross. See
   Him languishing upon the cruel tree, bleeding out His life for unworthy
   men, His enemies, that they might live through Him!

   Many and many a time that sight has turned a doubter into a Believer.
   Thousands have seen the Cross and felt that they must believe. Another
   nail of which many have learned to hang all their hope has been
   Christ's risen power. They have heard of Him, that He is now in Glory,
   at the right hand of God, making intercession for transgressors--and
   this has been the star of hope to the desponding. Is it not a joy that
   God also has highly exalted Him, so that He is able to save to the
   uttermost all that come unto God by Him? Myriads of tremblers have felt
   faith leap up from their hearts like the

   water from the rock in the wilderness, when Christ has been set before
   them as exalted to be a Prince and a Savior, giving both repentance and
   remission of sins. They have been trying to believe, before, but now
   they believe without trying!

   Trying to believe is a very stupid operation--you cannot do it! Minds
   work not so. But when a man sees a thing to be true, he believes it as
   a matter of course. He is convinced by the blessed fact of Christ's
   Resurrection and Ascension that He is able to save, and so he trusts
   Him to save him. Thus he receives the Spirit. I have known many that
   have been led to believe by hearing of the work and Grace of the Holy
   Spirit. They have heard the preacher say that the Holy Spirit can raise
   men from their death in sin; that He can renew the heart; that He can
   change the will and conquer the passions. They have said, "Is it so? Is
   God, Himself, willing to work with me to make me holy? Then I will
   trust Him." Thus faith comes.

   Sometimes, also, when we have preached free forgiveness, full
   redemption, irreversible acceptance, infinite love, boundless Grace,
   unchallengeable justification--when we have declared that the Lord's
   mercy endures forever and that men have but to look to Jesus and then
   and there find eternal life--then faith has dropped on men's minds as
   dew upon the grass! Our Hearers have felt that such tidings must be
   true, for nobody could have invented them! The Gospel has the stamp of
   Deity upon it and this commends it to man's heart. Free Grace and dying
   love are worthy of faith and they win faith! I pray that all of you who
   are seekers may give up all trying to feel, trying to work, trying to
   be, and may just come and put your trust in Jesus! Then shall you be
   saved and then you may work, feel and do as much as you like.

   Then shall you abound in good works and the more the merrier! Then you
   shall fight with sin and overcome it! Then shall you set up a high
   standard and reach it! Then shall you strive after holiness and
   manifest it. But do not begin where you ought to leave off! Do not put,
   as the proverb has it, the cart before the horse! Do not place the top
   of the house where the foundation ought to be! But as you never did
   obtain anything by the works of the Law, come and try "the hearing of
   faith," and you shall receive all that you need in Christ Jesus. God
   grant it, for Jesus' sake. Amen.

   PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON--Galatians 3. HYMNS FROM "OUR
   OWN HYMN BOOK"-406, 533, 516.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Cast-Off Sash

   (No. 1706)

   DELIVERED AT THE THURSDAY EVENING LECTURE,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Thus said the Lord unto me, Go and get a linen sash, and put it around
   your waist, and put it not in water. So I got a sash, according to the
   word of the Lord, and put it around my waist. And the word of the Lord
   came unto me the second time, saying, Take the sash that you acquired,
   which is around your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it
   there in a hole of the rock. So I went, and hid it by the Euphrates, as
   the Lord commanded me. And it came to pass after many days, that the
   Lord said unto me, Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take the sash from
   there, which I commanded you to hide there. Then I went to the
   Euphrates, and dug, and took the sash from the place where I had hid
   it: and, behold, the sash was marred, it was profitable for nothing.
   Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Thus says the Lord,
   After this manner willImar thepride of Judah, and the great pride of
   Jerusalem. This evil people, who refuse to hear My words, who follow
   the dictates of their hearts and walk after other gods, to serve them,
   and to worship them, shall even be as this sash, which is good for
   nothing. For as the sash clings to the waist of a man, so ha ve I
   caused to cling unto Me the whole house of Israel and the whole house
   of Judah, says the Lord; that they might be unto Me for a people, and
   for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not
   hear." Jeremiah 13:1-11.

   GOD'S servants, in olden times, were very anxious to be understood when
   they spoke. They were not content because the people listened to them,
   or because they were to their hearers as "a very lovely song of one
   that has a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument." They
   reckoned the people's approval of their style to be proof of its
   failure. Had it wounded their hearts, it would not have gratified their
   tastes. They wanted the Truth of God to go home to men, so that they
   could no longer discuss modes of speech, or methods of action, but
   would be compelled to remember the message and feel its force. They
   reckoned that they had done nothing unless they riveted attention,
   excited thought and impressed the heart.

   Oh that all preachers were as solemnly in earnest in all their
   addresses as Jeremiah was--we might then hope to see more true
   conversions and less of the flimsy religion of the day! The people of
   Israel and Judah were so sunk in thoughtlessness that it was absolutely
   necessary to do something more than speak. Prophet after Prophet had
   spoken, "but they would not hear." Even though Jeremiah, the most
   plaintive of all the Prophets, spoke in such melting tones that it must
   have been difficult to turn away from him with indifference, yet they
   remained so hardened that God described them as, "this evil people, who
   refuse to hear My words, who follow the dictates of their hearts."

   Though the Prophet wept, entreated and persuaded, yet they regarded him
   not, but turned on their heels and went, each one, his own way to his
   merchandise, to his idolatry, to his adultery, or to his oppression.
   Therefore the Lord bade His servants add to their speech certain
   symbols which the people would see with their eyes, which would be
   talked about as strange things and so, would excite attention and
   command consideration. Perhaps, by this means the Lord would extort
   from some of them a deeper thought, and bring them penitently to their
   knees. It is better for preachers to do odd things than for men to be
   lost!

   If plain talk fails, we may even use emblems and signs, for we cannot
   let the careless ones perish without another attempt to get at them. Oh
   that by any means we might save some! In many instances the Prophets
   were told to do singular things and among the rest was this--Jeremiah
   must take a linen sash, put it about his waist and wear it there till
   the people had noticed what he wore and how long he wore it. This sash
   was not to be washed--this was to be a matter ob-

   served of all observers--for it was a part of the similitude. Then he
   must make a journey to the distant river Euphrates and take off his
   sash and bury it there. When the people saw him without a sash, they
   would make remarks and ask what he had done with it, and he would reply
   that he had buried it by the river of Babylon.

   Many would count him mad for having walked so far to get rid of a
   sash--250 miles was certainly a great journey for such a purpose!
   Surely he might have buried it nearer home, if he must bury it at all.
   There was the Jordan--he might have gone to its bank, dug a hole and
   hid the garment there, if he thought it well to do so. There would be a
   good deal of talk about Jeremiah's eccentric conduct, but the more
   thoughtful would endeavor to spell out his meaning, for they would feel
   sure that he meant much by it. Soon the Prophet goes a second time to
   the Euphrates and they say one to another--The Prophet is a fool! The
   spiritual man is mad! See what a trick he is playing. Nearly a thousand
   miles the man will have walked in order to hide a sash and to dig it
   up, again! What will he do next?

   Whereas plain words might not have been noticed, this little piece of
   acting commanded the attention and excited the curiosity of the people.
   Blame us not if we sometimes dramatize the Truth of God--we must win
   men's hearts--and to do so we dare even run the risk of being called
   theatrical! Jeremiah might have been ridiculed as an actor, but he
   would not have fretted much under the charge if he saw that he had
   succeeded in teaching the people the Truth which God would have them
   learn. When our young folks cannot learn by books, we try the
   kindergarten method, and we will sooner teach them by toys than leave
   them ignorant! Even so was it with the old Prophets. They would use
   emblems rather than leave the people in the dark.

   The record of this singular transaction has come to us and we know
   that, as a part of Holy Scripture, it is full of instruction. Thousands
   of years will not make it so antique as to be valueless! The Word of
   the Lord never becomes old so as to lose its vigor--it is still as
   strong, for all Divine purposes, as when first of all Jehovah spoke it!
   This Bible is the oldest of instructors and yet it wears the dew of its
   youth! Like the sea, it is ancient as the ages, but time has written no
   furrow on its brow. It is always venerable, yet ever novel--eternal,
   yet always fresh. Even the symbol of Jeremiah, which was so strikingly
   adapted to his age and time, is quite as well suited to this present
   year of Grace. May the Holy Spirit give us all instruction thereby.

   I. And, first, in our text we have AN HONORABLE EMBLEM of Israel and
   Judah. We may say, in these days, an emblem of the Church of God. I say
   it is an honorable emblem. I hardly know of one which is more so except
   when the Church is called a Crown of Glory, or a Royal Diadem, or,
   better still, the Bride, the Lamb's Wife. The people were compared to a
   linen sash with which the Prophet, in the type, girt himself, but which
   God explains to be His sash, "for as the sash clings to the waist of a
   man, so have I caused to cling unto Me the whole house of Israel and
   the whole house of Judah, says the Lord."

   Notice first, then, that God had taken this people to be bound to
   Himself. He had taken them to be as near to Him as the sash is to the
   Oriental when he binds it about his waist. The eastern merchant or
   worker does not go out without his sash--it is an essential part of his
   dress, keeping all the rest together--and so the Lord declares that He
   had taken His people and had bound them about Himself to be near to Him
   and fastened about Him, so that He would not go forth without them.
   Often He speaks of them as "a people near to Me." Had they acted as
   they should have done, so as to be not only the natural but the
   spiritual seed of Israel, they would have enjoyed what every true
   Believer may enjoy, namely clinging unto God as a sash clings unto a
   man, for the Lord's own sanctified ones are bound unto God by God,
   Himself, so as never to be torn away from Him.

   I invite you, beloved of the Lord, to consider your choice privilege in
   thus being, as it were, girt about the waist of God. It is a wonderful
   metaphor. In infinite condescension the Lord has put it so--the
   Believer's place is near his God in intimate, continuous, open
   fellowship. What can be more intimately associated with a man's most
   vital parts than his belt? What can be nearer to the life of God than
   His living people? The traveler in the East takes care that his sash
   shall not go unfastened--he girds himself securely before he commences
   his work or starts upon his journey, and God has bound His people round
   about Him so that they shall never be removed from Him. "I in them,"
   says Christ, even as a man is in his belt.

   "Who shall separate us?" says Paul. Who shall ungird us from the heart
   and soul of our loving God? "They shall be Mine, says the Lord." They
   are His and always shall be His! Neither shall any tear them away from
   Him, for by Covenant and by promise are they bound up with the life of
   God. Yet remember that there are many who, like the Jewish people,

   bear the name of Israel, but they are not the true Israel. They are
   bound about God nominally, as it were, but yet they are not spiritually
   united to Him. And concerning such, this parable tells us much that is
   worthy of solemn consideration. May the Holy Spirit warn all professors
   by this instructive image! If we are, indeed, what we profess to be,
   then we shall cling to God forever, as it is written, "I will put My
   fear in their hearts, and they shall not depart from Me." Our faith
   will encompass Christ our Lord! Our love will embrace Him! Our patience
   will surround Him! Our hope will encircle Him world without end!

   In all our service we shall endeavor to cling fast to God. If anything
   comes between us and God, it will be our sorrow, a trouble not to be
   endured. Nothing shall seduce the faithful from their hold upon God,
   for He who bound them about Himself will allow no enemy to unloose His
   sash. Whatever the world may do by way of bribe, or by way of threats,
   we shall hold fast to Him and shall not let Him go! And all for this
   reason--that unchanging Love and infinite Wisdom have bound us too fast
   for us to be unloosed again. Because the Lord's own love has bound us
   to Himself, therefore we bind ourselves to Him by steadfast Covenant--

   "Loved of our God, for Him again

   With love intense we burn!

   Chosen of Him before time began,

   We choose Him in return."

   And, as nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ
   Jesus our Lord, so nothing shall separate our love from God whom we
   love in Christ Jesus our Lord!

   What a privilege this is--that the Lord should cause us to cling to
   Him, to be to Him for a people, for a name, for a praise and for a
   glory! Pardon me if I speak feebly, my heart loses utterance in
   contemplating the gracious imagery here set before us. But Jeremiah's
   sash was a linen one--it was the sash peculiar to the priests, for such
   was the Prophet. He was "the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were
   in Anathoth." Thus the type represents chosen men as bound to God in
   connection with sacrifice. The people of the Lord are the very sash of
   the Most High in this sense, that if there is priestly work to do, He
   puts us about Him and makes us to be the instruments of this hallowed
   service.

   For us, our blessed Lord girt Himself with a linen sash! For us, He,
   even now, is girt about the paps with a golden sash and now, for Him,
   we, also, become priests and kings unto God and His continued priestly
   work among men is done by us. I mean, not by ministers, alone, but by
   all the inheritance of God--by all the blood-washed ones, by all the
   regenerate ones--for you are "a royal priesthood, a peculiar people."
   God has made His people to be "a nation of priests" and it is ours to
   offer sacrifice to God continually, the sacrifice of prayer and
   thanksgiving. We know of no order of priests, save the whole body of
   the faithful, who present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
   acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

   That is why a linen sash was specified rather than any other. We are
   bound to the Most High, for solemn priesthood, to minister among the
   sons of men holy things. The Lord Jesus is now blessing the sons of men
   as Aaron blessed the peo-ple--and we are the sash with which He girds
   Himself in the act of benediction by the Gospel. The sash is also used
   by God always in connection with work. When eastern men are about to
   work in real earnest, they gird up their loins. Our garments in this
   country are close-fitting and convenient, but the Oriental's robes
   would always be in his way whenever he had work to do if he did not
   tightly strap them around him.

   Whenever we read of earnest work to be done we read of this sash--so
   when God comes to do work among the sons of men, we always hear of this
   sash, which sash we are, or may be, if we are unto God what we ought to
   be. When the Lord works righteousness in the earth, it is by means of
   His chosen ones. When He publishes salvation and makes known His Grace,
   His saints are around Him. When sinners are to be saved, it is by His
   people. When error is to be denounced, it is by our lips that He
   chooses to speak. When His saints are to be comforted, it is by those
   who have been comforted by His Holy Spirit and who, therefore, tell
   about the consolations which they have, themselves, enjoyed. The sash
   of the Lord's workday robes is His people!

   He says, "Gather My people unto Me; those that have made a covenant
   with Me by sacrifice." When He comes--not to Judgment, for that is His
   strange work--but for mercy and salvation, then He comes girt about
   with His redeemed! Blessed are they whose happy lot it is to be
   connected with God in His sacred acts and in all His glorious work of
   salvation! I cannot explain my deep emotion, but my heart would utter
   weighty words if it could talk without my lips, for I am awe-stricken
   at the bare idea of our being used as the sash of the Divine Strength,
   clinging unto God as a sash cleaves unto the waist of a man! How
   blessed a thing it is to be bound to God, bound for hallowed service,
   being set apart for the

   Master's most personal and honorable use! Blessed are you who were once
   worthless and useless, but are now made so precious in His sight that
   you are bound around Him for His use in the highest exercises of His
   Grace among the sons of men!

   Moreover, the sash was intended for ornament. It does not appear that
   it was bound about the priest's waists under his garments, for if so,
   it would not have been seen and would not have been an instructive
   symbol--this sash must be seen, since it was meant to be a type of a
   people who were to be unto God, "for a people, and for a name, and for
   a praise, and for a glory." Is not this wonderful beyond all wonder,
   that God should make His people His Glory? Yet so it is, for true
   Believers become an ornament unto God, adorning the doctrine of God,
   their Savior, in all things. Is it not written, "You shall also be a
   crown of glory in the hands of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the
   hands of your God"? Like as when a man puts on his jewels, or a prince
   puts on his royal attire, so does God regard His elect "as the jewels
   of a crown," and to prove His value of them, He arrays Himself with His
   people as with a sash!

   Can it be so, that God is glorified in His saints? Is it so that
   Christ, Himself, is admired in them that believe as well as by them
   that believe? Do we, after all, illustrate the magnificence of God and
   show to principalities and powers in the heavenly places what God can
   do? Yes, it is so! You can easily perceive what true glory God has in
   us if we are sincere. Is it not to His honor that we, who were
   disobedient and obstinate and hard-hearted should, by His love, be
   subdued to the obedience of the faith? Does not this show His
   Glory--that we creatures, possessed of the very dangerous possession of
   a free will, nevertheless, without violating that will, are led to obey
   His commands with pleasure and delight?

   Is it not to the praise of His Grace that we, who are, under some
   aspects, the meanest of His creatures, seeing that we have been guilty
   of such gross sin, are, nevertheless, set next to Himself and made to
   be His dear children? Next to God, the Redeemer, comes man, the
   redeemed! Yes, God and man are united--wondrously united in the Person
   of the Lord Jesus Christ. What can more grandly set forth the adorable
   love and goodness of Jehovah!? What great things God has done for us,
   already, in having taken us up out of the horrible pit and out of the
   miry clay! Let this stand as His beautiful sash--that He passes by
   transgression, iniquity and sin. Let this be His Divine adornment--that
   He is the Lord God, merciful and gracious. Hallelujah!

   But how much greater things He will yet do for us! I know that He has
   taken us from the dunghill, but then it follows that He has set us
   among princes, even the princes of His people. We are not always
   sitting among princes, yet, but we shall be elevated to the throne
   before long! Our spirits, rid of this clay, shall rise up among
   spiritual dignities and powers, not second to the most exalted of
   them--and then shall an astonished universe behold the mercy of the
   Lord! Yet once more, when the blast of the archangel shall have
   awakened the sleeping dead, even these poor material bodies, made like
   unto Christ's glorious body, shall share the glory of the Son of Man.
   Truly "it does not yet appear what we shall be" for there are great
   things, yet, for men--and the race of men to whom God has had a special
   favor shall yet be highly exalted and have dominion over all the works
   of His hands and He shall put all things under his feet.

   In all this, the exceeding riches of Divine Grace shall be resplendent
   and thus man shall be as a jeweled sash unto the Lord of hosts. Oh,
   majesty of love! Infinity of Grace! Here seraphs may admire and adore.
   My Brothers and Sisters, beloved in the Lord, muse much upon this
   figure of a sash! Silently meditate upon it and try to understand it.
   We are the sash that God causes to cling unto His waist and that no
   mere poverty-stricken sash of a beggar, but the sash of a royal priest,
   worn by Him in sacrifice and labor, and regarded as His ornament and
   glory! Oh the splendor of Jehovah's love to His people!

   II. But now, alas, we have to turn our eyes sorrowfully away from this
   surpassing glory! These people who might have been the glorious sash of
   God, displayed in their own persons A FATAL MISSION. Did you notice it?
   Thus says the Lord unto Jeremiah, "Go and get you a linen sash, and put
   it around your waist, and put it not in water." Ah, me! There is the
   mischief--the unwashed sash is the type of an unholy people who have
   never received the great cleansing. God is pure and holy and He will
   wear clean garments, but of this garment it is said, "Put it not in
   water." The priests of Jehovah were continually washing, but of this
   sash, we read, "Put it not in water."

   Now, when a man seems to be bound to God, and to be used of God, if he
   has never undergone the great cleansing, he will sooner or later come
   to a terrible end. "If I wash you not, you have no part with Me," is a
   very solemn word from the Lord Jesus, Himself. Oh, my Brothers and
   Sisters, I invite you to meditate upon this for a moment! No nearness
   to God can save you if you have never been washed by the Lord Jesus! No
   official connection can bless you if you have never

   been washed in His most precious blood! No matter though you may seem
   to be an ornament of the Church and all men may think so, and even good
   men may bless God for you--if you have never been washed--you are not
   Christ's!

   If Jesus Christ, your Lord and Master, has never enabled you to say,
   "We have washed our robes and made them white in the blood of the
   Lamb," then, the great cleansing having been omitted, you will be shut
   out of the marriage supper of the Lamb. Oh the terror of that
   sentence--"Put it not in water"! Surely, this is what Satan
   desires--his malice cannot exceed the wish that we may never be
   cleansed from our iniquities! How accursed are those of whom Solomon
   says, "There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet
   is not washed from their filthiness." If that one, first, perfect
   washing has never exercised its purifying influence upon you, my
   Brothers, it is all in vain for you to bear the vessels of the Lord and
   to be thought to be great and to be eminent in His house, for you must
   be put away!

   On the spot let each one of us pray, "Wash me, and I shall be whiter
   than snow." God loves purity and will not keep unholy men in nearness
   to Himself. Here is the alternative for all professors--you must be
   washed in the blood of Christ, or be laid aside--which shall it be? The
   Prophet was bid not to put it in water, which shows that there was not
   only an absence of the first washing, but there was no daily cleansing.
   Take heed, Beloved, that you omit not those after-washings which must
   follow the washing in the blood of the Lamb. When our blessed Lord took
   a towel and a basin and went to wash the disciples' feet, He did not
   perform a superfluous action! Peter was misguided when he said "You
   shall never wash my feet." It is necessary that we be washed every day.
   Even "if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have
   fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son
   cleanses us from all sin."

   We are constantly defiling our feet by marching through this dusty
   world and every night we need to be washed. There is sin within us as
   well as sin outside us and even if we do not leave our chamber, but
   have to lie upon a sickbed all day long, impatience is quite enough to
   defile our feet--and we greatly need to be cleansed. The first grand
   washing is never repeated--that great bath does its work so effectually
   that the putting away of guilt is perfected once and for all and
   forever! When our Lord bowed His head and gave up the ghost, He offered
   an effectual Atonement by which all the guilt of His redeemed was
   eternally put away. "This Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for
   sins forever, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high"--and
   he that has that one washing needs not except to wash his feet.

   But the foot-bath is always necessary. Stains of pilgrimage, stains of
   service, stains of grief, stains of pleasure, stains of our holy
   things--these must still be put away. What with pride, or doubt, or
   ill-desire, or imagination, or anger, or forgetfulness or error, we are
   always being defiled and always need to be put in water to undergo that
   washing in water by the Word of God of which the Apostle speaks. If,
   dear Friends, you and I live without washing, we live in a way that
   renders us unfit for Divine service! And have you not found it so? I
   know this, that if you suffer a sin to lie on your conscience, you
   cannot serve God aright while it is there. If you have transgressed as
   a child and you do not run and put your head into your Father's bosom
   and cry, "Father I have sinned!" you cannot do God's work.

   The external part of it you may perform, though there will often be a
   great weakness even there. But as for the spiritual and vital part, it
   will be sadly deficient. If you try to write the epistle of life with
   an unwashed hand, it will tremble and every line you write will be in
   the shaky handwriting of paralysis. "He that has clean hands shall wax
   stronger and stronger," but the foul hand shall wax weaker and weaker!
   There must be this washing or there cannot be abundant working. If you
   do not know yourself to be "accepted in the Beloved." If you do not
   know yourself to be clean every whit, you will not be happy with God!
   And when you are not happy with Him, your mind will be taken off from
   work for Him to work for yourself. You will be thinking about your own
   imperfection rather than His perfection--the sin of any single day,
   though it will not destroy you, will grieve you.

   A stone in your shoe, though almost invisible, will spoil a day's
   journey. It is not a great rock to grind you to powder. It is only a
   little stone, but your foot will blister before you have walked many
   miles. Ah me, how great the pain of a single unconfessed sin! The best
   thing you can do is to take off your shoe at once and remove the stone
   before you, again, put down your foot. So it is with every little
   sin--if it is only a thought, if it is only a look the wrong way--go to
   your Father and get rid of it! Do not live a day out of fellowship with
   God, no, nor an hour under the Lord's frown! You know how it is with
   your dear child when he has done wrong. He does not expect that you
   will turn him out of doors and say, "You shall not be my child," but he
   does expect you to be grieved with him!

   Children are believers in the "final perseverance" of parental
   love--they expect always to be your children--but if you are a wise
   father, they do not feel happy when they have done wrong. You have not,
   perhaps, found out their disobe-

   dience, but the kiss at night is not half as warm as usual, for they
   are afraid that Father will soon know of their fault and will be angry.
   When God deals with us as a father who has seen his child's
   naughtiness, there is no peace or rest in our spirit. Even
   chastisement, however, is better borne than a sense of having offended.
   If you gave your naughty child a good whipping at once, it would
   comfort him, for your displeasure would be over--but as long as you do
   not chastise him, but only say, "No, my Child, I cannot have dealings
   with you while you act so. I have no word of love for you, for you are
   so wicked"--then the dear child will be sorely troubled until your
   anger is over. He will be ready to break his little heart until you
   forgive him and comfort him, saying, "I shall put the matter away this
   time, for I see you are sorry, and I hope you will not behave so badly
   again."

   Brethren, this holy, filial fear of the Lord is not servitude under the
   Law; it is not trying to be saved by what we do--it is the discipline
   of the Father's house and that is what we attend to when we ask for
   daily washing. There was a fatal flaw about this sash--it had never
   been washed--and it is a fatal thing if you and I can go from day to
   day without being cleansed by our blessed Lord. Oh Lord, purge me by
   Your continual pardon! Cleanse me this day from every spot, for Your
   sweet mercy's sake! But observe, once again, that the more this sash
   was used, the more it gathered great and growing defilement. It was a
   Prophet that wore it, but even with such wear the unwashed sash began
   to be spotted and stained. And as he might not put it into water, the
   more often the Prophet went out to his daily work--the more the sash
   was used--the more service it performed, the more worn and dirty it
   became.

   It will be just the same with us if no water is applied and there is no
   application of the cleansing blood of Christ. Without the Atonement,
   the more we do, the more we shall sin. Our very prayers will turn into
   sin! Our godly things will breed evil! We shall be preaching and when
   we preach we shall preach our condemnation! We shall gather our class
   about us and talk to them of good things--and all the while there will
   be in our consciences the thought that we are not acting as we talk, or
   living as we tell them to live--and we shall be growing blacker and
   more defiled from hour to hour. Oh, Lord, deliver us from this! Save us
   from being made worse by that which should make us better! Save us from
   turning even our service into sin, our prayers into abominations and
   our Psalms into mockery! Let us be Your true people and therefore let
   us be washed that we may be clean, that You may gird Yourself with us.

   III. Very soon that fatal flaw in the case here mentioned led, in the
   third place, to A SOLEMN JUDGMENT. It was a solemn judgment upon the
   sash, looking at it as a type of the people of Israel. First, the sash,
   after Jeremiah had made his long walk in it, was taken off and put
   away. It is an awful thing when God takes off the man that has once
   appeared to be on Him and lays him aside, as He did Saul when He
   finally gave him up and took the kingdom from him. Yes, and it is a
   solemn thing, also, when the Lord takes off the man that has been
   really bound to Him and, for a time, lays him aside and says, "I cannot
   use you. I cannot wear you as Mine. I cannot work with you. You can be
   no ornament to Me--you are defiled." He puts away the spoiled sash--in
   other words, He works no longer with the backsliding professor.

   This is a terrible thing to happen to any man. I would rather suffer
   every sickness in the list of human diseases than that God should put
   me aside as a vessel in which He has no pleasure, and says to me, "I
   cannot wear you as My sash, nor acknowledge you as Mine before men."
   That would be a dreadful thing! Is there one here who has come into
   that condition? Has the Lord left you to your backsliding? Learn the
   lesson of my text! What you need, my Friend, is to be cleansed in the
   double stream which John of old saw flowing from the Redeemer's riven
   side! You need spiritual cleansing before the Lord can put you on,
   again, and use you, again, and be one with you, again--and before you
   can be, again, unto Him a praise and a glory. While you are unclean you
   are dishonoring Him and He must set you aside.

   After that sash was laid aside, the next thing for it was hiding and
   burying. It was placed in a hole of the rock by the river of the
   captivity and left there. Many a hypocrite has been served in that way.
   God has said to His servants, "Put Him out of the Church. He is
   defiled." And there has been nothing heard of him any more. He may have
   been offended at being put aside and have gone into the world
   altogether--and though he once seemed to be as the very sash of God,
   yet he has rotted and decayed into corruption and open transgression,
   for the raw material of hypocrisy soon decays and turns into
   loathsomeness. The worst things are frequently the rot of the best
   things and so the worst characters grow out of those who apparently
   were once the best.

   Thus, this sash is put away, hidden and left. God will have nothing to
   do with it! He has put it aside. And now the sash spoils. It was put, I
   dare say, where the dampness and the wet acted upon it, and so, when,
   in about 70 days, Jeremiah came back to the spot, there was nothing but
   an old rag instead of what had once been a pure white linen sash.

   He says, "Behold the sash was marred; it was profitable for nothing."
   So, if God were to leave any of us, the best men and the best women
   among us would soon become nothing but marred sashes instead of being
   as fair white linen. Alas, for certain goodly professors that did
   appear to be very fine, once, what rotten old rags they come to be when
   they are put into the hole and left to themselves!

   We have seen it. They have only been fit, at last, to be put upon the
   dust heap with useless things. They have fallen into such a horrible
   condition of mind that they can do evil without check of
   conscience--they have forgotten how to blush! The same persons who did
   run well (what hindered them?) are now found, not only sleeping in the
   harbors of sloth, but rioting in chambers of wantonness! The glorious
   sash of God, as the man seemed to be, becomes a mass of rottenness!
   What does the text say? Let me read the words, for I should not like to
   say them of myself--"Behold, the sash was marred, it was profitable for
   nothing." And again in the 10th verse--"Which is good for nothing." So
   may men become who have not been washed! So will they become unless
   God, in His infinite mercy, gives them speedily expiation through His
   Son, renewing by His Spirit.

   I desire to profit you all and so I want to notice how true this is of
   the real children of God. I could speak this even weeping. There are
   certain real children of God whom God greatly honored at one time, so
   that they were as His sash. But they were proud and were soon defiled
   with other sins. And so the Lord has laid them aside from His service.
   They are still His, but He has put them under discipline--and as a part
   of that discipline He has banished them from His public service. They
   were once everywhere in the Lord's battles, but now they are nowhere.
   He knows where He has put them and they will remain there till their
   pride is quite gone.

   When the Lord has effected this purpose, His wandering servant will
   come back with an altered tale, and you shall hear him as he laments
   himself and cries--"I do not feel fit to be in God's Church! I have
   walked in such a way that if I were cast off altogether it would be my
   just deserts. Oh that I may be forgiven." The deep repentance of
   returning wanderers makes you feel that they are the children of God
   though they have dishonored Him--and you welcome their return, saying,
   "Come with us, and enjoy the means of Grace." Alas, they answer--

   "The saints are comforted, we know, Within the house of prayer; We
   often go where others go, And find no comfort there."

   One man sighs, "I have a Sunday school class, and I teach it, but I do
   not feel tenderly for the children as I once did. There is no power
   about me. I am a branch of the tree that appears to have no sap in it.
   I bear no fruit. Alas," he cries, "I do not enjoy private prayer and
   when I pray, and pour out my soul before God, I do not obtain a
   comfortable answer! I am as one that is forgotten." Is it at all
   amazing that God frowns when we disobey? The Lord will not hear those
   who decline to hear Him! If we are deaf to His Commandments, He will be
   deaf to our prayers. You have become defiled, for you have not watched
   your steps, and now the Lord cannot be in communion with you. You have
   not been careful and so the sash has become foul with public spots and
   private foulnesses!

   And the Lord says, "I cannot use that man; I cannot be in fellowship
   with him. If I would, it would ruin him." If God were to be kind and
   tender to His children when they are living in sin, it would encourage
   them in evil and they would go from bad to worse! If a Believer grieves
   God, he must be grieved, himself. The heavenly Father takes down the
   rod and though it is more pain to Him than it is to us, He will not
   spare us for our crying. Just because He loves us He will lay on His
   strokes thick and heavy, one after the other, perhaps in sharp
   affliction, but very often in a continuous and growing loss of all that
   made us happy and useful.

   Alas! Alas! The sash is marred and the Lord has hid it out of His
   sight! Oh, what a mercy it is that the Lord can take that sash and wash
   it and make it as good as new, and even better than at the first! He
   can give back to the man his old joy with an added experience which
   will make him humble and tender. He can restore his former usefulness
   and even increase it by teaching him to deal gently with others that
   err and, by enabling him to prize and value the mercy of God. Did you
   ever get into a corner and sing that verse, "Love I much? I've more
   forgiven. I'm a miracle of Grace"? Those sweet lines have often charmed
   my inmost heart. I have wanted to love my Lord infinitely! I have
   wished that I could love Him as much as seven million hearts put
   together could love Him!

   I would love Him as much as the whole universe could love Him! I wish I
   had His Father's love to Him, for what do I not owe Him for all His
   wonderful mercy to me? And do you not feel the same? Are you not, also,
   great debtors to Sover-

   eign Grace? If you do not at any time kindle love and gratitude, I am
   afraid that you are put in the hole with the sash and that you are
   rotting away. Sad case for you! Certain of God's people are marvelously
   high-minded--they cannot sit anywhere but in the big armchair, or at
   the head of the table. They cannot mingle with any of us common
   Christians at all because they are perfect--and we are a long way from
   making any claim to such a degree of excellence. Some of the hymns that
   we are glad to sing are not good enough for them, for they cry, "We
   hate hymns of this style! They are so below our experience."

   These are the dons and grandees of the Court of Arrogance! When I see
   fine professors coming in with the seven league boots on, I am always
   afraid that they are not God's children at all because I have never
   read of any true saints who said much in praise of themselves and I
   have read of so many gracious persons whose tone and temper were the
   very reverse of this lofty boasting! I have seen God's poor little
   child like Moses in a basket on the Nile with crocodiles all round
   ready to devour him--and when I have looked at him, I have always
   noticed that which the Holy Spirit took pains to record--"Behold, the
   babe wept." This was the real Moses--those crystal drops are the tokens
   of a goodly child! The tears of God's babes are wonderfully precious
   and they have great power with Him.

   The dragons of Nilus cannot devour a weeping Moses. "When I am weak,
   then am I strong." When you are so weak that you cannot do much more
   than cry, you coin diamonds with both your eyes! The sweetest prayers
   God ever hears are the groans and sighs of those who have no hope in
   anything but His love! There is music in our moaning to His kind and
   tender ears. He can restore you, even though you are as the marred
   sash. And when He once puts you on again, you will cling to His waist
   more closely than ever, praying that He will bind you fast about Him.
   But the worst part of it--and this I finish with--is that this relates
   undoubtedly to many mere professors whom God takes off from Himself,
   laying them aside and leaving them to perish.

   And what is His reason for doing so? He tells us this in the text--He
   says that this evil people refused to receive God's words. Dear
   Friends, never grow tired of God's Word! Never let any book supplant
   the Bible! Love every part of Scripture and take heed to every Word
   that God has spoken. Let it all be a Divine Word to you, for if not,
   when you begin to pick and choose about God's Word, and do not like
   this, and do not like that, you will soon become like a marred
   sash--for the base-hearted professor is detected by his not loving the
   Father's words.

   Next to that, we are told that they walked in the dictates of their
   hearts. That is a sure sign of the hypocrite or the false professor. He
   makes his religion out of himself, as a spider spins a web out of his
   own bowels! What sort of theology it is, you can imagine, now that you
   know its origin! This base professor grows his theology on his own back
   as the snail produces her shell! He is everything to himself--his own
   savior, his own teacher, his own guide! He knows so much, that if the
   world would only sit at his feet, it would become a wonderfully learned
   world in a very short time, so great a Rabbi is he! When a man is so
   puffed up that his own imagination is his inspiration, and his
   obstinacy holds him fast in his own opinion, then he has become as the
   sash which was taken from the Prophet's waist and put into a hole to
   rot away.

   Upon all this there followed actual transgression--"They walked after
   other gods to serve them and to worship them." This happens, also, to
   the base professor. He keeps up the name of a Christian for a little
   while and seems to be as God's sash. But by-and-by he falls to
   worshipping gold, or drink, or lust. Bacchus, or Venus becomes his
   deity. He turns aside from the infinitely glorious God and so he falls
   from one degradation to another till he hardly knows himself! He
   becomes as a rotten sash "which profits nothing." Neither God nor man
   are benefited by him. The Lord save you, dear Friends, from being found
   insincere in the day when He searches the heart. May He also save us
   from failing to be washed in the most precious blood. Is not this a fit
   subject for immediate and continuous prayer? See to it! The Lord bless
   you for His name's sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

"Herein Is Love"

   (No. 1707)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 18, 1883,

   BY C, H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent
   His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved
   us, we ought, also, to love one another." 1 John 4:10,11.

   THE Law commands love, indeed, all its precepts are summed up in that
   one word, "love." More widely read it runs thus--"You shall love the
   Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all
   your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as
   yourself--yet all this amounts only to, "You shall love." But the Law,
   by reason of our depravity, never produced love. We were commanded to
   love, but we did no such thing. The spirit that is in us is selfish and
   it lusts to envy and to enmity. Why do wars and fights come among us?
   Come they not from our lusts? Since the Fall, man has become man's
   bitterest foe upon the earth--and the world is full of hate,
   slandering, struggles, fighting, wounding, and slaying--all that the
   Law can do is to show the wrong of enmity and threaten punishment. It
   cannot supply an unregenerate heart with a fountain of love.

   Man remains unloving and unlovable till the Gospel takes him in hand
   and, by Grace, accomplishes that which the Law could not do, in that it
   was weak through the flesh. Love is winning many hearts to the Kingdom
   of God and its reign shall extend till love shall rule over the whole
   earth. And so the Kingdom of God shall be set up among men and God
   shall dwell among them. At the present moment love is the
   distinguishing mark of the people of God. Jesus said, "By this shall
   all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love, one to
   another." And John said, "We know that we have passed from death unto
   life because we love the Brethren." The man whose spirit is selfish has
   not the spirit of Christ and, "if any man have not the spirit of Christ
   he is none of His."

   The man whose spirit is that of envy and contention is evidently no
   follower of the lowly and loving Jesus--and those who do not follow
   Jesus are none of His. They that are Christ's are filled with His love.
   "Everyone that loves is born of God, and knows God. He that loves not
   knows not God; for God is Love." God is the center of the Believer's
   love. The saints are an inner circle specially beloved and all mankind
   are embraced within the circumference of the ring of love. "He that
   dwells in love dwells in God, and God in Him" and he, alone, is a child
   of God whose spirit is kindly and affectionate and who seeks, wherever
   he is, to promote peace, goodwill towards men.

   The saints begin with love to God. That must always hold the highest
   place, for God is the best and noblest Being, and we owe Him all our
   hearts. Then comes, for Jesus' sake, love to all who are in Christ.
   There is a peculiarly near and dear relationship existing between one
   child of God and all the rest. Loving Him that begat, we love all them
   that are begotten of Him! Should not a child love his brothers with a
   tender, peculiar affection? This principle of love, once implanted,
   induces in the heart of the converted man a love towards all mankind.
   Not that he can take any complacency in the wicked--God, Himself,
   cannot do that, for His holiness abhors all iniquity. The love desired
   is not the love of complacency, but the love of benevolence, so that we
   wish well and, to the utmost of our power, would do well unto all those
   that dwell upon the face of the earth. In this holy charity, this
   unselfish love, be you imitators of God as dear children.

   Our heavenly Father is kind to the unthankful and to the evil, and so
   must we be, desiring that even the most abandoned may yet be rescued
   and made right and good. Love desires to create that which is lovable
   even in the most unlovable of mankind and, God helping the effort, she
   succeeds. I hear one say, "This is a vast idea. Are we to love at this
   rate? Where is the love to come from? Our hearts are narrow, men are
   unworthy, provocations are numerous, another spirit is abroad in the
   world--where is this love to come from? Where is this flood of love
   which is to cover the tops of the mountains of man's unworthiness to
   come from?"

   Have you entered into the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in
   search of the depths? Yes, by the leadings of God's Spirit, we will
   search out the springs of the sea of love! Only in one place shall we
   find love enough for our supreme

   purpose, which is also the purpose of the Lord, Himself. There is one
   shoreless ocean into which we may be baptized and out of which we may
   be filled until we overflow! Where is the unfailing motive of Love? For
   Love is tried and hardly put to it to hold her own! Can we find a
   motive that will never fail, even towards the most provoking of
   mankind? Can we find an argument for affection which shall help us in
   times of ingratitude, when base returns threaten to freeze the very
   heart of charity? Yes, there is such a motive! There is a force by
   which even impossibilities of love can be accomplished and we shall be
   supplied with a perpetual constraint moving the heart to ceaseless
   charity!

   Come with me, then, in the first place, to notice the infinite spring
   of love--"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that God loved
   us." Secondly, let us observe the marvelous outflow of that love--"God
   sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." And then, thirdly,
   let us notice the overflow of that love in us, when it fills our hearts
   and runs over to others. "Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought, also,
   to love one another."

   I. First, THE INFINITE SPRING OF LOVE. Our text has two words upon
   which I would place an emphasis-- "not," and "but." The first is,
   "not." " Herein is love, not"-- "not that we loved God." Very naturally
   many conclude that this means, "not that we loved God first." That is
   not exactly the Truth of God taught here, but still it is a weighty
   Truth, and is mentioned in this same chapter in express words--"We love
   Him because He first loved us" (v. 19). The cause of love in the
   universe is not that man loved God first! No being in existence could
   love God before God loved him, for the existence of such a being is due
   to God's previous love!

   His plans of love were all laid and many of them carried out before we
   were born. And when we were born, we, none of us, loved God first so as
   to seek after God before He sought after us--so as to desire
   reconciliation with God before He desired reconciliation with us. No,
   whatever may be said about free will as a theory, it is never found as
   a matter of fact that any man, left to himself, ever woos his God, or
   pines after friendship with his Maker. If he repents of sin, it is
   because the Spirit of God has first visited him and shown him his sin!
   If he desires restoration, it is because he has, first of all, been
   taught to dread the wrath of God and to long for holiness--

   "No sinner can be beforehand with Thee! Your Grace is most so vereign,
   Most rich, and most free."

   We inscribe a negative in black capital letters upon the idea that
   man's love can ever be prior to the love of God. That is quite out of
   the question. "Not that we loved God."

   Take a second sense--that is, not that any man did love God at all by
   nature, whether first or second; not that we, any one of us, ever did
   or ever could have an affection towards God while we remained in our
   state by nature. Instead of loving God, man is indifferent to God. "No
   God," says the fool in his heart and, by nature, we are all such fools.
   It is the sinner's wish that there were no God. We are atheistic by
   nature and if our brain does not yield to atheism, yet our heart does.
   We wish that we could sin according to our own will and that we were in
   no danger of being called to account for it. God is not in all our
   thoughts, or, if He does enter there, it is as a terror and a dread.

   No, worse than that--man is at enmity with God by wicked works! The
   holiness which God admires, man has no liking for! The sin which God
   abominates has about it sweetness and fascination for the unrenewed
   heart, so that man's ways are contrary to the ways of God. Man is
   perverse. He cannot walk with God, for they are not agreed. He is all
   evil and God is all goodness and, therefore, no love to God exists in
   the natural heart of man. He may say that he loves God, but then it is
   a god of his own inventing and not Jehovah, the God of the Bible, the
   only living and true God. A just God and a Savior, the natural mind
   cannot endure--the carnal mind is enmity against God, is not reconciled
   to God and, neither, indeed, can be! The unregenerate heart is, as to
   love, a broken cistern which can hold no water.

   In our natural state, there is none that does good, no, not one. So is
   there, also, none that loves God, no, not one! We come nearer to John's
   meaning when we look at this negative as applying to those who do love
   God. "Not that we loved God"--that is, that our love to God, even when
   it does exist, and even when it influences our lives, is not worthy to
   be mentioned as a fountain of supply for love. The Apostle points us
   away from it to something far more vast and then he cries, "Herein is
   love." I am looking for "the springs of the sea," and you point me to a
   little pool amid the rocks which has been filled by the flowing tide. I
   am glad to see that pool--how bright! how blue! how like the sea from
   where it came! But do not point to this as the source of the great
   water floods, for if you do, I shall smile at your childish ignorance
   and point you to you great rolling main which tosses its waves on high.

   What is your little pool to the vast Atlantic? Do you point me to the
   love in the Believer's heart and say, "Herein is love"? You make me
   smile. I know that there is love in that true heart, but who can
   mention it in the Presence of the great rolling ocean of the love of
   God, without bottom and without shore? The word, "not," is not only
   upon my lips but in my heart as I think of the two things--"NOT that we
   loved God, but that God loved us." What poor love ours is at its very
   best when compared with the love with which God loves us! Let me use
   another figure. If we had to enlighten the world, a child might point
   us to a bright mirror reflecting the sun. And he might cry, "Herein is
   light!" You and I would say, "Poor child, that is but borrowed
   brightness. The light is not there, but yonder, in the sun!"

   The love of saints is nothing more than the reflection of the love of
   God! We have love, but God IS Love. When I think of the love of certain
   saints to Christ, I am charmed with it, for it is a trait of the Spirit
   not to be despised. When I think of Paul the Apostle counting all
   things but loss for Christ. When I think of our missionaries going, one
   after another, into malarious parts of the African coast and dying for
   Christ. And when I read the Book of Martyrs and see confessors standing
   on the firewood, burning quick to the death, still bearing witness to
   their Lord and Master--I rejoice in the love of saints to their Lord!
   Yet this is but a stream! The unfathomable deep, the eternal source
   from which all love proceeds infinitely exceeds all human affection and
   it is found in God, and in God alone! "Herein is love, not that we
   loved God, but that God loved us."

   Let us contrast our love to God with His love to us. Dear Brothers and
   Sisters, we do love God and we may well do so, since He is infinitely
   lovable. When the mind is once enlightened, it sees everything that is
   lovable about God. He is so good, so gracious, so perfect that He
   commands our admiring affection. The spouse in the Song, when she
   thought of her Beloved, mentioned all manner of beauties and then
   cried, "Yes, He is altogether lovely!" It is natural, therefore, that
   one who sees God should love Him. But, now, think of God's love to
   us--is it not incomparably greater, since there was nothing lovely in
   us whatever, and yet He loved us? In us there is, by nature, nothing to
   attract the affection of a holy God, but quite the reverse--and yet He
   loved us. Herein, indeed, is love! When we love God, it is an honor to
   us! It exalts a man to be allowed to love a Being so glorious!

   A philosopher once wrote that for a man to speak of being the friend of
   God was too daring and, in the reverence of this thoughtful heathen,
   there was much to admire, for, indeed, there is an infinite difference
   between the glorious God and the sinful creature, man! Though God, in
   condescension, allows us to call Him, Friend, and Jesus says, "You are
   My friends," yet this is beyond reason, and is a sweet Revelation of
   the Holy Spirit. What an uplifting there is in it for us! On the other
   hand, God's love to us can add nothing to Him. It gives, but receives
   not. Divine Love can have no recompense. That He, the Infinite, should
   stoop to love the finite--that He, the infinitely pure, should love the
   guilty--this is a vast condescension.

   See, moreover, what it involved, for this love rendered it necessary
   that in the Person of His dear Son, God should be "despised and
   rejected of men," should make Himself of no reputation and should even
   be numbered with the transgressors. "Herein is love." When we love God,
   we are gainers by the deed. He that loves God does, in the most
   effectual manner, love himself. We are filled with riches when we
   abound in love to God--it is our wealth, our health, our might and our
   delight! But God gains nothing by loving us. I hardly like to set the
   two in contrast, for our love is so poor and pitiable a thing as
   compared with the immeasurable love of God. It is our duty to love
   God--we are bound to do it. As His creatures we ought to love our
   Creator! As preserved by His care, we are under obligation to love Him
   for His goodness! We owe Him so much that our utmost love is a mere
   acknowledgment of our debt.

   But God loved us to whom He owed nothing at all! Whatever might have
   been the claims of a creature upon his Creator, we forfeited them all
   by our rebellion! Sinful men had no rights towards God except the right
   of being punished. Yet the Lord manifested boundless love to our race,
   which was only worthy to be destroyed. Oh words! How you fail me! I
   cannot utter my heart by these poor lips of clay! Oh God, how infinite
   was Your love which was given without any obligation on Your
   part--freely and unsought--and all because You will to love! Yes You
   love because You are Love! There was no cause, no constraint, no claim
   why You should love mankind except that Your own heart led You to do so
   What is man that You are mindful of him? "Herein is love, not that we
   loved God, but that God loved us."

   I have thus pointed out the wellhead of love--let us draw from it and
   from none other! If you go into the world and say, "I am to love my
   fellow men because I love God," the motive is good, but it is
   questionable, limited and variable. How much better to argue--"I am to
   love my fellow men because God loves me." When my love grows cold
   towards

   God, and when, by reason of my infirmity and imperfection, I am led,
   even, to question whether I love God at all, then my argument and my
   impulse would fail me if it came from my own love to God. But if I love
   the fallen because God loved me, then I have an unchanging motive, an
   unquestionable argument and a forcible impulse not to be resisted!
   Therefore the Apostle cried, "The love of Christ constrains us." It is
   always well for a Christian to have the strongest motive and to rely
   upon the most potent and perpetual force and, therefore, the Apostle
   bids us look to Divine Love and not to our own. " Herein is love," he
   says, "not that we loved God, but that God loved us."

   So far the "not." Let us turn to the, "but." "But that He loved us." I
   have nothing new to say, nor do I wish to say anything new. But I would
   like you to meditate on each one of these words--"He loved us." Three
   words, but what weight of meaning! "He," who is infinitely holy and
   cannot endure iniquity--"He loved us" "He," whose glory is the
   astonishment of the greatest of intelligent beings--"He loved us."
   "He," whom the Heaven of heavens cannot contain, "loved us." "He" who
   is God all-sufficient and needs nothing of us--neither can, indeed,
   receive anything at our hands--"He loved us." What joy lies sleeping
   here! Oh, that we could wake it up! What hope, too, for hopeless
   sinners because, "God loved us."

   If a man could know that he was loved of all his fellow men, if he
   could have it for certain that he was loved by all the angels, doted on
   by cherubim and seraphim, yet these were but so many drops and all put
   together could not compare with the main ocean contained in the fact
   that, "God loved us!" Now ring that second silver bell--"He loved us."
   I do not think the Apostle is, here, so much speaking of God's special
   love to His own elect as of His love to men in general. He saw our race
   ruined in the Fall and He could not bear that man should be destroyed.
   Lord, what is man that You visit him in love? Yet He did so visit him.
   The Lord's love made Him lament man's revolt and cry, "I have nourished
   and brought up children and they have rebelled against Me!" And He bade
   Heaven and earth witness to His grief.

   He saw that sin had brought men into wretchedness and misery and would
   destroy them forever, but He would not have it so. He loved them with
   the love of pity, with the love of sweet and strong benevolence and He
   declared it with an oath--"As I live, says the Lord, I have no pleasure
   in the death of him that dies, but that he turn unto Me and live."
   "Herein is love." But if you and I are reconciled to God, we can lay
   the emphasis, each one for himself, upon this word, "love," and view it
   as special, effectual, electing love. Let each Believer say, "He loved
   me, and gave Himself for me." Then what force is in my text, "He loved
   us"--it is not enough that He pitied us, or spared us, or helped us,
   but, "He loved us."

   It has often made me rise from my seat to think that God loves me! I
   could not sit still and hear the thrilling Truth! Such knowledge is too
   wonderful for me! It is high, I cannot attain unto it. It is sweet to
   be loved even by a dog. It is sweet to be loved by a babe. It is sweet
   to be loved by a friend--it is sweet to be loved by God's people--but,
   oh, to be loved by God and to know it! This is paradise! Would a man
   need any other Heaven than to know for certain that he enjoyed the love
   of God? Note the third word. "He loved us"--"us"--the most
   insignificant of beings. There is an anthill somewhere--it is no matter
   to you where it is. It teems with ants. Stir the nest and they swarm in
   armies. Think of one of them. No, you do not need to know anything
   about him! His business is no concern of yours, so let him go. But that
   ant, after all, is more considerable to you than you are to God. "All
   the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing."

   What are you, even, in this great city?--One man, one woman in London,
   in England, in the population of the world--what a cipher you are! Yet
   what is the population of this world compared with the universe? I
   suppose that all these stars which we see at night, all the countless
   worlds within our range of vision, are but as a little dust in a lone
   corner of God's great house! The whole solar system and all the systems
   of worlds we have ever thought of, are but as a drop in a bucket
   compared with the boundless sea of creation! And even that is as
   nothing compared to the infinite God! And yet, "He loved us"--the
   insignificant creatures of an hour!

   What is more, He loved us though in our insignificance we dared to
   rebel against Him! We boasted against Him. We cried, "Who is Jehovah?"
   We lifted up our hand to fight with Him. Ridiculous rebellion! Absurd
   warfare! Had He but glanced at us and annihilated us, it would have
   been as much as we could merit at His hands! But to think that He
   should love us--love us, mark you--when we were in rebellion against
   Him. This is marvelous! Observe that the previous verse speaks of us as
   being dead in sin. "In this was manifested the love of God toward us,
   because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we
   might live through Him." Then we were dead, dead to all goodness, or
   thought or

   power of goodness--criminals shut up in the condemned cell--and yet God
   loved us with a great love even when we were dead in trespasses and
   sins!

   Child of God, God's love to you today is wonderful! But think of His
   love to you when you were far gone in rebellion against Him. When not a
   throb of holy, spiritual life could be found in your entire being--yet
   He loved you and sent His Son that you might live through Him!
   Moreover, He loved us when we were steeped in sin. Does not our text
   tell us so? For He sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins and
   this implies that we needed to be reconciled! Our righteous Judge was
   angry with us. His righteous wrath smoked against our evil and yet,
   even then, "He loved us." He was angry with us as a Judge, but yet He
   loved us! He was determined to punish and yet resolved to save! This is
   a world of wonders! I am utterly beaten by my text! I confess myself
   mastered by my theme!

   But who among us can measure the unfathomable? "Herein is love," that
   God freely, out of the spontaneous motion of His own heart, should love
   us! This is the argument for love! This is the inexhaustible Fountain
   out of which all love must come. If we desire love, may we come and
   fill our vessels here and bear it out to others. Love springing from
   our own bosoms is feeble and scant--but the love of God is a great
   deep, forever fresh, full and flowing. Here are those springs of the
   sea of which we spoke--

   "Herein is love!"

   II. I need your attention a little longer while I speak as best I can
   upon THE MARVELOUS OUTFLOW OF THAT LOVE. "Herein is love, not that we
   loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the
   propitiation for our sins." Beloved, the love of God is seen in
   creation! He that studies the mechanism of the human frame and of its
   surroundings will see much of Divine kindness there. The love of God is
   to be seen in Providence! He that watches the loving hand of God in
   daily life will not need to look far before he sees tokens of a
   Father's care. But if you want to know when the great deep of God's
   love was broken up and arose in the fullness of its strength to prevail
   over all. If you would see it revealed in a deluge, like Noah's flood,
   you must wait till you see Jesus born at Bethlehem and crucified on
   Calvary, for His mission to men is the most Divine manifestation of
   love!

   Consider every word--"He sent His Son." God "sent." Love caused that
   mission. If there was to be reconciliation between God and man, man
   ought to have sent to God--the offender ought to be the first to apply
   for forgiveness! The weaker should apply to the greater for help. The
   poor man should ask of him who distributes alms. But, "Herein is love,"
   that God "sent." He was first to send an embassy of peace. Today "we
   are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we
   pray you in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to God." Oh, the wonder
   of this, that God should not wait till rebellious men had sent to His
   throne for terms of reconciliation, but should commence negotiations
   Himself!

   Moreover, God sent such a One--He "sent His Son." If men send an
   embassy to a great power, they select some great one of their nation to
   wait upon the potent prince. But if they are dealing with a petty
   principality, they think a subordinate person quite sufficient for such
   a business. Admire, then, the true love of the infinitely gracious God,
   that when He sent an embassy to men, He did not commission an angel nor
   even the brightest spirit before His Throne, but He sent His Son--oh,
   the love of God to men! He sent His equal Son to rebels who would not
   receive Him, would not hear Him, but spat upon Him, scourged Him,
   stripped Him, slew Him! Yes, "He spared not His own Son, but freely
   delivered Him up for us all." He knew what would come of that sending
   of Him and yet He sent Him!--

   "Jesus, commissioned from above,

   Descends to men below,

   And shows from where the springs of love

   In endless currents flow.

   He whom the boundless Hea ven adores,

   Whom angels long to see,

   Quit with joy those blissful shores,

   Ambassador to me!

   To me, a worm, a sinful clod,

   A rebel all forlorn:

   A foe, a traitor, to my God,

   And of a traitor born."

   Note further, not only the grandeur of the Ambassador, but the
   tenderness of the relationship existing between him and the offended
   God. "He sent His Son." The previous verse says, "His only-begotten
   Son." We cannot speak of God except after the manner of men, for God,
   in all His Glory is incomprehensible. But speaking after the manner of
   men, what must it have cost Jehovah to take His only Son from His bosom
   to die? Christ is the Father's Self--in essence they are One--there is
   but one God. We do not understand the mystery of the Trinity in unity,
   but we believe it. It was God Himself who came here in the Person of
   His dear Son! He underwent all--for we are "the flock of God which He
   has purchased with His own blood."

   Remember Abraham with the knife unsheathed and wonder as you see him
   obey the Voice which says, "Take, now, your son, your only son, Isaac,
   whom you love, and offer him for a sacrifice." Remember yet again that
   the Lord actually did what Abraham, in obedience, willed to do--He gave
   up His Son! "It pleased the Father to bruise Him; He has put Him to
   grief." Christ's death was, in fact, God in human form suffering for
   human sin! God Incarnate bleeding because of our transgressions! Are we
   not, now, carried away with the streams of love? I speak my best, my
   Brothers and Sisters, but if my words were what they ought to be, they
   would set your souls on fire! Is not all Heaven still astounded at the
   death of the Only-Begotten? It has not recovered from its amazement
   that the Heir of all things should bow His head to death! How can I
   fitly tell you how much God loved the world when He gave His
   Only-begotten to die that sinners might live?

   Go a step further. "God sent His Son to be a propitiation," that is, to
   be not only a reconciler, but the Reconciliation! His sacrifice of
   Himself as the Atonement through which mercy is rendered possible in
   consistency with justice! I have heard men say with scorn that God
   required a sacrifice before He would be reconciled, as if that were
   wrong on the part of the Judge of All! But let me whisper in their
   ears--God required it, it is true, for He is just and holy. But God
   found it Himself! Remember that--Jehovah found the Ransom which He
   demanded! It was Himself, His own Son, one with Himself, that became
   the Propitiation and the Reconciliation!

   It was not that God the Father was unkind and could not be placated
   unless He smote His Son--but that God the Father was so kind that He
   could not be unjust! So supremely loving that He must devise a way by
   which men could be justly saved! An unjust salvation would have been
   none at all. The Lord found the Reconciliation--I will not say in the
   sufferings of Christ, though that is true! I will not say in the death
   of Christ, though that is true! But I will put it in Scriptural
   words--and here we have it in 1 John 2:2! "He"--that is, Jesus,
   Himself--"is the propitiation for our sins." The Sent One, in Himself,
   as well as in all that He did and all that He suffered, is the
   Reconciliation between God and man! "Herein is love!" In order that
   there might be peace and love between man and God, God finds the
   Sin-Offering! He becomes, Himself, the Atonement, that love might reign
   supreme!

   What seems to me the most wonderful thing of all is that the Lord Jesus
   should deal, not only with our sorrow, but with our sin, for, "He is
   the propitiation for our sins." That God should deal with us as to our
   virtues, if we had any! That He should deal with us as to our love, if
   we had any, might not seem so difficult. But that He should send His
   Son to dwell with us as sinners--yes, and to come into contact with our
   sins, and thus to take the sword, not only by its hilt, but by its
   blade, and plunge it into His own heart, and die because of it--this is
   a miracle of miracles! O Friends, Christ never gave Himself for our
   righteousness, but He laid down His life for our SINS! He viewed us as
   sinners when He came to save us. "Jesus Christ came into the world to
   save sinners."

   If I had not found Christ till this very minute, I hope I should find
   Him, now, as my mind drinks in this doctrine! By God's Spirit there
   seems to me to be such a window opened that even despair may see the
   light, for if the thing which God sent His Son to deal with was the sin
   of man, then I, even though I am nothing but a mass of loathsomeness
   and sin, may yet enjoy the infinite love of God! Oh, guilty ones, hear
   these words which are more sweet than music and more full of delight
   than all poetry! Even the harps of angels never rise to higher measures
   than these which I do so poorly and simply rehearse in your ears! Hear
   these glad tidings, that God, who made the heavens and the earth--whom
   you have of-fended--wills not that you die, but loves you so greatly
   that He opens up a road of reconciliation through the body of His own
   dear Son!

   There was no other way by which you could be reconciled to God, for had
   He reconciled you to a part of Himself and not to His justice, you had
   not been, in very truth, at all reconciled to God. It is now to God
   completely just, holy, whose anger burns against sin! It is to Him that
   you are reconciled by faith in Christ Jesus, through the laying down of
   His life for men! Oh that God would bless this to all who hear the glad
   tidings!

   III. We come at last to think of the CONSEQUENT OUTFLOW OF LOVE FROM
   US--"Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought, also, to love one another."
   Our love, then, to one another is simply God's love to us, flowing into
   us and flowing out again. That is all it is! "Herein is love, not that
   we loved God, but that God loved us," and then we love others. You have
   seen a noble fountain in a continental city adorning a public square.
   Look how the water leaps into the air! And then it falls into a
   circular basin which fills and pours out its fullness into another,
   lower down, and this, again, floods a third. Hear the merry splash as
   the waters fall in showers and cataracts from basin to basin!

   If you stand at the lower basin and look upon it and say, "Herein is
   water," that is true, and will be true of the next higher one and so
   forth. But if you would express the truth as to where the water really
   is, you may have to look far away, perhaps upon a mountain's side, for
   there is a vast reservoir from which pipes are laid to bring these
   waters and force them to their height that they may descend so
   beautifully. Thus the love we have to our fellow creatures drops from
   us like the descending silvery cataract from the full basin--but the
   first source of it is the immeasurable love of God which is hidden away
   in His very essence--the love which never changes and never can be
   diminished! "Herein is love!"

   If you and I desire to love our fellow Christians and to love the
   fallen race of man, we must be joined on to the aqueduct which conducts
   love from this eternal source, or else we shall soon fail in love.
   Observe, Brothers and Sisters, then, that as the love of God is the
   source of all true love in us, so a sense of that love stimulates us.
   Whenever you feel that you love God, you overflow with love to all
   God's people! I am sure you do. It is when you get to doubt the love of
   God that you grow hard and cold. But when you are fired with the love
   of a dying Savior who gave Himself for you, you feel as if you loved
   every beggar in the street--and you long to bring every harlot to
   Christ's dear feet--you cannot help it!

   Man, if Christ baptizes your heart into His love, you will be covered
   with it and filled with it! Your love will respect the same persons as
   God's love does, and for the same reasons. God loves men! So will you.
   God loves them when there is no good in them, and you will love them in
   the same way. Sometimes the wickedness of men kindles in the heart of a
   true Christian a stronger affection for them. The deeper down they are,
   the more they need a Savior. Did not our Moravian Brothers and Sisters
   feel, when they went out as missionaries, that they would prefer to go,
   first, to the most barbarous tribes? They said, "The more degraded they
   are, the more they need a Savior." And should not the missionary spirit
   make Believers feel that if men are sunk until they are as low as
   brutes, and as savage as devils, that this is the stronger reason for
   our being eager to bring them to Christ?

   I hope that abominable spirit which used to come in among Christian
   people has been kicked away to its father, the devil, where it ought to
   be--I mean the spirit which despises the poor and the fallen! When I
   have heard people say, "What is the good of looking after such
   riff-raff?" I have been saddened. The Church of God feels that the
   souls of the meanest are precious--that to save the most foul, the most
   ignorant, the most degraded, the most brutalized man or woman that ever
   lives is an objective worthy of the effort of the whole Church--since
   God thought it worthy of the death of Jesus Christ that He might bring
   sinners, dead in sin, to Himself! Brothers and Sisters, we will not
   have grasped the Truth of God unless we feel that our love to men must
   be practical, because God's love to us is so. His love did not pent up
   like the waters in the secret caverns of the earth, but it welled up
   like the waters in the days of Noah, when we read that the fountains of
   the deep were broken up.

   In the gift of the Lord Jesus we behold the reality of Divine love.
   When we see the poor, we must not say "Be you warmed; be you filled; I
   am sorry for you." But we must let our love relieve them from our
   funds! If we see the ignorant, we must not say, "Dear me, the Church is
   neglecting the masses. The Church must wake up." No, but we must bestir
   ourselves and struggle, ourselves, to warn sinners. If there are any
   near you who lie degraded, do not say, "I wish somebody would go after
   them." Go yourself! Our love ought to follow the love of God in one
   point, namely, in always seeking to produce reconciliation! It was to
   this end that God sent His Son. Has anybody offended you? Seek
   reconciliation. "Oh, but I am the offended party." So was God and He
   went straight away and sought reconciliation. Brothers and Sisters, do
   the same! "Oh, but I have been insulted." Just so! So was God--all the
   wrong was towards Him, yet, "He sent His Son to be the propitiation for
   our sins." "Oh, but the party is so unworthy." So are you. But "God
   loved you and sent His Son." Go and write according to that copy.

   I do not mean that this love is to come out of your own heart,
   originally, but I do mean that it is to flow out of your heart because
   God has made it to flow into it. You are one of those basins of the
   fountain--love has poured into you from above--let it run over to those
   who are below. Go forth at once and try and make reconciliation, not
   only between

   yourself and your friend, but between every man and God. Let that be
   your objective! Christ has become man's Reconciliation and we are to
   try and bring this Reconciliation near to every poor sinner that comes
   in our path. We are to tell him that God in Christ is reconciled. We
   are to say to him, "He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for
   ours, only, but for the sins of the whole world." Mark that word! It
   tallies with that other, "Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the
   sin of the world." God is now able to deal on Gospel terms with the
   whole race! We need never think that we shall meet with men to whom God
   will not consent to be reconciled. The propitiation is such that
   whoever comes to God shall be received through it. God is always within
   to receive every soul that comes to Him by Jesus Christ. "God so loved
   the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in
   Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Your work and mine
   is reconciliation and everything that tends that way!

   When we have done all, what then? We shall have nothing to boast of!
   Suppose a man should become so loving that he gave himself wholly up
   for his fellow creatures and actually died for them--would he have
   anything to boast of? Read my text over again. "Beloved, if God so
   loved us, we ought, also, to love one another"--so that if you get to
   the highest point of self-sacrifice, you will never be able to boast,
   for you have only, then, done what it was your duty to have done! Thus
   you see the highest grade of Christianity excludes all idea of
   salvation by works, for when we come up to its utmost pitch, if we give
   our body to be burned for love, yet, still, we have done no more than
   it was our duty to have done, considering the tremendous obligations
   under which the love of God has laid us.

   If you had to manage the waterworks for the distribution of water all
   over this city and there was a certain pipe into which you poured
   water, but none ever came out at the other end, do you know what you
   would do? You would remove it and say, "This does not suit my purpose.
   I need a pipe that will give out as well as receive." That is exactly
   what the Lord desires of us. Do not selfishly say, "I want to sit down
   and enjoy the love of God. I shall never say a word to anybody about
   Christ. I will never give a poor creature so much as a brass farthing,
   but I want to sit down and be solaced with the love of God."

   If you think thus, you are a plugged up pipe! You are of no use--you
   will have to be taken out of the system of the Church--for the system
   of love for the world requires open pipes through which Divine Love may
   freely flow. May the Lord clear you and fill you, so that out of you
   there may continually flow rivers of living water. Amen.

   PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON-1 John 4. HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN
   HYMN BOOK"--199, 782, 803.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Holy Spirit's Threefold Conviction of Men

   (No. 1708)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 25, 1883,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "And when He is come, He wiil reprove the world of sin, and of
   righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on Me;
   of righteousness, because I go to My Father, and you see Me no more; of
   judgment, because the prince of this world is judged." John 16:8-11.

   THE Apostles had a stern task before them. They were to go into all
   nations and proclaim the Gospel to every creature, beginning at
   Jerusalem. Remember, only two or three years before they were simple
   fishermen engaged upon the Galilean Lake--men of little or no
   education, men of no rank or standing. At best they were but Jews and
   that nation was despised everywhere, while these peasants were not even
   men of repute among their own nation! Yet these men were to turn the
   world upside down! They were told by their Lord that they would be
   brought before rulers and kings for His sake and that they would be
   persecuted wherever they went. They were to proclaim the Gospel in the
   teeth of the imperial power of Rome, the ancient wisdom of Greece and
   the fierce cruelties of barbaric lands. And they were to set up the
   kingdom of peace and righteousness.

   At the very time when they were about to receive their commission, they
   were also to lose the bodily Presence of their great Leader. While He
   was with them, they had felt no fear. If they were puzzled at any time
   by the Scribes and Pharisees, they resorted to Jesus, and they were
   rescued from bewilderment. Never man spoke like that Man! Never did
   such wisdom and prudence dwell in any mind as dwelt in the mind of
   Christ! His Presence was their protection, the broad shield behind
   which they securely stood, whatever shafts might be shot at them by
   their adversaries. But now that He was to depart out of the world unto
   the Father, they would be deprived of their fortress and high
   tower--they would be as children bereft of their father, or, at best,
   as soldiers without a general. Here was a sad case. Work given and
   power with-drawn--a battle beginning and the conquering Captain
   leaving.

   How happy it was for these disciples that our blessed Lord could tell
   them that His going away would be for their gain rather than for their
   loss! For when He was gone, the Spirit of God would come to be an
   Advocate for them and with them, and by His power they would be able to
   silence all their enemies and achieve their mission! The Holy Spirit
   was to be their Comforter, that they might not be afraid, and their
   Advocate, that they might not be baffled. When they spoke, there would
   be a power within them suggesting their words, a power with those words
   convincing their hearers, and a power in their hearers causing the word
   spoken to abide in their memories--that power would be Divine, the
   power of the Holy Spirit, who is One God with the Father and the Son.

   It is one thing for men to speak, and quite another thing for God to
   speak through men. The work of proclaiming the Gospel to the world was
   far too great for the 12, but it was by no means too great for the
   Spirit of God! Who can limit His power? Is anything too hard for the
   Lord? The Holy Spirit being their Helper, these feeble men were equal
   to the task which God had committed to their trust. The Presence of the
   Holy Spirit was better for them than the bodily Presence of the Lord
   Jesus. The Lord Jesus could only have been in one place as to His
   corporeal Presence, but the Holy Spirit could be everywhere! The sight
   of Jesus would but appeal to the senses, but the power of the Holy
   Spirit touched the heart and worked spiritual life and saving faith!
   Thus, by His own withdrawal and the sending of the Spirit, our Lord
   furnished His servants for the conflict.

   We will, at this time, observe what the Holy Spirit did as an Advocate.
   The passage cannot be fully understood unless we give it three
   renderings. But I do not pretend that even then, we shall have pressed
   from this choice cluster, all the generous wine of its meaning! To my
   mind, it is a compendium of all the work of the Spirit of God. By our
   three readings we shall see much--first, the Spirit of God goes with
   the preaching of the Gospel to reprove men of sin--and so to embarrass
   them in the presence of the preacher of righteousness. Secondly (and
   this is a much more blessed result), to

   convict men of sin and so to lead them to repentance towards God and
   faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And, thirdly, the ultimate result of
   the Holy Spirit's work will be to convict men before all intelligent
   beings of having been guilty of the grossest sin--having opposed the
   most perfect righteousness and of having defied the most glorious
   judgment. We shall try to see the meaning of the passage through these
   three windows.

   I. First, we believe that a promise is here made to the servants of
   Christ that when they go forth to preach the Gospel the Holy Spirit
   will be with them TO REPROVE MEN. By this is meant, not so much to save
   them as to silence them. When the minister of Christ stands up to plead
   his Master's cause, another Advocate appears in court, whose pleadings
   would make it hard for men to resist the Truth of God. Observe how this
   reproof was given with regard to sin. On the day of Pentecost the
   disciples spoke with many different tongues, as the Spirit gave them
   utterance. Men from all countries under Heaven heard themselves
   addressed in their native tongues! This was a great marvel and all
   Jerusalem rang with it!

   And when Peter stood up to preach to the assembled multitude and told
   the Jews that they had crucified the Holy One and the Just, the signs
   and wonders worked by the Spirit in the name of Jesus were a witness
   which they could not refute. The very fact that the Spirit of God had
   given to these unlettered men the gift of tongues was evidence that
   Jesus of Nazareth, of whom they spoke, was no impostor! It was laid
   down in the old Jewish Law that if a man prophesied and his prophecies
   did not come to pass, he was to be condemned as a false prophet. But if
   that which he said came to pass, then he was a true Prophet. Now, the
   Lord Jesus Christ had promised the outpouring of the Spirit, which had
   also been foretold in reference to the Messiah by the Prophet Joel.
   When, therefore, that mark of the true Messiah was set upon Jesus of
   Nazareth by the coming of the Holy Spirit and the working of miracles,
   men were reproved for having refused to believe in Jesus.

   The evidence was brought home to them that they had, with wicked hands,
   crucified the Lord of Glory--and so they stood reproved. All the
   subsequent miracles went to prove the same thing, for when the Apostles
   worked miracles, the world was reproved of sin because it believed not
   on Christ. It was not that a few disciples testified to the sin of the
   race, but the Holy Spirit, Himself, made men tremble, as by His deeds
   of power, He bore witness to the Lord Jesus and exhibited the fact that
   in crucifying Jesus, the world had put to death the Incarnate Son of
   God! Do you not see the terrible power with which the first disciples
   were thus armed? It was more to them than the rod in the hand of Moses
   with which he smote Pharaoh with so many plagues. It needed all the
   willfulness of that stiff-necked generation to resist the Holy Spirit
   and refuse to bow before Him whom they had pierced--they were full of
   malice and obstinacy--but in their secret hearts they were sore put to
   it and felt that they were fighting against God.

   Do you not see, too, dear Friends, how the working of the Holy Spirit
   with the Apostles and their immediate followers was a wonderful rebuke
   to the world concerning the matter of righteousness? Jesus was gone and
   His Divine example no longer stood out like clear light reproving their
   darkness--but the Holy Spirit attested that righteousness and compelled
   them to feel that Jesus was the Holy One and that His cause was
   righteous. The teaching of the Apostles, sealed by the Holy Spirit,
   made the world see what righteousness was as they had never seen it
   before! A fresh standard of morals was set up in the world and it has
   never been taken down--it stands in its place to rebuke, if not to
   improve! The world was then sunk in the uttermost depths of vice--even
   its good men were loathsome! But now another kind of righteousness was
   exhibited in the teachings of the Lord Jesus and the Spirit came to set
   the seal of Divine approval to it so that if men continued in sin, it
   might be against light and knowledge, for they now knew what was
   righteousness and could no longer be mistaken upon that point. God was
   with the preachers of a new righteousness and by many different signs
   and wonders He attested the cause of the Gospel.

   Now, Brothers, we also rejoice in this, seeing that the witness of the
   Truth of God is for all time and we know of a surety that the Kingdom
   which our Lord Jesus has set up among men is Divinely sanctioned as the
   Kingdom of Righteousness which, in the end, shall grind to powder the
   powers of evil! We are the covenanted servants of a Lord whose
   righteousness was declared among men by the personal witness of God the
   Holy Spirit. Are you not glad to be enlisted in such a service? Oh,
   world, are you not embarrassed for resisting such a kingdom? These 12
   fishermen could not, of themselves, have exhibited a new standard of
   righteousness among men! They could not, on their own, have set before
   all nations a higher ideal of moral excellence! But when the eternal
   power and majesty of the Godhead vouched for the righteousness of the
   Lord Jesus, the course of the Apostolic Church became like that of the
   sun in the heavens!

   "Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the
   end of the world." None could stand against them, for, as when the
   morning breaks, the darkness flies and the bats and the night birds
   hasten away, so when the messengers of mercy proclaimed the
   Righteousness of God, man's hypocrisy and self-glorying fled away!
   Then, too, they were made to feel that a judgment had come; that
   somehow the life and the death of Jesus of Nazareth had made a crisis
   in the world's history and condemned the way and manner of the ungodly.
   All historians must confess that the turning point of the race is the
   Cross of Christ. From that moment the power of evil received its mortal
   wound! It dies hard, but from that hour it was doomed. At the death of
   our Lord, the heathen oracles were struck dumb. There had been oracles
   all over the world, either the product of evil spirits or of crafty
   priests, but after the Christian era the world ceased to believe in
   these voices and they were no more heard.

   Systems of false worship, so firmly rooted in prejudice and custom that
   it seemed impossible that they should ever be overthrown, were torn up
   by their roots by the breath of the Lord. The Apostles might have said
   to all the systems of falsehood, "as a bowing wall shall you be, and as
   a tottering fence." Men could not help perceiving that the Prince of
   Darkness had been cast down from his undivided power and that he spoke,
   from then on, with bated breath. The Seed of the woman had met the old
   serpent and, in the duel between them, He had gained such a victory
   that the cause of evil was henceforth hopeless. Moreover, the thought
   flashed upon humanity more clearly than ever--there would be a Day of
   Judgment! Men heard and felt the truth of the warning that God would
   judge the world, at the last, by the Man, Christ Jesus!

   The dim forms of Rhadamanthus on a cloudy judgment seat and of the
   assembly before his throne, and of the crowds divided according to
   their lives, now began to assume another and far more definite shape.
   It was written on the heart of mankind that there is a judgment to
   come! Men will rise again! They shall stand before the Judgment Seat of
   Christ to give an account of the things done in the body, whether good
   or evil. The world heard this and the tidings have never been
   forgotten! The Holy Spirit has reproved men by the prospect of
   judgment! The Holy Spirit attested the life of Christ, the teaching of
   the Apostles and all the grand Truths of God that were contained
   therein, by what He did in the way of miracles and by what He did in
   the way of enlightening, impressing and subduing human hearts.
   Henceforth man is accused and rebuked by the great Advocate! And all
   who remain in opposition to the Lord Jesus, remain so in defiance of
   the clearest proofs of His mission. He who rejects human testimony when
   it is true is foolish, but he who despises the witness of the Holy
   Spirit is profane, for he calls the Spirit of Truth a liar! Let him
   beware lest he so sin against the Holy Spirit as to come under the most
   terrible of curses--for it is written of him that speaks against the
   Holy Spirit--"he has no forgiveness."

   Brothers and Sisters, does not that put the Apostles in quite a
   different position from that in which they appeared to be? If we judge
   according to sense and carnal reason, their adventure was Quixotic,
   their success was impossible! Everybody would have said to them, "Go
   back to your nets and to your boats. What can you do against the
   established system of Judaism in your own country? And if that is too
   hard for you, what will you be able to do in other lands? There are
   nations that have been tutored in their own learning for thousands of
   years and have become adept in all the arts and sciences! They have
   brought all the charms of poetry, music and statuary to support their
   idolatrous systems--you are fools to think that you unlearned and
   ignorant men can ever overturn all this!"

   Would not prudence agree with this? Yes, but if God is in these men--if
   He that dwelt in the bush at Horeb and made it burn, though it was not
   consumed--will dwell in them and each one of them shall be gifted with
   a tongue of fire, this is a different business altogether! Surely, He
   that made the world, could make it new! He that said, "Let there be
   light, and there was light," could command light to shine upon the
   moral and spiritual night. Thus much upon the first reading of the
   text. Let us advance to that which will more interest you.

   II. The Holy Spirit was to go with the preaching of the Word of God TO
   CONVINCE MEN of three great prominent Truths of God. This was to be a
   saving Word--they are to be so convinced as to repent of sin, to accept
   of righteousness and yield themselves to the judgment of the Lord. Here
   we see as in a map, the work of the Spirit upon the hearts of those who
   are ordained unto eternal life! Those three effects are all necessary
   and each one is, in the highest degree, important to true conversion.
   First, the Holy Spirit is come to convince men of sin. It is absolutely
   necessary that men should be convinced of sin.

   The fashionable theology of the day is--"Convince men of the goodness
   of God! Show them the universal fatherhood and assure them of unlimited
   mercy. Win them by God's love, but never mention His wrath against sin,
   or the need of an Atonement, or the possibility of there being a place
   of punishment! Do not censure poor creatures for their failings. Do not
   judge and condemn. Do not search the heart or lead men to be
   low-spirited and sorrowful. Comfort and encourage, but never accuse and
   threaten!" Yes, that is the way of man--but the way of the Spirit of
   God is very different! He comes on purpose to convince men of sin, to
   make them feel that they are guilty, greatly guilty--so guilty that
   they are lost, ruined and undone! He comes to remind them not only of
   God's loveliness, but of their own ^loveliness--of their own enmity and
   hatred to this God of Love and, consequently, of their terrible sin in
   thus ill-using One so infinitely kind.

   The Holy Spirit does not come to make sinners comfortable in their
   sins, but to cause them to grieve over their sins! He does not help
   them to forget their sin, or think little of it, but He comes to
   convince them of the horrible enormity of their iniquity! It is no work
   of the Spirit to pipe to men's dancing--He does not bring forth flute,
   harp, dulcimer and all kinds of music to charm the unbelieving into a
   good opinion of themselves--He comes to make sin appear sin and to let
   us see its fearful consequences! He comes to wound so that no human
   balm can heal! He comes to kill so that no earthly power can make us
   live! The flowers bedeck the meadows when the grass is green, but lo, a
   burning wind comes from the desert and the grass withers and the
   flowers fall away. What is it that makes the beauty and excellence of
   human righteousness to wither as the green herb? Isaiah says it is
   "because the Spirit of the Lord blows upon it."

   There is a withering work of the Spirit of God which we must experience
   or we shall never know His quickening and restoring power. This
   withering is a most necessary experience and, just now, needs much to
   be insisted on. Today we have so many built up who were never pulled
   down; so many filled who were never emptied; so many exalted who were
   never humbled that I, the more earnestly, remind you that the Holy
   Spirit must convince us of sin or we cannot be saved! This work is most
   necessary because without it there is no leading men to receive the
   Gospel of the Grace of God. We cannot make headway with certain people
   because they profess faith very readily, but they are not convinced of
   anything. "Oh, yes, we are sinners, no doubt, and Christ died for
   sinners"--that is the free-and-easy way with which they handle heavenly
   mysteries--as if they were the nonsense verses of a boy's exercise, or
   the stories of Mother Goose!

   This is all mockery and we are weary of it. But get near a real sinner
   and you have found a man you can deal with--I mean the man who is a
   sinner and there is no mistake about it--he mourns in his inmost soul
   that he is so. In such a man you find one who will welcome the Gospel,
   welcome Grace and welcome a Savior. To him the news of pardon will be
   as cold water to a thirsty soul--and the Doctrines of Grace will be as
   honey dropping from the comb! "A sinner," says one of our songsters,
   "is a sacred thing"--the Holy Spirit has made Him so. Your sham sinner
   is a horrid creature, but a man truly convinced of sin by the Spirit of
   God is a being to be sought after as a jewel that will adorn the crown
   of the Redeemer!

   Note here, that the Spirit of God comes to convince men of sin because
   they never will be convinced of sin apart from His Divine advocacy. A
   natural conscience touched by the Spirit of God may do a good deal in
   the way of showing a man his faults. It may thus make him uneasy and
   may bring about a reformation of life. But it is only the Spirit of God
   that, to the full extent, convinces a man of sin so as to bring forth
   repentance, self-despair and faith in Jesus. For what is the sin that
   you and I are guilty of? Ah, Brothers and Sisters, it is not easy to
   tell, but this I know, that the extent of sin is never known till the
   Spirit of God reveals the secret chambers of the heart's abominations.
   We do a thousand things that we do not know to be sin till the Spirit
   of God enlightens us and pleads the cause of holiness in us.

   What natural man, for instance, ever laments over evil thoughts or
   desires, or the imaginations which flit across his mind? Yet all these
   are sins and sins which cause a gracious heart the deepest distress! If
   we were never actually to commit evil, yet if we desire to do so, we
   have already sinned! And if we feel pleasure in thinking of evil, we
   have already sinned. This poison is in our nature and shows itself in a
   thousand ways. The fact that we not only sin, but are, by nature,
   sinful, is one which our pride kicks against--and we will not learn it
   till the Spirit of God teaches it to us. Neither does any man know the
   exceeding sinfulness of sin till the Light of God falls upon the black
   mass from the Holy Spirit. Every sin is, as it were, an assault upon
   God's Throne, Glory and life. Sin would dethrone the Most High and
   destroy Him if it could--but men do not see this. They talk of sin most
   lightly and know not that it scatters firebrands and death.

   I tell you, when the Spirit of God makes a man see sin in its naked
   deformity, he is horrified! When I saw, or thought I saw, the
   heinousness of sin, it was intolerable and I had no rest in my spirit.
   Some such sight we must all have, or we shall never look to the Lord
   Jesus to take away our sin. None but those whose wounds smart are
   likely to apply for the heavenly balm. The Holy Spirit dwells upon one
   point in particular--"of sin, because they believe not on Me." None see
   the sin of unbelief except by His light. A man thinks, "Well, if I have
   not believed in Christ, that is a pity, perhaps, but still, I was never
   a thief, or a liar, or a drunk, or unchaste. Unbelief is a matter of
   very little consequence. I can set that right at any time." But the
   Holy Spirit makes a man see that not to believe in Christ is a
   crowning, damning sin, since, "he that believes not has made God a
   liar"--and what can be more atrocious than that?

   He who believes not on Christ has rejected God's mercy and has done
   despite to the grandest display of God's love! He has despised God's
   unspeakable Gift and trampled on the blood of Christ! In this he has
   dishonored God on a very tender point. He has insulted Him concerning
   His only-begotten Son! How I wish that the Spirit of God would come
   upon unbelievers, here, and make them see what they are and where they
   are with regard to the one and only Savior! How shall they escape, who
   neglect so great a salvation? It will not matter how feebly I speak
   this morning if the Spirit of God will only work by the Truth of God on
   you--you will perceive the greatness of your crime and you will never
   rest until you have believed on the Lord Jesus--and found forgiveness
   for your high offense against the bleeding Lamb!

   So far, then, upon the first operation of the Holy Spirit. The next
   work of the Spirit is to convince men of righteousness, that is to say,
   in Gospel terms, to show them that they have no righteousness of their
   own and no means of working righteousness--and that apart from Grace
   they are condemned! Thus He leads them to value the righteousness of
   God which is, upon all them that believe, a righteousness which covers
   sin and renders them acceptable with God. Lend me your ears a moment
   while I call your attention to a great wonder! Among men, if a person
   is convicted of wrong-doing, the next step is judgment. A young man,
   for instance, has been in the service of an employer and he has
   embezzled money--he is convicted of the theft by process of law and
   found guilty. What follows next?

   Why, judgment is pronounced and he must suffer the penalty! But observe
   how our gracious God interpolates another process. Truly, His ways are
   not our ways! "He shall convince of sin." The next step would be
   judgment, but no, the Lord inserts an up to now unknown middle term and
   convinces "of righteousness." Be amazed at this! The Lord takes a man,
   even when he is sinful and conscious of that sin, and makes him
   righteous on the spot by putting away his sin and justifying him by the
   righteousness of faith, a righteousness which comes to him by the
   worthiness of Another who has worked out a righteousness for him! Can
   that be? Brothers and Sisters, this seems to be unthinkable--so
   impossible that it needs the Spirit of God to convince men of it!

   I may now set forth the great plan whereby the Lord Jesus is made of
   God unto us righteousness! I may show how the Son of God became Man
   that He might fully keep the Law of God for us and, having done so, and
   having added His passive obedience to His active service, He presented
   to His Father a complete vindication of His injured Law so that every
   man that believes on Him shall be delivered from condemnation and
   accepted in the Beloved! I might also tell how Christ's righteousness
   is set to our account so that faith is reckoned unto us for
   righteousness, even as was the case with faithful Abraham. Yet all my
   labor will be in vain till the Spirit shall make it plain! Many hear
   the gladsome tidings, but they do not receive the Truth of God, for
   they are not convinced of it. They need to be persuaded of it before
   they will embrace it--and that persuasion is not in my power.

   Did I hear one remark, "I cannot see this way of righteousness"? I
   answer, No, and you never will until the Spirit of God convinces you of
   it! Note well the great point of the Spirit's argument--"Of
   righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more." Our
   Lord was sent into the world to work out a righteousness and here, He
   says, "I go." But He would not go till He had done His work. He says,
   also, "I go to My Father." But He would not go back to His Father till
   He had fulfilled His Covenant engagements. "I go to My Father," that
   is, I go to receive a reward and to sit upon My Father's Throne. But He
   could not have received this Glory if He had not finished His appointed
   work! Behold, then, Christ has finished a righteousness which is freely
   given to all them that believe! And all those who trust in Christ are,
   for His sake, rewarded as righteous before God--and are, in fact,
   righteous, so that Paul says, "Who is he that condemns?"

   His ground for asking that question is the same as that which the
   Spirit uses in my text. Paul says, "It is Christ that died, yes,
   rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
   also makes intercession for us." He

   quotes, as the Holy Spirit does, the resurrection, ascension and
   enthronement of the great Intercessor as the proof positive that there
   is a perfect righteousness for all believing sinners! I know that many
   will say, "This is making people righteous who are not righteous" and,
   therefore, they will raise many objections. Just so! This is the Glory
   of God, that He justifies the ungodly and saves sinners by Christ.
   "Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputes not iniquity."

   "I do not see it," cries one. And our answer is, "We know you do not!
   We are not in the least surprised that you reject our testimony--we
   never expected you to receive it unless the arm of the Lord should be
   revealed and the Holy Spirit should convince you of righteousness." No
   man comes to Christ who is not drawn of the Father and enlightened by
   the Spirit! But if the Spirit convinces you, we shall soon hear you
   sing--

   "Jesus, Your blood and righteousness My beauty are, my glorious dress!
   Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed, With joy shall I lift up my
   head." Dear people of God, pray hard that the Spirit of God may, even
   now, convince unbelievers that the only true righteousness for mortal
   men is that which comes not by the works of the Law, but by the hearing
   of faith!

   But then comes a third point, the Spirit of God is to convince men of
   judgment. To whom is this judgment committed? "The Father has committed
   all judgment unto the Son." The true penitent feels that if he had all
   his sins forgiven him, yet it will not serve his turn so long as he
   lies wallowing in sin. He feels that the great enemy of his soul must
   be dethroned, or else forgiveness, itself, will afford him no rest of
   heart. He must be rescued from the power as well as from the guilt of
   sin, or else he abides in bondage. He must see the power of evil hewn
   in pieces before the Lord, as Samuel hewed Agag of old. Listen, O
   troubled one! You shall be set free, for, "the prince of this world is
   judged." Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil--and on the
   Cross, our Redeemer judged Satan, overcame him and cast him down!

   Satan is now a condemned criminal, a vanquished rebel. His reigning
   power over all Believers is broken. He has great wrath, knowing that
   his time is short, but that wrath is held in check by his Conqueror! In
   His passion, our Lord fought Satan foot to foot and overcame him,
   spoiling principalities and powers and making a show of them openly,
   triumphing over them in it. Do you believe this? May the Spirit of God
   convince you of it! O tried Believer, the Lord Jesus overthrew the
   devil for you! He crushed the powers of darkness for you! Believing in
   Him, you shall find evil dethroned in you and all the forces of sin
   hurled from their high places! You shall overcome through the blood of
   the Lamb! Again, I ask, do you believe this? Christ is made of God unto
   us sanctification--He saves His people from their sins--He makes them
   holy and so breaks in pieces their enemy.

   Though it will cost you many a conflict and the beaded sweat may, in
   the hour of temptation, stand upon your brow as you fear that you will
   fall from holiness, yet the Lord shall bruise Satan under your feet,
   shortly, for He has already bruised him under His own feet on your
   behalf! The Spirit of God is needed to convince our unbelieving hearts
   that it is so. Most men dream that they must overcome sin by their own
   strength. Alas, the strong armed man still keeps the house against our
   feebleness. You have a pretty piece of work before you if, in your own
   strength, you venture on this conflict. I can hear the devil laughing
   at you even now! This leviathan is not to be tamed by you. Job would
   say, "Will you play with him as with a bird?" Do you think the devil is
   as easily managed as a woman carries her pet bird on her finger and
   puts it to her lip to peck a seed?

   Can you draw out leviathan with a hook? Will he speak soft words unto
   you? Will you take him to be a servant forever? Your arrows cannot come
   at him, nor your sword wound him! "Lay your hand upon him, remember the
   battle, do no more." A Divine power is needed and that power is ready
   to display itself if it is humbly sought! Many who are convinced of the
   righteousness of Christ are not yet fully convinced that evil is
   judged, condemned and cast down. They are haunted with the dread that
   they may yet perish by the hand of the enemy. Oh, my Brothers and
   Sisters, see the need of the Holy Spirit to advocate in your heart the
   cause of and Truth of God--and make you believe that the Lord Jesus has
   supreme power over every enemy!

   I sometimes meet with a Christian who tells me the world is all going
   to the bad, the Gospel is being utterly defeated, Christ is routed, the
   devil is waving the black flag and shouting victory. I know how
   terrible is the conflict, but I believe that my Lord Jesus has judged
   the whole kingdom of evil and, in that fact I see Satan fall like
   lightning from Heaven! Our Lord must reign! His enemies must lick the
   dust! We shall judge the fallen angels at the Last Great Day and,
   meanwhile, a believing life is a life of triumph over the arch enemy!
   In the power of the Spirit it shall be proven that truth is

   mightier than error, love is stronger than hate and holiness is higher
   than sin, for the Lord's right hand and His holy arm have gotten Him
   the victory! Behold how the ascended Savior leads captivity captive!
   See how He comes from Edom with dyed garments from Bozrah, for He has
   trodden sin and Hell in the winepress and now He travels in the
   greatness of His strength, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save!

   Let me run again over this ground, that we may not overlook anything.
   Dear Friends, those of us who are saved still need the Holy Spirit with
   us every day to convince us of sin! Good men do, at this hour, most
   complacently, things which, in clearer light, they would never think of
   doing! May the Holy Spirit continually show us layer after layer of
   sin, that we may remove it. May He reveal to us rank after rank of sin,
   that we may conquer all its forces. May He especially make known to us
   the sin of not believing in Christ, for even we have our doubts and
   fears. After a sermon concerning sin, the poor child of God cries out,
   "I dare not believe! I am afraid I shall be lost, after all." This
   unbelief is another sin. Strange way of escaping from sin by plunging
   into it!

   To doubt the Lord is to add sin to sin! No sin is more pernicious than
   the sin of not believing. Whenever our heart distrusts the Lord, we
   grieve His Spirit--therefore we always need the Holy Spirit to convince
   us of this evil and bitter thing--and to lead us to trust after a
   child-like fashion. Any mistrust of God's promise; any fear of failure
   on God's part; any thought of His unfaithfulness is a crime against the
   honor of the Divine majesty! Oh, convincing Spirit, dwell with me from
   day to day convincing me of sin and especially making me to feel that
   the worst of all evils is to question my faithful Friend. So, also, may
   you always have the Spirit of God dwelling with you, convincing you of
   righteousness.

   May those of you who are, indeed, Believers, never question but what
   you are righteous before God. We who believe are made the righteousness
   of God in Christ Jesus! Are we assured of this? If so, do not think and
   talk as if you were still under the curse of the Law, for you are no
   longer in any such condition. "Therefore being justified by faith, we
   have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." "There is,
   therefore, now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." Oh,
   may the Spirit of God convince you of that every day--and convince you
   of it on the ground that Jesus is reigning yonder at the Father's right
   hand!. The interest of each Believer in His Lord is clear and sure. If
   Jesus is there, I am there. If the Father has accepted Him, He has
   accepted me!

   Do you catch the logic of it? You are in Christ, you are one with
   Him--as He is, so are you in Him! Hold fast to the fact that you are
   not condemned. How can you be? You are at the right hand of God in
   Christ. You, condemned? Why, you are "accepted in the Beloved," for
   your Representative is accepted by God and made to sit upon His Throne!
   Jesus is exalted, not for Himself, alone, but for all those who believe
   in Him! May the blessed Spirit fully convince you of this grand Truth
   of God!

   And, next, may He convince you of judgment--namely, that you have been
   judged and your enemy has been judged and condemned. The Day of
   Judgment is not a thing to be dreaded by a Believer. We have stood our
   trial, and have been acquitted. Our Representative has borne the
   penalty of our sin. Our chastisement is passed, for Jesus has borne
   it--He was numbered with transgressors. There is, now, no curse for us!
   There can be none--Heaven, earth, Hell cannot find a curse for those
   whom God has blessed--since the Lord Jesus "was made a curse for us."
   May the Spirit of God come on you afresh, my dearly Beloved, and make
   you confident and joyful in Him who is the Lord our righteousness, by
   whom evil has been judged, once and for all!

   II. Last of all, let us read our text by rendering it, "convict"--"The
   Spirit of God will CONVICT the world of sin, of righteousness, and of
   judgment." There is the world. It stands a prisoner at the bar and the
   charge is that it is and has been full of sin. In courts of law you are
   often surprised with what comes out. You look at the prisoner and he
   seems to be a quiet, respectable person. And you say, "I should not
   think he is guilty." But the advocate who has engaged to plead the
   cause of righteousness stands up and gives an outline of the case--and
   you speedily change your mind, until, as the evidence proceeds, you say
   to yourself, "That is a villain if ever there was one."

   Now hear the Spirit of God! The Spirit came into the world to make all
   men know that Jesus is the Christ. And He attested to that fact by
   miracles that could not be questioned, miracles without number! He has,
   moreover, attested the truth of the Gospel by the conversion of
   myriads, whose happy and holy lives have been a proof that Jesus Christ
   was, indeed, sent forth from God. But what did this wicked world do
   with Christ? They gave Him a felon's death! They nailed Him to a cross!
   By this, the world is condemned! We need no further evidence. The world
   is convicted--self-condemned

   by the slaughter of Him who was Incarnate Goodness and unbounded Love!
   The world is base enough to desire to slay its God even when He comes
   on an errand of love!

   Take the accused away! The world's guilt is proven beyond question. The
   wrath of God abides on it. What follows upon this? The trial is viewed
   from another point. The world has declared that the Gospel is not
   righteous, that the system which our Lord has come to establish is not
   true. Up to this day the world is continually raising objections,
   trying to confuse Believers and, if possible, to defeat our most holy
   cause. But the Spirit of God, by His teaching, proves that the Gospel
   is full of righteousness and, by all His operations through the Word of
   God, He proves that the Gospel is holy, just, good and tends to make
   men pure, godly, peaceable and holy. By sanctifying men through the
   Gospel so that they lead gracious lives, the Holy Spirit proves that
   the Gospel is righteous!

   This process grows more and more complete as time rolls on. Were not
   the world unrighteous, it would, long ago, have yielded to the holy
   message and its holy Messenger. But it will be forced to acknowledge
   the Truth one day. The Holy Spirit makes the world know that Christ is
   righteous by flashing into its face the fact that Christ has gone--gone
   up to Glory, at the right hand of God--and this could not have been had
   He not been the Righteous One. When the world shall see Jesus
   enthroned, at the last, and all mankind shall behold the Son of Man on
   the clouds of Heaven, what conviction will seize on every mind! There
   will be no agnostics, then! Not a skeptic will be found in that day!
   Christ seen at the Father's right hand will end all unbelief!

   And then the Spirit of God shall make men see the judgment. Before the
   day actually comes, they shall perceive that since Christ has judged
   the devil; since Christ has cast him down from his high places and his
   power over the world is already broken, assuredly He will smite all
   that are in the dominion of Satan and will not allow one of them to
   escape. The cause of evil is judged and its case is desperate. Oh, how
   the Spirit of God will convict men at that last day when they hear the
   Judge say, "Come, you blessed of My Father," or, "Depart, you cursed,
   into everlasting fire." Brothers and Sisters, will you be convinced by
   the Holy Spirit, now, or will you wait till then? Shall it be the
   convincement of Grace or the conviction of wrath? The Spirit still
   bears witness with us who preach the Gospel--will you yield to that
   Gospel and believe it, now? Or will you wait until the blaze of the
   last tremendous day? Which shall it be?

   I think I hear you say, "The Gospel is true." Why, then, do you not
   believe it? If you confess "sin," why are you not washed from it? If
   there is "righteousness," why do you not seek it? If there is
   "judgment," why do you not ask to be so cleansed that you need not be
   afraid of it? Oh, Sirs, the most of men act as if they were born fools!
   If they were sick and we had a sure medicine for them, they would rush
   to us for it! If they were poor and we brought them gold, they would
   trample us down in their vehemence to snatch at wealth!

   But when there is Christ to be had, the Divine remedy for sin--Christ
   to be had as a perfect Righteousness, Christ to make them stand
   securely at the last dread day--they turn their backs upon the heavenly
   Gift! Oh, Spirit of God, win these madmen! Bring back these fools and
   make them sane and wise, for Christ Jesus' sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Best War Cry

   (No. 1709)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MARCH 4, 1883,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "The Lord his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them."
   Numbers 23:21.

   IT was a singular spectacle to see the king of Moab and his lords
   climbing to the tops of the craggy rocks, accompanied by that strange
   being, the Eastern prophet Balaam. They are seeking to look upon Israel
   with the evil eye and flash down curses upon her tents in the plain
   beneath. You see them gazing down from the mountains upon the
   encampment in the wilderness below, even as vultures from aloft spy out
   their prey. They watch with keen and cruel eyes. Cunning and malice are
   in their countenances. How Balak longs to crush the nation which he
   fears! They are secretly endeavoring, by spell and enchantment, to
   bring evil upon the people whom Jehovah has chosen and led into the
   wilderness. You see them offering their seven bullocks and their seven
   rams upon the seven altars which they have set up upon Pisgah's rocks.

   Balaam retires to wait until the impulse shall come upon him and he
   shall be able to prophesy. In all probability Moses knew nothing about
   this at the time and certainly the people below knew nothing of the
   foul conspiracy. There lay the tribes in the valley, unaware that
   mischief was brewing, and quite unable to meet the dark design even if
   they had been aware of it. What a mercy it was for them that they were
   guarded by a Watcher--a Holy One whose eyes can never slumber. How true
   it is--"I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any
   hurt it, I will keep it night and day." The Lord's eyes are fixed upon
   Balaam the hireling, and Balak the son of Zippor--in vain do they weave
   the enchantment and work the divination--they shall be utterly ashamed
   and confounded.

   They were baffled in their machinations and utterly defeated in their
   schemes, and that for one single reason--it is written, "JEHOVAH
   SHAMMAH--the Lord Is There. God's Presence in the midst of His people
   is as a wall of fire round about them and a Glory in their midst. The
   Lord is their light and their salvation, whom shall they fear? At this
   present time God has a people, a remnant according to the election of
   Grace, who still dwell like sheep in the midst of wolves. When, as a
   part of the Lord's Church, we look at our surroundings, we see much
   that might cause us alarm, for never, either day or night, is Satan
   quiet. Like a roaring lion, he goes about, seeking whom he may devour!
   He plots in secret his crafty devices--if it were possible he would
   deceive the very elect!

   This Prince of Darkness has on earth many most diligent servants,
   compassing sea and land to make proselytes, laying out all their
   strength and using all their craft and cunning if, by any means, they
   may destroy the Kingdom of God and blot out the Truth of God from under
   Heaven. It is saddest of all to see certain men who know the Truth in
   some degree, as Balaam did, entering into league with the adversary
   against the true Israel. These combine their arts and use all possible
   means that the Gospel of the Grace of God, and the Church that holds
   it, may utterly be destroyed. If the Church is not destroyed, it will
   be no thanks to her enemies, for they would swallow her up quickly!

   When we look upon the signs of the times, our heart grows heavy, for
   iniquity abounds, the love of many waxes cold, many false spirits have
   gone abroad in the earth and some whom we looked upon as helpers are
   proving themselves to be of another order. What then? Are we dismayed?
   By no means, for that same God who was in the midst of the Church in
   the wilderness is in the Church of these last days! Again shall her
   adversaries be defeated. Still will He defend her, for the Lord has
   built His Church upon a rock and the gates of Hell shall not prevail
   against her. The reason of her safety is this--

   "God in the midst of her does dwell; Nothing shall her remove;

   The Lord to her a Helper shall, And that right early, pro ve."

   Our text declares the grand safeguard of the Church of God, ensuring
   her against every peril known and unknown, earthly or Satanic--"Jehovah
   his God is with him, and the shout of a King is among them." May the
   Holy Spirit help me while I try to speak, first, upon God's Presence
   with His people. Secondly, upon the results of that Presence. And
   thirdly, upon how, by the Grace of God, that Presence may be preserved
   continually among us.

   I. First, let me speak a little upon GOD'S PRESENCE AMONG HIS PEOPLE.
   It is an extraordinary Presence, for God's ordinary and usual Presence
   is everywhere. Where shall we flee from His Presence? He is in the
   highest Heaven and in the lowest Hell! The hand of the Lord is upon the
   high hills and His power is in all deep places. This knowledge is too
   high and wonderful for us! God is everywhere, for in Him we live and
   move and have our being. Still there is a peculiar Presence, for God
   was among His people in the wilderness as He was not among the Moabites
   and the Edomites, their foes. And God is in His Church as He is not in
   the world. It is a peculiar promise of the Covenant that God will dwell
   with His people and walk among them.

   By the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Lord is with us and in us at this
   hour. He says of His Church, "Here will I dwell, for I have desired
   it." This is much more than God's being about us--it includes the favor
   of God towards us, His consideration of us, His working with us. An
   active nearness to bless is the Presence of which we speak. Here we may
   say with great reverence that God is with His people in the entireness
   of His Nature. The Father is with us, for the Father, Himself, loves
   us. Like as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that
   fear Him. He is near to us, supplying our needs, guiding our steps,
   helping us in time and tutoring us for eternity. God is where His
   children are, hearing every groan of their sorrow, marking every tear
   of their distress. The Father is in the midst of His family, acting a
   father's part towards them. "Lord, you have been our dwelling place in
   all generations." He is never far from any into whose breasts He has
   put the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, "Abba, Father!" Come, you
   children of God, rejoice in this--your heavenly Father has come unto
   you and abides with you!

   We also have the Presence of the Divine Son of God. Said He not to His
   Apostles, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world"?
   Have we not this for our joy whenever we come together, that we meet in
   His name, and that He still says, "Peace be unto you," and manifests
   Himself unto us as He does not unto the world? Many of you know most
   delightfully what it is to have fellowship with God, for "truly our
   fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ"--and this
   fellowship were not ours if we were not made near by His precious
   blood. Very near are we to the heart of Christ--He dwells with us--yes,
   He is one with us!

   Peculiarly this presence relates to the Holy Spirit. It is He who
   represents the Lord Jesus who has gone from us. We have a double
   portion of Christ's Spirit because we see Him, now that He is taken up,
   even as Elisha had a double portion of Elijah's spirit, according to
   the Prophet's saying, "If you see me when I am taken from you, it shall
   be so unto you." That is, a double portion of my spirit shall rest upon
   you. It was expedient that our Lord and Master should go, that the
   Spirit might be given! That Spirit, once poured out at Pentecost, has
   never been withdrawn! He is still in the midst of this dispensation,
   working, guiding, quickening, comforting, exercising all the blessed
   office of the Paraclete and, being for us and in us, God's Advocate,
   pleading for the Truth of God and for us.

   Yes, dear Friends, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are in the
   midst of the true Church of God when that Church is in a right and
   healthy state. And if the Triune God is gone away from the Church, then
   her banners must trail in the dust, for her warriors have lost their
   strength. This is the Glory of the Church of God--to have the Grace of
   the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father and the communion of
   the Holy Spirit to be her never-failing benediction! What a glory to
   have Father, Son and Holy Spirit manifesting the Godhead in the midst
   of our assemblies and blessing each one of us! For God to dwell with
   us--what a condescending Presence this is! And will God, in very truth,
   dwell among men? If the Heaven of heavens cannot contain Him, will He
   abide among His people? He will! He will! Glory be to His name! "Know
   you not that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit?" God
   dwells in us! Wonderful word!

   Who can fathom the depth of this Grace? The mystery of the Incarnation
   is equaled by the mystery of the indwelling! That God, the Holy Spirit,
   should dwell in our bodies is as extraordinary as that God, the Son,
   should inhabit that body which was born of the blessed virgin! Strange,
   strange is this, that the Creator should dwell in His creatures, that
   the Infinite should tabernacle in finite beings! Yet so it is, for He
   has said, "Certainly I will be with you." What an awe this imparts to
   every true Church of God! You may go in and out of certain assemblies
   and you may say, "Here we have beauty! Here we have adornment, musical,
   ecclesiastical, architectural, oratorical and the like!"

   But to my mind there is no worship like that which proceeds from a man
   when he feels the Lord is present! What a hush comes over the soul!
   Here is the place for the bated breath, the unsandalled foot and the
   prostrate spirit! Now are we on holy ground. When the Lord descends in
   the majesty of His infinite love to deal with the hearts of men, then
   it is with us as it was in Solomon's temple when the priests could not
   stand to minister by reason of the Glory that filled the place. Man is
   set aside, for God is there! In such a case the most fluent think it
   better to be silent, for there is, at times, more expressiveness in
   absolute silence than in the fittest words. "How dreadful is this
   place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of
   Heaven." Why? Because Jacob had said, "Surely the Lord is in this
   place."

   We regard the lowliest assemblies of the most illiterate people with
   solemn reverence if God is there--we regard the largest assemblies of
   the wealthiest and most renowned with utter indifference if God is not
   there. This is the one necessity of the Church--the Lord God must be in
   the midst of her or she is nothing! If God is there, peace will be
   within her walls and prosperity within her palaces--but if the Lord is
   not there, woe unto the men that speak in His name, for they shall cry
   in bitterness, "Who has believed our report?" Woe unto the waiting
   people, for they shall go away empty! Woe unto the sinners in a
   forsaken Zion, for no salvation comes to them! The Presence of God
   makes the Church to be a joyful, happy, solemn place! This brings glory
   to His name and peace to His people. But without it, all faces are
   pale, all hearts are heavy.

   Brothers and Sisters, this Presence of God is clearly discerned by the
   gracious, though others may not know it. Yet I think even the
   ungracious, in a measure, perceive it--coming into the assembly they
   are struck with a secret some-thing--they know not what. And if they do
   not immediately join in the worship of the present God, yet a deep
   impression is made upon them beyond any that could be caused by the
   sound of human speech, or by the grandeur of outward show. They feel
   awed and retire abashed. Certainly the devil knows where God is--none
   better than he. He hates the camp of which Jehovah is the leader
   against it. He doubles his enmity, multiplies his plots and exercises
   all his power. He knows where his kingdom finds its bravest assailants
   and he, therefore, attacks their headquarters, even as Balaam and Balak
   did of old.

   Let us look at Balaam for a moment. May we never run in the way of
   Balaam for a reward, but let us stand in his way for a moment that he
   may be our beacon. This man had sold himself for gold and, though he
   knew God and spoke under Inspiration, yet he knew Him not in his heart,
   but was willing to curse God's people for money. He was thwarted in his
   design because God was there. It is worth our while to see what kind of
   a God Jehovah is in Balaam's estimation. He describes our God in verse
   19--"God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that
   He should repent: has He said, and shall He not do it? Or has He spoken
   and shall He not make it good?" Balaam perceived that the God who was
   in the midst of His people is not a changeable god, not a false god,
   not one who promises and forgets, or promises and eats his words, or
   promises what he cannot and will not perform.

   The God of Israel is faithful and true, immutable, unchanging! Every
   one of His promises shall be fulfilled! None of His Words shall fall to
   the ground. "Has He said, and shall He not do it? Has He spoken and
   shall it not come to pass?" What a joy it is to have such a God as this
   among us--a promise-making and a promise-keeping God--a God at work for
   His people as He has declared He would be! We have a God comforting and
   cheering His people--and fulfilling in their experience that which His
   Word has led them to expect. This God is our God forever and ever! He
   shall be our Guide even unto death! My dear Friends, we sometimes hear
   men talk of the failure of the Church. We are afraid that some churches
   do fail. Wherever failure occurs, the bottom of it is the absence of
   the Lord of Hosts, for He cannot fail.

   I heard one, speaking of the district in which he lives, say, "We are a
   religions people. Almost all the people attend a place of worship,
   but," he added, "I am bound to add that of spiritual life we have few
   traces. One Church has given up its Prayer Meetings; another feels that
   its entertainments are more important than its worship and another is
   notorious for worldliness." This is a testimony as terrible as it is
   common! The worst thing that can be said of any Christian community is
   this--"You have a name to live and are dead." "You are neither cold nor
   hot." Our Lord Jesus says, "I would you were cold or hot. So, then,
   because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue you out
   of My mouth."

   A Church without life and zeal makes Christ sick! He cannot bear it. He
   can put up with downright godlessness sooner than with a profession of
   religion out of which the life and the power are gone, since it has
   cooled down into lukewarmness. This, then, we should pray for
   continually--the Presence of God in the midst of His people--

   "Great Shepherd of Your Israel

   Who did, between the cherubs dwell, And led the tribes, Your chosen
   sheep, Safe through the desert and the deep, Your Church is in the
   desert now! Shine from on high, and guide us through. Turn us to You,
   Your love restore We shall be saved, and sigh no more."

   II. To whet your desire for this, let me pass on to the second head of
   my subject, which is briefly to describe THE RESULTS OF THIS DIVINE
   PRESENCE. Some of these results are mentioned in the context. One of
   the first is leading--"God brought them out of Egypt" (v. 22). The best
   critics give us another rendering--"God is bringing them out of Egypt."
   When God is in the midst of His people, He is leading them, so that we
   may cheerfully sing that song, "He leads me, He leads me," and go on
   with David to say, "He leads me beside the still waters." We need no
   other Leader in the Church when we have God, for His eyes and arms will
   guide His people.

   I am always afraid of having human rules in a Church and equally
   fearful of being governed by human precedents. I am afraid of power
   being vested in one, or two, or 20 men--the power must be in the Lord,
   Himself. That Church which has God in the midst of it, rules itself,
   and goes right without any other guidance but that which comes of the
   Holy Spirit's working. Such a Church keeps together without aiming at
   uniformity and goes on to victory even though it makes no noise. That
   movement is right which is led by God--and that is sure to be all wrong
   which is led in the best possible way if God is absent. Organization is
   all very well, but I sometimes feel inclined to join with Zwingli in
   the battle when he said, "In the name of the Holy Trinity let all
   loose," for when everybody is free, if God is present, everybody is
   bound to do the right thing. When each man moves according to the
   Divine instinct in him, there will be little need of regulations--all
   is order where God rules! Just as the atoms of matter obey the present
   power of God, so do separate Believers obey the one great impelling
   influence.

   Oh, if God is in the Church to lead it, it shall be rightly guided! Do
   not fall in love with this particular system, or that, my Brothers and
   Sisters--do not cry up this scheme of working or that! Get the Spirit
   of God and almost any shape that spiritual life takes will be a form of
   energy suitable for the particular emergency! God never leads His
   people wrongly! It is for them to follow the fiery, cloudy pillar.
   Though it leads them through the sea, they shall traverse it dry-shod!
   Though it leads them through a desert, they shall be fed! Though it
   brings them into a thirsty land, they shall drink to the full of water
   from the Rock! We must have the Lord with us to guide us into our
   promised rest.

   The next blessing is strength. "He has, as it were, the strength of an
   unicorn" (v. 22). It is generally agreed that the creature here meant
   is an extinct species of urns or ox, most nearly represented by the
   buffalo of the present period. This gives us the sentence--"He has, as
   it were, the strength of a buffalo." When God is in a Church, what
   rugged strength, what massive force, what irresistible energy is sure
   to be there! And how untamable is the living force! You cannot yoke
   this buffalo to everybody's plow--it has its own free way of living and
   it acts after its own style. When the Lord is with a Church, her power
   is not in numbers, though very speedily she will increase. Her power is
   not wealth, though God will take care that the money comes when it is
   needed. Her power lies in God--and that power becomes irresistible,
   untamable, unconquerable! Force and energy are with the Lord.

   I fear that what many bodies of Christian people need is this force.
   Examine yonder religious body--it is huge, but it lacks muscle--it is a
   fine-looking organization, but soul, sinew, backbone are lacking. Where
   God is, there is sure to be life-force. When the Spirit of God
   descended upon the first saints, they began to speak with wondrous
   power! And though they were persecuted, they were not subdued. No bit
   could be put into their mouths to hold them in, for they went
   everywhere preaching the Word of God! Of the true Israel it shall be
   said--"His strength is as the strength of the buffalo: it cannot be
   controlled or conquered."

   The next result is safety. "Surely there is no enchantment against
   Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel." The Presence of
   God quietly baffles all the attempts of the Evil One. I have noticed,
   dear Brothers and Sisters, in this Church where we have had God's
   Presence in a great measure, that all around us people have gone off to
   this opinion and to the other fancy, yet, our members, as a rule, have
   stood firm. Persons say to me, "Do you not sometimes answer the
   skepticisms of the day?" I answer, No. They do not come in my way. "Do
   not modern opinions trouble your

   Church?" They have not done so. Why? Because God is there and spiritual
   life, in vigorous exercise, does not fall a victim to disease! A
   gracious atmosphere does not agree with modern doubt.

   When people fall into that evil, they go where the thing is indulged,
   or at least where it is combated--where in some way or other they can
   develop their love of novelty and foster the notion of their own
   wisdom. Infidelity, Socinianism, and modern thought can make no headway
   where the Spirit is at work! Enchantment does not lie against Israel
   and divination does not touch Jacob. If a Church will keep to the Truth
   of God, keep to God, and do its own work, it can live like a lamb in
   the midst of wolves without being torn in pieces. Have God with you and
   not only the evil of doctrinal error but every other error shall be
   kept far from you. But still, there was, when Christ was in the Church,
   a Judas in the midst of it--and even in the Apostles' days there were
   some that went out from them because they were not of them, for if they
   had been of them, doubtless they would have continued with
   them--therefore we may not expect to be without false brethren.

   But the true safety of the Church is not a creed, not an enactment for
   expelling those who violate the creed--only the Presence of God can
   protect His people against the cunning assaults of their foes. Upon
   these words, "there is no enchantment against Jacob, no divination
   against Israel," suffer a few sentences. There are still a few foolish
   people in the world who believe in witchcraft and spells, but you,
   Beloved, if you love the Lord, throw such nonsense to the winds! Do you
   not hear people talk about this being lucky and that unlucky? This
   notion is heathenish and unchristian! Never utter such nonsense! But
   even if there were such things as witchcraft and divination, if this
   house were full of devils and the air swarmed with invisible spirits of
   an evil sort, yet if we are the people of God, surely there is no
   enchantment against us. Divination cannot touch a child of God--the
   Evil One is chained!

   Therefore be of good courage--if God is for us, who can be against us?
   Further than that, God gives to His people the next blessing, that is,
   of His so working among them as to make them a wonder and cause
   outsiders to raise enquiries about them. "According to this time it
   shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What has God worked?" Is not that
   a singular thing? Here is Balaam with his seven altars, seven bullocks
   and seven rams. And here is Balak. And they are all going to compass
   some dreadful evil against Israel! The prophet is a man of great skill
   in the occult arts--but what does God say? In effect, He says--"From
   this hour in which you try to curse them, I will bless them more than
   ever until I will make them say, and their enemies say, "What has God
   worked?"

   Brethren, there is another question, "What has Israel worked?" I am
   glad that Israel's work is not my subject just now, because I should
   make a very wretched sermon out of it! We have better music in the
   words, "What has God worked?" Let me tell not what I have done, but
   what God has done! Not what human nature is, but what God's Nature is
   and what the Grace of God will work in the midst of His people. If God
   is within us, we shall be signs and wonders until those around us shall
   say, "What is this that God is doing?" Yes, in you, poor Jacob,
   wrestling, halting on your thigh, men shall see marvels and cry, "What
   has God worked?" Much more shall it be so with you, my brother, Israel,
   you who have prevailed and won the blessing--you are as a prince with
   God and you shall make men enquire, "What has God worked?"

   When God is with His people, He will give them power of a destructive
   kind. Do not be frightened! Here is the text for it--"Behold, the
   people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young
   lion"--that is, as a lion in the fullness of his vigor--"He shall not
   lie down until he eats of the prey and drinks the blood of the slain."
   God has put into His Church, when He is in it, a most wonderful,
   destructive power against spiritual wickedness! A healthy Church kills
   error, and tears evil in pieces! Not so very long ago our nation
   tolerated slavery in our colonies. Philanthropists endeavored to
   destroy slavery, but when was it utterly abolished? It was when
   Wilberforce roused the Church of God, and when the Church of God
   addressed herself to the conflict--then she tore the evil thing to
   pieces!

   I have been amused with what Wilberforce said the day after they passed
   the Act of Emancipation. He merrily said to a friend when it was all
   done, "Is there not something else we can abolish?" That was said
   playfully, but it shows the spirit of the Church of God! She lives in
   conflict and victory--her mission is to destroy everything that is bad
   in the land! See the fierce devil of intemperance, how it devours men!
   Earnest friends have been laboring against it and they have done
   something for which we are grateful. But if ever intemperance is put
   down, it will be when the entire Church of God shall arouse herself to
   protest against it! When the strong lion rises up, the giant of
   drunkenness shall fall before him. "He shall not lie down until he eats
   of the prey and drinks the blood of the slain."

   I predict for the world the best results from a fully awakened Church!
   If God is in her, there is no evil which she cannot overcome! This
   crowded London of ours sometimes appalls me--the iniquity which reigns
   and rages in the lower districts, the general indifference and the
   growing atheism of the people--these are something terrible, but let
   not the people of God be dismayed. If the Lord is in the midst of us,
   we shall do with this as our forefathers have done with other evils--we
   shall rise up in strength and not lie down till the evil is destroyed!
   For the destructions, mark you, of God's people, are not the
   destructions of men and women--they consist in the overthrow of
   sin--the tearing in pieces of systems of iniquity. This it is which God
   shall help His Church to do, He being in the midst of her.

   Once more--the results of God's Presence are to be seen, not only in
   the context, but in other matters which we have personally experienced
   and hope to experience more fully. Note them. When God is in a Church,
   there is a holy awe upon the hearts of His people. There is also a
   childlike trustfulness, hopefulness and consequent courage and joy.
   When the Lord is in the midst of His people, the ordinances of His
   house are exceedingly sweet. Baptism and the Lord's Supper become
   divinely painted pictures of our burial in Christ and of our life
   through Him. The preaching of the Word drops as dew and distils as the
   rain. The meetings for prayer are fresh and fervent--we desire to stay
   in them hour after hour--we feel it such a happy thing to be there! The
   very house in which we meet grows beautiful to us. We love the place
   where our Lord is accustomed to meet with us.

   Then work for Christ is easy, no, delightful! God's people never need
   urging, they are eager for the fray when the Lord is with them. Then,
   too, suffering for Christ becomes pleasant, yes, any kind of suffering
   is easily borne--

   "I can do all things, or can bear All sufferings, if my Lord is there!
   Sweet pleasures mingle with the pains,

   While His left hand my head sustains."

   Then prayer grows abundant all over the Church, both in private and in
   public. Then life is made vigorous, the feeblest becomes as David, and
   David like the Angel of the Lord. Then love is fervent; unity is
   unbroken; the Truth of God is esteemed and the living of truth in the
   life is sought after by all the people of God! Then effort is
   successful; the Church enlarges the bounds of her tent, for she breaks
   forth on the right hand and on the left. Then her seed inherits the
   Gentiles and the desolate places are inhabited. Then God gives unto her
   the holy energy with which she vanquishes nations. When God is with her
   she becomes like a sheaf of fire in the midst of the stubble and
   consumes her adversaries round about. "Fair as the moon, clear as the
   sun and terrible as an army with banners," is a Church which has God in
   her midst!

   But now notice one thing in my text, and with that I close this
   description. Where God is, we are told, "The shout of a king is among
   them." What is the shout of a king? When great commanders are known to
   have come into a camp, what a thrill of joy it causes among their
   trusty warriors! When the soldiers have been much dejected, it has been
   whispered in their tents--

   "The king has come to marshal us, All in his armor dressed,"

   and from that moment every man is cheered up. At the sight of the king,
   as he comes riding into the camp, the host raises a great shout. What
   does it mean? It is a shout of loyal love--they are glad to welcome
   their leader. So is it with us when we sing--"The King Himself comes
   near"--we are all as glad as glad can be! Those who cannot come out to
   see their prince, because they are lying on their sick beds in
   hospitals, clap their hands, while even the little children in their
   mothers' arms join in the general joy. "The king is come," they say,
   and his presence kindles their enthusiasm till they make the hills ring
   again!

   You know how the stern Ironsides felt when Cromwell came along. Every
   man was a hero when he led the way. They were ready for any adventure,
   no matter how difficult, as long as their great chief was there. That
   enthusiasm which was inspired by Alexander, by Napoleon and by other
   great commanders, is the earthly image of the spiritual fervor felt by
   the Church when the Lord Jesus is in her midst! What next? When the
   king comes and they have received him with enthusiasm, he cries, "Now
   is the hour of battle" and at once a shout goes up from his warriors
   who are eager for the fight. When a clan of Highlanders was led to the
   battle by their chief, he had only to show them the enemy and with one
   tremendous shout they leaped upon them like lions!

   It is so with the people of God. When God is with us, we are strong,
   resolute, determined. The charge of the servants of God is as the rush
   of a hurricane against a bowing wall and a tottering fence. In God is
   our confidence of victory. With

   God present, no man's heart fails him; no doubt enters the host. "Be
   strong, and quit yourselves like men," is the word that is passed
   round, for our King's eyes make us brave and the Presence of His
   Majesty secures our triumph. My Brothers and Sisters, let us cry to
   God, entreating Him to be among us! This it is that you need in your
   Sunday schools, in your mission halls, in your street preaching, in
   your tract distributing--it is this that I need beyond everything when
   I have to speak to you in this vast house.

   If I could hear the sound of my Master's feet behind me, I would speak
   though I were lying upon the borders of the grave! But if God is gone,
   I am bereft of power. What is the use of words without the Spirit? We
   might as well mutter to the whistling winds as preach to men without
   the Lord! O God, if You are with us, then the shout of a King is among
   us, but without You, we pine away!

   III. Thirdly, let us look at a very important point and a very
   practical one, too--What can be done for THE SECURING AND PRESERVING OF
   THE PRESENCE OF GOD WITHIN THE CHURCH? This is a matter that would

   require several sermons to discuss fully, but I notice that there is
   something, even, in the conformation of a Church to secure this. God is
   very tolerant and He bears with many mistakes in His servants and yet
   blesses them. But depend upon it, unless a Church is formed at the very
   outset upon Scriptural principles and in God's own way, sooner or later
   all the mistakes of her constitution will turn out to be sources of
   weakness! Christ loves to dwell in a house which is built according to
   His own plans and not according to the whims and fancies of men.

   The Church ought not to set up as her authority the decrees of men,
   either living or dead--her Ruler is Christ! Associations formed
   otherwise than according to Scripture must fail in the long run. I wish
   Christians would believe this. Chillingworth said, "The Bible and only
   the Bible, is the religion of Protestants." That was not true. Certain
   Protestants have tacked many other things to the Bible--and they are
   suffering as the result of their folly--for they cannot keep their
   Church from becoming Popish. Of course they cannot! They have admitted
   a little leaven of Popery and it will leaven the whole lump. The dry
   rot in one part of the house will spread throughout the whole fabric,
   sooner or later. Let us be careful to build on the foundation of
   Christ--and then let every man take heed how he builds thereon, for
   even if the foundation is good, yet if he builds with hay and stubble,
   the fire will cause him grievous loss.

   But next, God will only dwell with a Church which is full of life. The
   living God will not inhabit a dead church! Hence the necessity of
   having really regenerated people as members of the Church. We cannot
   secure this in every case with all our watching--tares will grow among
   the wheat. But if the admission of unregenerate men is usual and there
   are no restrictions, then the Lord will be grieved and leave us. God
   dwells not in temples made with hands--He has nothing to do with bricks
   and mortar--He dwells in living souls! Remember that text--"God is not
   the God of the dead, but of the living," and it bears this sense among
   others, that He is not the God of a church made up of unconverted
   people. Oh, that we may all live unto God, and may that life be past
   all question.

   That being supposed, we next notice that to have God among us we must
   be full of faith. Unbelief gives forth such a noxious vapor that Jesus,
   Himself, could not stay where it was. His strength was paralyzed--"He
   could not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief." Faith
   creates an atmosphere in which the Spirit of God can work! Meanwhile,
   the Spirit of God, Himself, creates that faith, so that it is all of
   His own working from first to last! Brothers and Sisters, do you
   believe your God? Do you believe up to the hilt? Alas, too many only
   believe a little! But do you believe His every Word? Do you believe His
   grandest promises? Is He a real God to you, making His Words into
   facts, every day of your lives? If so, then the Lord is among us as in
   the Holy Place!

   Faith builds a pavilion in which her King delights to sit enthroned.
   With that, must come prayer. Prayer is the breath of faith. I do not
   believe God will ever be long with a Church that does not pray--and I
   feel certain that when meetings for prayer, when family prayer, when
   private prayer, when any form of prayer comes to be at a discount--the
   Lord will leave the people to learn their weakness! Lack of prayer cuts
   the sinews of the Church for practical working. She is lame, feeble,
   impotent, if prayer is gone. If anything is the matter with the lungs,
   we fear consumption--Prayer Meetings are the lungs of the Church and
   anything the matter there means consumption to the Church, or at best a
   gradual decline, attended with general debility.

   Oh, my Brothers, if we want to have God with us, pass the watchword
   round, "Let us pray!" Let us pray after the fashion of the widow who
   was importunate and would not be repulsed! Remember, it is written,
   "Men ought always to pray and not to faint." Where prayer is fervent,
   God is present. Supposing there is this faith and prayer, we shall also

   need holiness of life. You know what Balaam did when he found he could
   not curse the people? Satanic was his advice. He bade the king of Moab
   seduce the men of Israel by the women of Moab that were fair to look
   upon--these were to fascinate them by their beauty and then to invite
   them to their idolatrous rites--which rites were orgies of lust. He
   hoped that the lewdness of the people would grieve the Lord and cause
   Him to leave them and then Moab could smite them.

   He sadly succeeded. If it had not been for Phinehas, who, in holy
   wrath, drove his javelin right through a man and woman in the very act
   of sin, sparing none in the vehemence of his zeal, Israel had been
   quite undone. So in a Church. The devil will work hard to lead one into
   licentiousness, another into drunkenness, a third into dishonesty and
   others into worldliness. If he can only get the goodly Babylonian
   garment and the wedge of gold buried in an Achan's tent, then Israel
   will be chased before her adversaries! God cannot dwell in an unclean
   Church!

   A holy God abhors the very garments spotted by the flesh. Be you holy
   as Christ is holy! Do not take up with this German silver electrotype
   holiness, which is so much boasted of nowadays. Do not be deluded into
   self-righteousness, but seek after real holiness--and if you find it,
   you will never boast about it--your life will speak, but your lips will
   never dare to say, "See how holy I am." Real holiness dwells with
   humility and makes men aspire after that which yet lies beyond them. Be
   holy, upright, just, straight, true, pure, chaste, devout. God send us
   this behavior and then we shall keep Him among us as long as we live!

   Lastly, when we have reached that, let us have practical consecration.
   God will not dwell in a house which does not belong to Him. No, the
   first thing with any one of us is to answer this question--Do you give
   yourself up to Christ-- body, soul and spirit--to live for Him and to
   die for Him? Will you give Him all that you have of talent and ability,
   and substance, time and life, itself? Where there is a Church made up
   of consecrated people, there God will remain and there He will make a
   Heaven below! And there the shout of a King shall be heard! And there
   His strength shall be revealed! And there His glory shall be seen, even
   as it is beheld on high! The Lord send us this, for Jesus' sake. Amen
   and Amen!
     __________________________________________________________________

Incense and Light

   (No. 1710)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MARCH 11, 1883,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning: when he
   dresses the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it. And when Aaron lights
   the lamps at twilight, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual
   incense before the Lord throughout your generations." Exodus 30:7,8.

   CERTAIN ceremonies under the Law were only of annual celebration, while
   other matters were of daily observation. And by the daily repetition
   they were intended to be set forth as eminently constant and perpetual.
   These daily ordinances were to be regarded by the children of Israel as
   of standing obligation, abiding types of constant necessity, never to
   be removed so long as the dispensation should last. When the priest
   went into the tabernacle, he could not enter it without being warned of
   sin and of sacrifice, for at the entrance of the holy place stood an
   altar of brass upon which there was offered, every morning, a lamb and
   every evening a lamb.

   This taught that access to God was not possible except by
   expiation--expiation by bloody sacrifice, expiation by the death of a
   substituted victim--expiation which must continue as long as sin
   remained. You could not even enter into the first court without the
   sight of an altar, blood and fire--thus showing us that there is no
   coming to God, even on the ordinary level of Christian experience,
   apart from the Atonement made by our Lord Jesus, who is "the Lamb slain
   from the foundation of the world." You cannot be heard in penitent
   prayer, or receive pardon, or commence the life of faith, or be even a
   babe in Grace unless you know the great Truth of God, that the Lord
   "has made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made
   the righteousness of God in Him." Without the shedding of blood,
   remission of sin and access to God are out of the question! Paul
   ascribes our drawing near unto the Lord to our Savior's perfect
   Sacrifice, for he says, "You who sometimes were far off are made near
   by the blood of Christ."

   Before the innermost sanctuary there hung a substantial veil and the
   entrance into the Holy of Holies was only permitted once in the year.
   If that veil had been lifted up so that we could enter, we would have
   found, at the door, a golden altar, to represent, again, our Lord Jesus
   Christ under another aspect--for on that golden altar there was offered
   a sweet perfume of precious spices, denoting His perpetual intercession
   on the behalf of His people and His enduring merits which are
   continually being presented by Himself before the Throne of the Most
   High. To go within the veil you must pass by the Altar of Incense.
   Learn, therefore, that to the door of the inner chamber of communion
   with God we must approach by the perfect merit of our redeeming Lord!
   We come not in our own merit, but we are "accepted in the Beloved."

   If we have ever been favored with high and holy communion with God,
   such as He reserves for favored saints. If we have been enabled to come
   boldly to the Throne of heavenly Grace and have looked into the
   tempered brightness of that Light of God which shines above the Mercy
   Seat, we have come only by virtue of the infinite merit of our Lord
   Jesus. The lowest form of communion in the outer court must be by the
   sacrifice of Jesus. And the highest form of communion, even that which
   is most intense and most delightful, is still by Christ. The incense
   sets forth His merit and that is not without blood, for once in the
   year the horns of the altar were smeared with the blood which had been
   carried within the veil. There was no coming within the veil without
   passing by the incense altar, even as there is no access to God but by
   the all-powerful mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ! Let us never
   forget this. Simple as the Truth of God is, we are apt to pass it by as
   of no force.

   I am afraid we are apt to put the most important Truths into the
   background because they seem to be so elementary. But we ought to
   remember that they are elementary only because they are essential from
   first to last. Never try to draw near to God in prayer, or praise, or
   meditation, or Scripture reading, or holy service apart from Jesus
   Christ, or your

   attempt will be a failure. Through the wall of fire which surrounds the
   Throne of God, you can only pass by way of the one Door, namely, the
   body and blood of our great Mediator, Sacrifice and Substitute! Is not
   that Door sufficient? Why should we climb up some other way? If I am
   very heavy of heart, do not let me try to raise my spirits and so come
   in the power of human courage--let me but come just as I am, made bold
   through Him whose comforts delight my soul! If I feel that I have been
   sinning, do not let me try to get rid of my sin by some other process
   and then draw near to God. Let me come, sinner as I am, in the name of
   the sinner's Savior, and so draw near to God, having washed my robes
   and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

   Jesus says, "I am the way"--why should we seek another? Have nothing to
   do with an absolute God--only deal with Him through a Mediator--and
   keep to that way, for no man comes unto the Father but by the Lord
   Jesus! Oh, you most experienced and privileged ones, take good note of
   the golden altar! And whenever you approach the Mercy Seat, let the
   cloud of its incense cover you and perfume your prayers! Hard by the
   golden altar, which was nearest to the Holy of Holies, stood the golden
   candlestick with its seven branches--these two instructive types were
   set near each other for a purpose which I would open up today. This
   candlestick was a matter of daily ordinance as much as the bronze Altar
   of Sacrifice, or the golden Altar of Incense--it was for continual use
   and was, therefore, dressed twice each day. We have a continual need of
   the precious Atonement of Christ, of the intercession of Christ and of
   the light of God's Holy Spirit. These are not things for once in a
   year--these are matters for every day and all day--and, therefore, they
   were attended to both at morning and at evening as if to shut in all
   the hours of the day within two golden doors.

   Every morning had its lamb, its burning incense and its lighted lamp.
   And the same pertained to every evening all the year round. Thus all
   days were fringed and bordered with this three-fold type--even as, at
   this time, all our days are sanctified by faith in the effectual
   expiation, joy in the prevailing intercession and delight in the clear
   shining of the Spirit which makes glad all who are in the house! This
   morning I desire to call your attention to the conjunction which was
   established by the Divine Law between the burning of the incense and
   the lighting of the lamps--these two things, being both of daily
   observance--were attended to at the same moment for reasons worthy of
   our study.

   I. And first I call your attention to THE WONDERFUL COOPERATION BETWEEN
   THE INTERCESSION OF CHRIST FOR US AND THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN
   US. See how, on the grandest scale, the incense of intercession and the
   lamp of spiritual illumination are set side by side. He whose merit
   brings us life is in Divine alliance with Him who brings us light!
   Indeed, there is such unity between them that Jesus, Himself, is said
   to be a Light to lighten the Gentiles and the Glory of His people
   Israel. The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ brings with it the communion
   of the Holy Spirit, for the Father has joined them together!

   Note that we have these both revealed in their fullness at the same
   time. When our Lord ascended on high to plead before the Throne of God,
   the Spirit descended to abide in the Church! After the Lord was taken
   up, the disciples received the promise of the Father and were
   illuminated by the Holy Spirit! Jesus, our great High Priest, presented
   the sweet savor of His own Person and work before the eternal Throne of
   God and then came the Spirit of God as tongues of fire lighting up the
   sons of men and making them to be as candles of the Lord! Well said the
   Apostle at Pentecost--"This Jesus has God raised up, whereof we all are
   witnesses. Therefore being exalted by the right hand of God and having
   received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has shed
   forth this, which you now see and hear." I say the two come
   historically together and we must forever connect in our meditations
   the ascended Savior's intercession and the illumination of the saints
   by the descended Spirit.

   Now, as they were connected historically, so are they continually
   connected as a matter of fact. At this day it is as it was at
   Pentecost--our Lord has not ceased to intercede and the Spirit has not
   ceased to illuminate! Herein lies our hope for our own eternal
   salvation, in the ceaseless plea and the quenchless light! For the
   working out of that which God is working in us, both to will and to do
   of His own good pleasure, we have these two guarantees and helps--the
   Savior praying and the Spirit shining! Jesus is pleading and,
   therefore, our faith fails not when Satan sifts us as wheat. The Spirit
   is working and, therefore, the light of our faith is sustained by a
   secret mystic oil which prevents the enemy from putting it out. This is
   also our two-fold confidence when we go forth into the world to preach
   the Gospel! Unto the Lord Jesus, all power is given in Heaven and in
   earth, and He is "able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God
   by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them."

   The Church of God must succeed in her mission because her errand is the
   object of the continual prayers of her living Lord. But she has her
   second help, namely the Comforter, who abides with us and goes forth
   with the Word that we preach, making it potent for the conversion of
   the sons of men. We have the incense of Christ's merit pleading with
   God and the light of God's Spirit pleading with men--we have Christ as
   an Advocate with God and the Holy Spirit as an Advocate with men! What
   more is needed? What joy and confidence we ought to feel in the work of
   the Lord since Jesus is pleading and the Spirit is striving at the same
   time--the incense rising, filling earth and Heaven with its
   sweetness--and the Spirit brightly shining to the comfort and delight
   of those who go forth into the darkness with the name of Jesus on their
   lips! Joy to those who sit in darkness and in the valley of the shadow
   of death, for even for them is this seven-fold Light shining! And to
   their dank, pestilential abodes there comes the healing breath of sweet
   perfume from the Redeemer's merits.

   Furthermore, this conjunction, as it is a matter of history, and as it
   is continuous, will always be seen by us, personally, when our prayer
   is the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man that avails much. It
   needs the Trinity to make a Christian; it needs the Trinity to make a
   Christian prayer! The Father must hear us, else of what use are our
   cries? But the ordained Mediator must also stand between us and the
   Father, presenting His merit like the smoke of sweet incense, or else
   our prayer can never be accepted of God. And to come down closer to
   ourselves, the Spirit of God must also help our infirmities, for we
   know not what we should pray for as we ought, so that, whenever we
   pray, we must have these two in happy conjunction--intercession and
   enlightenment--incense and light!

   My prayer as my own prayer is a poor, vain, defiled thing unless Jesus
   perfumes it! And it is a poor, dark, blind thing unless the Spirit of
   God has enlightened it! The Holy Spirit teaches us what to pray for and
   how to order our words aright. In His light we see light. We are in the
   dark till He shines like the golden candlestick and enables us to see
   our own need and the fullness of God's Grace. It is His light that
   makes our heart to see the Lord in prayer, so that we seek the Lord by
   the light of His own Spirit. When prayer is the work of the Spirit in
   the heart, we are absolutely certain that it must succeed because the
   Spirit makes intercession in the saints according to the will of God.
   The Holy Spirit is one with the Father and He is most truly God, so
   that whatever He prompts us to pray for is the same thing which the
   Father has already decreed and eternally determined to bestow!

   Our wishes and desires might never succeed with God if they were that
   and no more, for our thoughts are not His thoughts, neither are our
   ways His ways. But the thoughts and purposes of God, when these are
   photographed upon our spirit by the Holy Spirit, are the pictures of
   that which is assuredly to be, the prophecy of the determinate purpose
   and foreknowledge of God! What is written in yon sealed Book, upon
   which no human eye can gaze, is transcribed and written by the Spirit
   of God upon our hearts--and thus we pray for that very thing which God
   designs to give. There is an assured certainty of success to the prayer
   that is made in the power of the Spirit of God! While praying in the
   Holy Spirit we have the petition which we have asked of the Lord.

   But then there is our second comfort, that Jesus stands ready to take
   every prayer of ours, however imperfect in knowledge, however feeble in
   expression, however marred with sorrow--and He presents the purified
   and perfected prayer with His own merit--and it is sure to speed. The
   sins of our holy things are seldom absent and, therefore, the constant
   need is that we have an Advocate. Blessed be God for that inspired
   Word, "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus
   Christ the righteous." True prayer is the offering to God of the merit
   of the Lord Jesus and, therefore, it must be accepted. What can be
   refused to merit such as His? True prayer is presented always by the
   Lord Jesus and, therefore, again, its certainty of efficacy--how can
   the Father deny anything to the Well-Beloved? It is written in the book
   of the Revelation--"And another angel came and stood at the altar,
   having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that
   he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar
   which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came
   with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the
   angel's hand."

   Can we doubt the success of prayers presented by the Angel of the
   Covenant? Assuredly not! There is such excess of perfection in Christ
   that it covers all our imperfection. There is such delicious sweetness
   in Christ to the Father that it effectually destroys the ill savor of
   anything that comes from us! And by its power, we, ourselves, become
   unto God a sweet savor--and so, also, are our prayers when they are
   presented by Jesus Christ! I like to think of the incense and of the
   lamp and, best of all, of the two together, for these two enable me to
   come boldly to the Throne of the heavenly Grace

   to obtain mercy and find Grace! Acceptance through sweet savor and
   light through Divine teaching are both mine as my soul waits upon God,
   with her expectation turned towards Him. Nor ought I to pass away from
   this first head without noting that in God's drawing near to man there
   is the same conjunction of incense and light.

   If the Glory of God were to come forth from between the cherubim. If it
   should come past the veil to be revealed throughout the world, that
   Glory would pass by these two, the golden Altar of Incense and the
   golden lamp of light! I mean this--God can have no dealing with men at
   all except through the merit of Christ and the light of the Spirit. As
   for the work of our Lord Jesus, you and I believe in the special
   Substitution of Christ for His elect--what we call, "Particular
   Redemption," is held most firmly by us, for we believe that He redeemed
   us from among men and that He laid down His life for the sheep. Yet
   there are many passages of Scripture which speak of the work of Christ
   as having a universal scope. He is, "the propitiation for our sins, and
   not for ours, only, but for the sins of the whole world." We are told
   that, by the Grace of God, "He tasted death for every man."

   Now, the Atonement of Christ is many-sided and may be viewed in very
   different lights. And while I trust we shall never be shaky about the
   question of His literal and effectual Substitution for His own chosen,
   whereby He offered for them a most sure, effectual and perfect
   satisfaction, so that no sin may ever be laid to their charge, yet
   there is, on the other hand, a general and universal view of His
   atoning work. God could not have dealt with the world at all in the way
   of mercy apart from the Sacrifice of Christ. The only thing which could
   have been done with the race of man was to have crushed it out forever
   if Christ had not stood for them as an Interposer. God was, in Christ,
   reconciling the world unto Himself. For the sake of the Man, Christ
   Jesus, God was able to look upon the fallen race in justice and yet
   prepare mercy for the guilty. Men owe their lives to the Sacrifice of
   Christ! Men owe the various alleviations of their sorrows by God's
   gracious tenderness in Providence to the Sacrifice of Christ!

   Above all, that free and honest proclamation of salvation to every man
   that will believe in Christ Jesus is rendered possible by the wondrous,
   perfect, unlimited, illimitable merit which resided in the Person and
   work of such an One as Jesus our Lord! The picture before you is a very
   beautiful one. Here are spices of the most precious kind, made up into
   a compound such as never was compounded for any other purpose. This
   Divinely-appointed mixture of sweet odors is placed in the censer upon
   the golden altar--that is to say, eternal acceptance is found in the
   Person of Christ. The incense is kindled with fire from on high. What
   follows? The spices begin to burn and up ascends a pillar of smoke. See
   how it rises high into the clear air! And as it rises it expands like a
   cloud, covers the sky, is wafted all around and perfumes the whole air
   with its own exceeding fragrance.

   It rises and rises till it enters Heaven--yes, and the Heaven of
   heavens! Its sacred odor is recognized in every golden street! It fills
   every chamber of the glorious "house of God not made with hands!" It
   ascends to the Throne of His excellent Majesty and the Lord is well
   pleased with it--and again is fulfilled the words which are written
   concerning the burnt-offering of Noah--"The Lord smelled a sweet savor;
   and the Lord said in His heart, I will not again smite everything
   living as I have done." Such is the merit of Christ, that through its
   sweet savor God looks down upon the world and treats it with
   long-suffering, tenderness and mercy. Is it not a blessed picture? As a
   just and holy God, He could not deal with a guilty race except through
   a mediatorial Sacrifice which should wrap mankind in its cloud of merit
   and reconcile the world unto Himself!

   And now, you and I may follow in the tracks of God and go out and
   preach the Gospel to every creature without the slightest fear because
   the whole air is perfumed with the incense of a Savior's mediatorial
   work! Although not perceptible by carnal sense, yet the inward spirit
   in the soul of the Believer perceives the grateful odor of the finished
   work of the ever-living Savior sweetening all things, so that now we
   call nothing common or unclean, but are prepared to deliver our message
   to the vilest of the vile! God, in Christ, is kind, even, to the
   unthankful and the evil, and wills that supplications, prayers,
   intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men--and to every
   creature the Gospel should be preached. We shall not, however, proceed
   to any practical purpose unless we remember, next, that when God comes
   to deal with men, it is with the light of the Spirit as well as with
   the merit of Christ.

   The golden candlestick is as necessary as the golden censer--for God's
   work among men is always by His Spirit. He is seeking out His people as
   the woman sought for her lost piece of money and it is significant that
   it is written, "She did light a candle and sweep the house." God, in
   His work of salvation, comes to men with the candle of His Word lighted
   through the Holy Spirit--and through the teaching of His Word from day
   to day, that Spirit shines as from a lantern

   among the sons of men! If you and I would follow in the tracks of God,
   as His dear children, imitating Him, we must take with us the light of
   the Gospel or the Glory of God and, by the power and light of His
   Spirit we must make known to men the unsearchable riches of Christ. To
   us Jehovah is our light and our salvation--and when we go in His name
   we must not go without the Light of God. Thus you see we come to God by
   the incense and the light--and even so does God come down to man to
   bless Him.

   II. Secondly, our text seems to me to teach THE CONNECTION BETWEEN
   PRAYER AND KNOWLEDGE. The

   golden altar represents intercession offered by Christ and, also, the
   prayers of all the saints which are accepted through His intercession.
   And, as the candlestick stood side by side with it, and represented the
   light of the Spirit of Truth, so must true prayer and true knowledge
   never be separated. So I gather, first, that prayer should be attended
   with knowledge. It is evil when men worship, they know not what. God is
   Light and He will not have His people worship Him in the dark. When
   they burn the incense, they must also light the lamp.

   In the Romish Church the mass of the people repeat prayers in an
   unknown tongue, having no idea of what their meaning may be--this is
   both a grievous wrong to the people and a mockery of God! What can be
   the good of such prayers in the sight of Him who seeks those to worship
   Him who worship Him in spirit and in truth? Mere sounds without meaning
   are not prayer! Understanding, desire and heart must go with every
   word, or else the prayers are vain repetitions such as the heathen
   employ. Supplicants must know what they are asking, or they are not
   really asking. And you, dear people of God, please notice that the more
   Divine knowledge you get, all things being equal, the more complete
   will your prayers become.

   "Grow in Grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus
   Christ"--light the lamp at the same time that you kindle the incense.
   For instance, when you pray, what prayer can there be without knowing
   God, our Father? How can you pray aright to an unknown god? The more
   knowledge of God, the more correct does prayer become! He that comes to
   God must believe that He is and that He is the Rewarder of them that
   diligently seek Him. What prayer can there be apart from the knowledge
   of the Lord Jesus Christ? If we know nothing of Him by whom we pray,
   how full of sins of ignorance will our prayers be! It is well, also, to
   have a deep, sensible knowledge of sin. Penitential prayers are
   impossible without this--and how can prayers be accepted if penitence
   is not mixed with our petitions?

   We need, at the same time, that we have the knowledge of sin to have a
   knowledge of our own weaknesses. The man who is consciously weak, prays
   for strength, but he who dreams that he is strong, will not do so. You
   need to study yourselves before you pray, so as to ask for those things
   in which you are most deficient and for protection against those
   constitutional tendencies or besetting sins to which you are most
   subject. The prayer of ignorance is like an arrow shot by a blind man,
   which is not likely to hit the mark. In proportion as petitions arise
   from a heart fully instructed in its own necessities will they be
   likely to ask for the right blessings--and to be prepared aright before
   the Lord. David wished his prayers to be accepted and, therefore, he
   cried, "Let my prayer be set forth before You as incense."

   A supremely excellent piece of knowledge is to know the promises which
   we are to plead. Here you have the very sinews of prayer. When a man
   knows the promise suitable to his case and lays it before God, saying,
   "Do as You have said," he presents the best form of supplication.
   Remember how Jacob pleaded with the Lord the sacred word of promise,
   saying, "You said, I will surely do you good"? When we have looked at
   all the bearings of the petition so as to make quite certain that it is
   a petition, the fulfillment of which will glorify God--when we see that
   it must be consistent with the Divine will because of the various
   statements which God has made in His Word and because of promises which
   He has given concerning the matter--then, with the lamp shining clearly
   upon us, we shall kindle the incense the more discreetly and boldly,
   and both our prayers and our meditations will be the more accepted of
   the Lord!

   Do try, especially, dear Brothers and Sisters, you that pray in public,
   to light the lamps when you kindle the incense! It will be for the good
   of us all if petitions are thoughtful, suitable, Scriptural and withal
   fresh and hearty. Let us never degenerate into repeating the same
   expressions till they grow to be cant. Let us never drop into the use
   of hackneyed prayers for everything in general and for nothing in
   particular! But as instructed men, having thought of what we are going
   to say; having adapted our prayer to our circumstances and needs, let
   us order our case before the Lord and fill our mouth with arguments!
   Burn the incense of prayer in the light of the Spirit of Revelation,
   praying in the Holy Spirit!

   But now turn the thought round the other way--knowledge should always
   be accompanied by prayer. Whenever we are taught of God, His teaching
   almost always comes in connection with prayer--but lest we should
   solely try to learn

   and forget to pray--let me remind you of a few particulars. Dear
   Brothers and Sisters, as a Christian you are a disciple, or student--be
   also a suppliant. When you are impressed with the greatness, or the
   goodness, or the immutability, or the faithfulness of God, straightway
   turn your impressions into supplications! Pray the great God to be
   gracious to you. Ask the unchangeable God to be the same to you--be the
   faithful God to keep His promises to you! Implore the mighty God to
   uphold you. As you learn more and more of God, place the light near the
   incense by using your knowledge in your pleadings. To employ all your
   knowledge as fuel for prayer will be the best way of utilizing your
   acquirements--it will stamp the Truth of God firmly on your memory and
   it will sanctify your heart.

   When you know more of the Savior, pray your way to Him by it, as ships
   move into port by their sails. If you have seen His Manhood, go and
   plead His sympathy with you in your weakness! If you have thought more
   of His Deity, go and worship Him more reverently and pray that His
   Glory may be seen among the sons of men. Whatever point in the
   unutterable Glory of His perfection breaks most upon your mind, pray
   most that way--opening your window towards the sunrise. So will the
   Lord teach you more and so shall you have profited by that which you
   have learned. If, from day to day, my Brothers and Sisters, you learn
   more of your sinfulness, then you have more errands with which to come
   to the Mercy Seat. And if you make a new discovery by experience of
   your corruption and indwelling sin, fly at once to the Throne of Grace
   with your discovery lest it weigh you down and drive you to
   despondency.

   Make a ladder of your needs with which to climb nearer to Heaven. The
   more your necessities, the more urgent let your importunity be! Cry
   mightily to God because of the greatness of your poverty. I do not
   think there is anything in the Scriptures which we cannot pray over. If
   we learn the devices of the devil, let us pray against them! If we
   learn the depravity of mankind, let us pray God's Holy Spirit to create
   men's hearts anew! Everything from the first of Genesis to the end of
   Revelation, when we truly know it, furnishes us with fresh arguments
   for drawing near to God. Revealed Truths of God are as a Church bell
   summoning us to come into the Presence of the Lord and bow the knee
   before Him.

   As you hear a sermon, turn it into prayer! Even if you find that there
   is nothing in the sermon, it may benefit you if you pray God to feed
   His poor famished people. If you will pray all through his discourse,
   every preacher will minister to your edification directly or
   indirectly. If you are set upon praying by the lighting of the tiniest
   candle that ever glimmered, there will at least be sweetness in the
   incense even if there is no brilliance in the lamp.

   III. I desire, in the third place, to show SOME SPECIAL PRACTICAL
   CONNECTION BETWEEN THE INCENSE

   AND THE LAMP. Let us read the text again--"And Aaron shall burn thereon
   sweet incense every morning: when he dresses the lamps, he shall burn
   incense upon it." So, then, there should be prayer, especially at the
   dressing of the lamps, that is to say, when preparing our minds for
   that ministry by which we enlighten the people among whom we dwell we
   should be specially earnest in prayer. Preparation for preaching and
   teaching is most important! God's work is not to be done carelessly as
   boys shoot arrows at random in their play. We must prepare both by
   reading and pleading--we must, like the Apostles, give ourselves to the
   Word of God and prayer.

   We are told by ancient Rabbis that when the priest who was appointed
   for that office went into the Holy Place, he took with him the golden
   snuffers, the golden snuff dishes and a vessel full of pure olive oil
   and, by the help of these, he attended to the trimming of the golden
   lamp. There were seven lamps on the candelabra--some of these might
   have gone quite out during the night--he would have to take away
   whatever of snuff remained, wipe out the lamp, place a new wick, fill
   it up with fresh oil, and then kindle the flame anew. In another lamp
   it may be the light was still burning but feebly--he might have simply
   to snuff it, take away the "the superfluity of naughtiness" in the
   golden snuff dish and make all things clean and right. Sometimes the
   light might be burning well and nothing was needed but to replenish it
   with oil. Thus all was set in order for another day. The same was done
   in the evening.

   In the process of trimming lamps there is a measure of offense--snuffs
   do not give forth a very dainty perfume--and the smear and smelt of oil
   are not altogether of sweet savor. Therefore, before he trimmed the
   lamps, the priest kindled the incense. No snuff would then be
   offensive, for the overpowering fragrance of the incense killed it all
   and prevented the prevalence of any odor unfit for the House of God.
   When we go into our studies to try and trim our lamps, let us remember
   that our first business is to pray. Alas, we have much of smoking wick
   about us! We have much negligence, much ignorance, many mistakes and
   errors and, thereby, we shall grieve the Lord if Jesus is not called in
   to cover all. When we are preparing, in secret, to serve the Lord in
   public, we shall make poor work of it if we do not, beforehand, draw
   near to God in prayer!

   We need that our garments should be made to smell of myrrh and aloes
   and cassia by being covered with the merit of Jesus, or else we shall
   offend, even while engaged in the holy act of preparing to spread
   abroad the light of Divine Truth! You have to trim your lamps, Brothers
   and Sisters, when you go into the Sunday school--at least, I hope you
   do. I hope you do not run into your class with anything which first
   comes to hand! If you do not snuff your candles and feed your lamps
   with fresh oil, your children will sit in darkness before a lamp which
   does not shine! No, there ought to be careful preparation, according as
   your time and ability will allow and, above all, the pouring in of the
   holy oil of the Holy Spirit by fresh fellowship with Jesus. In that
   process one of the chief elements is prayer.

   Dr. Adam Clarke used to say to young ministers, "Study yourselves dead
   and then pray yourselves alive, again," and that is an excellent rule.
   Work in your study as if it all depended upon you and then go forth and
   speak, trusting in God because all depends upon Him! Remember that the
   chief part of all study of God's Word must be prayer. This is the
   boring rod and the powder by which we burst open the great rocks of the
   Truths of God. "To have prayed well is to have studied well," said
   Martin Luther, and so, most certainly, it is. Therefore let none of us,
   when we dress the lamp, forget the incense.

   What a double privilege comes of this! This priest, you see, had thus
   two things to do for the Lord. If he was called only to light the lamp,
   that would have been one happy, blessed service--but if he must burn
   the incense, too, he has a double portion of honor in thus doubly
   serving the Lord, his God! So when you are preparing to light up the
   people, or preparing to enlighten your children in class, what a happy
   necessity it is which calls upon you, at the same time, to pray! It is
   one of the greatest privileges of preachers and teachers, that they are
   driven to pray more than other people, for they have greater
   necessities--they have necessities that come upon them because of their
   office and these drive them to more frequent supplication--and so their
   labors become a means of Grace to their own souls! Let us thank our
   Lord Jesus that He has made us kings and priests unto our God and that
   He permits us, both to let our lights shine before men and our prayers
   ascend before God.

   One thing more, this burning of the incense was not only at the
   dressing of the lamps, but also at the kindling of the lamps, when they
   began to shine. I want to plead, dear Friends, very heartily with you
   that when it is my privilege to come here this week and at all other
   times to light the lamps, you, who are my beloved helpers, will take
   care to burn the incense at the same time! We need the incense of
   prayer more than ever in these latter days. Did you ever notice in
   Ezekiel 41:22 that an altar of incense is spoken of, but its dimensions
   are twice as great as those of the golden altar in the Tabernacle? It
   was as if, say some, to teach us that in these Gospel times prayer
   would become more abundant and would be offered up more frequently than
   ever.

   The Gentiles have an altar which presents more incense to the Lord than
   that which was served by Aaron! And, inasmuch as it is more purely
   spiritual, it is all the more acceptable with God. The altar mentioned
   by Ezekiel was of wood, as if to show that our worship is to become
   more simple and to be more divested of everything that is pompous and
   showy--indeed, the altar disappears, and we read--"This is the table
   that is before the Lord." You will guess the meaning. Malachi has a
   glorious prophecy. "For from the rising of the sun even unto the going
   down of the same, My name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in
   every place incense shall be offered unto My name, and a pure offering:
   for My name shall be great among the heathen, says the Lord of Hosts."

   Are you not charmed by the Divine prophecy? Will you not, yourselves,
   help to fulfill it? We know that this Altar of Incense meant prayer
   because the Jews, themselves, so interpreted it. In the first chapter
   of Luke we read of Zacharias, that it was his turn, in the order of his
   course, to go into the Holy Place to offer incense, and it says, "And
   the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the time of
   incense." Just so, the offering of incense clearly means prayer and,
   therefore, I plead with you that while we are lighting the lamps by
   preaching the Gospel, you will burn the incense by being constantly in
   prayer! Brothers and Sisters, pray for us! Paul spoke thus. How much
   more may I plead that you dismiss me or intercede for me!

   Joshua could not prevail except as Moses held up his hands. Our
   lamp-lighting will not succeed unless you burn the incense. Peter's
   sermon at Pentecost did not derive its force from Peter's zeal, or from
   its own eloquence, but from another Source. Of course, all the power
   came from the Spirit of God, but why did the Spirit of God work so
   mightily on that day? Surely it was because the entire Church was
   earnestly praying while Peter was preaching. "They were all with

   one accord in one place"--nobody was away, they were all there and when
   the one man stood up to preach, he might well light 3,000 lamps, for
   all the fervent company of the faithful were causing the incense of
   prayer to ascend to Heaven!

   I need your prayers for tonight's sermon. You will not be here, for
   strangers are invited to occupy your seats and, therefore, I beg you,
   in your houses, to cry unto the Lord for me that the Word may have free
   course and that my hearers may feel its power! It might be the most
   profitable expenditure of time that ever happened to you if you would
   spend the whole evening in prayer. Beseech the Lord to bring the people
   to this house and to bring the right sort of people, rich and poor,
   Believers and infidels, moral people and the depraved! We do not know
   who will come. Some of them do not know whether they will come,
   themselves, or not! But the Lord may influence, in various ways, those
   individuals to come whom He designs to bless. Pray that the fish may
   come in shoals round the boat!

   When the congregation is gathered, pray that the speaker may be guided
   of the Holy Spirit to a right theme. The preacher has no manuscript, so
   that there is room for the Spirit's guidance, and he may be led to say
   what he never thought of saying--the right word may thus be spoken in
   the right way so as to reach the heart! Then pray that there may be
   given the willing ear, the receptive mind, the retentive memory--that
   impressions may be made, tonight, and at all other times, such as even
   Satan cannot remove. And, oh, pray that tonight many who have been
   halting between two opinions may decide for God! Pray that many who
   have not, before, found the Savior's face will be converted! Pray that
   many who have been, up to now, of a sorrowful spirit, will be led into
   the joy of the Lord!

   I shall feel it a joyous work to be the lamplighter, tonight, for my
   Master, if I know that I have you at home pleading earnestly on my
   behalf! Give me this aid this morning, too. Pray God to bless each word
   that has been spoken. Pray that some poor sinner's soul may be perfumed
   by the merits of Jesus and illuminated with the Divine Light! Pray for
   this and it shall be done, for the Lord hears His people! We need, more
   and more, to be a praying Church--and then we shall be a growing
   Church! Up to now we have had a great blessing, but the windows of
   Heaven are wide enough for a greater one to come down through them! The
   more we plead with God and the more we set forth the light of the
   Gospel, the more will God be with us and build up, in this place, a
   temple for His praise! May His love be with you. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

A Sermon to the Lord's Little Children

   (No. 1711)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MARCH 18, 1883,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you
   for His name's sake." 1 John 2:12.

   "I write to you, little children, because you know the Father." 1 John
   2:13. (Revised Version).

   PROBABLY you ask, "Why does John say, first, 'I write,' and then, in
   verse 14, 'I have written'?" There is a beautiful touch of nature in
   this speedy change of tense. John was an extremely old man and,
   therefore, while he says, "I write," he adds, "I have written," as if
   he felt that it might be the last time that he should take his pen in
   hand. Very soon with him, the present tense would change into the
   past--and he indicates the fact by changing his mode of speech. Perhaps
   he even felt that, possibly, before the letter reached the Brethren to
   whom he addressed it, he would be no more among the sons of men.
   Therefore he says, "I write," indicating that while he was still with
   them, with warm and loving heart he solemnly exhorted them. And then he
   adds, "I have written," as if he had recorded his dying testimony and
   left it as his last legacy of love.

   To us, today, John's words run altogether in the past tense--"I have
   written." But we need not, therefore, forget that they were the
   well-considered words of a venerated father in Christ and that he wrote
   them as one so near to his departure that he regarded himself as
   already on the move and, therefore, scarcely knew which tense to use.
   Ah, my Brothers and Sisters, how soon our, "I speak," will change into,
   "I have spoken!" Let this invest every word with solemnity. Remember,
   also, what order of man John was--that disciple whom Jesus loved, whose
   head had leaned on Jesus' bosom, whose eyes had seen the King in His
   beauty and whose strengthened gaze had looked within the gates of
   pearl! This is he who, at one time, saw the pierced heart of the
   Well-Beloved pouring forth blood and water! And at another beheld the
   Lion of the tribe of Judah prevail to take the book and loose the seven
   seals thereof! It is the Apostle of Love who says to us, "I write to
   you," "I have written to you."

   Let us carefully note what the Spirit says to us by His servant, John.
   Observe that our text is addressed to the "little children." It is
   thought by many wise interpreters that under this term John includes
   the whole Church of God and that afterwards He divides that Church into
   two companies--the fathers and the young men. Those who, under one
   aspect, are all "little children," but are, under another, regarded as
   young men or fathers. There is very much to support this view. In
   several instances in this Epistle, John is evidently addressing all the
   saints when he speaks of them as, "my little children," as, for
   instance, in the 18th verse of the third chapter, and also in the
   closing verse, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols."

   Surely, all the saints are included in these exhortations. There is a
   sense in which every Christian is still a little child, a sense in
   which he ought to be so--always dependent upon the great Father, always
   ready to receive the Word of the Father without question, always
   teachable--always restful in the Father's care and full of love to Him
   who is his All in All. Of necessity we must always be children before
   God, for our finite capacity is so limited that we are mere babes in
   knowledge in the Presence of Infinite Wisdom and as very sucklings in
   understanding, when contrasted with the great Father of Spirits. We
   know enough to make us know that we know very little! The most advanced
   intellects in the Church are but as infants compared with the Ancient
   of Days. We are of yesterday and know nothing--with all our experience,
   with all our study, with all our meditation, with all our illumination
   we remain, "little children," when measured by the boundless knowledge
   of the Lord.

   Yes, I mean the fathers, the men who bring sinners to Jesus, the men
   who teach others and are, themselves, taught of God--even these must,
   each one, cry out with Jeremiah, "Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak:
   for I am a child." I

   mean the young men who have overcome the Wicked One, whose holy valor
   sets them in the forefront of the battle where they turn to fight the
   armies of the aliens. "They are strong," says John, and yet, in the
   Presence of the mighty God of Jacob, what are our champions and our
   valiant men? Are they not, still, but as, "little children"? It may do
   us all good to join the infant-class this morning, or, at least to sit
   with the boys in the school of grace. Even those who have made the
   greatest advances in Divine Grace may do well to " become as little
   children," that they may more fully enter into the Kingdom of Heaven
   and have closer fellowship with "the Holy Child Jesus." It may even be
   an advance for some who have grown self-willed as they have advanced in
   knowledge, if they will say with David, "Surely I have behaved and
   quieted myself. As a child that is weaned of his mother, my soul is
   even as a weaned child." Happy childhood when it means entire
   submission to the Father and sweet delight in His will!

   Still, I am inclined to think that in this case John really does divide
   the entire Church into three classes--the babes in Grace, or the
   children. Or, as one of the words might properly be translated, the
   boys--those who have not long been born into the family--these are an
   interesting company. Then follow the young men--these are the second
   class--and a valued body of Christians they are, in the fullness of
   their vigor. They are strong in faith, giving glory to God, mighty in
   prayer, vehement in action, bold in testimony! May the Lord muster
   among our hosts a grand army of these vigorous heroes who shall
   earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints! The
   fighting power of the Church militant must come out of them! These are
   they that turn the battle to the gate. Blessed is the man that has his
   quiver full of them!

   Then there is the third class--the fathers, the mature, the
   experienced. These do not quite so much delight in war as the young men
   do, but at home they diligently care for the household of faith,
   watching over the feeble, strengthening and comforting them. These are
   able, by their experience, to answer gainsayers and to guide the
   ignorant to edify the untaught. Their knowledge is deep and they are,
   therefore, able to become teachers of others. They are men of spiritual
   force and have come to the full stature of men in Christ Jesus.
   Therefore they are the solid strength of the Church! If the young men
   are the Church's arm, these are the Church's backbone. We need to have
   many such, though, alas, it is to be feared that our Churches are much
   like the Apostolic ones of which Paul said, "You have not many
   fathers."

   This morning I am going to say nothing at all to the young men, nor to
   the fathers, except so far as they are willing to include themselves
   under the term of, "little children." And, as we have already said,
   there is just reason why they should do so. Little children, it is to
   you I speak this day--I mean you that have newly been converted, whose
   first cries of repentance are still in our ears! You, I mean, whose
   Grace is feeble; who are new to everything in the House of God and, as
   yet, need to be fed with the milk of the simple elementary Truth of
   God. You are the little children, dear to the whole family. You, I
   mean, who are but little in Israel as yet--little in knowledge, little
   in faith, little in strength, little in service, little in patience!
   You cannot, as yet, keep the watch of the House of the Lord, for you,
   yourselves, need to be watched over. You tremble when you try to stand
   and your unaccustomed feet can scarcely bear you along the road without
   a helping hand. You are very apt to tumble down and probably will do so
   many times before you learn to walk with the fathers, or run with the
   young men.

   You little children may, by some, be thought to be a burden, but the
   wise among us count you a blessing--the more of you the merrier in the
   Church of God--for you are the blessed of the Lord and we are glad to
   hear your youthful voices in the streets of the New Jerusalem! To you I
   shall speak this morning, as the Holy Spirit shall enable me. I would
   say these things to you. First, observe your privilege--"I write unto
   you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you." Then, note
   your knowledge--"I have written unto you, little children, because you
   know, or have known, the Father." And thirdly, consider the precepts
   addressed to you. When we get to that point I shall ask you to refer to
   your Bibles that we may run through the whole of this Epistle and see
   what John has to say to little children. May we receive the Word of God
   with meekness, that we may grow thereby.

   I. First, I want the babes in Grace, the weak in faith, the lambs of
   the flock, to notice THEIR PRIVILEGE. "I write unto you, little
   children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake." This
   is a privilege extremely desired by the little children. They have but
   lately felt the burden of guilt--they still smart under the lashes of
   conscience. The Spirit of God has but newly convinced them of sin, of
   righteousness and of judgment. And, therefore, above everything, their
   prayer is, "Father, forgive me." To them the remission of sins stands
   out as the first and most desirable of all bless-ings--and, truly, they
   are right in their estimate, for what possession is there which can be
   called a blessing at all until sin is forgiven?

   It matters not how healthy a man may be--if his conscience is worried
   with his sin--his inmost heart is sick. It is small comfort to him to
   have all the comforts of this life if his heart feels the gnawing of
   the undying worm of conscious guilt. "God be merciful to me, a sinner,"
   comes often from his breast as he beats upon it in the deep humiliation
   of his soul. There can be no joy and rest for him till he hears the
   words, "The Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die." To the
   freshly saved, it is a joy worth worlds to have their sins forgiven! It
   is a bliss akin to the Heaven of angels and this joy belongs by right
   to all the saints, yes, even to the little children in the family of
   God!

   You were only born again last Sunday, but your sins are forgiven you!
   Perhaps it is only this morning that you have sought your Savior's face
   and have come to believe in Him--and, by His Grace, your sins are
   forgiven you! This assurance is as sweet to you as a seraph's song! I
   could not have told you a better piece of news. The pardon of sin is as
   the pearl of great price to you in your present stage of spiritual
   life--you would have sold all that you had in order to procure it--and
   now that you have it, your heart is aglow with gratitude! The wound in
   your conscience, so lately raw and bleeding, makes you set a high price
   upon the healing balm of free and full forgiveness! Far be it from me
   to stay your holy joy, and yet the Lord will show you greater things
   than these!

   At your stage of experience, pardon is the most prominent blessing of
   the Covenant. A newly converted man does not know much about
   sanctification or union to Christ. Perhaps he does not know much about
   election, calling, or sealing. The principal point he dwells upon is
   pardon. It is written in the Creed--"I believe in the forgiveness of
   sins"--and the man who has newly found peace with God by Jesus Christ
   repeats that article of the Creed with solemn emphasis. "/ believe in
   the forgiveness of sins," he says, for he has just realized it, and to
   him it is a gift so great that, like the moon and the stars, it shines
   as a queen among the blessings of Grace! Pardon of sin seems to the
   "little children" to comprehend the whole work of Jesus and the whole
   work of the Holy Spirit, too!

   Vast favors lie beyond, but to him who has newly crossed the Jordan,
   this one valley of Eschol fills all the range of vision and the soul
   hardly dreams of any further benediction! The newly-pardoned does not
   yet see the innumerable other blessings which come in the train of
   forgiveness. He is, for the present, absorbed in the hearing of that
   one sentence, "Go in peace; your sins which are many are all forgiven
   you." Well, beloved child, many more blessings await you! Pardon is but
   an entrance blessing, a welcome at the doorstep--there are rarer joys
   within the house! You have become an heir to a boundless inheritance!
   All things are yours! Heaven, Christ and God are yours! Yet I marvel
   not, that at present all your heart is taken up with a sense of
   pardoned sin! I will not disturb you, but I will rejoice with you. I
   will even sit down and sing with you--let this be our hymn--

   "Now, oh joy my sins are pardoned! Now I can, and do believe! All I
   have, and am, and shall be, To my precious Lord I give."

   Even the full-grown child of God highly values this gift so dear to
   little children and, although he has received many other mercies,
   besides, yet still, it is a chief part of his joy that he has been
   cleansed from sin and clothed with righteousness. Ah, and our elder
   Brothers who are now in the King's country, this is a chief point, even
   with them, that they have washed their robes and made them white in the
   blood of the Lamb! And therefore are they before the Throne of God and
   serve Him day and night in His Temple. Yes, dear little children, you
   have obtained a most precious favor in which you do well to
   rejoice--"your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake." Here let me
   observe that the forgiveness of sins is assuredly the possession of the
   new beginner in the Divine Life. He is as certainly forgiven as he ever
   shall be. The forgiveness of sins is not a matter of degrees or of
   growth. It is done in an instant and done forever, never to be
   reversed!

   The child of God who was born but yesterday is not as completely
   sanctified as he will be. He is not as completely instructed as he will
   be. He is not as completely conformed to the image of Christ as he will
   be. But he is as completely pardoned as the full-grown saint! He that
   just now passed the Gate of Pearl--did you not hear the shout as he
   entered, like a shock of corn fully ripe that comes in his season?--he,
   I say, was not more truly pardoned than you who but an hour ago
   believed in Christ unto the salvation of your soul! The dying thief had
   not many minutes found mercy and yet the Lord Jesus said to him, "Today
   shall you be with Me in Paradise!" It is plain, therefore, that he had
   been perfectly cleansed in a moment!

   To wash in the fountain filled with blood is not a business of weeks
   and months and years, nor is it to be repeated many times and often!
   But he that is washed is, then and there, made whiter than snow, and
   there is, from then on, no

   defilement upon him. "There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them
   that are in Christ Jesus." "I write unto you, little children, because
   your sins are forgiven you"--they are all gone--Divine Grace has most
   effectually removed them from you as far as the east is from the west!
   The Egyptians at the Red Sea were not destroyed by little and by
   little--they were not swallowed up in the flood, a regiment at a time!
   The eager depths which had, by miracle, been divided, for a time,
   leaped together and Pharaoh and his hosts--all of them--were covered,
   to be seen no more forever! Sing unto the Lord, for He has triumphed
   gloriously! "The depths have covered them; there is not one of them
   left."

   The Israelites had but barely set their foot upon the other side of the
   Red Sea and yet all their enemies were as completely drowned as when
   the people entered into the Promised Land--it is even so with you who
   have believed in Christ but newly--your sins are cast into the depths
   of the sea! Your iniquities are subdued by the Lord Jesus who has come
   to save His people from their sins. Therefore, little children, praise
   your God and sing unto His name with all your might-- "Who forgives all
   our iniquities; who heals all our diseases."

   Note, also, that your sins are forgiven you on the same terms as those
   of the Apostles and the greatest of the saints-- "Your sins are
   forgiven you for His name's sake"--that is, for the sake of Jesus, for
   the sake of His glorious Person, for the sake of His honorable offices,
   for the sake of His shed blood and atoning death, for the sake of His
   glorious Resurrection, for the sake of His perpetual intercession
   before the Throne of God! Your sins are not forgiven you because of
   anything you are or hope to be, nor because of anything that you have
   done or have suffered--you are forgiven for Christ's name's sake--and
   all the saints of God can say the same. This is a sure ground of hope!
   Quicksand there is none, but a solid rock is under our feet.

   Had the pardon been granted for our own work's sake, it might have been
   reversed upon our disobedience. But as sin is pardoned for Christ's
   sake, the pardon is irreversible, since there is no change in Christ!
   Is not this a dainty sweet for the little children? How gladly do I
   come and sit at the children's table when I see such food placed
   thereon! Now notice that this is the reason why John wrote to you,
   little children. People do not generally write letters to little
   children, but John does because of these special little ones it can be
   said, their sins are forgiven them. The moment, then, that a man has
   his sins forgiven, he is old enough to begin to understand that which
   is written--and he should become a Bible reader and a Bible searcher!
   The moment that his sins are forgiven him for Christ's name's sake, he
   becomes capable of exhortation--and it is his business to attend to
   what is written to him.

   If pardoned as criminals, we are enlisted as workers! Why, I think if
   my sins have been forgiven me, my Heaven-born instincts make me ask,
   "Lord, what will you have me to do? Have You done so much for me? Then
   set me about doing something for You! Give me, as a privilege, the
   opportunity of serving You." Therefore, John, knowing that the little
   children would be eager to obey, has written to them, in this Epistle,
   certain commands, of which I will speak to you further on. Only, little
   children, be on the alert to begin, at once, your work of faith and
   labor of love.

   II. Secondly, I have to speak of THE KNOWLEDGE of these little
   children. "I have written unto you, little children, because you have
   known, or know, the Father." The tiniest babe in the family of God
   knows the Father. For, first, as we have seen, his sins are forgiven
   him. By whom is that pardon given? Why, by the Father, and, therefore,
   he that has had his sins forgiven him necessarily knows the Father.
   When the poor prodigal felt the kisses of his father's love and saw the
   best robe adorning his person, then he knew the Father. All the
   philosophers in the world do not know so much of the Father God as a
   forgiven sinner knows!

   I go a little further--if there are any that have never fallen into
   sin, but are like the 99 just persons who need no repentance, or like
   the elder brother who had never, at any time, transgressed his father's
   commandment, I say that these do not know and cannot know the Father as
   the forgiven child does--for the Father's heart comes out most fully
   and expressly when He says, "Bring forth the best robe, and put it on
   him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. For this, My
   son was dead, and is alive again! He was lost and is found." Then, as
   he looks up through his tears and sees the ineffable smile of the
   Father's affection, the forgiven child knows the Father! The very least
   child of Grace, having received the forgiveness of sins, knows the
   Father in this most important sense.

   Moreover, this is a piece of knowledge, dear Friends, which the child
   of God obtains very early in his spiritual life, for whatever a child
   does not know, he knows his father. Think of your dear little one at
   home. He cannot, as yet, read a letter in the book. He knows nothing of
   the things which his elder brother studies, but he knows his father! He
   may not know very much about his father--he certainly could not speak
   to others about his father's business or his father's

   wealth--but he knows him! The child cannot help his father, or
   understand what his father does, but he knows his father and would
   choose him out from among a thousand. See how his eyes twinkle, now
   that Father has come home! See him stretch out his little hands! See
   how eager he is to get into those dear arms! He knows his father and
   never forgets that knowledge.

   Dear child of God, this is a piece of knowledge which you have, also!
   And in this you will yield to none of all the sacred family. Benjamin
   knows his father with an absolute certainty--he is as sure of it as
   Reuben is the firstborn. We go to school and college, but long before
   that we know our father--the fear is lest we overlay that precious
   knowledge with something not worth half as much! Little children, you
   know God, now, in your spiritual childhood. You could not preach about
   Him; you could not write a treatise upon His attributes; you could not
   describe His mighty acts--but you know Him by the instinct of a
   child--and in you is the promise fulfilled, "Israel shall cry unto Me,
   My God, we know You." Little children, the result of your knowing God
   as your Father is that when He is away from you, you are in the habit
   of crying after Him. If you cannot feel your Father's love shed abroad
   in your heart by the Holy Spirit, you are miserable and you hasten to
   your closet and begin to pray, "Come to me, my Father! Manifest
   Yourself to me, for I cannot live without You."

   On the other hand, when you do get to your Father, you show that you
   love Him by the perfect restfulness of your spirit. In God you are at
   home. Once get into your Father's arms and you feel quite safe, quite
   peaceful, quite happy. The Presence of God is the paradise of the
   Believer! God is the ultimatum of our desires--we speak of Him as "our
   exceeding joy." If in my Father's love I share a filial part, I ask no
   more than to know and enjoy it! We say, "Our Father which are in
   Heaven"--we might as truly say, "Our Father, You are our Heaven." Hence
   we seek after Him. "O God, You are my God; early will I seek You."
   Here, then, we have a token that we know the Father, when we weep
   because He is absent, or rejoice because He is present. We know the
   Father, Brothers and Sisters, even we who are but little in Israel, for
   we love Him! Do you not feel that you love God, this morning? You might
   not dare say so in public, and yet you would die for Him. Sooner than
   renounce your God would you not give up all that you possess? It may be
   you will never be tried as the martyrs have been, but if you were, can
   you suppose it possible that you could part with your God? No, your
   inmost heart loves Him! You know it does and, loving Him, you are
   united to Him by bonds which cannot be severed!

   Moreover, we know the Father, for we trust Him. Is it not written,
   "They that know Your name will put their trust in You"? Can you not
   trust God with everything? A child has no cares. His father cares for
   him. A child knows no anxiety. His father bears all the anxiety on his
   behalf. Is it not so with you? Though you are babes in Grace, do you
   not trust?--trust for time, trust for eternity, trust for your bodies
   and trust for your souls? I am sure you do! If you are what you should
   be, you know the Father, for your faith rests upon Him. It is also true
   that you seek to imitate Him. It is wonderful how little children
   imitate their father, perhaps more than grown-up children do, though
   the influence of example is also seen upon them. The very little ones
   will try to do everything exactly like Father. It must be right, it
   must be perfect! If father does it, they make us smile as we see in
   them ourselves in miniature!

   Is not this the very thing which you try to do? Though you were
   converted but a very little while ago, yet you wish to be like Jesus!
   You long to be like the Father. Would you not be perfect if you could?
   If you could, would you not be rid of every sin? If some painful
   surgical operation could take away from you the black drops of
   indwelling sin, would you not cheerfully bare your breast to the
   sharpest knife? I know you would! You would die to be rid of sin, for
   that is the thing you hate. This proves that you know your Father in
   Heaven, for you are trying to be like He is. And do you not glory in
   Him? Little children, when they begin to talk and go to school--how
   proud they are of their father! Their father is the greatest man that
   ever lived--there never was the like of him! You may talk to them of
   great statesmen, or great warriors, or great princes, but these are all
   nobodies--their father fills the whole horizon of their being!

   Well, so it certainly is with us and our Father God--

   "Since no works are like Yours, None so glorious, so Divine. Since
   whatever gods there are, None, O Lord, are like You, Let me bow before
   Your Throne And exalt Your name alone."

   We cannot make enough of our God! We extol Him with all our might. With
   the blessed virgin we sing, "My soul does magnify the Lord." What does,
   "magnify," mean? Why, to make great! We feel as if we would make God's
   name great and would greaten Him in the minds of men and make them
   think what a blessed Father we have! Now, listen! This is the reason
   why John has written to you, little children, because he says, "They
   know enough to understand my letter, for they know the Father." We do
   not think of writing a letter to a little child. "Ah," says John, "but
   the Lord's children know their Father" and he that knows God is capable
   of any kind of knowledge! He who knows God is a fit person to be
   accepted as a disciple of the beloved Apostle. I cannot desire a better
   congregation than a congregation of men and women that know the Father.

   What if they are little children? Well, they can understand anything
   that I, another child, can have to say, for they know the Father and,
   therefore, they have an unction from the Holy One and are able to know
   spiritual things! To know God is the center and the circumference of
   all knowledge! If you know the Father, do you not see the reason why
   John writes to you? Because now that you know Him, you are bound to
   love Him, to trust Him and to serve Him! Having received such knowledge
   as this, you are bound to impart it as far as you can! You are bound to
   live up to it and to show to all around you what a child of God is--and
   how different he is from the children of darkness! Thus, out of your
   privilege and out of your knowledge, there arises an obligation which I
   trust you will not be slow to acknowledge.

   Here is a prayer for you--

   "If I've the honor, Lord, to be One of Your happy family. On me the
   gracious gift bestow To call You "Abba, Father," too. So may my conduct
   ever prove My filial piety and love! While all my brethren clearly
   trace Their Father's likeness in my face." III. Now we come to our
   third division. Will you kindly follow me with your Bibles, especially
   you that are "little children," while I commend to you THE PRECEPTS
   which John has written for your guidance. First, look at 1 John 2. "My
   little children, these things I write unto you, that you sin not." That
   is the first precept--"Little children, sin not." Children ate very apt
   to get into the mud. Most mothers will tell you, I think, that if there
   is a pool of mud anywhere within a mile, her first-born joy and comfort
   will find it out and get into it if he possibly can! And no matter how
   often a child is washed, he seems to always need washing again--if
   there is a method by which he can foul his hands and his face--your
   pretty cherub is most ingenious to find it out!

   I am afraid this is too much the case with the children of God. There
   is so much of carnality about us, so much of the old Adam, that the
   question is not into which sin we fall, but into which sin we do not
   fall! Alas, we are apt to be proud, though we have nothing to be proud
   of! We are prone to despond and doubt our Father, though He never gave
   us any cause to do so! We are inclined to be worldly, though there is
   nothing in the world worth loving! And we have a tendency to grow cold
   and chill towards God, though He is altogether lovely and ought to win
   our warmest affection. We are apt to speak unadvisedly with our lips.
   We are apt to be full of foolish thoughts. We are apt to be
   self-willed. We find an angry temper rising against some Brother of
   ours whom we ought to love--and we have not long got over that before
   we are half-afraid to utter a word of rebuke lest we should incur the
   laughter of the ungodly!

   We glide from one sin to another, even as a waterfall descends from
   rock to rock. As weeds multiply in the soul, so do sins spring up in
   our hearts. We are a mass of faults. Like the pendulum, we swing to the
   right hand and then to the left--we err, first, in one way and then in
   another--we are always inclined to evil! And, therefore, the Apostle
   sweetly puts it, "My little children, I write unto you, that you sin
   not." Avoid every sin--forsake it altogether! Ask for the Grace of God
   to sanctify you wholly--spirit, soul, and body. Though you are only
   newly born, yet, my little children, sin not. You will soon lose your
   comfort if you do. Little children, sin will hurt you, damage you,
   grieve you, and displease your heavenly Father! Sin will raise a cloud,
   behind which His Presence will be hidden from you! It will stop your
   heavenly growth. It will prevent your usefulness.

   My little children, I earnestly entreat you that you sin not! Burnt
   child, dread the fire you have just been plucked out of, do not go back
   to it. Do not play with sparks! Keep clear of every kind of match that
   might create a flame. Seek after

   holiness with all your might. Though born but yesterday, do not sin
   today. God help you to fulfill this holy precept. Further on in this
   second chapter, the Apostle writes to them again, and tells them (v.
   18) that it is the last times and that there are many antichrists
   abroad. You will have to run your eyes right down the chapter till you
   come to verse 24, for that is what he says to little children, because
   there are many antichrists in the world that would seduce them--"Let
   that, therefore, abide in you, which you have heard from the
   beginning."

   Little children are very fickle. The toys which they cry for one day,
   they break the next. Young minds change with the wind. So, little
   children, there are many evil ones who will endeavor to seduce you from
   the Truth of God and, as you have a natural instability of mind as yet,
   for you are only newly converted, it is well to be on your guard
   against those who would mislead you. Till we are rooted and grounded in
   the Truth of God, new things have great charms for us, especially if
   they have about them a great show of holiness and zeal for God. Listen,
   then, dear children but newly born into the Savior's family--"Let that,
   therefore, abide in you, which you have heard from the beginning."

   Alas, even those who are older in Grace than you are have shown a sad
   readiness to be duped by plausible persons who have invented fresh
   notions and methods! I have lived long enough to have seen a
   considerable variety of follies and manias in the religious world. They
   have sprung up, grown great, declined and vanished. One day it has been
   one thing, another, another. I have lived to see those things justly
   ridiculed which, a few years before, were cried up as the wonders of
   the age! I thank God I have not been moved by any of these periodical
   fits of frenzy, but have been content to keep to the one old Truth of
   God which I have gathered from the Scriptures and made my own by
   experience and by the teaching of the Holy Spirit! I have not had to
   tack about, for I have been enabled to steam ahead--and I hope I shall
   do so to the end.

   I have no respect for these upstart inventions. I regard them as so
   many phases of human delusion. One never knows what will come next, but
   of this we are pretty sure, that every now and then a new doctrine is
   brought forth which turns out to be an old heresy with a fresh coat of
   varnish on it! Or else some new method of saving souls is found out and
   the work blazes away like a house on fire till it dies out in smoke.
   Let us not be carried off our feet by every wind of doctrine! We may
   live to see the present craze ended and another or two after it--only
   be it ours to be steadfast, immovable! "Little children, let that,
   therefore, abide in you, which you have heard from the beginning."
   Leave to others the soon exhausted novelties and you keep to the
   eternal unchangeable Truth which is taught you in God's Word and in
   your own soul's experience.

   Little children, here is a third precept for you, and I want you to put
   it into your bosom and carry it home (v. 28). "And now, little
   children, abide in Him." There is a Sabbath portion for you--"Abide in
   Him." Let the Truth of God abide in you and you abide in Christ, who is
   the Truth of God. Little children are very apt to stray. I have known
   them tempted away from home and to play the truant. They have gone into
   the fields after pretty flowers, or down by the brook to fish for
   minnows, and then they have fallen into all sorts of trouble. The best
   place for a child is at home. And for a babe in Grace the best shelter
   is the Savior's bosom. "Little children, abide in Him." If you forget
   everything else I say this morning, lay this up in your hearts, and let
   none tempt you away from simply trusting your Savior, sweetly resting
   in His love and humbly following on to know more and more of Him! "And
   now, little children, abide in Him."

   What next? Read on to chapter 3:7-- "Little children, let no man
   deceive you." Children are very credulous. They will believe any idle
   tale if it is told by a clever and attractive person. Little children,
   believe your Savior, but be not ready to believe anybody else! Believe
   God's Word and stand fast to that. And if sinners entice you, do not
   consent to them. And if antichrist would teach you false doctrine,
   close your ears to it. Be as the sheep of whom Jesus said--"A stranger
   they will not follow, for they know not the voice of strangers."
   Further on, (3:18), we read--"My little children, let us not love in
   word, neither in tongue but in deed and in truth." Little children are
   apt to let their angry passions rise till they have to be told by Dr.
   Watts that their--

   "Little hands were never made To tear each other's eyes."

   And truly we have some Christian children who have been all too quick
   about this tearing of each other's eyes. They have seen a Truth of God
   and some friend they meet with does not see it. Therefore they have
   tried to knock his eyes out to make him see it! That is a faithful
   description of many Christian controversies. It is idle to attempt to
   compel another to think as I think by scolding him and heaping wrath
   upon him. Let us never do that. Let us love! If you cannot expect

   anything else of a child, you do expect love, and love never seems to
   be more suitably enshrined than in the heart and mind of a little
   child. Come, you that are newly brought to Christ, love with all your
   might! If you cannot fight as soldiers, or work as laborers, yet love
   the Brotherhood! Love Christ! Love God! Love the souls of men and by
   love seek to win them to the Savior who has saved you! Love not in word
   only, but in deed and in truth.

   You have the next words in chapter 4, verse 4--"You are of God, little
   children, and have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you,
   than He that is in the world." Little children are frequently timid.
   They are sometimes terrified when left alone. They are generally afraid
   of strangers. Hear, then, you little children, you are very weak and
   feeble, but do not be dismayed because of that, for there is a Power
   dwelling in you which is mightier than the power which dwells in the
   world! Satan dwells in the world and he is mighty, but God dwells in
   you and He is Almighty! Therefore be not afraid--

   "A feeble saint shall win the day, Though death and Hell obstruct the
   way." Hold on to your faith in the eternal Lord who dwells in you, and
   you shall never perish, neither shall any pluck you out of His hand!

   The last precept to little children is at the end of the Epistle.
   Carefully read the last verse--"Little children, keep yourselves from
   idols." Little children are naturally fond of toys and pretty pictures.
   Anything like pomp and show is sure to please children. How fond they
   are of soldiers, banners, processions, bands of music and all that is
   frivolous-- these are their idols. That is the also tendency of many
   grown-up children that I know of. They admire a fine religion,
   tasteful, striking, artistic. "Little children, keep yourselves from
   idols." I would like this text printed over the altars of our
   Ritualistic neighbors. I need scarcely mention others who have no taste
   or care for the beautiful, but their toys are all for noise-making,
   glitter and flash--a sort of Fifth of November all the days of the
   year! Do not become fascinated with their playthings. Be not led away
   from the Church of God by armies or navies.

   Alas, the children must now have their play toys in the Church and
   their toys in the Chapel--and some must have their toys in the streets,
   till one would think, with their trumpets and drums, that they had just
   come home from the fair! "Little children, keep yourselves from idols,"
   I do not think you are likely to fall in love with the idols of the
   heathen and bow down to them--but there are plenty of other gods which
   are the idols of one period and the derision of the next. Keep to
   Christ! Ask not for pomp and show! Ask not for noise and bluster! Ask
   for nothing but that your sins may be forgiven you; that you may know
   the Father; that you may abide in Christ and be full of love to all the
   family of God!

   Little children, may the Lord Jesus Christ be with you and may you grow
   in Grace till you come unto the fullness of the stature of men in Him.
   May His Grace be upon all them that love Him and wait for His
   appearing.
     __________________________________________________________________

Filling the Empty Vessels

   (No. 1712)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 17, 1882,

   BY C, H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory
   by Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19.

   VERY beautiful, to my mind, is the sight of "Paul the aged" confined in
   his prison at Rome, likely, by-and-by, to be put to death, but calm,
   quiet, peaceful and joyful. Just now he is so happy that a gleam of
   sunlight seems to light up his cell and his face shines like that of an
   angel! He is exceedingly delighted because he has been, in his deep
   poverty, kindly remembered by the little Church at Philippi, for they
   have sent him a contribution. See how cheerful the man is--I was about
   to say, how contented, but I drop the word because it falls far short
   of the mark! He is far more happy than Caesar overhead in the palace.
   He is charmed with the love which has sent him this relief. Probably
   the gift does not come to very much, if estimated in Roman coin, but he
   makes a great deal of it and sits down to write a letter of thanks
   abounding in rich expressions like these--"I have all things, and
   abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which
   were sent from you."

   His heart was evidently greatly touched, for he says, "I rejoiced in
   the Lord greatly, that now, at the last, your care of me has flourished
   again." See how little a gift may make a good man glad! Is it not worth
   while to be free with our cups of cold water to the Prophets of the
   Lord? Instead of a little money, the Brothers and Sisters at Philippi
   receive a boundless blessing and are enriched by the fervent prayers of
   the Apostle! Hear how earnestly Paul invokes benedictions on the heads
   of his benefactors! Is it not a blessed state of mind which enables a
   heart so soon to be full to overflowing? Some would grumble over a
   roasted ox, but here is Paul--rejoicing over a dinner of herbs!

   So great was the disinterestedness of Paul, that there was nothing of
   selfishness about his joy. He did not speak in respect of need, for he
   knew how to suffer need without complaint. But he looked upon the
   kindly contribution as a fruit of the Grace of God in the
   Philippians--a generous proof that they were lifted out of heathen
   selfishness into Christian love! There was little enough of kindness in
   the old Roman and Greek world into which Paul went preaching the
   Gospel. Those were times of great hardness of heart, even to cruel
   heartlessness. There was no sort of provision for the poor. If a man
   was poor, why, that was his own problem, and he might starve and die.

   You know how hardened the people had become through the fights in the
   amphitheater, so that the sight of blood produced a fierce delight in
   their brutal bosoms and human suffering was, to them, rather a thing to
   be rejoiced in than to be prevented. There might be, here and there, a
   tender hand that gave coin to the poor, but, for the most part, charity
   was dead. The voluptuaries of that most degenerate age planned no
   hospitals and built no orphanages--they were too intent upon their
   gladiators and their mistresses. Self was lord paramount in Caesar's
   court and all over Roman realms!

   But here are people at Philippi thinking about one who had preached the
   Gospel to them and who is now suffering. They are moved by a new
   principle--love to God in Christ Jesus has created love to the man
   whose words had changed them. They will not abandon him--they will, out
   of their own slender means, cheer his sad condition. There were
   Churches that had no such hearts of mercy, alas, that so early in the
   Gospel-day holy charity should be so rare! There were people whom Paul
   had blessed greatly, who even quarreled about him and denied that he
   was an Apostle of Christ! But not so the beloved Church at Philippi.
   They had, again and again, ministered to his necessities and Paul, now,
   rejoices in them, again, because he delights to see another instance of
   the transforming power of the Grace of God upon character, so that
   those who were once selfish now rejoiced, unprompted and unasked, to
   send their offering to him.

   Was Lydia at the bottom of that subscription? I should not wonder! We
   know that she was open-hearted. Did the jailer add his full share? I
   feel sure of it, for in the prison he courteously entertained the
   Apostle. These were a generous people and Paul is happy in thinking of
   them. I may here dare to say that I, also, have had the same joy over
   many of you when I have seen how freely you have given of your
   substance to the work of the Lord. It would be unfair if I withheld

   commendation for liberality from many now before me. You have rejoiced
   my heart by your gifts to the cause of God. You have given up to the
   measure of your means and some of you beyond what we could have asked
   of you. The Gospel has taught you this. To God be glory that it is so.
   Continue in the same spirit, that none may rob me of this joy.

   The Apostle makes to them an assurance in the following verses that
   they shall be abundantly repaid for all that they have done. He says to
   them, "You have helped me; but my God shall supply you. You have helped
   me in one of my needs--my need of clothing and of food. I have other
   needs in which you could not help me, but my God shall supply all your
   need. You have helped me, some of you, out of your deep poverty, taking
   from your scanty store. But my God shall supply all your need out of
   His riches in Glory. You have sent Epaphroditus unto me with your
   offering. Well and good! He is a most worthy Brother, and a true
   yoke-fellow. And for all that, God shall send a better messenger to
   you, for He shall supply all your needs by Christ Jesus."

   He seems to me to make a parallel of his needs with theirs, and of his
   supplies from them with their supplies from the Lord. He would seem to
   say--Just as God has, through you, filled me up, so shall He, by
   Christ, fill you up. That is a translation of the Greek which most
   nearly touches the meaning--"My God shall fill up all your need
   according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." Will you allow me to
   make a break, here, for one instant? I read you, just now, the story of
   the Prophet's widow whose children were about to be taken for a debt,
   and how the oil was multiplied in the vessels which she borrowed until
   there was enough to discharge the debt, and sufficient surplus for
   herself and children to live upon.

   Now, kindly take that picture and join it on to this--and we have here,
   first, the empty vessels. Set them out in a row, "all your need."
   Secondly, who will fill them up?--"My God shall fill up all your need."
   Thirdly, after what fashion will He do it?--"According to His riches in
   glory." Fourthly, by what means will He do it?--"By Christ Jesus." Keep
   the widow and the vessels before you and let us see the miracle worked
   over, again, on a grand scale in our own houses and hearts. May the
   Holy Spirit make the sight refreshing to our faith.

   I. So, then, we will begin our discourse this evening by asking you to
   SET OUT THE EMPTY VESSELS. "My God shall supply all your need." Bring
   forth your vessels, even empty vessels! "All your need." I do not
   suppose that you are under any great obligation to go out, tonight, and
   borrow other people's needs, for you have enough of your own at
   home--needs many and varied. Very well, set them out. Hide none of them
   away, but put them down, one after another, in a long row, all of them.
   There are needs for your body, needs for your soul. There are needs for
   yourselves, needs for your families--needs for the present, needs for
   the future--needs for time, needs for eternity. There are needs for
   earth, needs for Heaven. Your needs are as many as your moments--as
   many as the hairs of your head.

   I suppose it would be useless for me to attempt a catalog of
   them--however carefully we made the list, we should have to add a host
   of sundries altogether unmentionable until circumstances suggested
   them. I could hardly tell you all my own needs, but I know that they
   are enormous and increasing with my years. I have needs as a man, as a
   husband, as a father, as a citizen, as a Christian, as a pastor, as an
   author--in fact, every position I take up adds to my needs. If I went
   through my own personal bill of requests, I could fill a document like
   the roll mentioned in the Old Testament, written within and
   without--and hardly then could I enumerate all my own demands upon the
   Bank of Heaven. But if I attempted to take all the thousands that are
   gathered beneath this roof and to let each man state his particular
   needs, where would the computation end? The sands upon the seashore are
   not more innumerable!

   Dear! Dear! We would need a library larger than the Bodleian to hold
   all the books which could be written of all the needs of the needy
   congregation now before me! Well, I am not sorry for it, for here is so
   much the more room for the Lord to work His miracles of bountiful
   Grace! Sometimes, when I have been in need for the work of the
   Orphanage and the College and such things--and these times have
   occurred--I do solemnly assure you that I have felt a wonderful joy in
   my spirit. I have watched the ebb of the funds till nearly everything
   has been gone and then I have joyfully said to myself, "Now for it! The
   vessels are empty! Now I shall see the miracle of filling them." What
   wonders the Lord has worked for me, I cannot, now, tell you in detail,
   but many of you who have been my faithful helpers know how hundreds and
   even thousands of pounds have poured in from our great Lord in the
   moment of necessity. It will always be the same, for the Lord God is
   the same.

   Until the funds run low we cannot expect to see them replenished--when
   they get low, then will God come and deal graciously with us! Money is,
   however, our smallest need--we need Grace, wisdom, light and
   comfort--and these we

   shall have. All our needs are occasions for blessing. The more needs
   you have the more blessing you will get. God has promised to fill up
   all your needs. That is, all your empty vessels will be filled and,
   therefore, the more the merrier! What? The more in need the better?
   Yes, I would have your faith believe that strange statement--your
   poverty shall thus be your riches, your weakness your strength, your
   abasement your exaltation! Your extremity shall be an opportunity that
   God will use to show the riches of His Grace! To your utter exhaustion
   He will draw near with all the fullness of His inexhaustible Grace and
   He will replenish you till your cup runs over!

   He will fill up all your empty vessels. Be not slow to fetch them out
   from holes and corners and place them before the Lord, however many
   they may be. Weep not over the empty jars, but place them out in rows
   in full expectation of their being filled to the brim! These empty
   vessels of yours are, some of them, I have no doubt, very large, and
   they even grow larger. Most of our needs grow upon us. You still pray,
   "Give us this day our daily bread," but the one loaf which was a large
   answer to the prayer when you were single, would not go far at your
   table, now--the loaves vanish like snow in the sun! You needed faith 50
   years ago, but you need more, now, do you not? You have more
   infirmities and, perhaps, more trials than in your younger days. I know
   that, apart from my loving Lord, I am much more needy, now, than I ever
   was before. Whatever a man requires in the things of God, usually the
   older he grows and the more experience he has, the more he needs, and
   the more of it he needs.

   He needs more love than he had when he was younger, more patience, more
   resignation, more humility, more charity, more wisdom, more holiness.
   He desires more faith and a brighter hope. He needs, especially in
   prospect of death, more courage and more bold, simple, child-like
   confidence in his Savior, Why, some of us have needs that could not be
   supplied if we could turn the stars to gold and coin them and pay them
   away--these could not touch the hunger of the heart and soul! The
   world, itself, would be but a mouthful for our spirits' necessity--a
   drop in a bucket. I know some saints that have grown to be so deeply in
   debt to their Lord, to His Church and to the world, that they are
   hopelessly involved in boundless obligation.

   How can we meet the demands upon us? Our responsibilities are
   overwhelming! All that some of us have made by our lifelong trading is
   a bigger stock of needs than we ever had before. The vacuum within our
   spirit expands and enlarges, and we cry out, "More knowledge of the
   Scriptures! More of Christ! More of Grace! More of God! More of the
   Holy Spirit! More power to serve God!" Our oil vessels would, each one,
   hold a sea--and even these are expanding! We need more and more, and
   the mercy is that the text before us keeps pace with the growth--"My
   God shall supply all your need." This includes the big needs as well as
   the little ones! It comprehends all that can be as well as all that is!
   It guarantees us that our growing needs shall all be supplied. Let the
   vessels expand to their utmost, "Yet my God," says Paul, "shall fill up
   all those needs of yours."

   Certain of our needs, again, are of this extraordinary kind, that if
   they were filled up, tonight, they would be empty tomorrow morning!
   Some of our necessities are fresh every morning. The crop is a daily
   one, it springs up every moment. The Grace I had five minutes ago will
   not serve me now. Yesterday I may have possessed great love, great
   faith, great courage, great humility, great joy--but I also need these
   today--and none can give them to me but my Lord. You had great patience
   under your last trial. Yes, but old patience is stale stuff. You must
   grow more of that sweet herb in your garden, for the trial that is now
   coming can only be sweetened by the herb content, newly gathered from
   the garden of your heart and mixed with the bitter water of your
   afflictions.

   Our condition apart from our God may be compared to those fabled
   vessels that we read of in mythology that were so full of holes that,
   though the 50 daughters of Danaus labored hard to fill them up, they
   could never accomplish the task. You and I are such leaky vessels that
   none but God can ever fill us! And when we are filled, none but God can
   keep us full. Yet so the promise stands, "My God shall supply all your
   need"--all the vessels shall be filled and shall be kept full! We have
   certain needs, dear Friends, that are very pressing and, perhaps, most
   clamorous at this moment. Some needs are urgent--they must be supplied,
   and supplied speedily--or we shall perish with hunger, or die of
   sickness, or wither up in despair. Here let me add a caution--I dare
   not tell you that God will supply all the needs of everybody, for this
   promise is to the children of God--and in its most emphatic sense it is
   only to a certain class, even, among them.

   Those persons who profess to be Christians and, when they were
   well-to-do, never helped anybody else--I think the Lord will let them
   pinch a bit, and know what a condition of poverty is like that they may
   become more sympathetic with the poor. I have known good stewards and
   the Lord has sent them more, for they have dealt well with what they
   had.

   They have given away their substance by shovelfuls and the Lord has
   sent it back by cartloads and entrusted them with more! Others who have
   been bad stewards and have not served their Master well, have lost what
   they had, and have come to poverty. Let us hope that their substance
   has gone to somebody that will use it better! But, meanwhile, they have
   to pinch, and deservedly so.

   But, remember, the Apostle is speaking to people of a very different
   character from that. He is speaking to the Phi-lippians and I think
   that there is a point in that pronoun, "My God shall supply all your
   need." You have been generous in helping the Lord's servant and the
   Lord will repay you. Up to the measure of your ability you have served
   His Church and helped to carry on His work in the world and, therefore,
   God will supply all your need. This is not spoken to hoarding Judas,
   but to the generous who had voluntarily yielded of their substance when
   a fit opportunity was given them. Will any of you bring your need to
   God and test Him by the same conduct? Remember that old promise of His,
   "Bring you all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat
   in My house, and prove Me now herewith, says the Lord of Hosts, if I
   will not open you the windows of Heaven, and pour you out a blessing,
   that there shall not be room enough to receive it."

   There is that that scatters and yet increases. Give, and it shall be
   given unto you. Oh yes, our gracious God will fill all the vessels at
   once, if time presses! If your needs urgently require to be filled,
   bring them to Him. I began by saying that few of us had any great call
   to borrow other people's empty pots. Yet there are some of us whose
   main anxiety is about the vessels that we have borrowed. We need more
   oil than others for this very reason, that we care for others. Certain
   of us have been called to a life which intertwists itself with many
   lives. We have been led by Grace and Providence to take upon ourselves
   the needs of thousands. Every genuine warm-hearted Christian does this,
   more or less. We try to make other men's needs our own needs by working
   for the poor, the ignorant, the sick, the helpless. You that care for
   our orphan children may well join with me in prayer that the Lord will
   fill up all those empty vessels which we have borrowed of poor widows.

   Think of my hundreds of borrowed vessels in the Orphanage and of the
   number in the College. Blessed be the Lord my God, He will fill up all
   these! Those whom we try to help in different ways, especially those we
   try to lead to the Savior, are like the woman's borrowed vessels--and
   they are not a few! You have made their spiritual needs your own. You
   have come before God to pray for them as for your own soul and you
   shall be heard. You have talked to your neighbors and laid yourself out
   for their good, as if your own eternal destiny were in their
   stead--rest fully assured that the Lord that filled the borrowed pots
   in Elisha's day will also supply your borrowed needs! "My God will fill
   up all your needs." It is a blessed word! Bring out your vessels and
   see if it is not true!

   I should like to see every Christian here setting out all his vessels
   in rows at once, whatever they may be. Do not put your cares away in
   the back room and say, "I shall draw them out tomorrow and begin
   worrying over them." Instead of that, while the oil is flowing, bring
   them here, before the Lord, that the oil may have free course and find
   suitable storage. Would you limit the miracle? Have you one forgotten
   need? Make haste with it! Still, the oil is multiplying! Come one! Come
   all! Arrange your vessels and the Lord will fill up your needs, by His
   Grace, and fill your mouths with a song!

   II. Secondly, let us enquire, WHO IS TO FILL THESE VESSELS? Paul says,
   "My God will supply all your need." "My God!" Oh, that is grand! It
   were foolish talking if any other name were mentioned! God can supply
   all the needs of His people, for He is All-Sufficient--but nobody else
   can. He can do it without any help, for nothing is too hard for the
   Lord. He is able to number the myriads of His creatures and attend to
   the commissariat of them all, so that not one of them shall lack--"He
   calls them all by their names, by the greatness of His power not one
   fails." "They that wait upon the Lord shall not want any good thing."
   As for you, dear Brothers and Sisters, "trust in the Lord and do good,
   so shall you dwell in the land, and verily you shall be fed." He that
   promises to fill up all your empty vessels is one who can do it--there
   is no limit to the goodness and power of God!

   Then, notice that sweet word which Paul has put before the glorious
   word, "God." He writes--"My God." As Paul looked at the money which the
   Philippians had sent him and, perhaps, at the warm garments that would
   cover him in the cold, damp jail, he cried, "See how my God has
   supplied me!" And then he says, "My God shall supply you." This same
   God, Paul's God--"shall fill up all your need." Wonderfully had God
   protected Paul from the malice of those who sought for his life. Very
   wonderfully had he been carried by Divine power through unparalleled
   labors, so that he had

   been made to triumph in every place in the preaching of the Gospel! And
   thus Paul had learned from day to day to get a firmer grip of his God,
   and say, "My God!" with more and more emphasis.

   Jehovah was not to Paul the unknown god, but, "My God." With God he
   dwelt and in Him he reposed all his cares. This same God is our God!
   Think of that, poor friend, in your hour of need. Think of that, you
   afflicted widow woman--you have Paul's God to go to! Think of that,
   dear child of God in trouble--you have the same God as Paul had and He
   is as much yours as He was Paul's! His arm has not waxed short, neither
   has His heart grown hard towards any of His children! "My God," says
   Paul, "who is also your God, will supply all your need." Who is this
   God that will supply all our needs? Paul's God, remember, was and is
   the God of Providence! And what a wonderful God He is.

   We speak as if we were some very important part of the universe, but
   really, what are we? Our little island can scarcely be found upon the
   globe till you hunt long for it! What a tiny speck this congregation
   must be! But God supplies the needs of all the millions of mankind.
   "Mankind," I said--but I ought to have included all the other
   creatures, too-- the myriads of herring in the sea, the multitudes of
   birds that sometimes darken the sun in their migrations, the countless
   armies of worms and insects, strangely supplied, we know not how! And
   yet, "Your heavenly Father feeds them."

   Is that all the sphere of His Providence? No, far from it! I suppose
   that this round world of ours is but one apple in the orchard of
   creation, one grain of dust in the corner of God's great palace. But
   all yon orbs, with all the living things that may be peopling every
   star, He supplies. And how? "He opens His hand and supplies the need of
   every living thing." See how easy to Him is this universal
   provision--He does but open His hand and it is done! This is the God
   that will supply all your need! He calls the stars by name! He leads
   out Arcturus with his sons. He loosens the bands of Orion. He does
   great things without number--and shall He not feed and clothe you, O
   you of little faith? Yes, be you sure of this, the God of Providence
   shall supply all your needs for this life and its surroundings.

   If that suffice you not, let me remind you that this God is the God of
   Grace, for Paul, above all men, counted Divine Grace to be his
   treasure--his God was the God of Grace. Chiefly He is the God who gave
   His Son to bleed and die for men. Oh, stand at Calvary and see God's
   great Sacrifice--the gift of His only-begotten Son! And when you have
   marked the wounds of the Well-Beloved and seen Jesus die, answer me
   this--"He that spared not His own Son, but freely delivered Him up for
   us all, how shall He not, with Him, also freely give us all things?"
   What will He deny us who has given up the best jewel that He had, the
   glorious One that Heaven could not match? There was never the likes of
   Jesus, and yet He bowed His head to die on our behalf!

   Oh, my dear, dear Friends, if you are anxious, tonight, and vexed with
   many cares, do think of that! It is the God and Father of our Lord and
   Savior Jesus Christ who says that He will fill up all your need! Do you
   doubt Him? Can you? Dare you distrust Him? Now, take a flight above
   this present cloud-land and behold the God of Heaven! Think of what God
   is up yonder--

   "Beyond, beyond this lower sky

   Up where eternal ages roll,

   Where solid pleasures never die,

   And fruits immortal feast the soul." Behold the splendor of God! Gold
   in Heaven is of no account--the streets of that city are all of pure
   gold like unto transparent glass! The riches and the merchandise of
   nations are but as rags and rottenness compared with the most common
   utensils of God's great House above! There they possess inexhaustible
   treasures and everything that is precious, for the walls of the New
   Jerusalem are described as made of 12 manner of precious stones, as if
   these stones were so common in Immanuel's land that they built the
   walls with them! The gates are each one a pearl. What pearls are those!
   Is God rich? Inconceivably, incalculably rich, so that He clothes the
   very grass of the field more gloriously than Solomon clothed himself!

   What am I doing to be of a doubtful mind? Is He my Father and will He
   let me suffer need? What? I, starving, and my Father owning Heaven? No,
   no!--

   "He that has made my Heaven secure, Will here, all good provide While
   Christ is rich, can I be poor? What can I need beside?"

   My precious text is one which, years ago, when we built the Orphanage,
   I caused to be cut on one of the pillars of the entrance. You will
   notice it inside the first columns on either side whenever you go
   there. "My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in
   glory by Christ Jesus." This I took for the foundation of the
   Institution and set my seal to it as true. And it has been so! Time
   would fail me if I were to tell how often God has interposed, there,
   for His numerous family--those children that are cast upon the Divine
   Fatherhood. He has honored His own promise and our faith--and I believe
   He always will. There on the forefront of the Orphanage stands also the
   words--"The Lord will provide." You shall see whether it is not so. As
   long as that place stands, my God shall supply our need and it shall be
   a standing encouragement to us all.

   Think of the far more extensive orphanage of our Brother Mueller, of
   Bristol, with those 2,500 children living simply through prayer and
   faith, and yet as abundantly supplied as the Queen in her palace!
   Nothing is needed where God is the Provider. The Lord will supply
   without fail! Let us trust without fear. Go and plead this promise with
   the Lord your God and He will fulfill it to you as well as to the rest
   of His saints.

   III. Now, thirdly, let us enquire IN WHAT STYLE WILL GOD SUPPLY HIS
   PEOPLE'S NEEDS? He will do it in such style as becomes His
   wealth--"according to His riches." There are several ways of doing most
   things. There is more than one way of giving a penny to a beggar. You
   can throw it at him, if you like, or pitch it in the mud as if you
   threw a bone to a dog. Or you may hand it to him in a sort of huff as
   if you said, "Take it, and be off with you." Or you may drag the coin
   out of your pocket as unwillingly as if you were losing your eye-tooth.
   There is yet another way--namely that which makes the copper turn to
   gold--by a way of doing it courteously and with kindness which
   expresses sympathy with the poor creature's need. Always give good
   things in the best way, for your heavenly Father does so.

   Now, how does God supply His children? Stingily, miserably, grudging
   them every penny's worth? Certainly not! I hope that it was never your
   misery to dine with a grudging man who watched every mouthful that went
   down your throat as if there was so much the less for him! Why, when
   one does eat, at whatever table it may be, if it is the most common
   fare, one likes a welcome. It is the welcome which makes the Covenant
   invitation so sweet, when you hear the exhortation, "Eat, O Friends;
   drink, yes, drink abundantly, O beloved." One enjoys the welcome of a
   heart which pleases all it can--like the Scot woman at a great
   communion meeting when there was nobody to take the people in--"Come
   in," she said. "Come in! I have room for 10 of you in my house, and I
   have room for 10,000 of you in my heart. Come along with you. Nobody so
   welcome as you that have been sitting at my Master's table with me."

   How, then, does God dispense His favors? How does He fill up the
   vessels? The way He does it is not according to our poverty, nor
   according to our merit, "but according to His riches." He gives like a
   king! Brothers and Sisters, I must correct myself--He gives as God and
   as only God can give--according to His own God-like riches. No, that is
   not all. He will do it in a style consistent with His present Glory. It
   is "according to His riches in glory," which means that, as rich as God
   is in glory, so rich is He in giving. He never demeans Himself in the
   mercies that He gives. He gives according to His rank and that is the
   highest conceivable. He gives so as to bring Him new Glory. I never
   heard of one of His children receiving a great blessing from Him and
   then saying that it did not glorify God to bestow it. No, no! The more
   He gives, the more glorious He is in the eyes of men!

   And He delights to give, that His Glory may be seen, and that the
   riches of His manifested Glory may be increased. Withholding would not
   enrich the Lord of Heaven! Rather would it impoverish Him in Glory. But
   giving enriches Him with more revealed Glory and He, therefore,
   delights to scatter His bounty. The fact is, Brethren, God gives
   gloriously! The calculations of God--did you ever think of them? Well,
   let me say that He always calculates so as to leave something to spare,
   by which to illustrate the infinity of His goodness. I know that it is
   so. He does not give us just as much light as our eyes can take in, but
   He floods the world with splendor till we shade our eyes amidst the
   blaze of noon. After this fashion did His only-begotten Son feed the
   thousands when He multiplied bread and fish for them to eat. We read
   that "they did all eat"--no doubt they were hungry enough to do a great
   deal of that sort of labor! So far so good. But it is added, "and were
   filled."

   It takes a good deal to fill men who have come a long way into the
   country and have had nothing to eat for a whole day. But they were
   filled, fainting and famished though they had been. Yes, but do not
   stop there--"And they took up of the fragments 12 baskets full." The
   Lord always has baskets full of leftovers remaining for the waiters. He
   will be sure to fill all your needs till you have no other need
   remaining and have provision on hand for needs not yet arrived. Will
   the

   day ever come when we shall say, "Bring yet another need for God to
   fill," and the answer will be, "I have no more needs"? Then the oil of
   Grace will stop, but not till then! No, according to what I have said,
   it will not stop then, but it will go on flowing and flowing, and
   flowing and flowing, world without end, "according to His riches in
   glory by Christ Jesus." The Lord will give enough, enough for all time,
   enough of all, enough for all, and more than enough!

   There shall be no real need of any Believer but what the Lord will fill
   it full and exceed it. It is a wonderful expression "filled with all
   the fullness of God." It pictures our being in God and God in us. One
   has illustrated it by taking a bottle, holding it in the sea and
   getting it right full--there is the sea in the bottle! Now, throw it
   right into the waves and let it sink--and you have the sea in the
   bottle and the bottle in the sea! So God enters into us and, as we
   cannot hold more, He makes us come into Himself! Into the very fullness
   of Christ are we plunged! What more can the amplest imagination
   conceive, or the hungriest heart desire? Thus God will supply our
   needs. Well may you fill others, who are yourselves so filled by God!
   Well may you serve His cause with boundless generosity when the
   infinite liberality of God is thus ensured to you!

   IV. Lastly, let us notice BY WHAT MEANS THE LORD FILLS OUR NEEDS. It is
   "by Christ Jesus." Does God supply all His people's needs by Christ
   Jesus? Yes, first, by giving them Christ Jesus, for there is everything
   in Christ Jesus. Christ is all! The man who has Christ has all things,
   as says the Apostle, "All things are yours, for you are Christ's, and
   Christ is God's." You will never have a spiritual need which is not
   supplied in Christ. If you need courage, He can create it. If you need
   patience, He can teach it. If you need love, He can inspire it! You
   need washing, and there is the Fountain. You require a garment, and
   there is the robe of Righteousness. You would have great needs if you
   went to Heaven without Christ, but you shall not go there without Him!
   And even there He shall supply you with everything! He it is that
   prepares your mansion, provides your wedding dress, leads you to His
   Throne and bids you sit there with Him forever. God will supply your
   eternal needs by giving you Christ.

   Moreover, all things shall come to you by virtue of Christ's merit. You
   deserve no good thing, but He deserves it and He says, "Set it to My
   poor servant's account." You may use Christ's name at the Bank of
   Heaven freely, for though God might not give His favor to you, He will
   always give it to His dear, dying, risen, pleading Son! When Jesus'
   name is quoted, all things are yielded by the Father. God will give you
   all things by Christ--therefore do not go to anybody else after those
   things. If you have begun in the Spirit, do not attempt to be perfected
   by the flesh. If your only hope is in what Christ has done, stick to
   that and add nothing to it! Be this your motto--

   "None but Jesus! None but Jesus!"

   Jesus is our All-in-All! We are complete in Him! We need no addenda to
   the volume of His love. Christ, and Christ, alone, shall supply all
   your need--all your fresh springs are in Him. "It pleased the Father
   that in Him should all fullness dwell; and of His fullness we have all
   received, and Grace for Grace."

   Now, once more, I would to God that some poor soul here that has no
   faith--that has no good thing about him-- would, nevertheless, look
   over his house and see whether he has not an empty vessel somewhere.
   All that Christ wants of you, poor Sinner, is that you should be empty
   and come and let Him fill you with His Grace! Come along with you, just
   as you are! Bring no good works, no prayers, no anything--but come with
   all your sins, follies and failures which you may look upon as so many
   empty pots! Come to Jesus for everything. "But I have scarcely a sense
   of need," you say. Come to Him for that, too! You must be very needy to
   be in need of that. Come and get it from Him. I tell you, Soul, you do
   not need a half-farthing's worth of your own--for what you think you
   have will only keep you from Jesus!

   Come in all your poverty--a beggar, a king of beggars! Come and be made
   rich by Jesus! You that have not a rag to cover your sin with--you that
   are only fit to be put into the devil's dust bin and thrown away as
   worthless--come along with you! My Lord Jesus is ready to receive those
   that Satan, himself, flings away! If you are such that you cannot find
   anything in yourself that is desirable and even your old companions,
   who once cheered you on, now think you too mean for them--yet come into
   my Master's company--for, "this Man receives sinners." Come with your
   beggary and bank-ruptcy--you cannot dig, but to beg be not ashamed,
   for, "My God will supply all your need according to His riches in glory
   by Christ Jesus."

   As for you that have not trusted my Lord and boast that you can do very
   well without Him, I suppose I must leave you to fight your own way. You
   declare that you will carry on your own business and will not be
   dependent upon God,

   nor fall into any fanatical ideas, as you are pleased to call them. But
   we shall see. Already we see that the youths faint and are wearied and
   the young men utterly fall. We see that the young lions lack and suffer
   hunger and, also, that the best-laid plans of wisest men go oft awry.
   And they that have felt assured that they could fight their own
   way--even they have come to terrible failure. We shall see how you
   fare. They that mount up with wings as eagles and are proud and
   vainglorious--even these go down to destruction so that no flesh has
   reason to glory.

   As for me, let me wait upon the Lord God and live by faith in Him. Is
   it not better to drink of life out of the deep, inexhaustible fullness
   of God than to go forever pumping and pumping at your own shallow
   cisterns which hold water? Self-reliance may be well enough, but
   God-reliance eclipses it as the sun outshines the stars! "Oh, rest in
   the Lord, and wait patiently for Him." "Trust in the Lord, and do good;
   so shall you dwell in the land, and verily you shall be fed." "He shall
   cover you with His feathers, and under His wings shall you trust: His
   truth shall be your shield and buckler." There is a God and those who
   love Him and trust Him and serve Him know that He is a good Master. Job
   was slandered by the devil when he came and said, "Does Job serve God
   for nothing?" He insinuated that Job made a good thing out of his
   religion and was moved by selfish motives.

   It was a great lie and yet, in a certain sense, it is true. If anybody
   says the same of you, admit that it is true. Acknowledge that you do
   make a fine thing out of your religion. God will not let you serve Him
   for nothing--you shall never have to ask the question--"What profit is
   there if we serve God?" You shall have His peace, His love, His joy,
   His supplies according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus! You
   shall know that in keeping His Commandments there is great reward!
   Believer, you shall have everything through Christ and nothing without
   Him! He that trusts not the Savior and prays not to Him, shall be like
   Gideon's fleece--when all around it was wet the fleece was dry! But the
   man who trusts God and blesses His name shall be like Gideon's
   fleece--when all around was dry it was full of moisture!

   God will not hear a man's prayers except through Christ Jesus! But if
   that name is mentioned, the gates of Heaven fly open! God withholds no
   real good from the man of God who is in Christ. But our plea must be
   Jesus, first, and Jesus last, and Jesus in between! We must present the
   bleeding Lamb before God each morning and each night. I pray you seek
   no mercy of God apart from Christ, but lay hold upon God in Christ--and
   you shall have enough for all your need! May God the Holy Spirit cause
   you to abide in Christ Jesus for His name's sake. Amen.

   PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON--2 Kings 4:1-7 and Philippians
   4. HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"--84 (SONG II), 23 (FIRST VERSION),
   708.
     __________________________________________________________________

Other Sheep and One Flock

   (No. 1713)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MARCH 25, 1883,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "And other sheep I ha ve which are not of this fold; them also I must
   bring, and they shall hear My voice and they shall be one fold and one
   shepherd (or more correctly one flock; one shepherd)." John 10:16.

   THIS verse is guarded before and behind by two notable statements.
   Before it we hear the Master say, "I lay down My life for the sheep,"
   and immediately after it we meet with another grand sentence, "I lay
   down My life, that I might take it again." The first statement, "I lay
   down My life for the sheep" is the sheet anchor of our confidence when
   storms assail the vessel of the Church. The Lord Jesus has, by His
   death, proved His love to His people and His determination to save them
   is made clear by His laying down His life for them. Therefore doubt and
   fear should be banished and the very name of despair should be unknown
   among the Israel of God! Now are we sure of the love of the Son of God
   to His chosen flock, for we have an Infallible proof of it in the
   laying down of His life for them.

   Now, also, are we absolutely certain that Christ's purpose is
   perpetual--it cannot alter. The Lord Jesus has committed Himself to
   that purpose beyond recall, for the price is paid and the deed is done
   by which the purpose is to be effected. Beyond this we are hereby
   assured beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Divine purpose will be
   carried out, for it cannot be that Christ should die in vain. We think
   it a kind of blasphemy to suppose that His blood should be spilt for
   nothing. Whatever was proposed to be accomplished by the laying down of
   the life of the Son of God, we feel absolutely certain that it will be
   fully performed in the teeth of all adversaries, for we are not, now,
   speaking of man's design, but of the purpose of God to which He devoted
   the heart's blood of His only-begotten Son!

   We both patiently hope and quietly wait to see the salvation of God and
   the performance of all His designs of love, for that death upon the
   Cross is a cause which will surely produce its effect. Christ did not
   die at a gamble. The supposition of a Savior disappointed in the
   results of His blood-shedding is not to be tolerated for a moment! In
   darkest times that glorious Cross flames with light! No evil event can
   prevent its efficacy. Still in that sign we conquer! If Jesus has laid
   down His life for the sheep, then all is well. Rest assured of the
   Father's love to those sheep! Rest assured of the immutability of the
   Divine purpose concerning them and rest assured of its ultimate
   achievement! It must not, shall not be that God's own Son shall lay
   down His life in vain! Though Heaven and earth should pass away, the
   precious heart's blood of the Son of God shall accomplish the end for
   which it was so freely poured forth. Jesus says, "I lay down My life
   for the sheep," therefore the sheep must live who have been redeemed at
   such a price as this and the Shepherd in them shall see of the travail
   of His soul and shall be satisfied!

   So far we are cheered by the vanguard which marches in advance of our
   text. But as if the poor, timid people of God would, nevertheless, at
   times fancy that the purpose of Christ would not be achieved, behold,
   in the rear another sentence, "I lay down My life that I might take it
   again." He that died and so redeemed His people by price, lives that He
   may, Himself, personally see that they are also redeemed by power! If a
   man dies to achieve a purpose, you feel sure that his very soul must
   have been in it. But if that man should rise again from the dead and
   still pursue his purpose, you would see how resolutely he was set on
   his design. If he rose with greater power, clothed with higher rank and
   elevated to a more eminent position--and if he still pursued his great
   objective, you would, then, be more than certain of his never-ending
   determination to perform his design.

   In the risen life of Jesus, assurance is made doubly sure--now are we
   sure that His design must be carried out, nothing can hinder it! We
   dare not dream that the Son of God can be disappointed of the objective
   for which He died and for which He lives again! If Jesus died for a
   purpose, He will accomplish it. If Jesus rose for a purpose, He will
   accomplish it. If Jesus lives forever for a purpose, He will accomplish
   it. To me this conclusion seems to be past question--and if it is
   so--it puts the destiny of the sheep beyond all hazard. Did not Paul
   argue much in the same way when he said, "For if,

   when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His
   Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life"?

   If any of you have been cast down by reason of present difficulties,
   let these two grand texts sound their silver trumpets in your ears! If
   you have been looking forth from the windows and the outlook has seemed
   to be exceedingly dark, take courage, I pray you, from what your Lord
   has done! His death and Resurrection are prophetic of good things to
   come! You dare not think that Christ will miss the objective of His
   death--you dare not think that He will miss the purpose of His
   glory-life! Why, then, are you cast down? His will shall be done on
   earth as it is in Heaven, as surely as He came from Heaven to earth and
   has returned from earth to Heaven! His purpose shall be carried out as
   surely as He died and lives again!

   Is not this the secret reason why, when the Lord appeared to His
   sorrowing servant John, He said to him, "I am He that lives and was
   dead and am alive forevermore, amen, and have the keys of death and of
   Hell"? Is not the dying and then living Shepherd the safety and the
   glory of the flock? Well, then, comfort one another with these words of
   your Lord, "I lay down My life for the sheep." "I lay down My life,
   that I might take it again."

   I. There are four things in the text, itself, which deserve your
   attention, for they are full of consolation to minds troubled by the
   evil of those perilous times. The first is this--OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST
   HAD A PEOPLE UNDER THE WORST CIRCUMSTANCES. When He speaks of "other
   sheep," it is implied that He had certain sheep at the time. And when
   He says, "other sheep have I which are not of this fold," it is
   manifest that even then, the Good Shepherd had a fold! The times were
   grievously dark and evil, but a few true hearts clustered about the
   Savior and, by His Divine power, were protected as in a "fold."

   It has been supposed that our Lord, here, alludes to the Jews as, "this
   fold," but the Jews, as such, were never Christ's fold. He could not
   have meant to call the Jews around Him, His fold, for a little farther
   on He exclaims, "You believe not because you are not of My sheep, as I
   said unto you." His fold was that little handful of disciples whom, by
   His personal ministry, He had gathered, and who stood folded, as it
   were, about their Good Shepherd. They might be sneered at as a little
   company, but He says to His enemies who are standing outside the fold
   foaming with wrath, "Other sheep I have that are not of this little
   fold: these you cannot see, but I have them, none the less, for that
   these, I must, in due time, lead, and then there shall be one flock and
   one Shepherd." See, then, that the Lord Jesus had a people in the worst
   times!

   Doubtless these days are exceedingly dangerous and I have certain
   Brethren round me who never allow me to forget it, for they play well
   in the minor key and dwell most judiciously upon the necessary topic of
   the general declension of the Church and the growing depravity of the
   world! I would not stop them from their faithful warnings, although I
   can assure them that, with slight variations, I have heard the same
   tune for years! Many a time have they afflicted me, from my youth up,
   and it has been good for me. I remember hearing some 30 years ago that
   we lived in awful times and, as nearly as I can recollect, the times
   have been awful ever since and I suppose they always will be! The
   watchmen of the night see everything except the coming of the morning.
   Our pilots perceive dangers ahead and steer with caution. Perhaps this
   is as it should be. At any rate, it is better than sleeping in a fool's
   paradise!

   Be this as it may, it is clear that the days of our Lord Jesus Christ
   were emphatically terrible times. No age can be worse than that age
   which literally crucified the Son of God, crying, "Away with Him! Away
   with Him!" Whether the present days are better than those, I will not
   determine, but they cannot be worse. The day of our Lord's first advent
   was the culmination and the crisis of the world's career of sin--and
   yet the Good Shepherd had a fold among men in the midnight of history!
   There was a sad lack of vital godliness in those days. A few godly ones
   watched for the coming of the Messiah, but they were very few, such as
   good old Simeon and Anna. A small remnant sighed and cried for the
   abounding sin of the nation, but the salt was almost gone. Israel was
   becoming like Sodom and Gomorrah!

   The choice band of mourners in Zion had not quite died out, but their
   number was so few that a child might write the number down. Speaking
   generally, when the Savior came to His own, His own received Him not.
   The mass of professing people in that day was rotten throughout! The
   life of God was gone--it could not dwell with the Pharisees nor the
   Sadducees, nor any of the sects of the times, for they were altogether
   gone out of the way. The Lord looked and there was no man to help or to
   uphold His righteous cause--those who professed to be its champions had
   altogether become un-

   profitable. As for the religious teachers, their mouth had become an
   open sepulcher and the poison of asps was under their tongues. And yet
   the Lord had a people in Judea even then!

   On earth there was still a fold for sheep whom He had chosen who knew
   the Shepherd's voice and gathered to His call and followed Him
   faithfully. But it was a time when will-worship abounded. Men had given
   up worshipping God according to the Scriptures. They worshipped
   according to their own fancies. Then you might hear a trumpet at every
   corner of the street, for Pharisees were distributing their alms! You
   could see fathers and mothers neglected, families broken up because the
   scribes had taught the people that if they said, "Corban," they were
   free from all obligation to help father or mother. They taught for
   doctrines, the commandments of men--the Commandments of God were laid
   aside. To wear broad-bordered garments and phylacteries was exalted
   into a matter of first importance, while to lie and cheat were mere
   trifles. To eat with unwashed hands was thought to be a crime, but to
   devour widow's houses was a thing which, to the most self-righteous
   Pharisee, caused no qualm of conscience. The land was filled with
   will-worship and that is one great and growing hindrance nowadays! But
   for all that, Christ had a fold of His own and there were those who
   knew His voice--and these, following at His heels--were enabled to go
   in and out and find pasture.

   It was a day when there was the most fierce opposition to the real
   Truths of God. Our Lord Jesus could hardly open His mouth but they took
   up stones to stone Him! It was said that He had a devil and was mad;
   that He was a "gluttonous Man and a winebibber, the friend of publicans
   and sinners." The rage of men against Christ was, then, boiling at its
   greatest heat, till at last they took Him and nailed Him to the Cross
   because they could not endure that He should live among them. And yet
   He had His own in those dreadful times! Even then He had His chosen
   company for whom He laid down His life, of whom He said to the Father,
   "Yours they were and You gave them to Me; and they have kept Your
   Word." To those He spoke, saying, "You are they that have continued
   with Me in My temptations. And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as My
   Father has appointed unto Me."

   Why, Beloved, I gather that though, at this time, there is a sad
   decline in vital godliness, and though will-worship sweeps over the
   land with its tumultuous waves; and though opposition to the pure Truth
   of Christ is more fierce than ever; nevertheless, even at this present
   time, there is a remnant according to the election of Grace! Even today
   the answer of God to the complaining Prophet is, "Yet have I left Me
   seven thousand in Israel, all the knees of which have not bowed unto
   Baal." Why, my Brothers and Sisters, in confidence you possess your
   souls!

   Now, it is to be noticed that this little company of Christ's people He
   calls a "fold." Afterwards they were to be a "flock," but while His
   bodily Presence was with them, they were pre-eminently a "fold." They
   were few in number, all of one race, mostly in one place and so compact
   that they could fitly be said to be a fold. One glance of the
   Shepherd's bodily eyes saw them all. Happily, also, they were so
   thoroughly distinct from the rest of the world that they were eminently
   and evidently folded. Our Lord said of them, "You are not of the world,
   even as I am not of the world." He had shut them in to Himself and shut
   the world out. Within this blessed seclusion they were perfectly safe,
   so that their Lord said to the Father, "While I was with them in the
   world, I kept them in Your name: those that You gave Me, I have kept
   and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the Scripture
   might be fulfilled."

   Whatever their mistakes and faults, and they were many, yet they did
   not conform themselves to the generation among which they dwelt--they
   were kept apart as in a fold while Jesus was with them. In that fold
   they were protected from all ill weathers, from the wolf and the thief.
   The Lord's Presence with them was like a wall of fire round about
   them--they had only to run to Him and He answered all their adversaries
   and defended them from reproach. Like another David, the Lord Jesus
   guarded His flock from all the ravenous lions that sought to devour
   them. True, even in that little fold there were goats, for He, Himself,
   said, "I have chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil." Even then,
   they were not absolutely pure, but they were wonderfully so--and they
   were marvelously separated from the world, preserved from false
   doctrine and kept from dividing and scattering.

   Within that fold they were being strengthened for the future following
   of their great Shepherd. They were learning a thousand things which
   would be useful to them when, afterwards, He sent them forth as lambs
   among wolves, so that they would be "wise as serpents and harmless as
   doves" because of what they had learned of their Lord. Thus you see
   that in the worst times the Lord had a Church! I might almost say the
   best Church! May I not call it so? For that Apostolic Church, upon
   which the Holy Spirit descended, was not a whit behind the Church of
   any era that succeeded it! It was the

   choice flock of all the flocks of the ages, even that feeble company of
   which Jesus said, "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good
   pleasure to give you the kingdom."

   Yet you see one thing is not able here, that when Jesus had thus shut
   them all in, He would not allow them to become exclusive and glide into
   a state of selfish satisfaction. No, He opens wide the door of the
   sheepfold and cries to them, "Other sheep I have." Thus He checks a
   tendency so common in the Church to be forgetful of those outside the
   fold and to make one's own personal salvation the sum and substance of
   religion! I do not think it wrong to sing--

   "We are a garden walled around,

   Chosen and made peculiar ground.

   A little spot, enclosed by Grace

   Out of the world's wide wilderness." On the contrary, I judge that the
   verse is true and sweet, and ought to be sung. But then there are other
   truths besides this one. To us, also, the Shepherd opens the door of
   the enclosed garden and says, "The wilderness and the solitary place
   shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the
   rose." The fold is our abode, but it is not our sole sphere of action,
   for we are to go forth from it into all the world seeking our Brothers
   and Sisters!

   Seeing that our Lord has other sheep which are not of this fold, and
   these are to be found by Him through His faithful people, let us awaken
   ourselves to the holy enterprise--

   "O, come, let us go and find them!

   In the paths of death they roam.

   At the close of the day

   It will be sweet to say,

   'I have brought some lost one home.'" Beloved, I shall leave this point
   when I have said to you--never despair! The Lord of Hosts is with His
   people! They may be few and poor, but they are Christ's and that makes
   them precious. A common sheepfold is not a thing of glory and
   beauty--four rough walls compose it and it is but a hovel for
   sheep--even so, the Church may appear mean and base in men's eyes, but
   then it is the sheepfold of our Shepherd-King and the sheep belong to
   the Lord God Almighty! There is a glory about this which angels do not
   fail to see! Here is human weakness and also Divine power!

   We do not, I fear, estimate the strength of the Church aright. I read
   of three Brothers who had to carry on a college when funds were running
   short. One of them complained that they had no helpers and could not
   hope to succeed. But another, who had more faith, said to his Brother,
   "Do you ask what we can do? Do you say that we are so few? I do not see
   that we are few, for we are a thousand at the least." "A thousand of
   us," said the other, "how is that?" "Why," replied the first, "I am a
   cipher, you are a cipher and our Brother is a cipher--so we have three
   nothings to begin with. Then I am sure the Lord Jesus is ONE--put Him
   down before the three ciphers and we have a thousand, directly." Was
   not this bravely spoken? What power we have when we do but set the
   great ONE in the front!

   You are nothing, Brother. You are nothing, Sister. I am nothing--we are
   all nothing when we are put together without our Lord! But, oh, if He
   stands in front of us, then we are thousands! And again, it is true on
   earth as in Heaven-- the chariots of the Lord are 20,000, even
   thousands of messengers--the Lord is among them as in the Holy Place.
   Why, my Friends, be not cast down at any time, but say to
   yourselves--We are not even, now, come to so dark a night as once fell
   on this world. We are not, at this painful moment, in such a desperate
   condition as the Church of Christ was in His own day!

   And if the Lord is spiritually in the midst of us, we need not fear
   though the earth is removed and the mountains are carried into the
   midst of the sea, for there is a city which abides forever, and there
   is a river, the streams of which shall, forever, make her glad! God is
   in the midst of her and she shall not be moved! God shall help her and
   that right early. Why, my fellow Believers, be strong and of good
   courage!

   II. But now, secondly, it is clear, for the text teaches it in so many
   words, that OUR LORD HAS OTHER SHEEP NOT YET KNOWN TO US. He says,
   "Other sheep I have." I want you to notice that strong expression,
   "Other sheep I have"--not, "I shall have," but, "I have other sheep."
   Many of these sheep were not even in the thoughts of the Apostles. I do
   not think it had crossed the mind of Peter, James, or John that their
   Lord had any sheep in this poor savage island, then scarcely regarded
   as being within the borders of the earth. I do not suppose the
   Apostles, at that time, even dreamed that their Lord Jesus had sheep in
   Rome.

   No, their most liberal notion was that the Hebrew nation might be
   converted and the scattered of the seed of Abraham gathered together in
   one. Our Shepherd-King has greater thoughts than the most large-hearted
   of His servants. He delights to enlarge the area of our love. "Other
   sheep have I." You do not know them, but the Shepherd does. Unknown to
   ministers, unknown to the warmest-hearted Christians, there are many in
   the world whom Jesus claims for His own through the Covenant of Grace.
   Who are these? Well, these "other sheep" were, first, His chosen, for
   He has a people whom He has chosen out of the world and ordained unto
   eternal life. "You have not chosen Me," He said, "but I have chosen
   you"--there is a people upon whom His sovereignty has fixed its loving
   choice from before the foundation of the world! And of these elect
   ones, He says, "I have them."

   His election of them is the basis of His property in them. These are,
   also, those whom His Father gave Him, of whom He says in another place,
   "All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me." And again, "Of those
   whom You have given Me I have lost none." His Father's eternal donation
   of them seals His title to them! These are the people for whom He
   peculiarly and especially laid down His life that they might be the
   redeemed of the Lord. "Christ loved His Church and gave Himself for
   it." These are they that are redeemed from among men, of whom we read,
   "You are not your own, you are bought with a price."

   The Lord Jesus laid down His life for His sheep--He tells us so,
   Himself, and none can question His own statement. These are those of
   whom Jesus says, "I have them." For these He entered into suretyship
   engagements, even as Jacob undertook the flock of Laban and watched day
   and night that he should not lose them. And if one had been lost, he
   would have had to make it good. These sheep represent a people for whom
   Christ has entered into suretyship engagements with His Father that He
   will deliver each one of them safely at the last day of account, not
   one of them being absent when the sheep shall pass, again, under the
   hand of Him that counts them as they will at the last great day. "Other
   sheep I have," says Christ. How wonderful that He should say, "I have
   them," though as yet they were far off by wicked works. What was their
   state? They were a people without shepherd, without fold, without
   pasture, lost on the mountains, wandering in the woods, lying down to
   die, ready to be devoured by the wolf--yet Jesus says, "Other sheep I
   have, which are not of this fold."

   They were sheep that had wandered exceedingly far, even into the most
   shameful iniquity--and yet He says, "I have them." Bad as this world
   is, today, it must have been far worse in the cruel Roman age as to
   open vices and unmentionable abominations. And yet these wanderers were
   the sheep of Christ and, in due time, they were delivered from their
   sins and fetched away from all the superstition, idolatry and
   filthiness into which they had wandered! They were Christ's even while
   they were afar off--He had chosen them, the Father had given them to
   Him, He had bought them--and He determined to have them. No, He says,
   "I have them"--and He calls them His own even while they are
   transgressing and running headlong to destruction!

   It seems to me that these were as well known to Christ as those that
   were in His fold. I think I see Him, the Divine Man, standing there
   confronting His adversaries. And when He has cast His glance upon His
   foes, I see His eyes going to and fro throughout the whole earth to
   gaze upon a sight far more pleasant to Him. While He speaks, His eyes
   flash with joyous fire as they light upon thousands out of every
   kindred and people and tongue! And as He quotes, to Himself, the words
   of the 22nd Psalm--"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. A seed shall serve Him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for
   a generation"--He spies out the myriads that are His and He rejoices
   before His scornful foes as He sees His growing kingdom which they are
   powerless to overthrow!

   Proud, self-righteous men may blindly refuse the leadership of the
   Lord's anointed Shepherd, but He shall not be without a flock to be His
   honor and reward! Did not the Lord, at that time, rejoice in His inmost
   heart and soliloquize within Himself thus--"Though Israel is not
   gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and My God
   shall be My strength"? This led Him to say, "Other sheep I have." In
   this there is great comfort for God's people who love the souls of
   their fellow men. The Lord has a people in London and He knows them. "I
   have much people in this city," was said to the Apostle when, as yet,
   nobody was converted there! "I have them," says Christ though as yet
   they had not sought Him.

   Our Lord Jesus has an elect redeemed people all over the world at this
   time, though as yet they are not called by Grace. I know not where they
   are, nor where they are not--but for certain He has them somewhere
   since it still stands

   true--"Other sheep I have which are not of this fold." This is a part
   of our authority for going out to find the lost sheep, for we, Brothers
   and Sisters, have a right to go anywhere to enquire about our Master's
   sheep. I have no business to go hunting after other people's sheep. But
   if they are my Master's sheep, who shall stop me over hill or dale
   enquiring, "Have you seen my Master's sheep?" If any say, "You intrude
   in this land," let the answer be, "We are after our Master's sheep
   which have strayed here! Excuse our pushing further than politeness
   might allow, but we are in haste to find a lost sheep."

   This is your excuse for going into a house where you are not wanted, to
   try and leave your tracts and speak a word for Christ! Say, "I think my
   Master has one of His sheep here and I have come after it." You have
   received a search-warrant from the King of Kings and, therefore, you
   have a right to enter and search after your Lord's stolen property! If
   men belonged to the devil, we would not rob the enemy, himself, but
   they do not belong to him! He neither made them nor bought them and,
   therefore, we seize them in the King's name whenever we can lay hands
   on them. I doubt not but what there are some here, this morning, who
   neither know nor love the Savior as yet, who, nevertheless, belong to
   the Redeemer--and He will yet bring them to Himself and to His flock.
   Therefore it is that we preach with confidence!

   I do not come into this pulpit hoping that, perhaps, somebody will, of
   His own free will, return to Christ--that may be so or not--but my hope
   lies in another quarter. I hope that my Master will lay hold of some of
   them and say, "You are Mine and you shall be Mine. I claim you for
   Myself." My hope arises from the freeness of Grace--not from the
   freedom of the will! A poor haul of fish will any Gospel fisherman make
   if he takes none but those who are eager to leap into the net! Oh, for
   an hour of Jesus among this crowd! Oh, for five minutes of the great
   Shepherd's handiwork! When the good Shepherd overtakes His lost sheep,
   He has not much to say to it.

   According to the parable, He says nothing. But He lays hold of it, lays
   it on His shoulders and carries it home--and that is what I want the
   Lord to do, this morning, with some of you whose will is all the other
   way, whose wishes and desires are all contrary to Him. I want Him to
   come with sacred violence and mighty love to restore you to your Father
   and your God! Not that you will be saved against your will, but your
   consent will be sweetly gained. Oh, that the Lord Jesus would take you
   in hand and never let you go again! May He sweetly say to you, "Yes, I
   have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness
   have I drawn you."

   III. Our third head contains in it much delight. Our LORD MUST BRING OR
   LEAD THOSE OTHER SHEEP.

   "Them also I must bring"--read it, and it will be more accurate--"them
   also I must lead." Christ must be at the head of these other sheep and
   they must follow His lead--"them also I must lead, and they shall hear
   My voice," Those who belong to Christ, secretly, must be openly led to
   follow Him. First, it is Christ that has to do it, even as He has done
   it up to now. The text says, "Them also I must bring," and this
   language implies that those who have already come, He has brought. All
   that were in the fold, Christ had brought there--and all that are to be
   in the fold--He must lead there.

   All of us who are saved have been saved by the mighty power of God in
   Christ Jesus. Is it not so? Is there anyone among us that came to Jesus
   without Jesus first coming to Him? Surely, no! Without exception, we
   all admit that it was His love that sought us out and brought us to be
   the sheep of His pasture. Now, as the Lord Jesus has done this for us,
   He must do it for others, for they will never come unless He fetches
   them. Here comes in that emphatic, imperious, "must." The proverb is
   that, "must," is for the king--and the king may say, "must," to all of
   us. But did you ever hear of a "must" that bound the king, himself, and
   constrained him?

   Kings generally do not care to have it said to them, you "must," but
   there is a King, the likes of which King there never was nor shall be
   for glory and for dominion--and yet He is bound by a "must"--the Prince
   Immanuel says, "Them also I must bring." Whenever Jesus says, "must,"
   something comes of it! Who can resist the Omnipotent "must"? Clear out,
   devils! Clear out, wicked men! Flee, darkness! Die, O death! If Jesus
   says, "must," we know what is going to happen--difficulties vanish,
   impossibilities are achieved! Glory, glory, the Lord shall get the
   victory! Jesus says of His chosen, His redeemed, His espoused, His
   covenanted ones, "Them also I must bring" and, therefore, it must be
   done!

   Furthermore, He tells us how He must do it. He says, "They shall hear
   My voice." So that our Lord is going to save people, still, by the
   Gospel! I do not look for any other means of converting men beyond the
   simple preaching of the Gospel and the opening of men's ears to hear
   it--"They shall hear My voice." The old methods are to be followed to
   the end of the chapter. Our standing orders are--"Go you into all the
   world and preach the Gospel to every creature." We are not commissioned
   to do anything else but continue to preach the Gospel, the same Gospel
   which saved us and which was

   delivered to us at the beginning! We know of no alterations,
   enlargements, or amendments to the Gospel! We obey and follow one
   Voice, not many voices. One Gospel of salvation is to be proclaimed
   everywhere! And no other work is in our commission.

   Then it is added, "They shall hear My voice." It is promised that they
   shall first lend an attentive ear and then that they shall yield a
   willing heart to the voice of Divine love and follow Jesus where He
   leads! "What then?" Asks one. "Suppose I speak in Christ's name and
   they will not hear?" "Do not suppose what cannot be! The Scripture says
   of the chosen sheep--"they shall hear My voice." The rest remain in
   their blindness, but the redeemed will hear and see! Do not again say,
   "Suppose they will not!" You must not suppose anything that is contrary
   to what Jesus promises when He says, "They shall hear My voice." The
   graceless may stop up their ears if they will--and perish with Christ's
   voice as a witness against them--but His own redeemed shall hear the
   heavenly voice and obey it! There is no resisting this Divine
   necessity! Jesus says--"I must bring them, and they shall hear My
   voice."

   It was with this that Paul turned to the Gentiles and said to the Jews,
   "Be it known, therefore, unto you, that the salvation of God is sent
   unto the Gentiles and that they will hear it." He had no fear about the
   reception the Word of God would meet with--neither ought we to
   entertain any, since Christ has a people who must be led--and shall
   hear the voice of the Bishop and Shepherd of souls! We have heard it
   said that, "If Christ must have His people, what is the good of
   preaching?" What would be the good of preaching if it were otherwise?
   Why, dear Sir, this fact is one great reason why we preach! That which
   you suppose to be a motive for inaction is the strongest motive for
   energetic action! Because the Lord has a people that must be saved, we
   feel an imperious necessity laid upon us to join with Him in bringing
   this people to Himself. They must come and we must fetch them!
   Christian Brothers, do you not feel that you must help in compelling
   them to come to the wedding feast? Is it not laid upon you that you
   must go after lost souls, that you must speak to them, seeing that you
   must have a hand in bringing these blood-bought ones to Christ by His
   Holy Spirit?

   And again, are there not some in this place who feel a necessity laid
   upon them, also, that they must come? Do I not hear some of you saying,
   "I have stood out a long while, but I must come. I have resisted Divine
   Grace long enough. And now Christ has laid His hands on me--I must
   come"? How I wish that a heavenly, "must," a blessed necessity of
   Omnipotent decree may overshadow you and bear you as a sheep to the
   fold! Oh that you may now yield yourselves unto God because the love of
   Christ constrains you! Submit yourselves unto God! Acknowledge the
   supreme authority of His Grace which shall lead every thought into
   captivity, that from this day on Christ may reign in your hearts and
   put every enemy under His feet!

   He says, "Him that comes to Me I will in nowise cast out." "I will
   trust Him," says one. "I feel I must." Just so and that trust is a mark
   of your election of God, for, "He that believes in Him has everlasting
   life." "Whom He did predestinate, them He also called." If He is
   calling you, it is because He did predestinate you--and you may rest
   quite sure of it--and yield to Him with holy joy and delight! As for
   me, I feel so happy in preaching the Gospel because I am not fishing
   with a, "chance," or a, "perhaps," that some may come. The Lord knows
   them that are His and they will come! Every congregation is, in this
   sense, a picked assembly.

   I felt, this morning, when I came here, that there were so many Friends
   out in the country for the holidays that we should very likely have a
   thin house. I rejoice that I was altogether wrong in my reckoning, but
   even then I thought, God has a people that He will bring whom He means
   to bless. Here they are! And now, while standing here, I know that
   God's Word "shall not return to Him void, but it shall accomplish that
   which He pleases, and shall prosper in the thing to which He has sent
   it."

   IV. But now, lastly, OUR LORD GUARANTEES THE UNITY OF HIS CHURCH. "Them
   also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice and there shall be one
   fold and one shepherd." We hear a great deal about the unity of the
   Church and notions upon this subject are rather wild. We are to have
   the Roman and the Greek and the Anglican Church all joined together in
   one--if they were so, the result would not be worth two-pence--and much
   evil would come of it! God has, I doubt not, a chosen people among all
   these three great corporations, but the union of such questionable
   organizations would be a dire omen of mischief to the world!

   The dark ages and a worse Popedom than ever would soon be upon us! The
   more those three quarrel with each other, the better for truth and
   righteousness! I should like to see the Anglican Church standing at
   drawn daggers with the Ro-man--and coming into a more and more open
   opposition to its superstitions. I would to God that the national
   Church

   would, in all things, be delivered from the Pope of Rome and his
   Anti-Christian enormities! Truly, this has been carried out as a matter
   of fact--there never was but one Shepherd of the sheep yet--even Christ
   Jesus! And there never was but one flock of God yet, and there never
   will be! There is one spiritual Church of God--there never were two!
   All the visible Churches, up and down the world contain within
   themselves parts of the one Church of Jesus Christ, but there were
   never two bodies of Christ and there cannot be!

   There is one Church and there is one Head of the Church! The motto of
   Christianity is--one flock and one Shepherd. As a matter of experience
   this is carried out in Believers. I do not care who the man is, if he
   is a truly spiritually-minded man, he is one with all other
   spiritually-minded men. Those people in any visible Church who have no
   Grace are usually the greatest sticklers for every point of difference
   and every particle of rite and form. Nominal professors are soon at
   war. Quickened Believers follow after peace! Of course, when a man has
   nothing else but the outside, he fights for it tooth and nail. But a
   man who loves the Lord and lives near Him, perceives the inner life in
   others and has fellowship with them! That inner life is one in all the
   quickened family and compels them to be one in heart.

   Set two Brothers at prayer, the one a Calvinist and the other an
   Arminian, and they pray alike! Get a real work of the Spirit in a
   district and see how Baptists and Paedo-Baptists pull together! Tell of
   your inward experience and speak of the Spirit's work in the soul, and
   see how we are all moved thereby! Here is a Brother, a member of the
   Society of Friends, and he likes silent worship. And here is another
   who enjoys hearty singing! But when they get near to God, they do not
   quarrel over this, but agree to differ--the one says, "The Lord be with
   you in your holy silence"--and the other prays that the Lord may accept
   his brother's Psalm. All who are one with Christ have a certain family
   feeling, a higher form of clannishness and they cannot shake it off.

   I have found myself reading a gracious book which has drawn me near to
   God. And though I have known that it was written by a man with whose
   opinions I had little agreement, I have not, therefore, refused to be
   edified by him in points which are unquestionably revealed. No, but I
   have blessed the Lord that, within all his blunders, he knew so much of
   the precious, vital Truth of God and lived so near his Lord! What
   Protestant can refuse to love the holy Bernard? Was there ever a more
   consecrated servant of God or a dearer lover of Christ than he? Yet he
   was most sorrowfully in bondage to the superstitions of his age and of
   the Roman Church! Are you not all one with him who sang--

   "Jesus, the very thought of Thee With sweetness fills my breast But
   sweeter, far, Your face to see, And in Your Presence rest"?

   The external Church is necessary, but it is not the one and indivisible
   Church of Christ. Jesus, as the Life, binds His Church together, and
   that Life flows through all the regenerate, even as the blood flows
   through all the veins of the body. Drop the external and look by faith
   into the spiritual realm, and you will see one flock and one Shepherd.
   The practical lesson is, let us belong to that one flock! How are they
   known? Answer--they are a hearing flock--they hear the Lord and follow
   His lead. Be you one of those who listen to Christ's voice--and to none
   besides. Keep to the one Shepherd! How do you know Him? It is Jesus--in
   His feet and hands are nail-prints--and His side bears the scar. He it
   is who leads the one only flock!

   Follow Jesus and you are right. Follow Him everywhere and you are
   happy. The best way to promote the unity of the Church is for all the
   sheep to follow the Shepherd. If they all follow the Shepherd, they
   will all keep together. Let us go forth and try and do that--and let us
   long for that happy day when all disputed points shall be settled by
   all obeying the Lord. Compromises would only mean an agreement to
   disobey the Lord! Let no man yield a principle under pretense of
   charity--it is not charity to call any Truth of God a lie! We must
   follow Jesus fully and we shall come together. First pure, then
   peaceable, is the rule.

   Oh, when shall the triple banner again float over all--"One Lord, one
   Faith, one Baptism!"? Oh God, the Holy Spirit, forgive us our errors
   and bring us to Your Truth! Oh God, the Son, forgive us our need of
   holiness and renew us in Your own image! Oh God the Father, forgive us
   our lack of love and melt us into one family! To the one God be glory
   in the one Church forever and ever! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

                             Earnest Expostulation

   A Sermon

   (No. 1714)

   Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, April 1st, 1883, by

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   "Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and
   longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to
   repentance?"--Romans 2:4.

   The apostle is intensely personal in his address. This verse is not
   spoken to us all in the mass, but to some one in particular. The
   apostle fixes his eyes upon a single person, and speaks to him as
   "Thee" and "Thou." "Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and
   forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God
   leadeth thee to repentance?" It should ever be the intent of the
   preacher to convey his message to each hearer in his own separate
   individuality. It is always a very happy sign when a man begins to
   think of himself as an individual, and when the expostulations and
   invitations of the gospel are seen by him to be directed to himself
   personally. I will give nothing for that indirect, essay-like preaching
   which is as the sheet lightning of summer, dazzling for the moment, and
   flaming over a broad expanse, but altogether harmless, since no bolt is
   launched from it, and its ineffectual fires leave no trace behind. I
   will give nothing for that kind of hearing which consists in the word
   being heard by everybody in general, and by no one in particular. It is
   when the preacher can "Thee" and "Thou" his hearers that he is likely
   to do them good. When each man is made to say, "This is for me," then
   the power of God is present in the word. One personal, intentional
   touch of the hem of Christ's garment conveys more blessing than all the
   pressure of the crowd that thronged about the Master. The laying of his
   healing hand upon the individual who was suffering had more virtue in
   it than all those heavenly addresses which fell from his lips upon
   minds that did not receive the truth for themselves. I do pray that we
   may come to personal dealings with the Lord each one for himself, and
   that the Spirit of God may convince each man and each woman, according
   as the case may stand before the living God. O my hearer, thou art now
   to be lovingly spoken with: I speak not to You as unto many, but unto
   thee, as one by thyself.

   Observe that the apostle singled out an individual who had condemned
   others for transgressions, in which he himself indulged. This man owned
   so much spiritual light that he knew right from wrong, and he
   diligently used his knowledge to judge others, condemning them for
   their transgressions. As for himself, he preferred the shade, where no
   fierce light might beat on his own conscience and disturb his unholy
   peace. His judgment was spared the pain of dealing with his home
   offenses by being set to work upon the faults of others. He had a
   candle, but he did not place it on the table to light his own room; he
   held it out at the front door to inspect therewith his neighbours who
   passed by. Ho! my good friend, my sermon is for thee. Paul looks this
   man in the face and says, "Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man,
   whoever thou art, that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another thou
   condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things:" and
   then he pointedly says to him: "Thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest
   them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape
   the judgment of God?" Well did the apostle aim that piercing arrow; it
   hits the center of the target and strikes a folly common to mankind.
   The poet of the night-watches wrote,--

   All men think all men mortal but themselves.

   As truly might I say, "All men think all men guilty but themselves."
   The punishment which is due to sin the guilty reckon to be surely
   impending upon others, but they scarce believe that it can ever fall
   upon themselves. A personal doom for themselves is an idea which they
   will not harbour: if the dread thought should light upon them they
   shake it off as men shake snow-flakes from their cloaks. The thought of
   personal guilt, judgment, and condemnation is inconvenient; it breeds
   too much trouble within, and so they refuse it lodging. Vain men go
   maundering on their way, whispering of peace and safety; doting as if
   God had passed an act of amnesty and oblivion for them, and had made
   for them an exception to all the rules of justice, and all the manner
   of his courts. Do men indeed believe that they alone shall go
   unpunished? No man will subscribe to that notion when it is written
   down in black and white, and yet the mass of men live as if this were
   true; I mean the mass of men who have sufficient light to condemn sin
   in others. They start back from the fact of their own personal
   guiltiness and condemnation, and go on in their ungodliness as if there
   were no great white throne for them, no last assize, no judge, no word
   of condemnation, and no hell of wrath. Alas, poor madmen, thus to
   dream! O Spirit of Truth save them from this fatal infatuation.

   Sin is always on the downward grade, so that when a man proceeds a
   certain length he inevitably goes beyond it. The person addressed by
   the apostle first thought to escape judgment, and then he came to think
   lightly of the goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering of God. He
   thinks he shall escape in the future, and because of that he despises
   the present goodness and longsuffering of the Most High. Of course he
   does. If he does not believe in the terrors of the world to come for
   himself, he naturally reckons it to be a small thing to have been
   spared their immediate experience. Barren tree as he is, he does not
   believe that he will ever be cut down, and therefore he feels no
   gratitude to the dresser of the vineyard for pleading, "Let it alone
   yet another year, till I dig about it, and dung it." I wish, as God
   shall help me, to drive hard at the consciences of men upon this
   matter. I would be to you, my careless friend, what Jonah was to
   Nineveh: I would warn you, and bestir you to repentance. Oh that the
   Holy Ghost would make this sermon effectual for the arousing of every
   unsaved soul that shall hear or read it!

   I. First, let me speak this morning to thee, O unregenerate, impenitent
   man, concerning THE GOODNESS OF GOD WHICH THOU HAST EXPERIENCED. Thou
   hast known the goodness, and forbearance, and longsuffering of God.
   According to the text, "riches" of these have been spent upon
   unconverted, ungodly men, and upon thee as one of them. Let me speak
   with thee first, O man, and remind thee how favoured thou hast been of
   God by being made a partaker of "the riches of his goodness." In many
   cases this is true of temporal things. Men may be without the fear of
   God, and yet, for all that, God may be pleased to prosper their
   endeavours in business. They succeed almost beyond their expectation--I
   mean some of them; probably the description applies to thee. They rise
   from the lowest position, and accumulate about them the comforts and
   luxuries of life. Though they have no religion, they have wit, and
   prudence, and thrift, and so they compete with others, and God permits
   them to be winners in the race for wealth. Moreover, he allows them to
   enjoy good health, vigour of mind, and strength of constitution: they
   are happy in the wife of their youth, and their children are about
   them. Theirs is an envied lot. Death seems for awhile forbidden to
   knock at their door, even though he has been ravaging the
   neighbourhood; even sickness does not molest their household. They are
   not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other men.
   Abraham had to prepare a Machpelah, and David mourned over his sons;
   but these have had to make scant provision for family sepulchre; a
   hedge has in very deed been set about them and all that they have. I
   know that it is thus with many who do not love God, and have never
   yielded to the entreaties of his grace. They love not the hand which
   enriches them, they praise not the Lord who daily loadeth them with
   benefits. How is it that men can receive such kindness, and yield no
   return? O sirs, you are to-day blessed with all that need requires; but
   I pray you remember that you might have been in the depths of poverty.
   An illness would have lost you your situation; or a slight turn in
   trade would have left you bankrupt. You are well to-day; but you might
   have been tossing to and fro upon a bed of sickness; you might have
   been in the hospital, about to lose a limb. Shall not God be praised
   for health and freedom from pain? You might have been shut up in yonder
   asylum, in the agonies of madness. A thousand ills have been kept from
   you; you have been exceedingly favoured by the goodness of the Most
   High. Is it not so? And truly it is a wonderful thing that God should
   give his bread to those that lift up their heel against him, that he
   should cause his light to shine upon those who never perceive his
   goodness therein, that he should multiply his mercies upon ungodly men
   who only multiply their rebellions against him, and turn the gifts of
   his love into instruments of transgression.

   Furthermore, this goodness of God had not only come to you in a
   temporal form, O impenitent man, but it has also visited you in a
   spiritual manner. Myriads of our fellow men have never had an
   opportunity of knowing Christ. The missionary's foot has never trodden
   the cities wherein they dwell, and so they die in the dark. Multitudes
   are going downward, downward; but they do not know the upward road;
   their minds have never been enlightened by the teachings of God's word,
   and hence they sin with less grievousness of fault. You are placed in
   the very focus of Christian light, and yet you follow evil! Will you
   not think of this? Time was when a man would have to work for years to
   earn enough money to buy a Bible. There were times when he could not
   have earned one even with that toil; now the word of God lies upon your
   table, you have a copy of it in almost every room of your house; is not
   this a boon from God? This is the land of the open Bible, and the land
   of the preached word of God; in this you prove the riches of God's
   goodness. Do you despise this wealth of mercy? Possibly you have
   enjoyed the further privilege of sitting under a ministry which has
   been particularly plain and earnest; you have not had sermons preached
   before you, they have been preached at you: the minister has seized
   upon you and tugged at your conscience, as though he would force you to
   the Saviour. With cries and entreaties you have been invited to your
   heavenly Father, and yet you have not come. Is this a small thing?

   What is more, you have been favoured with a tender conscience. When you
   do wrong you know it, and smart for it. What mean those wakeful nights
   after you have yielded to a temptation? What means that miserable
   feeling of shame? that fever of unrest? You find it hard to stifle the
   inward monitor, and difficult to resist the Spirit of God. Your road to
   perdition is made peculiarly hard; do you mean to follow it at all
   costs, and go over hedge and ditch to hell?

   You have not only been aroused by conscience, but the good Spirit has
   striven with you, and have been almost persuaded to be a Christian.
   Such has been the blessed work of the Spirit upon your heart that you
   have at times been melted down, and ready to be moulded by grace. A
   strange softness has come over you, and if you had not gathered up all
   your evil strength, and if the devil had not helped you to resist, you
   had by this time dropped into the Saviour's arms. Oh, the riches of the
   goodness of God to have thus wooed you, and pressed his love upon you!
   You have scarcely had a stripe, or a frown, or an ill word from God;
   his ways have been all kindness, and gentleness, and longsuffering from
   the first day of your memory even until now. "Despisest thou the riches
   of his goodness?" O man, answer this, I implore thee.

   The apostle then dwells upon the riches of "forbearance." Forbearance
   comes in when men having offended, God withholds the punishment that is
   due to them; when men, having been invited to mercy, have refused it,
   and yet God continues to stretch out his hands, and invite them to come
   to him. Patient endurance of offenses and insults has been manifested
   by God to many of you, who now hear these words of warning. The Lord
   knows to whom I speak and may he make you, also, know that I am
   speaking to you, even to you. Some men have gone back to the very sin
   of which for awhile they repented; they have suffered for their folly,
   but have turned again to it with suicidal determination. They are
   desperately set on their own ruin and nothing can save them. The burnt
   child has run to the fire again; the singed moth has plunged again into
   the flame of the candle; who can pity such self-inflicted miseries?
   They are given over to perdition, for they will not be warned. They
   have returned to the haunt of vice, though they seemed to have been
   snatched from the deep ditch of its filthiness. They have wantonly and
   wilfully returned to their cups, though the poison of former draughts
   is yet burning in their veins. Yet, despite this folly, God shows
   forbearance towards them. They have grievously provoked him when they
   have done despite to his word, and have even turned to laughter the
   solemnities of his worship, against their own consciences, and to their
   own confusion: yet when his hand has been lifted up he has withdrawn it
   in mercy. See how God has always tempered his providence with kindness
   to them. He laid them low so that they were sore sick, but at the voice
   of their moaning he restored them. They trembled on the brink of death,
   yet he permitted them to recover strength; and now, despite their vows
   of amendment, here they are, callous and careless, unmindful of the
   mercy which gave them a reprieve.

   Did you ever think what is included in the riches of forbearance. There
   are quick tempered individuals who only need to be a little provoked,
   and hard words and blows come quick and furious: but, oh, the
   forbearance of God when he is provoked to his face by ungodly men! By
   men, I mean, who hear his word, and yet refuse it! They slight his
   love, and yet he perseveres in it. Justice lays its hand on the sword,
   but mercy holds it back in its scabbard. Well might each spared one
   say,--

   "O unexhausted Grace

   O Love unspeakable!

   I am not gone to my own place;

   I am not yet in hell!

   Earth doth not open yet,

   My soul to swallow up:

   And, hanging o'er the burning pit,

   I still am forced to hope."

   Our apostle adds to goodness and forbearance the riches of
   "longsuffering." We draw a distinction between forbearance and
   longsuffering. Forbearance has to do with the magnitude of sin;
   longsuffering with the multiplicity of it: forbearance has to do with
   present provocation; longsuffering relates to that provocation
   repeated, and continued for a length of time. Oh, how long doth God
   suffer the ill manners of men! Forty years long was he grieved with
   that generation whose carcasses fell in the wilderness. Has it come to
   forty years yet with you, dear hearer? Possibly it may have passed even
   that time, and a half-century of provocation may have gone into
   eternity to bear witness against you. What if I should even have to say
   that sixty and seventy years have continued to heap up the loads of
   their transgressions, until the Lord saith, "I am pressed down under
   your sins; as a cart that is full of sheaves I am pressed down under
   you." Yet for all that, here you are on praying ground and pleading
   terms with God; here you are where yet the Saviour reigns upon the
   throne of grace; here you are where mercy is to be had for the asking,
   where free grace and dying love ring out their charming bells of
   invitation to joy and peace! Oh, the riches of his goodness, and
   forbearance, and longsuffering. Three-fold is the claim: will you not
   regard it? Can you continue to despise it?

   I should like to set all this in a striking light if I could, and
   therefore I would remind you of who and what that God is who has
   exhibited this goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering to men.
   Remember how great he is. When men insult a great prince the offence is
   thought to be highly heinous. If anyone should openly insult our own
   beloved Queen, and continue to do so, all the nation would be clamorous
   to have the impertinence ended speedily. We cannot bear that a beloved
   ruler should be publicly insulted. And what think you of the sin which
   provokes God? which to his face defies him? and in his very courts
   resists him? Shall this always be forborne with? Is there not a limit
   to longsuffering? Goodness also adds another item to the provocation;
   for we naturally say, "Why should one so good be treated so cruelly?"
   If God were a tyrant, if he were unrighteous or unkind, it were not so
   much amiss that men stood out against him; but when his very name is
   love, and when he manifests the bowels of a Father towards his
   wandering children it is shameful that he should be so wantonly
   provoked. Those words of Jesus were extremely touching when he pointed
   to his miracles, and asked, "For which of these things do you stone
   me?" When I think of God I may well say--for which of his deeds do you
   provoke him? Every morning he draws the curtain and glads the earth
   with light, and gives you eyes to see it; he sends his rain upon the
   ground to bring forth bread for man, and he gives you life to eat
   thereof--is this a ground for revolting from him? Every single minute
   of our life is cheered with the tender kindness of God, and every spot
   is gladdened with his love. I wonder that the Lord does not sweep away
   the moral nuisance of a guilty race from off the face of earth. Man's
   sin must have been terribly offensive to God from day to day, and yet
   still he shows kindness, love, forbearance. This adds an excessive
   venom to man's disobedience. How can he grieve such goodness? How can
   divine goodness fail to resent such base ingratitude?

   Think also of God's knowledge; for he knows all the transgressions of
   men. "What the eye does not see the heart does not rue," is a truthful
   proverb; but every transgression is committed in the very presence of
   God, so that penitent David cried, "Against thee, thee only have I
   sinned, and done this evil in thy sight." Transgression is committed in
   the sight of God, from whose eyes nothing is hidden. Remember also,
   that the Lord never can forget; before his eyes all things stand out in
   clear light, not only the things of to-day, but all the transgressions
   of a life. Yet for all this he doth forbear. With evil reeking before
   his face, he is slow to anger, and waiteth that he may be gracious.

   All this while, remember, the Lord is great in power. Some are patient
   because they are powerless: they bear and forbear because they cannot
   well help themselves; but it is not so with God. Had he but willed it,
   you had been swept into hell; only a word from him and the impenitent
   had fallen in the wilderness, and their spirits would have passed into
   the realms of endless woe. In a moment the Lord could have eased him of
   his adversary; he could have stopped that flippant tongue, and closed
   that lustful eye in an instant. That wicked heart would have failed to
   beat if God had withdrawn his power, and that rebellious breath would
   have ceased also. Had it not been for longsuffering you unbelievers
   would long since have known what it is to fall into the hands of an
   angry God. Will you continue to grieve the God who so patiently bears
   with you?

   Be it never forgotten that sin is to God much more intolerable than it
   is to us. He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. Things which we
   call little sins are great and grievous evils to him: they do, as it
   were, touch the apple of his eye. "Oh, do not," he says, "do not this
   abominable thing that I hate!" His Spirit is grieved and vexed with
   every idle word and every sensual thought; and hence it is a wonder of
   wonders that a God so sensitive of sin, a God so able to avenge himself
   of his adversaries, a God who knows the abundance of human evil, and
   marks it all, should nevertheless exhibit riches of goodness and
   forbearance and longsuffering; yet this is what you, my ungodly hearer,
   have been experiencing many a long year. Here let us pause; and oh that
   each one who is still unsaved would sing most sincerely the words of
   Watts:--

   "Lord, we have long abused thy love,

   Too long indulged our sin,

   Our aching hearts e'en bleed to see

   What rebels we have been.

   "No more, ye lusts, shall ye command,

   No more will we obey;

   Stretch out, O God, thy conqu'ring hand,

   And drive thy foes away."

   II. Come with me, friend, and let me speak to thee of THE SIN OF WHICH
   THOU ART SUSPECTED. Hear me, unconverted sinner: the sin of which thou
   art suspected is this,--"Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and
   forbearance and longsuffering?" The Lord's goodness ought to be admired
   and to be adored, and dost thou despise it? His goodness ought to be
   wondered at and told as a marvel in the ears of others, and dost thou
   despise it? That I may rake thy conscience a little, lend me thine ear.

   Some despise God's goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, because
   they never even gave a thought to it. God has given you life to keep
   you in being, and he has indulged you with his kindness, but it has not
   yet occurred to you that this patience is at all remarkable or worthy
   of the smallest thanks. You have been a drunkard, have you? a swearer?
   a Sabbath-breaker? a lover of sinful pleasure? Perhaps not quite so;
   but still you have forgotten God altogether, and yet he has abounded in
   goodness to you: is not this a great wrong? The Lord saith, Hear, O
   heavens, and give ear, O earth: I have nourished and brought up
   children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner,
   and the ass his master's crib: but these my creatures do not know, my
   favoured ones do not consider. Why, you have no such forbearance with
   others as God has had with you. You would not keep a dog if it never
   followed at your heel, but snarled at you: you would not even keep a
   potter's vessel if it held no water, and was of no service to you; you
   would break it in pieces, and throw it on the dunghill. As for
   yourself, you are fearfully and wonderfully made, both as to your body
   and as to your soul, and yet you have been of no service to your Maker,
   nor even thought of being of service to him. Still, he has spared you
   all these years, and it has never occurred to you that there has been
   any wonderful forbearance in it. Assuredly, O man, thou despisest the
   longsuffering of thy God.

   Others have, perhaps, thought of it, but have never seriously meditated
   thereon. When we offend a man, if we are right-minded, we not only note
   the fact with regret, but we sit down and weigh the matter, and seek to
   rectify it; for we would not be unjust to any person, and if we felt
   that we had been acting unfairly it would press upon our minds until we
   could make amends. But are there not some of you who have never given
   half an hour's consideration to your relation to your God? He has
   spared you all this while, and yet it has never occurred to you to
   enter into your chamber and sit down and consider your conduct towards
   him. It would seem to be too much trouble even to think of your
   Creator. His longsuffering leads you to repentance, but you have not
   repented; in fact, you have not thought it worth your while to consider
   the question at all: you have thought it far more important to enquire,
   "What shall I eat and what shall I drink?" Bread and broadcloth have
   shut out the thought of God. Ah me, you will stand at his judgment bar
   before long--and then? Perhaps ere this week is finished you may have
   to answer, not to me, but unto him that sits upon the throne; therefore
   I do implore you now, for the first time give this matter thought.
   Despise no longer the goodness and longsuffering of God.

   This longsuffering is despised, further, by those who have imagined
   that God does not take any great account of what they do. So long as
   they do not go into gross and open sin, and offend the laws of their
   country, they do not believe that it is of any consequence whether they
   love God or not, whether they do righteousness or not, whether they are
   sober and temperate, or drunken and wanton; whether they are clean in
   heart by God's Spirit, or defiled in soul and life. Thou thinkest that
   God is altogether such an one as thyself, and that he will wink at thy
   transgression and cover up thy sin; but thou shalt not find it so. That
   base thought proves that thou despisest his longsuffering.

   Some even get to think that the warnings of love are so much wind, and
   that the threatenings of God will never be fulfilled. They have gone on
   for many years without being punished, and instead of drawing the
   conclusion that the longer the blow is in falling the heavier it will
   be when it does come, they imagine that because it is long delayed the
   judgment will never come at all; and so they sport and trifle between
   the jaws of death and hell. They hear warnings as if they were all
   moonshine, and fancy that this holy Book, with its threatenings, is but
   a bugbear to keep fools quiet. If thou thinkest so, sir, then indeed
   thou hast despised the goodness and forbearance and longsuffering of
   God. Do you imagine that this forbearance will last for ever? Do you
   dream that at least it will continue with you for many years? I know
   your secret thoughts: you see other men die suddenly, but your secret
   thought is that you will have long space ad ample time: you hear of one
   struck down with paralysis, and another carried off by apoplexy, but
   you flatter yourselves that you will have plenty of leisure to think
   about these things. Oh, how can you be so secure? How can you thus
   tempt the Lord? False prophets in these evil days play into men's hands
   and hold out the hope that you may go into the next world wrong, and
   yet be set right in the end. This is a vile flattery of your wicked
   hearts; but yet remember that even according to their maundering
   centuries may elapse before this fancied restoration may occur. A
   sensible man would not like to run the risk of even a year of agony.
   Half-an-hour of acute pain is dreaded by most people. Can it be that
   the very men who start back from the dentist's door, afraid of the
   pinch which extricates an aching tooth, will run the risk of years of
   misery? Take the future of the impenitent even on this footing, it is a
   thing to be dreaded, and by every means avoided. I say, these
   flattering prophets themselves, if rightly understood, give you little
   enough of hope; but what will come to you if the old doctrine proves to
   be true and you go away into everlasting fire in hell, as the Scripture
   puts it? Will you live an hour in jeopardy of such a doom? Will you so
   despise the longsuffering and forbearance of the Lord?

   I will not enlarge and use many words, for I am myself weary of words:
   I want to persuade you even with tears. My whole soul would attract you
   to your God, your Father. I would come to close quarters with you, and
   say,--Do you not think that, even though you fall into no doctrinal
   error, and indulge no hazy hope as to either restitution or
   annihilation, yet still it is a dreadful despising of God's mercy when
   you keep on playing with God, and saying to his grace, "Go thy way for
   this time; when I have a more convenient season I will send for thee"?
   The more gentle God is the more you procrastinate, and the more in
   tenderness he speaks of pardon the more you transgress. Is this
   generous? Is it right? Is it wise? Can it be a fit and proper thing to
   do? Oh, my dear hearer, why will you act thus shamefully? Some of you
   delight to come and hear me preach, and drink in all I have to say, and
   you will even commend me for being earnest with your souls; and yet,
   after all, you will not decide for God, for Christ, for heaven. You are
   between good and evil, neither cold nor hot. I would ye were either
   cold or hot; I could even wish that ye either thought this word of mine
   to be false, or else that, believing it to be true, you at once acted
   upon it. How can you incur the double guilt of offending God and of
   knowing that it is an evil thing to do so? You reject Christ, and yet
   admit that he ought to be received by you! You speak well of a gospel
   which you will not accept for yourselves! You believe great things of a
   Saviour whom you will not have to be your Saviour! Jesus himself says,
   "If I tell you the truth, why do you not believe me?"

   "Despisest thou the longsuffering of God?" Dare you do it? I tremble as
   I think of a man despising God's goodness. Is not this practical
   blasphemy? Darest thou do it? Oh, if thou hast done it hitherto, do it
   no more. Ere yon sun goes down again, say within thy heart, "I will be
   a despiser of God's goodness no longer; I will arise and go unto my
   Father, and I will say unto him,--Father, I have sinned. I will not
   rest until in the precious blood he has washed my sins away."

   III. In closing this sermon I desire to remind thee, O ungodly man, of
   THE KNOWLEDGE OF WHICH THOU ART FORGETFUL. Read my text,--"Despisest
   thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not
   knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?" Now there
   are many here who know as a matter of doctrine that the goodness of God
   leads them to repentance, and yet they do not know it as a practical
   truth affecting their lives: indeed, they so act that it is not true to
   them at all. Yet, if they do not know this they are wilfully ignorant;
   not willing to retain in their minds a fact so disagreeable to them.
   None are so blind as those who will not see: but he who does not see,
   and yet hath eyes, has a criminality about his blindness which is not
   found in that of those who have no sight. Dear hearer, whether you know
   this truth or not, I would remind you that God's patience with you is
   meant to lead you to repentance. "How?" say you. Why, first by giving
   you an opportunity to repent. These years, which are now coming to a
   considerable number with you, have been given you in order that you
   might turn to God. By the time you were twenty-one you had sinned quite
   enough; perhaps you had even then begun to mislead other youths, and to
   instruct in evil those under your influence. Why did not God take you
   away at once? It might have been for the benefit of the world if he had
   done so; but yet you were spared till you were thirty. Did not each
   year of your lengthened life prove that the Lord was saying "I will
   spare him, for perhaps he will yet amend and think upon his God. I will
   give him more light, and increase his comforts; I will give him better
   teaching, better preaching; peradventure he will repent." Yet you have
   not done so. Have you lived to be forty, and are you where you were
   when you were twenty? Are you still out of Christ? Then you are worse
   than you were; for you have sinned more deeply and you have provoked
   the Lord more terribly. You have now had space enough. What more do you
   need? When the child has offended, you say, "Child, unless you beg
   pardon at once, I must punish you": would you give a boy so many
   minutes to repent in as God has given you years? I think not. If a
   servant is continually robbing you; if he is careless, slothful,
   disobedient, you say to him, "I have passed over your faults several
   times, but one of these days I shall discharge you. I cannot always put
   up with this slovenliness, this blundering, this idleness: one of these
   times you will have to go." Have you not so spoken to your female
   servant, and thought it kind on your part to give her another chance?
   The lord has said the same to you; yet here you are, a living but
   impenitent man; spared, but spared only to multiply your
   transgressions. This know, that his forbearance gives you an
   opportunity to repent; do not turn it into an occasion for hardening
   your heart.

   But next, the Lord in this is pleased to give a suggestion to you to
   repent. It seems to me that every morning when a man wakes up still
   impenitent, and finds himself out of hell, the sunlight seems to say,
   "I shine on thee yet another day, as that in this day thou mayest
   repent." When your bed receives you at night I think it seems to say,
   "I will give you another night's rest, that you may live to turn from
   your sins and trust in Jesus." Every mouthful of bread that comes to
   the table says, "I have to support your body that still you may have
   space for repentance." Every time you open the Bible the pages say, "We
   speak with you that you may repent." Every time you hear a sermon, if
   it be such a sermon as God would have us preach, it pleads with you to
   turn unto the Lord and live. Surely the time past of your life may
   suffice you to have wrought the will of the Gentiles. "The times of
   your ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth men everywhere to
   repent." Do not life and death, and heaven and hell, call upon you so
   to do? Thus you have in God's goodness space for repentance, and a
   suggestion to repent.

   But something more is here; for I want you to notice that the text does
   not say, "The goodness of God calleth thee to repentance," but "leadeth
   thee." This is a much stronger word. God calls to repentance by the
   gospel; God leads to repentance by his goodness. It is as though he
   plucked at your sleeve and said, "Come this way." His goodness lays its
   gentle hand on you, drawing you with cords of love and bands of a man.
   God's forbearance cries, "Why wilt thou hate me? What wrong have I done
   thee? I have spared thee; I have spared thy wife and children to thee;
   I have raised thee up from the bed of sickness; I have loaded thy
   board; I have filled thy wardrobe; I have done thee a thousand good
   turns; wherefore dost thou disobey me? Turn unto thy God and Father,
   and live in Christ Jesus."

   If, on the other hand, you have not received rich temporal favours, yet
   the Lord still leads you to repentance by a rougher hand; as when the
   prodigal fain would have filled his belly with husks, but could not,
   and the pangs of hunger came upon him; those pains were a powerful
   message from the Father to lead him to the home where there was bread
   enough and to spare. "The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance."
   Oh, that thou wouldest yield to its sweet leading, and follow as a
   child follows the guidance of a nurse. Let thy crosses lead thee to the
   cross; let thy joys lead thee to find joy in Christ.

   Do you not think that all this should encourage you to repent, since
   God himself leads you that way? If God leads you to repentance he does
   not mean to cast you away. If he bids you repent, then he is willing to
   accept your repentance, and to be reconciled to you. If he bids you
   change your mind, it is because his own mind is love. Repentance
   implies a radical change in your view of things, and in your estimate
   of matters; it is a change in your purposes, a change in your thoughts
   and in your conduct. If the Lord leads you that way he will help you in
   it. follow his gracious leading till his divine Spirit shall lead you
   with still greater power and still greater efficacy, till at last you
   find that he has wrought in you both repentance and faith, and you are
   saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. If "the goodness of
   God leadeth thee to repentance," then be sure of this, that the
   goodness of God will receive thee when thou dost repent, and thou shalt
   live in his sight as his well-beloved and forgiven child.

   I close now, but I am sorry so to do, for I have not pleaded one-half
   as I could have wished. Yet what more can I say? I will put it to
   yourselves. If you were in God's stead, could you bear to be treated as
   you have treated him? If you were all goodness and tenderness, and had
   borne with a creature now for thirty or forty years, how would you bear
   to see that creature still stand out, and even draw an inference from
   your gentleness to encourage him in his rebellion? Would you not say,
   "Well, if my longsuffering makes him think little of sin, I will change
   my hand. If tenderness cannot win him, I must leave him; if even my
   love does not affect him, I will let him along. He is given unto his
   evil ways--I will cease from him, and see what his end will be"? O
   Lord, say not so, say not so unto anyone in this house, but of thy
   great mercy make this day to be as the beginning of life to many. Oh
   that hearts may be touched with pity for their slighted Saviour, that
   they may seek his face! Here is the way of salvation: "Believe in the
   Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." You know how the Master
   bade us put it. "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to
   every creature: he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved."
   First, we are to preach faith, whereby we lay hold on Christ; then
   baptism, whereby we confess that faith, and own that we are dead and
   buried with Christ that we may live with him in newness of life. Those
   are the two points he bids us set before you, and I do set them before
   you. Weary, but not quite wearied out, O impenitent man, I plead with
   thee! Though thou hast so often been pleaded with in vain, once more I
   speak with thee in Christ's stead, and say--Repent of thy sin, look to
   thy Saviour, and confess thy faith in his own appointed way. I verily
   believe that if I had been pleading with some of you to save the life
   of a dog I should have prevailed with you a great while ago. And will
   you not care about the saving of your own souls? Oh, strange
   infatuation--that men will not consent to be themselves saved; but
   foolishly, madly, hold out against the mercy of God which leads them to
   repentance. God bless you, beloved, and may none of you despise his
   goodness, and forbearance, and longsuffering.
     __________________________________________________________________

A Description of Young Men in Christ

   (No. 1715)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, APRIL 8, 1883,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "I write unto you, young men, because you have overcome the Wicked
   One... I have written unto you, youngmen, because you are strong, and
   the Word of God abides in you, and you ha ve overcome the Wicked One."
   1 John 2:13,14.

   WHEN I preached a short time ago upon John's message to the "little
   children," [Sermon #1711--A Sermon to the Lord's Little Children] I
   explained why it was that he first said, "I write," and then, "I have
   written." He is writing--his whole heart is in it and he cannot help
   saying that he is earnestly writing to those whom he loves so well. But
   he has scarcely penned the line before he feels that he must alter that
   present tense and set it in the past, under the form of, "I have
   written." He knows that he must soon be gone from them and be numbered
   with those who were, but are not, among living men. These words, then,
   are the language of a father in Israel still among his children; they
   are also the words of one who has passed from earth and entered into
   Glory.

   If what I shall have to say at this time, fairly flowing from the text,
   shall come to you as Christ's words from His favored disciple, John,
   you will attach the more importance to it and it will do your hearts
   the more good. Lifting his head from that dear bosom which gave him
   unexampled rest, he whispers, "I write unto you young men." Looking
   down from that favored place which he now occupies so near to the
   Throne of the Lamb, he looks over the battlements of Heaven upon us and
   cries, "I have written unto you, young men." In the Christian Church
   there is an order of Christians who have grown so much that they can no
   longer be called, "babes in Grace," but yet they are not so far matured
   that they can exactly be called, "fathers." These, who form the middle
   class of the spiritual-minded, are styled "young men."

   Understand that the Apostle is not writing, here, to any according to
   their bodily age--he is using human age as a metaphor and figure for
   representing growth in the spiritual life. Age, according to the flesh,
   often differs much from the condition of the spirit--many old men are
   still no more than "babes." Some children in years are, even now,
   "young men" in Grace, while not a few young men are "fathers " in the
   Church while young in years. God has endowed certain of His servants
   with great Grace and made them mature in their youth--such were Joseph,
   Samuel, David, Josiah and Timothy. It is not age according to the
   family register that we are now to speak about, but age according to
   the Lamb's Book of Life.

   Grace is a matter of growth and, therefore, we have among us babes,
   young men and fathers, whose position is not reckoned according to this
   fleeting, dying life, but according to that eternal life which has been
   worked in them by the Spirit of God. It is a great mercy when young
   men, in the natural sense, are also young men in the spiritual
   sense--and I am glad that it is largely so in this Church! The fathers
   among us need not be ashamed of their spiritual seed. In speaking to
   young men in Christ, I am speaking to a numerous body of Christians
   among ourselves who make up a very efficient part of the army of Christ
   in this region. I would ask them not to be either so modest or so proud
   as to decline to be thus classed.

   You are no longer weaklings--do not, therefore, count yourselves mere
   babes lest you plead exemption from hard service! You are hardly yet
   mature enough to rank with the fathers--do not forget the duties of
   your real place under cover of aspiring to another. It is honor enough
   to be in Christ and certainly it is no small thing to be, in spiritual
   things, a man in the prime of life! These young men are not babes--they
   have been in Christ too long for that--they are no longer novices to
   whom the Lord's house is strange. They have been born unto God
   probably, now, for years. The things which they hoped for at first they
   have, to a large extent, realized. They know now what once they could
   not understand. They are not now confined to a milk diet--they can eat
   meat and digest it well.

   They have discernment, having had their senses exercised by reason of
   use, so that they are not so liable to be misled as they were in their
   infancy. And while they have been longer in the Way, so also have they
   now grown stronger in the Way. It is not a weak and timorous faith
   which they now possess--they believe firmly and stoutly and are able to
   do battle for the "faith once delivered to the saints"--for they are
   strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. They are wiser, now,
   than they used to be. When they were children, they knew enough to save
   them, for they knew the Father and that was blessed knowledge! But now
   they know far more of the Word of God which abides in them through
   their earnest, prayerful, believing reception of it.

   Now they have a clearer idea of the breadth and length, and depth and
   height of the work of redemption, for they have been taught of God.
   They even venture to enjoy the deep things of God--and the Covenant is
   by no means an unknown thing among them. They have been under the
   blessed teaching of the Spirit of God and from Him they have received
   an unction, so that they know all things. In knowledge they are no more
   children, but men in Christ Jesus. Thus they are distinguished from the
   first class which comprehends the babes in Christ. They are not yet
   fathers because they are not yet so established, confirmed and settled
   as the fathers are, who know what they believe, and know it with a
   certainty of full assurance which nothing can shake.

   They have not yet had the experience of fathers and, consequently, have
   not all their prudence and foresight--they are richer in zeal than in
   judgment. They have not yet acquired the nursing faculty so precious in
   the Church as the product of growth, experience, maturity and
   affection. They are going on to that and in a short time they will have
   reached it, but as yet they have other work to do more suitable to
   their vigor. Do not suppose that when we say they are not to be called
   "fathers," that they are not, therefore, very valuable to the
   community, for in some senses they are quite equal to the fathers--and
   in one or two respects they may even be superior to them. The fathers
   are for contemplation--they study deep and see far--and so they "have
   known Him that is from the beginning." But a measure of their energy
   for action may have gone through stress of years.

   These young men are born to fight! They are the militia of the Church,
   they have to contend for her faith and to extend the Redeemer's
   Kingdom. They should do so, for they are strong. This is their lot and
   the Lord helps them to fulfill their calling. These must, for years to
   come, be our active spirits--they are our strength and our hope. The
   fathers must soon go off the stage--their maturity in Grace shows that
   they are ready for Glory--and it is not God's way to keep His shocks of
   corn in the field when they are fully ripe for the granary! Perfect men
   shall be gathered up with the perfect and shall enter into their proper
   sphere. The fathers, therefore, must soon be gone. And when they are
   gone, to whom are we to look for a succession but to these young men?
   We hope to have them for many years with us, valiant for the Truth of
   God, steadfast in the faith, ripening in spirit and growingly made meet
   to take their seats among the glorified saints above.

   Judge for yourselves, dear Brothers and Sisters, whether you are fairly
   to be ranked among the young men. Have no regard to the matter of sex,
   for there is neither male nor female in Christ Jesus! Judge whether you
   are fit to be ranked among those whose full-grown and vigorous life
   entitles them to stand among the effectives of the Church, the vigorous
   manhood of the seed of Israel. To such I speak. May God the Holy spirit
   bless the word!

   I. The first thing that John notes about these young men is THEIR
   POSSESSION OF STRENGTH--"I have written unto you young men, because you
   are strong." These Christians of the middle class are emphatically
   strong. This does not imply that any measure of spiritual strength was
   in them by nature, for the Apostle Paul clearly puts it otherwise
   concerning our natural state saying, "When we were yet without
   strength, Christ died for the ungodly." So that by nature we are
   without strength to do anything that is good and right.

   We are strong as a wild bull, to dash headlong into everything that is
   evil--strong as a lion to fight against all that is good and
   Godlike--but for all spiritual and holy things we are utterly infirm
   and incapable. Yes, we are as dead men until God the Holy Spirit deals
   with us! Neither does the Apostle, here, at all allude to the strength
   of the body in young men, for in a spiritual sense this is rather their
   weakness than their strength! The man who is strong in the flesh is too
   often, for that very reason, strongly tempted to sins of the flesh and,
   therefore the Apostle bids his young friend, "flee youthful lusts."
   Whenever you read the life of Samson you may thank God you had not
   Samson's muscles and sinews, or else it is more than probable that you
   would have had Samson's passions--and they might have mastered you as
   they mastered him.

   The time of life in which a young man is found is full of perils and so
   is the spiritual condition of which it is the type. The young man might
   almost wish that it were with him as with the older man in whom the
   forces of the flesh have declined, for though age brings with it many
   infirmities, it also has its gain in the abatement of the passions. So
   you see the young man cannot reckon upon vigor of the flesh as
   contributing towards real "strength"--he has, rather, to ask for more
   strength from on high lest the animal vigor that is within him should
   drag down his spirit. He is glad to be in robust health that he may
   bear much toil in the Lord's cause, but he is not proud of it, for he
   remembers that the Lord delights not in the strength of the horse, and
   takes not pleasure in the legs of a man.

   These young men in Grace are strong, first of all, in faith, according
   to that exhortation, "Be strong! Fear not!" They have known the Lord,
   now, for some time, and they have enjoyed that perfect peace which
   comes of forgiven sin. They have marked the work of the Spirit within
   themselves and they know that it is no delusion, but a Divine change--
   and now they not only believe in Christ, but they know that they
   believe in Him! They know whom they have believed and they are
   persuaded that He is able to keep that which they have committed to
   Him. That faith which was once a healing touch has now become a
   satisfying embrace! That enjoyment which was once a sip has now become
   a draught, quenching all thirst! Yes, and that which was once a draught
   has become an immersion into the river of God which is full of Living
   Water--they have plunged into the River of Life and find waters to swim
   in!

   Oh what a mercy it is to be strong in this fashion! Let him that is
   strong take heed that he glory only in the Lord who is his
   righteousness and strength--but in Him and His strength, he may,
   indeed, make his boast and defy the armies of the aliens! What says
   Paul--"I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me." My
   Brothers and Sisters, take good heed that you never lose this strength!
   Pray God that you may never sin so as to lose it; may never backslide
   so as to lose it; may never grieve the Spirit so as to lose it--for I
   reckon that to be endowed with power from on High and to be strong in
   faith, giving glory to God, is the truest glory and majesty of our
   manhood--and it were sad to lose it, or even to deface it. Oh that all
   Christians were so much advanced as to enter the enlisted battalion of
   the Lord's young men!

   This strength makes a man strong to endure. He is a sufferer, but mark
   how patient he is! He is a loser in business and he has a hard task to
   earn his daily bread, but he never complains! He has learned, in every
   state, to be content. He is persecuted, but he is not distressed. Men
   revile him, but he is not moved from the even tenor of his way. He
   grows careless, alike, of flattery and calumny. So long as he can
   please God, he cares not to displease men. He dwells on high and lives
   above the smoke of human opinion. He bears and forbears. He bows his
   neck to the yoke and his shoulders to the bur-den--and has fellowship
   with Christ in his sufferings! Blessed is that man who is so strong
   that he never complains of his trials, never whimpers and frets because
   he is made to share in the humiliations and griefs of his Covenant
   Head!

   He expected to bear his cross when he became a follower of the
   Crucified and he is not now made weary and faint when it presses upon
   him. It is a fair sight to see young Isaac bearing the wood for the
   sacrifice! Young Joseph bearing the fetters in prison with holy joy!
   Young Samson carrying away the gates of Gaza, bars and all, and young
   David praising God with his harp though Saul is feeling for his
   javelin! Such are the exploits of the young men who count it all joy
   when they fall into manifold trials for Christ's sake! O young man, be
   strong, strong as an iron column which bears the full stress of the
   building and is not moved!

   This strength shows itself, next, in laboring for Christ. The young man
   in Christ is a great worker. He has so much strength that he cannot sit
   still! He would be ashamed to leave the burden and heat of the day to
   be borne by others. He is up and at it according to his calling and
   ability. He has asked his Lord, as a favor, to give him something to
   do. His prayer has been, "Show me what You would have me to do," and
   having received an answer, he is found in the vineyard trenching the
   soil, removing the weeds, pruning the vines and attending to such
   labors as the seasons demand. His Master has said to him, "Feed My
   sheep," and, "Feed My lambs." And, therefore, you shall see him through
   the livelong day and far into the night watching over the flock which
   is committed to him.

   In all this toil he greatly rejoices, for he is strong. He can run and
   not be weary. He can walk and not faint. "By my God have I leaped over
   a wall," he says. Nothing is hard for him. Or, if it is, he remembers
   that the diamond cuts the diamond and so he sets a harder thing against
   a hard thing--and by a firm and stern resolution he overcomes. That
   which ought to be done, he declares shall be done in the power of God,
   and lo, it is accomplished! Blessed is the Church that has her quiver
   full of these! She shall speak with her adversaries in the gate. These
   are the men that work our reformations! These are the men who conduct
   our missions! These are the men who launch out into the deep for
   Christ! They make the

   vanguard of the host of God and largely compose the main body of her
   forces. I trust this Church has many such. May they yet be multiplied
   and increased among us, that we may never lack for choice soldiers of
   the Cross, able to lead on the hosts of God!

   So, also, are these young men strong to resist attack. They are
   assaulted, but they carry with them the shield of faith with which they
   quench the fiery darts of the enemy. Wherever they go, if they meet
   with other tempted ones, they spring to the front to espouse their
   cause. They are ready in the day of battle to meet attacks upon the
   faith with the sword of the Spirit--they will yield no point of faith,
   but defend the Truth at all hazards. Clad in the panoply of Truth, they
   meet no deadly wound for, by Grace, they are so preserved that the
   Wicked One touches them not. They resist temptation and are unharmed in
   the midst of peril. Do you need an example? Look at Joseph! Where
   10,000 would have fallen, he stands in snow-white purity. Joseph, as
   contrasted with David, is an instance of how a young man may bring
   greater glory to God than an older man when assailed by a similar
   temptation.

   Joseph is but young and the temptation forces itself upon him while he
   is in the path of duty. He is alone with his temptress and no one need
   know of the sin if it is committed. On the other hand, if he refuses,
   shame and possibly death may await him through the calumny of his
   offended mistress! Yet he bravely resists the assault and overcomes the
   Wicked One. He is a bright contrast to the older man, a father in
   Israel, who went out of his way to compass an evil deed and committed
   crime in order to fulfill his foul desire. From this case we learn that
   neither years, nor knowledge, nor experience can preserve any one of us
   from sin--old and young must be kept by the power of God--or they will
   be overthrown by the Tempter.

   Furthermore, these young men are not only strong for resistance, but
   they are strong for attack. They carry the war into the enemy's
   territory! If there is anything to be done, they are like Jonathan and
   his armor-bearer, eager for the fray! These are very zealous for the
   Lord of Hosts and are prompt to undertake toil and travail for Jesus'
   sake. These smite down error and set up the Truth of God! These believe
   great things, attempt great things and expect great things and the Lord
   is with them. The archers have sorely grieved them, shot at them and
   hated them--but their bows abide in strength, for the arms of their
   hands are made strong by the mighty God of Jacob! One of them shall
   chase a thousand, and two put 10,000 to flight!

   So have I shown you what these young men are--they are strong--strong
   to believe, strong to suffer, strong to do, strong to resist, strong to
   attack! May companies of these go in and out among us to fight the
   Lord's battles, for to this end has the Lord girded them with strength.

   II. Secondly, let us notice that he implies THEIR NEED OF STRENGTH, for
   he says, "You are strong, and you have overcome the Wicked One."
   Between the lines of the text I read the fact that young men who are
   strong must expect to be attacked. This also follows from a rule of
   Divine economy. Whenever God lays up stores, it is because there will
   be need of them. When Egypt's granaries were full with the supply of
   seven years of plenty, one might have been sure that seven years of
   famine were about to come. Whenever a man is strong, it is because he
   has stern work to do for, as the Israelite of old never had an ounce of
   manna left over till the morning except that which bred worms and
   stank, so there never will be a Christian that has a penny's worth of
   Grace left over from his daily requirements.

   If you are weak, you shall have no trial happen to you but such as is
   common to men. But if you are strong, rest assured that trials, many
   and heavy, are awaiting you! Every sinew in the arm of faith will have
   to be tested. Every single weapon given out of the armory of God will
   be called for in the conflict. Christian soldiering is no piece of
   military pastime--it is no proud parade--it means hard fighting from
   the day of enlistment to the day of reward. The strong young man may
   rest assured that he has no force to spend in display, no energy which
   he may use in boasting and vainglory. There is a heavy burden for the
   strong shoulder and a fierce fight for the trained hands!

   Why does Satan attack this class of men most? I reckon, first, because
   Satan is not always sure that the babes in Grace are in Grace and,
   therefore, he does not always attack beginners. But when they are
   sufficiently developed to make him see who and what they are, then his
   wrath is awakened. Those who have clean escaped from him, he will weary
   and worry to the utmost of his power. A friend writes to me to enquire
   whether Satan knows our thoughts. Of course he does not as God does!
   Satan pretty shrewdly guesses at them from our actions and our
   words--and perhaps even from manifestations upon our countenances--but
   it is the Lord, alone, who knows the thoughts of men immediately and by
   themselves.

   Satan is an old hand at studying human nature--he has been near 6,000
   years watching and tempting men and women and, therefore, he is full of
   cunning. But he is not Omniscient and, therefore, it may be that he
   thinks such and such a person is so little in Grace that perhaps he is
   not in Grace at all! And so he lets him alone--but as soon as ever it
   is certain that the man is of the royal seed--then the devil is at him!
   I do not know whether our Lord was ever tempted at Nazareth, while He
   was yet in His obscurity, but the moment He was baptized and the Spirit
   of God came upon Him, He was taken into the wilderness to be tempted of
   the devil. If you become an avowed servant of God, do not think the
   conflict is over--it is then that the battle begins!

   Straight from the waters of Baptism, it may be, you will have to go
   into such a wilderness and such a conflict as you never knew before!
   Satan knows that young men in Grace can do his kingdom great harm and,
   therefore, he would gladly slay them early in the day, as Pharaoh
   wished to kill all the male children in Israel. My Brothers and
   Sisters, you are strong to overthrow his kingdom and, therefore, you
   need not marvel that he desires to overthrow you! I think it is right
   that young men should endure hardness, or else they might become proud.
   It is hard to hide pride from men. Full of strength, full of courage,
   full of patience, full of zeal, such men are ready enough to believe
   the Wicked One when he whispers that they are perfect--and, therefore,
   trial is sent to keep them out of that grievous snare of the Evil One.

   The devil is used by God as a householder might employ a dirty, smutty
   servant to clean his pots and kettles. The devil tempts the saint and
   thus the saint sees his inward depravity and is no longer able to
   boast. The devil thinks he is going to destroy the man of God, but God
   is making the temptation work for the Believer's eternal good! Far
   better to have Beelzebub, the god of flies, pestering you, than to
   become fly-blown with notions of your own excellence. Besides, not only
   might this young man be a prey to pride, but he certainly would not
   bring the glory to God, untried, that he brings to Him when he
   overcomes temptation.

   Read the story of Job up to the time when he is tempted. You say, "We
   have no story to read." Just so, there was nothing worthy of record,
   only that his flocks and herds continued to multiply, that another
   child was born and so forth. There is no history to a nation when
   everything goes well! And it is so with a Believer. But when trial
   comes and the man plays the man, and is valiant for God against the
   arch-enemy, I hear a voice from Heaven. saying, "Write." Now you shall
   have history--history that will glorify God! It is but right that those
   who are young men and women in Christ should endure conflicts that they
   may bring honor to their Father, their Redeemer and the Holy Spirit who
   dwells in them!

   Besides, it prepares them for future usefulness, and here I venture to
   intrude the testimony of my own experience. I often wondered, when I
   first came to Christ, why I had such a hard time of it when I was
   coming to the Lord, and why I was so long and so wearied in finding a
   Savior. After that, I wondered why I experienced so many spiritual
   conflicts while others were in peace. Ah, Brothers and Sisters, I did
   not know that I was destined to preach to this great congregation! I
   did not understand, in those days, that I should have to minister to
   hundreds, and even thousands of distressed spirits, storm-tossed and
   ready to perish! But it is so, now, with me that when the afflicted
   mention their experience I can, as a rule, reply, "I have been
   there"--and so I can help them, as one who has felt the same.

   It is necessary, therefore, that the young men should bear the yoke in
   their youth and that while they are strong they should gain experience,
   not so much for themselves, as for others, that in later days when they
   come to be fathers they may be able to help the little ones of the
   family. Take your tribulation kindly, Brother. Yes, take it
   gratefully--thank your King that He puts you in commission where the
   thick of the battle centers around you. You will never be a warrior if
   you never enter the dust clouds where garments are rolled in blood. You
   will never become a veteran if you do not fight through the long
   campaign.

   So be it unto you--may your Captain save you from the canker of
   inglorious ease. You must fight in order that you may acquire the
   character which inspires others with confidence in you--and thus fits
   you to lead your comrades to the fray. Oh, that we may have, here, an
   abundance of the young men of the heavenly family who will defend the
   Church against worldliness and error, defend the weaker ones from the
   wolves that prowl around and guard the feeble against the many
   deceivers that waylay the Church of God! As you love the Lord, I charge
   you, grow in Grace and be strong, for we have need of you just now.

   Oh, my Brothers, take hold on sword and buckler; watch and stand fast!
   May the Lord teach your hands to war and your fingers to fight. In
   these evil days may you be as a phalanx to protect our Israel! The
   Canaanites, the Hivites and the

   Jebusites are upon us just now! War is at all our borders--now,
   therefore, let each valiant man stand about the King's chariot, each
   man with his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night.

   III. Thirdly, the text reminds us of THEIR PROOF OF STRENGTH--they have
   overcome the Wicked One. Then they must be strong, for a man who can
   overcome the Wicked One is not only a mean man of war--write him down
   among the first three! Wicked ones abound, but there is one crafty
   being who deserves the name of the Wicked One--he is the arch-leader of
   rebellion, the first of sinners, the chief of sinners, the tempter of
   sinners! He is the Wicked One who heads assaults against the pilgrims
   to Zion. If any man has ever stood foot to foot with him, he will never
   forget it--it is a fight that once fought will leave its scars, even
   though the victory is won!

   In what sense have these young men overcome the Wicked One? Well,
   first, in the fact that they have broken right away from his power.
   They were once his slaves--they are not so now. They once slept beneath
   his roof in perfect peace, but conscience raised an uproar and the
   Spirit of God troubled them--and they then escaped his power. Once
   Satan never troubled them at all. Why should he? They were good
   friends! Now he tempts them, worries them and assaults them because
   they have left his service, engaged themselves to a new Master and
   become the enemies of him who was once their god. I speak to many who
   gladly acknowledge that not a bit of them now belongs to the devil!
   From the crown of their head to the soles of their feet Christ has
   bought them--body, soul and spirit--with His precious blood!

   And they have assented to the purchase and feel that they are not their
   own, and certainly not the devil's, for they are bought with a price
   and belong to Him who purchased them. The strong man armed has been
   turned out by a stronger than he--Jesus has carried the fortress of the
   heart by storm and driven out the foe! Satan is not inside our heart,
   now that he entered Judas--and he cannot enter into us, for our soul is
   filled by Another who is well able to hold His own! The Wicked One has
   been expelled by the Holy One who now lives and reigns within our
   nature as Lord of All. Moreover, these young men have overcome the
   Wicked One, not only by breaking away from his power and from driving
   him entirely out of possession so that he is no longer master, but they
   have overcome him in the very fact of their opposition to him.

   When a man resists Satan, he is victorious over Satan in that very
   resistance! Satan's empire consists in the yielding of our will to his
   will, but when our will revolts against him, then already we have, in a
   measure, overcome him. Albeit that sometimes we are much better at
   willing than we are at doing, as the Apostle Paul was for he said, "To
   will is present with me; hut how to perform that which is good I find
   not." Yet, still, the hearty will to be clean from sin is a victory
   over sin and, as that will grows stronger and more determined to resist
   the temptations of the Evil One--in that device we have overcome sin
   and Satan! What a blessed thing this is for us to remember, that Satan
   has no weapons of defense, and so, when we resist him, he must flee! A
   Christian man has both defensive and offensive weapons! He has a shield
   as well as a sword--but Satan has fiery darts and nothing else! I never
   read of Satan having any shield whatever--so that when we resist him,
   he is bound to run away. He has no defense for himself and the fact of
   our resistance is, in itself, a victory!

   But, oh, Brothers and Sisters, besides that, some of us who are young
   men in Christ have won many a victory over Satan! Have we not been
   tempted, fearfully tempted? But the mighty Grace of God has come to the
   rescue and we have not yielded! Cannot you look back, not within
   Pharisaic boasting, but with gracious exultation, over many an evil
   habit which once had the mastery over you, but which is master of you
   no longer? It was a hard conflict. How you bit your lip, sometimes, and
   feared that you must yield! In certain moments your steps had almost
   gone; your feet had well-nigh slipped, but here you are, conqueror!
   Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus
   Christ! Hear what the Spirit says to you when John writes to you
   because you have overcome the Wicked One! He says, "Love not the world,
   neither the things that are in the world."

   Once more, in Christ Jesus we have entirely overcome the Wicked One,
   already, for the enemy we have to battle with is a vanquished foe--our
   Lord and Master met him and destroyed him! He is now destitute of his
   boasted battle-ax, that terrible weapon which has made the bravest men
   to quail when they have seen it in his hand. "What weapon is that?" you
   ask. That weapon is death! Our Lord overthrew him that has the power of
   death, that is, the devil, and, therefore, Satan has not the power of
   death any longer. The keys of death and of Hell are at the belt of
   Christ! Ah, Satan, we who believe in Jesus shall defeat you, for our
   Lord defeated you! That bruise upon your head cannot be hidden! Your
   crown is dashed in pieces! The Lord has sorely wounded you, O Dragon,
   and your deadly wound can never be healed!

   We have at you with dauntless courage, for we believe the promise of
   our Lord, that He will shortly bruise you under our feet. As certainly
   as you were bruised under the feet of our crucified Lord, so shall you
   be bruised under the feet of all His seed--to your utter overthrow and
   contempt! Let us take courage, Brothers and Sisters, and abide
   steadfast in the faith, for we have in our Lord Jesus overcome the
   Wicked One. We are more than conquerors through Him that has loved us!

   IV. Now I close with my fourth point, which is--THEIR SOURCE OF
   STRENGTH. You have seen their strength and their need of it--and their
   proof of it--now for the fountain of it. "The Word of God abides in
   you." I labor under the opinion that there never was a time in which
   the people of God had greater need to understand this passage than now.
   We have entered upon that part of the pilgrim path which is described
   by Bunyan as the Enchanted Ground--the Church and the world appear to
   be alike bewitched with folly! Half the people of God hardly know their
   head from their heels at this time. They are gaping after wonders,
   running after a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal and waiting for
   yet more astounding inventions. Everything seems to be in a whirligig!
   A tornado has set in and the storm is everywhere!

   Christians used to believe in Christ as their Leader and the Bible as
   their rule. But some of them are pleased with lords and rules such as
   He never knew! Believe me, there will soon come new Messiahs. Men are
   already pretending to work miracles! We shall soon have false Christs
   and, "Lo! Here!" And "Lo! There," will be heard on all sides! Anchors
   are up, winds are out and the whole fleet is getting into confusion!
   Men in whose sanity and stability I once believed, are being carried
   away with one fancy or another, and I am driven to cry, "What next? And
   what next?" We are only at the beginning of an era of mingled unbelief
   and fanaticism!

   Now we shall know who are God's elect and who are not, for there are
   spirits abroad at this hour that would, if it were possible, deceive
   even the very elect! And those who are not deceived are, nevertheless,
   sorely put to it. Here is the patience of the saints. Let him look to
   himself who is not rooted and grounded in Christ, for the hurricane is
   coming! The signs of the times indicate a carnival of delusions! Men
   have ceased to be guided by the Word of God and claim to be,
   themselves, prophets. Now we shall see what we shall see! Blessed is
   the sheep that knows his Shepherd and will not listen to the voice of
   strangers. But here is the way to be kept steadfast--"The Word of God
   abides in you." "The Word of God"--that is to say we are to believe in
   the doctrines of God's Word--and these will make us strong.

   What vigor they infuse into a man! Get the Word of God well into you
   and you will overcome the Wicked One! When the devil tempted Luther,
   the Reformer's grand grip of justification by faith made him readily
   victorious. Keep a fast hold of the Doctrines of Grace and Satan will
   soon give up attacking you, for they are like plate armor, through
   which no dart can ever force its way. The promises of God's Word,
   too--what power they give a man! To get hold of a, "shall," and,
   "will," in the time of trouble is a heavenly safeguard! "My God will
   hear me." "I will not fail you nor forsake you." These are Divine
   holdfasts! Oh, how strong a man is for overcoming the Wicked One when
   he has such a promise at hand!

   Do not trust yourself in the morning, in the street, till you have laid
   a promise under your tongue. I see people put respirators on in foggy
   weather--they do not make them look very lovely--but I dare say they
   are useful! I recommend the best respirator for the pestilential
   atmosphere of this present evil world when I bid you fit a promise to
   your lips! Did not the Lord rout the Tempter in the wilderness with
   that promise, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word
   that proceeds out of the mouth of God shall man live"? Get the promises
   of God to lodge within you and you will be strong! Then mind the
   precepts, for a precept is often a sharp weapon against Satan. Remember
   how the Lord Jesus Christ struck Satan a killing blow by quoting a
   precept--"It is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him
   only shall you serve." If the precept had not been handy, with what
   would the adversary have been rebuked?

   Nor is a threat at all a weak weapon. The most terrible threats of
   God's Word against sin are the best helps for Christians when they are
   tempted to sin--"How can I do this great wickedness and sin against
   God? How should I escape if I turned away from Him that speaks from
   Heaven?" Tell Satan the threats and make him tremble! Every Word of God
   is life to holiness and death to sin. Use the Word as your sword and
   shield--there is none like it! Now notice that John not only mentions
   "the Word of God," but the Word of God "in you." The inspired Word must
   be received into a willing mind. How? The Book which lies there is to
   be pleaded here, in the inmost heart, by the work of the Holy Spirit
   upon the mind. All of this letter has to be translated into spirit and
   life. "The Word of God abides in you"--that is, first to know it--next
   to remember it and treasure it up in your heart. Following upon this,
   we must understand it, learn the

   analogy of faith by comparing spiritual things with spiritual till we
   have learned the system of Divine Truth and more able to set it forth
   and plead for it.

   It is, next, to have the word in your affections--to love it so that it
   is as honey or the droppings of the honeycomb to you. When this is the
   case, you must and shall overcome the Wicked One! A man instructed in
   the Scriptures is like an armed knight, who, when he goes among the
   throng, inflicts many a wound, but suffers none, for he is locked up in
   steel. Yes, but that is not all! It is not the Word of God in you,
   alone, it is, "the Word of God abides in you." It is always there, it
   cannot be removed from you! If a man gets the Bible right into him, he
   is all right, then, because he is full, and there is no room for evil!
   When you have filled a measure full of wheat, you have effectually shut
   the chaff out. Men go after novel and false doctrines because they do
   not really know the Truth of God; for if the Truth had gotten into them
   and filled them, they would not have room for these daydreams!

   A man who truly knows the Doctrines of Grace is never removed from
   them. I have heard our opponents rave at what they call the obstinacy
   of our Brothers and Sisters. Once get the Truth of God really into you,
   it will enter into the texture of your being and nothing will get it
   out of you! It will also be your strength, by setting you watching
   against every evil thing. You will be on your guard if the Word of God
   abides in you, for it is written, "When you go it will keep you." The
   Word of God will be to you a bulwark and a high tower, a castle of
   defense against the foe! Oh, see to it that the Word of God is in you,
   in your very soul, permeating your thoughts and so operating upon your
   outward life, that all may know you to be a true Bible-Christian, for
   they perceive it in your words and deeds! This is the sort of army that
   we need in the Church of God--men that are strong by feeding on God's
   Word! Aspire to it, my Brothers and Sisters, and when you have reached
   it, then aspire unto the third degree that you may become fathers in
   Israel!

   Up to this measure, at any rate, let us endeavor to advance, and
   advance at once. Are there any here who are not young men in Christ
   Jesus because they are not in Christ Jesus at all? I cannot speak with
   you this morning, for my time is gone, but I am distressed for you. To
   be out of Christ is such an awful thing that a man had better to be out
   of existence! Without God, without Christ--then you are without joy in
   life or hope in death! Not even a babe in the Divine family! Then know
   this, that God shall judge those that are outside and when He comes,
   how swift and overwhelming will that judgment be! Inasmuch as you would
   not have Christ in this day, Christ will not have you in that day! Stay
   not out of Christ any longer! Seek His face and live, for, "He that
   believes in Him has everlasting life." May you be enabled to believe in
   Him at this moment, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Bridegroom's Parting Words

   (No. 1716)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, APRIL 15, 1883,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "You that dwells in the gardens, the companions hearken to your voice:
   cause Me to hear it." Song of Solomon 8:13.

   THE Song is almost ended--the bride and Bridegroom have come to their
   last stanzas--and they are about to part for a while. They utter their
   adieus and the Bridegroom says to His beloved, "You that dwells in the
   gardens, the companions hearken to your voice: cause Me to hear it." In
   other words, when I am far away from you, fill this garden with My name
   and let your heart commune with Me. She promptly replies, and it is her
   last word till He comes, "Make haste, my Beloved, and be You like a roe
   or a young hart upon the mountains of spices." These farewell words of
   the Well-Beloved are very precious to His chosen bride. Last words are
   always noticed--the last words of those who loved us dearly are much
   valued--the last words of one who loved us to the death are worthy of a
   deathless memory.

   The last words of the Lord in this canticle remind me of the commission
   which the Master gave to His disciples right before He was taken up,
   when He said to them, "Go you into all the world and preach the Gospel
   to every creature." Then, scattering benedictions with both His hands,
   He ascended into Glory and, "a cloud received Him out of their sight."
   As the sermon progresses you will see why I say this and you will
   detect a striking likeness between the commission connected with the
   Ascension and the present adieu, in which the spiritual Solomon says to
   His espoused Solyma, "You that dwells in the gardens, the companions
   hearken to your voice: cause Me to hear it."

   I. We will get to our text at once, without further preface, and we
   notice in it, first of all, AN APPOINTED RESIDENCE. The Bridegroom,
   speaking of His bride, says, "You that dwells in the gardens." The
   Hebrew is in the feminine and, therefore, we are bound to regard it as
   the word of the Bridegroom to His bride. It is the mystical word of the
   Church's Lord to His elect one! He calls her "Inhabitress of the
   gardens"--that is the word. So then, dear Friends, we who make up the
   Church of God are here addressed, this morning, under that term, "You
   that inhabits the gardens."

   This title is given to Believers here on earth, first, by way of
   distinction--distinction from the Lord, Himself. He whom we love dwells
   in the ivory palaces in which they make Him glad. He is gone up to His
   Father's Throne and has left these gardens down below. He came down
   awhile that He might look upon His garden, that He might see how the
   vines flourished and gather lilies. But He has now returned to His
   Father and our Father. He watered the soil of His garden with His
   bloody sweat in Gethsemane and made it to bear fruit unto life by being
   Himself laid to sleep in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea--but all this
   lowly work is now over.

   He does not dwell in the gardens as to His corporeal Presence. His
   dwelling place is on the Throne of God. Jesus has not taken us up with
   Him--He will come another time to do that--but now He leaves us among
   the seeds and flowers and growing plants to do the King's work until He
   comes. He was a visitor here and the visit cost Him dearly. But He has
   gone back unto the place from where He came, having finished the work
   which His Father gave Him. Our lifework is not finished and, therefore,
   we must tarry a while below and be known as inhabitants of the gardens.
   It is expedient that we should be here, even as it is expedient that He
   should not be here.

   God's Glory is to come of our sojourn here, otherwise He would have
   taken us away long ago. He said to His Father, "I pray not that You
   should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from
   the Evil One." He Himself is an inhabitant of the palaces, for there He
   best accomplishes the eternal purposes of love. But His Church is the
   inhabitress of the gardens, for there she best fulfils the decrees of
   the Most High. Here she must abide, awhile, until all the will of the
   Lord shall be accomplished in her and by her--and then she, also, shall
   be taken up and shall dwell with her Lord above. The title is given by
   way of distinction and marks the difference between her condition and
   that of her Lord.

   Next, it is given by way of enjoyment. She dwells in the gardens, which
   are places of delight. Once you and I pined in the wilderness and
   sighed after God from a barren land. We trusted in man, made flesh our
   arm and then we were like the heath in the desert which sees not when
   good comes. All around us was the wilderness of this world, a howling
   wilderness of danger, need and disorder! We said of the world at its
   very best, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." Do you remember how you
   roamed, seeking rest and finding none? Your way was the path of
   darkness which leads to death! Then you were poor and needy--and sought
   water and there was none--and your tongue cleaved unto the roof of your
   mouth for thirst.

   Then came the Lord that bought you and He sought you until He brought
   you into the gardens of His love where He satisfied you with the river
   of the Water of Life, and filled you with the fruits of His Spirit! And
   now you dwell in a goodly land--"The fountain of Jacob shall be upon a
   land of corn and wine; also his heavens shall drop down dew." Your
   portion is with the Lord's saints, yes, with Himself! And what can be a
   better portion? Is it not as the gardens of the Lord? You dwell where
   the great Husbandman spends His care upon you and takes a pleasure in
   you. You dwell where the infinite skill and tenderness and wisdom of
   God manifest themselves in the training of the plants which His own
   right hand has planted. You dwell in the Church of God which is laid
   out, in due order, and hedged about and guarded by heavenly power! And
   you are, therefore, most fitly said to dwell in the gardens.

   Be thankful! It is a place of enjoyment for you! Awake and sing, for
   the lines have fallen unto you in pleasant places. Just as Adam was put
   into the Garden of Eden for his own happiness, so are you put into the
   garden of the Church for your comfort. It is not a perfect paradise of
   bliss, but it has many points of likeness to Paradise--for God Himself
   walks there, the river of God waters it, and the Tree of Life is there
   unguarded by the flaming sword! Is it not written, "I the Lord do keep
   it: I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I will keep it
   night and day"? See, Beloved, although you are distinguished from your
   Lord by being here while He is there, yet you are made partakers of His
   joy and are not as those who are banished into a salt land to die in
   desolation! The Lord's joy is in His people and you are made to have a
   joy in them, also--the excellent of the earth, in who is all your
   delight, are made to be the comrades of your sojourning!

   The title is also used by way of employment as well as enjoyment. Adam
   was not put in the garden that he might simply walk through its
   borders, admire its flowers and taste its fruits. He was placed there
   to keep it and to dress it. There was sufficient work to be done to
   prevent his stagnating from lack of occupation. He had not to toil
   sufficiently to make him wipe the sweat from his brow, for that came of
   the curse--"In the sweat of your face shall you eat bread"--but still,
   he was not permitted to be idle, for that might have been a worse
   curse. Even for a perfect man, unbroken leisure would not be a
   blessing. It is essential, even, to an unfallen creature that he should
   have work to do--fit work and honorable-- seeing it is done by a
   creature for the great Benefactor who had created him.

   If we had not our daily tasks to fulfill, rest would corrode into rust
   and recreation would soon gender corruption. You and I are set in the
   garden of the Church because there is work for us to do which will be
   beneficial to others and to ourselves. Some have to take the broad axe
   and hew down mighty trees of error. Others of a feebler sort can, with
   a child's hand, train the tendril of a climbing plant, or drop into its
   place a tiny seed. One may plant and another may water--one may sow and
   another gather fruit. One may cut up weeds and another prune vines. God
   has work in His Church for us all to do and He has left us here that we
   may do it! Our Lord Jesus would not keep a single saint out of Heaven
   if there were not a necessity for his being here in the lowlands, to
   trim these gardens of herbs and watch these beds of spices. Would He
   deny His well-beloved the palm branch and the crown if it were not
   better for us to be holding the pruning-hook and the spade?

   A schoolbook with which to teach the little children may be, for a
   while, more to our true advantage than a golden harp. To turn over the
   pages of Scripture with which to instruct the people of God may be more
   profitable to us than to hear the song of seraphim. I say, the Master's
   love to His own which prompted Him to pray, "I will that they, also,
   whom You have given Me be with Me where I am, that they may behold My
   Glory," would long ago have drawn all the blood-bought up to Himself,
   had it not been the fact that it is, in infinite wisdom, seen to be
   better that they should abide in the flesh. You are the lights of the
   world, you are the salt of the earth! Shall the light and the salt be
   at once withdrawn? You are to be as a dew from the Lord in this dry and
   thirsty land! Would you be at once exhaled?

   Brothers, have you found out what you have to do in these gardens?
   Sisters, have you found out the plants for which you are to care? If
   not, awaken yourselves and let not a moment pass till you have
   discovered your duty and your place!

   Speak unto Him who is the Lord of all true servants and say to Him,
   "Show me what You would have me do. Point out, I pray You, the place in
   which I may serve You." Would you have it said of you that you were a
   wicked and slothful servant? Shall it be told that you dwelt in the
   gardens and allowed the grass to grow up to your ankles, and suffered
   the thorns and the thistles to multiply until your land became as the
   sluggard's vineyard, pointed at as a disgrace and a warning to all that
   passed by? "O you that dwells in the gardens!" The title sets forth
   constant and engrossing employment.

   Dear Friends, it means, also, eminence. I know many Christian people
   who do not feel that they dwell in the gardens. They reside in a
   certain town or village where the Gospel may be preached, but not in
   demonstration of the Spirit and in power. A little Gospel is made to go
   a long way with some preachers. In some ministries there is no life or
   power, no unction or savor. The people who meet under such preaching
   are cold of heart and dull in spirit. The Prayer Meetings are
   forgotten; communion of saints has well-near died out and there is a
   general deadness as to Christian effort. Believe me, it is a dreadful
   thing when Christian people have almost to dread their Sabbath days!
   And I have known this to be the case. When you are called to hard toil
   through the six days of the week you need a good spiritual meal on the
   Sabbath, and if you get it, you find a blessed compensation and
   refreshment. Is it not a heavenly joy to sit still on the one day of
   rest and to be fed with the finest of the wheat?

   I have known men made capable of bearing great trials--personal,
   relative, pecuniary and the like--because they have looked backward
   upon one Sabbatic feast and then forward to another! They have said in
   their hour of trouble-- "Patience, my heart! The Lord's Day is coming,
   when I shall drink and forget my misery. I shall go and sit with God's
   people and I shall have fellowship with the Father and with the Son.
   And my soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness till I praise
   the Lord with joyful lips." But what a sorry case to dread Sunday and
   to mutter, "I shall get nothing next Sunday any more than I did last
   Sunday except some dry, philosophical essay, or a heap of the childish
   toys and fireworks of oratory--or the same dull mumbling of a
   mechanical orthodoxy." Oh, Brothers and Sisters, my text is scarcely
   meant for those who dwell in such deserts, but it speaks with emphasis
   to those who dwell where sweet spiritual fruits are plentiful, where
   odors and perfumes load the air, where the land flows with milk and
   honey!

   If any of you happen to dwell where Christ is set forth evidently
   crucified among you and where your hearts leap for very joy because the
   King, Himself, comes near to feast His saints and make them glad in His
   Presence, then it is to you that my text has a voice and a call--"You
   that dwells in the gardens, in the choicest places of all Immanuel's
   land, let Me hear your voice." Yet one more word. The title here
   employed is not only for eminence but for permanence. "O you that
   dwells in the gardens." If you are only permitted to enjoy sound Gospel
   teaching, now and then, and then are forced to cry, "It may be another
   12 months before I shall be again fed on royal dainties," then you are
   in a trying case and you need to cry to God for help! But blessed are
   those who dwell in the good land and daily fill their homers with
   heavenly manna. "Blessed are they that dwell in Your house: they will
   be still praising You."

   No spot on earth is so dear to the Christian as that whereon he meets
   His Lord. I can understand why the Jew asked of a certain town that was
   recommended to him as good for business, "Is there a synagogue there?"
   Being a devout man, and finding that there was no synagogue, he said he
   would rather remain where trade was dull, but where he could go with
   his brethren to worship. Is it not so with us? How my heart has longed
   for these blessed assemblies! Give me a crust and a full Gospel rather
   than all riches and a barren ministry! The profitable hearing of the
   Word of God is the greatest enjoyment upon earth to godly men! It would
   be banishment to go where every week's business turned into a mint of
   money if one were also compelled to be a member of an unhappy,
   quarrelsome, or inactive Church!

   Our greatest joy is in you, O Jerusalem! Let our tongue cleave to the
   roof of our mouth if we prefer you not above our greatest joy!--

   "How charming is the place Where my Redeemer God

   Unveils the beauties of His face, And sheds His love abroad! Not the
   fair palaces,

   To which the great resort,

   Are once to be compared with this,

   Where Jesus holds His court."

   Beloved, if you dwell in the gardens you have a double privilege, not
   only of being found in a fat and fertile place, but in living there
   continually! You might well forego a thousand comforts for the sake of
   this one delight, for under the Gospel your soul is made to drink of
   wines on the lees well refined. This, then, is my first head--appointed
   residence--"You that dwells in the gardens." Is not this a choice abode
   for the Lord's beloved? I leave you to judge how far this describes
   yourselves. If it is your case, then listen to what the Bridegroom has
   to say to you.

   II. Secondly, let us note the RECORDED CONVERSATION--"You that dwells
   in the gardens, the companions hearken to your voice." She was in the
   gardens, but she was not quiet there and why should she be? God gives
   us tongues on purpose that they should be used. As He made birds to
   sing, stars to shine and rivers to flow, so has He made men and women
   to converse with one another to His Glory. Our tongue is the glory of
   our frame and there would be no glory in its being forever dumb. The
   monks of La Trappe, who maintain perpetual silence, do no more than the
   rocks among which they labor! When God makes bells, He means to ring
   them! It may be thought to be a desirable thing that some should speak
   less, but it is still more desirable that they should speak better.
   When the tongue indites a good matter, it is no fault if it is nimble
   as the pen of a ready writer. It is not the quantity, it is the quality
   of what we say that ought to be considered.

   Now, observe that evidently the spouse held frequent conversations with
   her companions--"The companions hearken to your voice." She frequently
   conversed with them. I hope it is so among those of you who dwell in
   this part of Christ's garden. It should be so--"Then they that feared
   the Lord spoke often one to another"--they had not, now and then, a
   crack; now and then the passing of the time of day, but they held
   frequent fellowship! Heaven will consist largely in the communion of
   saints, and if we would enjoy Heaven, below, we must carry out the
   words of the creed in our practice--"I believe in the communion of
   saints." Let us show that we believe in it! Some persons sit still in
   their pews till the time to go--and then walk down the aisle in
   majestic isolation, as if they were animated statues! Do children thus
   come in and out of their father's house with never a word for their
   brothers and sisters? I know professors who float through life like
   icebergs from whom it is safest to keep clear--surely these partake not
   of the spirit of Christ! It is well when such icebergs are drawn into
   the Gulf Stream of Divine Love and melt away into Christ and His
   people!

   There should be among those who are children of the common Father a
   mutual love! And they should show this by frequent commerce in their
   precious things, making a sacred barter with one another. I like to
   hear them making sacred exchanges--one mentioning his trials--another
   quoting his deliverances! One telling how God has answered prayer and
   another recording how the Word of God has come to him with power. Such
   conversation ought to be as usual as the talk of children of one
   family.

   And next, it should be willing and influential, for if you notice, it
   is put here--"You that dwells in the gardens, the companions hearken to
   your voice." They do not merely hear it, and say to themselves, "I wish
   she would be quiet," but they listen--they lend an ear, they listen
   gladly! I know some Christians whose lips feed many. I could mention
   Brothers and Sisters who drop pearls from their lips whenever they
   speak. We still have among us Chrysostoms, or men of golden mouths--you
   cannot be with them for half an hour without being enriched! Their
   anointing is manifest, for it spreads to all around them. When the
   Spirit of God makes our communications sweet, then the more of them the
   better! I like to get, sometimes, under the shadow of God's best
   people, the fathers in Israel, and to hear what they have to say to the
   honor of the name of the Lord. We who are young men feel gladdened by
   the testimonies of the ancients! And as for the babes in Grace, they
   look up to the gray-beards and gather strength from their words of
   experience and Grace.

   If there are any here whose language is such that others delight to
   listen to it, it is to such that my text is especially addressed--and
   when I come to open up the later part of it, I want you that have the
   honeyed tongues--I want you who are listened to with pleasure, to
   notice how the Beloved says to you--"The companions hearken to your
   voice: cause Me to hear it." Give your Lord a share of your sweet
   utterances! Let your Savior's ears be charmed as well as your
   companions ears! Come, speak to Him as well as to your Brothers and
   Sisters, and if there is music in your voice, let that music be for the
   Well-Beloved as well as for your fellow servants!

   This is the very heart of the matter! I cannot help alluding to it even
   before we have fairly reached that part of the text. The conversation
   of the bride in the gardens was constant and it was greatly esteemed by
   those who enjoyed it. I gather from the text, rather by implication,
   than otherwise, that the conversation was commendable, for the
   Bridegroom does not say to the spouse, "You that dwells in the gardens,
   your companions hear too much of your voice." No! He evi-

   dently mentions the fact with approval because He draws an argument
   from it why He should also hear that same voice! Brothers and Sisters,
   I leave it to yourselves to judge whether your communications with one
   another are always such as they should be. Are they always worthy of
   you?

   What communications have you had this morning? Can I make a guess?
   "Nice and fresh this morning." "Quite a change in the weather." Is not
   this the style? How often we instruct each other about what we already
   know! When it rains so as to soak our garments, we gravely tell each
   other that it is very wet! Yes, and if the sun shines, we are all eager
   to communicate the wonderful information that it is warm! Dear me, what
   instructors of our generation we are! Could we not contrive to change
   the subject? Is it because we have nothing to say of love, Grace and
   the Truth of God that we meet and part without learning or teaching
   anything? Perhaps so. I wish we had a little more small change of
   heavenly conversation--we have our crowns and sovereigns for the
   pulpit--we need silver and pence for common talk, all stamped with the
   image and superscription of the King of Heaven!

   O Holy Spirit, enrich us after this sort! May our communications be
   such that if Jesus were near, we might not be ashamed for Him to hear
   our voices! Brothers and Sisters, make your conversation such that it
   may be commended by Christ Himself! These conversations were, no doubt,
   very beneficial. As iron sharpens iron, so does a man's countenance his
   friend. Oh, what a comfort it is to drop in upon a cheerful person when
   you, yourself, are heavy! What a ballast it puts into your ship, when
   you are a little too merry, to meet with one in sore travail who bids
   you share his burden and emulate his faith. We are all the better,
   believe me, when our Lord can praise us because our companions listen
   to our voices! In fact, our communications with one another ought to be
   preparatory to still higher communications! The conversation of saints
   on earth should be a rehearsal of their everlasting communion in
   Heaven. We should begin, here, to be to one another what we hope to be
   to one another world without end.

   And is it not pleasant to rise from communion with your Brothers and
   Sisters into communion with the Bride-groom?--to have such talk with
   one another that, at last, we perceive that truly our fellowship is
   with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ? We thought that we only
   communed with our Brothers and Sisters, but we see that the Lord,
   Himself, is here! Do not our hearts burn within us? We two are talking
   of Him and now we see that He, Himself, is here, opening to us the
   Scriptures, and opening our hearts to receive those Scriptures in the
   power of them! Beloved, let us try, if we cannot make it so, that as we
   dwell together as Church members and work together in one common
   vineyard, we may be always making our fellowship with each other a
   grand staircase of fellowship with the King, Himself! Let us so talk
   that we may expect to meet Jesus while we are talking!

   How sweet to hear and see the Master in the servant, the Bridegroom in
   the Bridegroom's friend, the Head in the members, the Shepherd in the
   sheep, the Christ in every Christian! Thus may we rise upon the wings
   of hallowed communion with holy ones to yet more hallowed communion
   with the Holy One of Israel! Thus have we meditated upon two things--we
   have noted the appointed residence and the recorded conversation. We
   know what we are talking about!

   III. Now comes the pith of the text--INVITED FELLOWSHIP--"The
   companions hear your voice: cause Me to hear it." It is beautiful to
   hear the Beloved say in effect, "I am going away from you and you shall
   see Me no more; but I shall see you: do not forget Me. Though you will
   not hear My voice with your bodily ears, I shall hear your voices:
   therefore speak to Me. Unseen I shall feed among the lilies;
   unperceived I shall walk the garden in the cool of the day: when you
   are talking to others do not forget Me. Sometimes turns aside and when
   you have shut the door, and no eye can see, nor ear can hear, then let
   Me hear your voice: it has music in it to My heart, for I died to give
   you life. Let Me hear the voice of your prayers and praise and love."

   Now, I note concerning this invitation, first of all, that it is very
   loving and condescending to us that the Lord should wish to hear our
   voice! I do not wonder that some of you love to hear my voice, because
   the Holy Spirit has blessed it to your conversion--but what good has
   Jesus ever derived from any of us? Is it not marvelous that He, the
   infinitely blessed, should want to hear our voices when all that He has
   heard from us has been begging, sighing and a few poor broken hymns?
   You do not want to hear a beggar's voice, do you? I expect if the man
   you have helped a score of times should be, tomorrow morning, at your
   door, you would say, "Dear, dear; there is that man again." Might not
   the Well-Beloved say the same of you? "There she is again: come on the
   same errand. Come to confess some new faults, or to ask fresh favors."

   But instead of being tired of us, our Lord says, "Let Me hear your
   voice." O loving Bridegroom! Must He not love us very truly to ask us
   to speak with Him? Look, He asks as though He begged it of us as a
   favor, "Let Me hear your voice. Your companions listen--let Me take a
   share in their communion--they find your voice pleasant, let it be a
   pleasure, also, to Me. Come, do not deny Me, your heart's best Beloved!
   Do not be silent unto Me! Come, speak to Me with your own sweet mouth."
   It is condescending and gracious and yet how natural it is! How like
   Christ! Love always seeks the company of that which it loves! What
   would a husband say if his wife were seen to be chatty and cheerful to
   everybody else, but never spoke to him? I cannot suppose such a case!
   It would make too sorrowful a household. I should pity the poor,
   broken-hearted man who should be forced to say, "My Beloved, others
   hear your voice and admire it; will you not speak to me, your husband?"

   Believer, will you let the Lord Jesus, as it were, with tears in His
   eyes, say to you, "You talk to everybody but to Me! You lay yourself
   out to please everybody but Me! You are a charming companion to
   everybody but to Me"? Oh, our Beloved, how ill have we treated You! How
   much have we slighted You! In looking back, I fear there are many of us
   who must feel as if this gentle Word of the Lord had also a sharp side
   to it. I remember my faults this day. The text goes like a dagger to my
   soul, for I have spoken all day long to others and have had scarcely a
   word for Him whom my soul loves! Let us mend our conversation and from
   now on show our Lord a truer love. We may truly add that this
   invitation to fellowship is a blessed and profitable request. We shall
   find it so if we carry it out, especially those of us who are called by
   God to use our voices for Him among the crowds of our companions.

   1 address some Brothers and Sisters, here, who are preachers and
   teachers. What a relief it is, when you have been letting the
   companions hear your voice, to stop a bit and let Jesus hear it! What a
   rest to leave the congregation for the closet, to get away from where
   they criticize you to One who delights in you! What a relief, I say!
   And what a help to our hearts! Jesus gives us sweet returns if we
   commune with Him--and such as speakers greatly need. The Apostles said
   that they would give themselves to the Word of God and to prayer. Yes,
   we must put those two things together. We shall never totally handle
   the Word of God without prayer. When we pray, we are taught how to
   speak the Word of God to others.

   Salvation and supplication are a blessed pair. Put the two together so
   that, when you speak to others about salvation, you do it after having
   baptized your own soul into supplication! "The companions hear your
   voice: cause Me to hear it. Before you speak with them, speak to Me.
   While you are still speaking with them, speak with Me. And when your
   speaking to men is done, return unto your rest and again speak with
   Me." This invitation is a many-sided one, for when the Bridegroom says,
   "Cause Me to hear it," He means that she should speak to Him in all
   sorts of ways. Frequently we should be heard in praise. If you have
   been praising the Lord in the audience of others, turn aside and praise
   Him to His face! Sing your song to your Beloved, Himself! Get into a
   quiet place and sing where only He can hear. I wish we had more of that
   kind of music which does not care for any other audience than God.

   Oh, my God, my heart shall find You and every string shall have its
   attribute to sing while my whole being shall extol You, my Lord! The
   blessed Virgin had none with her but Elizabeth when she sang, "My soul
   does magnify the Lord, and my spirit does rejoice in God, my Savior."
   Oh, let the Lord hear your voice! Get up early to be alone with Him. So
   let it be with all your complaints and petitions--let them be for Jesus
   only. Too often we fill our follow creature's ears with the sad tale of
   all our cares. Why not tell the Lord about it and have done with it? We
   would employ our time far more profitably if, instead of murmuring in
   the tent, we enquired in the Temple. Speak with Jesus Christ, dear
   Friends, in little broken sentences, by way of frequent pleas!

   The best of Christian fellowship may be carried on in single syllables!
   When in the middle of business you can whisper, "My Lord and my God!"
   You can dart a glance upward, heave a sigh, or let fall a tear--and so
   will Jesus hear your voice! When nobody observes the motion of your
   lips, you may be saying, "My Beloved, be near me now!" This is the kind
   of fellowship which your Savior asks of you! He says, "The companions
   hear your voice: cause Me to hear it. Be sure that when you speak with
   others, you also speak with Me." This is such a blessed invitation that
   I think, dear Friends, we ought to avail ourselves of it at once! Come,
   what do you say? The best Beloved asks us to speak with Him--what shall
   we say? Think for an instant! What shall I say? Perhaps I have the
   advantage because I have my words ready! Here they are--"Make haste, my
   Beloved, and be You like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of
   spices."

   "Why," you say, "that is what the Church said in the last verse of the
   Song!" Exactly so, and that is what we may wisely say at this moment.
   We cannot improve upon it! "Come quickly; even so, come quickly, Lord
   Jesus." Often and often, then, when you are about your business, say,
   "Come, Lord Jesus! Come quickly! "It is a sweet frame of mind to be in
   to be willing to invite Christ to come--and whenever you cannot do so,
   let it be a warning to you that you are in dangerous waters! I can
   imagine a man in business calling himself a Christian about to engage
   in a doubtful transaction-- how is he to discern the danger? Let him
   ask the Lord Jesus Christ to come while he is doing it! "Oh dear, no,"
   cries one, "I had rather He should not come until that matter is
   finished and forgotten!"

   Then be you sure that you are moving in the wrong direction! Suppose
   you think of going to a certain place of amusement about which you have
   a question? It is easy to decide it thus--When you take your seat, your
   first thing should be to bow your head and ask for a blessing. And then
   say, "Lord, here I sit waiting for Your appearing." "Oh," you say, "I
   should not want the Lord to come there." Of course you would not! Then
   do not go where you could not wish your Lord to find you! My text may
   thus be a monitor to you, to keep you from the paths of the Destroyer.
   Jesus says, "Let Me hear your voice," and let your voice utter these
   desires--"Even so, come quickly; come, Lord Jesus!" Alas, time reproves
   me! I must hurry on.

   IV. I have a fourth head which shall be very briefly handled. I find
   according to the Hebrew that the text has in it a REQUESTED TESTIMONY.
   According to learned interpreters, the Hebrew runs thus, "cause to hear
   Me." Now, that may mean what I have said, "Cause Me to hear," but it
   may also mean, "Cause them to hear Me." Now listen, you that are in
   Christ's garden--make those who dwell in that garden with you to hear
   from you much about HIM! In the Church everyone has a right to talk
   about the Head of the Church. Some of our Brothers and Sisters in this
   Tabernacle kindly undertake to speak to individuals about their souls
   and, now and then, they receive very sharp rebuffs. "What right has he
   to put such a question? How dare he intrude with personal remarks?
   What? Is the man poaching?"

   No, these are the Lord's preserves, and the Lord's gamekeepers have a
   right to do as they are bid by Him. They are not poaching in this
   place, for they are on the Master's own land! Anywhere inside these
   four walls you may speak to anybody about Christ and no man may forbid
   you! Speak lovingly and tenderly and prudently, but certainly the law
   of the house is that here we may speak about the Lord of the House!
   There are some other things you may not talk about, but about the Lord
   Jesus you may speak as much as you will. In the garden, at any rate, if
   not in the wilderness, let the Rose of Sharon be sweetly spoken of! Let
   His name be as an ointment poured forth in all the Church of God.

   Again, you, according to the text, are one that can make people hear,
   so that, "the companions hearken to your voice." Then make them hear of
   Jesus! You have the gift of speech--use it for Christ Crucified! I
   always feel regret when a powerful speaker espouses any other cause but
   that of my Lord. Time was when I used to wish that Milton had been a
   preacher and, instead of writing a poem, had proclaimed the Gospel to
   the multitude. I know better, now, for I perceive that God does not use
   learning and eloquence so much as knowledge of Christ and plain speech.
   But still, I am jealous of any man who can speak well, that he should
   not give my Lord the use of his tongue. Well-trained tongues are rare
   things, and they should be all consecrated to Christ's Glory! If you
   can speak to the companions--make them hear about Christ! If you can
   speak well, make them hear attractive words about Christ!

   If you do not speak about Christ to strangers, do speak to your
   companions. They will listen to you! Therefore let them listen to the
   Word of the Lord. I have heard of men who called themselves Christians,
   yet who never spoke to their children about their souls; never spoke to
   their servants nor to their work people about Jesus and His love! This
   is to murder souls! If tongues can bless and do not, then they, in
   effect, curse men by their silence! If you have a voice, make the name
   of Jesus to be sounded out all around you. Many are the voices that
   strike upon the ear--the world is full of noise even to distraction,
   yet the name which is above all other names is scarcely heard! I pray
   you, my Brethren, you that are like silver bells, ring out that name
   over hill and dale! As with a clarion, trumpet forth the saving name of
   Jesus till the deaf hear the sound!

   Whatever is left out of your testimony, be sure that Christ Crucified
   is first and last in it. Love Christ and live Christ! Think of Christ
   and speak of Christ! When people go away from hearing you preach, may
   they have to say, "He kept to his subject--he knew nothing but Jesus."
   It is ill when a man has to say of preachers, "They have taken away my
   Lord and I know not where they have laid Him!" Yet in certain sermons
   you meet with a little about everything except the one thing. They
   offer us what we do not need and the need of the soul is not supplied.
   Oh, my Brothers, cause Christ to be

   heard! Hammer on that anvil always! If you make no music but that of
   the harmonious blacksmith, it will suffice. Ring it out with sturdy
   blows--"Jesus, Jesus, Jesus Crucified!" Hammer away at that!

   "Now you are on the right string, man," said the Duke of Argyle, when
   the preacher came to speak upon the Lord Jesus. It needed no duke to
   certify that! Harp on that string! Make Jesus to be as commonly known
   as now He is commonly unknown! So may God bless you as long as you
   dwell in these gardens, till the day breaks and the shadows flee away.
   Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Marvelous Magnet

   (No. 1717)

   DELIVERED BY

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON,

   "I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me. This
   He said, signifying what death He should die." John 12:32,33.

   On an evening when the regular hearers left their seats to be occupied
   by strangers.

   JESUS is the spokesman here. He tells of His own death by crucifixion
   and of the result which will follow. It appears, then, that our Lord's
   power to draw all men to Himself lies mainly in His death. By being
   lifted up from the earth upon the Cross, He was made to die and He also
   was made to draw all men unto Himself. There is an attractive power
   about our Lord's Person, about His life and about His teaching. But,
   still, the main attractive force lies in His death upon the Cross! Most
   certainly this is rare and strange, for when a great religious leader
   dies, a large measure of his personal power is gone. The charm of the
   man's manner, the impressiveness of his personal conviction, the lofty
   tone of his daily enthusiasm--these are immense helps to a cause while
   they are with us! But to lose them is a fearful drawback such as makes
   it perilous for a religious leader to die.

   Men may remember a leader's life for a time after his death--they will
   do so most emphatically if he has been eminently good. We say of the
   righteous--"Even in their ashes live their habitual fires." From many a
   tomb there rises a silent voice more eloquent than the choicest
   speech--"He being dead yet speaks." But there is a measure and boundary
   to the influence of a mere memory. How often is it the case that, after
   a little while, the leader having gone, the feebler folk gradually drop
   away; the hypocritical openly desert; the lukewarm wander and so the
   cause dies out. The man's successors desert his principles, or maintain
   them with but little life and energy and, therefore, what was once a
   hopeful effort expires like a dying taper. For a man's work to prosper
   it is not desirable that he should die.

   Is it not strange that what is so often fatal to the influence of other
   men is a gain to our Lord Jesus Christ? For it is by His death that He
   possesses His most powerful influence over the sons of men! Because
   Jesus died, He is, this day, the mightiest ruler of human minds, the
   great center to which all hearts are being drawn! Remember, too, that
   our Lord Jesus Christ died by a most shameful death. We have come to
   use the cross as an ornament and, by some, it is regarded as an object
   of reverence. But the cross, to speak very plainly, was to the ancients
   what the gallows are to us--an odious instrument of death for
   felons--exactly that and no more!

   The death on a cross was one never allotted to a Roman citizen except
   for certain heinous crimes. It was regarded as the death penalty of a
   slave. It was not only painful, it was disgraceful and ignominious. And
   to say that a man was crucified was, in our Lord's time, exactly
   tantamount to saying in our speech today that he was hanged. It means
   just that-- and you must accept the death of the cross with all the
   shame that can be connected with the gallows and the tree of death, or
   else you will not understand what it meant to Jesus and His disciples.

   Now, surely, if a man is hanged, there is an end to his influence among
   men. When I was looking through all the Bible commentaries in the
   English language, I found one with a title page attributing it to Dr.
   Coke. But on further examination I perceived that it was the commentary
   of Dr. Dodd, who was executed for forgery! After He had been hanged, of
   course the publishers could not sell a commentary under his name and so
   they engaged another learned doctor to take it under his wing. The man
   was hanged and, therefore, people would not read his book--and you are
   not at all surprised that it should be so.

   But here is an amazing thing. The Lord Jesus has lost no influence by
   having been hanged upon the Cross! No, rather it is because of His
   shameful death that He is able to draw all men unto Himself! His Glory
   rises from His humiliation! His adorable conquest from His ignominious
   death! When He "became obedient unto death, even the death of the
   Cross," shame cast no shame upon His cause, but gilded it with Glory!
   Christ's death of weakness threw no weakness into

   Christianity! Say rather that it is the right arm of her power! By the
   sign of suffering unto death, the Church has conquered and will conquer
   still! By a love which is strong as death, she has always been
   victorious and must, forever, remain so. When she has not been ashamed
   to put the Cross in the forefront, she has never had to be ashamed, for
   God has been with her and Jesus has drawn all men to Himself.

   The Crucified Christ has irresistible attractions--when He stoops into
   the utmost suffering and scorn, even the brutal must relent--a living
   Savior men may love, but a crucified Savior they must love! If they
   perceive that He loved them and gave Himself for them, their hearts are
   stolen away--the city of Mansoul is captured before the siege begins
   when the Prince Emanuel uncovers the beauties of His dying love before
   the eyes of the rebellious ones! Let us never be ashamed, dear Friends,
   to preach Christ Crucified--the Son of God lifted up to die among the
   condemned! Let those of us who teach in the Sunday school, or preach at
   the street corner, or in any other manner try to set forth the Gospel,
   always keep a dying Christ to the front!

   Christ without the Cross is no Christ at all. Never forget this! He is
   the eternal God, but bind with that Truth of God the fact that He was
   nailed to a Roman cross. It is on the tree He triumphed over Satan and
   it is by the Cross that He must triumph over the world. "I, if I am
   lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me. This He said,
   signifying what death He should die." The great Truth of the text I
   have stated to you--let me enlarge thereon.

   I. I shall try to speak, first, upon the ATTRACTIVE FORCE WHICH LIES IN
   A CRUCIFIED SAVIOR. You will observe that it is briefly summed up in
   these words--Himself to Himself. "I will draw all men unto Me." It is
   not written that Christ will draw all men to the visible Church, for
   the universal profession of our holy faith is slow enough in coming.
   Certainly the Lord Jesus Christ will not lend Himself out to draw men
   to your sect or to mine. He will draw always towards truth and
   righteousness, but not to dead forms or meaningless distinctions--nor
   to the memories of former wrongs or party victories.

   If the Lord should draw men to the Cathedral or the Tabernacle, the
   Abbey or the Chapel, it would be of little service to them, unless, in
   each case they found Him! The main thing that is needed is that they be
   drawn to Him and none can draw them to Him but Him. Himself drawing
   them to Himself--this is the soul of the text. I dare say that you have
   heard the oft-recounted story of the missionaries among the
   Greenlanders. Our Moravian Brethren, full of fire and zeal and
   self-denial, went right away among the ignorant folk of Greenland, as
   those people then were, longing to convert them. Using large prudence,
   they thought, "These people are so benighted that it cannot be of any
   use to preach Jesus Christ to them at first. They do not even know that
   there is a God, so let us begin by teaching them the nature of the
   Deity, showing them right and wrong, proving to them the need of
   atonement for sin and setting before them the rewards of the righteous
   and the penalties of the wicked."

   This was judged to be most fit preparatory work. Watch for the result!
   They went on for years, but had no converts. What was there in all that
   fine preparatory teaching that could convert anybody? Jesus was being
   locked out of the Greenlanders' hearts by those who wanted Him to
   enter! But one day one of the missionaries happened to read to a poor
   Greenlander the story of Jesus bleeding on the Cross and how God had
   sent His Son to die, "that whoever believes in Him should not perish,
   but have everlasting life." And the Greenlander said, "Would you read
   me that again? What wonderful words! Did the Son of God die for us poor
   Greenlanders that we may live?" The missionary answered that it was
   even so and, clapping his hands, the simple native cried, "Why did you
   not tell us that before?"

   Ah, just so! Why not tell them this at once and leave it to clear its
   own path? That is the point to begin with! Let us start with the Lamb
   of God which takes away the sin of the world. "God so loved the world
   that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should
   not perish, but have everlasting life." To my mind that is the point to
   begin with and the point to go on with--yes, that is the Truth of God
   to conclude with, if there can ever be any conclusion to the grand old
   story of the Incarnate God who loved His enemies and gave Himself to
   die in their place, that they might live through Him! The Gospel is
   Jesus drawing sinners to Himself that they might live through Him!

   Dear Hearers, do you know what this means? I know that many of you do
   and you are happy, for in this knowledge there is life. Would to God
   that all knew this power of love in Christ--knew it so as to be drawn
   by almighty love to return that love with all their heart, soul and
   strength! The best thing that can happen to any of us is to feel Christ
   drawing him to Christ and to find himself sweetly yielding to the
   gentle drawing of the Savior's love! The text says that Jesus Christ
   will draw all men unto Himself. Now, all men who hear of Jesus Christ
   at all are drawn, but they do not all yield.

   Some of them pull back and the most awful thing that ever happens to a
   man is when he pulls back till Jesus lets him go! What a fall is that,
   when the drawing power is taken away, and the man fails backward into a
   destruction which he, himself has chosen, having refused eternal life
   and resisted the Savior's power!

   Unhappy is the wretch who strives against his own salvation! Every man
   that hears the Gospel feels some measure of its drawing power. I appeal
   to any one of you who has been accustomed to hear it. Does not Jesus
   sometimes tug hard at your conscience and, though you have pulled back,
   yet has He not drawn and drawn again? I remember how He drew me as a
   child and, though I drew back from Him, yet He never let me go till He
   drew me over the border line. Some of you must well remember how you
   were drawn by a mother's gentle words--by a teacher's earnest
   pleadings--by a father's admonitions--by a sister's tears--by a
   pastor's entreaties.

   Permit your memories to aid me. Bring up before your mind's eye the
   many dear ones who have broken their hearts to win you for Jesus. Yes,
   you have been drawn! I suppose that all of you have felt a measure of
   that drawing. Why, it is not merely those that hear the Gospel, but
   whole nations have been drawn, in other respects, by the all-pervading
   influence of Jesus and His love! At this instant the influence of
   Christianity is being felt in every corner of the earth to an extent
   which it is not easy to exaggerate. If I had an orator's power, I would
   picture my Savior casting golden chains of love over all nations,
   wherever the missionary goes preaching His name! The Lord is taming the
   nations as a man, by degrees, subdues wild beasts!

   Jesus is gradually drawing the heathen to Himself. He has had a long
   tug at India. That dead weight still lies in the furrow. But it must
   come! It must yield! All those that watch it know that if there is any
   cause that makes progress in India, it is the cause of Christ. The East
   appears never to move, but if there is any move, it is Christward.
   Jesus is drawing China slowly. Japan is being drawn as in a net. Where
   the testimony of Christ has been borne, the idols begin to shake and
   their priests confess that a change is coming! Every century sees a
   marked advance in the world's condition and we shall progress at a
   quicker rate, yet, when the Church wakes up to a sense of her
   responsibility and the Holy Spirit is poured out upon the Church to
   turn us all into missionaries, causing us all, in some way or other, to
   preach the Gospel of

   Christ!

   Jesus is drawing, drawing, drawing! When God meant to scatter the
   individuals of our race, they would not be scat-tered--they built a
   tower to be the center of union! And only by their tongues being so
   changed that they could not understand one another could their resolve
   to remain in one company be defeated. But now, behold, the whole earth
   has the race of men to cover it--the sons of Adam dwell in every region
   and it is the Father's will to gather together in one the redeemed of
   the Lord. Therefore He has set in their midst the great Shiloh, of whom
   it was prophesied of old, "To Him shall the gathering of the people
   be."

   The roaming races do not answer to the Father's call. They do not want
   to come to the elder Brother's rule, but they will have to come, for He
   must reign! Gentile and Jew, African and European--they shall all meet
   at the Cross, the common center of our entire manhood--for Christ is
   lifted up and He is drawing all men to Him. But all men are not saved.
   No, for when drawn they do not come. Yet Christ Crucified is drawing
   some men of all kinds and sorts to eternal life. When Jesus died on the
   Cross it was not for my lord and lady only--nor was it only for the
   working man--it was for all sorts of people--

   "While Grace is offered to the prince, The poor may take their share.
   No mortal has a just pretense To perish in despair."

   He that is best taught and instructed has often been drawn to Jesus by
   the Lord's overpowering charms. Some of the most learned of men have
   been delighted to come to Christ. But the most illiterate and rude have
   equally been drawn by Jesus and it has been their joy to come. I love
   to hear of the Gospel being preached to the poorest of the poor--and so
   preached that it reaches those who never were reached by it before.
   Godspeed every effort by which Jesus is set before the fallen and
   degraded--so long as it is the Gospel and not mere rant, we wish
   Godspeed to the most irregular of wit-nesses--our fears begin only when
   Jesus is no longer in the front!

   We greatly need to have the Gospel preached in the West of London and
   so preached that our great ones may receive it and find life through
   Jesus Christ. May such a movement soon take place! How I should like to
   hear of a converted duke telling out the Gospel, or a reclaimed Knight
   of the Garter proclaiming mercy for the chief of sinners! Why not?

   And, blessed be God, the Savior, lifted up, draws all sorts of men to
   Himself--some of every kind--not the Jew alone, as at the first, but
   the Gentile too!--

   "None are excluded but those Who do themselves exclude. Welcome the
   learned and polite, The ignorant and rude."

   There is no exclusion of any class or creature from the mercy of God in
   Christ Jesus. "I, if I am lifted up, will draw all men unto Me"--and
   the history of the Church proves how true this is--the muster roll of
   the converted includes princes and paupers, peers and pot men

   But what is this force that attracts men to the crucified Savior? They
   come--there is no doubt about it. Look, Sirs--there is nothing in the
   world that men will hear so gladly as the Gospel. How many years have I
   stood in this place to preach to a congregation precisely similar to
   the present! The crowds have been here as regularly as the hours,
   Sunday after Sunday, morning and evening, year after year! Suppose that
   I had been appointed to preach upon a scientific subject? Could I have
   gained or held such audiences? I should have been spun out a long while
   ago if I had been bound to draw upon myself for my matter. If I had
   preached any other than the doctrine of Christ Crucified, I should,
   years ago, have scattered my audience to the winds of Heaven.

   But the old theme is always new, always fresh, always attractive.
   Preach Jesus Christ! That is the recipe for catching men's ears and
   laying hold upon men's hearts. The name of Jesus is to man's heart the
   most mighty of charms--man's ears wait for it as the morning hour waits
   for the sun, or as the parched earth waits for the shower! Ring out the
   name of Jesus--it is the sweetest carol ever sung. Ring it out without
   fear or stint, for it is always welcome as the flowers in May! Men will
   never tire of it till the flowers are satiated with sunlight and the
   grass grows weary of the dew! The music of that blessed silver bell
   rings out over hill and dale as sweetly as when, on the first Christmas
   night, the angels sang, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
   peace, good will toward men."

   There is about Calvary and its infinite stoop of Divine Love a power
   that never dies out and never will while the world stands. What is it?
   From where does this universal attractiveness come? Well, first, it is
   the force of love, for Jesus Christ is Incarnate Love. In Him you see
   One who divested Himself of all His Glory that He might save the
   guilty--who came down upon earth, not seeking wealth and fame, but
   simply seeking to do good by saving men--who, having laid aside His
   honor and His Glory, at last laid aside His life! And all for love--for
   love which met a sad return--for love which has, however, saved its
   objectives with a great salvation!

   One of the school men says that whenever we know that another person
   loves us, we cannot help giving back a measure of love in return, and I
   believe that the statement is true. Certainly, such love as the love of
   Christ, when it is told out simply, and men can understand it, is
   certain to excite an interest, to win a degree of attention and so to
   lead up to better things. Full often this love proves its power over
   observers by transforming them from enemies into friends and, though
   they at first despised the Redeemer, His love compels them, at length,
   to believe and to adore! If I were asked the secret of the attracting
   power of the Crucified Savior, I would answer that it is invincible
   love.

   The only crime that ever could be laid to Jesus' charge was that of
   which the poet sings--"found guilty of excessive love"--loving beyond
   all reason and beyond all boundaries--loving as none ever loved before!
   So that if all the rivers of human love ran together, they could not
   fill such another ocean of love as was in the heart of Jesus the
   Savior! This it is--this unique, unrivaled love--which draws men to
   Jesus! The pierced heart of Christ is a loadstone to draw all other
   hearts. No doubt there is also this about the Crucified Savior--that He
   draws men by the wonderful rest which His death provides for men.

   The most earnest Christian man must, sometimes, have his doubts as to
   whether all is right with him. The more sincere a man is, the more does
   he tremble lest he should deceive himself. You, good Brother, have your
   personal anxieties; certainly I have mine. But when I turn my eyes to
   Jesus upon the Cross and view the crown of thorns, the sacred head, the
   eyes that were red with weeping, the hands nailed fast to the wood and
   the feet dripping with gore--and when I remember that this shameful
   death was endured for love of me--I am so quiet and so happy in my
   spirit that I cannot tell how peacefully my life-floods flow! God must
   forgive my grievous fault, for my Redeemer has so grievously answered
   for it!

   When I see Jesus die, I perceive that from now on Divine justice is on
   the sinner's side. How can the Lord God punish the same offense
   twice--first the Substitute--and then the men for whom that Substitute
   has bled? Christ has bled as

   Substitute for every man that believes in Him--therefore is every
   Believer safe! Oh, Brothers and Sisters, when you are troubled, rest
   with us by looking to Calvary! And if the first glance does not quiet
   you, look, and look, and look again--for every grief will die where
   Jesus died. Not to Bethlehem, where the stars of Christmas burn, do we
   look for our greatest comfort, but to that place where the sun was
   darkened at midday and the face of Eternal Love was veiled! Because the
   Lord of Life and Glory was dying in siremis, suffering the most deadly
   pain for our sakes, therefore His wounds distilled the richest balm
   that ever healed a sinner's wounds!

   Men know this. Reading their Bibles, they soon find it out. There is no
   comfort for them against the anger of God and against their guilty
   consciences, until they see Christ in their place, suffering for them.
   The conscience sees with unspeakable delight the Victim provided! She
   gladly lays her hand on Jesus' head and sees her sin transferred to
   Him, punished in Him--and thus it finds rest--the rest of God. In the
   expiatory death of Jesus, the Law is vindicated and God is "just, and
   yet the Justifier of him that believes." Dear Friends, believe me,
   Jesus bestows the peerless pearl of perfect rest on every heart that
   comes to Him! He fills the soul so that it has no more longings.

   You know the horseshoe magnet and you have seen how rapidly it picks up
   pieces of iron. Have you ever put a piece of iron right across the two
   ends of the magnet? You will then have noticed that it ceases to
   attract anything else. The magnetic circuit is completed and the magnet
   rests perfectly quiet, refusing to go beyond its own circle of pure
   content. When my soul is filled with Jesus, He completes the circuit of
   my soul's passions and longings! He is all my salvation and all my
   desire! Have you found it so? Has not your soul come to an absolutely
   perfect rest when it has gotten to Christ? When He, Himself, has drawn
   you to Himself, have you not entered into rest? Because men perceive
   that such a rest is to be had, therefore they come to Christ. He
   Himself uses this as an argument why they should come! Remember His
   cheering words, "Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden,
   and I will give you rest." This is part of the attractive force which
   dwells in the Crucified Savior.

   Then I am sure that there is a great attraction about Christ when we
   see the change which He works in men. Have you known a drunk become a
   Christian, or a thief become upright? Have you seen a harlot made
   chaste? Have you marked any of the modern miracles which are always
   going on around us in the form of conversions? If you have taken
   pleasure in these signs and wonders, I know that you have said, "Lord,
   I, too, will come to You to be converted." The sight of His power to
   elevate and sanctify has attracted you to Jesus and you have fallen at
   His feet. There is no true, deep, tender, living conversion except
   through the Cross and, therefore, those that are taught of God do love
   to come to Christ, that sin may be conquered in them, that the heart of
   stone may be taken away, that the heart of flesh may be given and that
   they may walk the happy way of holiness according to the example of
   their adorable Master.

   I could continue thus to show what this attractive force is, but, lest
   I should weary you, I will only say that it lies much in His
   sufferings, themselves. Is it not a strange thing that suffering
   attracts? Yes, more--lowly Suffering con-quers--she sits as a queen
   upon her throne and reigns by the royalty of her resignation! The ship
   of the Church has plowed its way through seas of blood. With the
   blood-red Cross at the masthead, she has pushed on, even in the night,
   throwing the crimson spray about her. She has never paused because of
   persecution, affliction, or death--these are the rough winds which fill
   her sails. No progress is surer than that which comes of holy
   suffering. The enemies of the Church have taken her disciples and
   burned them, but their deaths yielded a sweet savor of life.

   It is questionable if a man's influence can be better promoted than by
   sending him aloft in a chariot of fire. What made us a Protestant
   nation for so many years? I do not say that we are Protestant now--but
   what made us enthusiastically Anti-papist for so many years? The stakes
   of Smithfield did it! Men and women stood and saw the martyrs
   burned--and as they saw them die, they said, "These men are right, and
   the cause for which they burn is true"--and into the very heart of
   England martyrdom cast up a way for the Lord Jesus and He entered then
   and there into Old England's secret soul!

   What the martyrs did, in their measure, by their bitter death-pangs, is
   being done on a Divine scale by the sufferings of the Chief of all
   martyrs and Head of all witnesses! By the agonies of Jesus, men's
   affections are moved and their hearts enthralled. Are any of you
   unconverted and do you wish to be converted? I cannot suggest a better
   exercise than to read over the story of the death of Christ, as it is
   told by the four Evangelists. When you have read it once, read it
   again! And as you read it say, "Lord, I must have a sadly hard heart,
   or else this would move me to tears. I pray You, change my

   heart."

   Then read the story again, for surely, at last it will touch you. God
   the Holy Spirit blessing you, it will move you and you will be among
   the "all men" that shall be drawn to Jesus by His own personal force!
   So much, then, about what this force is.

   II. Very briefly, my second head is to be--HOW IS THIS FORCE EXERCISED?
   This force is exercised through the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit of
   God who puts power into the Truth of God about Christ! And then men
   feel that Truth and come to Christ and live. But our blessed Lord and
   Master uses instruments. The force of Christ's love is sometimes shown
   to men by those who already love Him. One Christian makes many. One
   Believer leads others to faith. To come back to my metaphor of a
   magnet--you have sometimes seen a battery attached to a coil and then,
   if you take a nail and put it on the coil, the nail has become a strong
   magnet. You notice that the nail turns into a magnet, for you take
   another nail and you put it on the end of it and it holds the second
   nail fast.

   Now number two is turned into a magnet. Try it. Put a third nail upon
   it. See, it is held fast! Number three has become a magnet. Try the
   next nail--it holds on to it like grim death--and now number four has
   become a magnet! Bring another nail within the influence. Number five
   has become a magnet. And so it continues. On and on and on the
   magnetism goes, from one nail to another. But now, just go to your
   battery, detach one of your wires--and the nails drop off, directly,
   for the coil has ceased to be a magnet and the nails have ceased to be
   magnets, too! All the magnetism comes from the first place from which
   it started--and when it ceases at the fountainhead, there is an end of
   it altogether.

   Indeed, Jesus Christ is the great attractive magnet and all must begin
   and end with Him! When Jesus lays hold upon us, we get hold of a
   brother and before long he turns into a magnet, also. Thus from one to
   another, the mystic influence proceeds--but the whole of the force
   abides in Jesus. More and more the Kingdom grows, "ever mighty to
   prevail," but all the growing and the prevailing come out of Him! So it
   is that Jesus works--first by Himself--and then by all who are in Him.
   May the Lord make us all magnets for Himself. Jesus says, "I, if I am
   lifted up, will draw all men unto Me," but He leaves room in His figure
   for the co-working of all grateful hearts.

   Jesus draws men gradually. Some are brought to Christ in a moment, but
   many are drawn by slow degrees. The sun, in some parts of the world,
   rises above the horizon in a single instant. But in our own country, at
   this season of the year, it is beautiful to watch the dawn, from the
   first gray light to the actual break of day. Is it dark, or is it
   light? Well, it is not quite dark--it is visible darkness! By-and-by
   there is light. No sun is up as yet, but yet the light increases till
   the East begins to glow and the West reflects the radiance! Then,
   by-and-by, up rises the great king of day. So does the Lord bring many
   to Himself by gentle degrees. They cannot tell when they were
   converted, but they are converted, for they have come to Christ!

   Rest assured that He will not send you back. Do not say, "I am not
   converted, for I do not know the moment of the great Change." I knew an
   old lady, once, who did not know her birthday--but I never told her
   that she was not born because of that, for there she was! And if you do
   not know when you were made a Christian, yet, if you are a Christian,
   it little matters how or when. If you are really born of God, the date
   of your new birth is interesting to curiosity but not important to
   piety. Salvation is often accomplished by a lengthened process. I have
   heard that when they wanted to bridge a great chasm they shot an arrow
   or a bullet, which drew with it a tiny thread, across the river. That
   was all the communication from bank to bank and the rolling torrent was
   far below.

   Despise not the day of small things! The insignificant beginning was
   prophetic of grand results. By means of that little thread, they drew
   across a piece of twine and, when they had safely grasped it on the
   other side, they bound a small rope to the end of the twine--and then
   they drew the rope across! And then to that rope they tied a cable and
   they drew the cable across--and now, over that chasm, there strides an
   iron bridge--along which the steam horse rattles with his mighty load!
   So does Jesus unite us to Himself! He may employ, at first, an
   insignificant thread of thought. Then a sense of pleasant interest.
   Then some deeper feeling. Then a crushing emotion; then a faint faith;
   then stronger faith; then stronger yet, until, at last, we come to be
   firmly bound to Christ! Oh, be thankful if you have only a thread of
   communication between you and Jesus, for it will lead to more!
   Something more hopeful will be drawn across the gulf before long!

   Christ's attractions are often very gradually revealed and their
   victorious energy is not felt all at once. Moreover, the cords of our
   Lord's drawings are very secret. You see the swallows twittering round
   our roofs, hawking in the air, shooting up into the clouds, or flashing
   by our ears. It is summer and they are paying us their annual visit.
   They will be with us for a time, but all of a sudden we will see them
   getting together about the gable of an old house, holding agitated con-

   gregations and evidently discussing matters of importance. The Lord of
   birds is gently drawing every swallow in England down towards the
   African coast--and they will all go, without exception--as the secret
   summons reaches the flying host! They know but little of the way, but
   their flight is not, therefore, delayed or its course left to
   uncertainty! Over thousands of miles of sea and land they pursue their
   course until they come to their resting place.

   And then, next spring, the same power that drew them southward will
   draw them all northward again! And here they will come and we shall
   hear their joyous twitter and say to ourselves, "Summer is coming, for
   here are the swallows, again." By a secret power of that order does
   Jesus draw home the strangers and the foreigners whom His Grace has
   cho-sen--they say to one another, "Come, and let us go up to the House
   of the Lord. Let us seek the face of the Savior." The mystic
   attractions of the power of Christ are secretly drawing many who knew
   Him not and now they ask their way to Zion with their faces
   Christ-ward!

   Look how the sun draws along the planets. He hastens on in his mighty
   career in space--I know not where, but drawing with him all the worlds
   which compose the solar system--all these silently attend his majestic
   marches. Such is Christ, the great central Sun--all His people follow,
   for He draws. Stand by the seashore and notice what the moon can do.
   You do not even see her, for it is high noon--but here comes a wave,
   and then another, and then another, and the tide rises a little higher
   today than it did yesterday. What is it that causes this pulse of life,
   these heart-throbs of the deep? The moon's attractive power is drawing
   up the waters from the sea! Even so our glorious Christ, in ways
   unknown to us, draws the hearts of men by His mighty Spirit wherever He
   pleases, "I, if I am lifted up, will draw all men unto Me."

   Fail not to observe how gently He does it! The classic heathen adored a
   goddess whom they represented as riding in a chariot drawn by doves.
   Surely the most tender mode of impulse--power without force, motion
   born of emotion! Certain of us were wafted to Jesus by some such
   zephyr. We could not but yield--the softness and tenderness of every
   touch of Jesus affected us infinitely more than force could possibly
   have done! Hearts are tender things and are not to be forced open with
   crowbars--the doors of the heart open gently to Him that holds the
   key--and who is that but He who made the heart and bought it with His
   precious blood? The gentleness is equal to the power when Jesus draws
   men to Himself!

   But, oh, how effectually! I thought, as I mused upon my text, that I
   saw a great whirlpool like the maelstrom in the north of Norway. I
   thought I saw an enormous whirlpool so huge that all the souls of men,
   like ships of many different forms, were being drawn towards it. With
   strained sight I gazed upon this monstrous death! Woe to those who are
   sucked in by that dreadful whirlpool, for there is no escape! The abyss
   has no bottom, destruction is sure to all who are caught in the
   tremendous down-rush! Even ships far out at sea on other tacks, though
   they escape this maelstrom, are hindered in their course by it! This
   one monstrous devourer labors to absorb all and leaves no bay, nor
   harbor, nor foreign main unaffected by its perpetual draught.

   As I was thinking of this giant evil and wondering how I could navigate
   my own boat so as to avoid this mouth of Hell, I saw a hand that had
   the mark of a nail upon its palm, and lo, it held a mighty magnet which
   attracted every vessel with a force greater than any born of sea or
   storm! This magnet attracted many ships so that they flew to it at once
   and were gently drawn towards their desired haven in the very teeth of
   the maelstrom! I saw other vessels in which the mariners hoisted sail
   to try to escape the influence of this magnet--and even put out their
   oars to strive to get away--and some of them did so escape. Alas, they
   floated farther and farther into the maelstrom's destructive power, to
   be sucked down to their perdition. These were so besotted that they
   labored against mercy and resolved to be destroyed--we are glad that
   all are not left to act so madly.

   You must have seen an instance of drawing very often down in the river.
   A grand vessel is bound for the Indies, but how can it be taken down to
   the Nore? It is difficult to move the heavy craft. There it must lie.
   But here comes a steam-tug. The large vessel hands a rope on board the
   tug and now the steam is up. Tug, tug, tug--the paddle-wheels revolve
   and the big ship begins to follow the lead! It is no longer motionless;
   it will soon be walking the waters as a thing of life! A pleasant
   sight--the tug draws it gently out to sea and then leaves it to pursue
   its distant voyage. Just so may Jesus draw you away from sinful
   pleasures and from self-righteousness.

   III. I shall conclude by drawing one or two lessons. Then I have done.
   WHAT DOES ALL THIS IMPLY? "I, if I am lifted up, will draw all men unto
   Me." Well, it means this, first--that men, by nature, are a long way
   off from Christ. You were not born converted. Of that I am sure! Nor
   were you born a Christian and, though they took you to the font and
   said that they made you a "member of Christ, a child of God, and an
   inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven," there was not

   a word of truth in it, for you were such a child of God that you loved
   sin--and such a member of Christ that you knew nothing of Him--and such
   an inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven that, unless God saves you, you
   will never get there!

   I may say of Christians who are made in that way, "Eyes have they, but
   they see not. Mouths have they, but they speak not, neither speak they
   through their throats." And I fear that I must add, "They that make
   them are like unto them: so is everyone that trusts in them." It is a
   poor Christianity that is created by such monstrous folly! "You must be
   born again," and you must be born again of the Spirit of God, or you
   cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven! Man is a long way off from Christ
   and Christ must draw Him. Friend, ask Him to draw you.

   I gather another lesson--that men will not come to Christ unless He
   draws them. Sometimes, when I am trying to prepare a sermon to preach,
   I say to myself, "Why must I take all this trouble?" If men were in
   their senses they would run to Christ without calling! Why must we put
   this business so temptingly? Why must we plead? Why must we be so
   earnest? Because men do not want to come, not even to their own Savior!
   They do not wish to have their sins forgiven! They do not wish to be
   renewed in heart. And they never will come--no, not one mother's son of
   them--unless He that sent Christ to them shall draw them to Christ. A
   work of Grace in the heart is absolutely necessary before the Sacrifice
   of the Lord Jesus will be accepted by any one of us. Jesus said, "You
   will not come to Me that you might have life." What our Lord said is
   true to this hour--man has not improved an atom!

   But, then, learn another lesson. If there is any man here that Christ
   is drawing, he need not ask, "May I come?" Of course you may, if you
   feel drawn to come! Are you coming? Come, and welcome! Christ never yet
   turned away a soul that came to Him--not one! "Him that comes to Me, I
   will in no wise cast out." If He is drawing you, run, for you have
   Scriptural warrant for so doing! "Draw us: we will run after You." If
   tonight you feel any kind of tugging at your heartstrings, do not
   hesitate a moment! Come along with you! When God draws, then is your
   time to move. What do the sailors say? "There's a breeze, Jack. Yes,
   yes, boys. Up with the anchor! Now for every stitch of canvas. We can
   make headway now."

   Do you feel any kind of breeze? Is the breath of the Holy Spirit moving
   upon you in any degree? Do you feel inclined to say, "I will go to
   Jesus"? Then, fly away with you, like a full-sailed ship before a fair
   wind! And by God's help may you soon make the port of Everlasting
   Salvation! Let us finish up by saying that if Christ has said thus He
   will draw, then He will draw tonight! The attractions of the Lord Jesus
   are continual--He draws, and He will always draw. He is drawing now! Do
   not pull back, lest His drawing should cease--and you should
   perish--but rather let your heart sing--

   "He drew me, and I followed on, Charmed to confess the force Divine.'"
   Oh Spirit of God, draw men to Jesus! This is the way of
   salvation--trust Christ and you are saved! Rely wholly upon what Christ
   is and what He has done--and you are saved! In that very act there is a
   change effected within you which will show itself forever in your
   character, for he that believes in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is
   born again!

   The faith which looks to Jesus and the life which lives upon Jesus come
   together. I cannot tell you which is first--the new birth, or faith.
   Can you tell me which spoke of a wheel moves first? No. And these are
   spokes of one and the same wheel. "He that believes in Him has
   everlasting life." Oh, believe Him! Trust Him! Lay hold upon Him!
   Accept Him and go your way--and the mountains and the hills shall break
   forth before you into singing--and all the trees of the field shall
   clap their hands. Amen! So let it be!
     __________________________________________________________________

Certain Singular Subjects

   (No. 1718)

   DELIVERED BY

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "And I gave unto Isaac, Jacob and Esau: and I gave unto Esau Mount
   Seir, to possess it; but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt."
   Joshua 24:4.

   THIS passage, though audibly uttered by the mouth of Joshua, is to be
   regarded as the immediate voice of God. Joshua said unto all the
   people, "Thus says Jehovah, God of Israel." Jehovah reminded the
   tribes, their elders and judges, of all that He had done and of all
   that He had been to them--and from this He challenged their allegiance,
   requiring that they should henceforth be loyal unto their great
   Benefactor. Addressing them, Himself, His argument became all the more
   impressive. I reverence all Scripture more than tongue can tell, but
   yet I venerate most of all those portions of the Word which are God's
   own voice--the thoughts of Deity interpreted into human speech by
   Deity, itself! The passage now before us, though it reads like a piece
   of ordinary history such as might have been composed by a common
   scribe, has about it a vastness of meaning such as can only be found in
   the language of the infinite God.

   When God inspires David, or Isaiah or Paul, He teaches us most
   graciously, but when He condescends to speak, Himself, how shall we
   sufficiently reverence the Words? We have here, not so much a letter
   dictated by God, as the actual autograph of the great Father! My text
   is written with the finger of God. A glory blazes along the lines--the
   letters are all illuminated--the words glow like the sapphire work of
   Heaven's pavement. Our text has a world of meaning in it. It may, as we
   notice its plain words and prosaic statements, seem to be a mere common
   box, but it is, in very deed, an ark of precious perfumed wood,
   overlaid with pure gold, and filled with gems and jewels rich and rare!

   May the Holy Spirit give us eyes with which to perceive the treasures
   which lie before us in these words--"I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau:
   and I gave unto Esau Mount Seir, to possess it; but Jacob and his
   children went down into Egypt."

   I. The first thing that I discern here is HISTORY AND THE HAND OF GOD
   IN IT. See, "I gave," and then, again, "I gave." It is not merely that
   Esau and Jacob were born of Isaac and Rebekah, but the Lord says, "I
   gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau." How plainly does this declare that the
   hand of God is in human history! At first sight, history seems a great
   tangle, a snarl, a confusion--but on looking at it more closely, we
   perceive that it is only in appearance a maze-- but in fact a marvelous
   piece of arrangement, exhibiting perfect precision and never-failing
   accuracy! Our carnal reason sees the wrong side of the carpet and it
   appears to be without design or order--but there is another side to
   history--and looked at from that standpoint it reveals a wonderful
   pattern of beauty displaying unparalleled wisdom and goodness!

   Histories of nations are, from the human side, little more than a
   narration of the crimes of kings and the follies of their people. And
   yet, viewed from another quarter, they are the record of the dealings
   of God with men--the story of love's labor to reclaim the lost! Look at
   Calvary's sacrifice as it rises above all other events--even as, this
   morning, I saw the hills and the tops of tall trees standing out above
   the morning mist. What a sight it is! The Cross towering over the ages
   looking down on their sins and sorrows! Calvary--what is it? What but
   the climax of human iniquity, where man became not so much a regicide,
   though he slew his King, as a Decide for, to the utmost of his power,
   he slew his God!

   On the Cross, human enmity of God reached its most dread extremity!
   With wicked hands men crucified and slew the Son of God! Yet it is
   equally true that on Calvary we see more of the goodness, Grace, mercy,
   justice and long-suffering of God than anywhere else. The Cross is, at
   once, our crime and our salvation--an exhibition of man's foulest sin
   and of God's richest Grace! Calvary is of all spots, the blackest and
   the brightest--the place where Hell displayed its most deadly power and
   yet the very gate of Heaven! Thus is all human history, according to
   its measure and proportion, a bitter sweet. Where man's mischief and
   misery abound, there do God's goodness and Grace much more abound.

   We see the hand of God in history very strikingly in the raising up of
   remarkable men at certain special periods. It is true, as the Lord
   says, "I gave unto Isaac, Jacob and Esau." Children are the gift of
   God. This is true not only of Isaac

   but of all mortal men. God gave to a worthy couple, George Washington;
   to another pair, John Howard; and to a third, George Whitefield. Each
   of these, in his own special way, was a Divine gift to men. Children
   are born with differing talents and varied capacities, but all about
   them which will make them blessings is the gift of God. I shall not
   tarry to mention great men whose names mark epochs in history from
   which men date an increase of light and happiness--but let no man think
   of these friends and leaders of mankind without admitting the hand of
   God in their birth, training, disposition and ability.

   The greatest blessing which God ever gave to man was the Man, Christ
   Jesus, and, under Him, the next best blessings are men. You remember
   the passage, "When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive,
   and gave gifts unto men. And He gave some Apostles," and so forth.
   Ascension gifts are sure to be worthy of the occasion and, therefore,
   eminently precious--and these are all men! Within a man--poor, lowly,
   humble and even sinful, though that, man may be in himself--there may
   lie concealed an almost infinite blessing from the Most High! Even as
   within an acorn sleeps a forest, or within a flint lies light for a
   nation's watch-fires. When the Negro slave had borne long years of
   bondage and hope of deliverance seemed far away, it was God that gave
   an Abraham Lincoln who led the nation onward till "Emancipation" flamed
   upon its banners

   Long before, when England, free in every corner of it, yet held slaves
   in its colonies, it was God that gave Wilber-force and raised him up to
   plead in Parliament the rights of men, till the command went forth--

   "Thus says Britannia, empress of the sea, Your chains are broken;
   Africa, be free!" In all such acts of righteousness, the coming forth
   of the man of the hour must be attributed to God's own hands. The men,
   themselves, may not know why they have come to power--of them it might
   often be said as the Lord said of Cyrus--"I girded you, though you have
   not known Me." The mighty ones that contend for wrong, bind the chains
   and forge the fetters of the oppressed, do not know the champions who
   are predestined to overturn them, but God knows, and that is enough!
   Tyrants have always just cause to be afraid, for every birth may
   produce a deliverer. Somewhere in a hovel there may sleep, in a rude
   cradle, the boy who shall shake the throne of evil!

   As yet it has always happened in due season that Pharaoh has been
   confronted by Moses and the princes of Midian by Gideon. For every
   Sisera there is a Jael and for every Goliath a David. The upas tree may
   increase its deadly shadow, but an axe is sharpening for the felling of
   it! Evil is a gourd and though a man is but a worm, yet he shall
   destroy that gourd. God is still working in the fashioning--oh, with
   what mystery--of His own instruments! In His book are written the
   members of men who are yet to be, who are now being fashioned in secret
   by the hand of God! These shall, by-and-by, appear, and shall lead on
   the race to a further unloosing of its bonds. I rejoice in the
   possibilities which lie in birth!

   As to the One great Seed of the woman we look for our greatest
   deliverance, so do we, in a lower sense, look to her seed for the
   overthrow of many of the doings of the serpent race. That curse which
   made her, in sorrow, bring forth children, contains enclosed within
   itself, like a bud in its sheath, the promise of untold benediction!
   Often at a birth might an age rejoice and sing, "Unto us a child is
   born: unto us a son is given." Let parents think of this and dedicate
   their offspring with many a prayer to the Lord whose gift they are. Let
   old men think of this and cry to God to raise up true men to fill the
   places which they, themselves, can no longer occupy. Lo! Children are a
   heritage of the Lord!

   When our sons are a seed that the Lord has blest, blessed is the man
   that has his quiver full of them. Let us bless and praise the Lord, as
   we look back in history upon God's manifest interference with the
   course of events by the singular births of men whom He has used to
   effect His own Divine purposes! Nobody denies that the hand of God is
   in the coming of men for the hour when the hour calls for the men. So,
   also, is the hand of God distinctly to be seen in all great events. If
   Esau captures Mount Seir, then the setting up of the Edomite dominion,
   bad as it may have been, is, from another point of view, a matter in
   which God's purpose and design are to be noted, for He says--"I gave
   Esau mount Seir."

   Brothers and Sisters, I believe--and I hope the Truth of God is not too
   strong for you--that not a tiny bird pecks up a worm from the ground
   without your Father. A plant does not sprout in the corner behind the
   wall and shoot up its flower, seed, ripen and decay apart from the Lord
   of Hosts! Much less does an empire rise, flourish, or decline without
   Divine co-operation! When the sere leaf falls from the sycamore in the
   autumn time, a Providence guides the leaf to its place upon the sod.
   And when the worm uplifts itself to draw that leaf into the tunnel
   which it has made, the hand of the Lord directs the burial! In
   everything that happens, be it small or great, the Lord is present and
   His will is done!

   It is so in all the plotting and maneuvering of kings and princes and
   senates; in the stirs of public opinion; in the marching of armies and
   in all that transpires among mortal men. Though the iniquity of man is
   abundantly seen, yet the overruling power of God is never absent. The
   world is not left to itself, given over to the lord of misrule! In all
   events the hand of God may be perceived by all who care to perceive it.
   I reckon war to be a huge crime on man's side, but, when battalions
   have marched against battalions, the destiny of empires and possibly of
   the whole race of man, has turned upon the health of a commander, the
   clearness of his eyes, or the quickness of his messenger--yes, the
   turning aside of a bullet, or the fall of a horse, or the breaking of
   an axle has become the pivot of history, the turning point of ages--and
   there at the center the Lord has been surely ready!

   Essential points have been secured beyond all question. Perhaps it is
   more nearly right to say that every turn of history has been essential
   and that the whole of it has been in the hands of the Highest. It is
   singular how God is seen, both in dangers and preservations, in
   connection with crises of history. Wellington at Waterloo sat on his
   horse, Copenhagen, all day long. A friend of mine, well known to most
   of you, said to him, "I suppose your horse must have been very weary."
   "No," said the duke, "He was so fresh that when I got off from him, he
   threw his heels into the air and almost struck my temple. I was not in
   greater danger all through the battle than at that moment." God had
   preserved the hero all that day and we little know what had been the
   result if a chance slug or ball had carried him off!

   And yet you see when the red mouth of war was growing silent, the Iron
   Duke was still in jeopardy! Had he been suddenly cut off, our island
   might have become an insignificant province of a vast Napoleonic
   empire! But he was immortal till his work was done. Above the awful din
   of war, I hear the voice of God, and even out of such an evil which
   makes earth, for a while like Hell, the good Lord of All produces good!
   Masters of armies reckon their hosts, but the Lord of Hosts they
   forget. They plan and scheme, these masters of men to whom their people
   are as so much food for powder-- but a higher plan overrides their
   planning! There is a King of kings, and Lord of lords, and He is no
   silent spectator of what is done, but stretches out His hand to deliver
   the nations from the power of evil, so that, still, by His great power,
   the world moves onward to something better.

   We think of this poor world with great sadness when we see all the
   crime and sin which defile it, and yet we join with Galileo in saying,
   "It does move though!" Truth makes progress! The right is winning! If
   we do not see an improvement today, or tomorrow, yet take any 20 years
   and you will see that the world is moving--moving on to that grand day
   when the song shall ascend, "Hallelujah, Hallelujah: for the Lord God
   Omnipotent reigns!" As the Lord's hand was in Esau's possession of
   Mount Seir, so is it in the settlement of every tribe and people. And
   it is to be seen by all observant eyes in all the great epochs of the
   history of man. Yet please notice that whenever we say this--and I say
   it pretty plainly--we never excuse the sin and folly of man!

   We speak of predestination and foreknowledge because we find these
   Truths of God in Scripture and they seem, to us, to be facts in the
   very nature of things. God knows all that happens, otherwise He were
   not God, but a poor, blind deity. And if He knows that a certain fact
   will happen, then it is a fixed and settled thing, depend on that!
   Nothing happens other than God foreknew would happen and, therefore, it
   is fixed! If I laid aside predestination, yet foreknowledge would be
   quite enough for me. Something or other is certain to happen and God
   knows what that something or other is--and, therefore, it is fixed not
   by blind fate, but still fixed. Yet this fixedness is perfectly
   consistent with the free agency and responsibility of man! Man thinks,
   resolves and acts as freely, and as much on his own accord, as if there
   were no foreknowledge and no God! In the book of the unrevealed,
   everything is written--but the mystic roll is laid up in the archives
   of Heaven and no man knows what is written in it.

   Down below everything happens according to that book--not a stroke of
   it is in error, not a mistake is found in a single word--the event
   happens as it was foreknown. But, still, if there were no such book,
   man would not be more absolutely free than he is now. I can join
   heartily with the advocate of free agency when he talks of man's
   voluntariness in his acts of sin, his willful choice of evil, his
   rejection of Christ and of His Grace. No man can too thoroughly believe
   in the willful guilt of the wicked--at any rate, I will go all lengths
   in such a belief. I couple with what is called Calvinistic Doctrine,
   the other doctrine of free agency and responsibility, which seems to me
   to be equally true. And if this is judged to be an inconsistency, the
   remark does not stagger me, for I see no inconsistency and do not
   believe that any exists!

   My God is not a mere Omnipotent Being who can rule dead materialism and
   compel insensible atoms to do His will, but He can rule free agents,
   leaving them absolutely free and yet effecting all His purposes with
   them! God's eternal pur-

   poses are accomplished and yet men remain responsible free agents both
   in their beginning and in their ending. Do you say that you do not
   understand how this can be? Neither do I, but I believe it! There are
   10,000 other things in Nature and history which are too high for me to
   understand their "how" and "why"--and yet I see them--can I not, also,
   be sure of some matters which I do not see? It is not for me to profess
   to comprehend the nature or the ways of the Infinite! If we could
   comprehend the Lord, He would not be the infinite God! It is because He
   is beyond me--infinitely beyond such a poor creature as I am--that I,
   all the more, reverently adore Him!

   His Nature and His nets are, alike, veiled in mystery, but alike to be
   held in reverence. Have you never heard of the insect philosophers?
   They were midgets so small that a man needed a microscope to see
   them--but they were very great philosophers for all that--and they set
   about to describe an elephant. One of them hung upon the gigantic
   creature's ear, surveyed a small portion of its area and his theory was
   that an elephant was a living wall, almost perpendicular! Another stood
   upright somewhere on the creature's back and he concluded that the
   creature was a vast plain! A third, who was perched upon a hair of the
   animal, propounded the idea that it was a tall shaft. These
   midget-philosophers had not eyes large enough to take in a whole
   elephant and so each one judged from the tiny morsel of hide which came
   under his own narrow range of observation.

   Yet these ephemera were nearer the mark with the elephant than our wise
   men are with the universe, concerning which their first principles,
   theories and hypotheses have usually been a museum of follies! Yet if
   philosophers understood the universe, that understanding would not
   bring their carnal minds within measurable distance of the infinite
   God. None but the Spirit of God can reveal God to any man--and the man,
   himself, must receive a new and spiritual life before he can know what
   the Spirit teaches. Who, then, among the worldly-wise may dream of
   understanding God, when even the spiritual rather embrace Him by love
   than grasp Him by understanding? Let us, therefore, believe what we
   find to be in God's Word and what we are taught by His Spirit, though
   it should be far above our heads! Let us not delay to believe until we
   can reconcile.

   Do you not know that in theology--all the false parts of theology on
   which the sects stand and fight each other-- consists of suspension
   bridges made of cobwebs which are intended to bridge the distance
   between two awful Truths of God which look as if they were divided from
   each other? The great rocky Truths are, in effect, accepted by both
   parties, but the battle waxes hot concerning these cobweb-bridges which
   were never worth a tithe of the ingenuity which has been wasted upon
   them. I hold it true that God is in history and in everything! And I
   read the newspaper that I may see how my heavenly Father governs the
   world! And this I believe though I most clearly see that men sin
   willfully, wickedly, vol-untarily--and that they are guilty free agents
   in all their wrong-doing. These thoughts come to me when I remember the
   character of Esau, and yet read the Lord's words, "I gave unto Esau
   mount Seir to possess it."

   To us, dear Friends, the hand of God is very visible in our own case.
   Look at the hand of God that gave to you and to me such parents as we
   have--I mean those of us who have the great delight of having descended
   from Christian men and women. Had we anything to do with that? And yet
   the greatest part of a man's future depends upon the parents of whom he
   is born. No person can deny that our parentage is beyond our own power
   and yet, to a large extent, it colors the whole future of life. Is not
   the hand of God in it? Why shall one be born of a long succession of
   drunks and of thieves, and have within himself an insatiable passion
   born with him to imitate them--while another inherits a sound
   constitution from his parents and, though he has no tendency to the
   Grace of God, yet he has a tendency to morality and naturally develops
   self-restraint and gentle manners? Do we not see the hand of God in the
   parents that He gave us?

   I cannot be so blind as to deny my own obligations! I shall forever
   bless God that I was given to a godly couple whose delight it was to
   lead me in the ways of God. And do we not see the hand of God, again,
   in our children? Many of us do. Oh, how some of us bless and praise God
   that ever such sons fell to our lot! We never think of them without
   delight, for they are living in the service of the Lord Jesus, spending
   and being spent in the Divine Master's service. Look at your children
   as the gifts of God and if they are not yet all that you could desire,
   yet still believe that God has given them to you, even as He says, "I
   gave Isaac, Jacob and Esau." You, dear Friends in Christ, united in
   holy wedlock, may look upon your children as not unclean, but holy, in
   the sense intended by the Apostle when he speaks of the unbelieving
   wife as sanctified by the believing husband and adds, "else were your
   children unclean, but now are they holy."

   They are not to be viewed as the unhappy fruit of an unhallowed union,
   but as gifts of God, to be brought up for Him and trained in His fear.
   They come not as the result of uncleanness, but as gifts from the Lord,
   to whom marriage is

   an honorable estate. It were a sad thing if the sight of my child made
   me blush for shame. But it is a joy to look upon him as, like Samuel,
   asked of God and given of God. Bring these gifts of God to God and say,
   "Here, Lord, are the children which You have given me. Save them by
   Your Grace, since in love You have given them to me. These dear ones
   are favors from Yourself, blessings upon which I set great store. O
   Lord, let Your name be named on them and let Your Grace be glorified in
   them."

   Observe, further, that the Lord's hand is in all the prosperity which
   He gives to any. He says, "I gave unto Esau Mount Seir, to possess it."
   It is by God's allotment that temporal things fall as they do--even the
   ungodly have their portion in this life by Divine grant. It were "vain
   to rise up early, and to sit up late, and to eat the bread of
   carefulness," if the Lord did not build the house and prosper the
   labor! It is He that gives you power to get wealth. Our daily bread
   comes from the granary of Providence. The store most ample, or the
   measure most scant must, alike, be traced to the one all-bountiful
   hand. And, once more, God's hand is to be seen in the place in which we
   live. If Esau lives in mount Seir, it is because God appoints him to be
   there--and if Israel goes down to Egypt, it is for the same reason. If
   you and I move from one place to another, it is sweet to see the cloud
   moving before us and to know that the Lord directs our ways. "The steps
   of a good man are ordered of the Lord."

   But I need not instance cases. The hand of the Lord has been with some
   of us, for good, from our cradle even until now! And we believe that He
   who has led us so far will still lead us until we arrive at the House
   not made with hands, eternal in the heavens!

   II. Secondly, we have another lesson to learn from our text, and that
   is upon, "I gave unto Isaac, Jacob and Esau," twin children born of
   godly parents. In that birth there was joy, but sorrow came by it as
   well as joy. What joy there was in Isaac's house that day, for we read
   that it had been a matter of prayer in the family! See Genesis 25:21.
   It had been a grief to Isaac that, married at 40 years of age, he had
   lived 20 years in married life without a child, although he had the
   promise of a seed. Later on it happened that Esau and Jacob were born.
   There was joy! Yes, double joy, because two sons to build up their
   father's house. Ah, had they known it, there was grave cause for
   mingled emotion in that double birth!

   We read that 40 years after Esau married, he took unto himself two
   Canaanite wives, "which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to
   Rebekah." Yes, we may fondly promise ourselves that children born of
   godly parents will be an unalloyed comfort to them and yet it may not
   be so. Children are certain cares and doubtful comforts. They may bring
   to their parents such sorrow that they may be inclined to think the
   barren happier than the fruitful. Hence it is well for us to leave our
   hopes of posterity with God--and if we reckon that in a childless house
   we have missed a great joy, we ought, also, to reckon that we have
   missed a mint of trouble by the same fact!

   Your children are not born in Grace, but they are the children of
   nature--and that being the case, you may have to see in one of
   them--God grant it may be in no more--an Esau, yes, a profane person
   who will sell his birthright and become an enemy of the people of God!
   Esau was born of admirable parents, and so an Esau may be found to your
   boundless grief in your own family. It has been so, before, with
   others, and it may be so with you. The lion's whelp has been found in
   the sheep's fold; the vulture has been hatched in the dove's nest.
   There was great hope, certainly, of both boys born in Isaac's house,
   for we look that godly parents should train up their children in the
   way that they should go, so that when they are old they may not depart
   from it--therefore both Esau and Jacob were most hopefully started.

   But Esau was not trainable. He was a wild man, went his own way and
   became a follower of rough sports, "a cunning hunter, a man of the
   field." And soon he became profane, as often happens to those whose
   chief pursuits are sporting. Ah, me! Ah, me! How often the brightest
   hopes have been blasted and those who appeared to be floating on the
   current which flows towards Heaven have been drifted back and lost on
   the forlorn shores of unbelief! It is a great advantage to you, my dear
   young Friend, to have been born into a Christian family, but I charge
   you, do not trust in it as though it were, in itself, a guarantee of
   salvation! Isaac, the beloved of God, has Esau for a son.

   Mind that! David had to sorrow over Absalom, and Hezekiah over
   Manasseh. You may be the Esau of your family. Is it so? May God grant
   that such a dreadful portion may not be chosen by you! Remember that
   your brother who has lived with you, slept with you and grown with you,
   side by side, may be gracious and you may remain ungodly. Is it so now?
   Oh, that the Holy Spirit may come and work upon you till you and your
   brother are one in Christ, like James and John, Peter and Andrew!
   Father, do you find a division in your house? Then pray to God, even as
   Abraham prayed for Ishmael,

   "Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!" Pray for your wayward boy!
   And, oh, you that are in the family and have, through Divine mercy,
   become a Jacob and not an Esau, ascribe it all to Sovereign Grace and
   give God the praise!

   But forget not your brother! While he lives, have hope for him and see
   what you can do that he, also, may rejoice in the Lord. But, ah, if we
   could read the future when we look at our little children, we should
   rejoice with trembling! And as we cannot read the future, it is fit
   that we should pray with earnestness. We have prayer often at dying
   beds--why have we not more prayer in the chamber of birth? Surely, when
   an immortal spirit starts upon its endless career, it is well for us to
   cry to God and ask others to join with us in the loving, earnest prayer
   that the Holy Spirit may cause the newly-born to be born again as soon
   as they are able to know Jesus and believe in Him! There stands the
   fact--in birth there is joy tempered with godly fear, hope mingled with
   sacred anxiety and high advantage which may yet most sadly end in
   deepened responsibility and increased sin!

   III. Thirdly, and very briefly, we have next to view WORLDLINGS AND
   THEIR POSSESSIONS. "I gave unto Esau Mount Seir, to possess it." That
   is to say, Esau, as compared with Jacob, appeared to have the best of
   it, for he had "Mount Seir, to possess it," but poor Jacob had not a
   foot of land that he could call his own except the family sepulcher at
   Machipelah, in which, afterwards, he slept the sleep of the righteous.
   Why does God so often give possessions to ungodly men? Why do they
   flourish? Why do they have their portion in this life?

   Is it not, first, because God thinks little of these things and
   therefore gives them to those of whom He thinks little? "Why," said
   Luther, in his day, "the whole Turkish empire is but a basket of husks
   that God gives to the hogs and, therefore, He hands it over to the
   unbelievers." So often wealth and riches are but so much wash which the
   great Husbandman gives to the swine on His estate. Something infinitely
   better is reserved for the Lord's own family! The rich blessing of true
   Grace He reserves for His children and heirs. It shows how little God
   thinks of kingdoms, empires and great riches, for He leaves these, full
   often, to the worst of men!

   How few saints have ever worn crown or coronet! A holy man once said
   that the kings who have gone to Heaven might almost be counted on your
   fingers. See what small account the Lord makes of the world's best
   store! Do you wish that ungodly men should have less? For my part, I am
   reconciled to their present prosperity, for it is all they will ever
   have. Poor souls, let them have as much of it as they may, here, for
   they will have nothing hereafter. Besides, they have no God--and having
   no God, it would take a great many fortunes to make a godless man's
   portion worth a straw! If the graceless could gain all worlds, what use
   would they be to them when they come to die? Their own souls lost and
   no comfort in Christ, and no joy in the Spirit--what have they gained,
   after all? Let the worldlings have the husks.

   Let none of us ever cry, "I gladly would fill my belly with the husks
   that the swine eat." Let those have the treasures of this present evil
   world who have nothing else! Never quarrel with the Lord for saying, "I
   gave unto Esau Mount Seir, to possess it." Besides, these comforts may
   lead them to reflect upon God's bounty to them and, at any rate, they
   ought to move them to repentance. It is my earnest hope that many an
   ungodly man, whom God has highly favored in the things of this life,
   may be influenced by the Spirit of God to say, "Why should I continue
   to rebel against God who has been so kind to me? He has prospered me
   and taken care of me. Why should I not turn to Him, and become His
   servant?" At any rate, gratitude for mercies received should produce
   repentance for sins committed.

   But worldly goods have no necessary connection with ungodliness. There
   is no infection in harvest stores, nor iniquity in the wealth which
   comes of commerce. In themselves, gold and silver are harmless metals.
   There have been men who have enjoyed the abundance of this world, and
   yet have inherited the world to come. Not many great men after the
   flesh are chosen, but there is a great difference between, "not many,"
   and, "not any." Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus and the women who
   ministered unto Christ of their substance had a fair measure of the
   comforts of this life--and used them for their Lord. It was not
   Solomon's wealth that brought him down so low--his unrestrained
   passions were his ruin, else might he have held all his treasures and
   held his God, too.

   Pray, therefore, that the rich may be brought to Christ! Why should not
   that fish be taken which has the silver shekel in its mouth? Why may
   not Matthew, the publican, be called from the receipt of custom? Is
   there not yet another Zac-chaeus to be renewed by Grace? May not their
   indebtedness to God be used as a plea with the wealthy to give
   themselves to Him who has already given them so much? It was no fault
   in Jonah that he felt pleasure under the shade of his gourd-- the fault
   lay in making a god of that gourd! There is no evil in having goods,
   but there is great evil in making those goods

   our chief good. Yet, Brothers and Sisters, so it is that the men of
   this world usually have the most of it. I do not say the best of it.

   It is and always will be a mystery, as long as the world stands, that
   the wicked often flourish and the righteous suffer. Read the Book of
   Job. Read the 37th Psalm; read the 73rd Psalm and see how holy men and
   wise men have been perplexed and troubled by the method of the Divine
   Providence. To see wickedness on a throne and righteousness in a
   dungeon, pride enshrined in honor and holiness rolled in the kennel is
   a serious trial of our confidence in God--and yet there are weighty
   reasons why it should be so for a while. Not without wisdom does the
   Lord say, "I gave to Esau Mount Seir, to possess it."

   IV. Now comes the fourth point and a great mystery, too. Here are THE
   CHOSEN OF GOD AND THEIR TRIALS. "I gave unto Esau Mount Seir, to
   possess it; but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt." That is
   their portion. They must go down into Egypt because of famine. And they
   must suffer there under a tyrant's iron rod, so that they may become
   familiar with the drudgery of slaves. They must be strangers in a
   strange land and be sorely bruised beneath the foot of the oppressor.
   The escutcheon of their nation was to be "a smoking furnace and a
   burning lamp." Moses saw Israel as well as God when he beheld a bush
   burning with fire but not consumed. Is not this a strange thing?

   To him whom God loves best He allots the hardest conditions. Esau's
   sons are dukes, but Jacob's seed are drudges! Esau reigns, but Israel
   serves! Esau set his nest on high, but Israel crouched by the reeds of
   the river. The worldling would read the Scripture as if it said, "As
   many as I love, I caress and pamper"--but the Lord speaks not so--His
   Words are, "As many as I love I rebuke and chasten." "Whom the Lord
   loves He chastens and scourges"--those are very hard words--"scourges
   every son whom He receives." To carnal reason this seems straining!
   Faith, alone, can explain it.

   Israel and his children went down into Egypt, first, for their
   preservation. So God brings His people into trial often to preserve
   them from the world and its evil influences; from themselves and their
   natural pride; from Satan and his puffing up. By sorrow and adversity
   the children of God are driven to their knees, brought near to their
   great Father and kept in fellowship with Him. Sanctified afflictions
   are spiritual promotions. The salt and bitterness of sorrow often
   preserve men from the gall and bitterness of sin.

   They went down into Egypt, next, for their improvement, for the family
   of Jacob was in a mournful condition and by no means fit to be used of
   the Lord. The story of Jacob's family is a strangely sad one, perhaps
   Scripture does not contain more mournful pages. The evil influence of
   polygamy is clearly seen, blended within the errors of Laban's house
   and envenomed by the foul example of the Canaanites among whom they
   sojourned. It was time that they should shift their quarters--they were
   neither getting good nor doing good. It looked as if the Patriarch
   would beget an ignorant, quarrelsome, vicious race--and so they were
   sent down into Egypt that trouble might teach them better manners. God
   often thrusts His people into adversity that He may improve them,
   awaken them, instruct them and ennoble them.

   See to it, Brothers and Sisters, that the Lord's design be fulfilled in
   you to the fullest. May the anvil and the file, the crucible and the
   flame work in you a clearance of dross and rust, and make you pure and
   bright. They also went down into Egypt for their education. The chosen
   seed needed teaching! They were getting to be rustic, not to say
   barbarous, in their manners--acquirements and knowledge were scant
   among them. They must go down into the seat of ancient learning to
   acquire arts and sciences and civilization. In Egypt, a race, which,
   otherwise had been a mob must be consolidated into a nation! A band of
   willful men must be trained to discipline and obedience. The Lord said,
   "Out of Egypt have I called My son," because Egypt was his school of
   learning, his drill ground of discipline. We are ignorant, rebellious
   and willful till the Lord trains us. "Before I was afflicted I went
   astray; but now have I kept Your Word."

   The Lord teaches us on the blackboard of adversity and we are often
   rapped over the knuckles by the stern Master! It is wonderful what we
   learn when we are taken among the thorns! I hardly think that I have
   learned anything except in affliction! At least I know this--I owe more
   to the hammer, the anvil, the file and the furnace than I do to all the
   green meadows and flowing brooks and singing birds that I have ever
   seen or heard! I fear that I have learned little beyond that which has
   been whipped into me! And though I am not fonder of the rod than you
   are, I confess that such sweet fruit grows on the bitter branch of
   trial that I would fear to be long without it. I would rather weep
   within the Lord's chosen than laugh within the reprobate! By unhallowed
   mirth fools grow more foolish, but by sanctified trials wise men become
   yet wiser. For future usefulness it is well that we have present sorrow
   and, like Jacob, go down into Egypt.

   And they went down to Egypt, again, that God might display His great
   power in them. I would not care to be Esau on Mount Seir when once I
   see Pharaoh's hosts drowned and Israel marching through the depths of
   the sea!--and when I hear the song of the Israelite maidens and the
   shouts of the men, "Sing you to Jehovah, for He has triumphed
   gloriously; the horse and his rider has He thrown into the sea." It is
   worth while to go down into Egypt to come out of it with a high hand
   and an outstretched arm! Oh, the glory of the Lord in His redeemed! Oh,
   the lofty destiny of the tried people of God! Oh, the sublimity of
   their lives, even now! There is God in them! There is God about them.
   He heads the van and brings up the rear! They are as signs and wonders
   in their generations. He has blessed them--yes, and they shall be
   blessed.

   It matters little that Esau has Mount Seir for a possession--Israel has
   her God! No foot of land, perhaps, you call your own. You do not know
   where your next suit of clothes will come from and God has kept you on
   short commons and multiplied your straits and needs. Never mind--yours
   is the lot of the chosen--for "Jacob and his children went down into
   Egypt." That is where the story ends, according to my text, but you
   know the story does not end there at all, for out of Jacob and his
   children came the Son, the Scepter and the Throne! The Godhead took up
   the seed of Israel and now, today, He that sprang of Jacob's loins,
   according to the flesh, sits on the highest Throne of God and reigns
   supreme! The Shiloh has come and it matters nothing what Egypt brought
   of sorrow unto Jacob's seed, seeing that out of them, at the last, came
   the King and Savior of men!

   If Jesus is ours, the rest is a small affair. Give me Christ and I ask
   for nothing else! Having faith in Jesus, I can leave all things with
   the great Disposer of events. Christ and a crust--the promise and a
   parish coat! Grace and an almshouse! Cannot a saint be more than
   content with these? So have I set before you the varying lots of God's
   own people and of the wicked. I hope that you are ready to say that you
   would rather suffer affliction with the people of God than enjoy the
   pleasures of sin for a season. God help you to make that wise choice
   and to make it at once! May His Spirit lead you to take the Lord Jesus
   to be your All in All! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Tent Dissolved and the Mansion Entered

   (No. 1719)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 6, 1883,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were
   dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands,
   eternal in the heavens." 2 Corinthians 5:1.

   PAUL ranks among the bravest of the brave. We note, also, with
   admiration, how the hero of so many dangers and conflicts, who could
   glow and burn with fervor, was yet among the calmest and quietest of
   spirits. He had learned to live beyond those present circumstances
   which worry and disturb. He had stolen a march upon the shadows of time
   and entered into possession of the realities of eternity! He looked not
   on the things which are seen, but he set his whole regard on the things
   which are not seen--and by this means he entered into a deep and joyful
   peace which made him strong, resolute, steadfast, immovable. I would to
   God that we had all acquired Paul's art of being "always
   confident"--his habit of having the inward man renewed day by day!

   The most of us are far too like the insect of the summer hour which
   sports away its life of moments among the flowers and lo, all is over!
   Are we not too apt to live in the immediate present which is revealed
   by the senses? The ox projects no thought upward or beyond--to stand in
   the cool brook or lie down in the fat pasture is its all in all--even
   thus is it with the mass of men, their souls are tethered to their
   bodies, imprisoned within the circumstances of the day! If we could be
   completely delivered from the thralldom of things seen and felt, and
   could feel the full influence of the invisible and the eternal, how
   much of Heaven we might enjoy before the celestial shores are reached!

   Paul's life was rough and stormy, yet who might not desire it? Had
   there been no life to come, he would have been, of all men, the most
   miserable, for he was one of the poorest, most persecuted, most
   despised, most slandered, most wearied and most suffering of mortals!
   And yet, if I had to put my finger upon happy lives, I should not
   hesitate to select among the foremost, the life of the Apostle Paul,
   for whom to live was Christ! It is also to be especially noted, as to
   his happiness, that he had a reason for it. My text begins with the
   word, "For." Paul is always argumentative--the leaning of his mind is
   in that direction. Therefore, if he is cast down, he has a reason for
   it and if he is calm, he can show just cause for his peace.

   Some religionists are deliriously happy, but they cannot tell you why.
   They can sing and shout, and dance, but they can give no reason for
   their excitement. They see an enthusiastic crowd and they catch the
   infection--their religion is purely emotional! I am not going to
   condemn it, yet I will show you a more excellent way. The joy which is
   not created by substantial causes is mere froth and foam and soon
   vanishes away. Unless you can tell why you are happy, you will not long
   be happy. If you have no principle at the back of your passion, your
   passion will burn down to a black ash and you will look in vain for a
   living spark. Some professors have not enough emotion--their hearts are
   too small. Though I cannot say that their heads are too large, there
   are others whose hearts are their main force, who are soon on fire,
   blazing away like shavings and brushwood when first the flame lights
   upon them. But their brains are an uncertain quantity, never sufficient
   to manage the furnace of their emotions.

   It was not so with Paul--he was a well-balanced man. If able to defy
   the present and rejoice in prospect of the future, he had a solid
   reason for doing so. I like a man who is fervent and enthusiastic and
   yet in his fervor is as reasonable as if he were some cool logician.
   Let the heart be like a fiery, high-mettled steed, but take care that
   it is curbed and managed by discretion. An instructed Christian man is
   rational even in his ecstasies--ready to give a reason for the hope
   that is in him--and that hope seems to rise above all reason. He is
   glad, most glad of the glad, but he knows the why of his gladness. And
   so he can bear the cruel tests to which the world exposes spiritual
   joy. The true Believer's peace can answer the quibbles of time or
   devils. It can justify itself in its opposition to all appearances.
   This is a house built upon a foundation,

   a tree which has a firmly settled root, a star fixed in its sphere--and
   thus it is infinitely superior to the house upon the sand, the tree
   plucked up, the fleeting vapor of mere emotion.

   May God, the Holy Spirit instruct us so that we may know the Truth of
   God out of which solid happiness is sure to grow! I see in the text
   before us, first of all, a catastrophe which Paul saw to be very
   possible--"If our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved."
   Secondly, the provision which he surely knew to be made should that
   catastrophe occur--"We have a building of God, a house not made with
   hands, eternal in the heavens." And thirdly, I shall dwell for a minute
   or two upon the value of this knowledge to Paul and to the rest of us
   in our present trying condition.

   I. First, then, consider THE CATASTROPHE WHICH PAUL SAW TO BE VERY
   POSSIBLE--"If our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved." He
   did not fear that he, himself, would be dissolved! He had not the
   slightest fear about that. The catastrophe which he looked forward to
   is known among us by the name of "death," but he calls it the
   dissolving of the earthly house of his tabernacle--the taking down of
   his tent-house body. He does not say, "If I were to be destroyed," or,
   "If I were to be annihilated." He knows no supposition of that
   character. He feels assured that he, himself, is perfectly safe.

   There is latent within the text an element of deep quiet as to his real
   self. "We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were
   dissolved, we have a building of God." The "we" is all unharmed and
   unmoved. If our house were dissolved we should not be undone. If we
   were to lose this earthly tent we have "a building of God, eternal in
   the heavens." The real man, the essential self, is out of harm's way
   and all that he talks about is the falling to pieces of a certain
   tabernacle, or tent, in which, for the present, he is lodging! Many
   people are in a great fright about the future, yet here is Paul viewing
   the worst thing that could happen to him with such complacency that he
   likens it to nothing worse than the pulling down of a tent in which he
   were making ready to reside in for a little season. He was afraid of
   nothing beyond that-- and if that happened he had expectations which
   reconciled him to the event--and even helped him to anticipate it with

   joy!

   Paul was not absolutely sure that his body would be dissolved. He hoped
   that he might be alive and remain at the coming of the Lord--and then
   he would be changed and be forever with the Lord, without passing
   through death. Still, he was willing to leave this in the Lord's hands.
   And when he saw it to be possible that he should be numbered among the
   blessed dead who die in the Lord, he did not shrink from the prospect,
   but bravely found a metaphor which set forth the little fear which he
   entertained concerning it. The Apostle perceived that the body in which
   he lived was frail in itself. Paul was accustomed to make tents. I do
   not suppose he ever manufactured any very large or sumptuous
   ones--probably he did not have enough capital for that--but he was a
   tent worker and mender.

   The use of tents was common enough among the Roman people in Paul's
   day. The gentry delighted in bright pavilions which they could set up
   at pleasure--and the common folk found pleasure in spending a part of
   their time under canvas. While he was sitting writing this letter, it
   is most likely that Paul had a tent or two to repair lying near, and
   this suggested to him the language of the verse before us. When a tent
   is newly placed, it is but a frail structure, very far removed from the
   permanence of a house--in that respect it is exactly like this feeble
   corporeal frame of ours which is crushed before the moth! Paul felt
   that his body would not need any great force to overthrow it--it was
   like the tent which the Midianite saw in his dream--it only needed to
   be struck by a barley cake, and lo, it was down!

   A house of solid masonry may need a crowbar and a pick to remove its
   stones from their places, but feebler tools will soon overturn a tent
   and make a ruin of it. The body is liable to dissolution from causes so
   minute as to be imperceptible--a breath of foul air, an atom of
   poisonous matter, a trifle, a mere nothing may end this mortal life! I
   hope that you and I duly remember the frailty of our bodies. We are not
   so foolish as to think that because we are in robust health, today, we
   must necessarily live to old age! We have lately had among ourselves
   abundant evidence that those who appear to be the healthiest are often
   the first to be taken away--while feeble persons linger on among us,
   whose lives are a continued wonder and a perpetual struggle! When we
   think of the brittle ware of which our bodies are made, it is not
   strange that they should soon be broken.

   Is it not a wonderful thing that we continue to live? Much more
   wonderful than that we should die? Dr. Watts has wisely said--

   "Our life contains a thousand springs, And dies if one is gone.

   Strange that a harp of thousand strings Should keep in tune so long!"

   Some small affair interferes with a minute valve or organ of secretion,
   mischief is engendered by it, the whole current of life is hindered
   and, by-and-by, death ensues. It is a very delicate process by which
   dust remains animated! A thousand things can stop the process and then
   our body is dissolved! Paul, therefore, because he saw his body to be
   frail as a bubble, looked forward to the time when the earthly house of
   his soul would be dissolved. When he was writing this Epistle, he had
   many signs about him that his body would be dissolved. His many labors
   were telling upon him. He was worn down with fatigue. He was spent in
   his Master's service.

   He was so full of the heavenly fire that he could never rest! After he
   had evangelized one city, he was forced to hasten to another. If he
   were driven out of one village, he hurried to the next, for he was
   eager to deliver the message of salvation. He wore himself out with
   labor and he felt, therefore, that the day would come when his body
   would give way under the intense excitement of his life-agony. In
   addition to this, he endured cold and hunger, nakedness and sickness
   brought upon him by his missionary sacrifices. He had a hard time of it
   as to physical endurance and I should think there was scarcely a limb
   of the man that did not suffer in consequence of the imprisonments,
   scourging, stoning and other hardships which he had suffered. He felt
   that one of these days, in all probability, the house of his tent would
   come down through the violence of his persecutors.

   Once he most touchingly spoke of himself as, "such an one as Paul the
   Aged"--and aged men cannot get away from the consciousness that their
   body is failing. Certain crumbling portions warn the old man that the
   house is dilapidated; the thatch which has grown thin or blanched tells
   its tale. There are signs about the aged which warn them that their
   earthly house was not built to stand forever--it is a tabernacle or
   tent set up for a temporary purposes--and it shows signs of waxing old
   and being ready to pass away. Therefore Paul was led to feel that both
   from the natural frailty of the body and, also, from the injuries which
   it had already sustained, there was before him the evident probability
   that the earthly house of his tabernacle would be dissolved.

   Besides, Paul's frail body had been subject to exceedingly great
   perils. I saw, the other day, an encampment of gypsies out upon the
   common. Many of this wandering race were sitting under a coarse
   covering sustained by sticks. I should exaggerate if I called them
   poles--and I could not help feeling that such an abode was all very
   well on a warm day, but not at all desirable when the east wind was
   blowing, or a shower of sleet was driving along, or a deluge of rain
   descending. The Apostle's body was a tent which was subjected to great
   stress of weather. God had not screened him, though one of the most
   precious men that even lived! He was exposed to more danger than almost
   any other of the Lord's servants.

   Here is his own account of the matter--"Thrice was I beaten with rods;
   once was I stoned; thrice I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day I
   have been in the deep; in journeying often, in perils of waters, in
   perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils by the
   heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils
   in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and
   painfulness, in watching often, in hunger and thirst, in fasting often,
   in cold and nakedness." Well might he reason that before long his poor
   shepherd's shanty would give way under such rude blasts! Besides, Paul
   knew that so many others whom he had known and loved had already died,
   and he gathered from this that he would, himself, die.

   There used to sit in this house a Brother who has often assured me that
   he would not die, and that if any Christian man did die it was because
   he grieved the Lord. I am sorry to say that I have missed that Brother
   for many months. I hope he has not yet disproved his own theory, but I
   am sure that he will do so, sooner or later, unless our Lord should
   hasten His advent. Whenever I meet with an enthusiast who boasts that
   he shall never die, I find it best to let him wait and see. One fine
   old Irish clergyman has frequently sought to instruct me in the art of
   being immortal! And he has been grieved and angry because I never set
   much store by the long life which he offered me. Though an old man, he
   assured me that he would never die--he expected, in a short time, to
   throw out all the infirmities of his years in the form of a rash--and
   then to be as vigorous as ever!

   Alas, the good rector is buried and his crazy brain is at rest. It is
   appointed unto men once to die. I should have thought that since so
   many of the excellent of the earth have fallen asleep, nobody would
   ever have been so mad as to raise a question about its being the common
   lot. Our crowded cemetery supply 10,000 arguments why each one of us
   may expect to die in due time. This earthly house of our tabernacle
   will be dissolved--all things unite to warrant the belief.

   Now, Brothers and Sisters, this was all that Paul expected on the sad
   side and, truly, it is not much, is it? Certain Swiss peasants not very
   long ago were feeding their flocks on one of the lofty upland valleys.
   On one side of the pasture stood a number of chalets, or wooden huts,
   in which they were accustomed to live during the summer. They were poor
   shelters which they left as soon as the winter set in. One day they
   heard a strange rumbling up in the lofty Alps and they understood what
   it meant--it meant that a mass of rock or snow or ice had fallen and
   would soon come crushing down in the form of an avalanche. In a brief
   space, their fears were realized, for they saw a tremendous mass come
   rushing from above, bearing destruction in its course. What did it
   destroy? Only the old, crazy chalets--that was all. Every man of the
   shepherds was safe and untouched--the event was, to them, a matter
   which caused a Te Deum to be sung in the village Church below rather
   than a subject for mourning and sorrow. They said, "The avalanche is
   terrible, but it has not slain the aged mother, nor crushed the babe in
   its cradle. It has injured none of us, but only buried a few hovels
   which we can soon rebuild."

   Their case is a picture of ours. The avalanche of death will fall, but
   O you saints, when it comes, this is all it will do for you--your
   earthly house will be dissolved! Will you fret over so small a loss? No
   evil will come near to you! The poor hut of the body will be buried
   beneath the earth, but as for yourself, what will you have to do but to
   sing an everlasting Te Deum unto Him who delivered you from death and
   danger--and raised you to His own right hand? It would not long affect
   a man if his tent should be overthrown--he would shake himself clear of
   it and come forth--it would not otherwise disturb him. So death shall
   not affect us for the worse, but for the better! The dissolution of
   this hampering frame shall give us liberty! Today we are like birds in
   the egg--so long as the shell is whole, we are not free--death breaks
   the

   shell!

   Does the fledgling lament the dissolution of the shell? I never heard
   of a bird in its nest pining over its broken shell! No, its thought
   runs otherwise--to wings and flight and sunny skies! So let it be with
   us. This body will be dissolved. Let it be so--it is good it should be!
   We have been glad of it while we have needed it and we thank God for
   the wondrous skill displayed in it--but when we no longer require it,
   we shall escape from it as from imprisonment and never wish to return
   to its narrow bounds! Death, as it pulls away our sackcloth canopy,
   will reveal to our wondering eyes the palace of the King in which we
   shall dwell forever and, therefore, what cause have we to be alarmed at
   it? I have set out the whole catastrophe before you--and surely no
   Believer trembles in view of it!

   II. So now we pass on to the second head--THE PROVISION OF WHICH THE
   APOSTLE PAUL MOST SURELY KNEW. He knew that if his tent dwelling was
   overthrown, he would not be without a home! He knew that he would not
   have to open his eyes in a naked condition and cry, "Woe's me, where am
   I to fly? I have no dwelling place!" No, he knew that if this
   tent-house were gone, he had "a building of God." Paul was not afraid
   of going to "purgatory"--though of late, some, even among Protestants,
   have, in a modified form, revived that grim lie and have told us that
   even Believers will have much to bear before they will be fit for
   eternal happiness! The Apostle held no such opinion! On the contrary,
   he wrote--"We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were
   dissolved, we have a building of God."

   He did not expect to be roasted alive for the next thousand years and
   then to leap from "purgatory" to Paradise. But he did expect to go, as
   soon as ever his earthly house was dissolved, into his eternal house
   which is in the heavens! He had not even the thought of lying in a
   state of unconsciousness till the Resurrection. He says, "We know that
   if the earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have [we
   have already] a building of God." He says not, "we shall have it," but,
   "we have it"--"we know that we have it." The picture seems to me to be
   as though one of you should dwell in his garden, in a tent, for a
   while. Somebody inquires what would happen if a gale of wind should
   blow your tent away in the night. "Oh," you say, "I have a house over
   yonder. I would go within doors and live there."

   What a comfort to know that whatever occurs to our temporary gear, we
   have a fixed and settled abode to which we can at once repair! This
   makes us feel independent of all dangers and helps us joyfully to
   welcome the inevitable, come when it may! What did the Apostle mean,
   however? For this text is said to be a very difficult one. He meant,
   first--the moment his soul left its body, it would at once enter into
   that house of which Jesus said, "In My Father's house are many
   mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you." Do you want to
   know about that house? Read the Book of the Revelation and learn of its
   gates of pearl, its streets of gold, its walls of rarest gems! Read of
   the river which winds through it and of the trees which bear their
   fruit every month! If, after that, you desire to know more concerning
   this house, I can but give you the advice which was given by John
   Bunyan in a similar case.

   One asked of Honest John a question which he could not answer, for the
   matter was not opened in God's Word and, therefore, Honest John bade
   his friend live a godly life and go to Heaven and see for himself.
   Believe no dreams, but bide your time, believing in the Lord Jesus, and
   you shall shortly know all about the house not made with hands, eternal
   in the heavens! Paul, however, meant that in the fullness of time he
   would again be clothed with a body. He regarded the waiting time as so
   short that he almost overlooked it, as men forget a moment's pause in a
   grand march. Ultimately, I say, he expected to be housed in a body--the
   tent-house which was blown down and dissolved would be developed into a
   building so rich and rare as to be fitly called, "a building of God, a
   house not made with hands."

   This, also, is our prospect. At this present time, in this mortal body,
   we groan being burdened, for our spirit is liberated from bondage, but
   our body is not yet emancipated, although it has been bought with a
   price. We are "waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our
   body" and so, "the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life
   because of righteousness." Our soul has been regenerated, but the body
   waits for the process, which, in its case, is analogous to
   regeneration, namely, the resurrection from the dead. Disembodied
   saints may have to wait a few thousand years, more or less, dwelling in
   the Father's house above--but there shall come, eventually, the
   sounding of the trumpet and the raising of the dead--and then the
   perfected spirit shall dwell in a body adapted to its glory. The
   certainty of the resurrection raises us above the dread which would
   otherwise surround the dissolution of our body.

   A child sees a man throwing precious metal into a melting pot and he is
   sad because fair silver is being destroyed. But he that knows the
   business of the refiner understands that no loss will come of the
   process--only the dross of that silver will be taken away--and the pure
   molten mass poured out into a comely mold will yet adorn a royal table!
   Well, my Brothers and Sisters, are we assured that to lose this vile
   body is clear gain since it will be fashioned according to the glorious
   Body of the Lord Jesus? Let us pass on to consider how Paul could say
   he knew this. This wonderfully enlightened 19th Century has produced an
   order of wise men who glory in their ignorance! They call themselves
   "Agnostics," or know-nothings! When I was a boy, it would have seemed
   odd to me to meet with a man who gloried in being an ignoramus and yet
   that is the Latin for that Greek word, "Agnostic."

   Is it not singular to hear a man boastfully say, "I am an ignoramus"?
   How different is our Apostle! He says, "We know." Where did this
   confidence come from? How did he know? First, Paul knew that he had a
   Father in Heaven, for he felt the spirit of sonship. He knew, also,
   that his Father had a house and he was certain that if ever he lost the
   tent in which he lived, he would be sure to be welcomed into his own
   Father's house above! How do our children know that if ever they are in
   need of a house they can come home to us? Did they learn that from
   their tutors at school? No, their childhood instincts teach them that
   our house is their home, just as chickens run under the mother hen
   without needing to be trained. Because they are our children, they feel
   that as long as we have a house, they have a house, too. Paul,
   therefore, unhesitatingly said, "We know."

   And Brethren, we know the same through like confidence in our Father's
   love. In the house of the many mansions we feel quite sure of a hearty
   welcome in due time! We cannot be shut out from our Father's home! We
   cannot be houseless wanderers while our royal Father dwells in His
   palace! We are not merely hopeful on this matter, but certain! And,
   therefore we say, "I know." Paul knew, again, that he had an elder
   Brother and that this Brother had gone before to see to the lodging of
   the younger brothers and sisters. Paul remembered that Jesus had said,
   "I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for
   you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am you
   may be also." So Paul had no question whatever! If the Lord had gone to
   prepare a place, there would be a place for him, for he never knew his
   Divine Lord to set about anything and fail therein!

   Can we not all trust our Forerunner? Have we any doubts of Him who has
   entered within the veil as our Representative? No! As we are sure that
   Jesus has passed into the heavens on our behalf, so are we sure that
   when this tent-house body is dissolved, there remains a rest and home
   for our souls! Doubtless, Paul also thought of the Holy Spirit, that
   blessed One who deigns to live with us in this frail house of clay
   which is, in many ways, an uncomfortable and unsuitable abode for Him
   by reason of the sin which has defiled it. He condescends to dwell in
   these mortal bodies and, therefore, when we leave our earthly house, He
   will leave it, too! And we are persuaded that a place will be found
   where we may still abide in fellowship. As our bodies have been honored
   to entertain the Holy Spirit, we may be sure that in our hour of need
   He will find an abode for us. He has been our guest and, in His time,
   He will be our Host!

   This we know, for we know the love of the Spirit. He who has made our
   body His temple will find a rest for our souls. Thus, from the Father,
   the Son and the Holy Spirit, we gather assurance that we shall not
   wander to and fro unhoused, even though this mortal frame should be
   dissolved! Besides, let me tell you something. Paul knew that when he
   died there was a Paradise prepared, for he had already been there! You
   remember how he locked up that story till he could keep it no longer
   and, then, 15 years after its occurrence, he let out the blessed
   secret? Let me read his words, "I knew a man in Christ above fourteen
   years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the
   body, I cannot tell: God knows). Such an one caught up to the third
   Heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the
   body, I cannot tell: God knows), how that he was caught up into
   Paradise and heard unspeakable words, which is not lawful for a man to
   utter."

   He says he was taken up to the third Heaven! It was, therefore, idle to
   tell Paul that there was no home for him hereafter, for he had seen the
   place! "Well" you say, "I have not seen it." No, but you fully believe
   the witness of Paul, do you not? For my own part, I am sure that Paul
   would not say that which is false and, inasmuch as he went into the
   third Heaven or Paradise, and saw it, I believe that there is such a
   place! Remember that this is the place to which the Lord Jesus admitted
   the dying thief, "Today shall you be with Me in Paradise." This is the
   place where Jesus is and where we shall be with Him forever, when the
   earthly house of this tabernacle shall be dissolved! Yet, again, dear
   Brothers and Sisters, you and I know that when this earthly tabernacle
   is dissolved, there will be a new body for us, because our Lord Jesus
   Christ has risen from the dead. In my mind the ultimate answer to my
   deepest unbelief is the fact of the rising of Jesus from the dead!

   No matter of history is anything like so well attested as the fact that
   our Lord was crucified, dead and buried--and that He did, on the third
   day--rise again from the dead. This I unhesitatingly accept us a fact
   and this becomes my anchorage. Inasmuch as Jesus is the Representative
   of all who are in Him, it is as certain that the Believer will rise
   since Jesus has risen. The Apostle says, "We know," and remembering
   these grand Truths of God, I am sure that his words are not a bit too
   strong! No, if I knew any word in the English language which would
   express more assurance than the words, "to know," I would use it this
   morning for myself! Much more, then, might the Apostle use it for
   himself. This we are also sure of, namely, that if our Lord Jesus is
   alive and in a place of rest, He will never leave His chosen and
   redeemed ones without house or home! Where He has found a Throne, His
   people shall find a dwelling!

   Delightful is our old-fashioned ditty--

   "And when I shall die, Receive me, I'll cry, For Jesus has loved me, I
   cannot tell why. But this I do find, we two are so joined, He won't be
   in Glory and lea ve me behind." There is such an attachment between
   Christ and the Believer--yes, more--such a vital, essential,
   indissoluble, tender marriage union that separation is impossible! As
   no man among us would ever be content to see his wife in prison if he
   could set her free, or to leave her outside in the cold when he could
   bring her to his fireside in comfort, so Christ, to whom our soul is
   espoused in eternal wedlock, will never rest until He has brought every
   one of His own beloved to be with Him where He is--that they may behold
   His Glory--the Glory which the Father has given Him. No Believer in
   Jesus has any doubts about that! I am sure you can all say, as Paul
   did, "We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were
   dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands."

   "Ah," asks one, "but how is a man to know that he has an interest in
   all this? Suppose I know that the children of God are thus favored, how
   am I to know that I am one of them?" I invite you to self-examination
   on this point. Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ with all your
   heart? Then it is written, "He that believes in Me though he were dead,
   yet shall he live. He that lives and believes in Me shall never die."
   Having believed in Christ, the Apostle knew that he was safe, for the
   promises are to Believers, and if any man is a Believer, every promise
   of the Covenant belongs to him. We obtain further assurance of this by
   our possessing the new life. Dear Friend, have you entered into a new
   world? Do you feel within you a new heart and a right spirit? Have old
   things passed away and have all things become new? Are you a new
   creature in Christ Jesus? Then it is all right with you! That new life
   cannot die, your new-born nature must inherit everlasting bliss. "Fear
   not, little flock; it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the
   kingdom."

   In addition to this, do you commune with God? Do you speak with Christ?
   None perish who commune with the Father and the Son. Jesus cannot say,
   at the last, "I never knew you; depart from Me," for He does know you,
   and you know

   Him. "Oh," you say, "He knows enough of me, for I am always begging."
   Just so, go on with that trade! Be always a spiritual mendicant. The
   Lord of Love will never cast away a pleading suppliant! He who
   frequents the Throne of Grace shall infallibly reach the throne of
   Glory! Beside, does not the Spirit, Himself, also bear witness with our
   spirit that we are the children of God? And if children and heirs, are
   we afraid of being left naked in the world to come? I hope that many of
   us have now reached the full assurance of faith so that we believe and
   are sure. Can you not say, each one for himself-- "I know whom I have
   believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have
   committed to Him

   until that day"?

   These are the ways in which Believers know that they are Believers! And
   then, by the Word of God they know that all things are theirs, so that
   if their earthly house should fail they would be received into
   everlasting habitations.

   III. Lastly, as to THE VALUE OF THIS KNOWLEDGE TO US. To be sure that
   when this body dies, all is well--is

   not that worth knowing? Secularists accuse us of taking men's minds
   away from the practical present that they may dream over a fancied
   future. We answer that the best help to live for the present is to live
   in prospect of the eternal future. Paul's confident belief that if his
   body should be dissolved, he would be no loser, kept him from fainting.
   He knew what the worst would be and he was prepared for it. Great
   storms were out, but the Apostle knew the limit of his possible loss
   and so was ready. All we can lose is the frail tent of this poor body.
   By no possibility can we lose more. When a man knows the limit of his
   risk, it greatly tends to calm his mind. The undiscoverable and the
   unmeasured are the worst ingredients of dread and terror--but when you
   can gauge your fears, you have removed them.

   Our Apostle felt that he had been sent into the world with the great
   design of glorifying God by winning souls and building up saints--and
   he was fully resolved to keep to the ministry which he had received. He
   argues with himself that his most dangerous course would be to faint in
   his life-service, for perseverance in his calling could bring with it
   no greater risk than death--and that he summed up as losing a tent and
   gaining a mansion! The Roman emperor might strike off his head, or a
   mob might stone him to death, or he might be crucified like his
   Master--but he made light of such a fate! It was to him only the coming
   down of the old tent--it did not affect his undying spirit--he smiled
   and sang, "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works
   for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."

   The prospect of his heavenly house made his present trials seem very
   light, for he felt like a man who sojourns for a night at a poor inn,
   but puts up with it gladly because he hopes to be home on the morrow.
   If we were trying tent life for a season we should probably cry out, "A
   fearful draft comes in at that corner! How damp it is under foot! How
   cramped one feels!" Yet we should smile over it all and say, "It will
   not be for long. We shall soon be in our house at home." Ah, Brothers
   and Sisters, an hour with our God will make up for all the trials of
   the way! Be of good courage and press on. This changed, for Paul, the
   very idea of death--death was transformed from a demon into an angel!
   It was but the removal of a tottering tent that he might enter into a
   permanent palace!

   Some of God's own children are much troubled through fear of death
   because they do not know what it is. If they were better taught, they
   would soon discover, in their present source of sorrow, a subject for
   song! I would like, here, to say that I have known some of my Master's
   doubting and fearing servants die splendidly! Do you remember how Mr.
   Feeble-Mind, when he crossed the river, went over dry-shod? Poor soul,
   he thought he should surely be drowned, and yet he scarcely wet the
   soles of his feet! I have known men of God go like Jacob all day long,
   weary and faint, feeling banished from their Father's house--and yet
   when they have laid their head down for their final sleep, they have
   had visions of angels and of God! The end of their journey has made
   amends for the rough places of the way.

   It shall be so with you, Brother and Sister Believer. There is usually
   a dark place in every Christian's experience. I have seen some travel
   in sunlight almost the whole of the way and then depart in gloom. And I
   have thought none the worse of them for it. And I have seen others
   struggle forward through a fog for the first part of their pilgrimage
   and then come out into cloudless day. At one period or another beneath
   these lowering skies the shadow falls across our way, but surely,
   "light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in
   heart." As I have thought of some of my dear Brothers and Sisters that
   I have seen die very sweetly, and I have remembered that they were, in
   life, lowly and self-distrustful, I have compared them to persons who,
   when they drink their tea, forget to stir the sugar at the bottom of
   the cup. How doubly sweet the drink becomes as they near the
   bottom--they have more sweetness than they can well bear!

   Would it not be wise to stir the tea at once and enjoy the sweetness
   from the brim to the bottom? This is the benefit of faith as to the
   future, for it flavors the present with delight. But what if saints
   should miss immediate comfort for a

   while--how richly will they be compensated! What will it be to open
   your eyes in Heaven! What a joy to fall asleep on the bed of
   languishing and to wake amid the celestial choir of Hallelujahs! "Where
   am I? Ah, my God! My Christ! My Heaven! My all! I am HOME!" Sorrow and
   sighing shall flee away! Does not this view of things give a
   transfiguration to death? O you poor unbelievers, how I pity you, since
   you have no such glorious hopes! O that you would believe in the Lord
   Jesus and enter into eternal life!

   Faith had such an effect upon Paul that it made him always calm and
   brave. Why should he be afraid of a man that could not do him harm?
   Even if his persecutor killed him, he would do him a service! What had
   he to fear? This made Paul wise and prudent. He could use his judgment,
   for he was not fluttered. He was not like some of you that are only a
   little ill and straightway you are filled with fright--and you make
   yourselves worse than you otherwise would be, so that the doctor has to
   contend with a frightened mind as well as a diseased body! He who is
   calm, restful and happy is already on the road to a cure. He is quiet
   because he is in his Father's hands, and whether he lives or dies, all
   is well--and this conviction helps the physician to remove his bodily
   malady. I say again, there is no way to live like learning to die! And
   he who can afford to be careless whether he lives or dies is the man
   who will so live as to die triumphantly. Oh, that all of you felt the
   quiet which comes of trusting in the Lord Jesus!

   How sad to know that you may die at any moment and to be unprepared for
   the change! I do not wonder that you are unhappy! You have good reason
   for being so. Oh that you were wise and would make the future sure by
   faith in the risen Lord! In Martin Luther's time and before his era,
   men who had lived evil lives were often in great fear when they came to
   die--and in their terror they would send to a monastery and procure a
   monk's robe in which to be buried. What a foolish fancy! Yet so it was
   that they hoped to fare better in the day ofjudgment for being wrapped
   in brown cloth and covered with a hood! Be ours a better garment! Here
   is a wish of holy Rutherford--"His believed love shall be my winding
   sheet and all my grave-clothes. I shall roll up my soul and sew it up
   in the web of His sweet and free love."

   Is not that your idea? It is surely mine! If we are laid to sleep in
   such a cloth, there will be no fear of our waking! It will happen to us
   as to the man who was laid in Elisha's grave and at once arose as soon
   as he touched the Prophet's bones. No man can lie dead if wrapped up in
   the love of Christ, for His love is life! He that has touched the love
   of Christ has touched the heart of the life of God and he must live! So
   let us give ourselves up to that Divine love and, trusting in our Lord,
   let us go onward to eternal bliss till the day breaks and the shadows
   flee away! Let us triumph and rejoice that there is prepared for us a
   "building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."
     __________________________________________________________________

Christ in You

   (No. 1720)

   DELIVERED ON LORDS-DAY MORNING, MAY 13, 1883,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Christ in you, the hope of glory." Colossians 1:27.

   THE Gospel is the grand secret--the mystery of mysteries! It was hidden
   from ages and from generations, but is now made manifest to the saints.
   To the mass of mankind it was utterly unknown and the chosen people,
   who saw something of it, only perceived it dimly through the smoke of
   sacrifices and the veil of types. It remained a mystery which wit could
   not guess nor invention unravel--and it would have forever have
   continued a secret had not God, in His infinite mercy, been pleased to
   reveal it by the Holy Spirit. In a still deeper sense it is even yet a
   hidden thing unless the Spirit of God has revealed it to us
   individually, for the revelation of the Gospel in the Word of God does
   not, of itself, instruct men unto eternal life. The light is clear
   enough, but it avails nothing till the eyes are opened. Each separate
   individual must have Christ revealed to him and in him by the work of
   the Holy Spirit, or else he will remain in darkness even in the midst
   of the Gospel day.

   Blessed and happy are they to whom the Lord has laid open the Divine
   secret which Prophets and kings could not discover--which even angels
   desired to look into! Brethren, we live in a time when the Gospel is
   clearly revealed in the Word of God and when that Word has its faithful
   preachers lovingly to press home its teachings. Let us take care that
   we do not despise the mystery which has now become a household word.
   Let not the commonness of the blessing cause us to undervalue it. You
   remember how, in the wilderness, the Israelites fed upon angels' food
   until they had enjoyed it so long, so constantly and so abundantly that
   in their wicked discontent they called it, "light bread"? I fear that
   many in these times are gorged with the Gospel like those who eat too
   much honey. They even venture to call the heavenly Word of God,
   "common-place," and talk us if it were not only, "the old, old story,"
   but a stale story, too.

   Are not many hungering after novelties, longing for things original and
   startling, thirsting after the spiritual dram-drinking of sensational
   preaching, dissatisfied with Christ Crucified, though He is the Bread
   which came down from Heaven? For us, let us keep clear of this folly!
   Let us rest content with the old food, praying from day to day, "Lord,
   evermore give us this bread." May it never happen to us as unto the
   Jews of the Apostolic times who utterly refused the Word of Life, so
   that the Truth of God became to them a stumbling-block and those who
   preached it were compelled to turn to the Gentiles! If we despise the
   heavenly message, we cannot expect to fare better than they did! Let us
   not incur the danger of refusing Him that speaks from Heaven! If there
   is life, rejoice in it! If there is light, walk in it! If there is
   love, rest in it. If the Lord God Almighty has, at last, set open the
   treasures of His Grace and put eternal bliss within your reach, stretch
   out the hand of faith and be enriched! Turn not your backs upon your
   God, your Savior, for in so doing you will turn your backs on eternal
   life and Heaven! God grant that none of you may do this.

   In our text we have, in a few words, that great mystery with which
   Heaven did labor us in travail; that mystery which is to transform this
   poor world into new heavens and a new earth. We have it, I say, all in
   a nutshell in the seven words of our text--the riches of the glory of
   this mystery may, here, be seen set out to open view--"Christ in you,
   the hope of glory." By the assistance of the Divine Spirit, I shall
   speak upon this mystery in three ways--The essence of it is "Christ."
   The sweetness of it is "Christ in you." And the outlook of it is "the
   hope of glory." The words read like a whole body of divinity condensed
   into a line,--"Christ in you, the hope of glory."

   I. The eternal mystery of the Gospel--THE ESSENCE OF IT IS CHRIST. I
   hardly know what is the antecedent to the word, "which," here--whether
   it is, "mystery," or, "riches," or, "glory." And I do not greatly care
   to examine which it may be. Any one of the three words will be suitable
   and all three will fit best of all. If it is "the mystery," Christ is
   that mystery--"Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:
   God was manifest in the flesh." If it is the word, "glory," beyond all
   question our Lord Jesus wears a "glory as of the Only-Begotten of the
   Father, full of Grace

   and truth." Is He not "the brightness of the Father's glory"? If we
   take the word, "riches," you have often heard of "the unsearchable
   riches of Christ," for in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead
   bodily.

   Oh, the riches of the Grace of God which it has pleased the Father to
   impart unto us in Christ Jesus! Christ is the "mystery," the "riches"
   and the "glory." He is all this and, blessed be His name, He is all
   this among us poor Gentiles who at first were like dogs, scarcely
   accounted worthy to eat the crumbs from under the children's table! And
   yet we are now admitted into the children's place and made heirs of
   God, joint-heirs with Christ Jesus! Riches of glory among the Gentiles
   would have sounded like a mockery in the first ages and yet the
   language is most proper at this day, for all things are ours in Christ
   Jesus the Lord!

   The essence of this mystery is Christ, Himself. In these days certain
   would-be wise men are laboriously attempting to constitute a church
   without Christ and to set forth a salvation without a Savior. But their
   Babel building is as a bowing wall and a tottering fence. The center of
   the blessed mystery of the Gospel is Christ, Himself, in His Person.
   What a wonderful conception it was that the infinite God should take
   upon Himself the nature of man! It never would have occurred to men
   that such a condescension would be thought of! Even now that it has
   been done, it is a great mystery of our faith. God and man in one
   Person is the wonder of Heaven, earth and Hell! Well might David
   exclaim, "What is man, that You are mindful of him? And the son of man,
   that You visit him?"

   The first thought of the Incarnation was born in the unsearchably wise
   mind of God. it needed Omnipotent Omniscience to suggest the idea of,
   "Immanuel, God With Us." Think of it! The Infinite an infant; the
   Ancient of days a child; the Ever-Blessed a man of sorrows and
   acquainted with grief! The idea is original, astounding, Divine! Oh,
   that this blending of the two natures should ever have taken place!
   Brothers and Sisters, the heart of the Gospel throbs in the Truth of
   God! The Son of the Highest was born at Bethlehem and at His birth,
   before He had worked a deed of righteousness or shed a drop of blood,
   the angels sang, "Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good
   will toward men," for they knew that the Incarnation had, within
   itself, a wealth of good things for men!

   When the Lord, Himself, took our manhood, it meant inconceivable
   benediction to the human race! "Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son
   is given," and in that Child and Son we find our salvation! God in our
   nature can mean for us nothing but joy. How favored is our race in this
   respect! What other creature did the Lord thus espouse? We know that He
   took not up angels, but He took up the seed of Abraham. He took upon
   Him human nature, and now the next being in the universe to God is man,
   he who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of
   death is the day crowned with glory and honor, and made to have
   dominion over all the works of Jehovah's hands.

   This is, indeed, the Gospel! Do not sinners begin to hope? Is there one
   in your nature who is "Light of lights, very God of very God," and do
   you not perceive that this must mean good for you? Does not the "Word
   made flesh" dwelling among men awaken hope in your bosoms and lead you
   to believe that you may yet be saved? Certainly the fact of there being
   such an union between God and man is the delight of every regenerated
   mind! Our Lord's Person is, at this day, constituted in the same
   manner. He is still God and Man! He can still sympathize with our
   manhood to the fullest, for He is bone of our bone and flesh of our
   flesh! And yet He can help us without limit, seeing He is equal with
   the Father. Though manifestly Divine, yet Jesus is none the less Human!
   Though truly Man, He is none the less Divine--and this is a door of
   hope to us, a fountain of consolation which never ceases to flow!

   When we think of our Lord, we remember with His Person the glorious
   work which He undertook and finished on our behalf. Being found in
   fashion as Man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even
   the death of the Cross. He took upon Himself the form of a Servant and
   was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, because we had failed in our
   service and could not be saved unless Another did suit and service on
   our behalf. The Heir of all things girded Himself to be among as One
   that serves! What service His was! How arduous! How humble! How heavy!
   How all-consuming! His was a life of grief and humiliation, followed by
   a death of agony and scorn. Up to the Cross He carried all our load.
   And on the Cross He bore, that we might bear, His Father's righteous
   wrath!

   Oh, what has Christ not done for us? He cast our sins into the depths
   of the sea. He has taken the cup which we ought to have drunk forever
   and He has drained it dry and left not a dreg behind! He has redeemed
   us from the curse of the Law, being made a Curse for us. And now He has
   finished transgression, made an end of sin, brought in everlasting
   righteousness and gone up to His Father's Throne within the veil,
   bearing His Divine oblation and making everything right and safe for
   us, that, by-and-by, we may follow Him and be with Him where He is! Oh
   yes, Brothers and Sisters,

   Christ's Person and finished work are the pillars of our hope! I cannot
   think of what He is, what He has done, what He is doing and what He
   will yet do, without saying, "He is all my salvation and all my
   desire."

   My Brethren, every one of our Lord's offices is a well-spring of
   comfort. Is He Prophet, Priest and King? Is He Friend? Is He Brother?
   Is He Husband? Is He Head? Every way and everywhere we lean the weight
   of our soul's great business upon Him and He is our All in All!
   Besides, there is this sweet thought, that He is our Representative.
   Know you not that of old He was our Covenant Head and stood for us in
   the great transactions of eternity? Like as the first Adam headed up
   the race and stood for us--alas, I must correct myself--fell for us,
   and we fell in him, so now has the second Adam taken up within Himself
   all His people and stood for them and kept for them the covenant. So
   that now it is ordered in all things and sure, and every blessing of it
   is infallibly secured to all the seed. Believers must and shall possess
   the covenanted inheritance because Jesus represents them and, on their
   behalf, has taken possession of the estate of God!

   Whatever Christ is, His people are in Him. They were crucified in Him;
   they were dead in Him; they were buried in Him; they are risen in Him!
   In Him they live eternally, in Him they sit gloriously at the right
   hand of God, "who has raised us up together, and made us sit together
   in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." In Him we are "accepted in the
   Beloved," both now and forever! And this, I say, is the essence of the
   whole Gospel. He that preaches Christ preaches the Gospel! He who does
   not preach Christ, preaches not the Gospel. It is no more possible for
   there to be a Gospel without Christ than a day without the sun, or a
   river without water, or a living man without a head, or a quickened
   human body without a soul! No, Christ Himself is the life, soul,
   substance and essence of the mystery of the Gospel of God. Christ,
   Himself, I say again, and no other!

   I have been trying to think what we would do if our Lord were gone.
   Suppose that a man has heard of a great physician who understands his
   complaint? He has traveled a great many miles to see this celebrated
   doctor. But when he gets to the door they tell him that he is out.
   "Well," he says, "then I must wait till he is in." "You need not wait,"
   they reply, "his assistant is at home." The suffering man, who has been
   often disappointed, answers, "I do not care about his assistant. I want
   to see the man, himself--mine is a desperate case, but I have heard
   that this physician has cured the like. I must, therefore, see him. No
   assistants for me." "Well," they say, "he is out, but there are his
   books. You can see his books." "Thank you," he says, "I cannot be
   content with his books. I need the living man and nothing less. It is
   to him that I must speak and from him I will receive instructions."

   "Do you see that cabinet?" "Yes." "It is full of his medicines." The
   sick man answers, "I dare say they are very good, but they are of no
   use to me without the doctor. I want their owner to prescribe for me,
   or I shall die of my disease." "But see," cries one, "here is a person
   who has been cured by him, a man of great experience, who has been
   present at many remarkable operations. Go into the inquiry room with
   him and he will tell you all about the mode of cure." The afflicted man
   answers, "I am much obliged to you, but all your talk only makes me
   long the more to see the doctor. I came to see him, and I am not going
   to be put off with anything else. I must see the man, himself, for
   myself. He has made my disease a specialty. He knows how to handle my
   case and I will stay till I see him."

   Now, dear Friends, if you are seeking Christ, imitate this sick man or
   else you will miss the mark altogether! Never be put off with books, or
   conversations. Be not content with Christian people talking to you, or
   preachers preaching to you, or the Bible being read to you, or prayers
   being offered for you. Anything short of Jesus will leave you short of
   salvation! You have to reach Christ and touch Christ, and nothing short
   of this will serve your turn. Picture the case of the prodigal son when
   he went home. Suppose, when he reached the house, the elder brother had
   come to meet him? I must make a supposition that the elder brother had
   sweetened himself and made himself amiable--and then I hear him say,
   "Come in, Brother. Welcome home!"

   But I see the returning one stand there with tears in his eyes and I
   hear him lament, "I want to see my father. I must tell him that I have
   sinned and done evil in his sight." An old servant whispers, "Master
   John, I am glad to see you back. Be happy, for all the servants are
   rejoiced to hear the sound of your voice. It is true your father will
   not see you, but he has ordered the fatted calf to be killed for you.
   And here is the best robe, and a ring, and shoes for your feet, and we
   are told to put them on you." All this would not content the poor
   penitent! I think I hear him cry--"I do not despise anything my father
   gives me, for I am not worthy to be as his hired servant. But what is
   all this unless I see his face and know that he forgives me? There is
   no taste in the feast, no glitter in the ring, no fitness in the shoes,
   no beauty in the robe unless I can see my father and can be reconciled
   to him."

   Do you not see that in the case of the prodigal son the great matter
   was to get his head into his father's bosom and there to sob out,
   "Father, I have sinned"? The one thing necessary was the kiss of free
   forgiveness, the touch of those dear, warm, loving lips, which said,
   "My dear child, I love you and your faults are blotted out." That was
   the thing that gave his soul rest and perfect peace! And this is the
   mystery we come to preach to you--God Himself drawing near to you in
   Christ Jesus and forgiving you all your trespasses. We are not content
   to preach unless Jesus Himself is the theme. We do not set before you
   something about Christ, nor something that belongs to Christ, nor
   something proclaimed by Christ, nor somebody that has known Christ, nor
   some truth which extols Christ! No, we preach Christ Crucified!

   We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord! And we say to you,
   never be content till you clasp the Savior in your arms as Simeon did
   in the Temple. That venerable saint did not pray to depart in peace
   while he only saw the Child in Mary's bosom! But when he had taken the
   dear One into his own arms, then he said, "Lord, now let Your servant
   depart in peace." A personal grasp of a personal Christ, even though we
   only know Him as an Infant, fills the heart to the fullest, but nothing
   else will do it! I go a little farther. As it must be Christ Himself,
   and none other, it must also be Christ Himself rather than anything
   which Christ gives.

   I was thinking, the other day, how different Christ is from all the
   friends and helpers that we have. They bring us good things, but Jesus
   gives us Himself. He does not merely give us wisdom, righteousness,
   sanctification and redemption, but He Himself is made of God all these
   things to us! Hence we can never do without Him. When very ill, you are
   pleased to see the doctor, but when you are getting well you say to
   yourself, "I shall be glad to see the back of the good man, for that
   will be a sure sign that I am off the sick list." Ah, but when Jesus
   heals a soul, he wants to see Jesus more than ever! Our longing for the
   constant company of our Lord is the sign that we are getting well! He
   who longs for Jesus to abide with Him, forever, is healed of his
   plague! We never outgrow Christ--we only grow to hunger more and more!

   If you eat a meal you lose your appetite, but if you feed upon Christ,
   you hunger and thirst still more after Him. This insatiable desire
   after Him is not a painful hunger, but a heavenly, pleasant hunger
   which grows upon you the more its cravings are gratified. The man who
   has little of Christ can do with little of Christ. But he that gets
   more of Christ pines for a yet fuller supply. Suppose a wise man were
   to instruct you? You would learn all he had to teach and then say, "Let
   him go on and teach somebody else." But when Jesus teaches, we discover
   so much of our own ignorance that we would gladly keep Him as our
   life-tutor! When our Lord taught the two disciples on the road to
   Emmaus, He opened the Scriptures and He opened their minds until their
   hearts burned within them! What next? Shall the Divine teacher pass on?
   No, no! They constrained Him, saying, "Abide with us; it is toward
   evening, and the day is far spent." The more He taught them, the more
   they wished to be taught!

   This is always the way with Christ--He is growingly dear, increasingly
   necessary! Oh my Brothers and Sisters, you cannot do without Him! If
   you have your foot upon the threshold of pure gold and your finger on
   the latch of the gate of pearl, you now need Christ more than ever! I
   feel persuaded that you are of Rutherford's mind, when he cried to have
   his heart enlarged till it was as big as Heaven, that he might hold all
   Christ within it--and then he felt that even then is was too narrow a
   space for the boundless love of Jesus, since the Heaven of heavens
   cannot contain Him! And so he cried out for a heart as large as seven
   heavens, that he might entertain the Well-Beloved. Truly, I am content
   with what God has given me in all points, except that I long for more
   of Christ! I could sit down happy if I knew that my portion in the
   house and in the field would never grow--but I am famished to have more
   of my Lord!

   The more we are filled within of Christ, the more we feel our own
   natural emptiness! The more we know of Him, the more we long to know
   Him! Paul, writing to the Philippians, when he had been a Christian for
   many years, yet says, "That I may know Him." Oh, Paul, do you not know
   Christ yet? "Yes," he says, "and no." For he knew the love of Christ,
   but felt that it surpassed all knowledge. "All the rivers run into the
   sea, yet the sea is not full"--this is not our case in one respect, and
   yet it is in another, for all the streams of Grace and love and
   blessedness flow into our souls and we are full--yet, being full, we
   are longing for more! Not Your gifts, Lord, but Yourself! You, You are
   the desire of our hearts! Christ alone is enough.

   Mark this. Nothing must be placed with Christ as if it were necessary
   to Him. Some hold a candle to the sun by preaching Christ and man's
   philosophy, or their own priestcraft. When the blessed rain comes fresh
   from Heaven, they would gladly perfume it with their own dainty extract
   of fancy. As for God's blessed air, fresh from the eternal hills, they
   dream that it cannot be right unless by scientific experiments they
   load it with their own smoke and clouds! Come, clear

   out, let us see the sun! We do not need your rush lights. Away with
   your gauges and your fineries! Let the clear sunlight enter! Let the
   holy water drop from Heaven! We want not your scented essences. Out of
   the way and let the fresh air blow about us. There is nothing like it
   for the health and strength of the soul! We rejoice in Christ and
   nothing else but Christ! Christ and no priestcraft! Christ and no
   philosophy! Christ and no modern thought! Christ and no human
   perfection! Christ, the whole of Christ, and nothing else but
   Christ--here lies the mystery of the Gospel of the Grace of God!

   Brethren, what else but Christ can satisfy the justice of God? Look
   around you when a sense of sin is on you and the dread tribunal is
   before your eyes--what can you bring, by way of expiation, but Christ?
   What can you bring with Christ? What dare you associate with His blood
   and merits? Oh, my God, nothing will content You but Your Son, Your
   Son, alone! What else can quiet conscience? Some professors have
   consciences as good us new, for they have never been used. But he that
   has once had his conscience thoroughly exercised and pressed upon with
   all the weight of sin till he has felt as if it were better for him not
   to be than to be guilty before God--that man acknowledges that nothing
   but Christ will ever quiet his agonized heart!

   See the bleeding Lamb and you will be pacified! See the exalted Lord
   pleading His righteousness before the Throne of God and conscience is
   even as a weaned child--and all the storm within the spirit is hushed
   into a great calm. What else will do to live with but Christ? I do not
   find, in times of pain and depression of spirit, that I can keep up
   upon anything but my Lord. The mind can feed at other times on pretty
   kickshaws and fine confectionery such as certain divines serve out in
   the form of orations and essays and the like, but when you are sorely
   sick, your soul abhors all manner of earthly meat and nothing will stay
   in the stomach but the Bread of Heaven, even the blessed Christ of God!
   Think also, when you come to die, what else will do but Christ? Oh, I
   have seen men die with Heaven in their eyes, the eternal Godhead
   seeming to transfigure them because they rejoiced in Christ! But a
   deathbed without Christ--it is the darkening twilight of eternal night!
   It is the gloomy cave which forms the entrance of the land of darkness.

   Do not venture on life or death without Jesus, I implore you. "None but
   Christ, none but Christ"--this has been the martyr's cry amidst the
   fire--let it be ours in life and death.

   II. Secondly, we are to consider THE SWEETNESS OF THIS MYSTERY, WHICH
   IS CHRIST IN YOU. This is a

   grand advance. I know that there are a great many fishermen here, this
   morning, and I heartily welcome them. When you are out at sea you like
   to know that there are plenty of fish in the sea all round your boats.
   It is a fine thing to get in among the great shoals of fish. Yes, but
   there is one thing better than that! Fish in the sea are good, but the
   fish in the boat are the fish for you! Once get them in the net, or
   better still, safe into the vessel, and you are glad. Now Christ in
   Heaven--Christ free to poor sinners is precious--but Christ here in the
   heart is most precious of all! Here is the marrow and fatness. Christ
   on board the vessel brings safety and calm. Christ in your house,
   Christ in your heart, Christ in you-- that is the cream of the matter,
   the honey of the honeycomb!

   Gold is valuable, but men think more of a pound in their pockets than
   of huge ingots in the bank vault. A loaf of bread is a fine thing, but
   if we could not eat it, and so get it within us, we might die of
   starvation. A medicine may be a noble cure, but if it is always kept in
   the vial and we never take a draught from it, what good will it do us?
   Christ is best known when He is Christ in you. Let us talk about that a
   little. Christ in you--that is, first, Christ accepted by faith. Is it
   not a wonderful thing that Christ Jesus should ever enter into a man?
   Yes, but I will tell you something more wonderful, and that is, that He
   should enter in by so narrow an opening as our little faith! There is
   the sun--I do not know how many thousands of times the sun is bigger
   than the earth, and yet the sun can come into a little room or a close
   cell--and what is more, the sun can get in through a chink!

   When the shutters have been closed I have known him come in through a
   little round hole in them. So Christ can come in through a little
   faith--a mere chink of confidence. If you are such a poor Believer that
   you can hardly think of assurance or confidence, yet if you trust the
   Lord, as surely us the sun comes in by a narrow crack, so will Christ
   come into your soul by the smallest opening of true faith! How wise it
   will be on your part, when you see your Lord's sunny face shining
   through the lattices, to say, "I am not going to be satisfied with
   these mere glints and gleams, I would rather walk in the light of His
   Countenance. Pull up those blinds! Let the heavenly sun shine in and
   let me rejoice in its glory." Grow in faith and enlarge your receiving
   power till you take in Christ into your inmost soul by the Holy Spirit,
   for it is Christ in you by faith that becomes the hope of glory.

   By Christ in you we mean Christ possessed. You see, nothing is so much
   a man's own as that which is within him. Do you tell me that a certain
   slice of bread is not mine and that I have no right to it? But I have
   eaten it and you may bring a lawsuit against me about that bread if you
   like, but you cannot get it away from me! That question is
   settled--that which I have eaten is mine. In this case, possession is
   not only nine points of the law, but all the points. When a man gets
   Christ into Him, the devil himself cannot win a suit against him to
   recover Christ, for that matter is settled beyond question. Christ in
   you is yours, indeed! Men may question whether an acre of land or a
   house belongs to me, but the meat I ate yesterday is not a case of
   property which Chancery or any other court can alter. So, when the
   Believer has Christ in him, the Law has no more to say! The enclosure
   made by faith carries its own title deeds within it.

   It means, too, Christ experienced in all His power. There may be a
   valuable medicine that works like magic to expel a man's pains and cure
   his diseases, but it is of no efficacy till it is within him! When it
   commences to purify his blood and to strengthen his frame, he is in a
   fair way to know it without depending upon the witness of others. Get
   Christ in you curing your sin, Christ in you filling your soul with
   love to virtue and holiness, bathing your heart in comfort and refining
   it with heavenly inspirations--then will you know the Lord! Christ
   believed in, Christ possessed, Christ experienced, Christ in you--this
   is worth a world! Moreover, Christ in us is Christ reigning. It reminds
   me of Mr. Bunyan's picture of Mansoul, when the Prince Immanuel laid
   siege to it and Diabolus, from within the city, strove to keep Him out.

   It was a hard time for Mansoul, then, but, at last, the battering rams
   had broken down the gates and the silver trumpets sounded and the
   Prince's captains entered! Then the Prince, Himself, did ride down the
   city's streets, while liberated citizens welcomed Him with all their
   hearts, hung out all their streamers and made the Church towers ring
   again! The bells rang out merry peals, for the King, Himself, was come.
   Up to the castle of the heart, He rode in triumph and took His royal
   throne to be henceforth the sole lord and king of the city. Christ in
   you is a right royal word! Christ swaying His scepter from the center
   of your being, over every power and faculty, desire and resolve,
   bringing every thought into captivity to Himself--oh, this is glory
   begun and the sure pledge of Heaven!

   Oh for more of the imperial sovereignty of Jesus! It is our liberty to
   be absolutely under His sway. Yes, and then Christ in you is Christ
   filling you. It is wonderful, when Christ once enters into a soul, how,
   by degrees, He occupies the whole of it. Did you ever hear the legend
   of a man whose garden produced nothing else but weeds, till at last he
   met with a strange foreign flower of singular vitality? The story is
   that he sowed a handful of this seed in his overgrown garden and left
   it to work its own sweet way. He slept and rose and knew not how the
   seed was growing till one day he opened the gate and saw a scene which
   astounded him. He knew that the seed would produce a dainty flower and
   he looked for it. But he had little dreamed that the plant would cover
   the whole garden! So it was--the flower had exterminated every weed,
   till, as he looked from one end to the other--from wall to wall he
   could see nothing but the fair colors of that rare plant and smell
   nothing but its delicious perfume.

   Christ is that plant of renown! If He is sown in the soil of your soul,
   He will gradually eat out the roots of all evil weeds and poisonous
   plants, till over all your nature there shall be Christ in you! God
   grant we may realize the picture in our own hearts, and then we shall
   be in Paradise! It may sound strange to add that Christ in you
   transfigures the man till he becomes like Christ, Himself. You thrust a
   bar of cold, black iron into the fire and keep it there till the fire
   enters into it. Look, the iron is like fire, itself--he that feels it
   will know no difference. The fire has permeated the iron and made it a
   fiery mass. I should like to have seen that bush in Horeb before which
   Moses took off his shoes. When it was all ablaze it seemed no longer a
   bush, but a mass of fire, a furnace of pure flame. The fire had
   transfigured the bush. So it is with us when Christ enters into us--He
   elevates us to a nobler state, even as Paul said--"I live, yet not I,
   but Christ lives in me."

   Jesus sanctifies us wholly--spirit, soul, and body--and takes us to
   dwell with Him in the perfect state above. Christ in you--how can I
   explain it? We are the little graft and He is the strong and living
   stem. We are laid to Him, bound to Him, sealed to Him--and when there
   is nothing between the new shoot and the old tree, at last the sap
   flows into the graft and graft and the tree are one! You know right
   well how Christ enters into us and becomes our life. Christ in you
   means power in you. A strong man armed keeps his house till a stronger
   than he comes--and when the stronger enters, the first tenant is
   ejected by the power of the new comer and kept out by the same means.
   We were without strength till Christ came, but now we war with
   principalities and powers and win the victory. Christ in you! Oh, what
   bliss! What joy! The Bridegroom is with us and we cannot fast! The King
   is with us and we are glad!

   When King Charles went to live at Newmarket, it is said that a most
   poverty-stricken village became a wealthy place. Truly, when Christ
   comes to dwell in our hearts, our spiritual poverty suddenly turns to
   blessed wealth. Christ in you! What a wonder it is that He should deign
   to come under our roof! Lift up your heads, O you gates, and be you
   lifted up, you everlasting doors, that the King of Glory may come in.
   See the honor which His entrance brings with it! He glorifies the place
   where His foot rests even for a moment. If Jesus does but enter into
   your heart, His court comes within Him--honor, glory, immortality,
   Heaven and all other Divine things follow where He leads. "Oh," says
   one, "I wish He would come and dwell in me." Then, be humble, for He
   loves to dwell with him that is humble and of a contrite spirit.

   Next, be clean, for if they must be clean that bear God's vessels, much
   more they that have Christ, Himself, in them. Next, be empty, for
   Christ will not live amid the lumber of self, pride and carnal
   sufficiency. Learn abundantly to rejoice in Christ, for he who welcomes
   Christ will have Him always for a guest. Jesus never tarries where He
   is not desired. If His welcome is worn out, away He goes. Oh, desire
   and delight in Him! Hunger and thirst after Him, for Christ delights to
   dwell with an eager people, a hungry people, a people who value Him and
   cannot be happy without Him. Surely I have said enough to make you feel
   that the sweetness of true godliness lies in having Christ in you.

   III. Thirdly, we are to consider that the OUTLOOK OF ALL THIS IS CHRIST
   IN YOU, THE HOPE OF GLORY. Last Sunday morning, as best I could in my
   feebleness, I spoke to you about the time when this earthly house of
   our tabernacle shall be dissolved, when we shall find that we have a
   building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
   But this morning's text goes a little further--it speaks of glory which
   is a hope for soul as well as body. Why glory! Glory? Surely that
   belongs only to God. To Him alone be glory! Yes, but Christ has said,
   "Father, I will that they, also, whom You have given Me be with Me
   where I am, that they may behold My glory."

   And He also says, "And the glory which You have given Me, I have given
   them." Think of it! Glory for us poor creatures! Glory for you, Sister!
   Glory for me! It seems a strange thing that a sinner should ever have
   anything to do with glory when he deserves nothing but shame. We are
   neither kings nor princes, what have we to do with glory? Yet glory is
   to be our dwelling, glory our light, glory our crown, glory our song!
   The Lord will not be content to give us less than glory. Grace is very
   sweet, but might we not be content to swim forever in a sea of Grace?
   But no, our Lord "will give Grace and glory."--

   "All needful Grace will God bestow, And crown that Grace with glory,
   too." We shall have glorified bodies, glorious companions, a glorious
   reward and glorious rest!

   But how do we know that we shall have glory? Why, first, He that has
   come to live in our hearts and reigns as our bosom's Lord, makes us
   glorious by His coming! His rest is glorious--the place of His feet is
   glorious--He must mean some great thing towards us, or He would never
   dwell in us. I saw a line carriage stopping, the other day, at a very
   humble hovel, and I thought to myself--"that carriage is not stopping
   there to collect rent, or to borrow a broom." Oh, no, that lady,
   yonder, is calling round and visiting the poor, and I doubt not she has
   taken in some nourishment to an invalid. I hope it was so. And I am
   sure my Lord Jesus Christ's carriage never stops at my door to get
   anything out of me! Whenever He comes, He brings countless blessings
   with Him. Such a one as He is, God over all, blessed forever--it cannot
   be that He took our nature, unless with high designs of unsearchable
   love!

   Thus we nourish large expectations upon the food of solid reason. I am
   sure our Lord Jesus would never have done so much if He had not meant
   to manifest the immeasurable breadth and length of a love which is
   beyond imagining. What He has done, already, surprises me even to
   amazement. I think nothing can appear strange or hard to believe, let
   Him do what He may in the future. If the Scriptures tell me my Lord is
   going to fill me with His own glory and to set me at His own right
   hand, I believe it. He who went to the Cross for me will never be
   ashamed of me. He who gave me Himself will give me all Heaven and more!
   He that opened His very heart to find blood and water to wash me
   in--how shall He keep back even His kingdom from me?

   O sweet Lord Jesus, You are, indeed, to us the hope, the pledge, the
   guarantee of glory! Friend, do you not feel that Christ in you is the
   dawn of Heaven? Besides this, Christ is He that has entered into
   covenant with God to bring His people home to glory. He has pledged
   Himself to bring every sheep of His flock safe to His Father's right
   hand and He will keep His engagement, for He never failed one Covenant
   promise yet. Moreover, this we do know, that the Christ who is come to
   live with us will never be separated from us. If He had not meant to
   stay, He would not have entered our heart at

   all. There was nothing to tempt Him to come, and if, in Sovereign
   Grace, He deigned to live in the poor cottage of our nature, then,
   Brothers and Sisters, He knew what He was doing. He had counted the
   cost, He had foreseen all the evil that would be in us and about us,
   and when He came, He come with the intent to stay.

   Someone asked another, the other day, "What persuasion are you of?" And
   the answer was, "I am persuaded that neither life, nor death nor things
   present, nor things to come shall separate us from the love of God
   which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Are not you of that persuasion,
   Brother? If so, you can see how Christ in you is the hope of glory.
   Why, look, Sirs, Christ in you is glory! Did we not show that just now?
   "Lift up your heads, O you gates, and be you lifted up you everlasting
   doors, that the King of Glory may come in!" You have Heaven in having
   Christ, for Christ is the biggest part of Heaven! Is not Christ the
   soul of Heaven, and having Him you have glory? What is more, having
   gotten Christ, Christ's glory and your glory are wrapped up together.

   If Christ were to lose you, it would be a great loss to you, but a
   greater loss to Him. If I can perish with Christ in me, I shall
   certainly be a fearful loser, but so will He, for where is His honor,
   where His glory if a Believer perishes? His glory is gone if one soul
   that trusts in Him is ever cast away. Comfort yourselves with this
   word--Christ in you means you in glory, as surely us God lives! There
   is no question about that! Go your ways and rejoice in Christ Jesus and
   let men see who it is that lives in you! Let Jesus speak through your
   mouth, weep through your eyes and smile through your face! Let Him work
   with your hands and walk within your feet, and be tender with your
   heart. Let Him seek sinners through you! Let Him comfort saints through
   you until the day breaks and the shadows flee away!
     __________________________________________________________________

Glory!

   (No. 1721)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 20, 1883,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Who has called us unto His eternal glory." 1 Peter 5:10.

   A FORTNIGHT ago, when I was only able to creep to the front of this
   platform, I spoke to you concerning the future of our mortal
   bodies--[Sermon #1719--The Tent Dissolved and the Mansion Entered]--"We
   know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we
   have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the
   heavens." On the next Sabbath, [Sermon #1720--Christ in You], we went a
   step further and we did not preach so much about the resurrection of
   the body as upon the hope of Glory for our entire nature, our text
   being, "Christ in you, the hope of glory."

   Thus we have passed through the outer court and have trod the hallowed
   floor of the Holy Place. And now we are the more prepared to enter
   within the veil and to gaze, a while, upon the glory which awaits us.
   We shall say a little-- and oh, how little it will be--upon that glory
   of which we have so sure a prospect, that glory which is prepared for
   us in Christ Jesus and of which He is the hope! I pray that our eyes
   may be strengthened that we may see the heavenly light and that our
   ears may be opened to hear sweet voices from the better land. As for
   me, I cannot say that I will speak of the glory, but I will try to
   stammer about it--for the best language to which a man can reach
   concerning Glory must be a mere stammering.

   Paul did but see a little of it for a short time and he confessed that
   he heard things that it was not lawful for a man to utter. And I doubt
   not that he felt utterly unable to describe what he had seen. Though a
   great master of language, yet for once he was overpowered--the grandeur
   of his theme made him silent! As for us, what can we do, where even
   Paul breaks down? Pray, dear Friends that the Spirit of Glory may rest
   upon you, that He may open your eyes to see as much as can at present
   be seen of the heritage of the saints! We are told that "eye has not
   seen, neither has ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of
   man, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him."

   Yet the eye has seen wonderful things! There are sunrises and sunsets,
   Alpine glories and ocean marvels which, once seen, cling to our
   memories throughout life! Yet, even when Nature is at her best, she
   cannot give us an idea of the supernatural Glory which God has prepared
   for His people! The ear has heard sweet harmonies. Have we not enjoyed
   music which has thrilled us? Have we not listened to speech which has
   seemed to make our hearts dance within us? And yet no melody of harp
   nor charm of oratory can ever raise us to a conception of the glory
   which God has laid up for them that love Him! As for the heart of man,
   what strange things have entered it! Men have exhibited fair fictions,
   woven in the loom of fancy, which have made the eyes sparkle with their
   beauty and brightness--imagination has reveled and rioted in its own
   fantastic creations, roaming among islands of silver and mountains of
   gold, or swimming in seas of wine and rivers of milk--but imagination
   has never been able to open the gate of pearl which shuts in the city
   of our God.

   No, it has not yet entered the heart of man. Yet the text goes on to
   say, "but He has revealed it unto us by His Spirit." So that Heaven is
   not an utterly unknown region, not altogether an inner brightness shut
   in with walls of impenetrable darkness. God has revealed joys which He
   has prepared for His beloved, but mark you, even though they are
   revealed of the Spirit, yet it is no common unveiling and the reason
   that it is made known at all is ascribed to the fact that "the Spirit
   searches all things, yes, the deep things of God." So we see that the
   glory which awaits the saints is ranked among the deep things of God
   and He that would speak, thereof, after the manner of the oracles of
   God must have much heavenly teaching. It is easy to chatter according
   to human fancy, but if we would follow the sure teaching of the Word of
   God, we shall have need to be taught of the holy Spirit, without whose
   anointing the deep things of God must be hidden from us. Pray that we
   may be under that teaching while we dwell upon this theme.

   There are three questions which we will answer this morning. The first
   is, what is the destiny of the saints?-- "Eternal glory," says the
   text. Secondly, in which does this glory consist? I said we would
   answer the questions, but this is not to be answered this side the
   pearl gate. Thirdly, what should be the influence of this prospect upon
   our hearts? What manner of people ought we to be whose destiny is
   eternal glory? How should we live who are to live forever in the glory
   of the Most High?

   I. First, WHAT, THEN, IS THE DESTINY OF THE SAINTS? Our text tells us
   that God has "called us unto His eternal glory." "Glory!" Does not the
   very word astound you? "Glory!" Surely that belongs to God alone! Yet
   the Scripture says, "glory," and glory it must mean, for it never
   exaggerates. Think of glory for us who have deserved eternal shame!
   Glory for us poor creatures who are often ashamed of ourselves! Yes, I
   look at my book, again, and it actually says, "glory"--nothing less
   than glory! Therefore it must be so.

   Now, since this seems so amazing and astonishing a thing, I would so
   speak with you that not a relic of incredulity may remain in your
   hearts concerning it. I would ask you to follow me while we look
   through the Bible, not quoting every passage which speaks of glory, but
   mentioning a few of the leading ones. This glory has been promised.
   What said David? In the 73rd Psalm and 24th verse we meet with these
   remarkable words--"You shall guide me with Your counsel, and afterward
   receive me to glory." In the original Hebrew there is a trace of
   David's recollection of Enoch's being translated and, though the royal
   Psalmist did not expect to be caught away without dying, yet he did
   expect that after he had followed the guidance of the Lord here below,
   the great Father would stoop and raise up His child to be with Himself
   forever.

   He expected to be received into Glory. Even in those dim days, when as
   yet the light of the Gospel was but in its dawn, this Prophet and king
   was able to say, "You shall afterward receive me to glory." Did he not
   mean the same thing when, in the 84th Psalm, verse 11, he said, "The
   Lord will give Grace and glory: no good thing will He withhold from
   them that walk uprightly"? Not only no good thing under the name of
   Grace will God withhold from the upright, but no good thing under the
   head of Glory. No good of Heaven shall be kept from the saints; no
   reserve is even set upon the throne of the great King, for our Lord
   Jesus has graciously promised, "To Him that overcomes will I grant to
   sit with Me on My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with
   My Father on His throne." "No good thing," not even among the
   infinitely good things of Heaven, will God "withhold from them that
   walk uprightly."

   If David had this persuasion, much more may we who walk in the light of
   the Gospel! Since our Lord Jesus has suffered and entered into His
   Glory, and we know that we shall be with Him where He is, we are
   confident that our rest shall be glorious! Brothers and Sisters, it is
   to this glory that we have been called! The people of God, having been
   predestinated, have been called with an effectual calling--called so
   that they have obeyed the call and have run after Him who has drawn
   them! Now, our text says that He has, "called us unto His eternal glory
   by Christ Jesus." We are called to repentance, we are called to faith,
   we are called to holiness, we are called to perseverance--and all this
   that we may afterwards attain unto glory!

   We have another Scripture of like import in 1 Thessalonians 2:12--"Who
   has called you unto His kingdom and glory." We are called unto His
   kingdom according to our Lord's words, "Fear not, little flock; for it
   is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom." We are called
   to be kings, called to wear a crown of life that fades not away, called
   to reign with Christ in His Glory! If the Lord had not meant us to have
   the glory, He would not have called us unto it, for His calling is no
   mockery. He would not, by His Spirit, have fetched us out from the
   world and separated us unto Himself if He had not intended to keep us
   from falling and preserve us eternally. Believer, you are called to
   glory-- do not question the certainty of that to which God has called
   you!

   And we are not only called to it, Brothers and Sisters, but glory is
   especially joined with justification. Let me quote Romans
   8:30--"Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom
   He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also
   glorified." These various mercies are threaded together like pearls
   upon a string-- there is no breaking the thread, no separating the
   precious things. They are put in their order by God, Himself, and they
   are kept there by His eternal and irreversible decree. If you are
   justified by the righteousness of Christ, you shall be glorified
   through Christ Jesus, for thus has God purposed, and so must it be! Do
   you not remember how salvation, itself, is linked with glory? Paul, in
   2 Timothy 2:10, speaks of "the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with
   eternal glory." The

   two things are riveted together and cannot be separated! The saved ones
   must partake of the glory of God, for this are they being prepared
   every day.

   Paul, in the ninth of Romans, where he speaks about the predestinating
   will of God, says in the 23rd verse--"The vessels of mercy, which He
   had afore prepared unto glory." This is the process which commenced in
   regeneration and is going on in us every day in the work of
   sanctification. We cannot be glorified so long as sin remains in us--we
   must first be pardoned, renewed and sanctified--and then we are fitted
   to be glorified. By communion with our Lord Jesus we are made like He,
   as says the Apostle in 2 Corinthians 3:18--"But we all, with open face
   beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the
   same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." It
   is very wonderful, how, by the wisdom of God, everything is made to
   work this way.

   Look at the blessed text in 2 Corinthians 4:17, where Paul says, "For
   our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far
   more exceeding and eternal weight of glory," where he represents that
   all that we can suffer, whether of body or of mind, is producing for us
   such a mass of glory that he is quite unable to describe it and he uses
   hyperbolically language in saying, "a far more exceeding and eternal
   weight of glory." Oh, blessed men, whose very losses are their gains,
   whose sorrows produce their joys, whose griefs are big with Heaven!
   Well may we be content to suffer if so it is that all things are
   working together for our good and are helping to pile up the excess of
   our future glory! Thus, then, it seems we are called to glory and we
   are being prepared for it.

   Is it not, also, a sweet thought that our present fellowship with
   Christ is the guarantee of it? In Romans 8:17 it is said, "If so be
   that we suffer with Him that we may be also glorified together." Going
   to prison with Christ will bring us into the palace with Christ!
   Smarting with Christ will bring us into reigning with Christ! Being
   ridiculed, slandered and despised for Christ's sake will bring us to be
   sharers of His honor, glory and immortality! Who would not be with
   Christ in His humiliation if this is the guarantee that we shall be
   with Him in His Glory? Remember those dear words of the Lord Jesus,
   "You are they which have continued with Me in My temptations. And I
   appoint unto you a kingdom, as My Father has appointed unto Me." Let us
   shoulder the Cross, for it leads to the crown. "No Cross, no
   crown"--but he that has shared the battle shall partake in the victory.

   I have not yet done, for there is a text, in Hebrews 2:10, which is
   well worthy of our consideration--we are to be brought to Glory. It is
   said of our Lord that it "became Him, for whom are all things, in
   bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation
   perfect through sufferings." See, Beloved, we are called to Heaven, we
   are being prepared for it and we shall be brought to it. We might
   despair of ever getting into the glory land if we had not One to bring
   us there, for the pilgrim's road is rough and beset with many foes--but
   there is a "Captain of our salvation"--a greater than Bunyan's
   Great-Hearted, who is conducting the pilgrim band through all the
   treacherous ways and He will bring the "many sons"--where?--"unto
   glory!" Nowhere short of that shall be their ultimatum.

   Glory, glory shall surely follow upon Grace--for Christ the Lord, who
   has come into His Glory--has entered into Covenant engagements that He
   will bring all the "many sons" to be with Him. Mark this and then I
   will quote no more Scriptures--this glory will be for our entire
   manhood--for our body as well as for our soul! You know that text in
   the famous Resurrection chapter in 1 Corinthians 15? Paul speaks of the
   body as being "sown in dishonor," but he adds, "it is raised in glory."
   And then, in Philippians 3:21, he says of our Divine Lord at His
   coming, "Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like
   unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able
   even to subdue all things unto Himself." What a wonderful change that
   will be for this frail, feeble, suffering body!

   In some respects it is not vile, for it is a wonderful product of
   Divine skill, power and goodness--but inasmuch as it hampers our
   spiritual nature by its appetites and infirmities--it may be called a
   "vile body." It is an unhandy body for a spirit--it fits a soul well
   enough, but a spirit needs something more ethereal, less earth-bound,
   more full of life than this poor flesh and blood and bone can ever be.
   Well, the body is to be changed. What alteration will it undergo? It
   will be rendered perfect. The body of a child will be fully developed
   and the dwarf will attain to full stature. The blind shall not be
   sightless in Heaven, neither shall the lame be halt, nor shall the
   palsied tremble. The deaf shall hear and the dumb shall sing God's
   praises. We shall carry none of our deficiencies or infirmities to
   Heaven. As good Mr. Ready-to-Halt did not carry his crutches there,
   neither shall any of us need a staff to lean upon!

   There we shall not know an aching brow, or a weak knee, or a failing
   eye. "The inhabitant shall no more say, I am sick." And it shall be an
   impassive body, a body that will be incapable of any kind of
   suffering--no palpitating heart, no

   sinking spirit, no aching limbs no lethargic soul shall worry us there!
   No, we shall be perfectly delivered from every evil of that kind.
   Moreover, it shall be an immortal body. Our risen bodies shall not be
   capable of decay, much less of death. There are no graves in Heaven!
   Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, for their bodies shall rise
   never to know death and corruption a second time!

   No smell or taint of corruption shall remain upon those whom Jesus
   shall call from the tomb. The risen body shall be greatly increased in
   power--it is "sown in weakness," says the Scripture--but it is "raised
   in power." I suppose there will be a wonderful agility about our
   renovated frame. Probably it will be able to move as swiftly as the
   lightning flash, for so do angels pass from place to place, and we
   shall in this, as in many other things, be as the angels of God.
   Anyway, it will be a "glorious body" and it will be "raised in glory,"
   so that the whole of our manhood shall participate of that wonderful
   depth of bliss which is summed up in the word--"glory." Thus I think I
   have set before you much of what the Word of God says upon this matter.

   II. Secondly, may the Holy Spirit help me while I try very hesitatingly
   and stammeringly to answer the enquiry, WHEREIN DOES THIS DESTINY
   CONSIST? Do you know how much I expect to do? It will be but little.
   You remember what the Lord did for Moses when the man of God prayed--"I
   beseech you show me Your glory!" All that the Lord, Himself, did for
   Moses was to say, "You shall see My back parts; but My face shall not
   be seen." How little, then, can we hope to speak of this glory! Its
   back parts are too bright for us--as for the face of that glory, it
   shall not be seen by any of us here below, though, by-and-by, we shall
   behold it!

   I suppose if one who had been in Heaven could come straight down from
   there and occupy this platform, he would find that his discoveries
   could not be communicated because of the insufficiency of language to
   express such a weight of meaning. The saints' destiny is glory! What is
   glory, Brothers and Sisters? What is it, I mean, among the sons of men?
   It is generally understood to be fame, a great reputation, the sound of
   trumpets, the noise of applause, the sweets of approbation among the
   crowd and in high places. The Queen of Sheba came from afar to see the
   glory of Solomon. What was that glory, Brothers and Sisters? It was the
   glory of a rare wisdom excelling all others! It was the glory of
   immense riches expended upon all manner of magnificence and splendor!

   As for this last glory, the Lord says of it that a lily of the field
   had more of it than Solomon. At least, "Solomon in all his glory was
   not arrayed like one of these." Yet that is what men mean by
   glory--rank, position, power, conquest-- things that make the ears of
   men to tingle when they hear of them--things extraordinary and rare.
   All this is but a dim shadow of what God means by glory, yet out of the
   shadow we may obtain a little inkling of what the substance must be.
   God's people shall be wise and even famous, for they shall "shine as
   the stars forever and ever." God's people shall be rich--the very
   streets of their abode are paved with gold exceedingly rich and rare.
   God's people shall be singularly honored--there shall be an unrivalled
   glory about them, for they shall be known as a peculiar people, a royal
   priesthood, a race of beings lifted up to reveal their Maker's
   Character beyond all the rest of His works.

   I reckon that glory to a saint means, first of all, purified character.
   The brightest glory that really can come to anyone is the glory of
   character. Thus God's glory among men is His goodness, His mercy, His
   justice, His truth. But shall such poor creatures as we are ever have
   perfect characters? Yes, we shall one day be perfectly holy! God's Holy
   Spirit, when He has finished His work, will leave in us no trace of
   sin! No temptation shall be able to touch us! There will be in us no
   relics of our past and fallen state. Oh, will not that be blessed? I
   was going to say it is all the glory I need--the glory of being perfect
   in character, never sinning, never judging unjustly, never thinking a
   vain thought, never wandering away from the perfect Law of God, never
   vexed with sin which has so long been my worst enemy!

   One day we shall be glorious because the devil, himself, will not be
   able to detect a fault in us--and those eyes of God which burn like
   fire and read the inmost secrets of the soul will not be able to detect
   anything blameworthy in us! Such shall be the character of the saints
   that they shall be meet to fellowship with Christ Himself! They will be
   fit company for that thrice Holy Being before whom angels veil their
   faces. This is glory!

   Next, I understand by, "glory," our perfected manhood. When God made
   Adam, he was a far superior being to any of us. Man's place in creation
   was very remarkable. The Psalmist says, "For You have made him a little
   lower than the angels and have crowned him with glory and honor. You
   made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put
   all things under his feet: all sheep and oxen, yes, and the beasts of
   the field; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatever
   passes through the paths of the seas." No king among men in these days
   could rival Adam in the Gar-

   den of Eden--he was, indeed, monarch of all that he surveyed, and from
   the lordly lion down to the tiniest insect of all, living creatures
   paid him willing homage. Can we ever rise to this last honor?

   Brothers and Sisters, listen--"It does not yet appear what we shall be,
   but we know that when Christ shall appear we shall be like He, for we
   shall see Him as He is." Is there any limit to the growth of the mind
   of a man? Can we tell what he may reach? We read of Solomon that God
   gave him largeness of heart as the sand of the sea! God will give to
   His people glory that will include in it more largeness of heart than
   Solomon ever knew! Then shall we know even as we are known by God. Now
   we see, but it is, "through a glass darkly." But then we shall see
   "face to face." You have met with men of great intellect and you have
   looked up to them, but assuredly, the smallest babe in Christ, when he
   shall reach Heaven, shall have a greater intellect than the most
   profound philosopher who has ever astounded mankind by his discoveries!

   We shall not always be as we are today, contracted and hampered because
   of our little knowledge, our slender faculties and our dull
   perceptions. Our ignorance and prejudice shall vanish. What a man will
   become we can scarcely tell when he is remade in the image of God, and
   made like unto our Divine Lord who is, "the firstborn among many
   brethren." Here we are but in the embryo stage--our minds are but the
   seeds, or the bulbs out of which shall come the flower and glory of a
   nobler manhood! Your body is to be developed into something infinitely
   brighter and better than the bodies of men here below. And as for the
   soul, we cannot guess to what an elevation it shall be raised in Christ
   Jesus. There is room for the largest expectation, here, as we
   conjecture what will be the full accomplishment of the vast intent of
   eternal love--an intent which has involved the sacrifice of the
   Only-Begotten Son of God! That can be no mean design which has been
   carried on at the expense of the best that Heaven, itself, possessed!

   Further, by "glory" and, "coming to glory," I think we must understand
   complete victory. Dwelling in the age of the Romans, men said to
   themselves, as they read the Scriptures, "What does the Apostle mean by
   'glory'?" And they could scarcely help connecting it with conquest and
   the return of the warrior in triumph. Men called it, "glory," in those
   days when valiant warriors returned from fields of blood with captives
   and spoil. Then did the heroes ride through the streets of Rome,
   enjoying a triumph voted them by the senate. Then, for a while, the men
   of war were covered with glory and all the city was glorious because of
   them.

   As Christians, we hate the word, "glory," when it is linked with
   wholesale murder and symbolized in garments rolled in blood. But yet
   there is a kind of fighting to which you and I are called, for we are
   soldiers of the Cross and if we fight valiantly under our great
   Captain, and rout every sin, and are found faithful even unto
   death--then we shall enter glory and receive the honor which belongs to
   men who have fought a good fight, and have kept the faith. It will be
   no small glory to obtain the crown of life which fades not away. Is not
   this a full glory if we only place these three things together, a
   purified character, a perfected nature and a complete victory?

   An invaluable ingredient in true glory is the Divine approval. "Glory"
   among men means approbation--it is a man's glory when he is honored by
   his Queen and she hangs a medal on his breast--or when his name is
   mentioned in the high court of Parliament and he is ennobled for what
   he has done. If men speak of our actions with approval, it is called
   fame and glory. Oh, but one drop of the approbation of God has more
   glory in it than a sea full of human praise! And the Lord will reward
   His own with this holy favor. He will say, "Well done, good and
   faithful servant," and Christ, before the universe, will say, "Come,
   you blessed of My Father." Oh, what glory that will be! They were
   despised and rejected of men; they "wandered about in sheepskins and
   goatskins; destitute, afflicted, tormented"--but now God approves them
   and they take seats among the peers of Heaven, made noble by the
   approbation of the Judge of All!

   This is glory with an emphasis, substantial glory! One approving glance
   from the eyes of Jesus; one accepting word from the mouth of the Father
   will be glory enough for any one of us--and this we shall have if we
   follow the Lamb wherever He goes! But this is not all--children of God
   will have the glory of reflecting the glory of God. When any of God's
   unfallen creatures shall wish to see the greatness of God's goodness,
   mercy and love, they that dwell in Heaven will point out a glorified
   saint. Whenever any spirit from a far off regions desires to know what
   is meant by faithfulness and Grace, some angel will reply, "Go and talk
   with those who have been redeemed from among men."

   I believe that you and I will spend much of eternity in making known to
   principalities and powers the unsearchable riches of the Grace of God.
   We shall be mirrors reflecting God and in us shall His Glory be
   revealed. There may be myriads of races of pure and holy beings of whom
   we have never heard of as yet, and these may come to the New Jerusalem
   as

   to the great metropolis of Jehovah's universe--and when they come,
   there they will gaze upon the saints as the highest instances of Divine
   Grace, wisdom, power and love. It will be their highest pleasure to
   hear how eternal mercy dealt with us unworthy ones. How we shall
   delight to rehearse to them the fact of the Father's eternal purpose,
   the story of the Incarnate God--the God that loved and died and the
   love of the blessed Spirit who sought us in the days of our sin, and
   brought us to the foot of the Cross, renewing us in the spirit of our
   minds and making us to be sons of God!

   Oh, Brothers and Sisters, this shall be our glory, that God shall shine
   through us to the astonishment of all! Yet I think glory includes
   somewhat more than this. In certain cases, a man's glory lies in his
   relationships. If any of the royal family should come to your houses,
   you would receive them with respect. Yes, and even as they went along
   the street they would be spied out, and passers-by would say, "That is
   the prince!" And they would honor the son of our good Queen. But royal
   descent is a poor business compared with being allied to the King of
   kings! Many angels are exceedingly bright, but they are only servants
   to wait upon the sons. I believe that there will be a kind of awe upon
   the angels at the sight of men--when they see us in our glory, they
   will rejoice to know our near relation to their Lord--and to fulfill
   their own destiny as ministering spirits appointed to minister to the
   heirs of salvation.

   No pride will be possible to the perfected, but we shall then realize
   the exalted position to which, by our new birth, and the Divine
   adoption we have been raised. "Behold what manner of love the Father
   has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God." Sons of
   God! Sons of the Lord God Almighty! Oh what glory this will be! Then
   there will be connected with this the fact that we shall be connected
   with Jesus in everything. For do not you see, Brothers and Sisters, it
   was because of our fall that Christ came here to save men? When He
   worked out a perfect righteousness, it was all for us. When He died, it
   was all for us. And when He rose again, it was all for us!

   And what is more, we lived in Christ, we died in Him, we were buried in
   Him and rose in Him--and we shall ascend into Heaven to reign with Him!
   All our glory is by Christ Jesus and in all the glory of Christ Jesus
   we have a share. We are members of His body. We are one with Him. I say
   the creatures that God has made, when they shall come to worship in the
   New Jerusalem, will stand and gaze at glorified men and with bated
   breath will say one, to another "These are the beings whose nature the
   Son of God assumed! These are the chosen creatures whom the Prince of
   Heaven bought with His own blood." They will stand astonished at the
   Divine Glory which will be manifested in beings emancipated from sin
   and Hell and made heirs of God, joint-heirs with Jesus Christ!

   Will not even angels be surprised and awed as they look on the Church
   and say to one another, "This is the bride, the Lamb's wife!" They will
   marvel how the Lord of Glory should come to this poor earth to seek a
   spouse and that He should enter into eternal union with such a people!
   Glory, glory dwells in Immanuel's land! Now we are getting near to the
   center of it. I feel inclined, like Moses, to take off my shoes, for
   the place where we stand is holy ground, now that we are getting to see
   poor bushes like ourselves aglow with the indwelling God and changed
   from glory unto glory! And yet this is not all, for there in Heaven we
   shall dwell in the immediate Presence of God. We shall dwell with Him
   in nearest and dearest fellowship! All the felicity of the Most High
   will be our felicity. The blessedness of the Triune Jehovah shall be
   our blessedness forever and ever.

   Did you notice that our text says, "He has called us unto His glory"?
   This outshines everything--the glory which the saints will have is the
   same glory which God possesses and such as He, alone, can bestow!
   Listen to this text--"Whom He justified them He also glorified." He
   glorifies them! I know what it is to glorify God, and so do you, but
   when we poor creatures glorify God it is in a poor way, for we cannot
   add anything to Him. But what must it be for God, Himself, to glorify a
   man! The glory which you are to have forever, my dear believing
   Brothers and Sisters, is a glory which God Himself will put upon you!

   Peter, as a Hebrew, perhaps uses a Hebraism when he says, "His glory."
   It may be that he means the best of glory that can be, even as the Jews
   were apt to say--"The trees of God"--when they meant the greatest
   trees, or, "the mountains of God," when they intended the highest
   mountains. So, by the glory of God, Peter may mean the richest, fullest
   glory that can be. In the original, the word, "glory," has about it the
   idea of, "weight," at which the Apostle Paul hints when he speaks of a
   "weight of glory." This is the only glory that has weight in it, all
   else is light as a feather. Take all the glories of this world and they
   are outweighed by the small dust of the balance. Place them here in the
   hollow of my hand, all of them--a child may blow them away as
   thistledown!

   God's glory has weight! It is solid, true, real--and he that gets it
   possesses no mere name, or dream, or tinsel--he has that which will
   abide the rust of ages and the fire of judgment. The glory of God! How
   shall I describe it? I must set before you a strange Scriptural
   picture. Mordecai must be made glorious for his fidelity to his king
   and singular is the honor which his monarch ordains for him. This was
   the royal order. "Let the royal apparel be brought which the king uses
   to wear, and the horse that the king rides upon, and the crown royal
   which is set upon his head: and let this apparel and horse be delivered
   to the hand of one of the king's most noble princes, that they may
   array the man with whom the king delights to honor, and bring him on
   horseback through the street of the city, and proclaim before him,
   'Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor.'"

   Can you not imagine the surprise of the Jew when robe and ring were put
   upon him, and when he found himself placed upon the king's horse? This
   may serve as a figure of that which will happen to us--we shall be
   glorified with the Glory of God! The best robe, the best of Heaven's
   array shall be appointed unto us and we shall dwell in the house of the
   Lord forever! Highest of all our glory will be the enjoyment of God
   Himself. He will be our exceeding joy--this bliss will swallow up every
   other--the blessedness of God. "The Lord is my portion," says my soul.
   "Whom have I in Heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I
   desire beside You." Our God shall be our glory! Yet bear with me, I
   have left out a word again--the text has it, "Unto His eternal glory."
   Yes, but that is the gem of the ring. The glory which God has in
   reserve for His chosen will never come to an end--it will stay with us
   and we shall stay with it forever!

   It will always be glory, too. Its brightness will never become dim. We
   shall never be tired of it, or sated with it. After ten thousand
   thousand millions of years in Heaven, our happiness shall be as fresh
   as when it first began! Those are no fading laurels which surround
   immortal brows. Eternal glory knows no diminution. Can you imagine a
   man being born at the same time that Adam was created and living all
   these thousands of years as a king like Solomon, having all he could
   desire? His would seem to be a glorious life. But, if at the end of
   7,000 years that man must necessarily die, what has it profited him?
   His glory is all over, now--its fires have died out in ashes.

   But you and I, when we once enter Glory, shall receive what we can
   neither lose nor leave. Eternity! Eternity! This is the sweetness of
   all our future bliss! Rejoice, you saintly ones! Take your harps down
   from the willows, any of you who are mourning--and if you never sang
   before, yet sing this morning, "God has called us unto His eternal
   glory," and this is to be our portion world without end!

   III. I can only find time for a few words upon the concluding head,
   which is--WHAT INFLUENCE SHOULD ALL THIS HAVE UPON OUR HEARTS? I think,
   first, it ought to excite desire in many here present that they might
   attain unto glory by Christ Jesus. Satan, when he took our blessed Lord
   to the top of an exceedingly high mountain, tempted Him to worship him
   by offering Him the kingdoms of the world and all the glories thereof.
   Satan is very clever and I will, at this time, take a leaf out of his
   book. Will you not fall down and worship the Lord Jesus when He can
   give you the Kingdom of God and all the glory thereof, and all this,
   not in pretense, but in reality?

   If there was any force in the temptation to worship Satan for the sake
   of the glory of this world, how much more reason is there for urging
   you to worship the Son of God that you may obtain His salvation with
   eternal glory! I pray the Holy Spirit to drop a hot desire into many a
   poor sinner's breast, this morning, that he may cry, "If this glory is
   to be had, I will have it, and I will have it in God's way, for I will
   believe in Jesus! I will repent, I will come to God and so obtain His
   promise."

   Secondly, this ought to move us to the feeling of fear. If there is
   such a glory as this, let us tremble lest by any means we should come
   short of it! Oh, my dear Hearers--especially you that are my fellow
   members, brother Church officers and workers associated with me--what a
   dreadful thing it will be if any one of us should come short of this
   glory! Oh, if there were no Hell, it would be Hell enough to miss
   Heaven! What if there were no Pit that is bottomless, nor undying worm,
   nor unquenchable fire? It would be boundless misery to have a shadow of
   a fear of not reaching to God's eternal glory! Let us, therefore, pass
   the time of our sojourning here in fear, and let us watch unto prayer
   and strive to enter in at the strait gate. God grant we may be found of
   Him, at last, to praise and honor!

   If we are right, how this ought to move us to gratitude! Think of
   this--we are to enjoy "His eternal glory!" What a contrast to our
   deserts! Shame and everlasting contempt are our righteous due apart
   from Christ. If we were to receive according to our merits, we should
   be driven from His Presence and from the glory of His power. Verily, He
   has not

   dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our
   iniquities, for, after all our transgressions, He has still reserved us
   for glory, and reserved Glory for us! What love and zeal should burn in
   our bosoms because of this!

   Last of all, it should move us to a dauntless courage. If this glory is
   to be had, do we not feel like the heroes in Bun-yan's picture? Before
   the dreamer there stood a fair palace and he saw persons walking upon
   the top of it, clad in light, and singing. Around the door stood armed
   men to keep back those who would enter. Then a brave man came up to one
   who had a writer's inkhorn by his side and said, "Set down my name."
   And straightway the warrior drew his sword and fought with all his
   might until he had cut his way to the door. And then he entered and
   they within were heard to sing--

   "Come in, come in, Eternal glory you shall win."

   Will you not draw your swords this morning and fight against sin till
   you have overcome it? Do you not desire to win Christ and to be found
   in Him? Oh, let us now begin to feel a passion for eternal glory and
   then, in the strength of the Spirit, and in the name of Jesus, let us
   press forward till we reach it! Even on earth we may taste enough of
   this glory to fill us with delight!

   The glory which I have described to you dawns on earth though it only
   comes to its noontide in Heaven--the glory of sanctified character, the
   glory of victory over sin, the glory of relationship to God, the glory
   of union with Christ-- these are all to be tasted in a measure here
   below. These glories send their beams down even to these valleys and
   lowlands. Oh, to enjoy them, today, and thus to have earnests and
   foretastes of Glory! If we have them, let us go singing on until we
   reach the place where God's eternal glory shall surround us. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The First Setting Up of the Bronze Serpent

   (No. 1722)

   DELIVERED ON THURSDAY EVENING, MAY 10, 1883,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "And they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to
   compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much
   discouraged because of the way. And the people spoke against God, and
   against Moses, 'Why ha ve you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the
   wilderness? For there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our
   soul loathes this light bread.' And the Lord sent fiery serpents among
   the people, and they bit the people; and many people of Israel died.
   Therefore the people came to Moses and said, 'We have sinned, for we
   have spoken against the Lord, and against you; pray unto the Lord, that
   He take away the serpents from us.' And Moses prayed for the people.
   And the Lord said unto Moses, 'Make you a fiery serpent, and set it
   upon a pole: and it shall come topass, that everyone thatis bitten,
   when he looks upon it, shall live.' And Moses made a serpent of brass,
   and putit upon a pole, and it came topass, that if a serpent had bitten
   any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived." Numbers
   21:4-9.

   I HAVE frequently expounded to you the type of the bronze serpent as
   our Lord interprets it in the third of John. I thought it meet,
   tonight, to take that type in its connection and look at the original
   circumstances which led to the setting of it up--for while the general
   doctrine of looking for salvation to Christ as the bronze serpent is
   always to be preached and is most usefully set forth in the midst of
   the unconverted--yet I take it that its original institution teaches us
   much which ought not to be overlooked. It is very clear that this type
   has its first voice to the people of God, for it was among
   Israel--among the nominal people of God--that this bronze serpent was
   first needed and first set up. And while the instruction which it gives
   is wide as the universe, for whoever looks shall live, nevertheless it
   has an inner circle to which it, first of all, addresses itself--the
   professed members of the Church of God.

   The Book of Numbers might be called, without any impropriety, "Moses'
   Pilgrim's Progress." It contains a full account of the progress of the
   pilgrims through the wilderness until they came to the promised land.
   And, like Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," it is not only a history of
   any one person or nation, but it is the picture of the life of all
   God's people. Probably no one among us will pass through all the
   troubles of the Israelites, so as to become in one person an epitome of
   all wilderness experience, and yet even this may be, for so it was with
   David, and so it has been with others by whom the Lord would instruct
   His Church. This, however, is exceptional. But, take the whole of us
   together as the Church of God, and you will find that our lives are
   mirrored, pictured and foreseen in the travels of God's chosen people
   from the land of Egypt to Canaan.

   I am afraid that many of us can see ourselves even in the passage
   before us. Yes, not only those of us who are young and raw in spiritual
   things, but certain of us who have been, for many years, following in
   the Divine track, and are hoping, by-and-by, to enjoy our portion in
   the better country. If even Moses and Aaron erred on the road, I fear
   there are very few of us who can read the story without crying, "I
   remember my faults this day!" The passage before us occurred almost at
   the end of Israel's wanderings. They had been, now, for 40 years in the
   wilderness, and they had come within sight of the Promised Land. They
   had only to cross the mountains of Edom and to get through the passes
   of Seir, and they would have been at once in the land which flows with
   milk and honey!

   But the Edomites would not permit them the privilege of passing along
   the highway and so, as Israel must not fight his brother Esau, they
   were called upon to go around his border and to come down to an arm of
   the Red Sea by a long and weary march, when they seemed to be on the
   border of their covenanted inheritance! If this happened at the end of
   their marches, let none of us presume upon our experience and
   knowledge. May the Holy Spirit help us while we learn caution from this
   Inspired history, for these things happened to them for our
   instruction.

   I. I call your attention, first of all, to their DISCOURAGEMENT--"The
   soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way." Assuredly
   there are times when God's servants become discouraged. To their shame,
   let us say it. To our shame let us confess it. It is by faith that we
   live, but as discouragement is the opposite of faith, it does not help
   our

   life. It is generally the fruit of unbelief and so, by discouragement,
   we cease to live a healthy and vigorous life--and we begin to faint.
   Even those of God's children who have had much experience in the Divine
   way, at times, give way to discouragement.

   The reason may be found in various things. Occasionally it springs out
   of disappointment. It was a serious disappointment to the Israelites to
   see the land over there within a day's march, or less, and yet for Edom
   to say, "I will come out against you with the sword. You shall not pass
   through my border." It seemed like having the cup at the lips and being
   denied a drink! It was a grievous trial, after all those years, to have
   come so close, and then to be forced to march back to the Red Sea! How
   tantalizing to see the land, as through a wall of crystal, and yet to
   be unable to put foot upon it! It was a bitter disappointment and there
   may be like trials in store for us.

   Possibly some of my Master's servants have entertained the notion that
   they have made amazing progress in the Divine life and, just then, an
   event has occurred which showed them their weakness--and they have been
   forced to weep in secret places and upbraid themselves, saying, "After
   all this, am I no better than to be cast down about a trifle? Have I
   suffered so much, and yet is my progress so small?"--

   "I thought that in some fa vored hour,

   My Lord would answer my request,

   And, by His love's subduing power

   Would slay my sins and give me rest.

   Instead of this, He made me feel

   The hidden evils of my heart,

   And let the angry powers of Hell

   Assault my soul in every part."

   We ask to have our waters purified and lo, we are stirred till all the
   mud which was quiet in the bottom of our soul is made visible and
   pollution appears everywhere! Yet may not this be the nearest and
   surest way to purity? This making us see the secret depravity of our
   hearts?

   Yet what a disappointment! I thought I was something and now I perceive
   that I am nothing! I had half hoped that I was perfect and now I see my
   secret imperfections and lusts more clearly than ever--

   "The truth is easy to repeat;

   But when my faith is sharply tried

   I find myself a learner yet,

   Unstable, weak, and apt to slide." We thought that we were climbing
   into full assurance, and lo, we descend into the valley of humiliation!
   Yes, we did taste of the honey of bold confidence, and we said, "I know
   whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that
   which I have committed to Him against that day." But now we hardly know
   whether we are the people of God at all! We have, with trembling, to
   repeat our first step and turn our eyes to the bleeding Savior, hoping,
   as poor sinners, to find salvation in Him!

   This need of progress is a dreadful thing, and yet it has happened to
   many till they have dropped all idea of boasting, and have said with
   the Apostle, "Not as though I had already attained." They have felt
   like men beginning a race, although they have been running that race
   for many a patient year! Such disappointment often costs the child of
   God much discouragement because of the way. It was not, however, merely
   disappointment--it was much more. It was the unfriendliness of those
   who ought to have been most brotherly. Surely Edom ought to have
   granted his brother, Israel, the small privilege of passing through the
   country, seeing it was the nearest way to Canaan.

   It would not have cost Esau anything. Israel promised to pay if they
   even drank of the water of his wells. But, no, they must submit to this
   unkindness. I have known people of God much discouraged by the
   unfriendliness of those whom they thought to be their Brothers and
   Sisters in Christ. They went to them for sympathy and they received
   rebuffs! They looked to them for help in the time of depression and it
   was denied them. They said, "Surely, my Brethren will comfort me," but
   they cried in the end, like Job, "Miserable comforters are you all."
   Then have they sighed, "It was not an enemy, then I could have borne
   it; but it was one who was my equal, my acquaintance. We went to the
   house of God in company."

   You know the story of David's desertion by his friends and of our
   Lord's betrayal by Judas. And you are well aware how often heartbreak
   has come to the best of men through the unfriendliness of those whom
   they looked upon as sure to render them kindness. The people were much
   discouraged because of the way, for it was blocked up by an unbrotherly
   brother. May the Lord's people learn great tenderness to one another,
   for sometimes we may say thoughtlessly that

   which will inflict a ragged wound. Let us be loving and tender as a
   nurse with a child, remembering the gentleness of the Father and the
   tenderness of Jesus, and the compassion of the Holy Spirit. Alas, that
   it should be often true that the souls of the people of God may be much
   discouraged because of the absence of Christian love! Resolve that it
   shall not be your

   fault.

   Undoubtedly, however, the soul of the people was much discouraged
   because of the length of the way. The nation had been on the march 40
   years! They had stopped for considerable periods at different
   encampments, but still, they never knew how long they would be in one
   spot. They were like swallows, always on the wing. It is true their
   life was full of mercy, but at the time mentioned in our text they were
   not in the humor to notice mercy--they were more inclined to notice
   discomfort and to complain that the way was so long that they were
   downright weary of it. They had hoped, years before, to have reached
   the goodly land, and now they must change their direction and go all
   round the Edomite country! This was tiresome and tried their patience
   till it quite failed.

   To certain of God's people, old age has brought much of heaviness by
   reason of its infirmities and afflictions. They often sigh, "Why are
   His chariots so long in coming?" They are willing, in the spirit, to
   abide the Master's will, but the flesh is weak and they wonder whether
   the Lord has quite forgotten them. Why has He not taken them Home? Why
   does He keep them lingering in this banishment, so far off from the
   dear Father's house? Do you not hear them mournfully

   sing--

   "O when shall we at once go up, Nor this side Jordan longer stop But
   the good land possess?

   When shall we end our lingering years,

   Our sorrows, sins, and doubts, and fears-- A howling wilderness"?

   Oh, my dear Brothers and Sisters, if your length of years has become a
   burden, God grant that you many not be discouraged! May you be "such an
   one as Paul the Aged," and bear up under all the growing weaknesses of
   your years, bringing forth fruit in your old age. Be not cast down, for
   the Master will come, and will not tarry. He has not forgotten His
   servants! He will give them their penny at sundown. The ripe sheaf
   shall not be left in the field too long. Your Lord will come and
   receive you unto Himself, that where He is you may also be. Quietly
   hope and patiently wait for the salvation of God. And yet, no doubt,
   the length of the way has discouraged full many a true pilgrim.

   Then, there was the fatigue of the way, for journeying through that
   wilderness was by no means an easy business, especially along the shore
   of the gulf. Very rugged to this day is the pathway there. The road is
   full of hills and valleys, and rugged ravines and sharp stones, and
   weary sands. Traveling there is as bad as traveling can be. To some of
   God's own children life is no parade upon a level lawn, but rough
   marching and deep wading. They have to take the bleak side of the hill;
   the wind blows upon them and the sleet is driven in their eyes, and
   their home is but a cold harbor to them. Even their bed seems to have a
   stone for its pillow. We know certain of God's people who, what with
   poverty and ill-health, with ungenerous relations, with persecution,
   with hard labor and with short commons, find, from day to day, that the
   pathway to Heaven lies through briars and thorns, over dark mountains
   and through black forests.

   Do you marvel that their souls are discouraged because of the way? I
   think I hear somebody saying, "Well, now, I don't like all this. I do
   not get discouraged and I do not find the road to be rough." Dear
   Brother, be thankful that you do not, but let me warn you not to judge
   others. If you are like great bullocks, full of strength, do not get to
   pushing with horn and shoulder those who happen to be the weak cattle,
   for the Lord takes note of haughty looks and proud words. When any of
   His saints grow so strong and stomach-full that they despise the tried
   ones, they are likely, themselves, to smart for it. The rule of our God
   and King is this--"He has filled the hungry with good things, but the
   rich He has sent away empty." This I know both by observation and
   experience--that there are many true pilgrims who will enter the King's
   country triumphantly at the last, who, nevertheless, are occasionally
   much discouraged because of the way.

   And yet, Brothers and Sisters, I am not going to make any excuse for
   discouragement in myself, nor would I try to make it for you. You do
   not want to have any excuse made for you, do you? After all, these
   Israelites were a highly favored people. What if they were driven to
   wind around the land of Edom? Yet the Lord went before them and is not
   that man happy who marches where Jehovah leads? Tell us that God has
   chosen the way and we do not want to know more about it. "He led them
   forth by a right way." Depend upon that! There could be no mistake
   where infinite Wisdom led the van.

   Now, Brother, you are discouraged, you say, because of the way, but
   whose way is it? Have you chosen your own way and willfully run against
   your duty and against the Providence of God? Well, then, I say nothing
   about the consequences of such conduct, for they must be terrible! But
   if you have endeavored to follow the Lord fully and if you have tried
   to keep the path of His statutes, then it must be well with you. Why
   are you discouraged? Judge not by the sight of the eyes, nor by the
   hearing of the ears--let Faith sit on the judgment seat and I am sure
   she will give forth this verdict-- "If the Lord wills it, it is well.
   If Jehovah leads the way, the road must be right."

   Besides that, not only did God lead them, but God carried them. He
   says, Himself, that He bore them on eagle's wings, for though the way
   was often rough, yet it is wonderful to remember that their feet did
   not swell, neither did their garments wax old upon them, all those 40
   years! Though it was a wilderness, yet their bread was daily given them
   and though it was a land of drought, yet the smitten Rock with its
   waters followed them, and they knew nothing of drought. How could they
   be better off than to have Heaven for their granary, the rocks for
   their wine cellars, and God, Himself, for their Provider?

   They were gentlemen commoners upon the bounty of Jehovah! They were
   honorable pensioners of the King of kings! What could they desire which
   He had not supplied? What city was lit up at night with a pillar of
   fire, as their great canvas city was enlightened? With what other
   people did God dwell? Where else did He walk in the midst of their
   abodes and manifest Himself as He did to Israel? Instead of being
   discouraged, they had every cause to be doubly grateful and glad. Led
   of God, fed of God, taught of God, guarded of God--what better lot
   could they imagine? Besides, dear Friends, though they were so very
   long in getting to Canaan, yet they would get there if they would only
   believe their God. God would surely bring them in. To every faithful
   one He would say, "You shall stand in your lot in the end of the days."

   Though the unbelievers among them perished and their carcasses fell in
   the wilderness, yet even to such of them as repented, there was this
   sweet thought, that though nothing more than God's work might appear
   unto His servants, yet His glory would be seen by their children--and
   the next generation should surely enter into the land. Come, let us be
   of good comfort, then, for the same reasons! We, also, shall reach our
   Father's house in due time! We shall get home and our homecoming shall
   not be too late for the marriage supper of the Lamb! The Lord knows the
   way of the righteous. He is steering us from day to day by Infallible
   Wisdom and, despite these stormy seas, we shall yet cast anchor in the
   fair havens where our Lord has gone.

   "So shall we be forever with the Lord! Comfort one another with these
   words." The Lord is doing us no hurt. The Lord is denying us no good.
   He is making even evil things to work together for good--for our
   good--and we have no proper ground for discouragement. Apparent ground
   for fear there is in plenty, but real ground there is none--

   "Your harps, you trembling saints, Down from the willows take! Loud to
   the praise of Love Divine-- Bid every string awake."

   II. In the case of the Israelites this discouragement came to a great
   head, for it led to COMPLAINT--and that is our second point. "And the
   people spoke against God, and against Moses, Why have you brought us up
   out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, neither
   any water; and our soul loathes this light bread." This was a bitter
   and wicked complaint! We are in a sad case, dear Brothers and Sisters,
   when our discouragements reach such a point that we begin to complain
   against God, for the complaints that come at these times are such as
   God is not likely to bear with! When God's people are in real trouble,
   He is long-suffering and tender towards His afflicted--but with the
   obstinate He shows Himself obstinate.

   When the people complained of thirst, the Lord sweetened the waters of
   Marah for them. When they were hungry, He gave them bread from Heaven.
   But when, having nothing justly to complain of, they merely grumbled
   because they were discouraged, He dealt with them severely and sent the
   fiery serpents among them which bit many of them, so that much people
   of Israel died. Beware of a murmuring spirit! God will pity our needs,
   but He will punish our whims. Some of us have need to be cautioned
   against letting the spirit of discouragement hurry us on to quarrelling
   with God and questioning His love. It is evil for a saint to strive
   with His Savior!

   When these people made their first complaint, it was an amazing one! It
   was a complaint about having been brought out of Egypt. "Why have you
   brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?" Well, but first
   of all, they ought not to complain of being brought up out of Egypt,
   for that was a land of bondage where their male children had to perish
   in the river and where they, themselves, longed to die, for life had
   become intolerable! And yet, you see, they are complaining that they
   were brought up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness, as they said. Is
   it not possible that our rebellious

   hearts may even complain of God's mercy? For lack of something to
   murmur about, discouraged ones will pick holes in the goodness of God!
   What a pity that it should be so!

   Brothers and Sisters, if we are Believers in Christ, we have been
   redeemed from bondage! We have been brought into a separated condition
   and made to be the people of God! Shall we ever complain of that?
   Suppose it brings upon us derision, loneliness, unkindness? Suppose it
   entails upon us loss and self-denial? Suppose it involves us in many
   difficulties-- are we going to flinch because of these? God forbid! Did
   we not count the cost when first we started out from Egypt? And having
   counted the cost, will we now draw back from the fight? No, but in the
   name of God we will struggle until we have won the victory! And it
   shall never be a complaint against God that He brought us up out of
   Egypt. He will not let us die in the wilderness. We cannot believe it,
   and we will not let our soul say so!--

   "Determined to save, He watched over my path

   When, Satan's blind slave, I sported with death!

   And can He have taught me to trust in His name, And thus far have
   brought me to put me to shame?" I cannot believe it. Lie down, O dog of
   doubt! Lie down, O cur of unbelief! If you have no better bark than
   this, be quiet! Oh, for God's Grace to stop complaining at once! Our
   God never forgave a soul to let that soul fall from Grace. Christ never
   bought a soul with His blood to make it one of His and then to let it
   slip through His fingers into Hell! The Lord has never led us through
   so many trials and temptations to suffer us, after all, to be
   shipwrecked and cast away! If He had meant to destroy us, He would not
   have showed us such things as these. Let us not become so peevish as to
   talk about dying in the wilderness when, in fact, the Lord is making
   signs and wonders of us by causing us to live in the wilderness!

   Next, look at their complaint of having no food--"There is no bread,
   neither is there any water." It was a great lie! There was bread--they
   had to admit that fact in the next breath--but then they did not call
   the manna, "bread." They called it by an ugly name in the Hebrew. The
   water, too, was not muddy and thick like the water of the Nile--it was
   bright, clear, pure water from the Rock and, therefore, they would not
   call it water. They wanted water with substance in it which would leave
   grit between their teeth--and as the stream which leaped from the
   flinty Rock was pure crystal they would not call it water. Have you not
   known people to whom God has given great mercy, and yet they have
   talked as if they were quite deserted?

   Unbelief is blind just as surely as faith is far seeing. Unbelief
   enjoys nothing, just as faith rejoices in everything. He that believes,
   finds sweetness in the manna--"the taste thereof was as wafers made
   with honey." But he that has no faith finds nothing pleasant even in
   "the corn of Heaven," but says, "there is no bread." Only think of
   anybody saying, "Our soul loathes this light bread"! It was a diet that
   was very easy to digest and kept them in good health--and yet they
   pined for heavy, lumpy food! They began to wish for leeks, garlic and
   onions--something rank and strong--and less refined than "angels'
   food." They sighed for the meat that they ate in Egypt! They hankered
   after a coarse and dangerous diet!

   God knew that it was not proper food for them in the blazing desert and
   He gave them, instead, the best possible nourishment! And now they cry,
   "Oh, there is nothing substantial in it. It does not make you feel as
   if you were full." They found fault with that which they ought to have
   commended. Men really need that which is sufficient, that which will
   sustain the frame, that which will enable them to continue in health
   and strength--but these grumblers remembered the rough stuff they used
   to eat among the brick kilns and they wished to feel full and overblown
   as they had now and then felt in Egypt. Thus they fell to complaining
   against God without excuse! Are there any here in that state? Are you
   so discouraged that you do not want to live by faith any longer--it
   seems too unsubstantial? Are you tired of praying, "Give us day by day
   our daily bread"?

   You would like a nice lump sum in the bank, instead, and plenty of the
   cares and snares of wealth! And is it so that you are no longer content
   with the old Gospel? It is so easy of digestion that you pine for a
   hard morsel--a piece of cast-iron philosophy to lie on your mind for
   years to come. You want a bit of indigestible modern thought that will
   remain within you like the cucumbers of Egypt which were not so soon
   gone as the manna of Heaven! You crave for leeks, garlic and
   onions--something sensational, remarkable, though by no means
   comfortable to the pure taste of those who are born of the Spirit of
   God!

   Is it not strange how men who call themselves Christians run after that
   kind of meat? And of the real good Gospel, which is able to save the
   soul, and to build it up, they begin to say, "It is worn out! We have
   heard this one thing so often. You see it is just the same
   old-fashioned manna! We need more variety. We demand that which is
   novel, which will commend itself to our advanced intellectual condition
   by its metaphysical subtlety." That is the style! I see the spirit
   everywhere, and it comes across us all in some form or
   other--complaining of what God provides in Providence, complaining of
   what God provides in the Bible, complaining of what the Holy Spirit
   provides in His Divine operations! We look out, like the Athenians, for
   some new thing--we do not know what we want.

   When the grumbling humor is on us, we complain of anything and
   everything, as did these Israelites! They complained of God; they
   complained of Moses; they complained of the manna. They would have been
   ready to complain of Aaron, but, fortunately for him, he had been dead
   a month or so, and so they poured the more gall upon Moses! To men in
   this state, nothing is right--nothing can be right, The whole world is
   turned upside down and if it were again turned the other way it would
   be just as wrong--perhaps more wrong than ever! You smile, I see, at
   this. Well, you may smile if you like, Brothers and Sisters, but it is
   a thing to weep over, for I remember a text that says, "The Lord heard
   their murmuring."

   That is the solemn point in the matter. We are pleased that God should
   hear our prayers. It is that which we long for--but is it not terrible
   that God should hear our murmuring? There are two things that God
   always hears. Mark this! The first is the voice of faith and the second
   is the voice of unbelief! For, as much as God loves faith, so as much
   does He loathe unbelief! When we are strong in faith, the Lord can do
   anything with us and for us, and He can make us equal to all
   difficulties, so that we can say with the Apostle, "I can do all things
   through Christ which strengthens me." But when we give way to unbelief,
   Christ Himself can do nothing with us, as it is written--"He could not
   do many mighty works there because of their unbelief."

   Do you not feel sorry, then, that you ever murmured and complained,
   since your God heard it all? What is more, as the Lord usually answers
   the prayers of faith, so He often answers the prayers of incredulity. I
   have heard a Brother cry out because of his small and bearable trouble.
   And I have known the Lord answer his impatience with great trials. If
   children cry for nothing, they ought to have something to cry for! And,
   if we get discouraged when there really is no reason for it, we shall
   probably be answered with astonishing tribulations! If we begin
   complaining when we ought to be singing, it is likely enough that we
   shall have grave cause for crying out, for is it not written concerning
   the Lord, "With the froward You will show Yourself froward"?

   When we walk tenderly, submissively and quietly--and when we say with
   David, "My soul is even as a weaned child," then the Lord walks very
   gently and comfortably toward us and our path is smoothed by His love.
   But the Lord has said, "If you walk contrary to Me, I will walk
   contrary to you." Why, Brothers and Sisters, if we are discouraged in
   any way, let us pray that we may not venture further in that evil way,
   nor begin to rail against the Lord and His Providence! May we go back
   to confidence and joy and faith--and not go on till we fall into the
   ditch of murmuring--and be waiting there for yet worse things.

   III. The Lord, before long, sends upon murmurers, PUNISHMENT. This is
   our third head. We read that as soon as the people found fault with
   Moses, and with God, and with the manna, "the Lord sent fiery serpents
   among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of Israel
   died." Fiery serpents were ready at the Divine call--the Lord never
   lacks means of chastisement. There was no interval between the sin and
   the suffering, for the fault was wanton and inexcusable. Will God send
   fiery serpents among His own people? These were the tribes that ate of
   the manna, and the people that "drank of the Rock that followed them,
   which Rock was Christ." These were the Lord's visible Church in the
   wilderness, and though not all spiritually His children, yet they were
   types of His chosen, representatives of the whole believing family.

   Well, Brothers and Sisters, the Lord, in fatherly anger, may send fiery
   serpents among a doubting and quarrelsome people, and so those who bite
   with fault-finding may find themselves bitten! These fiery serpents
   come in different forms. Sometimes they may be new trials. The
   Israelites, as far as I know, had never seen these seraphs, or burning
   ones, before. They seemed to fly up out of the sand and bite them
   before they were aware of it! And then the venom entered into their
   blood and made it scald them till they seemed to be a mass of fire from
   head to foot, burning with fierce pain and ready to die. It was
   dreadful to be marching through the midst of fiery flying serpents! The
   Lord deliver us from that.

   But He may send to us, if we grow peevish, a fresh and novel
   affliction, a crooked trial which will twist and wriggle about us--a
   sudden grief which will poison the fountain of our life--and this may
   hastily fly at us, as a chastisement for not having believed in God
   under much happier circumstances. In some Christians these fiery
   serpents may be the upris-

   ings of their own corruptions. I have known the corruptions of a child
   of God to be quiet and still for a long period. They have been there,
   but they have been forced to hide away like thieves that dare not come
   out in daylight and, the child of God has, therefore, enjoyed rest.

   But the good man has been discouraged and has fallen to
   complaining--and then these inward corruptions have broken forth upon
   him and compassed him about like bees--innumerable and quick to sting!
   Some of us know what this means. We have been put to a dead stand with
   our lively inbred sins which we thought were dead--suddenly they have
   revived within us and we had to fight against them for dear life! Or,
   it may be that God will let Satan loose upon us if we disbelieve. Truly
   we cannot want any worse fiery serpents than the suggestions and
   insinuations of the devil! Oh, Brothers and Sisters, if you have ever
   met Satan and fought him foot to foot, you know by your scars what a
   terrible adversary he is!

   Why, he will insinuate thoughts into our breasts which never came from
   our own minds and never would have come--blasphemous thoughts of an
   infernal kind--and these he would have us accept as ours! He will throw
   his bombs into our souls and then tell us that these are of our own
   making! He will make us doubt the existence of God, the Inspiration of
   Scripture, the Deity of Christ, the Truth of the Gospel, the fact of
   the Resurrection--in fact, he will make us doubt doctrines for which we
   would lay down our lives! These are his impieties and not our own
   thoughts at all--but, like serpents of fire, their sting is terrible!
   All the while our enemy will beat the great Hell drum concerning our
   past sins and try, if he can, to drown the voice of mercy and of that
   precious blood which "speaks better things than that of Abel." Thus he
   would drive us to despair.

   Ah, these fiery serpents! Brothers and Sisters, it is much better to be
   tried with poverty and pain than to be molested by the infernal
   thoughts that come from Satan! It were better for us to lie down
   crushed like the very dust beneath our feet and every particle a pain,
   than to be filled with the desperate thoughts that Satan is able to
   inject into the mind! Beware, I pray you, of complaining, you that are
   getting to be at all discouraged! Return to your child-like faith.
   "Cast not away your confidence which has great recompense of reward,"
   lest you slide, by your unbelief, down into complaining and then by
   your complaining hatch fiery serpents out of the ground on which you
   tread!

   IV. But now, fourthly, here comes the REMEDY. What is to be done when
   Israel is bitten with fiery serpents? Well, the first thing is
   confession. They went to Moses and cried, "We have sinned." Oh, that is
   a sweet art--that are of confession--it empties the bosom of most
   perilous stuff! Nothing seems to me to be more hideous than to confess
   your sins to a man like yourselves. I should think that to sit down at
   a priest's ear and to pour into it all the filth of your soul, and
   answer every question that he may care to propound to you must be one
   of the most fearful ordeals through which a human mind can pass!

   I know that Satan is very ingenious as to the means by which to deprave
   men and rob them of the last particle of modesty, so as to make them
   capable of every crime! But I should think that the papist "confession"
   is his last and darkest invention for depraving the soul beyond all
   common defilement! It must be the most fearful process of saturating
   with evil through which the mind can pass! But to confess sin into the
   ear of Christ is quite another thing! To get alone with Him and to tell
   Him all our transgressions and temptations--this is as great a blessing
   as the other is a curse. There is no fear that we can pollute Him--and
   every blessing comes of emptying out ourselves before Him who is able
   to take away all sin by reason of His precious blood! Our first
   business is to hasten away to our great High Priest and tell Him that
   we have sinned.

   The second help was that Moses prayed for the people. So our great cure
   against fiery serpents--horrible thoughts and temptations--is
   intercession! "If any man sins, we have an advocate with the Father,
   Jesus Christ the Righteous." If we have grown discouraged, and have
   sinned by unbelieving utterances, let us go with our poor, little,
   trembling faith and ask the blessed go-between, the Divine Interposer,
   to stand before God on our behalf and pray for us that our
   transgressions may be blotted out! Oh, what a sweet thing it is to have
   this Advocate! Come, you that are the Lord's people and yet are
   transgressors, come and rejoice in this--that He makes intercession for
   transgressors and that He is, therefore, able to save unto the
   uttermost!

   But now comes the great remedy. After their confession and the prayer
   of their mediator, the Lord bade Moses make a bronze serpent and lift
   it up, that they might look upon it and live. Beloved, when I first
   came to Christ as a poor sinner and looked to Him, I thought Him the
   most precious object my eyes had ever lit upon! But this night I have
   been looking to Him while I have been preaching to you, in remembrance
   of my own discouragements, my own complaining--and I find my Lord Jesus
   dearer than ever! I have been seriously ill and sadly depressed--I fear
   I have rebelled--and, therefore, I look anew to Him and I tell you that
   He is fairer in my eyes, tonight, than He was at first!

   It is a delightful thing that there should be a Fountain open for
   sinners to wash in, but I will tell you something that is more
   charming, still--there is a Fountain for the house of David and for the
   inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and un-cleanness. That Fountain is not
   for outcasts, only, but for the saints, for the citizens of Jerusalem,
   for the house of David! "If we walk in the light as God is in the
   light, and have fellowship one with another"--do we still sin? Yes,
   that we do, even then, but--"the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son,
   cleanses us from all sin." In our lowest condition this is our
   cleansing! In our highest condition this is still our cleansing!

   The first time a poor sinner comes up out of the ditch, with his own
   clothes abhorring him, he is made white through Christ's blood the
   moment he believes in Jesus! And mark this, when he enters Heaven and
   stands before the blaze of the supernal glory, it shall still be said
   of him and of his fellows, "They have washed their robes and made them
   white in the blood of the Lamb." The bronze Serpent healed me when I
   first saw the Lord--and the bronze serpent heals me to-night--and shall
   do so till I die! "Look and live" is for saints as well as for sinners.
   For you, you ungodly ones--

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

   But equally true is this for you who belong to Jesus but have grieved
   His Holy Spirit. You that have gone aside from your faith and have
   begun disputing with your God and complaining of Providence--there is
   life for you, too, in the Savior lifted up! There are not two ways of
   salvation--one for sinners and another for saints. There are not two
   grounds on which we stand--the ground of the sinner saved and the
   ground of the saint saved. No, the same basis is under each foot--we
   each sing--

   "Rock of ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee!"

   This is the language of the man who has served his God for half a
   century and preached the Gospel like a Luther or a Calvin, just as
   certainly as it must be the language of the trembling sinner, guilty
   and condemned before the living God!

   Do you not see where the bronze serpent fitly comes in according to
   Scripture? At the end of the pilgrimage, just before they are going to
   cross the Jordan, then Israel sees the serpent of brass! Then the
   people sin and then is there revealed to them in all its splendor that
   blessed type of Chris--"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
   wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whoever
   believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." "Should not
   perish!" As if even a Believer had about him that which would make him
   perish if he did not, still, look to the appointed cure! Jesus is
   lifted up that saints might not perish, but might persevere in Grace
   unto everlasting life!

   How is our spiritual life rendered everlasting but by the continuance
   of that look? We are to still be looking to Jesus as long as we live!
   "Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith." Always
   looking! Always looking! God keep us looking if we have looked, and
   bring us to look to Jesus if we have never looked--and to His name be
   praise forever and ever, Amen!
     __________________________________________________________________

"Knock!"

   (No. 1723)

   DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 27, 1883,

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Matthew 7:12.

   I believe, no doubt, that, taken very strictly, the three exhortations
   of this verse--which, indeed, are but one-- were, first of all,
   intended for God's believing people. It was to His disciples that the
   Lord said, "Cast not your pearls before swine" and, perhaps, certain of
   them who were poor in spirit might turn around and say, "Lord, we have
   few pearls; we are too poor to have the treasures of Your Grace so
   plentifully. You have bidden us not to give that which is holy unto
   dogs; but holiness is rather a thing we seek after than possess."
   "Well," says the Lord, "you have only to ask and have; you have not
   because you ask not; you have only to seek and you will be sure to
   find--for holy things, like rare pearls, are to be discovered if you
   look for them. You have only to knock and spiritual secrets shall open
   to you, even the innermost Truths of God."

   In each exhortation our Lord bids us pray. Beloved, let us abound in
   supplication! Depend upon it, failure in prayer will undermine the
   foundation of our peace and sap the strength of our confidence. But if
   we abound in pleading with God, we shall grow strong in the Lord and we
   shall be happy in His love and we shall become a blessing to those
   around us! Need I commend the Mercy Seat to you who wait before it?
   Surely prayer must have become such a joy to you, such a necessity of
   your being, such an element of your life, that I hardly need press it
   upon you as a duty, or invite you to it as a privilege. Yet I continue
   to do so because the Master does it by a triple exhortation. A
   threefold cord is not easily broken--let not my text be neglected by
   you. Let me urge you to repeated, varied, ever intensifying
   prayer--ask! Seek! Knock!

   Cease not to ask till you receive; cease nor to seek till you find;
   cease not to knock till the door is opened unto you! In these three
   exhortations there would appear to be a gradation--it is the same
   thought put into another shape and made more forcible. Ask--that is, in
   the quiet of your spirit, speak with God concerning your needs and
   humbly beg Him to grant your desires--this is a good and acceptable
   form of prayer. If, however, asking should not appear to succeed, the
   Lord would awaken you to a more concentrated and active longing.
   Therefore let your desires call in the aid of knowledge, thought,
   consideration, meditation, practical action and learn to seek for the
   blessings you desire as men seek for hidden treasures. These good
   things are laid up in store and they are accessible to fervent minds.
   See how you can reach them. Add to asking the study of the promises of
   God, a diligent hearing of His Word, a devout meditation upon the way
   of salvation and all such means of Grace as may bring you the blessing.
   Advance from asking to seeking.

   And if, after all, it should still seem that you have not obtained your
   desire, then knock and so come to closer and more agonizing work--use
   not only your voice, but your whole soul--exercise yourself unto
   godliness to obtain the gift! Use every effort to win that which you
   seek after, for remember that doing is praying; living to God is a high
   form of seeking and the bent of the entire mind is knocking. God often
   gives to His people, when they keep His Commandments, that which He
   denies to them if they walk carelessly. Remember the words of the Lord
   Jesus, how He said, "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you
   shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you." Holiness is
   essential to power in prayer--the life must knock while the lips ask
   and the heart seeks.

   I will change my line of exposition and say--ask as a beggar petitions
   for alms. They say that begging is a poor trade, but when you ply it
   well with God, no other trade is so profitable! Men get more by asking
   than by working without prayer. Though I do not recommend not working,
   yet I most highly commend praying! Nothing under Heaven pays like
   prevailing prayer! He that has power in prayer has all things at his
   call. Ask as a poor mendicant who is hungry and pleads for bread. Then
   seek as a merchant who hunts for goodly pearls, looking up and down,
   anxious to give all that he has that he may win a matchless treasure.
   Seek as a servant carefully looking after his master's interests and
   laboring to

   promote them. Seek with all diligence, adding to the earnestness of the
   beggar, the careful watchfulness of the jeweler who is seeking for a
   gem.

   Conclude all by knocking at Mercy's door as a lost traveler, caught out
   on a cold night in a blinding sleet, knocks for shelter that he may not
   perish in the storm. When you have reached the gate of salvation, ask
   to be admitted by the great love of God. Then look well to see the way
   of entering, seeking to enter in--and if the door still seems shut
   against you--knock right heavily and continue knocking till you are
   safely lodged within the home of love! Once again, ask for what you
   need, seek for what you have lost, knock for that from which you are
   excluded. Perhaps this last arrangement best indicates the shades of
   meaning and brings out the distinctions. Ask for everything you need,
   whatever it may be--if it is a right and good thing, it is promised to
   the sincere asker!

   Seek for what you have lost, for what Adam lost you by the Fall; for
   what you have lost, yourself, by your neglect, by your backsliding, by
   your lack of prayer--seek till you find the Grace you need. Then knock.
   If you seem shut out from comfort, from knowledge, from hope, from God,
   from Heaven--then knock, for the Lord will open unto you! Here you need
   the Lord's own interference--you can ask and receive, you can seek and
   find--but you cannot knock and open! The Lord must open the door,
   Himself, or you are shut out forever. God is ready to open the door.
   Remember, there is no cherub with fiery sword to guard this gate, but,
   on the other hand, the Lord Jesus, Himself, opens, and no man shuts.

   But now I must drop this line of things, for my desire is to use the
   text in reference to those who are not yet saved. Last Lord's-Day, when
   we preached upon glory, [Glory! #1721] we had before us the end of the
   pilgrim way. It was a very, very happy time, for in meditation we
   reached the suburbs of the Celestial City and we tasted of eternal
   Glory. This morning I thought we would begin at the beginning and enter
   in at the wicket gate, which stands at the head of the way to Heaven.
   Mr. Bunyan, in his, "Pilgrim's Progress," says, "Now over the gate
   there was written, 'Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.'" His
   ingenious allegory is always as truthfully instructive as it is
   delightfully attractive. I concluded that this should be my text.

   If it is thought worthy to be written over the gate at the entering in
   of the way of life, it must have a great claim upon the attention of
   those who have not yet started for Glory, but are anxious to do so. May
   God the Holy Spirit instruct and quicken them while we hear the Lord
   from within His palace saying, "Knock, and it shall be opened unto
   you."

   I. First, then, dear Friend, whoever you are, if you are desirous of
   entering into eternal life, I would expound to you the inscription over
   the gate, by saying, first, THE DOOR OF MERCY MAY APPEAR TO YOU TO BE
   CLOSED AGAINST YOU. That is implied in the text--"Knock, and it shall
   be opened unto you." If to your consciousness the door stood wide open,
   there would be no need of knocking. But since in your apprehension it
   is closed against you, it is for you to seek admission in the proper
   way by knocking. To a large extent, this apprehension is the result of
   your own fears. You think the gate is closed because you feel it ought
   to be so--you feel that if God dealt with you as you would deal with
   your fellow men--He would be so offended with you as to shut the door
   of His favor once and for all.

   You remember how guilty you have been, how often you have refused the
   Divine call and how you have gone on from evil to evil and, therefore,
   you fear that the Master of the house has already risen up and shut the
   door. You fear lest, like the obstinate ones in Noah's day, you will
   find the door of the ark closed and yourself shut out to perish in the
   general destruction. Sin lies at the door and blocks it. In your
   judgment, your desponding feelings fasten up the gate of Grace. But it
   is not so! The gate is not barred and bolted as you think it to
   be--though it may be spoken of as closed in a certain sense, yet in
   another sense it is never shut! In any case, it opens very freely. Its
   hinges are not rusted, no bolts secure it. The Lord is glad to open the
   gate to every knocking soul!

   It is closed far more in your apprehension than as a matter of fact,
   for the sin which shuts it is removed so far as the believing sinner is
   concerned. Had you but faith enough, you would enter in at this present
   moment, and if you did once enter in, you would never be put out again,
   for it is written, "Him that comes to Me, I will in no wise cast out."
   If you could, with holy courage, take leave and license to come in, you
   would never be blamed for it. Fear and shame stand in the sinners road
   and push him back and, blessed is he whose desperate mind forces him to
   be bold! One thing we should remember when we fear that the door is
   closed against us, namely, that it is not so fast closed as the door of
   our hearts has been.

   You know the famous picture of, "The Light of the World"? It seems to
   me to be one of the finest sermons the eyes have ever looked upon.
   There stands the Ever-Blessed, knocking at the door of the soul, but
   the hinges are rusted, the door, itself, is fast bolted and wild briars
   and all kinds of creeping plants running up the door prove that it has
   been a long time since it was moved. You know what it all means--how
   continuance in sin makes it harder to yield to the knock of Christ and
   how evil habits creeping up, one after another, hold the soul so fast
   that it cannot open to the sacred knocking. Jesus has been knocking at
   some of your hearts ever since you were children--and still He knocks.
   I hear His blessed hand upon the door at this moment! Do you not hear
   it? Will you not open?

   He has knocked a long time and yet He knocks again. I am sure that you
   have not knocked at Mercy's door so long as Incarnate Mercy has waited
   at your door! You know you have not. How, therefore, can you complain
   if there should be an apparent delay in answering your prayers? It is
   but to make you feel a holy shame for having treated your Lord so ill!
   Now you begin to know what it is to be kept waiting--what it is to be a
   weary knocker, what it is to cry, "my head is wet with dew and my locks
   with the drops of the night." This will excite you to repentance for
   your unkind behavior and also move you to love more intensely that
   gentle Lover of your soul who has shown such patience towards you. It
   will be no loss to you that the door was shut for a while, if you do
   but gain a penitent heart and a tender spirit!

   Let me, however, warn you that the door can be closed and kept shut by
   unbelief. He that believes enters into Christ when he believes. He that
   comes in by the door shall be saved and shall go in and out and find
   pasture--so our Lord says in the 10th chapter of John. "He that
   believes in Him has everlasting life," there is no question about that!
   But we read, on the other hand, "So, then, they could not enter in
   because of unbelief." Forty years the tribes were in the wilderness,
   going towards Canaan, yet they never reached the promised land because
   of unbelief! And what if some of you should be 40 years attending this
   means of Grace? Coming and going, coming and going, hearing sermons,
   witnessing ordinances, and joining with God's people in worship--what
   if, after all the 40 years, you should never enter in because of
   unbelief?

   Souls, I tell you, if you lived, each one of you as long as Methuselah,
   you could not enter in unless you believed in Jesus Christ! The moment
   you have trusted Him with your whole heart and soul, you are within the
   blessed portals of the Father's house! But however many years you may
   be asking, seeking and knocking, you will never enter in till faith
   comes, for unbelief keeps the chain on the door and there is no
   entering in while it rules your spirit. Do you, however, complain that
   you should have to knock? It is the rule of the Most High!

   Am I addressing any who have been earnestly praying for several months?
   I can sympathize with you, for that was my case, not only for months,
   but even for years! Through the darkness of my mind and my cruel
   misapprehensions of the Lord, I did not find peace when I first began
   to ask for it, although I also sought with much earnestness, going to
   the House of God every time I could, and reading the Bible, daily, with
   a burning desire to know the right way. I did not enter into peace till
   I had knocked long and heavily. Listen, therefore, to one who knows
   your troubles and hear from me the voice of reason! Ought we to expect
   to enter into the glorious house of mercy without knocking at its door?
   Is it so with our own houses?

   Can every straggler carelessly saunter in? Is it not God's way in the
   world to give great blessings, but always to make men knock for them?
   We need bread out of the earth but the farmer must knock at the door of
   the earth with his plow and with all his instruments of agriculture
   before his God will hand him out a harvest! Is anything gained in this
   world without labor? Is it not an old proverb, "No sweat, no sweet: no
   pains, no gains: no mill, no meal"? And may we not expect, in heavenly
   things, that at least these great mercies should be prayed for with
   fervency before they can be bestowed? It is the usual rule with God to
   make us pray before He gives the blessing. And how could it be
   otherwise? How could a sinner be saved without prayer?

   A prayerless soul must be a Christless soul! The feeling of prayer, the
   habit of prayer, the spirit of prayer, are parts of salvation. Unless
   it can be said of a man, "Behold, he prays," how can there be any sort
   of hope that he knows his God and has found reconciliation? The
   prodigal did not come home dumb, neither did he enter his father's
   house in sullen silence. No, but as soon as he saw his father, he
   cried, "Father, I have sinned against Heaven." There must be speech
   within God, for God gives not a silent salvation! Besides, to make us
   knock at Mercy's gate is a great blessing to ourselves upon the spot.
   It is a going to school for us when we are set to plead with God for a
   while without realized success. It makes a man grow more earnest, for
   his hunger increases while he tarries.

   If he obtained the blessing when first he asked for it, it might seem
   dog cheap. But when he has to plead long, he arrives at a better sense
   of the value of the mercy sought. He also sees more of his own
   unworthiness as he stands outside Mercy's gate, ready to swoon with
   fear--and so he grows more passionately earnest in pleading and,
   whereas he did but ask at first, he now begins to seek, and he adds
   cries and tears and a broken heart to all the other ways of his
   pleading. Thus the man, by being humbled and awakened, is getting good
   by means of his sorrow while he is kept, for a while, outside the gate!

   Beside that, he is increasing his capacity for the future. I believe I
   never could have been able to comfort seekers in their anguish if I had
   not been kept waiting in the cold, myself. I have always felt grateful
   for my early distress because of its later results. Many men, whose
   experiences are recorded in books which are invaluable in the Christian
   library, never could have written those books if they had not,
   themselves, been kept waiting--hungry and thirsty and full of soul
   travail--before the Lord appeared to them. That blessed man, David, who
   always seems to be--

   "Not one, but all mankind's epitome" the history of all men wrapped up
   in one--how he pictures himself as sinking in the miry clay! Lower and
   lower did he go, till he cried out of the depths and then, at last, he
   was taken up out of the horrible pit and his feet were set on a rock
   that he could tell others what the Lord had done for him!

   Your heart needs enlarging, dear Sir. The Lord means to prepare you to
   become a more eminent Christian by expanding your mind. The spade of
   agony is digging trenches to hold the Water of Life. Depend upon it, if
   the ships of prayer do not come home speedily, it is because they are
   more heavily freighted with blessing! When prayer is long in the
   answering, it will be all the sweeter in the receiving, like fruit
   which is well ripened by hanging longer on the tree! If you knock with
   a heavy heart, you shall yet sing with joy of spirit! Therefore, be not
   discouraged because, for a while, you stand before a closed door.

   II. Secondly, A DOOR IMPLIES AN OPENING. What is a door meant for if it
   is always to be kept shut? The wall might as well have remained without
   a break! I have seen certain houses and public buildings with the form
   and appearance of doors where there were none--the sham doorway being
   made for architectural purposes--but nothing is a sham in the House of
   the Lord. His doors are meant to open! They were made on purpose for
   entrance and so the blessed Gospel of God is made on purpose for you to
   enter into life and peace. It would be of no use to knock at a wall,
   but you may wisely knock at a door, for it is arranged for opening.

   You will eventually enter in if you knock on, for the Gospel is good
   news for men--and how could it be good news if it should so happen that
   they might sincerely come to Christ and ask mercy--and be denied it? I
   fear that the Gospel preached by certain divines sounds rather like bad
   news than good news to awakened souls, for it requires so much feeling
   and preparation on the sinner's part that they are not cheered nor led
   to hope! But you can be sure that the Lord is willing to save all those
   who are willing to be saved in His own appointed way. A dear Brother
   beautifully said in prayer on Monday night--"You, O Lord, are perfectly
   satisfied with the Lord Jesus, and if we are satisfied with Him, You
   are satisfied with us."

   That is the Gospel put into a few words! God is satisfied with Christ
   and if you are satisfied with Christ, God is satisfied with you! This
   is a glad tiding to every soul that is willing to accept the Atonement
   made and the righteousness prepared by the Lord Jesus. Dear Friend,
   this Gospel must be meant to be received by sinners, or else it would
   not have been sent. But one says, "I am such a sinner." Just so. You
   are the sort of person for whom the news of mercy is intended! A Gospel
   is not needed by perfect men--sinless men need no pardon. No sacrifice
   is needed if there is no guilt--no atonement is needed where there is
   no transgression. They that are whole need not a physician, but they
   that are sick! This door of hope which God has prepared was meant to be
   an entrance into life and it was meant to open to sinners, for if it
   does not open to sinners, it will never open at all!

   We have all sinned and so we must all be shut out unless it is of free
   Grace for those who are guilty. I am sure this door must open to those
   who have nothing to bring with them. If you have no good works, no
   merits, no good feelings, nothing to recommend you, be not discouraged,
   for it is to such that Jesus Christ is most precious and, therefore,
   most accessible, for He loves to give Himself to those who will prize
   Him most! A man will never have Christ while he has enough of his own;
   but he that is consciously naked, poor and miserable, is the man for
   Christ's money--he it is that has been redeemed by price!

   You may know the redeemed man, for he feels his bondage and
   acknowledges that he must remain therein unless the redemption of
   Christ is applied for his deliverance. Dear Friends, that door of hope
   will be opened to you though you may be ignorant, weak and quite unable
   to fulfill any high conditions! When the text says, "Knock, and it
   shall be opened unto you," it teaches us that the way of winning
   admission to the blessing is simple and suitable to common people. If I
   have to enter in by a door which is well secured, I shall need tools
   and science. I confess I do not understand the arts--you must send for
   a gentleman who understands picklocks, "jimmies," and all sorts of
   burglarious instruments!

   But if I am only told to knock, fool as I am at opening doors, I know
   how to knock! Any uneducated man can knock if that is all required of
   him. Is there a person here who cannot put words together in prayer?
   Never mind, Friend! Knocking can be done by one who is no orator.
   Perhaps another cries, "I am no scholar." Never mind, a man can knock
   though he may be no philosopher. A dumb man can knock! A blind man can
   knock! With a palsied hand, a man may knock. He who knows nothing of
   this Book can still lift a hammer and let it fall. The way to open
   Heaven's gate is wonderfully simplified to those who are lowly enough
   to follow the Holy Spirit's guidance and ask, seek and knock
   believ-ingly!

   God has not provided a salvation which can only be understood by
   learned men. He has not prepared a Gospel which requires half-a-dozen
   folio volumes to describe it. It is intended for the ignorant, the
   short-witted and the dying, as well as for others and, therefore, it
   must be as plain as knocking at a door! This is it--Believe and live!
   Seek unto God with all your heart and soul and strength, through Jesus
   Christ, and the door of His mercy will certainly open to you! The gate
   of Grace is meant to yield admission to unscientific people since it
   shall be opened to those who knock! I am sure this door will open to
   you because it has been opened to so many before you. It has been
   opened to hundreds of us now present. Could not you, dear Brothers and
   Sisters, stand up and tell how the Lord opened the gate of His
   salvation to you?

   That door has opened to many in this house during the last few weeks.
   We have seen persons coming forward to tell how the Lord has been
   pleased to give them an entrance into His mercy, though at one time
   they were afraid that the door was shut and they were ready to despair!
   Well, if the door has been so often opened for others, why should it
   not turn on its hinges for you? Only knock, with faith in God's mercy,
   and before long it shall yield to your importunity! It is for God's
   Glory to open His door of Grace and that is one reason why we are sure
   He will! We cannot expect Him to do that which would be derogatory to
   His own honor, but we do expect Him to do that which will glorify His
   sacred attributes!

   It will greatly honor the mercy, the patience, the love, the Grace, the
   goodness, the favor of God if He will open the door to such an
   undeserving one as you are, so knock! Knock, since God delights to
   give! Knock at the door which, every time it turns on its hinges,
   unveils His greatness! Knock with a holy confidence at this present
   moment for "it shall be opened unto you." It is a door which seems
   closed, but because it is a door, it must be capable of being opened!

   III. Thirdly knock, for A KNOCKER IS PROVIDED. When persons can be
   admitted by knocking, a knocker is usually placed on the door--and if
   not, we often see the words, NO ADMITTANCE. Before bells became so
   common, the habit of knocking at the door was well near universal and
   people were accustomed to like the door to resound with their blows.
   There was a nail head for the knocker to drop upon and people used to
   smite it so heavily that it became remarked that such blows on the head
   were killing and, therefore, arose the mirthful proverb, "as dead as a
   door-nail." It typifies a hearty kind of knocking which I would have
   you imitate by prayer.

   Knock at Heaven's gate as earnestly as people knocked at doors in the
   olden times! Have you not had knocks at your own doors which could be
   heard all through the house? Some of our Friends are vigorous and knock
   as if they meant to come in! It may be that gentle folks give such
   tender taps that they are not heard by the servants, and so they have
   to wait--but these I am speaking of never fall into that error, for
   they so startle everybody that they are glad to let them in, for fear
   they should thunder a second time! In this style let us pray--let us
   plead in a downright fashion and never cease till we gain admission.

   I have said that the Lord has provided a knocker. What is this knocker?
   First of all, it may be found in the promises of God. We are sure to
   speed well when we can plead a promise. It is well to say unto the
   Lord, "Do as You have said." What force abides in an appeal to the
   Word, the Oath and the Covenant of God. If a man presents to another a
   promissory note upon the day on which it is due, he expects to receive
   the amount stated therein. God's promises are bills of exchange and He
   will duly honor them. He was never known to dishonor a bill, yet, and
   He never will do so. If you can only

   quote a promise applicable to your condition--spread it before the Lord
   in faith and say--"Remember this Word unto Your servant upon which you
   have caused me to hope," you will obtain the blessing!

   Pleading the promise gives such a knock at the gate of Heaven that it
   must be opened. The great knocker, however, is the name of the Lord
   Jesus Christ. If a person were to call upon you on the behalf of some
   dearly-beloved son who is far away. If he brought you due credentials
   and a letter, saying, "Father, treat the bearer well for my sake," you
   would be sure to show him kindness! And if the aforesaid person was
   authorized to receive a promised amount in the name of your son, would
   you not hand out the money? Now, when we go to God and plead the name
   of Christ, it means that we plead the authority of Christ, that we ask
   of God as though we were in Christ's place and expect Him to give it to
   us as if He were giving it to Jesus! That is something more than
   pleading for Christ's sake.

   I suppose the Apostles, at first, did plead with God for Christ's sake,
   but Jesus says to them, "Hitherto you have asked nothing in My name."
   It is a higher grade of prayer, and when we get to pleading Christ's
   name with the Father, then do we gloriously prevail. At a Primitive
   Methodist meeting, a person was trying to pray, but did not get on at
   it and, presently a voice was heard from the corner of the room, "Plead
   the blood, Brother! Plead the blood!" I am not very fond of such
   interruptions, yet this was to be commended, for it gave the right note
   and set the pleader in his right place. Plead the precious blood of
   Jesus Christ and you have knocked so that you must be heard!

   "Alas!" says one, "I see the knocker, for I know something of the
   promises and of the Person of our Lord, but how am I to knock?" With
   the hand of faith! Believe that God will keep His promise! Ask Him to
   do so and thus knock. Believe that Jesus is worthy, whose name you are
   pleading, and so knock in confidence that God will honor the name of
   His dear Son. "Alas! My hand is so weak," you say. Then remember that
   the Holy Spirit helps our infirmities. Ask Him to put His hand upon
   your hand and, in that fashion, you will be able to knock with
   prevailing vehemence! I beseech you, knock with all the strength you
   have and knock often. If you are not in Christ, my dear Hearer, do not
   give sleep to your eyes nor slumber to your eyelids till you have found
   Him!

   If you have prayed once, go and pray again! And if you have prayed
   10,000 times, yet still continue in prayer! Knock with all your might,
   with all the vigor of your spirit! Plead as for you life--knock at the
   door as a man would knock who saw a wolf ready to spring upon him!
   Knock as one would knock who found himself ready to die of cold outside
   the door. Throw your whole soul into the work. Say unto the Lord, "I
   beseech You have mercy upon me and have mercy upon me, now. I faint, I
   die, unless You manifest Your love to me and take me into Your house
   and heart, that I may be Yours forever." "Knock, and it shall be opened
   unto you." There is the knocker.

   IV. Next, to you who are knocking at the gate, A PROMISE IS GIVEN. That
   is more than having a door before you, or a knocker to knock with. The
   promise is above the gate in plain words. Read it. You are growing
   faint and weary. Read the promise and grow strong again! "Knock, and it
   shall be opened unto you." Observe how plain and positive it is with
   its glorious, "shall," burning like a lamp in the center of it! In
   letters of love, the inscription shines out amidst all the darkness
   that surrounds you--and these are its words--"It shall be opened unto
   you." If you knock at the door of the kindest of men, you see no such
   promise set before you and yet you knock, and knock confidently! How
   much more boldly should you come to the door of Grace when it is
   expressly declared, "It shall be opened unto you!"

   Remember that this promise was freely given. You never asked the Lord
   for such a word--it was uttered by spontaneous goodness. You did not
   come and plead with Jesus for a promise that you should be heard in
   prayer. Far from it-- you did not even pray! Perhaps you have been
   living in the world 40 years and have never truly prayed at all. But
   the Lord, out of His overflowing heart of generous love has made this
   promise to you, "Knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Why do you
   doubt? Do you think He will not keep His Word? A God who cannot lie,
   who was under no necessity to promise, but freely, out of the greatness
   of His Divine Nature, which is Love, says to a poor sinner, "Knock, and
   it shall be opened unto you." Oh, be sure of this that He means it! And
   till Heaven and earth shall pass away, His Word shall stand, and
   neither you nor any other sinner that knocks at His door shall be
   refused admittance! This inscription has encouraged many to knock--when
   they have been ready to faint and give up all further seeking, they
   have read again the cheering words, "Knock, and it shall be opened unto
   you"--and they have taken heart and made the gate resound again!

   Now, do you think God will tantalize us, that He will make fools of us,
   that He will excite hopes in poor sinners for the mere sake of
   disappointing them? Will He induce you to knock, by His promise, and
   then laugh at you? Did the God

   of Mercy ever say, "I called and you came; I stretched out My hands and
   you drew near to Me, and yet I will mock at your calamity, and laugh
   when your fear comes"? Why, a bad man would scarcely speak so! Such an
   act would be more like Satan than God! Do not tolerate the thought that
   the God of all Grace could treat a seeker thus! If it ever crosses your
   mind, thrust it away and say, "He that taught me to pray has thereby
   bound Himself to answer prayer. He will not invite me to knock in vain!
   Therefore I will knock again, only this time more vigorously than ever,
   relying upon His Word and

   His Truth."

   Oh, that you may never stop your knocking till salvation's door is
   entered by you! The promise of the Lord was given freely and on the
   strength of that promise we knock and, therefore, we are sure that the
   Lord will not deny His trusting servants. The mercy is that this
   promise is meant for all knockers--"Knock, and it shall be opened unto
   you." The Lord has not denied to you, my Hearer, the privilege of
   praying, or declared that He will not answer your requests. You may
   knock and you may expect to see the door open! I know the blessed
   doctrine of Election and I rejoice in it, but that is a secret with
   God, while the rule of our preaching is--"Preach the Gospel to every
   creature." I would, therefore, say to each one here, "Knock, and it
   should be opened unto you!" The Lord knows who will knock, for, "the
   Lord knows them that are His." But knock, my Friend, knock now, and it
   will soon be seen that you are one of God's chosen ones!

   Remember the story of Malachi, the Cornishinuan? When a Methodist
   friend had some money to give him, he smilingly said, "Malachi, I do
   not think I shall give you this money because I do not know whether you
   are predestinated to have it. Will you tell me whether you are
   predestinated to have it or not?" Malachi replied, "You put the money
   in my hand and I will tell you." As soon as Malachi had the sum in
   hand, he knew that he was predestinated to have it--but he could not
   know before he had it in possession. So the secret counsel of the Lord
   is revealed to our faith when it gets Christ in possession and not
   before! Knock at once! If you are predestinated to enter, I know you
   will knock and knock till you are admitted, for so it stands, and no
   exception is made to it--"Knock, and it shall be opened unto you." It
   is a rule with the Lord that to him that knocks, it shall be opened!

   Blessed be God, this text of mine shines o